#Homebrew Review

[jaypea00101010]

Pointy Hat's Scion Subclass is Not Great

Antonio Demico a.k.a. Pointy Hat released a new youtube video titled 'Are D&D Fighters Boring?' (at time I start writing this) under an hour ago on his YouTube channel. As with a lot of his videos, he also released something mechanical to go alongside it, this time a fighter subclass. While I haven't had time to watch through the video yet I have read through the subclass and have some thoughts.

To be clear, critique isn't intended as a reflection at all of the YoutTube video, of the Pointy Hat YouTube in general, or on any other content that he's released through it, I've found myself thoroughly enjoying the vast majority of his content, I just have spesific gripes with this subclass spesifically.

So lets take it point by point, what exactly his this subclass I keep talking about?

Description

Antonio's Scion subclass for the fighter (link here) grants characters a Mythic Arm, a magical weapon that evolves with the user, and that can be customised with the look the user unlocks through their journey.

Features

Mythic Arm as a feature already starts to show some of the cracks within the subclass, the first paragraph dicusses that you aquire a mythic arm and that it must be a weapon that you're proficient with. On it's own this would be fine, but there's a slight problem in that it doesn't mention how you get the mythic arm. I understand that this is intended to be part of the narrative, that it could be something passed generation to generation, or something you stole, but whatever the case, as this item is so core to your subclass, not having a way of getting it back should you lose it isn't ideal. Other options that rely on items have ways to let you re-create them (e.g. artillerist artificer) or to re-summon them to you (pact of the blade), but in this case, if you lose your mystic arm, it's gone for good.

The second part of this feature is also not great, on a first glance, an extra 1d8 damage of a damage type of your choice sounds great, but when you read closer it becomes clear it's not all it's crackedd up to be. This extra damage type is chosen at level 3, and cannot be changed at any point, thematically this makes some sense, but mechanically isn't ideal at all, damage types like fire drop off a bit at later levels, and others like poison aren't really ever good, but if you pick something, you're stuck with it. Also the extra damage is only on the extra turn granted by action surge, action surge which you only get once per short rest. I believe this is intended to encourage fighters to use action surge, in reality this encourages fighters to only use action surge to attack, and doesnt' even encourage that well.

When you really break all of this feature down, what you're left with is 'you can potentially deal 1d8 extra damage once per short rest'. It doesnt' even explicitly count as a magic weapon on it's own which is really stange to me.

Weilding Legend as a feature is at least a bit more interesting than Mythic Arm, but reading that first paragraph.... that's just more discriptions of the arm itself. Why isn't that first paragraph part of the Mythic Arm feature? The TL:DR is that your weapon can't break, have it's shape altered (we'll come back to this), and you can't be disarmed if you're conscious. So you can be disarmed if you're unconscious. So people could still just take the weapon away (and with it all your subclass features) and you'd have no way to get it back...

The second paragraph is mostly fine at least, you can absorb enchantments onto your Mythic Arm. It's unclear however if you can stack enchantments, e.g. could I absorb the enchantments of both a flame tounge weapon and a +1 weapon for a +1 flame tounge Mythic Arm? If so, can I absorb two different enchantments that require attunement, and would I need to attune to the Mythic Arm twice? It's also implied but not outright stated (where it likely should be) that the original weapon loses it's enchantment.

Again this is a fine feature, but it needs clearing up a bit, and half of it should be part of a different feature. In my experience DMs usually give weapons that players can use anyway, so while this is nice to have, it's more a ribbon than anything, mostly there so the mythic arm can be magical.

One of a Kind is fine, I don't really have much more to say about it to be honest, possibly a little boring, but 7th level fighter features usually are.

What is this? Why is this? I was already bashing Mythic Arms for just giving you 1d8 (now 2d8) potential extra damage (if you hit), this takes that and increases that total potential damage by a grand total of..... 2 points per short rest. sure it scales, but I don't think I need to explain why this isn't a good feature. If I do though, I'll have a maths breakdown at the end of this post.

Finally we get to the first feature that made me actually somewhat interested in this class, but it's coming on too late in my opinion, and I've still got a few nitpicks. Firstly, this should absolutely let you change the Mythic Arm on a short rest. Your core subclass feature keys off a short rest resource, this should be encouraging more of that, it's definitly not broken if it does let you change on one. Secondly, much more pedantically, but remember how I mentioned previously coming back to the Mythic Arms not being able to change shape? How exactly are you making a dagger into a reach weapon without changing it's shape?

And finally Mythic Scion. Honestly, this kind of works. Almost an auto-hit on enemies when you action surge (though again I still have a problem only encouraging action surge to attack). Builds off other features being tied to action surge so encourages the core subclass gameplay loop, neatly designed, and it's strong, it's just a shame what it's building off isnt' great.

Edit: Another problem with this has come to my attention since writing this. It's very much assumed that, like Mythic Arms, this only applies to the extra attacks gained from action surge, but as written that's not what it says. As written any attacks after you use action surge benefit from this. Not on the same turn, just any attacks, forever. Obviously this is a rediculous way to read the feature and no-one would play it like that, but it should be clearer from the text of the feature itself.

The Maths

Earlier I promised some maths, so here it is, earlier I commented on 1d8 extra damage on action surge not being all that great, so here I'm going to prove it.

I'm going to be doing a theoretical damage output of two characters at various important levels, both characters will be longsword/shield fighters with the dueling fighting style. This will be a four round average, both characters using action surge when possible. Feats and magic items won't be taken into account.

Level 3

Avg DPS: Scion: 32.79 Champion: 30.74

Level 5

Avg DPS: Scion: 72.11 Champion: 68.05

Level 10

Avg DPS: Scion: 79.84 Champion: 74.51

Level 11

Avg DPS: Scion: 119.76 Champion: 111.77

Level 17

Avg DPS: Scion: 152.98 Champion: 138.09

As you can see while the difference broadens somewhat at levels go up, and surely would more past 18th level with Scion's Capstone, until then, the difference is at best only that of about 15 points, when it starts it's much lower being only a difference of 2.02.

On paper that looks better, but there's multiple other factors that have to be taken into consideration. Champion is one of the worse subclasses for fighter, scion's extra damage can vary a lot in usefulness depending on the type of enemy that's being fought (especially as it can't be changed), unless you're using action surge to attack you have basically no subclass features, if you lose your weapon you have literally no subclass features, etc.

Conclusion

I see what the subclass was going for, but I dont' think tying all features to either a 1/SR resource, or a weapon you have no way of getting back if you lose are great ideas, let alone doing both. A bit more polish definitely needs to be taken to clarify some features, and I think the tie to action surge is really holding this back, or at teh very least more things should lean into that short rest recharge to encourage players to take them and get more action surges.

I don't know why I wrote all this, I just had a lot of thougths and needed to get them off my chest, if you've read this far, thank you so much for listening to my ramble, I hope it was interesting? And if you're read this far and your name happens to be Antonio Demico, uh, hi, holy shit, I love your videos, I hope this is good feedback?? Idk?

[mrmegamanfan]

Running homebrew on PlayStation vita like a port of Gato Roboto and remakes of Sonic 1 and 2 from Sega Master Systems!

[dice-sociation]

Girls Who Don’t DnD

Quick Info

Audio Quality: High-Quality Audio, Effects, Music. (Occasional fan-submitted recordings)

Vibes: Throne of Glass, Doctor Who, Alice in Wonderland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Princess and the Pauper

Extras: Patreon rewards, Discord Community with Book Club, and more!

System: 5e DnD

Campaign/ Show Length: Long Term Campaign

Average Episode time: 1.5 Hours (varies a bit)

Uploads 1 episode a month. 

Diversity: Majority Women

Platforms: Podcast, Audio Only. 

Number of Episodes This Review is based on: 30+ 

** If you want the TLDR, scroll to the bottom of the post **

Why Girls Who Don’t DnD?

How often have you said to yourself, “Man, I wish I could experience that for the first time again?” While we can’t reset your brain, you can live vicariously through the Girls Who Don’t D&D podcast. 

If you're looking for a podcast with relaxed gameplay, fantastic humor, great editing, and effects, you should read on to learn more. This wonderful adventure showcases the beautiful experience of watching three girls fall in love with Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). 

Starting the Pod

The podcast starts with Cory, the Dungeon Master (DM), explaining that he has invited three girls, Indy, Alana, and Stacey, who have never played D&D, into his world of Kalee with premade characters. If you, the listener, haven’t played before, you’ll learn a lot just from listening. Cory purposely doesn’t edit out explanations of how to play. I’m confident my experience was better because I was still learning to play the game myself as I started listening.

Right from the start you will hear how much work Cory puts into editing and pre-recording. He recruits people to voice-act for non-player characters (NPCs) or to play out memories or scenes. Some additions are just for the listeners, giving us a little extra information about the lore of the world. This includes the origin of magical artifacts, gods, and sometimes an NPC’s perspective that the players don’t get to hear.  It feels like listening to an audiobook and honestly, I think “booktok” would love Girls Who Don’t DnD. 

We learn that the three player characters, Freya, Kaa'Riin, and Morrigan, have lost their memories and need to recover them. The story and the discovery of who the player characters are and what happened to them work in tandem with the players themselves learning the game in a beautiful way. 

Power gamers and hardcore strategy? We don’t need that here. (Tosses book over shoulder). This group is made of story-tellers who usually choose to progress the narrative over strategy. At first, it's like watching Without A Recipe or the British Bake Off challenge where they have no clue what they are supposed to be making. This makes it all the more special when the players get more comfortable with the gameplay and more grounded in their characters. 

About the Team

Cory, "(who owns all the books but hasn't read them)"* completely absorbs the chaos the girls bring to the table and somehow also keeps them immersed in the story. He holds onto the rules of D&D loosely, letting his players use their abilities in different and unique ways. You still get full epic fights with no pulled punches, yet they feel more cinematic than the usual D&D grind. Outside of combat, Cory introduces challenging puzzles and encounters that present more opportunities for his players to think outside the mechanics of the game.

I adore Alana, Indy, and Stacy. I have some difficulty with telling their voices apart, but I never felt like that took away from my enjoyment of the show. Over time they develop their characters and have different play styles. They all have so much personality and bring their own flavor to the table. 

Indy, playing Freya the Rogue, has to be the most classic of first-time players, starting a little hack-and-slash happy, but eventually, she gets really into the strategy of the game. Freya is a cheeky scamp of a character and Indy leans naturally into the rogue class.  

Alana, playing Morrigan the Sorcerer, is usually the most sensible of the group. She is a leader in a way. There is so much more I want to say but I can't think of anything that isn't a big spoiler. Playing a sorcerer for your first time playing D&D is never easy, but Cory was able to ease her into the role and she runs with it.

Stacey, playing Kaa'Riin the Bearbarian (Druid with some Barbarian), has some epic combat moments. She can change from one animal to another without reverting to humanoid form, which deviates from traditional Druid rules. This decision, as well as other tweaks of the rules, help the pacing of the overall production. 

And sure, you're probably thinking their whole schtick is that they don't know D&D, so wouldn't it lose its charm after they get better? Absolutely not. Not even a little bit. This table is casual, silly, charming, and gripping. They make me feel like I am with my best friends playing our chaos gremlins together. 

A special shout to Mia Stegner (https://www.miastegner.com/) who composed and performed the opening and closing songs. It’s the cherry on top of this podcast sunday.

*Referenced from the Podcast Description. https://www.girlswhodontdnd.com/ 

About the world

“There is a saying among the good people of Kalee, when you know what is right, do what is right, and then deliver it all into the endless sea” From Episode 1: Throw it Into the Sea, Aug 16, 2021.

Cory presents a world both complex and informed by the player's choices and features some of the more bizarre parts of typical High Fantasy settings. 

There is just something so satisfying about learning the characters' backstories and how their stories are expertly baked in the many-layered cake that makes the world. Flavors include; wild magic, strange and whimsical characters, Evil Queens, “timey-wimey” stuff, super cute plans, snails, Gods, magic crystals, trapped souls, and Alan (the real star of the later episodes).

Extras

There are so many Patreon perks! You get behind-the-scenes talks, recipes from Indy, DMing tips, Lana's book reviews, and more! You can also join their Discord server where Cory is pretty active and they encourage community gaming and have a book club.

TL;DR: 

This podcast is about girls learning to play D&D using premade characters with amnesia. The girls learning to play parallels the story’s progression as they regain memories. 

Reliving the experience of learning to play for the first time all over again. 

Loosely follows the rules of 5e to keep the pacing up.

DM Cory recruits people to voice act for NPCs or to play out memories or scenes. Some additions are just for the listeners, giving us a little extra information about the lore of the world.

It's a little hard to tell the girls apart, but I don’t think it takes away from my enjoyment at all. 

Wild magic, strange and whimsical characters, Evil Queens, “timey-wimey” stuff, super cute plans, snails, Gods, magic crystals, trapped souls, and Alan. 

DM Cory presents a world both complex and informed by the player's choices and features some of the more bizarre parts of typical High Fantasy settings.

Special thanks to Artax of Who's Taking Watch for helping with editing!

No Context Gifs:

[dragonkid11]

Field Guide to Iridia by Miss Dataninja is a third-party Lancer supplement set on the world of Iridia, a world that fell through the crack and its people found themselves struggling to find their place on both their own world and the newly rediscovered interstellar community.

[i-mybrunettelady]

i forgor how pretty she is

[galacticsabc]

Redrew the 4+ year old map that I originally made for my worldbuilding. Also added updates since my old map didn't have a lot of the things I've written over the years.

This is the region called "The Up North", which is the northern region of the continent "Akarthia"

[sunbeargames]

I know I post on Reddit to promote my homebrew and products, but for anyone interested in getting better at homebrew (at least for D&D) I BEG you to stay off of reddit.

I got so much better as a designer when I went to communities that gave constructive, insightful advice.

Like. I disregard 90% of the feedback I get on reddit. Sometimes it's obvious they didn't read the feature properly. Sometimes they misunderstand what makes something "unbalanced" (thats a whole other can of worms tho). Sometimes they personally wouldn't use a feature and therefore consider it to be badly made.

This isn't a jab against anyone in particular in reddit ttrpg communities, its just an aspect of the culture I (and others) have observed there.

Personally, the biggest sea change for me was joining Indestructoboy's discord. Taron himself is really nice and a great designer, but more than that he built a community that includes a number of other experienced designers. Getting feedback from people like Heavyarms who know what they are talking about is so, so, so valuable when doing this kind of design. Also, that's shaped the culture and tone of discussion there, so I've been able to get thoughtful and useful feedback from lots of people there, even those without professional design experience, just because the server is more focused on improving designs together than giving a yay or nay based on your personal first impression.

[thehomebakery]

Drag and drop shops are here to help GMs out when the party inevitably asks if there’s anything interesting around. These will take the stress out of having to come up with somewhere on the fly and hopefully give your party a store that they will want to revisit time and time again.

With NPCs, unique magic items, a shop map and more, never dread a spontaneous shopping trip ever again! 

The Rootless Boutique is a travelling shop run by the mysterious Magwitch, a fey creature of unknown ability and an interest in the material plane.

Currently, at $2.99 to celebrate a Behind the Mask hitting Copper bestseller

[beerselfie]

#Repost @duke_of_drinkability If I die from beer it was meant to be. Death Sauce by @modistbrewing and @drekkerbrewing was a killer beer. I’ve had this can for a while but forgot to take a picture for it so I don’t have a detailed review BUT I do remember loving it! • Make sure to follow my page for more great beer reviews! #beer #craftbeer #beerreview #review #craftbeerreview #ilovebeer #cheers #instabeer #beeroftheday #drinkoftheday #beersofinstagram #beerphoto #beerpic #beersnob #beerporn #beerstagram #wisconsin #milwaukee #homebrewing #homebrewer #brewery #collab #collaboration #dead #beerselfie #wisconsinbeer #craftbeercommunity #dukeofdrinkability https://www.instagram.com/p/Clom0NsPhkG/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[hagensalley]

Single Credit Review 007 - Beerslinger - NES

2015 – GreetingCarts Beerslinger is a homebrew NES game released in 2015 by GreetingCarts, who also made the homebrew game Blow ‘Em Out released in 2014. This time the holiday is Saint Patty’s Day and what better way to celebrate than slinging some beer? You control the bartender at the most popular pub in town where you need to avoid messing up the customer’s beer order and getting fired. Think…

[12pdesigns]

3 Days Left to Enter to Win a Dice Set!

Sign up at https://12parsecsdesigns.com/pages/12-parsecs-designs-contact! Sign up to the newsletter for a chance to win a Premium Dice Set on April 1st 2023!

[raisingsupergirl]

Another Over-Simplified 2022 Retrospective

You know how it’s hard to start working out again when you’ve been lazy for a while? Yeah well, apparently when I said I was going to take a few months off from blogging, I underestimated how hard it would be to start back up because three months became an entire year. A year of so much awesomeness left completely undocumented… Oh, the humanity! How could I have let such a thing happen? Well, I guess I was too busy living to write any of it down. But it’s a new year, new me, as they say. And I’m back. I’m not sure how frequently yet, but I’ll post at least every month so something like this doesn’t happen again. And in an attempt to salvage my mistake, I’m going to cram my entire 2022 into this one post. So grab a snack, sit back, and enjoy my year in review.

For me, 2022 was a year focused on the future. With the trainwreck that was 2020 (and the cringe-worthy sequel the following year), my family was more than happy to wipe the slate clean and look to the horizon. And with a new home, new schools, new hobbies, and new goals came new challenges. But for the most part, they were exciting challenges. When we first moved into our house, I saw it as a blank slate of sorts. And since then, I cleared acres of trees, brush, and soooo much poison ivy from my fence rows and creeks. I planted apple trees, peach trees, plum trees, blackberry bushes, blueberry bushes, and more. I had ground leveled, rocks removed, and septic systems fixed. I repaired storm damage and cleaned up piles junk left by the previous owners. I (with the help of a gracious family friend) built an office out in my shop at the beginning of the year, and at the end of the year we started working on a bar with plenty of potential for gatherings of family and friends for years to come. It’s been countless hours of hard work and sweat, but man, it’s totally been worth it.

And speaking of family and friends, you didn’t think 2022 was all work with no play, did you? Sure, I may be a bit of a work-a-holic, but even I know the real secret to happiness is spending time with those you love. And I spent the majority of my rest and relaxation with the three people I love most on this planet—my wife and two daughters. We built snowmen in January, hunted Easter eggs in April, explored creeks in May, had soooo many Sunday fundays through the summer (which are hands-down my favorite memories of this past year), trick-r-treated in October, and played indoor games when the weather turned south for the winter. I had a few date nights with my wife (not nearly enough) and even one with my daughters (our daddy-daughter dance might be my second favorite 2022 memory). The kiddos kept up with their familiar sports of soccer and softball and even picked up a couple new ones (my eight-year-old started jiu jitsu and my five-year-old started gymnastics), and they only injured each other a couple of times “practicing.”

Of course, our furry family members are worth mentioning, too. Luna loved playing in the snow, exploring the creek, and hunting rabbits. Fancy loved tearing up toilet paper and looking ridiculously cute. We even nearly gained a stray cat, but it hid on top of my wife’s van engine when she picked up the kids from school, and one of the kind ladies there took it home (phew!). Other than that, we added a beta fish named Yondu, found a few wild surrogate kiddos around the property, and rumor has it that the Winches might be adding another fur baby in 2023…

But the fun didn’t stop with just my immediate family. Since we finally lived somewhere that could fit more than a few people at a time, we had plenty of friends and extended family over to join in on the shenanigans. We had an Easter dinner, a sushi party, a pool party birthday, and I hosted the first annual Indeportence Day with a few of my guy friends (it’s a super-exclusive event that celebrates the awesomeness of ‘Merica, and I’m sure I’ll talk more about it at some point).

And at the center of most of those gatherings was food. So much food. And most of it was made possible by two very important purchases. First, my amazing wife bought me a Blackstone griddle for my birthday, and at the end of summer I bought a pellet grill on clearance. And let me tell you, I cooked ALL the things with those two wonderful gadgets. On the griddle I cooked a zillion different stir-frys, seafoods, burgers, breakfast spreads, steaks, and other succulent meats (including a random go at sloppy joes, which turned out great). And on the pellet grill I smoked tons of veggies, briskets, pork butts (pulled pork goes wonderfully on nachos btw) and other pork cuts (steaks, chops, ribs), all the chicken parts, more steaks (you can never have too many steaks), and some mac-n-cheese. Heck, I even smoked chili, which might be the best way I’ve ever made it. But of course, not everything can be made on the Blackstone and the Pit Boss (contrary to the claims on their respective Facebook groups). So I did take the time to make some yummy pastas and soups and whatnot the old-fashioned way. Most of it was fairly well received, and now I’m forced to commit to a New Year’s diet…

As you know, food isn’t the only delicious treat that can take a gathering to the next level. For those who choose to imbibe, adult beverages are another surefire way to make a few memories. And since most of my 2022 gatherings took place at my home, it only made sense to make my booze at home, too. So I expanded my quarantine hobby to epic proportions (I mean, what’s the point of building a bar if I don’t have anything to serve?), cooking up dozens of batches of IPAs, stouts, shandies, amber ales, meads, and spirits, to name a few. And again, most of them went down smooth and kept my guests coming back for more.

By now you’re probably thinking, “Did he even leave his house in 2022?” Well, I tried not to, but I did venture out occasionally. Among my more notable excursions were going to the STL Cardinals opening day (seeing Pujols and Molina kick off their last season was something I’ll never forget. Nor was watching my two friends win over $1,000 at the craps table beforehand) going to the Lemp Brewery haunted house (it was seriously creepy knowing the history of that place beforehand), taking a week-long vacation with my beautiful wife to the Dominican Republic, and going to a handful of local festivals (Country Days and the Bloomsdale Fun Farm were the most memorable).

Of course, not all of 2022 was sunshine and pool parties. We lost some dear family members and close friends. Gas prices soared and temperatures plummeted. At times I cried, I shouted, and I wanted to give up. But as I write this, those aren’t the things that stand out in my mind. No, in retrospect, my 2022 was a great year. One that a single blog post can’t possibly do justice. I left out a lot, including some great memories relating to my “day” job and my writing, as well as a lot of little details that I wish I could cement in the annals of Raising Super Girl. But as I said, I’m going to do better. I’m going to take more time to unpack my adventures, my challenges, and my thoughts. As always, it’s mostly for myself and my family, but I do sincerely appreciate those of you who choose to come along with me. After all, what’s the point of all of this if it can’t be shared? Happy New Year, friends. I can’t wait to document whatever 2023 has in store.

[dice-sociation]

New Website!

Dice-Sociation is moving to our own website! I'll still make posts here but the full review will be on the website from now on.

Don't forget to sign up for the newsletter to hear about new reviews!

[dragonkid11]

Tear through the data stream until there's nothing left.

That's right, I'm finally reviving Mechanic Brewery after more than a full year of hiatus. And this time, I ran a polling contest on Pilot NET discord server to see what homebrew frames the Lancer community like the most, and for season 5, there will be 10 of them being featured, so stay tuned for the rest!

[mcoorlim]

“The Mad Wizard” Homebrew NES rom review

Get it here free: https://www.retrousb.com/product_info.php?cPath=30&products_id=137