#I love my Necromancer I just finished the playthrough with them

[moxtoons]

For Valentine's day I finally drew my Necromancer NB Tav with their wizard husband 💛

Reblogs are appreciated please don't Repost

[asexualsandbox]

I've been obsessed with Veilguard ever since its release, to the point I've beaten it twice now, with the same character and same romance but the second playthrough was intended to be my "canon" playthrough. So, after just beating my second playthrough today, I wanted to finish my Rook design and post them here! So meet Cyras De Riva, an Antivan Crow assassin in House De Riva. Rook is a tall, lanky elven mage who uses necromancy, preferring a mageknife over a staff. He's also nonbinary, using He/They pronouns.

Minor Dragon Age The Veilguard spoilers below.

He's a city elf turned assassin after being saved by Viago. After being banned from Treviso after disobeying Crow orders, he joins Varric after saving him from that very mission. Them and 2 others, Harding and Neve, stop Solas' ritual and end up releasing 2 ancient blighted gods, Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain. Rook is set to lead the team to save the world. They pick up a Veil Jumper, Bellara, another Crow, The famed Demon of Vyrantium, Lucanis, a Lord of Fortune, Taash, the famed necromancer, Emmrich and a Gray Warden, Davrin.

As you can see, I romanced Lucanis with Cyras. I freaking love Lucanis and Spite, and I can't wait to make more content with them~ Hopefully, I can pull myself away from another playthrough to draw more 😝

(My art, don't repost, but please reblog)

[postmanlee514]

Okay I’v been thinking about some post-game Rookanis thing since I finished my first playthrough

Spoiler ahead alert!

So here’s my hc: since my Rook is a Shadow Dragon,they will join the rebuilding of Mintharous and Lucanis needs to take the duty of The First Talon. The couple may have a long time couldn’t be able to make time for each other.

And finally the two get their time to discuss their own business such as:

1) Where to live, they can’t be separated in two city forever. Rook probably will be the one to compromise? They do enjoy the city and I think maybe Teia will invite them even before Lucanis asks LOL

2) my Rook is a Necromancer, It’s time to talk about necromancy with Lucanis 😆 I knew Emmerich tried but Hey! This is Rook speaking! Maybe Lucanis will try to understand necromancy?

3) Keeping pets. Lucanis already has a pet snake but how about Rook? Growing up in a military family, maybe they moved around a lot. This time they finally settle down, so keep pets is a good way to provide a sense of stability. But I also think Spite may disagree Lucanis and Rook’ decision Hahaha

4) About wounds healing . My Rook was a foundling and lost their parents years ago,then was Varric who was their nearly-father for like half a year, then was Harding-their longest-standing companion. They can’t be not having trauma in losing someone and be really fear to be abandone. So after all they’ve been through, maybe this is the chance Lucanis will be there for them for a mind therapy ? I would love to see them curing each other. <3

Followed are some of my gripes(No need to read!)

I literally cried for like 2 hours when I saw what Rook experienced when they trapped in Fade.Varric is always my favorite since DA 2, and damn! Varric’s words really help me to continue the game after the Mintharous or Treviso Choice. Shadow Dragons and Neve blamed all of this to Rook (and I was like “Rook is only one person without army and forces how could they be able to save the city? And Minrathous did have far more forces than Treviso has”)and they’ve already messed up the ritual. The self-doubt was about to overwhelm them, but they had to pretend to be optimistic and help everyone in the team dealing their problems.

My Rook has never considered themselves as a leader, they just stood out and begun to take the duty of finishing the job and they tried their best to take care of everyone. In the game,Varric was the only one asked Rook how long has it been since they’ve slept while they’re worrying others’ sleeping.

And the absence of companion banter, didn’t got their option when companion talking about a mage thing,etc…really made me feel unwanted . I hope maybe someday bioware could add some rook’s reaction to companion banter🥲

I mean, at least they should have comments on Romanced Lucanis told Taash how to kill mages and that’s like dancing or seduction …

“I’m right here hearing! Lucanis! ”

English is not my first language so please forgive me if I say something weird 🥲

about my Rook:

[seriouslyseravellan]

more veilguard ramblings, in no particular order. it has a death grip on me.

- I LOVE THE FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN BELLARA AND NEVE HOLY SHIT.

- really wish that bioware didn't just decide to use morrigan as a tool to tell the story they want. i love her and she deserves better.

- i was expecting davrin to be the dude actually in charge of the griffons, so him actually just being the bodyguard who has to now grow into the role of a mentor and trainer is actually delightful to see. he's getting there, albeit slowly lol.

- poor harding really can't catch a fucking break. my girl is STRESSED.

- lucanis needs therapy. this is no surprise to anyone.

- emmrich is so caring and sweet! such a kindly old gentleman necromancer. he and my mourn watch rook are getting along splendidly.

- very sad about neve being hardened bc i couldn't be in two places at once. i guess i get it but like. still. gonna have to try to build more trust with her now going forward.

- neve is even better than i imagined btw. i love her. gonna reread tevinter nights after i finish this playthrough.

- i love how many tevinter nights characters were incorporated into the game. it's an absolute delight to see.

- BELLARA being herself. i love. everyone here is neurodivergent.

- i'm not hating the combat as much as i was expecting, but it definitely doesn't feel like dragon age to me. it's also not very accessible to physically disabled gamers, which sucks major ass.

- i really don't like how they did the skill trees (mage specifically). i thought it would be improved from inquisition's very simplistic "fire, lightning, ice" shit, but NOPE. WHERE IS MY ENTROPY?? SPIRIT??? CREATION???? I CAN'T EVEN PLAY A FUCKING HEALER?????? bioware can go fuck themselves in the ass.

- you! can play! rock paper scissors! with manfred!

- solas is much more intriguing in veilguard than in inquisition imo. we're seeing a truer side of him and i think it's fascinating.

alright alright. TAASH. OMFG TAASH. i am SO excited about taash they are SO HOT they are ABSOLUTELY AUTISTIC they are PERFECT and i LOVE THEM.

- i really like how taash genuinely understands dragons and cares about them as much as they care about other people. and they very much do care about other people, just not in an overbearing way.

- taash's first romance scene btw. is um. SO HOT????

- so much more to say about taash and gender and them being nonbinary, but brain isn't making words very well right now, so that's a post for later.

[rom-e-o]

Thinking about the HoF now cuz I'm on a second DAI playthrough with my save state on Dragon Age Keep for DAO and DA2 (just finished up the Winter Palace and met Walrod and Morrigan's lovely son, Kieran!!)

Someone made concept dialogue for Veilguard where you can talk to Morrigan about her family, whether the HoF survived or not, both still talking about Kieran either way.

And I'm just imagining Renata going to Arlathan to check with the Veil Jumpers, see if there were any lingering side effects because of Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain's defeat, and she sees Morrigan still sticking around.

Renata: "Morrigan? And here I thought you moved on already."

Morrigan: "And here I thought you would have joined your pet necromancer back to Nevarra, but I suppose we both cannot seem to get what we want, can we?"

Renata: "You didn't have to be so harsh about it... Maker's breath..."

Regardless, Morrigan's there, though not for the Veil Jumpers' sake. Not anymore. Now it's all snark and sass as she roasts the ever-loving crap out of an exasperated Strife.

"Honestly, 'twould not be surprising if you chose to sit out this next expedition. I'm quite sure your poor, aching, creaky bones would thank you immensely for the respite."

"I hate you. So much."

"Thank you."

But in reality? She's waiting. Waiting for family she's yearned to see since this whole mess started.

"Leave the man alone, Mor. The last thing he needs is his streaks of grey to get even greyer."

And there he stands. Warden-Commander Waldor Aeducan, with a shite-eating grin as he greets his wife with a wave and more scars than Morrigan would like to see him with.

And their son, Kieran, now fully grown into an adult with a similar shite-eating grin and a hand across his father's shoulders, Vigilance now resting on his back.

Renata steps aside to let them pass, silent and respectful to the man known as the Hero of Ferelden. He gives her an acknowledging nod, before both father and son both go to embrace the Witch of the Wilds.

And screw any talk of sentimentality. Morrigan would have traded all the knowledge and magic she had known just to be with her family again.

And then they go home in their little pocket in the Fade and live happily ever after and they visit the Lighthouse where Kieran becomes friends with Assan and Manfred and Waldor, Emmrich, and Davrin become dad buddies-

Can you tell I am so incredibly emo over them?? XDDD I need to draw/commission Waldor so BADLY and I am so mad the Warden wasn't mentioned by Morrigan at least once in Veilguard-

(Ignore that I messed up realising that Dwarven markings signify casteless dwarfs and I did not realise that until after I finished the game- T-T time for mods to fix it)

First of all, Morrigan calling Emmrich "your pet necromancer" is so perfectly in-line with her character voice. I can practically hear Claudia reading the lines in the signature voice in my head, haha. Too perfect. And her tormenting Strife is perfect. He can stand up to her, but it doesn't mean he'll crack a smile about it, haha.

Gotta get in a jab, of course.

Kieran, yes! It was so surreal to be able to see him!

Oh my gosh, there's a REUNION! We got to see Hawke in DAI, but never the HoF (even if they survive) SO HIM REUNITING WITH MORRIGAN? And an adult Kieran? Oh, that is BEYOND precious.

Please, give this adorable family some rest after the decades of horrors they have braved together and miraculously survived!

I love Renata just stepping back and dipping her head. the perfect amount of ceremony. Those Necropolis-begotten manners haven't failed yet.

I don't blame you for being emo over them - it's a love story that spans generation, battlefields, entire countries, dimensions! All for them to end up eventually safe and reunited again through it all. <3

RIGHT? The Warden is so neglected in Veilguard and DAI! As mentioned above, we don't get to see them, and in Veilguard, there is ... maybe a mention or two? It's so sparse. I get it, we're in Tevinter, but come on! Just a little nod is more than enough!

I must tell you, that now every time I see Morrigan, I'm like, "there is is, Walrod's wifey." You've got me so invested in them. XD

AH, THERE HE IS! There's the man! I adore how you designed him - he's so handsome, and contrasts so well with the more goth/dark vibe of our favorite Witch. (Lmao, you are ALL GOOD. Ah, the beauty of mods.)

[dyrwoods]

i finally finished dos2.... thoughts ft. drawings + choice playthrough phone notes (spoilers obv)

my godwoken was an elf witch named allegory. he ended up as a necromancer/hydrosophist combo. blood damage + healing was a fun mix! odd contrasts <3

his backstory, 2 me, is that he was lost in a marshland as a little kid, and tir-cendelius saw the chance to keep him isolated (seeing off any potential rescuers, magically expanding the marshes every time he tried to trek out and leading him in circles) + raise the perfect tiny loyal godwoken for when The Time was Right. he let him out when he was an elf teen. t-c should have kept him longer because if anything it just made him weirder when he got reintegrated into society a couple decades later. F

what if your god grew you in a petri dish to [major game spoilers, redacted]. but you were a capricious little know it all with a jester's soul. what then

gorry took sebille, fane and ifan with him because i thought he would assemble a team of hot emos if given chance. this paid off + i love them all dearly

i wasn't expecting the origin characters i didn't take with me after act 1 to UP AND DIE. but it actually added a really good set of stakes. responsibility for ur actions. lohse yelled at me for leaving her to her fate and i felt SO bad. sorry miss thing

LOVED the worldbuilding....i was super familiar with 5e before i played bg3 so i sort of knew what was coming most of the time but for divinity i had to LEARN. super fun. 100% recommend

also i thought bg3 went in on the body horror but divinity was Something Else.

^ and then larian said okay that was fun what if we do it again. and made bg3. anyway

i was hideously bad at combat for ages until i listened to all the people on reddit chanting 'put points in warfare' and then it was much much much more doable lol

ngl i actually very much prefer dos2 to bg3. i loved loved loved bg3 but after like 4 playthroughs during various patch stages it was such a relief to play a game that's actually completed and won't eat my laptop for breakfast!!! first two bg3 files i had i couldn't make it to the lower city because the optimization on mac was so diabolical that it wouldn't actually play until after patch 5. dos2 lets me also have photoshop on my computer. and files that aren't bg related. miraculous

but even ignoring technical issues: from a story and world standpoint dos2 felt way more expansive and inventive. campy but also harrowing in a way that bg3 just didn't hit for me. i also genuinely enjoy being given a zillion pieces of almost overwhelming info and then sorting it out so i am biased. may expand on this at a later point and not under a mile long read more. moving on

romanced fane bc i loved his voice acting and i thought the culturally cannibalistic elf/the one guy with no flesh to eat bit was funny. jokes on me i fell in DEEP. u canonically have disappointing sex because hes simply made of bones without nerves and afterwards he takes notes. he calls u dear heart offhandedly in act 1 like it's nothing then goes right back to being aloof. how many more times does he have to tell you? he has business in the blackpits. he spends the whole game having an increasingly worse time. he's a loser. it's all his fault. he got me. he got me good. god damn

my game glitched (?) and even tho he rejected sebille (sorry baby) her and allegory still made out right before the big final choice. no option not to. then he had the expected epilogue with fane. poly ending canon enough for me!

also the music was bonkers good and the audio direction in that one battle in the final act? mwah. and dallis' va knocked it out of the entire park.

last thing here's a gorry i drew when i was still back in act 1. 180 hours ago. titled on my phone as 'praying at every altar so i always come out on top'

anyway if u made it this far: thank u. go get divinity: original sin 2 when it's next on sale. wise wise wise choice of £6.99 <3

[animasola86]

Nebbia's Origin Story

You might have seen and/or read about my HL MC Nebbia DeLuca, who I kinda revived for my HL playthroughs. But this very OC has been in my brain and in several attempts at writing her story for almost a decade now.

She's also been a shotgun/blood magic wielding Templar in The Secret World/Secret World Legends, or a necromancer with a greatsword and a staff in Guild Wars 2, and a car collecting maniac world explorer in GTA Online. So having "just" a wand was quite the adjustment for her!

But enough about her alter egos, how did she come to be?

She's been in my brain ever since I came into contact with The Last of Us. That game had a serious impact on me and the stories whirling through my head. I've always been a storyteller, have written stories since an early age. I've created a lot of original characters, fleshed out, with detailed backstories, but I was never able to finish their respective stories.

The themes were always pretty similar: younger woman, older man, size difference, gruff but protective male, innocent but feisty female. Side characters were always of the jealous, dangerous kind. I've always loved taboos and kinks, and the above-mentioned dynamic is one of my favorites to write (and read) stories about.

So, inspired by Joel and Ellie's relationship, I wanted to create characters that were similar, but different. My main motive for writing was always: Something's missing in those stories, let's write it myself! It started with adding romance to a thriller, love to a murder mystery, or found family/forbidden feelings to otherwise "innocent" scenarios.

For example, I've written a story about a young woman falling in love with the married father of the kid she's supposed to babysit (I swear there's more to that story than the porn clichés, it ends up turning into a psychological drama about jealousy and domination, mental illness, murder, abduction, what's real, what's not kinda scenes; unfortunately I've never finished my first proper original work that's sitting on a USB-stick somewhere since 2011. One day I'll get to finish your story, Tasja, don't worry. You'll get your happy ending!).

And then, someday in the year 2017, I started writing a story (though the idea is much older) about a post-apocalyptic world, based on an island near my hometown. I've thrown ideas around and around, researching, visiting places, creating characters, always changing something, but the basic idea that stuck was this (I suck at summaries, btw, sorry!):

Twenty years ago, there was a black-out and society collapsed. The people on that island live in groups, as far away from each other as possible to avoid conflict, as they are all stuck there, with no way to leave the island.

Enter Nebbia, born after the End, who is a girl living in an all-female village run by a group of older women called the Elders, whose daughters (creatively named the Daughters) do all their "dirty work". Nebbia is classified as a Motherless, you guessed it, lives without a mother.

And the backstory of that, in short, is: her mother was pregnant when she was found by one of the Daughters and brought to the village, gave birth, and fled the place after she discovered their dark secret (because what's a post-apocalyptic community without a dark secret, eh?), but she left Nebbia there because she knew she would have a safe home in spite of it, that is until she turns 18, when things go really dark.

In short: there's a strange little celebration, all the girls of age are dressed in their best dresses, and then leave the village on their way to another village nearby that is run by the Men... and, uh, well, yeah, society collapsed, so they try to rebuild it, it's a breeding station, oops, you get the idea.

And that is when our male protagonist comes in: Ben, in his late thirties, a gruff, lonesome smuggler/outsider/person who doesn't have a village/group, but works between them. And he is hired by none other than Nebbia's mother, Kira, to get Nebbia and save her from the horrible fate of being bred helping society grow again.

But something happens (there's a mysterious fog that keeps the people from leaving the island, but never mind that, although that is why Nebbia is called Nebbia, because fog=nebbia in Italian, because her mother is half-Italian - also, hey, off-topic, but there's a fitness clothes store called Nebbia in the Slovak Republic, isn't that cool?) and Ben loses his memories, and when he sees Nebbia, he thinks she's Kira... and kinda falls for her, because, of course, him and her were sweethearts before the End (but they had a falling out, but he doesn't remember that yet).

And Nebbia is this innocent girl, who basically worked as a slave her whole life, can't read, can't swim, is treated very poorly, can't exist outside her village, really. (And to have such a character and let her explore the world and learn stuff and blossom would have been so interesting to write!)

So Ben saves kidnaps Nebbia from the village, and they try to find their way back to Kira... and somehow this is where my ideas froze. I wanted to show their journey through the post-apocalyptic world, how their life is, what they do to survive, who they meet, that he slowly regains his memories and realizes his feelings for this girl, and once they get to where they want to go, they find out that Kira is gone/dead/I don't know, something, aaaand their journey continues? I have no idea. I never came to those parts.

I've written so many versions of that story, in German to start with (because the island it's set on is a German island), then tried recreating it in English without the local color, but it never really worked. I didn't know where it would end.

But the characters remained inside my head, I've had so many scenarios for them because I loved their dynamic, but I've never written any of them because back then I thought I needed a full story, something with beginning and end, the whole deal. I've never written one-shots before, or even short stories. I was fixated on the whole "novel" thing, that was my goal, my dream.

But now, after having written sooo many one-shots for a fandom, just snippets of people's lives and what they do in the moment, I feel confident enough to tackle it. To create little short stories centered around those very characters: Ben and Nebbia.

I've also read so many original works on AO3 lately, and seeing how people just put their own ideas out there, for everyone to see, did something to me. I always wanted to keep my ideas to myself, because, maybe, someday, I'll finish a story and could send it to a publisher and one day have my own work in book-form, but honestly, it is such a daunting idea, when all I wanna do is tell stories.

And so now I will just tell stories. I've started by writing for these characters everyone knows and loves (and I'll keep writing Sebastian smut, don't worry!), but now it's time to branch out, give those people inside my head their story, or at least snippets of their lives, and share it with the world.

And as I write this, I am working on an AU of those characters, with a completely different setting, but the same dynamic: older man, younger woman, gruff/protective vs. innocent/feisty, love in dangerous environments. Of course, it's gonna have my usual smut elements, but also world building, side characters, character development, etc. and new things to research!

(Lemme throw in some words I learned that may give a hint to where the story is set: withers, spats, stirrup. As for the time, well, it's actually an era I've already written for, but the place is a lot more... west, way west.)

I feel very inspired, and I hope I can one day (hopefully very soon*) share their story with you.

(I've made a side blog @animasolaoriginal where I'll post it once it's done or I grow too impatient to wait! I'll also post moodboards and inspirations there - eventually! If you'd like to follow me there too, I'd very much appreciate it!)

Thank you for letting me get this out. These characters are very dear to me, and I hope, once I start uploading my original work, I might catch your interest with it, and you will start to like them too!

Edit: *I did it, I posted the first chapter! 🤠

[p1xiemeat]

I love your video game posts & saw you play bg3, what is your favorite race and build? Or do you have like 10 characters like i do 😂🤣

thank you! and my absolute favoriteeee race is drow. i've always had a thing for dark elves in all my games lol plus i love playing evil characters so lolth sworn drow is very fitting for that lol. my favorite class is druid because i love animals and plants, but my favorite class in ANY game is necromancer. so i was multiclassing spore druid mixed with necromancer wizard to make a cool build of both poison and summoning💜

i actually just restarted my game because its my first time playing it and i was doing an evil playthrough but i realized that was not ideal as a first time player because i didn't know being evil cuts out a LOT of storylines and sidequests and i want to experience as much of the game as i can for my first playthrough to really learn the game.

so for my current (good) build i am playing as a tiefling because they are my second favorite race & my class with be storm sorcerer mixed with tempest cleric to do insane lightning & thunder damage⛈️💜 & i am going to romance Gale as my good character because he is also my 2nd favorite romance option.

then when i do my evil playthrough (the one i ACTUALLY wanted to play) i will be a lolth sworn drow & play spore druid/necromancer again. and for this playthrough i will choose astarion like i originally wanted. astarion approves of all the evil options and i wanted to save him for my evil playthrough so we could be hot vampire villains together 😈

i haven't even attempted dark urge yet because like i said, i'm new to bg3 and want to finish a "regular" playthrough before i do anything else so i can become familiar with the game in general.

i'm 100% planning on doing a ton of builds though like i did with skyrim😂 i love coming up with my own characters and backstories for them. i'd love to do a run as a wood elf, or romance minthara or shadowheart. i loveee how huge this game is and how much freedom you have in it. honestly i have been waiting for another game like this ever since i took a break from skyrim because i've just played skyrim SOOO much lol. i'll post more about it on my gaming blog @sailorgl0om so my main blog is overflowing with my nerdy gaming shit for ppl who don't have any interest in video games lol

[butleroftoast]

BG3 first playthrough, a retrospective (vague to minimise spoilers):

-The way Withers joined my camp (I found him in the temple, he said "We will meet again, when the time is right", hid behind a bookcase, then popped out again immediately saying "It is I, Withers!" when I made camp in the temple to long rest)

-"Turns out there's an entire western half of the map. Who knew." (x3)

-Buying expensive gear and then looting everything in a five mile radius to refill the coinpurse ("I only need 2,957 more rotten carrots before I'm back to where I was.")

-Companions roasting marshmallows over the campfire (or Karlach just... holding the marshmallow)

-who's Gale

-"So the way we're going to defeat these bosses is all of us wait round this corner while Astarion, you sneaky crit them from that ledge up there, hide invisibly behind a rock so they can't see you, then rinse and repeat until they're dead. It'll be epic, trust me."

-A particular necromancer coming back to life and being difficult to kill not because of the necromancy, but because I kept having to reload to before their boss fight to finish quests I missed (and I still failed to find all of them)

-Poorly-treated refugees: not Morris's problem. Abused dog: fireball owner first, ask questions later.

-Why Not To Bring A Full Druid Party Anywhere Animals Are Mistreated

-"I will not trust anybody I speak to ever again. Except for this pigeon."

-"Okay, that's everyone rescued, time to go, click to exit, quick headcount before I confirm leaving, 1, 2, 3, oh fuck I forgot Astarion RUN BUDDY RUN"

-Morris hates druids. Morris hates druids. Morris hates druids. Morris might begrudgingly tolerate this druiMorris is in love with this druid.

And in the ongoing multiplayer campaign with Unnamed Barbarian:

-"Where did you get this tadpole?" "I... found him." "You mean you stole him." "No! He's my pet! He's called Squiggles." [Mor has pickpocketed Mind Flayer Parasite Specimen from Toz.] "You ate Squiggles!" "No I didn't." "I WATCHED YOU DO IT RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME"

-"We just killed a hag with ease and now we are being slaughtered... by a frog."

-[After a multiplayer buddy accidentally turned Lae'zel hostile, forcing us to kill her.] "I'm playing a solo game now and there is so much I missed." "You mean like most of Lae'zel's voicelines?"

-"You are not allowed near Scratch. You are not allowed to pet him, talk to him, or interact with him in any way. The only pet you are allowed is Gale. He requires regular feeding. Look after him properly and maybe you can throw a ball for Scratch."

-Find Hastings ("He's called Hal-" "HE'S CALLED HASTINGS.")

[sevenmothz]

Spent Friday to today playing Veilguard and honestly, I've been really enjoying it.

The overall story has me hooked, the lore drops have been fucking nuts (it was Solas/Mythal All Along lmao), the combat is pretty damn fun, and I've been really enjoying all of the companions.

That last one is new for me because there is usually always that one or two characters I cannot fucking stand (Oghren and Anders, for instance). Hell, in Inquisition, I was very ambivalent to a majority of the companions. Didn't love them, didn't hate them (which I'm sure half of that feeling can be blamed on the busted banter that never really got fixed). Cole, Dorian, and Cassandra were the three I tended to enjoy the most within that game.

This go around, I've really enjoyed mixing up my crew because I genuinely want to have each of them around and hear them talk to each other (bless the Maker the banter isn't busted in this game--in fact, I haven't run into any bugs in this playthrough so far [knock on wood]). On top of that, because of how the combat works, you're not forced to even out your party classes, lest your mage team gets fucking wiped out because you came across the wrong tanky enemy, or you get locked out of a room that's blocked off and needs a rogue or warrior to get in.

I think Taash is PROBABLY at the bottom of the list of characters I like most, and most of that is just they're young and kinda brash and stand-offish, and that character type doesn't always jive with me haha. Their Queer Journey(TM) story is kinda whatever (I've seen this story beat about a million times at this point--it's repetitive to me at this point ahaha), but at least it seems to be actually going somewhere and has had build-up. Like, I'm still invested in seeing the story through.

As much as I love Dorian, his personal story pretty much ended before it really began. You get the one quest about his dad doing a conversion therapy on him in the past via blood magic, and that's pretty much the meat of Dorian's story. Gaider really stumbled over that follow-up. What's worse is you can get that quest REALLY early on in the game, so it's long been history by the time you finish Inquisition.

But even with all that said about Taash's story, I still really enjoy bringing 'em along when I'm running all over the place.

As for my favorite companion? It's probably gotta be Emmrich, and that might be the bias talking because I opted to play as a Mourn Watcher and get lots of extra opportunities to nerd it up with him about being a necromancer haha. Being able to see how Nevarrans (minus Cassandra lmao) look at things like death and spirits has been really enjoyable. It's a nice change of pace after years of Andrastian characters with more strict ideals.

I know some people had complaints about how the companions don't really have any big conflicts with each other, but honestly, it feels right for the story that they're not at each other's throats. They're all professionals at what they do like the Inquisition team, but they have far bigger fish to fry and no armies and major connections to make up for their slack like the Inquisition crew did (and honestly, DAI didn't have much in the inter-group conflicts outside of some catty dialogue).

On top of that, they got to live with each other in a much more intimate way than the Inquisition group did. They basically live in a commune where you gotta get along or shit isn't going to get done.

Hawke's group were able to get away with being such godawful assholes to each other because for a majority of the years spent together, they didn't have the fate of the world on their shoulders. They just had their own personal issues to worry about (up until the qunari attacked and Anders did a terrorism).

Anyway, I wound up romancing Lucanis. I wasn't on the hype train for him, but then he went and batted those puppy eyes at Rook and I couldn't help myself lmao. Plus, I found I'd much rather romance Davrin with a dwarf anyway. Something about Wardens and dwarves man...does stuff to my brain.

[tenebris-lux]

(SPOILERS for Baldur’s Gate 3 below.)

Just how ill-suited is my Kelemvor cleric? Let’s see. He has…

accepted the aid of a lich

allowed a vampire to feed off of him nightly

helped a woman raise her dead husband

helped find a home for some zombies

released a body into the care of a necromancer with the full knowledge that it would be raised into a form of undead

got into a romantic relationship with the vampire he’d been feeding

released 7,000 vampires into the wild rather than destroy them

learned the Necromancy of Thay, and thus raised the dead himself

I don’t think I missed anything, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I did.

See, apparently Kelemvor clerics are very anti-undead, no exceptions. All I knew, I got from the blurb on the character creation screen:

“Fair but distant, Kelemvor guides the dead to their appropriate plane in the afterlife. His clergy provides last rites across Faerun, but also destroy undead that have escaped Kelemvor's judgement.”

I thought that meant certain kinds of undead. Like some kind of wizards who sacrificed or drained others’ lives to prolong their own, or something in that vein. Also undead thralls.

I looked up Forgotten Realms lore sometime after finishing my first playthrough, and was like, “… oh shit.” Because they’re uncompromising when it comes to any type of undead.

My dude is a failed cleric. But unlike a paladin, he doesn’t get his powers withdrawn. He’s definitely going through some kind of crisis of faith after the events of BG3, though. At the very least, he probably doesn’t feel fit to serve or represent Kelemvor any longer. If he has to make a choice between his god and his love, he’ll choose love without pause. But it’s still upsetting to feel … apart from something he had been a part of for most of his life, something that he’d felt happy to be a part of.

[armofandruil]

Origins on my banged up Xbox 360. <33

Still Origins. Probably my favourite game of all time, in fact.

Usually Rogue, but in II it's always mage. I'm planning on playing a warrior this time around (only class I haven't played) and since I've seen no info on subclasses, I have no idea.

Warden Firi Maheriel (rogue), Oriana Hawke (mage), Asala Adaar (mage) - my girls <3. All alive and well. All progressive thinking to different degrees - pro mage, anti-chantry, all with some definitely questionable choices. Adaar is coming for Solas's ASS.

Custom all the way, but I definitely stick to the "canon" of the backstories, origins, etc. provided by the game.

I'm hoping to play a Dwarf warrior because those are the only race and class I haven't played yet (also the warrior gameplay from the wip footage looked badass). Obviously will be playing a woman to round out Thedas' line of girlbosses <3 Otherwise, I don't really know. I'm thinking of doing a more idealistic character to reflect how I used to play these games when I was young, and how I secretly still want to (always make the "good" choices). I also think it would be a good way to play seeing as I'm going in blind. But it's all very much subject to what comes to me during the character creator.

Not his biggest fan, but I think seeing Fenris again would be cool. He'd feel really at home in the setting. It's also a huge long shot, but I think seeing Shale again, back in her dwarf form, would go absolutely insane and have me screaming.

Definitely the Mourne Watch. Love me some necromancers. Also extremely excited to see the Antivan Crows return.

Again, not entirely sure, I'm waiting to know more about them. But given what we do know, it'll probably be either Davrin or Tash (giant ladies and grey wardens are my weakness). Also Javik's VA voicing Davrin is a big pull for me. <33

Rivain!!! Love me that piratey aesthetic. Hoping to learn more about the Seers and the like aswell. Also, Weisshaupt. I'm a Grey Warden fan first and a person second.

Really hoping companions are able to disagree with you like they are in origins. I hope they actually confront you on your choices and they don't just sit and follow you no matter what.

Greg Ellis.

The factions!!!! I love having a layer of customization on top of race/class.

The removal of being able to control companions. It feels a lot like mass effect. I just hope during the combat I'll still be able to feel like I'm playing a Dragon Age game and not a Mass Effect one.

Not sure if it's unpopular but I'm not jazzed Solas isn't the main antagonist (or it seems that way from what we've seen so far). It feels a bit underwhelming after Trespasser, however many years of being teased "the dreadwolf rises", and getting whatever is happening now. Let him be an antagonist!!!!

Sandal is the Maker.

I looooove lore videos (i spend hours watching Ghil Dirthalen) and the speculation that comes with diving deeper into Dragon Age's lore. I don't discount them, but when I'm playing the game I like to focus on what's being revealed to me rather than speculation. If that makes sense.

The art!!! I particularly love seeing fanart of the characters interacting in more low-stakes/comedic scenarios. And also seeing everyone's new Rooks.

I think I'm pretty much done with replays. I have the last mission and DLCs of my second canon Inquisition playthrough (i accidentally wiped my PlayStation lol), but in terms of gameplay, i think I'm satisfied. I'll definitely finish Tevinter Nights, I picked it up ages ago and only read a handful of stories, and might watch Absolution if it tickles my fancy.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard HYPE Q&A

What was the first Dragon Age game you played?

Which Dragon Age game is your favorite so far?

Do you usually play as a warrior, mage, or rogue? Which class are you planning to try first this time around? Which subclass?

What does your worldstate look like going into DAV?

Do you typically use a preset character and name or spend hours in the character creator coming up with a custom one?

Do you have your Rook(s) planned out to any degree? If so, would you share some details or ideas you have?

Which character from the previous games or other media are you most hoping will make an appearance in DAV?

What faction are you most excited to learn more about?

Which romance, if any, do you plan to pursue first?

Which location are you most excited/hoping to explore in-game?

What's one thing you'd really like to see in this next game?

What's one thing you're hoping we DON'T see in this next game?

What's one thing you've seen confirmed so far that you're a fan of?

What's one thing you've seen confirmed so far that you're NOT a fan of?

Do you have any unpopular opinions about DAV so far?

What's one crack theory you subscribe to (yours or someone else's)?

Are you interested in all the lore and speculation or do you focus more on the games and stories themselves?

Which aspect of fandom are you most looking forward to? (e.g. reading/writing fic, the bounty of gorgeous art, getting to know new people, etc.)

Are you planning to replay any of the previous games, watch Dragon Age: Absolution, or read any of the books/comics/short stories, or are there other games you want to play in the meantime?

Post a picture or gif that conveys your current level of excitement for Dragon Age: The Veilguard!

[notsecretlyarainbow]

All my (current) Baldur's Gate 3 tavs

just a little compiled list 🙃 buckle in because theres so many :))))))))))))) 1. Cormac - blue Dragonborn Sorcerer

Cormac is very levelheaded, rational, and empathetic. He was on his own for a long time before the nautiloid, so traveling with so many partners came as a bit of a shock to him, but he enjoyed the company. He also fell in love with Karlach, but she did not fall in love with him. He followed her to the hells anyway. [Cormac is the only playthrough I have finished]

2. Gun - Half elf monk

Gun is a boss bitch. She takes no shit, she leaves no witnesses. She is 6 foot 5 and will throat punch you if you so much as step on her toes. Her party members often have to keep her anger issues in check.

3. Hurgox - black dragonborn sorcerer

Hurgox is very quiet, studious, and surprisingly timid for a man of such stature. He prefers being a helper to the party rather than the main event.

4. Lake - Githyanki Bard

Lake travels with his twin sister Tuwile (@transtrife) and his lover Gale. He did not grow up in a Creche, and thus is not as cut-throat as most Gith are. Instead, he is very kind, sometimes a bit of a pushover, and enjoys making people smile much more than making them bleed. He plays the flute and the lute !

5. Laya - Drow Monk

Laya is That Girl. She is That Bitch. She is fearless and tough, and knows how to throw a punch without breaking her nails. Her and Karlach are the power couple from Hell.

6. Magnolia - Wood elf Ranger

Magnolia is a transgirl who just wants to get this damn worm out of her head and get back to her dogs. Previously, she lived in the woods with her animals and sold pelts for a living. This whole "worms rotting your brain" thing is so over her head.

7. Melwas - Tiefling wizard

Melwas is a necromancer fuckboy. He does not always make the right decisions, and his eyes linger a bit too long on a certain vampire, but he's doing his best. He enjoys making flutes and such out bones.

8. Ozris - Tiefling Cleric

Ozris is babygirl. He is soft, sweet, shy, and completely overwhelmed by everything happening to him. Somehow along the way, Astarion took a liking to the little peach (probably hoping he could corrupt the pure little soul). Ozris is also poly and soon to be in the middle of a Halsin-Astarion sandwich. Little gay boy with an angel and a devil on either side.

9. Rayelle - half elf paladin

Rayelle is a boss bitch. She curbstomps anyone in her way and puffs her chest up to protect her cleric gf Shadowheart. She travels with her half brother, Faust (a durge), and tries to keep him out of trouble. But also... she doesn't have the BEST moral compass herself. It's okay though, because Halsin will straighten her out.

10. Renzo - half orc fighter

NGL, Renzo is not fleshed out in the slightest. All I know about this man is that he is gentler than he looks.

[curechocolattymilk]

TES V OC Thingie

[Got tagged by @jessaryss​ ! ]

Pause your game! Wherever your OC is in their game currently, tell me about their story so far.

✧✧✧ General

Current Level: 56

Name: Jeer-Tei Perdes

Name Meaning: Literally got it from a name generator lol. But lore wise it was a name gifted to them in honor of an Argonian who served beside Tei’s mother during the Great War

Pronouns: They/Them

Age: Early 30s where they are story wise???

Race(s): Argonian

Place of Origin: Hammerfell

Pick A Theme Song For Them: oof that's tough... From a Crowded Wound or maybe even Firstwake? If you really played around w personal interpretation/the lyrics that is haha

✧✧✧ Locations

Where Did You Begin Their Game?: Argonian Assemblage, Windhelm (Alternative Start)

Where Are They Currently In Your Game?: Whiterun

What Are They Doing There?: Just finished attending a party held in their honor (Post Blood of Kings)

Homes?: Breezehome, Proudspire, Lakeview & Autmnwatch

# of Locations Discovered?: 274

Dungeons Cleared: 104

Misc. Quests Completed: 87

Favorite Areas and/or Locations: Falkreath / Lakewview Manor. Both areas are where Tei heads off to in order to collect their thoughts/feel some sense of calm.

✧✧✧ Main Quest

Are They Dragonborn / Do They Know It At This Point?: Yes & yes

How Do They Feel About Being Dragonborn: It's...complicated, being thrust into the role of savior by gods of the Cult, which in turn are followed by the folk who see you lesser than them. Tei already has a dislike towards the Divines, this doesn't really help lol

Main Quests Completed: 21

Where Are They In The Main Story Line: Alduin's dead, currently trying to ignore the Civil War as long as they can before the Empire forces its hand into forcing them to join their ranks

Dragon Souls Absorbed: In total overall? 147. The amount currently stored in Tei? 45

Words of Power Learned: 64

Shouts Mastered: 21

Favorite Shout: Firebreath / Dragonrend

✧✧✧ Combat

Most Used Weapon(s): Daedric war axe OR Dragonbone battle axe. Tei technically has both on them at all times during adventuring, alongside a shield, so which they used depends on the situation/which they grab fastest.

Combat Style: Two/One-handed tank. Main tactic is to rush in, cause as much damage/chaos as possible to shake up the opponent, & clean up what the ranged attackers of the party (usually Rumarin, Inigo and/or Lucien) weren't able to deal with.

Armor Type / Level In It: HEAVY ARMOR BABYYYYY (Level 100 + 35 extra points via enchantments)

# of Training Sessions: 99 in-game, lore wise its a lot of self-teaching/keeping their skills learned from Hammerfell sharp. Some of these are magic but lore-wise this doesn't happen cus Tei is not a magic user, save for shouts. I just did those in-game for exp OR so I can help Lucien raise his magic skills :'D

Who Taught Them?: In-game?? Fuuuck so many npcs. Lore-wise? They learned this from their schooling in Hammerfell, going off the canon-lore that it's p much expected for everyone to have a grasp on combat & weaponry! Though they did learn a few things from Kaidan & Anum-La.

Favorite Enemy Type: Dragons! Despite the fact Tei does not have the best magic resistance, it's one hell of a challenge they love to meet.

Least Favorite Enemy Type: Automatons, because of a bad experience with them as a child. Also Undead, because they were raised not to disturb them & it just feels so wrong having to fight them/go into tombs.

People Killed: 945

Animals Killed: 749 (Hunterborn makes hunting fun lol)

Undead Killed: 766

Automatons Killed: 105

Daedra Killed: 136

✧✧✧ Magic

Favorite School(s): None, actually. Destruction is okay though....they guess

Most Used Spell(s): Firebreath or Dragon Aspect. Tei doesn't consider shouts spells though. It's totally different guys shut up they ain't no smelly mage gods

Spells Learned: 9 in-game, mainly due to the spells you're kinda forced to learn for some quests/the ones you automatically know

Items Enchanted: 19 (Tei technically doesn't enchant, and wont next playthrough for sure I wont give in this time >:[ )

College of Winterhold Quests Completed: 8

Where Are They At In The Questline?: Main quest is done bcus i dont like seeing unfinished quests in my journal lmao. Tei's involvement is completely different from canon though in my take. Moreso was hired as a guard for the expedition & was, unwillingly, dragged into the rest of the mess. Is not offered the Archmage position, that went straight to Tolfdir.

Opinions on Magical Guilds (Arcane University, Winterhold, Psijics, Synod, Radiant Dark, etc.): As they get older, they tolerate the guild & magic users more n more, BUT, Tei grew up in an environment that frowns upon the practice of magic, & it shows. They mainly mistrust necromancers/illusionists & still hold onto that belief that reliance on magic, especially for combat, is a weakness.

Bold words for someone with shit magic resistance.

✧✧✧ Crime

Current Gold: 10,640

How Did They Acquire Their Gold?: Odd jobs, selling a lot of the items they made/harvested from smithing & hunting (jewelers are their go-to hirers bcus Tei is great at getting things like ivory), Dwemer ruin diving (they refuse to loot the tombs), also yknow....being part of the Dark Brotherhood helps

Largest Bounty On Their Head: 11,240

For...?: Unfortunately they did not stand down when they were being falsely accused of murder in Markarth. First time Tei called down dragons (Sahrotaar, specifically, Tei managed to get command of Miraak's dragons post-Dragonborn) to absolutely smite some fools.

Current Bounty: None! They're good at not getting caught/threatening and/or bribing guards. :)

Locks Picked: 15 i think?

Jail Time: 1, Cidhna Mine

Jail Escapes: 1, teamed up w the Forsworn lol

Murders: 28

Assaults: 307....In their defense people keep getting in their way during dragon attacks

Items Stolen: 37, most of them from the nobles of Windhelm

Thieves Guild Quests Completed: N/A (wont be doing this storyline unless i cant find a mod that'll let me get the shouts locked behind it)

Dark Brotherhood Quests Completed: 20

Where Are They At In Those Questlines?: DB is completed main arc wise!

✧✧✧ Relationships

Relationship Status: Married to two lovely fellas

Current Companions: atm? none

Housecarls: Lydia & Rayya

Friends (outside of party): Zora Fair-Child, Inigo, Lucien, Anum-La, Morndas, Aela the Huntress, Nazir, Babette, Scouts-Many-Marshes, Isobel, Madesi

Children: Khash, Chases-Starlight, Ram-Ku. (going of where Tei is now - Otero & Mei come around later on in Tei's story!)

Romantic Interest(s): Kaidan & Rumarin.

Sexual Orientation:

GAY

✧✧✧ Religion

Pantheon: Yokudan, with a hint of Hircine worship in there

Patron Deity(ies): From the Yokudan pantheon: Tei mainly views HoonDing as their main patron, but also prays to/pays respect to Satakal.

They are also Hircine's champion.

Daedric Quests Completed: 3 (Hircine, Vile, Dagon - the last Tei didn't really help, moreso pissed off)

Aedric Quests Completed: 1 if you count the whole Alduin thing I guess?

How Devout Are They?: Tei is rather devout, esp to their Yokudan patrons, praying or making offerings daily. They aren't the type to really push it in your face though, but have no issues answering questions one might have.

How Do They Feel About Talos Worship?: Deep down they acknowledge & admit trying to ban worship is terrible, but....Tei also lets their bias/experience with Windhelm, the Stormcloaks & especially Ulfric kinda cloud over this. If the Nords want their old ways so damn much, why fight for a divine from the Imperial Cult? Why not go back to the actual old ways? No, this isn't about worship, not to the men leading this so-called rebellion, they just needed something other than their racist bullshit to fool the common man into throwing their lives away for the nobles sitting comfortable in their thrones.

Also during their whole thing of getting into their role of dragonborn, they get a bonus 'fuck this dude actually' towards Talos, Ysmir, whatever the fuck he calls himself. (tldr; it sucks but good luck hearing Tei say that fully)

✧✧✧ Politics

Gray-Mane or Battle-Born?: Neither, ask them again they will punch you for the love of Ruptga they get asked that every time they enter Whiterun.

Stormcloaks or Imperials?: Also neither, Tei hates em both n think they can all choke. Unfortunately they were forced to join the latter due to, yknow, calling dragons & causing massive damage in Imperial territories during isolated fits of rage and the group being more aggressive in wanting something in return for "letting it slide"....oops

Opinion on the Thalmor?: Oh absolutely despises them, they loudly complained having to work with them during the CW & would go out their way to disrupt their plans/piss them off. Sneaking was an option they did not take during the Embassy quest, if it helps paint the picture.

Opinion Of Ulfric Stormcloak?: Tei doens't say they hate people often...but they sure as hell hate Ulfric. Again, their experience in Windhelm added to this heavily, how both the Dunmer & Argonians were treated like shit, with no help whatsoever from the Jarl or guards when the local Nords targeted them. It's still up in the air if I keep this for Tei's story, but I have it where they knew Chases-Starlight's parents, who were killed. When Tei went up & demanded justice/an investigation, only to be brushed off because it "wasn't a priority," it completely destroyed what little empathy or hope they had left for Windhelm as a whole.

Opinion of The Empire?: Cowards too weak to continue fighting back against the Thalmor, in their opinion, & holds these views they grew up with even when being strong-armed into aiding them. If anything they're at least attempting to use their influence to hint towards a rebellion against the Thalmor, but the Empire could also full-on dissolve & they could give less of a shit.

Civil War Quests Completed: 0

✧✧✧ Personal

How Are They Doing? Need Some Juice? A Nap? A Hug?: The whole event of Blood of Kings has fucked with their head, to say the least. It's the starting point of Tei's eventual spiral. So uh...yeah they're not sure how they're doing everything they knew about reality was kinda challenged & they don't rlly have anyone to talk to about it so its cool, its fine, its all good.

A nap is probably needed, not sure about a hug theough they're super flinchy rn

Days Past In Game: 196

Hours of Sleep: 846

Food Items Consumed: 1833

How Many Playthroughs Have You Done With This Character: Tei actually is an older character from the 360 days so uh...maybe 5 at most? This playthrough & their S:EC one coming up when the mod releases being the main ones focusing on their story

Overall How's Your Level Of Fun: Alright I would say! I just been stepping away from Skyrim more often lately to avoid burning out from it

Must Have Mods To Play This Character (for story or other reasons): Ordinator, Wintersun Faiths, Immersive Armors, Sarcastic Player Dialogue, 3DNPC, Inigo, Lucien Flavius, Kaidan 2, Khash the Argonian, Alternative Start, Leviathan Animations, Beast Race Body Paints, Beast HHBB, Apocalypse Magic, Deadly Dragons, Growl: Werewolf Overhaul, Pronouns, uhhh....idk what else without actually listing my current modlist lmao

----

And that's it for Tei! Anyone who wants to do this go on ahead!

[draugsresurrection]

Draug’s Resurrection Masterpost

Remember when I said I'd make a general introductory post about Draug's Resurrection and reblog that every three or four months, back in 2018? Yeah, that didn't happen. So I sort of re-wrote it. Now with loads of pictures in between! Same idea as before; neatly tying together any general information a newcomer would want to learn at a glance, without being overly wordy. Maybe I'll be more vigilant with this one. Probably not though.

What is Draug’s Resurrection?

Draug’s Resurrection is a completely free, nonlinear RPG developed by one person. As the name suggests, it is a tale of the resurrection of the warlord Draug, and its quest to obtain the nine artifacts it held in life, thus restoring Draug’s full power and memories, and ultimately stopping the necromancer who raised you, Damian, from unleashing mass destruction upon the world. Or usurp his reign and become an immortal tyrant, or anything in between. Each artifact has the scenario surrounding it continually change over time, and these scenarios love cross-referencing each other. What you don’t do is just as important as what and when you do decide to do it.

For instance, one of Draug’s artifacts resides in the Midland Woods, guarded by a small group of priestesses. If you do the artifact early, it’ll be a fairly simple affair of trying to win the priestess’ trust (or kill them if you’re a huge jerk) and then pounding through a bunch of spiders and other beasties through the forest. However, if you leave the artifact for later, the local army will reinforce the area, not wanting Draug to obtain the artifact and grow ever stronger. If you’ve helped the army out in other locales, or if you’ve assisted other priestesses elsewhere, schisms will fracture the army’s presence in the area. If you’ve given them little reason to trust you, the army and the priestesses will happily work together and become a much more intimidating force. There’s even the third option of you murdered the residing priestesses early but never got the artifact, resulting in a similar but different way for the events to play out.

So where can I download it?

From RPGMaker.net or [itch.io link here].

As of this page's initial writing, there are plans to release version 0.9.0 in a couple of weeks, so I'd recommend sitting tight until then; I figure it better to get people up to speed before its release, rather than afterwards. Despite the name, 0.9.0 is pretty much the full game, but without a thorough playtesting or twenty, I can't in good faith say it's done and stable until then. There's also a couple major issues with trying an 'Evil Draug' playthrough. Still, in ideal circumstances, 0.9.0 is a complete game that takes about 20-30 hours to complete.

At DR’s sheer scope and my extremely limited ability to playtest all possible scenarios, there’ll always be bugs that slip through, or incredibly specific scenarios I didn’t plan for, large or small, which may range from a scenario getting stuck or an NPC talking about something that didn’t actually happen. I’m fairly committed to rooting out as many bugs as I can, and a set of eyes that aren’t mine’ll find things I didn’t think of or have gone numb to. Please contact me if you find anything egregarious. Just a comment on here should be good.

What’s the Battle System like?

Draug’s Resurrection’s battles take place on a 4x2 grid, and is part classic turn-based RPG battles and part turn-based strategy. Positioning is important, but rather than maneuvering around a mostly empty field, you’re swapping in and out of places with both allies and enemies, so you’re always in someone’s line of fire. Other things like Area-of-Effect spells, fancy Ailments, and beneficial Enhancements add further nuance to the system.

It’s a very extensive system, and while most of it is finished and works quite well, there’s still a few holdout spells that aren’t finished yet, mostly those related to counterattack-style Enhancements. Even without them, the Battle System feels complete.

As the game is nonlinear, monsters have to find some way to scale with the player. But scaling always carries massive issues. DR's solution is that monsters themselves do not level, but the chance of seeing them fluctuates with game progression. In simplest terms, there are 18 monsters in each of the game's eight regions with a high probability to encounter at any given time. It results in the player feeling like they're getting stronger, but also remain challenged by encounters. It also means that the majority of monsters will never be seen in a playthrough, tying in nicely with other nonlinear aspects.

It should also be briefly noted that there are options to change the difficulty of encounters or virtually remove them from the game, if you're interested only the the story. The reverse is also an option; higher difficulties technically give you greater freedom to customize characters as you want, as they effectively start at lower levels.

Who are the characters of Draug’s Resurrection?

Including Draug, there are 25 possible party members in Draug’s Resurrection. It’s impossible to get all of them in one playthrough; some of the requirements for one will seal off the other, and if those characters meet, a fight to the death is likely. Further, some can be recruited concurrently, but will refuse to be in the party together. While the party only has room for four, I personally suggest keeping an active rotation of at least six characters; there’s several occasions when you’ll be using multiple parties at the same time.

All characters have one type of weapon, one element of spells, and one class of armour. There are overlaps, but its enough that each character should feel fairly unique. How you equip them determines how they'll level, and spells can be learned in any order you desire, by equipping the appropriate tome for an extended period of time. Both are done simply by completing battles while equipped accordingly; you don't have to do needless stupid actions to increase your skill with anything. Following up on that thought, there's a trio of pages detailing these points in a bit more detail:

Experience and Levelling Up

Personal Skills

Learned Weapon Skills

[chacusha]

Trials of Mana remake liveblogging (4/...)

New game plus liveblogging. My new party is Charlotte, Kevin, Hawkeye.

This is my first time doing a real run-through with Charlotte as the main character. Her opening is unique among the main six because she doesn’t actually go to Jadd where the other five converge. The Meridian Child credit roll also doesn’t go over a sea voyage like it does with the other five because she’s already located in Wendel.

Having Charlotte and Hawkeye in the same party is pretty wild because Charlotte is the most immature of the six and Hawkeye is the most mature (Charlotte is also the shortest and Hawkeye the tallest, if I’m not mistaken -- yep, this confirms it). It definitely gives off the impression that Hawkeye is her babysitter rather than a teammate, lol.

Kevin is also pretty immature, but it’s a bit offset by the fact that he’s level 70-something and 1-jab KOing everything...

My partner is so amused by how everything Hawkeye says/does is accompanied by a model shot.

Finished up the last Li’l Cactus sightings. Li’l Cactus’s accessory and the Love of Mana chain ability are incredible. Makes it easy to speed through the dungeons.

I’m already at the Windstone and level 20-something due to the Love of Mana exp booster. So I upgraded Charlotte to Priestess (light), Kevin to Brawler (dark side this time -- with Charlotte, we won’t need his healing anyway), and Hawkeye to Ranger (light, since in the Collection of Mana playthrough I went dark).

Me: We should go light since we went dark last time. My partner: Ninja looks cooler, though... Me: I agree, that’s why we picked Ninja last time, lol. (But seriously, Hawkeye’s light classes look so dorky.)

That scene where Hawkeye rescues Riesz from Bil and Ben was very shippy.

Charlotte has the CUTEST reaction to being turned into a ghost.

There is also some very slight Charlotte/Kevin shippiness after being rescued by Vuscav where Kevin calls Vuscav cute and then Charlotte says Kevin needs glasses if he doesn’t think she’s a hundred times cuter than Vuscav.

Kevin’s Brawler costume is very cute. I like it a lot.

It’s weird how if Angela isn’t in your party (especially if Charlotte is the main character and therefore misses Jadd), she just... never shows up in the game??? That seems so odd.

This is the first time I’ve ever gotten Flammie and Riesz *wasn’t* in my party. It looks like Faerie will recall the existence of the Winged Guardian and your character will point you toward Laurent.

I like Charlotte’s voice. She sounds confident but also cute. “What can I say? I’m a natuwaw.” Hawkeye’s voice is also pretty good, but he has a deep voice and a high voice and seems to switch between them suddenly in a way that’s jarring. Playing again has made me realize I don’t like Faerie’s voice. In terms of pitch/tone, it’s fine, sounds like a cute fairy, but in terms of the delivery and emphasis in each line, the choices are really odd and never sound like how you’d expect that line to be read -- for example, timid and lackluster when it should be determined, or cheerful when it should be serious, etc.

There seems to have been a bug with the ??? Seeds -- I got both of Kevin’s and both of Hawkeye’s items, but none of Charlotte’s, and then started getting repeats at random from there. Welp, time to farm these again.

Oh wow, Kevin’s ending that I got last game, I encountered after giving the Sword of Mana to Goremand in Ferolia. I followed the king out behind the throne room and Kevin confronted him like he did in his ending last game. Curious to know what his ending will be like, then.

I got my second class change. I went with Sage (Light Dark) for Charlotte, Enlightened (Dark Light) for Kevin, and Rogue (Light Dark) for Hawkeye (because Nomad looks SO BAD OMG, but also because Rogue’s skillset seemed interesting to me).

OMG, Kevin’s Suzaku Aerial is amazingly badass, especially when he’s in wolf form. He howls at the end of it, too. So cute ToT

It took a while, but I finally got Lightgazer to turn my party into moogles. Awww.

If you go Charlotte/Kevin’s route, Dryad gets to be useful. Neat!

I like the look and enemy set of the Jungle of Visions. This rabite maze is quite cool too. The Darkstone / Zable Fahr isn’t very congruent with the jungle, though.

Oh man, this mirage Astoria is DARK.

So is this plotline involving Heath and the Masked Mage!! Poor Charlotte! She’s so cute but her storyline is so sad!!!

Okay Kevin’s ending in this branch is much better. It’s still not great but at least it doesn’t spring “Karl is alive actually” on you and then leaves it at that. And Kevin here does come to challenge his father but decides not to.

I like how Charlotte is a bit of a crybaby. So CUTE. Also, the way she refers to the rest of the party as “recruits”, lmao.

*sees Angela in the ending credits* I don’t know her.

Was Heath also in the ending credits in my last playthrough...? I don’t remember. It’s interesting that a lot of the scenes in the ending could be seen as either set after the game or set before everything Goes Wrong in each character’s storyline.

Revisiting Kevin’s orb quest: “I have a wife and kid to get back to in Mintas after all.” -- I just realized this is the husband of the woman in Mintas complaining that her husband joined Gauser’s war.

“Ludgar let us rampage through the human towns and I hurt a lot of people...but it didn’t help my anger. Now I just feel empty inside.” -- this extra coda really does help flesh out Kevin’s ending.

“Ludgar’s never around anymore. I guess he’s off training in the woods some more. Isn’t he strong enough already?” -- the other Beastmen don’t know what happened to Ludgar!

I like how Kevin doesn’t get angry at people calling him weak but gets angry when people call Ludgar weak.

Oh cool, last time, I didn’t even notice this statue at the base of Chartmoon Tower that teleports you up to the top. How convenient!

I was a bit worried about this boss battle because Kevin no longer has healing spells, but with Moon Saber, he’s a self-healing machine so nothing to worry about after all.

Hawkeye’s orb quest: I like how Hawkeye’s quest involves more Jessica and Eagle content. You get to see so little of them at the beginning.

I like how Kevin was the one to impetuously poke at this trapped treasure box. This whole cave and trapped treasure has a very Arabian Nights vibe (maybe helped by Hawkeye’s Rogue costume).

I’m getting a shippy Hawkeye/Eagle vibe from Hawkeye’s quest. I wasn’t expecting that!

Charlotte’s orb quest: I thought it’d be in Wendel, but looks like it’s in Dior / Wandara Woods.

I like how Charlotte has two fairly pre-eminent grandpas.

Riesz’s orb boss: giant bee. Hawkeye’s: giant mimic box. Charlotte’s: giant zombie (kind of random).

The High Priestess tech, OMG -- Charlotte’s poses, her dorky dancing, omg. It’s... it’s perfect. 🤩

Hawkeye’s Wardenkeep tech is okay but single target so not so useful for clearing mobs. Kevin’s Annihilator tech is also okay (I like how he gets blasted backward at the end of it), but it’s not as cool as Suzaku Aerial.

I started playing as Hawkeye for a while because Charlotte’s strength is too low and her attack magic so limited that it was making killing stuff quite tedious. The Wardenkeep look suits him, and I like how elegant all his movements are, from jumping and landing, to running, to using his daggers.

I’m not having very good luck with getting the equipment I want from these seeds...

It’s interesting in this game how close light/dark holy/unholy elements are to each other: Charlotte able to be a holy priestess or a necromancer; Heath/Tainted Soul having both holy and dark spells; there being a Priest of Light and a Priest of Dark; a lot of zombies and undead showing up in dark versions of Wendel; etc.

Okay! Finished this playthrough. What party will I do next...