#Working on Caster's ability

[swiftcast-selene]

Day 28: Adventure

it's never easy to set off on your own, especially when you don't have the best sense of direction...

[theplotmage]

Principles and Laws of Magic for Fantasy Writers

Fundamental Laws

1. Law of Conservation of Magic- Magic cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed.

3. Law of Equivalent Exchange- To gain something, an equal value must be given.

5. Law of Magical Exhaustion- Using magic drains the user’s energy or life force.

Interaction and Interference

4. Law of Magical Interference- Magic can interfere with other magical effects.

6. Law of Magical Contamination- Magic can have unintended side effects.

8. Law of Magical Inertia- Magical effects continue until stopped by an equal or greater force.

Resonance and Conditions

7. Law of Magical Resonance- Magic resonates with certain materials, places, or times.

9. Law of Magical Secrecy- Magic must be kept secret from the non-magical world.

11. Law of Magical Hierarchy- Different types of magic have different levels of power and difficulty.

Balance and Consequences

10. Law of Magical Balance- Every positive magical effect has a negative consequence.

12. Law of Magical Limitation- Magic has limits and cannot solve every problem.

14. Law of Magical Rebound- Misused magic can backfire on the user.

Special Conditions

13. Law of Magical Conduits- Certain objects or beings can channel magic more effectively.

15. Law of Magical Cycles- Magic may be stronger or weaker depending on cycles (e.g., lunar phases).

17. Law of Magical Awareness- Some beings are more attuned to magic and can sense its presence.

Ethical and Moral Laws

16. Law of Magical Ethics- Magic should be used responsibly and ethically.

18. Law of Magical Consent- Magic should not be used on others without their consent.

20. Law of Magical Oaths- Magical promises or oaths are binding and have severe consequences if broken.

Advanced and Rare Laws

19. Law of Magical Evolution- Magic can evolve and change over time.

20. Law of Magical Singularities- Unique, one-of-a-kind magical phenomena exist and are unpredictable.

Unique and Imaginative Magical Laws

- Law of Temporal Magic- Magic can manipulate time, but with severe consequences. Altering the past can create paradoxes, and using time magic ages the caster rapidly.

- Law of Emotional Resonance- Magic is amplified or diminished by the caster’s emotions. Strong emotions like love or anger can make spells more powerful but harder to control.

- Law of Elemental Harmony- Magic is tied to natural elements (fire, water, earth, air). Using one element excessively can disrupt the balance and cause natural disasters.

- Law of Dream Magic- Magic can be accessed through dreams. Dreamwalkers can enter others’ dreams, but they risk getting trapped in the dream world.

- Law of Ancestral Magic- Magic is inherited through bloodlines. The strength and type of magic depend on the caster’s ancestry, and ancient family feuds can influence magical abilities.

- Law of Symbiotic Magic- Magic requires a symbiotic relationship with magical creatures. The caster and creature share power, but harming one affects the other.

- Law of Forgotten Magic- Ancient spells and rituals are lost to time. Discovering and using forgotten magic can yield great power but also unknown dangers.

- Law of Magical Echoes- Spells leave behind echoes that can be sensed or traced. Powerful spells create stronger echoes that linger longer.

- Law of Arcane Geometry- Magic follows geometric patterns. Spells must be cast within specific shapes or alignments to work correctly.

- Law of Celestial Magic- Magic is influenced by celestial bodies. Spells are stronger during certain astronomical events like eclipses or planetary alignments.

- Law of Sentient Magic- Magic has a will of its own. It can choose to aid or hinder the caster based on its own mysterious motives.

- Law of Shadow Magic- Magic can manipulate shadows and darkness. Shadowcasters can travel through shadows but are vulnerable to light.

- Law of Sympathetic Magic- Magic works through connections. A spell cast on a representation of a person (like a doll or portrait) affects the actual person.

- Law of Magical Artifacts- Certain objects hold immense magical power. These artifacts can only be used by those deemed worthy or who possess specific traits.

- Law of Arcane Paradoxes- Some spells create paradoxes that defy logic. These paradoxes can have unpredictable and often dangerous outcomes.

- Law of Elemental Fusion- Combining different elemental magics creates new, hybrid spells with unique properties and effects.

- Law of Ethereal Magic- Magic can interact with the spirit world. Ethereal mages can communicate with spirits, but prolonged contact can blur the line between life and death.

- Law of Arcane Symbiosis- Magic can bond with technology, creating magical machines or enchanted devices with extraordinary capabilities.

- Law of Dimensional Magic- Magic can open portals to other dimensions. Dimensional travelers can explore alternate realities but risk getting lost or encountering hostile beings.

- Law of Arcane Sacrifice- Powerful spells require a sacrifice, such as a cherished memory, a personal item, or even a part of the caster’s soul.

[a2remedy]

DPXDC Prompt# 3- It’s on Fright

Summoning has never been off the table. In fact Danny welcomes it.

At least after the first 50 he did.

Now it’s just getting repetitive. Destroy the world, end this specific race, person, sexuality. He’s really heard it all and it honestly sucks. He’s a protective spirit damn it!

Look at all the high and mighty people and cultists that would call on him for their mortal issues? It's even more annoying to listen to the whiney people who think they're entitled to his power or his time.

So he did what he should've done this whole time. If ghosts are strong enough emotional echoes, why shouldn't it be the same way? He establishes a connection between his summoning circle. If the caster's intent when casting the spell is for anything other than protecting life, its free game. Que the registration of numerous ghost to send an echo of themself to fuck with the people who thought they could fuck with the king. Of course, there are rules. You're only there for a short window. No killing is permitted unless a caster is hostile and a threat to ghosts. Ensure the safety and good health of human sacrifices. Blah,blah, blah. But most importantly, make them regret ever casting the spell in the first place. Upon numerous heroes failing to stop the summoning in time, there's a vast amount of random shit that happens further proves to not fuck with the realms. Batman can only hear the nostalgic music before witnessing the lead cultist that nabbed Jason get hit by an ice cream truck driven by a muscular man and little girl in uniforms. Tim and could agree that their soft serve was the best they ever had. Hal comes onto the cultists being forced into a tea party and learning their table manners from a blue dragon in a gorgeous dress and tiara. Flash comes up to Shazam and a lanky grey figure with glasses discussing Justice League fanfiction while the cultists have to cosplay the members and live out their found family dreams. Spectra is having the time of her life honestly. Talking things out with depressed kids to work through those feelings or being allowed to pay a certain clown a visit time and time again for her good work along with, spooking frats and sororities.

Superman has been quick to react to cultists after a little demon of a girl promised to return if he wasn't treating his clone better to not repeat the beatdown that was personally recorded and handed to Lex to make if he agreed to make merch from it. Most summon sites are Jumpscare Central or a straight up scrap. It's also a wonderful chance for Spectra to give the bats what they fear most. THERAPY!!! Under Jasmine's supervision, of course. JLD has heard the outcries of the JL and still keeps their good standing with the king to themselves. Especially that said king is over every Friday with treats and gifts from throughout the ages. He's fallen for the blonde warlock that has always been able to reliably call on him because he only does it when ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY! Danny found it odd that the only person who could call him now was a sad Brit in a trenchcoat but a conversation or two had them see that they were more often than not on the same wavelength. Sick of their duty, in need of a drink, and helping the world to the best of their ability. John is just so human and reminds him of how he is too. That soon applies to Zatanna too, who's distraught from leading. Besides, what happens in the House of Mysteries stays in the House of Mysteries.

[miyuki-fenn]

Updated Illari Introduction! ! More info under cut !

Illari Vichama Dorm: Reisollamma Grade/Class: 3 - B Birthday: February 18th Age: 18 Height: 173 cm (5'8) Dominant hand: Left Homeland: Empire of the Sun Club: S.T.E.M. Club Best Subject: Blot analytics Hobbies: Alchemy Pet peeves: Being bossed around Favourite food: Rocoto Relleno Least favourite food: Spinach puffs :( Talent: having a great outfit for every occasion Illari Vichama, the flamboyant Vice Housewarden of Reisollama. Despite a weakened physical state from a childhood tragedy, Illari turns the tables by harnessing blot to enhance his abilities through experiments & research. Assigned as the royal advisor to young Emperor & Housewarden Cira, he navigates school life with quick wit, supported by his loyal partner, Koka. His passion for blot is often shunned, he's deemed as "scary beyond all reason" for even meddling with the substance willingly. Signature Spell - Snuff Out the Light Snuff out the light instantly shrouds any given area or person in complete darkness. Within this darkness, apparitions appear as whatever the caster wills. This is usually very disorienting for the target, as it obscures their vision and could cause them emotional distress if what is displayed evokes that. The tangibility of the apparitions vary on the caster's magic reserves and usage of it, but it is possible for them to cause physical harm to the target at the cost of immense blot accumulation. The same also applies to the area in which the spell is cast. Single rooms/enclosed spaces are much easier than in the open, as the caster needs to concentrate for how large of an area they want to cover. Additionally, the spell is much weaker if cast in broad daylight.

llari Vichama is an infamous name throughout NRCE, though not entirely feared, he isn’t entirely praised either. He’s a hard character to miss, often donning flashy and colorful jewelry and accessories. Never coming underdressed to an occasion, his fashion is nothing short of meticulous. Though that’s not what he’s truly known for. His true infamy stems from his passion, blot. Most people know him for his vast knowledge in the taboo field, and he is often labeled “scary beyond all reason” for his eager meddling and excitement at the mention of the stuff. His brilliance only adds to the fear of his peers, as one wonders what a mind like his could be doing with such a substance. As eye-catching as he is, he’s extremely closed off to most people. As he is well aware of his reputation and knows that people knowing more than just his glamor and blot ramblings would only drive it home further. As a result, he’s got no shortage of sass on him. He isn’t usually snappy with people, but if someone pesters him, he would not hesitate. He’s usually quite polite but isn’t afraid to let his eccentric tendencies go wild. However, he’s usually quite selfish, but he sets that aside for the people he cares about like Koka, all while feigning reluctance. He’s an extremely determined individual, willing to go to outrageously far feats to achieve what he wants, no matter how long or painstaking it may be. Although his plans tend to be convoluted and outlandish, his sharp wits make them work. Illari’s a man of science after all!

[utilitycaster]

I was working on a significantly longer post, but I wanted to give a very high level summary of why I think the Mighty Nein are the mechanically best party and Bells Hells the weakest across the three main campaigns. I'm not sure the longer post will be helpful or effective, but if you are interested in seeing, let me know! I might also just post the first page or so which covers the three intro bullets here in much more depth.

Mechanically good is to an extent a subject measure but I believe that a good character build is either incredibly versatile (easily capable of most if not all of melee, ranged, and area of effect damage; healing capacity; buffing/debuffing; and tanking; as well as having significant prowess in at least one or two areas of out of combat utility, eg, transportation spells, highly valuable skills like charisma-based skills, navigation, or stealth, etc) OR a pinnacle of specialization (extraordinarily high damage output per turn/extremely high HP and AC tank). As you can see this is not limited to combat.

Party mechanics include composition; five very high damage output characters with no healing is not a good party, even they are individually good mechanically. A good party has a balance of the combat skills discussed above as well as the ability to find things out both magically (things like identify, scry, detect magic, legend lore, comprehend languages) and nonmagically (language proficiencies and skill proficiencies); ability to infiltrate both through stealth/small creatures and through social engineering/subterfuge; and ability to travel of their own power across long distances and planes).

Mechanics are situational: all rogues is good for a heist but not for open field combat against a horde of undead (hence my prioritization of versatility). In general, overlap/redundancy is good (two healers means you’re fine if one is down) but exact replication is not.

The Mighty Nein are able to do pretty much everything given that all characters but Yasha have at least one mental stat at or above 16 and they cover all three mental stats; the women of the party all have impressive physical stats; two clerics and a heavily support-based wizard plus a strong melee line plus a paladin multiclass plus a rogue covers all the combat skills. Caleb and both clerics have transportation spells (teleportation circle, teleport, word of recall, plane shift), Jester has Scry, and she and Caduceus both use Commune, covering forms of information gathering. Caleb has a familiar, both Veth and Beau are extremely good at stealth, and several party members have Polymorph should they need to infiltrate; nearly the entire party has Disguise Self as well. Given the heavy focus on versatility across the board, there are few if any D&D situations in which the Mighty Nein would not excel, despite having fewer magic items than either of the other parties for much if not all of their campaign. Ashley’s absences early on were noted, but Fjord and Beau held up the melee line and served as tanks (HP and dodge respectively) and Jester was able to handle strength-based tasks. Caleb also meant the party nearly always had a relatively safe place to stay.

Vox Machina, were slightly weaker due to an arcane caster being played by a dickhead and subsequently being asked to leave, and due to Ashley’s frequent absences were also down a cleric much of the time. I have frequently praised Sam and Marisha’s immense versatility in how they adapted Scanlan and Keyleth to fill as many gaps as they could. Vox Machina lacked a number of core arcane spells and did not have the redundancy that the Nein had, and because Keyleth often had to serve as melee/secondary tank in wildshape that meant they were often without AOE. However, they too had good representation across all mental stats and physical stats; two extremely strong ranged damagers plus a shorter ranged damager plus Grog on melee and as an impressive tank; and a heavily support-focused character in Scanlan. Keyleth was able to fill nearly any role in combat as needed. Out of combat, she also served as their primary ride, with Plane Shift, Wind Walk, and Transport Via Plants. Scanlan was able to handle a great deal of social infiltration scenarios, and Vax, Vex, and Percy all could as well. While they lacked someone who could cast Comprehend Languages, Vex’s polyglot ranger build covered a great deal. And, notably, Vox Machina’s build worked for their story - they did not need the same degree of arcane knowledge because they were able to outsource that organically to Allura and Gilmore, with whom they had built deep relationships, and instead focused on hunting down artifacts, tracking down dragons, and dungeon crawling, for which the twins especially were well-suited. While I think Vox Machina would have struggled through Aeor, I think they could have managed admirably if they’d been able to take Allura.

Bells Hells had similar problems to Vox Machina in combat, except with 8 people rather than 6. FCG and Fearne both could heal, but FCG’s subclass and Fearne’s temperament both worked against them, as FCG’s subclass naturally drove them towards tanking damage - however, there were three other tanks, and a full-time healer who did not need to stop healing to deal damage to avoid taking damage would have been more useful with this party comp. Imogen and Laudna both primarily focused on single-target damage with almost complete overlap of their skill area, and Laudna especially had a build heavily focused on keeping herself up; this is not inherently bad (Caleb also had Blur and Shield) but sorcerer is also the caster with the least versatility. FCG and Fearne rarely used AOE (somehow, despite two people having it, Bells Hells cast fireball less than Caleb, and FCG rarely used Spirit Guardians). The party was also, in a heavily lore-focused campaign, lacking in any high intelligence characters and frequently were unable to make basic history, religion, or arcana checks. Fearne’s choice to take levels in Arcane Trickster were good character beats and even added some useful basic skills (Identify, Disguise Self) but as a result of her never taking levels in Druid above 10, she did not gain access to Transport Via Plants nor Plane Shift. If Imogen or Dorian took Teleport they did not use it, and neither Imogen, Laudna, nor Dorian took/used Teleportation Circle. Bells Hells were entirely dependent on the Staff of Dark Odyssey, which could only cast Teleport once per day and which had both a physical penalty and, it was implied, a higher chance of malfunction. In short: almost all of the party focused on damage output, without much in the way of buffs or debuffs Ashton’s abilities were unreliable; Orym and Chetney, despite being primary tanks/melee damage in a party with 4-5 primary casters ended up doing most of the debuffing through battle maneuvers and blood curses. There is a reason why it feels like so much of Bells Hells’ story is them being lore-dumped upon and ferried around; it is because they did not have the means to discover information or travel on their own power.

[itsqwertyluvs]

･ ｡ﾟ☆: *  OCCULT BABY CHALLENGE RULES * :☆ﾟ.･

hi bffs !! so this is my version of the occult baby challenge rules that i'll be using for my sims 4 series :) (watch here)

full credit to simssav for a lot of the rules!

CHALLENGE OBJECTIVE:

have a baby with each occult type in the sims 4!

MODS I USE:

» FAIRIES VS WITCHES MOD - here

» EXPANDED MERMAIDS MOD - here

» GHOSTS CAN HAVE BABIES MOD - here

ALL OCCULT TYPES:

» ALIEN (GET TO WORK)

» BONEHILDA (PARANORMAL)

» FAIRY (FAIRY VS WITCHES MOD)

» FATHER WINTER (SEASONS)

» FLOWER BUNNY (SEASONS)

» GHOST (BASE GAME)

» GRIM REAPER (BASE GAME)

» ISLAND ELEMENTAL (ISLAND LIVING)

» MERMAID (ISLAND LIVING)

» PATCHY (SEASONS)

» PLANT SIM (BASE GAME)

» SERVO BOT (DISCOVER UNIVERSITY)

» SPELL CASTER (REALM OF MAGIC)

» TRAGIC CLOWN (BASE GAME)

» VAMPIRE (VAMPIRES)

» WEREWOLF (WEREWOLVES)

» WISHING WELL (ROMANTIC GARDEN)

HOW TO AGE UP EACH CHILD:

» NEWBORNS - pop up that it's their birthday

» INFANTS - get 8 milestones (only fine motor/gross motor/social)

» TODDLERS - reach level 3 in all skills OR level 5 in 3 skills

» CHILDREN - reach level 5 in any 3 skills

» TEENAGERS - complete their task (as seen below)

TEENAGE TASKS:

» ALIEN - level 10 rocket science skill

» BONEHILDA - level 10 archaeology skill

» FAIRY - level 5 alchemy skill

» FATHER WINTER - level 10 handiness skill

» FLOWER BUNNY - level 10 knitting skill

» GHOST - level 10 pipe organ skill

» GRIM REAPER - level 10 medium skill

» ISLAND ELEMENTAL - level 10 fishing skill

» MERMAID - level 5 singing skill + level 10 mermaid mythology skill

» PATCHY - level 10 flower arranging skill

» PLANT SIM - level 10 gardening skill

» SERVO BOT - level 10 robots skill

» SPELL CASTER - learn 10 spells

» TRAGIC CLOWN - level 10 comedy skill

» VAMPIRE - level 15 vampire lore skill + have 5 vampire abilities

» WEREWOLF - level 10 fitness skill + have 3 werewolf abilities

» WISHING WELL - level 5 entrepreneur skill

EXTRAS:

» if you don't want the challenge to be as difficult, you can change the teenage tasks to be easier. for example reach level 5 instead of level 10 skill!

» once a teenager has completed all their tasks, they have to be aged up and be moved out immediately!

» if you want to do the challenge like me, you also must kill one of each of the occult types! (it doesn't have to be the baby parents)

[emsartwork]

Hey yall im not dead!

COSMIX!!! I've officially redesigned all the transformations in the Winx Club TV series hell yeah

Lore and Design notes below

So Cosmix is a rather defunct transformation in the modern era. It used to be used heavily in the age of space exploration but since teleportation and hyper speed ships became common place, the Magix dimension prefers to use those. Essentially, in order to set up a teleportation center, the caster/s need to have been to both the origin point and the target point. Witches and Mages were the primary people responsible for setting up the teleportation system, but in order to achieve the spells requirements, they would require help from a Cosmix fairy. The primary function of Cosmix is the ability to fly through space with out detrimental effects. Cosmix fairies can take 1, maybe 2, people with them while they fly in a shooting star esc trail function. Cosmix is not great for fighting unless the foe is darkness/light based. Defense is strong against cold, pressure, and friction, but not most other kinds of damage.

Cosmix is also theorized to be the Magix Dimension's version of the elementix. So like Sirenix is the transformation that grants access to the Infinite ocean, Cosmix is the one that would grant access to the Magix Dimension if fairies were in the other realms. Because humans already belong to the Magix Dimension, and the transformation isn't required to earn Nymphix, it isn't considered a true Elementix. Some fairies (mostly Solarians) do experience biological changes when using the transformation, seen here in Stella, but it's not super common. The hair takes on the magic color and drifts into nebulous star dust and galaxy clusters. Solarians are located closest to Lumenia, a tightly clustered star formation, and frequent attract Lumens due to Solaria's binary star system. They have formed fast friendships with the Lumens and many Solarians carry a Lumen's Blessing (it's similar to the elemental companions' bonds in the elementix) in their bloodline which contributes to the biological changes when using Cosmix.

I'm still hammering out how seaosn 8 works plot wise but I'll add it to my show changes masterlist eventually.

Design! The initial concept was "man i wanna draw some chunky ass boots" and i kinda ran with the cyber punk look from there. I was also adamant that Cosmix is a pants transformation, both out of practicality and spite because they made everyone so hyper feminine in season 8. I referenced the actual cosmix designs and their "space travel" oufits for the general shapes for these, but obviously there aren't a ton of similarities since I went in such a different direction haha. Also my first time drawing Aisha with twists! I almost gave her a fro cus it would mimic an astronaut's helmet (and lowkey a nod to Garnet from steven universe) but i like how the twists came out haha

Cosmix includes! Hair up and out of the way, a mesh base layer with light veins and stars, a body suit or shorts and top, a padded armor torso piece with some tubing ports, so many buckles and straps, a clear plastic portion(usually part of the torso peice, sleeves, or around the waist/hips), wrist/arm guards, and chunky chunky boots. The wings are also larger than most transformations (rivaling Butterflix/Faunix) and trail more of the fairy's magic color than usual. Simple geometric designs are standard.

[chocodile]

Amaranthine Magic System PART III: Spellcraft for… Everyone Else (Including Unicorns)

This is Part III of a three-part worldbuilding set.

Part I - Part II - Part III (you are here)

So, we’ve now established how magic works and how it can be manipulated by a wizard. But wizards aren’t the only ones capable of using magic... as mentioned in Part I, even a tree can do it. How does THAT work? Surely it must be pretty rare, right?

Well, actually, a number of plants and animals have evolved to harness magic. Something about them—either a physical organ, body part, or some sort of instinctual behavior—is able to warp magic in a way that happens to be beneficial. Some examples:

A predatory cat that can use magic to bend light around itself and appear “invisible” thanks to the molecular structure of its fur

A mole that can vibrate its claws in such a way that they increase the charge of magic in the earth around it, causing solid stone to temporarily liquefy

A flower whose roots absorb magic from the earth and use it to resist freezing, allowing it to bloom all winter long

A bird who sings at a strange, disorienting, warbling song, the vibrations of which interfere with the magical frequencies used by its most common predator

A carnivorous plant that paralyzes its victims not with venom, but with numbing bolts of magic produced by a specially evolved structure whenever it detects nearby movement

You may notice that, with the exception of the carnivorous plant, all the other examples are simply using magical energy already in their environment rather than producing it themselves. Which brings me to the next detail… magic can be “cast” from two types of sources:

“Enchantments”/Ambient casting/passive casting: Happens by gently shaping the background radiation of magic already in the environment, like most of the examples above. It is typically done by passing the magical energy through some sort of physical structure in order to alter its frequency. Most enchanted jewelry functions on this principle. Studying animals that perform passive casting can be useful for wizards to learn new casting and enchanting techniques themselves, and many methods of spellcraft are based on patterns of magic wave manipulation first observed in nature. 99% of animals and plants that use magic fall into this category. Also, this sort of magic waxes or wanes in power depending on the ambient background magic radiation levels of the area… your magic locket may fail you at the worst possible moment if you take it someplace with very low magical background radiation levels.

Active casting/”Casting spells”: Magic where the power source comes from within the creature itself and can be actively turned off or on, such as the carnivorous plant example above. Animals and plants that are capable of active casting are typically quite dangerous indeed, though their bodies tend to make for incredibly valuable spell ingredients and materials for crafting magical devices. Luckily, this ability is extremely rare in nature… the ability to truly “cast a spell” is found almost exclusively in wizards.

As a half-celestial, Ambroys sits at sort of a weird position. He technically is an active caster, as he has his own magical field and he can summon his abilities up at will (or, more often in his youth, accidentally) using his mind/will as the primary trigger. However, half-celestials and half-infernals have the shape of their magical “filter” predefined by their heritage and physical anatomy—it is not consciously shaped the way a wizard’s is. They may be able to choose which of these predefined forms their magic takes, and may even discover new variations on their powers throughout their life, but they can never consciously teach themselves brand new spells from scratch, and will never be able to switch fluidly through several different types of similar magic without interruption the way a wizard could.

To Hyden, this makes Ambroys closer to a beast than a person, magically speaking (no offense, of course). He can’t talk spellcraft with him because he’s not doing anything on purpose… he’s just brainlessly clicking his silly little claws together to dig through rock like the mole mentioned earlier. He will never truly understand all the complex mental hoops Hyden jumps through every time he conjures up a flame to light his opium pipe, even if Ambroys can do the same exact thing by just thinking “ok, fire time now”. It’s just not the same, you know?

Aaand that wraps up the Amaranthine magic guide! This should hopefully provide a clearer view of how everything works in this setting. :)

[waterdhaviancheeses]

Magical sex with Gale

I wrote this post the other day, and got a comment about which spell it was that Gale and Tav used in the bedroom. Though I didn't have a spell in mind, there are plenty of options.

NSFW, mention of drugs under the cut.

Thanks @sorcerervaati

Small disclaimer: I do not necessarily think Gale would be into all of these, and assume every act is safe, sane, and consensual.

Mage Hand, an obvious one, there is an entire ao3 tag dedicated to it. Gale would use it all the time, and loves to watch his partner get pleasured by the hand. Imagine the shenanigans he could get up to if he had the Arcane Trickster's ability to make the hand invisible…

Chill Touch, Frost Fingers, Burning Hands, Shocking Grasp, etc. for temperature play.

Message or Sending, it would become a challenge for him to see how hot and bothered he could get his partner in 25 words or less. He would send a filthy message right after leaving for work, and be delighted to come home to a desperately horny Tav.

Illusion spells! Every time Gale has to leave for work for a longer period of time, he leaves a programmed illusion as a surprise for Tav. He would set the trigger for when his name is spoken out loud, in case Tav moans his name while masturbating. The illusion itself could be anything from a naked Gale to just his voice. Gale is incredibly smug when he finds out the illusion was triggered while he was gone. 

Evards Black Tentacles, do I need to say more?

I imagine that some enchantment spells such as Charm Person, Command, and Dominate Person, could make you feel very rosy, like taking drugs. These spells would (obviously) work well in a sub/dom relationship.

Disguise self, perfect for gender bending!

Entangle, Hold Person, and Bigby's Hand for bondage.

Grease could be used as lube or massage oil, Gale would be talented enough to add some nice scents, flavors, and effects.

Invisibility, lasts an hour plenty of time to sneak into a bookstore or Blackstaff Academy and get busy. It is concentration, which only adds the thrill of getting caught.

Mirror Image, Gale would leave his mirror image at home as entertainment for Tav when he's at work. If Tav is also a mage, they let their images fuck while the two of them watch, betting on who would lose concentration first or keep their hand to themselves the longest.

Blindness/Deafness and Darkness for sensory deprivation.

Detect Thoughts and Telepathy, provide him with deeper insight in Tav’s likes and dislikes, where to touch when, how rough he can really be, what Tav really wants.

Enlarge, Gale is perfect the way he is, but has definitely enlarged his cock a couple of times.

Vortex Warp allows you to instantly switch places…

Arcane Eye and Scrying could be used to look in on Tav masturbating. Once again, if he was not at home and missing Tav, he sends a message, asking for a show from them.

Fabricate, for some impressive sex toys.

Polymorph, for a more primal connection, Halsin-style ;)

Animate Objects, Gale would use this spell to make sure the bed or sofa was as comfortable as possible for Tav. Or, perhaps, to get some help from the furniture to restrain or choke them.

Dream, how wonderful it is to be able to continue their escapades even after falling asleep.

Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Mansion can be decorated in any way the caster wants, so a sex dungeon is on the table for sure.

Reverse Gravity, sex on the ceiling!

Last but not least: Simulacrum, 1500 gold is a small price to pay for another Gale, another set of his hands, another tongue, another mage hand. The Simulacrum can cast the same spells as Gale, so double the amount of fun :)

Which one is your favorite?

[nickmarini]

Hi there!

First of all, I just wanted to say thanks for being an amazing D&D players and a very kind and open person t the many fans like myself who saw you for the first time in Downfall and were amazed. I wish I got to play with people like you when I play and DM.

I was wondering about something. Ayden is a multi classing masterpiece and I wanted to know if you have any tricks for building a solid multi class that is both interesting and has a fair amount of powerful abilities. Every time I have tried my characters end up not good at anything or really good at a single thing thats not relevant.

Okay! That’s all! Thanks for being really cool and I hope you have a great day!

Well firstly thank you. I’m def gonna deep dive Ayden, but for multi-classing in general I will sort of talk my philosophy. When multi classing it is important to start with what you are hoping to achieve. I personally like multiclasses because I think it tells the story of a character. Mechanically though there’s a few things to think about. Is the character strictly martial a mix or a primary spell caster? If you’re a primary spell caster then if you’re heavily multiclassing you are likely trading away access to 9th level spells at minimum or simply grabbing something like spell points or a warlock pact. With Ayden being alongside the Archheart and Matron I felt like we had pretty decent 9th level spell access so I wasn’t too worried on that front and instead could focus on being as good of a support character as I could manage. A full caster multiclass will still get 9th level spells slots so your spells that scale based on level are still going to be powerful.

Martial or mixed spell casters multiclass builds are not as limited by the spell access issues full casters encounter but do encounter the same feat/ability score issues.

In terms of overall philosophy, first level dips can give a character an unusual saving throw proficiency or skills that might compliment a build. I look for abilities that compliment each other so for Ayden having guiding bolt (proficiency times a day from druid) and commanding rally (proficiency times a day from knight of the crows feat) let him shoot a bolt and then have someone follow up with a free attack with advantage 6 times a day. Look for combos that might take 2 separate 1 class builds working together to achieve, that you might be able to do pull off as a single character. Also coming from 3.5 I am a firm believer in feats. Feats allow you to customize your character in unique ways that can really shine when multiclassing.

And finally have fun! I am a huge nerd and enjoy pouring over books trying to find interesting combos or figure out how to make an idea I have work better, but to be honest few campaigns go from 1-20 so if you wanna play around with multi classes just do it!

[dungeon-strugglers]

✨New item!✨ Stone Mask Wondrous item, very rare (requires attunement)

This stone mask clings to your face without a strap or other method of attachment. While wearing the mask, you have advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks made to hide in rocky terrain. Additionally, you can speak, read, and write Terran.

The mask has 4 charges and regains 1d4 expended charges daily at dawn. As an action while wearing the mask, you can expend 1 charge to cast the stoneskin spell from it without requiring material components. Additionally, when cast on yourself, the spell doesn’t require concentration.

Curse. If you drop to 0 hit points while wearing the mask, you must make a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw. On a successful save, the mask falls from your face and your attunement to the mask ends. On a failed save, you drop to 1 hit point instead and the mask permanently affixes itself to your face. The mask gains the following properties in this state:

You can expend 1 charge to cast the spider climb spell from the mask without requiring material components, targeting only yourself.

Siphon Essence. As an action, you can force a creature you are touching to make a DC 16 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the creature takes 2d10 + your proficiency bonus necrotic damage. The creature's hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the necrotic damage taken, and you gain temporary hit points equal to that amount. The reduction lasts until the creature finishes a long rest. You can’t finish a long rest unless you have temporary hit points from this ability remaining. If you go 72 hours without siphoning a creature’s essence, you become petrified until freed by the greater restoration spell. The caster of this spell is instantly targeted by Siphon Essence and the spell has no effect if the caster succeeds on the saving throw.

Sunlight Hypersensitivity. You take 2d10 radiant damage when you start your turn in sunlight. While in sunlight, you have disadvantage on attack rolls, ability checks, and you can’t regain hit points.

If the remove curse spell is cast on the mask, the caster must make a DC 16 check using their spellcasting ability modifier. On a success, the mask cracks and is destroyed. On a failure, the spell has no effect.

The masked figure stepped out from behind a massive boulder, murmuring something in a strange language. After a brief silence, the boulder shattered and swirled around the figure, adorning his skin with a suit of stony armor. The figure loomed before the party as he strode forward, like a mountain in the moonlight. - 🖌🎨 Like our work? Consider supporting us on Patreon and gain access to the hi-resolution art for over 200 magic items, printable item cards and card packs, beautiful creature art and stat blocks, and setting pdfs with narrative hooks and unique lore!🧙‍♂️ Thank you so much for your support! 💖

📜 Credit. Art and design by us: the Dungeon Strugglers. Please credit us if you repost elsewhere.

[vintagerpg]

Friends, our time with Mayfair’s Role Aids line of D&D supplements is rapidly coming to an end. It’s been a wild ride! There is some terrible crap and some works of sheer genius (many of the latter are criminally overlooked), and honestly a surprising trend of beating TSR to the punch. It was a good line, all in all, and I will miss it.

This is Arch Magic (1993), one of the very last Role Aids box sets. It is an ambitious product. That’s fucking Dave McKean doing the cover art, a clear acknowledgment of how the ’90s had changed the aesthetics of RPGs. The interiors are all Roger Raup.

There are lots of things inside, which divide into two piles. The first is source material that seeks to push D&D magic far past the standard power levels into the astounding. This box wants ultra high level spells (reaching to 15th level) to inspire awe and I think it mostly works, at least on a conceptual level. The sample spells are suitably muscular. Enslave the Sky, for instance, gives the caster control of the weather, the ability to fly and active surveillance of any creature out under the open sky. There are new wizardly abodes, rules for grimoires and incredibly powerful new artifacts (like the Singularity Engine, which can make anything).

Then there is an adventure that takes players on a whirlwind tour of some of the wildest places I’ve seen laid out for a D&D game this side of Planescape. And on the other side, too. The Macrodome, the City of Bone and the Gibbering Cave maps are all instant favorite RPG maps. Holy crap this stuff is good — a suitably grand swan song.

[thranduil-aran-edhil]

There are 3 ways to revive Astarion/reverse his vampirism in D&D 5e. Two are baked into the mechanical rules. And one would be interesting to roleplay.

OBS: im not counting the method used in BG2EE where you can use Bodhi's Heart to revert Jaheira's/Viconia's/Aerie's/Anomen's vampirism.

The first one is True Resurrection. Now, of course, by the time the Tadfools can get a hold of this (by level 17), the whole thing with "the creature can only have been dead for 200 years" would make it a bit inconvenient. HOWEVER, Astarion isn't dead, he's UNdead. So they would have to kill him. A funny mental image, in my opinion. This would be the most certain way to revive him. (if you're going with Rules As Written, if you're spicy and like the Matt Mercer method, it could be less certain)

The second one is the Wish spell. Which is a very interesting spell, it would need a specific and clear wording to revive him. There's a chance it won't work. And there's a chance that the caster (most likely Gale) won't ever be able to cast the spell ever again.

The final one... comes from Elven High Magic. The only magic in DnD that can still go beyond level 9 even after Mystra's prohibition after Netheril's Fall. All of the spells are ritual and communal. It's quite thematically fitting, as Astarion is an Elf, but he never says anything about Elven culture in the game. It's Ye Olde Lore, like 2e (AD&D). Here's the spell in its entirety:

Gift of Life (Wizard Spell) This powerful high magic spell has an effect unlike any other. It restores undead creatures to life. Undead creatures are allowed a saving throw vs. death magic, but they can only make such a roll at a level equal to half their Hit Dice. An 18th-level lich, for example, would make a sav­ing throw vs. death magic as if it were actually a 9th-level wizard. If the undead creature fails its saving throw, it is immediately restored to life as it was just before its death, if it died by unnatural causes. It is restored to life as it was 10 years before its death if it died of old age or similar causes. The restored creature is stunned and incapable of any action for 1d4 turns as it slowly realizes what happened. The restored creature returns to life at an appropriate experience and Hit Die level, and with its original alignment and abilities. It will, however, be wearing the same clothes, and carry­ing whatever equipment (if any) that it did as an undead creature. This spell does not necessarily change the alignment of a creature that was originally evil, but the elves recount legends of wicked liches or vampires who were restored through this spell, repented their old lives, and changed alignment, dedicating themselves to the defense of elves. The material component of this spell is a gold medallion in the form of the sun (worth at least 500 gp). Notes: Restricted to elves able to cast High Magic, such as those of Evermeet.

And here's an interesting alternative, based on the D&D Elven High Magic from angelfire.com:

Suyoll/The Revival: This ritual restores an elf's life, health, and harmony with the Weave. This is seen as an acceptance back into the community of elves, despite any changes that occur during the elf’s life (or death). This ritual restores an elf’s natural state, neutralizing all ill or unnatural effects upon him. It cancels curses of any nature other than those divinely placed (i.e., personally inflicted by a god) and spell effects such as petrification and polymorph. Suyoll allows the regrowth of full limbs, muscles, and organs (such as eyes, tongue, etc.). It also negates any magical or non-voluntary alignment changes. The most advanced form of this ritual involves the restoration of undead elves to a living state, as they were 100 years before their deaths or transformations. GM’s Note: This ritual is rarely used; for the elves are a stubborn lot and forgiveness is not a virtue they practice often. Thus, any outcast elf or seriously injured elf is often perceived as pitiful or as a fool who learned his lesson for straying away from the path of elvenkind. However, great sacrifices made for sake of a clan or kingdoms are looked upon proudly, and the Suyoll is invoked to honour heroes who act in such interests. This ritual can even restore a Drow to status among the Tel`Quessir, though the ritual erases all powers (but not appearance) of the Drow (judge as a moon elf).

Do with these informations what you will, I just thought it would be nice to share :D

[bloodyshadow1]

I hate the people who say the final battle in Ragenarok was too easy. It wasn't easy, it was a hard battle, but the Bad Kids/Intrepid Heroes did everything right.

There were 8 combatants on the field at the start. 6 of the rat grinders, who had low health but the high level abilities of their classes, and 1 high level full PC, and 1 high level paladin/barbarian multiclass with resistance to everything, legendary actions and resistances, who could deal force damage.

On the Bad Kids side, they were level 14 who had just gone through a battle that exhausted a lot of resources, Fig and Fabian used a couple of spells and bardics and their limited amount of spells, Gorgug used a couple of his rages, Adaine used all of her portents and a bunch of spells, and between ice feast, healing, and removing levels of exhaustion, Kristen and K2 were love on spells. Riz was the only one who was looking pretty decent because he can use sneak attack all day, and even he used one of his 2 3rd level spells.

They were smart though, they Ice Feast was a broken ability for the final battle that Brennan didn't think through when he home brewed it for Ally. Not only did it block Porter's stun which would have been devastating, it made them immune to fire damage on a map with a lot of lava. He didn't think it through and the Intrepid Heroes used it to full effect. Still, it was good for them, but Ice Feast is still just a reskin of Heroes feast with better options but more detrimental effects.

As for the battle itself, the Bad Kids played it smart, it was only due to good initiative rolls that they managed to stomp the rat grinders so hard in the first round. If Oisin got a chance to go, if Mary Ann was outside the range of slow, things would have been different since they had low stats, but level 20 abilities and spells could have wreaked the Bad Kids. It wasn't an easy fight, but it was a fight with an intentional purpose, the Bad Kids are good at being adventurers while the Rat Grinders took the easy way out and showed the different between being powerful and being strong. They took out the primary caster first as you should do in big pc vs pc battles like this, they made sure to target groupings of enemies with AOEs and crowd control, they made sure to support each other and disrupt their enemies support. It wasn't easy, but they are good at dnd so they made it look easy.

I've seen people say, 'Brennan should have x' and no he shouldn't have. He created a hard combat encounter, but his players did everything right this season, a DM shouldn't punish or railroad their players just because their players are good at the game. No, the players stop the big bad from being released so they don't have to fight them, the DM shouldn't just make the Ancient God break through the bindings just because they planned for that encounter. The players won before it started and they should be rewarded for that.

'the rat grinders should have had a back up plan.' The Rat Grinders did have a backup plan. The initial plan to get Kipperlily fairly elected failed, and the back up plan, when that didn't work, the backup plan was to get Kristen expelled so she couldn't run. When that didn't work they sent the Bad Kids, their allies, and anyone who would vote for Kristen into the sky, flew them miles away, and sicced a horde of dragons and a goddess on them to kill them or at the very least get them out of their hair for 1 night so their plan could work. The Bad Kids beat their plans every time so no, there was no reason to have a 4th backup plan in the final battle. Brennan is a good DM, he didn't make the Rat Grinders and Porter's plan work because it was stopped before it started with the fake goddess name. He didn't punish his players for being good at the game and their strategy is great.

Things could have gone so differently with a slight change or a big change. If Fig didnt' decide to try and be a paladin on a whim, things would have been completely different, they wouldn't have had a connection with Ankarna. If Adaine didn't take Legend Lore they wouldn't have found out about Porter, maybe they would have still gotten the background on Ankarna, but not about his family revealing the Big Bad early on. If they chose to do something else with the power they got from the pride armor, they wouldnt' have the gem to free Bakur or save Lydia meaning no back up in the final fight. What if Gorgug rolled lower on one of his artificer tracks, they might not have passed the last stand. What if Fabian choose to keep pursing Ivy instead of Mazey, would have have been killed by the Rat Grinders or would Mazey have been compelled to their side if he didn't try and romance her. If Riz ran for president instead of Kristen would he have been less stressed or more inclined to focus on that instead of mystery his true love. What if Kristen didn't eat the eye of the Vulture king at the right time and catch Kipperlily about to murder Gavin forcing her to change her target to Buddy.

And it worked against them too. What If Fig didn't inspire Cassandra and knock her out leading her to become the Nightmare King again? What if Adaine didn't counterspell Grix's disintegrate on Ruben, he might have been a pile of dust that would have been hard to impossible to bring back to life disrupting the Rat Grinder's plan. What if Kristen decided to not get upset at Cassandra forcing the Goddess to recreate Kalina. What if Adaine didn't say Ankarna's name outloud the first time she saw it? What if Fig didn't make the deal to have a second chance sealing the Night Yorb? What if Riz and Gorgug did relationship tracks with their families making it harder to do their other tracks. What if Fabian cleaned his house even once and got rid of the pingpong balls that Oisin enchanted to screw them over. What if Riz had time to focus on mystery from the start instead of running Kristen's campaign for her and taking more stress.

There were so many times that things could have gone so much better or so much worse, but that's what the game is. There is no script that says the good guys have to keep losing until they win. It's decisions and dice, luck and wits that make the game. It was a very hard season, the battles were very hard, just because they made the right decisions to make things easier on themselves doesn't change that. It doesn't make the season bad. You're welcome to not like it, but nothing about it was easy and people shouldn't pretend like it was because they don't like it

[puckpocketed]

Trying to absorb everything there is to know about ice hockey within the shortest amount of time possible really does strange things to a person. You come up against questions such as what do defensemen even do aside from skate backwards and do tummy time to protect their goalie? (Broadcasts aren’t the most informative) What the hell makes defensemen effective? What do the casters mean when they say “gap”? What are defensive details?

I love watching games back, I love trying to understand the game. I love hockey <3 But sometimes it’s nice to have help, and sometimes my favourite writers/podcasters collaborate!!

Here is part 1/3 of a podcast mini-series about defending, putting it here so I can have a copy of it in case it ever gets taken down + wanted to share with everyone some of my findings! (All episodes are available if anyone just wants to listen to them!) Transcript + edits done by me, all mistakes are mine.

Published 6th November 2024, Hockey IQ Podcast: Modern Defensemen (with Will Scouch) Ep #1 - by Hockey's Arsenal, hosted by Greg Revak (apple / spotify / youtube / bonus substack link)

part 2

[START Transcript]

Greg Revak: On the Hockey IQ Podcast today, we open up a new segment: we’re bringing back our favourite Will Scouch. If you’re on the Hockey IQ Newsletter you know his work by now.

Will, good morning. Earlier than most of us probably normally get up, but it’s a good day.

Will Scouch: Yeah, Greg, thanks for having me, it’s a lot of fun. Me and Greg go way back. We’re boys from years ago and I’m excited to hop on the show. I’m a keen listener, keen reader. 

[They exchange pleasantries]

GR: Beautiful. Well, today we’re gonna talk about three concepts. We’re gonna break it into three spots though, so everyone’s gotta come back next week and the week after that.

We’re gonna talk about defensemen, because everyone knows they’re important but how do we actually play the position well?

WS: Yeah, I mean, it’s a position that’s still, to me, being explored; both by, I’d say youth and junior coaches and pro coaches alike. There’s a lot of different ways that you can do it.

I mean, I watch a lot of hockey from around the world, all kinds of different levels. I’ve watched guys develop from 15 to 24 at this point, and just seeing how their games evolve and everything, and how effective various versions of this position is. And I think it’s a very interesting area that’s still being explored in a lot of really interesting ways, for sure.

GR: Yeah, I think back to David Savard; he comes out of the [QMJHL] as this high-flying offensive defenseman, and if we just forgot about the rest of his career and you just saw him today as this great shutdown, defense-first player, you’d be absolutely shocked.

I mean, you think about Rasmus Dahlin — kid didn’t even play full time defenseman until his actual draft year, he was still playing forward a ton. There’s so much to be explored here.

I feel like [to get a lot of] — for you NHL fans — to get a lot of value in the later rounds out of your defensemen, take those offensive players first, and we can find a lot of hidden gems later.

WS: Well, yeah. I mean, actually, I’ve said this a few times but your listeners probably don’t know, but I did a presentation during the pandemic at the Ottawa Hockey Analytics Conference about this topic exactly; how, when you look at the numbers and the defensive value of players in the NHL, I found that there were just as many in the top 50 defensive value of players in the NHL, there were just as many undrafted players as there were second round picks, second and third round picks combined.

So the draft isn’t really a great historical gauge on defensive ability. Offense is a different story from defensive players, which we could probably get into a little bit.

But I find, personally, that evaluating defensemen and projecting defense to the NHL is still really spotty and questionable. And I don’t know, in my line of work, watching a lot of defensemen, a lot of the ones who I think are some of the better defenders kind of go a little unheralded, because a lot of the time you don’t need to be particularly noticeable to be a good defenseman, but scouts are always looking for the noticeable guys.

So it’s a very interesting world and it’s a very interesting thing to pick through, but there’s definitely a lot of case studies you could dig into, and a lot of players you could look at as cases of, “Oh yeah, nobody was really paying a whole lot of attention to them!” or maybe people were thinking about them the wrong way. But if you think about things a little bit outside the box, you might be able to see something really interesting there.

GR: Yeah, so let's dive into why that may be. Classic example would be Lane Hutson, so maybe we'll pick on him a little bit, but I definitely want to talk about Rasmus Ristolainen, because he is an interesting case study that we wrote about on the newsletter.

So where I want to start with this is just modern day defending. How are defensemen defending today versus old times? A lot of times it was the big hit, separate the head from body. The puck’s somewhere, but let's separate the head from the body, and we’ll worry about the puck later — that is going bye-bye.

Every coach I talk to now, they prefer having the puck rather than having a head on a stake. So for me, it comes back to this old saying of, “position before possession.” We're gaining body positioning, we're not so much separating head from body, but puck from player.

All right, so we've got position before possession. It's super valuable in gaining the space that you need to have first whack in a puck or put the puck where you want it, or just push it to a teammate. Just having the idea of owning space and there's no better league at this and no league that values it more than the NHL. If you don't do this well in the NHL, sooner or later, you're going to find yourself out of a job making a heck of a lot less money in a league that probably no one really cares that much about. You want to be in the show, the big lights: you have to value this more than anything.

And this is actually the one thing that I noticed about Hunter McDonald. He's in the Flyers’ system now — he was an overager, but I was like, “This guy is unbelievable!” He’s a huge frame, you can’t miss him out there. He would just get the positioning before possession, and I was like, “Okay, that’s interesting, let me watch him further.”

And I feel like he’s going to be one of those bottom of the lineup guys who, unlikely, made it out of being an overager in the [United States Hockey League], going to college for a few years, but has those little details of a defenseman that you see in modern day play, which is positioning overall, which is an NHL trait to the nth degree.

WS: No, I know. I think I would definitely agree. Those are the players that are always really, really fascinating to me because you look at a guy like Hunter McDonald and the production just isn't amazing. But it doesn't — to me, when you look at defensemen, it almost doesn't really matter. That's kind of a very secondary-slash-bonus style of thing that comes with a player.

I see a lot of defenders every year and it seems like a thing where a lot of them, maybe at the lower levels, there is a little bit more of that “separate the head from the body”-type of player. And I think there are NHL scouts who still gravitate towards those guys but, at the end of the day when it all comes out in the wash, it's a lot of the time the guys that are kind of, I hate to say ”boring”, but just very effective, and just they're always in a good position.

The guy I always reference as a young defenseman who, I think, is just a really, really high-end defensive guy is Kaiden Guhle in Montreal. We're going to talk a little bit about Lane Hutson in a second, but Kaiden Guhle is a guy who, when he was in the junior level, just played such a great, balanced style of defense.

He was a good skater, but he had really good length. He was a guy who didn't just lay the body every single time, but he certainly could if he needed to. It was about his lateral mobility, it was about tracking rushes, keeping inside the dot lines, and preventing chances from inside and leading with his stick, but then finishing with the body if he had the opportunity or the need to do so. And he seemed to have a really good read of just how to do his job really, really well.

And so that's been a lesson for me for sure. He was a really interesting case study a few years ago, and he's become a pretty solid NHL defenseman. I mean, on a team this year that’s kind of struggling defensively I think he’s been one of the brighter spots on that defense group there, [he’s] doing a pretty good job at least suppressing chances against.

GR: I don’t watch as much as you do, prospects, but Guhle I did catch. For me, the play style wasn’t very good. He had elements of it, you could see the flashes, but he was just really brash. His decision making and his reads were quite poor. But the tools were there, and it was like, “Can he adjust?” Which I think he’s done a phenomenal job [of], and I think Montreal is probably the perfect place for him to develop a lot of that.

So I think you're spot on like, “Okay, how does he actually apply?“ Having assets is one thing, having the tools is one thing, but how do we properly apply those assets, those tools that you have in a good way? So I think another piece, for me, is if you do have the speed, is just making sure that you're controlling speed and then you're also keeping small gaps.

And just knowing with my high school team that no one knows what a gap is, let's define that real quick, which is: the difference in space between the forwards and the defensemen. So the space in between, “How much space are you [allowing]?” in hockey term slang. It's underneath you versus on the other side, which is above you or behind you. So, “How much space, what's that gap between D and O?”

(Editor’s note: He says O instead of F here, I assume because the person attacking isn’t always a forward. As in, “How much space between the defenseman and offenceman?”)

So you got the speed, shrink that gap as much as possible. Don't give them the space to operate or work in, or, I even call it the space to think, which [it often becomes] for forwards, especially unsophisticated ones.

WS: Yeah, I mean, that's really the bread and butter of a lot of the position. It's so much of this, like you said, gap control. I actually just did a bit of video work for a really high end player, [an] NHL draft pick playing in Sweden this year, who is producing really well.

But in terms of the defending side of the game, he's not the most incredible skater you've ever seen, he's not the biggest guy in the world. And a big thing that I noticed, that even at the professional level that was kind of a bit of a work in progress, was that gap management. Especially because the footwork wasn't amazing, [he was] keeping his feet a little too stationary, gliding backwards and sort of allowing that gap.

And when you watch the NHL that's the point of the whole exercise, watching the NHL and how they play. Forwards are fast and they're smart, largely. The guys who can score are the guys who know how to get through soft defensive pressure, the guys who know how to find lanes and cross up defensemen, and if you don't have the footwork or the mobility or the reach or all of it — all of the above — to track all that and manage it, then it's going to be a lot tougher to do your job.

But the interesting thing, though, is that there's a lot of different ways that you can get defensive jobs done. That's always been very interesting to me; seeing how different players approach the position in different ways and seeing the efficacy of that come out in the wash, and how their offense balances with their defensive ability. It's a very interesting world to dig into, for sure.

GR: Yeah, I think you've got a rabbit hole there. You just kind of opened up around defensive skating. What do clean feet look like? What does defensive posture look like, that actually allows you to have that kind of mobility?

So we'll leave that for another day. If anyone wants to go check it out on the Hockey IQ Newsletter, they can do so. Just look up defenseman skating development. We've got two good pieces there talking about building and maintaining defensive posture and keeping clean feet, which — actually massive base for anyone.

It allows you to have the proper gap that allows you to kill plays early, and ultimately, it's a lot about just controlling speed. You don't want McDavid building up to full speed. You don't want MacKinnon building up to full speed. You don't want anyone coming up to you at full speed. It's very hard to maintain that kind of speed going backwards [that we] even generate in the first place. 

How do you kill it early? How do you get a hand on someone? Or, my favorite example is just proper pivoting. A guy dumps a puck on you, how are you going back? What does that pivot look like?

I'll let you open that up because at the NHL it's almost too good, where you can't see what a bad example looks like, but you can see it's everywhere.

WS: Yeah, I mean, it's a make or break skill in the NHL. It's where a lot of defensemen die. I mean, it's a cliche at this point to talk about pucks in deep, to talk about [getting] pucks deep in the offensive zone, get below the goal line, dump and chase. People make fun of dump-and-chase kind of stuff. But if your team is built to do it, you can do it.

You can take advantage of defensemen in the NHL who just don't have the speed or the agility or the skating ability that some of your forwards might have. It is a lot easier to skate forwards than it is to skate backwards. That's just, you know, anecdotal, but also pretty factual — you're naturally going forwards.

I think an interesting trend that you're seeing a little bit more of [is] what they would call ‘scooting’. You're the coach; I don't know if that's exactly what the terminology would be, but [it’s getting] your defensemen in the neutral zone, kind of pinching a little bit more and having them skate forwards, tracking play towards the boards.

So it's not necessarily that they're doing their backwards crossovers, it's not necessarily that they're entirely skating backwards, but you see guys who are really talented skaters or do have a lot of quickness driving play to the boards in a more aggressive way than having the play in front of them. It's about them sort of tracking that play laterally, which is an interesting thing I think you're seeing more of now.

I think there are definitely coaches and systems that love to play their defensemen more that way, and the weak side defense can sort of fill between the dot lines for them and sort of leave the weaker side of the ice a little bit more open. That's kind of what I mean. There's a lot of different ways to achieve these kinds of goals, and I think you're seeing a lot of different things popping up to adapt to this. 

In situations where you have a dump and chase or something like that, or just getting pucks in deep or whatever you say, when you have a defenseman who has trouble with their footwork and turning around… Trust me, I'm a defenseman, when I play hockey, I strap on the skates — I play defense myself and that's where I fall apart, when I do fall apart. Which is often. But definitely, when play turns around and I’ve got to change directions or change my area of flow, it can be tricky. And in the NHL, I can only imagine how tricky it can be there. 

GR: Yeah. I mean, a good pivot you're looking at three steps total, like boom-boom-bam and you're there. You watch an amateur game and it could be like five, six, seven, eight chops before [they] finally get going and [it’s] looking like a proper forward stride again. [Or just] getting into a good defensive posture and positioning. It's total scramble mode.

A big one for me, too, is just the direction that you pivot. Do you wait for that offensive player to commit to their lane? It's just a great defensive habit in general, letting the offenceman make the first move. If you're making the first move, you're the one showing your cards. It's kind of like showing your cards first in Poker.

Let them make the decision and then you can pivot into them. Now you can get that position before possession, or at least get a chip on them, slow them down. You can either make it easier for yourself or your partner. So one, there's the clean footwork on the pivot, and two is making sure that we're controlling the speed and we're pivoting properly in the direction that we want to pivot.

There's a ton of times where I see, especially the lower levels, players coming up, they're in a bad spot, they're skating forward, defenseman skating backwards and they just chip it off the boards. And the defenseman is like a dog just following the puck and it ends up in the middle of the ice where the forward actually went. Again, the NHL is the best at this so it's really hard to see bad examples of pivoting into and controlling the space of the opponent.

WS: Yeah. I do a lot of work outside the NHL, and the biggest thing I notice is not necessarily the number of chops it takes, but the amount of time. You can see guys taking two seconds, maybe more, to get themselves turned around, tracking pucks below the goal line.

To me hockey is a game of milliseconds a lot of the time, right? I was working with someone years ago who really shared the idea with me that, in the NHL, generally goals are not scored if you have the puck on your stick for more than either half a second or a second.

I can't remember off the top of my head, but it's so fast in terms of; when you score goals in the NHL, it's when you touch the puck for a very short amount of time in the offensive zone and get a puck on net. And so, if you have guys who take too long — and “too long” might not be very long… If the difference is relatively short at the time you're making those pivots or those changes, but the [opponent has] got a lot more speed than you and you're [taking more] time to then start generating that speed to match the opponent, you're in trouble.

And in my opinion, I think that you want your defensemen to be more assertive. I always fall back on the strategy of; make them make a decision, make them commit. That might imply that you do the committing first, but that's where the importance of footwork and tactics come into question. 

You have to have strong support, whether it's from backchecking forwards or your partner. You want to be able to adapt to quick players who might fake one way, go another, and be able to use your stick or use your feet or both to be a factor regardless of what happens. 

It's very interesting to watch defensemen play. I find it really, really interesting to see the different approaches of different players and especially how they evolve and get into the NHL.

But yeah, I mean, [it’s so pivotal], the skating ability; defensemen who can skate, it unlocks so many doors for their career. If you're an elite level skating defenseman, it just unlocks so many doors that interest me. If you're not, and if that's not a strength of your game, then it can be a big struggle, especially against faster opponents. Even if you're big and physical and pretty good throwing the body or whatever, there's a lot more of the game in the NHL these days. Very, very interesting stuff. 

GR: I think that's actually the perfect segue into someone who, early in his career, threw the body too much and sold out too much on plays that he probably shouldn't: Rasmus Ristolainen.

Great case study, great case study from when [John Tortorella] started working with him to where he is now. Will, I'll send in the link here from the Hockey IQ newsletter so we can track a little bit better with each other. 

I found him to be a fascinating player. High draft pick, 8th overall in 2013. Really pretty, smooth skating, big body — has all of the tools that you would traditionally say, “Yep, that checks [out].” And then you looked at his stat profile and it was just abysmal. His micro stats were terrible. I think the only thing he was good at was D-Zone Retrievals, which, being able to take contact, it was kind of an easy thing for him.

WS: Yeah. I remember watching Ristolainen when he was in junior hockey, because that was the earliest years of me being kind of curious about that side of the game, and I did not really recall that being a premier area of his game.

I remember him being big, but pretty mobile, and has some skill to play around with. He did have a bit of a physical edge to him, but it feels like it was that tail end of an era in the NHL where those big, mean, physical guys were kind of in vogue, and people were kind of curious and needing guys like that. And I guess that's what Buffalo drafted him to be.

I remember being very surprised that he was in the NHL the year he was drafted. It just did not look like it was really working out there. And Buffalo just seems to have been not a great fit for him, they kind of turned him into something that he wasn't, but I do think that he's turned into some sort of serviceable defenseman.

But he, to me, is a great example of one that I always look back on and go, “Man, what if?” Like, what if things went a little bit differently for him? Because there was good stuff there, it's just I feel like the development was focused in the wrong areas.

To me, 65% of the work [is] scouting, and developing — the easy part is drafting good players, the hard part is developing them and bringing them along into being good NHL players.

So to me, if you can find the most amount of things that get in the way of that process being easy, then you're doing a really good job. And with Ristolainen, I feel like in his case they inserted more things to make that journey more difficult and sort of turned him into something that he wasn't, which is always a scary thing for me to think about doing to a player.

But it's not over for him, obviously. He figured it out. Obviously, Tortorella found something for him to do, and he has shown a little bit better. But yeah, he's always been a what-if guy for me.

GR: I always liked how Tortorella, after the 2022-2023 season, was doing his media stuff and he was like “Yeah, he's our most improved player.” You're a guy who's getting paid big bucks — I think he was making five million plus that year, still is, probably — and even him, he was like, “I was just bad the first half. And then around Christmas break, I started getting going. The second half was much better.”

Basically, the first half, they were just trying to rebuild his defensive game, and this is true for anything. Zach Benson's another good example of this. If you can't play defense in the NHL, you're going to be out quick. Benson can play defense despite being — I think they list them at five foot 10, but there's no way.

WS: Yeah, no, no. I know. He's a little guy, but he's another great example of a player where I, in my work, I do not care how big you are. I just care about how you play. Even in the NHL. And I feel like Benson's a really, really good example of that; a guy who, just forechecking alone is a really… The easiest way to defend is if he can cause turnovers in the opposing team's offensive zone, a guy like Zach Benson does that extremely well.

And if he needs to track guys through the neutral zone and backcheck, he'll do it, and he does it really well, and he does it at a speed that I found to be projectable to the NHL. And again, that's another one where I was a little surprised to see him in the NHL so fast, but he didn't really look out of place there.

He's had a bit of a slow start this season, but just a really, really talented player, and one where you kind of do look at and go, “Yeah, these smaller guys can definitely defend.” They just — the expectations are a little bit higher, and maybe for good reason, but he checks all the boxes for sure.

GR: Yeah. So for Rasmus (Ristolainen), there's two big things that, when I dug into this, that Torts was working at. At this point, I was so intrigued [that] I was tracking every single time Torts spoke and Rasmus spoke to the media. So I was like, “I wonder what they're actually doing?” Which, Torts can be tight-lipped, but he gives it away if you follow long enough.

The big one was just inside, like too much, he was finding himself, Rasmus was finding himself on the outside. So whether that be outside the dots, outside on bad ice, for whatever reason, or just finding yourself outside, like losing defensive side positioning to the offensive player.

If you finish contact, but now you're on the wall and your player's got to step to the net, that's trouble. There's a great, great clip the other night featuring, I think it was (Aliaksei) Protas [who] ended up scoring the goal and K’Andre Miller of the New York Islanders. So Caps — Rangers, not Islanders — Rangers… Where [Miller] went in soft, didn't really take positioning, got beat back to net, and Protas just put out a stick and just tapped it in, Igor Shesterkin never had a chance.

A similar idea of; okay, good, maybe you got some contact, you tried to make the stop, but you still need to maintain defensive side positioning. You still need to finish on the inside. So if you're doing contact, you can't overreach.

You just can't do that. You have to stay in good positioning.

And the second piece was just, finishing with contact to get stops, like stopping movement. Offensive play is a lot about movement, and defensive play is about stopping movement, AKA getting stops. So he would maybe make a play, or get a poke check, but the puck was still moving and could be easily on the other team's stick. 

So how do you make sure you're always staying in good positioning? Staying on the inside, as Torts put it. Or the other piece, which is getting stops, or finishing with contact — but smartly, not chasing the contact for contact’s sake? Being tactful in your play.

I feel like Risto really just learned how to play defense smartly. He was actually thinking and being intentional about what he was doing, rather than like, “I see a puck and a player, I'm going to go end that!” And then, boom, in the big scheme of things, it’s a net negative. Even though at the moment, it may have, especially to him — otherwise he wouldn't make the play — seemed like a positive, really it was a negative for the team.

WS: Well, that's the interesting thing too, going back to talking about junior players and the context in the draft and how defensive players might go a little bit underreported or undervalued in a sense.

I see this all the time, especially with North American defensemen, especially with Canadian ones, but there are definitely players who everybody talks about how good they are defensively, everybody talks about how solid they are. They're big, they're physical, they're mean, blah, blah, blah. But then when you watch things in detail, it's this sort of Ristolainen-style thing. You're talking about K’Andre Miller where it's like, they're along the boards, they're doing the thing along the boards, but they're losing.

They're allowing guys to get low on them, get through them, and even in the junior level, right? What good is it if you're trying to pin a guy against the boards and they give you a little shove, crouch down a little bit, chip the puck three feet out from you, you don't adapt to that, they get three feet of space on you, throw it out in front of the net, and boom, you got yourself a scoring chance, right? I see that all the time.

It's the focus on the body and not focus on the turnover, turning that possession back over, that really seems to be a tough lesson for a lot of defensemen to get over. I find that a lot of defensemen from the age of 18 to 23, in the grand scheme of things, their style of play doesn't drastically shift all that often.

And so, when I see things like that happening, I'm going, okay, I gotta either hope that this guy puts in the time in the gym and becomes, just, a strength nut, and pins that guy to the boards so they can't do anything, or they figure out a way to get into those situations, take a step back, chip at the puck. Really battle for the puck rather than focus on the guy.

Because I've seen it so many times with guys who are bigger and more physical, they apply it in a way where I feel like coaches will go, “Wow, look at you go, you're playing hard, you're playing the thing!” But then they escape, this opponent might escape, and create a little bit of space for themselves. And again, this is a game of inches, it's a game of a couple of feet, and every inch matters.

So in some cases, yeah, you get those situations where guys like Ristolainen, yeah, you're doing the thing, people clip the hits, people clip the physical play, but then five seconds later, someone's got some space on you and they generate a scoring chance. And so what do you really value, right? Personally, fewer scoring chances would be ideal.

GR: I love it. Last piece to wrap this up, because I think it'll go well into our next piece, which is point play. Shorting the zone.

I was able to find some phenomenal clips and do some photos of this for the newsletter. But the concept of; if you're watching a game in the NHL, if you can see all five of the people trying to break the puck out, low in the zone… A lot of it, you think about the NHL today, is like a swarm. We're going to do close support. I'm going to try to crowd the puck out.

A good way to respond to that is to short the zone, which basically means your defensemen, instead of hanging out at the blue line, are going to go into the offensive zone. And they're going to start with small gaps, they're going to be [at the] top of the circles, if not a little bit lower.

Tortorella is another big fan of this, so you can see it with the Flyers a lot, too. I would say [Sheldon] Keefe is another example of a coach who does this a ton. So you saw a lot in Toronto, now you'll see a lot more in New Jersey, which is  the perfect d-core to make all of this work. So I think Devils are going to be good for — that's going to be a great fit.

But just the idea of crowding in the space, setting small gaps, so when you do start defending, you can either cut a play off early — it's an easy pinch there if you don't have to go very far — you can cut it off. Or, 2; create a turnover in a much better spot than what is in your own zone. Why not make it in the o-zone? So from a positioning standpoint, phenomenal place to start, good way to kill plays early.

Before they can get going, before the team can build speed, and just being able to put yourself in a good spot to take advantage both from a defensive standpoint, but offensive standpoint.

WS: Yeah, I love when I see this being deployed. I think, again, I'm a geek, like I'm a math guy, and even just thinking about the numbers here, it makes such a difference if you think about it.

The offensive zone from blue line to goal line is 64 feet. So you're looking at the difference between a guy standing at the blue line being maybe 75 feet from the net or at the top of the face-off circle where you might be 20 feet closer, maybe 20, 25 feet closer. So you're cutting down the time at which you give the defense to adapt, the goaltender to adapt. You're cutting that time down by a third-ish, a quarter to a third. I'm ballparking here, but that automatically is just based on where you are on the ice.

If you can compress the offensive zone on your opponent, you're laughing. The second thing I wanted to mention here is this is, again, why skating ability and quickness and speed are so important to me. Because it is objectively a better position to be in when you're in that position — closer to the top of the face-off circles for your defensemen.

But if you do have a situation where the opponent has possession of the puck you have to get set up, you have to cover that gap, you have to cover for yourself, or you have to have some sort of system in place where a winger can cover for you if you're caught in the offensive zone. Ideally, you have your defensemen who can wheel up, get some speed going, get positioned well to counter that attack, and have a system that can swarm whoever has that puck in the offensive zone.

I think it's a really interesting trend for sure. It's a simple little thing, it's a concept that you see definitely a lot more now than you used to, but I'm all about it. It just makes sense mathematically, and it plays into exactly the styles of player that I always look for: guys who do pinch a little bit more aggressively, but have the mobility and the skating ability to cover for themselves.

I would rather have a player who tries something creative, or tries some sort of play that could lead to a high scoring chance, but may relinquish some space on the ice, but has the ability to cover for themselves.

And I can at least as a coach, rely on them — not that I'm a coach — but rely on them to cover for themselves. To go, okay, I can rely on them to try these things, because I know that if it doesn't maybe go their way, which happens in hockey all the time, I'm not going to be upset at this player, but I know that I want them to backcheck, cover for it, because I know they're capable of it.

I think that that's sort of the trade off that you have to live with, but I'm totally cool with it.

GR: All right, so we're going to call this end of the day on some modern day defending, and we'll pick up on point play in episode two.

[END Transcript.]

part 2 <- convenient link at the bottom <3

[wheelchairbatgirl]

Can anyone identify this for me? Another submission, from someone who says it came to them via Facebook.

Edit: thanks to everyone in the replies who identified it as Convergence: Nightwing/Oracle

But like. What the fuck are those casters?

I have two concerns here. One is that they appear to be the size of a dime, so good luck rolling over raw earth. If I was going to try to wheel across dramatically scorched earth in my 5" casters, I would probably pop a wheelie and just not use the casters at all. There are products called trike wheels or free wheels, which are large removable wheels to use instead of your front casters, for situations like this, bevause doing it this way is impossible.

My second concern is that the casters do not appear to swivel, so steering that thing is going to be a bitch. Imagine a shopping cart where the front wheels don't turn.

I'm gonna be honest, reviewing shit like this makes me kind of tired. We exist in a world where Bruce Wayne can do pretty much anything because he's smart and has money. So, given enough money, we could make a wheelchair that could solve any non-important problem (think the rules governing the Sonic Screwdriver: it can do anything except be the solution for the main plot problems). And instead of focusing on giving a wheelchair power to pop an additional wheel out of nowhere to go over rough terrain, authors keep trying to write ways to cure the disability. Disabled readers don't want to escape into a world where their disability is magically cured, because there's usually no hope of that happening to us, and therefore very little ability to imagine ourselves as the character. But I could imagine having a wheelchair with a magical pop-out trike wheel. A trike wheel is a thing that exists, and giving a wheelchair the power to have it when I need it would be very fun.

Anyway, no one thinks of those things because wheelchair users usually aren't writing or illustrating these works. Still nice to see a mostly-decent chair.

7/10, it wouldn't work as illustrated, but at least someone tried. Don't give me a magic cure, give me a magic wheelchair.