#Its about dealing 60 damage

[laguzmage]

It’s Warhawk Wednesday everyone

[cyanide-cafe]

Nymph Searchlight

The Nymph Searchlight is a young [20 year old: a baby, for its species] Searchlight specimen that Urbanshade has carefully raised to document Searchlight behaviors and lifespans. Its purple coloration is due to its age, as Searchlights start off pink/purple in coloration to prevent Squiddles from becoming hostile to the otherwise defenseless babies.

[See below the cut for extra lore, explanation of mechanics, and transcript of the image.]

TRANSCRIPT OF REFERENCE

Found in Heavy Containment in an XXL tank. Spawns with 1-5 Searchlight Kibble nearby. No document, as this is a normal, non-experimented, but young, Searchlight.

This searchlight can be used as a flashlight-like item, needing Wall Dweller Flesh [80], Searchlight Kibble [25], and Party Special [500] to stay lit. Its light is dim, and it tends to stare at Squiddles, Turrets, False Doors, and hidden Wall Dwellers.

However, having this baby Searchlight in your inventory will wreak havoc upon you and your teammates when you encounter the Adult Searchlights in the Grand Encounters.

This Searchlight is only about a foot in length despite its age [23yo] and is purple due to an adaptation of Searchlights: they only gain their orange coloration later in life when they're capable of of easily killing and eating Squiddles, which are otherwise a big threat for these small babies.

TRANSCRIPT OF BADGES

You Monster

Kill the Searchlight Nymph by letting it out of its container in a dry room without picking it up within 30s.

Are you proud of yourself?

Take the Searchlight Nymph back to Urbanshade alongside the Crystal. Rewards the player with 100 extra kroner.

Happy Ending

Release the Searchlight Nymph to its family in the Final Encounter. Rewards the player with the Nymph jumpsuit: a black jumpsuit with orange and purple coloration on the bands and Urbanshade logo.

EXPLANATION OF MECHANICS

The Searchlight Nymph is a flashlight that requires Wall Dweller Flesh, Searchlight Kibble, or Party Special to stay charged. If you have a Gummylight, you can also give that to the Nymph, which it will slowly extract charge from [takes 1m] and then spit back out.

However, this cute baby is not just a flashlight, it is an actual living thing.. with parents that are looking for it. Searchlights aren't good parents, usually, having large communal clutches reaching to the millions, but this offspring is extremely healthy, and the last alive of its siblings, due to the Anglers, Squiddles, and Parasites killing the rest of them.

The Nymph only spawns at room 60 or higher, but cannot be found in The Ridge, as it only spawns in Heavy Containment rooms. You have to swim into its tank with the Nymph Container item, catch the Nymph [as it swims away or thwacks you with its hooks, dealing 1 damage every 10 seconds] and then it can be used.

It can be released into any room with water [though why would you want to do that?] and can be dropped into dry rooms, in which it will die after 30s if you don't pick it up again.

The Nymph is also, admittedly, not a very good flashlight. It looks wherever it pleases: though it can warn the player if there's a Wall Dweller, Squiddle, Turret, or Good People, as it likes to stare at these threats.

However, the Nymph's usefulness quickly turns to hazardous, as during the first Searchlight Grand Encounter, the Nymph will cry out to its parent, rapidly circling its small enclosure and bopping its head against the glass, causing the Adult Searchlight to spin around the room 15% faster than before. You can release the Nymph in order to get it to stop crying, but this will kill the searchlight, and that's just plain cruel, since you're doing it in sight of its parent.

During the second Grand Encounter, the Nymph will repeat the same bullshittery it did in the First Encounter, causing all three Searchlights to go into a frenzy looking for the crying Nymph, increasing their speed by 20%. However, they will occasionally butt heads, starting a small scuffle, allowing the player to continue repairing the cables.

However, you now have the opportunity to release the Nymph back to its parents, which will cause one of the adult Searchlights to stop looking entirely, instead, keeping an eye on the Nymph, retreating to the outskirts of the Trench. This will also change the Lucy cutscene at the end, in which two Searchlights chase after you instead: one being crushed, and the other narrowly escaping Lucy's foot, quickly turning back to care for the Nymph instead.

This also minorly changes the end cutscene as well, the Nymph poking its head out of the submarine dock, waving goodbye with one of its hooks, before popping back into the water. [This was something Urbanshade staff accidentally trained the Searchlight to do.]

[madkiska]

watching the entirety of jrwi: riptide again. here's some important things from the first few episodes that I feel we forgot (<110 mentions too though)

Jay

Had night terrors similar to those of Kubakinta's curse in episode 5, and they eventually start returning even after Loffinlot's curse is lifted ○ All of them were about her family and/or the navy ○ I simply think people leave her out of the nightmare stuff and she deserves it. Hurt her more, please (he said, lovingly)

was actually very upset at having to use her medal to get a Loffinlot rebellion to shut up ○ This could be because she didn't want them to guess she was a spy, but I choose to believe it's because she felt guilty

"If you're gonna be sailing with someone, you should have a good relationship with them. [nervous chuckle]." She says, while asking him for information about the Black Rose Pirates (ep. 10)

Said "thank god they didn't find me" after a nightmare about the navy attacking. Even when she was supposedly a spy, who one day would have to return to the navy ○ Very unclear if she was scared of her dad, or if it's because she was a secret spy so the navy would've just killed her

Rewatching, she was suspiciously into the plundering and gold and stuff. Like that was real sus. It doesn't fit her current character much

The only one among them who's gambled before

Chip

The entire thing literally starts off with Bizly holding a lit match

Called Gillion "Gill" and Jay "Sureshot" from an early stage

Was SO much more of a bastard. Lied to Gill constantly, didn't care about anything but the money, etc.

Had aggressive hand tremors alongside Jay's night terrors ○ Gill cures it with lay on hands

When he gets drunk married, they talk extensively about how he'd be released when he's dead. Welp.

They did actually break up and it was fine and they were still friends. They parted on good terms

Is really fucking good at chess ○ Beat Earl twice and Jay once. Jay had a point of exhaustion after a nightmare but Earl had no excuse ○ Lost to Gillion though, but only cause of prophetic screwup ○ This kid is smarter than he lets on, y'all

Was the first one to have a backstory dump while Jay is asking him about the Black Rose Pirates, yet still we know jack shit about his life before them other than "orphan"

Gill

Charlie has referred to Gillion with 'they' many times. I can pull receipts.

When describing Gill, Charlie said: "He's more.. elven, if you had to make a comparison. 'Cause I don't wanna be a fish guy". Oh, honey.

Smote a bald person by using his hair as a whip (ep. 4)

Was given anxiety and self-doubt alongside jay's night terrors and chip's tremors ○ "What do you want?" "I want the feeling of satisfaction I've been chasing my whole life." ○ This was episode FIVE.

First mention of the prophecy and how Gillion wasn't their ideal student is ep. 7, after he divine smites + prophetic screwups and deals like 60 damage to some beetles ○ Chip spends the next 30 seconds in gay awe

He refers to the crescent moon Niklaus tattoo as "my zodiac" (probably a bit) ○ It's not a lil basic white girl moon this thing is the entire size of his forearm

Gill had never heard about the Black Sea - it's unclear if the Undersea just don't know, or if that's just how sheltered he was (ep. 10)

Biz: "What would Gillion do. If he just had no goal - was just sitting there." "Gillion always has a goal." "Would his goal ever be to just.. Sit there?" "Absolutely not." ○ Later, Chip expresses that he doesn't know what Gillion likes. What he would want out of winning a bet. Gillion doesn't have an answer

Other

Apple, in a couple of early battles, acted like Gill's familiar (see: ep. 7)

They also pecked at his Niklaus tramp stamp and looked all confused at the idea of eating seeds

The specific crescent of the moon in the Niklaus tattoo is known as a symbol of "corruption" (ep. 9) and its antonym is the sun, for "life", similar to the yin and yang ○ Interesting to consider after what the tree said in 110 <_<

Pretzel has a masters degree in couple's therapy (ep. 10)

The Albatross/Millennium Chipper was described as the colour of rosewood or mahogany

Captain Lizzie's first introduction was a wanted poster, and Chip wanted to turn her in for the prize, then decided to try learn from her instead

Chip/Bizly called Old Man Earl "Erol" for a loooong time ○ Maybe it's an accent thing but I have an uncle called Erol and so this stands out to me

[txttletale]

In response to your overwatch posting but more about competitive games in general, why is it fine and good for certain things to be low or high teir? It's a pipe dream to perfectly balance a game, but isnt the shackling of playstyles, characters, etc to a certain skill group a problem that fucks players at every level?

it's fine and good because it allows for designs that you couldn't make if you really want every character to be equally good. there's a basic expectation from players of competitive games that success should be correlated with skill, that if you play better, if you are better at the things the game asks of you (skillshots, or aiming, or movement tech, or inputs, or whatever) you will see better results. this is what makes a game competitive, right, the ability to get better and see your performance improve as a result.

this means, that, generally speaking, the harder a thing is to do in a game, the more rewarding it will be. this is the logic behind headshots in FPS games, right--it's more difficult to hit a headshot than a bodyshot, so you get rewarded with more damage. better players can hit more headshots, so they'll get more damage (and presumably more kills) in an average round than worse players. so now, let's say you want to introduce some playstyle differentiation into your game, so you add the Scanner, a gun that deals half damage on bodyshots but double damage on headshots.

this is a cool idea! it rewards you even more for showing skill at the game, makes people using it feel really cool when they get that bonus, poses interesting questions to players about trading consistency for volatility. but because it interacts with a skill-based mechanic, its viability is obviously going to be tied to a player's skill--if you're in a pro lobby hitting 60%+ of your headshots, it's an obvious pick. if you've just started playing and you average one headshot a match, it's a total dud.

this is a really on-the-nose example, of course -- but in any kind of competitive game, there are likely going to be far more than just one skill-based mechanic, as well as meta-skills like team communication, positional awareness, understanding matchups, etc. that are going to vary between low and high levels of play. so trying to make a character/weapon/playstyle equally viable at every level of play would mean having to make them essentially agnostic to all those things--which would mean not allowing them to interact with any of the mechanics of the game--which is, practically speaking, impossible.

on the other hand, purposefully designing 'low-tier' or 'high-tier' characters lets you do lots of really useful things! first of all, it lets you make easier characters for beginners, who don't have a huge amount of mechanical complexity to deal with, have some kind of 'training wheel' ability that mitigates a new players' lack of all these game-winning skills. like, say, a gun in that same FPS designed for a 'spray and pray' playstyle, or a character in a fighting game who revolves around one comparatively simple combo. having something like this lets new players onboard to your mechanically complex game without getting overwhelmed or disheartened, by letting them get into a match and feel like they're doing something as soon as possible.

as for 'high-tier' characters, acknowledging that a character will have to be nerfed into unplayability for low ranks lets you actually play with the upper ends of the mechanical complexities you've put into your game. creating characters with extremely complex movement techs that can offer marginal benefits that are game-defining in pro play but basically meaningless in casual play adds a new dimension of depth to high-level play that you can't get if you're too concerned about making every character good at every level.

ultimately, i don't think it fucks players, and i don't think there's any shackling being done--i think it's good to create characters that lean into different parts of a game, for characters to fill different niches in a meta's ecosystem, and for the lists of pro staples and pubstompers to be different.

[youryurigoddess]

A nightingale sang in the London Blitz

When exactly was that certain night, the night Aziraphale and Crowley met — and spoke for the first time in 79 years in the midst of the London Blitz?

And what’s the deal with the nightingale’s song, really?

Grab something to drink and we’ll look for some Clues below.

The night they met

The Blitz, short for Blitzkrieg (literally: flash war) was a German aerial bombing campaign on British cities in the WW2, spanning between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941. The Luftwaffe attacks were carried out almost non stop, with great intensity meant to force a capitulation and similarly strong impact on British life and culture at the time.

Starting on 7 September 1940, London as the capital city was bombed for nearly 60 consecutive nights. More than one million London houses were destroyed or damaged, and more than 20,000 civilians were killed, half of the total victims of this campaign.

The night of 29 December 1940 saw the most ferocity, becoming what is now known as the Second Great Fire of London. The opening shot of the S2 1941 minisode is a direct reference to recordings of that event, with the miraculously saved St Paul’s Cathedral in the upper left corner.

The actual raid lasted between 06:15 and 09:45 PM, but its aftermath continued for days. The old and dense architecture of this particular part of the city turned into a flaming inferno larger than the Great Fire of 1666. Multiple buildings, including churches, were destroyed in just one night by over 100,000 bombs.

Incendiary bombs fell also on St Dunstan-in-the-East church that night, the real-life location of this scene as intended by Neil. It was gutted and again claimed by fire in one of the last air rides on 10 May, when the bomb destroyed the nave and roof and blew out the stained glass windows. The ruins survived to this day as a memorial park to the Blitz.

Such a delightfully Crowley thing to do: saving a bag of books with a demonic miracle adding to the biggest catastrophe for the publishing and book trade in years. 5 million volumes were lost, multiple bookshops and publishing houses destroyed in the December 29th raid alone.

Even without this context, judging by the seemingly unending night, overwhelming cold and darkness, broken heating at the theatre, and seasonal clothing (like Aziraphale and Crowley’s extremely nice winter coats), it’s rather clear that it was the very beginning of the year 1941.

Everything suggests that Aziraphale and Crowley’s Blitz reunion happened exactly 1900 years after their meeting in Rome — which, according to the script book, took place between 1 and 24 January 41 (Crowley was right: emperor Caligula was a mad tyrant and didn't need any additional tempting; there's a reason why he was murdered by his closest advisors, including members of his Praetorian Guard, on 24 January 41).

Interestingly, both events involved a role reversal in their otherwise stable dynamic, with Aziraphale spontaneously taking the lead instead of letting the demon be the one to do all the tempting and saving, and ended with a toast.

The S2 Easter Egg with the nuns of the Chattering Order of St Beryl playing table tennis at the theatre suggests that the Blitz meeting happened on a Tuesday afternoon, which doesn’t match any of the above mentioned days, but sets the in-universe date for 7 January 1941 or later.

The Chattering Order of Saint Beryl is under a vow to emulate Saint Beryl at all times, except on Tuesday afternoons, for half an hour, when the nuns are permitted to shut up, and, if they wish, to play table tennis.

The nightingale

January means one thing: absolutely no migratory birds in Europe yet. They’re blissfully wintering in the warm sun of Northern Africa at the time. But, ironically, when the real nightingales flew off, a certain song about them suddenly gained popularity in the West End of London.

It might be a shock, but A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square wasn’t a hit from the start — even though its creators, Eric Maschwitz and Manning Sherwin, were certainly established in their work at this point. The song was written in the then-small French fishing village of Le Lavandou shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War with first performance in the summer of 1939 in a local bar, where the melody was played on piano by the composer Manning Sherwin with the help of the resident saxophonist. Maschwitz sang his lyrics while holding a glass of wine, but nobody seemed impressed. It took time and a small miracle to change that.

Next year, the 23-year-old actress Judy Campbell had planned to perform a monologue of Dorothy Parker’s in the upcoming Eric Maschwitz revue „New Faces”. But somehow the script had been mislaid and, much to her horror, replaced with the song A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square. She had never professed to be a singer but even so, she gathered her courage and went out onto the moonlit set dressed in a white ball gown. Her heartfelt rendition of the now evocative ballad captured the audience’s imagination and catapulted her West End career to stardom.

It was precisely 11 April 1940 at the Comedy Theatre in Panton Street and the revue itself proved to be a great success — not only it kept playing two performances nightly through the Blitz, but also returned the next year. And the still operating Comedy Theatre is mere five minutes on foot from the Windmill Theatre, where Aziraphale performed in 1941, and not much longer from his bookshop.

Now, most Good Omens meta analyses focus on Vera Lynn’s version of the song from 5 June 1940, but it didn’t get much attention until autumn, specifically 15 November, when Glenn Miller and his orchestra published another recording. And Glenn Miller himself is a huge point of reference in Good Omens 2.

According to the official commentary the infamous credits scene is establishing Aziraphale and Crowley’s final resolve for the next season using the same narrative device The Glenn Miller Story (1954) does in its most crucial scene. It starts with the tune (and audio in general) totally flat, then adds a piano on one side, and gradually becomes fully multidimensional. The Good Omens credits not only emulate the same sound effect, but bring it to the visual side of the narrative by literally combining the individual perspectives of the two characters together. Even though they’re physically apart, their resolve — and love to each other — brings them even closer than before. Aziraphale smiles not because he’s being brainwashed, but because he knows exactly what to do next.

Some of you might have noticed that Tori Amos’s performance for Good Omens is actually a slightly shortened version of Miller’s recording — much less sorrowful than Vera Lynn’s full lyrics that include i.a. this bridge:

The dawn came stealing up

All gold and blue

To interrupt our rendez-vous

I still remember how you smiled and said

Was that a dream or was it true?

Which is a huge hint when it comes to what we can expect from the main romantic plot line in the Good Omens series. The original song introduces an element of the doubt — it seems like there was no nightingale at all, only the mirage woven by the singer clearly intoxicated with love, much like Aziraphale and Crowley for the length of the last six episodes. Crowley’s comment in the season finale might allude to that interpretation, stating that there are no nightingales — never have been. It was all a dream. But the version we’re working with here is short and sweet, and devoid of that doubt. In the Good Omens universe angels were actually dining at the Ritz, the streets were truly paved with stars (or will be shown as such in the next season), and a nightingale really sang in Berkeley Square, as the omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent narrator, God Herself, had shown us.

All in all, it’s not an accident that the “modern” swing ballad activating Aziraphale’s memory and opening the 1941 minisode is the Moonlight Serenade by Glenn Miller. It’s a track naturally associated with A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square when it comes to music style and the sentiment in the lyrics.

But why the sudden popularity? In the great uncertainty and hardship of the Blitz, A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square provided solace and escapism for listeners, offering a glimpse of hope and love amidst the darkness of war. It became a universal anthem of resilience and a reminder of the power of love transcending difficulties. By January 1941 the whole city knew this tune by heart, including a certain West End aficionado with a cabinet full of theatre programs in his bookshop. Thanks to Maggie’s grandmother, he most probably had a record at hand to play during his spontaneous wine night with Crowley. We can only suspect the details, but it was was mutually established as their song exactly at that time or soon afterwards. Pretty sure we will see a third installment of that minisode for many, many reasons, but especially because of this “several days in 1941” answer by Neil:

The Man Hunt

In 1941 A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square gained even more popularity as the romantic theme of the Fritz Lang’s newest film Man Hunt. The 1939 story by Geoffrey Household first appeared under the title “Rogue Male” as a serial in the Atlantic Monthly Magazine where it received widespread comment, soon becoming a world-wide phenomenon in novel form. Its premise criticizes Britain's pre-war policy of appeasement with Germany, ready to sacrifice its own innocent citizens to the tentative status quo. Sounds a bit like Heaven's politics, right?

Yes, I'm trying to make you watch old movies again — like all the other classics, Man Hunt (1941) is easily available on YouTube and other streaming websites.

The next part will include spoilers, so scroll down to the next picture if you prefer to avoid them.

The plot of the movie seems simple enough: the tall, dark, and handsome Alan Thorndike, who nearly assassinates Hitler, narrowly escapes Germany and back in London continues to evade the Nazi agents sent after him with the help of a young trench-clad “seamstress” named Jerry, bridging the class divide and becoming unlikely friends-partners-romantic interests. It doesn’t end well though.

Jerry's small London apartment serves as a hideout for Alan when he was being followed by Nazis, similarly to how Aziraphale's bookshop is a safe haven for both Crowley and Gabriel in S2. She helps the man navigate the streets and eventually out of London — by sacrificing herself and getting forcefully separated from him by a patrolling policeman. The last time they see each other, Alan watches Jerry look back at him yearningly and disappear in the fog, followed by the elderly officer.

Unfortunately in the next scene we learn that the latter is a Nazi collaborator and helps the agents apprehend Jerry in her own flat. Staying loyal to her love and uncooperative, she’s ultimately thrown out of a window to her death, but posthumously saves Alan once again — through the arrow-shaped hatpin he gifted her earlier that is presented to him as the evidence of her off-screen fate.

Long story short, thanks to Jerry’s sacrifice Alan not only survives, but is able to join the war that broke out in the meantime and go back to Germany, armed with a rifle and a final resolve to end what he started, no matter how long will it take. The justice will be served and the dictator will pay with his life for his sins.

I wouldn’t be myself without mentioning that the main villain has a Roman chariot statue similar to the one in Aziraphale’s bookshop, an antique sculpture of St Sebastian (well-known as the gayest Catholic Saint) foreshadowing his demise, and a chess set symbolizing the titular manhunt/game of tag with the protagonist.

Aziraphale’s song

Will Aziraphale sacrifice himself as well? Or has he already? If his coin magic trick can be any indicator, we should expect at least a shadow of a danger touching the angel’s wings soon.

Let’s sum up the 1941 events from Aziraphale’s perspective: the very first time they’ve interacted after almost a century, Crowley actively sabotaged his entire existence twice by stepping onto a holy ground and by being outed by agents of Hell, both on the very same night and both because of his undying dedication to the angel. That’s enough of a reason not only for performing an apology dance, but also maintaining a careful distance for Crowley’s sake for the next 26 years. Only when he heard that his idiot was planning to rob a church, he gave up since he “can't have him risking his life”.

That’s when Crowley, sitting in a car parked right under his bookshop, offered him a ride. It wasn’t even subtle anymore. It was supposed to be a date, this time both of them understood it. But Aziraphale wouldn’t risk Crowley’s safety for his own happiness, especially not when he can name his feelings towards him and knows that they are reciprocated — the biggest lesson he learnt back in 1941.

So he did what he’s best at, he cut Crowley off again, but this time with a promise of catching up to his speed at some point. Buddy Holly’s Everyday, which was originally planned to play afterwards instead of the Good Omens theme, adds additional context here:

No, thank you. Oh, don’t look so disappointed. Perhaps one day we could... I don't know… Go for a picnic. Dine at the Ritz.

Aziraphale, carefully looking around and feeling observed through the whole conversation in the Bentley, consciously used the “Dine at the Ritz” line from A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square, from their song, as a code only the two of them understand. Not as a suggestion to go out for a meal, but a promise. A hope for the privilege of being openly in love and together — maybe someday, not now, when it’s too dangerous — even if it leads to a bad ending.

Fast forward to 2023 when for one dreadful moment Crowley’s “No nightingales” robbed Aziraphale even of that semblance of hope. He looked away, unable to stop his tears anymore. Only their kiss helped him pull himself together and make sure that a nightingale did sing the last time he turned — just like in their song — this time without a smile, as a goodbye.

[ncat]

The Conduit

So heres the conduit! I'm very happy with how this turned out.

The conduit as a class is best described as a "Con Based Martial with spellcaster aesthetics", since, mechanically, it fills a martial role, being a class that doesnt use resources, with a primary party focus on dealing damage, while flavor wise, it goes around slinging blasts of energy at people.

This class mechanically is very much based on the warlock of 3rd edition, with flavour and some mechanical inspiration from the Kineticist of Pathfinder 2e.

The two core design elements that I tried to stick to with making this were 1. Being resourceless and 2. Customizability.

For the first point, none of the class features are limited in uses per day. No feature adds an additional resource for the player to track, nor uses spell slots nor etc. The closest it comes to a resource is its Exertion mechanic, where certain things tire out your conduit character. Though, this serves less as a resource, and more as a temporary debuff, reducing your damage output whilst its in effect, before being easily removed.

The second point is customizability. The first element of this is subclasses. Of course, theres the variety of subclasses to pick from, but notably, is that unlike other classes, you aren't bound to picking just one subclass. From 7th level onwards, whenever you reach your subclass feature level, you can choose to continue advancing in your subclass, or you can take the initial features of a different subclass. This means while you can do a more traditional route of going "I'm the lightning guy, I'm taking lightning every level", you can also do an avatar style "Master of 4 elements" and have 4 different subclasses by level 20. Mix and match them as you like, be the "Fire and Lightning" person, be the "I control water mostly, but also a little bit of ice", combine your elements and so forth.

The next part of customizability is in talents. Talents are very much your classic invocation style feature, of which there are... like. 60 of them at this point. But! Theres a lot of variety in what they do. While you have your choices of ones that give additional powers, like flight or teleportation or whatnot, a large bulk of them are dedicated to one thing: Reshaping your elemental blast. Go out there as a fire guy and blast people with fire, then turn around and literally explode everything around you in flames, then focus your blast into a roaring line of fire that pushes everything within it towards you, and then rush the last man standing with a spear made of literal fire.

The talents are designed around not just being able to reshape and modify your blast in a bunch of different ways, but you can combine them together and do cool stuff.

Because at its core, I wanted to design this class to fill a very specific style of fantasy, and thats of the type of magic you see in some settings where its just "I control this one element", and then from that the mage turns that into a billion different things.

A fire wizard will say "I can cast fire bolt, fire ball, and scorching ray". A fire conduit instead just has an elemental blast, but they can turn that elemental blast into a bolt that is hurled at one person, or have it explode into a ball of flame, or split it into multiple beams.

Its very much a creativity first subclass, and thats whats behind its capstone! The capstone is all of this at its epitomy, the ability to freely reshape your elemental power (By freely, temporarily learning talents) into whatever form you imagine.

Hell, customizability is built even into the very core of its flavour

Yeah <3

I hope you guys enjoyed reading this class as much as I enjoyed writing it and as much as I enjoy talking about it <3

[cerastes]

Ejia alt best skill?

Fucking, all of them.

The right answer is S3 because it's what you'd usually think is a burst skill except it lasts 50 entire whole seconds and it gives her global range, machine gun 5-instance heals with individually reduced, altogether MUCH stronger output, jacked buffs for Max HP and Elemental DMG reduction, and it basically exists on a 60 SP cooldown at M3. Even if you're not dealing with Elemental Damage, this still just raw outheals most damage the game can throw at you that isn't an outright one hit kill against any given unit.

The correct answer is that all three of her skills are absolutely goofy goober-tier overtuned. After S3, you want to master S1, which is a permanent buff once it goes active that gives a minor ATK buff, multitarget (2 units at once), and whenever she heals someone, EVERYONE in range gets a minor Elemental DMG heal. 60 SP activation at M3.

And if you think I left S2 for last because it's not good, think again, S2 is the last thing you want to Master because it's god damn broken even at SL7. You don't NEED to Master this one for it to be e-sports. Being able to give characters a 650% of her ATK barrier against Elemental Damage for 14 whole seconds is very much enough to tank pretty much every possible existent instance of Elemental Damage in the game possibly maybe barring very High Waves Ubi Bona Somnia flowerstacks or Phase 2 Highmore soloblasts, and if none of those words make sense to you, then you don't need to worry about any case use of something stronger than SL7. There IS a point to M3ing this skill, though: At M3, S2 has a 20 SP cooldown and the barriers last 20 seconds. So, uh, you can just have 100% upkeep on 900% ATK barriers. In case you ever feel like Not Having To Ever Deal With Elemental Damage Ever Again, Period.

Unrelated pic of Frostleaf

Skills aside, keep in mind Eyjaberry the Holungday is a Wandering Medic so she enjoys god-tier range making positioning very easy, also her heals all leave a small regen (HP and Elemental DMG) effect that can stack up to three times per character, and if you're in range, you have Max HP+ and Elemental DMG reduction, so basically, yeah, summer unit goofy goober overtuning strikes once again, healer edition. About her only weaknesses are that S3 has a 60 SP cooldown timer so you may have a gap in its use, which would be an issue if you didn't have 11 more slots in your squad to do stuff during that minute.

[thecreaturecodex]

Slugspawn

Image © Paizo Publishing

[Sponsored by @coldbloodassassin, who asked for the slugspawn from Carrion Crown: Wake of the Watcher to be converted from a hazard to a full monster. It is a little weird in the adventure as published, and this art, which is from WotW, makes it look as if it was intended to be an independent creature originally. WotW has a very large Bestiary section (this is the PF1e module that introduced a ton of Cthulhu Mythos monsters), so it's entirely possible that this was its own stat block at one point in development before being changed for the finished product to save word count. Lucky for me, I don't have a word count.]

Slugspawn CR 5 CE Aberration This creature appears to be a greenish-black slug the size of a human arm. On its underside, it has a lamprey-like maw with layers of rasping teeth

Slugspawn are the juvenile stage of the moits of Shub-Nugganoth, grotesque creatures that use humanoids are hosts to create eruptions of parasitic plague. A slugspawn is barely sapient, existing only to lurk in a dark corner somewhere and wait for a passerby to infest. Slugspawn are slow but patient, and can eat insects, mold and other detritus if these are available, and survive for up to a year on reserves of fat if they are not. They require the thoughts of a host, preferably a humanoid, in order to molt and reach maturity and intelligence.

Slugspawn attack from hiding, attempting to ambush a victim and burrow inside of it without the victim noticing more than a faint twinge of pain. Although cold damage or surgical intervention can pull a slugspawn from its host, this must be done quickly before the aberration wraps around the host’s brain stem. There, it feeds on the thought energy of its host, but also provides blanket protection from mind-influencing effects. The infestation initially seems relatively benign, and the infested may go about their lives as normal until the moit suddenly and violently transforms into a spawning canker. This is universally fatal to the host, and the host’s corpse becomes little more than a puppet and layer of protection for a tentacled horror.

Slugspawn CR 5 XP 1,600 CN Tiny aberration Init +7; Senses darkvision 60 ft., tremorsens 30 ft., Perception +5

Defense AC 20, touch 20, flat-footed 12 (+2 size, +7 Dex, +1 dodge) hp 51 (6d8+24) Fort +6, Ref +10, Will +4 Immune mind-influencing effects; Vulnerable cold, remove disease

Offense Speed 10 ft., climb 10 ft. Melee bite +13 (1d2+2 plus infestation) Space 2 ½ ft.; Reach 0 ft.

Statistics Str 14, Dex 25, Con 16, Int 3, Wis 8, Cha 9 Base Atk +4; CMB +9; CMD 21 (cannot be tripped) Feats Dodge, Mobility, Weapon Finesse Skills Climb +10, Perception +5, Stealth +21 Languages Aklo (cannot speak) SQ camouflage

Ecology Environment any land Organization solitary, clot (2-6) or infestation (7-12) Treasure none

Special Abilities Camouflage (Su) If a slugspawn is seen, a DC 20 Knowledge (dungeoneering) or DC 25 Knowledge (nature) check is required to tell that it is not a harmless, albeit oversized, slug. Infestation (Ex) A creature bitten by a slugspawn must succeed a DC 16 Reflex save, or the slugspawn burrows through the skin and begins to infest the creature. Any amount of damage reduction is enough to resist the initial infestation. The save DC is Constitution based. On the first round of infestation, dealing cold damage to the victim can eject the slugspawn and save the host—but only if the victim takes 10 or more points within 1 round of being infested. Cutting the slugspawn out also works, but the longer it remains in a host, the more damage this method does. Cutting it out requires a slashing weapon and a DC 25 Heal check, and deals 1d6 points of damage per round that the host has been infested. If the Heal check is successful, the slugspawn is removed. After 3 rounds, though, the slugspawn has reached the host’s brain and cannot be surgically removed without killing the host. Remove disease kills any slugspawn in a host. A slugspawn ejected through cold damage or a Heal check is stunned for 1 round after being ejected. A creature host to a slugspawn is immune to mind-influencing effects. 2d6 days after the initial infestation, a humanoid or native outsider host metamorphoses into a spawning canker, and cannot be returned to life with any means other than a true resurrection, miracle or wish spell. Hosts of other creature types have variable gestation periods, and may never metamorphose at all, subject to GM discretion. Vulnerable to Remove Disease (Su) If a slugspawn is targeted with a remove disease spell or similar effect, it must succeed a Fortitude save against the save DC of the spell or die instantly. If they succeed, the slugspawn still takes 1d4 points of damage per caster level.

[literallys-illiteracy]

I'm not late you're late - New Shit Overview - Limbus Company - BP EGO:

Overview of all the Battle Pass EGO, plus with nice art from various artists i follow, that being said

please follow and support the original artists, all art is credited, with links to original artist source + other main accounts.

No the art isn't strictly necessary but I like using this as an excuse to shoutout some artists i like

Yearning - Mircalla Meursault:

Src: Project Moon (yes this is the PV, Art of this hasn't come across my dash/feed on any media i use for art :(, this is a placeholder, i'll probably make something for this)

can roll for up to 29 if the enemy has 12 bleed, rolls for 21 without conditionals this is essentially a better version of Sanguine desire rodion it is able to proc bleed-damage 5 times when being used, which is higher than the 2x damage that Sanguine Desire Rodion can deal, not to mention the fact that Rodion Deals lust damage while Meursault deals flat (bleed) damage

even more: Meursault's EGO needs 4+ resonance, not 4+ Absolute Resonance as Rodion does for highest results

This EGO also has a unique effect: Rose Wedge:

""Basically"" Max count is 4: This effect's count is applied through Meursault's EGO, up to a max of 4; Count is reduced at round en Max Potency is 10: Every time the unit with this effect takes 10 Bleed damage, increase potency by one. When this unit gains bleed through getting hit, inflict 1 bleed on attacker and 2 bleed on self. At 10 Potency, also gain +1 bleed count. [Combat end]: At either 10 Potency or 1 count, this effect expires, and deals [Potency x10] lust damage to this unit (max 100 Lust damage) if this effect kills, deal [Potency x2] Lust damage to all this unit's allies.

This unique effect on its own deals roughly half of Rodion's sanguine desire's lust damage effect.

This EGO also shares the same finale effect as Sanguine Desire: dealing the excess damage (on fourth coin specifically, so if it kills coins 1-3 then this effect will not proc) to all other allies of that unit.

Corrosion:

this EGO corrosion makes use of Meursault's predisposition for High-HP ID's, as it consumes 10% of his own Max HP in order to deal 5% of his max hp (or rather the consumed HP/2) to all allies and enemies.

This effect does not trigger below 50% hp however, in which case he will add 5 bleed to all allies, before activating bleed on all allies and healing for the damage done (minimum (assuming 6 sinners) 30 HP, Max (assuming all allies have 99 Bleed potency) 594 HP healed)

The corrosion rolls for a whopping 1 higher than the awakening, at 30 (with conditionals)

This EGO, when corroding, does not require the same 4+ resonance that the awakening does for the first 2 Bleed damage-trigger effects, the final coin's triple trigger however does require said 4 Resonance.

The third coin of corrosion saves you some time, as if the enemy did not have Rose Wedge prior to it being inflicted, it inflicts an additional 4 potency, meaning only 60 bleed damage must occur for max damage.

-

My primary concern for this EGO is that of Bleed-count sustainability, i know that vampires are literally the bleed 'counts' but still (i am so sorry).

Namely because, the coin effect of the triple bleed activation requires a clash win, meaning that it cannot work against staggered targets; This is notable as it means the enemy requires at least 7 bleed count prior to Meursault beginning his clash, otherwise all bleed count will be consumed (1 or more from clashing, 1 each from coins 1 and 2, and then up to three from the final effect). Meursault's best bleed EGO, Rhino, is however excellent at applying bleed, as are many other ID's, the only problem therin being that those ID's have a tendency to be less effective regarding bleed potency that not.

This EGO, although i actually already wrote on it slightly in the past, makes me think about what is it that Meursault is so longing for in order to use this EGO; I know there's the line of thought with carnal desires relating to Marie back in the book, but id argue that its likely to be more than that, as if it was purely desire-driven then Heathcliff or Ishmael would have been better fits for the EGO.

His passive heals him for like up to 10 HP per turn, equal to the amount of bleed damage he deals/takes or something, i only noticed i didn't mention this at all in final editing

Yearning - Mircalla Don Quixote:

Src:@NishikujiC on twitter

This EGO rolls for up to 12 without conditionals. Coin power gained based on enemy bleed, up to 2, allows for this ego to roll for 23. And this EGO gains clash power based on BLOODFEAST CONSUMED BY **SELF** (which Don Quixote is currently unable to do, until she gains her season ID presumably) all together this EGO can clash for 23 currently, and 28 when she gets her seasonal ID.

This EGO deals more damage for each coin based on **Cumulative** Bloodfeast Consumed, which includes all allies and enemies. All coins share the same damage increase ratio, being 1% per 10 Bloodfeast Consumed (shared), or 0.1x per 1.

Coin 1 maxes out at 10% increase, requiring 100 Bloodfeast consumed; Coin 2 At 20%, needing 200. Coin 3 at 30%, needing 300. Coin 4 at 50%, needing 500 total bloodfeast consumed.

This EGO also has a unique effect, Polydipsic Rose:

Max Value: 5 Turn end: If this unit has 10+ bleed potency, take 1% max HP lust damage per value (maximum 30 Lust damage per value), then reduce value by one.

The awakening EGO applies 4 of this effect, which will deal a total of 10% max hp Lust damage (max 300 Lust damage) over its duration.

The Corrosion EGO applies 5, dealing a total of 15% max HP Lust damage (Max 450 Lust damage)

When used in Corrosion:

this EGO will roll for 30, being a negative coin EGO. It additionally has the Yaoi-Meursault effect of unyielding until the skill is finished, where her HP cannot drop below 1.

On use, gain 20 bleed, activate bleed on self, and reduce bleed count on self by 2; this can theoretically be useful for removing potentially fatal bleed count on self, however i believe its intended use is to instead stack more latent bloodfeast for the bloodfiend ID's to use.

Funnily enough, due to her passive "Spring Crimson Blossom", she is less likely to roll heads if this EGO has been used previously this combat, as she will heal a whopping 2 SP due to the 20 bleed damage on self.

This EGO corrosion is able to inflict 22 bleed potency, 2 through a [before attack] effect if under 150 bloodfeast; 1 for every 50 Bloodfeast consumed (total) up to a max of 10 and 500 consumed. 10 inflicted when under 100 bloodfeast.

on the second coin, it deals 20% increased damage for every 100 total Bloodfeast consumed, up to a max of 100% increase. additionally, this EGO will heal Don for 50% of the damage that coin dealt, exactly like Le Sangre De Sancho, except this healing is maxed at 10 per target, for a max of 70 healing. 70 Healing is nothing to scoff at in the slightest, but at the same time, the other self healing-damage dealing EGO in the game, Wingbeat, can consistently heal Ishmael to full HP Moreso, other healing EGO arent limited by the targetable enemies, making this far less useful than other healing EGO in any non-group battle situation, maybe if she had some sort of gimmick like meursault where she had 14 attack weight but only healed/dealt bleed damage on allies? idk.

Her passive heals for 1 SP every time 10 bleed damage occurs, maxed at 10.

Lasso Faust:

Src: @stellar-jasper Stellar_jasper Linktree

this EGO rolls for 13 without conditionals. This EGO gains power based on enemy rupture and speed, being able to roll for 22 total.

Before attack: Gain 2 Haste next turn.

This EGO is count negative by one, as it inflicts +2 on coin 1 of three.

This EGO's passive works well with Seven Ass. Faust due to having the same: "after attack, if enemy is staggered or defeated". This EGO passive is also able to inflict rupture count, being +1 count on 2 enemies

Lasso Hong Lou:

Src: @stellar-jasper Stellar_jasper linktree

This EGO rolls for 12 without conditionals. With conditionals (total speed (self speed + Enemy speed) and enemy Rupture) this ego rolls for 24.

This EGO is ALSO count negative, inflicting *up to* (based on glut. Resonance) +3 count on coin 3 of four.

its weird that PM has been trying to make Rupture-Bleed a thing since season 1, back with Ebony Queen's stem.

This EGO is interesting? its Rupture count negative, it inflicts rupture based on own speed?

This EGO also has an effect (Lasso Faust corrosion shares this effect but i CBA): "Lasso"

Lasso: Round end, gain rupture potency equal to speed value (max 5), then reduce count by one and gain 1 bind next turn

....

....why does it inflict based on speed count... when it drops their speed count? it drops their speed count...

This EGO actually rolls lower during corrosion, being 23 rather than 24.

In corrosion this EGO inflicts 1 extra HP healing down and Lasso effect, while inflicting 1 less rupture count (due to it losing a coin it remains at -1 count total) and +2 bleed count.

I rather like the correlation between roses and bloodfiends, linking the Rose-hunter's into being the bloodfiend hunters as only bloodfiend hunters (and also season 1's R.B. Chef de Cuisine Ryōshū) possess this effect.

The only flaw in that correlation however is that the "rose" aspect of the hunter is not it searching for roses, the "rose" descriptor is self referential, it is instead hunting apples.

on the final coin only, deal 1% more damage for every rupture, and the same effect for bleed, for a potential 60% increase total.

I don't like rupture very much so i don't have too many thoughts on that aspect, however, i am somewhat interested in the thematic surrounding this Abnormality, including both Faust and Hong Lou, alongside the fact that it was included in Don Quixote's Dungeon and Canto. Specifically, other than the obvious fairy tale motif shared by Don herself, it has the trait of a supposed "predetermined story" of sorts, as seen through both the awakening EGO lines:

Follow the predetermined path of the tale. Be ensnared, for that is only right.

Run along the flow and voilà~ There you are!

This can be related to Don herself acting "how a fixer should act" in her belief, upholding, and attempting to prove the justness of her version of justice, and her dismay when something should slight that (eg. during the casino scene of canto 2).

there is more elaboration to be made in a follow up post, i would normally write it here, however i like to avoid cross-contamination with when i discuss spoilers/new content

Hex Nail sinclair:

(There were others i just wanted an excuse to shout this artist out) Src:@shroomychan.bsky.social @Myceliumycete on tumblr

Rolls for 21 max.

Hits up to 3 enemies.

Inflicts up to 4 curse (2 min. 4 max.) and inflicts 3 nails. this EGO also consumes 2 curse on hit, and activates both those curse-effects immediately. At 4+ curse, inflict 1 same turn clash power down for some reason its clarified that it can only inflict the clash power down once per turn which.... its a 2 coin skill so Rusty Commemorative Coin doesn't work... and it's an EGO so you can't use it twice in a turn?

Corrosion:

this EGO rolls for a 25 in corrosion, becoming a negative coin skill.

the conditional for maximum curse is now removed, being 4 by default; the first coin also applies one more bleed potency. (3)

if 4+ envy resonance, this skill will inflict 1 clash power down (still same turn). For some reason the in game text feels the need to clarify "4+ envy resonance including this skill" which... yeah? that's how resonance works? None of the other EGO released this batch have these weird additional sections in their coin effects, its only Hex Nail(s)? All of the others just say "for/if X+ resonance"

additionally, this skill will have attack weight 3 by default instead of requiring envy resonance (for every 3 envy resonance INCLUDING THIS SKILL gain attack weight +1)

Passive: Gain Clash power up and defense level up if this unit has a negative effect on self at round start... This EGO doesn't have any self inflicted negative effects? Not even the corrosion has any self negative effects? Sinclair doesn't even have a self-negative effect ID yet? and i don't see him getting a bloodfiend ID for self-bleed shenanigans? idk.

ok now let me Nail Sincla

Hex Nail Rodion:

Src: minji_mj2802 on twitter Minji_mj's Carrd

Rolls for 24

After attack will heal SELF AND 2 OTHERS for 15% of THIS UNIT'S max HP. Note two things, the fact that this will always heal self (which pursuance is unable to do) and heals based on own max HP, unlike other Healing EGO like Meursault's Pursuance which heals the other sinners max HP.

Each unit being healed will heal 2.5% HP for every negative effect on self (max 10% increase to healing)

Heals self and three allies at 4+ envy resonance [[INCLUDING THIS SKILL]].

inflicts 4 Bleed, 3 curse, 3 nails.

in corrosion, this EGO rolls for 28 as a negative coin skill.

This attack will heal 3 other allies and self for 20% of this unit's max HP. every unit this heals will gain 1 offence level up for every negative effect on self (max 3) this will also heal one additional ally at 4+ envy resonance **[[INCLUDING THIS SKILL]]**

Passive:

When this unit inflicts bleed or unique bleed against an enemy with non EGO attack skills, inflict 1 defence level down (once per turn) Also inflict 2 additional bleed if target already possessed bleed or unique bleed.

If an ally, including self, takes unblocked HP damage from "the" enemy, inflict 1 curse against said enemy (2 times per turn)

I want to point out the fact that the description says from "the" enemy? i'm assuming this means that once you hit someone they gain curse if they attempt to attack someone back? Also, i'm fairly sure that Rodion is now the first to have 3 He EGO? we need someone to get a third Zayin, fourth Teth, fourth He, or second Waw to break the records now i guess

Now there are some interesting things to note about Hurting teddy bear as a whole so lets give that its own heading:

Hex Nail Primogenitor Hurting Teddy Bear:

Or i suppose happy teddy bear is the ancestor so it should be just progenitor? or is the well the primogenitor? im overthinking this.

So lets start with obvious observations: The correlation that can be made with voodoo dolls, the common idea of a cursed doll that you insert nails into, hence the status effect "Curse" first being present in this abnormalities EGO and only later appearing in another archetypically "haunted" or "Cursed" thematic of Bygone Days.

While 'Happy Teddy Bear' was a toy that was abandoned by its owner, the Hurting Teddy Bear seems to not have the same kind of integrality with its owner that its progenitor had, due to the lack of any direct mention of its owner. Rather, 'Hurting Teddy Bear' seems to be indicative of abuse or being controlled by another in life, represented through a clearly abused and neglected toy — It's less directly clear as to how this relates to Faust's past as we know, to use to technical term, "absolutely fucking nothing" about her past; Rodion's relation can be seen in her sprite and animation, with her use of the bear as a puppet (or the puppets control of her during corrosion), this is related to social determinism*, wherein the circumstances of neglect and abuse that surrounded Rodion within her past were the direct cause of her crime of murdering the pawn shop owner. we can too see this in the Corrosion line:

Now, little Rodya. Hurt them with your own hands. Fuhu, ta-da!

The obvious correlation to be made being "Hurt them with your own hands". This concept of puppetry extends in two more aspects, the first of which being Rodion's base EGO: What is Cast. specifically referring to her line during said EGO, which reinforces my posited argument with the abuse controlling her:

I couldn't undo a thing

'She' couldn't undo a thing, 'she' wasn't the one who was in control.

as for the second, i have yet to see this for myself but from what i've heard: while her face during the corrosion's idle sprite is normally somewhat dour, if zoomed in on, her expression changes to that of a normal, cheery Rodion. This can be interpreted as the consequences/circumstances of Rodion's abuse and past still controlling how she behaves to this day, while still in this company, a concept that is a fairly common sentiment ive seen as her story is far from finished.

The awakening sprite could be representative of this in reverse, her harm towards those who ARE corrupt and immoral.

Sinclair is much more direct, being the concept of abuse and exploitation by Kromer, and to some extent im sure neglect by his family — This doesn't explain the entirety of this EGO however, as the line's do not support this entirely:

Why don't you try impaling yourself with it, then. Feel what it's like to have someone curse you…

Now that you're torn, I'll sew you up! Heheh… Get over here!

Rather than just being *the* abuse that Sinclair has suffered, i believe that, while downstream of that idea, the most accurate representation is the embodiment of resentment, hatred at others who abused him over time, his seething wrath.

of course my theory is discounted because this EGO doesn't use Wrath resources.

*(which i am NOT FUCKING ADDING RODION TO I ALREADY HAVE 10 CHARACTERS IN THAT ESSAY MY GOD)

[bugsinshoes]

ok so i just watched @fordtato and @hkthatgffan 's respective videos about their interview with THE alex hirsch and i wanna just say OH MY GOD like SERIOUSLY

im gonna put my thoughts under the cut so theres no spoilers if you havent seen it already (BUT GO WATCH THEM NOW PLEASE !!!) + its gonna be LONG so BEAR WITH ME

ok, so i have MANY thoughts so sorry if none of this is coherent 😭 (this is not in chronological order of when the questions were asked, just me spewing out my totally normal thoughts about this interview so apologies for that)

starting off:

THE BABY IS SHERMIE?!?!?!? IM SO SO GLAD WE FINALLY HAVE CONFIRMATION WE CAN FINALLY LEAVE THIS TO REST !! I WAS RIGHT THOUGH SO HA !!! ACTUALLY SCREAMING !! TIMELINE BE DAMNED (also another thanks to hana, your timeline video is genuinely awesome. i never shut up about it. ever. any time i talk to my friends abt gf and i need to refer to the timeline i go: "IN HANA'S VIDEO-") anyways, i do understand it was a last minute decision on the writer's part of "oh. dipper and mabel need a grandfather, its not ford, and its sure as FUCK not gonna be stan sooo... third brother?" and i do understand alex being like, "oh, this is about ford and stan only having eachother" so i think making shermie younger was a GOOD THING? like, stan and ford had 18 years of just them so shermie wasnt in the picture, so stan and ford technically grew up on their own so ig it works? also, when stan got kicked out, he never got to see shermie grow up, probably only saw him at events when he had to pretend to be ford (post-1983) and as for ford himself, he was too busy in college and gravity falls to really visit the family so... it works! (despite everything)

that aside, lets talk about THE CRUMBS??? like i have some quotes here because i have a LOT to say:

"theyre both so damaged and they desperately need each other" - alex hirsch (talking about stan and ford)

LIKE SUIUHUSHUSH i HATE these brothers SO MUCH (LIES) i cant actually properly express my thoughts because WOW like its clear that they both have their own trauma and they NEED to address it but theyre both too STUBBORN to do so. theyve both been alone for 40ish years so of course they need each other. they grew up by the hip, so theres no surprise that they both need each other (whether they like it or not)

"[ford's] grateful for the forgiveness he thinks he doesnt deserve" -alex hirsch

ford thinks so lowly of himself at times it HURTS. like the lines in the journal about "only then would the freak return a hero" or about his guilt with bill and everything its just so important to his character im so glad we got so much ford content in this interview. like i am EATING ALL THIS UP RN

"[ford] has to always have a mission in front of him, because if he doesnt have a mission in front of him, hes thinking how have i treated people in my life?" - alex hirsch

ford distracting himself with things instead of facing his problems. probably something he had to do a lot, especially with his time in the multiverse. but it really hurts because i can imagine in the 60s, they never had any great coping mechanisms? so i can assume ford was just conditioned to distract himself from stuff so he never learned how to deal with things. and i KNOW in the journal hes like "i meditate!" and im sure that does help somewhat, but it doesnt address the issue itself soooo... sorry ford, but you cant just breathe your way out of everything

ALSO alex calling ford and fiddlefords falling out a "BREAKUP" (air quotes used) BUT A BREAKUP??? this is just adding fuel to my fiddauthor-infested brain rn. i CANT

and alex saying mcgucket is thinking like, "oh i gotta be a better partner" is HEART SHATTERING like the whole talk about fiddleford being "the building guy" who is kind of just there to make machines and please ford. its honestly so heartbreaking because fiddleford loves ford so much he'd leave his wife and child to go to absolute nowhere, oregon and the fact ford is too arrogant to see fiddlefords admiration and overall love for him its just IUIUAHHAS

and i do wanna say, i KNOW bill played a big part in this, by stroking fords ego and buttering him up with his kind words because he knew exactly what ford wanted to hear and that really affected how ford and fidds' relationship was like but THATS A TOPIC FOR ANOTHER TIME. all i know is that ford isnt entirely to blame, but he still is a massive arrogant asshole and he wasnt the best person to fidds at times (love him tho <3)

but im actually so happy because this interview sheds SO much light onto FORD bcs we BARELY got to know him, and hearing it from MR HIRSCH HIMSELF is just so good because we KNOW its a reliable source because its coming from ALEX YK??? like he wrote ford so he probably knows "oh yeah, that man is guilt-ridden as FUCK" and im so glad we get some crumbs of this guy i cant get enough of him !!! (impatiently waiting for the book of bill)

ANNNDD THE TALK ABOUT MAYBE GETTING A SEA GRUNKS SPINOFF/MINISERIES??? I WOULD EXPLODE GENUINELY ANYTHING WITH MY FAVOURITE OLD MEN PLEASE !! i would genuinely love to see more of their dynamic and how everything is after weirdmaggeddon and like dealing with trauma and UGHHH i would kill for stan/ford content PLEASE

also...

hippie ford.

hippie. ford.

i am never getting over this (im internally SCREECHING)

ANYWAYS THAT WAS MY RANT ABT MY FAV THINGS FROM THE INTERVIEW THAT WAS A LOT GODDAMN

im genuinely so happy with all the questions that got answered, as well as getting some deeper insight into characters and stuff. IM NEVER GETTING OVER THE AMOUNT OF FIDDAUTHOR CRUMBS YOU GUYS

im gonna end this by saying another MASSIVE thank you to hana and hk !! you both put so much effort into your respective videos and it was super super cool !! this was totally worth the wait !!! :D

[sideblogdotjpeg]

feeling like. ep 60 was such a fantastic arc finale battle ep. and auugh. like so many things. LIKE .

the slow build up of tension over the ep felt really good and perfect, as it escalates from alexandrite being silly and goofy to. gargantuan cyberflesh horror. and how the dice were UNCANNILY perfect for it all. like. the nat 1 vs nat 20 roll for the town and suddenly the entire mood shifts and the stakes are so much realer, and personal. followed up by the nat 20 for the town! followed up by TWO callie crits and her dealing 130 DAMAGE like each turn!!!! like!!!!! AUGH... the. just the beats of it all was soo good and.

tying to that .. the character moments for this ep were so good !!! every character got their moment to shine in the battle. already discussed callie absolutely whomping fucking ass, but of course the smaller moments as well. offering to go and defend calders town. seeing the faewild sky and "i think i needed to leave to become worthy of it" - like and as the culmination of callies arc. from someone who was so scared and running away to. staying, standing, fighting, protecting. AND ITS GOOD.

then of course theres calder. i mean also the . ARC. of the only thing he wanted was not to be overprotected. wanting to be useful - like his brothers, people who had strength and value in the eyes of their people, big enough to defend their town. and he has come all the way here. he changes the tides of the battlefield in the town - and he does it with the attachments of his friends and the love of his family. and like... god. really crystalising his ethos in a way that is foiled so well against gowan. gowan who was too proud to ask for help. vs "i cant do it without you" "but damn does it feel good when your friends have your back" ... !!!! AYYEARGH. like. hes becoming the protector of his home! but maybe now, his home is so much bigger than the ice knife, and hes not fighting alone .... YOU KNOW.

AND SOL!!!!! sol to my knowledge only deals 30 damage this battle but. as a resident sol enjoyer i !!! am VERY MUCH CLAPPING AND CHEERING!! at the deeply supportive role he took on for this fight. like hes the first to get the ice knife away from alexandrite, he gives callie an extra smite, silvery barbs.... ! like the short rest realisation of how different the battle wouldve gone without that silvery barbs is .... ! SO ITS GOOD. and at the end that he was the one to get the final blow on alexandrite and it was for swag is ...

and! that part was obviously a joke! as is the entire "keep em guessing haha alexandrite cant predict what were doing!!!" thing. HOWEVER. relistening to the ezry arc, and their first interaction w alexandrite as we now know her ... i just. REALLY feel like this is the spiritual successor to "were duck team and were messy and were friends and we do everything together and we absolutely suck shit all day long and all night baby". theyre so fucking stupid is the thing. and theyre messy and stupid and constantly saying things that are weird and make no sense and completely and utterly baffling .... and thats DUCK TEAM!!! (theres also a point here where im overreading somewhat. but the part about Keepin em Guessin... one could POSSIBLY argue it interacts in a MAYBE DEEPLY INTERESTIGN WAY with . the idea of the calculated certainty of the AI, the calm and cold prediction of the diviners, and the wild freedom of the peregrines. idk!!! maybe!!! maybe you cld even say that what lies at the heart of duck team is their messiness and outofplaceness and love and care and refusal of the tragedy!!! even!! maybe!! but YEAH. lol random XD ! keep em guessin!)

also the thing that made me write all this which is like. ! the final victory lap scene is just. so wonderfully cathartic, esp with how tense this entire arc has been. its just. fuck yeah we won and all our friends and family are here and safe and riding on mammoths!!! i mean. FUCKING ALBINS BACK!!!! GREGORS HERE AND KICKIN ASS!!! THE MA GOBLIN BRIGADE!!! A WIN. and ... that bit of callie just sitting on the roof playing a guitar as she stares into the fae wild sky is ... its good.. its good..

and all that is maybe. half the reasons why ep 60 is so good. i didnt even get around to talking about the fucking EMILY AXFORD SONG WHICH IVE BEEN PLAYING NONSTOP ALL DAY SO. yeah. so i like this ep i guess

[prettycottonmouthlamia]

Space Ereshkigal: The Anatomy of a Quasar

Myself, August 8th, 2024: I MUST GIVE CREDIT WHERE ITS DUE THEY KIND OF COOKED WITH THE MECHANICAL DESIGN

Space Ereshkigal Beast-Class (Has 1.5x Class-Advantage against Extra Classes except Avenger; Has Class-Disadvantage against Avengers) Max HP: 14,530 Max ATK: 11,427 Attribute: Beast NP Charge ATK: 0.33%

QAABB Card Set Quick: 5 hits; Arts: 4 hits; Buster: 4 hits; Extra: 5 hits

Goddess Sugar A: Increase party's Attack by 10-20% for 3 turns. Increase party's NP damage by 10-20% for 3 turns. Increase party's NP gauge by 10-20%. Increase party's Instant-Kill resistance by 50-100% for 3 turns. 500% chance to inflict Poison with 500 damage to party for 3 turns. Cooldown: 8-6

Beast Driver B: Gain 10-20 critical stars. Increase own Star Absorption by 300-500% for 1 turn. Grants self on-Attack buff for 1 turn of: Increase own Critical damage by 50-100% for 1 turn before dealing damage when normal attacking. Charges own NP gauge by 30-50%. Cooldown: 9-7

Missing Starling EX: Grants self Invincibility for 2 attacks, 3 turns. Grants self a 2000-3000 HP Guts for 1 time, 3 turns. Recovers own HP by 2000-3000. Removes own Debuffs. Increases own Buff Removal Resistance by 50-100% for 1 time, 3 turns. Reduces own Skill Cooldown by 2. Cooldown: 9-7

Anti-Magecraft EX: Grants self Debuff Immunity 3 times. Spatial Storage A: Grants self on-Attack buff of: Charges own NP gauge by 5% when attacking. Goddess Essence E-: Increases own damage by 140. Increases own Debuff Resistance by 14%. Authority of the Beast E-: Increases own Critical Damage against Servants by 20%. Independent Manifestation E-: Increases own Critical Damage by 1.5%. Increases own Instant-Kill Resistance by 1.5%. Increases own Mental Debuff Resistance by 1.5%. II: Infinity Indicator: *looks forlornly into the camera, sighing* We'll get to this one.

Anti-Rider Attack Damage Append

Edin Shugra Collapsar AoE Arts, 5 hits Increase Master Affection Points by 0-20, based on Overcharge. If Master Affection Level is 4, grants self 100% increased Instant-Kill success chance for 1 turn. If Master Affection Level is 7, grants self Ignore Invincibility for 1 turn and Ignore Defense for 1 turn. If Master Affection Level is 10, grants 50 Critical stars. Deals damage to all enemies (450%-750%, based on NP Level). Deals 1 + 0.1*N extra damage to enemies, where N is Master Affection Level. Removes their Offensive Buffs. 60% chance to Instant Kill them.

You know what sucks about all of this. She's actually really fun to use. NGL. We got a whole essay to go. Also I did manual NP generation calcs for this one, so I better get some credit for that.

So the new Anniversary Servant huh. It's really something to say that Anniversary Servants more and more have been designed to really push the mold on what you could put in a Servant's kit, but Space Ereshkigal feels even more than that.

NP and Star Generation:

This might come as a surprise, but Space Ereshkigal's base NP generation is actually quite low. Her AQAE chain for example will only generate about 22% of her NP gauge, and that is usually the kiss of death for a Servant like this. Even as the 3rd card in an Arts chain, her Arts card will only generate 9%. That's quite low! But her passive gives her an additional 5% NP charge on hit for just...existing I guess? So that bumps up her single card generation to about passable, while benefiting her card chains in a bigger way. Considering you generally want to prioritize Space Ereshkigal's Brave Chains whenever possible, this is nice, I suppose.

Her star generation is a bit shakier, thanks to having single Quick card. A QBBE chain will generate about 15-16 crit stars on average, and a ABQE Mighty Chain will generate about 20-21 crit stars on average. She has good hit counts on her Quick and Extra, but only having one Quick card in her kit naturally really limits how many crit stars she can generate on her own.

Skills:

Goddess Sugar is just a good skill. Like all of Space Ereshkigal's skills are good, great even, but it really does need to be said that this is a very compact skill with a lot of good effects. It gives Space Ereshkigal an additional 44% damage on her NP, and the party-wide NP charge is appreciated. An important thing to note is that the Poison demerit applies to the entire party, so it will eat into one of the Debuff immunities that Space Ereshkigal comes with.

Beast Driver is another strong skill, but this time focused on single Brave Chain crit damage numbers instead of much else, with a 50% NP charge for good measure. Her face cards will have a 100%, 200%, and 300% increased Critical damage for that turn respectively, allowing Space Ereshkigal to pump out some crazy good crits. The 50% NP charge is arguably the most important part of this skill though, as it always tends to be.

Missing Starling is the type of skill that exists to bind a kit together. It's Invincibility, its healing, its Guts, its debuff cleanse, and perhaps most importantly, it's cooldown reduction. See, you might have noticed that Space Ereshkigal's kit isn't super synergistic, and there's a reason for that we'll get into later, but while all of her skills are good, they aren't amazing together. She's, nominally, meant to perform Brave Chains constantly, which makes sense considering that is something that Space Ishtar is also trying to do. But having her skills essentially be on a 4/5/5 rotation instead of a 6/7/7 rotation massively improves how consistent and good she is.

There's really only 3 passive skills that matter here. Her three instances of Debuff Immunity are quite niche, giving Space Ereshkigal a nice buffer against debuffs and makes her super resilient to debuffs in general, and the NP charge on hit mostly exists to make up for her really poor face-card numbers. The third passive...

The Master Affection Gauge, and You!

This is by far and away the most complicated part of her kit. You could even argue that it functionally acts as an additional 4th skill on her kit. The Master Affection Gauge is a Gauge that starts at Level 1 and caps out at Level 10, and each level requires 10 points to reach. There's a ton of conditions for how to fill it up, so I'm going to split it up into parts to make it easier to understand.

In additional, an important caveat. Space Ereshkigal will only have the Master Affection Gauge if you have a copy of her. Supports will not work! This is the part of the kit that actually makes me angry, because it means that a Support Space Ereshkigal is just fundamentally missing a part of her kit. She will have an Affection Gauge level of 0 and won't be able to gain affection points.

The Basic Modifiers

Space Ereshkigal will get 5 points for being Bond Level 5, 5 points for being in the starting 3 members, and 10 points for being on a Waterside battlefield. This is not at the start of the fight by the way. You can in fact get a free Affection Level out of having a Servant who sets the Waterside Battlefield buff onto themselves and get the +10 points. The battlefield doesn't even need to stay Waterside for this to be applied.

Reusable In-Battle Modifiers

Space Ereshkigal will get 3 points for selecting any of her face cards and proceeding into combat, and in addition, she will get an additional 6 points if she has a Brave Chain. This means, without using her NP card, she has 15 points just in selecting her face cards, with an additional 6 possible if you can pull 3 in a single turn, for 21 additional points.

Simply selecting her NP will not give her any additional points, but it will mean that you can potentially squeeze out an additional Brave using her NP card as leverage, giving you a possible 27 points in total. This is where the bulk of her affection points comes from typically, and this also means that there is a fair amount of RNG regarding how quickly you can ramp up her affection gauge. Pulling too many face cards in a hand can reduce your potential output by either having wasted cards or reducing the number of brave chains available to you.

Using one of Space Ereshkigal's skills will give 3 affection points, and using one of Space Ereshkigal's skills before using anyone else's will give an additional 2 points. This means there is an additional 15 points to be gleamed out of three turns by staggering her skill use, and this actually explains a lot about her kit. They're three skills that are designed to work well when not used together.

The Somewhat Harder to Fulfill Modifiers

Using Ereshkigal's NP in an overcharged state will also increase her affected gauge by +5 points for each Overcharge level over 100%. This is, importantly, applied before any other effect on her NP. At 500% OC she will generate 25 Affection Points, but this is generally quite hard to accomplish as it often means giving up her Brave Chains in order to chain together NPs. This does give Ereshkigal an interesting use case for "The One Who Desires Salvation" as a CE choice, since it will essentially add 3 or 4 Affection Levels by itself.

Space Ereshkigal will also get 5 points for being affected by a Mystic Code skill. This will apply to any targeted MC skill and any AoE MC skill, but not to stuff like Order Change and skills that affect an enemy. The skill doesn't even technically need to succeed to count, such as the case for the Atlas Academy Uniform's debuff cleanse. I put this here because this does mean that some Mystic Codes can only generate +5 or +10 Affection points than the full +15.

She will also get +10 Affection points if you use a Command Spell on her. Now that Command Spells regenerate three a day instead of one this is more viable to quickly turbo-charge Ereshkigal to a higher Affection Level, but this is generally more applicable to Challenge Quests than farming.

Noble Phantasm

The main point to that entire fucking essay up there is her NP. This NP does a lot, but most of its effects are dependent on her Affection Gauge levels, so to go over what is consistent. This is an AoE Arts NP that removes offensive buffs on hit and has a 60% chance to instakill enemies after damage. These are fine and would make the NP middling at best but there's a ton we need to go over.

First, the NP does 10% more damage with each Master Affection Gauge Level she has. Since Space Ereshkigal can start a fight with an Affection Gauge Level of 2 or 3 depending on the Battlefield, this means that she will do at base 20-30% more damage than you would expect. At a Level of 10, she will do double damage with her NP, which is quite strong. This can be considered similar to something like Charlemagne's NP, but a lot easier to perform on average.

If her Master Affection Level is 4, she will double the success rate of her instakill. This...could come up, theoretically? It will probably be relevant in a 90++ quest in all honestly. This gives her a guaranteed instant kill against enemies with 100% death rate, and a 96% chance to instakill enemies with an 80% death rate. If her Master Affection Level is 7, she will ignore Invincibility, Evasion, and Defense buffs for a turn, which is a potent combo, and at Level 10, she will just generate 50 crit stars.

It is actually not particularly difficult to get Space Ereshkigal to Level 10 within a matter of about four or five turns, and it's entirely possible with just good cards and knowledge of how to apply her kit to get her to Level 7 in three turns. She ramps up surprisingly quickly, and the rewards that you get for ramping her up are pretty great. Free damage, crit stars, defensive piercing, and even swingy insta-kills.

But as a result, she ends up a fun, dynamic Servant to use. Maximizing the most out of Space Ereshkigal means putting in practice and reacting to what you need out of that exact moment. Managing her face cards, her skills, your Mystic Code skills, your NP chains, and even your Command Seals is interesting! You do lose a bit of that once she fully ramps up, but the process of getting there is great. Fundamentally, she's actually a pretty cool mechanically designed Servant.

Append Skills

Space Ereshkigal is slightly frustrating in that there is a good argument for, exactly, every single one of her append skills. This being said, she doesn't need any of them to function, and as a 5-star, I would not recommend rolling for the additional copies you need in order to do so, but because you will naturally get the coins to unlock one append by reaching Bond Level 6, and enough to unlock another append at Bond Level 14, if you are willing to get that far, it is worth talking about them.

The Extra card performance buff is the least useful of the bunch, but because Space Ereshkigal uses Brave chains often enough, it can be worth unlocking for the extra benefits it gives. Mana Loading is a fine enough skill on Space Ereshkigal, but it is arguably not even needed since she has a number of NP charges already on her kit. Anti-Rider Attack Damage gives her a bit more reach when farming since it allows her to deal more damage to a different class than normal. Her base class effectiveness is only okay, so this can be used.

The Critical damage append and the Skill cooldown reduction appends feel basically made for Space Ereshkigal. While Space Ereshkigal does have good crit damage for a turn with her S2, it is lacking during the cooldown period and because she can constantly crit thanks to her NP, she enjoys the passive crit damage a lot. Against Servants, she will do 50% more crit damage without any assistance, which is quite powerful. The skill cooldown append is crazy on her, reducing her first skill cycle to 3/4/4, numbers that probably shouldn't be real. This, notably, gives her the ability to re-use all of her skills on Wave 3 with the cooldown reduction ability of the Atlas Academy Uniform.

Is this necessary? No, it is not really her best team composition overall. But is funny? Hell yeah.

Craft Essences

One of the biggest strengths to Space Ereshkigal in general is that she is a supremely flexible Servant. She can function with a wide variety of Craft Essences: NP damage, Crit damage, Arts performance, Overcharge, NP generation, Buster and Arts performance, etc etc. What CE you equip onto Ereshkigal, fundamentally, depends on what exactly you are trying to get her to do.

It is at this time worth bringing up her Bond CE, Epitaph of the Star Sword. This gives her an additional 30% NP damage, 30% Critical damage against Servants, and increases her Master Affection Level by 1. Usually Bond CEs are not worth using because of having lackluster effects in addition to very flacid stats, but this one is actually worth considering. All three of the effects are great, and she can potentially start off with Master Affection Level 4, which is crazy.

Team Composition

We haven't really discussed her existence as a looper yet, and that's been partially deliberate. Her damage numbers are pretty good in a neutral vacuum, but due to her class, she doesn't hit many relevant enemies for SE damage. When she does, her damage numbers are impressive even despite having the 1.5x SE modifier. With two Castorias, a Level 100 Black Grail, and a Master Affection Level of 7 (the highest possible without situational buffs on Wave 3) she will hit for 155,703 damage neutrally, which is generally impressive. The Atlas Mystic Code set up will allow Space Ereshkigal to hit a Master Affection Level of 8 as well as allowing her to double up on her S1 buffs, letting her hit for 204,017 damage neutrally.

Where a lot of good ideas unfortunately tend to fall short is her refund. She only generates about 47% of her NP gauge back with double Castoria, which while generally fine enough to allow her to do farming, can require specific supports such as Xu Fu or Oberon to help patch up where her NP refund can fall short. She can also work in multi-DPS farming comps, where her NP having the ability to reliably insta-kill enemies can be important. But it is worth noting in all of this that she does compete with Summer Ibuki in the farming role, and Summer Ibuki is often better, so.

In terms of her use in general content and in Challenge/Exhibition quests, again, Space Ereshkigal is so flexible that she works with pretty much anyone you pair her with. She likes better crit damage, she likes Overcharge, she likes Cooldown reduction, she will even take increased buster performance thanks to her two Buster cards. She's actually quite strong as a Challenge Quest servant, packing on the table a lot of individual qualities that are welcome. These also tend to have a higher concentration of enemies in the classes that she hits for SE as well, being another big benefit.

Conclusions

Space Ereshkigal is good. Great. Maybe broken even. One of the issues with the previous Anniversary Servant, Aesc the Savior, is that she has a kind of awkward kit. There's individually powerful pieces but it requires often quite a bit of work to push all of them together. This was also true of the previous collab 5-star, Aoko, whose kit would sometimes feel clunky to deal with.

Space Ereshkigal feels a lot smoother by comparison. While Space Ereshkigal does not necessarily end up demonstrably better than Aesc or Aoko by any means, her kit feels a lot more tuned in comparison, as they continue to experiment with more and more mechanically unique and interesting 5-stars. She's a good farmer, even a great one, and a great challenge quest servant.

In essence, while she is a Servant who requires time to actually learn to maximize, it's hard to use her wrong, to use Space Ereshkigal in a way where it will make her feel worse. I do think in some way that reduces the charm of using her in comparison, but she ends up being fun and good to use besides that so I'm okay with it.

Hate to give Servantverse crap a W but. Yeah.

[eponymous-rose]

So I've been playing Baldur's Gate 3 like everyone else and had An Incredibly Wild Combat Experience just now...

(spoilers under the cut for an early-game fight; if you don't care about the game, this is 100% parse-able as a d&d fight)

So there I am with my character Amisra (elf fighter), and a party consisting of Karlach (tiefling barbarian), Astarion (elf/vampire-spawn rogue) and Gale (human wizard). We venture into the lair of a hag to try to rescue this woman she's kidnapped and I'm getting a little blithe when it comes to spell slots and short rests - everyone's starting to look pretty rough, and then there's a long stretch of having to navigate carefully around traps, mostly via jumps that I actually remember to have Feather Fall on this time. "No problem," I think like every D&D player before me, "I'll simply take a long rest before the boss battle." And the game, in its DM-ish wisdom, says, "No, you can't long rest in the lair of an actively hostile enemy, what were you thinking???" and that's how I get into a fight that's way, way over my head.

I'm giving it my best shot, dealing with illusory hag-enemies and complicated terrain, but it's clear this is going to be my first total-party-kill of the game. Several characters have been knocked down and brought back up, and we've been in enough of a bad state that all of our healing potions are gone (leading me to the realization that you can craft in battle, which then leads to all of the crafted potions also being consumed).

The stage is set for disaster: the hag still has half her health (60-something points), and my whole party is out of all spell slots and fancy tricks. Astarion and Karlach are knocked unconscious on the other side of the room via Ray of Sickness, making death saves. Gale and Amisra are in some sort of necrotic zone that's dealing damage every round.

The immediate turn order: Gale, Hag, Amisra. Gale has 1 HP and will be unconscious from the necrotic damage after his turn. Amisra has a whopping 7 HP but is being held in the damage-over-time area by a Hold Person spell she cannot seem to save against. The hag has a perfect shot on everyone in the room.

So I'm sitting there like "well, it was a fun run while it lasted" and trying to remember when I saved last. At this point, I figure I might as well go for a little roleplay flair and try to think of what Gale would do for this, his final turn. Well, he'd look to magic. But, uh, sorry, those cantrips aren't going to deal 60 points of damage and get you out of your current predicament. Too bad.

Hang on. I've picked up so many scrolls, surely there's something there that might be a fun finish. Scroll of Flying? Nah, then I'll just die in midair. Scroll of Ray of Enfeeblement? Yeah, I'm sure she'll be real sad that her melee attacks do marginally less damage as she annihilates us with ranged attacks anyway. Scroll of Feign Death? Who's ever even used that spell successfully in a video game? What would you even--

Wait. Scroll of Feign Death. Resistance to all damage types except psychic, puts the target in a comatose state. Gale's going to be unconscious next round, but Amisra still has 7 HP...

So Gale, very dramatically, pulls out this scroll and casts the spell on Amisra, who Feigns Death very convincingly considering she's frozen on the spot and slowly taking damage. And Gale takes the last burst of damage himself and falls unconscious.

The hag absolutely doesn't stop there and keeps hitting Karlach, Astarion, and Gale until they're dead... but she never targets Amisra. She thinks she's dead. She actually thinks she's dead! And she might be right, as Amisra takes 2 HP and 1 HP of damage each turn, frozen in place...

And the hag just... stops. Everyone is dead, right? Yup, four bodies on the ground. Time to go and do whatever it is hags do for fun. She leaves the battlefield.

And Amisra finally saves against the damage-over-time with One. Frickin'. Hit. Point. Remaining.

I as the player have about 1 HP remaining myself as I fumble frantically to move Amisra out of the dangerous area and manage to remember how to use a mouse in time to cast a Scroll of Revivify on Gale. Two of us, each stumbling around at 1 HP, no other healing available, no idea where the hag is in her lair, the rest of our (very dead) party on the other side of the giant room, and a huge path of traps and treacherous drops to get back to the surface. What can we do but press on, deeper into the lair?

In the next room, which I have never seen before, I am shaking. If there's a trap, we're probably done. I'm too nervous to try looting anything in the room - what if she comes back? And then I see a sparkly fairy circle of mushrooms, looking an awful lot like an exit. No way. NO WAY.

I click that fairy circle so many times and just hold my breath as the two remaining party members stumble to the exit... and promptly appear back in the (slightly less dangerous) bog. The bog where, in its infinite DM-ly kindness, the game finally allows us to make camp, where I can resurrect Karlach and Astarion in peace.

And that's how we avoided a Total Party Kill with the most situational spell scroll use imaginable!

Edit: Also, a tip for when I did go back to fight the hag - a 2nd-level Magic Missile auto-hits up to 4 targets, so if you position Gale toward the middle of the room you can take down all 4 illusory hag-clones in one turn. Ahh, it was nice to have spell slots again.

[pathfinderunlocked]

Healthy Boss Template (CR +3)

Wait, why did a giant health bar just appear in the sky?

Artwork by Jeff_Chee_471 on Reddit.

D&D and Pathfinder have a really unusual idea of what a "boss" is compared to, like, any video game ever made. They often tend to just take an enemy that would be part of a group of normal enemies if you were about six levels higher. When they do something more unique, it still tends to be balanced like that. Tons of offense, not that many hit points, but often extremely hard to hit. Adventure designers often try to make up for this design by making a boss weaker but giving it minions, but that doesn't change the fact that there's really no concept of a creature that's inherently a "boss creature" in this game.

And sometimes that's fine. But sometimes you just want a big chunky fight that's balanced more like how a video game boss is balanced: only a little more damage than other creatures, but way more health, and the ability to recover if you do nasty stuff like stun it. Something that lets the players go all-out using their abilities, and rewards them for doing so, instead of having to spend most of the fight just focusing on not getting attacked, because they know one attack can take them out.

This template isn't a global solution. It'll get old, and if you reuse it too much, players will find strategies that bypass it. That's why I design so many different boss monsters that each work differently. But if you want to convert an existing monster into a boss, this is one way to do so without a lot of effort, and without just giving it the advanced template and several fighter levels to max out its offense.

Some of the options for different abilities are there to deal with different kinds of player strategies, rather than because they're appropriate for different kinds of bosses. If your PCs use vital strike, give it vital negation. If they use combat maneuvers, give it reset stance. If they cast a bunch of spells on the terrain, give it undo. If they rely on hungry pit, give it escape to nowhere. Don't feel bad about using this template specifically to counter them, since the inflated HP and the limited uses of these special abilities mean that the players' strategies will still be useful, they just won't instantly win the fight.

Healthy Boss

Healthy boss is an inherited template that can be applied to any creature.

Challenge Rating: Same as the base creature + 3.

Hit Points: A healthy boss's hit points are three times as high as the base creature's.

Initiative: A healthy boss gains a +10 bonus to its initiative.

Defensive Abilities: A healthy boss can never be surprised, and is not considered flat-footed before it has acted in combat.

Special Abilities: A healthy boss gains 1 of the following special abilities:

Bolstering Cry (Ex) Twice per day as a move action, a healthy boss can grant all allies within 60 ft. a number of temporary hit points equal to its new challenge rating. When it does so, it also suppresses the following conditions on affected allies other than itself for 1 round: blinded, confused, entangled, fatigued, exhausted, nauseated, paralyzed, shaken, sickened, staggered, stunned. The healthy boss does not need line of effect to these allies, but they must be able to either see or hear it. Second Wind (Ex) Five times per day as a free action at the start of its turn, a healthy boss can gain a number of temporary hit points equal to its new challenge rating. These temporary hit points last for 10 minutes. It can only use this ability only once per round. Vital Negation (Ex) Once per round, a healthy boss can halve the damage of a single incoming source of damage. It can choose to use this ability after hearing the amount of damage that it would take. This does not require an action.

Additionally, a healthy boss gains 2 of the following other special abilities:

Aura of Recovery (Su) The healthy boss gains a 40-ft. aura. At the end of each of the healthy boss's turns, one of the healthy boss's allies within this aura (including itself) gains a new saving throw against any one ongoing harmful effect that initially allowed for a saving throw. Escape to Nowhere (Su) Once per day, at the end of an enemy's turn, a healthy boss can escape to the ethereal plane, as if using ethereal jaunt. This does not require an action. It remains in the ethereal plane during its next turn. At the start of its second turn after using this ability, the healthy boss returns to the plane it was on, but is staggered during that turn. Legendary Resistance (Ex) Once per day, when a healthy boss fails a saving throw, or when an enemy succeeds on a check against the healthy boss's spell resistance, the healthy boss can expend its legendary resistance to treat the roll as if the healthy boss had succeeded on the saving throw or the enemy had failed on the check against spell resistance. A healthy boss with a total challenge rating of at least 9 gains a second use of Legendary Resistance per day, and a healthy boss with a total challenge rating of at least 18 gains a third use of legendary resistance per day. This does not require an action. Reset Concentration (Ex) Once per day, when a healthy boss fails a concentration check, it can steel its mind against future distractions, gaining a +10 bonus on concentration checks for the next 10 minutes. This does not require an action. Reset Stance (Ex) Once per day, when a healthy boss starts its turn prone or grappled, at the start of its next turn after being successfully subjected to a combat maneuver other than trip or grapple, it can spend a move action to stand up, free itself from any grapples, pick up a single item within its reach, end the effect of a dirty trick maneuver, and move up to its move speed without provoking attacks of opportunity. Upon using this ability, the healthy boss also gains a +5 bonus to its CMD and a +10 bonus to Acrobatics, Climb, Ride, Swim, and Fly checks for the next 10 minutes. Undo (Su) As a standard action, once every 3 rounds, a healthy boss can revert the effects of any number of ongoing or instantaneous magic spells that are affecting itself, other creatures, or the surrounding environment. Each spell effect it attempts to undo must be within 60 ft. of the healthy boss, and must have been applied during the last 10 minutes. Even instantaneous spells can be reverted with Undo, but damage is not reverted. To attempt to undo a spell, a healthy boss makes a caster level check against a DC of 6 + the effect's caster level, using its hit dice as its caster level. If successful, the ongoing spell ends, or the effects of the instantaneous spell are reverted.

[iww-gnv]

For years, Cristian Céspedes worked as a foreman for a construction contractor, Unforgettable Coatings, in Las Vegas, where he and his co-workers often worked over 60 hours a week without overtime pay. He recalls having to tell workers who were injured on the job that they had to deal with the injury and pay for medical care themselves. He knew the treatment and conditions imposed on himself and his co-workers were wrong, but he didn’t know he could do anything about it. “I always knew stuff was wrong. I just didn’t know where to go to seek help,” said Céspedes, who recently became a union organizer and said a wage theft investigation was kicked off after workers started meeting with local union organizers and learning about their rights. Wage theft is a pervasive problem facing workers throughout the US. According to a 2014 report by the Economic Policy Institute, workers lose over $50bn a year to wage theft from employers. Wage theft includes tactics from stiffing workers on pay, failing to properly pay workers for overtime, minimum wage violations, misclassification of employees as independent contractors, and not providing workers with mandated break times. “We didn’t know our rights or anything like that. We were working over 60 hours a week and not getting paid overtime, and here in Nevada over 40 hours is overtime, so we would work 60 to 80 hours a week and sometimes we had to work for free on Sundays just to finish up a project,” said Céspedes. US regulators are cracking down on wage theft. A 2013 investigation by the Department of Labor recovered $47,393 in unpaid overtime wages to 21 workers in Utah. Last year, the department ordered Unforgettable Coatings and its owner Cory Summerhays to pay 593 workers over $3.6m in stolen wages, damages, interest and penalties.

[cerastes]

So I'm just wondering, to really fully understand Arturia's kit. She specialises in Necrosis damage, right? Is she DPS or more kind of a support?

Arturia’s hat is indeed Necrosis damage. Valarqvin walked so Arturia, proper codename Virtuosa, could do a quintuple backflip with a split. While her normal attacks don’t build Necrosis, simply being in her range does, slowly adding Necrosis and a miliseconds-brief Slow every second, as well as increasing all Necrosis damage taken.

You can check what skills do on the website of your choice (like the wiki.gg), I’ll talk about application.

The thing about Arturia is that she’s fully functional without Masteries at high level play, and Masteries let her do that even better, so she’s good at all levels of investment from lv7 to M3/6/9.

*Normal and Elite enemies have 1000 Necrosis Health, while Bosses have 2000. Necrosis deals 800 Elemental Damage for 15 seconds for a total of 12000 damage that no enemy in the game resists. It additionally halves their Attack, with this effect decaying throughout the 15 seconds.

S1 makes it so she can only attack when using S1 charges, and she tends to apply Necrosis in two hits with it, three for Bosses. It’s good for single target damage and single target Necrosis. At M3, it makes Arturia a very strong helidrop, as she’ll have 3 charges ready to go immediately. This is theoretically also true for lower levels of Mastery, so M1 is enough to make her a strong helidrop, but you do get more damage and Necro from Masteries for continued use after helidropping.

S2 allows for some funky positioning strats: If you have a Fortress like Firewhistle or Horn in range as your highest Attack unit, S2 allows them to bombard Necrosis on very distant enemies thanks to S2’s property of granting her Necrosis to an ally. It’s an effective multitarget skill with good cycling otherwise.

S3 is the Dead Zone. It allows two applications of Necrosis on the same enemies per use, the range is huge (Suzu S3) and the various buffs just nake you stronger while the Necrosis and expanded range make everything weaker.

In my opinion, Mastery order should be S1 <—> S3 > S2. I think S1 is the most important one to allow powerful helidrop and stronger single target functionality. S3 makes the skill last a comfy 40 seconds (for its 60 SP of charge up). S2 is already pretty much plug and play at Lv7 and the Masteries are extra gravy to make it better but it’s otherwise practically fully functional, with its biggest boon being the 30 -> 24 SP upgrade for better cycling.

Arturia can deal damage and add utility through Necrosis’ 800 essentially True damage per second on top of whatever she does and a potent ATK% debuff (rare debuff!), so she does both damage and support. The way she works, she’s kinda like Saileach and Shamare in that the stronger the enemy is, the stronger and more useful Arturia is. So she does in fact turn into a DPS unit on real hard and stat-heavy maps, like high risk CC.