#great old one pact warlock... what if i make a being to be her patron heavily based on him ? like... a giant humanoid but featureless

[wlwaerith]

so, since bg3 has rotted my brain & will be rotting it for some time, i've been thinking a little bit more about what i'll do with elarys when i get to my dark urge playthough after i replay with zofeia for gifs >:3

[alicelufenia]

Conquest and Dominion: A Minthara Build

"Once I have had my vengeance and the Absolute is ours to control, people will pledge an oath to our cause. Conquest, and dominion." —Minthara

I'm back in on bg3 after a break, which means even more mods to play with and delay finishing act 2 enhance my game experience! And since my current Dark Urge is the sort who would totally become the Absolute if not for *vaguely waves hands at character growth from interacting with every other companion*, but since as of act 2 she still thinks it's a good idea, and a duo run of her and Minthara would have that as their end game no question, I figured now is the time for Minthara to take up the Oath of Conquest that is her true calling.

Mods

This build uses just a few mods, MOST of which are available on console, so I'll detail the 100% console-friendly version first. You only need three mods (plus obvious prereqs like ImpUI):

Oath of Conquest Tasha's Feats Mystra's Spells

Technically you could get away with JUST Conquest, but I like the versatility that the other two provide. The addition of several quality "half-feats" that give a +1 ability score means we can do a two-feat multiclass and still can afford to take something other than the mandatory two ASIs.

Onto the build!

Multiclasses

⚔️Conquest⚔️ Paladin / 🧠Great Old One🧠 Warlock (Blade Pact)

That's right we're going lockadin! While any patron could work for gameplay purposes, Great Old One is mandatory for lore reasons. It's literally her lingering connection to the Absolute, the Dominion in the title. Why is she able to have the Absolute as a patron when it's the game's main antagonist? Welllll [REDACTING MASSIVE ACT 3 SPOILERS] suffice to say, it works. Feel free to make use of ALL the Illithid powers on this build too.

Ability Scores

STR: 12* DEX: 14 CON:14 (13+1) INT: 8 WIS: 10 CHA: 17 (15+2)

While we are a bladelock, getting Charisma all the way to 20 isn't strictly mandatory for this build, but certainly an option we'll explore when we get to feats. Minthara is forever cursed to have an 8 Intelligence, sorry I don't make the rules.

*We won't be attacking with Strength, but since we start as Paladin we can grab Athletics and have a semi-decent score to push enemies, and makes us more resistant to being pushed if you go with gear that doesn't prevent movement. If you prefer to dump Strength entirely, you can then bump Constitution to 16, which is what I'd recommend if you're optimizing.

Skills: You'll want to take Intimidation (it's Minthara after all). If you're not taking Athletics, Religion is an appropriate alternative. Otherwise pick what you want, you won't be making lots of skill checks.

Levels 1-2

Paladin 1: Oath of Conquest

We get a really nice violet-themed subclass with this mod, as well as a fantastic level 1 channel oath action in Chosen Adversary. For a bonus action and our channel oath charge, you gain advantage on attack rolls against the target you mark with this ability, and force a Wisdom save when you hit them to make them Frightened. It's just until the end of their next turn, or they take damage again, so it's not the most reliable source of Frightened, but will serve us well until we can get the later features.

Paladin 2: Divine Smite, Spellcasting, Fighting Style

We want to get smites online as early as possible, which is why I recommend taking the 2nd Paladin level before getting into Warlock. You can pick your favorite when it comes to fighting style. I prefer Defense as an always useful option that doesn't care about my current gear. You can be more flexible with your spell preparation since we can actually hit with our spell save DC (we'll get to that) so I'd highly recommend Command and Wrathful Smite, along with old standbys like Bless and Shield of Faith for concentration options.

Levels 3-7

Warlock 1: Great Old One Patron

Right away we're getting the goodies. Mortal Reminder pairs beautifully with our Paladin oath, which loves the Frightened condition, and Minthara, who loves critical hits. Since we are definitely using Illithid powers, Luck of the Far Realms is a guaranteed crit we can use every day, plus our ability to get advantage easily means higher odds for critical rolls.

Our cantrip selection is interesting. It's hard to justify not taking Eldritch Blast to compensate for our lack of a ranged option, however Mystra's Spells means we now have the blade cantrips as options. Both Booming Blade and Green-Flame Blade have their uses; to lock down enemies near you (where we want them) or hit adjacent targets before we get Extra Attack. Regardless of what you choose, I highly recommend picking up Mind Sliver either here or at Warlock 4. That -1d4 to saving throws is going to come in handy (unless you use a broken gear option later)

For spells, Armor of Agathys serves us well, but I'd recommend holding off for now as we'll be getting it later. Dissonant Whispers scales nicely with our Warlock spell slots and is a source of Frightened. I'd also suggest picking up Hex, as it's still useful early on, but we'll be replacing it eventually.

Warlock 2: Eldritch Invocations

The usual picks of Agonizing Blast and Devil Sight work great. If you don't plan to exploit Darkness, I'd go with Repelling Blast as a non-Strength based pushing option. For Spells, I like Magnify Gravity as an area speed reduction.

Warlock 3: Pact Boon

Pact of the Blade at last! Our spell selection depends on our general strategy. Minthara gets a once per day cast of Darkness at this level, but if you are heavily using that strategy you can pick it up here. The problem is it feels real bad to use a Warlock spell slot on Darkness. A better choice would be something like Misty Step (which we no longer get from our oath)

Warlock 4: Feat

This is where the Tasha's mod comes into play. We want to pick a half-feat to take care of that odd Charisma score. In my own game I picked Performer because I wanted Minthara to be able to play an instrument alongside my durge, but you can pick a not-terrible feat instead!

Any of them can work: Actor if you want her to be a face, Fey-Touched or Shadow-Touched for the free spells (Fey is an alternate way to get Misty Step, and I like Shadow for Invisibility, as a nod to her time in the Underdark and a way around having heavy armor), Telekinetic grants yet another way to push without Athletics, and Telepathic is just fully in character.

For our spell I really like Cloud of Daggers for the no-save damage, and can make it really suck for our enemies to be stuck near us (just mind you don't catch yourself in the spell when you cast it!)

Warlock 5: Eldritch Invocation, Deepened Pact

Right on time for level 7 when most parties get Minthara, we have our extra attack now! We can pick Sign of Ill Omen to get Bestow Curse, and for our spell we select Fear. Congrats, you have the 9th level Conquest spells 2 levels early! Especially nice as we won't be getting to 9th level Paladin with this build.

We are also opting to replace Hex (you're definitely not using it by now) and picking the direct upgrade Spirit Shroud. Having a choice of adding 1d8 radiant, necrotic, or cold damage is especially nice when we utilize weapon actions like Cleave. Don't forget, the wet condition doubles cold damage!

Levels 8-12

Paladin 3: Conquering Presence, Guided Strike

A big level for us, we get Guided Strike, which is nice to have I guess, but most importantly Conquering Presence to inflict Frightened to every enemy in a massive area around us. While the Fear spell inflicts the much stronger Fearful condition, this has the advantage of not being a cone, and using a channel oath charge instead of one of our precious spell slots that could be used for smiting. Between Conquering Presence and your Warlock slots both coming back on a short rest, this makes Minthara MUCH less likely to run out of steam in a long adventuring day.

We also get Command and Armor of Agathys as oath spells, which both serve our purposes well.

Paladin 4: Feat

We now have a choice: max out our Charisma score, or get a general feat. Personally, I vastly prefer to pick up a feat here; we have so many ways to gain advantage that we're not hurting on accuracy, and getting our spells to land will not be a problem right around this point in Act 2 (you can probably guess, but we'll cover it in depth in the gear section).

Great Weapon Master is always nice, but again, since I'm building to be mostly weapon-agnostic, I think nothing beats Savage Attacker right now. We have so many bonus dice we can stack on each attack, this is going to raise our damage much more I feel, and still let us use a shield.

Paladin 5: Extra Attack

If you're on Tactician or below, the extra attack we get from Paladin and Warlock's deepened pact both stack. Meaning we now are doing 3 attacks a round, 1 level earlier than a Fighter! Since these don't stack on Honor Mode it's obviously less effective there. As I've never actually completed an Honor Mode run I don't feel confident making an Honor Mode-friendly version of this build.

We also are happy for more oath spells, and pick up Hold Person and Spiritual Weapon, which we LOVE to see! It's never worth it to upcast Spiritual Weapon, as it serves more to have a body to draw aggro and occasionally deal bonus damage. We're a bit late in getting Hold Person, but level 10 is around the time we start seeing more humanoids after the endless wave of undead in act 2, so now is a good time to get it anyway.

Paladin 6: Aura of Protection

An already amazing feature is made even better by our higher than usual Charisma! +4 to all saving throws is WILD, making it much less likely we drop concentration on our nasty, nasty Fears.

Paladin 7: Aura of Conquest

The perfect capstone to our build. All the fear mongering pays off, as now every Frightened enemy within our aura will have its movement reduced to zero, AND frightened enemies take half our Paladin level in psychic damage whenever they start their turn in the aura. Which they will. Because they can't move and we can.

But wait Kaylin! You think. Doesn't the Frightened condition already make a creature unable to move? What's the point of reducing its speed to zero?

An excellent question! First, there are actually several conditions that the game considers part of the "Frightened" status group, which includes both the Frightened and Fearful conditions. Very confusing, I know, but it means all the guys you just made drop their weapons can't even escape you.

In addition, while it's true the Frightened condition makes a character unable to move, their movement speed is unaffected. With zero movement, this means anyone who is affected by this aura and is knocked prone cannot stand up. This is the sort of trick a maiming Barbarian gets to play with, and so can we now with Thunderous Smite.

Gear

And now we need to talk about the hollyphant in the room, the obvious gear combo that takes this from strong to potentially game ruiningly broken.

Helmet of Arcane Acuity + Band of the Mystic Scoundrel

These two items are the reason why we didn't cap Charisma, and why we don't need to take any spell save DC gear. The Helmet of Arcane Acuity is available right away in act 2, and grants you 2 turns of Arcane Acuity every time you deal damage with a weapon attack. So right at level 7 Minthara can put this on immediately upon joining the team, hit an enemy twice, and you now have a +4 to all your spell save DCs. Use Chosen Adversary with your bonus action, and whatever target you choose is almost guaranteed to fail their wisdom save, and will immediately be Frightened. Next turn you Acuity drops to +3, but you hit a guy two more times, now you have +7. Drink a speed potion, and use any spell you want (like an upcasted Command) and make 3 enemies of your choice do whatever you want because your save DCs are now astronomical. This bonus caps out at +10.

Remember what I said about Frightened and Prone enemies in your conquest aura being unable to stand up? Yeah, you can upcast Command and make all of them grovel, and take them out of the fight until their Frightened shakes.

Which won't happen because your ridiculously boosted spell save DCs apply to their rolls to shake off Frightened. So unless they're immune to fear they are just out of the fight.

But don't worry, we're not done! You can get the Band of the Mystic Scoundrel as soon as you enter act 3. For the low cost of hitting a creature with a weapon attack, you can cast any Illusion or Enchantment spell with a bonus action. What spells do we have that qualify? I dunno how about Command, Dissonant Whispers, Hold Person, frickin' Fear??

Yes please I'd love to cast Fear as a bonus action with my +10 spell save DC. Now five Baneites just dropped their weapons, and they're stuck where they are unable to do anything for the rest of the combat.

So yeah, these two items are like, so game breakingly busted they actually make the game boring and unfun.

In MY opinion. As with all things, your mileage will vary. I can't say I blame you if you want to see Minthara Crit Smite one fucker, Hold Person on two more, then use her two remaining attacks to ALSO Crit Smite those two fuckers. So if you like, go for it!

The alternate: One little cantrip

If you prefer not to use the incredibly broken Arcane Acuity + Mystic Scoundrel combo, there is a more balanced alternative, and that is to take the Mind Sliver cantrip. Giving one enemy a -1d4 to saving throws isn't much in comparison, but with the Mystic Scoundrel ring it's still just a bonus action, and applies to any saving throw that target makes until the end of your next turn, which could help your companions immensely.

Aside from these two, I can just run through a few gearing recommendations quickly. You'll want the best Heavy Armor you can find (+2 Plate with a shield gives 23 AC, not a bad choice considering you want to be surrounded by as many enemies as possible), a bonus to crit chance like The Dead Shot or even using Knife of the Undermountain King as your main hand, Surgeon's Subjugation Amulet to turn crits into boss killers by paralyzing them for follow up crit smites, and The Killer's Sweetheart pairs with the Mystic Scoundrel ring to round out your accessories.

Conclusion

In case you couldn't tell, I really really Really like this oath! It walks this line where the paladin can be heroic or villainous even better than the vengeance oath, and since it lends itself to spellcasting more than other oaths, it pairs nicely with a full caster. If it weren't for the fact we never get 4th level spell slots, I'd call it a top tier paladin multiclass. And while I recognize why Minthara is vengeance oath by default, it doesn't take much prodding to see how she'd fit better as a conquest paladin. Just look at the oath tenets:

Does this all not sound exactly like how she talks about her plans of conquering and retaking her House, her plans to march on the Sword Coast, even her method of seizing and gathering power in her "stay in Baldur's Gate" ending? For one who has not just renounced Lolth, but pledges to wage war on the Spider Queen and her followers, it feels exceedingly fitting.

It also works for the various evil endings. Should the mc take over the Absolute, this build is primed and ready to slip into power at their side. On the other hand, if the Absolute is destroyed in the end, it is not the end of her ambitions. While I think she'd lose the Warlock levels, no longer having a tadpole or any Illithid powers, I think she'd compensate by becoming a pure Conquest Paladin, and advance to the higher levels beyond the scope of the game.

Alternate Builds

Before I close this post out though, I want to confess that, while the above build is servicable, I personally have gone with something a little different. And it centers around one last mod I didn't mention, one that is (currently) unavailable to console, but I think well worth exploring anyway, especially if it ever does reach console:

Pactbound - A Warlock Overhaul

THIS Warlock variant reworks Warlock from the ground up, using a lot of the new rules introduced in the 2024 player's handbook for 5e. Among those, it expands on Invocations, makes the various Pact Boons Invocations you can take as early as level 1, and moves the patron subclasses to level 3, to match other 2024 phb classes, albeit with a few houserule variants to match the sort of gameplay changes Larian applied to other classes and subclasses in the move from tabletop to video game. This lets us explore some unusual builds, such as:

Conquest Paladin 11 / Blade Pact Warlock 1

With Pact of the Blade obtainable at level 1, we can forgo further levels in warlock altogether, sans subclass, and go the rest of the way in paladin. This is literally Hexadin but better, sacrificing the Hexblade level 1 features for a more useful way to use Charisma for our weapon. This still gets us heavy hitters like the Fear spell, as well as Aura of Courage (it is fitting that the master of fear on the battlefield is fearless herself, as are her allies), and also gets us that delicious Improved Divine Smite. We're a bit weaker on the ranged side, but make up for it by being more durable, harder to debilitate, and just as hard hitting.

More Invocation Options

What I wound up going for in my game is a direct variant on our main build, going 7 Paladin and 5 Warlock, but taking advantage of the new and improved Invocations imported from the 2024 phb. A quick rundown of my favorites: Eldritch Mind (level 2+) - Grants advantage on Constitution saves. Exactly what we want with all our powerful concentration spells, especially as we'll be taking a lot of hits. Otherworldly Leap (level 2+) - Can cast Enhanced Leap and Feather Fall. As they're rituals, no spell slots required. Some handy utility spells we were lacking, and improves our mobility which we are lacking as always, as a paladin. Eldritch Smite (level 5+) - My personal favorite. Once per turn, add 1d8+1d8 per slot level in force damage to hits with our pact weapon, with a chance to knock the target prone. We looove prone, and this is a more effective way to use it, and with the least resisted damage type too! It can also stack with Divine Smite, at least on our first attack in a turn. One With Shadows (level 5+) - The mod lets us select two Invocations at level 5 unlike tabletop, where the extra attack is an Invocation tax, so I picked this up to give Minthy Invisiblity in lieu of taking the Shadow-Touched feat.

Other features from the reworked warlock class:

Magical Cunning - A small bonus, it lets us restore half our warlock spell slots once per long rest. Since they come back on a short rest this is "nice to have" but not vital in any way. Psychic Overflow - Great Old One's level 3 feature in lieu of Mortal Reminder. While we miss the frighten on a crit, this is more reliable, causing a psionic explosion around us, dealing half our warlock level in psychic damage to enemies within 6 meters, when we use a level 1 or higher Enchantment or Illusion spell. Y'know those things we can cast as bonus actions in act 3? Yeah, they just got arguably better.

And that concludes this build post! I'll close with some optional mods you might consider, some obvious recommends, others you may not expect.

Optional Mods

Adjustable Party Limit

Easily the best thing mods have enabled for all platforms. Just take everyone with you! I prefer a 6-character party to prevent things getting too crowded. And if you feel the game got too easy there's:

Tactician Enhanced

As of this writing not currently on console, but it's just come out of beta, so hopefully won't be long before console players can get it too. Can be set to automatically scale enemies based on the current party size. Like the author's other mod, is incredibly well documented in game, intuitive to use, super customizable, and basically idiot proof (only requirement is reading!)

Lighter Half Illithid/Normal Half Illithid

We'll be using advanced illithid powers, so if you don't care for how partial ceremorphosis changes Minthara's appearance (the loss of her beautiful red eyes is the most tragic part) these mods will help. The first one doesn't remove the effect entirely, but does tone it down by 50% and restore the character's eyes (teeth are still a problem). If that's not working for you or you're on console, Normal Half Illithid simply removes the effect entirely.

Cheater's Ring/Cheater's Spell Scroll

Because I DON'T have the time to worry about leveling my characters all the way to 12 when I just want to do the bits I'm interested in. I'm too tired, too depressed and too old for a "do everything" run these days lmao

[deconstructthesoup]

Some Adventure Time characters in D&D, 'cause why not:

Finn: I think he would start out as a Champion fighter, but then eventually switch to a College of Valor bard---fitting his more musical side while also keeping in line with his desire to be a hero and not making it all about violence---and maybe take a few levels of a Monster Slayer ranger for good measure. That last one is mostly due to the growth he goes through in Hall of Egress and him learning from Huntress Wizard, but I think it works. Also, he's still obviously a human.

Jake: Astral Self monk, Swashbuckler rogue. His whole deal as a stretchy, half-alien dog is very difficult to translate into D&D terms, but I think it'd make sense for him to be a changeling and a werewolf, keeping the whole canine aspect while also adding in the shapeshifting and the, uh... well, the whole "we have a kid who is definitely from somewhere else but we're keeping him anyway" thing.

Bonnie: I think her whole deal speaks to her being a textbook Alchemist artificer, and her princess nature, long lifespan, and a somewhat loose grasp on the concept of morality absolutely reminds me of high elves (no shade meant to PB, I love her and her emotional growth). However, just making her a high elf isn't enough---the fact that she was literally born from a mutagenic gum formed in the wreckage of a ruined world can easily translate to her also being a Reborn. Fitting, for a mad scientist.

Marceline: She's quite clearly a bard, and I think College of Spirits suits her the best---she's got a lot of connections to ghosts and undead things in AT canon, after all, and seeing as she survived an apocalypse, I think it's fitting that her college of choice would be one that's all about singing the songs of the departed. And, well... tiefling vampires are probably a thing in D&D, so. Yep.

BMO: He's an Inquisitor rogue and a lil' autognome. 'Nuff said.

Flame Princess: Circle of Wildfire druid, for reasons that are kind of obvious. And a Fire genasi. For reasons that are... also obvious.

Huntress Wizard: Um... a Hunter ranger. Probably an Eladrin due to the forest-like appearance, though I have no idea what her season is.

The Ice King/The Ice Thing/Simon: So, the Ice King, to me, is an eeeeeeeexcellent portrayal of a Great Old One warlock---specifically, a Pact of the Talisman warlock---gone horribly wrong. While the crown might not seem very classic GOO at first, the fact that using it literally gambles away your sanity is pretty in-line with the risks of that patron.

Gunther, pre-fusing with the crown, is really just a Great Old One on his own, albeit one that's been stuffed into a safe and squishy container. After fusing with the crown, and likely losing his memories of his time as Orgalorg for good, I think he probably became a Storm Sorcerer, as what powered his ice magic was now (almost) irremovable.

And Simon... honestly, between his nerdiness and his low constitution, he's just your classic wizard, really. Probably Chronomancy, due to his penchant for bouncing through time and multiverses.

Betty/Magic Betty/Golbetty: Order of Scribes wizard, who eventually became a Wild Magic sorcerer, who eventually became the Greatest Great Old One that there ever is. And yes, that makes Magic Man a Wild Magic sorcerer, because of course he is.

[yulgurr]

tiny ellana and her fave plushie sir bearnabus; and a bit of a rant on her backstory now that i reached act 3

i was inhaling dunmeshi lore the other day and i really liked the idea of half-elves aging at unstable speed, so i'm using it as a basis here.

i'm not sure at what speed elves mature lore-wise in dnd/bg3 so i'll make the rules here. let's assume elves age 2x time slower than humans for the first 50 years of their life (so like, 50 yo elf = 25 yo human) and after that they age reeeally slowly as their average lifespan is 750 years. And elvish society doesn't treat one as an adult until they're 100.

Ellana is the only half-elf in her family, both her parents and 6 siblings are elves (we don't talk about that), and she was having random growth and development spurts every now and then. She turned 6 like a normal human would, which was weird for elves, and after that she stopped growing for 10 years (which isn't normal for both), and then she got a growth spurt and grew taller than all her family members in like 4 years, and so on, you get the idea. As of now her growth has stabilized, and as of act 1 she's 56 yo with a soul of sleep-deprived 30 yo.

i made a chart for better understanding. for simplicity purposes maturity is for both her brain development and what age she looked like by human standards

Ella's mother is a retired court magician in Baldur's Gate, and her family is doing pretty great out there (financially). Most of Ella's siblings are mages too (5 of them, 1 became a bard and moved out). Ella studied magic as well, and is a warlock, she made a pact with a mysterious "great old one" and went exploring the world (architecture mainly, she loves it) and was living in forests for an unknown period of time (roughly 8 years) before randomly waking up on mind flayers' ship with a starving worm in her brain.

Ella's patron is a funny individual (of course they are), and despite "being shackled, restrained and blinded in Far Realm" they "still have eyes all over Material Plane" obeying them.

ok that's the tip of the iceberg i have for her, i hope it paints overall picture of what i have in mind

[fangsandfeels]

While Jerra is my comfort animal, I do have some other Tavs whose story became much clearer after the full game.

For instance, this is Calliper, a half-drow Great Old Ones warlock/artisan from Baldur's Gate.

Born in the Underdark, in one of the drow cities, a byproduct of a loveless (and fucked up in every way you can imagine if you know how half-drow babies happen to be born in drow society) union between a female human slave, and a male drow slave. Needless to say, both parents wanted nothing to do with her, and the reason why she was even allowed to exist was the shortage of new slaves.

Never got a name during her existence in the Underdark - other drow made it clear that she was a mistake, a disgusting dirt-blood, and the only way for her to atone for that original sin of existing was to do what she is told and pray she is useful.

She managed to escape after involuntarily making contact with a Great Old One (strongly implied to be Atropus) through her feverish and nightmare-filled dreams and siphoning its power.

Calliper doesn't exactly know what her patron is and what it wants with her. All she gets are occasional whispers and horrible visions...and she would rather keep it that way. She is terrified of what will happen if that entity actually starts paying attention to her. For that reason, she actively avoids fighting and resorting to using her powers, preferring to lie, negotiate and bullshit her way through. She doesn't need to remind her patron of her existence more than it's already aware. And yet, she is deadly with her magic when provoked.

After making it to the surface and tagging along with the very first group that didn't instantly reject her, Calliper started making herself useful by actively applying her skills at making jewelry and fine crafts (something she got very good at while serving in the Underdark as the servant of a local craftsmaker. She wasn't allowed to touch the masterpieces, of course, but she watched her work and secretly tried her hand with whatever scraps she managed to collect. Surface dwellers turned out to be much easier to impress than drow, finding great interest in what she herself would call mediocre work. As she adjusted, she chose a name for herself based on one of the first Common language words she learned.

Her life wasn't easy, but she ended up as a guild artisan in Baldur's Gate, happy to work in her studio for the guild, surrounded by pretty magical things she made as well as fixing and restoring jewelry (she particularly enjoyed working with magical trinkets, they were always fascinating). The power of her pact kept competition at bay and provided her with some protection - and this was more than she could possibly want. Or so she thought.

Calliper is...not exactly a hero/leader material or a problem-solver. At least, not initially. She goes back into her survival mode quickly because she hasn't really found a community or support to overcome her issues. Staying huddled up in her workshop, reading books, and occasionally speaking to colleagues and guild members wasn't exactly therapeutic. Being snatched from her safe place made her withdrawn, avoidant, and dodging any situations that are too risky or can end with violence. Whatever problem you have, she is not the one you need. But if you have a fancy trinket or artifact to fix, she...might take a look. It soothes her nerves, y'know.

She is well aware of the drow prejudice, and she doesn't blame people for that because she is the biggest drow hater in the room. She doesn't trust drow. She doesn't like drow. She doesn't want to see any drow near her ever again. She would end up saving the Grove just because she sees Minthara, watches her sneer at her, and call her all the words she heard in the Underdark, and it's on. She has issues with her own self-esteem and would often use Disguise Self when having to leave her home, just to avoid people staring at her.

So, being far away from home with a tadpole in her head, Calliper's only priority will be to get that thing out of her oh this can't be happening (she lived in the Underdark, she knows what mindflayers are), and she would have no clue how she is supposed to help anyone if she doesn't know how to help herself? So, as soon as she meets Wyll, she basically goes "Finally! A hero! Please, Mr. Blade of Frontiers, come with us!" and follows his advice and decisions. Well, aside from killing Karlach because Karlach's flashback just hits way too close to home.

Of course, Calliper gets swept away by the warlock rizz. She looks up to Wyll as the "only-guy-who-looks-like-he-knows-what-he-is-doing" and then, when his secret is revealed, his ordeal is so familiar on so many levels that it hurts. She sees Mizora and instantly remembers how matriarchs and their associates treated male slaves. She hears the word "pact" - and it reminds her of her patron and what it might want from her. And seeing Wyll still having the strength to continue, to smile and stay calm all this time...she is bewildered by that man and falling for him. Hard.

Even though it's been years since she left Underdark, Calliper still wrestles with the feeling that everything is wrong about her - how can't it be? She wasn't born from love. She was told her blood was filthy. That she was a mistake. She has no real place neither on the surface nor beneath it - even if she was complimented, it was always about how exotic she looked as if she was a rare trinket to pocket. Meanwhile, Wyll, makes her feel as if she is absolutely and entirely fine as she is. Her heritage doesn't make her any less worthy of those charming gestures usually described in romance novels. Wyll gives her a fairytale, except that he means every word. In turn, she grows determined to give this man his happy ending, even if it means tapping into her own powers and making hard decisions. As soon as Calliper starts seeing Wyll as more than "the hero" and realizes that this man believes in her (thanks her even for stopping him when he was wrong), she gradually starts leaving her comfort zone and pushing her limits. She is still terrified of her patron and the uncertainty, but she can no longer put the weight of facing problems on Wyll's shoulders.

[eclipsecrowned]

What The Fuck Is Wrong With Tief Hel: (Grand)Parental Pacts, Patrons, and Pain. or, Why Hel Looks Like That Instead Of Like The Rest of Her People.

TW for body horror, health discussion. Long post, consider reading on blog rather than dash.

PT. 1: WHAT’S THE DAMAGE

For those not in the loop/who are being introduced to this muse on this blog rather than her old solo venture, we’re dealing with an AU version of my mythological Hel muse. In Norse mythos, Hel is a goddess of the dead, and has a vision that represents the limbo in which she serves. A living entity who rules over a realm of death, to one side she is a legendary beauty – and on the other, a horrifying corpse woman. Think Two-Face but substantially more Goth/Upsetting.

This is a deformity I carry into all of her verses, because disability in the divine is kind of an awesome concept actually, but the whole ‘half dead’ thing sometimes doesn’t translate very well into different verses. Sometimes, she instead has severe life-altering burns over half of her body, sometimes she just has a skin/muscle/nerve condition that largely effects one side, and sometimes it’s just a form of partial mummification in terms of look. One side of her will always, however, be affected by a chronic condition involving skin/muscle/veins/nerves. I’ll dig deeper into what this means for her mobility and health later. For now, we’re speaking strictly on what her actual appearance is.

In the verse in question – Galdur’s Bait 3 – I follow the schema of ‘disfiguring skin condition with underlying issues beneath said skin.’ That is to say, her left side is looking rather withered, skin drawn tight against her bones, looking fragile and rather spent. It isn’t a perfectly even 50/50 spread, but does appear to ebb and flow more to the right or only taking up a small fraction of her left side. It runs from her brow down to her feet themselves, though she dresses to obscure this fact and make it appear it’s only her face affected. It’s actually a key part of her early romance arc that she exposes her condition to the PC in full.

The impression this gives is… Unsettling. I’ll also go more into depth with this in a later point, but most common folk prefer not to look at Hel, and it’s often assumed she’s under the effect of some curse or an Undead. The point is, she barely looks like a natural Tiefling… Which is not an incorrect assumption, actually. Hel wasn’t created by cavorting with Cambions or trueborn tieflings having trysts. She’s not of Asmodeus, Mephistopheles, or Z*riel’s loins, metaphorically or otherwise.

Hel’s infernal lineage was a gift, you see. An Infernal gift, of course, but not from any of the usual suspects. She doesn’t owe her race or appearance to a Demon.

She owes it to a Dragon.

PT. 2: DAMAGE GETS DONE

Hel is not a first generation adventurer. She’s not even second generation. Lifetimes ago, there was a band of adventurers traipsing through the North. Two of these will be important to this meta moving forward – Farbauti Sudden-Striker, a Reghed Barbarian, and Laufey Liesmith, an Ill*skan of N*therese descent. As stated, Farbauti was a melee build, while Laufey supported he and their companions with magics. That should come as no surprise, given her heritage as one of the diaspora of that doomed empire, nor should her prodigious talent with the Weave.

Pivotal to this story, however, is the fact Laufey was an ambitious woman, and one who sought to supplement her already great powers with something more. The much touted Sorlock who built upon her inborn Sorcerer capabilities with a Warlock Pact, she worked tirelessly to hide that fact from others. Such an attempt to hide her deal only highlighted its nature: Infernal.

And there was plenty of reason to hide that fact. Not only was the North none too kind to such meddling, but she had not settled for more minor Patrons. Between her alarming natural power and her excellent breeding, she would serve only the best and darkest – or the most colorful, as the case might be. All of this pride led her to the altar of a then-Archdevil. With mutual aims towards power and control, and the agreement that Laufey would tirelessly serve her lady’s aims for domination and treasure both, Laufey signed herself to Tiam*t during her reign over Avernus.

She served with grace and discretion, collecting gold and land in service of her dark lady. Driven but lawful, many would be put off by such loyalties. Farbauti, for his part, was drawn into that gravity. Beautiful, brilliant, and with a distinct danger about her, Laufey was a lady worth fighting for, someone whose wit could help his own ambitions come to fruition. Theirs was a perfectly balanced union that produced two sons.

That is where it all falls apart. Despite being Humans both, the pairs first son was born wrong, possessing his father’s crimson hair, his mother’s pale complexion, and both a tail and the first hint of future horns. Laufey’s pact came back to haunt her during a lull in her adventuring, but the boy – Loki -- bore no outwards signs of her Lady’s favor besides the difference in race. The family left the North, finding it inhospitable for their son, and seemed like they might have made it.

A second son was the death of Laufey. The loss of Laufey was not the end of Tiam*t’s stain on the family.

Loki, for his part, took up his parents adventuring ways as he came of age. His lifestyle eventually led him to the Storm Horns, where he fell in with a Goliath clan and made something of a more permanent life with its leader. Each of their children were, per the rules of the setting, Tiefs like their father. The first son was about as normal as the offspring of such a union could be, reflecting more of a Goliath’s height and build as he grew. The second son had a strange way of growing scales rather than the natural ridges of his people, but was otherwise to standard.

And then there was his only daughter. Hel, who was born horrific, with disfigurements that could not be solved by magic and failing health that eventually saw her sent away from the mountain as an act of mercy. Her apparently degenerative, accursed appearance was much speculated about, but ultimately chalked up to divine mischief: Her father was an agent and acolyte of Mask, and his daughter’s conception lined up eerily with the end of a conflict against the Church of Cyr*c.

Those who look closely enough, however, will notice a few traits that point instead to her grandmother’s Patron, and perhaps even a sort of ‘blessing’ from the Chromatic Dragon.

PT. 3: SYMPTOMS AND SOCIETAL SIDE-EFFECTS

Maybe you’re saying to yourself, ‘Wow, Kadi, what interesting backstory lore you cooked up for your playthrough!’ More likely you’re saying, ‘Why the fuck did this bitch make me read that entire wall of text???’ Either way, I’m sure you’re at the conclusion of ‘What the shit does that have to do with your thesis statement?’ And I’m here to answer that question, with sources.

First, let’s get a little more in-depth with Hel’s appearance: The grey-tinted skin of her Goliath heritage, the slightly above average height that is also a gift from her mother, the back-swept horns and the prehensile tail and the vibrant eyes swimming in pools of black sclera that are so common among Tiefls. But the first thing anyone will notice about this woman is aforementioned textural/disfigurements from part one.

That isn’t just for show, by the way. It’s far more than skin deep. Per a past meta I wrote on the subject:

“For the most part, these aforementioned malformations outwardly exhibit themselves in neurological damage to her sensory and motor capabilities. This damage is commonly expressed in loss of sensation, reduced range of motion, and muscle weakness, as well as occasional fits of twitching or shaking in her extremities, digits, or facial muscles. More rarely, she might deal with temporary bouts of pain and partial paralysis through her rotted half, both of which can be quite debilitating and interrupt her routines, or even leave her bedridden in especially severe cases. Besides these neurological issues, there’s also the matter of reduced blood flow and vein problems running through half of her body. There is an underlying heart issue at play here, which poses a much more sizable risk than her constant but stabilized nerve problems. Coldness of extremities might be the most obvious that many will see – or in this case, feel. – but it’s just the first of many underlying problems. Lethargy and fatigue can also put Hel out of commission for a time, and can be especially worrisome when coupled with the aforementioned, infrequent periods of nerve pain. The moment where these two issues really wreak havoc on each other is when swelling of extremities puts further strain on Hel’s already damaged nerves.”

So what we have is Hel, who was born with debilitating but far from fatal chronic pain, which cannot be healed by any means. She also has visible malformations that only make her life more difficult-- this is not an invisible struggle on her part. It has been quoted in past editions that Tiam*t, dubbed the Undying Queen, is not fond of healing magics, and all but demands her faithful embrace pain to come out the other side of it stronger. It’s not an immediate tell of her heritage/the cause of recent Infernal twists on the family tree, and indeed no one is likely to cotton on to this side of Tiam*t’s doctrine in line with Laufey’s only granddaughter, but from a Meta perspective it can be inferred that Hel has suffered for all 35 years as a counterbalance or even as a sign of favor for her grandmother’s loyal service.

There’s more to it than wounds that will not heal/physical pain builds character, however. There’s physical tells unrelated to her malformations that also act as a walking advertisement of a Pact made generations before.

As has been pointed out to me by a friend, there is one aspect of Tiam*t that has endured through all editions and depictions. It’s a subtle thing, but the shape of her tail is singular. While Hel does not have a 1:1 ‘recreation’ of this aspect, she sure doesn’t have the standard spade or smooth tapering end that many Tiefs possess a their tips. It much more resembles a stinger, though the cartilage is neither hard/sharp enough to actually be used as a weapon, and this ‘stinger’ lacks the venomous capabilities of Tiam*t’s own tail. There is also the fact Hel’s ridges are scale-like in texture, which is something she shares in common with a brother.

Of course, the average person is not going to look at Hel and put together ‘Ah, Tiam*t influence.’ They are going to look at her and ask if she’s dying, planning on leaving anytime soon because she’s frightening the children and a fair few adults, or just draw weapons on what they take for an Undead. Too few people want to look at her long enough or have a deep enough understanding of the Chromatic Dragon’s aesthetics/doctrine to draw the correct conclusion. Even if they did and passed a perception check to recognize her for what she is, it’s just another mark against her, another reason to drive her out or draw blades.

That’s not likely to happen, however. Not even Hel’s own family can put the pieces together about her connection to the grandmother she so favors, as the family’s bet is actually on the fact her father pissed off Cyr*c before riding home to sire her.

PT. 4: LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

So that’s how we got here. What does it mean for Hel moving forward?

Well… not a lot. She’s not particularly invested in the Infernal, and already sold herself off to K*lemvor as a Cleric decades ago. Her grandmother is long dead and buried, so learning the truth from Laufey is a non-starter. Hel has a perfectly serviceable answer for why she is ‘like this’ in the assumption about Loki’s past activities she’s been made aware of. The strangeness has thus far gone no further than her, as in both endgames where she has kids they’re far more baseline as Tiefs go.

She’ll still have that wound that will not heal in her physical capabilities, but then, she’d have that even if there was a less fantastical reason for their existence. Even if someone were to come forward tomorrow and out all of this to her the day after the epilogue, there’s not much she can do with the information.

It can, however, open the door for several adventure hooks. I’ve even toyed with loose ends tying party lore together in Laufey’s cult was the seed from which grew the attempted attack on the Gate that another companion thwarted. That both have something to lay to rest while dragging their mutual friends along for the ride. That in any ending that leads the party to Avernus, there’s either roses or scorn thrown at one who reeks of the Chromatic Dragon. That the shades of the past start reaching out for Hel, drawn either to her resemblance to Laufey or her future friction with her chosen God. And then there is always the long-shot possibility someone recognizes Hel for these ‘tells’ of a past pact with Tiam*t and comes to collect a pound of flesh or incorrectly assess she’s caught up in worship of the Dragon in question.

[illegiblewords]

Made some adjustments to Tavs and guardians, discussing below.

First, a disclaimer: these aren't actually all of my Tavs lol. I have a male human fighter named Murad too, who looks like this:

and I plan to have him romance Minthara/betray all tieflings without being Dark Urge. But I don't remember his guardian and haven't settled on story/psychology beyond having been a soldier. I'm also still mulling over if I want to do a lady bard to pair with Karlach and what she might look like.

Top to bottom, the design ideas are basically as follows.

Anat, a Mephistopheles tiefling Great Old One warlock. Patron is Hadar. Design is cold and wet but carries vitality. Evokes both the sea and the stars. Avoided hyper-saturated colors for cast coherence and because I also wanted to visually mesh with Gale for pairings. Water/wind motifs in that pairing. Guardian meant to evoke heroic figures who have been lost as per backstory. Hot, dry, and barren visually--eyes evoke the sun a bit with yellows and reds. Contrast a living and close sun with distant stars for him versus Anat. Similar use of faded browns in design to create a mirroring effect. Relationship between Anat and the guardian should be two heroic figures who are similar in many ways but are opposites in others. Note that whether the ocean or a desert, not a lot of freshwater for either when that's necessary to survive.

Cassian, half-high elf and cleric of Selune. Wanted to evoke red elves conceptually and lunar eclipses/blood moons. Figured it'd be fun to evoke an impure/ominous aspect of the moon in contrast to what is usually associated with Selunites. Cassian specifically is noble-born and was raised in faith. That strain of worship was fairly sterilized though, mainly used as a tool to claim moral superiority--his elven mother being particularly egregious about it. Cassian was left disillusioned and Selune took note. He began to receive dreams of the Dark Moon heresy. Wanting answers, Cassian left the comforts and privileges of his position behind to learn more. It is years into this mission that he gets abducted by mindflayers. His guardian reflects how he perceives his own goddess. I'm planning to pair him with Shadowheart, with her being mainly black and white motifs versus Cassian leaning more toward red and white.

Uzal, another Mephistopheles tiefling--born a draconic sorcerer (white) but primarily a cleric of Ilmater. This is my Dark Urge run lol. I didn't want to go full white dragonborn but did want to pay homage to that with a more humanoid option. I figure the Bhaal connection also fits with some of the odd blood combinations here. My initial plan was to make the Guardian a white dragonborn with the default design, but this is beyond the game's abilities so I made an ominous red version of Uzal instead. There are probably some self-image issues there lol. I plan to pair Uzal with Astarion but with less focus on the Dark Urge by itself, more on the angle that this Dark Urge has been chosen by Ilmater. Uzal is basically Patrick Bateman from American Psycho but is doing his best to become a man of god now. He's an inverse of Anat too in that she's mainly good aligned with an elder evil patron while Uzal is mainly evil aligned with a good deity supervising. In terms of visual connections for pairings, I originally knew I wanted to make a white draconic sorcerer tiefling Dark Urge and that I wanted to pair Astarion with a cleric of Ilmater--but it was feeling like more alts than necessary even for me. Crossed my mind that for the themes and story stuff I had in-mind it'd be more efficient to just combine two concepts. Works out though--Astarion has white/red visuals against Uzal with white/blue visuals. Overall similarity makes the accent colors stand out more.

Behati, a Zariel tiefling fiend-pact warlock. Patron is either Zariel or a devil in Zariel's service. I've done a lot of fiddling with her in terms of design to visually stand out against Karlach while linking to Wyll and creating visual consistency with the Zariel tiefling subtype in character creator. I also never use orange so it was a step out of my comfort zone there lol. I wanted to set Behati up specifically to pair with Wyll in a way that would challenge him as a character somewhat. Knowing Wyll is selfless perhaps to a fault, I decided Behati would be a very selfish person initially. She's a charlatan and a cheat (embracing what people expect tieflings to be and trying to do it far better than expected) compared to Wyll trying to make himself into the Blade of Frontiers as a heroic figure. She embraces her warlock pact while Wyll wants to escape his own. When Wyll is transformed and feels upset about the changes, Behati has had to embrace her own fiendish features because there was never any getting rid of them. I like the idea that at her core, Behati is actually a better person who does care more about others than she likes to admit. Contrast with Wyll suppressing his own personal needs and justified anger/grief on his own behalf. I don't think Behati would go so far as betraying the tieflings, but do think she makes some morally questionable choices at times. Behati's guardian I think on the one hand reflects Behati having an aspirational concept of fiendish beauty (like a tropical flower here), but also--that purple has mindflayer undertones.

Tarmyr, half-drow necromancer. I haven't worked all the details out about this guy tbh and as a note, I'm trying to explain my intentions for him without spoiling buddies who haven't finished the game. I plan to pair him with the Emperor and am going to shape his choices accordingly. Tarmyr probably has weird complexes about control--over the dead via necromancy and the living with psionics. He probably went through some terrible shit to cause that. His guardian is modeled off of Balduran as best I could manage. I can say with Tarmyr's design, I wanted him to be very desaturated but with vibrant eyes. Mostly blue, a bit of violet at the center.

Kodos, a githyanki monk. Planning to pair him with Lae'zel. I've been trying to sort out what kind of character he is and I think he's specifically a negotiator. If knowing your enemy is a useful tactic, it's his job to evaluate and utilize both githyanki and non-githyanki to the greatest advantage possible through manipulation. He'd be a monk specifically because during negotiations it's sometimes expected for emissaries to disarm. This can be exploited by those approaching in bad faith. As a monk, he'll never have cause for concern. I think Kodos privately has theories about whether eusocial, presocial, subsocial, etc. forms of interaction are the most efficient. He believes Vlaakith is trying to mold githyanki into a kind of hive society, but in such situations an isolated member fares poorly. Moreover, whether such a society could be called free anymore is uncertain. It reminds him a lot of elder brains and mindflayers but to express as much would practically be treason. His guardian is a githyanki with a few features reminiscent of mindflayers, as per his own private concerns but with further subtext regarding how the guardian means to approach him. I wanted Kodos to have features common to Githyanki/not to stand out too much, but to also look visually coherent with Lae'zel. I also didn't want the green body spots to clash honestly lol, since those aren't changeable. Thematically I wanted to make a githyanki character who offers another way of seeing things to Lae'zel while still being firmly rooted in a githyanki background.

[leopardmuffinxo]

Hey, hope it's ok to send you an ask too!

First I wanna say you are SO insanely talented at character creation and making gifs, oml, whenever I see your OCs on my dash I'm like woow hello gorgeous! Love that they all have such cool stories too!

So here's my question, which of your OCs would get along, which wouldn't and if you could have one in your party as a companion, who would it be and what would their dynamic be?

Also, do you play them all simultaneously or finish one run and then start another?

Hope you'll have a great day!

slkjdflksjfklsdjf !!! Omg this legit made me tear up just a bit. Thank you so so much. You're too sweet! ♡ Asks are always welcome! I just sometimes take a second to respond lol.

Character creation has always been one of my favorite parts playing any game with a CC, and gif making is so relaxing for me when I don't feel like gaming, so that truly means a lot. ♡

Now for your questions. I'll stick to my BG3 OCs (that have current playthroughs going on), otherwise we'll be here forever lol. I've actually thought about this a lot in the past, so answering this on my blog is fun. Just be jabbing myself a bit, but I feel like I'm not the best at putting my thoughts together and I tend to ramble, so this may be a bit all over the place. Good ol' ADHD brain. Hopefully one day I'll have ALL of their backstories written in a way that makes sense lol.

Who would they would/would not get along with:

Raven: She's snarky, sarcastic, and flirty but also very closed off to deeper conversations from anyone she's not close to. (In her mind, sharing secrets to her gives someone a power over you, so she avoids things like that at all costs.) I like to compare her to Mazikeen from the show Lucifer, because they're incredibly similar with their personalities. For this reason, she would get a long with almost everyone listed, except for Ember or Talon. Her and Kyvoni would def get along the most, as they share similar humor (and pasts). Her and Iris have... physical history, so Iris is still quite hurt regarding it, so they're wouldn't be on the best of terms.

Ember: To those who don't know her, she comes off as very serious and stoic, with a very regal aura about her. Also the literal biggest bookworm. Her and Juniper are sisters, with Ember being the older one, so they get along as well as and bicker as sisters do. Raven and Kyvoni would get on her nerves with their constant snark, so she would avoid them. She, Iris, Velvet, and Khione would get along amazingly. She would def pick Khione's brain about all things magic and share their favorite books. (Khione also writes and reads smut, so I always thought about her introducing those things to Ember lol.) Ember and Talon... might just kill each other. Keep them apart.

Juniper: She's pretty much the opposite of her older sister. Very much go with the flow and completely fine with spontaneity, unlike Ember who prefers structure. While Ember loves her younger sister, they bicker a lot now that their older since Juniper took the warlock route, instead of learning magic the "old fashion way" like her sister. Her patron is a couatl, so it's not like her pact is evil, but Ember still isn't happy with the way she went about things. Her and Iris would be best friends in an instant. She'd def lock on to Khione as another older sister figure, due to her draconic sorcerer background. She's pretty indifferent about the others, although she might pick up some of Raven's lewd humor.

Iris: An absolute sweetheart of a bard. Natural flirt, of course. Who doesn't love a pretty purple tiefling? As mentioned above, she had a fling with Raven and fell hard. Raven didn't return her feelings, so there's some hard feelings on Iris' end. She would get a long great with everyone, and even get Talon to crack a smile every now and then. She loves to bring positivity to any situation, so it's hard for most people to dislike her, as hard as they might try. Her and Velvet would be best friends.

Kyvoni: He's pretty intimidating on the outside, which he prefers. It keeps most people out of his space and out of his business. He can be snarky, usually going off into asshole territory with some of his sarcasm. Ember and Juniper wouldn't dislike him, but probably wouldn't pursue a friendship with him. They're just too different in that aspect. Him and Raven get along great and have constant banter. They sometimes both have a very lewd sense of humor, which gets on the others nerves quite often lol. Him and Talon would be fine, and have a mutual respect for one another.

Talon: She's very prickly lol. She's pretty abrasive and blunt most of the time, even when it's not needed. She has tattoos over a lot of her body, mostly depicting snakes within them, so she looks intimidating to most people. (I'll figure out how to implement them in game one day.) Due to this, she doesn't get along with most of my other OCs at first, but would eventually warm up to Iris and Velvet, since they would go out of their way to get to know her softer side.

Khione: She's incredibly intelligent, and sweet... most of the time. Think Evie from The Mummy. She is a draconic sorcerer, so of course she's well versed in magic without trying, and specializes in ice magic, though she's not really much of a show-off. She prefers to let her mind impress people. As mentioned above, she's a bookworm and a writer, so her and Ember would get along great, especially after she helps mend her relationship with her sister. Khione can match Raven and Kyvoni when it comes to their wit, which will throw them both off at first, but they'll come to be good friends.

Velvet: She's very much a mix of sweet and spicy. She feels the spice is needed, as some people are put off by her being a half-drow, necromancer, and for her eyes which are black voids. (A side effect from a spell when she was younger and just getting into necromancy.) She would get a long with Talon, despite Talon's spiky nature. They have a lot in common with their backgrounds, so Velvet would be able to crack her shell. Iris constantly comments on how pretty she is, which blossoms their friendship. She would get a long fine with the rest of them, though they might not become as close as Talon and Iris.

If you have any questions about ones I maybe didn't mention together, feel free to ask!

Obviously I love all my bbys, but if I could have one in my party as a companion, it would be Kyvoni. He's an ex member of Zhentarim, and has a long, sordid past he would prefer to keep secret. He would def agree to anything that gets you paid or intimidation tactics at the beginning. He has a bit of a temper, and can be incredibly impulsive. He would be a tough nut to crack in opening up when it comes to his past or feelings about things, whether it be a friendship or romance path. A romance path would def have a scene were he intentionally pushes you away or tries to get you to hate him. He's dangerous, and already had someone close to him hurt because of it. He doesn't want to go through it again and has sworn off of matters of the heart. (Hoping to eventually dig deeper into what everyone would be like as a companion.)

I play all of them simultaneously, just depending on who's story I feel like playing at the time. Sometimes I play a certain character for days; other times, I switch characters multiple times within the hour. Just depends! I actually still haven't finished the game, but didn't really mind ending spoilers, so I have a good idea of who will do what. I'm currently working on act 3 with a lot of them.

Thank you so much for the ask! Sorry for the rambling lol. ♡

[dragonsfell]

IZZY'S DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS CHARACTERS

YASSARRA / Yuan-ti Warlock. Patron: the Great Old One, Dendar the Night Serpent / Featured in a completed Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign and post-campaign one shots / reached level 20 via epilogue one shots

Raised in the jungles of Chult to a Yuan-ti temple and given the mission of gaining power in Port Nyanzaru (after all yuan-ti were home to chult first, and others should remember that). Yassarra was a prime candidate for making her name known among the streets of Port Nyanzaru as an agent for her people. She had all the markings of a proper kin; ambitious, silver tongued, and human looking enough.

For years, she was a courtier for the Merchant Prince, Wakanga O'tamu; the Chultan human had taken interest and made alliance with her, due to being well-versed in arcane and occult matters given her warlock pact with Dendar. At first, she was very goal orientated in gaining favor with the Merchant Prince of Magic and Lore, and making her name known among the other Princes as well. Slowly accumulate her own wealth and look for the chance to grow in power, possibly even a viable candidate to take over one of the seven merchant prince's places if something were to happen.

All this would change when a large street war between the Zhentarim and Harpers had broken out; and the chaos only ensued with the Flaming Fist got involved (for true Chultans, the Flaming Fist are a blemish in the Port, a foreign power trying to make claim to their home). It was when Yassarra had been cornered by a few Flaming Fists mercenaries and left rather battered and bruised, when a glorious half elf woman and a few of her friends from the Ytepka Society saved her. The woman, a bard, Audrey had been someone that Yassarra had seen around before, at parties and in the ears of a few of the Merchant Princes, especially a guest at Wakanga's palace.

under the cut for the rest, warning it is long (i will make this a word document later too for bigger font/headings)

This would be when Yassarra would have met her future wife; she and Audrey now in the proper acquaintance of each other, would continue to be in each other's orbit and Yassarra found herself quite smitten. Audrey had even more of a silver tongue that Yassarra had, and she's the one who Yassarra would claim taught her how to love. Audrey is the one who took Yassarra's self-centered and hostile ambitions and twisted around; sold her on noble ideals and is why Yassarra would become one of the Ytepka Society, as well as would join Audrey (this would be years later, after they have become girlfriends) in making a formal alliance between the Ytepka and the Harpers (as they had similar goals).

For years, they would be happy together and found themselves considerable comfortable. Wakanga would become a good friend, whom Yassarra changed from taking his place to ensuring that the one Merchant Prince sympathetic to the Harpers kept his power in Port Nyanzaur and all of Chult. Yassarra and Audrey would marry, and even raise a son together, Calin, four years into their marriage.

When Calin was about the age of twenty two, tragedy would strike when Yassarra would be returning from Samargol in Samarach; and she came home to her wife and son slain in their home. First, Yassarra felt fury and burnt many bridges, many friendships, until she had answers and revenge; of which she had gotten. Her family's killer paid their price tenfold; and then after that she sought out true resurrection, bringing her family back without being undead. (to which she would achieve much later).

[ spoilers for the pre-made campaign, Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden ]

Yassarra didn't care how long it took and at what cost; even that took her far from Chult, far from her home in Port Nyanzaru. Not all her bridges had been burned; Wakanga and one of Audrey's friends were kind enough to take care of her home and the assets she had left behind; that she would have a home to return to, for her, Audrey, and their son. It was Wakanga that would send her as far as the Icewind Dale.

It was in the Ten Towns, in the town of Easthaven, where Yassarra would meet a group of adventurers who were looking for the same Bard as she had been; this party would be Rory the wildhunt cat Shifter, a beastslayer ranger; Wulfric the goliath, beastial barbarian, Belladonna the firbolg, druid of the stars; Lynn the high moon elf, the eldritch knight; and Aelin the water genasi, a four elements monk.

She would join them for their adventures, as the cold of the Icewind Dale had left her weakened (how we agreed as to why yassarra w/ her backstory is now a level 3 warlock). She would join them in preventing Xardorok Sunblight in unleashing terror and unearthing the mystery of the Chardalyn Dragon.

They would beat Xardorok and his cult, with help from inside the fortress (Yassarra had to use spare the dying like three times in this boss fight), and the party barely had time to rest when news of the Chardalyn Dragon unleashing havoc upon the Ten Towns, namely at Dougan's Hole (Rory's home) had reached them.

( there were a lot of sessions from Yassarra joining the party, some side quests, events happening in Easthaven, Caer Dineval and Caer-Konig [where we would be faced with Sunblight loyalists], as well a Bryn Shander before we got to Xardorok's fortress but i am skipping the deeper details / as they had started level 3 and were level 6th by the time they faced Xardorok )

The party would rush to Dougan's Hole where the party had to balance between rescuing villagers and trying to down the Chardalyn Dragon. Help would come in the form of Vellynne Harpell. The fight with the dragon was mighty, and it came at great costs. Wulfric would sacrifice his life in taking down the dragon. Much of Dougan's Hole was in need of repairs (Rory's family was saved!).

The party took some time to aid in the rebuilding of Dougan's Hole as well as grieve the loss of Wulfric. It was at this time that the party had started to see a softer, more open side of Yassarra and her parts of her past revealed. She was instrumental in organizing the town in it's rebuilding, as it was left without a speaker, and would aid in the election of a new speaker. The party saw that she was someone who could lead and organize, versed in diplomacy, as well as she seemed to care about the town (it was because of Rory that she did). She would be the first and was the first, who swiftly dismantled an angered elder of Dougan's Hole who cast the dragon attack as all at the blame of Rory [she scared the hell out of this man :)) using telepathy and nightmare shit]

The party would found themselves with two new members, Floki (Wulfric's player) who was a Shadowdancer rogue who was Wulfric's nephew, and Don Feo (Belladonna's player) a friend of Belladonna who had decided he wanted to remain and continue helping Dougan's Hole heal more. Don Feo was a fairy, who was wild magic sorcerer; who would join them in helping Vellynne of Arcane Brotherhood's quest in finding the Codicil of White and finding their way into Ythryn, a fragment of the Empire of Netheril. This would particularly interest Yassarra, as the Bard that Yassarra had been looking for was part of the Arcane Brotherhood; as well as it was it's Netheril magic; there would surely be a way to return her wife and son to life there.

The party were helping because they sought a bring an end to Auril's never-ending harsh winter; while Yassarra's intent was more personal related. This would be revealed to Rory, as well as the rest of the party as their first clue to finding the Codicil was in Revel's End. On their trek toward Revel's End, a Remorhraz attacked and left the party needing to long rest after a few close calls in the fight.

[ this next bit will be describing on of the best roleplay scenes i ever had played/had with another player ; we had the party and dm in tears ;3 ]

While on this long rest, Yassarra would take note of Rory isolating herself and went to settle down besides the young girl. Yassarra asked Rory how she was feeling, they hadn't really talked about the dragon attack, her family being in danger, wulfric's death, or the tense conversation Rory had with her mother when Rory was setting out with the party again. The two of them had a heart to heart, with Yassarra providing Rory with comfort and guidance, talked about Wulfric and the whole of their adventure, how they feel about people they've met and they had a lengthy chat about Rory and her family, about how Rory feels being cursed as "werecat" and choosing to leave, stay away from Dougan's Hole, and how her mother can be, and how her mother hadn't wanted her to leave.

Yassarra talked about how she was worried, because she loves Rory, that she doesn't distest a thing about her daughter, and that it probably scares her that she can't help her daughter more, or wipe away the pain and fears Rory has, the otherness she feels being a wereshifter. At this point, Rory had been leaning against Yassarra's side, who had wrapped an arm around Rory. It was then that Rory said "you are really good at this, Yassarra" and then Yassarra nodded her head, whispered softly "Because I know what a mother feels" and it got really quiet for a moment, and silence hung in the air before Rory said "i am really sorry you lost someone, Yassarra" and it was quiet again and then Yassarra had turned her head to kiss Rory's forehead. A few more moments, and then Yassarra began to tell Rory about her wife Audrey and their son, Calin and admittedly; Rory reminded her of Calin (they were alike; both young rangers who had big dreams).

[ we had paused a few times to make sure the rest of the party and dm were cool w/ us taking a big chunk of this session for this; and everyone was so down and emotional. we got two inspiration each for that roleplay scene ]

From there we would make it to Revel's End, where we broke into the prison and broke out of the prison, to get information from a mad wizard in jail (yassarra lied her way with him and he believed her that she would break him out) and got information about the Codicil of White as well as about Vellynne; to which the party was already getting suspicious of. This is where Yassarra, who had been seemingly the biggest ally of Vellynne (they would talk arcana a lot), reassured that if she much as turned against them, Yassarra would end that so fast; as well as she had no intention of trusting or letting Vellynne ever touch the Codicil.

From there we had full known of how to find the Codicil of White, as well as what it can really do, and subsequently "betray" Vellynne at this point, and left her behind and knew we needed to make for Island of Solstice and Grimskalle. How we were going to getting there was riding Angajuk the Sperm Whale.

While were riding with Angajuk, we came across the shipwreck of the Dark Duchess, and took a detour there to check it out. Which resulting in us finding some troubles and the party starting to bicker with each other about the events that occurred in Revel's End and Vellynne. It was while they were bickering that they were startled by Arveiaturace the White Wyrm; whom Rory, Floki, and Lynn had immediately wanted to take down (as natives of the Ten Towns) while Aelin, Don Feo, and Yassarra were on the fence. Aelin and Don Feo eventually joined in fighting the dragon; but it was during this fight that Yassarra who had insight checked on the dragon noticed the frozen corpse on her back.

This is when Yassarra hardcore refused to take a single attack against the dragon; because as she watched how the dragon talked and fought; she realized something. SHE'S GRIEVING. Yassarra actually got downed twice to the stress of the party; and had started taking each other her turns to yell at the dragon that she understands her; understand her sharp denial that the one she loved was gone, and she did that too! Asked for Dendar to give her nightmares, so that she could just see her family's face again, even if it twists in pain; would allow Dendar to visit her friend's dreams, give them nightmares, so that she could dream about dates with her wife, memories of outings with her son. That she understands burning every bridge down because the hurt is too much, and she would hunt like hell, hurt otheres like hell until she got her love back. This emotional plea was successful, in that the part stopped attacking Arviaturace and apologized, and this did result in the White Dragon letting the party go. [ Yassarra was on like 2 hp lol after being downed a second time ]

The party returned to Anhajuk and continued to the island, where while they were making the trek to Grimskalle they came across the frozen corpse of Nass Lantomir, whom has stolen Vellynne's professor orb, and Yassarra in falling check to try to get the orb; had Nass possess her [ yassarra got a natural 1 on a charsima saving throw ]. Yassarra mangeed to wrestle control of herself back from Nass, but instead of getting rid of Nass. SHE KEPT HER and for the rest of the adventure [ and to this day ], Yassarra has a ghost in her, who speaks in her mind and doesn't have control unless she lets Nass have control. [ truly one of yassarra's most unhinged decisions / the dm and i had fun having nass and yassarra bicker ]

So after Yassarra acquires a permanent passenger in the head [ once again tadpoled characters from bg3 or anyone w/ telepathy or detect thoughts have a fun time with nass screaming at you for the intrusion and like /that's not yassarra/ ] the party continues exploring the island and making the climb for Grimskalle.

The party reach the Fortress, upon which they enter the fortress whil Auril the Frostmaiden is away weaving her nightly spell. We make our way through the first several levels of the fortress without too much trouble and make all the way to the Tests of the Frostmaiden.

No one could know what exactly the tests unless passed an insanely high insight check ( which guess who had a passive insight of above 20 as well as expertised insight? ) Yassarra was the only one who passed it so she knew what each test was. She lied about what the first test was and said she would take it ( test of cruelty and most of the party were extremely kind/good people or strong moral codes/compasses? no way is she letting any of them in there) She did tell them the other three tests were called Endurance, Isolation, and Preservation.

The first test, the Test of Cruelty, is handled easily by Yassarra alone. It came utterly nature for Yassarra, and she choice to bare this test alone. As to pass this test, a character much perform a cruel act. She is placed in a scenario with starving elders and a cruel king, given the option to leave or kill the elders; Yassarra went for much more brutal than that. She killed the king, and when the elders thought she had saved them (which would have been a way to fail) Yassarra then killed the elders. For that was the ultimate act of cruelty, to trick the elders into thinking they were saved and then snuffing them out herself. Or as she explained "the truest form of cruelty is watching hope die in the other eyes as they realize their savior is worse than their captor. Cruelty is hope dying." This was how Yassarra returned with a symbol of Auril and the first test passed.

She was not proud of how easily such cruelty was still instilled her; but better her bare this weight than the rest of the party.

Cruelty. “Compassion makes you vulnerable. Let cruelty be the knife that keeps your enemies at bay.”

The next test is the Test of Endurance, which Aelin and Lynn decide to take the test together. Aelin and Lynn help the nomads in the test take down their tent, and join them for the journey, both of them managed to complete the harrowing journey with fewer than four levels of exhaustion.

Endurance. “Exist as long as you can, by whatever means you can. Only by enduring can you outlast your enemies.”

The third test was the Test of Isolation, which Rory had chosen to take on alone [ me and yassarra were no adopted daughter no! ] In Rory's test, she is left to watch over the Tiger Tribe's camp while the whole camp goes on raid. It is only suppose to last two days, but instead last six days and nights. Rory manages to survive alone while having to succeed in 12 indefinite madness checks [ the stress of this my guys the stress if anything happened to rory, yassarra would be devastated ]

Isolation. “In solitude you can understand and harness your full potential. Depending on others makes you weak.”

The final test was the Test of Preservation which Don Feo and Floki take on together, as the only two without Symbols of Auril received. In this test, they come across a tribal camp left to slaughter and the sole survivor a nine year old boy. Floki and Don Feo together defend the boy from vultures, and then Don Feo takes to soothing and comforting the boy when the boy's tribe's murderer comes back to kill the boy. Floki takes on the murderer alone while Don Feo defends and soothes the boy. The murderer is slain and the boy is safe, and together Floki and Don Feo pass the test.

Preservation. “Every flake of snow is unique, and that which is unique must be preserved.”

[ so a lot of this is different than what the book of Icewind Dale has as it fit our narrative better / hence why the dm divided the tests, so not everyone had to do each one; it was more meaningful to us so if you've played RotFM and remember this part / we have already gone pretty divergent from book as written ]

With the test complete, the party makes it to the vault door and the Hall of Four Winds and further more we reach the chamber of the Codicil. It was here that we had finally found the Codicil of White and retrieved it.

As we had no encountered Auril in full, and she was very much alive; the whole of the part had gotten the offer from the Frostmaiden herself telepathically contacting each of us asking "Will you court death to receive my blessing?" Three of our six party members had said yes.

[ the stress we felt when we found out that it was con save of 21 was so much; cause yassarra has a +0 modifier, which like meant OH thank got she got an item that gave her proficiency in con saves, so at least she could add the +3 proficiency bonus ]

Rory [girl stop stressing snake mama out], Floki, and Yassarra had all said yes and we all thankfully made our saves [or burnt our inspiration to reroll] As we had all agreed to receive the blessing, our eyes became cold, we all gained immunity to cold an could cast cone of cold once per long rest. Auril's Blessing could be rescinded any time while she was alive.

Don Feo, Aelin, and Lynn had refused. BUT WE DID IT ! We got the Codicil and were now going to go to the Reghead Glaicer, get into Ythyrn and end the save the Icewind Dale.

While on our travels back, and on our race to the Glacier. This would be while we are still on Angajuk, Lynn had been the chosen to hold onto the Codicil which has remained unopened. Everyone had agreed we were not going to touch it until a greater decision as made; however Yassarra wasn't satisfied with this. She's greedy about magic items, and she's ever closer to finding ways to return to her family to her.

[ this was another amazing roleplay scene we had and everyone consented to some PC vs PC conflict ]

Yassarra and Lynn had a late night discussion about the Codicil, as the eldest of the group, and as the two who kept their secrets closely guarded. Both had reasons for wanting the Codicil. Yassarra had two, her own personal need for higher magic, an answer to returning her family back to life, and Nass in her brain chanting "take it take it take it" and fighting for control from Yassarra to take the Codicil.

This is where Yassarra casts SUGGESTION on Lynn, telling her that "she should hand the Codicil over to her and say nothing about it to anyone" and Yassarra's spell dc is 17 and Lynn has a -1 saving throw. Lynn failed the saving throw; and did as suggested. She handed it over, and couldn't say everything. Lynn knew Yassarra did something to her, but she couldn't save.

Rory would notice this, and Lynn couldn't say anything and Yassarra dodged the questions. The rest of the party started to gather as Rory was trying to work out the tension between Lynn and Yassarra. Rory couldn't trust that Yassarra wouldn't lie or that she'd be able to catch Yassarra in her lies; so Rory casted Zone of Truth. Here's where it goes interesting, no matter what Rory will know something is up. Most of the party willing accepts the cast, foregoing the saving throw and thus choosing to speak the truth.

Now Yassarra had a dilemma, she could submit but she doesn't want to tell; or she can resist, and she knows Rory will know she resists. Yassarra resists, and succeeds against telling the truth. Rory knows this, and instead drops the zone and drops the subject. Telling the party it was nothing, but she looks at Yassarra disappointed.

The rest of the party is clueless (we were good players about no metagaming) and react normally to Yassarra now having the book, and just assume that Lynn gave it willingly and even after suggestion wears off; Lynn kept what Yassarra did to herself.

Things are a little tense between Yassarra, Lynn, and Rorry [ don't worry pals ] for while, and then Yassarra reads the Codicil of White.

With reading the Codicil, she uses the spell Frost Fingers [but wait she's not a wizard! she's a warlock! hold on friends] which she is able to learn because of Nass, a wizard, still being a passenger in her brain [ yassarra basically got like one per short rest use of frost fingers is how the dm did this mechanically ] as well as she got to read the poem called "Rime of the Frostmaiden" which is an incantation which can split a glacier (the glacier we were rushing to get to) and now Yassarra has knowledge about Ythryn, the glacier, ending winter, and a lot more that'll help the party.

A few days of travel, and some encounters; Yassarra does ask for Lynn and Rory to speak with her during camp one night. She apologizes to Lynn and Rory, adding she knew what she was doing, knew she chose to hurt them this way; and admits why she did this and that she isn't a better person. She doesn't use Nass as an excuse which Lynn asks and tries to support Yassarra because Nass does fight for control and has succeeded a few times while they were making it to the glacier and into the Caves of Hunger.

Yassarra says while yes Nass was nagging nat, even without her telling her to do this; she would have done this and she needed to know. Yassarra even admits that she would do it again; even if it burnt her bridges with them, hurt them and hurt her. However, Rory calls bullshit and she's somewhat right. After the three of them make amends; Yassarra says she'll tell the rest of the party and leave it up to them.

Ultimately, things are okay because they know how fiercely Yassarra cares for them; and that sometimes you hurt the ones you love and that she can make it up. Rory brings up Audrey, which Yassarra has told Rory bits and pieces (we had little rp channels between characters for "down time chats" / wee played via voice call on discord) over their journey since Yassarra's family reveal after the Remorhraz fight.

Yassarra apologizes, and will think twice, and she does want to be better person that she was, back when her wife was around, and even realizes she should just be that without her or her son alive.

OKAY. SO MOST OF THE CAVE OF HUNGERS I can skip besides the fact that Yassarra got downed and rolled death saves again (she goes down a lot) and a few times Nass takes control, but actually manages to saves Yassarra's life as a result.

Now finally, we reach Ythryn, frament of Netheril, that rests inside of the silent depths of the Reghed Glacier. Ythryn is now a corpse city. As they enter the fallen city, the party manages to deceive and succeed on a DC 13 Charisma/Deception Group check against Iriolarthas the Demilich, of whom now believes belong to Ythryn, and are a rescue team and thus pass into Ythryn unharmed (for now).

The party explores Ythryn, and Nass is going wild in Yassarra, fighting for control an wanting her to steal all of Ythryn's magical secrets. Yassarra succeeds in keeping Nass at bay, and does have self control when it comes to magical secrets. She has a goal, two goals in fact, add the rest of the party in finding a way to end Auril's Endless Winter in Icewind Dale (the goal of Floki, Rory, and Lynn; as ten town natives, and Don Feo who is there in place of Belladonna who also wanted this) and her own of finding a way to truly bring back her wife and son without them being undead.

Through the Necropolis they go, through all eight towers of the foundational magic (abjuration, necromancy, you get the point). We do at some point piss of Iriolarthas and our deception fails; so now we encounter a lot of fighting and so many puzzles. The finer details we will leave out. Just know when we reached the study, that Aelin accidentally deactives the force field around the spire and Ythryn Mythallar; cause she accidentally learned the command word and used it [ we gained a level for this during our mid session break / yassarra's other adoptive daughter bless her soul ]

I haven't described the involvement of the Arcane Brotherhood as a whole; but we run into Vellynne again who has been turned into a Nothic. We meet another of the brotherhood, Avarice who Nass starts screaming in Yassarra's head and fighting for control as Avarice was the reason for Nass's demise. So that was a fun headache for Yassarra to deal with.

Avarice helped us with some lore about Ythryn and getting around; but the party as a whole don't trust her or anyone from the Arcane Brotherhood (considering some of the Vellynne stuff and Nass). So Floki and Don Feo kind of fuck Avarice over; which Yassarra comedically just says "Thanks, you've shut up the nat" referring to Nass in her head (since yeah Yassarra is still like /nah i'll keep her/ and Nass has been useful)

Once we have explored all the city, and because we have not confronted Auril yet; Yassarra, Floki, and Rory who have been immune to cold and had Auril's blessing feel it suddenly go away; which alerts us to the Frostmaiden arriving in Ythryn herself. We dispatch most of Auril's minions whom were sent to patrol looking for us.

Eventually, Auril has to go hunt for us herself and we managed to get a long rest in; and stumble upon Auril herself. AND THUS. We fight Auril, three times, in all three of her forms. It's a pretty intense fight, and I won't go into too much detail here. However, all of the party survives and we defeat Auril; thus releasing the Ten Twos and Icewind Dale from endless winter until Auril returns again as the gods never die permamently (for any god with mortal followers alive can be resurrected); but it does give the Ten Towns and Icewind Dale a reprieve from harsh winters.

[ The players and DM have a little OH MY GOD what a moment to complete a campaign together; for all the players this as their first campaign that had a definitive ending, start to finish, did not get cancelled or postponed indefintiely and had like upwards of 52 sesssions (i can't find the exact count) from 2020 to Jan 2022. ]

We agree as some after action; the party makes it out of Ythryn, but not without the entire party telling Yassarra they would help find her a magical item/secret in Ythryn that will bring back her son and wife ( they succeed ). We return to outside world, and for the native player characters who lived in Ten Towns, they see sunlight for the first time and already feel the Icewind Dale warming up. We have some cute final scenes and wrap up.

[ We would then do eeither a one shot to three shot; at increased levels for a mini plot for each of the Party / we ended up at level 12 and have 6 epilogues, that our dm would write for the characters / i am only going to describe parts of Yassarra's but all the other ones were fun as well and everyone's epilogue was fun as well, Floki, Lynn, and Rory we got to see all the other seasons in Icewind Dale and other things (Lynn's redemption with her Knight order / Rory being comfortable with herself and helping her with exploring the new Icewind Dale / Floki and Raven tribal drama, as well as a memorial for Wulfric).... Aelin, we got to go see her return to her monastery and have a whole /graduation/.... Yassarra has the party visit Chult and they help her become the Merchant Prince of Magic, with her wife and son there too, cause Wakanga got assassinated) and the final two shot as Belladonna and Don Feo face the Courts of the Feywild at level 19/20 (whack to play).... We tried to start a Strixhaven campaign; but schedules changed and fridays that worked for two years didn't work anymore. ]

[ end of spoilers for Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden ]

Okay, so level 17 one shot that finished Yassarra's story goes as follows.

The party reunites once again to visit Yassarra, whose been home with her wife Audrey and son Calin, and finally gotten the chance to return to Chult. She is rebuilding their life, their home safe and she is making amends for all the burnt bridges. We have some great scenes of this, Yassarra so proud to show off her wife, show off her home, and introduce her son to everyone (especially since Rory and Aelin and Belladonna and Floki were like her adoptive children; all around Calin's age and reminded her of her on). IT IS WHOLESOME. Except you know..... I wanted politicial drama and action and chaos.

There's been rising tensions between the factions in Port Nyanzaru, and the Merchant Princes as well as the Chultans and Ytepka Society, fear that the Flaming Fist and Lords' Alliance has gained too much power over their city; as well as rising tensions of the Zhentarim and Harpers. The Harpers are in alliance with the Ytepka, or if push comes to shove, will support the native Chultans if they decide to try to push out the Flaming Fist and Lords' Alliance.

Many of the Merchant Princes have been on high alert, due to treasury robberies, their customers being attacked, and death threats along with assassination attempts. Although, there is in fight among the Seven Princes as well, give some have alliances with the Harpers and others have alliance with the Zhent. The Ytepka Society is what keeps the Princes together and bands them together to keep foreign powers (Flaming Fist and Lords' Alliance, which fun fact; involves Ulder Ravengard) from dismantling Chult society.

So tensions high, and chaos breaks lose when the Merchant Prince of Magic and Lore (Yassarra's long time friend, business partner, and boss) Wakanga O'tamu turns up dead in the streets with no proper successor and fingers pointing in several directions of who was responsible.

To cut this a little shorter, after a lot of back an form of policitical debate and mystery; Yassarra trying to band the Princes together and warn them they could be next, and cut contact with their foreign alliances or even several their alliance ties until it is found out who killed Wakanga (except to the ones who are secretly with the Ytepka Society, so only Zhanthi, as the Ytepka is a Chultan secret society against foreign rulers).

It was a mess of trying to get the remaining princes to get along especially since Kwayothe hates Zhanthi, and other conflicts like everyone pointing their fingers at Jessamine, who deals in plants poisons and assassinations. It was neither of them, but instead on of Ifan Talro'a 's Zhent contacts (who was actually spying on Ifan for the Lords' Alliance which like include Baldur's Gate's Grand Duke Ulder Ravengard [it was not him], and other BG official as well other officials from Waterdeep and Neverwinter [it was a Neverwinter official]) who had carried out the hit, with the help of some Flaming Fists to kill Wakanga and sow chaos and dismantle Chult's natural governemnt (the Merchant Princes) so that Port Nyanzaru and thus all of Chult can become a resource/subsidiary of Neverwinter.

Long story short, after this Yassarra and the party convince the Six Princes that without Wakanga and a swift successor chosen as replacement, all of their own power and wealth along with Port Nyanzaru and the Chultan pride would lost to foreign powers; and considering how close Yassarra was to Wakanga as well as her extensive arcane knowledge (btw Yassarraa still has Nass; who occasionally lives in the Professor Orb from RotFM w/ Professor Skant and one the occasion gets to ride along/parital possession Yassarra) as a Warlock (and the wizard in her brain who occasionally is just secondary wizard in an orb) who is a proud and true Chultan, because Yuan Ti were Chult's first people and Empire; and her own wealth and so on; that she should inherit Wakanga's wealth and possession (to which she promised a magical boon from Wakanga's vault to each prince).

And this how Yassarra became the Merchant Prince of Magic in Port Nyanzaru, Chult. She kept true to her promise of a boon or gift; and is continuing to secure the power dynamic of Chult as well as improve things with the assistances of the Harpers, who now have a formal secret alliance with the Ytepka Society to bring peace, order, and well-being to all of Chultans; including the poorer of the city's outer territories.

Check out the the verse link on the pinned post for BG3 involvement.

[wetbloodworm]

doing a merripen run in bg3 so some notes on that. not spoiler-free!!

technically i started a run and lost it to patch/mod fuckery so i had to start over but i'm not too mad about that. i used a masc body and voice for him in the first run before realizing i don't have to do that just because he's a man. body 1 and one of the fem voices fit him better. he doesn't have to look or sound any particular way to unequivocally be a man. this is so freeing and when i remade him i was like YES this is IT that's MY BOY!! and ty larian for just letting me select his gender separately from these factors, unlike some games [makes direct eye contact with cp77]

went with great old one for his pact bc fathomless isn't an option. there's one on nexus but from what i can tell it doesn't utilize any dialogue tags, so great old one is good enough. they've both got tentacles it's fine

i'm gonna do something fun with this, which is decide when beul would be likely to try to take over and then use their lvl 10 character sheets to do a wisdom contest to see who wins. if beul wins, i'm playing it either until it would decide to pull back or at the start of the next long rest. this could have... consequences, considering beul is deeply homicidal. it's most likely to take over if it feels like the body is in danger and merri isn't handling the situation to its satisfaction, or if there’s an opportunity to gain power, or if there's an irresistible opportunity to kill people that merri isn't acting on. also if there's water nearby that it wants to jump into. the two can negotiate sometimes so it won't be EVERY time, but the two also don't get along great and beul can be spiteful. so we'll see how it goes.

merri really won't care about the tiefling/druid situation, like he gets feeling anxious about outsiders considering his upbringing but he also thinks the druids are being dicks. but it's also so not his problem. please just tell me where your healer is my brain is getting so crowded. since he's there he'll relay some info back and forth but he's not interested until zevlor implies someone should get rid of kagha. merri like well hang on now, THIS i can help with, if you can pay. i just have to figure out if merri would do his research first to minimize damage or if he's gonna just go after her immediately. might uh. might wait to level up some first if i'm turning the whole grove against me. because merri was not trained to minimize damage.

during the first run i was really not expecting him to go for laezel, but it turns out he really likes how direct and intense she is! when you agree to hook up she says something like 'i will come to your tent tonight and take you' and merri was just like

during her sex scene she also directs you and if you follow you're referred to as a lapdog and, yeah. yeah. merri's into being bossed around apparently.

i made a joke later on about him worrying about taking credit for something laezel did and wondering if she'd beat him up over it, but also is that actually a deterrent for him

i don't know if he'll do the full romance but we'll see

he does let astarion bite him though he makes him stop quick, and there's a war in his head because beul HATES this while merri is just yelling WE NEED HIM WE NEED HIM THERE'S A WORM IN MY BRAIN WE NEED OUR ALLIES DO NOT STAKE OUR ALLY!!!

merri is interested in power but not as much as beul. for instance, he would be on the fence about letting the hag take mayrina but beul might try to shove forward and agree to the deal. merri has NO interest in becoming the absolute but beul is super down for it. stuff like that. it'll be fun to see who wins out.

i just want wyll and merri to have warlock chats. oh your patron fucking sucks and took advantage of you in a dire situation? bro same. like the magic's great, but oof! the cost!

that's all i got for now except for this: a boy

tattoos are the closest i'm getting lmao. he should be bluer tbh i'll tweak that

[bakafox]

I need to actually snap some shots in cinematics where close ups can happen or at least she's bigger- I misnamed her in earlier posts, but this is currently what I guess you could call my 'main Tav.'

Ifrig is a half drow great old one pact of the blade warlock based a bit on a full-drow pact of the blade warlock/shadow sorcerer that I briefly played with @the-lazy-old-fox in an online game where their character was mine's twin sister.

She was my third char I rolled for the game and the first of my many that Astarion went for, so she's his romance. She's maybe a little too heroic for his tastes a fair amount of the time, because I am chronically incapable of playing any char in a videogame who is more than a middling asshole. She is power hungry, though I'm still debating if she'd actually try using the skin book of evil, since I also do picture her as being wary of making bad deals and getting cursed/in hotter water than her patron cares to fish her out of.

At level 5 she's one of the two highest level chars I've got/stuck with as I've been rolling at least one character of every class, and I'm having to debate with myself if she'll multiclass like my original TTRPG version of her, even if shadow sorcerer isn't one of the available flavors in BG3. Tempest sorcerer could fit her.

(The 'joke' in the original TTRPG game was she and her twin were great disappointments to their parents for not being talented at wizardry and not being sorcerers or anything like that, so she went warlock to try and prove herself to them, which backfired, and then only after leaving home/running away from the assholes, her sorcery manifested.)

[mando-cyare]

So my lovely moot @dawdreygore asked about my OCs, so I'll give a "quick" rundown of my main few. I have a lot, and most are fanfic ocs at the moment.

I'm not capable of actually making this short, so if you'd like to hear about some Baldur's Gate 3 and Nolan-verse Batman OCs, read more under the cut

Morgana

She's my tiefling warlock from Baldur's Gate 3, but based on an older DnD character of mine.

She swore a pact with an Archfey to escape her husband, because when she prayed to the gods of her world, no one answered. The Fey did. Yes, it was a stupid thing to do, but at the time felt like her only option. The name her parents gave her when she was born was Defiance, and even though she is the living personification of the term, the name was taken from her by her Patron. She picked Morgana for herself.

Because she knows what it's like to be beholden to a greater power, and to have a great deal of her agency stripped from her, she is deeply passionate about helping others in similar situations. She's definitely mostly taking out her anger at her own patron on those that hurt her friends, but she does genuinely care. She tends to be a 'shoot first, ask questions later' type, with a quick temper that can often get her into fights.

Thankfully, she's charismatic enough to usually talk her way out of trouble if absolutely necessary. But there's no talking her down from attacking someone who hurt a child or an animal.

Her story is very much about find yourself again after escaping and abusive/toxic situation, and learning that even if you can't get back to who you used to be, you can still recover and become better than you were before. You can read a little of her story on my AO3, in the series, Horns and Fangs

She romances Astarion (and eventually Halsin) if the series title didn't already give that away

Keeva Brogden

Keeva Brogden is a character I've had for a while, and if you dig on my blog you'll find her old fanfic that's still posted on AO3. I'm currently rewriting it, though. It's for the Nolan-verse Batman movies, specifically The Dark Knight rises, but also with a lot more comic accuracy thrown in. She's also the inspiration for another OC of mine I might talk about later.

Keeva has had the ability to heal any injury to herself since she was 17. Later, she learned that she could heal others by absorbing their wounds. She doesn't know it yet, but she's essentially manipulating her own and other people's life force, drawing power and strength from it.

Her story is basically a villain origin story. She lost her older brothers when she was 13, and then her parents died two years later, within a month of one another. She grew up well below the poverty line in Gotham, and had a front row seat to the worst parts of humanity.

Through various international shenanigans, she gets picked up by Bane and the League of Shadows at 27. Her abilities to heal and recover from even fatal injuries would obviously be very useful to people who are trying to run the world from behind the scenes. And while she can't fix what's wrong with Bane, her abilities can prevent further wear and tear on his body, and slightly reduce his pain. A very useful person to have around for an organization that lost their old leader.

With the League, Keeva feels like she can finally strike back at the world that took everything from her. She is fully ready to abandon her old life, and that makes it all too easy to mold her into a weapon for the League. Of course, the feelings of a few people eventually get in the way and my story would end differently from how the Dark Knight Rises ends.

Her story is very much about someone who's been deeply hurt, and doesn't become a better person for it. Being hurt makes her angry and mean, and forces her to grapple with morality she thought she'd abandoned. Her presences also forces those around her to reevaluate their own goals and relationships.

She has a relationship with both Barsad and Bane.

Like I said, Keeva's old story is still up, but I'm rewriting it and it'll be very different. But I'm always down to share snippets with anyone interested!

thanks for reading!

Do you ever long to talk about your OCs?

Like you love them so much you want to share them but you worry people won't care, or think they're as cool as you do?

Well, I'm always open to listen to you about your OCs. Tell me how cool they are.

[anistarrose]

Does the Night have life-extending powers?

To no one’s surprise, this is a post inspired by Marcy and whatever the hell is happening to her in the Season 3 intro. That said, I don’t think she’s the only beneficiary of lifespan extending-magic, nor is she the first — because after all, Andrias is over one thousand years old. 

You could argue that IRL giant salamanders do live a long time for amphibians, but Andrias is older than society’s collective memory and essentially all of Amphibia’s publicly available written history. It’s implied that he’s the only person still alive to remember Newtopia’s “great” past, and that’s just too ridiculous to be natural. 

Now, Andrias summons a glowing shield out of nowhere to defend himself from Super Saiy-Anne, and said shield is orange and black, just like the “Night”/basement monster’s color scheme. It also basically disintegrates into thin air once Anne shatters it, which is another point in favor of it being some form of magic, not a robust physical object.

Basically, I think that Andrias has a pact with the Night, where in exchange for his servitude, it keeps him from dying of old age and lets him draw upon its power for occasional magic tricks like that shield. Kind of like a warlock’s patron in Dungeons & Dragons Creatures & Caverns. 

Andrias seems very familiar with the Calamity powers, and how once the gems are charged, the powers are supposed to be disconnected from their wielders forever. He instantly recognizes what’s going on with Anne and the Heart gem, but he’s also blindsided by it, having truly believed her powers were locked away.

So perhaps, Andrias once held one of the gem powers, believed he lost it when the box was stolen while charged, and arranged his pact with the Night to try and regain a fraction of that power? That would make an eerie parallel to Marcy, who was also drained of her Wit power, and is now hooked up to the Night and presumably being kept alive by it...

Hopefully, our poor artificer/rogue won’t be too traumatized if she’s forced to multiclass as a warlock with the Big Bad as her patron.

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #167

Today on Fate and Phantasms we’re making the single horniest character in FGO (in every sense of the word), Heaven’s Hole, a.k.a. Kiara Sessyoin. One half enlightened saint, 99% insatiable demon, all NSFW. Kiara’s an Open-Hand Monk to give off that aura of purity she loves so much, but she’s also a Great Old One Warlock to finally answer the question, “Can you really be a warlock if your patron is yourself?” (The answer is yes)

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

Next up: Cheer for your empress! Wooooo!

Race and Background

Kiara may be human, but she’s been infused with the spirit of an otherworldly horror. That’s a Kalashtar, baby! This gives her +2 Wisdom and +1 Charisma, as well as some other mentally themed goodies. Your Dual Mind gives you advantage on all wisdom saves, and your religious training gives you the Mental Discipline to resist psychic damage. You can Mind Link to creatures within 10 times your level in feet, speaking to them telepathically for up to an hour or until you end the effect or link with another creature. Finally, you’re Severed from Dreams, meaning you’re immune to spells involving your dreams. Sleep still works, Dream doesn’t. God I wish that was me, it would make youtube so much less annoying.

As a Devilish Bodhisattva, you’re kind of a Sage, giving you proficiency with the Arcana and History skills.

Ability Scores

First things first, you’ve got to be so hot you can make people masturbate to death. That’s non-negotiable. I’ll leave the exact mechanics of that to your imagination, but it’s probably based on Charisma. Aside from manipulating people, you’re also just as good at reading people, and that’s Wisdom. You fight in a habit and  do it all without dying, so your Dexterity isn’t that bad either. Unfortunately this leaves your Intelligence a little lower than we’d like. You’re a hacker nun, but we needed other stuff more. Your Constitution isn’t that great, you’re so eager for pleasure you don’t last that long. Finally, dump Strength. You’ve got a demon god to do all the lifting for you, who needs muscles?

Class Levels

1. Monk 1: Starting off as a monk gives you Unarmored Defense, which is really useful for that “not dying” thing you like to do. You also get Martial Arts, letting you use your dexterity for your unarmed attacks. You can also attack as a bonus action after attacking with your action, and your unarmed attacks deal 1d4 damage, and they grow as you level up.

You get proficiency with Strength and Dexterity Saves, as well as Insight for your psychological training, and Religion for the whole nun/buddhist thing. You have a lot going on as a character, to be honest.

2. Monk 2: Second level monks get Ki Points they can spend to attack twice, dash, disengage, or dodge as a bonus action. You also get Unarmored Movement to speed things up a bit, and you get even faster as you level up.

3. Monk 3: Third level monks can summon a bit of demon pillar to Deflect Missiles, slowing down incoming ranged weapons and possibly even shooting them back as a reaction. (Obviously the demon thing isn’t all monks, but hush.) You also set down the Way of the Open Hand, learning the Open Hand Technique in the process. When you hit a creature with a flurry of blows attack (the two attacks as a bonus action thing), you can: force a dexterity save to knock the enemy prone; force a strength save to push it away; or remove its ability to react for the round. I’m not sure how you touching a person makes them fall to their knees or get distracted, get your mind out of the gutter.

4. Monk 4: Use your first Ability Score Improvement to bump up your Dexterity so you can actually hit people with your fists. You can also Slow Fall to reduce falling damage, presumably by swinging around on a demon pillar like some kind of spider woman, and you get Quickened Healing, letting you spend a ki point as an action to heal thy burgers. Despite your looks, you’re pretty tanky with all that healing.

5. Monk 5: Your Extra Attack does exactly what it sounds like, attacking twice in a single action. You can turn any of your attacks into Stunning Strikes, forcing a constitution save against getting stunned for a round. Ironically this is just leading into the explosive climax, where you beat the hell out of them. Where did you think I was going with that?

6. Monk 6: Sixth level monks get a little magical thanks to their Ki-Empowered Strikes so now your unarmed attacks ignore nonmagical damage resistances. You also gain a Wholeness of Body to heal yourself as an action. Unlike quickened healing, this baby heals you for 3 times your monk level once per long rest.

7. Warlock 1: Making your hands a little magical is nice, but we want to make stuff a lot of magical, and for that we’ll need to make some questionable deals. That’s where the Great Old One comes in, giving you Pact Magic you can cast with your Charisma and an Awakened Mind. It’s more telepathy. Not a huge boon, but now you can talk to two people at once, neat!

As far as spells go, Chill Touch lets you make creepy hands (kind of your thing), and Eldritch Blast gives you some generic magic projectiles. Charm Person makes you a bit more charming, and Protection from Evil and Good will help cut through those pesky rulers more easily by just straight up ignoring their god.

8. Warlock 2: Second level warlocks get Eldritch Invocations, to customize your soul pact a bit. Beguiling Influence makes you proficient with Deception and Persuasion to help cover up the whole demon pillar thing, and Thief of Five Fates lets you cast Bane with a spell slot once per long rest, further weakening your enemies.

You can also cast Arms of Hadar to launch more arms all around you for an AoE attack.

9. Warlock 3: Kiara’s definitely a weird one when it comes to her pact boon. Books have kind of fallen out of fashion by 2030, she doesn’t use weapons, and she really doesn’t care for a sidekick. That leaves her with the Pact of the Talisman to make her a little bit better than everyone else, letting the wearer add 1d4 to a failed ability check Proficiency times per long rest.

She can also cast second level spells now, like Enthrall! She’s the only person in the world according to herself, and now she is to you too! Just fail that wisdom save and you’ll have disadvantage on perception checks to notice anyone else!

10. Warlock 4: Use this ASI to bump up your Charisma for stronger warlock spells. You also get the On/Off cantrip from a super old UA to become a bit of a hacker, magically turning on or off an electronic device within range. You can also Detect Thoughts to be one hell of a therapist, being able to read the mind of a nearby creature as an action while the spell lasts. You can read surface thoughts over and over again, or you can probe deeper into the mind of a creature you’ve already read, forcing a wisdom save against the intrusion. Also, creatures are aware you’re reading their mind, and they can force a contested intelligence check to end the spell while they’re being read.

11. Warlock 5: Your first 3rd level spell is Hypnotic Pattern, to help dominate the minds of crowds all at once. You can also Mire the Mind to cast Slow once per long rest with a spell slot. Up to six creatures make a wisdom save, or they have their speed and AC reduced, take a penalty to dexterity saves, and can’t use reactions. On their turns, they can make either an action or bonus action, not both. It also can’t make more than one attack per turn. Finally, spellcasters affected by the spell have a 50% chance of taking 2 turns to cast a 1 action spell. Another wisdom save at the end of each turn can end the effect.

12. Warlock 6: All those hands and mind tricks coalesce into an Entropic Ward this level, letting you spend your reaction to impose disadvantage on an incoming attack. If it misses, you get advantage on your next attack against that creature. You can use this once per short rest.

You can also slip into your Heaven’s Hole persona by donning a Spirit Shroud, dealing more damage within a short area around you, preventing healing from enemies you hit with attacks, and slowing them down even further.

13. Monk 7: Bouncing back into monk gives you the Stillness of Mind to end effects messing with your thoughts as an action. The only person around here doing any charming today is you, thank you very much. You’d also be correct in saying the only person around here period is you, but I digress.

Your Evasion boosts your dexterity saves, so your failures are as good as other people’s successes, and your successes avoid damage entirely.

14. Monk 8: Use this ASI to bump up your Wisdom to become more observant, and get stronger techniques and a higher AC.

15. Monk 9: Ninth level monks get an Unarmored Movement Improvement, helping you run straight up walls and over water, as long as you end the turn on solid ground. Admittedly that’s not very in-character, but you’ve got tentacles growing outta ya, I’m sure you can justify it somehow.

16. Monk 10: Tenth level monks have a Purity of Body that makes you immune to poisons and disease.

17. Monk 11: Your final level of monk grants you a Tranquility that makes you harder to hit, effectively giving you the effect of a Sanctuary spell starting and ending on your long rests, though the spell ends early if you directly attack or cast a spell at an enemy. While active, creatures trying to attack you directly have to make a wisdom save. If they fail, they have to choose a new target or waste their action. The DC is 8 + your wisdom modifier + your proficiency bonus.

18. Warlock 7: Seventh level monks get fourth level spells, like Evard’s Black Tentacles. A 20′ square becomes a mass of tentacles (or demon god pillars), forcing a dexterity save against taking bludgeoning damage and get restrained. They can use their action to try and escape the tentacles, otherwise they don’t get a save on their next turn to avoid damage.

You can also use your Gaze of Two Minds to see and hear though a willing humanoid, like, say, your enthralled servants. Great for espionage, or just being a creep in general.

19. Warlock 8: Use your last ASI to max out your Charisma for super strong spells and the most sex appeal you can squeeze into a single servant.

You can also cast Summon Aberration now to give Zepar a bit of breathing room outside of your body. Honestly the poor guy deserves a break.

20. Warlock 9: Ninth level warlocks get fifth level spells, and Dominate Person lets you completely take over a creature’s mind. They have a wisdom save to avoid it, and they can make another every time they take damage, but if you’re forcing them into a really one sided fight, like say, against an agent of the counter force, that’ll be a one hit kill, so you don’t have to worry too much.

You also get one last invocation, and the Grasp of Hadar turns your eldritch blasts into even more hands, so once per turn you can pull a creature hit by the blast 10 feet closer to you. Bet they thought they were real smug waiting on the other side of your tentacle pit, huh?

Pros:

With an AC of 16, tons of mobility, and a wisdom save between you and even getting hit in the first place, you can be tough to attack, giving you a weird sort of tankiness to avoid conflict altogether.

You’re also good at manipulating people, with charms, mind reading, and just good persuasion scores making it easy for you to turn the tide of a conversation in your favor. Also if you’re having trouble with an enemy you can just dominate them and tell them to jump off a cliff, really easy. You won’t even have to fight if you can just inspire a mob to do it for you.

While the biggest part of your defense does come with a caveat, you’re good at indirect combat, which will keep your sanctuary up longer. Sure, you can’t cast spells affecting a creature, but you can always cast a spell now, and have it affect a creature later, the old “I’m just moving my fist and walking forward, if you get hit it’s your own fault” technique. Putting Evard’s Tentacles down between you and enemies, summoning aberrations, and just using On/Off to cause industrial accidents are all ways to get around this restriction and leave you looking clean as a brand new pair of panties.

Cons:

Your dexterity isn’t great, especially for a monk. That’ll make it harder to effectively use your martial techniques later in the game, and it also hampers your AC.

Despite all your defenses and healing, you’re still only rocking a touch over 100 HP, meaning a light sneeze will put you into power word kill territory. Which is, admittedly, still affected by your Tranquility, so it might not be a bad way to trick people into wasting a 9th level spell...

You only get two spells per short rest, that just isn’t enough to manipulate everyone you want to, so you’ll have to learn to pick and choose what happens when.

[the-big-nope]

While I’m certainly nowhere near ready for the story of the Mighty Nein to come to an end, I am also a D&D nerd and there’s a new sourcebook coming out soon with a bunch of new subclasses in it. By the time Campaign 3 of Critical Role gets underway, that book will be published, leaving a wealth of new options for the cast members to choose from, so why not entertain myself by making barely justified predictions of what the cast is most likely to pick for their next characters! (Disclaimer: Some of the new subclasses have been confirmed and some haven’t, so for a few of these picks I’m just going off of what I think is going to be in the book).

Travis

Cleric (Tempest Domain): Travis has been playing lowkey EMT since campaign one, and Laura’s already confirmed that Travis almost went cleric for campaign two. Between Grog with his barb-boosted movement speed to get around the battlefield so he could shove healing potions into his squishier teammates, and Fjord multiclassing into paladin and lovingly tapping his friends with single hit points to get them back up, it would be delightful to see him fully jump in and embrace the classical healer role. Of course, this is Travis, so I don’t see him picking a cleric domain that doesn’t allow for at least some whoop-ass, and Tempest Domain brings plenty of it. You get proficiency with all armor and weapons, Divine Strike at level 8 for boosted melee damage, you can use a reaction to inflict lightning or thunder damage against any enemy within melee range that’s hit you. And if you climb up high enough in levels, you gain a flying speed equal to your walking one whenever you’re outdoors. Pretty nifty, and makes for a fitting subclass for a guy that’s voiced Thor on multiple occasions.

Blood Hunter (Order of the Lycan): I mean, come on. The only reason it isn’t number one is that it was already widely assumed this would be Travis’s pick for campaign two, and I wouldn’t put it past him to surprise us again. But still, we saw him get a taste in Liam’s one shot and he was clearly having the time of his life. Besides, we lost Molly far too early to really see the blood hunter’s potential come to life; it would be damn cool to see someone else take a crack at it, and Travis is enough of a D&D gambler to not shy away from the class’s riskier features.

Artificer (Armorer): Speaking of Marvel connections, if Travis doesn’t lean toward fantasy Thor, then fantasy Iron Man might catch his attention instead. Artificer is an official class now, and since it’ll be reprinted in TCoE by the time campaign 3 gets underway, it’ll be a lot more visible as an option. The Armorer sits in almost a perfect middle ground of what Travis has done before: tanky and a frontliner, but also still has spells and tricks to help the party. Plus, you get a badass suit of power armor out of it. What’s not to like?

Marisha

Bard (College of Creation): After Hazel Copperpot, we all saw the pure magic that was Marisha Ray playing a bard. I know she implied that Hazel was supposed to be her campaign two backup character, but I hope this doesn’t discourage her from making another one. There are quite a few bard subclasses, a number of which I could see her being drawn to (Lore, Glamour, maybe even Swords), but I really vibe with the idea of Creation. I can’t exactly say why; maybe the idea of the ‘dancing object’ feature in Marisha’s hands is very funny to me (remember Keyleth’s adorable “Be Our Guest” moment? That, but this time it’s a walking wardrobe beating the shit out of the enemy).

Paladin (Oath of Vengeance/Conquest): As of yet, no one on Critical Role has ever played a paladin from the start, only multiclassed later down the line. I think this would be a cool departure for Marisha. Both campaigns she’s played characters that were either suspicious or at least indifferent to faith and the gods. Paladins are typically associated with deities, but they’re not tied quite so closely to them as clerics are. It would be fascinating to see what she did with it. As for the subclass, I just think Marisha’s earned her turn on the Goth Character Carousel, and while I know Conquest paladin is very unlikely given its moral grayness by default which might cause undue conflict and that Vengeance is a much more likely and acceptable pick, I just think it would be a sexy character choice. 

Wizard (Bladesinger/Graviturgist): This is a much more pie-in-the-sky, wishful thinking pick on my end, but not impossible imo. Marisha has experience with heavy spellcasting already, so she probably wouldn’t shy away from a wizard, but like Travis I suspect she likes a bit of oomph to her characters, and probably wouldn’t play as support heavy as Caleb does. To that end, Bladesingers get a bit more survivability and some modicum of physical prowess alongside their spells, while Graviturgists are definitely on the more aggressive side of the spectrum for wizard subclasses, with unique dunamancy spells to boot. I’m not sure how restrictive Matt would be about Xhorhassian characters in the next campaign if it takes place on another continent, but hey, you never know. Plus, she picked one of Matt’s homebrew subclasses for the current campaign; it would be cute if it happened again.

Liam

Druid (Circle of the Shepherd): At some point before Critical Role comes to end (hopefully far in the future), I know Liam’s gonna play a druid, I can feel it in my bones. He's too big of a Kiki fan not to. However, while Circle of the Moon might feel obvious given the potential for homage and how much he likes turning into animals, I feel like he might regard it as getting too close to old territory (also, I don’t know if Circle of the Moon is like an exclusive thing to the Ashari tribes, and if it is that would be rather restrictive for building a backstory). If that’s the case, Circle of the Shepherd feels like the next best bet. It has some great support options via the totems you can put down, and rather than becoming badass animals, you instead just get really good at summoning a fuck ton of them. It’s like Frumpkin, but ten of him. And they’re bears. (Honorable mention: If Circle of the Moon would feel like treading old territory then I’m certain Circle of Wildfire would too, but I’d bet my dice collection it would at least be tempting). 

Cleric (Unity Domain): Listen. The pure sap potential that would be at Mr. O’Brien’s fingertips with this subclass is incredible. The domain all about strengthening and protecting the bonds between friends and loved ones?? The domain with the Channel Divinity that can spread damage taken by one creature across the party however the cleric chooses to distribute it to lessen the blow to the individual??? The domain that used to be called the Love Domain???? I’m practically gagging on the soft moments and unspoken devotion conveyed through spellcasting already.

Fighter (Rune Knight/Psi Knight): Liam has yet to play a tank in a long-term campaign, and while I’m more enamored with the potential of the above classes, it would be novel to see him play a character with an actually respectable amount of hit points. However, I feel like if he was gonna commit to a straight frontliner, he’d probably want something a little more unique than a Champion or Battle Master (especially since he’s played those already for one-shots). Rune Knight has some fun options and built-in flavor, and with Psi Knight you can basically be a Jedi. Not bad options at all if you ask me.

Taliesin

Warlock (Fiend): Yeah, it might be expected, or Percy might have been too close to warlock anyway to feel like there’s new ground to cover, but hear me out. Both Percy (who, let’s face it, was a warlock multiclass in all but the actual mechanics) and Fjord were the classic reluctants. They got in over their heads without really knowing what was going on, and once they did they wanted out, cutting ties with their patrons and getting clear with only the scars remaining. I want to see Taliesin commit to a warlock in a way I imagine only he could manage to pull off. How fun would that balancing act be, to have a character that has no intentions of breaking their pact, who’s here for the powers, and is willing to work that delicate balancing act between keeping what he’s got and not letting his contract holder get the better of him? Give it to meeeeee.

Sorcerer (Psionic Soul): Psionic Soul has a bit of that eldritch flavor that vibes with Taliesin so much, with the added interest of introducing a brand new feature to 5E, the Psi Die (with this subclass, using them can do things like letting a sorcerer learn a spell they don’t already know for a few hours, allow you to cast spells without needing verbal, somatic, or material components, and can give you telepathy). Taking both Percy and Molly into account, it seems Tal likes to lean into those unique additional mechanics, and while Psi Die aren’t as risk-heavy as Gunslinger or Bloodhunter, they do add a layer of variability and unpredictability that seems to match his style.

Rogue (Swashbuckler): We only got a little bit of time with Molly, and so missed out on the opportunity to see Tal play a more cavalier character this time around. If he feels like leaning away from spells next time and back toward martial, I think a high-charisma, high-swinging swashbuckler from Tal would be a delight to watch.

Laura

Barbarian (Path of the Ancestral Guardian): Laura deserves to hit things, okay? Yes, spellcasting is great and comes in clutch frequently and Jester’s amazing, but you can tell Laura misses doing fat stacks of damage to the enemy in a single round. I personally think it would be amazing to watch her just cut loose and go full rage machine. As for the subclass, I’m not glued to the idea, but Ancestral Guardians are pretty kickass, have decent support capabilities for a barb without detracting from their DPS at all, and it doesn’t tread on any previous characters’ toes or their aesthetics.

Rogue (Scout/Soulknife): Laura deserves to play her favorite class at last, okay? She’s been class poached two campaigns in a row, and though that resulted in both Vex and Jester and I wouldn’t trade them for the world, Laura has earned first pick. Seeing as she already dipped into Assassin as Vex and Sam took Arcane Trickster, I could see Scout being a viable subclass choice. It’s in the classic sneaky vein, relatively simple in concept, but comes with features that grant easy-to-understand benefits that you can never turn your nose up at (boosts to movement, advantage on initiative, giving advantage against a target to everyone else in the party, etc.). If she’s looking for something a bit flashier, Soulknife has the benefit of retroactively dunking on Vax by taking the basic knife-rogue and making it better, with psionic knives that you can manifest with a thought, that can teleport you around Whisper style, and cranking up that stealth to ridiculous levels by just being able to turn invisible for ten minutes, no concentration or spell needed. The psionic die mechanics are a little funky of course, but I don’t imagine it’s any trickier than learning to manage all those cleric spells.

Monk (Way of the Open Hand): Between Beau just being super cool and her brief stint as Farriwen Breeze, monk wouldn’t be a surprising pick from Laura. An Open Hand monk might be the definitive version everyone knows, but you can’t deny it’s a solid subclass, and between previous overlap and the concepts of the other subclasses just not seeming to fit, I could see the classic being what she went with. But hey, it’s Laura Bailey. She could surprise us with Way of the Drunken Master or something.

Sam

Ranger (Monster Slayer): Let’s be real, I don’t think this would be his actual first pick for a Campaign 3 character, but the amount of shit-stirring he could achieve by making a character with the aim of pissing off Laura Bailey specifically would be hilarious (and since Matt isn’t completely opposed to UA and acknowledges that PHB ranger has a lot of issues, I wouldn’t be surprised if they went Revised Ranger this time).

Warlock (Genie): Actual first pick here, Pact of the Genie Warlock is confirmed by now, and the potential of a warlock in the hands of Sam Riegel is pretty vast (for some reason I’m imagining he would go the ‘spoiled sugar baby’ route). The subclass doesn’t matter as much, but the Genie one is nice in that, depending on the type of genie patron you pick, you can get a wide variety of extra spells, you get a container like a classic lamp or lantern that you can bamf into for short rests, and you get a limited Wish ability for your capstone, all features I feel like would especially appeal to Sam.

Barbarian (Path of the Wild Soul): I want to see Sam play a fairy barbarian. ‘Nough said.

Ashley

Fighter (Eldritch/Echo Knight): Ashley really seems to vibe with the crushing power of martial classes (she does love her brutal kill descriptions), so I could see her sticking with it rather than going back to full caster. However, I do see her picking one of the magical subclasses for some variety after Yasha. Eldritch Knight is a classic and reasonably easy to manage, but tbh I’d LOVE for it to be Echo Knight. And think, if my wishful thinking came true, with Ashley picking an Echo Knight and Marisha playing a Graviturgist wizard, they could link up their backstories and be a traveling Kryn battle duo that left their homeland behind to explore the world!

Sorcerer (Draconic): If she does want to go back to full-time casting, Sorcerer doesn’t require near as much bookkeeping as a cleric, druid, or wizard while still having decent variety, and the Draconic subclass is a bit beefier than the other subclasses. Also, it would be the third campaign in a row where Ashley Johnson’s character eventually got wings, soooo...

And tbh I have no idea what a third pick might be for Ashley, so I’m just gonna throw a dart or two at the board and say either College of Whispers Bard or Way of Mercy Monk *Shrug* We can only wait and see!

[abyssalaerlocke]

Okay, multiple things:

Karlach continued:

Karlach has a modern, electric engine, but it's thermal powered (requires heat, instead of producing it). It was designed for a volcanic mining outpost or something (she may have been forced into being a soldier to secure resources against the local aliens/wildlife) — and in its intended environment it would empower her to do superhuman feats. But without as much heat, she's incredibly weak, and can die.

Electric spells could maybe boost it temporarily, but she doesn't have resistance, so fire spells are better, but still limited viability.

She's also probably a Wildheart barbarian, because I like everyone connecting with nature through this experience, speaking with animals (what would they have to say? 😯)

Other Companions:

Jaheira, Minsc, and Minthara were probably Halsin's former companions from the 'Degasi'. Halsin's the only remaining survivor, locally (Minthara's got Marguerit vibes, so she may have made it to the arctic zone 👀).

Gortash as AL-AN, in a kind of transhumanist way? Questionable experiments, did a lot of damage that seriously fucked things up for everyone. The only one who can fix Karlach's engine situation.

He doesn't have a history with Durge, but putting him in the dragonborn's head seems deviously delightful 😈

Durge:

Beast Master Ranger — survival skills, friendly with animals. Learns a lot from Halsin.

Halsin continued:

Probably lives in a giant mushroom tree. I'm deciding if that's on the fungal platforms, or literally inside, since I just found out there's a giant tree, hollowed out with winding caves inside 😮

Also, assuming wildshape normally retains your sex — the animals of 4546B are all hermaphroditic. They can't correspond to Halsin's elf form, so I'm thinking overtime, his elf form has adopted his wildshape characteristics and become intersex.

Astarion continued:

Accidentally gets caught out during the day because of a solar eclipse (literally had that happen in game shortly before my mom informed me the eclipse was today 🤣). I think he's at Halsin's tree, hiding under a fungal platform, and Halsin finds him and takes him inside.

Alternatively, they've already met and have a thing going where Halsin gives him blood, and Halsin comments on him being early. Normally Astarion doesn't like to stick around (especially with limited time to get home safely), but he ends up sleeping over for the afternoon 😏

Wyll:

I feel like Mizora would find this too inconvenient for him serving her, and just bring him to Hell, and open another portal from there to an outpost or something.

Great Old Ones are Cthulhu-esque, that would be pretty cool as common patrons in some alien civilisations. I imagine the precursors engineered themselves out of being able to channel magic or something (or went extinct), but the Great Old Ones used to use them as warlocks. Now, one makes a pact with Wyll, maybe hoping he'll find a way to restore the precursors as potential warlock servants — or perhaps humanoids from his own civilisation will become the next generation of Great Old One warlocks...

Shadowheart:

Not sure how much I'd change her backstory, she'd probably be a Selûnite cleric at some point (if she doesn't start that way). Again, I'm inclined to go nature domain 😅 I also picture her as a scientist, though — someone trying to find a cure on a scale she can't do with magic.

Splash Landing

The BG3 characters in Subnautica (spoilers for Subnautica and Subnautica: Below Zero)

The companions are the only survivors of their ship crash-landing on 4546B. Durge definitely got hit in the head and has amnesia.

They have to learn how to survive in the new environment, build a base together and are living in close quarters and communal spaces. Some of them probably get annoyed or otherwise have ideas of independence, or don't agree on where to settle, making their own bases — but overall they live together.

Halsin is the rugged survivor of a previous crash. He's learned druidic magic that helps him adapt to and survive the planet. He's come to love his new home, and the life within it, and his wild shapes are all native species.

He's been fending off the disease on himself with Lesser Restoration, but with no means (or desire) to leave, and evidence of space faring civilisations unable to cure and contain it should they show up, he's elected to leave the quarantine platform active.

This is a major point of contention with the companions — both because he could have prevented the deadly crash of their ship, and because they have schematics for an escape ship, and want to disable it so they can leave. The question is, can he re-expose it to the disease, and successfully reactivate it after they leave, or will shutting it down make it completely unresponsive, unable to read the disease?

Ultimately, I think the companions have access to more modern technology and vehicles, allowing everyone to travel to the very depths, and find a true cure

Or, you know, they take a Cyclops to the area of Below Zero (if you disable the platform before the Sunbeam arrives, the Captain will state there's too much debris in orbit to land. So I like the idea of — even once the quarantine is disabled, and you can make your escape ship — deciding to head away from the equator for a better takeoff location), where they find AL-AN.