#just a lil headsup

[wabblebees]

.

[dootznbootz]

I'm not very fond of Epic AUs where Odysseus adopts Astyanax.

It's fine for a one-off joke or comic and ofc this is just my opinion but... if Astyanax lives (like in Racine's play), he should always stay with Andromache. His actual mother, yk. Not with one of the men who sacked Troy. Zeus' prophecy is bound to happen and Odysseus knew keeping the infant around was a bad idea.

If Astyanax dies, I want to see him in Elysium with his father, finally in a peaceful place and having all of eternity to catch up. Then Andromache joins them (sending her to Asphodel would be too cruel) and they finally reunite.

Would anyone picture Neoptolemus adopting Astyanax ? The son of Achilles, who dragged Hector's body in a chariot. No ? So Achilles' associate doing the same would be weird.

And Odysseus ? I want him CRAVING for a son, waiting for so long until he can express his paternal affection (and always cursing Palamedes even after his revenge 😂).

Him meeting Telemachus all grown up should be his first real shot at fatherhood. It'd be underwhelming if he already had a little boy with him. If Telemachus has a little brother, Penelope should be the mother. Or they adopt another baby together afterwards. No Astyanax and ESPECIALLY NO TELEGONUS !

So yeah, imo Astyanax and Odysseus don't belong with each other. Any thought ?

Headsup: This is just an opinion. My opinion does not matter. If you like this AU, PLEASE don't let that stop you from creating! Just because it's not for me, doesn't mean it's not for you or for someone else :D

I absolutely agree and you absolutely put into words WHY.

There's the term "woobifying" and in some cases...I think that's what people just often do with Epic/The Odyssey. (especially from Epic) I'm saying as someone who is a very soft and fluffy person. I love soft and sweet fics and ideas. I love stuff that makes me smile. But I almost feel as though with certain soft things, you're taking away what makes characters who they are. which DOESN'T make me smile lol

like I think there's more fun in simply a "no-war AU" than the "Astyanax lives AU" xD like, that way, Odysseus is with his family, gets to be a dad, Astyanax gets to live (let's not think too hard about how "no war may have meant no Astayanax")

As that way, they still get to be in character as well.

Penelope and Odysseus for example, are scallywags lol. They scheme and swindle. They giggle and kick their feet when they get extra cattle. They hold grudges. They can be snooty and prideful. They're as full of love as they are full of hate. Odysseus, during the Sack of Troy, in both the Odyssey AND Epic, will do whatever it takes to get home. Like yes, in Epic, Jay has it where Odysseus has to "become ruthless" but I can understand what he's doing with the narrative. Odyssey Odysseus? Um...Iphigenia is proof that Odysseus is already ruthless.

Btw, why is Astyanax the only one Odysseus would want to save with these AUs? What about Iphigenia? Is it because of Epic?

Yes, I DO think Odysseus (and Penelope for that matter) have a lot of parental instinct. I plan to write Odysseus carving lil wooden toys for random kids just as something to do. He does tricks. (ngl, while it seems they weren't around in the Mycenaean era, Yo-yos were a thing in ancient Greece. I just KNOW Odysseus would be the type to do so many tricks. (also string and wood🥹)) He has a soft spot for Greater Ajax's boy. My goober was friends with Menelaus and Agamemnon even before he met Penelope (he saw two exiled guys take back their kingdom and thought "hm??? vulnerable state??? They're very rich?? hehe >:3" but then became fond of them. The reason why he went to Sparta was to help Menelaus with Helen but fell in love himself.) and he's carved lil toys for Agamemnon's kids

He's carved lil Iphigenia toys. She likes Dolphins. He still helps sabotage the letter in some myths and even hypes up the crowd.

Even if it IS just based on Epic, "The Horse and The Infant" and "Just a Man" are HUGE turning points for Odysseus. Or even just a show of character. Like yes, "Odysseus is learning ruthlessness" but he already is ruthless. He literally says "I would trade the world to see my son and wife". AND HE STILL DOES THE DEED! HE WAS RUTHLESS SINCE THE BEGINNING! The Second song in the Musical and it already tells you about Odysseus and what he is willing to do. Is he sad and haunted? Yeah. Still did it.

And I really love that as that's Odyssey Odysseus as well! Odysseus isn't an unfeeling violent villain. He's just a man.

Also...What happens in the Odyssey is no fucking place for a child. ;~; The cyclops, the Goddesses, the monsters? Why should a lil boy be anywhere near that? How did he survive while drifting to Ogygia? Does Poseidon try to keep them together? As no one would be in the state to take care of each other together for that many days.

And in general, in the Odyssey, to me, it's such a huge thing that he literally lost EVERYONE. THAT HE IS ALL ALONE. All of the people who were with him are now dead, and there was nothing he could do. It was already fated.

It's horrible but there's something so poetic in him being the "Sole Survivor", especially after all the hell he went through.

Also yeah, I DO really hate the thought of Telemachus knowing "You took care of this baby when I needed you?". Like my OdyPen have a daughter after he returns as the whole "only one son" and that's already really hard for Telemachus to watch Odysseus be a father for her, regardless of how often and how adamantly Odysseus reassures him that Odysseus desperately wished to do the same with him.

[waterthatsmoe]

HeLO!

Just a lil headsup since my asks box has been piling up a bit

Will be putting a pause on answering asks for a bit due to my finals! (Sorry for not reply to asks as quickly! Am just a wee bit busy and I have no azul to make a deal with 😔😔, I'm not ignoring them I promise Ijustneedtopassmytrimester😭😭😭👍)

Some asks I would like to draw something fresh for them so they would def take more time to go through but I feel a bit bad if I reply to the more yappy ones since some of the more drawing-prompty ones came first 🥲🙏 so I'll answer everything after my finals instead! You can still send asks, my response will just come in 12 business days 😔❗️

My activities has been slowed down a lot due to my upcoming finals as well 🥲🧍‍♂️

But after next sunday I should resume to normal activities

Thank you for the support thus far❗️❗️❗️

Live laugh epel guys

[pavedinashes-if]

I think this can possibly come up in the story? since social media is going to be featured a lot in the story, but I was wondering how do the ros save mc's contact name in their phone? and will it change when the romance starts?

(I'm sucker for all phone things for the ros in IFs, I love seeing what their background/lockscreen look like, how do they save mc's contact, etc, I just had to ask for your characters too :3 <3 )

Hi anon, I'd def like to make it a thing in the story ^^

The MCs contact will change for some when a romance starts. That's a lil headsup.

About the first contact name... hmm... I am not sure how much I should spoil, because I like some surprises and MC will have the chance to find out for some at some point and I would like to keep it a surprise...

BUT: overall the vibe for contact names is mostly....

Team MCs name:

Dr. Michael / Dr. Michaela

Paul / Paula

Xavier

Bianca

Alex

Sam Team Nickname (cute, goofy, mean, "unassinable"):

Felix / Felicia

Sparks

Dima / Dalia

Noah / Naomi

Francesco / Francesca

Laurenz / Laura

Alex

Sam

[monty-glasses-roxy]

Yoo guess what? I just had another silly thought(tm)!

So pulling from some previous asks, Cassie being terrified and paranoid of Gregory thinking he's out to get her for surviving his alleged murder attempt with the elevator and is planning to strike again any second to 'finish the job'.

And Prototype Freddy becoming protective of Cassie after she went out of her way to get him repaired and whole, and likely becoming besties with Roxy bc both adore the lil girl.

And Cassie having tried to 'expose' Gregory's dirt but nothing coming from it so in desperation she asked Prototype Freddy's help.

With those past ones in mind I just thought of a new one. :3c

Prototype Freddy all repaired and bonding with Cassie and the group, slowly learning from them about the stuff that happened. Like why they were broken and left behind. And what Cassie went through in Ruin, especially the elevator thing.

And he's so. freaking. indignated. Especially that they have the culprit right there and facing no consequence whatsoever. The one responsible for Cassie's, his own little superstar, suffering. And man, the sheer impunity makes him SO MAD.

So instead of Cassie asking him for anything, Prototype Freddy decides to do something about it himself. Not that ones like Roxy aren't capable, but he's the one with the winning stealth and infiltration card, being identical to a certain other bear.

He maybe tells Roxy his plan before heading out as a headsup, in case anything happens.

Then he goes and the moment Gregory and Glamrock Freddy separate even if just briefly (maybe Glamrock Freddy goes to recharge or something idk,) Prototype enters the scene to rejoin Gregory as his Freddy (maybe he gets Glamrock Freddy stuck somewhere like inside a recharge station or something idk again, just to ensure he has enough time to perform the switch smoothly,) hiding the fact that he's actually a wolf in a familiar sheep's clothing.

Then when Prototype Freddy finally thinks he's gotten Gregory alone with him, his "best friend" only, you get the idea right?

Hmm, the tea!

Puts this child in his stomach hatch and spins him like a tumble dryer. Starts jumping up and down as fast as possible to shake him up like a fizzy faz. Takes him to one of the old locked off storage areas, pops him out like a pez dispenser and bails, locking the door behind him. Plenty of ways to give him a time out!

Could fill his stomach hatch with water and drop him in it like a fish bowl (with air of course he's not Funtime Freddy now) lmao he could get creative with it! He could make friends with a skunk and open the stomach hatch to unleash it on him he could do anything lmao Gregory will never suspect a thing!

On another note, Prototype Freddy being pissed off at this situation is fun. Roxy watching him pace in frustration over this thinking "wow he's just like me for real..." will DJ nods in agreement cause he's seen her do this a thousand times lmao. I now have the idea that she started liking Prototype Freddy because he told someone to fuck off or something lmao it was like a switch flicking off in her head. He swore and destroyed her perception of him so hard he suddenly was a completely different guy to her. That's not Freddy anymore. She's never met this guy before. Oh he has the same name? What a coincidence! Completely different guy now!

Everyone else may struggle to get past him being basically a Freddy clone, but he swore that one time and Roxy's cured! Glamrock Freddy who? Never heard of him!

Here's something for you that's stuck to what I'm doing with Sewerhell stuff: different names! Some of the older versions of the animatronics choose different names to go by to avoid as much confusion. It's not always a big change, like Prototype Freddy could go by Fred exclusively or something or a nickname like 'Proto' or something could stick, I dunno I have fun finding different ways to differentiate everyone ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

[sunjinjo]

Just a lil headsup to let anyone who reads this know that the next chapter of Cage of Your Own Making is gonna be an absolute monster, 10.000 words already and quite a bit still to go, it's going to contain All The Things and Wanderer, Furina and Nahida are having multiple field days

We're going to prison, the theater, the Foggy Forest, the Roots of Erinnyes, the Pankration Ring, the infirmary, the Duke's office and an island where the sky and surrounding water change on a dime. It'll all make sense in the end, promise :P

[angxliquel]

TOH AU!!

Quints a human who magically ends up in the Boiling Isles (to be determined exactly how he gets there) and wants to learn magic because. of course he does. He's overall fascinated by the coven system but also just how magic in general works. He falls into the care of (you'll never believe it) Yursl!! I don't know if she'd be something different than the owl lady, but the owl lady would be cool because imagine Johnny Steve as Hooty or something 😭

I don't know if there'd be a "King" in this au since it's technically just if the tlkoe kids were inside the TOH universe, and it's not necessarily a "Quint is Luz" or "___ is King" AU. Quint IS kind of like Luz but their motives for learning magic are slightly different, and besides Yursl being a bit of an insert of Eda, that's kinda where it ends. (watch me contradict this in like two seconds) Mainly what I'm trying to say is that this storyline doesn't follow either the toh or tlkoe cannon ones to a tee, but still has elements of both

Jack is in the Illusion Track, but I feel like later on he would start to dabble in Abomination (since it's the closest thing to his zombie powers). He's still an orphan lmao, and lives at the Boiling Isles Orphanage. He transfers to Hexide from another school about a year previous to Quint's arrival. He comes across a poorly disguised Quint who was on a supply run for Yursl, and is absolutely AMAZED by him. The boys get along immediately and begin to hang out. Jack then tries to convince Quint to enroll in Hexide, which Quint finally does later in the future. Jacks Palisman would def be Rover, who, when not in palisman form, can (maybe,idk) switch between the normal palisman size and normal Rover Size.

For June, I'd say she'd be In Abomination or Beast Keeping. I say Abomination because 1: it's cool, and 2: Blasty could be like the spiky abomination glove Amity does in Eclipse Lake when fighting against Hunter. June wouldn't keep it on as near often as she does with Blasty in the books, but she would bring it out for fights. And if she WAS in Abomination, she'd be able to help out Jack when he starts to get into it (again, doesn't follow the tlkoe canon). She's still head of the Newspaper Club, and her Palisman would be Neon

Dirk is easily the Plant Track. He COULD be Construction, but idk I just see Plant more. Imagine him doing the Plant/Whip thing Willow does in the beginning of "Any Sport in a Storm." Almost like how he was into lassoing and cowboy stuff in Book Three (I wanna say three) His palisman is Drooler!!

So basically, how everyone would meet:

Quint arrives at Hexide under the disguise of a regular witch with Jack's help. (Quint pretends to be a witch during the entrance exam, in which he barely scrapes by. Obviously this only makes him more determined) Jack brings Quint to the newspaper room (since jack is still in the newspaper) and introduces him to the club. Quint catches Junes attention cause Quint sucks at lying and she can tell somethings up. She doesn't pry into it then and there, but still keeps it in her mind. At Lunch, June talks to Dirk. Dirk and June are friends; they have sort of a sibling dynamic and confine in each other. Dirks not really a bully per say, but he still gets into trouble and June's always there to get him out of it. (As she'll do with the rest of the group, until later when she unmasks a bit and gets a lil silly too) June proposes her theory to Dirk, and of course, she's right. At first, Dirk's like "You're ridiculous", but then he REALLY starts to look at Quint and thinks it may be possible. They both decide to look into it and go full sleuth mode- or rather June does and Dirk enables it- and find out that Quint is, in fact, a human. Chaos ensues.

"You're HUMAN??"

"Uh- yes."

"I knew it!! Dirk, see, I told you-"

"June. Not the time. "

"Right, sorry."

More Chaos- June and Dirk both swear not to tattle, but uh oh! Someone else overhears the conversation and gives the principle (tbd) the headsup. All four of them are called to the office and interrogated, before Quint's disguise falls apart and they make a run for it. Like in "I was a teenage abomination", the school goes on lock down and the gang has to use their magic to get them through the school and out the exit. After all is said and done, they don't really go like "we should be friends!" but rather they start hanging out with one another more, and soon they're thick as thieves and getting themselves into all sorts of shenanigans.

(Quint is still allowed to stay at Hexide, but he tries to stall getting assigned into a coven for as long as he can. This half-works because since there's no inspector like there was in "The First Day", there's not really a need for him to pick a track immediately.)

[callusedhand]

just a lil headsup that i will be moving yuji (and sukuna) to their own blog some time soon. yuji is my favorite boy, he deserves his own space <3 sukuna is just a vermin that lives with him

[princess-stabbity]

the main reason i haven't been posting much lately is i got pathfinder: wrath of the righteous for my birthday and it's eaten my brain. i suggested amy play it, and offered to compile a mini guide, based on the immense amount of walkthrough reading and trial-and-error i have endured to get the most out of this clunky but enjoyable game. this is that guide. feel free to read or reply with your own tips, tho technically i'm just posting this here so it won't get lost in our messages.

in order (so you can know where to skip to) we have

general tips

mods

combat tips

crusade tips

general build tips

party build tips

chapter 1 tips

chapter 2 tips

chapter 3 tips

chapter 4 tips

general story tips

the secret ending

general tips

if you want a more detailed and spoilery guide, check out neoseeker or search the pathfinder_kingmaker subreddit (which is the main source for neoseeker's guides). the wiki kinda sucks.

the toybox mod is highly, highly useful. it's basically a dozen mods in one: it lets you get achievements with mods enabled, changes the dumb alignment system, allows polyamory, lets you cheat stuff into your inventory, respec characters on the fly, hear dialogue interjections from absent party members, etc. i strongly recommend it.

save like crazy. good god, the backtracking i have done.

owlcat's sense of pacing is real weird. like apparently in kingmaker they completely reverse the usual rpg logic and you need to do main quests before you can kick it with side quests (...usually). wrath of the righteous is a little better, but still kind of weird and uneven. i'll try to give headsups in the story tips section, but if in doubt, check if there's a lil red hourglass symbol in the journal. that means you need to do that before the main questline is done. they also usually warn you if a main quest is a point-of-no-return for the chapter.

the alignment system is...pretty dumb, imo. as i understand it, "good" and "evil" choices actually pull you towards neutral good and neutral evil, so you can end up like a guy i saw on the subreddit recently, who ended up losing his paladin powers while being explicitly praised by an angel for "pleasing heaven." bc it knocked him into neutral good. anyway, this is why i strongly recommed turning on toybox's "fix alignment system" setting, which should make it work the way you'd expect it to.

have at least one companion with high perception (pets are great for this, and every character rolls independently so more is better) and keep your finger on that tab key, brother. there are hidden shinies every goddamn where.

the puzzles are plentiful and most of them are very bad and annoying. i don't recommend bothering trying to figure them out yourself, just look up a solution. i say this as somebody who usually rawdogs bioware's tower of hanoi obsession.

while resting in the field, there are roles that call for one character to have high lore (religion), one to have high stealth, one to have high knowledge (world), one to have high knowledge (arcana) OR (iirc) lore (religion), and two to have high perception. one character can't fill multiple roles at once. that said, the knowledge rolls are optional (crafting/buffs), and the perception roles won't be needed if stealth does well enough. main takeaway being: try to keep at least one character with you that has a high religion score, and one that has a high stealth score, so you can rest peacefully.

if you see a nice item in the shop, it will probably be available in later acts. i busted my ass trying to buy shit early, in case i lost access to the vendors who sold it, but i've found most things are available again later from a different vendor. there are exceptions, but like. don't worry too much. the main upside of buying stuff early is that in some cases, it allows you to get two. main ones to look out for, off the top of my head, are the icy protector and red salamander rings. you can get two of those. broadly i'll say that, if you're debating what to buy in chapter 1, start with hawke and joran's stock.

when you leave an area, a prompt comes up that allows you to snag all the loose gear left on the map. you can sometimes use this to get around weight limits by dropping stuff and picking it back up via this menu, right before you leave. that said, buy bags of holding as soon as you find them.

"bulk selling" allows you to gather all the vendor trash in one go, which saves a lot of time and helps show what is, in fact, vendor trash. which is smth i struggled with a lot, early on. sell those giant spider legs, they ain't used for shit in this game.

in general, if it ain't unique and you're not using it, sell it. i've even sold some uniques i know i'll never use, like that diadem only usable by kineticists.

mods

unity mod manager

toybox. strongly recommend turning on "fix alignment," "allow achievements," and "no jealousy"

modfinder. a tool that lets you browse, search, (un)install, and update mods from both the nexus and github quickly and easily.

won't bother linking them all (should be able to find them in modfinder if you're interested) but for extra subclasses, feats, etc, i use tabletop tweaks, expanded content, and tome of the firebird. i find it kind of tricky and glitchy, but visual adjustment 2 allows changing portraits and character models. respecmod allows you to fully respec characters, rather than being restricted to respeccing them from the level you recruited them at (e.g., you could make seelah not a paladin, or choose new hexes and spells for ember's first 3 or 4 levels).

note that when updates hit, your mods may need to be updated, and since they get baked into your save, you can be SOL if a mod you're using is broken by an update and been abandoned by the author. so maybe don't be like me and download like 4 different class content mods. (that said, in my experience so far, mod authors have been very fast at updating for patches. the toybox dev in particular is quick as hell, thank christ.)

combat tips

the difference between life and death in this game is buffing. try to get a grip on what buffs do or do not stack, and which ones can be cast in advance so you don't have to spend a turn on it. some good ones in my experience: mage armor, protection from alignment, resist/protection from elements, all the stat buffs (e.g. cat's grace), magical vestment, barkskin, haste.

pets are god. dogs, wolves, and velociraptors are especially great, because they can trip enemies (w/o needing to select the "trip" feat), which makes the enemy lose a turn (they have to spend it getting up) and opens them up to bonus attacks from all party members in melee range (attack of opportunity). mounts (esp horses) also rock because their AC and health essentially act as a barrier, so make 'em as chunky as possible. investing in better stats (via the boon companion and/or mythical beast feats) is recommended, esp if you're multiclassing.

don't forget to buff pets! i give them all mage armor and magical vestment, just as a baseline, and if a tough battle is coming i also use bull's strength/cat's grace and uh. animal embiggerer. whatever the name is, i forgot and don't feel like looking it up. both camellia and nenio should be able to get it. oh, barkskin is good, too, i have lann cast his on his pet, since he's rarely on the frontlines and has great AC. magic fang, esp the improved version that lasts for hours, is great.

scrolls are fun and easy to use. they can fail if your character doesn't have a high enough "use magic" skill, but there's no skill check if it's a class spell (i.e., one their class can learn, not necessarily one they already know). this basically means you get a free casting of that spell, no spell slot required. arcane int-based casters can also learn spells from scrolls (tho you lose those extra spells if you respec and will have to learn them again).

scrolls are also good for having access to cures for some of the nastier debuffs, especially in chapter 1, where you don't have access to a cleric unless you rolled one yourself or specced lann into it. buying some emergency remove blindness and restoration scrolls are recommended.

potions can basically act as a free spell, just like scrolls, but with the added bonus of not requiring any "use magic" skill. so have your fighters and rogues etc glug away

crusade tips

the key is to recruit either chief ageboya or setsuna shy as your general (and, if you create a second force, recruit whichever of the two you didn't pick first). place melee units to stand guard in front of archers, and use the archers + your general's scorching ray/fireball to wreck the shit out of enemy units before they can even reach your melee lines. once they get healing spells and some ranks in master of maneuver (+1 unit per army) shit really pops off.

don't accept heavy losses. reload.

never feel like you have to fight an enemy army that isn't marked green. just wait.

bite the bullet and give irabeth that 7k for extra soldiers, it's worth it.

my fav units so far are hellknights, clerics, shieldbearers, and any kind of archer but especially marksmen and mongrel archers. pick up more of these units often.

army get strong from more guys + the general leveling up

it can be difficult to figure out a good rhythm for moving your party vs moving your armies, but you pick it up after awhile. basically, have your army move until they run out of points, then send your party wherever they need to go. once the clock at the top of the page hits midnight, take control of your armies again to hit "continue" so they continue moving. switch as often as necessary to get everybody where they need to be.

when building outposts, start with the engineering workshop (lowers costs for all subsequent buildings), then start placing a supply cart in basically every outpost you've captured. inns can generate income, but only if you place them before/instead of garrison buildings.

i would also recommend saving the left block of space in drezen for the 4-square buildings, and building stuff like hospitals and apothecaries in the lower block of space, leaving the main block for military units and buff buildings. but that's just me.

don't feel like you have to wipe every enemy off the map. due to the way morale mechanics work, it's good to spread battles out a bit.

in chapter 3, it's better to spend funds on buildings and mercs than trainable troops (e.g. footmen, archers, light scouts). try to have a decent number of forts built up by the end of the act.

save a few decrees that boost morale for a rainy day. just in case.

there's a limit to how many forts and bastions you can have, so think strategically about which ones you want to upgrade. having the ability to teleport to different parts of the map can really help cut down on travel time (assuming you want to).

you can save while on the world map (tho only one save per in-game calendar day for some reason), and it's a good idea to save before entering drezen, because often scenes in the citadel will trigger automatically when you load in.

general build tips

i recommend tabletop tweaks and respecmod. the former adds some good content from tabletop (the pet feats in particular are great), and respecmod allows you to fully respec your companions (goodbye, subpar class choice and un-respeccable character levels!) or respec your main character without having to fully remake them from scratch and lose their 'biography' section. i can grab the relevant settings for you if need be (took a lot of trial and error to get a handle on that).

dexterity is king. high dex builds are generally much sturdier than armor-based ones. part of why cat's grace is arguably the best of the stat buff spells.

point-blank + precise shot are basically necessary for everyone except strict melee characters. even spellcasters have to take these as soon as possible, because many spells count as ranged attacks and frankly you don't have enough slots early on not to use a crossbow anyway.

due to an exploit, lots of people take the crane style feats to buff AC. it goes dodge -> improved unarmed strike -> crane wing/riposte/etc. i don't really think they're necessary on normal difficulty (and tabletop tweaks might remove the exploit by default? haven't checked) but it's good to know.

another very good feat chain is weapon focus -> dazzling display -> shatter defenses, especially if you decide to go with the trickster mythic like i did and get the persuasion 1 trick, or have a skald or dirge bard in your party.

the outflank teamwork feat is also fantastic. mostly for melee fighters, but if you have a feat to spare on a ranged fighter, you may as well (iirc they can proc but not benefit directly from it). make sure to get it on pets, too, including mounts (they count as being in range with their rider at all times!). pets need 3 int to choose teamwork feats, so either give them all a boost to intelligence, or wait until you have a +2 int tiara and keep it in the inventory to put on them for levelups (as i do).

archmage armor and abundant spellcasting are very good mythic abilities for spell casters. you probably want to prioritize them. note that archmage armor only works if YOU cast mage armor on yourself (e.g., don't have a party member do it for you), but the bonus still applies if it's via potion or scroll.

cleaving shot is a great mythic ability for ranged characters. it's free AOE.

if you get tabletop tweaks, there's a short feat chain that's smth like nature spirit -> animal companion, which is a pretty low-cost way to get an animal companion without multiclassing. go wild. who needs to fit thru doorways.

combat reflexes and ever ready mythic ability are excellent choices for melee units, especially with trip and outflank. extra attacks of opportunity basically let your melee units say "oh no you don't" when enemies try to run past them to hit your ranged characters.

if you want to plan future builds, you can always save, then use toybox to grant yourself full levels to plot out the possibilities. i did that a lot.

party builds

seelah: a lot of people say seelah is a mediocre tank, but there's actually a pretty easy way to fix that: a tiny dip in oracle. i leveled her up as a paladin until 5, when she gets her horse, then took a level of oracle and chose nature mystery, which gives her access to an ability called "nature's whispers," which lets her use charisma rather than dex for AC. ta da! as a bonus, there's an "extra revelation" mythic feat option, so i also grabbed her the one that gives boosts to nearby animals. now she's one of the strongest members of my party. for the oracle curse, most people would rec wolf-scarred face, but i don't like that for story reasons, so i chose the one that affects her movement speed, because she's on her horse 24/7 anyway. "pranked" is also ok. if you don't use tabletop tweaks (or turn the fix off in settings) you can also take a dip in scaled fist monk, to stack the charisma AC bonus (i didn't).

camellia: pretty solid all-rounder, generally best as off-tank and skill monkey. i recently respecced her original subclass from spirit hunter to shadow shaman because i think it makes more sense, and paired with a two level dip into alchemist vivisectionist, i think i've finally got her in a good place after trying out a pretty subpar build. that said, straight shaman is not bad for her; general strategy is to give her iceplant hex and the icy protector ring to boost her armor early on, then have her slap on some buffs and go melee with her rapier.

lann: i recommend either giving him only one level of his default class, or, perhaps better yet, fully respeccing him into crusader cleric and/or demonslayer ranger and/or wandering marksman hunter. it makes more sense in-universe imo, and it's more useful (zen archer monk has some abilities that are kind of neat, but by endgame they have accuracy issues that weigh them down). i went ranger and it's been pretty swell, but i think next time i'll make him a cleric and give him "impossible domain: animal" ASAP so he can get back the sweet, sweet velociraptor buddy i gave him (true MVP of the party).

wenduag: sadly can't give too much advice here, but i've heard that mutation warrior + throwing axes turns her into an absolute beast. (note, however, that it takes a stupidly long time to get good throwing axes 💀 baby need CARNAGE)

woljif: haha sneak attack go brrrr. generally focus on self buffs (e.g., mirror image) and stuff like grease and haste and he'll do just fine. as long as another character is flanking the same enemy, or he's behind his target, he can dish out good damage, and sense vitals can fill the gaps in-between. that said, despite the name, i don't rec having him go arcane trickster, they're more of a blaster class. "slippery mind" rogue ability is a good idea, along with sneak attack debuffs.

ember: my baby. my joy. light of my life. against murder but very good at it! i personally leveled her as a mystic theurge (YOU get to be an oracle! YOU get to be an oracle! everybody gets a dip in ORACLE!!!), but that has devolved into a very delicate balancing act of spell selection, so you'll probably just want to level her as a pure witch, or witch with a minor dip in loremaster (so she can get, say, greater command, a spell available to oracles and clerics). pop that ring of the red salamander on her, give her weapon focus: rays and a few fire-based feats, maybe some enchantment ones to give her some very in-character non-violent CC options, and she's good as gold. pay attention to the description of hexes. some of them, like evil eye, are reduced to a single round if the enemy saves...which means, if you follow it up with a cackle each round, you can keep them debuffed forever, save or no save. protective luck and fortune are also great if you use toybox and toggle the option to have cackle extend for 10min out of combat. you can have ember buff-cackle-buff-cackle each party member to get universal advantage for hours.

nenio: ok look. scroll savant is not a bad subclass, i am told. but i highly recommend instead fully respeccing her as an arcanist brownfur transmuter. it makes just as much sense for her as a character, and they truly are the best buffers in the game. i am terrified to go anywhere without her now. she can juice all the stat boost spells, AND she can share "range: personal" buffs like shield or hurricane bow (tho i've recently learned seamantle doesn't work, i assume as an oversight 😑). she's effectively a spontaneous caster but can also learn spells from scrolls. as with vanilla nenio, all her lore and knowledge scores are crazy high, she can use basically any magical device (hello, spare wands!), and can take feats/gear to boost her illusion caster level to "fuck you, die." i'm telling you, brownfur transmuter nenio is the blueprint.

daeran: the king of healing. also an extremely solid buffer. honestly just go full oracle, maybe give him a second mystery. i went "bones" because, as a dhampir, i need the mcfucking help. it turns out animate dead is great for throwing meat(less)shields to buy time and protect squishy caster types. truly the backbone of the party.

sosiel: i used "impossible domain: animal" to give him a nice horsey, to keep him safe, since he is basically a dex-free tin can. "community" is also a very popular additional domain choice for him, since "guarded hearth" is apparently a good buff (can't say, have only remembered to use it once). keep him with glaives, there are a lot of good ones and the specialization is free, so...

regill: this little man slays. that said, you're way better off leveling him some more as an armiger, or dipping into cavalier, than giving him more levels in hellknight. i gave mine beastrider so i could put him on a smilodon, purely because that's fucking metal, and he rages around murdering shit. generally you'll want to give him two-handed weapon feats (to continue specializing in his weird hammer thing) and finesse stuff, tho you can compensate for his low strength pretty easily with the "enlarge person" spell, if you want to skip weapon finesse.

arue: honestly op. unless you really wanna try respeccing her from start as a bard or smth, just let her do her thing. "instant enemy" and "ranger's bond" or w/e it's called let her give good damage buffs to the whole party. ranged dps queen.

greybor: personally, i lightly respecced him to use throwing axes, but if you want to go vanilla, crpgguy on youtube has a solid build to check out. if you want to go with my build, keep him a slayer but choose ranged perks (except manyshot), two-weapon fighting, and weapon focus/specialization throwing axes. oh, and same recs as woljif for rogue abilities. i recently got him the ability to damage constitution with his sneak attacks and it's glorious.

chapter 1 tips

when you get to kenabres, an invisible timer starts counting down to a big, tough battle. you'll want to a) put it off as long as possible, and b) prep for it. online sources and my own experience leave the exact mechanics of the countdown kind of a mystery. best guess is that it relies on number of rests, so try to go as long as you can without them. some quests fail or change if you don't do them first, so try to do the following before the battle procs:

recruit woljif in the basement.

recruit ember in the market square.

scout the tower of estrod and kill the enemies there, if you can. this may or may not buy you time, i'm not sure.

meet prelate hulrun and settle the issue between him and ramien (i suggest showing hulrun the sword, and strongly suggest bringing ember).

go to the burning library (there's checks here for perception, lore (religion), and persuasion (diplomacy) you'll probably want to pass.)

as for prep: generally gain as much experience as you can so you'll be as strong as possible before it procs. grease and to a lesser extent create pit are useful for choke points and are available to both woljif and nenio, and can be bought or crafted into scrolls beforehand if need be. just remember you have no access to selective metamagic yet, so try to keep your own guys from slipping around all silly by either having them attack from range behind the trap, or stand in front of it (i went ranged, even for seelah). besides the very obvious chokepoints the game makes you aware of, you can also lay these down at the enemy spawnpoints by the ladders (though you will affect the allied soldiers, too, so keep that in mind). focus on the alchemists; every other enemy is secondary. kill or disable them as quickly as possible.

chapter 2 tips

if you saved the disciples of desna in kenabres and sang along with them in act 1, then solve the (pretty easy) puzzle at the altar of desna at the base of the lost chapel, you can recruit a very useful companion early. look for them in the drezen prison.

chapter 2 is less time-sensitive than chapter 1, but you get a lil reward if you finish it within 2 months. not too hard, imo

try to put off moving the camp to just south of drezen, because a whole bunch of shit kinda pops off at once.

pay attention to nurah. pop into her tent a few times. a high perception skill will get you far.

the only things really worth grabbing in leper's smile are the robe of silky veil (you can use savescum with quicksave to look for it without losing time) and the halfling in the crevice.

honestly i recommend cranking down the difficulty for a lot of the lost chapel quest because the game is keeping track of npc casualties and those motherfuckers pop like grapes if you don't nerf the shit outta enemies, even on normal difficulty. one fight in particular i kept having 3-4 out of 5 immediately die in the first round, even when i got a good initiative roll and came out the gate with controlled fireball. very frustrating experience.

to stop the constantly reviving undead in that one cave, you need to grab the interactable object near the center of the area.

chapter 3 tips

at the beginning of chapter 3, immediately head south, towards the chapel, and keep going until you get two not-so-random encounters.

then head towards molten scar (just south of greengates) with seelah to get a time sensitive quest done.

take arue to wintersun. (probably take someone with a good lore (nature) skill, too. and somebody with fire spells. dear god. you will need so much fire.) don't feel like you need to complete the whole map in one go, you WILL have to come back at least once for one of the side quests.

blackwater has a lot of tough combat. prep for electricity damage.

chapter 4 tips

still in it, so my advice at this point is just to start with battlebliss. the story flows more naturally that way, tho they don't tell you that.

you can turn the fleshmarkets into a tarantino movie, but buy the shit you want from the vendors first. or don't, and cheat it into your inventory via toybox. up to you. if you need the funds, returning to the midnight isles dlc can help.

as it turns out, you only get the one chance to free suture, so if you wanna do that, don't be like me and go "oobh i got plany off time"

general story tips

don't be a buzzkill at daeran's party by making him work. try to keep things fun, and tell him you think he can change or that he can trust you. he likes it if you banter playfully with him, and will interject during a lot of quests (i particularly enjoyed his comments in the grey garrison).

lann's mostly straightforward from what i can tell, but you can miss some of his content annoyingly easily. :/ make sure to check in with him every now and then (i feel like his dialogue updates more than any other companion so far, but there's no notification from the game when that happens, so you just have to swing by and talk to him to see). and take him camping with you, if you want to romance him. there's also no indication of this from quest markers or anything, but at one point he'll ask you to meet him back at your home base, but when you arrive, there'll just be a note in his usual spot. look for him by the local tavern. (not sure if this is romance-specific, but just in case)

wenduag has a massive humiliation kink

don't be judgey of greybor, and pay him what he's worth (or more, if you've got the money and are feeling generous, like i was). make sure to have at least 12,500 gold on hand when you go on the hunt with him, or you'll lose the chance to recruit him permanently.

bring your favs to the desolate hovel! the combat isn't hard, and there are some juicy character moments. kicking myself for not bringing ember, because i bet hers is great (thanks to toybox, i did get to enjoy a cute bit of dialogue between her and daeran).

the secret ending

i'm gonna try to lay out the requirements with as few spoilers as possible. if you don't wanna know, just skip this. i may be missing some stuff, or including some stuff that isn't strictly required, but this is my best understanding of it, distilled as much as possible.

note that unlocking the secret ending does not mean you have to actually choose it.

choose the crossbow in the prologue

keeping the purple stone knife is advised but not required

pick up every midnight bolt you see, and only use them against demon lords. (if you don't get a "new" crystal, you wasted the bolt on an invalid target and need to reload.) apparently if you use one on the big bad himself, you need to grab the crystal as quickly as possible or it'll disappear?

finish your mythic questline all the way through. don't choose the "legend" mythic.

help the storyteller collect elven notes

don't reject the idea of learning from demons

do not enable auto-crusade

research the sword of valor (first available in chapter 3), the crystals (first available in chapter 5), areelu's drafts (not sure, probably 5), and the records of pulura's stargazers (maybe as early as 3 for angels, 5 for everybody else) via crusade management

grab the book, accept its power, find a way to put it back together

have high perception, ask areelu about suture (not an option in the first convo with her, i think this is in chapter 4)

tell hep she shouldn't have trusted her dad

in the secret lab (not on the first visit, since they weren't there when i got there), click on the crib, drawings, and textbooks in that order, which will give you gloves. take said gloves.

pour the secret sauce over the summoning circle in the lab. kill the demon outside the summoning circle for convenience's sake

save the library

the ending date is important. enter the final area between 16 and 21 gozran. doesn't matter what year.

don't waste time examining areelu's wards, launch directly into "stop! listen to me!"

[hokubean]

Name change > Back to Hoku

Hey thought i'd just give a headsup, like a lil time stamp in case people are scrolling down in the future. I have ADHD and a lot of emotional baggage so names change a lot. But.

I'm going to back to Hokubean. I missed it, wasn't connecting to what i had before.

So... Motleymutt ---> Hokubean. I'm Hoku again, hi.

[oleisjustole]

Just a lil headsup, i know my old flippy design was heavily inspired by k*boom ch*ck but that was before i saw some shipping art (which at the time didnt think it was shipping art until i checked their acc again) that was VERY questionable. So yea, no associating me with them anymore pls 😭

[ithinkilikeit-reactions]

If my post times seem off, I’m visiting my dad for the holidays so I’m in a different time zone!

[boxonarock]

.

[magic-is-something-we-create]

final update for the drawing tonight - no one has clothes yet but i PROMISE they will all have some awesome outfits by the time this is done :D

in order from left to right, we have Lakia K’Ron, Dawn Ai’La/Klu’Syr, and Ash and Oak Timber!!! <3

lakia is Large and Abrasive (she will soften up a bit by arc 2 - at least to this crew<3), dawn is smol and bold, and ash and oak are just vibing in the background as of right now. just wait until they kick into gear in arc 2 - y’all won’t know what hit you :D

[theaviskullguy]

@mcwoomy

HERE YOU GOOOOOOO!!!!!! also headsup for logicality

-Archivist! Logan! im biased he's my favorite. yknow how jarchivist has a neon green eye motif? logan has neon blue eye motifs. Very studious, logical, and not easily freaked out as usual- although he has a MASSIVE phobia of being alone due to an encounter with The Lonely at a young age that really just fucked with his mind. Married to Patton and adoptive father of Virgil Robinson

-Corruption! Patton! mainly due to the connection between love and the Corruption. Not in a creepy-crawly bug way like Jane Prentis but instead. fungus. He's got lil mushrooms growing out of his head and mycelium along his arms and legs. Despite the entities' horror and bad vibes, Patton manages to maintain his un-spooky appearance. He works at a botany lab that is used to the powers' shenaniganery and so they dont mind patton

-Virgil is not an avatar- he's a bit more like a benevolent Jurgen Leitner mixed with Mary Keay. He harnesses the powers of the entities through artifacts and books for his own gain- or in this case, the gain of the gang. He's Gertrude Robinson's son but due to her getting so wrapped up in her work he was informally adopted by logicality and later formally adopted by them. Despite his work with them he's most targeted by The End and The Lonely, having major fears of death and abandonment

-Thomas is a situation like Georgie Barker where he can't feel fear. But mainly because he uses reasoning to get himself through their influence. The one he can't get past is The Stranger but that one doesn't seem to like to target him that much

-Roman is a Desolation Avatar. Honestly no good reason other than I love arson. He was born into the Cult of Lightless Flame but left it as a teenager. As a result, he has desolation powers and is an avatar- but he doesn't serve it. It's complicated.

-Remus also was a part of the cult but instead of just leaving he tore apart his branch of it with the help of The Stranger. Afterwards he joined the stranger- so his desolation powers were stripped in exchange for the stranger's

-Janus (my beloved) is a web avatar!! He keeps his snakey aesthetic but pulls in some spider stuff. Essentially he's Annabelle Cane but like. less of a bastard about it. He's less about outright lies here and more... half-truths. More manipulative. That doesn't mean he's evil- he's working to help the gang after all- but he is a Magnificent Bastard about it

heyyyy ive never really posted for this fandom so uh. does anyone want a sanders sides tma au?

[bammtoris]

“As the door shuts in his face he realizes two things. One, he was for sure in love with this beautiful, angry girl. Two, she hated him with a passion of 1,000 suns. Fortunately for her, he liked a challenge.”   

Teen Brightwell AU