#fantastic has an int value of 6

[falloutnewnobody]

Fantastic is cannonically smarter than Ceasar. do with this info what you will

[sumiyarezasuchana]

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[thecreaturecodex]

Forchoreai

“Forest God” © Cosme Lucero, accessed at their ArtStation here

[The planes in D&D have been through several iterations. In 1e, the Neutral Good with Chaotic tendencies plane was called the Happy Hunting Ground, named after something that white people made up and claimed were Native American beliefs (notably, the phrase first appears in James Fenimore Cooper). So it’s for the best that its name changed to the Beastlands in 2e, and that in general its description has been good at avoiding Native American stereotypes. At least since the Planescape days. I haven’t read the 1e Manual of the Planes.

I bring this up because the forchorai, from “Creature Catalog 3″, is a denizen of that plane. Its overall vibe reminds me of the Ceryneian hind and other uncatchable animals from Greek mythology, as well as Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr, the goats that Thor kills, eats and resurrects every day. It appears to be a wholly original creation of Peter Zelinski.]

Forchoreai CR 8 NG Magical Beast This majestic stag stands taller than a man at the shoulder, with pearlescent antlers. It has a calm, benevolent expression.

Agathions are spiritual creatures, but those modeled on carnivorous animals still feel the need to hunt as part of embodying the virtues and values of their type. Celestial animals do eat each other as they roam the wilds of Nirvana, but also turn their attention to greater game. One of these empyreal prey animals are the forchoreai—sacred, magical stags that are born to die and be renewed in the process of the hunt. Each forchoreai is philosophical about its deaths, as it knows that it will return and be all the wiser for the experience. When not being hunted, a forchoreai may act as a guide for mortals traveling through the wilds of Nirvana.

A forchoreai is more interested in fleeing than in fighting, both in order to preserve its life as long as possible but also to pose a worthy challenge for those that would hunt them. They are not slowed by thick vegetation, and often talk to animals and plants in their environment in order to gather intelligence about local hazards and terrain they can use to their advantage. Most forchoreai have a sense of sportsmanship, and only use their magical powers, such as invisibility or mirror image, against similarly magical foes instead of against mere celestial animals. They fight when cornered, or if attacked by a truly evil creature rather than a hungry predator or animal exemplar.

Forchoreai all have antlers, regardless of sex. These antlers are coated in mother-of-pearl and are fantastically beautiful, as well as being functional weapons. When slain, the antlers of the creature remain, and are an art object worth the average treasure value of a CR 8 encounter. If the forchoreai is killed permanently (such as by an evil weapon or in the area of a desecrate spell), the antlers crumble to ash. Some fiends and hags value this material for making cursed versions of healing items, such as potions of poison or periapts of foul rotting.

Forchoreai               CR 8 XP 4,800 NG Large magical beast (extraplanar) Init +13; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +23 Defense AC 21, touch 15, flat-footed 21 (-1 size, +5 Dex, +6 natural, +1 dodge) hp 95 (10d10+40); fast healing 2 Fort +11, Ref +12, Will +7 SR 18 (25 vs. divinations) Defensive Abilities freedom of movement, rejuvenation, uncanny dodge Offense Speed 60 ft. Melee gore +14 (4d6+7), 2 hooves +9 (1d6+2) Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft. Special Attacks pearlescent antlers Spell-like Abilities CL 10th, concentration +13 Constant—freedom of movement, nondetection, speak with animals At will—detect snares and pits, speak with plants 3/day—invisibility, mirror image, pass without trace, quickened protection from evil 1/day—heal (DC 19), tree stride Statistics Str 21, Dex 20, Con 19, Int 14, Wis 18, Cha 17 Base Atk +10; CMB +16; CMD 32 (36 vs. trip) Feats Alertness, Dodge, Improved Initiative, Quicken SLA (protection from evil), Run Skills Acrobatics +14 (+26 when jumping), Knowledge (nature) +8, Perception +23, Sense Motive +12, Stealth +20, Survival +12, Swim +12; Racial Modifiers +8 Perception, +8 Stealth Languages Celestial, Common, Elven, Sylvan, speak with animals SQ insightful reactions Ecology Environment any forests and plains (Nirvana) Organization solitary Treasure special (see above) Special Abilities Insightful Reactions (Ex) A forchoreai adds its Wisdom modifier to initiative checks. Pearlescent Antlers (Su) A forchoreai’s gore attack is treated as magic and good for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction. Rejuvenation (Su) A slain forchoreai returns to life without penalty 3 days after it is slain. A forchoreai can only die permanently if slain with evil-aligned weapons, or in the area of a desecrate or unhallow spell.

[cyberkevvideo]

Throne of Night Theory Builds Part 16: The Mist Creature

Imagine my surprise when I learned the Canadian dollar dropped considerably. I’m so glad this AP was done when it was and not now. I don’t know I could have handled paying 1.5x the value we were originally quoted. That said, with so much “free time”, I can’t help but daydream that Gary’s working on the AP to kill time. During this time trying time, it’d be a nice pick-me-up.

Today’s entry isn’t a new picture, but it’s definitely cool to look at. A creature made of mist awaits our heroes and is about to ambush them. It took me a fair while to look up all the different kinds of fog and mist-like creatures in Pathfinder 1st Edition. I finally settled on today’s base creature because of the very descriptive eyes both in the picture, and in the lore write up that I discovered. They seemed to match, so that’s what I went with.

For the CR, I looked up sample encounters in the beginning of Book 5 of “Way of the Wicked”, and one of them was a CR 15. Given how difficult the creature would be to advance and make a worthwhile threat, that’s what I went with.

For space reasons, I’ll be cropping the encounter build.

All images shared here were done by the forever fantastic and amazingly talented Michael D. Clarke, aka SpiralMagus

EDIT: All stats are cleaned up and look pretty.

BTW, it suggested I make one because there are those who’ve expressed they want to reward my efforts, so I made a Ko-Fi page. No pressure in supporting it though. I know we’re all experiencing financially trying times right now. I hope everyone’s staying safe right now.

The creature I went with, due to his piercing blue glowing eyes, is the fogwarden. It’s from way back during AD&D days, and was converted by Frog God Games for their Tome of Horrors Complete. I took a few liberties and combined the 3.5, Pathfinder, and 5e versions. Yeah, all three are different from one another. This is what the “unique” aspect of it is. But this way, it’s an actual threat at CR 15. Also, I made it a psychic. While the fogwarden can still use its lightning abilities, it can’t cast any spells in its constant gaseous form. However, it can use psychic spells since you only need emotions.

For this, I advanced the HD to 8 from 4, gave it the Mighty Template, and the Mist creature template. Redundant, I know, but those extra abilities and hp from changing it to an outsider definitely round out the creature more. Despite all the overlap, it still ended up being a CR 15. It’s technically a CR 16, given the templates and HD, but it just does not have the AC nor deal the damage a typical CR 16 should, so I dropped it down to 15. If used to its fullest potential, and it can bottleneck PCs with the fog abilities, then it might actually be worth more XP, but on paper it’s only worth this amount. GMs are free to reward their players more if the encounter ends up being far more difficult than anticipated. At this level though, the PCs shouldn’t find 4th level psychic spells or obscuring fog spells that overwhelming.

I will point out that this is a 3PP monster, so it doesn’t really follow the rules too well. All monsters are supposed to have three odds stats and three even. This creature had two odd and four even. It’s not even in the original 3.5 stats. In fact, the Wisdom is 2 lower. The 5e stats are exactly the same as a the 3.5 ones, so that didn’t help me any. I needed one more odd number so I threw in a magic tome for good measure. This gave me the numbers I needed.

If you’re wondering where I got some of the damage numbers from, I was looking at the original fogwarden stats from AD&D, and what they suggested for their 8 HD advancement. Best part is even stronger ones are large size and have a less globe of invulnerability. On top of that, they’re a mystic theurge of CL 17/CL 13th (arcane/divine). It’s too bad old stats didn’t have ability scores.

VLINAUNDRA    (CR 15; 51,200 XP) Unique advanced mighty mist fogwarden psychic 8 NE Medium outsider (air, elemental, water) Init +11; Senses cloud sight, darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +29 Aura fear (60 ft., W-DC 25) DEFENSE AC 26, touch 26, flat-footed 14 (+4 deflection, +6 Dex, +6 dodge) hp 256 (16 HD; 8d10+8d6+184) Fort +12; Ref +15; Will +20 Defensive Abilities air mastery, electricity discharge (R-DC 25, 6d6+5 electricity), fortification (100%), morphic form; DR 10/magic, DR 2/—; Immune cloud/fog/gas-based attacks and spells, cold, combat maneuvers, electricity, inhaled poisons and gases, mind-affecting effects, paralysis, poison, sleep; Resist fire 10; SR 27 Weakness vulnerability to sunlight OFFENSE Speed fly 70 ft. (good) Special Attacks animate dead, dark half (+1 spell DC, +2 Will, 2 bleed; 11 rounds), lightning bolt (60 ft. line, DC 27, 7d6+5 electricity, useable every other round), mighty damage. phrenic amplifications (focused force, intense focus, overpowering mind), phrenic pool (10) Melee shocking touch +26 (5d6+5 electricity) Spell-like Abilities (CL 8th, concentration +17)   At will—animate dead   3/day—fog cloud, obscuring mist, stinking cloud (F-DC 24)   1/day—cloudkill (F-DC 26), solid fog Psychic Spell-like Abilities (CL 8th; concentration +18)   1/day—detect thoughts (W-DC 22) Psychic Spells Known (CL 8th; concentration +18)   4th (4/day)—black tentaclesB (CMB +18), shout (F/R-DC 25)   3rd (6/day)—excruciating deformationB (F-DC 24), id insinuation II (W-DC 24), slow (W-DC 24)   2nd (7/day)—alter selfB, fox’s cunning, mind thrust II (W-DC 23), sonic scream (R-DC 23)   1st (8/day)—comprehend languages, ill omen, magic missile, murderous command (W-DC 22), ray of enfeeblementB (F-DC 22), shield   0 (at will)—dancing lights, detect magic, ghost sound (W-DC 21), know direction, mage hand, resistance, telekinetic projectile, virtue Psychic Discipline abomination STATISTICS Str 10, Dex 22, Con 12, Int 20, Wis 16, Cha 18 Base Atk +10; CMB —; CMD — Feats Ability Focus (lightning bolt), AlertnessB, Dodge, Expanded Phrenic Pool, Great Fortitude, Greater Spell Penetration, Spell Penetration, Weapon Finesse Skills Acrobatics +22, Bluff +20, Fly +26, Intimidate +20, Knowledge (arcana) +20, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +21, Knowledge (geography) +17, Knowledge (local) +19, Knowledge (nature) +19, Knowledge (planes) +18, Linguistics +21, Perception +29, Sense Motive +27, Spellcraft +23, Survival +19, Stealth +22 (+26 to move silently, +37 in areas of fog, cloud, mist, or smoke); Racial Modifiers +4 Fly, +4 to Stealth to move silently, +15 to Stealth in areas of fog, cloud, mist, or smoke; +5 to all ability and skill checks Languages Aquan, Auran, Common, Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Terran, Undercommon SQ air breather, detect thoughts, gaseous form (constant) Gear tome of clear thought +1 (read) SPECIAL ABILITIES Air Mastery (Ex) Any airborne creature takes a –1 penalty on attack and damage rolls against a mist creature. Animate Dead (Su) The electrical aura of the fogwarden can animate dead creatures within 20 feet. This is otherwise identical to an animate dead (caster level 8th). The animated creatures resemble zombies (and use their stats) and are under the control of the fogwarden that animated them. They are not undead however, and cannot be turned or rebuked. If the fogwarden is slain or moves more than 20 feet from a zombie, the animated creature collapses dead and cannot be animated again. Cloud Sight (Ex) A mist creature can see through clouds, gases, fogs, mists, and smoke as though they didn’t inhibit vision. Creatures and objects do not gain concealment from a mist creature due to such conditions. A mist creature may use this ability while gaseous. Electricity Discharge (Su) Electricity constantly plays across a fogwarden’s form. Any metal object (including metal weapons) that contacts a fogwarden’s body takes 6d6 points of electricity damage. Magic items receive a DC 25 Reflex saving throw to reduce the damage by half. Nonmagical items and objects receive no save and automatically take full damage. A creature holding the object or weapon at the time of contact takes 6d6 points of electricity damage as well (DC 25 Reflex save for half). Gaseous Form (Ex) The fogwarden’s natural form is that of fog or mist. This ability is similar to the gaseous form spell (caster level 8th), except that a fogwarden does not lose its supernatural abilities or its lightning bolt ability, and has a fly speed of 40 feet. It is immune to and cannot perform combat maneuvers. Mighty Damage (Ex) A mighty creature adds +5 damage to all of their attacks, spells, and supernatural abilities. If a spell or ability targets multiple creatures (ie. magic missile), the bonus damage is only applied once to a single target of the mighty creature’s choice. Vulnerability to Sunlight (Ex) Fogwardens shun sunlight. A fogwarden exposed to sunlight is staggered for as long as it remains in the sunlight, and is destroyed utterly after 1 hour of exposure if it cannot escape.

--name means “mist” in dwarven.

[monstersdownthepath]

Bonus Spotlight: Ahriman, the Shadow Across Creation

Neutral Evil Demigod of Destruction, Divs, and Nihilism

Domains: Darkness, Death, Destruction, Evil Subdomains: Catastrophe, Fear, Loss, Rage

The Complete Book of the Damned, pg. 12~13

Obedience: While praying to Ahriman, destroy something of monetary or sentimental value to another person, preferably in front of someone with a strong emotional connection to the item. Alternatively, willingly take 1 point of Constitution damage by flagellating yourself with a barbed lash as you pray to Ahriman. Benefit: Your true alignment becomes masked for 24 hours, or until you perform this Obedience again. Upon performing this Obedience, choose a particular alignment. You read as the chosen alignment to all forms of magical detection, and can fool both items and magic which respond to particular alignments.

just kidding about End of the World Month being over. It can’t be over, not until we talk about this world-ender.

Anyway THIS combo is very, very interesting! To my knowledge, Ahriman is one of the three deities in existence which allows you to mask your alignment, and unless I’m mistaken, is the only method in the game which does so for a full 24 hours without needing a spell slot. It’s not one that will give you an outright power boost like most benefits do, but it makes it much, MUCH harder for Good folk to sniff you out. Be careful, though, because your mask is so thorough and complete that you’re actually vulnerable to spells like Blasphemy and Dictum if you masquerade as alignments that those spells can hurt.

The mask can’t actually be dispelled, either, so anyone scrutinizing you can’t reveal your true alignment unless they keep you from performing your Obedience... But it also means you can’t just ‘pull off’ the mask to avoid being creamed by an alignment-reliant spell that gets hurled at you.

Speaking of the Obedience, though, this is a deceptively simple one to both perform and keep on the down-low. Flagellants are unusual--and often unwelcomed--but not unknown in many societies, and you don’t have to audibly pray to Ahriman as you beat yourself bloody. If you wanted to really push the illusion you could even do so publicly, chanting hymns to other gods as you scar yourself in “their name.” Whether you keep it secret or flaunt your status aloud, you may earn some sour looks, and perhaps you won’t be invited into polite company, but you won’t look evil. Just very, very odd.

The Constitution damage is annoying but not crippling as, say, Charon’s demand that you dull your mind every day, as 1 point of Con damage repairs itself the next time you rest.

The “primary” means of proving your devotion to Ahriman is also deceptively simple, depending on how hard you Murder Hobo your way through a given campaign. You may end up gathering a lot of possessions that mean a lot to other people, and the Obedience doesn’t indicate that they need to be sentimental to someone who’s still alive! So go ahead, shatter that bandit’s sword, which was gifted to him by his father! Destroy that sorcerer’s locket containing a memento of their one love! Desecrate and destroy that altar to Desna! Maybe even in front of the priests! Maybe not that last one if you’re among Good folk, though.

Unless you happen to be projecting a Chaotic Good aura and can convince them that the altar is somehow already desecrated and must be torn down...

It’s not a particularly hard Obedience to do, but it’s definitely finicky to keep doing. At least Ahriman gives you an out in the form of a blood sacrifice!

IMPORTANT NOTE: As Ahriman is neither a Horseman nor a Daemon Harbinger, you cannot take the Souldrinker prestige class to get Ahriman’s Boons early (without DM fiat). You must use the Evangelist, Exalted, or Sentinel prestige classes to get the Boons early, at levels 10, 13, and 16 instead of 12, 16, and 20.

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EVANGELIST

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Boon 1: Ahriman’s Word. Gain Command 3/day, Detect Thoughts 2/day, or Suggestion 1/day

Nice! Command is a decent Baby Save or Suck, and Suggestion is ALWAYS nice to see, but in my opinion the real utility star here is Detect Thoughts. Lock onto invisible foes, sniff out enemies through walls (some walls), read the minds of anyone who fails a Will save... It’s a pretty fun spell! Especially for finding out if anyone has sentimental attachment to any items in the area, so you can hoard them away for later Obediences.

Still, all three of these options are pretty good! Not particularly stellar, but useful.

Boon 2: Unassailable Conviction. 1/day, if you fail a Will save, you may immediately roll again and use the second result. If you succeed the second save, you receive a +2 morale bonus to attack and damage rolls for 1 hour.

This is actually a fairly weak Boon, all things considered... But it will absolutely, 100% save your life at some point. That morale bonus is actually you, the player, in real life breathing a sigh of relief as you wiggle out from under a Dominate, Feeblemind, or Imprisonment. Note that the ability only triggers if you already know you’ve failed the throw, so there’s no real chance of ‘wasting’ this ability preemptively.

The reroll itself is powerful enough that the morale bonus feels kind of unneeded.... But truth be told, despite its strength, when compared to other second Boons this is still pretty weak. You could have at least given it to your followers 2/day, Ahriman!

Boon 3: Force the Lie. 1/day, you may designate any point within 90ft of you to become shrouded by a 30ft mist of crackling black energy. You and other worshipers of Ahriman can see through this cloud with perfect clarity, but all others within the cloud treat it as Obscuring Mist. Creatures in the mist other than you must make a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 your hit dice + your Charisma modifier) or have all luck, morale, or sacred bonuses they’re benefiting from twisted into a penalty so long as they remain inside the mist. This mist lingers for 1 round/hit dice you possess and cannot be dissipated by winds.

Evangelists of Ahriman just kind of get screwed, don’t they? Being able to drop cover for yourself or allies and screw up enemy ranged fighters is good, yes... But 1/day as a capstone ability? That’s really, really pathetic.

Morale bonuses are fairly common, sacred bonuses get thrown around like candy for Good-aligned folk, but both of them are less common than enhancement and alchemical bonuses, which are seen in more or less every fight with casters and martial characters using magic weapons. I won’t talk about luck bonuses, though; those are so rare I can only really think of two sources... Both of which apply to AC. Suddenly going from +2 AC to -2 AC is a pretty big deal, I’ll admit. Twisting huge benefits into penalties is more powerful than I’m giving credit for, I’ll admit, and the power to do that to everyone in a 30ft spread means that it’s likely more than one victim will suddenly be scrambled by it. I’m probably not valuing as high as I should be, despite the fact that high-level enemies often come pre-packaged with morale, luck, and sacred bonuses, or slap them on themselves if they know a battle is coming.

I probably am. It just seems pretty weak in a vacuum, and no ability operates in a vacuum. Perhaps one of the biggest benefits to this ability is the power to drop it directly onto yourself to grant yourself some impenetrable cover; you can see perfectly through it, but no one else can, and it can’t be blown away or otherwise removed. Amusingly, even against foes who aren’t running with any bonuses that Force the Lie twists around, you can still curse them by slapping your buffs onto them to have them turned to penalties. Just... pray that they fail the saving throw, or prepare to get yelled at by your team for buffing the enemy.

Alright, alright, sorry Ahriman. This ability isn’t that bad. I do like the touch that if you can convert the rest of the party to your nihilistic faith, they can see through the mist as well.

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EXALTED

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Boon 1: Hamper the Righteous. Gain Protection From Good 3/day, Touch of Idiocy 2/day, or Bestow Curse 1/day.

Oof, Bestow Curse? That’s a real nice ability to have tucked away. It IS negated by a save, but it’s a Save or Suck that keeps on sucking with penalties that last permanently until removed. Being able to eternally deny a target half of all turns they’d otherwise take is painful, and if you’re the creative type, you can even whip up curses of your own to plague someone with! Perhaps every time they tell a truth, they have to spend the next 6 seconds screaming. Or maybe they cough up a spider every time they lie. Or maybe their hands twist any weapon they wield back onto themselves.

There’s a lot you can do with the creative freedom Bestow Curse offers.

However, if you’re not a fan of 1/days being negated by successful saves, how about Touch of Idiocy? Sure, it’s a touch-range spell, which I--a lover and player of squishy classes--tend to shy away from, but it offers no saving throw and docks 1d6 Int, Wis, or Cha off the target for 10 minutes/level. It’s unlikely to make much of a difference past level 10 or so... Unless you use it against creatures who have extremely low mental stats anyway, such as most humanoids. It’s a Save or Suck but without the save! Unless you roll a 1. But that’s why you can use it twice!

In an Evil campaign though, the one that really shines here is Protection From Good, a lengthy spell that shields you entirely from the natural attacks of Good-aligned creatures and gives you bonuses to resist the weapons and spells of Good-aligned people. If you’re not in an Evil campaign, or are just Evil vs Evil, then the other two options are much better (I’d personally run with Touch of Idiocy for the potential shutting down of melee people breathing down my neck), but Protection From Good is always a fantastic choice for the times when you plan to launch attacks on the good folk’s towns.

Boon 2: Pierce Obfuscation. You can see perfectly through darkness of any intensity, including that created by Deeper Darkness. 1/day, you may cast True Seeing as a spell-like ability.

You get Darkvision Except Beefier, so beefy that you can see even through the otherwise impenetrable Deeper Darkness. Even if something ELSE gets in your way, you can immediately invoke True Seeing on either yourself or another. Everyone should know the utility of True Seeing by now, hopefully; the power to pierce just about any illusion or magical distortions in the game, utterly ruining the ability for Illusionist casters to do anything fancy.

Still, despite its power and usefulness, this is also an incredibly boring ability. The only real flair you can give it is dropping Deeper Darkness onto yourself and being the only one who can actually see in it, which pairs well with the power to Sneak Attack, either your own (somehow), or by slapping True Seeing onto an ally who can.

Boon 3: Call For Ruin. Once per day, you may call you may call either 1d4+1 Ghawwas, 1d3 Shira, or 1 Sepid Div to your side. You gain telepathy out to 100ft with any Div you summon. They follow your commands perfectly for 1 round per hit dice you possess, but will not perform any action that’s overtly Good, and will not follow any order to save any mortal life aside from your own, and may vanish immediately out of indignity if told to do so.

As we’ll eventually see, this is a powerful ability! No creature on this list is below CR 10, with Ghawwas being amphibious, resilient and poisonous fighters, Shira being powerful front-line brawlers capable of creating their own concealing dust clouds on a whim, and Sepid wielding extremely spooky spell-likes like Disintegrate, Enervation, Hold Monster and Baleful Polymorph. In most situations, calling a Sepid to your side is the best option, as it possesses powerful utility spells, powerful blaster spells, powerful melee abilities, and the ability to Call Debris 3/day to blast everyone in a 40ft circle with 15d6 damage... but both of the other options have their uses.

Ghawwas can all use Hallucinatory Terrain 3/day to scramble the environment (which you or an ally can see through with True Seeng), and the Shira can hurl out Waves of Fatigue 3/day in between their full-attack actions. Shira make excellent tanks as well, granting themselves concealment with their Dusty Pelts until they can close in and rip enemy souls from their body with their Consume Essence. Ghawwas can deliver Strength-damaging poison with every bite attack they make, and in an underwater battle they boil the seas around them to weed out life incapable of handling the heat.

Ahriman is pretty generous with this power, though summoning fiends tends to make your obfuscated alignment impossible to hide any further. I wish summoning the Shira was more reliable (like 1d3+1 or something), but as I said before, getting 1 Sepid is often more powerful than getting lucky rolls on any of the others.

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SENTINEL

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Boon 1: Break the Weak. Gain Inflict Light Wounds 3/day, Death Knell 2/day, or Dispel Magic 1/day.

‘Break the weak’ is right, because Inflict Light Wounds isn’t going to break anything above 3 or 4 hit dice. By the time you get it, it’s maybe useful to patch up any undead in the party or deliver a humiliating final blow to a particular enemy, but beyond that it’s likely not going to get brought out.

Death Knell I’ll forever harp on; it’s a spell with only one real, inflexible use, and it’s only a moderately good one. It deals a finishing blow and grants you a buff for doing so, but sacrificing your turn in the middle of pitched combat to use it can end with you getting walloped by the target’s allies. It is moderately more useful for the frontline Sentinel than a typical caster, though.

Dispel Magic, though, has a thousand and one uses. Getting rid of enemy buffs or glamours, shattering illusions, removing debuffs from an ally, breaking magic locks... It’s a good spell to just have available, even at 1/day.

Boon 2: Serpentine Lash. You gain Weapon Specialization (Whip) and Whip Mastery as bonus feats, even if you do not meet their prerequisites. Whips you wield take on the illusory appearance of a live serpent, and grant you a +2 on combat maneuver checks to trip opponents. If a whip you wield has a +1 enhancement bonus or higher, you may grant it the Dancing Weapon ability as a swift action. You may have your weapon animate for 6 rounds each day; they do not have to be consecutive.

This ability is deceptively useless. If you’re a whip-wielder by nature, you likely already have both Weapon Specialization and Whip Mastery by level 12, and if you don’t, what in god’s name is wrong with you? Did you just roll over and die whenever something with moderately thick skin came along?? Did you devote yourself only to disarming and tripping opponents for everyone else to deal with??? ... Alright that one sounds pretty cool, actually. But still, whips don’t deal lethal damage to their victims and don’t deal damage at all to enemies above certain armor bonuses if you don’t have Whip Mastery, and it can be taken as early as level 2. Waiting until level 12 (or 16 if you didn’t take the prestige class) to learn how to lethally wield a whip is agony.

However, if you’re NOT a whip specialist... That means that you’re unlikely to become one. Ahriman’s sacred weapon is the whip, so a Sentinel of Ahriman doesn’t have an excuse not to have one, but since you’re not specializing with a whip you’re unlikely to break it out in combat when the boring but practical swords, axes, and maces are available.

The Dancing quality is a pretty good enchantment to slap onto a weapon out of nowhere, essentially doubling the number of attacks you make each round, but whips aren’t exactly known for being devastating weapons, and the animated whip doesn’t have your Str/Dex bonus to go along with it and can’t use combat maneuvers, which is what whips are basically for. If you already have a +5 Super Duper Death Whip of Oblivion And Destruction, slapping Dancing onto it can be nice, but enchanted whips are difficult to justify creating and even harder to come by in the wild.

All in all this is a very, very disappointing Boon that more or less reads as “you get a +2 profane bonus to trip combat maneuvers when using a whip. Also, 6/day you can deal maybe 3d3+3 damage to an enemy as a swift action.”

Boon 3: Crush Opposition. 3/day, you may cause a corporeal enemy within 60ft of you to crackle with a black energy that attempts to crush them from every angle. They take 10 damage per hit die you possess, but may reduce this damage by half with a successful Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 your hit die + your Charisma modifier). Creatures killed by this damage are completely obliterated, all of their belongings falling to the ground. All individual items the creature was carrying at the time become cursed for 1 hour per hit die you possess, the curse blighting any nonevil creature holding, carrying, or wearing the item with a stacking -1 penalty on saving throws versus fear and insanity effects.

My jaw dropped when I saw this. This is a significantly beefier version of Szuriel and Trelmarixian’s third Exalted Boon, which respectively allow you to cast a nerfed Implosion, and a regular Implosion.

Implosion itself is a pretty nice spell, letting you put the squeeze on any corporeal target you can see (Constructs and Undead have no get-out-of-jail free card here), but its biggest weakness is that it can only target a particular creature once per cast, and it’s completely negated with a successful save. Not only will Crush Opposition’s saving throw typically be higher than Implosion’s (10 + 1/2 HD + Cha mod vs 10 + 9 + Spellcasting mod), but it still deals half damage even if they DO make their save.

At the time you get it, that means Crush Opposition will do a flat 160 damage to any victim you designate, and 80 damage even if they succeed. 80 will shave off maybe a sixth of a CR 16~20 enemy’s health bar and will outright kill most mooks the instant you hit them with it, letting you focus on the main boss more. Though this ability can only hit, at max, three targets a day... Well, Implosion can only hit a given target once per cast, but Crush Opposition can hit the same person three times. It’s a good trade-off, if you ask me.

The whole ‘all their items get cursed if they die’ bit is more of an amusing add-on than anything that could be potentially useful. Evil folk like you don’t tend to leave survivors that can reclaim the gear of their fallen allies... But maybe you’re not among Evil folk (which is impressive, considering that Good folk tend not to wield live snakes as weapons). Maybe you can convince your party that all that gear is really and truly cursed, but you can uncurse it for them! You’ll just... Hold onto all that loot for a while.

Not very feasible, given that you’ll likely have casters that can uncurse the stuff, but it’s still a potential roleplaying opportunity.

You can read more about him here.

[crystalelemental]

Now that I have played through EO5 with almost every master class option, I can finally have some proper goddamned opinions on them all.

Except Shield Bearer Dragoon and Spirit Broker Necromancer, who would be the only two guarantees in the next party.

Going in order, here are my personal rankings of each class:

Phantom Duelist Fencer: 5/10.  I really don’t care for it.  It’s not a terrible class, and I’m sure there are ways to build around it, but it feels like the kind of unit that requires very specific setup and a lot of luck to be successful.  I don’t like dodge tanks.

Chain Duelist Fencer: 7/10.  A lot better than Phantom Duelist for me, but ultimately requiring a lot more setup than EO4′s Landsknecht, for a lot less payoff.  It does get the ability to hit all enemies with each follow-up, which is nice, but it lasts for one turn, so you get a good shot in every other turn instead of every turn.  It also only follows up on certain attacks, like stab or all elemental attacks.  Which...I guess is good with Hawk Rover’s multi-hit attack?  But again, specific parties let it be more effective.  Without them, it’s not as impressive.

Shield Bearer Dragoon: ???.  It’s one of two classes I haven’t used yet.

Cannon Bearer Dragoon: 10/10.  Literally the only one of these I will give.  I can’t think of a better all-around option for a party, especially a beginner.  Good natural defense, the ability to draw aggro away from the party with the turrets, having good offensive presence with said turrets, and the absolute absurdity that is Buster Cannon in the front row.  You can argue that three turns for one super attack is kind of limited, especially when status or binds can disable the shot.  You can argue that, because the turrets take up the extra row, it conflicts pretty hard with Rovers and extremely hard with any sort of Necromancer.  Both of which are fair points!  But Rover and the Necromancer I used were extremely underwhelming options, so in that game of favorites, Dragoon wins by far, and really, status and binds will mess up anyone.  Sure, the TP cost is then sunk on an attack that didn’t happen, but damage output is so massive that it’s almost a negligible loss.  Also, it’s a slow activation, which means it’s an excellent option for Formaldehyde.

Barrage Brawler Pugilist: 9.5/10.  Excellent, excellent class for the entire game.  I love the binding combos.  It would frankly be perfect, if it weren’t for two things.  One, DPS isn’t that stellar, so in terms of massive damage, you’ll want another option.  This is definitely more a lockdown class.  The other is that it’s just...not very good against Star Devourer.  Which, considering my hesitation to change up party composition, is a huge hit.  That said, it’s such a good support unit that still gets respectable damage, and being able to (1) double hit with your individual bind attacks, and (2) use a move that can combo into all binds in one turn, makes this class really potent.

Impact Brawler Pugilist: 9.5/10.  Look, I don’t particularly like the design of Pugilist, so I was hesitant to use it.  Needless to say, I’m not thrilled with how much I love it.  Impact Brawler is stupid powerful, and has AoE with some of its skills.  It’s a lot more versatile on damage than Barrage Brawler is, for sure.  The only downside is, it’s a lot of playing with HP values.  It shines best when your HP is lower, and really, it’s best if you have a Healer Botanist.  So, because of a bit of team constriction and requiring certain essential supports like reviving you when your idiot ass gets too low on HP, it’s not a perfect class.

Deathbringer Harbinger: 8/10.  Just because it’s my favorite class doesn’t mean it’s good.  Deathbringer gets the benefit of having a lot of good status options, including Poison, which is insanely powerful.  Said status attacks are also for a row, which is great.  It even gets stat buffs to attack and defense based on the number of ailments inflicted for as long as Miasma Armor is up.  but there’s the issue.  While Miasma Armor is up.  This class requires a lot of skill points to do everything it wants, and you have to keep an eye on applying Miasma Armor so you don’t lose the buffs.  It’s best at cleaning up random encounters, and can do some nice support work against most bosses, including Star Devourer.  But damage is really not that impressive, and as great as the passives to boost attack and defense are, its still underwhelming in DPS and its ability to take hits.

Deathguard Harbinger: 9/10.  Holy shit this class was great.  Ephemeral Reap is fantastic damage, and the debuffs are really good options.  It’s a great option against single-target bosses and FOEs.  That said, there are two problems.  One is setup.  Without a proper team composition, Deathguard spends a lot of time setting up debuffs to Ephemeral Reap.  Even with that setup though, there’s one way bigger problem.  It’s single-target, and dispels the debuffs.  Which means repeated setup is required.  This is compounded with Star Devourer, who turns this otherwise top-tier class into garbage instantly by being able to remove all debuffs, heal for more damage than it can deal, and generally just be a prick.  Seriously, if Star Devourer didn’t exist, I’d feel like classes were a lot better balanced.

Omnimancer Warlock: 6/10.  It’s a support Warlock, only the support isn’t very useful!  Lowering elemental attack is nowhere near as good as lowering physical attack, especially in a game without the dragons.  Stun is never reliable, and having only Arm Bind is...not ideal.  Altar could be good, but the delay really hurts.  Add to it, despite the passive that keeps the previous spell’s element and raises damage, the DPS is just way too small to be impressive.  Now that said, Altar may have one incredible use that I didn’t experience: against Star Devourer.  It’s weak to all elements, so getting two weaknesses hit per cast for three turns to buff its damage significantly may actually result in some pretty strong DPS.  So I wouldn’t completely discount it, but it’s not as good as Elemancer overall.

Elemancer Warlock: 8/10.  It’s not a spectacular class, but I do love it.  It’s a bit standard, and the only interesting thing it can do is Amplify + Focus Chant + Element of choice.  With another class that has INT-based attacks, I’m sure damage gets way better.  But that invites a lot of team restriction, and it’s not my favorite option.

Spirit Evoker Necromancer: 5/10.  It’s a cool idea, but conflict with Dragoon only drags it lower, because it has very little DPS at all, and Wraith Dance was super disappointing.  Even with the best of passives, you’re lucky to get a couple hundred damage.  It’s not a terrible reserve healer, though, and it does get Fire and Ice attacks from the Wraiths, so that helps as an alternative, it’s just...nowhere near as good as the parts it tries to embody.

Spirit Broker Necromancer: ???.  The other class I haven’t used.

Flying Falcon Rover: 7.5/10.  Okay, I don’t like the Rover classes.  The TP cost for the animal alone is massive, and kind of a problem, especially early game where you summon it and can’t do much else.  That said, the Hawk option has one really great move: Sky Dive.  The damage output exceeds even Cannon Bearer Dragoon, and it has Head Bind.  It’s a three-turns-later effect, so similar to the Dragoon as well.  So it’s actually probably better than I give it credit for.  But it took a lot of time to get to that skill, and early and mid-game it’s pretty underwhelming.

Hunting Hound Rover: 5/10.  You know what’s never been good?  Alternate healing classes without revival capabilities, especially in a game where it’s hard as hell to get Nectar II.  It’s more about having an offensive healer, but the lack of revival really hurts it, since most parties are going to want that revival effect if you’re going to deal significant DPS.  It just can’t compete as well for a slot, since it tries to do a bunch of things but isn’t successful at any.

Blade Dancer Masurao: 9/10.  “Great, but not ideal” is a good summation.  Great damage, a lot of good single-target skills makes it a good DPS alongside something that hits a row or all targets.  Its main drawback is that it’s frail.  Like, really frail.  If you want the maximum benefit from its skills, you want all four equipment slots to be katanas.  With only three, you can get a piece of armor, and a 68% chance to second strike with skills.  With four katanas, any hit will now kill you, but you guarantee double-strike, and most skills gain more damage outright, as well as extra hits.  It’s a class where you can decide between three swords for better protection, or four swords for max damage, and that decision is probably based on your party.  Have a Shield Bearer Dragoon?  Probably going to go 4.  Have just a Botanist?  3 might be smarter.  Have neither?  You probably want a different class.  It’s also limited in mid-game.  You need a lot of skills available for this class to shine with multiple katanas, so it’s only really going to stand out in late and post game.

Blade Master Masurao: 9/10.  Great passives, and really, Petal Scatter is such a good skill for dealing with multiple targets.  So really good at dealing with Star Devourer.  Unfortunately, that skill cost a lot more, so expect to need Amrita for that fight...  Still, this is a more consistently great option.  It’s not as much a standout as some in post-game, but early and mid-game still lets it shine spectacularly.

Divine Punisher Shaman: 1/10.  Okay, this seems harsh.  But I stand by it.  Sincerely ask yourself: what does this class have that Divine Herald doesn’t?  Mana Oracle.  That’s it.  But that’s two turns of setup, one of which applies a buff, and the damage the move deals isn’t even that great.  Pretty sure Elemancer can outdamage that one move, which is shameful.  It’s not a good team player, needs very specific parties to the point of feeling gimmicky (I have yet to hear of one with any success without at least two copies of this class), and is vastly outclassed in every possible way.  Which sucks, because “Divine Punisher” is the coolest title.

Divine Herald: 6/10.  Like Princess, but worse!  I think the main issue is that you don’t have enough skill points for the things you want.  Really, you kinda pick the specific buffs you want and otherwise play it as a passive healer.  The problem is, running this with Botanist means you have two incredibly passive characters now, so your front line better be damn offensive if you’re going to make it work.  Otherwise, you give up on revival, which is the same issue as with the Hound Rover.  It’s still a good support, but unlike Princess, it feels too limited.  There’s absolutely no offensive presence at all, there’s nothing like Protect Order that really frees it up, and it’s just...not as impressive.

Merciful Healer Botanist: 7.5/10.  It’s...good.  Not particularly unique or interesting, but good.  Almost necessary for certain party builds.  Because a lot of the best damage dealing classes lose HP or defense, you kinda need this level of revival and party-wide healing that literally no other class has.  So it’s mandatory.  Which frustrates me, because it has so little otherwise.  For Deathguard Harbinger, it can still access Poison or Blind smoke skills, and has an elemental defense debuff to help Elemancer or even Omnimancer.  It also doesn’t need a ton of skills to be effective, so you do have those alternative options.  It’s just boring to me.  A boring linchpin.

Graced Poisoner Botanist: 9/10.  This class, on the other hand, is awesome.  Smoke skills are great to inflict status, and the debuff that makes the enemy more vulnerable is fantastic.  It even hits a row, which is appreciated.  It’s a good team player that retains a row healing spell and revival.  Go figure, a non-healing class has access to a revival skill, but the actual healing alternatives don’t.  That said, its offense isn’t great.  Smokebomb can be good, but if you’re running Ephemeral Reap, you likely won’t want to Smokebomb in the first place, so plan accordingly.  Even then, it’s not that spectacular, so it’s more a good ally for random encounters, especially with Auto-Smoke to mess them up good.  I really loved this class, even if it could be a bit more effective in boss battles.

[junker-town]

The 10 dumbest mistakes from NFL Week 13, ranked

Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

There weren’t many predictable outcomes this week, except the Chargers Chargering and the Panthers getting stopped at the goal line.

Just when you think this NFL season couldn’t get weirder, a day like Sunday happens. It started off with a t-shirt beef between the Steelers and Browns. It ended with the Texans beating the Patriots for just the second time ever and the first since a meaningless Week 17 meeting 10 years ago.

In between, the Dolphins, who some thought could be a historically bad team, won their third game of 2019. The Bengals won a game, officially ending all hopes for (or dreading of) an 0-16 season. And Washington is somehow still alive in the NFC East race.

Week 13 didn’t just deliver unexpected outcomes. It also gave us some plays that were bat-fecal crazy. There was DeAndre Hopkins’ reverse option pitch to Deshaun Watson, the Dolphins’ punter-to-kicker touchdown, and the Titans’ blocked field goal turned touchdown that helped them conquer the Colts for only the fourth time in their last 23 tries.

Frequently throughout Sunday, we were all left looking like Jon Gruden during a trip to Oz:

Me thinking about how much food I've eaten since Thursday and how little I've worked out pic.twitter.com/Am9IKE3edw

— Morgan Moriarty (@Morgan_Moriarty) December 1, 2019

Luckily, we can take comfort in one constant each week in the NFL: There will always be dumb mistakes. Here are our top 10 from this Sunday:

10. Antoine Bethea couldn’t handle Allen Lazard’s 30-degree angle

Late in the first quarter, the Giants fell back into quarters coverage for a second-and-1 play against the Packers in their own territory. That put pressure on Bethea’s shoulders to handle wideout Lazard from his position near the slot.

Bethea was not ready for this pressure.

Allen Lazard really hit 'em with the ...uh, slight change in direction pic.twitter.com/SEJlxO5o5A

— Christian D'Andrea (@TrainIsland) December 1, 2019

Lazard curled off toward the post while Bethea turned the opposite way, leaving the second-year receiver wide open for a 33-yard touchdown pass from Aaron Rodgers.

9. Tahir Whitehead got two penalties on the same play to give the Chiefs a first down

The Raiders didn’t have much of a chance in Kansas City after falling behind 21-0 at halftime, but they were still clinging to hope when they backed the Chiefs into a third-and-11 situation in the third quarter. Oakland needed a big play to shut down Kansas City and jump start its comeback. Whitehead was hell bent on getting it on an inside blitz.

And in the process, he gifted the Chiefs a fresh set of downs.

Tahir Whitehead with the rare offside/late hit double after the refs blow the play dead on 3rd down pic.twitter.com/lmC3749xsM

— Christian D'Andrea (@TrainIsland) December 1, 2019

Whitehead jumped offside, and his unimpeded run at Patrick Mahomes forced officials to blow the play dead. The linebacker didn’t hear that, though, and while Mahomes chucked the ball away, Whitehead shoved the QB to the turf — earning a predictable 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty that granted Kansas City a free first down. Three plays later, the Chiefs would kick a 50-yard field goal on their way to a 40-9 win.

8. Two roughing the passer penalties cost the 49ers dearly

The Ravens are the last team in the league you want to give free yards to on defense. Lamar Jackson with more opportunities is a bad time for everyone not named Lamar Jackson. And while the 49ers and Ravens combined for a fantastic game that both teams should feel good about, there were moments where San Francisco’s role players messed up big time.

In the second quarter, the 49ers made a great third-down stop, but rookie linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair was called for a deflating penalty after hitting Jackson late. That roughing the passer flag turned a likely field goal attempt into a first down. The Ravens went on to score a touchdown four plays later.

Less than 10 minutes after that, Sheldon Day was also called for roughing the passer when he went low on Jackson:

Sheldon Day gets called for RTP pic.twitter.com/lSi0194b6V

— GoatWorldSports ⚾️ (@GoatWorldSport1) December 1, 2019

Baltimore wound up kicking a field goal on the drive.

The game was eventually decided on, yup, a Ravens field goal.

7. Jacoby Brissett made some extremely backup throws

Brissett has been solid in his first year as Andrew Luck’s successor in Indianapolis. His steady presence behind center, even as his receiving corps was shredded by injury, was a major factor in his team’s presence in the playoff race.

But on Sunday, Brissett gave the football world two big reminders why he was regarded as a high-value backup and not a starter before August. The first was a high pass that saw Brissett take entirely too long to make a decision in a clean pocket, then rush a bad decision once a defender broke into his airspace.

That's our franchise safety! #TENvsIND @KB31_Era + #ProBowlVote pic.twitter.com/a4h2Nq88y7

— Tennessee Titans (@Titans) December 1, 2019

That set the Titans up inside the Indianapolis red zone, where they’d settle for an easy field goal that tied the score at 17. Brissett’s second pick was equally damaging. The big-armer passer overthrew his target in double-coverage while trying to spark a comeback from a 24-17 deficit late in the fourth quarter. Logan Ryan slid over to make an easy catch, and three plays later Indianapolis trailed by 14.

Send Logan Ryan to the Pro Bowl! #TENvsIND @RealLoganRyan + #ProBowlVote pic.twitter.com/GuIx4uRMfn

— Tennessee Titans (@Titans) December 1, 2019

Brissett’s two interceptions led to 10 Titans points in a pivotal AFC South matchup. Now the Colts are 6-6 and facing an uphill battle on their path to the postseason.

6. Daniel Jones kept mixing up the Packers and his own teammates in the snow

It was a snowy afternoon at MetLife Stadium. Perhaps a North Carolina native like Jones wasn’t quite used to the blustery conditions, because the rookie quarterback seemed to think the Packers’ cornerbacks were his teammates all day.

Jones was picked off three times, the first of which went right into the hands of Green Bay’s Kevin King as if he, and not Darius Slayton, had been Jones’ target:

.@King_kevvoo grabs his fourth INT of the season! #GBvsNYG | #GoPackGo pic.twitter.com/CdLdeZTc1R

— Green Bay Packers (@packers) December 1, 2019

His second one even worse. It was directly to Darnell Savage, with no Giants receiver in the vicinity:

INTERCEPTION! @darnellsavage_ takes it the other way! #GBvsNYG | #GoPackGo pic.twitter.com/uGMFCxgM64

— Green Bay Packers (@packers) December 1, 2019

His third pick of the game came later in the fourth quarter, and either he overthrew Slayton just enough so Tramon Williams could go up and grab it:

Go get it, @HighRizer22! #GBvsNYG | #GoPackGo pic.twitter.com/pg20OVEazW

— Green Bay Packers (@packers) December 1, 2019

Or it was a perfect throw to Williams, whom Jones mistook for his own teammate.

The Giants dropped to 2-10 on the season with the loss, but at least you can chalk up some of Jones’ miscues to his inexperience. The same can’t be said for ...

5. Nick Foles threw an interception you’d expect out of a rookie

The Jaguars haven’t won a game with Nick Foles — an $88 million offseason acquisition — starting at quarterback. They did win four of the eight games sixth-round rookie Gardner Minshew started, but he was sent back to the bench when Foles returned from a shoulder injury. The logic was presumably that the 30-year-old veteran quarterback would make fewer mistakes and give the Jaguars offense some more stability.

Well ...

#Jaguars QB Nick Foles with an interception on the first drive of the game. pic.twitter.com/F0uS2Svihe

— Big Sad Country (@BigCatCountry) December 1, 2019

The Buccaneers capitalized on the turnover with a touchdown. Foles’ day got worse with a fumble on his next two drives, including one that was picked up and returned for a touchdown. After that, three consecutive three-and-out drives.

Foles was benched at halftime with the Jaguars trailing 25-0 and it’ll likely be for good. Minshew took over in the second half and suddenly the Jacksonville offense looked halfway competent again.

4. The Browns could’ve used the mysterious absent Damarious Randall

The decision to keep Randall out of action in Week 13 was never really explained by coach Freddie Kitchens. “Something that happened during the week” was the reason cited by Cleveland.com.

So it’s hard to say if it was Kitchens’ dumb mistake, or if it was Randall’s, or if it was some combination of both. What we can say is that the Browns sure could’ve used Randall on the field against the Steelers — especially after losing safety Morgan Burnett to a torn Achilles two weeks ago.

Pittsburgh’s rookie quarterback Devlin Hodges completed passes of 28, 30, 31, and 44 yards against the Cleveland secondary. Some of those throws were into traffic, but the Browns defensive backs couldn’t make a play.

That was incredible.@JamesWashington hangs on for the unreal TD catch! #HereWeGo #CLEvsPIT : CBS : NFL app // Yahoo Sports app Watch free on mobile: https://t.co/uPnyeJSIAR pic.twitter.com/uGazaZsEz0

— NFL (@NFL) December 1, 2019

The Browns had a chance to get back to .500 and climb back into playoff contention. Instead, a 20-13 loss may have ended their season. Not having Randall on the field was costly, regardless of who deserves the blame.

3. The Chargers false started twice on the most important play of their afternoon

Los Angeles trailed 20-17 with just over two minutes to play when it faced a crucial fourth-and-1 from its own 34-yard line. Gain a yard and the Chargers’ comeback chances would remain intact.

On the team’s first try, Melvin Gordon appeared to pick up the first down on a pitch, only for the play to be whistled dead thanks to a false start:

Malik Reed sympathetically patting Melvin Gordon on the head while explaining his fourth-and-1 run doesn't count because of a false start is an extremely nice way to break that news pic.twitter.com/jYSc8mCnk6

— Christian D'Andrea (@TrainIsland) December 2, 2019

That set up fourth-and-6, and it appeared the Broncos had given those five yards right back when a Denver defender jumped offside off the right side of the LA line the following play. But his neutral zone infraction came at the same time left tackle Russell Okung flinched, and since Okung was on the opposite side of the line, that meant the false start superseded any offside call.

Fortunately for Los Angeles, Mike Williams made a ridiculous play to haul in a 38-yard pass on fourth-and-11 to erase those back-to-back penalties. That led to a 46-yard Michael Badgley field goal that tied the game with just 14 seconds before the end of regulation.

Somehow, the Chargers avoided pulling a complete Chargers ... until they did.

2. Casey Hayward gave the Chargers a loss everyone knew was coming

The Broncos had two options when they got the ball back from the Chargers at their own 28 with nine seconds left in a tie game. They could kneel out the clock and play for overtime, or they could give Drew Lock, making his NFL debut, the chance to make a big play.

Denver chose the latter, and Hayward — a former All-Pro and one of LA’s top defensive backs — gave Lock all the help he needed.

here's the penalty that set up the Broncos' game-winning field goal with 3 seconds to play pic.twitter.com/9ic2KaTLNs

— Christian D'Andrea (@TrainIsland) December 2, 2019

Hayward failed to track the ball, running into intended receiver Courtland Sutton and drawing a pass interference flag that gifted the Broncos 37 crucial yards. One play later, Brandon McManus’ 53-yard field goal parted the uprights to claim a 23-20 win and send the Chargers spiraling to 4-8 on the year.

But at least this time they lost in a different way?

1. Once again, the Panthers couldn’t get the job done at the goal line

Carolina lost 29-21 to Washington, and a big reason the Panthers lost was what they did on the goal line late in the game. With 27 seconds left and trailing by eight, the Panthers had fourth-and-goal following two Christian McCaffrey stuffs and an incomplete pass. Quarterback Kyle Allen dropped back to pass and despite having Jarius Wright wiiiide open in the end zone, he took a sack.

The GIF of this play is simply hilarious:

Here’s fourth-and-the-season for the Panthers. pic.twitter.com/VresISdjTj

— Bill Barnwell (@billbarnwell) December 1, 2019

The live version is just as incredible:

Kyle Allen had a wide open touchdown and just didn't throw it on 4th down. #Redskins win.pic.twitter.com/hGiBpS7Gvu

— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) December 1, 2019

This is now the FOURTH of the Panthers’ seven losses that has ended on a goal-line stop. They also lost to the Bucs, Packers, and Saints in similar fashion. To falsely paraphrase Einstein, maybe they should stop expecting a different result.

[ebenpink]

13 Keto-Friendly Fiber Foods http://bit.ly/2GiFxTG

While some keto or low-carb proponents claim fiber is useless at best and actively harmful at worst, I come down on the side that says fiber is probably helpful for most people. Some folks have persistently better responses to low- or no-fiber keto diets, and I won’t argue with that—I’ve seen it happen and I’ve read the studies where de-emphasizing fiber can actually improve constipation, for example.

I’ll just say that I have an opposite reaction, and, most importantly, I love eating a variety of plant foods that also happen to contain a ton of great nutrients in addition to fiber.

Do I buy into the idea that fiber is important because it is every human being’s responsibility to produce as much colonic bulk as humanly possible? No.

Do I think we should be consistently pushing the limits of our digestive tracts, performing feats of bathroom heroism so momentous they border on Herculean, and making sure the toilet bowl buckles beneath us? No.

The real value of fiber lies not in its coarseness, its tendency to form colonic bulk, to keep us topped off. The true value lies in its fermentability. A fermentable fiber is a prebiotic fiber—fiber that feeds our gut bacteria.

I won’t get into the many roles our gut bacteria play in our health today (I’ve covered that before. 1, 2, 3).

I will, however, explain why we need to be feeding our gut bacteria. Our gut bacteria form a physical barrier against incursions and colonization by pathogenic bacteria; they take up room along the gut lining so pathogens can’t. If we don’t feed our gut bacteria with prebiotics, it won’t be around to protect us. After antibiotic treatment where both good and bad gut flora are indiscriminately targeted and wiped out, pathogenic obesity-promoting bacteria take advantage of the open space. That’s a worst-case scenario, but it shows what can happen when the harmony of the gut is disturbed by antibiotics or, to a less extent, a lack of fermentable prebiotic fibers.

When our gut bacteria eat prebiotics, they also give off metabolites like butyric acid—a short chain fatty acid that our colonic cells use as an energy source and which improves metabolic health.

Gut bacteria also convert antinutrients like phytic acid into nutrients like inositol. The almond meal-obsessed keto eater would do well to have a powerful gut biome set up to convert all that phytic acid to inositol.

Now, some writers will come up with specific blends of fibers, powders and gums to create the “optimal” prebiotic diet for your gut bacteria, but that’s pretty silly. The gut is a complicated place. We’ve barely begun to even identify all its inhabitants. To think we know the precise blend of isolated fiber that will make them flourish, and then act on that, is a mistake.

A better option is to eat foods that contain fiber. Some of the prebiotic fibrous foods with the best nutrient profiles also happen to be extremely keto-friendly.

1) Almonds and Pistachios

Nuts are usually favored in health-conscious circles for a few reasons. They like the monounsaturated fat. They like the mineral profile, or the complete protein, or their ability to dissemble into nut meals and form baked goods. But what gets short shrift is the fiber content. Now, I can’t speak for other nuts, but almonds and pistachios in particular contain fiber with potent prebiotic effects. People who eat almonds and to an even greater extent pistachios end up with improved gut bacteria profiles.

2) Green Bananas

Ripe bananas are difficult to squeeze into a ketogenic diet. The green banana—an unripe one—is mostly resistant starch, a type of starch that cannot be digested and travels untouched until colonic bacteria metabolize it. It’s one of the best stimulators we know of butyric acid production. And sure, you could do a spoonful of raw potato starch to get your resistant starch, but the beauty of the green banana is that it also provides potassium, another nutrient that some find difficult to obtain and stay keto.

3) Wild Blueberries

Blackberries, boysenberries, raspberries, and strawberries are all loaded with fiber, and you should eat them. They’re lower carb than you think, they’re loaded with polyphenols, and topped with some real whipped cream they make a fantastic dessert. But wild blueberries are special. They’re smaller than other berries, which increases the amount of skin per ounce you get, and skin is where all the polyphenols and fiber lie. Heck, even the blueberry’s polyphenols have prebiotic effects on the gut biome.

4) Mushrooms

A few years ago, I wrote a whole post on mushrooms. Suffice it to say, they’re quite wonderful, bordering on magical. I did not discuss the fiber they contain. It turns out that all the various mushroom polysaccharides/fibers, including beta-glucans, mannans, chitin, xylans, and galactans also act as potent prebiotics that improve the health of the host.

5) Avocado

Your standard avocado has about 12-15 grams of fiber, if you eat the whole thing. I

6) Jicama

Great with chili powder, salt, and lime juice, jicama is about 11 grams of carbs per cup, but half of those are inulin, a potent prebiotic fiber with a tendency to really ramp up butyrate production.

7) Onions

Onions are another fantastic source of inulin. They go into almost every dish of every cuisine, so there’s no excuse not to be eating onions.

8) Garlic

I’ve been known to treat garlic like a vegetable, roasting an entire cast iron pan full until brown and sweet and chewy. They’re another great source of prebiotic fiber.

9) Leeks

Leeks have more inulin than onions. Try them crispy in egg scrambles.

10) Broccoli

Broccolini is a major part of my favorite meal of the day—my Big-Ass Keto Salad. Broccoli (and cruciferous vegetables in general) has been shown to have modulatory effects on the gut biome.

11) Sauerkraut

Kraut gives you two in one. It’s a fermented food, which is great for the gut biome. And it’s cabbage, which is very fibrous. Even pasteurized kraut improves gut health.

12) Dark Chocolate

Dark chocolate, the good stuff with a high cacao content (85%+) and low sugar content, is an incredible source of prebiotic fiber. Eat more of it.

13) Animal Fiber

Obligate carnivores like cheetahs who don’t eat any plants (willingly) still have gut bacteria. These gut bacteria thrive on “animal fiber,” the gristle and cartilage and other bits of connective tissue that comprise a good 20-30% of the walking weight of a prey animal. Humans are not obligate carnivores, but eating the entire animal has been a mainstay of advanced hominid existence for millions of years. I find it very likely that something, someone, somewhere inside our guts is breaking down the animal fiber we eat—so you’d better be eating some!

Not so tough, is it? It’s not like I’m suggesting you load up on bran muffins, psyllium smoothies. I don’t want you dumping flax meal into everything or munching on those awful fiber gummies. Just eat some basic, healthy, low-carb plant matter—foods that don’t really scream “fiber”—and the rest will take care of itself.

What’s your favorite low-carb source of fiber? Let me know down below.

Thanks for reading, everyone.

//

//

References: 

Hernández E, Bargiela R, Diez MS, et al. Functional consequences of microbial shifts in the human gastrointestinal tract linked to antibiotic treatment and obesity. Gut Microbes. 2013;4(4):306-15.

Ukhanova M, Wang X, Baer DJ, Novotny JA, Fredborg M, Mai V. Effects of almond and pistachio consumption on gut microbiota composition in a randomised cross-over human feeding study. Br J Nutr. 2014;111(12):2146-52.

Jiao X, Wang Y, Lin Y, et al. Blueberry polyphenols extract as a potential prebiotic with anti-obesity effects on C57BL/6 J mice by modulating the gut microbiota. J Nutr Biochem. 2019;64:88-100.

Jayachandran M, Xiao J, Xu B. A Critical Review on Health Promoting Benefits of Edible Mushrooms through Gut Microbiota. Int J Mol Sci. 2017;18(9)

Nielsen ES, Garnås E, Jensen KJ, et al. Lacto-fermented sauerkraut improves symptoms in IBS patients independent of product pasteurisation – a pilot study. Food Funct. 2018;9(10):5323-5335.

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[impurelight]

How I Made A Dysfunctional Language In The JVM

Part 1: Introduction

I remember when I first considered making my own language. I was googling how to make an abstract static variable in C#. Turns out you can't. Why? Don't know. You just can't. So this was pretty annoying. But what was even more annoying were the programmers that said not only that you couldn't but you also shouldn't.

They gave some flimsy justification about how it broke OOP or something. It was infuriating. On that day I saw the truth. These languages that were the blueprints of modern programming were just as flawed and opinionated as I was. They weren't better, they weren't worse they just were. And on that day I swore I would write my own language. One where I was in charge.

...

But you know, writing a language is hard. And C#... it's not perfect, but it's good enough. So I let my dream sit on the sidelines for several years.

But one day I saw this coding event called Code With Friends. It was one month to code whatever you want. And I was like, "Hey, you know that language you wanted to make since forever ago? Why don't you just make it?" And then I was like, "That sounds like a good idea." So I did. I entered and made a new language called Muse. And here's how I did it.

Part 2: People VS JVM

So to make a language you need to do two things. First you have to transform the code you write into what's called an abstract syntax tree. And then you have to transform that into instructions that the computer can actually understand, in my case JVM bytecode.

Step one is not too hard. I ended up using a program called ANTLR to do it.

ANTLR... let's just say if I had to do this project over I probably wouldn't use ANTLR. It's buggy. I'll be like, "What are you doing? That is obviously an addition operation!" And ANTLR will be like "No, no, no, I see an assignment operation." despite the fact that the code does not look anything like an assignment.

It is frustrating. And to top it all off the debugging tools for ANTLR are almost non-existent. The tool I used was this IntelliJ plugin. It would only tell you the raw output, not how it got there, but it was good enough. Although the plugin did occasionally crash IntelliJ.

So once you have the abstract syntax tree you have to write JVM bytecode. I used this blog post about writing hello world in the JVM to get the structure of a JVM class file. In fact I started my project by just hard coding the code from the post in my program.

So apart from the various metadata such as how many bytes your code is and the header which says 0xCAFEBABE a JVM file has basically 3 parts. The 'constant pool' part, the actual code, and attributes for the code. It's a big of a simplification. If you want to learn more go read the official JVM documentation here and here.

Anyways the constant pool as you might expect holds constant strings. In fact it's basically a grab bag of different constants. But it's most important job is to tell the code which methods/variables each class has and their type.

So then you have the code. If you've worked with assembly code at all you know what to expect here. The only difference is there are no registers, only a stack. So for example to add 1 and 2 together you'd push them both onto the stack and then use the add operation which would pop 1 and 2 and then push 3 onto the stack.

It's pretty neat. I mean, it's not the most efficient thing in the world. There is a command dup and all it does is duplicate the top value on the stack, but it does simplify things a bit.

And now lastly there's the attributes. Most of the attributes are optional. But there is one that is not. That is the Stack Map Table. This one took me forever to figure out. Basically whenever you use a jump instruction (so in an if or a while or a goto (which I really wanted in my language)) you have to use the Stack Map Table to tell Java what should be the current state (in terms of what's on the stack and what variables are defined) at that instruction address.

I mean, there's technically a flag -noverify which makes it so you don't have to have a Stack Map Table, but this pops up a scary warning about the flag being removed in a future version of Java.

So for the longest time I couldn't get the StackMapTable to work. I should probably mention the javap -v FILE_NAME command. This actually prints out the entirety of the JVM class file in a surprisingly readable way.

It was a lot easier than using a hex editor to view the files, that's for sure. In fact the strategy I was using was write a program in Java, compile it, view the JVM class file, and then copy it in my language. And this worked really well.

Until I hit the Stack Map Table. It didn't make any sense how the JVM was generating the values to put in the table. But after sleeping on it I finally got it.

The stack map entries don't hold the actual instruction numbers. They hold the instruction relative to the last instruction subtracted by 1 for whatever reason. So finally I got it working.

So that's it. You can view the project here. It's not fantastic. I mean, it doesn't support basic things like 64 bit ints and orders of operation. But for a month of work I'm pretty proud of it. And it supports things that some other languages don't support. Things like: variables that start with a number (a worryingly high number of languages don't support this), do while (not supported in python), goto statements,

)

unix directory syntax for global variables (like use ../globalVar to access something in global scope, it always bothered me how you can access a global variable identically to a local one and they can have the same name too, that's a bug just waiting to happen), named return types (it always annoyed me to no end when I had a function that returned a bool. What is it returning? If the operation succeeded? Some information about the operation?), and there are no constructors which brings me to...

Part 3: A Dysfunctional Language

This is a class in C#.

And this is a function in C#.

So this is a class.

And a function.

A class with two variables.

A function with two variables.

A class.

A function.

Class.

Function.

Are you getting it? These are not two separate things. This is one thing. And it's called a Dysfunction.

This is one of the epiphanies I had. A class and a function are fundamentally the same thing. We just use different syntax for each and under the hood they're treated a little differently.

So what if I made a language where you define a function the same way you define a class? Well, version 1 of Muse actually did just that. But I was never happy with it. Because you get a class file whether you want it or not and a random function.

So version 2 of Muse I did away with that entirely. No more functions. Only classes. But what if you actually want to use a function. Something like a square root function? Well, we can do that.

Simply instantiate a class (let's call it squareRoot), do some work in the constructor, save that work to a variable (called squareRootValue) and get that variable in the caller (which in Muse can be done on the same line we create the object). Easy.

This is what Dysfunctional Programming is. Will it take off? Well, probably not in the JVM because we have to make new objects on the heap which is much slower than on the stack.

But if I were to port this to something like LLVM and make it so dysfunctions that aren't assigned to a variable are allocated on the stack sure, why not?

Dysfunctional programming could be the next big thing.

[itkmoonknight]

ITK Newsletter, no. CX: ISLA RA SESSIONS - Featuring Guest John Harrison

Hello Dear Loonies!

Welcome back to the ITK newsletter which had gone missing for a while. As a matter of fact, the episode had been missing last week, and if it wasn’t for the generous effort made by both High Priests Rebecca and Connor, episode 118 would not have been dropped in time as well! Yes, there have been some turns in life which had made it hard for me to focus on the show and without getting too much into it, I just wanted to spend as much time with my family as I could. It was a tough couple of weeks, but I now feel ready to continue making the best damn possible Moon Knight podcast out there!

So, this coming weekend, I’ll be dropping an ISLA RA Session which I had recorded in early October. I’m only half way through editing it now, but it’s a handsome sized episode and it was again, a massive amount of fun - I hope you enjoy listening to it…!

PHASE OF THE MOON: WAXING CRESCENT (due to scheduling delay, this is slightly out of sync with what we're meant to do)

ISLA RA SESSIONS - JOHN 'DOC' HARRISON FROM TV PODCAST INDUSTRIES

I've always wanted to get the boys from TV Podcast Industries on the show as I'm huge fans of theirs, and after having Chris and Derek on the show, having the chance to speak to John about his desert island books - amongst other things - had been so special and thoroughly enjoyable.

Admittedly, I’ve not conducted an ISLA RA session with Chris, but it could be argued that his and my almost 3 hour episode we had when he guested on two chat about Spidey, was the genesis for the ISLA RA sessions. It was a peek behind the podcasting host facade and a chat about what Chris loved about Spidey and comics. It wasn’t long after that, that I decided to delve into more stories from Loonies, and voila - the ISLA RA Sessions were created!

So, there’s plenty to look forward to with John’s chat - as always, we conducted our chat in and around the Moon Knight corner of the universe…so this time around, we’re at Gena’s diner. Later on, we head out to some other locations - but I’ll leave that for you to discover when you hear the episode!

John's Top 4 Isla Ra (Desert Island) Comics: ???

As always, we aren't giving anything away! Below you'll find encrypted links to John's books. These will be in the show nots as well, but if you want to prepare for the show and discover what books John has chosen - and read them ahead of our discussion - then look no further than below - 

JOHN'S TOP 4 ISLA RA BOOKS:

John's Top Pick

John's 2nd Pick

John's 3rd Pick

John's 4th Pick

FANTASY COMIC LEAGUE - OCTOBER PROGRESS

Oh boy, it's been a bit quiet on the FCL front, but we finally got the cards in for the progress this month, and I must say Tommy has returned with a vengeance!

Looks like he'll no doubt take out this month as he has an unbeatable lead it seems...I'm still in the mix, and hopefully if I can just hang in the top 2 every month, then I'm in with a good chance to take out overall.

However, Tommy and Jason are making good ground and in particular kudos to Jason for his maiden season...he's one to watch! Dustin and Chad unfortunately have drafts (like myself....c'mon Wolvie!!!!) who haven't fired...but anything goes int he last week of October, so you never know!

Below are the progress cards for our #ITKMoonKnight division for you perusal!! I think the big player this month surely has been The Thing from Contagion...plenty more points to be racked up by ol' blue eyes!

Well done Tommy - you'll be the man to beat in the coming months!!

THE COLLECTIVE NEWS

Another plug to our fellow Collective members! I'll try and make this thing a regular thing, so you fair Loonies are in the loop with all these other great podcasts out there, which we highly recommend!

As some of you know, The Collective are a band of like minded podcasters who formed a few years ago now to act as a supportive network for one another not only in promoting each others' shows, but also as a creative hive, where we bounce ideas off one another as to how to improve our shows.

We've crossed over more than once now with other shows, and I know from listening to all of them, that they are highly entertaining and fun to listen to!

I've got a few recommendations which I'll list here, and each newsletter I hope to give a shout out to the recent episodes of these great shows.....I've actually got a couple of other recommendations from a podcast which isn't a part of The Collective (but I reckon they should be!)

All further information on all the shows can be found in teh link at the bottom of this page...

Anyway, here's just a few of what's happening in Collective-Town....

A shoutout to Paul from The Collected Edition with their recent release of a review of the Warren Ellis Moon Knight run! Check out Episode 49 - Moon Knight ...highly entertaining and informative!

Although not part of The Collective (maybe I'll ask if he wants to join), good friend Scott Weatherly from 20th Century Geek released two Moon Knight-centric episodes! I had the fortune of guesting on Part 2 as well... Check out Episode 89 - Spotlight on Moon Knight Part 1, and Episode 90 - Spotlight on Moon Knight Part 2 for all your Moon Knight needs!

Upcoming guest John Harrison & the other boys from TV Podcast Industries have been covering the recent release of the TV show 'Watchmen', which seems to be getting rave reviews...I gotta catch up myself, but after I do, I'll be sure to tune in to these fantastic hosts to get their take!....Check out discussions on Episode 1 and Episode 2, plus they also have a couple of other episodes based on feedback and a prelude to the TV show....Top quality stuff!

Our good mates over at Inner Demons - A Ghost Rider Podcast have released their 46th episode, reviewing a couple of recent releases and a couple of classics. Always fun, always great to hear these guys (incidentally, Brian, one of the hosts, features on a Terminator retrospective on 20th Century Geek Podcast as well....check it out if you can!)...Check out Episode 46 - 'Unoriginal Sin' for their latest and greatest!

Be sure to always check out the Capes & Lunatics Newsletter for all their shows. These guys are more prolific than a Catholic rabbit...so instead of showcasing all their shows here, it's better to get it at the source! I was also honoured to feature on The Quantum Zone for Part 6 of their review for Operation Galatic Storm too... it'll be up and dropping in a month or so I think...

Sons of the Dragon - An Immortal Iron Fist Podcast have also released an episode - Episode 101 is a review of Contagion issues #2 and #3... I bet these guys are happy that the Contagion event is Iron Fist-centric! Can't wait to chat about the final two issues with them on their coming episode too...but be sure to listen to their latest to get up to speed!

Finally, can't NOT shout out The Signal of Doom Podcast featuring good mate, David Finn. This episode, their latest, has the return of Connor McKenna (host of Sons of the Dragon - An Immortal Iron Fist Podcast and fellow host for Last Sons of Krypton - A Superman Podcast)....these guys are heaps of fun to chat with in their own right, so when they are together...BOMBS are set off!! Check out Episode 137 for their latest show...The Signal have also just released a Patreon Page, so I highly recommend checking it out and considering becoming a patron to gain exclusive episodes form The Swamp!

Oh, final, FINAL plug will be for Last Sons of Krypton - A Superman Podcast. Since I've been away, Connor (my valued co-host) has been keeping the show running and has been getting guests from The Collective and elsewhere to come on and chat Superman...I'd be remiss to not mention the latest offering...Episode 29 - Return of The Phantom King is a cool review on a Halloween-esque issue with Superman. Guesting is Tyler Patrick from The Krypton Report....Worth a geeze!

CONTACT US!

You can always chat or leave feedback to us - 

We absolutely LOVE to hear from you, and will always address and give you shout outs on the show, so please don't hesitate to drop us a line!

We've got various social media outlets and we use these to read Loony comments on the show - if you DON'T want your comments broadcast, please just add, "(DNB)" at the end of your comment, and we'll be sure not to broadcast it. We'll pick a few comments from here and discuss on the show!

Email: itkmoonknight@gmail.com

Podcast Page: http://intotheknight.libsyn.com

Facebook Page: Into the Knight - A Moon Knight Podcast

Facebook Group: Into the Knight - A Moon Knight Fan Base

Twitter: @ITKmoonknight

Discord ITK Server: ITK Server

GetVokl : Into the Knight Welcome Room

Well, that'll do me for this here return newsletter for y'all!! Thanks for sticking by us, and don't forget....it won't be long before the TV show hits, so buckle in, stake your claim and be sure you're the one who can say, "I've been a member waaaaaaaayyy before it bcame way more popular!" :P ....ok, I might be reaching for the stars there...but I just want to say, thanks for all the support!!

Catch you very soon (i.e after the pre-recorded episode which drops this coming weekend...ahh, y'know what I mean!)....I'll be more active on our social media platforms again...so looking forward to chatting with you!

May Khonshu Watch Over the Denizens of the (K)Night,

Rey

Proud Member of The Collective

  Remember! You can buy your official ITK merchandise at ...ITK Store Front @ TeePublic

Check out this episode!

[cyberkevvideo]

Throne of Night Theory Builds Part 6: Play as Myceloids (Book 3)

Today is Halloween. I figured it would be the perfect time to discuss playing a monster race. Namely, the Pathfinder 1st Edition mushroom monster, the myceloid.

When Gary first started developing the Throne of Night adventure path, he talked about alternate races that could do the scenario as well. One was as elves or humans who’d been bought as slaves. He even had a Campaign trait available in Book 1 that gave these non-darkvision characters, darkvision 30 ft. Not bad. It wasn’t brought up in detail, but I theorize that these particular characters would likely have managed to escape their drow or derro captures, and made their way to the outside world temporarily, whether with help from their saviours or even on their own. They could have even started in the village of svirfneblin and been nursed back to health.

One of the races that was talked about most as an alternative to the drow and dwarves, was the myconid. There was even art for it. So in one of the unpublished books (Book 3 specifically), we were supposed to have had a section that would have been all about playing this telepathic and voiceless mushroom race from D&D. And, unfortunately, there in lies the problem. They’re a Wizards of the Coast copyrighted race. They’re not OGL. You see fan versions online for both 3.5 and 5e, but they’re fan works only. They can’t generate any monetary value. Not without permission from WotC. My guess is Gary didn’t realize this when he first conceived of the idea and had the art work commissioned. He might have even thought Paizo would eventually release their own version, but they did not. Or that he could borrow from another 3PP, but no one officially released a clone version of the race. This sadly meant that Gary would never be able to see this come into fruition. And I can’t help but wonder if other copyright issues got in the way as well. But that’s just another hypothesis.

What could have been done, and it’s not exactly his forte, is to design his own version of the race or convert one that already exists in monster form. With the help of the Advanced Race Guide, that’s possible. Looking at it though, that would have taken up quite a bit of space in the book, and could even have other logistic issues that I might not be aware of. Thankfully, that doesn’t stop me from doing updates like this though.

Images shared here were done by the forever fantastic and amazingly talented Michael D. Clarke, aka SpiralMagus. The art is on Michael’s dA page, which I’ve brought over, and am sharing for this article.

EDIT : Going through Gary’s old updates, it seems he did realize at some point that the myconid race was not a possibility, but that he’d have to write for myceloids. The art piece uses the former name, but that was back in 2014. By 2015, Gary must have updated his notes for the final update that he gave us on the project. Saying: “Here also is another piece of preview art showing a party of myceloid adventurers. In Book Three, there will be an article about playing an all myceloid party through Throne of Night and this is the piece of art that accompanies that article.“ It’s still unknown whether or not he was waiting on Paizo to release an official race or if he was going to homebrew one just for this adventure path. He might have even have thrown caution to the wind and decided that he’d just have players go up as the 5 HD monsters and play them straight out of Bestiary 3 as-is. There’s a lot of options he could have gone with.

While the small size myconid is not a playable race, the medium size myceloid from Bestiary 3 is a possibility. Normally a CR 4 monster, and a mushroom creature at that, they have many abilities and traits that could come in handy. Normally of evil alignment, this definitely fits for the theme given for the drow side. It’d be interesting to know the reasons that these mushroom people would have for making their own kingdom. Maybe they’re all good-aligned and they want to establish an empire that showcases trade and emphasizes peace. Always a possibility. The party could consist entirely of black sheep myceloid that aren’t carnivores and looking to consume mortal flesh and have a magnitude of slaves. Or they could be the most evil of all myceloids and were booted for being too evil, and their own empire filled with cages upon cages of slaves that also serve as their food rations could be just the thing they’ve been looking for.

I broke the race down into two different sections. The first is a very playable and balanced race of only 12 race points (RP) with an optional section that shows a myceloid race class ala Savage Species (D&D 3.5) that slowly gives them back all of their abilities over the course of the 5 hit dice that a myceloid normally gets. If you haven’t seen them, Dreamscarred Press and Rite Publishing both have monster books that deal with this kind of progression as well. Necromancers of the Northwest did a stint on their site as well, for free, a few years ago. Everyone definitely has their own style of doing things. This just happens to be mine.

The second section is a much more Advanced Race version that puts the race at 25 RP. This rivals things like the svirfneblin, adaros, kasatha, and wyrood. All of which are 20 RP or greater. While I don’t break it down point for point, I do make mention of just how much this race would cost if you tried to get everything available through the Advanced Race Guide, for the race, without taking any racial HD.

Note: There is no telepathy ability in the Advanced Race Guide, however, strix have an ability to only be able to speak with avians, and it’s 0 RP. Figured that for 30 ft. a myceloid could speak to other myceloid with telepathy. You’re welcome to ignore and remove it though if you feel that’s not a correct assumption.

Myceloid Race Ability Score Modifiers +2 Strength, +2 Constitution, –2 Intelligence 1 RP Type Plant 10 RP Size Medium 0 RP Base Speed Slow 20 ft. –1 RP Senses Darkvision 60 ft. 2 RP; low-light vision — RP Thick Skin Natural armor +1 2 RP Special Quality Telepathy 30 ft.; other myceloids only 0 RP Weakness Vulnerable to electricity –2 RP Languages Xenophobic: Undercommon plus Common, Elven, Sylvan, Terran, Treant 0 RP

Total 12 RP

Myceloid Race Class Hit Die d8 Racial Class Skills Perception, Stealth Skill Ranks Per Level 2 + Int Modifier. HD    BAB    Fort    Ref    Will    Special 1    +0    +2    +0    +0    Claws (1d4), thick skin, scent, shatter resistant, Survival +2, +2 Wis

2    +1    +3    +0    +0    DR 2/slashing, resist 5 (cold and fire), Sense Motive +2, telepathy (+10 ft.), +2 Con

3    +2    +3    +1    +1    Disease (purple pox), Survival +4, telepathy (affects purple pox sufferers too), +2 Str

4    +3    +4    +1    +1    Claws (1d6), DR 5/slashing, resist 10 (cold and fire), Sense Motive +4, telepathy (+10 ft.), +2 Con

5    +3    +4    +1    +1    Spore cloud, spore domination, telepathy (+10 ft.), +2 Str

Disease (Su) Purple Pox: inhaled or injury; save Fort DC 10 + ½ racial HD + Con-modifier; onset 1 minute; frequency 1/day; effect 1d2 Wis and 1d2 Con damage; cure 2 consecutive saves. A creature that dies of the purple pox becomes bloated over the course of 24 hours, after which its body bursts open, releasing a fully grown myceloid. Additionally, as long as a creature takes at least 7 points of Wisdom damage from the purple pox, it must make a Will save, equal to the initial save DC, each day to avoid becoming affected by a lesser geas (no HD limit) that compels the sickly character to seek out the nearest myceloid colony in order to offer itself up for spore domination. The save DCs are Constitution-based. Shatter Resistant (Ex) At each racial level, a myceloid gains resistance to sonic 2 (to a maximum of resist 10). Spore Cloud (Ex) Once per day as a standard action, a myceloid can expel a 10-foot-radius burst of spores centered on itself. This cloud persists for 1d3 rounds. Any creature caught in this cloud or that moves through it is exposed to the myceloid's purple pox disease—a creature need save only once against any one spore cloud, however, before becoming permanently immune to that particular spore cloud's effects. The spore cloud does not hamper vision. Spore Domination (Sp) This spell-like ability functions as charm monster, but functions only against creatures currently infected with purple pox. Thick Skin (Ex) At each racial level, a myceloid’s natural armor improves by +1 (to a maximum of +6).

If taking monster race hit dice isn’t your speed, or your GM doesn’t approve of this, an alternative is to play a version of the race that’s still playable, and uses the Advanced Race Guide to its fullest. While the total racial points looks like it’s a lot, remember that the svirfneblin is 24 RP and the newer released adoros shark humanoid race from “Blood of the Sea” Player Companion is 32 RP. It’s also been suggested that despite how powerful they are, playing an entire party of drow noble (41 RP) still wouldn’t give you much of an advantage. That’s honestly kind of crazy. So with that, in mind, if you’re allowed to play this, I’d go this route over the hit die route. That said, if you want to add in the rest of the stats and natural armor, you’re looking at +4 Str, +4 Con, and +2 Wis for 28 RP and the additional +4 natural armor comes to 14 RP. Improving the resistance to cold and fire to 10 is another 2 RP each for 4 RP. You’d also need to take the Improved Natural Attack to get the claws to 1d6 damage. Granted, you could just buy the “Named Feat” for 2 RP. Without the resistance to sonic, telepathy, spores, and disease, you’re still looking at a total of 73 RP. That’s beyond monstrous. But for now, here’s the basic version that’s more likely to be approved. Hopefully.

Alternate Myceloid Race Ability Score Modifiers +2 Strength, +2 Constitution, –2 Intelligence 1 RP Type Plant 10 RP Size Medium 0 RP Base Speed Slow 20 ft. –1 RP Senses Darkvision 60 ft. 2 RP; low-light vision — RP; scent 4 RP Thick Skin Natural armor +1 2 RP Natural Attacks Claws (1d4) 2 RP Energy Resistance Cold 5, fire 5 2 RP Skill Bonus Sense Motive +2, Survival +2 4 RP Weakness Vulnerable to electricity –2 RP Languages Xenophobic: Undercommon plus Common, Elven, Sylvan, Terran, Treant 0 RP

Total 25 RP

If you like this, I’ve done others, and a couple of 3PP have been making their own Savage Species compendium over the past couple of years. Seek them out. Necromancers of the Northwest probably did my favourites. The ogre mage and the medusa ones are what I used for the Way of the Wicked when we had to figure out how to work them into the story and advance them for the campaign. I changed them up a bit because they were missing a few ability score advancements and didn’t have a “base race” of 10 RP, which would have helped A LOT. But that wasn’t part of the original design because the creator thought that would make cause the PC to out-scale other PCs. Which, no, it won’t. Monster PCs of equal HD will never trump a standard PC. I guarantee you of this as someone who’s been forced to play one too many monster PCs. But that is neither here nor there.

What’s funny is that there was possible mention of a team of all kobolds doing this AP. I would have loved it despite the fact that they’re so weak. If you wanted to that out, I would highly, HIGHLY recommend the Jon Brazer Enterprises umbral kobolds or go with the standard Paizo kobold and make the advanced variants that gain bonuses on what chromatic dragon scales they have, and even gain a breath weapon of that type. Much more survivable. The party’s opponents would soon regret underestimating them just for being a kobold.

I hope you enjoy this update and should you do an underground adventure, whether Throne of Night or not, it’d be great if this race build was of benefit to you.

I will say though, that if you are running 5e because you’ve converted the AP to D&D 5e or are doing your own Underdark/Darklands campaign, I would absolutely implore you to seek out the fan made myconid race. It’s pretty well designed. I will say that a party of mutes would make for a very difficult campaign. However, I have heard of parties that are composed entirely of kenku. Those poor, poor DMs.

Have a happy and safe Halloween.

[lauramalchowblog]

13 Keto-Friendly Fiber Foods

While some keto or low-carb proponents claim fiber is useless at best and actively harmful at worst, I come down on the side that says fiber is probably helpful for most people. Some folks have persistently better responses to low- or no-fiber keto diets, and I won’t argue with that—I’ve seen it happen and I’ve read the studies where de-emphasizing fiber can actually improve constipation, for example.

I’ll just say that I have an opposite reaction, and, most importantly, I love eating a variety of plant foods that also happen to contain a ton of great nutrients in addition to fiber.

Do I buy into the idea that fiber is important because it is every human being’s responsibility to produce as much colonic bulk as humanly possible? No.

Do I think we should be consistently pushing the limits of our digestive tracts, performing feats of bathroom heroism so momentous they border on Herculean, and making sure the toilet bowl buckles beneath us? No.

The real value of fiber lies not in its coarseness, its tendency to form colonic bulk, to keep us topped off. The true value lies in its fermentability. A fermentable fiber is a prebiotic fiber—fiber that feeds our gut bacteria.

I won’t get into the many roles our gut bacteria play in our health today (I’ve covered that before. 1, 2, 3).

I will, however, explain why we need to be feeding our gut bacteria. Our gut bacteria form a physical barrier against incursions and colonization by pathogenic bacteria; they take up room along the gut lining so pathogens can’t. If we don’t feed our gut bacteria with prebiotics, it won’t be around to protect us. After antibiotic treatment where both good and bad gut flora are indiscriminately targeted and wiped out, pathogenic obesity-promoting bacteria take advantage of the open space. That’s a worst-case scenario, but it shows what can happen when the harmony of the gut is disturbed by antibiotics or, to a less extent, a lack of fermentable prebiotic fibers.

When our gut bacteria eat prebiotics, they also give off metabolites like butyric acid—a short chain fatty acid that our colonic cells use as an energy source and which improves metabolic health.

Gut bacteria also convert antinutrients like phytic acid into nutrients like inositol. The almond meal-obsessed keto eater would do well to have a powerful gut biome set up to convert all that phytic acid to inositol.

Now, some writers will come up with specific blends of fibers, powders and gums to create the “optimal” prebiotic diet for your gut bacteria, but that’s pretty silly. The gut is a complicated place. We’ve barely begun to even identify all its inhabitants. To think we know the precise blend of isolated fiber that will make them flourish, and then act on that, is a mistake.

A better option is to eat foods that contain fiber. Some of the prebiotic fibrous foods with the best nutrient profiles also happen to be extremely keto-friendly.

1) Almonds and Pistachios

Nuts are usually favored in health-conscious circles for a few reasons. They like the monounsaturated fat. They like the mineral profile, or the complete protein, or their ability to dissemble into nut meals and form baked goods. But what gets short shrift is the fiber content. Now, I can’t speak for other nuts, but almonds and pistachios in particular contain fiber with potent prebiotic effects. People who eat almonds and to an even greater extent pistachios end up with improved gut bacteria profiles.

2) Green Bananas

Ripe bananas are difficult to squeeze into a ketogenic diet. The green banana—an unripe one—is mostly resistant starch, a type of starch that cannot be digested and travels untouched until colonic bacteria metabolize it. It’s one of the best stimulators we know of butyric acid production. And sure, you could do a spoonful of raw potato starch to get your resistant starch, but the beauty of the green banana is that it also provides potassium, another nutrient that some find difficult to obtain and stay keto.

3) Wild Blueberries

Blackberries, boysenberries, raspberries, and strawberries are all loaded with fiber, and you should eat them. They’re lower carb than you think, they’re loaded with polyphenols, and topped with some real whipped cream they make a fantastic dessert. But wild blueberries are special. They’re smaller than other berries, which increases the amount of skin per ounce you get, and skin is where all the polyphenols and fiber lie. Heck, even the blueberry’s polyphenols have prebiotic effects on the gut biome.

4) Mushrooms

A few years ago, I wrote a whole post on mushrooms. Suffice it to say, they’re quite wonderful, bordering on magical. I did not discuss the fiber they contain. It turns out that all the various mushroom polysaccharides/fibers, including beta-glucans, mannans, chitin, xylans, and galactans also act as potent prebiotics that improve the health of the host.

5) Avocado

Your standard avocado has about 12-15 grams of fiber, if you eat the whole thing. I

6) Jicama

Great with chili powder, salt, and lime juice, jicama is about 11 grams of carbs per cup, but half of those are inulin, a potent prebiotic fiber with a tendency to really ramp up butyrate production.

7) Onions

Onions are another fantastic source of inulin. They go into almost every dish of every cuisine, so there’s no excuse not to be eating onions.

8) Garlic

I’ve been known to treat garlic like a vegetable, roasting an entire cast iron pan full until brown and sweet and chewy. They’re another great source of prebiotic fiber.

9) Leeks

Leeks have more inulin than onions. Try them crispy in egg scrambles.

10) Broccoli

Broccolini is a major part of my favorite meal of the day—my Big-Ass Keto Salad. Broccoli (and cruciferous vegetables in general) has been shown to have modulatory effects on the gut biome.

11) Sauerkraut

Kraut gives you two in one. It’s a fermented food, which is great for the gut biome. And it’s cabbage, which is very fibrous. Even pasteurized kraut improves gut health.

12) Dark Chocolate

Dark chocolate, the good stuff with a high cacao content (85%+) and low sugar content, is an incredible source of prebiotic fiber. Eat more of it.

13) Animal Fiber

Obligate carnivores like cheetahs who don’t eat any plants (willingly) still have gut bacteria. These gut bacteria thrive on “animal fiber,” the gristle and cartilage and other bits of connective tissue that comprise a good 20-30% of the walking weight of a prey animal. Humans are not obligate carnivores, but eating the entire animal has been a mainstay of advanced hominid existence for millions of years. I find it very likely that something, someone, somewhere inside our guts is breaking down the animal fiber we eat—so you’d better be eating some!

Not so tough, is it? It’s not like I’m suggesting you load up on bran muffins, psyllium smoothies. I don’t want you dumping flax meal into everything or munching on those awful fiber gummies. Just eat some basic, healthy, low-carb plant matter—foods that don’t really scream “fiber”—and the rest will take care of itself.

What’s your favorite low-carb source of fiber? Let me know down below.

Thanks for reading, everyone.

(function($) { $("#dfvoofp").load("https://www.marksdailyapple.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=dfads_ajax_load_ads&groups=674&limit=1&orderby=random&order=ASC&container_id=&container_html=none&container_class=&ad_html=div&ad_class=&callback_function=&return_javascript=0&_block_id=dfvoofp" ); })( jQuery );

window.onload=function(){ga('send', { hitType: 'event', eventCategory: 'Ad Impression', eventAction: '66572' });}

References: 

Hernández E, Bargiela R, Diez MS, et al. Functional consequences of microbial shifts in the human gastrointestinal tract linked to antibiotic treatment and obesity. Gut Microbes. 2013;4(4):306-15.

Ukhanova M, Wang X, Baer DJ, Novotny JA, Fredborg M, Mai V. Effects of almond and pistachio consumption on gut microbiota composition in a randomised cross-over human feeding study. Br J Nutr. 2014;111(12):2146-52.

Jiao X, Wang Y, Lin Y, et al. Blueberry polyphenols extract as a potential prebiotic with anti-obesity effects on C57BL/6 J mice by modulating the gut microbiota. J Nutr Biochem. 2019;64:88-100.

Jayachandran M, Xiao J, Xu B. A Critical Review on Health Promoting Benefits of Edible Mushrooms through Gut Microbiota. Int J Mol Sci. 2017;18(9)

Nielsen ES, Garnås E, Jensen KJ, et al. Lacto-fermented sauerkraut improves symptoms in IBS patients independent of product pasteurisation – a pilot study. Food Funct. 2018;9(10):5323-5335.

The post 13 Keto-Friendly Fiber Foods appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

13 Keto-Friendly Fiber Foods published first on https://venabeahan.tumblr.com

[jesseneufeld]

13 Keto-Friendly Fiber Foods

While some keto or low-carb proponents claim fiber is useless at best and actively harmful at worst, I come down on the side that says fiber is probably helpful for most people. Some folks have persistently better responses to low- or no-fiber keto diets, and I won’t argue with that—I’ve seen it happen and I’ve read the studies where de-emphasizing fiber can actually improve constipation, for example.

I’ll just say that I have an opposite reaction, and, most importantly, I love eating a variety of plant foods that also happen to contain a ton of great nutrients in addition to fiber.

Do I buy into the idea that fiber is important because it is every human being’s responsibility to produce as much colonic bulk as humanly possible? No.

Do I think we should be consistently pushing the limits of our digestive tracts, performing feats of bathroom heroism so momentous they border on Herculean, and making sure the toilet bowl buckles beneath us? No.

The real value of fiber lies not in its coarseness, its tendency to form colonic bulk, to keep us topped off. The true value lies in its fermentability. A fermentable fiber is a prebiotic fiber—fiber that feeds our gut bacteria.

I won’t get into the many roles our gut bacteria play in our health today (I’ve covered that before. 1, 2, 3).

I will, however, explain why we need to be feeding our gut bacteria. Our gut bacteria form a physical barrier against incursions and colonization by pathogenic bacteria; they take up room along the gut lining so pathogens can’t. If we don’t feed our gut bacteria with prebiotics, it won’t be around to protect us. After antibiotic treatment where both good and bad gut flora are indiscriminately targeted and wiped out, pathogenic obesity-promoting bacteria take advantage of the open space. That’s a worst-case scenario, but it shows what can happen when the harmony of the gut is disturbed by antibiotics or, to a less extent, a lack of fermentable prebiotic fibers.

When our gut bacteria eat prebiotics, they also give off metabolites like butyric acid—a short chain fatty acid that our colonic cells use as an energy source and which improves metabolic health.

Gut bacteria also convert antinutrients like phytic acid into nutrients like inositol. The almond meal-obsessed keto eater would do well to have a powerful gut biome set up to convert all that phytic acid to inositol.

Now, some writers will come up with specific blends of fibers, powders and gums to create the “optimal” prebiotic diet for your gut bacteria, but that’s pretty silly. The gut is a complicated place. We’ve barely begun to even identify all its inhabitants. To think we know the precise blend of isolated fiber that will make them flourish, and then act on that, is a mistake.

A better option is to eat foods that contain fiber. Some of the prebiotic fibrous foods with the best nutrient profiles also happen to be extremely keto-friendly.

1) Almonds and Pistachios

Nuts are usually favored in health-conscious circles for a few reasons. They like the monounsaturated fat. They like the mineral profile, or the complete protein, or their ability to dissemble into nut meals and form baked goods. But what gets short shrift is the fiber content. Now, I can’t speak for other nuts, but almonds and pistachios in particular contain fiber with potent prebiotic effects. People who eat almonds and to an even greater extent pistachios end up with improved gut bacteria profiles.

2) Green Bananas

Ripe bananas are difficult to squeeze into a ketogenic diet. The green banana—an unripe one—is mostly resistant starch, a type of starch that cannot be digested and travels untouched until colonic bacteria metabolize it. It’s one of the best stimulators we know of butyric acid production. And sure, you could do a spoonful of raw potato starch to get your resistant starch, but the beauty of the green banana is that it also provides potassium, another nutrient that some find difficult to obtain and stay keto.

3) Wild Blueberries

Blackberries, boysenberries, raspberries, and strawberries are all loaded with fiber, and you should eat them. They’re lower carb than you think, they’re loaded with polyphenols, and topped with some real whipped cream they make a fantastic dessert. But wild blueberries are special. They’re smaller than other berries, which increases the amount of skin per ounce you get, and skin is where all the polyphenols and fiber lie. Heck, even the blueberry’s polyphenols have prebiotic effects on the gut biome.

4) Mushrooms

A few years ago, I wrote a whole post on mushrooms. Suffice it to say, they’re quite wonderful, bordering on magical. I did not discuss the fiber they contain. It turns out that all the various mushroom polysaccharides/fibers, including beta-glucans, mannans, chitin, xylans, and galactans also act as potent prebiotics that improve the health of the host.

5) Avocado

Your standard avocado has about 12-15 grams of fiber, if you eat the whole thing. I

6) Jicama

Great with chili powder, salt, and lime juice, jicama is about 11 grams of carbs per cup, but half of those are inulin, a potent prebiotic fiber with a tendency to really ramp up butyrate production.

7) Onions

Onions are another fantastic source of inulin. They go into almost every dish of every cuisine, so there’s no excuse not to be eating onions.

8) Garlic

I’ve been known to treat garlic like a vegetable, roasting an entire cast iron pan full until brown and sweet and chewy. They’re another great source of prebiotic fiber.

9) Leeks

Leeks have more inulin than onions. Try them crispy in egg scrambles.

10) Broccoli

Broccolini is a major part of my favorite meal of the day—my Big-Ass Keto Salad. Broccoli (and cruciferous vegetables in general) has been shown to have modulatory effects on the gut biome.

11) Sauerkraut

Kraut gives you two in one. It’s a fermented food, which is great for the gut biome. And it’s cabbage, which is very fibrous. Even pasteurized kraut improves gut health.

12) Dark Chocolate

Dark chocolate, the good stuff with a high cacao content (85%+) and low sugar content, is an incredible source of prebiotic fiber. Eat more of it.

13) Animal Fiber

Obligate carnivores like cheetahs who don’t eat any plants (willingly) still have gut bacteria. These gut bacteria thrive on “animal fiber,” the gristle and cartilage and other bits of connective tissue that comprise a good 20-30% of the walking weight of a prey animal. Humans are not obligate carnivores, but eating the entire animal has been a mainstay of advanced hominid existence for millions of years. I find it very likely that something, someone, somewhere inside our guts is breaking down the animal fiber we eat—so you’d better be eating some!

Not so tough, is it? It’s not like I’m suggesting you load up on bran muffins, psyllium smoothies. I don’t want you dumping flax meal into everything or munching on those awful fiber gummies. Just eat some basic, healthy, low-carb plant matter—foods that don’t really scream “fiber”—and the rest will take care of itself.

What’s your favorite low-carb source of fiber? Let me know down below.

Thanks for reading, everyone.

(function($) { $("#dfBzSOa").load("https://www.marksdailyapple.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=dfads_ajax_load_ads&groups=674&limit=1&orderby=random&order=ASC&container_id=&container_html=none&container_class=&ad_html=div&ad_class=&callback_function=&return_javascript=0&_block_id=dfBzSOa" ); })( jQuery );

window.onload=function(){ga('send', { hitType: 'event', eventCategory: 'Ad Impression', eventAction: '67622' });}

References: 

Hernández E, Bargiela R, Diez MS, et al. Functional consequences of microbial shifts in the human gastrointestinal tract linked to antibiotic treatment and obesity. Gut Microbes. 2013;4(4):306-15.

Ukhanova M, Wang X, Baer DJ, Novotny JA, Fredborg M, Mai V. Effects of almond and pistachio consumption on gut microbiota composition in a randomised cross-over human feeding study. Br J Nutr. 2014;111(12):2146-52.

Jiao X, Wang Y, Lin Y, et al. Blueberry polyphenols extract as a potential prebiotic with anti-obesity effects on C57BL/6 J mice by modulating the gut microbiota. J Nutr Biochem. 2019;64:88-100.

Jayachandran M, Xiao J, Xu B. A Critical Review on Health Promoting Benefits of Edible Mushrooms through Gut Microbiota. Int J Mol Sci. 2017;18(9)

Nielsen ES, Garnås E, Jensen KJ, et al. Lacto-fermented sauerkraut improves symptoms in IBS patients independent of product pasteurisation – a pilot study. Food Funct. 2018;9(10):5323-5335.

The post 13 Keto-Friendly Fiber Foods appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

13 Keto-Friendly Fiber Foods published first on https://drugaddictionsrehab.tumblr.com/

[cynthiamwashington]

13 Keto-Friendly Fiber Foods

While some keto or low-carb proponents claim fiber is useless at best and actively harmful at worst, I come down on the side that says fiber is probably helpful for most people. Some folks have persistently better responses to low- or no-fiber keto diets, and I won’t argue with that—I’ve seen it happen and I’ve read the studies where de-emphasizing fiber can actually improve constipation, for example.

I’ll just say that I have an opposite reaction, and, most importantly, I love eating a variety of plant foods that also happen to contain a ton of great nutrients in addition to fiber.

Do I buy into the idea that fiber is important because it is every human being’s responsibility to produce as much colonic bulk as humanly possible? No.

Do I think we should be consistently pushing the limits of our digestive tracts, performing feats of bathroom heroism so momentous they border on Herculean, and making sure the toilet bowl buckles beneath us? No.

The real value of fiber lies not in its coarseness, its tendency to form colonic bulk, to keep us topped off. The true value lies in its fermentability. A fermentable fiber is a prebiotic fiber—fiber that feeds our gut bacteria.

I won’t get into the many roles our gut bacteria play in our health today (I’ve covered that before. 1, 2, 3).

I will, however, explain why we need to be feeding our gut bacteria. Our gut bacteria form a physical barrier against incursions and colonization by pathogenic bacteria; they take up room along the gut lining so pathogens can’t. If we don’t feed our gut bacteria with prebiotics, it won’t be around to protect us. After antibiotic treatment where both good and bad gut flora are indiscriminately targeted and wiped out, pathogenic obesity-promoting bacteria take advantage of the open space. That’s a worst-case scenario, but it shows what can happen when the harmony of the gut is disturbed by antibiotics or, to a less extent, a lack of fermentable prebiotic fibers.

When our gut bacteria eat prebiotics, they also give off metabolites like butyric acid—a short chain fatty acid that our colonic cells use as an energy source and which improves metabolic health.

Gut bacteria also convert antinutrients like phytic acid into nutrients like inositol. The almond meal-obsessed keto eater would do well to have a powerful gut biome set up to convert all that phytic acid to inositol.

Now, some writers will come up with specific blends of fibers, powders and gums to create the “optimal” prebiotic diet for your gut bacteria, but that’s pretty silly. The gut is a complicated place. We’ve barely begun to even identify all its inhabitants. To think we know the precise blend of isolated fiber that will make them flourish, and then act on that, is a mistake.

A better option is to eat foods that contain fiber. Some of the prebiotic fibrous foods with the best nutrient profiles also happen to be extremely keto-friendly.

1) Almonds and Pistachios

Nuts are usually favored in health-conscious circles for a few reasons. They like the monounsaturated fat. They like the mineral profile, or the complete protein, or their ability to dissemble into nut meals and form baked goods. But what gets short shrift is the fiber content. Now, I can’t speak for other nuts, but almonds and pistachios in particular contain fiber with potent prebiotic effects. People who eat almonds and to an even greater extent pistachios end up with improved gut bacteria profiles.

2) Green Bananas

Ripe bananas are difficult to squeeze into a ketogenic diet. The green banana—an unripe one—is mostly resistant starch, a type of starch that cannot be digested and travels untouched until colonic bacteria metabolize it. It’s one of the best stimulators we know of butyric acid production. And sure, you could do a spoonful of raw potato starch to get your resistant starch, but the beauty of the green banana is that it also provides potassium, another nutrient that some find difficult to obtain and stay keto.

3) Wild Blueberries

Blackberries, boysenberries, raspberries, and strawberries are all loaded with fiber, and you should eat them. They’re lower carb than you think, they’re loaded with polyphenols, and topped with some real whipped cream they make a fantastic dessert. But wild blueberries are special. They’re smaller than other berries, which increases the amount of skin per ounce you get, and skin is where all the polyphenols and fiber lie. Heck, even the blueberry’s polyphenols have prebiotic effects on the gut biome.

4) Mushrooms

A few years ago, I wrote a whole post on mushrooms. Suffice it to say, they’re quite wonderful, bordering on magical. I did not discuss the fiber they contain. It turns out that all the various mushroom polysaccharides/fibers, including beta-glucans, mannans, chitin, xylans, and galactans also act as potent prebiotics that improve the health of the host.

5) Avocado

Your standard avocado has about 12-15 grams of fiber, if you eat the whole thing. I

6) Jicama

Great with chili powder, salt, and lime juice, jicama is about 11 grams of carbs per cup, but half of those are inulin, a potent prebiotic fiber with a tendency to really ramp up butyrate production.

7) Onions

Onions are another fantastic source of inulin. They go into almost every dish of every cuisine, so there’s no excuse not to be eating onions.

8) Garlic

I’ve been known to treat garlic like a vegetable, roasting an entire cast iron pan full until brown and sweet and chewy. They’re another great source of prebiotic fiber.

9) Leeks

Leeks have more inulin than onions. Try them crispy in egg scrambles.

10) Broccoli

Broccolini is a major part of my favorite meal of the day—my Big-Ass Keto Salad. Broccoli (and cruciferous vegetables in general) has been shown to have modulatory effects on the gut biome.

11) Sauerkraut

Kraut gives you two in one. It’s a fermented food, which is great for the gut biome. And it’s cabbage, which is very fibrous. Even pasteurized kraut improves gut health.

12) Dark Chocolate

Dark chocolate, the good stuff with a high cacao content (85%+) and low sugar content, is an incredible source of prebiotic fiber. Eat more of it.

13) Animal Fiber

Obligate carnivores like cheetahs who don’t eat any plants (willingly) still have gut bacteria. These gut bacteria thrive on “animal fiber,” the gristle and cartilage and other bits of connective tissue that comprise a good 20-30% of the walking weight of a prey animal. Humans are not obligate carnivores, but eating the entire animal has been a mainstay of advanced hominid existence for millions of years. I find it very likely that something, someone, somewhere inside our guts is breaking down the animal fiber we eat—so you’d better be eating some!

Not so tough, is it? It’s not like I’m suggesting you load up on bran muffins, psyllium smoothies. I don’t want you dumping flax meal into everything or munching on those awful fiber gummies. Just eat some basic, healthy, low-carb plant matter—foods that don’t really scream “fiber”—and the rest will take care of itself.

What’s your favorite low-carb source of fiber? Let me know down below.

Thanks for reading, everyone.

(function($) { $("#df8o0yq").load("https://www.marksdailyapple.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=dfads_ajax_load_ads&groups=674&limit=1&orderby=random&order=ASC&container_id=&container_html=none&container_class=&ad_html=div&ad_class=&callback_function=&return_javascript=0&_block_id=df8o0yq" ); })( jQuery );

window.onload=function(){ga('send', { hitType: 'event', eventCategory: 'Ad Impression', eventAction: '74506' });}

References: 

Hernández E, Bargiela R, Diez MS, et al. Functional consequences of microbial shifts in the human gastrointestinal tract linked to antibiotic treatment and obesity. Gut Microbes. 2013;4(4):306-15.

Ukhanova M, Wang X, Baer DJ, Novotny JA, Fredborg M, Mai V. Effects of almond and pistachio consumption on gut microbiota composition in a randomised cross-over human feeding study. Br J Nutr. 2014;111(12):2146-52.

Jiao X, Wang Y, Lin Y, et al. Blueberry polyphenols extract as a potential prebiotic with anti-obesity effects on C57BL/6 J mice by modulating the gut microbiota. J Nutr Biochem. 2019;64:88-100.

Jayachandran M, Xiao J, Xu B. A Critical Review on Health Promoting Benefits of Edible Mushrooms through Gut Microbiota. Int J Mol Sci. 2017;18(9)

Nielsen ES, Garnås E, Jensen KJ, et al. Lacto-fermented sauerkraut improves symptoms in IBS patients independent of product pasteurisation – a pilot study. Food Funct. 2018;9(10):5323-5335.

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[auburnfamilynews]

A look back at Gus Malzahn’s first signing class.

Next Wednesday, Auburn will close on another signing class. Afterwards, everyone, including yours truly, will attempt to explain to you dear readers why this is a class you should be excited about based off the bits of film they’ve seen of said signees. Some will explain how the fact that one class has a higher player rating average means that their class is in fact much better than their rivals’ ranked 3 spots higher while others will point to the sheer depth of their class as why it is in fact the best.

But the truth is we actually have no idea how good or not good a class is next Wednesday. Yes, it’s been shown over and over again that schools who typically finish ranked higher tend to be more successful. You will never hear me debate that fact. However, the level of success of a class can’t really be judged until those kids hit the gridiron. So this week, we here at College & Magnolia have taken the time go back and re rank Auburn’s signing classes based on their actual success on the field. It will be interesting to see if some classes that were thought to be poor end up strong while great on paper classes turn to disappointment upon reexamination.

I should point out that we are ranking based on the success of the player while at Auburn. We aren’t concerned about where they landed in the NFL Draft or any success they might have had after leaving the Plains. We are grading strictly on how these players produced while donning the orange and blue. Our final rating is an average of grades (1-5) given to signees by the majority of the brain trust here at C&M. You could call it a C&M Composite score if you so felt inclined...

Anyway, enough rambling, onto the re-ranks!

Consensus Five Stars

We start first with the folks that we all agreed were 5* impact players for the Tigers. What we defined as 5* is pretty subjective but for me at least it’s someone that was not only ultra productive but raised the level of play of those around him as well. Three 5*s in a single class ain’t bad at all.

#14 QB Nick Marshall

247 Composite: 3* | #27 JUCO OVR | #3 JUCO QB | #6 JUCO KS

Career Stats: 320-532 (60.2%) 4,508 yards 34 TD 13 INT 147.5 QBR 325 carries 1,866 yards 5.7 avg 23 TD 3 rec 51 yds 17.0 avg

C&M Composite: 5.00

This was the easiest rerank of the class. Marshall was the engine behind Auburn’s high powered offenses in 2013 and 2014. I will completely admit to the fact that I was very confused on why Gus would take a flyer on a 20+ INT thrower from some JUCO when he had the stud QB of the future coming in the same class back in 2013. But you see, there is a reason I am an internet blogger and not a multi million dollar head football coach.

#18 K Daniel Carlson

247 Composite: 3* | N/A OVR | #2 K | #6 CO

Career Stats: 198-198 XP (100%) 92-114 (80.7%) TD

C&M Composite: 5.00

One of the dumbest things recruiting sites do is give kickers a ceiling of 3*s. Not here at College & Magnolia. Our experts here understand the value of kickers especially someone like Mr. Legatron whom not only leads Auburn in scoring but the SEC overall. That’s right, no human being that has ever played in the best football conference in America has scored as many points as Daniel Carlson. Did you see that Mike?

#55 BUCK/DE Carl Lawson

247 Composite: 5* | #22 OVR | #1 WDE | #3 GA

Career Stats: 67 tackles 24.5 TFL 14.5 sacks 3 FF

C&M Composite: 5.00

There will always be a feeling of what if with Lawson. What if he had not missed all of 2015? But that one year actually helped prove just how valuable a player he was to that Auburn defense. Teams always had to account for Lawson which opened up opportunities for guys elsewhere and his leadership was special. He’s now making a bunch of NFL front offices look super dumb which is just an added bonus honestly.

The Four Stars

What you are going to notice about this class is it is very top heavy. In some other re-ranks I will have to delineate a bit at the 4* level but in 2013, guys were pretty clearly either a consensus 5* or a consensus 4*.

#23 S Johnathan “Rudy” Ford

247 Composite: 4* | #306 OVR | #22 RB | #13 AL

Career Stats: 280 tackles 12.5 TFL 2.0 sacks 5 INT TD 11 PD FR 3 FF

C&M Composite: 4.17

Auburn flipped Ford from Vanderbilt late in the 2013 class and brought him on as a running back. He switched to defense before his sophomore year where he became an instant impact player and led the Tigers in tackles the next two seasons. I still think he could have been a dang good tailback if he left on that side of the ball but hard to complain too much about how his career turned out.

#1 Montravius Adams

247 Composite: 5* | #10 OVR | #3 DT | #2 GA

Career Stats: 147 tackles 19.5 TFL 10.5 sacks 2 INT 3 PD 3 FR TD 3 FF

C&M Composite: 4.00

I was a bit surprised to see consensus across the board that Adams was a 4*. This was a tough one because we all love Adams and there’s no denying he had a productive career for the Tigers. But consistency eluded him and he just never seemed to have that one big game changing moment in his career. If I were fully re-ranking the 2013 class he might be a 4* but he would be a top 50 player just outside the 5*s. If you disagree, feel free to make a passionate case for Adams in the comments, chances are high you will convince us.

#44 Cameron Artis-Payne

247 Composite: 3* | #60 JUCO OVR | #3 JUCO RB | #17 JUCO CA

Career Stats: 394 carries 2,218 yds 5.6 avg 19 TD 14 rec 151 yds

C&M Composite: 4.00

I vividly remembering telling my buddy with me in Atlanta when Artis-Payne broke off that tremendous late TD run against Missouri that the Tigers would be just fine at tailback in 2014. Artis-Payne was another successful JUCO hit for Malzahn and I think is overlooked in Auburn RB lore. He was insanely light on his feet for a 210 lb running back and delivered more blows than he took that season.

Borderline Four Star

Here resides one player where the C&M crew had mixed thoughts on his rank. The 4s outweighed the 3s though.

#25 Peyton Barber

247 Composite: 3* | #482 OVR | #30 RB | #42 GA

Career Stats: 248 carries 1,071 yds 4.3 avg 13 TD 11 rec 112 yds 10.2 avg

C&M Composite: 3.83

Barber’s career has been far from typical. A nasty knee injury robbed him of his junior year in high school and resulted in him not being as highly pursued as he probably should have been. He redshirted in 2013 and took garbage time reps in 2014 before emerging as the lead tailback for much of the tumultuous 2015 campaign when all of Auburn’s other more highly rated backs were all hurt. Then, after a fantastic redshirt sophomore year, Barber shockingly declared for the NFL though he gave a pretty good reason for it later. Now he’s Tampa Bay’s starting tailback after going undrafted and battling a learning disability all his life. Keep doing you Peyton.

Three Star-ish

Here we find a trio of key contributors that didn’t necessarily have consensus on their rank. One had a few more 4* votes while the other two picked up some lower 2* and even a 1* rank.

#80 Marcus Davis

247 Composite: 3* | #865 OVR | #69 CB | #126 FL

Career Stats: 83 rec 650 yds 7.8 avg 3 TD

C&M Composite: 3.33

Davis’s best year ended up being his first one. He never broke the 200 yard barrier after a strong debut season in 2013. But I will never forget that wheel route catch against Texas A&M.

#53 Devonte Danzey

247 Composite: 3* | #106 JUCO OVR | #2 JUCO OG | #18 JUCO KS

Career Stats: 10 starts

C&M Composite: 2.83

Danzey was never a star for the Tigers but was a crucial backup in both 2014 and 2015. He started 7 games at left guard in 2014 and filled in for an injured Xavier Dampeer at center the final 3 games of the 2015 campaign.

#50 Ben Bradley

247 Composite: 4* | #16 JUCO OVR | #6 JUCO DT | #3 JUCO KS

Career Stats: 36 tackles 6.0 TFL sack

C&M Composite: 2.50

Bradley was an important rotational piece for Auburn’s defensive line in 2013 and 2014. Never a major impact player, Bradley saw plenty of action and was a useful backup for the Tigers when Adams or Dontavius Russell needed a blow.

The Two Stars

This is an interesting category. Some names here I feel might have been judged too harshly while others probably given too much credit. As you can see, this 2013 class was very top but filled with a lot of signees who never really made a huge impact.

#8 Tony Stevens

247 Composite: 4* | #130 OVR | #16 WR | #23 FL

Career Stats: 50 rec 751 yds 15.0 avg 5 TD

C&M Composite: 2.33

I was a bit surprised to see Stevens rated so low by some of my esteemed colleagues. I personally had him as a clear 3* talent but can understand some of the harsh grading. Stevens would have moments where you believed the top 150 talent was showing out but would often times disappear for long stretches. His inability to stay healthy undoubtedly played a large role in those consistency struggles as well.

#6 Jeremy Johnson

247 Composite: 4* | #164 OVR | #11 PRO QB | #7 AL

Career Stats: 179-282 (63.5%) 2,223 yds 20 TD 11 INT 73 carries 210 yds 2.9 avg 9 TD

C&M Composite: 2.33

There’s no point in rehashing this story that has been told plenty. All I will say is that I greatly respected the way Johnson handled his struggles both during his collegiate career and after. He’s still got a fan in me.

#29 Brandon King

247 Composite: 3* | #176 JUCO OVR | #14 JUCO S | #28 JUCO KS

Career Stats: 19 tackles FR

C&M Composite: 2.33

Despite having a pretty nondescript career for the Tigers, King has carved out a niche in the NFL as a special teams beast and is finishing his 4th year with New England. Not a bad way to make a living.

#47 Cameron Toney

247 Composite: 3* | #433 OVR | #28 ILB | #15 AL

Career Stats: 7 tackles

C&M Composite: 2*

I really liked Toney coming out of high school but there were some concerns about his athleticism. He proved too slow to play linebacker and not big enough to play defensive line. I think though he could have been a half decent Buck if he could have played in Kevin Steele’s system. Muschamp moved him there in 2015 before he left the team.

#75 Deon Mix

247 Composite: 3* | #459 OVR | #25 OG | #7 MS

Career Stats: N/A

C&M Composite: 2.00

Mix was a career backup for the Tigers before transferring to Houston. There was always talk he was in the “Mix” at center but it never came to fruition. Sorry, just wanted to type that sentence.

The Busts

Probably harsh but this is a harsh business. There’s an uncomfortable amount of 1s in this class though it’s not a huge surprise considering that Gus had to scramble to put this class together after being hired.

#22 Khari Harding

247 Composite: 3* | #635 OVR | #45 S | #5 OK

Career Stats: 4 tackles

C&M Composite: 1.17

I loved Harding’s tape coming out of high school and was so excited when the Tigers stole him away from the Hogs. But sadly, illness in his family cut his Auburn career short and he transferred back to Tulsa where he never really made much of an impact.

#44 Kenny Flowers

247 Composite: 3* | #67 JUCO OVR | #3 JUCO ILB | #13 JUCO KS

Career Stats: 9 tackles TFL

C&M Composite: 1.17

Flowers was a hard hitting backer out of JUCO who looked poised to find a role early on a defense that needed help at linebacker. That never materialized and Flowers left the Plains without ever hearing his name called much on Saturdays, though he did win the Defensive MVP in the 2014 A-Day Game.

#97 Elijah Daniel

247 Composite: 4* | #55 OVR | #6 SDE | #2 IN

Career Stats: 23 tackles 5.5 TFL 3.5 sacks

C&M Composite: 1.00

Daniel was a nice signing day surprise that did not work out. After an encouraging sophomore campaign that saw the Indiana native make the move inside where he proved more effective, Daniel was dismissed from the team after being arrested for burglary.

#83 Dominic Walker

247 Composite: 3* | #500 OVR | #71 WR | #76 FL

Career Stats: N/A

C&M Composite: 1*

Walker decided to join teammate Tony Stevens on the Plains in 2013, flipping from Nebraska which did not go over well with the typically pleasant Bo Pelini. Sadly, Walker’s career didn’t amount to much on the Plains and he transferred to Troy after redshirting.

#37 Kamryn Melton

247 Composite: 3* | #542 OVR | #40 CB | #18 AL

Career Stats: N/A

C&M Composite: 1*

Melton was apart of the DB migration in 2015 when Will Muschamp came back to town. He ended up playing two solid seasons for Troy in 2016 and 2017.

#21 Mackenro Alexander

247 Composite: 3* | #585 OVR | #40 S | #86 FL

Career Stats: 4 tackles 1.5 TFL

C&M Composite: 1.00

Auburn’s first attempt at a package deal under Gus went poorly. Clemson landed 5* Mackenzie Alexander who went on to have a brilliant career for the purple shaded Tigers. Mackenro picked Auburn where after two seasons of not contributing he transferred to Iowa State where he had a solid senior year.

Earnest Robinson

247 Composite: 4* | #296 OVR | #43 WR| #11 AL

Career Stats: N/A

C&M Composite: 1.00

Robinson failed to qualify after signing with the Tigers and then was arrested for setting up a man for a robbery a year later. Kid had immense talent but that can only get you so far.

This class was ranked #10 overall in 2013 which was only good for 6th in the conference because that’s life in the SEC. It proved incredibly top heavy with three clear 5* impact players, one more borderline 5* talent, two outstanding tailbacks and then a whole lotta meh. This was really Gus Malzahn’s Year 0 class considering he didn’t have all cycle to recruit these kids. So while this class lacked depth, it did provide plenty of punch at the top of the list to make it a solid first signing class for Malzahn. Tomorrow, we will take a look at the very interesting 2014 group.

War Eagle!

from College and Magnolia - All Posts https://www.collegeandmagnolia.com/2019/1/29/18196000/re-ranking-auburn-signing-classes-2013

[yahoo-roto-arcade-blog]

Fantasy Football Booms/Busts 2018: The Los Angeles Chargers

Drill down on Melvin Gordon’s advanced stats profile and you might be surprised at just how good he is. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

As the mercury rises and we inch closer to the open of training camps, our resident fantasy football sickos, Brad Evans and Liz Loza, will profile their favorite booms/busts of every NFL team. Today’s topic: The SoCal Stepchildren.

Based on ADP, what player unleashes the loudest BOOM this season?

Brad – PHILIP RIVERS. In a classic game of rock-paper-scissors, the passer is an old trusty chunk of metamorphic. Similar to other venerable vets Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Ben Roethlisberger and Matthew Stafford, Rivers sports a high floor. Every year he slips in drafts. Every year he exceeds expectation. Eight of his past 10 seasons he’s finished inside the QB top-12. Oh, and he hasn’t missed a single start since joining the league in 2004. Rivers should be a cover athlete for the Fantasy Safety Commission.

Last season, the 36 year old underwhelmed in multiple completion percentage categories. However, his receivers dropped 44 total passes, the third-most in the NFL. The loss of Hunter Henry stings, but with Keenan Allen, Melvin Gordon, Tyrell Williams and up-and-comer Mike Williams (Sidenote: I stand with Loza in her breakout prediction of Williams) comprising the arsenal he should again rank at or near the top in yards per attempt, air yards per attempt and pass yards per game. The crystal ball says 4,300 passing yards with 28-30 TDs and 12-14 INTs is on the horizon. Pull a fast one on your opponents at his 120.4 ADP (QB12).

Liz – MIKE WILLIAMS. After being selected in the first round by the Los Angeles Chargers, the seventh overall pick promptly herniated a disc in his lower back during the first practice of rookie minicamp. He eventually made it onto the field by Week 6 (converting his lone target for 15 yards), but then hurt his knee (bone bruise) heading into Week 12 and missed another two games. The coveted rookie closed out his first professional campaign with an 11-95-0 stat line.

Heading into 2018, however, Williams has a chance to turn things around. At 6-foot-4 and nearly 220 pounds, the 23-year-old is large and in charge. He has an impressive wingspan and plump mitts, both of which help him win contested catches and dominate in the red area of the field. Unfortunately, he’s slow and his routes are raw. While he’ll never be a burner, a proper offseason – which includes both counsel from Keenan Allen and regularly facing off against Casey Hayward and Jason Verrett – should add polish those trees.

The Chargers organization undoubtedly believes in Williams’ talent. But will Philip Rivers target the novice wideout enough to make him fantasy relevant? With Hunter Henry lost for the season (ACL), the father of seven won’t have much of a choice. Expected to run more three-wide sets, Los Angeles’ second-favorite team will prioritize getting Williams involved in the red zone. A 6 TD season is well within the second-year player’s massive reach.

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BELIEVE or MAKE BELIEVE: Melvin Gordon (11.7 ADP, RB8) finishes No. 10 or better in .5 PPR leagues at the RB position.

Liz – BELIEVE. Don’t even start with that “but his YPC” garbage. Averaging nearly 4 red zone touches per game and racking up 11 goal line carries in 2017, Gordon traded “efficiency” for TDs. A top-seven FF producer in back-to-back seasons, the Wisconsin product has managed 12 total scores for two consecutive years. He’s also honed his pass-catching skills, drawing over 83 targets (#7) last year. Per OC Ken Whisenhunt, that number should grow with Hunter Henry lost for the upcoming season.

A workhorse who catches A LOT of balls, Gordon is an elite option at the position. Assuming he stays healthy again this go-around, the 25-year-old should minimally deliver 1,500 total yards and 10 scores in his fourth pro effort.

Brad – BELIEVE. On the surface, Gordon resembles a never-ending drive thru lane at the local In-N-Out. His sub 4.0 YPC marks in consecutive seasons combined with horrid efficiency numbers (40 percent success rates on run and pass plays in ’17) suggest patrons should turn away. In fact, according to Sharp Football his 42 percent run success rate the past two seasons ranked dead last among RBs with at least 425 attempts. But stick it out and numbers equivalent to the caloric intake of a double-double with a side of animal style fries awaits.

Commanding the sixth-most vigorous opportunity share last season (71.5 percent), Gordon ranked top-10 in red-zone touches, breakaway runs, evaded tackles and yards after contact. His testy naysayers will argue volume had everything to do it, which is true, but fantasy worth is often tied to workload and situation. Gordon, who registered 21.4 touches per game last season, stands out in both.

You’ll occasionally see Austin Ekeler on “expert” sleeper lists this summer, a waste-of-time viewpoint. Chargers head coach Anthony Lynn is committed to Gordon. Knowing L.A.’s on-paper potency, on both ends, along with its o-line upgrades (6th-worst in run-blocking in ’17) and Gordon sports one of the safest floors in virtual pigskin. Target him with supreme confidence at or near the turn in 12-team leagues. Another 1400-1600 combined yards with 10-plus touchdowns is imminent. He’s firmly entrenched as my RB8.

At his 16.1 ADP (WR6) in .5 PPR formats, is Keenan Allen OVERVALUED, UNDERVALUED or PROPERLY VALUED?

Brad – UNDERVALUED. Miracles do exist. The fact Allen’s various extremities survived an entire 16-game slate was undeniable proof. Whatever MacGyver-like contraption surgeons fixed to his repaired knee did wonders. In 2017 he returned to greatness, enticing 27.7 percent of the target share (WR6) while tallying 102 receptions for 1,393 yards and seven scores. Equally spectacular in advanced categories, he finished No. 10 or higher in red-zone targets share, total yards per catch, yards per route and fantasy points per route. His overall 55 percent receiving success rate also moved the meter.

Allen’s downside is obvious, but if his health sustains over another full season, he’s a tremendous Round 2 option in .5 PPR. With Hunter Henry’s 5.2 targets per game up for grabs, it’s possible he could exceed 160 looks. Linking him with another elite WR or prominent RB from Round 1 is a fantastic 1-2 punch to start your draft.

Liz – PROPERLY VALUED. Free of lacerated kidneys and non-contact knee injuries, Allen proved his rookie season was no fluke. The 2017 Comeback Player of the Year converted 102 balls (via 159 looks) for nearly 1,400 yards and 7 scores. The picture of health, Allen additionally beasted after the catch, racking up the second most yards post-reception of any WR in the league.

A top-three fantasy producer, the stud wideout made NFL history from Weeks 11 – 13, becoming the first player to haul in 10 balls, 100 yards, and 1 TD in three straight contests. That’s something that neither Antonio Brown or Julio Jones – both of whom are consistently drafted ahead of Allen – have ever accomplished. The fact that Allen did it late in the season also allays any fears about his health. He’s my no-questions-asked WR6 heading in 2018.

Bring the blitz on Twitter. Follow Brad (@YahooNoise) and Liz (@LizLoza_FF).