#so maybe a lower charisma stat would work

[blububblgum]

Daenerys as a D&D character!!

I love dnd to bits, and I spent a lot of time thinking about how certain asoiaf characters would be if they were made using dnd 5e rules. Obviously, i had to start with dany! She is a shadow magic sorcerer, with the elemental adept feat.

My long, winding thought process about dnd and dany is under the cut, in order to spare you all.

I'm kind of working with like, westeros in the forgotten realms as my base concept, since theres elements of both that are needed for this character build to make sense lol.

Sorcerer made the most sense, with how the targaryans are thought to have ancient magic, and since dany is quite charismatic, charisma would be her spellcasting stat. I think that the obvious sorcerer subclass is draconic bloodline, but i disagree, since the way dragons are portrayed in asoiaf doesn't match up with the dnd description of dragons. I could maybe see draconic bloodline sorcery for the Fire and blood characters, but for the "modern" targs, i'd honestly lean toward fire genasi (descendants from genies, with specific elemental powers) ancestry, since the immunity to fire is emphasized. Though technically dnd doesn't really work like that, i think as a character dany would be a fire genasi (though without the usual visual traits, i suppose)

since i elected against draconic bloodline, the sorcerer subclass that makes sense for daenerys is shadow magic! its maybe a bit on the creepy/edgy side, but i think aspects work well for dany's life. for starters, if you think of her gaining magic during her life, the deal she made to try and save khal drogo's life would be perfect timing for darker magic to make its home within her. however if you wanted her to have magic from birth, then the dramatic circumstances around her birth could be heightened by there having been shadowfell influences around. also!! at 6th level, shadow sorcerers can summon a "hound of ill omen" which can take any shape, and could easily be a small dragon.

The last aspect of why i chose sorcerer, is that while the spell casting sucks at lower levels, it then really gets good as you gain spell slots (limited per day and necessary to cast any spells) and sorcery points. the spell list for sorcerer is full of damage dealing spells, and dany kinda reads as a glass canon to me (i love sorcerers a lot but they are fragile). I did briefly ponder divination wizard, since daenerys seems to have an inclination toward being a dreamer, but i don't think she had time to study and practice wizardry in her chaotic childhood. whereas we see as she gains power and confidence while growing up, and sorcerer works well with that

last few details! i've portrayed her as higher level here, which is why she is so fancy. since she is upper level (in this i was thinking around 14th), she would have access to feats, and i definitely think fire elemental adept (gives bonuses to spells that do fire damage) would bring back some of the draconic aspects to her spellcasting. for metamagic options, obviously twinned spell (allows a spell that targets 1 person to be twinned to hit two people) cause its the best one, but i was also thinking subtle spell (allows a spell to be cast without speaking or moving) since it would be quite helpful for her. For other potential feats; inspiring leader (bonuses when you give speeches n stuff) and war caster (allows magic to be used better during combat) both make sense. For her stats, i was thinking in order of highest to lowest; charisma, wisdom, intelligence, constitution, dexterity, strength. Maybe i'm doing her a disservice by having her physical stats be her low ones, but i think her mental stats are just stronger.

Anyways if you actually read all this i love you and please message me any opinions you have about dnd/asoiaf

#my art #digital art #illustration #asoif fanart #fanart #digital fanart #asoiaf girls #asoif/got #daenerys targaryen #daenerys fanart #daenerys stormborn #dnd art #dnd 5e #valyrianscrolls #shadow sorcerer #dnd sorcerer #dnd character

[probablygoodrpgideas]

This is something I've been thinking about since the first time I saw people talking about D&D's combat-focused nature and how that affects the roleplay side of things.

A stat - I'm not sure what it would be called, maybe something like Rapport - that determines how amenable an NPC is to a PC (PCs might also have Rapport stats with each other, but I'm undecided about that part). By default, most NPCs have a Rapport of 0 with the whole party. A positive Rapport lowers the DC for charisma-based skill checks like persuasion, and a negative Rapport raises that DC. I'm thinking the lowest possible Rapport would be -5 and the highest possible would be +5. In the simpler version of this, NPCs have the same Rapport with the whole party, in the more complicated version they have individual Rapport stats for each party member.

Rolling a nat 20 on a persuasion (or deception*) check while interacting with an NPC would give them a positive Rapport with you, while a nat 1 would give them a negative one instead**. Helping an NPC out, say by doing a quest for them, would give them a positive Rapport with you, while screwing an NPC over would give them a negative one. An NPC from a town the party saved once would probably have a positive Rapport with them, an NPC from a mercenary group the party fought once would probably have a negative one. And if you're comfortable exploring such topics in your game, an NPC bigoted against, say, tieflings, would probably have a negative Rapport with any tiefling party members by default.

I'm also thinking about adding a Relationship dynamic to this - where there'd be a few specific relationship types ("True Companions," "Rivals," "Nemeses") that you can form with NPCs by maxing out your Rapport with them in a given direction***, although there'd probably be a limit on how many NPCs you can have a given Relationship type with at a time. And then that gets you certain bonuses, like if you're competing against your Rival then both of you get advantage on any relevant skill checks because you're motivated to one-up each other, or you might get inspiration for beating your Nemesis at something. I haven't really worked out the details with that one.

*If you use deception to get a positive Rapport with an NPC and then they find out you lied, their Rapport flips to the negative - e.g. a +2 would become a -2. If they find out you lied to them about something, but it wasn't a lie that influenced their Rapport towards you, then that +2 might become a +1.

**Alternatively, it could be a gradual thing, where the better a success or the worse a failure the more it shifts the NPC's Rapport with you in the appropriate direction. The benefit of this version is that it would make it possible to fuck up a persuasion check so badly that the NPC you're talking to becomes your Nemesis on sight.

***You'd also be able to get these with other party members, but depending on whether or not PCs have Rapport stats too that might be more roleplay-based than anything else, and could be something that happens when the party levels up.

#submission

[kaseysgtnonsense]

So. I mentioned having an idea for a g/t video game in this post and people seemed interested, so here it is!

It takes place in a setting where giants live in deep, underground cave systems, and their numbers are dwindling. The home you live in is running low on supplies, and in the end they decide that to lower the amount of resources consumed and improve their chances of survival, they’re going to kick someone out.

Unfortunately, that someone is you. You are cast out of the caves and into the surface world, on a continent ruled by several human countries on the brink of war. In their eyes, you are a monster, and you are severely limited. You need to hunt to survive, avoid injuries or else risk infection, and avoid areas where giant-slayers might see you as a threat and try to sneak-attack you while you’re resting.

Every faction is wary of you, and unless you’re particularly good at convincing others you don’t mean any harm, you won’t be able to ask for help early on. Doing things like rescuing random travelers, ending conflicts non-violently (like picking up someone who’s being chased by bandits and then bringing them to safety and setting them down), and leaving gifts all will help you start to establish yourself as a helpful person and not a monster.

Rescuing someone and making it clear you don’t mean any harm could lead to them wanting to travel with you, meaning they’d be able to talk to other humans and convince them to trade with you, cooperate with you, etc.! Plus, you’d get dialogue with them from time to time, letting you say how you feel about having been kicked out, which faction you want to support, how you feel about other giants, how you feel about being a giant in a world like this, etc. (basically it’s where the majority of the g/t interaction happens)

I figured I’d put all the more boring + ramble-y gameplay ideas under a cut, just so I’m not tossing a massive wall of text on people’s dashboards:

Additionally, acting recklessly would have some rough consequences. Like, say you decide to go to the evil empire, pledge allegiance to them in exchange for armor, then betray them and escape.

At first, you might feel heroic and proud, and it’s definitely good that you stole from the bad guys, but most people are just going to end up wary of you. Word would get around fast that the mysterious giant showed up, blatantly lied to the evil empire, and then betrayed them. Even people who vehemently hate the evil empire are going to be worried you’re lying to them when you show up.

For visuals I kinda pictured it being like those old RPGs where your character looks big on the overworld map, but then that’s actually just how tall you are. I imagined the player character being like, 50-70 feet tall? (15-21 meters)

Combat would be kind of similar to a roguelike: based around avoiding long-lasting injuries, buying (or stealing) medicine and bandages to prevent infections, avoiding hidden archers who’ll aim for your eyes, dealing with enemies who set traps (like sharpened stakes used as big caltrops, leading to you being slowed and having a risk of infection), and dealing with enemies who lob fireballs and other spells at you, damaging your armor and yourself. I can’t imagine a way to make it especially fun and action-y, so I’m just imagining it like Cataclysm:DDA, where it’s kinda turn-based but you’re able to position yourself around the enemy and run away, and different weapons give you access to different attacks. Like, a tree might give you a sweeping attack to hit multiple spaces at once.

I’d wanna add a talk option for combat kinda like in Shin Megami Tensei or Undertale, so you could try to end fights without anyone getting hurt by being like “wait, wait, I don’t mean any harm!!” or “if you don’t back off, I’m going to devour you all alive.” depending on the type of character you wanna roleplay. Maybe the clothes you make/buy and wear could factor into whether diplomacy or intimidation is more effective: a dorky cat-like hat is gonna make you look a lot less threatening, but a helmet that covers your face is gonna make you look way more menacing.

The game would end once you’ve finished a faction’s questline. The ending narration would be affected by what faction you’re allied with, whether or not you have access to food and medicine, and what you picked in dialogue regarding how you feel about the giants who kicked you out. (Aaaand I haven’t written up any factions yet. Whoops.)

In the ending, you might decide you prefer the company of humans rather than giants and live peacefully with them, or maybe you’ll go back home to get revenge, or maybe you’ll return home with an armful of food and supplies and hope to create a new era of peace between humans and giants with the support of your chosen faction. Maybe you just decided you preferred being the mysterious giant who lives in the mountains.

I’d wanna work on fleshing out the RPG mechanics in a way that lets you RP a character, kinda like how New Vegas does: letting you pick special dialogue if certain stats and skills are high or low enough. Maybe you wanna put more points into strength and endurance and play a super tough scary figure, or maybe you wanna put more points into charisma and perception and be a friendly and caring person. Maybe you know how to farm or hunt or cook, maybe you know how to build or invent...

And sorry for making this so long, but I’d wanna add flaws you can pick, too. Maybe you need glasses but giants don’t have them, so your character starts with terrible perception (meaning they won’t notice traps or hidden enemies) until the human faction they join helps make glasses for them. It’s cute to think of things leading to friendly interactions like that...

I’d wanna add multiple solutions to any one problem, too. Like, early on you could just talk to the guards outside a major faction’s location and if you made a character with enough points in persuasion, you could convince them to let you trade with them or join them. But if you aren’t persuasive enough, you could ask someone you rescued to vouch for you.

It’s WAY too ambitious for me to make and I’m already busy so I’ve got no intention of making it anytime soon, but someday in the future it would be fun to use this idea for something...

#g/t #giant/tiny #gianttiny #g/t community #giant/tiny community #gianttiny community #tw eye injury #tw burns #tw eye damage

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #192

Today on Fate and Phantasms we're building the enchanting Caster of Okeanos, which despite her name doesn't actually show up in Okeanos, but rather the fourth pseudosingularity, Salem. She's also one of the last servants in the game (so far) to have her true name hidden, so pretty soon I can stop pointing out how her character build below the cut has true name spoilers. Specifically, this build also includes spoilers for the Salem pseudosingularity, so read at your own peril.

If you'd rather just check out her character sheet, you can find that over here.

Next up: The equal to the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, so just, equal to heaven, I guess.

Circe is a Transmutation Wizard, because she is a witch, and Transmutation is where they stuck polymorph.

Race and Background

Like her protege, Circe is an Elf, but if we want kindasorta falcon wings, that might be tricky. Just kidding, for some reason WotC thought winged elves were a priority, so we got Avariel Elves from an unearthed arcana. This means you only get +2 to a single stat, but we can make that Intelligence thanks to Tasha's for a brain blast. Your subrace gives you 30' of flying speed as long as you don't wear medium or heavy armor (not an issue), as well as the standard elf kit: Darkvision, Fey Ancestry to protect against charms, Trances instead of sleep, and proficiency in Perception thanks to your Keen Senses.

Circe lives on her island alone (if you don't count pigs) so that makes her a Hermit, privy to the secrets of the universe as well as Medicine and replacing the other proficiency (which we'll get back as a class proficiency) with Deception. Tricking men into turning into pigs is kind of a hobby for you.

Ability Scores

Your strongest score should go into Intelligence, that's how you cast spells, and also you're clearly more intelligent than the men who show up on your island. Speaking of, Charisma is next- you're a witch in the middle of a witch hunt that somehow never got caught, and there's also that whole Pig Island thing. Your Dexterity is also pretty good, it's hard enough to cast spells while walking, let alone flying. Also those heels, oh my fucking god how have you not broken an ankle yet. Your Constitution is above average mostly because I'd feel bad putting it any lower. That means your Wisdom is pretty low. You publicly introduce yourself as a witch in the middle of the Salem Witch Trials, and you're pretty flighty in general. Finally, dump Strength. You're a wizard, and you're clearly not that buff.

Class Levels

Circe is a wizard, meaning she starts off with proficiency in Intelligence and Wisdom saves, as well as Arcana and Religion. When you worship the goddess of magic, there isn't much of a difference, tbh. Speaking of magic, you can cast and prepare Spells using your Intelligence. Your spell slots normally only recharge on long rests, but once per long rest you can get a couple slots back on a short rest thanks to your Arcane Recovery, giving you back slots of a total level equal to half your wizard level rounded up. So when you hit level three, you can get back one 2nd level slot, or two 1st level slots. The thing about wizard is, they get a lot of spells. Six now, and two each level, plus whatever they can scavenge from other wizards. Since Circe's whole power set is "good at magic", there really isn't a set of spells that fit- any spell you could cast would be applicable. So rather than try to boil it down myself, we're just giving a rough guide here. There's a whole ass list on the character sheet, and we'll bring up the super important ones here, but really there's three qualifications: if a spell fits into one of these categories, Circe would probably have it. 1. Is it useful? The most open-ended, but just fill in spaces left by the other 2 with spells you want. I'm not a goddamn baby sitter, pick spells you like. 2. Can it turn one thing into another? Men to pigs, You into Medea, whatever kykeon is made out of into kykeon, this one's pretty easy to spot. 3. Can it help someone sail a ship? A bit specific, but helping the sailors she doesn't turn into pigs is also Circe's thing. Skill empowerment, weather control, that kind of thing. With all that out of the way, the big spells you'll probably want at first level are Mage Armor for not dying, Magic Missile for caster balls, and Sleep to knock out the sailors while you go around turning them to pigs. True Polymorph takes an hour per sailor and you need to recharge with a long rest, so this’ll take a while.

At second level, you become a Transmutation Savant, giving you all sorts of bonuses, like how copying transmutation spells into your book is cheaper and faster now. You can also make Minor Alchemy, turning 1 cubic foot of wood, stone, iron, copper, or silver, into another material on that list over the course of 10 minutes. You're not strong enough to shatter wooden chains either, but hopefully someone on your team is. This transformation lasts up to an hour or until you lose concentration, then it turns back to its regular form.

Third level wizards get Cantrip Formulas, letting you swap out one cantrip you know with a cantrip you don't know at the end of a long rest. You also get second level spells, like Alter Self to turn into Medea (among other benefits), and Gust of Wind to help out with sailing.

Use your first Ability Score Improvement to get a Keen Mind- always knowing which way you're facing and the angle the sun should be at are both really useful on the open sea. It also rounds up your Intelligence for stronger spells, and you can make your DM's life hell by remembering things up to a month after they happened.

Fifth level wizards get third level spells. Feign Death will help fake Mata Hari’s hanging later on, and Bestow Curse is super useful, since it can give a creature disadvantage on one kind of save. Like, say, wisdom saves. I wonder if there's a spell you like that requires a wisdom save coming up?

Sixth level transmutation wizards can create a Transmuter's Stone, a tiny object that gives its holder one of several benefits. When you make the stone, and if you're holding it while casting a transmutation spell, you can choose its beneft from the following: Darkvision, increased speed, proficiency in constitution saves, or resistance to one of acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder. You can only make one at a time after 8 hours of work, so don't try to stack them.

Seventh level wizards get fourth level spells, and you could get polymorph now if you really want, but you can also get that spell later for free, so if you're patient, you can get another spell now. If you do go for polymorph, it forces a wisdom save on a creature, and if they fail the save or they're willing, you can turn one creature into a beast with a CR equal to or less than the target's CR or level. All of the creature's stats are replaced by the new creature's, outside of alignment and personality. If it drops to 0 HP in this form, and hour passes, or you drop concentration, they turn back to normal. You can also cast other fourth level spells, like Control Water for sailing, Fabricate to turn... barley, just looked it up, into kykeon. Or any raw materials into a finished product that is Large or smaller.

At eighth level, you get another ASI that'll let you max out your Intelligence for super strong spells. That, plus your curses, will make your polymorph super hard to resist. When you get it.

Ninth level wizards get fifth level spells, like Control Winds and Skill Empowerment, as well as Scrying.

A tenth level transmuter is a Shapechanger, giving you the polymorph spell for free. You can also cast it on yourself once per short rest for free, but only if you turn into something CR 1 or lower. Sadly Medea isn't a beast or CR 1, but it doesn't hurt to practice. Also, yeah! You can now turn pretty much anyone into a Pig (CR 0, so there’s no excuse) or if you want to weaponize it, a Giant Boar (CR 2). Just promise to turn them back if they do your bidding. Still only lasts an hour, but they don’t have to know that.

Eleventh level wizards get sixth level spells. There really isn’t anything specifically Circe-like I want at this level, so just grab whatever your heart wants. There will be time for specifics later.

At twelfth level you get another ASI, and since your intelligence is maxed out we can diversify. Grab the War Caster feat for advantage on concentration saves (very good for pigmaking), the ability to cast spells with your hands full (not applicable), and best of all, you can cast spells as opportunity attacks if that spell as an action casting time and targets a creature. Oh hey, guess what spell fits that description?

Thirteenth level casters get seventh level spells! Again, not necessarily anything you need from here, but Plane Shift is always cool. Maybe you can stumble onto the pig dimension or something.

Your last goody from the transmutation specialty is to become a Master Transmuter, burning your transmuter stone in one go for a burst of magical power. Afterwards, you can’t make a new one until you take a long rest. You can use this for a Major Transformation, permanently changing a medium or smaller nonmagical object into another of similar size & mass (you also can’t cheese value out of this) over the course of 10 minutes. Alternatively, you make a Panacea, removing all curses, diseases, and poisons from a single creature, while also healing it back to full health. That’s some good eating. Going even further, you can Restore Life to cast Raise Dead without a spell slot. Death is a pretty hard line in the Nasuverse, but if anyone could do it it’d probably be Circe. Finally, you can Restore Youth to reduce a creature’s age by 3d10 years without extending their lifespan. You’ve clearly used that on yourself a couple times, but I can’t blame you.

Fifteenth level wizards get eighth level spells, and for once there is something I want to get. You might not use Scylla in-game, but hey, giant sea monsters are cool, so use either Summon Greater Demon, Dominate Monster, or Illusory Dragon to get one, depending on your preferred method.

You get yet another ASI, so bump up your Constitution for better concentration and more health- remember, health gets added retroactively, so that’s 16 extra this level, not one.

At seventeenth level you finally get ninth level spells, giving you access to Mass Polymorph for a proper pig banquet. This one is limited to only half the targets’ levels, but a pig is still CR 0, so it shouldn’t be a big issue. However, if you’re feeling really cruel, you can use True Polymorph for a more... permanent solution. If you keep concentration up for a full hour, the change lasts until it is dispelled. You can also turn objects into creatures, or creatures into objects, but none of those are particularly in character.

Eighteenth level wizards get Spell Mastery, giving you a 1st & 2nd level spell that you can cast for absolutely free, no restrictions. You can always change it later, but I highly suggest Magic Missile so you always have some damage on standby, and Alter Self for the versatility of it.

Your penultimate level grants you your ultimate ASI, so bump up your Charisma for an easier time tricking sailors. It doesn’t do much for the build, but at this point it doesn’t need to.

Your final level of the build gives you two Signature Spells, 3rd level spells that you can cast once per short rest without spending a spell slot. Sadly polymorph is a fourth level spell so it isn’t in the running, but Bestow Curse and Tidal Wave are good runners up. I never said you had to be nice to sailors, just help them out occasionally.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Polymorph is one of the easiest ways to utterly shut down an enemy if it hits, at the very least buying you an hour to run away and regroup. It’s also very funny.

The Transmuter’s Stone is a very powerful support tool, protecting you and giving you healing options wizards don’t normally get. You also come loaded with tools like Skill Empowerment, which is just flexible enough to be useful even when you’re not on a ship.

You get concentration free flight, which is incredibly useful for a spellcaster. Being able to completely avoid an enemy’s front line and turn their back line into pigs is very useful.

Cons

The reason your flight being concentration free is such a big deal is because a lot of your spells use concentration. Honestly, your saves aren’t that bad (esp. with war caster) but it still limits your options, especially when your signature move requires concentration.

While your stone is powerful, it has a huge recharge time to contend with, requiring a long rest followed by an extra 8 hours of work, and the entire time between now and then you might as well not have a subclass. It’s a pretty harsh penalty for actually using your class feature.

It takes a while for this build to go from level one to casting polymorph, so if you want a build you can jump right into and feel like the character, this build definitely isn’t what you’re looking for.

#caster of okeanos #DND 5e #D&D #FGO #fate grand order #wizard

[bubble-booty-cuties]

Futaba’s Learning Experience~

This is a huge collaboration with my great friend BermudaStuff~!! You can find all of their amazing work on twitter right here, and I’ll attach the whole link too~! On their end they doodled a super amazing Futaba, and I got a little carried away with the story~!! Seriously, you better check out their twitter, they’re amazing, and I get to cheat and see some of their stuff early~!

Some seriously amazing Futaba that this story is based off of~! Outfit and all~! She looks amazing~!!

Made by BermudaStuff, and the link to their twitter: https://twitter.com/BermudaStuff?s=20

_____________________________________

Futaba sipped on her surprisingly tasty drink as the man across from her talked about a shared interest over the heavy music playing throughout the building, the sweet liquid burning nicely as it slipped down her throat and heated her core in a way she’d never felt before, making her muscles loose and her stress fade away, even if she had to be a little discreet with who saw her drinking it.

Futaba was way out of her element, deep in a dungeon with no support, no healing items, and what felt like beginner’s armor. She had met the man sat across from her online, in a small attempt to make more friends like she’d promised, and, well, they’d definitely hit it off, and after a long time, he finally convinced her to meet him in public. She was nervous, and she could feel her heart pounding the moment she got to the club, with so many people around she felt a little overwhelmed, but she had to do this, she made a promise.

Ann and Haru were nice enough to give her advice, and even take her shopping for a new outfit, though she wasn’t quite sure about their judgement anymore due to what they picked for her. Not that any of it mattered now, there wasn’t any checkpoints nearby here, and she could only keep moving forward.

“You look a little warm, Futaba, are you okay?” The man said over the music, though not too loud. They were tucked nicely away in their own little corner, in a booth that helped Futaba feel less surrounded, though she had to admit that was seeming less and less important by the sip of her drink, the warmth filling her body filling her with a sense of confidence she’d only felt a few times. It was nice, to say the least. “Maybe you should take off your jacket! It’s a little hot in here as it is!”

“M-Maybe..” Futaba gently toyed with the zipper on her chest, wondering if she should just take it off for a bit to cool off, the idea not bothering her nearly as much as she thought it would given her outfit underneath. Her white shirt hung off her shoulders in a comfy, floaty way that was meant to keep her cool while she danced in a club like this, the fabric tied off in a knot at the bottom to hug above her midsection and show off her smooth and thin waist and tummy.

Just under her small shirt was a pair of the smallest little jean shorts she’d ever worn, the thin fabric riding up between her, admittedly, plump cheeks like it was just a thong , completely disappearing between her creamy, hungry globes so her ass was permanently on display for as long as she wore those frayed shorts. When Ann had bought them for her, she was so embarrassed she felt like she could explode. Now? She didn’t mind too much, and even thought she looked good in them. Maybe she had finally leveled up! The only thing was that the shirt Ann bought her said something across the chest, and she didn’t speak or read english, so she had no idea what it said. Ann got a giggle from it though.

She felt like there was a secret debuff attached to these clothes, she just couldn’t figure out what..

She wondered if she could ask what it said from Adam, the man sat across from her. He was a foreigner after all, even if he spoke really good Japanese. He could probably tell her what it said.

“A-Adam, can you tell me what-” Just as Futaba pulled the zipper down passed her chest she heard another man’s voice yell from the side of the booth. Looking out towards the muffled voice she saw what looked like a group of men just as large, if not larger then her new friend, and they seemed to know Adam as well. Futaba just sat their sipping her drink while they said their greetings, in english, so she couldn’t tell what they were saying until Adam came back and scooted into the booth on her side, pushing her deeper into the half circle couch while his friends slid in through the other side.

“I hope you don’t mind if my friends sit here for a bit, Futaba! They won’t be here long!” He spoke over the music as another much larger man slid in closer to Futaba’s other side, effectively surrounding her on both sides while he introduced his friends. “ ...And that’s Danny! They’re cool guys! Sorry, I know we were having fun talking by ourselves!”

Futaba was small compared to most people, but these guys were big, foreigners usually were, so she couldn’t help but feel a little bit smaller then normal practically squished on both sides by two large, admittedly handsome men. Handsome? Well, they were, they all were, all.. 6 of them. She just didn’t expect to be so comfortable with the idea of finding all the guys around her pretty good looking.

“U-Um, it’s okay, I don’t mind!” She knew she should have minded, the little voice in the back of her head saying she should be embarrassed and feeling like she wanted to run, but her anxiety was currently drowning in her fifth glass of bright pink strawberry courage. “I-It’s nice to meet you all!”

Some words and greeting were passed around, some she missed, some in broken Japanese, but she got the gist of it, and soon the guys around her were joking around and laughing while she enjoyed her drink and began absentmindedly pulling her zipper down lower till her jacket just hung around her shoulders, still heating her up.

“See, there you go! You should really take that off, I bet it’s even worse with you in the middle of us all!” Adam spoke, pulling at his own button down collar, showing his own slight discomfort at the heat.

“O-Oh, yeah! Actually, do you mind telling me what this says? My friend bought me this shirt but my english skill is totally trash!” With a little nod, she took the leap and pulled her jacket over her bare shoulders and put it to the side, letting the cooler air hit her skin and showing off her slightly lewd outfit off to the men at the table.

Just about every set of eyes there went down to her chest to read what her shirt said, and while a few laughed, a few grinned, and she could feel her own insecurities tell her Ann had pulled a prank on her. Well, that was until stopped his chuckling with a little dismissive wave of his hand.

“Don’t worry about it, it basically just says ‘cute!’” The man did his best to wave away her worries, even as some of his friends said in english how much fun they were going to have. While she definitely was cute, her shirt said ‘Slut’, not ‘cute’.

“Oh, awesome!” See Futaba, you were worried for nothing! Guess that secret debuff was a secret buff all along! She’d have to thank Ann for the shirt later! ...After a few more of these yummy strawberry drinks~

“Your outfit really does look good on you, Futaba-Chan!” Said the large man to her left, his face was friendly, and she’d obviously just been introduced, but she couldn’t for the life of her remember his name.. But she still lit up at the compliment, her hunger for praise made even worse by the warmth flowing through her body, and the pleasant buzz in the back of her neck.

“Th-Thanks, my friends picked it out for me!” Futaba blushed and squirmed in her seat as the other men all said their own compliments, from praising how pretty her hair was, to how cute her glasses were, and a few more for her clothes. “Guess these give some stat buffs to my charisma!”

With a cute little blush, Futaba scratched the back of her head with a smile, eyes closed and basking in the compliments. Then suddenly she gave a cute little squeak of surprise and a jump when she felt a large, calloused hand grab just above her right knee, squeezing gently and sending tingles up her spine.

“Oh, sorry, I was just-”

“N-No, it’s okay! I don’t mind!” Futaba blushed even harder, but she had to admit she liked the feeling of his hand on her tingly skin, the contact sending a rush of warmth to her chest and head that was only made worse by the fun buzz. She knew she usually would have been going crazy with anxiety, but she actually kinda wanted him to keep his hand there.. Besides, friends could touch each other, right? She wanted to make more friends! She promised! “Y-You can keep your hand there!”

With a smile, he kept his hand there and continued his conversation with a friend, his fingers gently messaging her leg into his palm while Futaba gently shivered at the contact.

The small get together continued as if Futaba wasn’t shivering and gasping as her new friend gently massaged her leg, his hand gently sneaking up her leg until he was grabbing and groping her meaty thigh without even looking. Then, she felt another hand on her other thigh, looking to her left she saw the other man grabbing her thigh and squeezing it, smirking down at her while his other arm went around her shoulder and pulled her close to his side, filling her senses with his masculine scent, and making her spread her legs instinctively as she felt the two large hands play with her thicc, juicy thighs.

“So Futaba, you don’t seem the type to come to clubs often,” He said, getting in close to her ear while his hand hovered even closer to her core then Adam’s, clearly less reserved about groping her then his friend. “What changed your mind?”

“I-I come to clubs sometimes- Well with friends I do! We, uh, we dance a lot, so we kinda need places with music y’know?” The little redhead kinda wiggled and shuffled in place, looking shyly to the side while slightly spreading her legs even more, actually enjoying the close contact quite a bit.

“Oh wow, you didn’t mention that!” Said Adam, getting in closer on her other side, slipping his hand up her side and to her lower back. “You must be real popular when you’re out there dancing, huh?”

“I-I guess, um, m-my friend Ann is usually better at-Ah~” With a little gasp, Futaba bit her lip and threw her head to the side, trying to hold onto her sanity as she felt the man to her right slip his hand down and grab a nice, rough, firm handful of her extra meaty and jiggly ass, his fingers sinking into her flesh while he began mauling and rolling the flesh around his palm, all while the man on her left began rubbing the side of his hand firmly against the front of her shorts while grabbing her thigh, his other hand around her shoulders gently grabbing her small breast.

It felt.. Good~ Really, good~ Better then when she touched herself, and she’d done that a lot.. What, she stayed in all day, she was bound to start watching porn! She just didn’t expect to be into the really extreme stuff.. Stuff like what was happening now, stuff that was sending her burning core into an inferno that made her bite her knuckle and spread her legs for the two men to have easier access.

“Don’t be so hard on yourself~ With a body like this, I bet there isn’t a guy there who can keep their eyes off you~” The words were whispered into Futaba’s ear before the man to her left pressed his hand completely between her thighs, grabbing at her sensitive lower lips through her clothes and making her throat her head back in a small squeak.

“Yeah, why don’t you show us what kind of dances you know~? You don’t need to go far, just right here~” Futaba was losing her composure, and she even jumped in surprise when she felt the man on her left begin kissing and sucking her her neck, leading marks down her shoulder until he bit her gently enough to leave a mark, and making her press her crotch against his hand further.

“I-I don’t-Aaah~!” Futaba couldn’t think straight, her head was all fuzzy, her body was hot and needy, she could barely tell herself she needed to stop, let alone the two men filling her body and mind with pleasure so warm she felt like her mind was going numb. It was hot, her body was hot, her brain was hot, everything was so wonderfully warm she couldn’t even think straight.

“I-I need-Mmh~!” Futaba didn’t even know what she was going to say before Adam turned her head towards him and pressed his mouth against her, making her melt in pleasure before she suddenly shot up in shock and lightning pleasure. The stud to her left undid the front of her shorts and slipped his hand down her panties, gently toying with her leaking wet little cunt before pushing to fingers in, and she could feel every single second of his hand’s adventure into her inner folds.

She tried to hold onto anything, grabbing at the two men having their way with her body, but she didn’t want them to stop, she desperately didn’t want them to stop~ She felt like she was on cloud nine, she loved every second of the attention, of the feeling of being so small compared to the two massive men playing with her body. She felt one grab her wrist and lead her hand down to something warm, something throbbing and massive, and she only realized after grabbing it through his clothes that it was Adam’s massive cock. She was shocked, it was so huge, like a baseball bat, though it was probably just the warm haze over her mind that made her wonder if it’d even fit~

It was only then she remembered the other four men staring at her little show, and she couldn’t help but get even more excited at the thought of being watched. It was all so new, all too much for her to handle, and it didn’t help how the man to her left began finger fucking her little pussy, hard. She felt like she could have squirted in her shorts if she wasn’t suddenly feeling empty from Adam lifting her up and plopping her thicc, jiggly ass in his lap.

“Come on, we’re all friends here, we’re interested in what kind of dancing you’re good at,” He whispered, grabbing her by the hips and grinding up against her, his massive, throbbing cock sitting comfortably in the warm, plush valley of her plump bubble booty. “Just relax and have fun~”

Futaba just wanted to keep feeling good, she wanted to keep feeling warm, and honestly she wanted to keep feeling drop dead gorgeous from all the attention she was getting from them~ She wondered if this is how Ann felt all the time, and that it was no wonder she dressed the way she did and was a model, she felt amazing~

With a shy, lip biting smile, the adorable little redhead nodded her head, grabbed the edge of the table, and began doing what she’d seen hundreds of times before, slowly grinding and bouncing her hips against the rock hard cock lodged firmly between her cheeks, rubbing and squishing his cock with her meaty ass through his clothes, with her twin, creamy smooth, pale globes of ass rippling and wobbling like a sweet sweet cake for the man’s enjoyment.

Some of the men laughed, so whistled and catcalled, and she just smiled and blushed while looking over her shoulder at her own, tiny booty shorts covered ass sat against the bulge between her cheeks, slowly dancing with the music before she felt Adam give her a nice, solid smack across her ass, making her go a little faster on instinct. It felt so good, better then she thought it would, she honestly wanted him to do it again, to smack her ass a little harder~ She thought it would hurt, and it stung a little, but it felt so hot, so wrong in the best way~!

“Come on, you can go faster then that! Shake that ass!”

Lifting her ass more, Futaba began dancing the way An taught her in private, bouncing her ass up and down to the beat of the music, her massive cheeks jiggling with every single twerk of her wide hips till her velvety smooth mounds of ass were bouncing apart before meeting together, very lightly clapping together as she picked up the pace of her lap dance, twerking and jiggling her ass back for the man and the man sat next to him.

Futaba loved this feeling, the feeling of being the center of attention while twerking her ass, she loved the way Adam once again smacked her fat ass just to watch it jiggle, she loved knowing that monster in his pants was throbbing for her~!

She didn’t even mind that the stud on her left who she still couldn’t remember the name of smacked her ass as well, pulling out his phone and recording her twerking lapdance for his friend. She just felt so good~! 

Next thing Futaba knew she was pulled out of the booth, the lights shining and the people dancing as she was dragged across the room and to the dancefloor, one arm each being pulled by two large and handsome studs she could barely remember were at her table, and she could look to her right to see that it was Adam smacking and groping her ass as she walked with them to it. Each step made her cheeks jiggle, her hips sway side to side, and she could feel the breeze across her practically naked ass as the fabric of her jean shorts rode up between her globes like a thong, and she suddenly felt a pair of hands grab her waist and pull her back against one of the men, the music playing, her ass and tits getting mauled, groped, and spanked.

It was almost a sensory overload, but she just wanted to keep dancing, keep feeling those hands on her body~! Bending at the waist, Futaba began throwing her ass back in a circle for the man pressing his crotch against her, twerking her ass to the beat of the music and losing herself to the sound, feeling her cock throb between her cheeks while she was groped and spanked from him and his friends.

She didn’t even mind being passed around by them, each one groping and playing with her body while she was passed to them for her to twerk her jiggly nerd ass on, each one bigger then the last, and she just enjoyed the feeling of their hands, and the occasional bite on her neck or shoulder, or even having a tongue shoved into her mouth~!

She just twerked her ass like.. like a slut~ She just twerked her fat, jiggly ass like a naughty slut for any guy who wanted her ass against his dick~ Her creamy cheeks rippled, wobbled, bounced, and clapped like she was just a stripper shaking it for some easy cash, but instead she just wanted to~!

Futaba was just clapping her ass on two studs at once, both pressing against one side of her ass while she threw it back when suddenly she was pulled towards the stud from earlier, the one on her left, and she felt something massive, hot, and moist slap down meatily between her cheeks, making her stop for a second, look back, and see his giant, throbbing, precum leaking cock snuggle it’s way between her cheeks for a nice warm hotdogging before she was smacked across the ass to make her keep shaking, and while she was burning red, knowing she could be caught any second, she did~ Twerking and jerking the man off with nothing but her fat, jiggly ass cheeks while he started humping and fucking her asscheeks, Futaba knew she wasn’t being herself, but she was just so warm and gooey inside, and she could barely remember her own name, she couldn’t help it~

Her massive bubble booty jiggled like jello around that throbbing cock, milking him with every move of her hips on the crowded dancefloor, making her feel like the naughtiest little whore in the building, her pale globes clapping together around that fat dick while it leaked pre between them, lubing up his own assjob while the tiny redheaded cutie continued dancing the night away~ She could see his grit teeth too, knowing she was probably making him feel so good he was about to cum, maybe, she didn’t know, but just as she was about to try even harder to make that happen she was once again grabbed by the arms and pulled deeper into the club.

On either side of her were Adam and his friends, still grabbing, still toying, but there was a different air now, a different look on their faces as she was dragged along and made out with, until she was brought to the men’s room door that the group of massive handsome men practically kicked down, the bright white light burning her eyes for all but a few seconds before she was thrown into one of the small, empty stalls, sweat dripping down her thicc, curvy body as she dropped to her knees on the dingy tiled floor, adjusting her glasses while pushing loose hair from her face.

“Wh-What’s going o-” The small redhead was abruptly cut off as the grinning men all filed into the small, hot, now steamy stall, surrounding her while she sat on her knees, leaving her at the perfect crotch height for them to look down and grin at, laughing and rubbing their cocks through their clothes.

“It’s okay sweetheart, we just loved your dancing so much, we decided we needed a more private show! You can help out a few friends, right?” One of them said, she wasn’t sure which, her head was spinning, her face red, feeling so tiny and helpless in the best way possible, right up until they all started undoing their pants and fishing out their fat, sweaty, steaming hot, musky, hairy cocks and sacks, inches from her face in that tiny stall~ They laughed at her shocked expression, mouth agape and wide eyed at the 6 fat, throbbing, musky monsters, all steel hard and standing huge in front of her face, surrounding her head and filling her head with nothing but the raw, masculine smell of sweaty, steamy cocks and sacks she’d been twerking on all night~

She couldn’t even answer before the first cock was smushed against her pretty face, steaming and smudging her glasses as the sweaty, wrist thick fuckstick began thrusting and grinding against her cheek and face, the sweaty, hairy nuts of one stud pushing against her mouth and under her nose, then one against the other side of her face, and the next under her chin, another across her forehead and eyes, then one right against her lips, until she was drowning in sweaty, throbbing, musky bitchbreakers~! Futaba couldn’t breath without nearly passing out from the delicious scent filling her head, making her mind spin and swim in a sea of butterflies.. Pretty words to describe how the hairy nuts pressing under her nose made her leak like a fucking nasty slut~!

She couldn’t stop herself from huffing those cocks and nuts, rubbing her own face against all of them, glasses fogged, eyes rolled up, knuckle deep in her own squirting cunt before finally opening her pretty little cock pillow lips and sucking in one of those sweaty sets, slurping and swirling those hairy nuts around in her mouth like she was born to wash them, saliva dripping down her chin and onto her shirt in a slippery mess before she opened her mouth, let them go, and went for the next pair of even sweatier, muskier nuts, the salty taste making her mind fade for a second before she slurped so loud she was sure the people outside the restroom could hear it.

She couldn’t think of anything else but those sweaty nuts filling her head, not her friends, not the Phantom Thieves, and not even her anime she forgot to record, it was just pure, hungry, slutty, cock crazy whorishness~! And with one more set of nuts slurped and cleaned, stray pubes left behind on her glossy, plump lips and cheek, she just rolled her tongue out and began licking and lapping at any fat set of nuts pressed under her nose to huff and clean, tips of cocks slipping inside briefly to fuck her little mouth a bit before being replaced, precum and sweat flavoring her tongue before one cock finally slammed into her mouth and into the back of her throat, making her gag and choke loudly and lewdly while other cocks ground against her face and glasses. Whoever was in her throat didn’t care she’d never sucked cock before, and just wanted to get balls deep, slamming against the back of her throat before it gave way, slamming in nuts deep, slapping his sack against her chin and burying her cute little nose in his curly pubes before beginning his brutal fucking of her tight, virgin little fucksleeve throat~!

Futaba couldn’t breath half the time, and the other half was filled with sweaty, musky nuts~! He just fucked and fucked her throat until she was seeing stars, and just used it like a stress fucktoy, growling and taking out his frustrations as she drowned in all the other cocks fucking against her face~! And just as he yanked out, it was replaced just as quick, once more, even bigger, fucking her throat and forcing her nose in a mess of pubes~! Futaba couldn’t remember what day it was if you asked, just that she was a nasty, slutty little cock sucker, if the name calling and laughing of the men was anything to go by~!

And there she sat, getting throat fucked and used by every single man who wanted to try and swab her throat with his sweaty fuckstick, until finally she was grabbed by the hair and lifted up from her knees, her world still spinning and shifting as saliva dripped onto her shirt more and more, and just as she spied the grinning face of Adam, she was shoved face first against the wall, bent at the waist with her fat, jiggly, meaty fucking ass facing the men as one, she wasn’t sure who, smacked her ass, grabbed a fistful of her hair, pulled her tiny little booty shorts to the side along with her thong, revealing her tiny little pink virgin pucker to his fat, throbbing cock.

Futaba’s back arched a bit, raising her fat ass and standing on her toes as if begging subconsciously for that fat cock to rearrange her insides to be nothing but a cumdumpster for them~! For her to be nothing but a cumdumpster for them~! And before she knew it the man pressed his bulbous tip against her clenching little asshole, pushing and forcing it in roughly, the tip much too big, her asshole much too tiny, but he didn’t care, he just yanked her hair like a bitch handle, smacked her ass, and slammed in hard~!

“AAAAaaaaaahhhhh~!!!!” Futaba squealed in pleasure and pain at the feeling of being filled and fucked by a real cock for the first time, having always been an anal whore, she always used toys on her backdoor, but his cock was so massive, so rough and hot, she felt like she was losing her mind from one thrust~! And just as quick as he slammed in, he did it again, and again, not caring in the slightest people could hear the little nerdy bitch’s screams and squeals outside the door as he anally brutalized her balls deep, slamming in as hard and fast as he wanted to for her first time, slamming in so hard her fat ass clapped against his hips like a drum, rippling like waves as those weighty, bouncy globes squished and hugged around the base of his cock so lewdly~!

Futaba didn’t know what happened, she was supposed to be the shy nerd locked in her room, not the squealing and screaming buttslut getting fucked and used by 6 men in the public bathroom~! She moaned, and squirted, and came like a nasty slut, and she felt like one too, her entire body and view rocking and jumping back and forth as she was used and abused by a man she didn’t even know the name of~! She was so fucking full, and that fat cock hurt so good, so hot, so big~!!

“You love that don’t you stupid bitch!!” Was all she heard, growling and grunting as the entire stall wall banged and shook from how hard she was getting fucked into it, sounding like an earthquake was going off instead of a tiny redheaded nerd getting absolutely anally fucked.

“Y-YESSSS~!!! I LOVE IT~!! M-MOREE, PLEASEEEE~!!!” Futaba didn’t even remember squealing that as the man pulled her hair like a handle and slammed in balls deep one last time, busting his fat, gooey, steaming hot nut up inside her asshole, shooting jet after jet inside before yanking out and letting her fall to the floor on her knees, leaning against the wall while on all fours, asshole leaking cum.

Futaba was panting, her legs were weak and shaking, and she felt drained beyond belief, like she was about to have one of her battery drained episodes again, and just as she was about to get up, she was once again grabbed by the hair and dragged to the toilet in the stall, thrown onto it, with her ass raised up, and her chest pressed against the water tank, right before she felt another smack against her ass and felt an even bigger cock pressed against her sore, leaky little hole.

“We’re not done with you yet fucking slut!!”

“AAAAAAaaaAAAAHHHHH~!!!” Futaba felt an even thicker, bigger, harder cock slam into her asshole with the strength of a freight train, must have been one of the larger guys, cause she felt like his cock was slipping her in half~!! Every thrust rocked her body against the toilet and sent her ass clapping and wobbling around his cock, his angle had his feet planted, slamming and jackhammering his cock down and into her asshole so hard she was seeing stars right from the start~!!

She couldn’t even keep her head up from the complete and brutal anal wrecking she was getting, squirting with every thrust from the monster of a man ruining her asshole like he owned her~!! And just as she was losing herself she felt the man grab the sides of her mouth, fishhooking it open and doubling his fucking anal pounding if it was even possible, tears of pleasure and pain pouring down her beautiful cheeks while he played with her lips and tongue for fun, nuts slapping her ass while she heard and saw camera flashes from behind her.

“Say it!! Say you want this fucking cum you stupid little slut!!” The man angrily slammed his cock in over and over like he wanted her to fucking pass out, so hard the entire toilet was shaking and rattling.

“I WANTSH YOU CUM SHIR~!!! PLEASH GIVE ME YOU CUM~!!!” Futaba just wanted that thick, warm, bubbly gooey feeling in her asshole, it felt so good after being used like a fucking slut, so hard and fast by the man above her she was crying, eyes rolled up in pleasure, tongue hanging out before he finally slammed nuts deep and blew his load, panting her asshole even whiter then it already was before yanking his cock out and giving her another slap across her fat ass for the hell of it.

Futaba was so far gone, she couldn’t even answer a question she couldn’t hear from one of the laughing men behind her, flashes and cameras going off while someone spread her asscheeks wide, cum leaking out of her gaping hole and onto the floor in a small puddle.

She was too limp to fight someone flipping her over onto her back on the toilet, not that she would have mind you, but she felt her legs get lifted up and someone bite her thicc, juicy thigh hard enough to leave a mark before she felt him slide up between her legs, and felt him fold her in half, her knees against her shoulders.

She wasn’t ready to feel the biggest cock of the bunch press against her gaping hole from above, the man’s massive, muscular body hovering above hers before suddenly, roughly, brutally slamming nuts deep in one single go, her eyes shooting wide as she was suddenly and roughly put in the hardest mating press she’d even seen, let alone feel.

“HNNNNNNNGGGGHAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIII~!!!” Her voice was horse and scratchy from all the screaming and squealing, but she couldn’t not scream from being split open by a wrist thick fucking pillar of meat reaching so far in her asshole she could barely breath~!! It fucking felt so good~!! She was sore, it stung, it burned, it felt so good she was squealing louder then ever before as the man piledrived his cock in like a steam piston, so hard she could barely believe she was awake~!! Each thrust was so hard she could only stretch her toes out, clenching her little asshole tight and holding onto him to keep her sanity~!!

He was silent, but growling, using her like a fucking little doll while he picked up the pace, faster, and faster, and faster until his hips were like a blur, at least to her, and she could hear her own asscheeks clapping against his nuts~!! He was like a wild fucking animal, and Futaba let the drool and tears flow~!! She must have looked like such a fucking whore, gaping and being fucked in the men’s bathroom, dressed like a dirty little slut~!!

“PLEASH~!!! DADDY~!! FUCKK MY BUTTHOLE DADDY~!!!” She didn’t even realize what she was saying until he fucked her as hard as he possibly could, his muscles straining as he slammed down balls deep so hard and fast he was groaning and yelling his own profanities, hugging her close while his massive, steel hard cock fit her to his perfect shape. Until finally, he too slammed balls deep inside her asshole and dumped his load in their new, cute little cumdumpster.

“HNNNNGGGGGGGGGHHGGGGYYYYYYEEEEESSS~!!!” Was all the little redhead could say as she wrapped her legs around his waist to pull him in as deep as he could go, filling her to the brim with so much cum it squirted out around his cock and onto his nuts, just for him to yank out his cock and shoot lines of smelly, stringy nut from her asshole all the way up to her face and across her hanging tongue and glasses.

Futaba let her legs fall down, as she was damn near unconscious, more camera flashes and laughing came around her as she was slipping into a dark, lovely void..

Just for another man to grab her and pick her up, hooking his arms under her legs for a full anal nelson..

Futaba knew she should have brought a Goho.M..

[eponymous-rose]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E87 (Dec. 10, 2019)

Tonight’s guests are Marisha Ray and Taliesin Jaffe!

Announcements: CR is heading back to Chicago for C2E2 2020! More information on the site!

Episode 87: Big Boyses Punishment and Politics

Stats for this week’s episode! Beau has been an Expositor for 49 days. Caduceus has healed 222 HP from unconsciousness, and is the only member of the group not to have asked yet who’s on the Tal’Dorei Council (he has a joke he’s been saving). The players asked Matt to get a HDYWTDT three times before he actually got the 153rd one (across both campaigns).

First question of the night (16 minutes in): how worried were they about a TPK during the fight? They were both pretty stressed. Marisha: “I didn’t think it was going to be a TPK, but I was definitely starting to emotionally prepare myself for Beau being dead, like dead-dead. It was grim there for a second.” Taliesin: “We still had ways to pop a couple people back if we had to, but it was looking...”

Are they hopeful about turning the Inevitable End into the Inevitable Friend? “I feel like if I could’ve gotten that hug, maybe...” If anything, Taliesin’s worried that she’ll come back to be a problem later. “At some point, someone’s going to pay the Inevitable End to Inevitably End us.”

It’s pointed out that a lot of Beau’s previous successful diplomacy attempts were isolated from the party, but this time Beau actually got to do it in front of the group. “It was impressive, it was fun to watch.” “Yeah, that feels good.”

Caduceus genuinely did think Dwendal was complimenting him, but mostly because he was having a panic attack at the time. “I think he probably put it together later.”

“Beau’s not stupid. Beau will only challenge authority when she feels like it’s a challenge that she can make with limited repercussions, hopefully, one that she can successfully win, or at least get out of, if challenged. She likes picking fights, but she knows the time and the place.”

Cosplay of the Week: Nott! (SparkleanCos on Twitter, photography by Alexandra Lee Studios)

Taliesin's Percy instincts pushed him forward in the throne room, but it didn’t exactly come out the same way in Caduceus’ words. “I was so panicked. It fell apart so quickly. This character has no business being in this conversation. He just opened his mouth and nothing is coming out.”

Now that she’s an Expositor, Beau has started feeling more connection to the Soul as a whole rather than just to individual people.

On Caleb’s backstory, Caduceus only knows about the letter argument and “remembers it very very clearly”. It’s all wrapped up in his concern over Nott and Caleb, and only really understands that Caleb feels threatened in that situation. “He doesn’t really understand the particulars, other than that there are dangerous people here who want to hurt us. Who are apparently very clever.”

Marisha on Caleb’s backstory: “It’s kind of been like, yeah, dude, I know it’s a lot, but get your shit together for a second while we handle this. She cares, but also there’s a big part of me objectively that thinks that Beau might be a terrible person to be the one to try and talk Caleb out of shit at this moment.”

Taliesin and Marisha both note that it’s suspicious how quickly Dwendal was willing to give up the Beacon. Marisha: “There’s no doubt that there’s something happening, more, it’s just a matter of how much King Dwendal knows.” Taliesin: “I don’t know how in-control he is in all this.”

Taliesin thinks the truth-telling in the throne room was a dangerous call. Marisha: “I don’t think we told them anything we didn’t know, though. It’s about honesty, but also lying through omission.”

Fanart of the Week: Caleb! (Azraillu on Twitter)

Caduceus: Hufflepuff.

Caduceus kept thinking “I don’t even go to this school!” when Dwendal was going on about being on the edge of treason. Dani points out that only 3 of the Nein are from the Empire.

Beau keeps becoming the face of the group, even though her charisma is lower. “It’s less that I was assigned designated driver, and more like everyone else is just a little too drunk. They just fell in my lap, the keys, nobody really entrusted me with that. I’m wearing the uniform. I look the most respectable, and my word will probably be taken with a little more weight. It’s situational face.”

Who does Caduceus lean on, with everyone leaning on him? “Jester’s been there for him a couple of times, which has been interesting. He lived with his family for his entire fucking life, he has lived at home with parents, siblings, and his aunt. There’s a built-in support structure to that. He’s kind of been pretending that he’s been at work. And yeah, he’s had a couple nervous breakdowns. And usually, weirdly, it’s Jester who shows up as his rock, a few times. He’s got a very different relationship with everyone else. Beau and Caleb he considers on his level, so to speak, and Yasha and Fjord are kind of projects.”

Beau was pretty much exclusively leaning on her Expositor authority in the conversation with the king. “She [as a character concept] really started clicking with the Plank King. That was the first time it was like, this is how this character’s meant to work.”

Caduceus was definitely telling the truth when he told the Gentleman he was lonely. “His family left him in kind of a shitty way, if you think about it. People just kept not coming back until he was sitting alone in a forest by himself.” Marisha: “Why haven’t you ever tried to scry on any of them?” Taliesin: “There’s the answer he would give, and then there’s the truth.” Marisha: “You just said Caduceus is all about the truth.” Taliesin: “Yes, but you just found the hole.” Marisha: “FUCKIN EXPOSITOR YEAHHHH”

Now that they’ve met both monarchies, have their opinions changed? Caduceus: “It’s confirmed everything I thought, anyway.” Marisha: “It seems like both sides just went to fight each other without any real excuse.” Taliesin keeps alluding to a “really dumb idea” he wants to put across on Thursday. They were genuinely annoyed at Dwendal.

#critical role #critical role spoilers #talks machina #talks machina spoilers #long text post

[tigerkirby215]

5e Mordekaiser, the Iron Revenant build (League of Legends)

(Artwork made for Riot Games.)

K-POP IS TEMPORARY; IRON STANDS ETERNAL!

Guess I just don’t really want to make nothing but K-Pop builds. Been playing Morde a lot and he’s fun, and Morde in D&D is actually a build I’ve been thinking about for awhile. I don’t have to use Tasha’s content either for this build so I figured I’d make something other than eGirls in anticipation for Pentakill’s comeback album.

Please for the love of god give us a new Pentakill Mordekaiser skin, and actually turn his mace into a guitar!

GOALS

Shed the frailty of flesh; embrace the cold edge of iron - The iron revenant needs iron, with a giant mace and armor that can block even the strongest sword. For iron stands eternal.

In my clutches! - Those who try to flee will be brought back by Death’s Grasp. There is no escaping fate.

Accept your demise - Tired of your foes running? Bring them to a Realm of Death where they’ll have to fight.

RACE

I know that Mordekaiser is technically a revenant but in my continued attempts to make my builds “Adventurer’s League legal” while not using Adventurer’s League rules we’re going to go with a Warforged, because of course we’d pick the race made of metal. As a Warforged your Constitution increases by 2 and you can increase another stat of your choice by 1: bump up your Charisma to be just a little bit scarier.

As iron stands eternal you have Constructed Resilience for advantage against being poisoned, resistance to the poisoned condition, immunity to disease, and no need to eat, drink, or breathe. You also don’t need to sleep and can’t be put to sleep by magic: instead to sleep you enter a Sentry’s Rest, where you stand motionless for hours but are still fully aware of your surroundings.

But most importantly to resist all blows you have Integrated Protection. It flat out increases your AC by 1, and also makes it so that instead of “wearing” armor you integrate it into your body. While the armor is integrated into you it can’t be removed by any means.

Finally you have Specialized Design for a skill, tool, and language of your choice. For your skill I opted for Performance to show that you’re the chosen: you are the guardian, the guardian. (But feel free to take something more practical.) For your tool a Lute is the closest you’ll get to a guitar to lead a Yordle city destroying band. And for your language choose whatever you think the spirits of the dead would speak: I opted for Abyssal personally. Definitely not because Abyssal is the first option alphabetically.

ABILITY SCORES

15; STRENGTH - Iron stands eternal, and iron is heavy.

14; WISDOM - Morde speaks in very sagely ways, and this is a rather big requirement for one of our classes.

13; CHARISMA - Charisma is tied directly to being the scariest revenant around, and indirectly tied to kick-ass guitar solos.

12; CONSTITUTION - Twice slain and thrice reborn doesn’t happen if you’re not a sturdy fella.

10; INTELLIGENCE - Being alive for eons means that you would know a thing or two about history.

8; DEXTERITY - Iron stands eternal, and iron is heavy.

BACKGROUND

There’s a lot of potential backgrounds for Mordekaiser (I honestly really like the Knight background because Retainers are fun) but the most accurate one for abilities and lore would be a Soldier. You gain proficiency in Athletics but I’m going to suggest swapping Intimidation out for History proficiency, since you’re an ancient being who was around for many wars. You also gain proficiency with land vehicles and a gaming set of your choice, both of which don’t matter much: see if you can maybe grab another metal instrument instead.

Your background with a Military Rank means that your followers recognize you as their general (or possibly a lower rank if your DM isn’t a fan of OP level 1 backstories.) They defer to you if they are of lower rank, and you can use your military influence to requisition supplies as needed.

(Artwork made for Riot Games.)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - PALADIN 1

An oath sworn to death is still an oath. Paladins get proficiency in two skills from the Paladin list: this is where we’ll actually be grabbing Intimidation, and we’ll also take Religion. Yeah turns out that Morde’s obsession with death is actually a religion.

Regardless Paladins at level 1 have Divine Sense. You can spend an action to sense any celestial, fiend, or undead within 60 feet of you that is not behind total cover. You know the type of being but not its identity, and you can also use this ability to determine if an area has been consecrated or desecrated. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier plus one, and regain all uses at the end of a Long Rest.

You also have some healing for your Indestructible body with Lay on Hands. You have a pool of healing power equal to five times your Paladin level that you can spend to heal anyone you touch (including yourself.) You can spend any number of your remaining hitpoints on the heal, or you can spend 5 hitpoints to cure a disease or neutralize a poison. You can stop multiple poisons and diseases at a time (spending 5 hitpoints for each) but seeing as iron resists poison and disease you should be fine. Your puny allies however may need the help.

Now may also be a good time to mention what weapons and armor to take. For a giant two-handed mace take a Maul, and for heavy armor take heavy armor. For now that will just be Chainmail (granted by default with Paladin starting equipment) but you can transition to Platemail in the future hopefully.

LEVEL 2 - PALADIN 2

Second level Paladins get to choose their Fighting Style to augment their non-abilities. To be completely unbreakable take Defense for another +1 to your AC.

You also get access to Spellcasting. You can prepare a number of spells equal to your Charisma modifier plus half your Paladin level (rounded down.) The main spell we’re here for is Compelled Duel to force foes to face you and make it a lot harder for them to fight. It’s not a full 1v1 dimension but it works pretty well. Other than that if you want some Nashor’s Tooth damage Divine Favor will make your strikes a lot more painful, and if you want even more defense Shield of Faith will block any blow that may come your way.

Of course you can ignore all this and Obliterate your foes with Divine Smite, spending a spell slot and turning into magic Radiant damage. A smite with do 2d8 for a first level slot plus an additional d8 per slot above first, up to a maximum of 5d8 with a 4th level slot. If you hit an undead or fiend however the damage increases by another d8, for a maximum of 6d8.

LEVEL 3 - PALADIN 3

Third level Paladins get Divine Health which literally doesn’t impact you since you’re a Warforged, so instead we’ll talk about your Sacred Oath. As fun and flavorful as an Oathbreaker would be that subclass is kinda... bad? So instead look to the Oath of Conquest to shatter your foes!

You get the Armor of Agathys spell for some Thornmail, and the Command spell for Death’s Grasp. Telling someone to approach doesn’t have the same impact as grabbing them with a spooky ghost claw but it works just as well. You also get two Channel Divinity options. Conquering Presence will make everyone near you frightened, and Guided Strike will let you add +10 to an attack roll which will guarantee that you’ll hit in most if not all situations.

LEVEL 4 - PALADIN 4

4th level Paladins get an Ability Score Improvement: seeing as our Strength is uneven we can take a Feat like Heavy Armor Master, increasing our Strength by 1 and making it so that our foes’ puny non-magical weapons bounce off us like nothing.

You can also prepare another spell but we’re going to wait a bit on that.

LEVEL 5 - PALADIN 5

5th level Paladins get an Extra Attack, giving you enough attack speed to swing Nightfall twice before your opponent starts to run.

You also get access to second level spells. Oath of Conquest gives you Hold Person to keep your foes in place and Spiritual Weapon for a ghostly soldier to fight alongside you. You can also prepare a spell like Aid to further boost your health, making it even harder to slay you once more.

(Artwork made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 6 - CLERIC 1

Despite being a big metal man Mordekaiser is an AP champ, but he also hits people quite a lot with his mace. Hence we’re going into the AP class that also hits people with a mace. Now you may think that we’d want to go into Death Cleric for a revenant... THAT’S WHERE YOU’RE WRONG FOOLISH MORTAL! IRON STANDS ETERNAL! FORGE DOMAIN! At level 1 you get Blessing of the Forge allowing you to turn a weapon or piece of armor into a magical +1 weapon or armor. My tip? More armor. Iron stands eternal.

As a Cleric you also get Spellcasting that relies on your Wisdom instead of your Charisma. You also actually get cantrips! You are the master of death and you choose when people die, so take Spare the Dying to make them not die. To make sure your subjects hear your words Thaumaturgy will let all hear you. And just because Mordekaiser is a melee champ doesn’t mean you can’t have a ranged damage option, so take Toll the Dead so none can escape what comes for all.

Check page something-or-other to see how many spell slots you have, but what’s important to know is that you can prepare a number of spells equal to your Wisdom modifier plus your Cleric level. As a Forge Cleric you also get Identity to find the perfect weapon, and Searing Smite to seal your foes away with Nightfall’s Kiss. To keep usurpers away Protection from Good and Evil will make it nye-impossible for them to harm you, and to command your allies as an army Bless will strengthen their weapons and resolve. Other than that? I mean someone should probably have Detect Magic. Truthfully there isn’t much we need from first level spells.

LEVEL 7 - CLERIC 2

Second level Clerics get Channel Divinity options that use the same Channel Divinity charges that your Paladin Channel Divinity uses. Luckily these ones are a little more situational: Turn Undead lets you... turn undead. (Please just read the ability’s description as I’m sick of explaining it in every Cleric build I make.) Artisan's Blessing meanwhile lets you craft something from eternal iron... or whatever other metal you may have. The cost can’t exceed 100 gold, but you can arm your soldiers with weapons and armor... within reason.

You can also prepare another spell but we’re going to wait for...

LEVEL 8 - CLERIC 3

Third level Clerics can prepare second level spells. As a Forge Cleric you have Heat Metal innately prepared, as well as Magic Weapon. This is why I suggested you use your Blessings of the Forge on your armor, because Magic Weapon will let you improve Nightfall. And Heat Metal is surprisingly one of the best spells to counter you, so good thing you have it in your arsenal.

Speaking of arsenal: for the power to carry all that iron Enhance Ability will make you the perfect being for anything you may wish to do. Warding Bond is perhaps not as useful for you, but strengthening your allies strengthens you through relation.

LEVEL 9 - CLERIC 4

4th level means more Ability Score Improvements. Strength is tied to just about everything we do currently (and is notably needed if we want Platemail) so increase that by 2, making Nightfall all the deadlier.

You could also prepare another spell but there isn’t much to take from second level either, so it would be good to wait for third level spells. You do get another cantrip though and even the strongest warriors can use some otherworldly aid, so take Guidance for that aid.

(Artwork made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 10 - CLERIC 5

5th level Clerics can Destroy Undead of CR 1/2 with their Turn Undead Channel Divinity. Perhaps it’s odd for a revenant to destroy undead, but I’d rule it as culling the weak.

But more importantly you can prepare third level spells! Forge Clerics get Elemental Weapon for an upgrade to Magic Weapon, and Protection from Energy for an Adaptive Helm. May you rest in peace in Season 11. We’ve yet to get our passive yet, so to make Darkness Rise take Spirit Guardians to damage foes near you. And you know what we don’t have a lot of as an undead revenant? Undead minions. Animate Dead will bring forth your legion, so they can’t bring you down easily.

LEVEL 11 - CLERIC 6

6th level Clerics can use their Channel Divinity twice per Short or Long Rest, which is nice because this also affects your Paladin Channel Divinities. Additionally Forge Clerics get the Soul of the Forge for resistance to Fire damage and EVEN. MORE. AC!

And you can prepare more spells! Want to keep your domain safe? Glyph of Warding will deter anyone trying to stop you before you can awaken again.

LEVEL 12 - CLERIC 7

Level 7 in Cleric? Level 4 in spells. Forge Clerics get Fabricate to craft tools of war. But more importantly you can stop people from interrupting your 1v1s with a Wall of Fire! People can still butt in, but being surrounded by flames definitely makes it harder!

Additionally you can grab Death Ward, to stop anything from taking you down... at first. You may crack iron, but you can never break it.

LEVEL 13 - CLERIC 8

Level 8 gives another Ability Score Improvement which means it’s finally time to max out your Strength! This is great because you now also have Divine Strike to make Nightfall do an additional d8 of Fire damage on hit!

And how about more spells? Banishment is like your ultimate but you can’t join them in the Death Realm. And without you there isn’t much death. It’s honestly fairly harmless. But at least if they don’t belong in this realm you can hopefully lock them away for good.

Oh and your Turn Undead now can Destroy Undead of CR 1 or lower. So mind your minions.

(Artwork by Teddy Tarnando.)

LEVEL 14 - CLERIC 9

Who likes 5th level spells? As a Forge Cleric you know Animate Objects to bring unholy life to iron, and Creation to create said iron. For a burst of darkness that does Radiant damage Flame Strike is a good tool to level any battlefield.

LEVEL 15 - CLERIC 10

10th level Clerics may be blessed with Divine Intervention. You may pray to the god of death (or I guess the god of the forge too) for assistance before rolling on a percentile die. If you roll a number equal to or lower than your Cleric level, the gods intervene. If you receive aid you can’t use this ability for 7 days. If you aren’t heard the ability comes back on a Long Rest.

You know what else comes back after a Long Rest? Spell slots. You know what doesn’t come back after a Long Rest (normally)? The dead. So grab Raise Dead to bring the dead after a notably Long Rest. You can also add another cantrip to your list, and for times when iron doesn’t stand eternal you may want some Mending.

LEVEL 16 - CLERIC 11

11th level Clerics can prepare 6th level spells. Blade Barrier is perhaps not the most practical spell but it’s metal as fuck in more ways than one, blocking your foes with whirling death. Say it with me now: iron stands eternal! You can also now Destroy Undead of CR 2.

LEVEL 17 - CLERIC 12

At level 12 you get another Ability Score Improvement or a Feat... hey wouldn’t it be funny if we literally completely ignored our spellcasting modifiers in favor of just hitting things harder with our mace? This perhaps would’ve been stronger to take earlier but we’re finally grabbing Great Weapon Master for the hardest, most deadly strikes with Nightfall’s Kiss.

And more spells prepared? Well it’s perhaps not the most practical more undead minions from Create Undead will serve you well.

(Artwork by Sunny Pandita, Concept Artist at Riot Games.)

LEVEL 18 - CLERIC 13

13th level presents you with 7th level spells and damn there are a lot of good ones, but I’m actually going to suggest Regenerate to keep you or any allies in the fight.

LEVEL 19 - CLERIC 14

Another level, another spell. Even though there’s some really great stuff at 7th level you don’t have many spell slots there, so I’d instead suggest going back to fountain to resupply. Word of Recall (a 6th level spell) can help in a pinch to escape from danger and retreat to regroup.

Your Turn Undead now can Destroy Undead of CR 3 or lower. But most importantly: your Divine Strike now increases to 2d8 fire damage! So if Nightfall is a regular maul it’s doing 2d6 bludgeoning and an additional 2d8 fire damage on your first hit!

LEVEL 20 - CLERIC 15

15th level gives you an 8th level spell! You’ll only have one of these so make sure it counts! Clerics don’t have that many 8th level spells to choose from but you may be surprised to hear that I’m suggesting Holy Aura. Why? It’s the ultimate spell to stand eternally, making your foes attacks bounce off you like nothing while the weapons of your legion strike hard and strong!

FINAL BUILD

PROS

Flesh constrains; iron liberates - You know what’s fun? Having 20 AC with just (+1) Chainmail, and up to 22 AC with standard (+1) Plate! All I can say is that your DM will be thanking the gods that you didn’t decide to grab a shield.

Thus begins the slaughter - Ha ha Nightfall go bonk. If your sick of hearing people say that Martial classes don’t do a lot of damage show them a Martial character with Smites, Divine Strike, spells to boost their weapons, and Great Weapon Master to add a flat +10 to your damage! Not to mention that Guided Strike practically guarantees that you’ll land your blows, and you have two Channel Divinities per Short Rest!

I’m actually making a second paragraph for this: the most damage you can do in a turn (using two fourth level spell slots on Smites, a 7th level Elemental Weapon spell applied to your weapon, and assuming you use Great Weapon Master on both attacks) is... 4d6 + 36 Bludgeoning damage, 2d8 Fire damage, 6d4 Elemental Weapon damage (of your chosen damage type), and 10d8 Radiant Damage. This, on average, will do 130 damage! (Not accounting for Resistances.) To put this into perspective: Tiamat has 615 HP. A lot of resistances too yes, but not accounting for those resistances you in-theory are doing 20% of Tiamat’s health in one attack!

Power eternal - You may not have 9th level spells but you have 9th level slots, and tons of spells that will level the battlefield no matter how likely they are to hit. Buffing spells work regardless of your spellcasting modifier, and do so to great effect.

CONS

A fleeting delay of the inevitable - Hey you know what’s good to do as a spellcaster? Cast spells. Both your spellcasting modifiers are at the bare minimum required to multiclass. Perhaps see if you can build this character with Point Buy so you can dump every stat except for Strength, Wisdom, and Charisma. (Well Constitution is still good too.)

Such meaningless struggle - Dumping ability scores also means that your own saving throws are subpar, and unlike usual with Paladins you don’t have Aura of Protection to save you. Notably a -1 to DEX means you won’t be dodging any skillshots anytime soon.

Enter the crucible of anguish - You are a big, slow, bulky lad who needs to rely on a big smacc sticc to do just about everything. Anyone who can outrun you will quickly make you useless as you have to get closer to beat the shit out of people.

But you needn’t come to them: death shall befall them either way. They can stay away and hide from the inevitable, or approach and accept their fate. Nothing will break you, nothing will stop you. Twice slain, thrice reborn, you are Mordekaiser, and you stand eternal. Along with your kickass metal album.

(Artwork made for Riot Games.)

#dnd #dnd 5e #dnd build #dnd guide #League of Legends #League of Legends Mordekaiser #Mordekaiser #dnd paladin #dnd cleric #iron #stands #eternal #Iron stands Eternal #heavy #metal #heavy metal

[utilitycaster]

I have a question abt dnd multiclassing. I’ve just started my first game and have a half-orc wizard (no school yet) with a strangely high strength stat. My nerd wizard’s buffness has already become an in-joke among the party and I was wondering if I could play into it narratively and gameplay-wise by eventually having her multiclass into a physical combat class. Is there a good combo for this or would it just be a novelty? It’s my first game so I don’t want to lag behind in combat.

So the big caveat here is that my multiclassing knowledge is not first-hand; I’ve never actually played a multiclassed character, I just read a lot and watch a lot and have played a decent amount as a DM/single-class character, and I love rules.

With that said this is a great question and the below is more some questions to guide you than hard advice on what to do. The very short answer is that I can’t tell you if you should multiclass, but if you do multiclass, fighter makes the most sense mechanically and I’ll go into why below.

1. What drew you to playing a wizard? Was it doing huge amounts of damage? Was it versatility in your spell options? Were you attracted to the idea of being a character who is smart and could learn magic from their surroundings? Is there a school you have your eye on? Did someone just say “hey we need an arcane caster” and you said “okay?” Any of these reasons are valid, but this will help guide what you do.

2. If you do choose to multiclass, fighter makes the most sense: it’s strength dependent for multiclassing (unlike rogue, monk, or ranger) and it’s only dependent on strength (unlike paladin, which requires high charisma as well). Additionally, barbarians can’t do spellcasting while raging which would make it sort of hard to benefit from a lot of the wizard skillset.

3. If you don’t choose to multiclass, that’s valid! If progressing in spellcasting and all the wizard stuff (except for huge amounts of damage, potentially) is why you chose wizard, you can just be a strong wizard! Wizards do get proficiency with a couple weapons and if you pick one dependent on strength (my recommendation here is the quarterstaff, but daggers will work too provided you’re stabbing and not throwing) that means even when you’re low on spells you have an option at hand beyond cantrips. It also means your attacks of opportunity are actually likely to hit and do a little damage, which is useful at lower levels. If you really want, you can capitalize on this while still progressing as a wizard by taking feats that grant you weapon or armor proficiencies.

4. Multiclassing even a little into fighter is, however, pretty beneficial, I have to say. A single level of fighter will give you:

- proficiency in up to medium armor and in shields, making you way less squishy; proficiency in all typical weapons; a fighting style which can make you harder to hit or able to do more damage or help your allies; and give you second win which will let you regain 1d10 + fighter level hit points, which is very useful again for the squishy wizard.

This would only set you back one level in the wizard progression.

A second level in fighter will also give you action surge, which gives you the ability to take two actions per turn once per rest, which would let you cast two spells in one round when you use it.

Narratively I also think this works nicely; you studied the book, and then you studied the blade. Fighters are the wizards of the battling classes* anyway.

5. Beyond two levels in fighter is I think the point where you need to make a choice, at least for a while because if you try to keep things evenly split between classes without committing more to one of your two classes you will probably fall behind, at least at lower levels. I think multiclasses work best when either you start multiclassing at a fairly high level when a lot of the really good core stuff is already under your belt, or alternately if you take just one or two levels in one class that provide a lot of benefit for little investment.

If you decide to mainly progress in fighter, without going too far into subclasses, fighters are very good at doing lots of weapon damage to one thing at a time. As they take levels, they get lots of ability score improvements, they get to attack tons of times, they can just reroll saves to a certain extent, and they’re really good at physical fighting. If you find that you really like the fighting life, Eldritch Knight is a subclass I’ve never played but want to which has some limited spellcasting abilities as a subclass. It will make multiclassing spell calculations and prep a little more complicated, but it will fit with your level of wizard nicely.

You can also mainly progress in wizard and have those two levels of fighter. You’ll hit your school features and higher level spells slightly behind other casters in the party, but you’ll also be able to wear medium armor and hit hard with a sword.

-------

I know this was very long so: what I would do, personally, is play as a wizard with a quarterstaff for a few levels (up to L3 or 4 maybe?) which will help you know what you like and develop your character. If you really love being a wizard and are impatient to keep learning new spells, stick with it and be a strong half-orc wizard! If the fighter abilities seem intriguing and you think it makes sense narratively, try a level in fighter, and if you like it a lot, try another, and by then you’ll have a much better sense of your character, what you enjoy doing as a player, and what would serve the story and can decide what to do next.

*this is entirely off topic but fighter:wizard::barbarian:sorcerer::paladin:cleric::rogue:bard::ranger:druid::monk:warlock

#d&d #dungeons & dragons #multiclassing #Anonymous

[theworldbrewery]

Bringing Rules to Roleplay

The dwarf slams his tankard down. He squints at you and says, “Make it worth my while.” 

The party exchanges a quick glance and the paladin lays down a single platinum piece. “For safe passage through the Cave of the Damned.” 

The dwarf’s scowl deepens. “You think I’ll risk my skin for a bit of metal? I want that amulet you wear, or the deal’s off.” He spits at your feet.

It can be hard to integrate the rules of D&D into non-combat scenarios. Maybe your players have some downtime, maybe they’re gathering information for their next goal, researching lore, or haggling with shopkeepers. The rule books, particularly the Dungeon Master’s Guide and Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, have some good suggestions about how to combine PC roleplay with mechanical structures, but in practice, they can be hard to implement.

Most roleplay fans don’t love the idea of rolling for the results of a week of “carousing,” as on page 128 of the DMG. Your players probably don’t want to say “I spend a week gambling, drinking, and enjoying companionship” and then have you roll on a table to tell them “you regain consciousness in a strange place, having been robbed.” 

For a player with good social stats such as Charisma or Wisdom, skipping over the rolling aspect of roleplay puts them at a disadvantage, too, because they put effort into being good at that, and it’s a shame to rob them of the spaces where they shine.

As the DM, you can take social interactions to the next level by incorporating just a few key mechanics without bogging down the roleplay. 

In the example above--carousing for a week of downtime--the end result might be fun, but the DMG doesn’t give you much leeway for playing that out in an engaging way. Instead, I would recommend glancing over the options the DMG gives a player for results of downtime activity and setting out a few of those paths. 

The fighter drinking her cares away in a tavern might be rolling a daily constitution saving throw, the DC getting higher each day. Perhaps she fails after a pretty low DC, and you decide to implement a blackout streak. Have the fighter roll a perception check (at disadvantage due to drunkenness) to determine whether or not she notices the pickpocket rifling through her pockets. If she sees them, let the results flow naturally through her decisions of confronting the pickpocket or letting them go.

In social encounters with NPCs, you should really use those social rolls! Insight, Deception, Intimidation, and Persuasion are all incredibly useful tools for determining the outcome of a situation. If you slack off too much on these rolls, the players might feel you’re either going too easy on them or too hard. If they never roll Persuasion but NPCs always do what they want, they’ll start to think the game is rigged, you know? 

Similarly, if NPCs are universally hard to convince to do anything, the players can get discouraged. Adding rolls helps to balance out the DM’s desired outcome with the players’ desired outcome and throws in a dash of randomness, just like real-world scenarios.

But for a good social encounter, here’s what you need to remember: Your NPCs have needs and wants of their own. An elven bartender might appreciate a gold piece in exchange for information on his patrons, so the offer of a bribe should lower the DC to persuade him to talk. 

If the PC asking for info is acting like a real jerk, though, the DC would go up. Similarly, if the person of interest is a friend of that elven bartender, he might not want to share that personal information with armed strangers, and the DC could rise from that, too.

If an NPC is hiding something or lying, don’t roll Deception for them. It’s the players’ job to decide if they believe an NPC outright or want to do an Insight check; if they opt for the check, you can either roll Deception/Persuasion or simply set a DC for whether or not the players believe what they say. 

Furthermore, it’s no fun to just outright say whether or not an NPC is lying every time. Instead, add a little flair: on a clear success, maybe their insight is deeply complicated, but on a smaller success, the PC only can tell that the character is nervous, getting belligerent, or shifty, like there’s something they aren’t telling you.

The big thing here is to help demonstrate that actions have measurable consequences. Sure, you can set the persuasion DC really low for a friendly character, but not every NPC is friendly, and not every interaction can or should work out in the PCs’ favor. 

An NPC unconvinced by a persuasion check could ask for a special favor or higher payment in exchange for help or information, for instance, while someone who is fully convinced might even waive their need for compensation (of course, it all depends on that NPC’s needs and wants!)

#d&d #dnd #dungeons and dragons #critical role #taz #roleplay

[gem-quest]

[ QUEST 04. — I N F E R N A ]

taglist: @bebemoon​ @now-on-elissastillstands​ @armadasneon​ @mysteriousdeathofpoe​

[ A . MIDWINTER’S . NIGHT . DREAM . LEVEL . 20 ]

Inferna was with Neddy, throwing sugar cubes covered in Inferna Sauce at Jack (who had been shrunken down with a Drink Me potion), when the announcement scrolled across the sky.

<<< YOU HAVE 24 HOURS. SURVIVE TO ADVANCE. >>>

“What the fuck is that all about?” Inferna asked, pointing upwards. Neddy paused and looked up as well.

The two of them had originally gone to Level 20, A Midwinter’s Night Dream, to play with Jack in the snow-covered gardens in front of the palace (the maze was behind the palace, and those stupid fucking bitch ass snow angels flying around that place could all go eat a dick. Inferna was so tired of being pelted with snowballs as soon as she got within a ten-foot radius of them. And it was all because she wasn’t a Moonstone player!!).

The pale winter sun gleamed against the pristine snow of the level as she and Neddy started making their way towards the maze to investigate. A large, chattering crowd had formed around the entrance, blocking their view, and Inferna grabbed Neddy’s hand, waiting for her to settle a shrunken-down Jack into his basket before she viciously elbowed her way to the front, until she could see what all the fuss was about.

A sleek metal half-dome had materialized into existence. The harsh steel was a stark contrast against the delicate statues and glittering fountains lining the edges of the maze.

Inferna narrowed her eyes as she took in the scene. Items had begun shimmering into existence, beneath the dome - there were some miscellaneous food stuffs (were those the apple turnovers from the Tearoom that Inferna liked so much????), medi-elixirs, oh and was that silver dust? And even an ignitium potion? - and some players were dashing forward to snatch them up before other people could get to them. Inferna was inclined to join in (free stuff was always good. Especially free food. Those turnovers were hers!), but she held back, and turned her gaze in the direction of where 90% of the players were looking.

“What the hell?” she said, glancing over at her friend. “What are those Bigfoot-lookin’ things?”

“Abominable snowmen?” Neddy suggested, shrugging her shoulders. 

Inferna frowned. She was spared from replying by a ding! from her player-plexus, indicating a new notification. All around her, other player-plexuses were dinging as well, and Inferna quickly pulled her own out to see what this was all about.

“Yeti stats…” she muttered under her breath, quickly skimming over the message that’d popped up on her screen:

YETI STATS 

STRENGTH: 7 DEFENCE: 7 CHARISMA: 1 PSYCHE: 3 WILLPOWER: 5 CAUTIOUSNESS: 2 AGILITY: 4 ENDURANCE: 10 INTELLIGENCE: 5 LUCK: -

She looked up, and squinted. “So they’re Yetis, then,” she said to Neddy. Her player-plexus pinged again, and Inferna swiped open one of her Obsidian group chats.

Anyone in 20 rn? I heard it’s going into lockdown until tomorrow

Another ding. 

Oh dang yeah, i just tried to ictuium in, and no luck. Dont think ictuium-ing out will work either

Inferna sighed, and showed Neddy the messages. “I guess we’re shit out of luck, then,” she mused, watching the Yetis slowly get closer. “What is G doing, ripping off Fortnite? Well, I guess it’d be more like a Hunger Games rip-off, because Fortnite is just Hunger Games with guns.”

She squinted. The half-dome with randomly appearing items must have been like the Cornucopia, then. Fair enough. And the Yetis were...Yetis. 

It’s really damn annoying that the only thing we got were the stats. Nothing about what they can actually do. 

A shout rang out, from somewhere to their right. Inferna turned her head just in time to see a huge blast of icy magic slam into the roof of the palace behind them. The tiles cracked, and began tumbling downwards.

“Fucking shit!” Inferna swore. “If we make it out of this alive, I’m going to need more fake magical potion vodka from Morningstar. And, you know, just more college frat party alcohol in general. This is bull!”

Inferna ducked and began to run, pretty sure that she did not want to be buried under a pile of rubble. When she figured that she was a safe enough distance away, she stood up, scanning the crowd for Neddy’s familiar lilac hair, but her friend was nowhere in sight. 

Inferna frowned, and as she ran in the opposite direction of the Yetis, she quickly tapped out a message to Neddy: hey lmk if u want to meet back up - think i lost u just now.

After she’d retreated to the very edge of the level, a ways into the snowy forest that surrounded the palace and maze, Inferna let herself slow down and catch her breath. She leaned against the barrier of the level, which was a transparent Plexiglass-ish kind of thing that let players look out through it into the rest of the woods, but didn’t let them pass through. It shimmered with some kind of energy - magical, maybe? - where Inferna’s body made contact with it, but otherwise, it felt like a normal invisible wall.

You know. Because once you’d been inside the game for long enough, this kind of shit was the norm.

Inferna wasn’t sure that she wanted to stay in this specific spot for too long; although the Yetis weren’t supposed to be all that intelligent, she would bet her right hand that G had programmed them to traverse the entire level. Inferna wasn’t entirely certain how she would fare, against one of them - on the one hand, her own strength and defense stats were higher than those of the Yetis, meaning that she’d probably have a pretty decent chance fighting one of them head-on (especially with her added advantage of being, you know, basically the Gem Quest equivalent of a fire bender), but the Yetis had higher endurance stats than her. And, given that she was fire and they were ice, if the Yetis managed to land a blow on her, Inferna would probably be in trouble.

With that thought in mind, Inferna dragged an ignitium potion out from her inventory. If one of them did try to target her, Inferna would hit them back with the breathe-fire-from-your-mouth potion, like Uncle Iroh in ATLA. Because that guy was #goals.

Once she’d wolfed down a raspberry tartlet (fliched from the Tearoom) and taken a pull from the handle of fake magical potion vodka (okay, so it wasn’t actually a handle - just a standard large-sized potion bottle) Morningstar had given her, which tasted just like the shit Inferna knocked back with her friends in real life but was somehow made from ingredients within the game, Inferna set off again. This kind of stupid event was best done drunk, high, or both, in Inferna’s opinion. Since she didn’t actually want to get herself killed, she was just going to settle on tipsy.

(Besides. Was it just her, or did her fire-mage powers seem stronger when she was inebriated? Weird, but she’d always take an excuse to get drunk.)

The first Yeti she encountered happened to be barreling across her path in pursuit of some other player, narrowly avoiding the invisible wall. Said other player was probably smarter than Inferna and quickly disappeared into the nearby shrubbery, their dark hair and clothing providing ample cover among the trees, but Inferna was a dumbass and had chosen this exact week to pull out an H-rank cosmetic potion and dye her hair bright orange. Bright glittery orange. So the Yeti, upon turning around, immediately caught sight of her and began lumbering her way.

“Fuck this shit,” Inferna muttered under her breath, downing the ignitium potion all at once. She waited a moment for the effects to set in - and for the Yeti to get close enough - and then sprang forward.

Flames leapt out of her mouth, curling and crackling and rippling with heat, and when she noticed other Yetis coming closer, Inferna spun in a wide circle like that legendary scene of Uncle Iroh in Ba Sing Se. The Yetis, temporarily stunned, fell back with a series of angry roars, formerly-white fur now a charred black. Inferna took that as her cue to get the fuck out of there, and - after shouting a completely, totally, stupidly unnecessary “see ya later, motherfuckers!” - she zipped off into the forest, taking advantage of all the speed and agility bequeathed upon her for picking the rogue class when she first started the game.

Inferna paused to catch her breath once she’d reached the edge of the forest, stopping just behind the end of the treeline. She checked the time - it’d only been an hour - and groaned. 

“This is so stupid,” she said out loud, to the random tree on her right. “I just want to go back to the Tearoom or something and get more food. What kind of lame-ass food is there in this level, anyway? Fucking snow angel food, that’s what. Fuck those guys.”

Inferna looked around her. There was a handy-handy rock a few feet away, so she trotted over, brushed off the snow, and sat down, propping her chin up with her hand to very angrily glare at a patch of snow-dusted grass, because she wanted some pastries, dammit, but stupid fucking G and his stupid fucking devs decided to make a stupid fucking event in the coldest, stupidest level of the entire game. 

Inferna was still angrily contemplating a blade of grass when the sound of someone approaching made her look up. She had one of her flaming daggers out in an instant, just in case whoever it was wanted to try some funny business.

However, once the figure got closer, Inferna lowered the dagger. She grinned, eyes lighting up in recognition.

“Ace!” she called out, waving. 

The brunette turned, caught sight of Inferna and her glittery orange hair, and started in her direction.

“Vicky, what the hell!” she exclaimed, lightly punching her arm. “It’s been ages.”

“No kidding,” Inferna replied, still grinning from ear-to-ear. “How’ve you been? I thought you went back out.”

Ace (well, Ace of Angels technically, but Inferna didn’t care enough to call her by her full screen name, and AOA was already the kpop group. And the other Obsidian player didn’t like being called ‘Gertrude’...Inferna couldn’t blame her) shrugged, the motion jostling her scary black wings. “I took the week off, to come back in. I’ve got a good amount of relinquium potions left, so might as well try to make use of them for the Plexipedia.”

“What’s happening with the Plexipedia?” asked Inferna. “Am I still IP banned from it?”

Ace snorted. “You tried to replace the screenshots of every NPC you didn’t like with gifs of Dr. Doofenshmirtz. Among other things that I won’t even mention, right now. Yes, you’re still IP banned.”

Inferna made a face. “Jerk. Can’t even do little ol’ me a favor and use your mighty admin powers to unban me?”

Ace just rolled her eyes, and ignored her question. “What’s happening with the Plexipedia is that we’re compiling a list of players that are still trapped in here. And, on the DL, tallying up how many relinquium potions are left. Did you see? They jumped from B-rank to S-rank in, like, two months’ time. I didn’t even know that items could jump ranks.”

“G must’ve done something,” Inferna mused. “Dammit, G, controlling the economy like that. What a fucking communist.”

Ace gave Inferna an inscrutable look, her hazel eyes gleaming with something Inferna couldn’t quite place. “He’s a murderer, Vicky, that’s what he is. Don’t you know how many people have already died?”

Inferna was quiet, for a moment. “The rumors are true, then? I heard about how we couldn’t bribe Jackie anymore, and the relinquium potions. But I wasn’t sure about the, you know. Dying.”

Ace nodded. “You remember Cheshire? She was in our party, but only for like two days.”

Inferna’s mouth went dry. “She…?”

Ace’s solemn look was all the answer Inferna needed.

Inferna sat back down on her rock, heavily. “Shit,” she said, “I thought it was all just BS that people were making up to fuck with other people. I mean, I knew about the potions, but I didn’t think G would actually…”

“That’s why I come back in-game when I can get off from work. Nobody really knows anything, I think.”

Inferna was quiet for another minute. Then, she gave Ace a suspicious glance. “Is there a Plexipedia page for me, too?”

Ace laughed out loud. “Oh, boy,” she said, amused. “Yes. Yes there is. We had to clean a lot of it up - it was basically just Angie roasting the shit out of you for a hot sec. She’s never gonna let you live down the fact that you tried to make spicy Doritos out of an Everlasting Flame and some bread, you know. Or that time you tried to smoke that powder from the Descend out of a bong you made from an empty potion bottle. Or the time you tried to make a Vine reference to Finvarra in Level 10. I could go on.”

Inferna scowled and jumped to her feet, indignant. “Fuck her! Just because Lisa’s my bias instead of Rosé doesn’t mean she gets to fucking harass me like that. I mean, I never said Rosé was bad; I’m a goddamn Blink too! When you go back out, you tell her to fuck right on off, you hear me????”

Ace smiled wryly. “Alright. Jeez, chill out. It’s not like you don’t give Angie shit, either,” she pointed out. 

Ace’s player-plexus pinged, and Inferna stayed quiet, letting her check her messages.

When Ace next looked up, she was frowning. “I’m going to head out. Elaine’s with me - she found one of the leads we’d been following.” She paused, and glanced up at the sky. “I guess we’ll be stuck in here until tomorrow at 12, huh? But we’re usually pretty busy, so I’m sorry we can’t stop and chat with you.”

It took Inferna a moment to remember who Elaine was. “You mean the girl who tried to make me a Reveluv?”

Ace nodded. “Yep, she’s Drakla on here. And speaking of Red Velvet, they have a new comeback, by the way. It’s a red one.”

Inferna grimaced. “Aw. I like their velvet side better, but I’ll always stan anything they do.” 

Just then, a thought occurred to her. Inferna hesitated, but said, “Hey, Ace - tell my parents I’m alright, okay? When you get back out.”

Ace nodded, again. “Sure. You want me to email them, or something?”

“Yeah. Yeah, that works. You’ve got your headset on record mode, right? My mom’s email is Jenny-underscore-Chang-underscore-65, at yahoo.com. Just...just tell them, you know, that I’m fine.”

Ace gave her a small smile. “I can do that,” she said, her wings shifting as she prepared to take flight - presumably, to find Drakla/Elaine. “Do you just want a potion? To leave?”

Inferna shook her head. “No, give it to someone who actually needs it.” And someone who actually wants it. Inferna knew she’d have to go and confront her real life at some point - AKA applying for jobs in an industry she didn’t give two shits about, and sleeping through boring lectures about Ruby or C++ or whatever, and spending all her free time debugging her stupid fucking code - but right now, she just wanted to have fun while she still could.

“Sure thing. Don’t die, okay? We’re all still waiting on you to go to a Blackpink concert with us. Their Kill This Love World Tour stages have looked awesome, from what I’ve seen on YouTube.”

Inferna gave Ace a two-fingered salute. “Nothing’ll keep me from my wife Lalisa Manoban. Tell Angie she’s a bitch for me.”

Ace rolled her eyes one final time before she took off in a flurry of black feathers and swirls of shimmering silver light, leaving Inferna alone in the forest.

Inferna pulled her player-plexus out again. She wanted to find Neddy, and she wanted to find food.

#q4 #writing #inferna #inferna story #vicky #obsidian #i have v little planned for inferna for after the ace convo #besides meeting back up with neddy #so if anyone has ideas for our chars to do stuff in this event - hmu! #sorry for constantly spamming posts i havent left the house in a week and this is what it's come to lmao

[jq37]

thoughts on this week's ep?

**spoilers for broadway brawl**

***Before we start, I remembered as I was typing this one of the important notes I lost from last week’s recap: Interesting that Christmas seemingly went off without a hitch. I expected Santa to come back into play somehow (like, someone would check on him to make sure Christmas was still on or he’d call them in to help or something) but he hasn’t, at least not yet.***

My guys, my guys, my guys. Was that something or was that something?

I think I am on record as saying that combat is my least favorite part of ttrpgs generally speaking because I’m here for the RP but when a combat episode shines it really freaking shines (see eg: that first combat ep of Bloodkeep where everyone went full Galaxy Brain except for Matt who couldn’t hit a single thing) and this is such a good example. This is easily a top five ep of the season for me, maybe top three so let’s get into it and break down why it was so awesome.

We start right where we left off with Titania and members of her court having come into the theater to beat the tar out of Misty mid-show.

Quick note: At the end of last ep, it was set up so that Misty was thrust on stage right after hearing the mirror was on stage which would place this fight right at the top of Act 2 but at the start of this ep, Brennan seems to indicate that it’s taking place during what would be the closing number. Which would make more sense but imagine you go see a play, the first act is super dope, and then the second act is an insane, minute long fight that’s pretty unconnected to the plot and then a buff, naked, beautiful man tells you the show is over and you should leave. Wild. Anyway.

Pixies with tommy guns in inherently funny.

So one of the things that makes this fight really great is the way it directly ties into the story in a way besides “These bad guys are in our way.” Misty is using this show as a part of her reincarnation spell so if the show is messed up, it fails and she’s on her last life. Brennan has a cool mechanic of making her roll death saves every round at a difficulty lower than her modifier (which is s/t crazy like 11) but that gets harder with damage done to her and performance checks failed by other players who decide to jump on stage. It’s a great way to make the battle feel like it has more personal stakes and it’s my fave original Brennan mechanic since the Family in Flames Sophie’s Choice situation.

(I love that the death save counter is changed for theater comedy/tragedy masks for this. Nice touch.)

Em, Esther, and Wally are also at the fight which is clutch.

Also, Sondheim is specifically here which is an insane detail to add just because.

WILD that no one knows what’s going on with the ritual initially because, as Lou almost does, getting all the civilians out is the smart move and it would COMPLETELY ruin Misty’s plans instantly.

Lou having Kingston take the stairs bc’s he’s 50+ years old and has no time for that nonsense has equal but opposite energy to him doing extra rolls for Fabian to do unnecessary parkour before a simple attack because Fabian’s Like That.

Murph fireblasts the hell out of Titania’s foot soldiers right off the bat from outside of counterspell range which is very cool.

“Give me a performance check for the cockroach.”

“You’re upstaging me bitch?”

Another great thing about this fight is that because of it’s theatrical nature, everyone’s RPing it more than a usual battle ep (or more intensely maybe is what I mean).

Titania hypnotizes Don Confetti and his goons into fighting for her.

“She doesn’t know she’s in a play but she does sing most of her dialogue which is helpful for you.” Titania is just Like That.

Pete drops an erupting earth and drops a sick 37 damage on those same minions Kug got.

I didn’t notice before but yeah, Ally does roll die like a f-ing beyblade champion.

Emily hearing Murph’s low key, offhand comments and cracking up is great.

“Get Sondheim!” (Emily and then Ally: WHAT?!)

Actual living dude Stephen Sondheim being involved in this fight is just so ridiculous and fun and crazy.

We go around to Misty’s turn and she has to beat a 28 (upped from 10) and she fails which feels worse than a normal failed death save somehow.

Lou, in a very good RP move, tells Pete to tell Misty to end the show so she can tell them not to so the group has a valid reason to not evacuate which is a thing they (or at least him and Ricky) would obviously want to do.

Sophie, the madwoman, jumps out of the balcony, grabs a costume, then runs on stage. Emily’s glee at being told that her grabbing the costume will give her advantage is great. She’s always trying to figure out how to make the most of her moves. She is the living embodiment of the concept of method to madness (which is from Hamlet since we’re talking Shakespeare today). 

Ox is constantly dying (Brennan!) but also it’s like, why was he even there before the fight started? I’ve never seen a non-service dog in a theater.

Ricky: Is this part of it?

Oh, forgot to mention that everything that happens on stage is kinda shielded by the Umbral Arcana so everyone watching thinks it’s part of the show, which is a cool plot detail.

Ricky gets fULLY NAKED (Emily, with perfect comic timing: Now do I roll with disadvantage?) and leaps into the fray. He casts Protection from Evil and Good on her which (1) He does by Magic Mike body-rolling on her while he’s naked and considering how much shorter she is that her raises some interesting questions about positioning and (2) is the most clutch use of this spell I’ve seen in a while. It’s a spell I always wanna take as a Paladin because it makes sense character-wise, but I’ve never been able to actually use it because we’re never fighting fiends, fae, or celestial.

Brennan’s dime change change reversal of the critic’s comments on Ricky’s body rolls when Zac re-rolls his 11 makes me glad I never had to face him in a debate team setting.

Ally: What’s Esther’s deal ;)/Brennan: *Esther’s Weapon Stats*

“Your only secret you’ve ever had in your life is that you have a crush on her.”

Wally has a beautiful singing voice and a working knowledge of Midsummer's which is wild.

Lou’s periodic, “My man”’s when Ally/Pete does something cool. He’s very dialed into being Kingston.

Ricky’s aura keeps everyone near him from being charmed and Misty saves everyone else w/ a nat 20 counterspell. Few things in D&D are more satisfying than a well executed counterspell.

Titania trying to get Pete to be her consort or something when he just over the super posh Priya is very funny.

“I mean between me and Sondheim, get Sondheim!”

“DO WE HAVE HOMEWORK TONIGHT?” (“We did have homework.”)

Anyway, Misty has one success now!

Misty tries to use puppet to get Titania to drop her crown and it doesn’t work. Brennan says the crown is Crown of Stars which I looked up and it’s actually a spell, not a physical crown, but I’m assuming he used the mechanical effects of the spell on a physical item.

Brennan doing all these musical/singing bits when he absolutely doesn’t have to. I love it.

I love Ricky and Sophie being the two martial fighting heavy hitters of the group. Like, the two fighters, having the spellcasters’ backs.

I hope the one kung fu fan in the back of the theater never sees another Broadway show again because he’s gonna be so disappointed. 

“I’m just so inspired by that beautiful penis.”

Murph, out of character, verbally acknowledging how insane what they’re doing is. I love when someone pauses in a game of D&D to just recite what’s currently happening out of context so everyone can appreciate how crazy it is. D&D. Gotta love it..

Emily and Siobhan have a quick conversation in the background about whether Sondheim did Les Mis or not (not, that’s Claude-Michel Schönberg) while Brennan and Murph are Ring nonsense.

I also was mildly suspicious of Alyssa so I’m glad Kingston checked her out.

The entire roast of Brennan when he’s selecting D6s is an instantly iconic D20 moment. I can’t do it justice. You kinda just have to see it.

“Someone call Wizards of the Coast!”

Em, Wally, and Alyssa go out when Titania puts out a huge spell that blinds Kug.

“Yummy, yummy, tastes like ass.”

On Misty’s next turn, she rolls a fail which makes it 2 failures to 1 success. Brennan mentions that a nat 1 counts as 2 failures and a nat 20 counts as 2 successes. I’m sure that won’t be relevant later because you can’t foreshadow things when dice rolls are completely random.

Misty fails on puppet again again and Titania goes full Wicked Witch of the West on her and starts Jonesing for those shoessss.

Emily’s Emily(tm) move of the session is doing a flying leap at Titania, hitting her with a stunning strike and having Brennan retract the Box off Doom he was pulling out because she can’t save when she’s stunned. She just plummets out of the sky.

Don Confetti respecting the sacrament of marriage as he goes full Opera ghost and tries to garrote Sophie.

Ricky (still naked) grabs the crown from Titania, tosses it to Misty, and, with some improv and a good charisma roll, makes the show suddenly make sense to the very confused but entertained audience.

I’m so glad that Murph decided to turn into a bear and that they made the Winter’s tale ref. I should have had faith in Brennan and Siobhan, the theater nerds. Exit pursued by a bear y’all.

Lou and Emily bonding over being proud of their die for rolling well when they lend it out for a big roll.

Really wish Pete had wild magic surged in this fight. Just to add that extra bit of chaos. 

With a very good turn (no damage taken, no performances failed) Misty only has to avoid snake eyes to get through this turn. She leapfrogs over that low bar and rolls a nat 20, instantly fulfilling her win condition. At this point, the play is superfluous and Titania is still down.

“Brennan lost and now he knows reddit is gonna eat his ass.”

OK, remember how I said earlier that Misty seems like the kind of character you nudge a little temptation at just to spice things up? Yeah, her killing Titania and getting the crown of the Seelie Fae makes me a liiiitle apprehensive, but we’ll see how that turns out.

“I killed my queen! This is America we don’t have royalty here.”

“Bear, I don’t know who you are, but take me on your back, let me ride on stage.” —creator of West Side Story, Stephen Sondheim

Misty charms the critic at the show to make sure they get a good review which is such a fae thing to do.

Kingston’s clearly not loving attacking Don and Co. post “real fight” what with his whole Do No Harm thing (well, that’s Dr’s but same principle applies I assume) is a good character detail. For that matter, so is Ricky just taking Titania’s crown and not beheading her which he super could have done while she was down but it would have been very incongruous with everything else about him.

Brian “This isn’t Loony Tunes” Murphy throws Sondheim as a projectile weapon at a pixie who snaps the pixie’s neck and then does a monologue at the audience.

I love it when someone rolls low on an insight check and Brennan gives them useless info and then they repeat it in their character’s voice.

4 mins from the end of the ep, Siobhan realizes there are two Perrys in this story for the first time and has a bigger reaction to that than almost everything else in this ep except her nat 20.

Ricky looks for costume faun legs to cover his fully out dick instead of costume pants or even his own pants.

Misty starts glowing with reincarnation energy and she runs into her dressing room for privacy. Also, she still super hasn’t told anyone what’s going on. (ALSO, assuming she’s gonna make the world think she died, it’s gonna be wild for the company of the show to have their leading lady put on the performance of her life and then die on opening night).

“Who am I to refuse a crown when it’s placed so deftly upon my head?”

You know that behind the scenes thing where Brennan is like, “Yeah, I knew Siobhan was gonna steal that book,”? I got some of those vibes during the crown scene.

The implications of what Misty did are gonna be left until next ep but Brennan says something about her creating her own court and it looks like she’s recruiting followers in the promo. IDK how I feel about that (these stories tend to have great power--especially tied to powerful magical items--as a corrupting force) but I am very excited to see how it goes down! See you then!

#the unsleeping city #dimension 20 #asks #galfast

[6qubed]

The Tale of Bluesummer; or That Time I Accidentally Turned My Morrowind Character Into A God

(yes I named my Breton in Morrowind after Legato Bluesummer from Trigun. it was 2004 and I was a teenager, get off me)

this whole post, which ended up running longer than I expected, is dedicated to @quinzelade, who is the one who asked about it.

I’m gonna warn you up front that attempting to replicate what I did will fundamentally alter the way you play the game, assuming they never released a patch or something after the fact. you’ve been warned

okay, so

somewhere in the game (I forget where, exactly. balmora? I dunno) is a place called Wolverine Hall. in there is a guy who sells alchemy ingredients.

what’s important about this guy is that 1.) he sells the two ingredients you need to make a “Fortify Intelligence” potion (henceforth “F.I. potion” for convenience), and 2.) those ingredients restock every time you initiate a transaction with him. not every day, every dialogue. talk to him, buy ingredients, stop talking, talk to him again, more ingredients to buy

side note: I almost said “ingredience”. fuck this website

now because this isn’t Skyrim, you can basically make potions wherever you’re currently standing as long as you at least have a mortar and pestle (there’s other alchemy gear you can use to make your potions stronger, but you don’t strictly speaking need them. maybe. I think. it’s been a while) so you can just stand right next to this guy brewing F.I. potions, buying ingredients from him when you run low, and selling him excess potions you just made from the ingredients to cover the costs

now here’s where things get... mechanical. Morrowind’s skills are each tied to an attribute like Strength, Intelligence, Endurance, and so on. Alchemy is tied to Intelligence. and because this isn’t Oblivion and they hadn’t thought to curtail this nonsense from the jump, if you make an F.I. potion, drink it, and then make another one, the next F.I. potion will have a greater affect, both in terms of numerical increase and duration. you will be smarter, and for longer, and most important of all, there is no upward limit to this

SO

after boosting my Intelligence to Somewhere Roughly Up in the Billions (henceforth “SRUB”), I tried making potions to boost my other stats. Strength was an obvious first choice, as it not only covers carry weight, but also attack damage and, for whatever reason, chance to hit. I also boosted my Agility, Charisma and Endurance, so now nothing could hit me, I could ace any persuasion attempt, and I had functionally unlimited stamina. thus augmented, my next course of action was to stride out into the wilderness and test my new capabilities.

and that’s exactly what the hell I did. looking for the first wild animal to fight, eventually I run across a guar, I take out my trust daedric katana with a custom Soul Trap enchantment (because this game had katanas for some reason so of course I had one; I named my Breton after an anime character what the fuck do you expect), and I attack the guar. it dies in one hit, it’s soul gets trapped... and now I’m looking at my empty hands instead of my sword. puzzled, I punch the air a few times thinking that will bring my katana back, then I actually go into my inventory and look for it. well sure enough there it is, but I can’t equip it because it’s broken. it’s a little weird that it would be broken, because as a daedric weapon it has like 5000 hp. well, I have a repair hammer on me and Armorer is governed by the Strength attribute, and I have SRUB Strength, so no worries. I repair my katana, find another monster, and attack it. I honestly don’t remember what it was, it could’ve been a skrib, it could’ve been a golden saint, it’s really not important. what is important, is that it died in one hit as well, and my daedric katana with 5000-ish hp broke again. in one hit.

here I will divert from the story to explain another mechanic from the Elder Scrolls that they did away with; breakable equipment. see, this was back when Bethesda still thought that having equipment that got shittier the more you used it was a good idea, a delusion they would carry into TES Oblivion and both Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas. the way this worked in the Elder Scrolls games specifically was that every time you took a hit your armor would get damaged, and every time you would land a hit on an opponent with a weapon, the game would inflict a fraction of that damage to your weapon as well. this was one of the appeals of stronger weapons; not only did they do more damage per hit, but they also were able to dish out more hits before needing repairs. steel was stronger than iron, elvish was stronger than steel, daedric was stronger than dwemer, you understand. I didn’t just have a daedric katana for Cool Points, I had it because not only was it a strong weapon, but it could also go a long time between repairs. and if you’ve been paying more attention than I was back then, you may have noticed The Problem.

see, weapon damage is governed by that weapon’s skill, in this case Long Blades. the Long Blades skill is in turn governed by the Strength attribute, and I had SRUB Strength, in a game that maxed out your base skill and attribute growth at 100 each. every time I landed a hit on something I was doing SRUB damage, and a fraction of SRUB damage was also being done to my weapon. since even a fraction of SRUB damage is still way more than anything the developers of the game ever designed the weapons to handle, even the weapons wrought from the very essence of Hell itself were buckling under the weight of the blows I was dealing. furthermore, since repair hammers have about ten uses before they broke (SERIOUSLY WHY DID BETHESDA THINK THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA) it was taking at least one full hammer to repair my katana every time I broke it, which was quickly becoming A Hassle.

at this point I decided “okay, I’ve had my fun, time to bring this silliness to an end” and decided to reload from a save, but here is where I encountered A New Problem: see, Morrowind didn’t have autosaves, no game really did at this point in history, but what it did have was King Fool of Dummy Mountain playing it, for whom the concept of “multiple save files” was an alien and terrifying thing that one just didn’t bother with. there was no easy way to undo the potions’ effects. I couldn’t dispel them, because it was a potion effect and not magic, and the only other option was to wait them out.

so that is what I tried. I found an inn somewhere, possibly Vivec City or maybe some random rathole of a place out in the middle of nowhere, paid whatever the cost was, jumped into bed and tried to sleep the potions effects off, twenty-four hours at a time. one day, then two. then a week, a month, two months. a year. a year and a half spent in a random bed in a random inn, and still the effects persisted. here was Another Problem; the F.I. potions’ duration was also affected by Intelligence, and I had made and consumed several potions with at least a few million seconds duration on them, and at least one that would last SRUB seconds. I could stay in this bed, doing nothing but sleeping one day at a time, for over a week in real-world time, before this potion even reached half of its maximum duration. I was, for all intents and purposes, Stuck Like This.

so now began the search for workarounds. my first thought was the Unarmed skill; if I just didn’t use a weapon, it wouldn’t break, right? the problem here was that Unarmed was governed by your Speed skill. yes, you had both a Speed and an Agility attribute, and they did different things. but Speed also affected how fast your character could move around in the game world, and giving my character SRUB Speed proved disastrous; the game, you see, was only designed to handle a maximum Speed of 100, maybe more if you boosted it with temporary effects. at least once in a dungeon I ran so fast that I clipped through the walls and ended up floating in an infinite plane of water that apparently served as the water at the lower points of the level. I was not, mercifully, Stuck Like This, because while I was still King Fool of Dummy Mountain I was at least smart enough not to repeat all of my past mistakes, and had thought to save my game before trying this nonsense.

so Unarmed was out. that meant if I couldn’t count on one unbreakable weapon, I’d have to make so with numerous single-use ones. Archery was no good, because the bows were breakable, and thrown weapons were finicky at best, and more importantly I couldn’t get them back if I used them up. I then hit upon the idea of daggers, and set about traveling over Morrowind, finding every merchant I could that sold weapons and buying up every silver dagger or enchanted dagger of cheap material I could find. this was important, because I wanted a way to fight ghosts and other immaterial enemies, who could only be hit by silver or enchanted weapons. or daedric, but for reasons I covered previously those were no use to me. I then developed a fighting style wherein I became adept at fast-equipping weapons mid-combat, allowing me to stab one enemy, then quickly pull out another dagger and use that to kill the next. this also led to one particularly memorable encounter where in my explorations I stumbled across a shrine adorned with six skulls, each with an enchanted dagger stuck in them, and without hesitation I grabbed all six, only to turn around and see a group of six very pissed off ancestor ghosts, whom were no doubt bound to those skulls by the daggers I had just removed. as luck would have it, however, I had just the right amount of daggers to handle this fight. convenient, that

well that covered melee combat, but still left the issue of Magic. being a magic user was less of a tricky issue, since with SRUB Intelligence and SRUB Wisdom came functionally unlimited Mana, so I could cast any spell I wanted without fear of miscasting, because giving spells a chance to fail a casting depending on your skill with that spell’s magical school was another one of those brilliant ideas Bethesda had on the same day they came up with breakable equipment.

since money was no longer an issue, I visited a Mages Guild and crafted a few custom spells for myself. nothing complicated, just a ranged damage spell of some kind with maximum damage over maximum duration with maximum area of effect (and Paralyze and Soul Trap, because why not) and one or two spells that boosted my Speed and Athletics sklll so that even though I couldn’t boost it via Alchemy without disaster, I could still run around fairly quickly, which was handy because fast-travel hadn’t been invented yet, and I was now using my Mark and Recall spells solely to visit the secret scamp merchant that had 5000 gold for buying things, as it was now the only merchant in the game that could handle the monetary value of the goods I had to sell, and even that required a fair bit of back-and-forth juggling with the items that I had sold it previously, especially excess potions

it was here that I finally found A Weakness in my character; my health points. I had up until now coasted by on my ability to dodge any attack and one-shot any opponent; at this point I wasn’t even bothering with wearing a full set of armor or even (being a puerile thing at heart) most clothes. I had some greaves, a mismatched arrangement of gauntlets and pauldrons, and that was it.

but that changed the first time I encountered an enemy capable of Reflecting my own magic back at me. see, I thought that giving myself SRUB Endurance would confer SRUB HP when I first took that potion, but it never happened. and since maximum HP gained through leveling up is calculated from base Endurance, SRUB HP simply wasn’t in the cards. well that was easy enough to rectify, first by going back to the Mages Guild and crafting a spell that both boosted maximum HP and healed the maximum amount, both for maximum duration, as well as crafting a magic ring that could send out some (comparatively) weak bolts of damage, and recharge itself over time

at the end of it, even with all the searching for workarounds to my... condition, the actual game became fairly easy. the “final bosses” of the DLCs, daedric princes and even deity figures proved almost comically nonthreatening, because at the end of it they were all still playing by rules to which I was no longer bound. really the only thing keeping me from beating the game was the fact that my XBox and all my games for it got stolen.

so I guess the moral of this story, if there is one to be had, is when you’re planning to do something stupid, save first or prepare for it being irreversible

that, and don’t bring anything to Job Corps that you wouldn’t mind getting stolen

#sixpost #long post #TES #Morrowind #have I told this story before? #not sure but it feels like I have #ah well why not one more time #it's a fun story to tell

[creativerogues]

Trying To Solve The “Problem” Of The DMPC...

I didn’t realise how much DMPCs can disrupt the Party, I’ve heard tales of the DM making their own Character (or a DMPC = Dungeon Master Player Character) that just so happens to be incredibly overpowered for some unknown reason, and immediately becomes the main protagonist of the adventure, completely ignoring the other people around the table.

I’ve made my own DMPCs before and they’ve always been core members of the party, without being the main protagonist or just the most powerful person around the table, they never steal the show...

And most of all, the Players never complained, they actually loved my DMPCs and would treat them like I was just another player.

Maybe this is just a trust between the Players and I, or maybe it’s because most of my DMPCs are useful (and 99% of the time they’re Bards), but they’ve always been... you know... cool!

But after talking to some old friends over lunch, I found that a lot of the time, the DMPC always seems to have the best stats, the most hit points and the highest armour class, always critting on their attacks and seemingly just... un-killabble...

So I’ve made a few tips (and/or rules) that you could consider when making a DMPC for you game.

And before we get to these neat little homebrewed rulings, remember to always talk to your Players about the possibility of using a DMPC in your game, don’t just spring it upon them, unless your Players have trust in you that you won’t make Sir Guy the Cool...

My Own DMPC Rules.

It’s the Party VS The Monsters!

REMEMBER THIS! Seriously! Don’t just make a DMPC to keep the Party alive and well, don’t just make one to give them advice and railroad them into the next adventure, make a DMPC that works with the Party, that follows the Party’s decisions...

A pretty ok example from my home game was a DMPC Kobold, who listened to anyone bigger or stronger than him (which meant everyone in the party, because this Kobold has 4 foot tall), and this allowed the Players to make their own decisions without me going “but what about this!”. Though when the Players where in an obvious struggle, I would have my DMPC ask questions to the party.

And by asking questions rather than simply telling the party, the party comes to their own conclusions, and they would (most of the time) find the right answer...

The DMPC must always be at least 1 Level Lower than the Lowest Level Character in the Party...

This is something I came up with to stop the “Invincible DMPC”.

By being at least 1 Level lower than the lowest Level Character in the Party, it stops the DM from creating a Superhero Character for what could be just a simple, low-level adventuring party.

For example, the Party consists of a level 4 Paladin, a level 4 Rogue and a level 3 Barbarian, so your DMPC would be level 2 in terms of determining their level in a Character Class, making them at least 1 level lower than the lowest level Character in the Party, the Level 3 Barbarian...

The DMPC Cannot Have An Ability Score Above 18...

Again, this is to stop the“Invincible DMPC” Archetype, since every DMPC just happens to have a 20 in Strength, and a 20 in Dexterity, and a 20 in Constitution and Intelligence and Wisdom and Charisma... At level 2!

This is a rule to stop this and restrict the DMPC’s power. Simple as that!

Another idea is that the DMPC never has 2 or more ability scores above 19. So your Fighter can still have 19 Strength and 19 Dexterity, but the rest have to be less than a +4 modifier.

(This doesn’t mean all your other scores can be a 17 though, ok!?)

The DMPC cannot gain Magical Items before a Party Member...

Another thing I’ve learned is that the DMPC always happens to have the most useful and powerful magic items.

With this little homebrew rule, every member of the Party must gain a magic item before the DMPC can, simple to stop the DMPC from getting too many magic items too quickly.

Let your DMPC mess up! (Just not too much...)

This one’s another big one. Let your DMPC get things wrong, come to the wrong conclusions, let them feel... human. (Or elvish or dwarven or whatever race...)

Give your DMPC a flaw, make them imperfect and odd.

Maybe your Tortle DMPC has a 8 (-1) Dexterity to show their age or the fact that they’re a turtle-person and are naturally slow...

Maybe your Elven DMPC doesn’t like Humans, or Dwarves, or Whatever.

Allow your DMPC to have a Flaw and try to amplify it, but not too much that the other Players become irritated.

That’s another tip, don’t let your DMPC be the only one to fail that crucial Stealth Check and cause that unnecessary Combat Encounter that the rest of the Table didn’t want.

Don’t let your DMPC fail if that means the rest of the Party would be very annoyed at you.

For example, don’t let your DMPC be the only one to get caught snooping around, though feel free to cause comedy and hilarity if they do fail through something like a Natural 1 while another Party Member also fails, because if you fail together, your friendship grows stronger afterwards...

Or it’s a TPK and you all die and it’s all the DM’s fault...

As you can probably see, a lot of this is to stop or restrict the power-hungry DMPC, and I know that while this is a problem with DMPCs, it’s not the only problem, and you may never end up even using these tips and rules.

But what are your thoughts on the Dungeon Master having their own Character?

I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts and ideas, because I’ve never really encountered this issue often enough to make it a “Thing”.

#dmpc #dnd 5e homebrew #DnD 5e

[grailfinders]

Fate & Phantasms #118: Ozymandias

Today on Fate and Phantasms we're making one of the greatest pharaohs of all time, Ozymandias, a.k.a. Ramses II! You got sunpower, you got tombs, and you got sphinxes. You've got so many sphinxes.

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

Next up: Naaaaaaaants ingonyamaaaaaaaaa bagithi Baba!

Race and Background

You're a very shiny half god, but you don't fly, so that narrows down our options to the Scourge Aasimar. This gives you +1 Wisdom and +2 Dexterity (thanks to Tasha's). You also get some Darkvision for your trouble, Celestial Resistance to radiant and necrotic damage, Healing Hands for some Imperial Privilege off the bat, and the Light cantrip, because you won't have enough of that by the end of this build.

Like many servants before you, calling you a Noble is a bit of an understatement. However, that's the closest we can get to living god, and it gives you History and Persuasion proficiencies.

Ability Scores

Make sure your Wisdom's high, we use it a lot and being a wise king is a pretty good gig. Following that is Dexterity, because you're definitely not wearing armor but you're also not dead. I mean all servants are dead, but... anyway. After that is Charisma, you literally light up the room when you walk in.  Constitution is next, gods aren't easy to kill after all. Your Intelligence is going to have to be a bit low. I have my doubts about the ancient Egyptian education system, but you are smart enough to drink your Respect Women Juice, so I'm not going to dump it. That leaves your Strength as the odd man out. I know you've got abs, but we'll be getting our punching power from dexterity anyway, so it'll work itself out.

Class Levels

1. Cleric 1: This is almost cheating. You're literally a god already, so I guess you can believe in yourself. As a Light cleric, you can cast and prepare Spells using your Wisdom. You also get a Warding Flare that you can use as a reaction, imposing disadvantage on a creature attacking you. Assuming they use their eyes to see, of course. You can use this a number of times per long rest equal to your Wisdom modifier.

You also get plenty of spells- all your spellcasting classes here have preparation, so you don't have to fret too much about grabbing the right ones. You'll be switching them up daily anyway. That being said, here you get Guidance to hear the voice of... yourself... telling someone the right way to do something, adding a d4 to an ability check. You also get Word of Radiance and Sacred Flame for some easy radiant damage.

Since you're a light cleric, you can add Burning Hands and Faerie Fire to your spell list for free for some hot and not hot light respectively. If you're still looking for more stuff to cast, Bless gives you a longer lasting form of Guidance for when you need to inspire your party with tales of your wife, Command lets you put the fear of You into someone so they'll do what you say, and Inflict Wounds is a really good magical damage dealer. It's not radiant damage, but you'll have plenty of that already.

Finally, your proficiencies: Wisdom and Charisma saving throws, as well as Religion and Insight. Being god comes with a lot of perks, especially the fact that you're never wrong about your doctrine.

2. Monk 1: We're popping into monk early because waiting any longer for your shirtless scene would be a literal crime. At first level, you get Unarmored Defense, giving you an AC based on your wisdom as well as your dexterity. You also get Martial Arts, making your minimum damage with your fists, a shortsword, or a simple weapon a d4, letting you substitute dexterity for strength, and allowing you to make an unarmed attack as a bonus action after you attack with your action. Few deserve the honor of your touch, but by You you'll give it to them. You're generous like that.

3. Cleric 2: As a second level cleric you can Channel your Divinity once per short rest, either Turning Undead by forcing them to make a wisdom save with a DC of 8 plus your proficiency plus your wisdom modifier, which if they fail, they have to run away until the effect ends or they take damage. The more you option, however, is the Radiance of the Dawn, which you use as an action to banish darkness within 30' of you and deal radiant damage to creatures that fail their constitution saves in that area.

Speaking of radiant damage, your Radiant Consumption kicks in at this level- spend a bonus action to transform into a lightbulb that shines light for 20 feet, and each creature within 10 feet (including you) takes radiant damage equal to half your level at the end of each turn. You can also add more radiant damage to an attack or spell once per turn, which is equal to your level. You can use this once per long rest.

4. Cleric 3: At  third level you get second level spells. Your freebies are Flaming Sphere and Scorching Ray, which technically aren’t radiant damage, but the sun’s made of fire too, so I guess it gets a pass. You can also prepare spells like Augury for a bit of Clairvoyance.

5. Monk 2: With some basic spells down, let’s get more sunpower. In a bit. While we’re here, you get some Ki that you can spend to dash, disengage, attack twice, or dodge as a bonus action. You get a number of ki points per short rest equal to your monk level. You also get Unarmored Movement, letting you move an extra 10 feet when not wearing armor.

6. Monk 3: Yeah, this subclass probably isn’t a surprise either. As a Sun Soul monk,  you can throw Radiant Sun Bolts as part of your attack action. These bolts have a range of 30 feet, and use your dexterity to attack. If you use the sun bolt as part of your attack action, you can also spend a ki point to use it twice with your bonus action.

7. Druid 1: This has been pretty obvious so far. Let’s shake things up a bit with a weirder class to take. If you want a canon explanation for this class, the Egyptian pantheon was all about that human/animal duality, but the real reason we’re here is simple. Making sphinxes? High level magic. Making tombs? High level magic. Only Druids (and Bards, technically) can summon animals big enough to be a sphinx and use Mirage Arcane at the same time, so we gotta put some levels in this class. (Though now that I think about it, you do really like to tell stories about your wife... maybe bard isn’t that far-fetched...)

Anyway, first level druids can write in Druidic, a language only druids know. It might as well be hieroglyphs for all your party knows. You can also cast and prepare another list of Spells, which also uses Wisdom. We’ve learned since the Babbage build.

Most of the good Ramses-y spells that you get as a druid you also get as a cleric, but you still get a couple cantrips! Grab Resistance to complement your Guidance, and Druidcraft, so you can make a little sun when it’s already sunny out. You can also use Beast Bond now, because you’re not just a king, you’re a god. That means everything answers to you.

8. Druid 2: Second level druids can use their Wild Shape as an action twice per long rest to turn into a beast that can’t swim or fly of CR 1/2 or lower. You never see Ozymandias turn into an animal in FGO, but you never see him say he can’t either. 

I’ll level with you here: None of the druid subclasses really jive with being Ozymandias well. Desert Land druids don’t give us any spells that fit you, you don’t turn into animals enough for moon, you’re not Nitocris, so Spores is right out... That being said, you have your support niche, and better sphinxes are always good, so why not be a Shepherd druid? As a shepherd, you know the Speech of the Woods, giving you knowledge about Sylvan, as well as the ability to Talk to Animals. So that one level 1 druid spell we wanted is already obsolete.

Once per short rest, you can also summon a Spirit Totem like, say, a big celestial sphinx, that appears for a minute, and creates an aura for 30 feet around it. You can move it up to 60′ as a bonus action.

The totem has three auras you can choose from when you make it, but you can flavor the animals as anything you want. The Bear aura gives creatures in the aura on its creation temporary hp, and allies have advantage on strength checks and saves while in the aura. The Hawk aura uses your reaction to give advantage to an attack that targets something in the aura. Allies also get advantage on perception checks in the aura. Finally, the Unicorn aura gives advantage on detecting creatures in the aura (which feels like it’s stepping on the hawks toes a bit), and if you heal a creature with a spell, you can also heal any creatures in the aura as well. I don’t think your DM will let you call all of those sphinx auras, but I’m sure you can find other animals to call them.

9. Druid 3: Third level druids get second level spells, and fortunately this is the last level you have to worry about overlapping with cleric stuff. Use Continual Flame for some light, Moonbeam for painful light, and continue that support theme with Enhance Ability, doling out your imperial privilege to anyone you deem worthy to give them advantage on one kind of skill check.

10. Druid 4: Fourth level druids get a Wild Shape Improvement, letting you swim and turn into creatures of CR 1 or lower. You also finally get your first Ability Score Improvement, which is going straight in to Wisdom for better spells and a higher AC. Speaking of, you can now cast Shillelagh on your staff to make it a bit stronger and magical, no concentration required.

11. Druid 5: Things start getting spicy when you get your third level druid spells. Specifically, you can summon your Sphinx Awlad now with Conjure Animals! We’re using the stat block of the Nyxborn Lynx here to represent them- you can find the whole thing on the character sheet in case you don’t have a copy of Mythic Odysseys of Theros to thumb through. You can also cast Daylight, in case you wanted to make some sunlight in this ostensibly sunlight themed build.

12. Druid 6: As a shepherd druid, you are now a Mighty Summoner, giving your Awlads an extra 2 hp per hit die when you summon them. Which is great, because Nitocris would flay you if she found out what you were using these cubs for. If she could work up the nerve, at least. Still, keeping them alive is a good idea. Their attacks also count as magical for overcoming resistance.

13. Druid 7: There aren’t many fourth level spells we really want, but you could get Dominate Beast to further assert your dominance over everything, Freedom of Movement to show you can’t be held by mortal means, and Divination for more divine wisdom.

14. Druid 8: With another Wild Shape Improvement, you no longer have any limitations on your wild shape besides being CR 2 or lower. You also get another ASI, which will max out your Wisdom. 

15. Druid 9: Ninth level druids get fifth level spells- again there’s not much that’s super in character, maybe get Wall of Stone to start building your tomb and Reincarnate to prepare yourself for the next life.

16. Druid 10: Tenth level shepherds can create a Guardian Spirit out of your Totem, healing any beasts or fey you’ve summoned if they end their turn in the totem’s aura.

You can also Control Flames as a cantrip now. It’s a light source and we’re running out of good cantrips.

17. Druid 11: Sixth level spells are where you really start to shine- literally, in the case of Sunbeam, which deals plenty of radiant damage. You can also use Bones of the Earth to begin construction of your tomb in earnest (and squashing any troublemakers in the process), and Conjure Fey lets you summon a Mammoth, a beast big enough to be our stat block for a full grown Sphinx. If your DM’s cool with it you might want to adjust the damage types to be more like the cubs, but it’s functional either way. Kinda weird that mammoths and big cats have the same tactical style, but not my place to judge.

18. Druid 12: Use this ASI to bump up your Constitution for more HP and better concentration.

19. Druid 13: Your final level of druid nets you seventh level spells, including the one we came all this way for, Mirage Arcane. For ten minutes of casting time, you can create a square mile mausoleum, complete with tactile sensations, for ten days. Trap your enemies inside your maze, then spend the next couple days picking them off at your leisure. Truly the sport of kings.

20. Monk 4: We’re just here for the ASI. Grab it to get more Constitution, which equals more health and better concentration. You also get Slow Fall, using your reaction to reduce falling damage by five times your monk level. It’s not particularly useful by this point, but death by tripping into the grand canyon would be embarrassing. 

Pros:

You got some big sphinxes. With an extra 10-20 hp and consistent healing, your pets can stick around for quite a while and do a lot of damage by gaming the action economy. Also, knocking people around is both fun (for you) and annoying (for them)!

Aside from your cool cats, most of the damage your putting out here is Radiant, which means as long as you aren’t fighting other gods, you’re probably set. If you are fighting other gods, just sic those sphinxes from pro #1 on them.

On top of your summons being hard to kill, you’re also hard to kill. With an AC of 17, almost as much HP as a frontline fighter, the ability to dodge as a bonus action, and your own sources of healing, taking you down is a feat in itself.

Cons: 

Those sunbolts we used three levels just to get aren’t really... how you say... good? It’s a cool way to change up your attacks, but they’re still just not going to do much. They’re mostly here to justify taking monk in the first place.

All your summon spells need concentration, which limits what you can do while your sphinxes are up and also means you have to be careful about where you’re standing. 

Your strength score means if an opponent like Xuanzang gets up close and personal you might be getting pushed around.

#Fate Grand Order #FGO #D&D 5e #Ozymandias #Fate and Phantasms #Monk #Cleric #Druid

[victory-cookies]

One of my AP Lang classmates might dm a dnd campaign for the class 👀

#she also said that if there was room in one of her campaigns in the future she would invite me #which is rad #and as for the ap campaign #she said she might make the college board the bbeg #and I am v tempted to play a college of eloquence bard #who is trying to live up to his late father’s expectations by taking fantasy ap courses #I also kinda want to play him as a fire genasi #which isn’t the best bard race bc no charisma #but idk it might work with his backstory #like he’s kind of a shitty bard #he’s doing it bc his dad wanted him to #but really he doesn’t care for barding #so maybe a lower charisma stat would work #the one problem is everyone in the group except me and the dm would be COMPLETELY new to dnd #and me (the only pc with any sort of dnd knowledge) playing a shitty support character #may not be the best idea #especially if the rest of the team can’t hold their own #idk i guess we’ll see #this is if it even happens #and I’m sure I could comvince them to play some tanks or spellcasters or healers #so that I can come in with my story-heavy support #anyway #I’m rambling #gnight #submission

[greengargouille]

((Until the end I hesitated on which fic to publish for Mimura’s birthday, and well, that certainly didn’t help being on time. On the other hand, it does raise probabilities for Valentine’s Day.

I did mention once I wanted to write about how group 2 interacts within the KoroQuest verse, but now I’m noticing that I ended up not using a lot of ideas I had as far as bug headcanons, so I guess I will need another one-shot))

Rating: General audiences Characters: Group 2, Mimura’s pov. Mentions of other students from Class E. Relationship: None

From the simple, basic monster nest in a cave to the maze-like caste full of traps, dungeons came in all shapes and sizes, and young students aspiring to be heroes would, during their education, be confronted to various structures.

Still, despite no dungeon being quite like the other (except the northern caves that all looked the same), the one Group 2 was exploring that day was quite unusual for them. It could be summarized, as Chiba had called it as one point, as an “architectural mess”.

Apparently, some decades ago, an alchemist had installed his research tower on top of a abandoned mine, and with the apprentices and family members over the years, multiple additions were made to the building, without consideration for what had already been constructed. Rooms without doors to their own floors that could only be acceded by ascending and descending two different floors, windows opening on another walls and doors opening on emptiness ; and, like any den from a rich alchemist a bit too paranoid about their work, the path to the research rooms was filled traps only the master the of place could deactivate.

This obviously turned out to be a mistake when it turned out the mines used as a base were filled with monsters. When the Big Bad then in place had been defeated, those creatures went dormant, but after ten years and a new monster king, they finally woke up and invaded the building, which became a dungeon ever since. What at its peak might have been a mismatch of different ambiance and decoration styles was slowly eaten by decay and dust and turned into an eerie place.

Though the different floors have been fascinating each in their own way to the group (though extremely frustrating in their attempts to draw a map as part of their exploration homework), nothing was quite as jarring as what they were currently seeing. Giant stairs of black stone, cut meticulously despite their size, illuminated by lamps of colored glass still working after all those years; on one side, not so much a wall than a reminder they were currently descending toward the underground floors, earth and mineral as far as the eye could see, not even properly cut; on the other, no guardrail, nothing to stop what would be a fatal fall. This would probably be scarier if a lone step of the stairs wasn’t large enough for the seven of them to sit at ease without touching, but it did make one wonder what have been the directives during the construction.

The lack of obstacle did make it easier for them to observe the lower floor from a distance, though.

“That’s,” Hayami commented, “a lot of monsters.”

An obvious assessment, but by now the group was used to voice those for the sake of Chiba ; it was best to let the boy rest his eyes when his bug was not needed.

“If we go downstairs, we should probably expect at least multiple battles in a row,” estimated Nakamura. “We’re already low on healing items, that will be tedious.” “Most of them are earth-aligned, through.” Fuwa looked at the monsters through binoculars, trying to deduce their skills from their appearance. “Most of them will be too slow to attack us every turn, and we already have the equipment against elemental spells. It’s doable. -Hmm. What do you say about that, leader?” Nakamura grinned as she said the last word towards Mimura.

Light teasing, he knew, yet he couldn’t help but feel bothered.

 It had started weeks ago, when observing the class representatives doing a report after the whole 3-E had finished exploring a dungeon. ‘It would be nice if we had a leader in our group’, Mimura had said without thinking. He didn’t have an exact definition of what he even meant with ‘leader’. Someone to take care of the documents each group had to fill for the main building, sure, someone to direct them into battle, but there was something more to it, a concept he couldn’t really put into words, nor had he expected to.

But this mere sentence had sparked a discussion among the group. What did it meant, exactly, to be a leader, and would they really be better off with one? Group 3 had Terasaka at its head, and he left all strategy and paperwork to Hazama and Takebayashi, respectively. As for Group 4... The closest thing to a leader they had would probably be Karma, though Mimura would be hard-pressed to explain why his choice would be him out of the six. Was it a question of strength? Of attitude? Charisma? Being able to intimidate people into obeying? Was there some inherent quality to leadership that eluded him? Nobody was really sure, though they could at least say the leader’s job was something to do with ‘giving orders’ and ‘uniting everyone’.

Nakamura had joked she wouldn’t mind having her ‘own group of slaves’ to do her work, before adding quickly it would probably be really tiring and would rather leave the responsibility to someone else. Chiba and Hayami both had seemed unwilling to push all the work on only one person, and though they hadn’t voiced it, unwilling even more for that person to be one of them. (Sugaya had whispered to Mimura it would indeed be a bad idea, given their prior experience to working in groups the precedent years, though he hadn’t told him any detail on this). Okajima might have been enthusiastic at the idea of being a leader, but he barely spoke three words before the girls glared at him, hands on their weapons. This was the moment Fuwa had chosen to blurt out a ‘You know, Mimura was 4th in the Leadership ranking of Volume 16’. He didn’t remember participating in any such ranking, but Fuwa’s most cryptic sentences weren’t to be taken literally most of the time, something to do with a 4th wall and spin-off that only her understood. It was best to leave the details to her and listen to her advice, as she was often spot on.

Which is how, over the weeks, Mimura somehow felt into the position of ‘leader’ for Group 2.

“Let’s go back and try it later.” He finally said after pondering. “For now, we need to find an healing fountain and level up some more.”

The truth was, being a leader changed absolutely nothing, and pretty much everything.

Mimura didn’t make plans for battle ahead, instead deferring this responsibility to Nakamura and Fuwa, who were much better strategists. He already tried to stop fights within the group even before being at its head, used to be the middleman in such situations -and, he had to admit, because if the girls reduced Okajima’s HP any lower after another skirt lifting incident, Mimura would be the only one left on the frontline in fights, which he would much prefer avoid if possible. And maybe, maybe, he felt the others tended to leave the final decision to him, now, but that might just be a bias of observation from his part. He noticed it because he expected it now, but it might not be any different from how it was before, and there must be important decisions in which he had no say that he didn’t notice because nobody asked him about it. Nothing that Mimura did had changed.

And yet, in his mind, it did change. The pressure. It was probably all a joke they all took only half-seriously except for him (and maybe Hayami and Chiba, it was hard to tell with how professional those two acted sometimes), but he couldn’t help but think they were all his responsibility. He had to make sure they were safe, and he avoided uncertain battles he would have previously attempted, or asked of his classmates to take an healing item when he might have felt before it could wait after one more fight or two. And he was getting worried, too, about how they leveled up slower than the other groups, and it took all their efforts for the gap not to grow any more than this. He had always been wary of his own skills ; he was average in most stats, not that suited for swordsmanship and only filling the role because most of the team was made of mages. But it had ceased to be about him as an individual, and had started to be about all of them, what they would all bring to the class against their teacher and the main building. His role was the same but his priorities clearly had switched.

“Ah, now that I think about it. There was that closed hall we met on the way, right? Okajima, you said we might find an emergency switch at proximity, what about the range? Do you think it could be down there? -That might actually be likely. Those kinds of doors are supposed to be opened and closed only from the inside, so the switch can’t be in a convenient place or people would be tempted to use it.”

While overall architecture was Chiba’s speciality, Okajima had an interest in traps and locks. It started from the idea of a giant trap for Korosensei, with dirty magazines as a bait, but recently he also used his knowledge in more varied ways -which might or might have to do with how the girls had started to lock the door behind them whenever they changed into PE clothes- and Mimura had started to rely on him in dungeons.

“And for how the switch might look like? Do you have an idea? -It’s might be more like a lever, actually. If it was a switch a monster would have stepped on it after all this time, and the emergency system for those is pretty basic, you can open but not close. Most of the treasure this deep into the dungeon were still there, so I don’t think another group could have come and closed the doors once again recently. -Right, this seems logical. Then... Chiba, is there enough light for you to see if you can locate a lever down there? If it’s accessible, I would like you or Hayami to try shooting on it, we might be able to activate it from a distance. -It’s a bit dark, but that much isn’t a problem.” The archer replied while getting closer to the edge of the stairs, observing the area below for a moment before declaring: “Ah, there. Behind the Iron Tortoise. -Big enough to hit with an arrow? -Yeah, but I won’t be able to get a good angle from here if the goal is to move it in the opposite direction. Hayami, you might be able to do it, though, if you use the wall next to it, with your bug it would bounce back to the target, right?” Chiba asked, turning his head to the left. “That shouldn’t be a problem,” Hayami replied to his right, taking a moment for locating said lever with binoculars.

Her shooting range wasn’t so high originally that she could have hit such a target, bug or not, but since Chiba didn’t need to buff his bugged skill, any item raising that specific stat was given to her. Given the pair only switched their original weapons to bows recently, one could say they truly were talented.

...It might be a bit inappropriate, but Mimura was envious of them. He wished he could switch to something else, too, a job at the back of the group, without having to get so close to the monsters or shielding his comrades. Maybe guys like Terasaka and his gang could endure a lot of damage, but he didn’t have their HP nor their tolerance to pain. Hell, if he at least had their strength, he might feel a bit more confident going in front, but no, he didn’t have that, didn’t have Maehara’s reflexes sharpened by training against Okano, didn’t have Isogai or Kataoka’s skills in support magic, and he was far, far away from becoming a magic swordsman like Karma. And, needless to say, he wasn’t competent with a bow or firearms either.

...So much for going into heroics.

“Did it work? -Yes, I’m pretty sure I heard something moving.” Nakamura replied. “Well, if we’re not going downstairs anyways it’s no point wondering, let’s go back. -Urg, I’m not looking forward for the climb.” Fuwa sighed before starting her ascension.

Her feeling was shared among the group, but while they all complained about dungeon exploration at some point or another, they were all used to going in circles by now. Mimura was ready to follow, last of the group as he had been head of the line during their descent, but immediately stopped when seeing that one of their member had yet to move. Sugaya looked at him, like he wanted to add something, but was unsure whether this was the right moment.

“...Sorry, you guys,” Mimura asked toward the others, “could you climb without me and Sugaya? We will catch up to you in a moment. -Sure,” Hayami nodded, “we didn’t met any monster on the stairs yet, so it probably won’t be a problem if we divide the group. -Well, don’t take too long,” Nakamura added, “or I will tell Korosensei you two are skipping homework to play lovebirds together, I’m sure he would love the story.”

Mimura only replied with an unimpressed glance, which made her smile before turning her head back to the next step. Trying to refute her attempts at trolling would only make her insist on it.

“So, is everything alright?” He finally asked the mage once he was sure they could speak unbothered.

“Ah, yes, sorry, I’m fine, you didn’t need to tell everyone to leave, it’s just... Well, I guess I could get your opinion on this.” Sugaya opened the item bag hanging out on his side, filled with items. As he was usually the first to get out of MP, he would often be the one to grab potions or antidotal herbs for the others, so naturally he ended up being the one to carry them for everyone. “I asked Okuda if she could create magic ink for me to experiment with boost-giving tattoos, and I did came up with something, but the effect only last a few hours, so I was wondering if it’s best to leave it for before the dungeon boss or if I should draw it while we’re not in a rush. -Good question. When you say ‘a few hours’, did you time it? -Not really. In fact, I’m not sure if it isn’t affected by the number of fights we get into. -True, some items work like that. Well, it’s still impressive if it manages to last that long, though.”

Mimura said that honestly. The idea was great: he had heard already about the strength-boosting ‘Tough guy tattoo’, but this was an adhesive item, which he knew was different from the tattoos Sugaya liked to draw on his arms sometimes. An hour-long boost that didn’t take place in their inventory would be a major advantage, if they could time it properly. Making sure they wouldn’t use it completely before the boss’ room while not wasting it by only putting it on the last moment would take some practice. Maybe they should ask Sugino for tips, with his bug he should have some experience in trying to time his own magic.

“I would be tempted to use it right now, we’re kind of in a tight spot if we don’t find a place to heal. I would feel more secure if we get a bit of help into battles. What stats is it supposed to raise, anyways, it’s not Coolness is it?” It wouldn’t be very helpful for fighting, given the mage had yet to learn any Charm spell. “Are you implying my tattoos aren’t cool by default?” Sugaya pretended to be offended, but when he raised his eyes away from his bag a small ink bottle in hand, he had a smile on his face. “But nah, it gives a 10% bonus to strength. -Strength? That... doesn’t seems very useful for a mage? -What? No, it’s for you.”

Mimura blinked.

“Ah. Thank you? But, shouldn’t you have tried for something more helpful for you first? -Eh, I’m fine like that.” Sugaya shrugged, before correcting himself. “I mean, sure, I wouldn’t mind a boost, but that’s no big deal, and lately you’ve been so... unhappy with yourself? You’ve been complaining more about how you should get stronger or stuff like that. -Was I?” Mimura had enough self-awareness to know he could be quite vocal when he wasn’t satisfied with his situation, but to that extent? “Sorry, I didn’t know I was getting annoying. -That’s not- Look, I just wanted to do something nice for you, there’s no hidden motive or anything.” 

Sugaya unbottled the ink in his hand while talking. A long, thin stalk was stuck to the cap, with hair on the other side. Mimura had not yet see the artist make tattoos with a brush, but he supposed it was more convenient to transport.

“Can I have your arm, please? -My- Oh, right. Wow, Can’t believe I’m getting a tattoo. What would my parents say if they knew. -If they don’t want you to get a tattoo then they should get you money to get more items. -Ha, I wish. It would be easier.”

Mimura expected a joking reply, a comment on how Sugaya’s own parents had restricted his pocket money when they figured out he was spending it all in art supplies instead of equipment, but the boy stayed silent as he painted strange arabesques on Mimura’s skin. The artist wasn’t usually against small talk when working, but maybe the task was demanding more focus than expected. Mimura went quiet. He didn’t want to disturb his friend, and it was interesting to see him work from such an angle.

“...You know, I like the way we do thing as it is.” Sugaya finally said. “Drawing boosts instead of getting them by items? -That too. But. You know. How the whole team acts.” As Mimura looked at him confused, Sugaya added. “Dismantling traps, using our bugs to progress instead of fighting. Maybe we’re getting behind the other groups, and we get into trouble because we don’t have an healer or a tank, but... we’re still finding a way to make it work, even if it’s not very conventional. I like it.” He stopped talking an instant as he finished drawing a rune. “And I like you being our leader, instead of someone like Isogai or Kataoka. I think you fit us better.”

Mimura wasn’t sure how to reply to that. He could understand it was a compliment, but he never have been that good on handling them. As for the group, it was hard to understand liking it. This messy team, where the girls always got in fights with their only proper swordsman, where they constantly had to go back on their tracks because the monsters were too powerful, where they had to count each gold piece they got because another potion could mean life or death for them...

“...Yeah, I think I like it too, leading this group.”

They might all be a team of barely organised brats, but as much as Mimura complained, they were all good friends, and if he was given the chance to change groups he didn’t think he would take it.

“Glad to hear that.” Sugaya sealed his ink bottle and put it away in his bag. “So, how does it feel? -Hmm, I do feel stronger.” A message appeared in Mimura’s mind, informing him of his stat raise. “Guess I only need to try it now. Come on, let’s join back the others, before Nakamura starts inventing another dramatic story. -As you wish, leader.” Sugaya grinned at him, before suddenly remembering something. “Ah, right, by the way, the effects only last a few hours, but the ink itself stay a whole week, so don’t use that as a reference point. -A whole- And you couldn’t have told me that before tattooing me?!”

Maybe Mimura was wrong, after all, he really should consider changing groups.

#assassination classroom #ansatsu kyoushitsu #assclass #mimura kouki #korosensei quest #koro quest #koroq #gargouille writes #Sorry if I left any glaring fault I will edit tomorrow #and put it on ao3 too