#because I have mods she's ALREADY maxed out on charisma

[daybrightsims]

🎵Little Miss Perfect... Thaaaaat's meeeee 🎶🤸🏾❤️

Ryanne Berry - Cheer Captain, Copperdale Debate Team Captain, straight A student, Social Bunny Micro Influencer, and all around amazing... when will it go wrong???

[simsbyali]

Disney Villains Legacy Challenge

Although there was already one that someone posted, it wasn't as fleshed out as I would've liked... I've compiled a list of villains in order of appearance.. 10 generations starting with the evil queen, and ending with scar... Optional generations as well such....

Disney Villains Legacy Challenge

This is another one that I’ve wanted to do for a while. However, I am well aware that there is one of these out there, but this one is going to be different. This is a generational legacy challenge with villains from almost every single movie in Disney’s catalog (I say almost every single movie because of the fact that I hand picked the villains and left out any villains from movies that I haven’t seen, or animals that wouldn’t work in human form. If your favorite Disney villain is missing, you’re more than free to add him/her to your game). You can do these in any order, and the legacy rules apply, but with some room for cheats (money cheats only) and pregnancy mods (mainly because I like using them, especially with gender-specific heirs)

Generation 1: The Evil Queen

“Mirror Mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?”

The game starts with the Evil Queen as the founder. You are vain and envious of sims that are prettier than you. Your one main goal is to be the most beautiful in the land.

Must have Mansion Baron aspiration

Must have Jealous, Evil, and Materialistic traits.

Must max out Charisma skill

Marry a rich man, and become a stepmother to his daughter.

Have 1 biological child by your husband. (Daughter preferred for Lady Tremaine, but up to you)

Stepdaughter is responsible for the cooking and the cleaning (Neat and Foodie traits)

Husband must die when the stepdaughter becomes a teen 

Optional Pack: Realm of Magic

Generation 2: Lady Tremaine

“You clumsy little fool. Clean that up then help my daughters dress.”

Being the only child of your family, you were spoiled and given the world. Used to not working hard labor, your main goal is finding a wealthy husband, and making sure your daughters are taken care of for the rest of your life. Your story begins when you reach Young Adult.

Must have Fabulously Wealthy aspiration

Must have Jealous and Mean traits.

Must marry twice to rich men. 

Must have 3 biological daughters, and 1 stepdaughter.

The stepdaughter will be responsible for the cooking and cleaning (Foodie and Neat traits)

Must lose husbands once daughters become children

2 of your biological daughters must have the Lazy and Materialistic traits

Optional Pack: Cats & Dogs (Lucifer)

Generation 3: Queen of Hearts

“I warn you child… if I lose my temper, you lose your head! Understand?”

Living with your family, you’ve become a spoiled child and want everything handed to you. If you don’t get what you want, you punish those who you feel have wronged you. Your story begins as a teenager.

Must have Public Enemy aspiration

Must have Childish, Hot-Headed, and Erratic traits

Must meet and marry a man with the opposite traits as you

Must have at least 4 children (this represents the different suits of a pack of cards)

One of the 4 children must be a boy.

Generation 4: Captain James Hook

“Oh, Smee, the way of a man with a maid: taking the best years of her life and then casting her aside like an old glove!”

You were born with a disfigurement, but nonetheless it doesn’t stop you from enjoying your life. Unlike your siblings, you discovered a love for the outdoors and fishing. Your story starts when you’re a young adult.

Must have the Angler Ace aspiration

Optional Aspiration: Outdoor Enthusiast

Must live close to water or in a houseboat (IL)

Must have the Loves Outdoors and Ambitious traits

Optional Trait: Child of the Ocean

Never marry

Adopt a child

Child must have a friend that Hook despises (placeholder for Peter Pan) 

Generation 5: Maleficent

“The princess shall indeed grow in grace and beauty, beloved by all who know her. *But*... before the sun sets on her 16th birthday, she shall prick her finger- on the spindle of a spinning wheel- and DIE!”

Growing up in a small family, you were used to having your parent(s) attention. As a result, you do not like to be ignored, and make people pay for ignoring that you exist. Your story begins as a teen.

Must have Public Enemy aspiration

Must have Jealous, Evil, and Ambitious traits

Never marry

Have at least 1 child

Child must have lazy trait

Optional Pack: Realm of Magic

Generation 6: Cruella De Vil

“My only true love, darling. I live for furs. I worship furs! After all, is there a woman in all this wretched world who doesn’t?”

You were a spoiled child who always got what you wanted. Now, you never take no for an answer, even if it means breaking the law. You love having a lavish lifestyle, and thrive on having nice things. Your story begins as a teenager.

Must have the Public Enemy aspiration

Must join the Criminal career

Must have Evil, Kleptomaniac, and Erratic traits

Optional Traits: Materialistic, Snob

Marry someone in the criminal career

Have 2 children

Favor one child over the other (this works with either Ursula or Hades, if you’d like to switch them out for one another)

If you’re using the Relationship Pregnancy Overhaul mod, you can set it to where Ursula is an unwanted pregnancy as well

Generation 7: Ursula

“My dear, sweet child… that’s what I do! It’s what I live for, to help unfortunate merfolk, like yourself. Poor souls with no one else to turn to.”

Living under the limelight of your sibling, you’ve grown to resent your mother. You strive now to prove that you are the better child and will stop at nothing to take away the glory that you deserve. Your story starts as a child.

Must have Renaissance Sim aspiration

Must have Ambitious, Evil, and Jealous traits

Optional Traits: Child of the Islands, Self-Assured

Must max out the Charisma skill

Optional Pack: Realm of Magic

Have blue skin and “ugly” features until you meet your husband, then become “beautiful”

Have at least 1 child 

Generation 8: Gaston LeGume

“Belle, it’s about time you got your head out of those books and pay attention to more important things. Like me.”

Growing up, you were constantly told by strangers that you were handsome, and it gave you a big ego. You tend to focus a lot more on being popular than your studies, and your parents don’t correct your behavior. This starts when you’re a child.

Must have Serial Romantic aspiration.

Must have Loves Outdoors, Materialistic, and Self-Assured traits.

Must like Fitness, and spend all his time working out, or doing stereotypical manly things such as fishing or fighting.

Meet a girl and become obsessed, despite her not wanting to have anything to do with you.

Make sure she despises you.

Must have high Charisma skill

Must have a child with a blond woman who is in love with you

Represents one of the 3 Bimbettes

Have a Best Friend who is basically just your yes man

Generation 9: Jafar

“A beautiful desert bloom such as yourself belongs on the arm of the most powerful man in the world.”

Unlike your father, you prefer to outsmart people than physically intimidate them. You spend all your time focusing on your studies, whereas your father is more interested in physical activities. This begins when you’re a young adult.

Must have The Curator aspiration

Must have the Self-Assured, Outgoing, and Evil traits

Must make a habit of doing homework every day

Have no friends

Optional Packs: Realm of Magic

Must not marry until you’re an adult

Have at least 2 children

The youngest child gets treated poorly

Generation 10: Scar

“Life’s not fair, is it? You see I, well I shall never be king. And you? Shall never see the light of another day. Adieu.”

You grew up as the youngest child. Your older sibling was chosen for greatness while you got the bottom of the barrel in everything. You want what your sibling wants, and the only way you can get it is if you get rid of them. This story begins when you’re a teenager.

Must have Mansion Baron aspiration

Must have Ambitious and Self-Assured traits

Not allowed to leave the house for anything other than school

To be extra cruel, build a basement bedroom and keep him in there unless it’s for school or to be fed.

Must have a scar across one eye

Your sibling marries and has a kid

Lose your sibling in a freak accident, and move in with your sibling’s spouse

Kick your sibling’s child out of the house, and don’t take care of the house

Never marry

Never have children

(You can stop with Scar, or continue with other generations. The choice is yours)

Other Optional Generations include:

Shere Khan (The Jungle Book)

Prince John (Robin Hood)

Governor Ratcliffe (Pocahontas)

Claude Frollo (The Humpback of Notre Dame)

Hades (Hercules)

Shan Yu (Mulan)

Clayton (Tarzan)

Yzma (The Emperor’s New Groove)

Michael “Goob” Yagoobian aka “Bowler Hat Guy” (Meet the Robinsons)

Doctor Facilier (Princess and the Frog)

Mother Gother (Tangled) Turbo/King Candy (Wreck-It Ralph)

Prince Hans (Frozen)

Te Ka (Moana)

(I would’ve set out the rules for the optional generations, but my brain hurts from writing the 10 generations I fleshed out…. I’m sorry….)

[melsie-sims]

Meanwhile, Darcy has been going a bit crazy with the autonomous workouts.

I actually cheated down her fitness skill back to level 7 because there’s no way a teen should be at level 9 of a skill already.

The Give Me Some Talent mod is definitely to blame. While I absolutely love the general idea of the mod, I think I’m going to tweak how sims get assigned their talents... it’s just too easy now.

If you care about rules and guidelines for how I play the game, feel free to read on!

I think going forward sims will only be allowed to have the “good” modifier, unless they’ve maxed out a childhood skill, in which case I may let them get the “very good” modifier. For example, Gwen maxed out the social skill last summer. She could therefore get a “very good” in charisma, comedy, mischief, etc. 

No sims can have an “extremely good” modifier, it’s way too over-powered for this type of challenge. 

For weaknesses they can have any of the three modifiers, those I don’t mind as much!

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #200

Wow, what a milestone, huh? It feels like only yesterday we were building Mash. Didn't even know you could grab multiple fighting styles back then. We were also one person back then. Things change. Things change even faster when you have magic eyes that let you bend anything you can see, so let's hurry up and build Asagami Fujino already. She is a Quandrix Sorcerer to tear apart anything she lays eyes on, as well as expand her field of vision beyond what her eyes can see. Dangerous combination, that.

Check out her build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here!

Next up: In the dark of the night, evil will find you! (If Rasputin ever become a playable character I am really going to regret using that one here.)

Wait, what's that...

Race and Background

No surprises here, Fujino is a Variant Human, because normal humans can't tear people apart with their mind. That means she gets +1 Dexterity and Charisma, as well as proficiency with Perception (kind of her deal) and the Tough feat. HP isn't just how much body you have to get hurt, it's also how badly getting hurt affects you. Fujino's deadened sense of pain means she can take hits and keep going, purely due to the fact that she doesn't realize she should stop. That means you're getting an extra 2 HP each level.

Fujino is a schoolgirl, so the closest thing we have is the Cloistered Scholar background. That gives you History and Nature proficiency.

Ability Scores

Your highest score should be Charisma. Your magic eyes are an innate part of you, and it's really easy to be frightening when you can tear a bridge down around you. Second highest should be Constitution, for the reasons we outlined in your background feat. Your Dexterity should probably be pretty high, you fight in clothing, and you fought against Shiki for more than five seconds without dying. That's impressive. Your Intelligence isn't that bad, though you're still going through school. We aren't dumping Strength, it's alright, but we are dumping Wisdom. You have a hard time feeling yourself and feeling connected to other people.

Class Levels

You're a Sorcerer, giving you proficiency with Constitution and Charisma saves, as well as proficiency with the Intimidation and Arcana skills. You've got magic implanted in your face, and again, bridge. As a Sorcerer, you can cast spells using your Charisma. Blade Ward deadens your senses further, giving you resistance to physical damage types for a round. Mending lets you twist a small item back together, instead of tearing it apart. Sword Burst is a short range bending... sorta. Force damage is hard to quantify. But it's free, so that's nice. You can also Shape Water to bend liquids to your will. For first level spells, Mage Armor helps you not die, and Magic Missile lets you shoot little bursts of twistiness that'll never miss. You also join the school of Quandrix, which gives you the starting gift of the spells Guidance and Guiding Bolt. They aren't super in character, but they're free, so suck it up. More Importantly, you learn Functions of Probability, helping you bend luck in your favor. When you cast a leveled spell targeting a creature, you can add an effect to a nearby creature (yourself included). A Diminishing Function forces a wisdom save (DC 8 + Chr mod + proficiency), and if it fails it subtracts 1d6 from the next attack roll it makes this round. Turns out swordfighting is hard when your sword is a corkscrew. Alternatively, a Supplemental Function lets a creature add a d6 to an attack or save made in the next round. This part is less believable, but if you're creative I'm sure it'll look good.

Second level sorcerers are a Font of Magic, giving you sorcery points equal to your level per long rest. You can turn them into slots, or turn slots into points. Eventually you can do other things. Also, you can cast Thunderwave now. It destroys objects, you destroy objects, it's a match made in heaven.

Now that you're a third level sorcerer, you can make your spells truly your own thanks to Metamagic! If you cast a Heightened spell, one creature in its effect has disadvantage on their save against it. If you cast an Empowered spell, you can re-roll a couple damage dice. Tearing people in half is generally hard to avoid, and kind of damaging. You can also bend the air itself by casting Dust Devil, creating a Medium sized tornado, dealing damage to creatures nearby and pushing them around. It'll even pick up dust and make things hard to see, though that's kind of a drawback for you.

Use your very first Ability Score Improvement to bump up your Charisma. Kind of a spell-based build, to be honest. Speaking of, Mage Hand probably doesn't have much tearing force behind it, but it's free. You can also cast Shatter for more indiscriminate destruction.

Fifth level sorcerers gain third level spells like Clairvoyance! Now you can see a bird's eye view of the battlefield, tearing your way through it like, well, you.

At sixth level it's about time you started bending the earth to your will. You can Velocity Shift nearby creatures if they start their turn or move within 30' of you. If they fail a charisma save you can shove them to any other point within 30' of you. You can react this way 30' per long rest. Twist debris at people and watch them scatter, it's fun. To help with that, you can also cast Erupting Earth, bending the ground in a 20' cube. This forces dex saves on creatures in the cube, dealing damage and making the area difficult terrain until it's cleaned up.

Seventh level sorcerers get fourth level spells like Stoneskin for even more deadened senses. Now you resist physical damage without having to waste your action every turn. It does use your concentration, but it lasts an hour.

Another ASI! Max out your Charisma for super special eyes. You can also Control Water to create truly damaging whirlpools. There's other options, but whirlpools! Who'd want anything else?

Oh hey, I found something you might want else. It's fifth level spell Bigby's Hand! You can grab people and play with them like a stress ball. Technically there isn't a twisting option, but a Grasping Hand is probably the best you'll do. It'll grapple a huge or smaller creature, and if it successfully does so you can Crush it as a bonus action for damage.

Another Metamagic option! Technically these spells are all just you looking at things, so grab Subtle Spell so you don't have to yell out all your attack names. You can also Mold Earth. It's not that powerful, but it's free twisting. You also get Telekinesis! Again, no "twisting" in the rules, but it's strong enough to lift an object of 1000 pounds, and fine enough to open a door. Their heads should be popping off here.

Sixth level spells! Here are the big boys of the spell world. If you twist anything enough, eventually it'll Disintegrate, dealing plenty of force damage and leaving behind a mess you can't even revive. A little too clean for Fujino, but it's destructive enough.

ASI time. Bump up Constitution for a thicker skin and more HP. HP changes retroactively, so you get an extra 12 HP here.

Did you know turning into rotini is painful? Your enemies certainly know that, thanks to Power Word Pain. If a charmable creature has 100 HP or less, their speed drops to 10', and it gets disadvantage on all attacks, checks, and saves, aside from constitution saves. If it tries to cast a spell, it'll be wasted if it can't pass a constitution save. The target stays in pain forever until it can pass a constitution save.

Cool, so fun thing about these Multi Class Subclasses! As long as you're the correct level, you can take any one feature they have each time you hit the appropriate level in your main class. Since the highest requirement is 14, we're taking Quantum Tunneling now, and we'll pop back to the other one later. Your senses permanently deaden, giving you complete resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage. You can also bend your way through any physical objects, as long as you're willing to deal with a halved movement speed and 1d10 damage each square you move. You also have to end your turn in an empty spot. Playing to character this should leave a huge hole behind you, but maybe you're conscientious? You weren't raised in a barn, after all.

Your eighth level spell is Earthquake. Now no structure in your view is safe from your destructive powers. Tear open the earth, shatter structures, and interrupt concentration, there's nothing you can't do!

Bump up your Dexterity this ASI. Not getting hit is still pretty useful, even if you can't feel it.

Remember when I said turning into rotini hurts? I was wrong. Actually, it kills you. Please grab Power Word Kill to reflect these changes. You have become death, destroyer of mages. You also learn how to cast Distant Spells, doubling your spell's range. Your range should be "anywhere in sight", so this is a step in the right direction.

Okay, I guess we'll grab Null Equation. Once per turn you can twist up a creature you damaged. If they fail a constitution save, they get disadvantage on strength and dexterity saves, and they only deal half damage with weapon attacks, all for a round. You can do this Proficiency times per long rest. Again, real hard to hit people when your femurs are spring shaped.

Use your last ASI for more Constitution for more HP and better concentration.

We've finally done it, we've made a pure sorcerer build! It's time to finally learn the dark secret of the Sorcerer capstone. What feature could be so powerful we've completely avoided it for 200 builds? It's Sorcerous Restoration. You get 4 sorcery points per short rest. It's not good. Sorry.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

You're good at dealing damage, and your most powerful spells deal Force damage, which almost nothing blocks against. That means you're consistent and deadly, a solid combination.

You're so good at damage that it isn't just limited to creatures. Use telekinesis, mold earth, and shatter to tear apart structures that are getting in your way. Walls? Torn down. Steel Beams? Melted. Bridges? Falling down.

Despite spending your entire time in a class with the worst hit dice imaginable, you're pretty tough to kill, with just over 200 HP, a decent AC for a spellcaster, and permanent resistance to physical damage types. To make things worse for fighters, it's also a pain to get near you, since you can tear up the area around you and shunt melee fighters away as a reaction.

Cons:

While you do have magic missile, a lot of your spells deal damage in wide areas, so your party might have words with you about using earthquake one too many times.

While you're good at tearing things up, that's just about all your magic can do. There's the occasional Clairvoyance and some defensive spells, but by and large you're either dealing damage or doing nothing.

Despite your great physical defense, you struggle a bit more against other damage types. If you end up fighting someone who can turn their knife into psychic damage, you might have a problem on your hands.

[raeynbowboi]

How to Play as Violet Parr in DnD 5e

To be fair the Invisible/Force Fields power combo is a surprisingly common trope, so you can also view this as how to plays as the Invisible Woman Susan Storm among other characters with this power set, I was just introduced to Violet first, and I’m a bigger fan of Disney and Pixar than I am of Marvel.

First up for Race, we’re mostly human but genetically mutated. It’s never made clear how supers came to be, but it seems to just be a genetic mutation, so Violet is a Variant Human. Variant Humans get +1 in two stats of their choice, we’ll choose DEX and INT. Luckily for this build, we only need 2 stats to be as maxed as possible so the rest can be dumped in the trash where they belong. Variant Humans also get to pick up a free feat, and here are your best options: Defensive Duelist - While wielding a finesse weapon, when an enemy makes a melee attack, add your proficiency bonus to your AC. A high AC means stronger forcefields which means fewer attacks are going to hit you. Also, because Abjuration Wizards get Spell Resistance which not only improves spell saving throws but reduces damage taken from spells, this melee-exclusive dodging aid is a fantastic option to further capitalize on her forcefields by reducing the odds of spells working on her and on melee attacks getting past her defenses. The only drawback is that Violet does not canonically use any finesse weapons. However, if your DM is willing to handwave the finesse requirement by letting Violet use a shield for this feat, it could still be in character for her. Fade Away - Okay, this is a Gnome exclusive feat but it works very nicely for her. Immediately upon taking damage, Violet will turn invisible, allowing her to run away or recuperate herself. As Violet’s invisibility is a little harder to incorporate into her build, this is a great way to give her another route to becoming invisible during combat.

Medium Armor Master - Only if you have proficiency with medium armor, you no longer have disadvantage on stealth checks which is great for an invisible girl with a knack for stealth. Your AC increases by an extra +1 when your DEX is 16 or more.

Moderately Armored - You gain proficiency with Medium Armor and Shields if you don’t already have it, and +1 STR or DEX. Not necessary if Violet takes a few levels in Cleric, Fighter, or Paladin.

Shield Master: You can use your shield to push enemies away, add your shield’s AC bonus to DEX saving throws, and Uncanny Dodge becomes Evasion.

Violet isn’t above defying her mother and sneaking on the plane, but then later on, Violet is the one advocating for following their mother’s instructions and doing as they’re told. Thus, I’d label her as Neutral Good. She does what she thinks is right, which isn’t always following the rules, but not always breaking it either.

For background, City Watch has been my standard go-to for super heroes. However, she’s dealing with a secret identity and is technically a criminal since super heroes aren’t currently legal. Secret Identity variant Charlatans get proficiency with Deception so you can bluff to your boyfriend that you’re totally normal and Sleight of Hand so you can sneakily take evidence about criminal activity.

The Class Weirdo

Let’s get this out of the way first, you are an Abjuration Wizard of at least 14 levels. By 14th Level you get temporary hit points equal to 2x your Wizard level + your INT mod when you cast an Abjuration spell. News flash, Mage Armor and Shield are both Abjuration spells. Literally any time you raise your AC, you’re getting an instant, automatic base 33 temp HP points, and 45 if you go maxed out Wizard. But more importantly, at 14th level, you not only have advantage on resisting spells, but when they do hit you, they deal resisted damage, leaving only melee attackers as a viable threat. Trust me, you want to be a 14th level Abjuration Wizard. However, there are a few other multiclass options to consider.

Cleric     Protection: Your Wisdom score won’t be very high, but then, you’d mostly use your Cleric levels to pick up non-damaging spells like Sanctuary, Shield of Faith, Warding Bond, Spirit Guardians, and Guardian of the Faith. You pretty much get handed the Protection Fighting Style, and Radiant Defense which gives you or an ally radiant armor that, when struck for the first time, deals 2d10+your cleric level radiant damage. Too bad you need to be 14 levels in Wizard, so the absolute highest this can be is 2d10+6 for anywhere from 8 - 26 damage. You also get proficiency with Medium Armor and Shields, which is important.

Fighter     Psychic Warrior: You tap into your inner reservoir of psychic energy. With augmented defenses, you can reduce any damage you or an ally takes by 1d10. You also get mage hand but big woop you already picked that up as a Wizard Cantrip.

Fighting Style Options:     Defense: Increases your AC by +1     Interception: Reduce damage meant for an ally within 5 feet by 1d10, however distance can be discussed with your DM.     Protection: Impose disadvantage on attacks meant for an ally within 5 feet.

Paladin     Redemption: You can punish those who take violent actions against those other than you in radiant damage equal to the damage they just dished out with your Channel Divinity. At 7th Level you can take damage for your allies, but by 7th level, you’re a little out of luck, since that makes 21, and is therefore not viable. Also, Paladin requires CHA to multiclass and Violet is awkward and insecure.

Rogue    Okay, so this one doesn’t offer shield proficiencies, but on the other hand, it does offer Uncanny Dodge, which becomes as good as Evasion with Shield Master. You also get Expertise so you can be unbelievably good at Stealth, Sleight of Hand, Deception, or Investigation. There’s no real recommendation here, as none of the Roguish Archetypes really seem to scream “yo, this is so Vi”, but Rogue is still a useful class to consider for her build. However, I suppose the best is Inquisitive as it lets her detect lies and makes her better at perception and investigation out of combat to find clues so she can solve crime.

As an Abjuration Wizard, Intelligence is the #1 priority. It’ll provide us with more temporary hit points when we use our Arcane Ward. Dexterity determines our AC. This can be one’s knack for dodging attacks (as was the case with Itachi) or it can be the deciding factor for how hard your defenses are to bypass. Considering a multiple ton robot had to drop its entire body on Violet multiple times to break her shield, I’d argue her shield must be pretty durable, so a high AC is in order. After that, we’ll pick up Constitution. While it’s fair that Violet herself isn’t super tough, her high CON stat could be seen as an extension of her force field powers. After that, the other three can land wherever you want to put them. This is one Fighter who doesn’t care about having a high STR stat, and Violet doesn’t need WIS or CHA outside of multi-classing.

Name: Violet Parr Race: Variant Human Background: Secret Identity Charlatan Alignment: Neutral Good Class: Psychic Warrior Fighter (4)             Abjuration Wizard (16) Base Stats: Strength: 8 (-1) Dexterity: 20 (+5) Constitution: 14 (+2) Intelligence: 20 (+5) Wisdom: 10 (0) Charisma: 8 (-1) Saving Throws: Strength: +5 Dexterity: +5 Constitution: +8 Intelligence: +5 Wisdom: 0 Charisma: -1 Combat Stats: HP: 132 AC: 19 Speed: 30 Initiative: +5 Proficiency Bonus: +6 Passive Perception: 16 Dark Vision: 0 feet Proficiencies:   Athletics (Fighter)   Deception (Charlatan)   Insight (Fighter)   Sleight of Hand (Charlatan)   Stealth (Variant Human) Skills: Acrobatics: +5                   Medicine: 0 Animal Handling: 0            Nature: +5 Arcana: +5                         Perception: 0 Athletics: +5                       Performance: -1 Deception: +5                    Persuasion: -1 History: +5                         Religion: +5 Insight: +6                         Sleight of Hand: +11 Intimidation: -1                  Stealth: +11 Investigation:+5                Survival: 0

Equipment   Leather Armor   Shield

Damage Resistances:   All Spell Damage

Paladin Feature: Fighting Style   Interception: When an ally creature within 5* feet is attacked, use your shield to intercept 1d10+ Proficiency Bonus amount of damage.

Spell Slots 1st (4) 2nd (3) 3rd (3) 4th (3) 5th (2) 6th (1) 7th (1) 8th (1)

Violet’s Spellbook*

Wizards can learn ore spells than this, but we’re only focused on shielding and invisibility spells. Even her teleportation spells are a reflavored way for her to disappear and reappear somewhere else.

Cantrips                          2nd Level                            5th Level    Blade Ward                     Blur                                       Arcane Hand    Friends                            Hold Person                         Hold Monster    Mage Hand                     Invisibility                              Intellect Fortress    Message                         Levitate                                 Wall of Frce    True Strike                      Misty Step                             Wall of Light  1st Level                        3rd Level                              6th Level    Feather Fall                     Counterspell                        Globe of Invulnerability    Mage Armor                     Magic Circle                        Guards and Wards    Pro. from Evil & Good      Nondetection                   7th Level    Shield                               Protection from Energy        Teleport    Ten’s Floating Disk     4th Level                                8th Level                                              Greater Invisibility                Antimagic Field                                              Mord’s Private Sanctum                                              Ostil’s Resilient Sphere

Actions:

Action Surge: Take an extra action once per rest.

Bonus Actions: 

Second Wind:  Recover 1d10+4 HP once per rest.

Features:

Abjuration Savant: Spend less time and money copying Abjuration spells. Arcane Recovery: Recover 8 or fewer level 5 or lower spells on a short rest. Arcane Ward: Get temp HP equaling 2x Wizard Level + INT Mod on first use, and 2x spell level on subsequent uses until you finish a long rest when you cast an abjuration spell of 1st Level or higher.  Defensive Duelist: Add your Proficiency to your AC against melee attacks. False Identity: You have a legally recognized second identity as a super. Improved Abjuration: Add your proficiency to checks for abjuration spells. Interception Fighting Style: Reduce damage on allies by 1d10+6 within 5 feet. Projected Ward: Your Arcane Ward can shield other creatures within 30 feet. Psychic Armament: Reduce damage of you and others within 30 feet by 1d10 Shield Master: Use your shield to push, add your Shield’s AC to DEX throws. Spell Resistence: Advantage on spell throws and take resisted spell damage. Telekinetic Hand: Cast invisible Mage Hand without components.

Between your high AC and your Arcane Ward bolstering your Temp HP, once you start getting to higher levels, your actual HP bar will hopefully start to see dwindling instances of being reduced. Pair her with a dedicated healer, and your team should be nice and secure with her around. How do you feel I did building Violet Parr? Would you build her differently? And as always, I take requests.

[masterweaverx]

Apparently I can't stop myself. Penny Polendina!

Goals for this build are getting a lot of swords that can do a lot of things, being combat ready at all times, and throwing in the benifits of being the world's first synthetic person (which includes jetboots). Maybe a touch of Maiden powers if we can squeeze it in.

Statwise, we want to put intelligence first with 15 points, and not just because Penny's great at calculations--the long and short of it is all the multi-blade stuff she can do is best represented as spells, and yeah Penny's going to be a wizard. But not just a wizard, she's also going to be a fighter--one with 14 base strength before racial bonuses, because let's be honest she gives the BEST hugs. The BEST. Constitution is next with thirteen points, Penny's not a delicate flower (except in all the ways that count) so she can breeze through most combat. 12 Wisdom after that--side note, why is it that the best Atlesians always seem to have just enough wisdom to realize Atlas is terrible? It's a trend, I think. Charisma gets ten points, Penny might be socially awkward but she is a cutebot, and that leaves Dexterity as our dump stat with eight points. Penny may be just a lit-tle bit, uh, clumsy. So to speak.

For race, I thought Warforged Juggernaut would work best for Penny--Warforged are already the 'robot people' of 5E, and their perks and backstory just fit her so well. Warforged juggernauts get +2 to their Strength (upping Penny’s to 16), +1 to their Constitution (upping Penny’s to 14), and have the trait Warforged Resiliance, which makes them resistant to poison damage and outright immune to diseases. They also don't need to eat, drink, or breathe, and instead of sleeping they go into Sentry's Rest, a four-hour period of physical inertness during which they recharge but are still technically conscious--poor Penny is getting a lot of reminders on how she's not human. But on the bright side she has Iron Fists (1d4+strength mod to their unarmed attacks) and Powerful Build (counts as one size larger for carrying capacity). And finally there's Integrated Protection--instead of wearing armor, Penny can choose between three ACs every long rest, as long as she's proficient with the equivilent armor. That's 11+Dex mod+Proficiency Bonus with Light, 13+Dex mod (max of 2)+Proficiency Bonus with Medium, and 16+Proficiency Bonus with Heavy. Sure, the last option gives her a disadvantage on stealth checks, but... it's Penny, can you really see Penny being sneaky?

As for her background, I figured Penny is effectively a Sage, who knows a lot about the world in theory but not a lot about the world in practice. That gives her proficiency in History and Arcana (and for the record I'm lumping knowledge of Dust and Technology under Arcana for this build), two extra languages which might come in handy at some point, and the Researcher feature. Basically, as a Researcher, if she doesn't know something she at least probably knows where to find out.

And now we get to the class build: ten in Fighter, ten in Wizard. The order isn’t really important so long as Penny’s first class is Fighter, because that gives her proficiencies with all armors, shields, and weapons right off the bat, as well as Strength and Constitution saving throws and two skills (Athletics and Perception are a good bet). Constitution saving throws are used not only to resist poison and whatnot (which Penny does pretty well) but also to keep from being distracted while casting (which will be important!). Wizards don’t necessarily get anything when multiclassed into, but that’s kinda common with caster classes.

First level fighters get Second Wind, which lets them recover 1d10+their fighter level HP as a bonus action once per short or long rest. They also get to choose a fighting style and I figured Superior Technique would fit our combat-ready cutebot quite well--it lets her take a maneuver from the Battle Master subclass and gives her a free superiority die as well. I’ll get back to that in a bit, but first what all fighters get up to level 10: Action Surge (take another action on a turn in combat, only use once per rest), Extra Attack (taking the attack action lets you attack twice), Indomitable (reroll a failed saving throw and take the new roll, once per long rest), and three ability score improvements. Each ability score improvement can either give you two points in abilities or one feat; put four points in Intelligence and then use the last improvement to get the Keen mind feat, which not only comes with a free intelligence point to cap off that score but also lets Penny always know which way is north, always know the number of hours left before the next sunrise or sunset, and accurately recall anything you have seen or heard within the past month. Well named!

Fighters also get a martial archetype at third level and, yeah, Battle Master is the one I picked for Penny. She is Combat Ready after all! Battle Masters are Students of War, which mean they have proficiency with one set of artisan’s tools (I thought smithy’s tools cause Penny needs to hone her swords). At level seven they also get the ability to Know Your Enemy: spending one minute observing any creature can tell them their relative power in two out of the following: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, AC, Class Levels, or current HP. And then there’s the big draw: Superiority Die and Combat Maneuvers. Since we’re going ten levels into fighter, and since Penny has the Superior Technique fighting style, she gets a total of six superiority die (all D10s) that she can spend to use on any of eight Maneuvers she wants, and she regains lost dice on every rest. As to what the Maneuvers are:

Bait and Switch: When you're within 5 feet of an ally on your turn, you can expend one superiority die and switch places with that ally, provided you spend at least 5 feet of movement. This movement doesn't provoke opportunity attacks. Roll the superiority die. Until the start of your next turn, the ally gains a bonus to AC equal to the number rolled.

Lunging Attack: When you make a melee weapon attack on your turn, you can expend one superiority die to increase your reach for that attack by 5 feet. If you hit, you add the superiority die to the attack's damage roll.

Maneuvering Attack: When you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can expend one superiority die to maneuver one of your comrades into a more advantageous position. You add the superiority die to the attack's damage roll, and you choose a friendly creature who can see or hear you. That creature can use its reaction to move up to half its speed without provoking opportunity attacks from the target of your attack.

Precision Attack: When you make a weapon attack roll against a creature, you can expend one superiority die to add it to the roll. You can use this maneuver before or after making the attack roll, but before any effects of the attack are applied.

Pushing Attack: When you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can expend one superiority die to attempt to drive the target back. You add the superiority die to the attack's damage roll, and if the target is Large or smaller, it must make a Strength saving throw. On a failed save, you push the target up to 15 feet away from you.

Restraining Strike:  Immediately after you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack on your turn, you can expend one superiority die and use a bonus action to grapple the target. Add the superiority die to your Strength (Athletics) check. The target is also restrained while grappled in this way.

Sweeping Attack:  When you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, you can expend one superiority die to attempt to damage another creature with the same attack. Choose another creature within 5 feet of the original target and within your reach. If the original attack roll would hit the second creature, it takes damage equal to the number you roll on your superiority die. The damage is of the same type dealt by the original attack.

Trip Attack: When you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can expend one superiority die to attempt to knock the target down. You add the superiority die to the attack's damage roll, and if the target is Large or smaller, it must make a Strength saving throw. On a failed save, you knock the target prone.

Outside of spellcasting, ten levels in Wizard doesn’t get you much. Arcane Recovery lets you regain a number of spell slots total to half your level on a short rest once per day (so one fifth level spell slot, or two second level and one first level), and there’s two more Ability Score Improvements--well, one (two points on Strength) because we’re spending the other to get the War Caster feat, which gives Penny the ability to cast spells while holding things, or as an attack of opportunity, and also gives her advantage on saving throws to keep her concentration.

But there is the Arcane Tradition, and Penny is probably able to recall a lot, so I figured Lore Mastery would fit her well. It gives her double proficiency on Arcana and History, as well as letting her roll Intelligence for initiative (and with a capped intelligence that puts her pretty high on the list). It also lets her swap any non-physical damage type from any spell she casts that isn’t a cantrip for any other non-physical damage type. So that’s acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic, radiant, or thunder damage, a spread that’s quite important for an up-and-coming young Maiden! A sixth-level Lore Mastery Wizard gets Alchemical casting, letting Penny add an additional spell slot to any spell she casts to adjust the range or the damage. And at tenth level, Lore Mastery Wizards get Prodigious Memory, so they can swap out a prepared spell with another on their list of known spells as a bonus action once per rest. Which is actually pretty important, given how wizard spellcasting works...

Wizards start out knowing six spells (and a few cantrips) and learn two new spells every wizard level they get. But they can only prepare a number of spells equal to their wizard level plus their intelligence modifier every day, and they can only cast spells they have prepared (and have slots for), so the ability to swap out spells at a moment’s notice is pretty important. Doing the math, that’s 6+(9x2) spells known and 10+5 spells prepared, so 24 spells and 15 prepared a day. Oh, and five Cantrips, because those just scale on a different scale. So, Penny’s spell list (and I did dip a little into the offshoot ‘Modern Magic’ book for this because Atlas is the techiest kingdom there is):

Cantrips (5) [Always prepared]

Green-Flame Blade

Lightning Lure

On/Off (Modern Magic)

Prestidigitation

Sword Burst

L1 (4 slots) (10) [8]

Burning Hands [Prepared]

Detect Magic (Concentration)

Ice Knife [Prepared]

Infallible Relay (Modern Magic) (Concentration) [Prepared]

Longstrider [Prepared]

Magic Missile [Prepared]

Remote Access (Modern Magic) [Prepared]

Shield [Prepared]

Sudden Awakening (Starter Spells)

Witch Bolt (Concentration) [Prepared]

L2 (3 slots) (5) [3]

Cloud of Daggers (Concentration) [Prepared]

Darkvision [Prepared]

Find Vehicle (Modern Magic)

Locate Object (Concentration)

Scorching Ray [Prepared]

L3 (3 slots) (3) [3]

Fly (Concentration) [Prepared]

Lightning Bolt [Prepared]

Sending [Prepared]

L4 (3 slots) (2) [1]

Ice Storm [Prepared]

Locate Creature (Concentration)

L5 (2 slots) (4)

Commune with City (Modern Magic)

Cone of Cold

Control Winds (Concentration)

Steel Wind Strike

That’s a lot of scaling spells with non-physical damage, plus the ability to swap out a few communication spells for ‘locate objective’ spells, and a few sword-related spells on top of that because there’s no real way to represent Penny’s swords without magic. Fun thing about Cantrips: the ones that scale scale by total level, not by caster level, so even if Penny burns through her spell slots she’s still got some devastating moves. And that’s before you take in all the ridiculous stuff being a Fighter and a Battle Master gives her. Truly, combat ready.

So yeah, that’s Penny.

[rebelcourtesan]

My D&D Build for Wolf

Tough, strong, and no nonsense, Wolf has survived in post-apocalyptic world on her own since she was a young age.  Raised by wolves, she knows how to fight fiercely like one with her trusty weapon she lovingly calls Stalky.  For a time, Wolf was the main fighter of the group until Kipo comes into her own as part Mute.  

 Long Post Below

***Stats***

Dexterity: Highest stat.  After watching Wolf in action, I’m going to say that her dexterity is her number one stat as she avoids getting hit long enough to deliver a devastating blow.  Don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to increase her Strength which leads us to . . .

Strength:  Second Highest.  Wolf is pretty strong for her size, but will break skulls with Stalky.  

Wisdom: Third Highest.  Wolf is street wise or apocalyptic wise to the dangers of the surface world.  She can see danger coming and knows how to avoid or deal with it one way or another.      

Constitution:  Fourth Highest.  This girl has survived for a long time despite the odds against and also, she handles a still poison scorpion stinger so she must have develop some resistance to it. 

Charisma:  Fifth Highest.  Low because Wolf doesn’t easily open up to others though she does warm up to Kipo eventually.  

Intelligence:  Dump Stat.  Wolf has trouble understanding the purposes of modern items of the pre-apocalyptic world. 

For her race we’re going with Variant Human.  Put her two ability score points into Dexterity and Strength. 

For the Feat: Choose Alert since Wolf is always on the lookout for danger.  Wolf cannot be surprised unless she’s unconscious and she gets +5 to her initiative roll.  Also, hidden enemies cannot get advantage on attack rolls on her.  

For Skill: Choose Acrobatics.  Wolf is pretty nimble.

We’re going start off in Fighter for this build.

***Fighter Level 1***

For skills choose Survival as Wolf has had to take care of herself in the wilderness and post-apocalypse cities.  And choose Perception as Wolf is always on the look out for danger and notices things the group fails to see.

Weapon:  This took some thought and since Wolf mostly uses Stalky as a bludgeoning weapon so use the states for a Maul, or you can use a Pike for piercing damage.  You can talk to you DM about  giving you the option to use piercing with a sleep poison that the target would need to make a saving throw against.  

Fighting Style:  The best one for Wolf would be Great Weapon Fighting.  When Wolf fights with a two handed weapon (Stalky), she can reroll any 1 or 2 on the damage die and take the second result.  

Wolf also gets Second Wind which will let Wolf to heal herself for 1d10 + Fighter level per short or long rest.              

***Fighter Level 2***

Wolf gets Action Surge which will allow her to take another action on top of her action and bonus action.  Can be done once after a short or long rest.

***Fighter Level 3***

For Martial Archetype, we’re going with Monster Hunter (UA).  Wolf has grown up fighting mutes for most of her life.  Which gives her Superiority Dice.  

She gets 4 1d8 dice that she can use to make her attacks deal more damage and gives her an edge to determine potential dangerous situations.  She regains all the dice back after a short or long rest.

She can spend a dice to add a 1d8 to:

Precision Attack: For an weapon attack, she can add a 1d8 to an attack roll before or after she rolls it, 

Sharpened Attack. When she lands a hit with a weapon attack, she can add a 1d8 to the damage.  If the attacks forces the target to make a Constitution saving throw to maintain concentration on a spell or ability saving throw, it must roll at disadvantage.  

Sharpened Senses: When Wolf rolls Perception to find a creature or hidden object or Insight to determine if someone is lying, she can add a 1d8 to the roll.  Can be added after the roll, but must be applied before determining if the check succeeded or not.  

Superior Willpower: Wolf can add a 1d8 to a Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma saving through.  Like when she saw through Tad Mulholland’s illusion.  

She also gets two additional skills for proficiency bonus.  Select Nature and Insight.        

On top of all of this, she can use two spells.  As a Ritual, she can cast Detect Magic to see magical auras and after a short or long rest, she can cast Protection from Good or Evil.  I know she never casts spells in the show, but these are useful additions if the need should arise.  

***Fighter Level 4***

Ability Score Improvement:  Usually, I would be telling you to max out her main Ability Scores, but in this case I’m going to recommend a Feat instead.

Great Weapon Master:  Whenever she scores a critical hit with a melee weapon or reduces a creature to 0 hit points from an attack, she can use her bonus action to perform another melee weapon attack! 

Also, she can take a -5 to her attack roll to deal additional +10 points of damage!

Wolf is fast, dealing multiple attacks to overwhelm her enemies.  Anyone you can take an additional attack works for her.

***Fighter Level 5***

Extra Attack:  Wolf can now perform 2 attacks when she takes the attack action!  Even better when coupled with Great Weapon Master feat.

***Fighter Level 6***

Ability Score Improvement: Okay, this time start maxing out Dexterity.

***Fighter Level 7***  

Monster Slayer: Wolf can spend two Superiority Dice instead of just one.

***Fighter Level 8***  

Ability Score Improvement: This time max Dexterity.  If it’s already maxed out, put the points into Strength.

***Fighter Level 9***

Indomitable: Once per long rest, Wolf can reroll a failed save, but must take the second roll.  It’ll help in seeing through false fantasies and illusions brought on by water mutes.

***Fighter Level 10***

With Improved Combat Superiority Wolf’s superiority dice are now 1d10s allowing her to hit more often and deal more damage.  Not to mention overcoming any mind manipulation.

Now we’re going to dip into Ranger (UA).  I considered going full Fighter, but Wolf has been surviving on her own for years which means finding her own food and mapping out territories.  Not to mention she fights mutes on a daily basis.  

***Ranger Level 1***

For Wolf’s Favored Enemy since there’s no mutes int the game (unless you DM is coming up with a special homebrewed setting) select monstrosities.  Wolf gets a +2 to damage on weapon attacks on favored enemy.  Also she gets advantage on Survival checks to track or recall information about them.  Wolf knew where the Mod Frogs were and how to negotiate with them.  She also new about Newton Wolves and other mutes.  

Also, she’s a Natural Explorer - she can ignore difficult terrain, advantage on initiative rolls, on her first turn in combat, she has advantage on attack rolls against enemies who haven’t acted yet.

She also function as the group’s guide.  The party isn’t slowed by difficult terrain and cannot be lost except by magical means.  Also, Wolf gains twice as much food when she forages.  When she’s tracking creatures, she can determine thier group number, size, and how long ago they had pass through the area.

***Fighter Level 11***  

Extra Attack (x2):  Wolf not gets two extra attacks.  Meaning she can take THREE attacks per attack action.  Potentially four with Great Weapon Master, if she crits or reduces a creature to 0 hit points and uses her bonus action to attack.  Not to mention if she uses an Action Surge to attack, that’s five attacks in one turn!

***Fighter Level 12***

Ability Score Improvement:  If Dexterity is maxed out, put points into Strength. 

***Fighter Level 13***

Wolf now has two uses of Indomitable per long rest.

***Fighter Level 14***

Ability Score Improvement: Max out Strength.  If it’s already maxed out by now put the extra points into Wisdom or round out your odd number ability scores.

***Fighter Level 15***

Relentless: Wolf is a tough fighter.  When she starts combat with no Superiority Dice, she automatically regains one! 

***Fighter Level 16***

Ability Score Improvement:  Max out Strength and/or round out odd number ability scores. 

***Fighter Level 17***

Wolf is not to be underestimated.  She now gets two Action Surges per short and long rest and three Indomitable rerolls per long rest.  

***Fighter Level 18***

Improved Combat Superiority: Wolf’s Superiority Dice are now 1d12s.  She’s more efficient in serious battles and a force to be reckoned with.

***Fighter Level 19***

Ability Score Improvement:  Dexterity and Strength should be maxed out by now.  If all the other points are rounded out, put these last two points into Wisdom.

There you have it.  Wolf from Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts.  

With a high Dexterity, she’s fast and hard to hit in combat while able to deliver several blows per round.  With Superiority Dice to help out in a pinch, she’s scrappy and tough enough to deal the final blow.  Also, she’s resistant against mutes with mind control powers.  With the level in Ranger, she can lead the group to safety while navigating dangerous territory.

The only downside would be that her Hit Points might be a little low, but if she’s hard to hit, then she shouldn’t take damage that often.  However, having a healer to back her up in combat wouldn’t hurt or give her a certain partner or Best Friend.

Next up is Kipo herself!

[vocatharsis]

Cogs’ TS2 Apocalypse Run (IX)

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Earlier this year, I started revisiting The Sims 2. After a bit of messing around, I decided I’d take a shot at doing an apocalypse challenge run (specifically Phaenoh’s tiered, mod-enforced version). I didn’t succeed the first time, and didn’t document it with screenshots etc. anyhow, so in this second attempt I’ve resolved to do both. 

(Lots of screenshots & commentary below the cut. If you’re into Sims, nostalgia, challenge runs, and/or silly reflective commentary, feel free to read on!)

THE SMITHS’ FREE STATE, PART 9 - SO LONG, SHELMERDINE

Two mercifully-timed birthdays -- i bet he steals answers on homeworks too -- bidding the founder farewell -- oh goodie, some crap I can clean off the floor -- Muuuum, stop plaguing my sleep -- people in uniforms -- I imagine Foucault would be proud (or not).

Welcome back! Now, this is a sad chapter. The character I started this run with, Shelmerdine, is going to die of old age pretty soon. She’s had a fantastic go of it - managed to max all skills before elderhood, survived the terrible interval in which greyhairs had complete free will, reached perma-platinum for her aspiration. But now it’s time to bid her farewell. 

As a small mercy, she’s set to pass on the day after the two toddlers Aaron and Forseti are eligible to age up via birthday cake, so I won’t have to deal with the toddler ‘relative dies’ fear tanking both of their aspiration meters the day before they start childhood. 

First, let’s do Forseti--

He looks nice when he’s happy ^^

And I waited until morning to age Aaron up, since everyone was kind of tired at that point. 

Yippee!

Love Forseti’s little jump there. 

As I’ve established before, kids & teens aren’t currently allowed to go to school, nor use any skill-building object that isn’t also simultaneously fun. So childhood in the apocalypse is all about grabbing whatever skill points you can, with whatever objects aren’t banned. The most obvious of these is playing chess, for Logic: 

It seems that, with his really low Niceness score, Forseti is inclined to make unconvincing attempts to cheat while playing with others. Attempts of the “hey, look over there” variety, which always end with the other person turning around just as he’s moving he pieces around. I’ll need to find a way to make sure he doesn’t tank his friendships with father and/or brother while he earns his smarts.

Age-rollover time is fast approaching. It’s time to say goodbye to indomitable old Shelmerdine. 

Of course, I had to get a photo with all of her descendants in it. Then she said goodbye to each of her children individually.

*sniff*

And here comes bonesy... 

You guys remember how the death sequence for fulfilled Sims goes, right? It’s a hell of a thing. The Grim Reaper hits on you...

... tells you to pick up an unexplained suitcase (which might contain anything from what was in your Sim’s personal inventory to their emotional baggage, I dunno)...

... and hands you an extremely ethnic-looking alcoholic cup-thing.

And then you become a ghost.

BYE-BYE, SHEL, YOU WILL BE MISSED.

poor, poor Kent

Back to business; I decided on a solution to the “Forseti pissing people off during chess” problem. Basically, he plays on his own in a corner of the basement,

although I will say that this has a second benefit: Juan needs to level his Logic, too! It’s the only skill he needs maxed to be a master architect. 

Both of the careers I’m intending for Aaron and Forseti also require some Logic, but even if this weren’t the case, maxing Logic actually increases the skill-gain rate for everything that isn’t Body or Charisma by 25%, so it’s still worthwhile. 

Get a load of this guy:

Name’s Amar Ku. I was completely blindsided by this guy walking down the street, since I’ve never seen him before. Is his hair dyed, or...? Upon greeting him, he did the ‘Kiss Kiss Darling’ gesture, which means he’s a socialite; he must be Juan’s replacement, rolled randomly to fill the gap in the townie roster when he married in.

Panoptica’s got all the skill points she needs to win that final promotion, so I just have her building some other skills to fill her aspiration meter. Like Body skill!

(Note: They can’t do Yoga until they have 3 points in the skill, which means they have to level it by doing radio exercises. These are annoying because they drain Hygiene and Energy, and build the skill more slowly than pretty much any other method. im not gogna have fun)

Meanwhile, Forseti, as our first absurdly-neat descendant, gets to experience the joy of building Cleaning skill really quickly from actual cleaning, as opposed to reading books:

You can’t see it in this picture, but he’s smiling. His Fun need actually increases a little while he’s scraping crap off a toilet seat. Jeez, Forseti.

Oh, minor thing for any 90s kids and/or incidental Homestucks that might be reading this -- the household’s crappy stereo was on while Panoptica was working out, and I had it set to the ‘Techno’ station ‘cos the classic default Salsa mix was getting on my nerves, and then I hear, of all things, a no-vocals version of Chromeo’s ‘Fancy Footwork’ come on.

(I mentioned Homestuck; it was the song used in this fandom meme that I didn’t discover until after the comic had ended [*slight sniff*]. Gods, it’s catchy.)

Upon discovering said song’s presence in the game, I promptly moved the table with the stereo on it up a floor so I could hear it better. Here’s Panoptica doing her jog-on-the-spot routine.

And getting buff, apparently.

Looking good, looking good

Oh, I seem to recall saying back when Kent died that ghosts usually take a night to register that their remains have been moved elsewhere, so Shelmerdine’s debut as a ghost was unlikely to take place on the roof. 

Unfortunately, unlike Kent, she did clamber down the ladder from the attic to the floor with all the beds on it, making it really impractical to send anybody up there for some shuteye tonight. If I send them to bed, they’re guaranteed to cancel out of the action at some point, and let the ghost do its Scare action, which drops each of the victim’s needs a bit.

I realised at this point that I actually have more Sims than I do beds, so I worked out a solution to this one-night problem: buy a bed for the basement.

John starts work earlier than Panoptica, so he had priority here. Otherwise, they took it in turns to kip underground until dawn broke and Shelmerdine buggered back off to the Styx, at which point everybody who didn’t have a job collapsed into their own beds.

Well, today’s the day that Panoptica, with any luck, will get promoted up the final rung of the Intelligence ladder! There’s a chance it might take two shifts, even with an almost-full mood. Here she leaves the house in... I don’t know what kind of coat, while Forseti falls victim to my ever more ambitious experiments with the in-game camera:

(I honestly need to brush up on my vocab for types of clothing, I think. When I do write creatively, it’s quite often urban fantasy-type stuff, and it’ll help me to form a clearer picture of how characters look...)

This here below would be a great picture, if only the yellow sports car didn’t have a wonky interior that didn’t show up when you moved the camera inside

Like seriously Panoptica has a great photo face, it’s a shame

The snow actually thawed for a little while (since it’s always Winter, this only happens when it doesn’t snow for a couple of days in a row) leaving behind some puddles... which of course I sent Forseti to mop up so he could get more experience.

Night falls, and both goasts come out to play, in this rooftop graveyard of empty fridges. (I can’t sell them right now, due to restrictions - I just buy a new one and dump the old one up here.)

And does Panoptica get her final promotion? She does!

Time for some lowkey family celebrations! Here’s Aaron coming outside to give her an after-work hug:

And here’s Juan, being all romantic, though I swear he looks more like he’s just grinning rather than puckering up...

Now I can do lots of new things! Including:

> Let people come inside the house, even if they aren’t already a family friend

> Redeem Popularity aspiration perks (letting John build friendships faster)

> Use the Ask pie menu to scout out townies with good skills/jobs, and

> Chat on/answer the phone! 

This makes things much easier. Also, Panoptica’s got a snazzy uniform.

Heh, now both second-generation kids have dark green uniforms.

So, Panoptica has succeeded in living up to the name I gave her! A pleasant development. It’d have been a shame if I’d given her that name only to see her fired by a chance card or something. (I’d probably have thought about Law Enforcement for her, but that’d have required her to max Body, which would be annoooooying, at least until Juan lifts Architecture.)

So, another successful update, another restriction lifted, another gravestone for the roof... hm. I’ve covered a lot of ground here; I think two more updates maximum before I catch up to where I’m currently at with the run.

Stay tuned, and thanks for reading! 

(If you’ve read through this and/or any of my other updates, please let me know if there’s a particular style in one that’s more enjoyable to read than the others. It’s fluctuated a little as I figure out how best to do it. Thanking you in advance!)

[believerindaydreams]

Okay I'm already hitting the books for how to create a companion for New Vegas, so here's some preliminary musings about Carla Boone

As a teaser, her SPECIAL

Strength. 5. She's trucking a sewing machine across the Mojave in addition to your random vendor cruft, she needs it.

Perception. 4. People skills aren't her strong suit.

Endurance. 10. I'm postulating her unreasonable survival, I might as well bake that in.

Charisma. 3. It would also explain a lot about the Novac reaction to her if she was min-maxing.

Intelligence. 5. I thought about "is she not wiser than this in your stories" and actually no, she isn't.

Agility. 9, but 10 with Small Frame. Something something her first go at a target she hit all bullseye's while looking the other way, Boone was <3

Luck. 4. It can't be that high, for...obvious reasons.

- perk "What Doesn't Show". Carla's a seamstress for the classy Mojave resident. The Courier receives a +10 DT bonus when wearing any non-armor clothing.

- how do you recruit. In my dreams (why worry about feasibility at this stage??), it would be linked to successfully concluding Boone's quest. You'd get another quest from Colonel Hsu to go undermine the Legion at Flagstaff, where you two and Carla burn down the slave markets (the existence of the mod at all implies that Boone missed the shot). Then they go back to Novac and you lose him for three days of time, then he'll travel with you again. But next time you send him to Novac, he won't be there when you return; instead, Carla will be waiting at Cliff's to ask your help finding her husband...

-affinity. That's 4, innit.

- reaction lines. Ooh that is a whole nother post.

- will she give you items? Why not. You can ask her for a free pre-war hat or bonnet once a day.

- specialised tasks. She has a repair skill of 75 (some of the specialised armor stuff is beyond her, I imagine).

- is she romanceable. I'm suddenly grateful that you can't really romance anyone in FNV, because the amount of tinkering you would have to do to Boone's code...

- unique outfit or weapon. Comes with a modified Vault 21 jumpsuit with +1 charisma but lower defence due to her having cut the legs off and refashioned it into a dress. Uses a Fallout 3 Rock-It Launcher. This presents insoluble problems, programming wise.

- quest. "Answer Me, My Love": Boone's gone because he's been recalled to the NCR forces and is at Camp McCarran. The OSI is attempting to reverse-engineer the psyker Spotter ability, and they're not too fussy about the ethics of it. Quest takes place in the disused airport tunnels, features two horribly mutated soldiers who used to be First Recon, and culminates with Boone in a comatose state on a medical gurney. His body is being used as the source for a new chem designed to give regular NCR soldiers the spotter perk.

Carla has to decide whether to A. rescue him, B. kill him, C. accept the OSI assurance that Boone did this on purpose, at which point she will volunteer to test the chem herself. She will generally listen to your opinion about what to do, unless you were especially nasty to her in Flagstaff or say rude things about Boone.

Your infamy with the NCR goes up dramatically if you rescue or kill Boone, and you automatically fail For the Republic, Part 2 if you rescue him (they really wanted this chem for Hoover Dam). If you rescue him, you get your companion back, escape out of the tunnels, and are henceforth subject to arrest/death on sight by NCR military police. If you kill him, status quo, Carla goes back to Novac afterwards, you get a massive karma hit but she'll thank you and reward you with the Lucky Shades she stole in Flagstaff and the Top Hat, her greatest creation and a +2 to charisma. If she tests the chem, you get a mechanically-similar replacement for Boone, NCR fame, and a big bonus from the OSI coffers. Also the option to get the Spotter perk with *any* non-robot companion, since you can now force-feed them a chem for it.

A rescued Boone will still wear his hat and faction armor, because. You can ask whether he thinks it's a good thing he was rescued, to which the entire response will be "yeah".

- opinion on Factions. As a former Vault 21 resident, she will leave permanently if you support House to the point of blowing up the Brotherhood bunker, and also if you have too much affinity with the Legion. NCR she's ok with unless you take the rescue ending of her quest. Yes Man is her preference.

She likes the Great Khans, the Followers, and the Strip, dislikes the Powder Gangers.

- which game? uh, New Vegas.

start an ask meme around ur fallout oc as a companion:

what perk would they give the player?

how do you recruit them? are there multiple methods?

what raises and lowers their affinity?

how do they react to certain things? what do they say? (eg. lockpicking, grabbing junk, killing?)

do they periodically give the player items? what kind of items?

would they be able to do specialised task? (eg. repairs, hacking)

would they be romancable?

do they have a unique outfit or weapon?

what would be their personal quest, if they have one?

what are their opinions on certain factions? (eg. brotherhood, NCR)

general voice lines? (in reaction to companion wheel selections)

where would you find them in the world?

which game would they be from?

miscellaneous facts?

[gamesception]

New Vegas, Part 1: Ain’t That Just a Kick in the Head.

Whelp, that was a short game.  Roll credits!

Actually, no, let’s back up a bit.  Before I actually started playing, while I was getting everything set up to go, Lobac happened to notice me on steam and tossed a few mod suggestions my way.  I’m aiming for a mostly vanilla run in terms of gameplay, and I’m not especially concerned with graphics quality, so the list is pretty short, but a couple of the items on it, or, well, one really, will be very relevant to my first play session, so:

Ohp, I hear my kitchen timer beeping, gonna go grab dinner before coming back to finish the post.  Feel free to guess at which of these mods becomes the dominant theme of the next hour or two of my life.

alright, I’m back.

Rewinding a bit to the opening narration...

So, the NCR is the main power in the area at the moment, and generally consist of not entirely terrible people.  In contrast to...

Caesar's Legion, who are apparently the bad guys.  ‘Slave army’ doesn’t exactly seem to leave room to think of them, or at least their leaders, as anything else.

NCR has repelled the Legion before, but now they’re back, in larger numbers, preparing to start a war for control of the Hoover Damn and the city of New Vegas, relatively untouched by the war that destroyed everything else.

The city in turn is controlled by a ‘Mr. House’, though it’s also currently under NCR control?  Not sure exactly how that works.  ‘Spose I’ll find out if I ever get that far.

The setting is certainly interesting enough.  Some clear characterization & motivation for the main factions.  Some interesting & important places to check out.

Which brings us back to our protagonist, shot in the head.  Kind of hard to see how I survive that.  Like they dug a grave and everything.  They would have needed to leave right after shooting me, and someone would have to have been watching the whole time to grab me like immediately after to get me to a hospital.  But whatever, it’s a video game...

Ok, so here’s the Doctor who found and fixed us, I guess.  Not exactly a hospital.  And doesn’t really look sterile enough for brain surgery, but beggers can’t be choosers.  After hemming and hawing for a few minutes, I pick Bethany for a name.  Bethany was a character in a comic I used to do for my old school paper.  Not a good one, mind, plot was never good, art was inconsistent, writing sucked.  I liked the characters, even if I never had any idea what to do with them.

The comic was about a kid vampire who was supposed to simultaneously be Peter Pan and Dracula.  Bethany was supposed to take the part of the Mermaids / Vampire brides.

That was Bethany.  She lived in an abandoned McDonalds playground.

I’m getting side tracked again.  I’m not trying to recreate the character (again, the comic was terrible and I don’t remember it fondly - I’m not trying to fish for compliments here, it was also kind of gross and dumb).

Anyway, if I’m not making old comic Bethany, who am I making?

Ah, the same character I always make in Fallout 3.  Gotcha.  Well, not exactly, we’re in the Southwest, so this time she’s Hispanic.  Ok.  On to stats.

Well, since I’m making the same character I always make in this game, she’ll be low on the strength and endurance end, and high on perception, agility, and smarts.  Really the only question is to what extent I’m going to push those differences, and what I’m going to do with Charisma and Luck.

In Fallout 3 I typically put those pretty neutralish, maybe favoring luck slightly and playing something of a gruff loner, but with the way this game starts?  After getting shot in the head in the opening scene of the game, I see only two options.  Either this character is the single unluckiest girl in Nevada or the absolute luckiest, I cannot justify any score in between.

I waffled that a bit, but in the end...

Yeah, that looks about right to me.  Doc Mitchell disagrees, however, the way he sees it I’m ‘the luckiest son-of-a-gun in New Vegas,’ which is actually pretty funny, I wasn’t expecting him to comment on my stat selection.  Neat.

Anyway, I didn’t outright max any of my scores under the theory that there’d be bobble heads to raise each of them by one later.  Is that right?  I don’t know.  If not, there’s always perks.

Ok, on to a little personality test, with some fun inkblots:

Squid.

A fairy, casting a big old shadow.

Two monks giving each other a high five.

Of course, none of the things I saw were actually options for responses.  That’s the only reason I can think of that Doc Mitchell here thought my tagged skills were supposed to be Energy Weapons, Explosives, and Science, but I quickly set the record straight:

Sneak to avoid what conflicts I can, Speech to talk my way out of those I can’t, and Guns as the final fallback for when all else fails.

After that came picking traits, which was a neat fun feature, a bunch of different advantage/disadvantage bundle deals.  I waffled quite a bit here, but in the end went with:

Small frame for an agility boost at the cost of easily damaged limbs, which seemed in fitting with the characteristics I had already chosen, and Wild Wasteland, because, come on.  How could I not?

Well, Doc Mitchell was very nice in helping me free of charge, and even gave me a Pip boy and some clean clothes.  In fact, he was so nice that I was sure he wouldn’t mind me helping myself to some free medical supplies, a laser pistol, and this nice hat on the way out:

The DLC that came bundled with the version I bought had also dropped a number of mini equipment packages in my inventory, including a neat pair of binoculars and this suit of leather armor I thought looked pretty nice:

Yup, lookin good.

Time to step outside and embrace the beautiful, warm Nevada sunli...

I mean violent, pitch-dark, torrential thunderstorm.

WHELP, TODAY JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER.

Luck 1, indeed.

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #169

Two builds in one day? That’s right! Today’s my birthday, and that means I get to pick the servants! As a birthday gift to myself, we’re making Caster of the Nightless City! As usual, expect spoilers in the build breakdown below the cut and in their character sheet here!

Scheherazade is a Creation Bard to truly bring her stories to life, and a Genie Warlock to create her own Bedchamber of Survival.

Race and Background

Wildly, Scheherazade is a Human, giving her +1 to all abilities. She’s also a Guild Artisan with one of the most demanding patrons in the world, giving her proficiency with Insight and Persuasion. 

Ability Scores

Your Charisma better be as high as possible, you’re literally famous for your storytelling skills. After that is Wisdom. Anyone can read a story, but to tell a story you’ve got to be able to read the audience. Your Intelligence is also pretty good, because let’s be honest, remembering over 1,000 stories is pretty goddamn impressive. Your Dexterity isn’t awful, because we need to be able to go from standing to dogeza in seconds. This means your Constitution and Strength are rather low. Sadly, telling stories doesn’t make you all that battle hardened.

Class Levels

1. Bard 1: Being a bard gives you proficiency with Dexterity and Charisma saves to avoid fireballs and being banished to other dimensions. (Though I guess banishment is better than death?) You also get proficiency in three bard skills, that is to say, three of any skill. Performance for storytelling, Acrobatics for faster dogezas, and History for more story material.

You can use Bardic Inspiration to give a d6 to an ally Charisma Mod times per long rest, and these dice can be added to pretty much any d20 roll to make it a bit better. (Not yours though, heaven forbid you have to get out there and... attack things.)

Speaking of not attacking things, let’s talk Spells. You cast em with Charisma, and get stuff like Blade Ward for taking less damage and Friends for convincing people to let you live in the first place. You also get Charm Person for a similar reason, Bane to weaken their offense if they still want to try anything, Feather Fall to avoid death by heights, and Silent Image for the first of your storied illusions.

2. Bard 2: Second level bards become Jacks of All Trades, adding half their proficiency to ability checks they’re not proficient in. By becoming more useful, you’re less likely to get killed! Probably. You also get a Song of Rest to boost healing during short rests. Healing is good, healing helps people not die. Finally, your Magical Inspiration lets allies add your inspiration dice to damage or healing caused by spells. Again, healing is good, and I guess doing more damage can be nice sometimes.

Speaking of doing damage, we’re not doing that. Instead, grab Sleep for a bedtime story.

3. Bard 3: Graduating from the college of Creation will help you bring your stories to life thanks to your Performance of Creation. As an action you can create a nonmagical object once per long rest or by spending a 2nd level spell slot. The item must be medium or smaller, and can only be worth at most 20 times your bard level in GP.

You can also help your allies star in legends of their own with Stories of Potential that add extra effects to your bardic inspiration depending on how they’re used. Ability checks get advantage on rolling the inspiration, attack rolls deal thunder damage to nearby creatures if they fail a constitution save, and saving throws add temporary HP to their users.

You can also cast Calm Emotions to keep the king from beheading you in the morning.

4. Warlock 1: Now that that’s taken care of, let’s get some help from a Genie. Picking this patron gives you a Genie’s Vessel, a tiny object like, say, a scroll case, within which you can find a Bottled Respite that you can hang out in for up to 2x your proficiency bonus hours per long rest, but you can only enter once per long rest. Any items you leave behind stay in the respite until the vessel is destroyed or you take them out again. Also, I gotta remember to point out the inside is bigger than the outside, space isn’t an issue for you.

You also learn to imbue your attacks with a Genie’s Wrath, adding thunder damage equal to your proficiency bonus to one attack per turn. You don’t really attack that much, but it’s nice to make every bit count.

Speaking of attacking, you can actually do that with your new Spells! You still use Charisma, but you have Pact Magic, so these slots don’t mix with your old ones. The plus side is they recharge on short rests instead of long ones, and you can still cast bard spells with warlock slots and vice versa.

You get Minor Illusion for cheap lifelike stories, as well as Eldritch Blast for the ever-present caster balls. For first level spells, you get Detect Evil and Good and Thunderwave for free, as well as Comprehend Languages because copyright doesn’t exist in D&D, and Protection from Evil and Good. Some kings are evil, some are good, but very few are neutral. (WARNING: does not actually protect against good or evil aligned humanoids)

5. Warlock 2: Second level warlocks get Eldritch Invocations, ways to customize the selling your soul experience. Armor of Shaodws gives you free mage armor to avoid dying, and Eldritch Mind makes it easier to concentrate on your spells, which are keeping you from getting killed.

Speaking of spells, Sense Emotion lets you read the prevailing emotion of a nearby creature as an action, and you can repeat the action each turn. Good storytelling requires you know what your audience wants.

6. Warlock 3: Third level warlocks get a Pact Boon, and Pact of the Tome gives you a super cool magic scroll that gives you three cantrips from any spell list. You get Guidance and Resistance for added protection, and Mage Hand. Handling hot objects can be dangerous! Now you don’t have to do that.

Besides that, you get second level spells here, like Enthrall. Being the center of attention is dangerous, but you’re the most personable member of the party, so this might be less dangerous than letting them talk. You also get Phantasmal Force and Gust of Wind for free, letting you attack with fictional characters and just make things a bit more dramatic.

7. Warlock 4: At fourth level you finally get your first Ability Score Improvement, which will be used to round up your Dexterity and Constitution for a higher AC and higher HP. Not dying’s good, you should try it out.

You also get Prestidigitation to add minor effects to your stories, and Flock of Familiars to summon background characters.

8. Warlock 5: Fifth level warlocks get third level spells, like Major Image to make larger effects for your stories. You also get Create Food and Water and Wind Wall for free.

On top of that, the invocation One with Shadows lets you turn invisible as an action in dim light or darker, and lasts until you move or take an action. When a truly good storyteller gets going, the story takes on a life of its own, and they just sort of... fade into the background.

9. Warlock 6: Sixth level genilocks get an Elemental Gift, giving you resistance to thunder damage. Like Cursed Arm always says, you can’t travel the desert without protection from wind. As a bonus action, you can now fly for 10 minutes Proficiency times per long rest. Admittedly you don’t really do that too often, but I’m sure you can illusion up a big genie hand or something to lift you up.

You can also summon a main character now thanks to Summon Fey. You can create a small fey creature in one of three moods that can teleport around and fight for you. Fuming fey get advantage on attacks after teleporting, mirthful fey can charm creatures, and tricksy fey create magical darkness which you can use to turn invisible.

10. Warlock 7: Congrats on your fourth level spell slots! Your freebie spells are Phantasmal Killer and Greater Invisibility to put less focus on yourself and more focus on the terrifying monsters you can summon. You can also use Hallucinatory Terrain to reshape the world into the world of your story. You can also use Trickster’s Escape once per long rest to cast Freedom of Movement on yourself to get the hell out of dangerous situations.

11. Warlock 8: Use this ASI to bump up your Charisma for better spells and better stories. You also learn how to Charm Monsters to avoid even more danger by just... getting along with everything.

12. Warlock 9: Ninth level warlocks get fifth level spells, like the freebies Creation to make even more nonsense out of nothing and Seeming to again, avoid danger. On top of those, you can use Modify Memory to retcon your stories to prevent your audience from getting too upset. You also gain the Gift of the Protectors, allowing you or another creature to write its name on part of your scroll. The scroll can hold the names of Proficiency people, and once per long rest the first creature to drop to 0 hp sticks around at 1 hp instead. You can also erase names if you have a falling out, but since it’s first come first served you might just want to keep this to yourself.

13. Warlock 10: Tenth level genielocks get a Sanctuary Vessel, allowing you to take up to 5 willing creatures into your Genie’s Vessel with you. You can eject creatures as a bonus action, by leaving yourself, dying (don’t do that one), or by destroying the vessel.

On top of all of that, creatures that stay in the vessel for at least 10 minutes get all the benefits of a short rest, plus they add your proficiency to any healing they get from hit dice. That’s on top of the d6 they were already getting from your song of rest.

Oh right, you get another cantrip too. Grab Blade Ward again. You can never be too careful.

14. Bard 4: Yeah, did you think we were done with bards? Nope! This level of bard gives us another ASI that’ll max out your Charisma for the best spells possible!

You also learn Message, because miscommunication can be deadly, and Lesser Restoration. You never know what kind of status effects might doom your party, after all...

15. Bard 5: Fifth level bards get their inspiration bumped up to d8s, and they finally become a Font of Inspiration to recharge their inspiration on short rests. I wanted to get sanctuary vessel as quickly as possible for the sake of getting your bedchamber of survival, but it’s awfully tempting to put these two levels earlier, ngl.

You also learn how to Feign Death, because nobody’s going to bother killing you if you’re already dead, right? This spell makes you or the targeted creature effectively dead by the reckoning of anyone around them. They can’t take actions, are blinded, and can’t move. They get resistance to all damage except psychic, and any diseases or poisons they’re affected by are frozen until the spell ends an hour later.

16. Bard 6: Sixth level bards can use Countercharm to protect their party from effects that would charm or frighten them, giving them advantage on those saves for a round.

You can also put on an Animating Performance to turn a large or smaller object into a Dancing Item, which follows your orders, given by your bonus action. You can do this once per long rest, or by spending a third level spell slot.

Your last bard spell is Catnap, putting up to three creatures to sleep for 10 minutes. If they stay asleep the entire time, they get the benefits of a short rest. Dying of overwork... what a horrifying concept.

17. Warlock 11: At eleventh level, instead of getting your spell slots made bigger you get a Mystic Arcanum, allowing you to cast a sixth level spell once per long rest. Guards and Wards is very useful if you’re paranoid, creating wards to protect up to 2,500 square feet of space (a.k.a. 100 5′ squares). You can specify creatures that are immune to effects, or a password that does the same thing.

In corridors, fog fills the area, and forks in the road have a 50% chance of forcing creatures down the wrong way.

Doors are magically locked, and up to 10 doors in the area can be covered by illusions.

Stairs are covered in Webs that regrow when destroyed.

You can also place: Dancing Lights in four corridors, Magic Mouth in two places, Stinking Cloud in two places, Gust of Wind in one corridor or room, and Suggestion in one five foot square.

Casting Guards and Wards in the same place every day for a year makes it permanent.

18. Warlock 12: Use your last ASI to bump up your Constitution for better concentration and health. You also learn your last Invocation, Minions of Chaos! Once per long rest you can cast Conjure Elemental using a warlock spell slot. It is a little bit risky, but even you have to be willing to stick your neck out at some point. Might as well be level 18.

19. Warlock 13: Your seventh level Mystic Arcanum is Mirage Arcane, allowing you to reshape reality in a square mile, altering the entire terrain to your story and even making entire structures out of nothing. Even creatures with true sight will still feel the illusion, so feel free to recreate the tower of babel and hide out on the top of it.

20. Warlock 14: Your capstone level gives you a Limited Wish from your patron, recreating any spell of fifth level or lower once per 1d4 long rests. Sometimes your story just needs a Maelstrom, and nobody’s going to wait for you to take 9 levels of druid just to finish a story.

Pros:

If your DM rewards creativity and you’ve got the mind thoughts to power this build, this build will treat you very nicely. This whole thing is basically an excuse for the roleplayer inside of you to ham up your acting, chew the scenery, and distract everyone from the rogue rifling through their pockets.

Speaking of distractions you can make some really good ones. Show up to the BBEG’s lair, butter them up with some stories, then trick them into entering your vessel, and then they’re trapped in there for up to 12 hours. If you can trick them into allowing you to catnap them, that gives the rest of your party a full 10 minutes to ransack the place before they even know what’s happening. You can always kick them out if they’re being unwelcome guests, but there’s no way for them to leave on their own outside of killing you. And that’s easier said than done, because...

You’re really hard to fight. Between all the illusions, summoning creatures to fight on your behalf, the invisibility, and the altering reality in a mile radius, landing a blow on you is an ordeal, especially if you know they’re coming.

Cons:

If you’re actually stuck in a cage match with an enemy it’s gonna take a while, because you really aren’t built for damage. You have a negative strength stat, and your first damaging spell doesn’t show up until level four. Just bring them into the vessel, help them relax, and put them to sleep with catnap, that’s way less work than actually fighting them.

On a similar note, anything that can see through your illusions is going to cut through you like butter, because you’re pretty squishy. Only 15 AC and just shy of 150 HP means you should avoid fights like... well, you do in canon.

Another side effect of your squishiness is that your concentration saves aren’t that great, which is really bad for an illusionist/summoner. Neither your animated item nor your invisibility use concentration though, so you can actually get away with more than you’d think, it’s just a complicated juggling act. And trust me, you do not want to drop them in the middle of combat.

[masterweaverx]

Nora Valkyrie is one of the most engaging characters in RWBY, because she’s always engaging with other characters. And as much fun as she has doing so, especially with her hammer, you’d be forgiven for thinking she’s just another boisterous bruiser genki girl hybrid. But when it comes to Dungeoneering, Nora ain’t nobody’s fool.

When coming up with this build, I found out that I had a lot of goals I wanted to kit. Obviously Nora wouldn’t be complete without her Legendary Boomhammer, so I needed a way to let her blow things up and smash things to bits. I also needed to figure out how to represent her skills at scavenging, I don’t think she lost that from her early days. And of course, she needs to be fun but able to lecture people about their emotional constipation at a moment’s notice.

This all led me to an interesting realization: Nora’s highest stat would have to be Wisdom. It’s the ‘notice things’ stat for a reason, so 15 points go into it. And next, after some very careful consideration, I figured 14 points of Dexterity would be good to handle some multiclassing requirements. 13 points in Constitution fits her prodigious appetite quite well, and 12 points in Strength gives her hammer a little extra oomph. Admittedly, 10 points in Charisma doesn’t quite fit with how bold a personality she has, but for all her boldness she’s only pressed her opinion when it absolutely needed to be pressed. And that leaves 8 points for Intelligence, which is booksmarts, which... Nora’s not dumb, but she didn’t really have a formal edumacation.

Variant humans are a bundle of nice little goodies, like two Ability points to even out Wisdom and Constitution, a free skill training so Nora can learn Survival, and a feat of choice--the Fell Handed feat is perfect for a hammer-wielder, giving a +1 to all attack rolls with the hammer, a chance to knock an enemy prone if the attack has advantage, an equal chance to deal Strength damage on a miss if the attack has disadvantage, and the ability to knock away an enemy’s shield if Nora is helping somebody else attack them. I mean not many people use shields on Remnant, but the option is there.

As for background... sigh. The background’s name is Urchin. Sorry, that’s just how it is sometimes. Nora gets proficiency in Stealth, Slight of Hand, Thieves’ Tools, and Disguise Kit. She also gets the City Secrets feature, which means she just knows how cities work and can find shortcuts anywhere. Is it the most useful skillset? No. Is it in character? Mmmyah.

Now, I looked at Barbarian for Nora. I really, really looked at it. At the Rage feature. At all the subclasses. And in the end... I decided we could get what we wanted without having to give up casting, just through careful application of other classes. So no, Nora isn’t a Barbarian. She’s four levels Hunter Ranger, eight levels Zeal Cleric... and first and foremost, 8 levels of Kensei Monk.

Yes. Monk. You heard me. Nora is a Monk. This will make sense shortly.

Monks get proficiency in simple weapons, and also shortswords (but we’ll be multiclassing into Ranger so we get proficiency in all martial weapons anyway). They can also choose one set of Artisan’s Tools or one Instrument to be proficient in; Chibi Nora was apparently good with drums, buuuut realistically I kinda think maybe Nora would be better served with Leatherworker’s Tools. They get Strength and Dexterity saving throws and, oh yeah, two skills--Athletics and Insight would fit pretty well.

At eight levels of Monk, Nora gets a lot of special traits--Unarmored Defense means that if she’s not wearing armor her AC is 10+her Wisdom Mod+her Dexterity Mod, Unarmored Movement means she gets +15 feet of movement on top of that, Slow Fall lets her reduce falling damage by 40 points as a reaction (great landing strategy!), and Evasion means if she has to roll a saving throw to take half damage, she takes half if she fails and none if she succeeds. Also she gets Stillness of Mind, letting her shake off one condition making her Charmed or Frightened; admittedly that’s not a good name for a Nora skill, so maybe she comes at it the other way, having a mind so chaotic that she can just bulldoze through mental effects.

Of course Monk also gives Nora Martial Arts, letting her use Dexterity in place of Strength on attack and damage rolls with unarmed strikes or her monk weapon (Remember that! Remember that!). Unarmed attacks deal 1d6+Dexterity Mod damage, count as magical for purposes of determining resistance, and she can use a bonus action to make an unarmed attack after she takes the Attack action. Nora also gets Ki points to spend, eight in total which recharge on a rest, and she can use them for a Flurry of Blows, Patient Defense, Step of the Wind, Deflecting Missles, or a Stunning Strike, all great in combat. Also she gets an Extra Attack, letting her make two attacks per Attack action.

This all comes together with the Kensei Way, which lets us choose two weapons--one ranged, one melee--that aren’t heavy or special, and make them into Monk weapons. And Warhammers are versatile, not heavy, so they’re a valid option. As are Light Crossbows, which are about the closest thing in the book to a grenade launcher? At eight levels Kensei weapons are considered magical and can be used to make an Agile Parry, giving +2 AC after every turn Nora makes an unarmed attack as part of an attack action, give the ability to give her ranged attack +1d4 damage, and the ability to spend a ki point to do an extra 1d6 damage to attacks with those weapons. Also, Nora gets proficiency with Painter’s Supplies. I’m sure that will be very important.

Multiclassing into Ranger gives us proficiency in Light Armor, Medium Armor, and Shields, but really why would we use any of that with Unarmored Defense? Also we get proficiency with Martial Weapons, but Nora’s already got a really, really good hammer. But we do get an extra skill proficiency, and picking up Perception couldn’t hurt. We’re mostly here for the four levels of ‘I know how to survive in the wild’ this gives us.

Favored Enemy lets a Ranger pick a certain kind of enemy, making them easier to track, and boy howdy are there a lot of Grimm on Remnant! We’re actually going to swap out Natural Explorer for Deft Explorer, a variant feature which lets us pick up the Tireless trait; Nora can regenerate 1d10+her Wisdom mod HP, a number of times equal to her wisdom mod per long rest, and also reduces her exhaustion level by one every short rest. Of the Fighting Styles, I chose Druidic Warrior, giving Nora two Druid cantrips on top of the spells she’s going to get from Cleric and Ranger--there’s a reason for that, but I’ll wait till we get to the spellcasting to explain. The Hunter archetype gives us one of three traits, and Horde Breaker lets us make an extra attack on a creature next to another creature after we hit the first creature with a weapon. And of course Primeval Awareness gives Nora the ability to melt a spell slot so she can sense Grimm in the area. Or jerks. Actually, make her favored enemy “Jerks” if the GM will let you get away with it, she’s partners with Ren and he can spot all the Grimm for her.

Eight Levels in a Cleric of Zeal is mostly good for spells, but there are some side perks. Proficiency in Heavy Armor is one of them, and Priest of Zeal is another, letting Nora make a bonus attack when she hits something with a weapon attack a number of times equal to her wisdom modifier per long rest. Resounding Strike lets her shove something back ten feet every time she does Thunder damage, and Divine Strike gives her an extra 1d8 damage to one weapon attack per turn. And then there’s Channel Divinity, which she can use twice per rest; either to Turn Undead, making them scared of her and any less than CR 1 just flat out die, or engaging in Consuming Fervor, letting her max out any Fire or Thnder damage she does on an attack.

Now that all has stunning implications for Nora’s spells, but before we can figure out what spells she has I think we should talk about the 5 Ability Improvements this build gives us. That’s ten points to spend on abilities, which is just enough to max out Wisdom and Dexterity at 20 each. If you’ve been paying attention, that really adds extra oomph across the board for the girl.

And now, the spells. The Zeal Domain means Nora automatically knows a few spells, and Fireball works great for her grenades, but for the rest I aimed mostly on either mimicking her semblance or giving her new and creative ways to smash with her hammer. There’s a lot of thunder spells. A lot. So in total Nora has four cleric cantrips and two druid cantrips, and she knows three ranger spells up to level one and all the level 1-4 Domain of Zeal spells, and... huh, I miscalculated, I thought it was half her cleric level plus her wisdom mod, but it’s her total cleric level plus her wisdom mod cleric spells she can prepare. Oh well, it’s almost midnight, just add four more cleric spells up to level 4 that you like. And here’s the list:

Cantrips:

Gust (Druidic Warrior)

Mending (Cleric)

Sacred Flame (Cleric)

Thaumaturgy (Cleric)

Thunderclap (Druidic Warrior)

Toll the Dead (Cleric)

L1 (four slots):

Absorb Elements (Ranger)

Guiding Bolt (Cleric) (Concentration)

Hunter's Mark (Ranger) (Concentration)

Inflict Wounds (Cleric)

Sanctuary (Cleric)

Searing Smite (Zeal Domain) (Concentration)

Thunderous Smite (Zeal Domain) (Concentration)

Wild Cunning (Ranger)

L2 (three slots):

Deafness (Cleric)

Locate Object (Cleric)

Magic Weapon (Zeal Domain) (Concentration)

Shatter (Zeal Domain)

Silence (Cleric)

L3 (three slots):

Haste (Zeal Domain) (Concentration)

Fireball (Zeal Domain)

Remove Curse (Cleric)

L4 (three slots):

Banishment (Cleric) (Concentration)

Fire Shield (Zeal Domain) (Warm Only)

Freedom of Movement (Zeal Domain)

Stone Shape (Cleric)

L5 (two slots):

Two slots, no spells

Lots of fun and interesting variations on ‘hit it with your hammer’ here. Mostly based on causing a lot of noise, moving things around, or pulling out a grenade and using a touch of flamey booms when she needs it. Plus a few utility spells to make life on the road easier.

So yeah, that’s Nora.