#high int low wis problems

[anxious-scrambles]

So how about them bibberbang?

Feat @somethingwickedarts’ OC Anthony.

Delightful c0mmission from Jollysaw

[corvigae]

This post is about my new evil Durge, Veil

And my new Tav, Elowen

The point of starting a new BG3 run is to look at your new Tav and be obsessed over how pretty they are and take one million screenshots every time they are onscreen

[soylent-crocodile]

Bohf-bwam (Monster)

(Book of Hours, Flanders; kept in Baltimore, in the Walters Art Museum)

(This is a very old one, created years ago when I first saw this amazing piece of medieval art. I did some minor edits to their statblock, and completely redid their description- they were originally just "no one knows where they come from or what they're thinking, they just cause violence". Nowadays I try to ensure that every creature I make has some kind of story hook to it, rather than being a prepackaged Random Encounter. Enjoy!)

Bohf-bwam are chaotic, violent creatures that spawn in places with high magic potential and a particular veneration for weaponry and martial prowess- typically forming with a hand gripped tightly around a specific and well-adored weapon. Most often they form in the great halls of castles, wielding a displayed ancestral weapon, although more low-tech societies may accidentally create them in camps or villages. Indeed, the bohf-bwam pest problem is hypothesized to be a reason why so many "barbarian" cultures have an aversion to arcane magic, as their love of weaponry can easily produce large groups of these creatures when mixed with magic.

A bohf-bwam's violence is erratic, instinctual, and unplanned; these fits may come and go, and the subject of their violence is typically whatever or whoever is close to them. It is not unheard of for bohf-bwams to be tamed, somehow, by a particularly kind and affectionate person, and such creatures will focus their violent rage on defending the subject of their attention, becoming peaceful- even friendly- in other situations.

Particularly powerful magic weapons may spawn larger, more powerful bohf-bwam. Such creatures gain the Giant and Advanced simple template and lose the oversized weapon ability. Many gain additional spell-like abilities relevant to their weapon- a bohf-bwam wielding a +1 Flaming Sword may have the ability to cast Fireball 1/day, for example.

A small bipedal reptile-like creature scurries forward, a hand wielding an axe where its head would be.  Misc- CR2 CN Small Aberration HD3 Init:+2 Senses: Blind, Blindsense 90ft Perception:+2 Aura: Aura of Martiality 30ft Stats- Str:15(+2) Dex:15(+2) Con:12(+1) Int:4(-3) Wis:6(-2) Cha:13(+1) BAB:+2 Space: 2.25ft Reach:5ft Defense- HP:16 (3d8+3) AC:15 (+1 Size, +2 Dex, +2 Natural) Fort:+3 Ref:+3 Will:+3 CMD:13 Immunity: Dazed, Dazzled, Stunned, Confused Special Defenses: Fast Healing 1 Offense- mwk Handaxe +6 (1d6+3) CMB:+2 Speed:20ft Special Attacks: Proficiency with All Martial Weapons Feats- Iron Will, Power Attack Skills- Intimidate +5, Knowledge (local) +1, Perception +2 Spell-like Abilities-  Spiritual Weapon 3/day Special Qualities- Oversized Weapons, Spiritual Echo Ecology- Environment- Any Languages- Aklo (Cannot speak) Organization- Solitary Treasure- None (mwk handaxe) Special Abilities- Aura of Martiality (Su)- Creatures affected by a bohf-bwam’s aura must make a DC13 Will save or be compelled to use any available melee weapon, as opposed to spells and abilities, natural weapons, or ranged weapons, in combat. This is a compulsion effect and the save is hit die based. Aberrations and creatures with intelligence 2 or less are immune to this effect. Oversized Weapons (Ex)- A bohf-bwam wields weapons as though they were a size larger than they are. Spiritual Echo (Sp)- The weapon created by a bohf-bwam’s Spiritual Weapon spell-like ability takes the form of whatever weapon the bohf-bwam is currently wielding in its head-hand. If it is not weilding a weapon, it cannot use its spell-like ability.

[batsarebetterthanpeople]

ok what do you think every character in ofmd's highest dnd stat is?

Oooh ok let's get going. Ed and Stede are both very long and the others are rather short.

Ed- ok so I think Ed is definitely maxed out in both intelligence and wisdom. I think he's actually got a surprisingly low charisma. He just has expertise in intimidation and proficiency in deception and maybe persuasion. But more likely his player is looking at that persuasion skill and asking can I make an intimidation check instead.

Now if I was playing a d&d game and the assignment was play Ed in d&d I would give him a high charisma because I would stat him out as a lurker of the deep warlock BUT I think in canon where they're all rogues and fighters his charisma is ass.

Stede- Stede's difficult to stat out. I think most of his stats are probably pretty bad but he has the lucky feat. And some other means of making sure he roles well. He's not dexterous, I'm not sure on his strength, his constitution seems middling, his charisma is hard to pin down because everyone initially hates him (implies low) but he frequently wins people over with the power of friendship (implies high) but I'm leaning towards low on charisma because the winning people over is through persistent whimsy rather than true people skills. They become begrudgingly fond of him because he's impossible to get rid of rather than because he's charming is what I'm saying. He's a good problem solved he thinks on his feet and he's got a good insight which makes me think high wis but also every survival check he makes fails in comical ways so maybe this is another situation of his proficiencies tricking me into thinking he's got a higher wis than he does. The one thing he does have going for him is that he's pretty book smart so I have to go with int by process of elimination, but again, maybe strength, that's kinda the dark horse stat for him he doesn't show it but he doesn't fail any strength rolls either. He knocked a guy out with a punch tho so maybe strength. But his defining trait is problem solving so maybe wis? Idk. Not Con Cha or Dex tho those ones are definitely negative modifiers. If I had to guess middling wis, middling but slightly higher int, most of his proficiencies are in int and Wis skills, medium to high strength but he never uses it.

Jim- Dex. I will not elaborate.

Olu- I generally see Olu as the Jack of all trades build. He's a well rounded individual. None of his stats are all that exceptional but he's good to have around because he's got no negative numbers, and can do it all if push comes to shove.

Lucius- Charisma. He's an artist and his most used non-technical skill is being good with people.

Zheng- Charisma. I feel like this doesn't need any explanation.

Archie- fighting your way out of a snake takes grit, not being digested, and quite a few successful checks to not pass out while holding your breath. Constitution.

Frenchie- Frenchie is very cerebral, but not very book smart. That being said artificers are intelligence casters so I'm going with INT.

Pete- strength or con. He's a silly little guy but his mental stats aren't great and he's not giving me dex vibes either. Human fighter build.

Fang- Strength. See him breaking a guy over his leg and him holding onto the side of the ship with the goat in hand for an hour at least so Ned Low wouldn't find them.

Roach- survival and medicine are both Wis skills and historically my DMs have made players role wisdom for cooking checks.

Wee John- Strength but Charisma is definitely second.

Buttons- Druids are Wis casters.

Swede- drank poison. Lived. Con.

Ivan- he wields an Axe which is a strength weapon so probably strength.

Spanish Jackie- Charisma or Dex, but she displays more charisma.

Calico Jack- Charisma definitely.

Anne- Charisma is the one we see her use but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say her Dex is better.

Mary R.- Strength on the Ivan principle. Definitely not charisma

Mary B.- Commoner stat block with proficiency in painters tools

Izzy- Strength. But much like Stede this is a process of elimination. His Constitution is the worst Constitution we see in OFMD (Izzy the spewer), his Charisma is ass (see everything about him) his wisdom is so bad he can't succeed on an insight check to save his fucking life (and his life has depended on it) intelligence is not so good, Dex is good given how often he lurks in the corner unseen and appears places and the thing he does to Stede's shirt in 1.02 but the beginning of the duel with Stede is the most clear instance of a character using a versatile weapon with their strength stat I've ever seen so I think his strength is probably equal to or better than his dex. Also all the things we see him teaching Stede in 2.05 are strength and dex skills so I think that's where his skill set is.

Damn this crew is not a dexy bunch. Jim said "I'm playing an assassin rogue that throws knives" and everyone else said "alright let me not step on your toes then"

[pilot-boi]

Where does Jaune sit on the doofus/intelligent scale for you? Jaune is characterized in the show as a bit dense and clueless at times (which is a big part of his charm for me and I hate it when this flavor is scrubbed away in fanfiction in an attempt to make him more “competent”), and lacking in book smarts, but he’s also repeatedly shown to have a knack for field tactics and planning.

For me, Jaune is High Int Low Wis

Boy has no street smarts, but he’s still one of the best strategists Remnant has ever seen. He’s never gotten above a C in any class (other than Tactics) but he’s got the de escalation skills of a professional therapist

He’s definitely dense and clueless, but particularly only when it comes to romantic relationships. Platonic relationships? Friendships? Jaune’s your man

Boy is able to see immediately when his friends are upset, usually before anyone else. He’s not always able to correctly identify what the problem is, but for someone who has failed to notice multiple relationships happening right in front of him, he’s actually shockingly good at reading people

He’s canonically VERY intelligent, he’s just not good at showing it in any “useful” ways (cough cough, bad grades) It’s a big part of why I usually peg him as neurodivergent

To summarize, for me Jaune’s charm comes from the fact that he’s actually very smart, but simultaneously he’s a giant doofus. Because after all, dork does not mean dumb

[chuckeroo777]

Frieren Liveblog- Chapters 1-4

Welcome back! Today we start reading Frieren! Unlike my Dungeon Meshi liveblog, this one will be blind!

To start, let's go over what I do know.

-Frieren is an immortal elf mage of some renown.

-She lost a human companion she cared a lot about, but unlike Marcille, she's chill about it.

-The mimic scene.

-There's a guy with blue hair, and a demon(?) lady.

-I think they adventure in dungeons to get stronger?

Yeah, I think that's about all I know. Let's see what happens!

And here we have our intrepid heroes! Apparently they already beat the demon lord, so that's nice.

Wait, Himmel? Oh no. I'm pretty sure that's the dude Frieren misses. Alas, it was nice to meet you. Guess the character class "Brave" doesn't save you from death flags. Suddenly not feeling confident Heiter or Eisen will be sticking around either.

Oh no! She's tiny! I love her. LOTR did irreparable damage to fantasy by insisting elves have to be tall.

Well, that was quick. I guess other than Himmel's imminent demise, all my spoilers have already shown up.

Frieren's a high INT low WIS kinda character, isn't she? At this rate, his tragic death is literally going to be old age. No, seriously. I think that's what's about to happen.

This is gonna be a recurring problem, isn't it.

Saw that coming from a mile away. I wonder about the other two companions. Are they longer lived races? Or are they old and wrinkled too?

It's your own fault for being of optimal head pat height. Heiter looks a little older, but not too bad. I can't tell if Eisen is different. With the manga format, for all I know, he's gone grey.

Ah. Perhaps not as chill about it as I assumed. Also, I went ahead and switched over to a better translation. Maybe the other was more accurate, but good lord was it stiff as hell.

Who's this cutie? I'd hope she is a major character, but with 70 years having passed since the manga started, I'm worried about getting attached to anyone but Frieren.

Phooey.

This can only end well.

Now what exactly does that mean? I'm sensing some deeper motivations for studying magic for both of them. (Also, I'm not retracting my Phooey until I confirm Fern doesn't die of old age at the end of the chapter.)

Oh dear. I thought I got enough of this from The Monster who Wants to Eat Me, but I guess we're doing this here too.

Best case scenario really.

Yessss! New companion! Also, this is really sweet, even if it only worked because Frieren didn't care about wasting six whole years.

Telekinesis may not be flashy, but the raw utility it can provide is nuts.

The adventurer's creed. As long as the loot is magic, you want it. Guess who has a collection of hundreds of scrolls and potions in BG3 despite having used, maybe 5 total. No, I can't store them in camp. What if I need them later!

Yep, they're adventurers alright. I am rather happy to see that despite her stoic facade, Frieren is in fact, a goober.

Where's the lie?

Keep telling yourself that.

Oh god, please tell me this Manga isn't a cycle of new companions joining, growing old, and dying.

Please stop vagueblogging at your apprentice.

No one told me this was a sad manga.

Good for you, but don't forget to retrieve the lady's seeds before you leave.

This isn't giving hope that this mange isn't on a centuries spanning timescale.

Oh no. It's only been four chapters, but I already adore her.

Is candy a euphemism for something?

This is sadly rather relatable.

Oh my god Frieren, stop staring at Fern's bobs.

Ok, so, before I finish tonight's session, I decided to take a little peek ahead to assuage my fears. This is from chapter 107, so it looks like I don't have to worry about Frieren repeatedly outliving her friends in this story. At least with old age. They could still die the old fashioned way. The only other detail I accidentally spoiled is that Fern is still with her, so reverse death flag, I guess.

And that's the first session! Very different vibes from what I was expecting. It's very somber, while being funny in a rather low-key way. Frieren is already a delight, and I'm interested to learn more about Fern. So far she seems to mostly be the straight-man, but I'm sure she has some fun quirks.

Also, glad to see basically everything I was spoiled on was in chapter 1. I went into Dungeon Meshi knowing about the cool monster Marcille is in lesbians with.

[ratasum]

I haven't talked much about Tiny Heist here so have some info I dumped earlier:

When Gorrik and Blish first came into the picture, that was when Qirri was first starting to grapple with her long time friendship with Taimi turning into a crush. She had never experienced this before, and so the attention from these two boys Taimi was getting made her jealous. And she wasn't as kind to either of them as she should have been. After all, her own older sister's spouse was former Inquest. She'd only really started to warm up to them around the time of everything going on around Kralk.

And then… Blish sacrificed himself.

Qirri was devastated, and seeing how hurt Gorrik and Taimi were hurt her in a different way. What if she'd done something different? Which was when she started asking Gorrik about whether or not they'd made backups of Blish's memory. A copy of anything. A fragment of life.

Turns out… they had. As a back up plan.

And so it happened that Qirri planned a heist. Break into the facility where the copies were stored, get the copies, bring them back, and put Blish in a new body. Problem solved! There was just one little problem with her plan that she hadn't really thought through: the last copy they had made had been JUST before the rescue, when Garrus, Vezz, and Rissia busted the boys out.

That meant that the Blish they brought back had no memory of anything that had happened since that point. Nothing about talking to Taimi about her being kidnapped by Joko. Nothing about the fight to stop Kralk, nothing about anything. It plays a lot into questions of personhood and what makes someone alive or even them.

Qirri felt SO guilty; she had wanted to try to fix things and had only made them worse. It caused a split between her and Gorrik that lasted over a month. They did eventually talk it out but the coldness was very obvious within the krewe spaces.

They do eventually get everything sorted out. Blish had a massive existential crisis, and that finally caused a huge blow up in the krewe. In the end, they basically were made to sit down and talk everything out together. Qirri was able to air why she'd been upset, why she'd done what she did and genuinely apologize for screwing up on that big a scale.

See, Qirri has the problem of being so self assured in her own intelligence. She's a prodigy, graduated genius first grade and top of her class in Dynamics. She went to college early, has prestigious awards, won the Snaff Savant prize. She was one of Zojja's only two apprentices.

It also means, however, that she doesn't always think to reflect on a choice to determine if it's a good one or not.

It was so simple- just get Blish back! ...without thinking of the ramifications.

(Worth noting this is something I think she picked up from Zojja, because Taimi does it too, and they were both her apprentices. They both have self destructive tendencies they also picked up from their mentor. But Knowing they're the smartest person in the room? Knowing they can solve a problem and they don't need help? Clearly they have the solution? Who does THAT sound like.)

Qirri is incredibly smart. But that doesn't always translate to being SMART. High INT, low WIS.

The theme of what makes a person a person are huge in Tiny Heist. Who is Blish, can he truly BE Blish? Who is he if he's not really Blish?

In the end they all do accept him AS Blish, so does he, and eventually he forgives Qirri too, though he takes the longest. It's a complicated road to get there. They actually don't sort out until after Bangar nearly kills her and Garrus.

One of these days I'll actually write the Tiny Heist ficlet but. That's the basic gist of it.

[starlightomatic]

my problem is INT stat high, WIS stat low

[justatalkingface]

I saw your answer for the ua sending kids to danger, especially war, and I raise you a different possibility (100% speculation on my part) "can we say for sure the others schools were asked the same thing but said no?"

Yes. We dont know anything about the others schools. Maybe they offer and Hori never show as we saw them entering in the war part 2: the eletrical bangaloo....but to be fair, it would be hard for them to sit in class and doing homework as war is literally in their grounds, streets and so forth.

But on part 1. We dont see the others students there. So again, my especulation, what if they had put feets down and said no?

But Nezu said yes? I can think of a few reasons for that. (Keep in mind I dont think Nezu is a smart as Hori and the fandom wants us to think)

1) could have been a power play of sort. "Only mys students can handle this" which well...could work as Nezu is not human and doesnt seem to care about the students on a whole (remmeber Mina and Kami vs Nezu? How fair was that?)

2) he genuinely thought his students would be an asset to the heroes and said ok. Which makes me believe even more he doesnt care for his students's safety.

3) he was forced. Ok, what could have made him agree to this? Blackmail comes to mind but what secret is si damn important you are willing to send kids to war?

Those are my top 3 reasons. And not sure if is canon this but I think the class A1 didnt know they were sent to a war...if this is true, then is anothet adult(non human) who failed Izu.

Like MHA is an accidental dystopia.

The thing is with Nezu is the age old standard of Int/Wis; Nezu is book smart, he has a lot of knowledge, facts, and ability to apply those facts to make a thing happen. That's Intelligence, the ability to use your mind, and he's probably only has even faintest hint of competition in his sheer Int score with Dr. Diabolus Ex Machina.

Wisdom, on the other hand, is when you go, 'But should I do this'?

At a memetically extreme example, a High Int, Low Wis character could find a door somewhere, decide to open it, and make a siege engine out of, I don't know, hamburgers and coat hangers to bust it open. This is certainly a thing they could do, and it'd work because they are, in fact, that spot.

Meanwhile, the character with higher (any) Wisdom would walk up to the door... and then try to open it like a normal person.

Intelligence is ability to use your mind, and Wisdom is what tells you how you should use your mind, and when you look at Nezu, you only really see Intelligence, and then no one in story ever seems to question his decisions, really, because he's really smart, but there's a real question if he uses his intelligence well? Because there are a lot of 'I can do this, but no one, including me, ever asked if I should do this' kinds of choices in UA, and if we're not just blaming it on bad writing, all of that comes down to Nezu, in the end. The literal cities they just... have? The robots that probably have killed people? The Sports Festival? All of those are thing with very questionable elements that UA does anyways, seemingly because they can and no one's ever stopped them from doing it.

That's looking at the question from the angle of 'Nezu, while well meaning, made a bad call'. There is, however, one other major option, and it starts with this: why does Nezu run a school? On a fundamental level, I'm not sure Nezu's goal in running UA is for the students, so much as he views the students as a step towards his goal.

Unironically, he's a sadist who enjoys low-key torturing human beings because of past trauma, which... before anything else, begs a question: is it just low-key torture he likes? Or is he just practical enough to realize than anything more would be more trouble than it's worth?

But, beyond that problem, let's look at his position: he's the head of UA, the biggest, bestest school for Heroes, which is a job that comes with a lot of publicity/power, which, inevitably, rolls back to him. His job allows him massive amounts of control over the development of the cutting edge of heroism, who by dint of their fame and success influence other heroes, all of which collectively influences Japanese society as a whole by a pretty significant degree.

Meanwhile, Nezu is: brilliant, deeply traumatized, likes torturing, and through that defacto controlling, humans. He's also not a human, and takes pains at times to point out that others are humans and he's not, while also having assumably inhuman instincts and priorities; almost certainly he has some level of anti-human bias.

There's... there's an obvious correlation here. Fundamentally, Nezu is a character who seems to be made to be complicated, imperfect, with dark depths to him. The way he's written, Hori clearly doesn't want him to be, but, well, he writes a lot of deeply flawed characters we're supposed to find no wrong with.

If you look at Nezu that way, where he views students more as an asset, or an investment, than as, well, students, or as people, then your point takes on a different light. Looking at it with cold logic, the students can contribute to the various conflicts; even if they die, for the greater good of society (which he lives in and benifits from), heroism as a career (which he is in a position to benefit from greatly, as well as influenced greatly), and quite frankly as a living being on Japan/Earth, that cost is more than worth the price if they help support the status quo; its not like there's not going to be more next year, right?

And that's the thing that really interests me; what the hell was Hori thinking when he made Nezu? With Bakugou and Endeavour, for example, you can see where they started off one way, and went another? Nezu though? His entire point as a character seems to be firmly as the 'nice but somewhat manipulative' principal, but it's a waste of his fundamental characteristics. Did he have a different role in the prototype? Because if I was writing Nezu as a character, here's what I'd write him as:

An enemy. Not evil, not a villain, but a obstacle for Izuku to surpass in UA; it's not that he's bigoted, like Aizawa is (or at least to the same extent), he just well and truly doesn't care about people and what they do as long as his bottom line is met. And Izuku isn't there to be a new hero, like Bakugou, about fame and wealth, he doesn't fit. Worse yet, if we're working off of the original, 'Quirkless Hero' framework? Fundamentally, he is a threat to the concept of heroes that is established, that makes people want to think outside the box, and the thing is? Nezu likes the box. He's one of the people who designed it; he'd like everyone to stay in the box, please and thank you.

There's this epic story we're never going to get of Izuku being a little revolutionary, fighting against the heroic establishment to change heroism for the better and for the rights of the Quirkless, and his first major enemies are: Bakugou, the bully, Aizawa, the biased teacher who enables Bakugou and attacks Izuku, and Nezu, who enables all of them, and barely gives a shit about Izuku at all but would absolutely murder him in a heartbeat if he thought he could get away with it, but is resigned to fact he can't just kill people because they mildly irk him.

To your last point, though, fundamentally MHA is exactly a dystopia, by design; it's dystopian nature is one of the main causes for almost all conflicts in the story, from the villains, to the heroes, to Izuku's core personality traits, but for some reason Hori got really scared to admit that so he covered all the bars and locks with confetti... only after he got all the ways he purposefully made it a dystopia looking all harmless and fun, he missed all the ways he accidently made it a dystopia. To this day, I'm still not sure if he designed the heroic pay system, what little of it we know, to be purposefully that fucked up, or he just did some basic work to support what happens in the story and missed how deeply disturbing those implications were.

[tacticalgrandma]

Lisa powerpoint meme “Shadowheart not hitting often isn’t a problem. She’s a support character doing damage isn’t her specialty this is how rpgs work. Also especially at low levels, her melee weapon might more reliable, and if you get her Blood of Lathander that’s always solid. Also Guiding Bolt is right there. Also you could just respec her, even to a better Domain. Also her Fire Bolt is an INT based cast instead of her standard WIS, so it’s less reliable than her Cleric cantrips. You could give her Produce Flame if you really want her to have an attack roll cantrip. But also checking what saving throws spells have is useful, so like if you’re against a high DEX enemy you know not to use Sacred Fla—” I run out of room on the jpeg.

[prince-of-the-comet]

Baldur's Gate 3 Builds: Deadeye

You don't need complicated multiclasses, respecs, and rare hand crossbows to make a good archer in Baldur's Gate 3. For a simple, solid, versatile, damage dealer for all occasions, look no further than the trusty Dexterity-based fighter.

(Confused by the terminology? Start here!)

Suggested Race: Any Medium. Sorry halfling and gnome-lovers: Small characters have disadvantage on attacks with heavy weapons in 5th edition, including both longbows and heavy crossbows.

Starting Class: Fighter

Final Level Distribution: Fighter 12 (Battlemaster or Champion)

Minimum Level Distribution: Fighter 5.

Recommended Statistics:

Strength: Low or higher. You're a fighter. You're going to want to wear exotic medium armor, so you're going to need to be at least strong enough to carry it. Other than that, there's enough finesse weapons around that you don't actually need to worry about it. 10 is fine, more is ok.

Dexterity: Dependent. You're an archer. Dexterity makes your build go.

Constitution: Medium or higher. No one can actually dump Constitution, but ideally you've got someone else on the frontline.

Intelligence: Dump. You're not an eldritch knight.

Wisdom: Low or higher. Your abilities don't run off of it, but it only takes one nasty dominate person to make you really wish fighters were better at Wisdom saves.

Charisma: Dump. You're not a paladin either.

Example starting stats:

Str 14, Dex 17, Con 14, Int 8, Wis 12, Cha 10.

Recommended Level Progression:

1-12: Fighter.

It's simple, it's solid, it's three attacks per round, four feats, and the fighting style you need. You don't need to mess with it.

Variants:

Ranger 12 (Gloom Stalker). Ranger's really the only other class that works for this, with the Archery fighting style and Ensnaring Strike for plentiful advantage. Take Bounty Hunter early and stay a Gloomstalker for all 12 levels to get Stalker's Flurry.

A free do-over if you miss isn't quite as good as a full third attack, but it's the next best thing.

Detailed Level Progression:

1: Fighter 1. Grab the archery fighting style. You're an archer, may as well commit to the bit. Grab a light crossbow on the nautiloid - it will hold you over until you get something better. We'll go over what something better is in the next section.

4: Fighter 4. You're still a fighter. Take Sharpshooter. This is the linchpin of every archery build. Sharpshooter gives you the option to take a -5 penalty to attack and in exchange gain +10 to damage with ranged weapons. You're going to want to use this - but not all the time. Why?

Statistics Interlude (or, 10d6 isn't 60 damage)

How much damage can a level 12 rogue expect to do with Sneak Attack? Well, they've got 6d6 sneak attack. So it looks like 36 damage (6x6=36). But unless you're extraordinarily lucky, you're not going to roll all 6s. Given that you have equal probability of rolling every value on a d6, the expected result is actually (1+2+3+4+5+6)/6 = 3.5 damage. Or, more simply:

The expected roll on a die is equal to (1+die sides)/2

This also means every flat +1 to damage is equivalent to increasing your die by one size (1d6 >> 1d8, 1d8 >> 1d10, etc.)

Sharpshooter, adding a flat 10 damage, is close to 3d6. You've almost snuck 5 levels of rogue into 4 levels of fighter, a pretty impressive magic trick with just a minor snag:

A -5 penalty to attack is approximately equivalent to disadvantage.

As an example, let's take a flat DC10 roll with no bonuses. You've got a 50% chance of succeeding. (10/20)

However, if you need to roll twice and both of those rolls need to come up 10 or better, suddenly you've got just a 25% chance of succeeding (10/20 * 10/20 = 100/400 = 1/4). Just as if the check had suddenly become DC15. It's a little different at high or low values (Disadvantage on a DC5 check ends up more like DC11 than DC10), but it's close enough for a rule of thumb.

And the problem is, if we miss, we deal no damage at all.

So to calculate expected damage per attack for a weapon, we need to multiply our expected damage by the odds we hit at all (subtract -25% from those odds, if you've flipped Sharpshooter on.) If you're dealing enough damage with each hit, or if your chance to hit is bad enough, at some point, you lose more expected damage to missing than you gain by adding not-quite-3d6.

And if you're really insane, you can make it into a chart:

This is modeled on a fairly mild mid-level longbow build with some kind of damage rider (ex: Malefic Band) The more damage per attack, the higher the crossover point (where Sharpshooter starts to become worth it) actually is. Note that the Sharpshooter crossover point is higher with advantage - that -5 penalty is a much sharper opportunity cost when it applies to both rolls!

In general:

If you've got at least a 60% chance to hit with a normal attack, use Sharpshooter.

If you've got advantage, turn Sharpshooter off unless you've got at least a 75% chance to hit! Any dice-based riders you can put on will be better. Battlemasters should use maneuvers, for instance.

To offset Sharpshooter penalties, we want flat bonuses. Every +1 and +2 you can scrape up is worth it.

Ok! Statistics over. Back to leveling.

Fighter 6, 8, and 11: Things to pick up at these levels: Dexterity (consider the Athlete feat if you're at an odd Dex), Dexterity, and Extra Attack (2nd edition).

Fighter 12: You've finally got a spare feat! Good stuff includes Crossbow Master (if you're committed to that lifestyle), Alert (to decrease Time To Arrows), and Magic Initiate: Ranger or Warlock.

Items of interest:

We're only really interested in two things for this build:

Increasing our flat to-hit. Every point we can get to offset the Sharpshooter penalty helps.

Big heavy ranged weapons. The bigger, the better.

Hitting Better:

The Sparkle Hands - Forest. Pairs with the Joltshooter for situational advantage against anything wearing metal armor, which is quite a few enemies. This is a rare case where advantage is worth pursuing just because it's available so early and without any action cost.

Marksmanship Hat - Moonrise Towers. Flat +1 to hit, and look dapper doing it.

Horns of the Berserker - Wyrm's Crossing. A situational +2 to hit, if you're confident in your ability to hit. Turn off Sharpshooter just long enough to draw blood, then turn it on and hit even harder.

Legacy of the Masters - Lower City. The only thing better than a flat +1 to hit is a flat +2 to hit.

Circlet of Hunting. Specific to rangers and characters with Magic Initiate, but the +1d4 is just a touch better than Horns of the Berserker, and doesn't hurt you if you roll badly.

Big Heavy Ranged Weapons:

The Joltshooter - Waukeen's Rest. This is a solid longbow for most of the game, accessible as early as level 2-3. Pairs well with the Sparkle Hands. Unless you've also got at least 14 Strength, the bursting electricity damage will be more effective than the Titanstring Bow.

Harold - Zhentarim Hideout. For a more support-oriented character, a Harold-wielding archer is the perfect counterpart to a save-or-suck caster.

The Dead Shot - Lower City. Sharpshooter's perfect match, this bow doubles your proficiency bonus, effectively granting a +4 to hit so long as you avoid having true disadvantage. This is my favorite bow to use with this build, just be prepared to drop a lot of coin to get it.

Hellfire Engine Crossbow - Steel Watch Foundry. Though once again, support-oriented or hybrid characters might prefer a big crossbow. Being able to reposition allies and enemies alike is a useful skill, particularly since creatures moved by another force don't provoke attacks of opportunity.

[whitegoldtower]

My BG3 OC, Tam’lin:

(Lolth-Sworn Drow (by birth, not choice) || Szarkai || Ranger (Gloomstalker) || Folk Hero)

(High DEX, CON, WIS. Medium INT, STR. Low CHA. Proficiencies in Insight, Stealth, Arcana, History, Medicine and Athletics. Uses a Longbow and Dual Daggers.)

🕷️ He was raised to be a Lolth-sworn Szarkai in Menzoberranzan for House Baenre. Once he matured, he was sent to the surface as a spy, but did a runner when he realised how much nicer it was on the surface (no female drow ordering him around), and became a gloomstalker ranger. His familiar is a spider named Janet. Personality-wise, he’s a bit like if you crossed Aragorn with Geralt of Rivia.

🕷️ He has a little bit of beef with Shadowheart when she makes the comment about Lae’zel’s people when they first meet (“more like the Gith have a problem with everybody else”), at which point he gets quite arsey with her (“Ah, well, then I should have a major problem with both of you, because I am a drow. Yet I freed you, and I’ve made a friend of this one. Make it make sense.”)

🕷️ He has good intentions but has a habit of saying the wrong things (or saying the right things, but saying them too harshly). He gets misread a lot, a good example being when Matthis asks him whether it’s true that Drow “steal children”, to which he leans down and asks “Do I frighten you?” - it looks threatening af but he’s just trying to be nice and sympathetic

🕷️ Aradin says “Put your claws away, under-elf.” Tam’lin socks him one, right in the mouth.

🕷️ Kagha tries to bootlick him (“A beloved child of Lolth!”) not knowing that he’s literally run away from Menzoberranzan and his duties, and he’s so offended by her brown-nosing and disgusted by her treatment of Arabella that he offers to assassinate her for Zevlor. But that’s not to say that he thinks Arabella is entirely innocent; when he meets her afterwards, he tells her off (as gently as he can)… and (purely out of distress bc Teela could have easily killed Arabella) snaps a little at her parents.

🕷️ He’d rather reason with / at least hear out a ‘monster’ than just kill them. Hence why he stands in front of the crossbow aimed at Sazza, gives Astarion the benefit of the doubt after the bite scene (even though he pitches a teeny weeny fit at first), tries to talk to the Owlbear, talks to the spiders in the goblin camp instead of instantly killing them, etc.

🕷️ Minthara scares the shit out of him, but as per the above statement, he’s willing to hear her out (he views the surface as neutral territory, where she has no power over him, and he can do what he likes), and also because he recognises her. Yes, she’s his cousin. Yes, she tries to get a bit Targaryen with it when he speaks to her. So he provokes her on purpose, and whilst holding her off, is shrieking repeatedly at Gale “MAKE HER SLEEP! MAKE HER SLEEP!”, to which Gale panics and spams the spell like “GOODNIGHT! GOODNIGHT GOODNIGHT! GOODNI-“

🕷️ Isn’t romancing anybody. But he viciously wants driderman. He sees Kar’niss for the first time and a fruity, pocket-sized party tiefling sets off fireworks in his brain. 🎉🕸️😍🕸️🎉 he’s touching his chicken about it.

🕷️ deeper than that, though, he wants to look after Kar’niss. Because Kar’niss seems like he’s suffered the fate that Tam’lin should have suffered. By all accounts, Tam’lin should be a drider, too. He’s not just attracted to Kar’niss; he has love for him.

[pathfinderunlocked]

Wizard Rabbit - CR4 Wizard

The rabbit and the moon shared secrets until the sun rose, and the moon had to depart. Those secrets were the forbidden knowledge of the cosmos, and also how to make people explode with your thoughts.

Artwork is official art from Rabbit and Steel, by Mino_Dev on Twitter.

Another tiny-sized bunny girl which is actually a rabbit which was subjected to a permanent anthropomorphic animal spell. There are five of these I'm posting in total, all based on the characters from the game Rabbit and Steel.

One of the problems with anthropomorphic animals is that they're still really dumb. So the wizard rabbit would normally need a +4 headband just to be able to cast wizard spells at all, but that's massively over-budget for a CR 4 creature. Instead of that, I've given it a unique magic item that allows it to function as a wizard.

The haunting mists spell is pretty badly written and gives no indication of when or how often the wisdom damage happens. I would rule the wisdom damage as happening just once when the spell is casts, and including the caster in its effects. It's an emergency escape maneuver, made pretty effective by the high stealth of these rabbits.

If it has time to cast offensive spells, the wizard rabbit uses aggressive thundercloud first and then follows this up the next round with twilight knife, which will attack the thundercloud's target each round.

The call the void spell should be considered part of the void wizard school; the official book lists a spell called tapestry's embrace, which doesn't actually exist, as a 3rd-level void spell, and player consensus is that its name was probably changed to "call the void" during editing. But in this case it doesn't actually matter since her only other 3rd-level spell is also a void spell, so she can just prepare that one in her school spell slot instead.

Wizard Rabbit - CR 4

The tiny woman with rabbit features - barely a foot and a half tall - is dressed in a robe, and wearing a pointed hat with holes for her ears. She hops through the grass on bare feet at a quick pace.

XP 1,200 Anthropomorphic animal (rabbit), wizard 5 N Tiny animal Init +5 Senses low-light vision; Perception +5

DEFENSE

AC 21, touch 17, flat-footed 16 (+5 Dex, +4 mage armor, +2 size); +5 vs. firearm and ranged attacks hp 28 (1d8+5d6+6) plus 10 temp hp Fort +3, Ref +6, Will +6; +2 vs. spells and spell-like abilities

OFFENSE

Speed 50 ft. Melee quarterstaff +0 (1d3-4) Space 2-1/2 ft.; Reach 0 ft. Special Attacks reveal weakness

Wizard Spells Prepared (CL 5th; concentration +7)     3rd (2/day)—call the void (DC 15), twilight knife* (attack +4)     2nd (4/day)—aggressive thundercloud (DC 14), bullet shield (already cast), false life (already cast), haunting mists* (DC 14)     1st (5/day)—keen senses*, mage armor (already cast), magic missile (x2), stunning barrier (DC 13)     0th (at will)—acid splash (ranged touch +9), detect magic, read magic, mage hand, spark

Arcane School void (* indicates school spell)

BASE STATISTICS

Without mage armor and bullet shield, the wizard rabbit's statistics are: AC 17, touch 17, flat-footed 12 (no bonus vs. firearm and ranged attacks)

STATISTICS

Str 3, Dex 20, Con 11, Int 8 (14 for spellcasting), Wis 10, Cha 7 Base Atk +2; CMB -4; CMD 11 Feats Iron Will, Run, Scribe Scroll, Toughness Skills Acrobatics +5 (+13 when jumping), Perception +4, Knowledge (arcana) +3, Spellcraft +5, Stealth +17 Languages Common SQ arcane bond (wand) Gear Hare Ornament, spell component pouch, spellbook (prepared spells only), arcane bonded wand (worth 1 gp)

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Arcane Bond (Su) A wizard rabbit has a wand as a bonded object (this wand has no other powers). This bonded object can be used once per day to allow the wizard rabbit to cast any one spell that she has in her spellbook and is capable of casting, even if the spell is not prepared.

Reveal Weakness (Su) As a standard action, twice per day, a wizard rabbit can reveal the weaknesses of a foe within 30 feet. That creature takes a -2 penalty to its AC and on saving throws for 1 round.

[a-s-levynn]

Dont know if you're still dealing with that headache or if these remedies are up your alley but, here you go. -Caffeine [Tea/Coffee/etc.] -Salt [Yeah,gross I know but it happens..You can also get salt tablets if you don't wanna go ham on a salt shaker.] -Up your sugar intake,if you're more on the healthy side you can use fruits and other natural ways to up it..Low blood sugar causes headaches even for folks who don't have Diabetes/etc. -Hydrate [Water/Powerade/Gatorade/Propel/etc.] -Warm or cold compresses,depends on the person. -Try not to chew anything till the headache goes away,know it sounds weird but anything straining on your jaw can cause your head to hurt. -Dim the lights/sleep/be in a climate controlled area/take a bath or shower. -Relax your head/scalp if you wear your hair up,give it a break. But yeah,all I can think of at the moment. Have a good day/night and feel better soon.

Dear Anon, thank you for compiling these. I was way past these when i posted my comlpaints, but these are good advice, my only addition is to try massage your neck, it could be muscle tension ass well.

But if we are on the topic, allow me to clear up the confusion i see lately around me complaining about medical stuff.

ps: salt is not gross, i usually have the type with the large chunks just to eat it sometimes 🥺

Under the cut, cause long.

So.

I do not aim to be read ungrateful here. This is mostly because i still don't really know how to deal with people being kind to me. I'm just genuinly so bad at dealing with people actually caring about me the way sometimes you guys jump in. My brain is simply reads kindness like this as someone seeing me incompetent and i am actively trying to unlearn that. So i don't even know why am i writing this long ass thing here besides organizing my thoughts. But i did it anyway.

sidenote: I had the tags "levynn cries about nonsense" and i usually pair it up with "don't mind me" or "rethorical question" as well. These were not for show. They were to indicate something, that's past any possible solution or cannot be solved momentarily and i just needed to shout about it in some form, not a cry for help. When i need help, trust me, you gonna know. I am at a point of my life when i just say if i need help with a thing. So i started to leave them occasionally because you guys are way too nice not to care anyway. But when i say "don't worry" i fully mean it in the "it has been taken care of or will pass in a bit, it's okay."

BUT please let's not forget, that i am an adult, living alone for the better part of a decade now, with a pretty decent survival rate if i say so myself.

I know i regularly say i'm stupid and joking about being unhealthy at times, but that's mostly just the energy drinks and the occasionally skipped meals. But in general i lead a pretty healthy and balanced diet and life. I am simply not smart in the academic sense. You know, more the low INT high WIS type if anything.

I've been dealing with various pains for the better part of my life, so i am pretty well equipped to battle it in theory, but there are always the types that shrug off even proper medication. Sure, i am trying to avoid too many pills because i actually did have a problem before, but it is still not beyond me to take some if i need it. It needs to be regulated but if it's needed it's needed.

Same goes for the heat and sun. I grew up with sun allergy and light sensitivity. I know how to manage it. But i still going to complain when it's 30+ °C here (it's around 40 for a week now, which is 104 for the °F users) and i am used to the 20 range, so i am going to comlpain. Even if i have a cooling unit at home, i still have to get home in the heat. And that time could be enough for me to bank a sunstroke or up to 2nd degree burns if i'm not careful.

So whenever i'm posting about something hurting (especially my head and leg) or about being hot outside, it is more to be a heads up if anything, that if i respond even slower or forget to respond or not being as nice as i usually try to be, that's why.

It is also a simple complain when even proper medication fails. And i am not talking about aspirin, but two 50mg diclofenac-calium pills for these types. The kind they give here around childbirth type of pains.

I genuinly cherish the fact that you guys are taking your time to write me various lenghts of advice on stuff, i just don't know how to process the part where you are being kind out of being kind, not because you actually think i am an idiot, not knowing how to stay alive.

[chaoticneutralbell]

There's a hole in your logic

You who know all the answers...

| soundtrack | living space | style

Name: Lucy Archer Bell

Age: 30 (Feb 12)

Identity & Orientation: NB AFAB, they/he/she, disaster pan

Originally From: Clackamas, Oregon

Most Recent Community: Dielectric Research Community, Connecticut

Time in Redwood: New as of February 2043

Resides in: A bungalow near the school

Previous occupation: Biomedical / Neuro-Engineer

Community occupation: Teacher (STEM subjects) / Daycare / Mechanic's assistant

Lucy was born to a mom in (temporary) recovery, and never knew her father. She grew up mostly raised by maternal grandparents while her mother went through several rounds of rehab, additional pregnancies and falls off the wagon. Lucy, meanwhile, became a driven, intelligent young woman - with a real sarcastic wit. She excelled in soccer, but ended up needing financial assistance for college.

She was indignant at needing financial assistance, being teased by classmates for her financial struggle, and eschewed parties to hold down a job around classes. By 2037 Lucy was in her last year of a bachelors program at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

Already having been approached by prestigious biomedical firms, Lucy was starting to feel she'd outrun her crappy circumstance of birth. Around the same time news of a new outbreak was starting one of the firms swooped in and recruited every student on the same track. Promised them the chance to change the world in their lifetime, to save mankind. That they were all needed.

Dielectric was their home for several years as the world shut down. Compartmentalized, kept ignorant of the goings on outside; told it was for the best if they weren't distracted by the outside world.

Small teams worked on different pieces of a greater whole, brainstorming, hypothesizing, testing, making odd supply requests from the men upstairs...

Until supplies stopped showing up.

An intellectual powerhouse, the cell found solutions to problems as they came. Predicted likely future issues and took what preventative measures they could. But eventually, the walls would be permeated.

What researchers survived that inevitable breach fled; they weren't built for brute force fighting. Lucy was never more grateful that she'd been a jock in high school, able to outrun bigger, heavier predators.

A year of another kind of learn-by-doing, and Lucy fell ass-over-teakettle into Redwood. Specifically by setting off a hunting trap.

| Headcanons |

Lucy was on course to earn her Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering; specifically angling for the Neural Engineering Track.

She never lost her snarky personality. Originally a defense mechanism, it eventually simply became a part of her personality. It didn't endear her to superiors at Dielectric, alas.

Before you ask - yes his mom named them Lucy as a Beatles homage. Yes, Lucy finds it tacky. Yes, he knows it's close to Lucille Ball, too.

Doesn't like talking about how they lost their left pinky.

Created "A fully implantable,wireless interface for CNS for electronic recording, stimulation and microfluidic drug delivery."

5 Tattoos: Lunar moth at right hipbone | cobra winding up right arm | Neuron up the exterior left calf | Twilight Zone inspired on left bicep | James Webb hexagon on the back of their neck

Goes by Archer, in addition to Lucy

Birth order: Lucy -> Allison (26) -> Joey (23) -> Nina (20) -> Jordan (16) -> Jimmy (12)

| Wanted Connections |

STEM nerds (open!) - Do you speak science, tech, engineering or math? Then Lucy would love to nerd it up with you. Conversation, projects, wild theories, whatever @orioncarnell , @tamirkamadcr

Chaotic Buds (1/2) - Lucy has high Int, low Wis and obviously would love buds of similar stat block. @aresmelaina ,

Kite String (0/1) - Who's going to tether this girl when she's getting unrealistic, too salty, etc?

Trap Spring (1/1) - She was brought in by a hunter whose trap she set off. Soz, dude. - @davxdalexander

Crossed Paths (2/3) - She was extremely behind the 8 ball on the whole apocalypse thing, running a couple years behind everyone else. Did you encounter her in the last year? Helped her out or took advantage? @frankxausting , @harry-thompson

[tlaquetzqui]

Both are often still making the character too simple though. I prefer the dump stat model: except for when Pathfinder alchemists use their mutagens, a high ability score in a d20 game doesn’t have any built-in downside: but one of the others has to be weaker to pay for it. Which one can vary.

That way you can have two intelligent characters, high Int, one of whom is tactless (low Cha) and the other of whom has no common sense (low Wis). Or two strong characters, high Str, but one has no stamina (low Con) and the other is recklessly overreliant on his ability to smash things that might be a problem (low Wis).

When writing always remember… a character flaw is only a flaw until becomes useful. 

Is your protagonist manipulative? Well that’s awful… until they manipulate the antagonist into making a decision that saves the lives of their friends. 

Is your protagonist a skeptic? Well that’s not good… until someone tries to lie to them. 

Is your protagonist overprotective? That sucks… until someone they love is in danger. 

Is your protagonist remorseless? Well that makes them pretty unlikeable… until a hard decision has to be made.