#Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms

[bg3smash-or-pass]

[johnny-depplyloveyou]

Gale's data mined info from Idle Champions

source: [X]

(He's only 35? And his alignment is Neutral, not Neutral Good to begin with? I know it can be changed into Neutral Good in this game, but... I'll pretend I did not see it)

Item descriptions

Fond Memories: Even at my lowest, playing with Tara lifted my spirits...

Ball of Retrieval: ...though the ball's purpose eluded her. I was always the one fetching it...

Cat Flap of Displacement: Tara comes and goes as she pleases. But she's always pleased to help me.

Ring of Evasion: A ring as evasive as Tara, when I asked how she obtained it...

These Old Things: Comfortable, practical, and relatively unsinged.

Wizarding Robes: Not as flashy as Elminster's, but at least they've plenty of pockets.

Robes of Increased Potency: I could get used to these. Elegant, but powerful - just like Tara.

Archmage's Accoutrements: Incredible! Every stitch is infused with Weave. Like wearing magic itself...

Nothing Much: I'd have preferred something with a library...

Camping Tent: ...but it will do. For now.

Crystal Ball: Handy for glimpsing the future. And also shaving.

Celestial Spyglass: I like gazing at the heavens. To remember. And to forget...

Crumpled Chapbooks: At least they're written in full sentences.

Well-thumbed Tomes: I've lost count of how many times I've read these. Still just as magical.

Magical Miscellany: A spell for all situations. And my improvements in the margins.

The Annals of Karsus: You can trust me with this - you have my word.

Boots of Ambiguous Enchantment: A little pick-me-up, for when any Weave will do...

Lonely Boot of Elvenkind: A snack-sized shoe for the wizard who travels light.

Boots of Very Fast Blinking: Blink and you'll miss me. But I'll always hit you.

Mystra's Grace: These were a gift from... well, never mind.

Cramped Jotter: Magical musings and mullings. Not my best handwriting.

Waterdhavian Quill: This was... well, it was expensive, let's leave it at that.

The Chosen's Earring: A symbol of Mystra's faith in me. Former faith, I suppose...

Wizard's Pouch: All manner of wizarding sundries. Pungent but powerful.

Feat descriptions

Selflessness (Gale): If it’s me or the realms - I’ll save the realms every time.

Inspiring Leader (Gale): Their magic is strong, but our will is stronger!

Long Studies (Gale): It’s not as easy for me as a sorcerer or warlock. No offense, Wyll.

Arcane Experience (Gale): I’ve had experiences that other wizards can only dream of.

Arcane Threads (Gale): You can’t manipulate the entire Weave, merely a small piece of it.

Spools of Magic (Gale): Maybe I was wrong, as rare of an event as that is. This power is strong!

Mage of Waterdeep (Gale): It has a nice ring to it, don’t you think? Gale of Waterdeep!

Sword Coast Sage (Gale): One day, my name will be known up and down the Sword Coast!

Netherese Teachings (Gale): These are certainly things Elminster wouldn’t have taught me…

Netherese Knowledge (Gale): The risk is worth the reward. This could be just what we need to save everyone!

Neutral Good (Gale): My mind can be changed. …Sometimes.

Immolation (Gale): Magic can be elegant, but sometimes, a good fireball is the answer.

[phalar-aluve]

MY BOY!!!!

[ratsetflummi]

astarion (canonically?) keeps a portrait of cazador?

[good-grade-in-cleric]

[bhaalrespawn]

astarion got added to idle champions of the forgotten realms and, while i don't necessarily know how canon the information on it is(i personally disagree with the age but, y'know,) but it is interesting!

[irlfrogprince]

this face says I Know You Can’t Afford Me

[princecharmingtobe]

He’s my favorite part of this game.

[educationaldm]

With the release of Baldur's Gate 3, I thought it worth posting an old favourite: Minsc and his miniature giant space hamster Boo, for your weekend colouring pleasure (from Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms).

[railmegale]

Are they ever gonna add Gale to Idle Champions???

[alswrites]

One of the ToA variants only allows you to use Lawful champions, so here's The Law formation.

Back row: Senty, Shadowheart, Artemis Entreri, Turel

Second to back row: Barrowin, Shadowheart, and Nerys

Second to Front row: Hewman and Drizzt with Guen

Front: Strongheart - no relation to Shadowheart although that'd be cool.

[bg3smash-or-pass]

[jeremy-ken-anderson]

Letting the Features Creep

It actually takes quite a long time before a game gets to a point of being less accessible for new players due to feature creep.

The regular problem with feature creep/scope creep is Not Getting Launched. Imagine you're an indie dev making a JRPG and then you're like, "but FFVIII had that thing where one dude had a quicktime event to go nuts with the trigger button, and the other had a fighting game combo and another had timed swings for auto-crits. We could have little quicktime events to keep combat interesting!"

What you've got to understand is

a) There is no limit to the number of features like this you can include in your game. I learned this when I saw the feature in Bravely Default where they had a social element and you could bring in copies of other players' heroes if you'd passed them on the train, and also they could speed up your town reconstruction, like, wtf.

b) Quicktime events are coroutines. Coroutines are literally a whole region of programming you won't need in order to make a JRPG unless you decide you want quicktime events. Like, they're a skill! Your programmer might not have that in their repertoire already, and if they don't you're looking at having them learn a new coding discipline so you can have triggered attacks.

BUT.

On the OTHER hand.

I really don't have a problem with feature creep (ha, misspelled it "feature crepe" and I'm imagining that meaning you keep on adding delicious ingredients. Peanut butter? Sure! Strawberries and syrup and whipped cream? Chocolate chips! Is there even a crepe under there anymore?) in live-service games. Warframe has one of the wildest cases of feature creep and honestly wouldn't have survived as a game without it. It's a better game for it - multiple of the currently-understood "core features" of the game did not exist at launch and features, ya know, crept in and then they were great, and became core features that stuck around. Similar deal with Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms. Some players have a problem with new features like Seasons (in spite of them literally just being an overlay that hands you more free stuff for doing what you were doing already), but I very much do not. I think the game has some pretty clever gating to keep players from encountering material before they're ready, so that they don't get overwhelmed (I think doing something similar would help Warframe a ton). A lot of levels only appear after you've gotten close to the power level necessary to actually do them. Good stuff.

The point is that both games do varying levels of work on keeping the original problem I mentioned - the game getting confusing for new players - under control. Considering achievement stats suggest something like 95% of potential players drop off without unlocking a second planet I feel like Warframe could profit from working harder at this, but they didn't ask me. But what they don't do, and I'd argue they don't really need to do, is avoid feature creep due to the problem of never releasing. Because, like, they're released.

The Adventure Quest Model has proven successful for loads of games: You make a game, you release it, and then you patch it almost every day with new stuff for people to look at. Sometimes this will eventually result in a jumbled mess of a product but a) sometimes it won't and b) in the meantime you've gotten something onto the shelf to buy so who cares?

[artemis-entreri]

[[ Idle Champions recently released a new pack for Artemis. This pack brings Artemis’ appearance options (skins) to a total of 3, which is among the least across most champions, especially for ones that have been around for as long as he has. The Champion of Tovag skin is the flashiest of the three, which isn’t saying a whole lot given the color schemes of Artemis’ base skin and the Shade Artemis skin. 

Aesthetically, I like the Champion of Tovag skin overall. The dark red is a nice pop of color without being outrageous and out of character for Artemis. The weapons seem to be inspired by the Sword of Kas art from the 5e DMG:

I’m not sure where the inspiration for the armor comes from, I’d guess that the spikey motif is there for the sake of, “hey, here’s something evil and otherworldly”, with the muted colors to the same effect.

Lore-wise, there isn’t much justification for why Artemis would be joining Kas’ war against Vecna, much less becoming a Champion of Tovag. I suppose he could be in disguise and “borrowing” the outfit from a Champion of Tovag that he’s seen to the “retirement” of, however the possibility of him enlisting in any army, especially a cross-planar one, is low to none. Perhaps for this scenario, he was drafted against his will, and he’d certainly stand out in terms of martial prowess in any crowd. 

All that being said, Codename Entertainment has never needed much lore justification for the skins they release for Idle Champions, I mean there’s a whole set of kobold versions of champions including Jarlaxle after all. XD They do seem to try to stay at least somewhat coherent though, for instance we’re not likely to see lawful champions cast in chaotic roles or evil champions cast in good roles, but aside from that, anything goes. Perhaps one day that rule of thumb will also go away, but it’s ok, Idle Champions is a free to play game after all and Codename does need to make revenue somehow. 

In conclusion, I’m sharing a picture of the new feat because I appreciate the flavor text. :D

]]

[good-grade-in-cleric]

Ulder Ravengard is getting added to Idle Champions in the upcoming Dragondown event

Stats seem to be pulling from DiA (left) rather than BG3 (right). He also goes from Neutral to Lawful Neutral, but i don't disagree with that decision

I think pure Support does make the most sense. A Grand Duke and Marshal of the Flaming Fist better serves as a motivational and tactical force than as one driving their sword through the horde or, even worse, absorbing the many swords of the horde

"Do you have melee base attacks on your phone? OuO"

Critical Teamwork is going to synergize well with the Companions of the Hall. Of them, only Catti-brie is not a melee champion, and none would be competing with him for Seat 8

Obviously, as he's not part of the Absolute Adversaries affiliation, he doesn't have anything that affects or is affected by their Ceremorphosis stacks, but i predict he'll have access to the Illithid Tadpole feat. He's in the same boat as Minsc, and he has that feat as well as Jaheira (pointedly does not have a tadpole), Imoen (hopefully does not have a tadpole if she's even still alive by BG3), Dynaheir (very definitely not still alive by BG3), Nrakk (i'm under the impression he's original to Idle Champions so he can do whatever he wants). Viconia also has a feat that interacts with Ceremorphosis, but hers is called Mother Superior, so i'm pretty sure that's just her being manipulative

It is admittedly very sweet that one of his specializations synergizes with Wyll. I do like when they do that

All of his event variants (not pictured because it's a little awkward trying to get those screenshots orderly, you can read the blog post yourself) stipulate only melee champions may join the formation. He focuses heavily on synergy with melee, but that's going to make him an okay match (although probably not the best) for formations centering the Absolute Adversaries or Heroes of Baldur's Gate. AA are 4/7 melee including all 3 of their DPS units, so you aren't short on damage options there. One of Lae'zel's specializations even increases her crit chance + damage. The fourth is, of course, Wyll. HoBG are 4/10 melee including 2/3 of their DPS units, and the only other DPS is Delina who shares a seat with Ulder anyway. Like i said, probably not the best, but good enough that i can justify the choice on the easier adventures for the sake of playing dolls. Otherwise, i probably wouldn't put him in any affiliation-based formation besides maybe the Companions of the Hall

My live reaction: "Well maybe you shouldn't listen to whoever said that. You've got the emblem of the Fists on there, and i'm pretty sure there were a couple hundred years between the founding of the Flaming Fist and Balduran's disappearance– Wait, Baldur?"

Didn't even give me time to give them the grace to assume they just defaced a shield of his after his presumed death. It's a silly mistake to make fun of which is why i made the rest of this post around it because i am more than just a hater. I am also an enjoyer and a haver of surface level thoughts