#like spell slots recharging every fight

[sleebyjam]

My hot take about baldurs gate is that everything interesting about it is just stuff I'd rather play outer worlds or elder scrolls for, and everything that makes it different from those is just tedious and frustrating to me [OP CURRENTLY IN WITNESS PROTECTION FOR THIS POST]

[ganondoodle]

more totk rewritten thoughts

since the mastersword still breaks at the start even in my rewrite, its gotta get restored somehow, so i think i wanna be a little 'classic' about it;

you can find the broken mastersword in a cave system near hyrule castle, its very obvious so you are more likely to come across it and pick it up, it doesnt use up an inventory slot but gets its own just like it did in botw

once you find it zelda inspects it and decides you need to talk to probably purah or impa to determine if its savable, since while it got damaged before its way worse this time; you get told you should ask the deku tree about it (so theres an actual incentive to go to the forest of the krogs/koroks) and discover that its been corrupted

in the corrupted forest you can walk around in freely here, without the mist teleporting you around since the spell of the krogs/koroks isnt working anymore, the center is mostly the same as in canon

zelda detects bigger concentrations of miasma all around the forest, at each point she directs you to is a miniboss, in total there are 3, but while the trees in the forest start to grow leaves again after you defeat each of them (there are mostly to all barren in botw too so i thought that would be a cool thing to siginify the ground has been cleansed more now) the center and the dekutree are still corrupted, however the deku trees insides are now accessible, once you go down there there is a boss (main big one thats unique and not just phantom ganon, tho that WAS a cool moment in canon, im using phantom ganons as the guys you gotta fight for the memory tree thingies so it would be too much reuse u think) once you are done with the first phase it flees into the underground via burrowing down, you follow through the hole and theres phase two in an underground boss arena themed around roots .. since its in the roots of the dekutree still

afterwards the forest goes back to normal (just with the other trees more alive again) and the deku tree tells you to put the sword back into its good ol pedestal, while its not gonna be fortified against miasma it can restore the blade form, and due to you cleansing the forest and making it more healthier it will not take ages to do so

then you are left to your own devices again, but once you reach the middle point of the game, after fighting ganondorf for the first time (which also triggers the miasma memory tree thingies i made a concept of a while back) you can go back to the forest and get the mastersword back, its blade restored physically but it being still vunerable to miasma and has only little attack power

zelda has the idea of going to the springs to ask for a blessing for the sword, however the deku tree suggests to ask the three dragons for it instead (so if you havent tried it yet you are hinted to go and try an land on them, since you couldnt do that in botw, also reference to skyward sword and how the mastersword got to be) after each blessing it gets higher damage and durability; once you obtain all three it still does not seem to be where it should be

now here i am a little unsure about if i want zelda to bless it also (similar to how skysw zelda needed to bless it) or if you should bring it to the giant hylia statue in the forgotten temple

(for zelda it would be neat bc its both a reference and something more character connected, but also you where already hunting down the deku tree and the dragons for it so making you go yet somewhere else again seems a little much; i like the giant statue as a way to guide you there but then again i dont think you an incentive for literally every place)

(on a side note about link shiekah arm, it has a battery that recharges and you can upgrade, but i also thought about making it so you CAN push it past its battery but then it takes from your health instead - like the destroyer in the botw DLC, but slower- which eliminates the need for an equivalent of the lil zonau charges)

[grailfinders]

Grailfinders #343: Charlemagne

today on Grailfinders we’ve got a king so nice we made him twice, it’s Charlemagne, back at it again! this time he’s in D&D, so he’s a Devotion Paladin to be upstanding and noble but in a distinctly different way than the knights of the round, as well as a Hexblade Warlock to gain more power the cooler you are. we also dabble in Fighter just a bit so you can fight just as well one-handed as you can two, and also for a more joyeusse ordre, but we’ll get into that later.

check out his build breakdown below the cut, or his character sheet over here!

next up: GOOD GRIEF HE’S NAKED

Ancestry & Background

Charlie is obviously a Human, but he also has a riding skill so let’s give him a Mark of Passage, why not. that gives him +2 Charisma, +1 Strength, Courier’s Speed for an extra five feet of movement, and Intuitive Motion for a bonus d4 on all dexterity and land vehicle checks. on the magical side of things, you can cast misty step once a day for free for some Magical Passage, and you gain Spells of the Mark, adding a few extra spells to your paladin spell list- check those out in the character sheet for more info.

you are, of course, a Noble, giving you proficiency in History and Animal Handling bc we’re taking persuasion from your class. boom, riding skill complete and we’re not even one level in.

Ability Scores

first up, make your Charisma as high as you can- they go on and on about Chuck’s charisma in his bio, and it’ll take care of just about everything in this build eventually. after that is your Dexterity. if you’re going to do cool stuff, you need to not fall flat on your face afterwards. third is Strength, partly for multiclassing, partly so you can be a good knight even without your paladins backing you up. that means your Constitution is a bit lower than I’d like, but that’s why you have a targetable invuln. your Intelligence is neutral- I didn’t really have a lot to go on there, but your Wisdom is definitely in the negatives. you based your power on something as open-ended as “doing cool stuff”, and hanging out with astolfo and roland long enough would warp anyone’s common sense.

Class Levels

1. Paladin 1: you don’t have to be a paladin to be the king of them, but it certainly helps, especially since it gives you proficiency in Persuasion and Religion, as well as Wisdom and Charisma saves! demons love using those, so make sure to stock up!

you also get a divine sense, so you’ll see any demons coming, as long as you spend a resource every two turns to check. its not good, but you’re not using those resources for anything else, so why not? throw out a ping erry once in a while.

you can also lay on hands to help a pal(adin) out, providing a bit of healing when you slap someone! remember: if they’re about to take a dirt nap, give ‘em a bap. that’s the furioso way!

2. paladin 2: at second level you get great weapon fighting, letting you re-roll 1s and 2s on damage dice from two-handed weapons. you’re gonna see a lotta them real soon whenever you use your divine smite to add a bunch of radiant damage to your sword. of course those don’t come free! you gotta use your spell slots, and those only recharge on long rests! you also prepare spells each day, so you don’t have to worry about picking the exact right ones- we recommend gishy spells like expeditious retreat and jump from your mark spells, or smite-y spells like searing smite or divine favor! outside of his “do cool stuff to charge up” thing, chuckie’s a pr basic dnd paladin.

3. paladin 3: at third level your devotion to devotion makes you a devotion paladin! you add protection from evil & good and sanctuary to your spell list- neither of them are quite invulnerabilities, but they’re nice shields you can plop onto your allies or yourself if u want. you can also channel divinity, doing one cool thing a short rest, either making a sacred weapon or turning the unholy. the first turns your sword into a cool glowy sword for a minute, adding your charisma to its damage, shining light, and making it magical. the latter forces fiends and undead to run away for a minute if they fail a wisdom save! paladins are already pretty good at dealing with devils and zombies, but sometimes you get stuck in a crowd, yknow?

4. paladin 4: we wont need strength forever, but we do need it now, so bump up that with your first ability score improvement! now you hit things harder! yep… yeah that’s the whole level. you can keep reading on now.

5. Paladin 5: at fifth level paladins get an Extra Attack each action, as well as second level spells! your freebies are Lesser Restoration and Zone of Truth, though I also like your mark spell Misty Step. move so fast it’s like you’re teleporting! just be sure you let them know it’s nothin’ personnel, kid.

6. Paladin 6: sixth level paladins get an Aura of Protection, so everyone within 10’ of you gets to add your charisma bonus to every save they make! you’re so cool you make jumping out of the way of a fireball look easy!

7. Paladin 7: seventh level devotion paladins have an Aura of Devotion, so now nobody near you can get charmed either. so whatever’s going on with Astolfo and roland isn’t magic, I guess.

8. Warlock 1: speaking of those two, we need to make a deal with them to power up your sword, making you a Hexblade Warlock. when you strike this bargain, you can put a Hexblade’s Curse on someone nearby that lasts a minute, giving you bonus action on all damage rolls, all attacks crit on 19s and 20s, and when they die you regain HP. all for the cost of one bonus action once per short rest! if you know somebody’s tough you just have to put more effort into being cool, and suddenly you’re a lot stronger. you’re also a Hex Warrior now, so you can turn a one-handed or versatile weapon into your chosen weapon, letting you attack using your charisma instead of your strength.

finally, you get another round of Spells, with weird warlock slots to boot. you can cast paladin spells with these or vice-versa, but they don’t mix in terms of figuring out what levels you can cast at. Eldritch Blast is our noble phantasm, but we also get Sword Burst to do a cool trick like spinning, Expeditious Retreat to free up some paladin prep slots, and Comprehend Languages because I couldn’t really think of any other first level spells we need, and that’s a jesus-y sort of thing to have available.

9. Warlock 2: second level warlocks can use Eldritch Invocations to customize their class, so now you can Distort Value to make your armor shiny and gold, but you can also turn your eldritch blasts into Agonizing Blasts, adding your charisma bonus to each hit. (technically you get two invocations but we’re swapping one next level so don’t get too attached.)

as for why we made a cantrip our NP, it’s simple- thanks to agonizing blast, your hexblade’s curse, and a third thing we’re getting later, your NP will wildly change in damage potential depending on how hard you’re trying to fight something. right now you get a total of two lasers each turn, with each blast’s damage either dealing 1d10+3 or 1d10+7 damage, which is a pretty big swing.

10. Warlock 3: third level warlocks can pick their pact boon, and the Pact of the Blade is perfect for an up-and-coming paladin, letting you summon an extraplanar weapon as an action and make it any kind you like. thanks to the invocation Improved Pact Weapon, it’ll do extra damage each hit, and you can cast your spells through it! most DMs don’t really care about stuff like that, but if they do, it’s a godsend.

if you want even more swords to blast people with, you can summon a Cloud of Daggers now! …it’s bad! but it is thematic.

11. Paladin 8: eighth level paladins get another ASI, and it’s time we got holy. as a Scion of the Outer Planes (specifically the good ones) you get resistance to radiant damage and the ability to cast Sacred Flame using your charisma. we had good offense against the unholy, but now you have defense against the holy! why would being faithful give you that? there’s a couple theological implications there I’m not 100% comfortable dealing with, so let’s move on.

12. Paladin 9: ninth level paladins get third level spells so you’re now a Beacon of Hope, giving everyone you want within 30’ of you advantage on wisdom and death saves, plus maximized healing. you can also Dispel Magic for free, or remove curses! those aren’t in character, but you get one for free and the other’s practically a synonym. Crusader’s Mantle can turn the whole party in to paladins if you want tho

13. Paladin 10: tenth level paladins have an Aura of Courage, so now nobody near you gets scared. how can they be if you’re doing a sick kickflip ten feet away?

14. Paladin 11: eleventh level paladins get an Improved Divine Smite, so now it’s like every attack you make is at least a little bit smitey.

15. Paladin 12: our last level of paladin gets you the Righteous Heritor feat, rounding up your Charisma and the ability to protect your allies. when somebody nearby takes damage, you can react to reduce that damage proficiency times a day. there technically isn’t a debuff if you use it to protect yourself, but that’s not the knightly thing to do, y’know?

16. Fighter 1: it’s time for that secret third thing! well, almost. right now you get the Dueling fighting style so your sword is equally powerful one- or two-handed, and a Second Wind so you can heal yourself as a bonus action. again you could use your lay on hands, but that can be used for someone else too. you have to be greedy with this one.

17. Fighter 2: ok now you’ve got that secret third thing, and that’s Action Surge! now you can action on the same turn you’ve already actioned once a short rest! now you can shoot out 4-8 beams that deal 1d10+4 to 1d10+10 damage each! ultra swingy now

18. Warlock 4: fourth level warlocks get their own ASI, so max out that Charisma for the strongest… everything. just about everything we have uses charisma, and now yours is as high as it can go without literal divine intervention. good job!

also you can cast True Strike now if you feel like wasting a turn, or Suggestion to use your position of power for good. or evil. your own purposes, in any case.

19. Warlock 5: fifth level warlocks get third level spells, like Spirit Shroud, letting you add even more damage to every attack you make on someone within 10’ of you. is using a ranged attack on someone within 10’ smart? god no! but it gives you a chance for dramatic banter, which is cool!

also you can use your Sign of Ill Omen to bestow a curse on someone once a day using a warlock spell slot. curses are really versatile, but the reason we’re picking this up is to give someone disadvantage to hit you or an ally, which is one of the pre-given options for the spell.

20. Warlock 6: the sixth level of hexblade isn’t something we get to often, but since we’re already summoning swords we might as well summon the hands wielding them too. with your Accursed Specter, you can summon the spirit of a hero of the past (bc you just killed them) and they’re forced to help you out for the rest of the day. they get an extra 6 temporary HP, as well as a +5 bonus on all their attack rolls! so if you kill a level 20 fighter and combine this with your eldritch blasts, you can summon all 12 paladins in a single round! kinda!

also you can cast Tongues now, so you can talk to anyone you want! it's what god would want. if he hadn't knocked over that tower.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

having literally everything based off your Charisma is great, it let us pick up a bunch of cool feats without sacrificing any kind of power, and unlike most paladins you don’t have to choose between your magic being strong or your swordplay.

speaking of, thanks to that mono-stat stuff you’re super versatile in a fight, being able to dish out damage in melee or at range, or provide support and protection to other party members. being able to do a little bit of everything is never a bad thing.

speaking of support, just being around you is a huge bonus for squishier party members, and thanks to your mobility options you’re never that far away.

Cons:

and it’s a good thing you can move around easily, because your auras are tiny. when you combine that with you moving around the place all the time, odds are most of your party won’t be getting any aura buffs for most of the fight.

having warlock slots might give you more chances to smite, but it completely blocks you from upcasting spells, leaving you stuck with third level spells slots for the entire build. a lot of your damage comes from other sources, but a good smite crit is super cathartic, you know?

your ultimate attack has some major damage variance, and it’s only at its best once per short rest. you can call your shots, but you’re only going to get one chance per fight at best, so make it count. otherwise you can go from 8d10+8d8+88 damage to 4d10+20, which is a major missed opportunity.

[jaypea00101010]

Expanded Optional Class Features!

Over my time playing 5e there's a few small tweaks I've wanted to make to the core classes, below are just a few of the tweaks I personally use at my tables!

Below are optional class features for Barbarians, Clerics, Monks, Paladins, Rangers and Warlocks, with reasoning given for them all

Barbarian

Ancestral Rage

Rage stops barbarians casting spells, but that leaves races that get spells a little high and dry, not able to use their spells in most fights, this is intended to fix that. Nothing super crazy, but tiefling barbarians will have just a little more fun.

Unending Rage

The latest barbarian playtests have let barbarians use bonus actions to keep raging, and let them rage for 10 minutes. While I think this doesn't really work thematically, it made me realise Rage probably shouldn't be as limited either. Will this come up much, not really, but it's a little less tracking and it's more thematic.

Unshakeable Rage

Force damage is becoming a lot more common on higher CR monsters, so having resistance to it for barbarians is pretty important. It's a fix to the main problem I have with barbarians, like I spoke about in THIS tumblr post.

Cleric

Channel Divinity: Spirit Guardians

Once again this is a fix to my biggest problem with the class, I don't really think turn undead is thematic for all clerics, but I think the spirit guardians spell both is pretty thematic for all clerics (or can easily be reflavoured to be), and is such a must pick for the class, it should just be built in, so this does! Scales with your proficiency bonus so it'll stay useful at all levels, and frees up your third level slots for something else

Monk

Overflowing Ki

Monks need more ki points, and while this might look like it's giving them less at first, the recharge on this is a lot better, you might have less ki points overall, but you'll have all of them for all every combat

Perfect Flow

Similarly to overflowing ki, monks deserve a better capstone, so this is it, a constant flow of ki points, so you can always do what you need in a fight

Paladin

Swear Your Oath

Again a fix to my biggest problem with paladins. The source of sorcerers power is their subclass, so they get it at level 1, same with clerics and warlocks, so why not paladins? This feature, while not doing anything mechanical, helps the thematics of paladins immensely

Ranger

Mark Foe

Potentially the first part of a full ranger rework, rangers need a better feature than Favoured Enemy, and this is it. In an ideal world rangers would have a core class feature like this that subclasses could build off...... maybe....

Survivalist's Spellcasting

Another fix, rangers are the masters of the wilderness, they should be able to prepare for any situation.... but no, they're known casters, well no longer

Warlock

Eldritch Blast

The final fix I've spoken about before, it's such a must-have, that it just needs to be a class feature. Plus having it be a class feature means it doesn't scale with multiclassing which helps a lot (still not quite enough to stop hexblades, but I've got another fix there

Cunning Contract

Warlocks were int based in the D&DNext playtests, and they still absolutely make sense to be, so this just does that!

[fizzyorange-v2]

fuck I’ve gotta go to sleep now I have CLASSES but FUCK man lord forgive me for my gillion tidestrider fixation but that moment after the electrodon is dead (mostly at the expense of all gil’s smite and energy) and he’s helped pull chip out of its maw as it explodes and he’s swam to save jay and ollie and alphonse from drowning and he’s teleported or carried them all back to the sinking ship and he manages to use healing on them all despite the fact he’d used basically all his magic up killing the goddamn thing and he himself has only 2 hp remaining and alphonse doesn’t wake up. and alphonse doesn’t wake up.

that moment after the healing works on jay and ollie but alphonse doesn’t fucking wake up and gillion has used all his spell slots to kill the fucking beast and gillion only has 2 hp remaining and the ship gillion carried all of them back to is sinking sinking sinking and the healing isn’t fucking working on alphonse

and so gillion says tell me what’s wrong and i’ll fix it jay (jay what do you really want? and just tell me, so i can fight for it) and gillion will fix this (he will fight for this) he will find a way to heal his crew member tell me what’s wrong and i’ll fix it because surely gillion has broken enough things lately surely this can’t be something else that is beyond repair that gillion can’t fucking fix just like jay’s inventions just like the conch shell just like edyn’s distance-trust-faith in him just like the elder’s blessing and training and his whole damned prophecy it can’t and

so there he is about to start desperately ripping into alphonse’s wiring and then chip stops him.

chip interrupts, chip calls out gil! this ships going down is there something you can do about keeping us afloat—? and it’s this fucking moment. It’s this moment where gillion stands surrounded by his crew, his friends, his family; one of who still needs to be fixed, the others all no more than 5 hp from the brink, 2 of which only still breathing because he found more healing to give after using all of his magic to kill the beast that destroyed half of the ship that they stand on the ship that is home the ship that is still fucking sinking and chip with his single hp asks gillion to help keep them afloat and gillion stammers.

he stammers. this moment. you can see the panic and the stress and how overwhelmed he is how torn into billion directions he is because he’s the one they need to stop the ship from sinking but he’s also the only who can fix this (see: risk himself to “recharge” alphonse (no matter the fact he also only has 2 fucking hp)) and he can’t let alphonse sink either.

and god. this moment where chip asks gil to keep them afloat and gillion stammers and stutters and scrambles and hesitates even just for a few seconds, this moment, you can see played so clearly: it is and shows the true extent of the burden gillion bears. the true weight of the burden crashing down on him as he tries to be strong enough to carry it, to hold it all up, to hold them all up, to make sure no one sinks, to make sure they all stay afloat.

and in this moment as he stammers and doubts and fears i knew already he would fall back into old habits, the only way he was raised and trained, the only way he knows how to save everyone, how to bear it — by immediately sacrificing himself and hoping he’ll finally give give give enough to fix everything.

and who would’ve guessed. he doesn’t hesitate for a second more. off to be the literal conduit to save someone’s life he goes, as the ship keeps sinking sinking sinking behind him.

i hope for everyone’s sake it is enough, of course, because i adore alphonse (and so does every single person in that crew) and the idea of losing him is unbearable. of course i hope this fixes it, of course i hope this is somehow enough to shock the helmsman back to life. but i deeply fear what will happen to gil when one day, inevitably, he just doesn’t have enough to give and he can’t kill the beast in time and he can’t fix everything and he can’t save everyone and no amount of sacrifice is enough.

sometimes you can’t keep everyone afloat at once. sometimes you can’t hold an entire ship together with nothing but strength and will. sometimes you can’t just drown yourself to stop someone else from sinking.

[cagemasterfantasy]

Divine Soul Ranking (5e)

Guide

1=useless

2=often useful

3=sometimes useful

4=perfect

Divine Magic

Good 3 important in most parties but Healing Word is more frequently useful

Evil 2 beyond low levels the damage is poor the scaling is bad compared to many Sorcerer spells and getting into melee to use this is risky

Law 4 a fantastic buff at any level

Chaos 2 decent but difficult to rely upon and if you’re going to force Charisma saves you really want failure to be more meaningful than a small debuff. Still Bane may be a good way to burn through Legendary Resistance

Neutral 4 a fantastic defensive buff

Favored by the Gods 4 most features like this only grant 1d6 which has a lower average and is less reliable because it’s only a single die. This also recharges on a short rest making it a frequent and reliable defensive option

Empowered Healing 2 the problem with this ability is the problem with healing in combat. If you’re in a fight healing is rarely the best option. Death is easy to prevent in 5e and if you’ve got Healing Word you can get an ally back into the fight as a bonus action. Being massively injured isn’t much of an impediment so allies can limp around at 1 hp and still be perfectly effective. With the exception of Heal getting a creature back to full hit points should generally be reserved for healing out of combat. Once you’re out of combat and your action economy isn’t limited you usually don’t need to expend limited resources like spell slots to scrape together every last hit point. Sit down and spend some hit dice

Otherwordly Healing 4 Persistent flight is amazing at any level

Unearthly Recovery 3 this could be a lot of healing but by this level you probably know Heal

Final Ranking 4 if you can’t decide between playing a divine caster or an arcane caster play Divine Soul. Access to Cleric’s spell list allows you to combine some of the best spell options in the game allowing a single character to solve nearly any problem that can be solved using magic. Divine Soul’s biggest challenge is the inherent analysis paralysis imposed by fitting two spell lists into just 15 spells known. You simply can’t learn everything that you want to learn on 1 character. But that’s the guiding principle of Sorcerer you need to pick your favorites and use Metamagic to make those options work

[foldingfittedsheets]

A group of friends and I did a one shot recently in 5e. The catch is that they play something called “Dude Squad” where the only play “dudes” (not exclusively male people, just dude mentality) and they hate all magic and magic users. They think true strength is muscles and only muscles, and have in the past encountered magic users who they then convince to give up magic.

We got told to build a level 17 character for this one shot, most of the other folks had previous Dude Squad characters to resurrect. But I didn’t really want to play a straight martial class. In my heart, spellcasters are my true class, and I didn’t really have a strong idea of what kind of character to make.

So I approached the DM and said, “Hey, I have this idea to play a character that pretends to be a martial class but is actually a magic caster?” My girlfriends character is an aasimar who thinks he’s Thor and my backstory was that after meeting him and falling for him she decided to invest heavily in deceptive magic so as not to alienate him.

And my DM. Loved it. So he helped me build an extremely custom character. Two levels in Hexblade warlock gave her a good weapon and the ability to cast disguise self pretty much nonstop to appear buffer than she actually was.

Then there was four levels in Stone sorcerer in order to get 4 sorcery points, the ability to use those points to cast using Subtle Spell and no one could tell she’s casting, and to buff her AC.

Finally there was 11 Bladesong wizard levels in order to get some attack bonuses, even more AC, extra attacks, and the ability to burn spells to take less damage. We had a secret code we made up to cover my casting.

So the whole time I was burning spell slots to recharge my sorcery points every time I cast things like Haste and Spider Climb and use my Bladesong powers. We busted through walls and smashed our way through puzzles. We lied and said my character was a Barbarian/Monk so they didn’t bat and eye when she ran on walls with spider climb, but no one noticed when even after dashing she “held onto the stone wall” without any kind of check.

The final battle: the goblin wizard boss we were fighting had cast invulnerability on himself and had our friend mind controlled. So I’m trying to cover for not attacking as I try to dispel his invulnerability. I can no longer run on walls, or make the jumps my party is making on floating platforms over a spike pit so I try to use my actions on other helpful things like tying ropes for friends in the pit. I manage to dispel the magic on our friend but I burned almost all my spells trying to secretly dispel the boss’ spell and finally we just ended up grappling and suffocating him then pummeling him to death.

But at the last moment as we’re running out of this horrible goblin mansion I’m running down a wall and my friends are climbing down. The building says there’s 6 seconds left and my very injured love interest is not gonna make it so my character shouted “Fuckfuckfuck!” Ran over and cast dimension door to bring them both to safety. (Two people got left in the blast but both survived cause Dude Power). Then I critically failed my deception about how I had used magic and came clean and everyone lost their shit when they heard what we’d done. Her final confession, after dropping her buff disguise self, was, “When I met Kathor I really liked him and he freakin’ hates magic so I just kinda figured out how to hide that I was castin’ magic cause I though we might go to pound town.”

Kathor then declared, “I’ve never had someone try so hard to get in my pants!” And swept her up and they messily made out. It was deeply satisfying the wonders that DnD can create, like making a whole class based on the lie that you’re not spellcasting.

[cult-of-lilith]

A crown that contains fragments of souls who died clutching it and therefore contains some of their power. Or a staff of wild magic that should cast totally random spells but always seems to be much more helpful for women for some reason (many a wizard have figured out they're trans through the wild woman staff)

I love the crown of souls idea thats a brilliant one! The trans staffs is also an amazing idea but super complex

Crown of souls

(Wonderous item sentient artefact attunement)

An elaborate crown made of of unknown silver blue metal holding many gemstones of different cuts and hues leading to a random yet still alluring design. When worn the voices of every other wearer of the crown fight to be heard by the wearer and can be communicated with mentally.

-Once attuned attunement can only be removed if every soul housed in the crown agrees. Dying while attuned to the crown traps your soul within the crown only removable with divine intervention

-the souls within the crown have wills and opinions of their own but can be persuaded to help the owner perhaps providing proficiency with skills they knew in life

-a soul within the crown can willingly give up its power going dormant for 24h hours to recharge 1 spell slot per soul (so 2 souls for a lvl 2 slot) once per that 24 hours

I really like this idea so I might add more to it and maybe even use it in a campaign if I find a good spot for it

[thecreaturecodex]

Yongary

Image by Dope Pope, accessed at their ArtStation here

[I usually do my run of “monsters from movies” conversions in October, to coincide with Halloween. But I did Furtober last year instead. So I’m going to slot them into February, as a Valentines present to monster-loving folks. First up, a Korean kaiju! Yongary: Monster of the Deep is a weird movie in a number of ways. First, the original language version is lost, so you can only see it in its English dub--which is very strange in this day and age where every minor property gets super respectful treatment and 4K restorations (although there is a lovely Blu-Ray). As a ripoff primarily of Gamera, itself a ripoff of Godzilla and The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, it steals ideas and even shots in a somewhat haphazard way. It feels like cargo cult filmmaking. But it was a colossal hit in South Korea, and even got an official remake/reboot to cash in on the Matthew Broderick Godzilla, so clearly it struck a nerve in its home country.]

Yongary CR 20 N Magical Beast This creature looks roughly like an oversized dinosaur, bipedal with a reptilian snout, a few rows of short ridges along the back, and spikes on the tail. A single glowing horn grows from its nose.

A yongary is an immense burrowing creature, a relic from the ancient past. Some scholars believe they are related to behemoths, or perhaps kaiju, but they are decidedly more fragile than either. Although a yongary is difficult, if not impossible, to kill with conventional weapons, they are especially sensitive to poisonous substances, particularly organic toxins and venoms. As such, they eschew consuming organic matter for minerals and pure energy. They can eat fire, lightning and even magical force, and may come to the surface to bask in forest fires or lightning strikes.  They are also fond of music.

Yongaries are of animalistic intelligence, but occasionally will make bonds with small children, vulnerable-looking animals, and other creatures that rouse a parental instinct in the beast. These are likely to be oases of calm around its rampages, and yongaries are especially good at destroying standing structures. They seek to provoke firepower from other creatures in order to absorb its energy, and use their breath weapons to set large fires they can gain healing from. A yongary has a powerful ray that can cut between atoms, and they typically save this for targets able to actually injure them.

Yongary               CR 20 XP 307,200 N Colossal magical beast (earth) Init +5; Senses darkvision 120 ft., low-light vision, Perception +30, tremorsense 60 ft. Aura frightful presence (180 ft., Will DC 26) Defense AC 35, touch 4, flat-footed 33 (-8 size, +1 Dex, +31 natural) hp 387 (25d10+250) Fort +17, Ref +15, Will +21 DR 15/epic; Immune electricity, fire, force damage; SR 31 Defensive Abilities absorb energy, sensitive; Weakness vulnerable to poison Offense Speed 60 ft., burrow 40 ft. Melee bite +32 (4d6+15/19-20), 2 claws +32 (2d8+15), tail slap +30 (4d10+7) Ranged slice ray +18 touch (30d8 slashing) Space 30 ft.; Reach 30 ft. (20 ft. with claws) Special Attacks breath weapon (120 ft. line, 20d8 fire, Ref DC 31 half, 1d4 rounds), ruinous, trample (4d8+22, Ref DC 37) Statistics Str 41, Dex 13, Con 29, Int 2, Wis 25, Cha 19 Base Atk +25; CMB +48 (+50 bull rush, +52 sunder); CMD 60 (62 vs. bull rush, sunder) Feats Blind-fight, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Greater Sunder, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Critical (bite), Improved Initiative, Improved Sunder, Iron Will, Multiattack, Power Attack, Stand Still, Toughness Skills Perception +30, Swim +23 Ecology Environment any hills and underground Organization solitary Treasure none Special Abilities Absorb Energy (Su) A yongary is immune to fire, electricity and force damage. Whenever it would take damage from one of these energy types, it instead heals 1 hit point per 3 hit points of damage that would otherwise be dealt. Hit points in excess of its max hp are gained as temporary hit points that last for 1 minute or until expended. Ruinous (Su) A yongary’s natural attacks penetrate damage reduction as if they were epic and magic, and ignore up to 20 points of hardness on objects struck. As a swift action, whenever it strikes a creature or object with a spell effect in place, it can attempt to dispel one randomly determined spell effect on that creature as if with a greater dispel magic (CL 20th). Sensitive (Ex) A yongary’s good saving throws are Reflex and Will. Its poor save is Fortitude. Slice Ray (Su) As a standard action, a yongary can fire a ray of slashing energy. Treat this as a ranged touch attack with a range of 500 feet and no range increment. A creature or object struck takes 30d8 points of slashing damage that ignores all hardness and damage reduction. A successful DC 26 Fortitude save halves the damage. A yongary can use this ability once per day, but it recharges whenever it uses its absorb energy ability. The save DC is Charisma based. Vulnerable to Poison (Ex) A yongary suffers 150% damage from any poison effects that deal hit point or ability score damage, or ability score drain.

[vecna-official]

I've put together a dungeon before and I wanted to know what you found cool in them so that I could think about that. (Mostly been a dm until now and want to encourage mine to feel good about how they're doing.

Well I’ve never had a chance to really play through a dungeon due to the Curse, and honestly for all that they’re in the name of the game, I believe they (in much the same manner as the dragons in the name) are meant to be used quite sparingly or risk losing their appeal, so I haven’t run full dungeons too often.

Here’s a few things I think about dungeons.

If used sparingly, they’re allowed to be a tedious murder hole. Not to the level of Tomb of Horrors because that dungeon is just random cryptic “you die now” bullshit. But you can make them fight for every inch, you can deny them chances to rest, as long as it’s done infrequently and the payoff is significant.

If you’re doing frequent dungeons, they really shouldn’t be a grind, just like if you do a ton of dragon fights the dragons shouldn’t fly out of reach and only swoop down to use their breath weapon on recharge, which is cool and terrifying the first time and then a pain in the ass on any subsequent dragon fights.

Dungeons should match the aesthetics of things living in them. The goblin den I ran last week was a tunnel full of crudely-made but dangerous traps, if I ran a beholder lair it would all be alien architecture and slime, etc.

I vastly prefer traps to puzzles, for a few reasons:

I hate my players (this is a joke, I love them so much <3)

I love suffering (this is true)

Traps drain resources, puzzles don’t. If you don’t want your dungeon boss to be nova’d, you gotta bleed em a bit first. Damage translates to healing spells, which leads to less spell slots.

Traps make more sense from a base design standpoint. Why trust the big riddle door to keep them out more effectively than a hallway that can be collapsed on the invaders.

Making puzzles is hard, and if you borrow them from somewhere else, they don’t always fit aesthetically

While traps are annoying, getting stuck on a puzzle for an hour is worse.

I really can’t say what I find cool about dungeons as a player because I’m not one (see aforementioned Curse). IMO, dungeons are meant to vex, torment, and bloody your players so that they can’t turn the boss into raw meat on the first turn of combat. D&D is built around 6-8 encounters a day, and dungeons provide those where wilderness can’t do so as believably.

[occidentalavian]

The Mighty Nein at Level 11.

Now that it’s been about 10 episodes since they leveled up, it’s time to start looking forward to what comes next!

All spellcasters

All spellcasters’ (Caduceus, Caleb, Fjord, Jester, and Nott) damaging cantrips have been buffed! For most, this means dealing an additional damage die. Each character’s cantrips are detailed below.

Beauregard

At 11th level, Beau gains another ki point (up to 11 now), her monk training allows her to hit harder, her Martial Arts damage die increasing to a d8, and her Slow Fall ability can now negate up to 55 damage from falling! Additionally, by following the way of the Cobalt Soul, her Mystical Erudition allows her to learn an additional language and gain proficiency in another Intelligence skill. Alternatively, she could choose the skill she took at 3rd level (I believe it was History) and gain expertise (double proficiency) with that skill. Finally, Beau has achieved a Mind of Mercury, allowing her to spend 1 ki point to take an additional reaction once per turn! Note, this is once per every creature’s turn, not just her own!

Caduceus and Jester

At 11th level, Caduceus’ and Jester’s cantrips deal more damage. for example, Jester’s Toll the Dead now deals 3d8/3d12 necrotic damage, and Caduceus’ Sacred Flame now deals 3d8 + 5 radiant damage! They also both gain access to 6th-level spells and their first 6th-level spell slot! Additionally, Both of their Channel Divinity: Destroy Undead now destroys undead up to CR 2! This includes creatures like ghasts, minotaur skeletons, ogre zombies, poltergeists, and will-o-wisps!

Caleb

At 11th level, Caleb’s Firebolt cantrip now deals 3d10 fire damage, and his Produce Flame cantrip deals 3d8 fire damage. He also learns  two wizard spells of his choice. Most importantly, he gains access to 6th-level spells and his first 6th-level spell slot!

Fjord

At 11th level, Fjord’s Eldritch Blast now creates 3 beams when he casts it, and his Booming Blade now deals 2d8 thunder damage on a hit, and 3d8 thunder damage when the target willingly moves! As the first multiclasser of the Mighty Nein, Fjord has a few options, as detailed below:

As a 2nd level Paladin, Fjord gains access to a Fighting Style, choosing from Defense, Dueling, Great Weapon Fighting, and Protection. Fjord also gains two 1st-level spell slots, and can now prepare paladin spells. He can also cast any 1st level warlock spells he has with his 1st-level paladin slots, and vice versa with his any of his paladin spells and his 5th-level warlock slots. Most importantly, Fjord gains Divine Smite, allowing him to spend a spell slot and deal 2d8 + 1d8 per level above 1st radiant damage when hits with a melee weapon attack. Note: Fjord can use his 5th level warlock slots (which recharge on a short rest!) to deal 5d8 radiant damage!

Alternatively, Fjord could tap into that scar of darkness and take a 10th level in Warlock. At 10th level, Fjord learns another cantrip. As a Hexblade, Fjord also gains Armor of Hexes. If the target of his Hexblade’s Curse hits him with an attack, he can use a reaction to roll a d6, and if he rolls a 4, 5, or 6 (50% chance), the attack instead misses. Even if it was a critical hit!!

Nott

At 11th level, Nott’s seldom used Shocking Grasp cantrip now deals 3d8 lightning damage. More importantly though, Nott’s Sneak Attack damage dice increases to 6d6! By this point, she’s also developed a Reliable Talent. When Nott makes an ability check with any skill or tool she’s proficient with, a d20 roll of 9 or lower is now a 10. Even with disadvantage!! As an Arcane Trickster, she also learns a wizard spell from the enchantment or illusion schools. Finally, her goblin Fury of the Small bonus damage increases to +11.

Yasha

At 11th level, Yasha becomes even harder to kill thanks to her Relentless Rage. If she drops to 0 hit points and isn’t killed outright, she can make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw to fall to 1 hit point instead. Each time after the first, the DC increases by 5, resetting to 10 after a short or long rest. Additionally, as an aasimar, her Healing Hands now heal 11 hit points.

[grailfinders]

Grailfinders #344: Roland

today on grailfinders we’re building Roland, the famously stripperiffic paladin who isn’t actually all that stripperiffic. like. taking most of your shirt off is not naked, lasengle. if you could put zenobia in fgo and keep your t rating you can have a guy be proper shirtless.

gripes aside, Roland is a Vengeance Paladin, because… he’s a paladin. he’s actually not all that vengeful, but when he chooses violence he goes all in. he’s also a Berserker Barbarian because he famously fights without armor on and famously doesn’t make many wisdom saves.

check out his build breakdown below the cut, or his character sheet over here!

next up: she’s no saint Olga, but her revenge is pretty good.

Ancestry and Background

Roland is, pretty obviously, a Human, but he’s getting the variant treatment so we can stuff in more goodies. that gives you +1 Strength and +1 Dexterity, as well as proficiency in Survival, and the feat “Strike of the Giants”! I promise this one won’t be as weird as the bunyan build. with the Hill Strike, you can deal an extra d6 of whatever damage type your weapon normally does, up to proficiency times a day. see? not an ounce of extraneous fire in sight.

he’s also a Knight, so he gets proficiency in History and Persuasion: knights! they’re nobles with less money!

Ability Scores

your number one ability should be Strength. if you’re going to go on a rampage you need to be able to leave a wake of destruction in your path so people can follow it- that’s like, basic etiquette. second is Constitution. if you’re going around without armor on, you need to be ready to take some hits. speaking of, third is Dexterity. you should try to avoid those hits where you can. that means your Charisma is a bit low, though it would only get in the way in this build tbh. your Intelligence is middling, but we’re dumping Wisdom. you’re really bad at not being charmed.

Class Levels

1. Paladin 1: at first level, paladins get proficiency in Wisdom and Charisma saves, as well as skills like Athletics and Intimidation. you’re not that persuasive, but if a naked dude was running around with a sword most people would stay clear.

you also start off with Divine Sense, letting you detect nearby extraplanar beings a few times a day, and Lay on Hands to heal yourself or others, which also recharges every day.

2. Paladin 2: second level paladins learn a Fighting Style, and while Two-Handed is great for paladins since you can re-roll bad damage, Roland uses a longsword so you could pick up Dueling if you want more stable damage.

you also learn some Spells this level that you can prepare and cast with your Charisma but Imma be honest Roland don’t care. just use them for Divine Smites- that’s extra radiant damage you deal by burning a spell slot after you hit.

3. Paladin 3: though if you really want a spell to use I have to say the Vengeance specialty Hunter’s Mark is a great choice, adding extra damage every time you land a hit on a specific target, and even letting you swap after the first one dies. also Bane is there but who cares so are smites.

your Divine Health means you can’t get sick, but you can get sicknasty Channel Divinity options. Abjure Enemy is the more peaceful option, forcing one creature to run away from you for up to a minute. on the other hand, a Vow of Enmity forces advantage on all your attacks against a specific creature for up to a minute. choose wisely though, you only get one use of either per short rest.

4. Paladin 4: sadly we do need our charisma above a certain point to multiclass, so I guess we’ll use this Ability Score Improvement to bump it up.

5. Paladin 5: fifth level paladins get an Extra Attack every action, and if you were of the spell-using variety you could use a second level spell like Hold Person to get guaranteed critical hits on every attack you make for stupid damage. also Misty Step is here.

you know what, I’m getting bored. let’s go insane and run into the woods.

6. Barbarian 1: the first thing we get- or lose- as a barbarian is our clothes thanks to Unarmored Defense, adding your constitution bonus to your AC as long as you aren’t wearing any kind of armor. I know Roland “technically” has armor on in some ascensions, but it never covers any vital organs so it’s fine. also, twice a day you can drop your sanity off at Hydaelyn’s daycare to Rage as a bonus action, giving you advantage on strength checks and saves, bonus damage when you’re using a strength-based weapon (swords are, don’t worry), and resistance to all physical damage for up to a minute, so long as you keep attacking or taking damage every turn.

7. Barbarian 2: as it turns out, removing your sanity also removes the part of your paladin oath that makes you wait a short rest to vow enmity, because now you can get advantage on attacks for practically free! with Reckless Attack, you can just have advantage on all your melee attacks that turn, for the low, low cost of giving everything else advantage to hit you that round.

on the plus side, your Danger Sense gives you advantage most of your dexterity saves.

8. Barbarian 3: we’re almost halfway through the build, I think this olifant’s been delayed enough, don’t you? thankfully we don’t need a real horn that does anything, just a button that says “make this fight easier but also hurt me.” thankfully for us, the Berserker subclass has us covered thanks to their Frenzy skill. with this you can optionally enter a special rage that lets you make a bonus action attack each turn. aside from the turn you start raging, of course. the downside is you gain a level of Exhaustion every time you use this, a status effect that only subsides when you take a long rest.

if you’d rather talk about something that’s all upsides, your Primal Knowledge gives you proficiency in Animal Handling.

9. Barbarian 4: fourth level barbarians get their own ASI, and now that we solved the emergency multiclassing situation we can finally grab the Vigor of the Hill Giant, adding +1 to your Strength score and letting you react to an attack that would push you or knock you over to just. not let that happen. and of course the reason I wanted this feat was that it gives you an Iron Stomach, so now you can eat bird eggs like they’re nothing. (mechanically, it adds your constitution modifier and proficiency bonus to any healing done on short rests if you eat during it)

10. Barbarian 5: extra attacks don’t stacks, so you only get Fast Movement this level. still, ten feet of movement is ten feet of movement. that’s why they call him the streak- fastest thing on two feet!

11. Paladin 6: sixth level paladins get an Aura of Protection, adding your charisma modifier to every save you and nearby allies make. sadly this also gets added to your wisdom saves, but your charisma isn’t that high, so it’s not that big a deal.

12. Paladin 7: seventh level vengeance paladins are Relentless Avengers, so whenever you hit a creature with an opportunity attack you can chase after the poor bastard using half your movement, all without triggering any opportunity attacks on you!

13. Paladin 8: eighth level paladins get another ASI, so round up your Strength and add one to your Dexterity, a secret tool that will help us later.

14. Paladin 9: ninth level paladins get third level spells. while we mostly just want more smites, you get Haste for free, and since it doubles your already great movement speed you can easily keep up with just about anyone thanks to how relentless you are. also you could use Protection from Energy if you don’t want your ass getting set on fire. I’m not just being crass there, if you’re running around nude all sorts of body parts are at risk when you fight dragons. same reason you have to wear an apron while cooking bacon.

15. Paladin 10: tenth level paladins have an Aura of Courage, so you and your other paladins can’t be frightened when they’re near you. tbh I think that’s just generally how the twelve paladins are, but having a mechanical reason to back you up never hurt.

16. Paladin 11: eleventh level pallies get an Improved Divine Smite, adding 1d8 radiant damage to every melee attack regardless of you using a spell slot or not! it even stacks with the usual smites you do! Roland can really spam his NP, so now it’s always at least a little on.

17. Paladin 12: speaking of doing damage, let’s do more damage! use your last ASI to grab the Slasher feat, rounding up your Dexterity, slowing down one creature you slash at per turn, and if you land a crit you can force that creature to attack at disadvantage for a round. it’s not quite invincibility, but it’ll help out a lot.

18. Paladin 13: we’re almost done with spells, but first you get fourth level spells including the freebies Banishment and Dimension Door. and for once, we do want a spell again! durendal can ignore invincibility, so you can use banishment to destroy just about any creature, no matter how durable it is. of course if it came from the material plane this doesn’t stick, but it might help you out of a jam here and there.

19. Paladin 14: your Cleansing Touch lets you remove debuffs from yourself just like your second skill, two times a day.

20. Paladin 15: fifteenth level avengers have a Soul of Vengeance, letting you make opportunity attacks even more often. if the person you use your vow of enmity attacks while within range, you can react to hit them back! your whole kit is about hitting things, so any excuse to use it is welcome.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

you hit hard, and hit often. sure you’re not running around with four attacks a turn like a fighter, but you’re almost as good thanks to your two attacks on an action, plus one from frenzy, and probably plus one from an opportunity attack, so… let’s call it three and a half, that’s respectable. and of course you can slap a smite on every one of those bad boys to really lay on the damage.

even with a weaker charisma than most paladins, your aura of protection still makes your saves pretty dang good. even wisdom, which we were deliberately trying to kneecap, has a nice +7 bonus. basically, attacking you indirectly probably won’t do much.

berserkers live and die by how well they can keep their rages going, and as a vengeance paladin, you’re pretty dang consistently raging. with your increased speed and slasher slowing them down, anyone trying to get away from you will have their work cut out for them.

Cons:

we got you a bonus in Dexterity, but it would’ve been better in Constitution. you would’ve kept the AC you have now, but have gotten an extra 20 HP to help out- I just liked how your current total is 169, sue me. so yes, this build is slightly squishier than the “optimal” version of it.

I don’t like how good your wisdom saves are. this is technically a plus, but Roland’s whole thing is bad wisdom, so I’m counting it. you could easily fix this by just starting as a barbarian, but I figured he was a knight before losing his mind.

you don’t have a ton of variety in combat, both in terms of attacks and damage types. just hope you don’t have to fight any angels or valkyrie.

[thevalleyisjolly]

What the Taste Buds Had Left: A Crown of Candy PVP Scenario

[THIS POST IS ALL SPOILERS FOR A CROWN OF CANDY’S SEASON FINALE]

Like many fans, I was relieved that the last episode of A Crown of Candy did not end in PVP.  Like many fans, I was also a little excited to see how a PVP would have played out.  Now, obviously we can’t reliably predict any outcomes.  There’s always roleplay and player agency, to say nothing of dice rolls, so even the most likely outcome is never guaranteed.  However, we can look at the circumstances of each character going into a theoretical PVP, and potentially how that might affect their performance.  

First, a huge thanks to Kyber Bonsai, Tillie the Paladin, and gluegunshots, who put together the transcripts for Episodes 16 and 17 on the D20 wiki!  The transcripts were my main resource in gathering data, and saved me a lot more time and effort than if I had to go through the episodes, pausing every five seconds.  Thank you for your invaluable work in making D20 more accessible!  Thank you also to the D20 wiki editors!  Most of the stats and information about magical items came from the character pages on the wiki, so thank you for your hard work!  Thank you to Samir Barrett (@sketchmasterskillz), whose amazing official art for ACOC is included below.  And a quick shoutout to the folks at CritRoleStats, whose pre-combat “What Do The Mighty Nein Have Left” posts inspired my own efforts here.

Data Collection

The data reflects the current HP and remaining abilities of each character at the point when Saccharina and Ruby make their decisions.  Data collection began with the first spell slot used in Episode 16 (a 2nd level Pass Without a Trace from Liam before the battle started), and ended with Calroy’s death.  I focused on HP and limited-use abilities such as spell slots and magical items.  

For the sake of brevity, I have chosen not to include in this post every single class feature that each character has, and have instead highlighted limited-use abilities.  Unless otherwise stated, assume the character has access to their regular class and sub-class features.  Most of the class features that I’ve omitted can be found in the standard 5th edition Player’s Handbook, and the D&D 5e wiki contains the information for additional subclasses.  I’ve also assumed that apart from magical items and Lou’s Great Weapon Master feat, no homebrew edits have been made.

For magical items, I’ve elected not to describe every single magical ability, except those with particular homebrew features (e.g. Payment Day, Swirlwarden).  All magical weapons are +1 weapons (except Payment Day, which is +2).

While I was able to determine max HP for most of the characters going into the final battle, I was not able to determine Saccharina’s, as she did not take any damage in the fight, nor in the episode after she levelled up.  At Level 9, her HP max was 58.  She has an unknown Constitution modifier.  If Emily followed the Player’s Handbook when building Saccharina, Constitution would be her second highest score as a sorcerer.  Whether or not Constitution is her second highest ability score, I think it’s safe to assume that Saccharina would not have a negative modifier, giving us a range from +0 to +4 (I’m assuming she does not have a Constitution of 20).

Given those factors, we can estimate her Level 10 HP to be between 59 and 68.  She already had her two levels of cleric when we met her, so every level up since then has been sorcerer levels.  Sorcerers have a d6 hit die, so the lowest increase she could potentially have is +1 (1 + 0 CON mod) and the highest increase is +10 (6 + 4 CON mod).  Since she has healing spells, her exact HP doesn’t matter too much unless it comes to very high damage from a single attack (à la Lapin and Keradin), which it could, but that’s impossible to predict.  Suffice to say that for the purposes of this scenario, Saccharina has full health.

And now, on to the fun stuff!

Saccharina - Storm Sorcerer 8, Tempest Cleric 2

[ID: The official art for Saccharina Frostwhip by Samir Barrett @sketchmasterskillz. Saccharina has green skin and a neapolitan mohawk.   She wears a silver tiara, a blue-green outfit dotted with dark spots and a light brown front panel, a white cloak, chocolate pauldrons with cherries on the shoulders, and waffle shinguards.  She holds a spoon-shaped staff in one hand which crackles with lightning energy, and her other hand outstretched to the side also crackles with lightning energy. She stands with a confident posture, and is looking to the side with hooded eyes and a smile.]

HP: Full (between 59-68 HP) AC: 20 Remaining Spell Slots: 1st level (4), 2nd level (2), 3rd level (1), 4th level (3) Sorcery Points: 5/8 Luck Points: 2/3

Feats: War Caster, Lucky

Magical Items Winterscoop Staff: 0 remaining charges; resistance to cold damage Freezerburn: Magical sword

Cinnamon HP: 65/178 Breath Weapon: Unknown

Cinnamon was one of Saccharina’s greatest assets in the battle.  Thanks to the enemy soldiers targeting Cinnamon with their attacks, Saccharina ends the battle with full health and most of her resources.  While both her 5th level spells are gone and the Winterscoop Staff is out of charges, she still has a good number of higher level spells, as well as access to healing spells.  There is the caveat that depending on how long it took between the end of the battle and the start of the PVP, the Haste spell she cast on Cinnamon in Round 4 of the battle may wear off (the battle ended during Round 11).  If it wears off before PVP starts, Cinnamon can still attack on her turn.  If it wears off during a round of PVP, he is stunned for a round, which could prove decisive.

In a PVP, Cinnamon could once again be her greatest asset, provided he is not stunned.  While it isn’t clear whether or not his breath weapon recharged after its last use in the battle, he’s still a large enough threat with his HP and melee attacks that an attacker would most likely focus on downing him first.  Lou revealed in the Adventuring Party’s for Episodes 16 and 17 that he’d been tracking Cinnamon’s HP and that in the case of PVP, he’d eliminate Cinnamon first to try and deescalate the situation.  Given that Amethar is one of the characters who could drop Saccharina to 0 in one turn (depending on her HP), this may give Saccharina the round advantage she needs to bring down Amethar first.

Lou was absolutely correct in identifying Saccharina as his biggest immediate threat (other than Cinnamon, of course).  With a 4th level Lightning Bolt and a Channel Divinity to deal maximum damage, Saccharina could easily drop Amethar at his current HP to 0 with one attack if he fails his save.  In fact, despite having the lowest max HP of the party, Saccharina is easily one of the most dangerous PCs, thanks to Emily’s excellent build.  With a 20 AC, a spell save DC of 17, and her levels in cleric, it would take a massive single attack to pose an immediate serious threat to her.  However…

Ruby - Arcane Trickster Rogue 9, Shadow Magic Sorcerer 1

[ID: The official art for Ruby Rocks by Samir Barrett @sketchmasterskillz.  Ruby has pink skin and red locks of hair tied back into a high tail.  She wears a jewelled red tiara, an all-red outfit with puffed sleeves, and curved toe black shoes.  She is standing partially crouched, with her hands before her in fists, and looking to the side with a focused expression.]

HP: 55/78 AC: 17 Remaining Spell Slots: 1st level (4), 2nd level (3)

Feats: Squat Nimbleness, Magic Initiate

Magical Items Sour Scratch: Grasping Arrow (once/long rest), Acid Arrow (once/long rest) Flickerish: Shield (once/day), 1d6 Superiority Die (Disarming Attack) Locket of the Sweetest Heart: Advantage on death saving throws if other locket is within 5’ Water-steel Dagger: Imposes three conditions requiring saving throws - extra damage, poisoned condition, prevents target from speaking

Ruby has been very strategic throughout the battle, saving her spells and limited abilities for a potential PVP at the end.  The battle has taken out a chunk of her health, only about a third, but enough to put her in danger if she takes an attack from Cinnamon or Saccharina.  As a rogue, she does have Evasion and Uncanny Dodge, which could allow her to mitigate some of the damage from such an attack, although she would still be brought down low and could potentially go down at the next attack.

Of the six PCs, Ruby is one of the best placed when it comes to her resources and abilities.  She has all her spell slots, and full access to all her class abilities.  In particular, as a first level Shadow Magic sorcerer, Ruby has the feature Strength of the Grave.  If damage from a non-critical and non-radiant hit reduces her to 0, she can make a Charisma saving throw (DC = 5 + damage taken) to instead drop to 1 HP.  Paired with the Locket of the Sweetest Heart (if Liam is nearby and on her side), this provides her with a little more wiggle room if she drops to 0.

Rogues in general are very versatile.  Most of their class features are not limited use, and can be used in a variety of situations.  For a partial caster, she doesn’t have very many damage-dealing spells, but her hefty weapon arsenal compensates for that, with Sour Scratch, Flickerish, and the Water-steel Dagger all having considerable abilities and also meeting the requirements for a Sneak Attack weapon.  As we saw with Ciabatta, 5d6 Sneak Attack paired with the Water Steel Dagger is a deadly combination.  Ruby also has Yak, who can grant her advantage on an attack or check.  She may not be as openly formidable as Amethar, but she is just as dangerous in many ways.

Amethar - Storm Herald Barbarian 5, Battle Master 5

[ID: The official art for Amethar Rocks by Samir Barrett @sketchmasterskillz.  Amethar has pink skin and a green beard.  He wears a jewelled crown of purple and gold, an elaborate outfit of striped red and purple, a purple suit of armour and boots, a furred purple cloak, gold vambraces, and various jewels decorate the ensemble.  He holds Payment Day, a gold-coloured sword with an enormous blade, in his hand, and has a strong stance with a serious expression on his face.]

HP: 48/116 AC: 17 Rages: 2 Superiority Dice: 2

Feats: Great Weapon Master (modified - roll +2d6 damage instead of flat +10)

Magical Items Payment Day: Extra damage die against creature who hit you in the previous round; if you roll a Natural 20 against a creature who has killed a member of your family, they must make a constitution saving throw (DC 16) or be killed

Amethar has been in the thick of battle, getting the kills on Grissini and Calroy, which is reflected in his HP (under half of his total).  However, he has not used his Second Wind yet, which could give him the boost he needs to withstand a round of attacks from Saccharina and Cinnamon.  While he’s already used up his Action Surge, he still has two attacks per round, and if anyone kills Ruby, Payment Day’s special ability could come through once again.

By design, high level barbarians are really difficult to kill, and Amethar’s levels in fighter make him even more scarily efficient in dealing damage.  Rage halves any bludgeoning, slashing, or piercing damage, which effectively makes Saccharina and Cinnamon the only ones who can consistently deal full damage to him, since Liam has used up almost all his magical attacks.  Unless Saccharina or Cinnamon deal significant damage in the early rounds of combat, Amethar is unlikely to go down until the end.

Having said that, Amethar is such an obvious threat that from a purely mechanical perspective, it makes sense for all the other characters to focus on him (à la Critical Role’s Battle Royales where nearly all the players focused on Grog).  Ruby can be very deadly in her own right, but she’s not going to present the same immediate danger as someone who doesn’t take full damage from an attack.  If Amethar tanks and absorbs attacks from other PCs, this could give Ruby leeway to either get her own attacks in or to make an escape.

Theo - Eldritch Knight Fighter 10

[ID: The official art for Sir Theobald Gumbar by Samir Barrett @sketchmasterskillz.  Theo is a red gummy bear with big white moustache.  He wears an entire suit of golden plate armour and a golden helmet, with a purple sash and a red cloak.  He holds a purple lollipop shield in one hand, and a sword shaped like an orange popsicle in the other.  He stands at attention, with a focused expression on his face.]

HP: 116/140 AC: 21 Remaining Spell Slots: 1st level (2), 2nd level (2)

Feats: Heavy Armor Master, Tough, Alert

Magical Items Battlepop: Compelled Duel (once/day) Swirlwarden: Use reaction to move up to 30’ and take attack meant for ally

Yeah, you read right.  Theo’s HP max is 140, with an AC of 21 (I had to calculate this three times because I couldn’t believe it).  His current HP is equal to Amethar’s total max HP.  Theo may not be a barbarian, but he’s not going down any time soon.  He’s also been fairly conservative with his abilities, leaving him with the majority of his spell slots, as well as his Action Surge.  He also has a good list of cantrips, notably Blade Ward (resistance against bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage until the end of his next turn) and Green Flame Blade (1d8 + spellcasting ability modifier fire damage to target w/in 5 feet).  And of course, he has Princess to give him Help on attacks and checks (Find Familiar is so, so useful).

As Murph remarked in the finale, Theo doesn’t do what the other characters do, which is deal lots of damage.  As Brennan subsequently remarked, Theo doesn’t do that because what Theo does do is not get hit by attacks.  One of Theo’s potential roles in this hypothetical PVP scenario is to tank in the action economy.  Like Amethar, he’s a big threat because he’s difficult to down.  Thanks to the feature War Magic, he can cast cantrips as an action and make a weapon attack as a bonus action, so if he casts Blade Ward on himself each turn, he essentially becomes a foil to Amethar.  If Amethar and Ruby focused their attacks on trying to down Theo, this could allow his allies the breathing space they need to heal or make their own attacks.

In Lou’s strategy that he discussed in the final Adventuring Party, he placed Theo as the last on Amethar’s kill order.  While his order of kills is heartbreaking from a roleplaying perspective, it’s a very astute calculation.  Given his build, Theo is likely to be one of the last characters left standing, if not the last.  Even if he consistently uses Swirlwarden to tank damage for his allies, his considerable HP makes him unlikely to drop anytime soon, short of some really impressive damage rolls.  Amethar could try and team up on Theo with Ruby to bring him down to more manageable health, but that would leave them open to other attacks.  Murph really went a 110% in making Theo a bodyguard, and honestly, good for him, it’s what he deserves.

Liam - Gloomstalker Ranger 6, Assassin Rogue 4

[ID: The official art for Liam Wilhelmina by Samir Barrett @sketchmasterskillz.  Liam has pink skin, a red nose, rosy cheeks, and short dark red hair.  He wears pink overalls, a red and white striped shirt, red boots and gloves, and a red and white hat.  He carries a large pack containing a bed roll and a lantern, and has a quiver of arrows and a book attached to his belt.  He is mid stride, looking down at his feet with a neutral expression.  A small pig with peppermint stripe markings trots beside him, wearing a purple collar with the letter “P” and looking up at Liam with a happy expression.]

HP: 77/90 AC: 16 Remaining Spell Slots: None

Feats: Crossbow Expert, Sharpshooter

Magical Items Crossbow: Bursting Arrow (once/day - used), Ice Knife (once/day) Locket of the Sweetest Heart: Advantage on death saving throws if other locket is within 5’ Seed of Change: ???

First, props to Ally for their roleplaying!  Most of the characters going into the battle anticipated a possible PVP at the end and saved their resources, but in-game, no one told Liam the full —or even half— story.  This means Liam did not have any reason to hold back during the final battle, which is exactly how Ally played him.  Liam used up all of his spell slots during the battle, as well as the Bursting Arrow feature on his crossbow, leaving him with his crossbow’s Ice Knife feature as his sole magical attack.

However, Liam is still a force to be reckoned with.  He still has two attacks each turn, and he’s absolutely deadly in the first turn of combat, where Dread Ambusher gives him a bonus to initiative roles, and Assassinate gives him advantage against any creatures who haven’t taken a turn in combat yet, with any hit on a surprised creature being a critical hit.  Dread Ambusher also gives him a bonus 10 feet of movement in his first round, and an extra attack with a bonus 1d8 damage if it lands.  He also has 2d6 Sneak Attack, which paired with his other features, means that Peppermint Batman’s still got a few tricks up his sleeve.

From a roleplay perspective, Liam is the biggest unknown here.  While he told Theo that he would protect Saccharina, that was without knowing the full story, and without being in the circumstances of an actual PVP battle.  Ally’s WiFi cut out during the Adventuring Party when the cast discussed what they would have done in a PVP, which means we don’t know for certain who Liam would have sided with.  If he defends Saccharina, that increases her numbers advantage.  If he sticks with Ruby and Amethar, this potentially tilts the combat in their favour with another big damage dealer.  He’s in a good place with his HP, which means he’s unlikely to go down soon, but he’s also got the lowest AC in the party.  Who knows what might happen?

(Let’s be honest, Ally rolls a narrative nat 20 that results in something unbelievable, unpredictable, and world-altering happening.  They are too powerful, and cannot and should not be stopped)

Cumulous - Long Death Monk 10

[ID: The official art for Cumulous Rocks by Samir Barrett @sketchmasterskillz.  Cumulous has blue skin and poofy light pink hair.  He wears a pink outfit similar to a sleeveless gi with pants, a purple belt, and purple arm and leg wraps.  He holds a white staff in his hand.  Swirls of pink cloud come off of him.  He is mid action pose, with his legs in a mid-dash position and one of his hands brought forwards in a fist.  He looks to the side with a focused, stern expression on his face.]

HP: 85/85 + 6 temp HP AC: 18 Remaining Ki Points: 4/10

Feats: Mage Slayer

Magical Items Fluffwind: Whirlwind Stance; triples long jump; Gaseous Form (once/day)

While not the absolute juggernaut that Theo is, Cumulous is best placed of all the characters in regards to HP, with full health and 6 temp HP remaining from killing a Meatlander.  Although monks in general are not going to see the same staggering amounts of damage as other classes, and are more of a support martial class, Long Death monks excel in the kind of combat we saw in the finale - lots of lower-level enemies that are fairly easy to kill and gain temp HP from.  With a good AC, Cumulous can take a few attacks before being in trouble.

Unlike other martial classes, monks don’t often get the dramatic killing blow.  While they have a lot of attacks, each attack doesn’t deal that much damage by itself.  Monks consistently erode away at an opponent’s health, or stun them so that their allies can get their hits in.  Cumulous burned through a fair number of ki points during the battle, leaving him with a little under half his total, so he’ll have to be strategic about how and when he uses his ki.  Most of the other characters have a good Constitution and decent ACs, so it may be in his best interest to save his ki for mobility.

Cumulous has two big assets in a PVP battle, which are his mobility and the many hogwild (and unlimited) features that monks have.  With Unarmored Movement and Step of the Wind, he can move up to 150 feet in a turn, which includes across liquids and on vertical surfaces.  He has Slow Fall, allowing him to negate up to 50 points of falling damage, and he’s immune to poison and disease (which may come in useful against the Water-steel Dagger).  Thanks to being on Team Saccharina, he doesn’t have to worry about area of effect spells targeted at him.  If all else fails, he can book the fuck out of there to a safe distance and use Gaseous Form to escape from there.  

Conclusions

As I said at the beginning, there is no real way to predict the outcome of a PVP.  Besides raw mechanics, there’s roleplay, player agency, and of course, the dice.  Even looking at how each character is placed doesn’t necessarily translate to performance.  Mechanically, Ruby has the most resources left available, but that doesn’t mean she’d be able to overcome a worse case scenario of four PC attackers and a dragon.  Cumulous and Theo are doing the best in terms of HP, but would have difficulty downing another PC by themselves.  Amethar and Saccharina both have the potential to deal massive damage, but sorcerers are called “glass cannons” for a reason, and even with Rage, Amethar is sitting at a low HP.  Liam is an unknown quantity who could tip the scales in favour of one side or the other, but he has used up most of his devastating “war guy” abilities.

With the multitude of different factors (e.g. initiative order, possible crits, sheer buckwild shenanigans), it could realistically be either side left standing.  Team Saccharina has the advantage of numbers and several very hard to kill PCs, Team Ruby has the advantage of big damage dealers (not to mention rogues and barbarians are A Challenge to deal with on their own, never mind together).  As part of a team, each character has a better chance of survival and “winning,” with other characters being able to balance out their teammates’ weaker areas.  #teamworkmakesthedreamwork  All this, of course, without including the possibility of NPCs being convinced to join the fight.

But if there’s one thing we’ve seen in A Crown of Candy, it’s that there doesn’t have to be just two choices, either or.  There’s a third possibility, not between the two but something more, of change.  The fact that this is just a thought exercise bears that out.  Many thanks to the Dimension 20 cast and crew for an amazing season!

[paperanddice]

Tears of the Crocodile God Part 1

Tears of the Crocodile God is a 4th Edition adventure from Dungeon Magazine issue 209. It’s a paragon tier adventure for 15th-17th level characters, right about in the middle of the system, and is meant to be a relatively dangerous adventure, pushing a party to their limits with few risk-free ways to recover. It contains 10 combat encounters and 4 major puzzles, though two of those puzzles can be used to avoid an encounter and a few of the encounters could be considered optional, depending on how clever players are in avoiding them or choosing which to engage with. Theoretically, an incredibly fast and picky party could avoid nearly every encounter, though doing so would be nearly impossible without foreknowledge or exceptional luck, and would likely result in one of the poor endings for the adventure. These encounters are not trivial ones either, ranging from level 15-20. Normal 4th Edition encounter building isn’t designed for this many fights in a single day, and so the adventure has a mechanism for how to get around it that I’ll discuss as part of the conversion factor.

For the conversions, I’ll put them right around the mid point of the systems as it is in 4E. That means around 10th level for 5e, and 5th level for 13th Age. Both of these are fairly advanced and powerful heroes, and so the threat against them can be similarly advanced and fit within the original story and design. This does require some discussion on the length of the adventure and the number of encounters included within it. 5th Edition is technically meant to have 6-8 encounters per long rest, and so the adventure only slightly exceeds that expectation, though many of the games I’ve run rarely hit such numbers. 13th Age on the other hand is very specifically intended to do 4 regular encounters per full heal-up, so pushing it to more than double that number is far beyond the capacity of the characters.

One aspect I’d like to discuss at the front here as well is the way Icons could interact with the adventure in a 13th Age game. Nephalot and the Crocodile God are not Icons in and of themselves, and they don’t necessarily line up too much with the default Icons in the setting. The closest alignments as I see them are the Crusader (power at all costs, a ritual to sacrifice a few weaker lives to create one more powerful immortal creature could be useful), the High Druid (the Crocodile God itself represents a powerful animal spirit that could be useful to her) or maybe the Three (lean more into the reptile imagery, or give the Crocodile God some draconic features as it absorbs the energy). Standing against the actions of Nephalot and the Crocodile God could be the Archmage (perhaps the evil ritual Nephalot has been using is something an earlier Archmage came up with and the current one wishes to see its use stopped), the Emperor (the Crocodile Cult represents a potential threat to the stability of the Empire), the Great Gold Wyrm (evil must be vanquished), or the Priestess (the Crocodile is not a god, and even if it were it’s a threat to the people with its constant human sacrifices).

Crocodile Fonts

Now we must discuss the mechanism the adventure uses to extend the characters’ capacity. Drinking from the crocodile fonts scattered around the dungeon can refresh characters, healing them, giving back healing surges, and recharging one expended daily power. Each font has 2 free uses and 3 more gated behind a dangerous trap and a skill check. Converting the intention of these fonts into the other systems requires a decision on the best way to do so.

For 5th Edition, my method was to allow each font to grant a short rest (as short rests are far longer in this system than either of the others and some classes rely on them quite a bit), as well as replenishing two spent Hit Dice. They could recharge some spell slots or other features as well, but the mechanism for that was complicated and upon more review not entirely necessary. The resources characters have are intended to be able to last many encounters, so merely granting access to short rests and additional hit dice should theoretically give enough endurance to push through. In a spellcaster heavy party or one that’s less experienced or equipped with little magical gear, allowing a use of the font to recharge half the character’s level in expended spell slots (as the wizard’s arcane recovery feature), or one third for partial casters like paladins and rangers, or a choice of recharging half the maximum amount of another per day limited feature such as Lay on Hands or Sorcery Points. This is more powerful with once per long rest features, so take that into consideration.

13th Age has a few other options however. Full heal-ups aren’t exactly tied to taking a specific long rest the way they would be in D&D. Depending on the story, full heal-ups could be scattered days apart, or could happen in the middle of a dungeon as characters push forward. They are simply intended to come every 4 standard encounters, regardless of the in story time between those encounters. That gives us a choice of simply allowing a full heal-up once the party finishes roughly half the combats, allowing the party a full heal-up at one point during the adventure of their choice, allowing drinking from a font to grant a full heal-up but limiting the fonts so that the total uses available in the dungeon are 1/character, or letting each font allow a similar refreshment as the 4E version of the adventure and disallowing a proper full heal-up while within the dungeon.

My personal preference would probably be to the last of those, as part of the tone of the adventure is pushing through where recovery isn’t really easy. In this case, I’d probably keep the fonts to 5 maximum uses and allow drinking from one to have effectively the exact same effect as 4E. Return to full hp, regain 2 expended recoveries, and recharge one daily use power. Granting recharge rolls for all or even a single expended ability or spell could be good as well, especially for classes like the barbarian who might want more than a single rage use across 10 potential fights. As I have far less experience with 13th Age I can’t be 100% certain on the best option for this, so I’ll leave some of the specifics to your own discretion. If you feel that simply granting a full heal-up fits better with your group’s capabilities and the story, go for that, though I’d still tie it to the crocodile fonts in some capacity. Having them be a key resource and forcing the players to make tough decisions as to when to make use of them is a major point.

As traps, the crocodile fonts are mostly out of combat mechanics and force players to take a risk if they want to push their recovery beyond the freely granted uses.

5th Edition:

Crocodile Font Trap Mechanical and magic trap This trap uses a magical sensor to recognize when to slam the jaws of the statue shut, trying to catch a creature within them. Attempting to drink from the crocodile font after the first two uses forces the character to succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or take 22 (4d10) piercing damage and become restrained. While restrained, the creature takes 11 (2d10) piercing damage at the end of each of its turns and its face is held underwater, forcing it to hold its breath if it can’t breath water. The target or a creature that can reach the font can take a standard action to attempt a DC 15 Strength check, freeing the creature on a success. The font can be jammed open by making a Dexterity check using thieves’ tools or a Strength (Athletics) check against DC 18, allowing the additional drinks without danger. The font can also be destroyed (AC 15; 30 hp; immune to cold, necrotic, poison, and psychic damage). Destroying the font releases a restrained creature, but also neutralizes the font’s magic.

13th Age: These kinds of traps may go a little against some of the themes of the system, but they aren’t a hidden surprise that screws a character over with no warning. They’re clearly signposted, and a character that triggers it has done so having accepted the risks.

Champion-tier crocodile font trap: DC 20 skill check using Dexterity or Strength to hold open so a creature can take a drink from a font after the first two uses without risking getting hit by it; +10 vs. PD (the creature drinking from the font) - 4d6 damage, 5 ongoing damage, and the target is stuck and hampered and the target must start making last gasp saves. Making a last gasp save ends all effects. On a fourth failure, the target’s head or upper body is severed by the font. Multiple use. Make the skill check as the character drinks, rather than ahead of time.

River Crocodiles

The smaller crocodiles that occupy all running water within the labyrinth are generally pretty calm, though characters that bother the crocodiles or get into a combat close to the water may have to contend with them acting up and a few attacking. Given their relative weakness in comparison to the characters, they’ll quickly flee if confronted.

5th Edition River Crocodile Medium beast, unaligned Armor Class 13 (natural armor) Hit Points 16 (3d8 + 3) Speed 20 ft., swim 40 ft. Str 13 (+1) Dex 14 (+1) Con 13 (+1) Int 2 (-4) Wis 10 (+0) Cha 5 (-3) Skills Stealth +4 Senses passive Perception 10 Languages - Challenge 1/4 (50 XP) Hold Breath. The crocodile can hold its breath for 15 minutes. Actions Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 5 (1d8+1) piercing damage and the target is grappled (escape DC 11). Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained, and the crocodile can't bite another target.

13th Age:

River Crocodile 3rd level mook [beast] Initiative: +5

Bite +8 vs. AC - 4 damage Natural even hit: The target is stuck and takes 2 ongoing damage (save ends both). The crocodile can’t use its bite on another creature until the target saves.

AC 19 PD 17 MD 13 HP 11 (mook) Mook: Kill one river crocodile for every 11 damage you deal to the mob.

Secret Doors

Finding the secret doors in the labyrinth should be moderately difficult. A DC 20 Wisdom (Perception) check to notice them works for 5th Edition, and a DC 25 Wisdom based skill check should work for 13th Age.

The other common features of the labyrinth, such as the biting insects, runewheels, and the dreams of the crocodile god aren’t as concerning to me. The biting insects are the only one with a real mechanical effect, and it’s not one that I particularly care to keep track of. The first 5th Edition conversion I made included it, and it was just something people regularly forgot and didn’t care too much for and the long rest penalties really shouldn’t come up. I consider taking a long rest within the Labyrinth an automatic fail state for the adventure, as the trial lasts far too long for those outside to wait and the labyrinth will be invaded with dozens of crocodile cult warriors and priests if the time extends that long. Characters are forced to either flee or rush through as fast as possible if they try to take a long rest.

Next update I’ll start exploring the specific encounter and puzzle areas of the dungeon, as well as discuss the four sacrifices that the party may encounter and what could be done with them.

[cagemasterfantasy]

College of Glamour Ranking

Guide:

1=useless

2=often useful

3=sometimes useful

4=perfect

Mantle of Inspiration 4 reposition your entire party AND grant Temporary Hit Points. You won’t need to use this in every fight but certainly don’t hesitate to use it if you think it will be helpful. The Temporary Hit Points don’t have a specified expiration so they expire when you complete a long rest. If you use Mantle of Inspiration early in the day the Temporary Hit Points may last all day long. Once you get Font of Inspriation at 5th level be sure to use Mantle of Inspiration before you take a Short Rest to squeeze some benefit out of any remaining Bardic Inspiration dice.

Enthralling Performance 2 Similar to Charm Person with a 1 minute casting time during which you need to somehow hold that target’s attention and during which you can’t be interrupted. Charm Person is a 1st level spell it will have the same save DC and creatures don’t know that you’ve targeted them with the spell so you can cast Charm Person even while being observed and so long as the creature can’t identify the spell and isn’t naturally inclined to be hostile about you casting spells you could try repeatedly until the target fails its save. Where Enthralling Performance shines is when you need to charm a group. Enthralling Performance can affect up to 5 creatures once you hit 20 Charisma which would cost a 5th level spell slot to replicate with Charm Person. The effect goes a bit beyond the basic effects of Charmed too so you can easily turn your new fans toward various non-violent purposes like using them to force your way into a fancy party to ward off local law enforcement or to improve your reputation by having the crowd tell random strangers how great you are. However since Enthralling Performance recharges on a Short or Long Rest you generally can’t exceed a 5-person crowd size though magical options like the spell Catnap to take a 10-minute short rest may make it possible. The biggest problem with Enthralling Performance is finding a suitable crowd who already likes you enough to listen to you for a full minute in a place where you can put them to a useful purpose without resorting to violence. This might be very easy depending on the nature of your campaign but in most DND campaigns you’ll spend long periods isolated from polite society because there are very few taverns in dungeons or in locales with sparse populations of friendly humanoids. In campaigns which frequently involve large cities this could be much more useful but if you try to solve every problem by inciting a mob of your fans your DM might have the guards run you out of town. Look for opportunities to use this but don’t abuse it

Mantle of Majesty 3 By charming a creature and using Command to prevent the creature from using their turn (Drop and Grovel are great options) you can mostly paralyze a creature. Unfortunately since you don’t use a spell slot for Mantle of Majesty Command is cast at its minimum spell level and will only affect one creature. This will work great to lock down strong single enemies, but in a fight against a group you probably don’t want to use this. The auto-failure effect with Command is also weird since Mantle of Majesty doesn’t charm things so you need to do that part on your own with a different effect such as Charm Person. It’s also important to note that Mantle of Majesty still causes you to cast a leveled spell so on turns where you’re casting Command as a Bonus Action you’re unable to cast any other spells except cantrips. Again fine for big single foes but dangerous in encounters with multiple enemies.

Unbreakable Majesty 4 this is an amazing option both defensively and offensively. Make sure to buff your AC or look for other defensive options so that you won’t get killed if a creature passes the save but you should strongly consider drawing attacks specifically to force this effect on enemies. Disadvantage on saving throws against your spells in the following round means that a well-chosen save-or-suck spell can immediately take the creature out of the fight.

[monstersdownthepath]

Milestone Spotlight: Deskari, Lord of the Locust Host

Chaotic Evil Demon Lord of Chasms, Infestations, and Locusts

Domains: Chaos, Destruction, Evil, War Subdomains: Blood, Catastrophe, Demon, Tactics

The Complete Book of the Damned, pg. 42~43

Obedience: Meditate while allowing insects or worms of any type to crawl upon your body. If no such vermin is available, you must instead lie facedown in a trench dug into soil and mouth prayers to Deskari into the dirt while scratching yourself with sharp bits of bone or wood. Benefit: Gain a +4 profane bonus on saving throws against disease and against effects caused by Vermin.

Have a buggy familiar? Done. Don’t have one, but a party member does? Done. No one have a buggy familiar? Keep some bugs as a pet; done. Can’t? Well then this gets a little harder. Plopping yourself down besides an anthill is unfeasible for multiple days in a row, not to mention dangerous to your health if they believe you’re a carcass that must be scavenged. Sometimes, you can just dig straight down a little bit to find some nice worms to plop right onto your chest for an hour, though heaping loose soil on yourself every day has dangers of its own.

Not as many as the secondary option, though. The wording here implies that you can’t use mud or sand, though your DM may be a bit more lenient here because it also requires you to scratch yourself to pieces with sharpened wood and bone. Thankfully you don’t need a carved knife or anything so complex, you can just snap a branch off a tree or somesuch if you need to (and bones are always available for adventurers!), but covering yourself in bleeding scratches every day will likely get people wondering what on earth you’re doing each time you vanish for an hour, which can lead to numerous uncomfortable questions. Unlike many Demon Lords, Deskari is known all across the Inner Sea Region because he’s responsible for the Worldwound, one of the greatest threats to life on the entire planet, and as such if you’re publicly found to be one of his followers? Roll up a new sheet, bud. It only gets harder if you use literally any of Deskari’s Boon abilities in public, too.

The added danger of worshiping one of the most prominent Demon Lords in the setting can make for an experience that’s both interesting and potentially hair-pulling, because you’ve got to make extra sure not to have your faith revealed to the authorities of a given settlement. At the very least, dropping bug-infested soil onto your body each day to perform the first ritual could be explained away as you communing with nature or the earth, rather than the insects within the earth, but carving up your own skin while laying facedown in a hole is a pretty big red flag. ... Also, now that I think about it, if you’re facedown in a hole, it’d be pretty difficult to scratch anything but your back and sides, right? Hm.

The benefit is low-tier. Diseases are rarely too much of a danger if you have any sort of caster in your party, though stopping them before they begin will save you a bit of gold in the long run. A universal saving throw bonus against the abilities of an entire creature type would be fantastic if that creature type wasn’t Vermin, who are known for A) disease and B) poison and little else. In Deskari’s favor, this bonus does indeed apply to the Distraction ability of most swarming Vermin, so a bit of extra help to avoid being Nauseated is always welcome.

Boons are acquired slowly: the first once you reach 12 hit dice, the second at 16, and the third at 20. However, the Evangelist, Exalted, and Sentinel Prestige Classes can be entered as early as level 7; doing so grants you the Boons at levels 10, 13, and 16 instead. Servants of demons may also take the Demoniac Prestige Class; you don’t get the Boons any faster than E/E/S, but you may select which Boon set you get, and you get cool demon-related powers!

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EVANGELIST

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Boon 1: Locusts’ Gifts. Gain Jump 3/day, Acid Arrow 2/day, or Fly 1/day

Why bother looking at Jump when Fly is an option? Granted, getting affected with Jump at level 10 (the earliest you can get this spell) means you can, among other things, clear a 30ft gap with no effort and get yourself an Eight Foot Vertical Leap... But flight will always be infinitely more useful. The biggest difference is that, while they last the same amount of time (1 min/level), you get Jump 3/day. It’s really up to you if Eight Foot Vertical Leap three times a day would be more useful for your character than a 60ft fly speed once a day, though to me, staying out of an enemy’s reach is always preferable.

Acid Arrow is alright in that respect. The damage it deals is pathetically low, but it’s repeated damage that cannot be resisted once it begins (unless the victim can jump in some water immediately) and both castings of the spell can stack together to make the damage stack on. I personally can’t think of a reason you’d take it over Fly, though.

Boon 2: Avatar of the Locust Host. 1/day, you can cast Verminous Transformation as a spell-like ability; the swarming parts of your body are comprised of locusts, and your swarm attack deals double damage to Plant creatures.

For 1 round/level, you transmute portions of your body into swarming locusts that can chow down on up to four Medium targets (or one Large+ target) within 10ft of you, automatically dealing 4d6 damage and forcing the victim to make a Fortitude save (10+1/2 your HD+Cha mod) or take 1d3 Con and Str damage from poison. Spooky! It also forces you into melee range more or less, but your swarm form also means you only take half damage from piercing and slashing attacks!

Also, it hits four targets for automatic damage. If you find yourself in a melee you want no part of, suddenly exploding into locusts and harrying your foes can break their morale in a hurry. Slapping four enemies at once means you can easily chew through smaller foes while damaging larger ones without the usual dangers of using AoE magic (like hitting allies), and 4d6 is a nice sweet spot of being a good chunk of damage without it being overpowering. And, again, it’s automatic; no attack roll needed, with the only interactions being the enemy HP going down and them rolling versus your poison. Being stuck in melee while your bugs are literally eating the enemy’s Str bit by bit doesn’t sound so bad, all of a sudden!

I like the touch that it deals double damage to Plant monsters, because if any intelligent Plant creature sees you turn into a swarm of locusts, they’re probably going to stop fighting immediately. The downside to this ability is that it lasts only 1 round/level and can only be used 1/day, so it may fall into Too Awesome To Use territory, though I’d personally unleash it any time I was facing a group of enemies that was even slightly challenging.

Boon 3: Infestation of the Flesh. 1/day as a standard action, you can transform into a Hellwasp Swarm for up to 8 hours. You gain Swarm traits (including immunity to weapon damage), a swarm attack, and the Hellwasp’s poison, Distraction, and Inhabit abilities. While in this form, you cannot perform any actions that the swarm could not perform; this includes casting spells with somatic components and wielding weapons or items. While not using the swarm’s Inhabit ability, you can return to your normal form as a full-round action. This is a Polymorph effect.

Heurghh, nasty. For your enemies, of course! You’re perfectly fine.

The fact you gain these abilities rather than just replacing your statblock with that of the Swarm makes me think that this means it runs largely on how other Polymorph spells in PF works; namely, your statblock largely remains the same, but new stuff is stapled onto it. If this is true, it means that your swarm damage is 4d6 rather than 3d6 (and increases to 5d6 once you hit 20 HD), and your poison and Distraction have a save of (10+1/2 your HD+your Con mod) rather than what a Vanilla Hellwasp Swarm possesses. Nice!

The real important bit here, though, is that you have the swarm’s Inhabit ability. Suddenly, any enemy that’s not outright killed is an unholy vessel for your power. Your poor victims are eternally Dominated by your presence until an outside source either kills them or expels you, or you finally eat their Constitution to 0 after a few hours. Even then, though, you continue puppeting their corpse around like a second skin, shielding yourself from attacks as you march to find a better body. If you don’t really need your spells or items, you can spend a full adventuring day walking around inside other people’s skin 

Dominating your victim means you can use all of their powers for your own evil benefit, so if that wizard you just knocked out still has spell slots left? If that troll is still kicking? If that dragon just recharged its breath weapon? All yours to command. Plus, even if your other foes kill your new shell, you continue to animate their corpse to use as a beatstick or an extra mountain of flesh to protect your insectoid form.

It takes a full minute to inhabit a victim, so you can’t just jump from shell to shell in the middle of a pitched battle, but you know what you can do? Jump from shell to shell all day until just before you reach the final boss, and then hop out and reform, basically fresh as a daisy with all your resources ready to tear into them. It’s very hard to take meaningful damage while inhabiting a shell, so while the rest of your party is nearly tuckered out and running on fumes and what few resources they could cling to, you’re likely barely below 75% health and have spent exactly one (1) of your dailies for the current session.

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EXALTED

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Boon 1: Swarming Susurrus. Gain Inflict Light Wounds 3/day, Summon Swarm 2/day, or Summon Monster III (Vermin only) 1/day.

Inflight Light Wounds has already fallen off by this point, useful only to patch up any Undead allies you may have to keep them on their feet, Summon Swarm can be dangerous to use unless you conjure it at maximum range, as the swarms are indiscriminate in their tide of destruction. The Vermin-only restriction on Summon Monster III means you’re likely going to be stuck summoning Fiendish Giant Ants or a pair of Fiendish Giant Centipedes to aid you. In either case, their usefulness in combat is minor if you’re fighting foes of a similar CR to your level, with the main selling point being that their mindlessness means an enemy Enchanter cannot control them and turn them against you.

All three of these are fairly underwhelming, but Summon Swarm is fun to drop directly on an enemy’s space, because it will continue to pursue the closest source of flesh it can--just make sure it’s not yours!

Boon 2: Swarm-Walker. You can walk through any swarm without taking damage or suffering any ill effects—swarms recognize you as one of their own. As long as you stand within a swarm, you gain a +4 profane bonus on initiative checks and saving throws.

Well... I guess that’s alright? I like the idea of monkey swarms, swarms of Beheaded, and masses of Grey Goo all leave you be just as a swarm of ticks or locusts would.

Taking advantage of the Initiative bonus requires conjuring or finding a swarm beforehand, or being ambushed by a swarm that falls upon you. You should be trying to summon things before combat begins anyway (due to most summoning spells taking a full round), though if you have no means of doing so beyond what Deskari has granted you, Summon Swarm is a pathetic way to reap this ability’s benefits as your shield of vermin crawls off to go eat an adjacent ally. You’ll want something more reliable, such as Vomit Swarm or Mad Monkeys (the former even scaling better with your level than Summon Swarm) to invoke this ability, not only making creatures in melee with you regret it, but bolstering your saves against everything by an additional +4.

... But only as long as the swarm lasts, and only while you don’t move outside of it or it moves away, and only as long as your enemies don’t blast you with AoE that kills the swarm instantly, and so on and so forth. It’s a very difficult ability to really take advantage of, and half of its usefulness is completely lost if you’re only inundated in a swarm before combat begins.

Boon 3: Swarm Master. 1/day, you can cast Quickened Insect Plague.

No, no, no no no! Awful! 

Yes, it lets you take better advantage of Swarm-Walker, but this is by no means a good final Boon! Come on, Deskari, if you want our assistance in your fiendish goals, you need to sweeten the deal a little bit here! No one’s going to want to be your Exalted if all you have to offer them is a 1/day wall of wasps!

That’s more or less what this ability is, by the way. It may as well be literally called Wall of Wasps, because your summoned swarms (all five of them) can’t move from the spot they’re summoned in. While they can act as obscuring cover, their low HP (31) will rarely survive a single Fireball or Cone of Cold from a level-appropriate enemy, and the DC 13 save on their poison and Distraction abilities will rarely land on any target you need them to. Both their damage and their poison deal so little damage (2d6 and 1 Dex, respective) that they’re unlikely to keep anyone from just walking through the storm of wasps to get at you,

It’s more for intimidation than anything else, making an enemy rethink coming closer. Intimidation and using the Wasp Ocean to take advantage of Swarm-Walker, and that’s just not good enough in my book.

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SENTINEL

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Boon 1: Split the Earth. Gain Stumble Gap 3/day, Create Pit 2/day, or Spiked Pit 1/day.

I’ve stated my love of the usefulness of Create Pit and Spiked Pit in the past (under the Sentinel Boons), with them being pseudo Save-or-Sucks that can take anything without a decent Strength score or some Climb skill ages to clamber back out of the pit, while you and your allies either deal with other foes, or rain destruction down on them from above. Even if the victim makes their initial save, the pit doesn’t go anywhere, letting you push your targets in one at a time if need be. Since it’s literally just a huge hole in the ground, you can even hurl multiple enemies inside!

Which leaves a unique spell in Stumble Gap. It’s a cute spell, essentially cursing a single 5ft tile with a mobile, extradimensional gap that tries tripping up everyone who enters it. Anyone in the square when you first cast the spell or who enters the square while it’s still in effect must succeed a Reflex save (11+Cha mod) or fall prone into an adjacent square and take 1d6 damage. The real kicker, though? Even succeeding your save against the gap makes you stumble ever-so-slightly... which, for some reason, gives you a -1 penalty to ALL ROLLS AND CHECKS for a full round. Everything from attack rolls to damage rolls to saving throws to Knowledge checks (somehow) suffer a -1 penalty for a full round.

It’s not much, but it’s an interesting consolation prize and a very interesting line of text in what is otherwise a very simple spell. The penalty to every roll they make even on success makes it almost worth taking, if just for the possibility of making a 1-point success into a failure. It’d be difficult to make use of it more than once per casting, but I can see some amusing scenarios arising if you cast it three times in a row to either cover a single 15ft hallway, or in a long line in a 5ft hallway as a crowd of foes behind you trips all over themselves and each other.

Still, for all its potential (comedic and otherwise), I’d stick with the more reliable Create Pit or Spiked Pit.

Boon 2: Planar Wound. 3/day as a standard action, you can strike the ground with a scythe to open a fissure under your feet or the feet of an adjacent Medium or smaller creature (if you target yourself, the rift opens just enough to let you—and only you—through, regardless of your size). This fissure is a planar rift that sends the creature to the Rasping Rifts in the Abyss, as per Plane Shift, except the fissure can transport only one creature and closes instantly after doing so (or after being avoided). An unwilling target can attempt a Reflex save (DC = 10+1/2 HD+Cha mod) to evade the fissure and negate this effect. Flying and levitating creatures are immune to this effect, and a creature capable of flight that is standing on the ground can avoid this effect if it succeeds at a DC 20 Fly check (it can still attempt a Reflex save to avoid the spell if it fails this Fly check). 

im sorry what

did. do you just. you just... you just send them to the Abyss? Like straight up?

There are Save-Or-Die effects in Pathfinder, and then there’s this. This is a step above Save-Or-Die, this is Save-Or-Be-Personally-Delivered-To-A-Demon-Lord-As-A-Plaything. This is Save-Or-Wish-You-Could-Die. If you manage to hit an enemy with this, they have a limited time to Plane Shift anywhere but where they are right now or they’re done. That’s it. On the best of days the Abyss is a hostile place to be, but the Rasping Rifts is close to the Worldwound and thus crawling with demons eager to pounce on the first non-demon creature they see. It’s also the personal realm of Deskari and is flooded with a hive-mind of verminous beasts, and as a level 13 servant, he’s likely to be paying attention to you and everything you do. He’ll know when you’ve sent someone to him.

He may even ask you to. Knock them unconscious or strike them with some form of paralysis and they can’t make their Reflex save, so they’re helplessly delivered right to the Lord of the Locust Host, who himself is a CR 29 horror beyond the hope of a single mortal to beat. The lack of a restriction beyond size means you can make extra use of effects which shrink your enemies down to ruin their lives even further. At the very least, since it operates like Plane Shift, the delivery point isn’t exact; it may take some time for the Demon Lord to find out where its new toy has gotten off to.

A DM wishing (justifiably) to rein this ability in may have Deskari command the Sentinel to hold off on sending just any old victim to the Rifts, and instead focus on specific targets. Of course, a DM can also point out that this ability carries with it the risk of losing out on loot, as your victim takes everything with them when they go. Be wary about using this on someone who’s carrying the Plot Device!

... using it on yourself, by the way, isn’t recommended. I doubt Deskari would tolerate cowardice. Could be an interesting roleplaying opportunity, though, bargaining with the demon horde of the Rasping Rifts, offering to lead them out. Just make sure you do have a way to get back out, because Planar Wound only goes in one direction. I wonder what happens if you use it while already in the Rasping Rifts?

Boon 3: Welcome the Rasping Rifts. 1/day, you can cast Rift of Ruin as a spell-like ability. When the rift closes, each creature still present within the rift must attempt a Will save (against the spell’s save DC = 18+Cha). Creatures that succeed at this save are expelled violently (as normal for the spell), while those that fail are expelled violently into the Rasping Rifts in the Abyss. If you close the rift early to summon creatures, you summon one additional creature of the same type.

For those who don’t know what the Rift of Ruin spell does, the short version is that it’s a souped up Spiked Pit spell. The hole is 5ft wide, 5ft/level long (so 80ft when you first get it), 60ft deep, and loaded with chewing mouths, acidic mist, starving fiends, and all sorts of other Abyssal nasties that make it painful to stay inside the rift. Everyone and everything inside takes 6d6 damage that’s randomly selected from bludgeoning, piercing, slashing, Electricity, Cold, Fire, or Sonic upon entry to the rift and each round they begin inside of it. If the spell ends and everything’s shot out, they take double damage that round and are knocked prone as the rift spits them back out.

So, every good thing I have to say about Pit spells? Say them bigger and louder here. But, that’s not all! Because you can end the spell early to instead call upon an Abyssal denizen, summoning two Bebeliths or two Vrocks, 1d3+1 Shadow Demons or Succubi, OR 1d4+2 Babaus or Brimoraks. Two Bebeliths or two Vrocks is usually the correct choice, as they’re resilient and dangerous in their own rights (especially Bebeliths, with their ability to shred armor like paper), but swamping stronger foes with smaller enemies can quickly finish a fight... if it wasn’t finished in the first place by the Rift of Ruin vomiting the victim into the Rasping Rifts.

One fun thing to try is to sit at the edge of the rift and waiting for an enemy to almost, almost climb their way back out before snapping the thing shut and either sending them to the Abyss, or stranding them on your side where they’re prone, tired, and now surrounded by demons.

Deskari is kind to his Sentinels.

You can read more about him here.