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tabletoptrinketsbyjj · 5 years ago

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Running the Numbers: On Balancing Homebrew Masterwork Weapon Bonuses

Hey folks,

My name is JJ and since March 2017 I’ve been working on this blog of D&D related homebrew content for your looting needs. I’ve gotten lots of positive feedback from people and I’m very appreciative of everyone who has written to me or shared the tables on their own blogs or with friends and gaming groups. I want to take a moment to thank everyone who has taken the time and energy to read through my tables, I know people lead busy lives and homebrew content is everywhere online. What I would like to talk about right now is balance for this blog’s homebrew material and how I decide what to include or not include in the tables and how that might help a DM justify using homebrew my homebrew material in their campaign without breaking the game or providing a wild power imbalance between their players.

To start off, I’d like to say that I have a decent background in RPG games in a variety of different systems with most of my time playing, Pathfinder, D&D 3.5 and 5th Edition. For balance purposes for this blog I have tried to be system neutral, talking about skills, benefits and mechanics in general terms so that the trinkets (Especially magic objects) can be easily worked into D&D, Exalted or Numenera alike. For general bonuses and negatives I have taken language from 5th edition D&D, namely the Advantage/Disadvantage system because I find it simple and straightforward. Since I primarily play D&D 5e now I gear a lot of the wording of objects towards it and d20 systems in general. Although this article can be used to talk about balance in a number of different systems, any specifics are usually aimed at D&D 5e.

While I'd like to talk about all of the different types of trinkets I have on my blog, this post will focus exclusively on Masterwork Weapons. While this concept was standard in D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder (And similar ideas can be found in other systems), it does not exist in 5e, which I find disappointing because I like the idea of an exceptionally crafted weapon that is mechanically better than average but weaker than a +1 weapon. To talk about masterwork weapons we should also talk about magic weapons so we have a clear comparison. Magical “+1 weapons” are a staple in D&D and are an easily benchmark for what a “standard” magic weapon looks like. A +1 weapon has four different bonuses that set it above a typical weapon, It grants a +1 on accuracy rolls to hit, a +1 on damage rolls, it counts as magical for bypassing the resistances of enemies and it is much harder to break or damage. When the concept was used in 3.5 and Pathfinder, a masterwork weapon gave a +1 on accuracy rolls to hit. In my interpretation, this means that the value of a masterwork weapon was about ¼ of a +1 weapon and I have tried to keep that in mind while writing. It is no accident that the first four masterwork bonuses are each different aspect of a +1 weapon. While researching what other people have done for their version of a homebrew masterwork weapon in 5e, the common theme I've found seems to be a +1 on damage rolls. Due to the bonded accuracy in 5e, a +1 on accuracy would be to strong and we’ll talk more about this later. A +1 to damage rolls for a price of 100gp (Which is the same price as getting a weapon silver plated) seems like a fair enough trade, especially if masterwork weapons are rare and can only be purchased in large cities or commissioned from master weapon crafters, requiring a side quest or roleplay scene. In short, I found a general consensus that a masterwork quality that grants a +1 on damage rolls is balance and therefore it will serve as the benchmark against which all the other masterwork bonuses are compared against.

Keeping “+1 to damage rolls” in mind as a benchmark for how strong I wanted a masterwork bonus to be, I created and cannibalized more than a dozen options for DM’s to use for introducing masterworks into their own campaigns. I will be going point by point crunching numbers to show how each bonus lines up with one another. For those that want to do your own math, feel free to use https://anydice.com/ or http://rumkin.com/reference/dnd/diestats.php to double check the work. I will be using 1d8 as an example for most damage rolls to make it a little more standard. For context going forward, a d8 has a minimum damage of 1, a maximum damage of 8 and an average damage of 4.5. Please note that with one or two exceptions these benefits only affect the default weapon damage dice themselves, not additional dice such as sneak attack, divine smite or spell effects.

I will be going through one at a time through each Masterwork Bonus I currently have written up and talking about them and showing you how their specific benefit effects damage rolls so you as a DM have a better idea on how strong it actually is. To save space I have cut out the fluff descriptions of the Masterwork Bonuses but they can be read here if you’re interested.

Keep reading for a point by point analysis of the Masterwork Bonuses.

This paragraph outlines the Advantage / Disadvantage system from D&D 5e, because some of the bonuses use it. If you're already familiar go ahead and skip this. When a character is given help from a tool, other character, magic effect, etc. they gain Advantage on the dice roll made to accomplish the task. This means that they roll 2d20’s and pick the higher result to determine the outcome, thereby increasing the overall dice roll, slashing the chances of critical failing and boosting the opportunity to critically succeed. Disadvantage is the opposite, the player rolls twice and has to use the lower result increasing the odds of failing. The real great parts about this system is if a character has advantage and disadvantage, they cancel out and only one roll is made so you cannot get “super advantage”. If the character is gaining advantage or disadvantage from multiple sources he still only rolls twice and picks the higher result. This makes circumstantial bonuses very simple to apply on the spot and prevents players from having to calculate a +1 or +2 from half a dozen different sources at a time. Personally I like it because it’s quick and simple allowing everyone to roll fast and move on, in a game where play time is often hard to schedule. Plus, bonuses and deficits just cause the player to roll more dice in a game where players typically love any excuse to roll dice.

1, Precise: Grants a +1 on attack rolls to hit targets

In many systems a bonus to accuracy rolls can deal more damage than a boost to the actual damage rolls. Logically, more accurate attacks hit more often and all damage resulting from a hit that was only successful because of the +1 accuracy bonus can be considered extra damage. In D&D 5e this would bonus would probably be considered the most powerful due to bonded accuracy (Which you can read more about here) and would probably end up doing more damage than the +1 benchmark, especially if the wielder had class features such as sneak attack that further increased damage on hit.

2, Balanced: Grants a +1 to all damage rolls.

The simplest and most reliable damage dealing bonus. A flat +1 damage increases the minimum, maximum and average amount of damage that can be dealt by the attack by 1, making it a nice choice to quietly provide a small benefit for the player that can be added to the damage roll’s math and otherwise forgotten about. For damage bonuses, an average damage increase of +1 is what we are looking for in terms of power and serves as our benchmark.

3, Spellbound: The weapon is considered magical for the purposes of overcoming resistances, damage reduction and other defenses.

This provides a nice compromise to DM’s who want their players to go up against more varied enemies that might have resistances or immunities to non-magic weapons but who don’t want the players to have a full +1 weapon yet. The weapon’s bonus will only provide a benefit when dealing with a small number of enemies (Like elementals, ghosts or fiends) that have that resistance. On the resistant enemies it effectively doubles damage (Compared to a non-Spellbound weapon whose damage would be halved by the resistant monster) granting the wielder and player the time to shine in combat. Against the majority of low and mid-level enemies such as humanoids and beasts who aren’t resistant to non-magic weapons, the weapon provides no benefit at all and is just as useful as a regular weapon.

4, Impervious: The weapon is five times more durable than normal, never breaks, chips or dulls as a result of casual use and is all but impossible to break or damage as a result of combat, even when targeted by enemies who attempt sundering or weapon breaking techniques.

This allows a player to feel comfortable in the knowledge that their sword isn’t going to explode on a natural 1, leaving them unarmed and useless in combat. Furthermore it encourages players to use the sturdy weapon outside of combat for roleplaying or problem solving reasons. Perhaps a war pick is used to dig a foxhole in rocky terrain, a warhammer is used to break down a door, a quarterstaff is wedged against a door to brace it, or a sword is used in place of a crowbar to pry open a stuck chest. Other than resisting being broken in combat, this bonuses has no real offensive capacity making it a great thing to give to your players with almost zero risk that it will upset the team’s power balance or make them too strong in combat.

5, Relentless: Instead of a single damage die when the wielder successfully hits a target, the player instead rolls two dice that equal the value of the original damage die and add the results together.

This grants the player the ability to roll two dice when they would normally roll one, which will probably increase their level of happiness right there. This is a good benefit for raising the minimum damage the wielder does, and in the event of a critical allows the player to roll a multitude of small dice, further raising the minimum damage dealt. If our 1d8 example die is turned into 2d4 with this, the weapon now has a minimum damage of 2, a maximum damage of 8 and an average damage of 5. This increases the minimum by 1 which is nice but only provides an average damage bonus of +0.5 which is not much, but can allow players to feel like they are getting more from the weapon than they normally would. Since this average damage increase is less than our benchmark +1 damage this makes it a balanced addition to the masterwork bonus list.

6, Superior: The weapon’s damage dice increases by one step to the next largest die.

This is a nice and simple benefit with a clear but small increase in damage potential. If our 1d8 example die is turned into 1d10 with this, the weapon has a minimum damage of 1, a maximum damage of 10 and an average damage of 5.50. This increases the maximum by 2 which allows for slightly bigger hits and provides an average damage bonus of +1. This has a slightly higher than normal damage cap but with the drawback of no increase to the minimum damage. Overall the average damage is increased by +1, the same as our benchmark and thus of comparable balance.

7, Cruel: Whenever the player roll a 1 on a die to calculate the weapon’s damage, they can reroll the die until they receive a result that is not a 1.

Like the flat +1 damage, this bonus was also very common on homebrew sites discussing how to implement a masterwork mechanic. Raising the minimum damage the player can deal on hit is a good things for them, since nobody wants to roll a 1. Applying this to our 1d8 example gives it a minimum damage of 2, a maximum damage of 8 and an average damage of 5. This increases the minimum by 1 which is nice but only provides an average damage bonus of +0.5 which is not much, but can provide the player a great sense of relief and excitement when they do roll a 1 and can reroll it into a much higher number. Since the average damage increase of +0.5 (Which is the same regardless of the size of the die) is less than our benchmark +1 damage this makes it a balanced addition to the masterwork bonus list.

8, Defensive: The weapon grants +1 to the wielder’s armor class / defense value / dodge rating or other system mechanic that decreases the chances of being hit with an attack.

Similar to Precise, making homebrew changes to the accuracy and armor class system can be risky for the mechanical balance of the game. In D&D 5e, a +1 to armor class is a big deal and hard to come by and the potential damage prevented by virtue of being harder to hit can add up. This kind of bonus is meant to evoke the idea or a parrying dagger, sword breaker or boar spear, deflecting attacks and keeping enemies at bay by nature of their design. Although it doesn’t directly compare to our benchmark +1 damage, a Defensive weapon can be a Godsend to a squishy melee striker like a rogue or bard who would definitely appreciate the increased armor class.

9, Vicious: Whenever the player roll a 1 or a 2 on a die to calculate the weapon’s damage, they can reroll the die and must use the new roll, even if the new roll is a 1 or a 2.

D&D 5e players should be familiar with this bonus because it is taken straight from the Great Weapon Fighting style. Due to this, lots of other people have done the math in detail and you can follow this link for nice graphs about the statistics. In short, this bonus on our 1d8 example keeps the minimum damage at 1, a maximum damage of 8 and an average damage of 5.25. That is only an average damage increase of +0.75 which is lower than our benchmark value of +1. It is important to note that the damage changes based size and number of dice and that if the weapon dealt 2d6 damage (Which has an average of 7) was affected by this, the average damage would be 8.33. An improvement of +1.33, which is slightly higher than our +1 benchmark.

10, Brutal: Whenever the player rolls the maximum result on a weapon damage die (I.e. a 6 on a six-sided die.), they can roll that die an additional time and add both results to the total damage dealt. This ability can trigger multiple times per turn but only once per attack.

This is one of the swingy bonuses that either provides either a lot of extra damage or none at all. Based on the concept of “exploding dice” from Shadowrun and some White Wolf systems, if you roll the maximum result, you’ll be rewarded with another die to add to the damage total. I like the idea of having a slim chance to do extra damage since it’s like a mini critical hit. On our example d8 there is a 12.5% chance (One in eight) to trigger the Brutal effect, which adds an average of +4.5 damage (Another d8) to the damage roll. This means that a triggering hit deals a minimum of 2 damage, a maximum of 16 and an average of 9 damage. Although this seems like a lot, remember that the effect only happens on 1 in 8 attacks, so if we take the 4.5 extra damage and average that across of 8 attacks it’s only an average of +0.56 damage per hit. This trend holds steady for different die sizes as larger dice deal more damage but less often and vice versa for smaller dice. A d12 grants an average of +0.54 damage per hit while a d4 grants +0.63. It is important to note that this math is conducted in a vacuum and wielders with the power to reroll damage dice (Especially 1’s and 2’s) can make this bonus more lethal. Though even if on a d8, if the wielder was capable of rerolled all 1’s and 2’s, it would still be 4.5 extra damage once every 6 attacks which is an average increase of +0.75. Since the average increased damage bonus will always be less than our +1 benchmark, I feel like this is a reasonably balanced effect. This can be more fun than a flat +1 to damage because it trades the dependable and boring damage would be represented by a 1d8+1, into an unreliable and therefore exciting 1d8+?, with the possibility on every damage roll of getting an 8 and having your damage explode into high numbers.

11, Mighty: Whenever the wielder scores a critical hit with the weapon, the player can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add the result to the damage dealt by the critical hit. This is in addition to the standard bonus damage of a critical hit.

Drawing on weapons mechanics from D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder this is essentially the idea of an “increased critical multiplier”, which allowed weapons to deal more damage on a critical hit. In terms of damage output on hit, this is similar to Brutal but provides even less average damage per hit because critical hits are rare. In a d20 system where you only critically hit on a 20, you have a 1 in 20 (5%) chance to critical hit on every attack. If you use the example die, you turn the regular critical hit from 2d8 damage (Minimum 2, maximum 16, average 9) into 3d8, (Minimum 3, maximum 24, average 13.5) which does increase the average damage by 4.5 on a critical, but across 20 attacks it averages to +0.225 damage per hit. Comparing that to the benchmark’s +1 damage per hit, this masterwork bonus is very weak but makes up for it with spikes of high damage on critical hits.

X, Inexorable: Whenever the player rolls to determine the weapon’s damage, he may roll the weapon’s damage die twice and choose either result to use.

This bonus allows the player to effectively roll damage twice and choose the higher amount, essentially granting advantage on damage rolls. On our example d8, this bonus keeps the minimum and maximum at 1 and 8 respectively and changes the average to 5.81 damage. Although the minimum and maximum don’t change, the increased average damage by 1.31 per hit, which is slightly higher than our goal of +1. The improvement to damage is magnified by the size and number of dice. On a d12 it grans an increased 1.99 damage per hit and on 2d6 it’s a 2.34 increase. This bonus would also affect the additional damage dice from critical hits making this benefit very powerful.

Inexorable by our +1 damage benchmark is actually too strong to be a Masterwork bonus. To be honest, I added it in here originally to pad the original Masterwork list out to 12 entries so it could be rolled on a d12. Since it doesn’t belong here I have moved it over to the Minor Weapon Enchantments Table (Which was nowhere near ready at the time the Masterwork table was introduced), where it’s magical theme and stronger bonus better fits in.

12, Silvered: The weapon’s business end is covered in a durable layer of alchemically treated silver of incredible quality. Although unnaturally processed, the metal is pure and effective at dealing with undead, lycanthropes and fey creatures. The weapon’s grip also sports discrete bands of intricately worked silver which prevents the wielder’s supernatural enemies from handling the weapon and using it against him.

Silvering weapons is a staple in most RPG games that have monsters that are vulnerable to the metal. This benefit is similar to Spellbound as it really only has any benefit when used against a certain set of enemies and otherwise has no effect on a typical attack. The only change that this blog provides are the silver bands on the grip, preventing monsters from wielding it properly. If your system already has rules for silvered weapons you can just use those instead. See Spellbound for how it compares to the +1 damage benchmark.

13, Tactical: Using an action equivalent to making an attack or casting a spell, the wielder can attempt to perform one of the previously mentioned combat maneuvers. Whenever the wielder could make an attack with the weapon, he can instead perform one of the previously mentioned combat maneuvers... Furthermore, the wielder is able to take advantage of lucky blows and turn them into skillful maneuvers rather than simply powerful attacks. Whenever the wielder lands a critical hit, he can choose to cause it to be considered a normal hit instead and immediately perform one of the previously mentioned maneuvers (With advantage because of the weapon’s design) on the target.

I really like the idea of combat maneuvers, tactics and strategies in RPG’s that contain more than just mindlessly attacking the enemy. A frontliner who effective at tripping, disarming or grappling the enemy can be just as, if not more effective than a wizard specializing in battlefield control, because the fighter can do it more often. Unfortunately it can sometimes be hard to justify attempting maneuvers, as it’s often far more efficient to just focus on dealing damage, especially when both take the same type of action. This bonuses grants players an incentive to attempt maneuvers because they automatically gain advantage and gain access to a larger range of said maneuvers. Furthermore they can trade the extra damage from a critical for the chance to disarm / grapple / trip / etc. the target, which can let a player think strategically and provides some new combat options. As a roleplaying experience it can allow for better teamwork, granting a supporting bard a better chance of tripping an enemy, allowing the two handed fighter to attack the prone target at advantage as well as reducing their chance of escaping. This bonus doesn’t deal damage directly so it doesn’t compare to our benchmark +1 damage, but it does grant the wielder a few benefits and options at the cost of making a regular attack or additional critical hit damage.

14, Poisoner’s: Even a bludgeoning weapon that is normally difficult to poison effectively can benefit from the grooves, allowing it to deliver the offending material with ease. The channels are always positioned in such a way that a creature can apply a solid or liquid material (Such as but not limited to: poison, holy water, flammable oil or animal venom) in them without any risk of accidentally poisoning themselves (Even if they are not proficient with poisons) and taking no more time than usual to coat an object with poison. Furthermore, the recessed pathways protect the material from the elements, keeping it from drying or spoiling and after it’s applied, the material remains potent for an additional hour longer than normal before becoming inert. Lastly and most importantly, the virulent trenches are divided and spread out, allowing a single dose of poison to be delivered normally and effectively while still having some leftover in a separate groove. The number of strikes the weapon may make before the poison is rubbed off is increased by one. Alternatively to being spread out, the blighting substance can be confined to a single groove which will deliver its payload in a single concentrated strike which causes the victim to suffer disadvantage on the save against the material, or the PC can roll the poison’s damage twice and choose the higher result. The bearer who applies the poison chooses whether the material will be spread out over multiple strikes or if it will be concentrated into a more lethal hit (And if it applies disadvantage or increased damage) when the material is applied.

This bonus provides a few benefits in order to allow a lower level PC better make use of expendable items like flammable oil, holy water or poison before magical weapons and stronger spells render them too inefficient to use in combat. The DM should feel free to adjust any parts of this bonus to better fit with the specific poison mechanics of their game. Personally I love the idea of poisons, oils and alchemical coatings appealing as concepts but at low levels they are often too expensive to buy and once you have the money you’re usually better off buying magic items since a large number of enemies are either resistant or immune to poison.

In D&D 5e for example, a vial of “basic poison” can coat up to three slashing or piercing weapon or up to three pieces of ammunition. Applying the poison takes and action and on hit the target must make a fairly easy save (A Con DC of 10, about a 50% chance of failure on average) or suffer as much poison damage as a dagger deals. Once applied, the poison retains its potency for 1 minute before drying. Overall pretty weak but could definitely be useful in many situations, especially ambushes rewarding players who prepare and think ahead. However this vial of three-use poison costs an exorbitant 100 gold pieces, the same value as a suit of scale mail and a greatsword combined. A PC with 100 gold at low levels might get a silvered weapon (Which is also 100 gold), get better quality armor, buy healing potions or adventuring equipment or weak magic items. The 5e Player’s Handbook list’s the cost of a hired mercenary at 2 gold pieces per day, so you could hire a bodyguard to fight for you for 50 days (Or an army of 50 for one day) for the same price as one vial of basic poison. At mid-levels, enemies will pass the save more than not, taking no damage and even if they roll poorly and fail, a dagger’s worth of damage is not a substantial drain on their hit point pool.

If we apply this masterwork quality to a warhammer (Since it uses our d8 example die) in conjunction with 5e’s basic poison we can look at the benefits. Normally you wouldn’t be able to poison the warhammer at all (It deals bludgeoning damage) but now you can and without risk of accidentally harming yourself. Rather than drying out in one minute, the poison will remain potent for 61 minutes, a fantastic improvement, allowing the player to apply it with a greatly reduced chance of it being wasted due to drying out before the next fight begins. The wielder can also choose to spread the material out among multiple grooves, turning a three use-vial into a six-use vial of poison, making it much more cost effective. Alternatively the player could choose to force the victim to suffer disadvantage on the saves to resist the poison or roll the poison damage twice and pick the more lethal result, making the poison more viable at higher levels.

In short this masterwork bonus provides a number of small benefits and options to allow a PC to make poisons and alchemical weapon applications more fun and a viable strategy that offers the player a range of options, rather than an ineffective money sink. As this weapon does not deal damage directly it is hard to compare against the benchmark. The goal of this masterwork is to increase the damage deal by poisons and similar materials but it is weighed against the fact that the player has to expend gold or resources buying and using the poisons to actually make use of the benefits (As opposed to the benchmark “free” +1 damage on every hit) so it seems balanced to me.

15, Bypassing: A wielder who makes an attack with a weapon with this bonus ignores any and all defensive benefits that an opponent’s shield would normally provide.

This bonus attempts to reflect the real world weapons such as the flail, sica, shotel, and war pick, all designed to get around armor and shields in order to reach the tender flesh of the enemy. Although this benefit does affect accuracy rolls rather than damage, I would compare this more to the Spellbound or Silvered bonus rather than Precise. In my experience as a player, I rarely run into to humanoid enemies wielding shields and typical bestiaries and monster manuals don’t have a lot of shield using enemies. If your PC’s are mostly fighting undead, elementals, beasts and aberrations this bonuses will probably not help them. In the rare instance when they do come across a heavily armored fighter or blackguard paladin or other hard to hit foe, this bonuses will let the wielder bypass some of those defenses and let that wielder shine. Handing out this kind of weapon in a military or war campaign where it would be used regularly, would be comparable to handing out a Silvered weapon in a werewolf heavy campaign. Since it doesn’t deal damage directly I doesn’t compare to the benchmark and you can refer to the Spellbound and Silvered for how this bonus works in play.

16, Resounding: Whenever the player rolls a damage die he must roll a second confirming die of the same sort. If the second die is the same result as the first, the player is considered to have instead rolled the maximum possible result for that type of die instead of the current result.

As the fluff description mentions, getting a resounding blow that triggers the maximum damage is rare. The value of this bonuses is odd to calculate because as the maximum damage output of the die increases, the odds of actually rolling two of the same number to trigger it goes down proportionally. Over the course of 64 successful attacks with our example d8 (every variation of the damage die and confirmation roll), the effect only triggers 8 times (A 12.5% chance) and only 7 of those times actually benefit the wielder since rolling two 8’s is already the maximum amount of damage possible. Over the 64 hits, the total increase in damage resulting from the bonus is 28, an average increase of 0.44 per hit with most of the damage coming from when the player rolled low and would have done very little damage.

This table is a chart of each result of the 64 hits possible with a d8 Resounding weapon. The leftmost column is the damage roll while the top row is the confirming roll with the middle being the actual damage dealt. The bottom roll is the sum of the total damage from that column which is compared to 36, which is the sum damage total on a non-masterwork d8 over the eight possible hits.

To demonstrate on a smaller die over the course of 16 successful hits on a d4, the effect triggers 4 times (A 25% chance) and the total increase in damage resulting from the bonus is 6, an average increase of 0.38 per hit. The sum of the total damage on a non-masterwork d4 is 10 over the 4 possible hits.

On a larger die over the course of 144 successful on a d12, the effect triggers 12 times (A 12% chance) and the total increase in damage resulting from the bonus is 66, an average increase of 0.45 per hit. The sum of the total damage on a non-masterwork d12 is 78 over the 144 possible hits.

In summation, this bonus gives the occasional burst of damage at the cost of providing no benefit most of the time. It grants an average damage increase of 0.45 per hit (on a d8), which is well below our +1 benchmark in terms of balance.

17, Chargebreaker: If the wielder has not moved yet on his turn he can take up a defensive position, which causes his speed to drop to 0 until the end of his turn. While in this stance, the wielder is able to make an attack of opportunity with the readied weapon against an enemy that enters his reach. The bracing stance ends if the wielder moves, attacks or at the start of the wielder’s next turn.

Much like Tactical, this benefit rewards players who think strategically and offers them options in combat, like the ability to plant themselves and defend a key position rather than just rushing the enemy and attacking. This does potentially allow the wielder to make an additional attack per round, possibly doubling the number of attacks they can make. However these extra attacks come at the cost of all of the wielder’s movement during that turn, which can trap him in an inconvenient corner of the battlefield, not be able to move to reach allies, render him unable to retreat or not be able to place himself between the enemy and the more fragile party members. The wielder gains no additional benefit against creatures already within his reach and is potentially worse off against ranged attackers and mobile enemies, since bracing himself means that he is not closing that distance.

18, Parrying: Using an action equivalent to an attack of opportunity (See Note) the wielder may attempt to parry an incoming melee attack, increasing his armor class or physical defensiveness as if he was properly wielding a shield. The wielder may benefit from the armor class bonus (Typically a +2) even if he is already wielding a shield. —Note: If your system doesn’t use attacks of opportunity use the following rule: Once the wielder parries an attack he is no longer able to do so until the start of his next turn.

Similar to Precise and Defensive, this is a bonus that deals with armor class and attack rolls. Unlike defensive however, this bonus consumes the wielder’s resources in the form of costing an attack of opportunity to use. A player could use this ability every time he is able to but doing so forcing him to give up on attacking fleeing enemies or striking when they are vulnerable. Furthermore, the benefit only applies to one melee attack per round so the wielder is still just as vulnerable to multiple attacks and ranged attacks. This bonus doesn’t deal damage so it doesn’t compare against the benchmark, but I feel that it provides a benefit to player’s without being overpowered due to its cost and limited use.

19, Strategic: These modifications greatly improve the wielder’s ability to resist trips, feints, grapples, pins, being disarmed, pushed, shoved and other combat maneuvers... Whenever the wielder is targeted by one of the previously mentioned combat maneuvers, he can use an action equivalent to an attack of opportunity (See Note) to grant himself advantage on the roll made to resist the maneuver. —Note: If your system doesn’t use attacks of opportunity use the following rule: Once the wielder uses the weapon to grant himself advantage on the roll made to resist a combat maneuver, he is no longer able to do so until the start of his next turn.

Much like Defensive and Parrying, this bonus deals with making the wielder more resilient when facing combat maneuvers like grappling, tripping and disarming. These tactics can be brutally effective when used against PC’s and can make enemies orders of magnitude more threatening. A monster that can attempt a grapple or trip check with every successful attack can be far more deadly than one that deals an extra 1d6 damage on each hit. Like Parrying, this bonus consumes the wielder’s resources in the form of costing an attack of opportunity to activate which helps to balance out its use. A player could use this ability every time he is able to, but doing so forces him to give up on attacking fleeing enemies or striking when they are vulnerable. This bonus doesn’t deal damage so it doesn’t compare against the benchmark, but I feel that it provides a benefit to player’s without being overpowered due to its cost of an attack of opportunity.

20, Adaptable: When the wielder attacks, he may choose to have the weapon deal either bludgeoning, slashing, piercing or nonlethal / stun damage (See Note). Otherwise the weapon keeps its usual statistics and this does not change anything about the way the weapon operates other than its damage type.

This is probably one of the weakest bonuses on this list and provides more fluff and equipment management ease than anything else similar to Impervious. A PC now only needs to haul around their masterwork weapon and be capable of dealing several type of damage rather than a golf bag of different weapons for different resistant monsters. Like Silvered or Spellbound this would only be beneficial in a small number of situations. Even then, it’s not hard or even that expensive for a fighter to carry a mundane warhammer, longspear and longsword, (Plus one or two ranged weapons) it’s just annoying to have to for purposes of overcoming resistances.

21, Twinned: Whenever the player rolls a damage die he must roll a second confirming die of the same sort. If the second die is the same result as the first, the player adds both dice to the total damage rolled.

This bonus is very similar to Resounding in the form of the confirmation roll for extra damage. Similarly to Resounding, getting a twinned strike that deals the extra damage is rare and the value of this bonuses is odd to calculate because as the maximum damage output of the die increases, the odds of actually rolling two of the same number to trigger it goes down proportionally.

Over the course of 64 successful attacks with our example d8, the effect only triggers 8 times, a 12.5% chance. Over the 64 hits, the total increase in damage resulting from the bonus is 36, an average increase of 0.56 per hit with most of the damage coming from when the player is doubling their high roll.

This table is a chart of each result of the 64 hits possible with a d8 Twinned weapon. The leftmost column is the damage roll while the top row is the confirming roll with the middle being the actual damage dealt. The bottom roll is the sum of the total damage from that column, which is compared to 36, the sum damage total on a non-masterwork d8 over the eight possible hits.

To demonstrate on a smaller die, over the course of 16 successful, the effect triggers 4 times (A 25% chance) and the total increase in damage resulting from the bonus is 10, an average increase of 0.63 per hit. The sum of the total damage on a non-masterwork d4 is 10 over the 4 possible hits.

On a larger die, over the course of 144 successful, the effect only triggers 12 times (A 12% chance) and the total increase in damage resulting from the bonus is 78, an average increase of 0.54 per hit. The sum of the total damage on a non-masterwork d12 is 78 over the 4 possible hits. Although DM’s may have some reservations on seeing the higher scale of this chart, remember that rolling two 12’s to deal 24 damage is 1 in 144 or a 0.69% chance.

In summation, this bonus gives the occasion burst of damage at the cost of providing no benefit most of the time, with an average damage increase of 0.56 per hit (on a d8), which is well below our +1 benchmark.

22, Quickdraw: The bearer is able to draw the weapon as a free action whenever he rolls initiative as long as he physically capable of doing so… In the first round of combat if a hostile creature comes within the wielder’s reach (Or 20 feet for a ranged weapon) he is able to make an attack of opportunity against that creature but suffers disadvantage on the attack roll. Lastly, drawing and stowing the weapon is considered a free action.

This bonuses is supposed to allow PC’s to be able to evoke the incredible training and reflexes that come from a lifetime of having to react quickly to violent ambushes. For an easy comparison of what I imagine this looking like, take a look at Star Wars or Firefly. Characters like Han Solo or Malcolm Reynolds carry their pistols in a low slung gunslinger’s holsters along their hips and are able to draw and fire within a second. This allows them to even out or even win fights before they have a chance to properly start. For a real life example look at videos of Bob Munden, a real life exhibition shooter has the title "Fastest Man with a Gun Who Ever Lived" bestowed on him by Guinness World Records. This Masterwork bonus enhances the PC’s ability draw the weapon as a natural reflex and instinctively (If not skillfully, hence the disadvantage) lash out at an enemy within reach. If as a DM you are fond of ambushing your party, they will appreciate a weapon with this kind of bonus.

Damage wise, this bonus grants up to one additional attack at disadvantage per combat which may hit for some extra damage. Depending on the length of the fight, this may exceed the +1 benchmark or add nothing at all.

23, Unforgiving: When the player scores a critical hit with the weapon, he rolls all the dice associated with the damage as normal. After rolling but before damage is dealt to the target, the player may select any single rolled damage die of his choosing and that die will be considered to have rolled the maximum possible result for that type of die instead of the current result. —Note: This affects the weapon’s damage itself AND other sources of additional damage such as sneak attack, divine smite or spell effects.

I have seen this kind of this effect proposed as a variant critical rule for D&D, wherein anytime any PC or creature critically hits, the extra weapon damage dice are simply added in at their maximum result instead of being rolled. As it stands in D&D 5e, a player can score a critical hit and roll low on the dice resulting in a “critical hit” that deals less damage than an average hit. This makes the rare critical hits more potent by guaranteeing a high minimum damage. This bonus is all about raising the minimum damage on a critical hit, so that the wielder never rolls low and experiences a disappointing critical.

In a d20 system where you land a critical hit on a roll of a natural 20, you have a 1 in 20 (5%) chance to critical hit on every attack. If you use the d8 example die, Unforgiving turns the regular critical hit from 2d8 damage (Minimum 2, maximum 16, average 9) into 2d8[Dropping the lowest]+8, (Minimum 9, maximum 16, average 13.81) which does increase the average damage by 4.81 on a critical, but across 20 attacks it averages to +0.24 damage per hit. Comparing that to the benchmark’s +1 damage per hit, this masterwork bonus is very weak but makes up for it with guaranteed high minimum damage on criticals, making each one a truly powerful blow.

24, Reach: Melee weapons with this bonus add 5 feet to the wielder’s reach when he attacks with it, as well as when determining his reach for opportunity attacks with it. Ammunition, ranged and thrown weapons all add 20 feet to their normal and long distance attack ranges. Melee Reach weapons are cumbersome in close quarters and the wielder suffers disadvantage on attack rolls against targets within 5 feet of himself. Ranged weapons and projectiles...cause the wielder to suffer disadvantage on attack rolls against targets within 10 feet of himself.

Again drawing from D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder here is a weapon quality with a trade off in terms of benefit and drawback. Melee players who play a more mobile, kiting style with an emphasis of never being too close to the enemy will love this bonus. When surrounded by enemies however it forces them to attack at disadvantage or to drop the Reach weapon and fight with an inferior backup weapon. PC’s specializing in ranged combat will be able to hit targets father away but when in tight quarters such as dungeons, caverns or buildings, there may not be the option of being 15 feet away from the target in order not to suffer disadvantage on the attack roll because they’re too close. Even if that is possible, it forces that ranged PC to become more separated from the melee, leaving them open to ambushes, being surrounded or cut off from the rest of the party.

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clockworkscholar · 5 years ago

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Commission Post

So normally, I wouldn’t do it, but I figured now would be as good a time as any to start doing this so...

Hi. My name is Clocky. For the past couple years, I’ve been playing and DMing (on/off) for Dungeons and Dragons. In more recent years, however, I’ve been practicing writing homebrew content for D&D, and I’m hoping to do some work publicly here on this blog. DM me if you’d like to discuss further details, any and all work posted on this blog will only be posted with the permission of the purchaser.

What can I write for you? Well, I can write:

Backgrounds: $5

Subclasses: $ 10

Races: $10

Custom Class: $20

Spells: $5-10

Monsters: $1-25

Magic Items & Artifacts: $1-20

Lore & Systems of Magic/Society/Hierarchy: $25-30

All commissioned works come with filler text, so let me know if there’s anything special you want me to include! Prices may vary on complexity and rarity/Challenge Rating.

Feel free to message me if you’re interested, and reblogs are always appreciated!

#d&d #dungeons & dragons #Dungeons and Dragons #commissions #commission info #homebrew commissions

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esmevibes · 4 years ago

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Astrology Readings Currently Available

Astrology Readings Currently Available; This is a list of the astrology readings currently offered by Esme in The Seeker’s Trove. These are available for purchase through the website or discord shop front, which you can access here:

[Discord] [Website]

Feel free to DM about any questions or concerns! Upon request of a reading, Esme will discuss the details needed with you, and you will be invoiced via PayPal. Wait times vary depending on which reading you choose.

Basic Astrological Profile - $15

Interested in astrology but not sure where to start? Curious what your sun, moon, and ascendant signs mean or how they influence each other and your personality? This is the perfect reading for you. This listing includes a detailed explanation of these three aspects of your chart, as well as intuited advice about how to apply this information to your day-to-day.

Extended Astrological Profile - $30

Would you like to delve deeper into your personality and traits? Curious what the stars have to say about you? This extended, personalized astrology reading is aimed at giving you a deeper understanding of your own personality and how you can apply this knowledge to your everyday life. Includes information about your sun sign, moon sign, ascendant sign, and 3-5 planets and their house placements that are intuited to influence you the most in relation to the rest of your chart.

Full Astrological Profile - $50

Perhaps you'd like a solid, overall picture of your entire chart to better understand what makes you tick. Maybe you're curious of how each celestial body plays a role and manifests in your life, or how you can improve in certain areas based on the whole picture. With this reading, you will receive an in-depth explanation about your sun, moon, and ascendant signs, information about each of the planets and their house placements, and a brief summary of the overall theme or message that is intuited to be most important for you right now.

Emotional Health Astrology Reading - $30

With this reading I will take the details of your chart pertaining to emotional health and well-being, heavily influenced by your moon placement and explain what your signs need to feel emotionally secure, how they tend to cope with negative emotions, combined with tidbits from other areas of your chart to explore how you can apply this knowledge to better handle difficult times.

Relationship Astrology Reading - $35

This isn't your average "how compatible are we" love chart analysis. With this reading, I will explore your Mercury and Venus placements, a few house occupancies, and how they influence the rest of your chart to hopefully give you a better understanding of your communication style and interpersonal relationship strengths (or weaknesses). This reading will tell you a whole lot about your personal desires and focus-points, that you can then use to decide for yourself how compatible you are with friends, family, and lovers. The best way to utilize this reading is to go into it with an attitude of intentional growth within the bonds you already have and then using that self-awareness to better future endeavors, romantic or otherwise.

Pop-Up Reading - $5

Want a quick and cheap insight into who you are? With this reading, I will generate your chart and share with you a paragraph with some insight into a specific aspect of your chart that jumps out at me right away. If something within this reading resonates with you that you'd like to explore further, additional information can be added upon request at a discounted price.

Astrology Care Plan - $20

This listing is a little different than the others offered, as it is less of a reading and more of a care plan of correspondences for your signs. It includes information about yoga positions, diet suggestions, healing crystals, colors, scents, meditations, and more that are recommended based on your natal chart details.

Past & Future Astrology Reading - $30

Ever been interested in how your past in this life or others influences who you are today? What about your karmic paths and lessons you came here to learn to better get a grip on how to tackle tomorrow? This reading will explore your North and South Node to give you a glimpse into your past and future to help you be your best self in the present.

Shadow Reading - $75 - [CLOSED]

A word of caution, this reading is not for everyone and will not be taken lightly. This reading is best for those that are already familiar with shadow work, or are in a comfortable enough headspace to safely dive into the darker parts of themselves. This reading will involve a heavy influence from your Lilith placement, as well as other minor details from your natal chart as a whole if applicable. It will explore matters associated with sex, death, obsession and addiction, and other taboo or dark areas of your life and personality that we tend to avoid or run from. The intention of this reading is to give you a deeper self-awareness that will lead to acceptance of these areas of your life and help you move forward from past grievances, resentments, or traumas. As this reading takes a lot of energy and meditation on deeper, more difficult matters, it will not always be available. This listing will read OPEN or CLOSED in the title to indicate when it is available for purchase.

The Works: Mini - $15-30

This listing is a good option for those who don't want a full reading listed above, but would like to pick and choose a few aspects of topics mentioned in them. This reading is customizable and may contain small aspects from 2-3 various reading options. Shadow Reading not applicable in this bundle

The Works - $120

Do all of these reading options entice you? Unsure of which one would be the best choice at this time? Why not get the works! This reading will include The Full Astrological Profile, Emotional Health Reading, Relationship Reading, the Astrology Care Plan, a Past & Future analysis, and a Pop-Up Reading-styled intuitive message from me based on the information I've gathered. A $170 value, this is a good option for those that want as much information as possible without buying each reading separately.

This is the most in-depth reading currently offered and will consequently take the most time. Expect a wait time of approximately 4-5 weeks Shadow Reading not applicable in this bundle

Customized Astrology Reading: Topic/Question Based - $15-50

If you're not interested in a full profile but you're curious how your chart might influence a specific issue, or you have a burning question you hope the stars might be able to help you answer, this is a great listing choice for you. It is fully customizable, and will be tuned to explore what you're interested in learning about most. It will involve a brief conversation with Esme to discuss your question/topic, followed by intuitive research into aspects of your natal chart that relate to the issue at hand. Prices vary depending on how in-depth the question and reading are.

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emergency-tactics-xiv · 5 years ago

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Meet Rin Haruki!

The Basics

Name: Rin Haruki

Age: 27

Birthday: 18th Sun of the 2nd Umbral Moon

Race: Au Ra - Raen

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Straight

Marital Status: Single and awkward

Physical Appearance

Hair: Pale gold

Eyes: Bright gold

Height: 4′9″

Build: Skinny

Distinguishing Marks: No scars, just scales.

Common Accessories: Pouch carrying sewing shears, sketchbook, and pencil (sometimes left behind her horn)

Personal

Profession: Seamstress

Hobbies: Sketching, drawing, eating, sleeping, hiking, people-watching, bug-watching, plush crafting

Languages: Common, Hingan

Residence: Small village in Hingashi (but travels often)

Birthplace: See above

Fears: Crowds, being touched, yelling, horses

Relationships

Spouse: None

Children: None

Parents: Alive, owning a small shop in their small village

Siblings: None

Other Relatives: She knows an aunt and uncle who live in Doma

Pets: None

Traits

Extroverted / In Between / Introverted

Disorganized / In Between / Organized

Close Minded / In Between / Open Minded

Calm / In Between / Anxious

Disagreeable / In Between / Agreeable

Cautious / In Between / Reckless

Patient / In Between / Impatient

Outspoken / In Between / Reserved

Leader / In Between / Follower

Empathetic / In Between / Apathetic

Optimistic / In Between / Pessimistic

Traditional / In Between / Modern

Hard-working / In Between / Lazy

Cultured / In Between / Uncultured

Loyal / In Between / Disloyal

Faithful / In Between / Unfaithful

RP Hooks

Sewing! - If she notices you have something needing mending, she might ask you about it (One of the few times she’ll approach a stranger)

Sketching - She sketches in the open often, becoming engrossed and not paying attention to her surroundings.

Food! - She’ll give you the side eye if you’re eating something that looks or smells particularly delicious

Aether - Do you have abnormal aether? She’s not particularly educated on the matter (yet), but she knows what’s normal and what’s not.

Hingan village - Maybe you traveled through her village once and stopped at her parents’ shop and purchased an interesting good from her father, or sewing services from her mother (Or possibly her within the past few years!)

Merchants - Rin is traveling Eorzea to pick up new techniques and materials, and she will make a point of stopping at interesting markets.

Additional Information

Been a hot minute since I’ve RP’d on XIV :D Online time is limited, so planning is a must, but RPing via DM is always an option! I will be 100% honest and admit that I won’t likely be taking every RP request because of time, but new people to chat with are fun as well!

Contact Information

Feel free to message me here or in game! (Rin Haruki on Coeurl. I plan on xferring to Mateus once the server is open again)

Peace!

#ffxiv #ffxiv rp #mateus rp #coeurl rp #Au ra #au ra female #au ra raen #raen #Rin Haruki #RP

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odogaronfang · 6 years ago

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commissions are open!

i’ll be opening writing commissions for a while, as i’m pretty low on funds right now and there are some events coming up this summer that i’d like some spare cash for, so!

what i’ll do;

-poetry (formatting & details can be discussed)

-drabbles (~100-1,000 words, based off of a prompt or specific scenario- again, can be discussed)

-short stories (~1,000-12,000 words is the general range, and this would be a full work with plot & storyline of its own)

-longfic (~12,000-30,000 words, i would be willing to go longer if necessary, but pricing and time frames would have to be negotiated)

-shipfic; while i won’t do explicit nsfw, i will do just about anything else, including works involving ocs, provided you give me some reference for any original characters.

-’thumbnails’; basically, you give me a setting, a character, a concept, etc. and i run with it- this is for if you have a specific piece of a work in mind but no idea what else to do with it, and you’d be allowing me some wide artistic liberty here. think of it as a set of drabbles.

-if there’s something you’re interested in but don’t see on this list, feel free to contact me about it & i’d be happy to discuss!

what i won’t;

-incest

-pedophilia

-explicit nsfw/kinks/fetish

pricing;

my baseline pricing is $1 USD per 100 words- naturally, things rarely end at perfect multiples, so i’ll round to make it whole dollars rather than change, and i’m perfectly willing to be lenient on how i do that (65+ words over a perfect 100 rounds up to the next dollar.)

-because poetry is not always measurable by the hundreds, i’ll accept a flat rate of $1-2 per poem, depending on its length, complexity, & how long it took for me to complete. again, i am lenient. i will not bump up the price unless it’s been a serious thorn in my side.

- the ‘thumbnails’ go for a flat rate as well, $2 per scene, with a guaranteed minimum word count of 250. i am willing to offer a discount if you would like more than 4, and they can be on different topics.

i’m alright with negotiating certain things, as i understand that a few dollars might make the difference with some people, as long as you keep it polite & respectful. rude & hostile attempts to get me to lower prices will be denied without question. i’m also alright with 50/50 payment- give me half up front, and i will send you a portion of the work when it is completed; if you’re happy, you can pay me the rest, and if not, we can rework some things before we complete the transaction.

-please note that while i am happy to adjust things if they are not to your liking, i may charge an additional fee if you’d like me to scrap an entire work and redo it. the fee is not applicable if it’s a short work, under about 1500 words, but beyond that i will charge $1 per 500 words that must be scrapped. again, i am open to negotiations, but please let me know beforehand if there is any aspect you are uncertain of.

-if you can’t purchase anything but would like to donate, here is my ko-fi link! technically you won’t be purchasing anything, but i’ll probably still write you a little something as thanks. i appreciate every dollar.

guidelines;

-i can give you a general price upfront depending on what you request, but the final price will typically not be final until the piece has been completed. if you can, please be prepared to pay for the highest number i offer you, and if you need some extra time to pay the full amount that is perfectly okay. also note that if i give you a price range and the final piece exceeds the range by less than 300 words, i will not charge you any extra for my own mistake.

-if you change your mind on the desired length of a piece, please let me know as soon as possible! i don’t mind at all (more money for me ;D) but it helps to know my target length as i work, and i may have to rework significant amounts of a piece if the length changes as i am nearing completion.

-i can work for a broad range of fandoms, too long to really list here, so please feel free to DM me & inquire! even if i am not familiar with the fandom you’d like a piece for, i am fully willing to acquaint myself with it, as long as you’re willing to allow me a little extra time to do so. [my favorite ones are the legend of zelda, pacific rim, and fire emblem, but there are plenty more i can do.]

-that said, understand that pieces may take a while. i do my best to write things quickly, but the creative process is a fickle one. i’ll offer a loose time frame up front so you know when to expect it, and i will do it as quickly as possible, but sometimes things happen. if it’s taking longer than i’d anticipated, i’d be glad to give a small discount, and i can certainly send you whatever i have at that point so at least there’s less to wait for.

-i am happy to discuss and help conceptualize any ideas you might have for your piece! i enjoy world and character building and brainstorming. but please have at least a small idea when you contact me that we can build off of. the only time i will ask for a fully fleshed out concept is if you are asking for a full short story or a longfic, but i think that goes without saying, and even with those i’m willing to talk about & finalize before writing.

-i love learning about people’s ocs and i will be more than happy to do works with them, and yes, that includes things like self-insert stuff. all i ask is that you have some reference ready for me, and it doesn’t even have to be a full art piece.

-you can DM me here on tumblr, or i’ll provide you with my email/discord/skype if that’s how you’d prefer to communicate! my preference is discord, personally, but i’m fine with anything.

-payment is through ko-fi or paypal, which i will provide you once we have agreed on a transaction.

-i CAN do art commissions as well, but i’m far better at writing. even so, if you’d prefer art, DM me and i can provide examples of my work, though i won’t be advertising art on this particular post.

examples of my work;

-here is my ao3!

-my writing tag on my blog!

-my longfic i’m working on, if you’re looking for examples of longer works

-a drabble example

-another drabble i’m proud of

#writers on tumblr #writing commissions #commissions open #commissions post #finally opening commissions yall #please signal boost this if you can #id really like to make some money while im jobhunting out in the Real World #my writing #watch out cuz im gonna be advertising this like a motherfucker

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harocat · 7 years ago

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HUGE YOI Sales Post

Hi everyone! I’m selling some Yuri on Ice merchandise. If you have a moment, please check out this post and see if there’s anything you like. If there’s not, spread it around anyway just in case you have followers that might find something?

I’m trying to recoup from some huge vet bills for my precious kitty Oxford, so if you see anything you like, please consider buying it! If you don’t see anything but still want to help Oxford or signal boost for him, check out this post which has info and a youcaring link.

I live in the US, but I will ship internationally. Unfortunately, I cannot ship internationally for under 13.50 USD, even for small items. I realize this is ridiculous, but I’ve tried. It’s impossible to get anything lower at my post office. However, since most of the items in this post are small even if you order several of them it probably won’t go above that shipping price. I accept payment via paypal.

Many, if not most of these items still have their boxes. If you’re curious as to if I have the original packaging for one of them, feel free to ask! If you want better pictures of an item, feel free to ask that as well. I can easily take one (or may have one already). I can also provide more info on an item!!

Chara-Vini strap- Seung Gil or Mickey (4.00 USD)

Yuuri Hair Clip by Emu (7.50)

Makkachin water-in collection keychain (6.00)

YOI mochi mochi mascot- Free Skate Yuuri (20.00 or make an offer)

Dialogue straps by algernon product- Yuuri Katsuki (11.00)

Victor Stammi Vicino pass case (20.00) [this came exclusive with the amiami preorder of the first OST. It’s the only way you could get it!] (HOLD)

Victor animate ice cream cafe coaster (3.50)

Emil Nekola Princess Cafe acrylic stand (6.00)

Minami Enjoy Your Trip Kuji keychain (6.00)

Chris PITA!!! acrylic keychain (6.00)

Chris es series NINO keychain (6.00)

Chris animega exclusive desert keychain (7.00)

Yuri!!! on Ice Pearl Acrylic Collection vol.2 by sol international- Sailor Yurio (7.00)

Eformed Yuri!!! on Ice Kime!tto Acrylic Ballchain by f.heart- Agape Yurio (6.00)

Rubber strap by Movic- Russian clothing Yurio (6.00)

El Cute Yuri!! on Ice Trading Acrylic Keychain by exrare- casual Yurio and Agape Yurio (9.00)

Princess Cafe keychain- Onsen Yurio (9.00)

PITA!!! acrylic keychain- FS Yurio (6.00)

Bandai Mini Acrylic keychain- Yurio in skate in casual clothes and Yurio in skate with cat ears (7.00)

Tsutsumarekko Rubber Strap- FS Yurio with Makkachin slip case (6.50)

Hasepro mini acrylic keyholder- Agape Yurio [two available] and casual Yurio (6.00)

Tojikore Acrylic Keychain/Stand Vol.2- FS Yurio (10.00)

Yurio es series NINO keychain (6.00)

Pearl Acrylic Collection- Agape Yurio (8.00)

Yurio Enjoy Your Trip Kuji badge (9.00)

Mochi Mochi Mascot- History Maker Yurio (12.00)

Pearl Acrylic strap- Victor and Yurio on couch (6.00)

Rubber strap- Victor and Yurio party (6.00)

Twinkle Star Acrylic strap- Yuuri and Yurio (6.00)

Movic duo badges- Otabek and Yurio and Yuuri and Yurio (5.00)

Trading metal bookmark- Thoughtful Yurio (5.00)

Sweet Time Kuji soft badge- Smiling Yurio (5.00)

Decorative hand Mirror- Agape Yurio (9.00)

Seung Gil and Mickey merchandise- ALL ITEMS ARE 4.00 A PIECE.*

*except the ice cream coaster of Seung Gil, which is 1.50

Most of the Seung Gil merch is ON HOLD

Enjoy Your Trip Kuji rubber straps- JJ and Otabek (7.00)

Tsutsumarekko Rubber Strap- Otabek with Makkachin slip case (6.50)

Otabek PITA!!! acrylic keychain (6.00)

Otabek es series NINO rubber keychain (6.00)

Enjoy Your Trip Kuji ‘stamp’ keychains- JJ and Otabek (5.00)

Party badge collection by Movic- Victor and Yurio, both variants (3.00)

Mini Collection Figure by Bushiroad- Victor (10.00)

I have a YOI wishlist HERE. Please check it out if you’re a merchandise collector yourself. And if you see this post and you don’t see anything you’re interested in on it or sale, but you do have something on that list for sale, feel free to hit me up and let me know!!

Anyway, if you’re interested in purchasing something, please use either the ask or the messaging feature. I would prefer the messaging feature, but I know some people have their messages only open to mutuals. You can also DM me on twitter if you found the link via there. Thank you!! Feel free to share and reblog this post. :D

#yuri on ice #yoi merch #yuuri katsuki #victor nikiforov #yuri plisetsky #and more #sales post

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jackkel-dragon · 7 years ago

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Gearing Systems in RPGs and MMOs

So, after seeing some annoying complaints about a system I liked, I've decided to write a bit about how I feel about gearing systems in RPGs and MMOs. This might get a bit rambly.

To start with, I'm going to give an apparently unpopular opinion: I don't really like the way a lot of RPGs seem to handle player equipment. So many games try very hard to give the player a sense of progression through having their gear replaced every few levels. As many RPGs can trace their lineage back to Dungeons and Dragons, this sort of makes sense. D+D expects the player characters to start with hand-me-down mundane gear, upgrade to badass gear, then start to acquire magical items, and eventually find legendary equipment. It's not inherently a bad system, since you really can feel how powerful you're getting when you end up with a flaming magic sword after starting with a kitchen fork. But it's so exaggerated and overused in so many games that it's starting to grate on me quite a bit.

Here's the problem with how the system is used: in Dungeons and Dragons, a good DM will make you wait for your upgrades. Each boost to your power level will be felt. You don't go from a rusty sword to a magical flaming sword without noticing the effect. A mithril shirt will make previously challenging fights a breeze. But in so many RPGs, and particularly a lot of MMOs, there are so many mini-tiers that it's often not worth upgrading unless you get the items for free.

To give an example, let's use a game I actually like: Final Fantasy XIV. There's often at least one new piece of gear for a slot every 2-3 levels. Early on, you'll want every upgrade you can get, at least until your slots are filled. But after you hit about lv15 or lv20, it stops being cost-effective to keep yourself upgraded. Even gear from NPC vendors (usually the cheapest option) starts to cost thousands of gil per item. Earlier this week, I did a few dungeon runs with my lv62 class and ended up with 25k gil. I then bought half of a full set of gear for my lv30 crafting class and was left with under 500 gil. After selling the old gear, I had about a thousand on hand. Because of this huge money sink for gear, I usually allow my average gear level to sink as I level up, only using dungeon gear to upgrade until a class hits lv50 (when the base game's endgame gear becomes available, which uses a different currency that I have too much of).

This sort of over-complexity is even in single-player games, which I assume is based on the Diablo model. I have never played the Diablo games, but from what I understand the Borderlands series tends to do a similar thing with its loot. You'll get these named, special weapons from quests at one level, but within 3-5 levels those guns are utterly useless as anything other than vendor trash. Meanwhile, even the white/common guns that enemies drop will be better in that they at least hurt the enemies you fight.

This is all really frustrating to someone like me, who isn't interested in busting out a spreadsheet every thirty minutes to see which piece of gear will get me that +2% boost that I need. I understand the desire to use progression as a way to hook the player, but I don't want to be frustrated at needing to sell gear given to me by a character I like because "Rusty Mithril Axe" is five times better. (It doesn't help that, especially in MMOs, pre-endgame gear so often has really lame-sounding adjectives in the titles. It's not an Iron Sword, it's a "Mud-stained" Iron Sword.)

I could go more into what I dislike about this kind of progression, but I may have already lingered on that for too long. Instead, I'll give some examples of better progression ideas. Ones that I feel are less annoying to play and far more satisfying than the systems I mentioned above.

To start with, the system that made me start thinking of this topic: the gear upgrade system in Secret World Legends. While both versions of the game have flaws (and still haven't finished the Tokyo storyline that we were promised years ago...), the gear system of the reboot does not deserve the disdain I've seen for it. The original game, The Secret World, had a very standard MMO gear progression: you got random drops sometimes, dungeons had slightly better gear for their level, and you always had to be swapping out gear because nothing remained useful for long. SWL, on the other hand, keeps the random drops while adding a great twist: you use the otherwise vendor trash-y gear to upgrade your equipped gear. For instance, I have a Blood Magic Tome and a few spare weapons I don't use. I spend some anima shards (earned from quests and enemy kills) to consume those spare weapons to make my Tome more powerful. When a piece of gear hits max level, you can combine it with another item of the same type (also max level) to increase its rarity. You can do this until you hit max rarity. So unless you come across an item with a bonus effect you want to swap out for, you never have to hunt down new gear. You power up your weapon and talismans as you go. It's still a grind, like any MMO, but one that doesn't require luck and spreadsheets.

Going off that, there are a few other MMOs that dabbled with this idea, but either dropped it or didn't go far enough for my tastes. Lord of the Rings Online has a "Legendary Item" system, but it's a massive grind and time sink that is far more complex than it needs to be. Maybe it has improved since I last played, but the "Imbuing" system I read about in patch notes once only applied to the current expansion or later. It doesn't help that your legendary weapons really didn't feel that... legendary. You could carry 6-10 legendary items at a time (based on cash shop purchases), and you could only get the materials to upgrade legendary weapons from breaking down other legendaries. Which meant that every other monster you fought had a legendary weapon lodged in them. It'd be like if Bilbo or Frodo had Sting... and Sting 2. And Sting 3. And Sting Mk4. But not 5, because he broke that down for legendary fragments to make String Prime glow in the dark better. It was a cool idea that really fit with the setting, but fell apart under the weight of MMO gear mechanics. It felt like more of the same, only pretending not to be.

Another one that feels like a misstep to me is Final Fantasy XIV's relic system. Basically, each class can get a "Relic Weapon", an item that has a story behind it and must be reforged in a long quest chain. Except, because of the gear treadmill and power creep, it's actually pretty damn weak even for its own content. You have to do 4-5 very long quest chains to make it worth using, and it still becomes underpowered the moment a new patch comes out. Due to the obscene amount of effort to do each phase of the quest, a lot of players just ignore the whole system. Now, if the relic weapon were the only weapon after a certain part of the game, maybe that idea could work. But as things are, no one wants to do hours of questing to upgrade a single item when they could just pay some gil to a crafter or do a raid. And it's really too late to make the relic a mandatory system, because it would just piss off the people who skipped the relic at first.

Since the last two were more about systems that could have been cool, I'll mention a subsystem that I feel works well: gear modifcations. Whether it's Materia (FF7/FF14), Essence Gems (Jade Empire), or weapon mods (a lot of shooters), it always allows for a sense of progression and modifcation that doesn't cheapen the gear you're using from a story standpoint or (usually) get too complex and number-crunchy. It's easy to tell whether a +1 or +2 materia is better, and if you want to shuffle around which slots get which materia, you can. Given the choice between a game that gives me dozens of guns or dozens of scopes as loot, I'd probably go with the latter even if the overall system works the same way. In general, such a system gives more value to each piece of main gear (in story and gameplay terms) due to the multitude of mods you can add. For instance, Horizon: Zero Dawn mostly has 3 tiers of each weapon (aside from a few uniques), but you're constantly getting modifications you can slot into them.

Overall, here's my big point: It's fine to want to have gear progression as part of your RPG/MMO. It serves as a useful motivation to keep playing the game, to try to get the best setup possible. But when you flood the player with gear upgrades, after a certain point they will get overwhelmed or stop caring. In some types of games, this could easily be a death sentence. So, as a general rule, I'd strongly suggest RPG creators to space out the progression better, allowing the player to enjoy each tier before they move on to the next. This could even help with game longevity, as players feel more compelled to improve their equipment when they have a solid goal. (This is why most MMOs' endgame gearing is so addictive to some people: the goals are much more clear.)

Personally, I'd go a bit further. I want to see a true legendary item system in a game someday. It can be a single player game, if that makes it easier. I want to have a game where, instead of looting gradually better swords from each new enemy, I get something like Glamdring in the first third of the game. Maybe it's a new weapon that needs to be powered up, or an old weapon that has "gone to sleep" from disuse. But, as the item is used, it becomes more powerful and I can add new powers to it. (The closest I've seen to a system like this, aside from the ones I mentioned above, is the Neverwinter Nights module "Kingmaker". In that mod, your talking sword will get a new ability that you choose whenever you level up.) A lot of RPGs have a sort of power fantasy element, like how Dragon Age Inquisition lets you build a pseudo-nation from scratch. For me, my power fantasy would be the creation of this sort of legendary item. It would become a legacy of sorts, and in a game focused on this sort of system you could even have an epilogue where the legendary item is passed on to a new hero. (Like how Gandalf and Thorin found the elven blades in the troll den, and how Bilbo gave Sting to Frodo.)

At any rate, that's my personal opinion on RPG/MMO gearing. I doubt games will change much anytime soon, but I wanted to get some of it down while I was thinking about it. After seeing people complain that the gearing system in The Secret World was "so much better" than Secret World Legends, despite the former being so bland and annoying... I had to get down some of the issues I have with how people seem to think RPGs should look. But, going off what I've seen, I'm fairly certain I'm in the minority. So I'll probably continue my descent into focusing on story-based games and playing games I mostly dislike in order to get to the story.

Anyway, I hope anyone who got this far found something interesting in my ramblings. I didn't expect to write so much, so hopefully it's not as boring as some of the systems I decided to call out.

#jackkel rambles #game development

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lonesomealley · 5 years ago

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A Short Hike - In Depth Analysis and Review WRITE UP

DISCLAIMER: If you haven't seen the video that this write up is based on, I highly recommend you watch that before reading onwards.

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This is a video project that, frankly, I didn’t expect to take so long. And I can’t really go into details as to why it did outside of just immense family issues taking place. Sprinkle in a little procrastination, school work, and a part time job, and it’s kind of a miracle I had the space and time to finally put this together. But it’s here, I’m alive, and I can finally do this write up to give a little more insight into the design philosophy of this video.

I stumbled upon A Short Hike sometime back in June or July when I saw that it was in Humble Bundle’s humble trove that you gain access to when subscribing to their humble monthly service. We had subscribed to this service for my girlfriend’s birthday just as a way to give her a large library of games that she can sit down and slowly churn through, while I was all about playing this game. So I sat down and played it, and played it, and played it. This was one of those games that would cause me to zone out and just put all of my focus towards the game while I’m playing it. That sounds like an odd statement to say considering it should be your goal, as the player, to be fully immersed in whatever you’re playing. However that’s more of a fantasy than a reality, at least with me, because I find myself taking many notes or going between tasks while playing video games.

A Short Hike is also just one of those games that really hits you right in the feels with its message. Now I’m not one to be very receptive to emotional ploys or to be hit by the sad music that plays whenever a character dies in a media piece, but this game somehow nailed it. It’s kinda weird, especially given my videos, that the only two games I would attribute with legitimately evoking an emotional response from me are A Short Hike and The Beginner’s Guide. So given all of the blog posts and video ideas that I had failed to really kick off so far, I decided to write up a 3700 word review for the game and put it into full production.

And that brings us to the release of the video, which took about 4 or 5 months to produce. . . Now I have an excuse for this that I stated previously. And ummm, I was hungry? That’ll do it. BUT, it’s here now, and I can write this paper.

This video was relatively simple, and honestly I could’ve (and probably should’ve) completed this a lot faster than I did. During the production of this video, I played A Short Hike 3 times, and 100%’d it. I feel that playing through games multiple times, and 100%ing them when reasonable, is necessary to understanding the more complex or abstract design of the game I’m playing. Hence, this allows my reviews to become in depth and hopefully more worthwhile than the standard review videos.

When it came to writing the script, I was primarily interested in the narrative design and atmospheric setting of the game, because the way the game goes about doing this was quite interesting. As noted in the video, the game puts its purpose right at the end, no hints, no anything, just a big twist right at the end of the game. And that’s a very unique way to design a video game’s story because it breaks typical writing norms. Usually you’d include tid bits here and there of where the game is going or what the underlying tone is, but nope. A Short Hike says, “fuck it,” and gives you a game that is unapologetically and completely invested in itself. And that’s something that deserves to be documented, which is ultimately the point of my channel: To highlight things that deserve to be talked about, that no one else is really covering.

After I had come to a satisfactory amount of thorough analysis with the writing, I decided to write a review for the entire game. This was because the amount of information I had on the relatively simple plot of A Short Hike didn’t make for a long enough video. Something like this may ultimately drown out the point of the video, which was to highlight the anomaly of ASH’s design, however through this medium I was actually able to also convey other points like the effective world design and gameplay.

If you haven’t read through the script yet, you can do it HERE!

Going into the editing, my project folder will often start out as just some footage files of me playing through the game, and as I begin putting stuff together and deciding on what pace I want the video to be, I’ll go out and collect other resources. My final video project folder ended up being about 67 gigabytes (including the files used for this write up.)

I unfortunately don’t have too much to write about with my editing, because it’s super basic. It’s a lot of cross fades, cuts, and key framing. If you know even the most basic stuff about Premiere Pro you can decipher how I did a lot of my edits with ease, so instead of going in depth about them, I’ll just show you how I put together the video and my workflow.

The first screenshot is how my secondary desktop typically looked while I was working, and the second is my primary desktop which features the default look and layout for Adobe Premiere.

I don’t have any real specialized work flow or editing process for how to put a video together, I just linearly piece the video together until I get a finished project. Going into the script I’ll come up with several ideas for how I want certain bits of the video to work, and will either keep a mental note of it or put some [brackets] in the script to signify what I want down there visually. This keeps the pacing of the video somewhat in check, but a lot of it ultimately comes down to whether or not I want to put in the effort to make a video that’s super stylized. I already tried this once with a previously cancelled project and it turned out horribly. So the editing for this video was a lot of just cuts to different gameplay pieces.

My general philosophy when it comes to editing is that I want exactly what I’m talking about to be on the screen whenever applicable and present visual information in a way that will back up the audio. So while my editing style and workflow are pretty free form and otherwise unfocused, I do try to at least have a reason for why I edited something the way I did. As I’ve said this video was designed to be straight to the point and contain just enough information to make a very snappy video. And the goal of these write ups is to explain a lot of the decisions made during the video editing process and things that influenced the video to get made the way that it did. As I continue making these videos, I hope to improve the conveyance of information over time so that what you’re being told is much more concise and comprehensible for many different audiences.

That isn’t to say my design philosophy is flawless though. One major problem with this format comes down to not having the right footage for a certain thing, or not having enough time to properly show it off. There’s one part where I briefly mention the direct shortcuts you can use on A Short Hike’s island and I couldn’t use a piece of footage of me using it because I simply didn’t have enough time. So I compromised with just a brief close up shot of one of the shortcut entrances, this was the best I could do to convey that this was what I was talking about.

I think in many instances the pacing of the cuts is done effectively enough that you can pick up on all of the information I’m trying to portray, but in some others it may fall flat or be convoluted by the use of filler footage. Filler footage is, and will always be, a problem in the medium of video essay because you aren’t going to have an example for everything you’re talking about from gameplay alone, especially if you like discussing hypotheticals. Of course, you can spend a lot of time developing those concepts in your own mediums such as through a game’s development tools, but that takes a lot of extra time and effort that I simply couldn’t afford to put into this video. On this note, let’s talk about the audio quality. This has been something that primarily just comes down to not having the proper equipment to really make my audio sound good. And I can really only subsidize this so much through the use of audio editing to the point where the effort that I put in just isn’t worth it in my opinion. That’s why there’s several moments in the video where my audio cuts out or goes a bit wonky. I want to clarify that in these moments that isn’t me just being terrible at audio editing like my Beginner’s Guide video, that’s actually my microphone just randomly refusing to pick up audio information. This can be worked around if I really sought to, but that would take too much time and effort on my part when I could purchase new audio equipment.

My overall goal with this video was to construct a snappy, well paced video that put all of the game into one convenient roll up. It might be a little strange for a review video to have massive game spoilers (as the point of reviews is to inform customers who haven’t played the game yet) but I feel it was necessary to be able to explain what exactly this game does.

A lot of my external resources and information either came from Adam and Mark, or were just some google images regarding what I was talking about. You may notice that in my video I use screenshots of DMs from Mark but not Adam, this is because Adam said that while I could talk about the information he gave me, I was not to screenshot it. I guess you’ll just have to take my word on that.

The final thing that I’ll really talk about video wise is the part where I play my own remix of a rock song to demonstrate how music affects video games.

This is basically a vaporwave version of an alternative rock song called “Black Domino” created by the band Ozma. And trust me, I really have no rhyme or reason for making this outside of just pure boredom. I loaded this song into Audacity, threw a bunch of effects on top of it like phasers and slow pitching, and it turned into this monstrosity(?). I figured since some people might want to listen to the full thing that I’d include it here. This song is technically part of a full album that I’m working on, that’ll feature a bunch of vaporwave or just weird songs constructed very shottily in Audacity or whatever I feel like working in. If a blog post ever appears about the album, now you know ahead of time.

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Next I want to talk about the artwork that I commissioned for the video thumbnail. For this I went and picked out an artist that I already knew somewhat. That artist is Kagu, aka NeroNero, aka Totoaba. . . She really needs to decide on a name. But anyhow, she has fairly exceptional design skills and I saw the potential in her making a good, catchy, and flashy thumbnail that would show another level of effort and philosophy when it came to YouTube thumbnails.

So we started by discussing what I was expecting and how much I was going to pay. That went along the lines of, “Hey I need a thumbnail for a YouTube video and I will pay you at most $50 to make it.” Fortunately for me, she said yes. There was just one issue, however. Kagu was all about character design, and I mean that. There are next to no scenic pieces of art on the entirety of her twitter. Although considering I wasn’t sure how much scenery was really going to be needed for the composition, I went with the most comfortable option and pressed on. For reference, here’s a couple pieces of her art.

Again, please visit her twitter!: https://twitter.com/neru_nero_/

Having to go out and commission art was a really interesting process that I documented as it went along. Going into the commission I didn’t really know what I wanted (don’t be me), but not wanting to be that commissioner who just says, “Surprise me,” I had to quickly assemble a basic composition. However the only drawing program, and access to actual drawing tools, was Microsoft Word on my laptop. What resulted was the below abomination.

However, I feel like I should carry you, the reader, through the commission process so I want you to take a close look at that first sketch and this finished product:

After this first sketch was sent to her she immediately went to work and came back to me with this:

It’s not great, but it’s definitely a start. What may stick out to you immediately is that Claire, a big focal point of the composition, is pretty stiff and otherwise blocky. So she went through a redesign.

And then, deciding there wasn’t enough in the composition, we added a waterfall.

Once we had finalized the composition sketch, the next thing was to make a nice outline for it all so we could start coloring.

I knew from the get go that the background was just going to be some gradient that would mirror the colors and tones from A Short Hike. We used several official art resources and in game screenshots to come to the conclusion of what this gradient looked like.

Now given my standards, that’s about where the thumbnail would’ve ended. Just slap a logo on there and I would’ve been like, “Alright cool here’s some money thanks.” But she didn’t stop here.

I feel the need to point out that Kagu was entirely gracious in trying her own thing and putting her own spin on the rather simple ideas that I gave her. She wouldn’t just stop at adding basic shadows to something, she really went the extra mile to make sure that things aligned and matched. And while she had some communication issues where some of my feedback she would seemingly ignore, we did eventually work through those to produce something that looked better each and she was always willing to adjust something even without my input. An example of this is the clouds.

Initially, I had no idea what I wanted these clouds to look like and how that process of describing it to someone else would go. All I knew was that I wanted the clouds to appear like how they do at the end of the game with their odd flat appearance blended with the use of gradients. (The screenshot was rendered in high resolution for clarity.)

When I sent her that, she took a good amount of time to just experiment and figure out what she was doing. She then came back with clouds that were way above my expectations. And even as we adjusted the background gradient, she was happy to change the tone of the clouds along with it.

And speaking of that background gradient, I believe we spent a good hour making sure that the gradient in the background was just right, and she did it joyfully and productively.

And so we eventually came down to the final product.

This piece was well smoothed out, and I used my eye as an observer to catch all of the little details and errors that she made along the way, and she was entirely happy to clean them up. In the end we settled on $50 for me to own the rights to the art, and the money was promptly sent through PayPal.

Something that my brain didn’t quite register in time is that I’d possibly want to have a logo-less version of this piece polished and available to be put up here. So unfortunately I don’t have the most polished logo-less piece in the world, and I deeply apologize for this. However if you’re able to look over some of the rough edges that the logo was previously covering up, then you are entirely free to download and use this however you please.

I have a download link to the full resolution (1920x1080) pictures (plus some little bonuses) HERE!

In retrospect this video write up wasn’t as impressive and as grandiose as I had previously hoped for, and this will hopefully resolve itself with time as I build up a fan base and figure out more things to talk about with these write ups. But hopefully what I’ve put out so far gives you a little bit of insight into how I develop my videos and I plan on continuing these for every single essay video that I put out there. If you have anything you want me to talk about in the next video write up, please send me an email at [email protected].

-Count_

#A Short Hike #ash #original #lonesome alley #videoproject #video essay #video writeups

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