#3E-Wise

[midnightfangz]

It's hyperfixation o'clock, guess who's getting salty again that there aren't any worldbuilding fics about the Dark Brotherhood

[meanbossart]

Since Bhaal was a human before he ascended, and the dead three were introduced between 2-3e before some things became standardized as they are now, I like the idea of Bhaal just not knowing what most non-humans look like. He knows the general idea, but if your Durge is a tiefling for example, he’s not sure about like, the foot situation. Are they like human feet (plantigrade) or like imp feet (digitigrade) they have tails… but do they taper or have a tuft at the end. That sort of thing.

So to most people outside of Durge’s “race” they just sort of shrug it off cause that’s not a question you ask a stranger, but it just amps up the unease when surrounded by others.

I’m rambling a bit, I see a lot of active Durges and tbh I feel like there’s a missed angle in regards to the fact they are a bit of rotten god meat given form and sapience. You ever see a short film called the backwater gospel? That’s the vibe I’m imagining

I get what you mean and I do like the concept! I think it can pretty reasonably go both ways. Either a at-a-glance perfectly normal normal member of X species made that way to be more easily embraced into every-day society and blend into its population, or something more "off-brand" for one reason or another. Bhaal is a weird guy who makes weird decisions, you can bend a lot of things to make them work in your favor lore-wise.

Also, I can't really be given much credit for this decision. Do not be mistaken: beefy drow came first, lore came later. I made DU drow huge and gave him cool eyes because I felt like it and wasn't expecting to play this game for very long. It took me getting sucked into the story and sucked into DnD as consequence for me to even care about DU drow not looking anything like... Well, a drow, and deciding I needed to justify it within the story in some way.

The (rather vague) way I choose to think about it, is that wherever Bhaal's flesh happened to land/sprout/spawn into existence, it was bound to roughly imitate it's surroundings, however badly. Like planting a tree in a biome where it doesn't usually thrive and watching it desperately try to adapt and flourish regardless.

I also choose to believe Bhaal wanted his spawn to suffer and develop a healthy dose of misanthropy, which is why he put him somewhere where he was VASTLY more likely to perish - if he lived despite all odds, then he would know for sure he was worthy of being his progeny.

[talenlee]

3e: Winners and Losers In Lawful Space

Planescape is a silly place.

Dungeons & Dragons is a wholeheartedly silly game, and it’s important to remember that what makes it silly is an expansive growth out of a particular root. It is a tree of many branches but thanks to the way that it encourages people to build their own things on top of it, it has become a sprawling kind of folk narrative and generally accepted consensus material that then a company comes along and tries to augment and supplement. Still, as much as a corporate mind is at the head of what gets published, what gets handed to that corporation is going to derive from the mind of a dork who likes D&D. To that end, D&D’s lore is a constant push-pull between the kinds of nerds who like organising lists and the kind of nerds who like to invent new types of dragons they want to have sex with and they’re all trying to integrate one another’s material because that’s how nerds demonstrate mastery over a topic.

The result is that D&D lore is composed of parts that neatly and smoothly fit together and parts that should be airbrushed on the side of a van, and all subjects exist in a space between those two points, on a spectrum. And nowhere is this more evident than in the way that 2e’s setting Planescape introduced elements that 3rd edition tried to hide.

Planescape, as a setting, exists very close to the ‘airbrushed on a Van’ side of things, and it’s extremely obvious when you look at its roots in 2nd Edition. In this space, much of what makes Planescape Planescape was codified. For those of you unfamiliar, Planescape is a setting made up of the idea of ‘planes’ as distinct, discrete universes with their own rules separated not by time and space, but just by barriers or magical boundaries. You know how Narnia is supposed to work, with the wardrobe? It’s like that, but there are a lot more wardrobes and they all go to different places. Think a sort of multi-level Isekai scheme.

Anyway, it’s a setting with like, multiple whole universe-sized worlds, that may or may not have planets inside them, some of which follow a very narrow set of identifying rules, like the elemental plane of Fire, which is full of Fire, or are just like ‘here, but a bit weird,’ like Bitopia, which is a whole plane that is mirrored vertically at a certain height. If you look up in Bitopia, you see another whole country up there – that’s why it’s called that. Also everyone there is bisexual.

Planescape sought to build out more of that structured universe and then in each structured space, fill it with interesting notions. But the structure is a little odd, in that it’s hard to make an infinite number of chairs organise neatly, someone is always putting out one more where they shouldn’t. That means there are tidy diagrams of the Planar cosmology, and then you look inside any of the bubbles in that diagram and find it’s full of gibberish.

It was in 2e that, as far as I know, we were introduced world-wise, to the characters of the Modrons.

There’s a whole writing form that involves referring to Modrons in deliberately obtuse ways, with Modrons being the individual, plural, categorical, and utility terms for this people, but what you need to know about them is that Modrons are weird lil guys that are made out of a basic geometric shape – pyramid, cube, dodecahedron, all the way up to sphere (or down to sphere, depending on who you ask). They are truly perfect Lil Guys, a byproduct of a plane of true law and order which doesn’t in any way cohere to what humans (the people playing the game) necessarily assume about law.

They make a lot of sense in a storybook kind of way where you don’t need to have big answers for what they are or how they work or even how their philosophical bias towards pure lawfulness works. In the world of 2ed, where sometimes things that sound like they should be well explained, clear rules are kinda yada-yada-yada’d in a space that you might imagine is flavour text, the Modrons left a bunch of questions unanswered and seemingly, that was good. It was good that they were heavily ambiguous because what was the life cycle of ‘an orb?’ Any answer made them less mysterious and pushed them away from the oddness that they represented.

Anyway, 3e was an attempt by a serious company to do serious things and that’s why when they went back to talk about the Creatures That Lived In The Lawful Planes, they came up with the Inevitables.

Inevitables are the demons of small minds, writ large. Literally, the point of an Inevitable is to be a Lawful Neutral version of a Demon, an entity that exists purely based on rules, coalesced out of a world made of rules, and with nothing holding them back from expressing that. Each of the Inevitables is meant to respond to a rule in the universe and then enforce it. They are self-appointed near-immortal construct cops, and they’re meant to oppose things and people that break the rules that they, specifically, are meant to care about.

These rules are completely out of whack, though, because one of them is meant to enforce say, justice, another the inevitability of death and another, the way the desert is a fixed ecosystem that nobody should try and change or interact with. And in that case, there are a bunch of plants that the Inevitables are going to have issues with, that don’t seem to be capable of forming complex political allegiances.

There’s a really interesting distinction between Inevitables and Modrons, to me. Modrons are weird and interesting but also, there’s nothing they can do that answers a question. Inevitables are a fun challenge that’s supposed to be present to oppose players or potentially be recruited into an adventure, but not for too long. But Inevitables, the 3e attempt to populate Lawful Planes with A Kind of Guy, sort of fell apart and are now more of a trivia question while Modrons have endured into 4th and 5th edition.

I don’t think there’s some greater, better reason for it or anything. I don’t think that Inevitables failed because they were Bad Design or something. But I do think that for me, the way that Modrons represented Weirdness was much more interesting than the ways the Inevitables sucked weirdness away with their simple, clear consideration of certain things as being part of natural reality.

After all: Inevitables would hunt down people who extended their lifespans because ‘everyone must die.’ But Inevitables were immortal. That’s a pretty interesting thing to juxtapose and maybe a character could struggle with that.

Or maybe they could make a big speaking trumpet and demand that everyone else refer to them as a Spokesmodron which is, in my opinion, much funnier.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[thecreaturecodex]

Zap Kraken

Image © Turtle Rock Studios

[Sponsored by Soluman Blevins. The second of the Evolve monsters I've done, other than the warpwraith. Mechanically, the Kraken is interesting, but design wise, it's a little drab. Because it's just a Cthulhu. The lightning bolt wings are a cool touch, but otherwise, it's very much a Cthulhu. And in a game that already has Cthulhu and his star-spawn, I wanted to differentiate it a bit. So I tied it to one of my favorite one-shot weirdo monsters from the 3e era.]

Zap Kraken CR 16 CE Aberration This immense creature has a roughly dinosaur-like body and the head of a colossal cephalopod. A vertical maw stretches between its beard of tentacles, and two large jointed appendages grow from its back and crackle with electricity. Its long tail is segmented like the vertebral column of a great beast.

Zap krakens are rare aberrant creatures that use electrical energy for both offense and mobility. Although they are enormous, they fly with surprising grace by manipulating electricity, essentially creating wings of lightning that hold them aloft. They are remarkably stealthy for their size, and can sneak up on prey from above before dropping to melee or merely blasting away with channeled lightning bolts.

Zap krakens are territorial, and maintain their territory by creating banshee mines, so called for the shriek of their explosions. These mines home in on creatures that get too close, and the zap kraken can also visit them to see what it has seen, similar to a prying eyes spell. Although zap krakens typically view other creatures as prey first and foremost, they have a mutual fondness for zeugalaks. Both species have tentacled maws and an affinity for electricity, and sages speculate that they are related to each other. A zap kraken often views zeugalaks the way a nobleman views their prized hunting hounds, using them to flush out prey or occupy melee combatants. 

Zap Kraken CR 16 XP 76,800 CE Gargantuan aberration Init +7; Senses blindsense 120 ft., darkvision 60 ft., Perception +17

Defense AC 30, touch 14, flat-footed 22 (-4 size, +7 Dex, +1 dodge, +16 natural) hp 225 (18d8+144) Fort +14, Ref +13, Will +15 DR 10/magic; Immune cold, electricity; SR 26

Offense Speed 50 ft., fly 100 ft. (good) Melee 2 claws +18 (2d6+8), tentacles +17 (4d4+8), 2 wings +16 (2d6+4 plus 1d6 electricity) Space 20 ft.; Reach 20 ft. (30 ft. with tentacles) Special Attacks banshee mines, lightning strike, shock pulse

Statistics Str 26, Dex 24, Con 28, Int 11, Wis 19, Cha 19 Base Atk +16; CMB +28; CMD 46 Feats Blind-fight, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Flyby Attack, Hover (B), Mobility, Multiattack, Stand Still, Weapon Focus (claw) Skills Acrobatics +20 (+28 when jumping), Fly +21, Intimidate +17, Perception +17, Stealth +16, Survival +17; Racial Modifiers +8 Stealth Languages Aklo

Ecology Environment warm hills Organization solitary or band (1 plus 1-4 zeugalaks) Treasure standard

Special Abilities Banshee Mines (Su) As a standard action, a zap kraken can create up to three animated mines. Treat these as the eyes generated by the prying eyes spell, only when a creature approaches within 30 feet of them (all creatures or of a type set by the zap kraken on creation), they fly towards that creature and explode. Treat this as a ranged touch attack using the zap kraken’s modifiers (+19 for a typical specimen). If it hits, the creature struck takes 4d6 points of electricity damage and 4d6 points of sonic damage. Whether the mine hits or not, it explodes, dealing this damage in a 5 foot radius (Reflex DC 23 halves). A zap kraken knows when one of its mines has detonated as long as it is within 1 mile of the mine. A zap kraken can create up to nine mines a day, but can have a maximum of three in existence at a time. The save DC is Charisma based. Lightning Strike (Su) As a standard action, a zap kraken can call down a bolt of lightning within 160 feet. It fills a column 60 feet high with a 20 foot radius, dealing 16d8 points of electricity damage to all creatures in the area (Reflex DC 23 halves). A zap kraken can use this ability once every 1d4 rounds. The save DC is Charisma based. Shock Wave (Su) As a standard action, a zap kraken can release an electrical pulse in a 60 foot radius centered on its body. All creatures in the area take 16d4 points of electricity damage and are pushed back 10 feet. A successful DC 27 Reflex save halves the damage and resists the knockback effect. A zap kraken can use this ability every other round. The save DC is Constitution based.  Tentacles (Ex) The tentacles of a zap kraken are treated as a single primary natural weapon

[ttrpg-smash-pass-vs]

It'll still be a few months, gotta finish this tournament after all, but I want time to prep. Monsters of the Multiverse is just Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes and Volo's Guide combined, usually even using the same art which is why they aren't there. Though I did scan them for differences, and will post both book's art on the rare occasion they differ. If something laser-focused like Fizban's Dragons or Bigby's Giants wins I'm swapping between it and something else. Maybe every other week, maybe a weekday/weekend scenario, but I don't want to do just one monster for a couple months. If this changes your vote but you clicked before you read, just let me know in a comment or ask and I'll change it after the poll ends. ...and yes, the PF2e Bestiary has more eligible creatures than that stat wise, but I can only use the creatures with a picture. Leaves out some elementals :/

[paperanddice]

Just a random off the cuff from going over a bunch of previous edition D&D monster books, but 4e had probably the best expanded monster manual devils. There's usually lots of passable to good demons people come up with, but devils seem to be a more difficult prospect. Just going through some examples we get:

3.0 Monster Manual 2: 8 demons, 3 devils. I'd argue that the demons are mostly so-so, the abyssal maw is pretty good and probably the only one to be carried over to future books, but at least the jovoc and palrethee have some interesting ideas, and most of the others at least aren't bad. Meanwhile, two of the devils are just awful. At least the malebranche made its way into 4e.

3.5 Monster Manual 3: 2 demons, no devils. The arrow demon feels like a devil in design, it's so weird to have a mid tier demon who's identity revolves around wielding weapons and strict military combat strategy.

3.5 Monster Manual 4: 4 demons and the demonhive as an extended Abyssal stat block, again no devils. Not the most beloved batch again, none of these ones carried forward as far as I know, but at least the demons are getting more stat blocks at all.

3.5 Monster Manual 5: 5 demons, 3 devils. At least the devils get some stat blocks this time, but the demons absolutely won in terms of quality. The adaru, draudnu, and solamith all have some solid designs, and solamith have made some appearances since. Meanwhile the gulthir is just kind of horrendous, and the stitched devil isn't actually a proper devil type and is just the creation of night hags.

4e Monster Manual 2: 15 demons, 7 devils. Numbers are still much more in the demon's favor, but design wise I think the devils are overall superior. One demon and one devil are just members of the main batches for each type that didn't show up in the first book (dretch and erinyes), but the demons get stuff like two runespiral demons, one just a higher level version of the other, it has to fill in with the nycademon, which was usually a yugoloth but they just lumped yugoloths into the demons for 4e, and overall most of the demons are less interesting than the devils. Though they do get the pod demon, so lots of points for that, love that one.

4e Monster Manual 4: 7 demons, 8 devils. First time in a suppliment monster manual we've had more devils than demons, how wild. Plus, the demons have to be filled in with the babau, nalfeshni, quasit, and the ultrodaemon (last one is a yugoloth). The maw demon makes its return from 3.0 though, so that was nice. Technically there's 2 maw demons, but one is just a leveled up version of the other (okay, fine, one extra action as well), so I'm not counting it as unique. And if I did, I'd probably have to count the 6 minions for the corruption devil, the upleveled version of the corruption devil, and both hellwasp devils, which would just put the devils further ahead. This also brings in two of my favorite devils from 4e, the rage devil and the vizier devil. Just overall a great showing for devils.

There isn't a real point to this rant, it's just kind of interesting how the design space of 4e was so much better for devils than 3.0/3.5. Stat blocks being more condensed and focused probably helped, but they could have padded out so many of the 3e era books with way more devils and demons (and they absolutely did with some of the other supplements, stuff like the Fiendish Codex books and the infinite monsters in Sandstorm, Frostburn, and all the other random books. I'm not going to go over every single book from these two eras to compare every single demon and devil, but I just find the contrast in the main monster books very interesting.

[vhstown]

spider-teens ★ D&D HEADCANONS

— hobie, gwen, miles, pavitr (+ peter b & mayday!)

warnings: d&d jargon (there's definitions at the end if you're curious), shenanigans, miles being a NERDDD, a lil shorter than usual

a/n: how id imagine these lot playing d&d!!! ive only played / ran 5e so forgive me veteran players 😭 again feel free to add / disagree w me it's all in good fun

If MILES doesn't run the game, he plays a warlock for sure. Not because it fits him personality wise but because he wants to be a magic user but also not be held back by it. My man is thinking STRATEGY and takes every opportunity to geek out about the specifics of his abilities. He also definitely has a ridiculously fleshed-out backstory he's kind of too embarrassed to tell anyone about.

Either warlock or the nerd multi-classes and it confuses the hell out of EVERYONE... I feel like he tries a lot of the classes though so warlock is kind of a starting point when he's playing with his spider friends (he defo played fighter or sorcerer in the past)

Miles is the one who gets everyone together though (and jumps through universes to make sure everyone's on time 😭 he will NOT tolerate scheduling issues)

Peter B runs a lot of their games except he used to play 3e or Pathfinder back in the day (nerd...) so Miles is just like... gritting his teeth a little whenever Peter misses a little detail or a skill check. He probably used to play in high school / college I mean come on...

Speaking of Peter B OF COURSE he lets Mayday roll the dice. The entire party could depend on that roll and she's rolling it and everyone is TENSE (And he tries not to let her eat the dice... Tries.)

HOBIE plays a barbarian or rogue. He'd play a barbarian just for the hell of it (sounds cool) and would most definitely carry everyone by total accident because he's like... the only one alive.

Rogue also for the hell of it cause stealing is rebellious and that 😭 Though if he does play a rogue his character becomes one of the most unintentionally complex characters in the game.

Hobie would figure out the entire plot of the adventure completely by accident and Peter just laughs awkwardly and goes "You'll just have to find out next session!" and maybe dies inside (but it's not like he prepares for his sessions anyway 💀)

Absolutely crits at the most ridiculous times and derails the whole campaign because he decided to interrogate a minor political figure and now they're destabilising the region's government instead of fighting dragons

And he accidentally becomes the leader of like the whole village and maybe starts a revolution and Peter is sat there lips pressed together hands pressed together elbows on table like "...I guess that happens then."

Might cheat a little bit. Just a little. Not enough to ruin the campaign but enough to have Peter sweating 💀 A lil strand of web under his dice hurt nobody right? (Those goblins are DEAD dead)

Miles is gob-smacked and definitely a little jealous of him 😭

PAVITR originally wants to play a fighter because that sounds... cool as hell BUT when Miles explains the bard class to him he takes it and runs

I'd say Pavitr is relatively new to the game as are Hobie and Gwen but he hones in on the roleplay (not as seriously as Miles but definitely participates)

Probably leads the group and goes head-first into danger (Miles is literally pissing himself) and his character probably knows loads of languages cause he just conveniently picked a race with very useful languages for the adventure (as per Miles' suggestion)

But he goes out-of-character more than once to go "WTF????" when he doesn't manage to rizz up an NPC and they're have to roll for initiative (attempts to be a pacifist)

The goat when it comes to fights though he plays such a good supporting character and if he were to die everyone would totally be finished 😭🙏

GWEN plays either a monk or a wizard. I feel like she doesn't particularly mind but she plays wizard for a little bit before realising that she doesn't really like the magic stuff? Goes for monk and it's a lot simpler and more fun

More of an observer but is helpful when it comes to investigating areas and carries like EVERY item possible: potions, magical items, 20 rocks for some reason. Bag of holding girlie (like how she holds that trauma she has in real li—)

Has THE coolest weapons. Because her character can't rely on magic she's constantly upgrading or getting new weapons and her unique monk abilities come in handy again when exploring!!!

Totally makes fun of Miles (endearingly!) And maybe points out a plot hole in his backstory and he wants to curl up into a ball and disappear for a good minute (he rethinks his entire character for 2 nights straight)

Has an NPC she would protect with her LIFE. Barmaid at the inn? Anything for you sweetums 😁😁😁 *trips over and dies*

That's all given if they have an actually functional game... It takes them probably about like a year to finish a one-shot adventure

But it is SO worth the memories (albeit very chaotic memories.) Even when they're arguing over a roll (usually Hobie's) or someone's character has literally died they make it work through the power of friendship...! And a broken table

These guys are crazy I love them

"Embrace the chaos is the mood for tonight's session. AKA you guys are screwed... Roll initiative."

"What the hell?!"

"Don't swear in front of the kid!"

Jargon!

Campaign: A world containing one set of characters where different adventures take place

Dungeon Master / DM: The person who creates the story and runs the game

Skill check: Rolling a die to see if you've passed or failed a certain skill when performing an action (for example charisma when trying to persuade somebody)

Crit: Critical hit. When you roll a 20 on a 20-sided die. You deal loads of damage in a fight basically.

NPC: Non-playable character. Any characters who aren't the players within the universe. Controlled by the DM.

Initiative: The roll you have to make before a fight to decide the order of turns. "Roll initiative" means "you guys are in a fight now!!!! lmao!!!!"

🕸️🕷️💫

thank you for reading my insane midnight rant LMAOOO

i haven't played d&d in like 2 years so apologies if anything is diabolically wrong here 💀would love to hear your thoughts!

reblogs appreciated <3 read the rest of my atsv stuff here!

[thecartonizer]

Reblog this post with three ttrpgs you feel like are obscure or/and not nearly played enough/havent played yet, i will start:

1)risus the anything rpg

more of a system than a game but if could summarize it in a sentence it would be "funny simple stickfigure game" and it is! It uses mostly d6 die, but behind its simplicity lays tons of optional rules to Spice it up!, and (aside from the risus companion, which i highly recommend buying just for its gm insights and further optional rules alone) the best part is that its FREE

2) killsector

Killsector is a very big game feature wise, you and your friends play as gladiators in a arena filled with enemies and at the end, a final boss to fight against, the best part? Your character is highly custumizable, you start with usually 10 points worth of point buy functions scattered around the core book and its supplements, these can include your body type, weapons, mutations and all sorts of crazy stuff, letting you play as pretty much anything you mind can conjure up! The other best part? The core rulebook and it's supplements? FREEEEEEE

3)nobilis 3e

Probably the most obscure out of the list (and the only one i havent gotten around to playing a game of!) , if you ever read or watched sandman you will probably be familiar with it's premise: you and your friends play as anthromorphomorfic personifications of concepts,ideas and stuff! The end goal? Mostly to fuck around in other dimensions and earth, using your powers for mundane or weird stuff and overall having a great (or terrible) time!

[changelingsandothernonsense]

Tell me all about your favorite oc

Helloo!

Obviously, this one's going to be about my Nerevarine because I can't get enough of Josh. So ramblings and art.

I still maintain that he's a bit of a blend with both the Nerevarine and the Dragonborn DLC follower but really he's become his own thing at this point.

I write Josh across two major timelines, both his start in Morrowind and 200 years later just before the start of the Dragon Crisis. It's an interesting way for me to explore his character since I write both my main fics simultaneously. He's very different given 200 years worth of baggage vs 57 years worth of it. Having said that:

General outline

Name: Ensirhaddon-Sero Teldryn am'Urshilaku

Race: Dunmer- half Ashlander

Height: 181 cm

D.O.B: 28th Evening Star, 3E 370 (Age 57 at the start of Sleepers Awake, age 266 by the start of Serious Mistakes.)

Teldryn's childhood is a tumultuous one, detailed here. Though the cliff notes are: Born in Cyrodiil to very young parents, his father exits the picture when he was quite young and his mother is left to raise him. They end up moving to Blacklight for a few years and later to Suran before Teldryn gets caught up with the Camonna Tong, leading to his eventual arrest and lengthy prison sentence in Cyrodiil.

Teldryn's personality could best be explained as "Sad, angry rat man" he has a tendency to start conflict at any opportunity just as a defence mechanism. It was easier to wail on an asshole who rubbed him the wrong way in prison and it takes him a lot of self-control to not lash out at every opportunity.

The main thing about Josh is he can't be told what to do, he's pathologically opposed to demands on the most basic level. It's why most of his work with the Blades was done under duress. He didn't want to work for them and being forced to had him madly chewing at his own leg just to get away.

In a way, he ends up chewing his own leg off only to still end up in the same place. Broken and desperate to piece himself back together. Taking down the Sharmat took everything from him and he develops a serious substance abuse problem in the years following. It causes a lot of his issues in the following centuries.

Aside from drinking to forget time exists, what Josh likes to do when left to his own devices is researching the Dwemer. He stumbles over a very important stele on a job early in his career and manages to finish his transliteration of Hanging Gardens sometime between the Oblivion Crisis and Red Year. He ends up publishing under an Altmeri pseudonym and hopes that his thesis on the Dwemeri script will be accepted in Cyrodiil and Summerset. Of course, then the Empire starts to collapse and he never sees his work published. Or he thinks he won't. It starts turning up as a mistranslated version 200 years later.

When he's not waist-deep in Dwemer scrap and thesis writing, then Josh is probably out training. He has a chip on his shoulder about a lack of formal training magic-wise. Mostly due to circumstance, but he has had a lot of instruction in swordplay and martial arts. He got into martial arts in particular as a way to help him rebuild his strength and balance when he was recovering from Corprus. He lost a lot of muscle due to wasting and, of course, the parts of him that had to be amputated as a result of the tumours.

Josh wears a toe and partial foot prosthesis that he designed himself out of Dwemer scrap that he modifies as he goes along. He eventually ends up fashioning himself a type of exoskeleton brace after a series of severe injuries left his right leg lame. He usually uses crutches or a stick to help him walk around his home but rarely allows others to see him that vulnerable- the group of people who have seen him with his cane are the same ones who have seen him without his mask in the 4th Era. (It's a very small group).

Josh has a bit of a vigilante streek and ends up garnering a name for himself amongst Vvardenfell's liberation circles. He's opposed to the concept of slavery in any form and ends up joining the more front facing branch of Twin Lamps. Most of his motivation is personal, his time in the Camonna Tong was not by choice and he refuses to let them continue their operations. Vengeance for him is a very powerful motivator. His elimination of the Camonna Tong’s hierarchy in the late 3rd Era garnered him some powerful enemies that continue to pursue him into the 4th Era.

Josh does eventually "settle down" in the traditional sense for a time after the Dragon Crisis is dealt with by his now wife, Sydari Aralen, the Last Dragonborn. They have a daughter and two sons together. Josh does have other kids outside this relationship, one from when he was a teenager, Adren, who owns the Hlaalu farm outside of Windhelm with his husband, Belyn Hlaalu. His relationship with him is complicated, but they are often estranged. His other daughter, a half Imperial mage, he never meets during her lifetime. Though she knows her father was the fabled Nerevarine, and passes this knowledge on to her children. It makes for an awkward conversation with his younger daughter, Vyna later. He needs to dance around the fact that he got around often and irresponsibly before she was born.

Hes been married twice, his first lasted for the duration of his quest against Dagoth Ur (about three years) and ends tragically. Erra, his husband is a fairly big character story wise. He was considering marrying Jiub just before the Oblivion Crisis hit...we all know how that goes. He hasn't been lucky in this department and with Hermaeus Mora lurking about, he might lose his wife too.

Hes not a happy sort, but he treds water.

Below is him as his Vigilante persona, the first one he ever chose for himself.

[darklordazalin]

Azalin Reviews: Darklord Draga Salt-Biter

Domain: Saragoss Domain Formation: 728 BC Power Level: 💀💀💀⚫⚫ Sources: Islands of Terror (2e), Ravenloft 3rd Edition (3e)

Draga Salt-biter is a wereshark who despises sharks and the Darklord of Saragoss, a Domain of ship wrecks barely kept afloat on a massive mat of saragasso seaweed. Lurking beneath the surface is a thick kelp forest and nearly opaque waters infested with sharks, barracuda, and countless dangers. One can walk across the saragasso mat, but there are countless weak points that are constantly shifting and falling through is a sure way to meet an early demise.

Unlucky sailors find themselves pulled into Saragoss after encountering a ghost mist surrounded by mist on whatever sea they happen to be sailing upon. After a storm that nearly destroys their vessel, they find themselves stuck in the saragasso with a ship that can no longer sail and surrounded by distrusting crews of other vessels. Life in Saragoss is about survival and stealing whatever one can to get out as quickly as possible, but as soon as one crew leaves, another is pulled in.

Draga was born in the Sword Coast to two abusive sailors. Though he held a deep hatred for his parents, he loved the Sea of Stars on which they sailed. The wind on his face and the salt on his tongue was his only pleasure and he left his home as soon as he was able.

Out in the high seas, the ship Draga boarded was invaded by pirates. The young boy hid as the pirates slaughtered everyone on board. Pirates are known for…well, pirating, but Draga must not of thought about that detail when he hid amongst the cargo. He was easily found and the pirates decided it would be good fun to drive a hook through his calf and drag him behind the ship as shark bait.

They let a few sharks nibble on him before reeling him back aboard and deciding to keep him. One of the sharks that bit him happened to be a wereshark. So, not only did Draga develop a deep fear of sharks that day, but also became a wereshark.

Draga spent a few years with the pirates, learning their ways, including the religion of Umberlee. If you’re unfamiliar with this so-called deity, Umberlee is a sea goddess worshiped by those that sail the seas and are petrified of her destructive powers.

Draga ensured the death of the ship’s chaplain and took his place as the religious leader among the pirates who had tortured him when he was a child. He stewed for years, letting them think he held no ill well against them as the mastered his lycanthropy, then carried out his revenge.

He damaged the ship’s hull with his shark teeth, then slaughtered the entire crew, ensuring that those who used him as shark bait were given the same treatment. Though, Draga did not reel these pirates back in, but let the sharks eat them.

Draga moved on, sailing the seas as the Captain of the Vengeance and became one of the most ruthless pirates on the Sword Coast. After a particularly blood day of pirating to celebrate the last year of his 20s, the Dark Powers decided to give Draga a gift and in a thick roll of fog, Draga, his crew, and the Vengeance were all brought into Sargasso, the ship imprisoned just as much as Draga was in a thick bed of seaweed.

While exploring his new Domain, Draga discovered a horrifying reality. Even in his human form, he could only breath while submerged in the sea. As it goes with most were creatures, Draga lost himself in a fit of rage and when he came to, he had killed most of his own men and destroyed the Vengeance which sank before his eyes.

Draga thinks of sharks as “trash fish” and want nothing to do with the animals. Now, I know a lot of us Darklords have self-hate issues, but Draga may take the prize for this. Draga keeps to his human form as often as he can, paranoid that he will, eventually, be nothing more than the sharks he despises.

Power wise, he is able to control the sea creatures within his Domain and he can summon sharks to his side. If he is ever destroyed, his essence is divided into all the sharks of his Domain. This creates a strange ritual in which each shark attacks the others to absorb a piece of Draga and this continues until there is only one shark left and that sharks becomes Draga. This process takes a mere week to complete. If only I had land-eating sharks in Darkon perhaps my own resurrection would not have taken 5 years to complete…

Draga is a powerful opponent and best left alone under the sea. Though, perhaps if you just flash a mirror at him when he’s in his shark form, he’ll be disgusted enough to flee. 3/5 stars.

[sistersorrow]

Due to nearly daily power outages and dropping out of college, I've had a lot more free time this year, so I decided I'd read more this year, and here's a list of the things I read either partly or to completion (I'm including ttrpg sourcebooks, comics, and fanfics cause I feel like it)

Jerusalem by Alan Moore

The Fifth Science by Exurb1a

Horus Rising by Dan Abnett

False Gods by Graham McNeill

Galaxy in Flames by Ben Counter

Flight of the Eisenstein by James Swallow

Descent of Angels by Mitchel Scanlon

The Men Who Stare at Goats by Jon Ronson

The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson

Lost at Sea by Jon Ronson

The Rise of Kyoshi by F.C Yee

The Shadow of Kyoshi by F.C Yee

The Dawn of Yangchen by F.C Yee

The Legacy of Yangchn by F.C Yee

A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

Dreadnought by April Daniels

Sovereign by April Daniels

The Emerald Tablets of Thoth the Atlantean

The Corpus Hermeticum

RWBY: Scars by Doneesses

The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien

The Prague Cemetery by Eco Umber

Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh

The Bible Repairman by Tim Powers

Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That'll Improve and/or Ruin Everything by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith

The Gods of Pegana by Lord Dunsany

Time and the Gods by Lord Dunsany

Welcome to the NHK by Tasuhiko Takimoto

What If? by Randall Munroe

TTRPGs I read books for:

Eclipse Phase

Exalted (2e and 3e)

Lancer

Nobilis (2e and 3e)

Numenera

Ponyfinder

Unknown Armies (1e, 2e, and 3e)

World of Darkness (Old and Chronicles)

Continuum, Roleplaying in the Yet

Broken Worlds

Comics and Manga I read this year:

A Study Emerald by Rafael Scavone, Rafael Albuquerque, and Dave Stewart

Alters by Paul Jenkins and Leila Leiz

All the Last Airbender and Legend of Korra comics

Black Hole by Charles Burns

Giant Days by John Allison, Lissa Treiman, Max Sarin, and Julia Madrigal

The Unbelievable Gwenpool by Christopher Hastings, Gurihiru, Danilo Beyruth, Iren Strychalski, Myisha Haynes, and Alti Firmansyah

Gwenpool Strikes Back by Leah Williams and David Baldeon

I Hate Fairyland by Skottie Young

Irredeemable by Mark Waid, Peter Krause, Diego Barreto, and Eduardo Barreto

Jem and the Holograms by Kelly Thompson, Sophie Campbell, Emma Vieceli, and Corin Howell

Judas by Jeff Loveness and Jakub Rebelka

Kill 6 Billion Demons by Tom Bloom

Monstress by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda

Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

The Woods by James Tynion V and Michael Dialynas

The Wicked + The Divine by Kieron Gillen and Jaime McKelvie

Batman: Whatever Happened to the Craped Crusader by Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert

Cheer Up! Love and Pompoms by Crystal Fraiser and Val Wise

Okko by Hub

Chainsaw Man by Tatsuki Fujimoto

Goodbye, Eri by Tatsuki Fujimoto

Inside Mari Shuzo Oshimi

[fallen-chances]

TES OC MASTERPOST

I'm realizing I rb lots of stuff asking for people to send asks about my ocs but there are probably a lot of people who like Don't Know My OCs! So here is a master post for my elder scrolls OCS! (vampyr oc masterpost is [COMING SOON])

I figured I would sort by Eras! Easiest for everyone. Under the cut, because I have SO many OCs. Any names with a ** are minor ocs that don't have much in their own tags but feature mostly in other characters' art or writing.

1E/2E

Alheidon Envolsen - He/Him, Gay. A Nord born in the late first Era. Came from a bad childhood that left him with dissociative identity disorder. His family line is known to be "cursed" with men falling into unfortunate accidents and women often struggling to conceive. He had a brief fling with a Dwemer that inspired him to leave home and become a mercenary. After meeting with that Dwemer again, they fell in love and got married. After a mercenary contract went wrong, he was turned into a vampire.

Abisare Raonryhn - He/They, Pansexual. A Dwemer with prophetic visions for reasons unknown. He has two younger sisters** who are twins. He does art and occasional manual labor. His prophetic visions led him to Alheidon twice. After a Falmer uprising in Nchuand-zel, he was left badly injured, forcing Alheidon to turn him into a vampire.

As vampires they grow very powerful and pick up on traveling through daedric realms for fun, and were off-world in Moonshadow when the Dwemer disappeared, sparing Abisare.

**Khzaechum - Ze/Zir, ???. A very minor Dwemer OC of mine, an ex-tonal architect who was banished from the Dwemer for excessive interest in the Daedra. Friend of the Chimer. Functionally immortal and no one knows how. Good friends with Mistress Dratha. Unknown how ze survived the disappearance of the dwemer.

3E

Ilenar Talvyn - He/Him, Bisexual. Dunmer Nerevarine. Destruction mage with medium armor and a dagger for Flavor. Born to adopted Imperial parents who ran an apothecary, he was arrested for stealing magic books. He really doesn't know what he's doing here in Morrowind, he's just trying to get by going from one day to another and got wrapped up in all this. He Fell in love with an Ashlander that he was sure hated him, and after he defeated Dagoth Ur he was... in need of some help.

Addarashnimaelshuralu - He/Him, Gay. Ashlander Dunmer, younger brother of the Zainab tribe's Ashkhan. He and Ilenar had very rocky beginnings but he was often forced to be the one Ilenar was interacting with when his older brother or the Wise Woman wanted nothing to do with Ilenar. Works for the Morag Tong occasionally.

Addarash nursed Ilenar back to health when he stumbled into the Zainab tribe injured and delirious after defeating Dagoth Ur. They slowly built a rapport over a few weeks and eventually, Ilenar confessed the feelings he had for him. They get together in secret for a while until getting properly married. They adopted Addarash's young cousin after her parents died and had another child through a surrogate, as corprus left Ilenar infertile. And very immortal. Stuck watching his family slowly age without him. When the Red Year occurred, he lost them all and wanders around Tamriel listlessly.

Hadrien Velvinia - He/Him, Bisexual. Imperial Hero of Kvatch. Was indoctrinated into a Cult of Sanguine as a teen, and was there for a long time as their resident necromancer and conjurer. He was even the one to recruit Martin to it but eventually left after a bit of love at first sight with a Nord woman**. They settled down and tried having a family, but bandits killed his wife and young child**, leading him to pick up necromancy (again). He eventually got arrested. His reunion with Martin was awkward and strained, but they eventually began rekindling their very old romance. Then Martin died. Hadrien later went on to do Shivering Isles and became the new Sheogorath. Left behind a surrogate son from the cult, Umbaiel Plautius**

4E

Maelle Channitte - She/Her, Lesbian. Breton Dragonborn. Battlemage Conjurer and Champion of Meridia. Member of the College of Winterhold, though she gave Archmage status to Mirabelle. Ex Noble whose parents were killed in an assassination attempt on her 12th birthday. The event left her selectively mute both by physical and mental trauma. She does not go down in history as the Dragonborn and prefers it that way. Only a few select people actually know she's the DB. Dating Adal Envolsen.

Adal Envolsen - She/Her, Bisexual and Poly. Descendent of Alheidon. The warrior and healer of the group. Bard's College graduate. She goes down in History as the Dragonborn because she often speaks for Maelle. Ex-Priestess of Kyne who often protected the temple later picked up mercenary work where she met Celeryn, who she is engaged to, as well as dating Maelle.

Celeryn Sural - He/Him, Pansexual. Mixed Bosmer/Breton. Ranger Swashbuckler type, an ex-pirate who retired after a shark took a chunk out of his thigh. Met Adal on a bounty together and grouped up, eventually falling in love. He proposed to her several times before she finally agreed.

Aedia Dormae - She/They Bi/Ace. Ex Imperial rich girl who had to run away after she stole something from the Imperial Palace. The resulting altercation to get it back wound up with her mother dead by accident. The Imperial City Thieves Guild recommended she run to Skyrim, where she met up with the Guild in Riften. She goes on to become a Nightingale and joins Maelle + Friends as their resident rogue.

Maelle met Adal and Celeryn in Whiterun, and they joined her on her quest to Bleak Falls Barrow and beyond. They met Aedia when they had to go to Riften for the aid of the Thieves Guild. They briefly parted ways after the MQ, with Maelle doing the Dragonborn DLC alone, Adal and Celeryn doing Dawnguard, and Aedia simply doing Thieves Guild things. They eventually all got back together to end the Civil War in a truce allowing the Nords religious freedom while still being an Imperial territory. Adal went on to attempt to educate the Nords in the ways the Imperials caused the loss of aspects of their culture and teach them about their religion before Imperialization.

Snow Elf OCs

This is a bit of a different subset of OCs bc it's a bit AU...

Rhene Norwenoth-Henelen - He/They, Bisexual. Born in the middle of the Falmer/Atmoran wars, in a little village where Old Hroldan is now. His parents and little sister were killed by Atmorans, leaving him in the care of his estranged uncle Gaelin** who was just sent home from the battlefield. Most of his village, aided by a runaway ex-enchanter** from the Falmer royal family, was frozen in a magical stasis in a hidden cave. He and his uncle seemed to be the only survivors, awakening after the events of Skyrim.

**Faekyre Orenaris - They/She, Ace Lesbian. A Falmer born in a village of surviving descendants living in the Jerall Mountains. She is an excellent hunter, even with her missing eye from a bear attack.

**Ysmawith - They/Them, ??? Born to a neighboring village as Faekyre, Ysmawith got lost for several years in their childhood where they lived with betrayed Falmer in a cave. When they were twelve they clawed their own eyes out in distress to be "more like their family." Was eventually found and brought back home where they live in unease.

Areyor Masparwen - He/Him, ??? The Snow Prince. Genuinely. He's my oc now <3. Not in line for the throne at all, he took to the battlefield to defend his people against the invading Atmorans. When he was killed in Solstheim, he was actually saved by an enchanted amulet of his, a gift from his older sister** that contains a stasis spell much like the one used with Rhene's village. He awoke not long after the Great War and spent a lot of time wandering trying to find survivors.

Areyor eventually finds Rhene, Gaelin, Faekyre, and Ysmawith and convinces them all to join him on a journey to the Chantry in the Forgotten Veil. Vythur and Gelebor are reunited and Vythur is cured of Vampirism with the aid of the Dragonborn. They set up a new settlement for the Falmer, inviting any descendants of survivors to come and people interested in trade. One person who is not a Falmer at all does arrive.

Uthryne Olthen - They/She, Bisexual. Mixed Dunmer/Altmer. Their parents were daedra hunters and killed after crossing a cult of Vaermina. The surviving cultists, aided by an embittered Vaermina, cursed Uthryne to suffer from nightmarishly exaggerated prophetic dreams. They eventually lead her to the Chantry, where they were nursed back to health after far too much sleep deprivation and drugs to aid in that. She finds herself an odd one out in the chantry, but the local ray of sunshine Rhene befriends her, and eventually, they hook up. Feelings are caught, confessions, etc. you know the deal they're an Item <3

RP AU Characters

These OCs are from an ongoing RP with one of my friends and are tes versions of some of my Vampyr OCs. This is an AU version of Skyrim and detached from my other ocs (though they make cameos at times)

Merriell Sartorius - He/Him, Gay. Breton/Imperial raised outside the Imperial City in a stifling and abusive noble family. Left when he was 18 to spend time with his Uncle in Solitude, but was caught by Movarth's coven on the way and kept initially as food, then later as entertainment after he was accidentally turned and they starved him. Saved by a new Lord of Castle Volkihar who overthrew Harkon (my friend's OC Cassander**.) He is incredibly naive and both very trusting and horribly suspicious of everyone. The worst abandonment fear known to man. He has a bit of a corruption arc planned that I like to draw.

Massarapalibbi - Any (commonly He/They) Pansexual. Ashlander living on mainland Morrowind. His parents died when he was young. Left home at 16 (abandoning his little sister** in the process) and was found by a cult of Boethiah he stayed with until joining a cult of Mephala that was a schism of the Morag Tong (which shattered after the events of Red Year) His sister eventually tracked him down for missing an important anniversary of their mother's death and dragged him home. He can't bear to stay in one place, so they began traveling as bards. After a fight involving an old member of the Mephala cult**, he and his sister parted ways until she invited him to join her at the Solitude Bard's college. He too was caught by Movarth's coven, but instead as a meal for Merriell, who was just barely able to keep himself from draining him. Upon being saved by Cassander, Massara was turned to save his life since he lost too much blood.

**Corelia Bianchi - She/Her. Straight. A viscountess of Bravil who fell in love with a vampire artist**. When she was dying of consumption he turned her and whisked her away into the night. She and her husband joined Volkihar castle 10 years ago, but her husband was killed during a fight with the Dawnguard recently. She wants revenge but has no fighting skills.

**Finnr Blood-Beast - He/Him, Bisexual. A very old vampire who thrives on chaos, and is currently attempting to ruin Cassander's rule of the castle by grooming Merriell into the perfect weapon against him. Joins up with an even older vampire (Earaya**) who also likes the idea of overthrowing Cassander so that Earaya can rule.

**Blair Stout-Heart - He/They, Lesbian. Raised Nord of Reachmen descent. The current leader of the Dawnguard after Cassander disposed of much of the higher-ups. Distrusting and prone to anger, but also is a healer and is trying to turn over a new leaf for the Dawnguard.

Ysmine Fire-Eyes - She/Her ???. Young Nord girl who is with the Dawnguard because she has nowhere else to go after vampires killed her father**, an ex-champion of Meridia and owner of Dawnbreaker. Fended off many of the vampires who wanted the sword to destroy it, but was left injured by the time she was saved. Feels she owes the Dawnguard her life and is willing to do anything to help. She is the daughter of a Golden Saint, through a very hush-hush affair of her father's.

these are a few misc ocs in the universe, all have an encompassing ** :)

Abigaelaris - She/Her, Bisexual Altmer. The youngest sister of the Solitude clothiers, but she was disowned for having anti-Aldmeri Dominion sentiments. Currently works for a competing store as a dressmaker. The owner** is a vampire, not that she knows it.

Nileyransi - She/Her, ???. Massarapalibbi's little sister. Currently unaware of her older sibling's undead status.

Athanasia - She/Her Lesbian. An ancient Falmer pureblood vampire, who gained her powers to save her family. Her coven is small, and primarily women who travel around Tamriel staying in caves and abandoned buildings, mostly feeding on animals but also the occasional bandit, criminal, or particularly rude traveler. She is Cassander's maker.

Zharrae - She/They Bisexual. Athanasia's half nord daughter. She was born in the 3rd Era. Athanasia didn't think she could have children, as a vampire, but wanted to try anyway. Zharrae has a uniquely difficult struggle with her humanity, hunger, and vampirism as a Dhampir

Arwyn - He/Him, Gay. Ohmes Khajiit, raised Reachmen. Currently trying to hunt down Earaya bc he slaughtered his khajiit family's caravan on the road. Joined the Dawnguard with the hope that they'll help him kill him. He will occasionally bite vampires back, out of spite.

[chancellorxofxtrash]

awww i wanna discuss on the what if keiwa was part of class 3e (he's struggling academics wise and everything because of his parents' death and he doesn't really get along with his sister before) or anyone of 3e and how effective they would be in DGP

are we joking 3e members would be fucking MENACES in the DGP

i haven't seen enough episodes to say whether they'd win or not (and if they are up against Ace, that's different as Ace is wayyyyy more experienced, but if it's a game before Ace's invite...)

my brain is blanking at imagining Keiwa at 3e, sorry

[talenlee]

3e: Haste!

New Post has been published on PRESS.exe: 3e: Haste!

Oh boy you know what’s the most broken spell available in 3rd edition D&D well now you mention it it’s a contentious slot because there are a lot of spells that are really, really broken and third edition had a lot of them flying around but when it got broken you kind of had to start in the core rulebook and see the things that you’d wind up seeing used all the time and nothing was really ever going to wind up being as broken as this one it’s haste it’s haste look it’s obvious I’m talking about haste haste was so very goddamn broken in third edition D&D.

If you’ve played D&D 3rd edition and its family type of games, odds are really good you may remember haste as being ‘important’ but not that big a deal. Haste is, in 3.5, a really important, very valuable spell; it’s a great reason to have transmutation spells available to you, because at the level you get it (5, for wizards), it can represent a big upgrade in your damage output. 3.5 Haste is a group buff power, and everyone affected by it has a movement speed upgrade, but also when they make a full attack action, they get an additional attack at their highest bonus. At level 5, when you get it, that’s effectively doubling the attack output of every melee character. If they’re dual wielding, okay, you only increase it by 50% but that’s still a lot for a single spell.

Back in 3rd edition, though, Haste was a very different spell. True to the spirit of it, but also, not the same thing at all. See, back in 3rd edition, Hasten was a single-target buff that lasted for 1 round per caster level (so, 5 when you got it). When you used it, it granted you +4 to your armour class, because you were moving so fast, and a partial action. This action could be used after or before your normal action, and that meant that haste, on the turn you used it was -1 action for +1 action; so it was basically neutral…

… and then, every turn thereafter, you had two actions. Attack-wise, you could use your partial action to do partial charges. Meaning that, if you’ve got haste, the duration of that haste was basically the equivalent of pounce and a bonus attack. That’s a lot of extra damage on the person who casts Haste, which you know, isn’t that great. Of course, clerics could get that, with the Celerity Prestige Domain (but let’s not talk about prestige domains today, they are silly). But let’s ignore that for now, this isn’t the important thing. Using haste for melee is really strong, to the point where items that let you get single turns of haste are highly desireable magic items.

But.

But.

You can use that extra partial action to cast another spell.

And suddenly, this spell represents double spelling every turn. And at level 5, you may think ‘hey, that runs you out of spells really quick’ and that’s true, but if you’re spelling twice as fast as any one else, you’re going to end fights faster and knock out problems faster. It’s an immense level of power when you remember that spells are designed to have impact enough to shape a whole turn, and then haste lets you cast two.

This is, honestly, kind of where a whole generation of Game Opinion Havers learned the term ‘action economy.’ In a game system where everyone had n actions, someone having n+1 actions is a big disruption, and when that someone is also built so that their actions are themselves, worth more than n actions every turn, you start multiplying that effect. The result is that haste was, for the whopping two years of 3.0 D&D, the conventional wisdom was that the most powerful thing you could do was be a wizard, and use haste to pump out broken spells.

And that’s not wrong.

The funny thing was that this illusion that wizards got haste, so they could use haste best, so the most powerful class was the wizard, but there were also available, in expansions like Defenders of the Faith and oh no look we’re at the prestige domains, and suddenly clerics could get access to haste. Turns out that? Everything the cleric could do that was just as busted? Suddenly also the cleric had haste too!

I don’t think anyone went out of their way to make haste overpowered, by the way. I think haste was a name of a spell from 2nd edition that was very good, and so there was a deliberate push to make the version in 3rd edition also very good. That wasn’t playtested to push it to its edge in 3rd editions first release, and a powerful spell got through. What was amazing then, however, were all the people arguing after that about whether or not it was reasonable.

It may not surprise you to hear this, but it seems that haste, as 3e designed it, was not a reasonable spell. It was too powerful, but because it was in the game to start with, there was a mindset that no, it had to be okay, and anything else it displaced, that was intentional, and the problems were all directly built out around that displacement!

Because the assumption was that the game as product was released to us ‘fine.’ That the game’s base version needed official errata (and it kind of did, for everyone to have a equal platform to talk about the game design). But it did mean that for anyone who wanted to address problems with the game, there was always a fundamentally reactive political body that wanted to assert fixing these problems was always, always going to against the idea that the game we bought was fine.

Even when it had Haste in it!

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#DnD3E #GDQ2023

[imsobadatnicknames2]

That's... Not really true tho. Or, well, it's true but only if the older editions you're taking as your comparison point only go as far back as 3e/3.5e, which WAS very rules-heavy, bc otherwise there were several older editions that were significantly lighter on mechanics compared to modern D&D.

I have a bit of a reputation for being a D&D hater on here, but I'm actually a big fan of the Basic D&D line from the 80's, and particularly the B/X D&D set from 1981, which I consider to be significantly more streamlined in terms of mechanics compared to 5e. The whole set is barely 1/4 of the length of the 5e core rulebook set, character creation is short and sweet compared to modern editions, initiative in combat is rolled by sides rather than by each character, which significantly streamlines combat, useless annoying mechanics like spell components are nowhere to be seen...

It does have a couple of weird old-school quirks that might seem a little bit clunky in hindsight, like how AC basically works backwards (higher AC makes you easier to hit, lower AC makes you harder to hit), and there are some mechanics that haven't aged quite that well (like how it streamlined character creation by making nonhuman races into classes), but overall mechanics-wise it's a much shorter, simpler, and more accessible ruleset compared to 5e, and basically the only edition of D&D I play regularly. Plus, Basic Fantasy is a very good retroclone of it that has basically the exact same mechanics but getting rid of the weird quirks I mentioned, such as Race-as-class and descending AC (and it's also completely free)

Wait, are you saying that homebrewing is bad?

much like modding, it's not bad and can be good and wonderful -- but if you need to do it for the game to be fun or functional then the game is bad

[darklordazalin]

Azalin Reviews: Duke Gundar

Darklord: Duke Nharov Gundar Domain: Gundarak Domain Formation: 593 BC Power Level: 💀⚫⚫⚫⚫ (1/5 skulls) Sources: Realms of Terror (2e), Feast of Goblyns (2e), Bleak House (2e), Ravenloft Gazetteer Vol. 1 (3e), Children of the Night: Werebeasts (2e), Knight of the Black Rose (novel) Duke Nharov Gundar was the Darklord of the Domain with the highly imaginative name of Gundarak. Emphasis on “was” as both Gundar and Gundarak are now no more than forgotten shells gathering dust in some unnamed scholar’s mind. I had to do some rather deep digging into the Hall of Records for scraps of information on the Demiplane’s saddest vampire. Historical records (false or otherwise) gathered by my little scholar indicates that Gundar’s family have been bloodthirsty tyrants for generations as they ruled from Castle Hunadora. Gundar continued this blood thirsty tradition as a Darklord once he so very wisely stepped through a portal that carried him into the Mists and made him the Darklord of Gundarak. Well, at least for a short while. Gundar was known for his excessive taxation of his people (from having a girl to gathering firewood, he taxed every aspect of their lives) and overly cruel punishments...as is traditional for the lot of us. Those that dared defy him or just happened to look at him in the wrong way were hung from the walls of Castle Hunadora. Sharing a border with Barovia, Gundar and von Zarovich shared a mutual hatred of one another. Though it never boiled over to full out war, the two sent countless spies into one another’s realms. All of these spies were killed by the opposing side. Inferior rule often leads to inferior followers, so it is unsurprising that these two overgrown ticks failed to cultivate a network of spies as formidable as my Kargat. von Zarovich hated Gundar enough to trick Lord Soth into going after Gundar while the little Death Knight was swinging his sword around Barovia. Strahd informed him that Gundar's blood could be used to open a portal which would allow Soth to return to Krynn. This was an obvious lie, but Soth, being the dumb jock that he is, believed the Count without question. Soth managed to kill Gundar’s son, a rather powerful wizard who was trapped forever in the body of a child. Gundar, petrified of his own son, feigned anger at his loss but was, in actuality, relieved to be rid of him. Even though Gundar is said to be older than von Zarovich, he is much weaker. Stop believing von Zarovich whenever he says he’s the “first vampire” both Jander Sunstar and Gundar are proof that he is not. Eventually, the powers that be decided having yet another warrior vampire Darklord was as boring as it sounds, so they replace Gundar with...a different type of vampire - Daclaud Heinfroth. Daclaud Heinfroth was a man obsessed with his family’s history of madness and studied it in hopes of finding a cure. Heinfroth performed direct transfusions of the spinal and cerebral fluid from who those he deemed as “sane” to those he deemed “insane” and eventually did this to himself. Foolishly, the victim he did this to was going through Gundar’s ‘make a vampire bribe process’ and caused some side effects… Heinfroth became a “cerebral” vampire, because we needed more kinds of vampires, apparently. I won’t discuss Heinfroth in detail now as I’ll be reviewing him in the future. After a plot by Gundar and Heinforth to overthrow Harkon Lukas of Kartakass to transfer control of Harkon's Domain to Heinfroth failed, Heinfroth took out his former master by staking him in the heart and declaring himself the ruler of Gundarak. During the Grand Conjunction, Gundarak was absorbed into the Domains of Barovia and Invidia. Gundar's bones, stake still in his chest, are now traveling through the Mists in Professor Arcanus’s wagon of wonders. The majority of Arcanus’s “wonders” are obvious fakes, but the bones of Gundar are likely real. If anyone were to remove the wooden stake from his heart, he could rise again, but who would want that? No one. No one would want that. How does one rate a “weaker than Strahd” vampire warrior that was taken out by his own lackey and doesn’t have an official drawing? Oh and fears his own child. Does this sad excuse for a vampire even deserve a single skull? Probably not.