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kitakami-zorua-kin · 5 months ago

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Not everything needs a meaning There's a reason for the existence of the term idling, while I prefer getting stuff done recreational breaks are important, and I wouldn't say we have been arguing now have we? More of a civil discussion.

I'm called on-your-side anon or Oys for short btw nice to formally meet you,l I'm the one sending those lengthy/ier asks.

as for this place since its a multiverse there is an abundance of info, be it alters of yourself or people you know or entirely new ones, that you can use if you are willing, sure takes a while to get to that info but I believe it's rather gratifying to find what others do wrong and process this info as so to not do the same. There's a lot to be learned here if you are willing

//I'll definitely check them out if they pop up again thanks I love collecting new blogs.

Also for you tell me one thing about your version of the siblings you added to them, or in Russet's case created, that you absolutely adore.

Also I'm sorry I keep writing Russet's name differently every ask, I kinda use the qwerty and the qwertz layout, and multiple language packs on my phone so autocorrect fuddles Sometimes and I don't notice

... I guess. I just prefer to stay busy - there's always something that needs to be done in the club, or I could be training...

Oys. It's... You aren't awful, at least. You seem sensible. I can appreciate that.

... I guess I can see the merits of that. Information is a form of power, of strength. ... Though I doubt most are as sensible as you seem to be, from what I've experienced here.

#pkmn irl #kieran takeover #kieran replies #russet's kitakami trip #//yeee no problem! i love promoing my friends :D #//ooh there's so much. i think my favorite thing to add was each of these characters have a small percentage of pokemon blood -#//specifically they have dragon blood! we have kieran with hydreigon. carmine with garchomp. and russet with noivern!#//it adds another layer of nuance and complexity to their actions that i like to manage on top of everything that's wrong in the family #//for example why this kieran is so prone to lashing out AND why he's so wary about the idea of forgiveness. part of it is instincts!!#//plus with the siblings in general i'm really delving into what things were like for them in kitakami which is SUPER fun #//as for my favorite thing about russet... oh that's a hard one.#//i think. his worldview is really interesting. he doesn't like to lie but also ends up lying to himself a lot. saying he's fine with thing #//-when he really isn't fine with them. reducing himself to a background character in his own life.#//russet is JUST as mentally ill as its siblings it is simply in a less obvious way. imploding instead of exploding.#//because of that he's flown under the radar and really hasn't gotten the help he needs. he's been the family therapist for his whole life.#//also no worries! i get it. i spelled ninetales wrong for like. i think almost a month before i realized. i'm not stressed about typos #//especially since i can tell what the meaning was #oys anon

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fogwarden · 11 months ago

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Piggybacking off this post to say that one of my absolute least favorite tropes both in canon and in "fanon" is taking a character that appears to (or does) fit into the above type described by OP and turning them into a confident fuckboy or having all their emotional barriers drop the minute their romantic interest indicates they might reciprocate feelings.

Nothing worse than seeing some self-deprecating never-says-his-genuine-feelings-out-loud bastard man suddenly become an extremely passionate smooth-talking lady-killer or a super genuine heartfelt empath or whatever. Let him half-jokingly flirt because he can't bring himself to do it genuinely! Let him allow the other person to be part of some mundane private ritual that nonetheless symbolizes a huge extending of trust on his part! Let him make a notable effort to stop self-deprecating so much because he knows it makes the other person feel bad! Let him be secretly overly sentimental and make excuses for why he keeps trinkets and memories from early in the relationship! Let him reflexively reach out for physical contact with them when asleep or relaxing or otherwise not paying attention as if he constantly seeks a tactile reminder of the other's presence!

Love is made of and found in a hundred thousand little things that mean just as much if not way more than the big dramatic declaration that the sopping wet bastard man wouldn't say unless at gunpoint!

once again opening a ship tag on AO3 and opening a dozen fics and closing out of almost all of them immediately because they would not fucking act like that

#not sure if this makes sense #or if this is exactly what OP was talking about #but god this kind of thing bothers me as well #especially as someone who uh #isnt very good at verbally expressing affection in the way you see in movies #like #one of my favorite TTRPG characters ive made and played was this guy #Zephyr Goldberry #who fit this character archetype to a T #and half the reason I made him is cause I was so sick of seeing characters that fumbled the ball or turned out completely different #the other half being that much like all of my d&d characters he was a projection of my own personality #always remember that d&d is cheaper than therapy #god i miss Zephyr i wish i got to play him more #someone ask me about old blorbos some time

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symbologic · 11 months ago

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currently going through the Wano arc with @brovado, and maybe it's because i'm still in Act 2, but i honestly don't understand how Matt Owens can rank it as B-tier??

the story is SO ambitious and has a lot to chew on. it reminds me of this dense, classic novel with lots of intrigue, a rich cast of characters that are all thematic parallels and foils to one another, and TONS of dramatic irony. also, the visuals? are a damn treat, since it leans so heavily into Edo-period aesthetics and art

#i can't quite shake the feeling that this arc somehow reflects the history of the D Clan and their relationship with authority and freedom #especially after that execution scene holy shit #also? i'm enjoying this arc more than whole cake island #there i said it #wci is a solid arc that achieves its narrative goals with themes of chosen vs. bio family #and how we're affected by the stories we grow up believing about ourselves #plus i ADORE twisted fairytale motifs #but to say it's leagues better than wano?? c'mon #tho tbh any arc where half of the SHs are absent b/c they're setting things up for the next arc #just isn't going to be as fun for me personally #it's a big reason why baratie is my least-favorite east blue arc (after the rest of the crew peaces out to find nami anyway)#at least dressrosa has the full cast for the first third of the arc you know??#also doffy #along with some genuinely hilarious character moments #one piece #wano arc

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nickmarini · 3 months ago

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Ayden’s Build

TL;DR: Barbarian 1, Druid 2 (Circle of the Stars), Paladin 8 (Oath of the Ancients), and Cleric 9 (Peace Domain). Feats: Squire of Solamnia, Remarkable Recovery, Warcaster, Knight of Crowns, Spelldriver, Tough.

Building Ayden was a joy and a journey. To begin we were told we had 20 levels to work with and stats of 20 across the board. The only thing I knew about Ayden from the session 0 was that he was going to be a Cleric of the Everlight and that I wanted to make him the best support character I could. I also knew that the Dawnfather was aware of the mission briefing and so would have directed his growth to the task at hand.

Stats of 20 meant multiclassing into any class was possible and that any ability score based bonuses or proficiency based abilities were going to be very good. I figured that with a warlock and a sorcerer we’d have some pretty good counterspelling and 9th level spell access, so I didn’t worry myself about either of those, instead focusing on making sure we all survived.

The Dawnfather and The Everlight share 2 of 3 Domains. Life and Light. The Everlight’s 3rd domain is Peace. The Peace Domain cleric is an excellent subclass and its 6th level ability, Protective Bond, was something I knew I wanted to build around. The ability to take hits for, and aid, my siblings while teleporting around the battlefield is an excellent support ability and it also lets allies in the bond do the same, fostering sibling unity and cohesion.

With the Dawnfather having Nature as his unique domain separate from the Everlight, and literally sending himself to Exandria to infiltrate a city full of the greatest mages of the age, the Oath of Ancients Paladin seemed like an obvious path. It is the nature Paladin, (his domain) and 7 levels gives you both Aura of Protection and Aura of Warding. This means as Ayden moves through the battlefield with Protective Bond he will be granting allies +5 to saves from his cha as well as resistance to damage from spells. Incredibly good going up against the wizards of Aeor he knew he would encounter. I didn’t want to go to 10 with Paladin because I didn’t want to be immune to frightened. I just felt that fear played too large a role in the reasons the gods were here and although aura of courage is probably my favorite ability going back to 3rd edition, I felt like it wasn’t right for Ayden. He had to fear in order to reinforce his need to hope.

These two classes were set relatively quickly and then I began looking at how else I was going to build him out.

I really liked the idea of being able to grant my allies some extra attacks and so I was looking at battle master to get commanders strike and goading attack as well as maneuvering attack to help take hits for and position my allies. Action Surge is also a great ability that could really come in handy if I needed to save someone and needed one extra action to do so.

I was also looking at the 2nd level Divination Wizard ability Portent. The ability to fully dictate 2 rolls is very powerful in certain circumstances, especially if the numbers are very high or very low.

Both these seemed good but weren’t feeling totally right from a character perspective. They felt too forced.

As I was playing around with these two classes I was also building Aydens backstory. I really liked the idea of him being agriculturally focused, as this aspect of the Dawnfather is actually his youngest. Sun begets days, and thus time and seasons, and as civilization evolves agriculture follows. The fighter levels lent the idea that he has spent some time training under a knight or some such warrior, and I knew that he would eventually find his way to Trist to begin his tutelage and become her cleric. I liked there being these different eras of his life.

It was around this time that I got an awesome email asking me to describe Ayden visually so that the incredibly talented Hannah Friederichs and Cael Lyons could begin to bring Ayden and the Dawnfather to life. I wanted Ayden to be a simply dressed with a shield he took from his mentor, but no sword for striking. They sent 4 sketches and told me I could mix and match as I desired. Image #1 however was exactly as I had envisioned him. It was the simplest and had this depth to his eyes that told the story of a much older soul in this 15 year old body. It was so perfect that it made me realize I had been going in the totally wrong direction with fighter and wizard. The concepts of nature and agriculture were suddenly staring me in the face. It was not wizard, but druid, and his mentor could have taught him to be a paladin as easily as fighter, but if he is the bringer of agriculture who has he brought it to? A remote tribe still hunting and gathering was the answer. Barbarian therefore replaced fighter. I can’t tell you how influential the sketch I received was. It felt like a bolt of lightning suddenly clarified everything.

I was for sure cleric 6, Paladin 7 and now looking at druid and barbarian.

I didn’t know Druid subclasses very well but Circle of the Stars jumped out from the pack just with its name. The Sun after all is a star. When I read its 2nd level abilities Starmap and Starry form it was so obvious. I can cast Guiding Bolt to set up those attacks I wanted to grant, and I can glow instead of wild shape and either heal more or have a massive bonus to maintain the concentration spells I knew I wanted to cast. For the keeper of time to know how to read the stars just felt right. It also feel right that the druids of a tribe that had been hunting and gathering during the tumultuous Calamity would have learned to navigate by the stars, a singular constant in an every changing age.

Barbarian has a number of interesting subclasses but none felt like they clicked. 1 level of Barbarian though, for a character with 20 dexterity and 20 constitution, catapults your AC to 20 and it also gives you a proficiency in Constitution saving throws if you take it as your first class, again reinforcing those concentration rolls. He was found as a child by this barbarian tribe and his first class is also his first community. Barbarian was the strong foundation I would build upon.

I was now Cleric 6, Paladin 7, Druid 2, Barbarian 1. Reorganized to be the order Ayden would have taken them in it becomes the following:

Barbarian 1, Druid 2 (Circle of the Stars), Paladin 7 (Oath of the Ancients), and Cleric 6 (Peace Domain)

4 more levels to distribute. As a player who has mostly played 3.5 (I think downfall just about doubled the amount of 5E I have played) feats are my absolute favorite things, so getting to multiples of 4 in class levels to grab some was something I wanted to do (also I didn’t have to worry about ability score increases)! I had already given one feat up by taking barb and druid but I made up for it with the human variant. I also took the Knight of Solamnia background to give me Squire of Solamnia, the prerequisite for Knight of the Crowns which would give me the ability to grant attacks to my allies without needing battle maneuvers.

So I upped paladin from 7-8 for a feat and then decided to take Cleric from 6-9 because it gave me a feat and access to the spell Dawn. I mean the Dawnfather should be able to cast Dawn after all!

Now to feats

1) Background: Squire of Solamnia to give me the prerequisite for Knight of the Crowns

2) Human Variant: Remarkable Recovery. I knew I’d be taking extra damage so having 5 extra hp from any healing I get might just be the difference. It also plays into his background. He had to leave the Barbarian tribe he brought agriculture to because his skin could not retain the ceremonial tattoo ink that would have symbolized his initiation into the community.

3) Cleric 4 Warcaster to get advantage on those concentration checks, that along with proficiency and starry form of the dragon means I need to take 28 damage (56 if it’s a spell) to even have to roll, and when I do I get advantage and proficiency on the check. Getting me to lose concentration is gonna be a task.

4) Paladin 4 Knight of the Crown getting to grant an attack proficiency times per day combos wonderfully with Starmaps free guiding bolt, conveniently also proficiency times per day.

5) Cleric 8 Spelldriver I’m gonna be casting a bunch of spells so the ability to cast multiple each turn is going to make my support spells come out much faster. I have a big fam to take care of!

6) Paladin 8 Tough I really went back and forth between this and Inspiring Leader. Granting all my siblings 25 temp hp is amazing but ultimately I decided that as I’d be tanking a bunch of damage I’d need toughness. Toughness gave me 15 more hp than Inspiring leader would have, and I ended up going down to 14 at one point so it was a decision that very much paid off by a single HP! Don’t wanna pop a deathward if you can help it!

Last but not least we were granted 2 magic items. One very rare and one uncommon. For my uncommon I chose a cloak of resistance, a parting gift from the tribe that Ayden could not join. This upped my saves to 11s or 17s and took my AC to 23. For his very rare magic item I took a spellguard shield, inherited from the knight who brought him from the remote tribe to Trist‘s school, giving me advantage on saving throws vs spells and magical effects and inflicting disadvantages on spell effects targeting me. Combine that with resistance to spells from Aura of Warding and that’s a nasty nasty combo v wizards.

All in all Ayden’s build is an incredibly hard to target tanky support character who can move through the battlefield protecting his allies and being an absolute nightmare for enemy spellcasters. The only thing I really didn’t fully consider was just how much damage he would take from Warding Bond which totally bypasses all those wonderfully crafted defenses. As crazy as it is, I think we barely got to scratch the surface of Aydens full potential and it’s probably good those mages decided to cast spells at everyone else because Ayden was going to be a tough character for a spell caster to crack. The Commanding Rally did get to shine allowing characters who specialized in weapon attacks to get a little extra out of those 20 level commitments. Ayden’s build was crafted to keep his siblings alive and let them shine as bright as possible together. I’m very proud of him!

If you read all this then you’re as nerdy as me and deserve a reward!

#critical role #cr downfall #cr spoilers #ayden #cr: downfall #critical role downfall #dawnfather #the dawnfather #critical role spoilers #nick marini #multiclass #multiclassing #support build #this is too long to post on the Beacon Discord so I's posting it here!#beacon #cr speculation #cr c3 spoilers

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