#WOTR meta

[passionesolja]

[bite-the-bloody-hand]

There was a fun conversation happening in the Owlcat discord a while back where someone just could not understand why Iomedae is so against any mythic path that isn't Legend or Angel.

The two factions were Team 'Stupid Lawful Iomedae' and Team 'Stupid Writing' and unfortunately both of them are wrong. Trust me, my cousin's a lawyer.

It's not that being Lawful makes Iomedae stupid, it's that being Lawful means that she has to do some pretty heinous, backhanded shit to secure the legitimacy of her worship - and this is because that's what her church wants.

Throughout the game's narrative it's made abundantly clear that the Crusade isn't about preventing loss of life or retaking the blighted lands or even just saving people from horrible demise: it's about 'restoring order' and 'returning to the status quo,' for the purpose of insinuating Cheliaxian law on that region of Golarion. It's always been about expansion and conquest "done by the right people." It was convenient to sit for years letting the indigenous Kellids and Sarkorian population die out when the Wound first opened, so a Cheliax-backed conquering force could move in from their already established bases and annex all of that land for themselves.

That's why Lady Konomi is always pushing for the Knight Commander to kowtow to the Capital and the Capital's Allies in Cheliax. Mendev is excellently positioned to become an "ally" (read: vassal state) to Cheliax and secure their holdings in that central region - something that had already been in motion.

If you played Kingmaker, it was heavily implied (if not outright stated) that Pitax was the Chelaxian wedge in the River Kingdoms; losing that land to the suddenly extraordinarily successful barony-to-kingdom would have been a HUGE blow. Pushing even harder to have Mendev pick up the slack - especially with them being neighbors - would have been a major priority. It has never been about saving people.

Yes, by Gods, the Angel path does a lot of lip service towards the cause of the righteous, the inherent horror and sympathy of Galfrey's position, and the relative powerlessness of the Angelic Host to do much of anything without a mortal champion at the tip of the spear. But that mortal champion must also be aligned with the wants of the church, which are the wants of Cheliax. That mortal champion cannot be tainted by, say, a personal belief that slavery is wrong even if it is the law. Even if the Angel by their side also carries that belief*.

Demons are chaotic, and their hierarchy is lawless, therefore it MUST be Iomedae and her Crusade that heals the worldwound because that proves the rule of law. It doesn't matter to Iomedae and her followers that the Azata are often THE guys to go to for stopping demon incursions** - it's about proving that their method is superior, righteous, and good. Even if that means allowing slavery, standing by as an indigenous population gets wiped out, and outright stalling the war effort if it gets in the way of political landgrabbing.

@thedosianexplorer also makes a good point about how the Crusade in-game reflects the real-world historical attitude of 'Crusading as an Act Of Love:' "if the good townsfolk die while we're not stopping this demon incursion, as long as they already loved and followed Iomedae, so they're saved, so it's fine."

All this to say, I don't think this is a case of Stupid Character or Stupid Writing - it's very deliberate. I also personally theorize that the other reason Iomedae('s Church) is so obsessed with proving her legitimacy is because Iomedae personally took out Aroden to 'prevent him from falling to darkness.' Iomedae and her church are very 'if you have bad thoughts you are a bad person' so I feel as though presuming that starts with her icing Aroden because he was having Dark Thoughts isn't totally out of line here. Iomedae needed to kill Aroden because what else would she be if her God turned out to be corrupt?

*The Hand of the Inheritor's downfall during Act 4 is my favorite ingredient of this whole fucked-up recipe: He left the service of an angel that had risen from being a devil only to find himself in the service of a mortal-turned-god from the Slavery Is Good And We're Bros With Asmodeus Country. No wonder he freaks out so bad.

**I find it deeply compelling that even in our own real world cosmology, it's essentially Yazatas vs Demons and Angels vs Devils. So having the Angel faction come in and say 'actually we're way better for this job than you, and we're going to prove it and then everyone will see that the real righteousness is the righteousness of law' is a WILD narrative choice that I really jive with.

[lukedanger]

Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous Ask Game - Mechanics and Story

Knight-Commanders, what is the story told by those numbers on your character sheet? Here is an ask game list with some questions themed around that:

What led the future Knight-Commander to take their base class?

What led to the Knight-Commander picking their archetype, or staying the standard class?

If they chose to multiclass, what does it reflect about them? If they did not, why? Story or player reasons.

What prestige classes did they go for, and why? If not, would one fit them or did they qualify for one?

Which class features would particularly stand out with them - Rage, Channel Positive/Negative Energy, Animal Companions, etc.?

What about their skills and feats - what story is told by their skill selection, or was it pure gameplay?

Is there an alternative class or archetype that is in-game that may fit them better, and if so why did they not take that path?

Is a respec part of their story, and if so why? If not, if they had to respec into something else what would it be?

How does their Background choice reflect their character, and how does it play into their build?

How does their ancestry (race) play into their class and mythic path - do they overlap, or what dynamic is created from that combination?

How does their mythic path synergize with their build?

How does their mythic path synergize with their personality - does it augment it, or is it in contrast? Something in-between?

Which mythic abilities/spells would be iconic to them, and was it their preference or did they prefer something less iconic?

What about another mythic path that they did not take? Is there one that would fit them, build or personality wise, and what might that have looked like?

In your story, does the Knight-Commander consciously choose their mythic path at Drezen, or was it thrust upon them by their actions or some other outside force?

How well do they play mechanically with their romance, if any? If not, which party member do they synchronize best with?

Do they overlap with a party member in role or narrative presence, and if so how do they contrast from said party member?

Did any of their companions multiclass or take a PRC they do not start with, and if so what is the story behind this?

What is their favored weapon(s) or spell(s), and why?

Is there an item in-game that you felt became iconic to the Knight-Commander?

If the Knight-Commander could get a unique item, what would it be and what would it do?

What is the Commander’s opinion of their mythic patrons/advisors - the Hand of the Inheritor, Aivu or the Desnan Adepts, Zacharias, the Aeon in the mirror, Hal, Yozz and Noticula, etc.?

What units did they pick in the Military Council (Infantry, Archers, Cavalry, Spellcasters, Grand Tier), and why?

When the option to pick was available, which mythic units did they unlock and why?

[anam-mana]

I think one of my favourite things about Daeran Arendae and the writing around his aasimar heritage is how they deal with how the canon aasimar draw towards goodness manifests in him.

Is Daeran good? No. Is he good DEEP DOWN? Also no. He is not a redemption project for good-aligned commanders and he makes that clear and reaffirms this at every turn.

However, he does love goodness and kindness, whether he acknowledges it or not. He loves it in OTHERS.

His love affair with his fellow musetouched Aasimar, and a kind, uncorrupt priest (rare in his experience) Ramien, his bittersweet nostalgia for his mother and her charity balls, his tender and devoted care of the neutral good Ember at every opportunity, almost as though she were a little sister or ward to him.

Daeran isn’t drawn to do or be good in general (with few exceptions for those he cares for or when he feels affronted by attacks on personal liberty.) but he is drawn to those who are and do good.

Which just makes it extra tragic with how all those he had trusted have chosen the greater good above him.

It’s part of why I love shipping good-aligned Commanders with him. It really plays into someone finally choosing HIM above something as metaphysical as principle.

[godofdystopia]

I'm writing this after completing the Gwerm Mansion Massacre and also while being *very* drunk, but if you complete Arueshalaes redemption arc then it stands to reason that, no matter how you responded to the Mireya reveal, she would absolutely and completely hate Camellia with all her heart and being.

Like, lf you had gotten to the Gwerm Mansion Massacre as any flavor of Good character then that means that Camellia, in universe, basically led the PC around by the nose and so thoroughly hoodwinked them that they indulged every last vice and atrocity that Camellia indulged in and thought, canonically mind you, that it was for the good of Golarion. Camellia convinced you to buy a slave, or a homonculus, and let her viciously murder them by that point on the name of Golarion. Camellia massacres a bunch of innocent people not even five seconds ago in the name of Golarion. Camellia butchered a guard and drank his blood like she's a vampire and let her get away from it in the name of Golarion. And it was all a lie to just let her continue killing innocents. And she got you to join and indulge and stain your soul just a little bit darker all the while.

It's basically exactly what Arueshalae did to Dilmachio the Azata except happening *after* she realizes how fucked up that was and also happening too someone she considers a best friend/crush/wife and *by* a mortal being who has no connection to the Abyss or compulsion other than her own mind.

Arueshalae would despise her no matter the results of that mission, would probably consider hating her to be something she doesn't need to repent for, doesn't need to seek forgiveness for having.

Arueshalae would want to kill her I think.

[hexingart]

One of these days I'll play Haala again in a longform campaign and give her the amount of brutal carnage a build like hers deserves. Until then, enjoy her most recent redesign and FurryMode(tm)

[lukedanger]

I don't think people realize the sheer amount of attrition that Mendev has endured as Golarion's bulwark against the Worldwound for almost a century. They are not running on all cylinders - heck they haven't been running on that since before the Third Crusade which was when things really devolved as the rest of Avistan started using the Crusades as a convenient dumping ground to quietly get rid of undesirables.

Mendev's best and brightest, their most loyal, their most honorable? Those are the ones who, statistically, are going to be on the frontlines and get chewed up fighting demons. Mendev's nobility has been thinned to the point where the remaining nobles are more like Camellia or Daeran, as we see with the Royal Council and nobility's political games while the war is ongoing. The foreign volunteers these days do include Anevias, Seelahs, or Sosiels, but Mendev can't really afford to be picky anymore leading to having to put up with allies like the Hellknights (not that the Hellknights actually do much that's actually productive outside of crusade-wide efforts).

So, for Lady Konomi to rise? It's because she's probably actually competent as a diplomat. The main issue is that she doesn't actually get to show it in-game as in the Diplomatic Council she mostly just acts as a toady to force you to help the Royal Council's schemes to increase their power and influence in Mendev itself (something that Galfrey explicitly ordered against, and if Galfrey is there in Act V she becomes absolutely livid at Konomi for this).

Then when you discuss actual diplomatic affairs, it's still mostly for the Royal Council's schemes of kissing up to Cheliax via Isger even at expense of the Crusade as a whole. A good example is how she wants you to turn away the Andorans (whose Supreme Elect is a Paladin of Iomedae during Wrath) when they finally sent actual troops. Thus, even if Konomi is competent, the plotline we get obscures it (and this is not unique to her - the cRPG version really went out of its way to make it all up to the player character at expense of many Mendevian NPCs).

Ironically for the situation you point to as the impetus for this post, leaving the Hellknights to die because you want to focus on the objective (as Lann uses as his argument) is actually exactly what the Hellknights would do if the situation was reversed.

You know i see people jesting about it but chances are Lady Konomi got to be such a high ranking diplomat despite being terrible at her job- simply because the bar is in hell. Genuinely the more that i think about it- the fact that everyone in your circle apart from Irabeth Seelah and Ember? Is just like yeah let's leave the hellknights to die AS IF THAT DOESN'T SET THE WORST POSSIBLE DIPLOMATIC PRECEDENT??? The alliance shouldn't have been made in the first place but since it was made you gotta follow through with it or you're just saying 'ah yes future allies- we're definitely trustworthy and won't leave you to the wolves the moment we don't like you!'

WHY AM I AS THE CHAOTIC CHAOTIC HAVING TO TALK SENSE TO YOU PEOPLE

[arendaes]

Also, if you notice me sending a ton of people questions 1 and 2 in that ask game, there's a reason for that. I love hearing why people chose the class they do for their characters, especially in games with tons of them like WOTR. I love hearing the lore reasons, the meta reasons, and especially the "well it's a funny story..." reasons. Tell me why your OCs are the way they are on their most basic level, I love it!

[autumnbrambleagain]

ultimately i think our real complaint with pathfinder wrath of the righteous is that its "difficulty" isn't so much "the enemies have very clever positioning and tatical advantages--how will you manipulate the situation to overcome it?"

it's not like the incredible oil refinery battle in Divinity Original Sin 2, where it gets WEIRD and you're fighting the environment and a new faction shows up and starts overrunning everything with weird resistances and forces you to outthink it, out-position it,

every single battle in Wrath of the Righteous is already decided long, long before the battle starts.

did you look your build up on metabuilds.quick? did you pick the Correct Feats and spells? did you reload the second combat started and then pre-buffed 30 different spells before combat began?

that's what defines the difficulty. is your build meta enough? did you read enough spreadsheets before this battle started?

i LIKED blackwater, I'll be honest. the super-high ACs meant i had to use spells i'd never used before, didn't NEED to use before, to deprive enemies of their AC bonuses! it felt like i was figuring out a puzzle, it was great, it was an outlier

im' on normal difficulty, which coddles and protects and forgives you. i'm on normal difficulty, and combat is either "i curbstop everything without trying, or i die instantly because i didn't get the gimmick right"

but on higher difficulties, there's no room to play with your build. in divinity you could be a teleporting assassin who dips into an elemental magic for extra fun, or a wizard just go full magic and you'll never be at a loss for things to DO. i put some levels of metamorphosis on my assassin just for the wings and tentacle slap, no problem. want a wizard who casts gun turret and then hits you with sword? that's fine.

in this shitty DnD inherited system you can't go "red mage". you can't casually dip. you can't do something Interesting. a sorcerer who spends a feat or two to use a cool sword? no. spell penetration. spell focus. you can't hit anything in melee after level 3 anyway so don't try. turn into a dragon? too bad, you still don't have the BAB to hit anything. you're a weak-ass nothing of a dragon.

the challenge isn't "here are all these pieces you can use--how will you use them to overcome the challenges before you?"

the challenge is "here are all these pieces. if you put them together in the right way you win. if you try to do anything fun with them you lose."

and for what? for what verisimilitude? ADnD had classes as CLASSES. you were a WIZARD. you had NO TIME to learn how to fight. your spells all had a dozen things to keep track of. you were a FIGHTER. at level 9 you literally get a Castle and a small ARMY as a class feature. as you leveled up you gained titles of nobility as a matter of course. you had to worry about taxes and harvests. of course multiclassing was hard back then--each CLASS was a career path. a druid leveling up had to do druid politics just to be ALLOWED to reach the next level. the fluff and crunch was INEXTRICABLE

but 3.x and 3.P threw that all out for the most part. just look at people talking about builds--they ALL talk about level 20 builds, and they're all ridiculous 3 rogue/1 monk/6 cleric/ 10 asshole builds that mix and match class features at will. i've seen it recommend that everyone take an entire level of monk just for the bonuses--ignore that it makes like, no sense everyone suddenly becomes an ACTUAL MONK. you don't just pick up the skills you pick up a level in the CLASS.

it so desperately wants to be a classless system where each level-up you pick what you get, but it can't escape its inheritance. it makes sense, to a degree--if you divide your time poorly in your study, you'll become not great at anything. a mediocre sword-fighter and a mediocre-wizard! but. but we're beyond ADnD aren't we?

why isn't it more gameified? I guess pathfinder 2 is more like that? i haven't played it, and i'm dealing with pathfinder 1 for WotR. taking a level of monk doesn't require you to add being a monk to your story--you don't need to find a cloister and dedicate time to it, you just pick the class to get the bonuses it gives you. why have it tied to classes at all at that point?

just like how multiclassing poorly leaves you unable to do anything well, picking both "classes are a career/lifestyle" and "classes are just a set of bonuses you get for this level" leaves the entire system poorly functional. you really can't do both.

why can't my sorcerer fight in melee when turned into a dragon? i don't have the BAB for it. how do i get the BAB for it? can i spend a few skill points per level to learn how to fight? no, i need to take a fighter class. retroactively all my experience is only into fighting. you can't multitask, you can't learn things outside your class--a sorcerer can't FIGHT with a SWORD! that's silly!

but a sorcerer can take a break for a level and become a knight, and a monk, and an alchemist, and a rogue. you can't be a sorcerer who sacrificed a bit of time mastering their magic to be competitive in a melee--that would make no sense! but you can be a sorcerer who stopped being a sorcerer and joined a convent for a short while and then became a squire for a knight for a week and now they can use a sword, sure. that's the option that makes sense.

just let adventurers be good at shit. let me block out two schools of magic in exchange for being able to fight in melee. let that just be a default fucking thing. you wanna make "classes" just a selection of bonuses you can freely pick from each level up, just let it be a la carte already. untie it from the canon. if everyone can take a level of sorcerer let magic just be something you can pick when you level up.

auroral oceans is a very different beast from a generic fantasy setting and the tabletop system im making for it is far from finished or perfect, but one of the base assumptions it makes is, if you're a player character, you're some kind of adventuring asshole enough that you can both: use a sword, and fire a gun, with enough competency that you can kill a person with it.

like yeah, someone who spends all their points on sword techniques is going to have more dice and way more options in a fight--a wizard with a sword just rolls their dice, a dedicated swordfighter has options to reroll a missed die or turn a point of damage into a disarm or a forced movement--but the wizard with a sword is still a dude with a sword and they can still fuck you up.

altho i guess it helps there's no generic "wizard" in the setting i guess the closest to wizard is worshipper of nirix who gets powers by virtue of emulating its example or like, a hwual channeler which is just a thing you can do it's fine

im off topic

my point is wow DnD fucking sucks and i wish it died from the meme pool already

[passionesolja]

[lukedanger]

Some of it might be being relatively niche, but some if it also might be how nuanced it is in its "wokeness" - many of those characters that might get the game labeled as such are wrong or "wrong" at different points. Irabeth has her PTSD breakdown before Drezen (cue 'hard man' Regill taking the chance to lambast the entire Mendevan part of the crusade) along with her and Anevia basically going from your superiors to your subordinates without any fuss, Galfrey has her jealousy of you and your successes before her march on Iz turns out to be a disaster (and that's with Noticula saying that Galfrey is competent but massively outclassed), and Iomedae is absolutely correct about everything with the information she has, but because she gets in the way of the power fantasy the narrative sets her up to be wrong and people dunk on her for daring to argue for your knight commander's soul.

The other part is that the story is basically set up for any narrative to come in and save the day. You want to be the first one in a long while who's done the Crusade right as a Lawful Good angel/archon? You can do it and surpass paladins far more veteran than you. Want to buck the system and fight with Elysian freedom? Unleash the Azata Nonsense! Want to indulge in your inner conquering tyrant? Put on your spiky armor and make "hard" decisions as a Lawful Evil aeon->devil. Want to treat it like a giant joke? Trickster kills Deskari with a fish missile. So on and so forth - the narrative empowers the player character regardless of who they are, and often at cost of those same figures that might make the game "woke".

That combined with good writing I think is what keeps the usual crowd from trying to drown it out - it isn't "forced" on the player and there is usually some form of comeuppance (or death) for anyone that you really do not like, and the player is empowered by the narrative to surpass them all. If it turned out Iomedae was correct about her fears of your powers being a trojan horse or Galfrey's march to Iz was successful while you were lost in the Abyss, I suspect there might have been more pushback. As it is, instead we get people who dunk on Galfrey and Iomedae as if the crusade is only a failure because of them or that they are only motivated by jealousy of the almighty PC.

I find it funny how Wotr gets passed up on the whining about wokeness in games, despite hitting a lot of points, one or two of which alone would be enough to have bald British men screaming and punching their keyboard over on release date. You can be gay or bi in the game and about half the main party are queer. There's a big stornk woman and trans woman lesbian couple, in a pretty major roles through the whole game. A significant amount of the primary authority figures in the story are women, including by far the most competent villains, with the most significant male villains (in the late game at least, not Staunton) even speaking almost entirely in what could be construed as veiled incel whining.

And like, very few people complained. More proof that "Go woke go broke" is a big punch of shit and you just have to make good stuff? Or is it just because it's not quiet a mainstream hit?

[bite-the-bloody-hand]

The key and the cache have me so messed up folks.

You don't just give away a key to a secret cache on your family's estate.

Clearly the key already existed; clearly that cache storage was already built into the fireplace. Even with Daeran's influence and money, I'm hard-pressed to imagine he would commission something to be built in Heaven's Edge without him being present. Clearly, he never requests the time away to do such a thing, and it would be impossible without him being there.

So the cache has always been there, and the key has been with him since the massacre.

The key to the emergency cache in his mother's room, filled with all the items that were completely useless to help her, in the estate he's had sealed away for a decade. A key that was hers, that likely had been hers long before he'd been born. The key to a secret place that holds so many desperately tragic little reminders of that loss. Perhaps one of the last items she ever held.

(Did she press it into his hand, in those final hours of her failing strength? Did she beg him to use those things for himself, should the plague come for him as well? She couldn't have known the hope she tried to bestow on him would find root in such a place.)

Not only does he give it away, he has it permanently altered to reflect another person's name. A tiny monogram, but an unalterable and profound change nonetheless. He gives it away, not knowing for sure if it will be received with the intent it was given. I'm sure he convinces himself it's a test, a funny/mean twist on a real courtship ritual. He brushes it off readily enough if it's mentioned.

But the key itself is that hope. It's the hope KC will understand the meaning of the gift. It's the hope they'll even wear the thing at all. It's the hope they'll think to look for the place where the key fits. It's the hope they'll find the letter (written, I imagine, in the tense hours of preparation before his party, in the moments where he's wondering if waking the house again will draw another apocalyptic blow against him) and the hope they'll keep it's words. It's the hope that if he does die in the cursed crusade, that at least one person in the world will remember him fondly - even if only for just a few moments.

It's the last possession of the only other person he's ever loved. It's just a little trinket. But it means everything.

[lukedanger]

During my second playthrough of WotR, I found something that adds a particularly fascinating bit of context to a romance with Arueshalae and how that looks to anyone outside of your inner circle. One that I think further explains both Hulrun's reaction to it and why Galfrey considers Arueshalae a strike against the KC at the end of Act III.

What I found was the in-game book "Unsung Feats behind the Crusades", which can be found in the Ivory Labyrinth. The text is shown below in a screenshot and transcribed into the alt-text if the image is not loading.*

For further context, the Third Mendevian Crusade is the one that Hulrun spearheaded and is widely considered to be a complete failure because it devolved into witch hunts and infighting. While Hulrun is not explicitly mentioned here, this is entirely in line with his behavior. Furthermore, the brave maiden reads remarkably like the Knight-Commander (particularly an Angel or Azata path one): an inspiring leader from seemingly nowhere who likely would have been a major figure in if not the leader of the nascent Third Crusade... tempted into folly and sin, much like a Demon or Lich path commander that doesn't go Legend or Gold Dragon.

Heck, this sounds eerily familiar to what happens in the cRPG version of Staunton Vhane, especially him turning to the demons and Minagho only to be felled when you take Drezen back from the demons. And now you are Knight-Commander, de facto Warden of Drezen, and have the Sword of Valor which has transformed in your hands... then you accept Arueshalae into your personal lance or even start romancing her?

How do you imagine that must look to those outside of your inner circle, particularly those who have lived through the above two incidents? Hulrun may well have lit the aforementioned brave maiden's pyre, and Galfrey would have been left to sort out the fallout of that incident on top of Staunton Vhane's entire saga.

Unlike us, they have not travelled with and gotten to know Arueshale or witnessed how she resonated with the Song of Elysium or been saved by Desna's aegis. They have been busy governing Kenabres and Mendev as a whole, and only hear about this through rumors or a game of telephone.

All things considered, both of them are remarkably calm about it when they come to Drezen and see that the rumors about a succubus were accurate.

*For the sake of due diligence, we should also assess the source, particularly as this is the only time the incident is mentioned to the best of my knowledge. The in-game book is explicitly a pep piece written for Baphomet's neophytes to read and be inspired by, so it is most certainly embellished. However, while details may have been exaggerated or embellished other known quantities such as Hulrun's witch hunts and the Third Crusade being infamous for infighting like this leads me to conclude that the basic facts are most likely true. Especially as lying to neophytes at this stage is a good way to set yourself up for feelings of betrayal later.

[loderlied]

can you talk through your wotr builds/how you developed each character? especially for oleander, bc he FASCINATES me

- @tyrword

hii thank you!! yeah ollie (nickname! everyone is allowed to use it <3) is an interesting critter lol. so, he’s a demon mythic path blight druid focused on poison and disease spells and prefers to use the shambling mound wild shape form (i know it’s not meta but i’m playing on normal so i don’t care lol). my character development process is just yelling oc ideas in my brain until one sticks and then obsessively thinking about them while listening to songs that fit them (i’m sorry). the only things i knew i wanted out of his character before playing was being lamashtan. oh, and he was also vaguely inspired by the “evil creature commits atrocities because it’s taking care of it’s children” horror trope. here’s a neat character sheet that summarises some info about him! (link to the blank)

sol is a lawful neutral half elven possessed oracle (flame mystery) with one level in paladin (divine hunter) for backstory reasons. i’m not that far into their playthrough yet, but they will be going aeon later on! sol’s creation process is bit different, since they are a character who already existed before i played wotr, i just changed little elements of their story to fit the world. i don’t have one of these sheets for sol, so here and here are some posts where i go more into detail about them.

wual is still in development actually, like i have some things (lich -> legend, undead, gendarme, wendu romance) rn but she’s not too polished atm, sorry!

(also i haven’t seen much of your guys yet but i am soo intrigued by dolus!!!!)

[lukedanger]

It's why the Lawful alignment is so wonky in WotR - there's so many different ways to take it that they all get mixed together in an unholy mix biased towards Lawful Evil of the "every crime deserves execution" variety or that moment when it is "Lawful" to encourage Sosiel to break his oaths. They're trying to cram together Heaven and Iomedae actually believing in and striving for a just order that follows the spirit of law and justice, Aeon's letter-of-the-law (even as they are blatant hypocrites about it) regardless of what it is, and Devil's use the law to cover corruption as idealized by the Hellknights.

The ironic thing is that it shouldn't be hard to do: Lawful can easily about upholding your word when an oath is given, belief in structure as a way to maintain society (regardless of if it is ruling justly as Iomedae teaches or abusing your underlings as Asmodeus does), placing the community over the individual (see Lann), or moderating oneself either for the cause or because revenge is a sucker's game. Instead we get... well, the mess it is.

Regill making Mix lose years off his life then regain them

Here Mix gets really sad. "But he didn't seem as stupid as Hulrun."

And here he does a fucking spit take because he is losing his shit. YES, REGILL, YES, FUCK. (does this count as 'lawful' in pathfinder? feels more chaotic to me but i'm more accustomed to DnD and still wouldn't call myself an expert)

[cassynite]

5 and 6 for sparrow, for the oc questions? :]

Aaaah thanks so much Ferne!!!

5. What kind of abilities and power level does your oc have? Why did you give them their powers? What's the in-universe reason?

For obvious reasons, Sparrow's powers and ability fluctuate as part of her canon story of becoming knight commander--

Pre-canon, Sparrow's a sword saint magus, so she's very skilled in fighting with a longsword as well as adept at magic. This was taught to her to give her versatility in defending Evaethi and fending off possible assassination attempts. She is very intelligent and works hard, so she's above average when it comes to her abilities, though her true strengths lie with her tactical mind and her ability to keep a cool head in bad situations, which is what tends to give her an edge in battle.

During WOTR, Sparrow obviously gains the additional magical abilities of the angel mythic path, focusing on strengthening and healing her allies. By the end of the game she's very close to demigod status, though she does not actually ascend by Areelu's plan, and would likely become some version of demigod within the next century or so as she grows in power with age.

Meta reasons for her abilities are basically I wanted to lean into the ice queen persona, so I pushed her intelligence and tactics--also, since i played the game on easy, crusade mode was a joke, so in-game Sparrow's a fantastic general and those skills lent itself to justifying that. As for her magus class...I know next to nothing about mechanics lol, I honestly picked that class because I liked the magus outfit the most.

6. What are the weaknesses in their power? Why did you give them their weaknesses? What's the in-universe reason?

Oooh this is an interesting one. I'd say mechanically, while she's skilled with a longsword she doesn't really know how to handle other weapons--and without her magic, she's very fragile, which makes her typical battle tactic of shielding herself and charging in risky. In general she can get injured far more easily, especially regarding broken bones--her plumekith heritage has given her hollow bones, which are easy to break. Beyond that, while she's great with tactics and contingencies, if something happens that's completely out of left field and she can't account for, it's hard for her to change things on the fly.

For meta reasoning, I like how her battle style and weaknesses reflects her actual personality--she might be strong, but she's brittle, and she is frightened of change.