#like tenser's floating disk

[macksting]

It's not the most important thing going on right now but I've been kinda having catradora brainrot the last couple days, and it helps sometimes. Whatever value there is in examining relationships in fiction and talk about normalization or whatever, I think one thing a lot of these pearl-clutchers who hate catradora with such a passion are very much missing is how very much a fuckup Adora is. I'm not saying she isn't a victim, I'm not saying Catra isn't a victim herself for that matter, I'm just saying that Adora's fucked-upedness is more socially acceptable because it's more pliant. She thinks she's without value unless she's She-Ra, and that fucks her up bad; especially since it's reinforced by Brightmoon all falling in love with her only, and I mean only, as She-Ra. Adora is a danger, a menace, and should be discarded. She must perform She-Raness constantly, and be everything they expect her to be, or else she is... unwelcome. Honestly, it's kinda like Ikari Shinji. I wouldn't bother bringing it up except I see it in real life. If one party is consistently more pliable because the way they were fucked up makes them unable to set boundaries or conditions, people love that person, but the person who is fucked up in a way that makes them angry or scared or scary is a menace, a terror, a monster. And god knows some of us could do better, and god knows I work on myself, but that inability to set boundaries, that feeling of worthlessness, that dangerous conformity... That's fucked up too. It's not better. I want to shake these pearl-clutching twits by the shoulders and yell at them "IT'S NOT BETTER." It's fiction. I'm neither condemning nor apologizing for anybody. That part's just not that fucking important. But this does mirror real life: if someone is the kind of fucked up where they're compliant and do everything you tell them to, that's not better.

[yourplayersaidwhat]

DM: Alright you've got a giant worm rushing straight at you--

Farhomless Warlock: Shai-Hulud!

Paladin: Gesundheit.

Monk: Initiative?

DM: No, it's a Boreworm boring down on you like a freight train what do you do?

Fathomless: I can, after clearing 10 ft and getting out of range of the rest of the party, Thunderstep away with one other person. ...And now all of Undermountain knows we're here.

DM: Don't worry they already did.

Celestial Warlock: ...And I can Misty Step, is that enough to get away?

DM: Yes.

Celestial: Do you have a teleport spell Wizard?

Wizard: Yes but I thought I'd try something else... what does everyone weigh?

[Party is Lizardfolk Wizard, two Dragonborn, a big human guy, and a slender half-drow.]

(Half-Drow) Celestial Warlock: My character weighs the least as we established in the catacombs when you guys sent me over those very unstable rock bridges into the den of that giant slime monster alone. But again, I can Misty Step.

Wizard: Alright Fathomless, you take Paladin, I'll take Monk because she weighs less.

Monk: Mind telling us what you have in mind?

Wizard: I'm gonna use Tensers Floating Disk to avoid the Boreworm... wait. Can I ride on my own Floating Disk? *Checks rules.*

Fathomless: Dude, even if you could, wouldn't you just float there and get crushed unless Monk can carry you along when she makes a Step of the Wind?

Wizard: Awwwww, surfing on the floating disk would have been so cool though! [sighs] Fine I use a higher level spell slot to cast Dimension Door on me and Monk.

DM: Alright, you all arrive safely on the ledge above. You are safe... for now.

[kanohirren]

How to Make Grian in DnD

Welcome to my first guide on making Life SMP members into DnD 5e characters!

I’ll go level by level and explain the reasoning behind my decisions and how I think it fits them in character. This build assumes starting at level 8 but includes notes on differences if you start at level 1 and progress to 8. Keep in mind that this isn’t intended as a guide on how to play dnd, just how to build this character. I also don't explain every feature but I may briefly touch on it and explain my reasoning for taking it.

Class: Fighter 6 (Eldritch Knight)/Cleric 2 (War Domain)

Race: Aarakocra* (can be humanised)

Base Ability Scores: (uses Tasha's Cauldron of Everything rule that allows for reallocating racial stat bonuses)

Str 10 (+0)

Dex 15 (+2) +2 from race = 17 (+3)

Con 13 (+1) +1 from race = 14 (+2)

Int 10 (+0)

Wis 13 (+1)

Cha 12 (+1)

Background: Courtier

Grian is a well-rounded character with no clear weaknesses but a couple of fields he excels at. He’s good at almost all aspects of the game whether it be combat, social interactions or even just survival. I gave him the Fighter/Cleric multiclass because I felt like it would be an interesting build and made him a dexterity-based fighter because Aarakocra cant fly with any armour other than light armour.

Before moving on to classes, let’s go over the race and background features.

Aarakocra race*:

Flight**: Flying speed equal to walk speed, only works with light or no armour.

Talons: Your unarmed attacks do more damage. Not super good because this is a dex build.

Wind Caller: At lvl 3 you can cast Gust of Wind. A cool spell, find some fun situations to use it in.

*The Aarakocra version used here is the nerfed version from “Mordekainnen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse”.

**If having a flying speed is a problem, a compromise I usually default to is only letting flying speed let you move vertically during your turn, but you cannot end your turn in mid-air or you fall.

Courtier background:

Skill Proficiencies: Insight, Persuasion

Court Functionary: You are good at hearing things about important people, as you are one of them. Perfect for if you want to start wars.

At 1st lvl, we start with a level in Fighter. This grants us:

Proficiency in heavy, medium, and light armour, shields

Proficiency in simple and martial weapons

Proficiency in Strength and Constitution saving throws.

Skill Proficiencies: Take Survival and Athletics.

Fighting Style: Choose Duelling if you want to use a sword mostly. Archery is fine too if you want to use a bow.

Second Wind: Bonus action healing. Nice to have.

As a dex build, Grian will be using light armour and finesse or ranged weapons mostly. Ideal weapon would be a rapier and a longbow. The Courtier background involves knowing what’s happening amongst a group of interest, much like how Grian is involved with many major Minecrafters

At 2nd lvl, we take a second level in Fighter, which grants us:

Action Surge: Have a second action in one round once per short rest. Good early for having another attack and scales very well.

At 3rd lvl, we take a third level in Fighter, which grants us:

Subclass: Eldritch Knight

Eldritch Knight grants:

Weapon Bond: Find a shiny weapon? It’s yours now and no one else can have it!

Two Cantrips: Mage Hand (lots of trickery you can do with this) and Blade Ward (in case taking damage is inevitable)

Three 1st lvl spells: Magic Missile (just in case), Shield (good defensive spell) and Fog Cloud (cause lots of chaos and confusion)

As Grian’s Intelligence stat hasn’t been prioritised, I chose spells that don’t involve any rolls so that it’s not really a problem. He’ll get more chaotic use out of the cleric spells that we get later.

At 4th lvl, we take a fourth level in Fighter, which grants us:

Ability Score Improvement OR Feat. Take the Ability Score Improvement and +1 your Dex up to 18 (+4) and your Wisdom up to 14 (+2).

One more spell: Take Tenser’s Floating disk (Take people’s doors and stack them on the disk and then run away without being weighed down)

The dex is always important, improves your stealth so you’re less likely to be caught placing tnt and the wisdom helps your perception but more importantly helps after becoming a cleric.

At 5th lvl, we take a fifth level in Fighter, which grants us:

Extra Attack: More damage output!

With this fifth level in Fighter, we hit the important damage power spike. Now we can get to the more chaotic side of Grian.

At 6th lvl, we multiclass into Cleric, which grants us:

Three Cantrips: Take Guidance (good spell), Thaumaturgy (fun spell) and Spare the Dying (mainly for Scar)

1st lvl spells: As a prepared caster, Clerics can swap out their spells after a long rest. My suggested default spells are: Bless, Sanctuary and Ceremony (get that marriage buff).

Subclass: War Domain

War Domain grants:

Extra Prepared Spells: Divine Favor and Shield of Faith

Bonus Proficiencies: Martial Weapons and Heavy Armour. Both redundant because we started Fighter.

War Priest: Another attack as a bonus action with number of uses scaling with Wisdom. Goes well with being a fighter.

Ready to start a war? Cleric and this subclass especially makes Grian extra ready to start a war and fight his way to victory. As a Cleric, Grian of course worships the mighty Boatem Pole!

At 7th lvl, we take a second level in Cleric, which grants us:

Channel Divinity: Turn Undead. Good for all the zombies and skeletons that keep spawning around you.

Channel Divinity: Guided Strike. Give yourself a +10 to an attack roll once per long rest. Really good if you just desperately need to land a hit.

One more prepared spell: Command (Need a war started? Just point at a button and tell someone else to “Press”!)

At 8th lvl, we take a sixth level in Fighter, which grants us:

Ability Score Improvement OR Feat: Take the ASI to bring your dex from 18 (+4) to 20 (+5)

Maxed out dex is good. Alternatively, you could bump your wisdom up to 16 instead if you want stronger spells.

Summary:

Final stats:

Str 10 (+0)

Dex 20 (+5)

Con 14 (+2)

Int 10 (+0)

Wis 14 (+2)

Cha 12 (+1)

Two Attacks as an action, a third as a bonus action (limited uses)

Rapier (if Duelling was chosen): +5 (dex) +3 (prof. bonus) = +8 to hit. 1d8 + 5 (dex) + 2 (duelling) piercing dmg.

Longbow (if Archery was chosen): +5 (dex) +3 (prof. bonus) +2 (archery) = +10 to hit. 1d8 + 5 piercing.

And that’s it for Grian! I hope this build captures the chaotic nature of Grian while also maintaining his prowess a just about everything. If you have any feedback or questions, I’d love to read them! ^^

Next will be Scar!

[rainwolfheart]

thoughts on absolution

it's got a similar vibe to the comics and i prefer that medium, but i like these intrigue stories they've been going for since inquisition

that said, i feel like they were borrowing a bit much from the comics. maybe a coincidence, i know shows like this take a long time to develop, but there's a lot of beats and themes that reminded me of blue wraith and dark fortress.

so many macguffins lately. there's gonna be so many items to track down in dreadwolf.

that ending tho.... her voice is so iconic. i hate her so much. i can't wait.

i fucking love that the most comic relief character of the show is a lady. we never get that. and "maker's titties" indeed. ashly burch i love you.

i also enjoyed the broody rogue protagonist being a lady. we have a few more of those but it's always nice to see more balance in that department.

wtf was fairbanks' deal though. why did they choose him of all characters to bring back for a tv show?? this had nothing to do with his plotline as far as i can tell and really doesn't make sense with his whole thing where he's about protecting orlesian refugees? he's not a thief. idk man if they really had to kill off a random inquisition agent there was probably a better choice

but i do like that he kinda looks like matt mercer. that's just matt mercer y'all.

i still don't get why the scene where fairbanks turns on hira plays out like he's the one betraying her. like yes for the drama but logically it doesn't seem to really hold up.

did hira teleport at the end there or am i missing something??? is that just a thing she can do????? on top of the tenser's floating disk trick. bioware don't go introducing new types of magic without explanation i need the lore

i am definitely a roland/lacklon enjoyer but tbh i think the buildup was a bit too subtle. if i wasn't gay and picking up on the Vibes that kiss would have come out of nowhere.

i spent way too much time looking at screenshots of the dragons from inquisition to see if the one in the show matches a known species. it doesn't. as far as i can tell its a close but not identical match to the one from dark fortress

i really hope a good chunk of season 2 takes place in kirkwall tbh. i miss that terrible city. give me a merrill cameo you cowards.

i find the writing a liiiitle lackluster in general. the dialogue is pretty predictable, but not in a fun comforting way.

as mentioned the shaky cam is really off-putting. did not like that.

i didn't find it quite as newbie-friendly as, say, legend of vox machina. idk if i'd recommend it to folks who aren't already into dragon age, there's a lot of lore to understand that they don't really explain. and yet they make matt mercer give a hokey exposition speech in episode 1 lmao.

liked it in general though! solid b+

[katiefratie]

YES TENSERS FLOATING DISK THIS IS JUST LIKE ELDERMOURNE

[cagemasterfantasy]

Dnd Spells: Tenser's Floating Disk

Tenser's Floating Disk is a level 1 Conjuration spell. Casting Time is 1 action or it can be cast as a ritual Range is 30 feet Requires a Verbal and Somatic Component spell ingredient is a drop of mercury Duration is 1 hour.

This spell creates a circular, horizontal plane of force, 3 feet in diameter and 1 inch thick, that floats 3 feet above the ground in an unoccupied space of your choice that you can see within range. The disk remains for the duration and can hold up to 500 pounds. If more weight is placed on it, the spell ends, and everything on the disk falls to the ground.

The disk is immobile while you are within 20 feet of it. If you move more than 20 feet away from it, the disk follows you so that it remains within 20 feet of you. It can move across uneven terrain, up or down stairs, slopes and the like, but it can’t cross an elevation change of 10 feet or more. For example, the disk can’t move across a 10-foot-deep pit, nor could it leave such a pit if it was created at the bottom.

If you move more than 100 feet from the disk (typically because it can’t move around an obstacle to follow you), the spell ends.

[shadowcatzone]

here a couple fun ways for your ring-of-the-grammarian-wizard to help out your typical low-charisma-bard:

power word kiss (kill)[if your dm allows two letters]

Bust (gust)

Massage (message)

cause dear (cause fear)

tenser's floating d*ck (tenser's floating disk)[lol]

Thunderrave (thunderwave)

Arcane look (arcane lock)

Crown of radness (crown of madness)

scorching gay (scorching ray)

leomund's tiny rut

phantasmal kisser (phantasmal killer)[see first]

Transmute c*** (transmute rock)

Magic jaw (magic jar)

Gaze (maze)

Alternatively:

Guards and bards (guards and wards)

Create undear (create undead)

Magic circe (magic circle)

frown of madness (crown of madness)

Tasha's hideous daughter (tasha's hideous laughter)

Mage amor (mage armor)

-

The spells that make or break bards. Or as i like to call it, the rise and fall of bards.

[candyradium]

Sunday DnD update: we have made it to level three!!! subclass time!!! armourer artificer time for Gabriel!!! i am now a tank AND a scout. im so versatile <3

Various other session happenings include:

PC vs PC arguments are extremely fun and i wish i had more braincells available so i could play Gabriel more true to his character (i.e. a blunt vindictive asshole who is extremely protective of his sister) (i am very tired today so i tried my best. but i could have been Meaner)

everyone keeps giving Gabriel gifts. everyone loves my boy. my 8 charisma standoffish asshole of a character <3

(Gabriel's liked gifts: food (Caspian gave him soup), pieces of metal (Cedric gave him a metal pipe), and tools (Cedric ALSO gave him thieves' tools but only bc he lost Gabriel's ones))

In related news, Caspian is 100% playing the platonic version of a dating sim

Cedric is a hypocrite ass motherfucker and also cannot deal with his Extremely Cursed Sword NEARLY as well as he claims that he can

WE HAVE ACQUIRED A GUN. GUN ACQUIRED.

It is my duty as the party artificer to wield the Gun. As the only one with proficiency(?). It's a tough job but somebody's gotta do it

(I don't even need a gun! My armour has a built in ranged weapon! Also it was wielded by an agent of Lolth and may it may not be cursed!)

Mammon is a bastard. gave me a spell and in return stole my other fucking arm in a dream (vision?). this is exactly why i do not fuck with higher powers of ANY sort, fiendish or celestial or anything else,

(i still had it when i woke up from the tiefling-lineage-induced dream BUT. even if it had actually been taken it. wouldn't have been that bad. I've already lost one arm and i just built myself another one, it's not like it's gonna be HARD to do it a second time)

(also mechanically arcane armour replaces missing limbs, making it. almost meaningless. so,)

[raeynbowboi]

How to Play as Gwen Tennyson in DnD 5e

Today, I’m building Gwen Tennyson from the Ben 10 franchise. Specifically, I’m building Gwen from the Ben 10: Alien Force and Ben 10: Ultimate Alien era, as it altered the capacity of Gwen’s magic from the Original Series. These were also the last Ben 10 series I ever watched, so I don’t know much about her later counterparts due largely to hating the later art styles.

Although Gwen looks human, she’s technically an alien energy being wrapped in a layer of skin. More specifically, she’s an Anodite, inheriting her powers from her grandmother, Verdona Tennyson. Gwen’s full Anodite form is capable of flight, which her base form cannot do, and she cannot stay in her Anodite form for long without risking never turning back to human. That sounds awfully similar to a Protector Aasimar, which causes her to glow with radiant energy, fly, and unleash more power when casting her spells. Thanks to Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, we can alter her stats to +2 INT, +1 WIS. She gains 60 feet of Darkvision, the Light cantrip, learns Celestial, resists Radiant and Necrotic damage, can heal with her touch, as well as the Radiant Soul feature.

For her background, Gwen is a member of the Plumbers, a secret organization that deals with alien threats to the Earth. That’d make her a Faction Agent for Insight to find aliens in disguise, and Arcana to know lore about aliens.

Gwen is neither rule-oriented or a rule-breaker, making her Neutral Good.

WIZARD SCHOOL OF ABJURATION

Gwen’s primary thing a fight is to throw up a barrier or shield. While her magic is wide and varied, making her a good candidate for a Wizard, her shields and barriers are her go-to in combat. I did consider Sorcerer, as her ability to do magic originates from her Anodite ancestry, which would make her a Divine Soul Sorcerer, but Sorcerers have miniscule spell lists, and Gwen didn’t just get her magic. In the original series, Gwen had to study magic to learn it, and this is upheld in the Alien Force series. She has the capacity for magic as an Anodite, but has to study magic to hone her skills. Without study, she’d just be an alien in human skin. Her Arcane Ward can also act like her barriers, providing temporary cover but breaking when the Temporary HP runs out.

BASIC INFORMATION

BUILD School of Abjuration Wizard (20)

STATS STR 8 DEX 18 CON 14 INT 20 WIS 12 CHA 12

SAVING THROWS STR -1 DEX +4 CON +2 INT +11 WIS +7 CHA +1

COMBAT INFO HP: 122 AC: 17 Speed: 30 feet Initiative: +4 Darkvision: 60 feet Passive Perception: 11

SKILLS Arcana (+11) History (+11) Insight (+7) Investigation (+11)

RESISTANCES Radiant Necrotic Spell Damage

FEATS Eldritch Adept

ELDRITCH INVOCATIONS Armor of Shadows

GWEN’S SPELL BOOK

C Blade Ward, Fire Bolt, Light, Mage Hand, Message 1 Detect Magic, False Life, Feather Fall, Jump, Magic Missile, Shield, Tenser’s Floating Disk, Thunderwave 2 Augury, Earthbind, Flaming Sphere, Hold Person, Levitate, Shatter 3 Clairvoyance, Counterspell, Dispel Magic, Fireball, Fly, Glyph of Warding, Lightning Bolt, Magic Circle, Protection from Energy, Sending 4 Dimension Door, Divination, Locate Creature, Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere 5 Bigby’s Hand, Hold Monster, Passwall, Scrying, Telekinesis, Wall of Force 6 Arcane Gate, Chain Lightning, Fizban’s Platinum Shield, Globe of Invulnerability, Investiture of Flame, Tasha’s Otherworldly Guise 7 Crown of Stars, Forecage 8 Telepathy 9 Invulnerability

FEATURES

Abjuration Savant: Halve time and cost to copy Abjuration spells into your spell book. Arcane Recovery: Recover up to 10 spell slots of 5th level or lower on a short rest. Arcane Ward: When you cast an Abjuration spell, gain 45 temporary hit points. This ward lasts until it is depleted or you take a long rest. Healing Hands: Restore 20 HP with a touch once per long rest. Improved Abjuration: Add your proficiency bonus to Abjuration spells that require an ability check as part of casting the spell. Projected Ward: Your Arcane Ward can protect another creature within 30 feet of you. Radiant Soul: Gain a flying speed of 30 feet, and add radiant damage equal to your level to one instance of attack or spell damage per turn for a minute once per long rest. Signature Spells: Cast Counterspell and Protection from Energy once per long rest without using a spell slot. Spell Mastery: Cast Shield and Hold Person without using spell slots. Spell Resistance: Gwen has advantage on all spell saving throws, and resists all spell damage.

While we can’t do everything Gwen can do, such as her platform staircases, we’ve done a pretty good job translating her abilities to DnD. Aliens are always a little sketchy in DnD since sci-fi and fantasy don’t tend to blend well, but then, Ben 10 as a series never was one to shy away from aliens and wizards existing in the same universe.

[whyohwhydoris]

This is actually a really important point. The traditional role of Dungeon Master is often classified as "try and kill the players" but that's a stereotype born of munchkins. The traditional role of the DM is to present a compelling challenge, and then let the characters puzzle out a solution. This is why D&D still has the remnants of ideas around downtime. The way modern D&D is written, downtime makes no sense. The attitude and character of prepared adventures is much more along the lines of the constant action. It used to be that the adventure existed in the context of a broader world. You were a group who tackled a problem, and then you went back to your lives of being local nobles or reclusive wizards. That's why you have spells like Legend Lore which had casting times between minutes and weeks, reflecting a combination of magic and of research - and drawing from how Gandalf disappeared for years as he researched the Ring in Lord of the Rings. It isn't a coincidence that many of the named spells in D&D are utility spells like Tenser's Floating Disk or Nystul's Magic Aura. It's also not a coincidence that older additions had more robust up-casts for utility spells. While more limited, in AD&D 1e & 2e, a spell like Tenser's is scaled to the caster's level. Even with the same spell slot, a 10th level wizard can haul around 10x as much as a 1st level wizard, so long as it fits on the 3-foot disk. And for spell where the up-cast is tied to the level of the spell slot, this is still true: In AD&D 2e, fabricate adds its volume again for each additional level. So, what is now a 4th level spell that can only ever effect the exact same amount of stuff even if cast at 9th level, but used to let you effect that additional volume on an upcast. But, you can't put a dice-value on that, so you just kind of don't see it now. Never mind how weakly some upcasts scale. A 9th level magic missile does 11d4+11 damage. Meteor Swarm does 40d6 to as many ever creatures as fit in 4 forty-foot radii This lack of scaling of utility mechanics has killed lateral thinking. Sure, I can arm 1000 picts with plate armour, shields, swords, and javelins in a month with my level 10 black-smith wizard. But I'm "wasting" higher level slots to do it. And, where spells have the ability to create a permanent change, they take so long that the DM can A) fuck you over with a random encounter, and B) make no narrative sense any more. Modern D&D is a game where a month of down-time is a lot. Because you're have your Aarakocra player pointing out "Hey guys, we can't take a year off to do this, I might be *dead* because I created my character as a 25 year old, and they only live to around 30." It fosters a dearth of creativity.

It bears repeating how much of an anomaly the WotC D&D occupation with providing "balanced" encounters to the extent where every edge characters can gain over their opposition needs to be somehow accounted for in game balance. D&D is multiple different games, but the most stark internal division is between the TSR and WotC eras, where the previous one was not built around the expectation of encounters that need to be overcome in a specific way to "progress" and characters and their opposition were never really thought to be balanced.

Encounter balance only really became a goal with WotC D&D and even though it was at first and still is pretty much all over the place, there very much is an underlying philosophy of designing encounters to account for the party's capabilities and, on a character level, every possible edge characters might gain being accounted for. This was the clearest in 4e (a game explicitly built around these assumptions), but it very clearly informs the design of 3e and 5e: characters can't just go and make friends with a wolf, man. You gotta spend character-building resources on your character so that they may gain the Animal Companion feature and thus have permission to have a wolf. The wolf animal companion is placed on the same level as an extra sneak attack dice or a bonus feat or a new daily allotment of spells, and by this point you should see what I mean by the balance being kind of all over the place.

And as stated, that type of approach to game design is actually anomalous when you consider it within the context of RPGs as a whole. Sure, D&D has a disproportionate effect on perceptions of RPGs, and since there are many new designers coming in with expectations created by WotC D&D that type of design is becoming more and more common. And D&D's biggest competitor, Pathfinder, also very much subscribes to that philosophy of game design.

In Mythras a character can just join a Shamanic cult and learn the skills necessary to practice Shamanism and bind a predator spirit they have befriended into a wolf to thus gain a spirit companion who now has a corporeal form, and none of that requires the expenditure of character resources that need to be somehow balanced on a budget, nor does it somehow affect considerations of encounter balance. It's an edge that the character gained because they did the thing in the fiction. The only expenditure required was for the character to do it, and the time and resources it took for them to do it.

And most trad RPGs are balanced more along the lines of Mythras than they are of D&D.

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #276: Sei Shonagon

Today on Fate and Phantasms we’re building one of the 72 immortal poem writers, it’s Sei Shonagon! Sei is a Glamour Bard to write poetry so evocative it can leave you in another world. We also dip into Banneret Fighter a bit to pick up Sei’s unique fighting style while still keeping the party alive.

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

Next up: I’m on my way, I don’t know where I’m going.

Race and Background

Sei Shonagon is a Human, surprisingly enough. But once again power creep strikes, so she has a Mark of Making. This gives her +2 Charisma and +1 Constitution, a Maker’s Gift for proficiency with Calligrapher’s Supplies, and an Artisan’s Intuition to add a d4 to Arcana and Artisan’s Tools checks. On top of that, you’re a Spellsmith, giving you the Mending cantrip for free to patch up torn poetry and the Magic Weapon spell with added benefits. Well, one benefit. It doesn’t use concentration, though in return you can only cast this special Magic Weapon this way once a day. Weirdly enough it doesn’t say you can cast Magic Weapon for free, so it’s a good thing we’re a spellcaster, huh?

Also there’s some Spells of the Mark that add to your spell list. It’s a lot so we won’t go into all of them here, though they’re all on the character sheet. We’ll just go over what we need when we need it.

She’s a Guild Artisan, giving her proficiency in Insight and Persuasion. Your poetry truly shows your knowledge of the people around you. Also you managed to keep those people from forming a mob while you kept deriding them in poem form.

Ability Scores

Number one is Charisma. I mean, duh. Your power literally comes from reciting poetry. After that is Dexterity, since floofy dresses aren’t really armor around here. Also because of those heels how the hell do you fight in those? Third is Strength. You’re not a beefcake, but you can throw a cellphone hard enough to do damage. Your Intelligence is honestly lower than I’d like, but we’re not using it here. That being said we’re not monstrous enough to dump Constitution, so that honor goes to Wisdom. You’re pretty flighty all things considered, and despite everything you have some serious trouble reading the feelings of your fellow writer.

Class Levels

Bard 1: Starting off as a bard is cool, you get proficiency in any three skills you want. I’d pick Performance for poetry reading, Acrobatics to fight in those heeeeels, and Perception to know when something poem-worthy is going down. You’re also good at Dexterity and Charisma save to protect your poetry from fireballs. Speaking of poetry, you can hand it out to your allies as a bonus action to give them some Bardic Inspiration. They’re d6s they can add to a check, save, or attack for up to a minute, and you get a number of them equal to your Charisma modifier per day. You can also use your Charisma to cast Spells! Pick up Prestidigitation to make ammo to throw and Vicious Mockery to chastise those in power. For your leveled spells, Charm Person will help make people more susceptible to your Noble Phantasm later. Trust me, it’ll make sense. You can also inspire some Heroism in your allies, and you can pull out your umbrella to create a Floating Disk (it might be Tenser’s, still not sure what’s going on there) to ride on, or to Feather Fall, letting you float to the ground all peaceful-like.

Bard 2: Second level bards are Jacks of All Trades, adding half your proficiency bonus to every check you’re not proficient in. I’d call you a renaissance woman, but you were born 600 years before then. I guess the renaissance was a real Sei Shonagon moment. You can also perform a Poem of Rest over short rests, adding a d6 to your party’s healing during that time. On top of that, your Magical Inspiration means your inspiration dice can be added to the damage or healing of spells. Sei can do a lot, and she can do even more thanks to Disguise Self, giving her an easy way to perform costume changes on the fly!

Bard 3: At third level Sei becomes a Glamour Bard, so she can put on a Mantle of Inspiration as a bonus action. By spending an inspiration die you can give temporary HP to a couple creatures and let them move around without provoking opportunity attacks. More importantly, you can use an Enthralling Performance to turn a poetry slam into a brainwashing session, charming a couple nearby creatures into being your best friends. The effect ends if they take damage or you and your friends try to attack it. Otherwise, it lasts 1 hour, and you can do this once a short rest. You can also Enlarge/Reduce creatures. Making a chicken big enough to trample people is a really niche thing, but you can do it, so here. One last thing: you get Expertise in two skills, doubling your proficiency bonus in Performance and Insight.

Fighter 1: Your writing’s coming along nicely, but we still need a little more physicality. And that’s why we stopped off in fighter- at first level, you get a Fighting Style, and the Thrown style adds 2 to all damage done by thrown weapons, plus you can pull them out as fast as you can launch ‘em. It’ll come in handy when we have multiple attacks- pelting someone with garbage is more quantity over quality. One other thing: you can now spend your bonus action on a Second Wind, healing yourself for a bit. You get discouraged easily, but also encouraged easily. Just take a breather and you’ll be back on your feet in no time!

Bard 4: But if we want to throw random stuff at people, first we gotta improve our aim. that’s why we’re spending our first ability score improvement on the tavern brawler feat! this’ll round up your strength for more accurate and painful tosses, and it’ll make you proficient with improvised weapons! (i’d call your umbrella a quarterstaff, but everything else definitely counts.) Also, your unarmed attacks deal 1d4 damage, and if you use your action to make an improvised or unarmed attack, you can use your bonus action to grapple that target. I am not sure how in-character that last feature is, but the other three are mostly why we’re here. You can also use a cellphone for more than violence by casting Message to get in contact with a nearby ally. We’ll also pick up Magic Weapon proper so you can make your umbrella a terrifying force for more than one hour per day.

Bard 5: Fifth level bards gain a cavalcade of useful features. Your Bardic Inspiration dice increase to a d8, and your Font of Inspiration means you recover inspiration dice on short rests as well as long ones! On top of all that, you gain third level spells like Conjure Barrage! We’ll get a less spell-based option for item-throwing as we go, but if you want the most projectiles thrown in the shortest amount of time it’s hard to beat this spell.

Bard 6: Sixth level bards can Countercharm as an action, giving your allies advantage on saves against being charmed or frightened. This feature isn’t very powerful, but it is finally in-character! You’re energetic, but that doesn’t mean you’ll fall head over heels for every pretty face that comes your way. If you’d rather have other people fall head over heels for you, check out your new Mantle of Majesty feature. You can spend a bonus action to Command a creature without spending a spell slot and transform for a minute. During this minute, you can keep casting Command as a bonus action each turn. Also, any creatures you have charmed automatically fail their save against these commands! You can use this feature once a day. if you have a third level spell slot free and want to blow Countercharm out of the water, check out Intellect Fortress. It takes up your concentration and only works on one person per cast (unless you upcast), but the upside is it gives you advantage on all soft stat saves, plus you get resistance to psychic damage! And it lasts an hour, instead of taking up your action every turn!

Fighter 2: We’ve got all your skills set up now, and since your NP takes like 9 more levels to get we’ll go back to getting your attacks set up now. At second level, fighters can take an Action Surge once a short rest to add an action to their turn. Now you can throw two things a turn! Or cast two spells, that’s pretty useful too.

Fighter 3: At third level you become a Banneret, turning your Second Wind into a Rallying Cry- when you use it, you can also heal up to three other creatures around you. You’re the life of the party- literally, now.

Fighter 4: Fourth level fighters get an ASI of their own, so we can round up our Constitution and Charisma for a lot more health and stronger spells.

Fighter 5: Fifth level fighters get an Extra Attack each attack action. Now that’s four things getting thrown a turn if you use your action surge!

Bard 7: Alright, that’s enough short levels. Now you can use Hallucinatory Terrain to paint a scene in your reader’s mind and, more importantly, in the literal landscape around you. You can’t add in man-made structures, but you can get that classic Japanese Landscape Porn going at least.

Bard 8: Eighth level bards also get an ASI- max out your Charisma so you can Charm Monsters with the best of ‘em. Your NP doesn’t specify humanoids, so now you can bring just about anyone with you.

Bard 9: Ninth level bards get a d8 for their song of rest, plus fifth level spells like Legend Lore. You’ve written about people enough to really get to the meat of things, at least when it comes to people important enough to be considered “legendary”.

Bard 10: Tenth level bards get another round of Expertise- boost up Perception and Acrobatics for more idol-y skills. Your bardic inspiration also becomes a d10 now. On top of all that, you get the Light cantrip for a phone flashlight, plus some Magical Secrets- two spells from any spell list. This time around we’re keeping things simple- grab Mage Armor so you can fight in those poofy dresses you like so much and Shillelagh to power up your umbrella further. With this spell you can make your umbrella magical, it’ll always deal at least a d8, and you can use Charisma for your attacks instead of anything else. Combine this with an upcast concentration-free magic weapon for one hell of an improvised weapon! You’ll go from a +7 to hit all the way up to a +12!

Bard 11: For your sixth level spell, pick up Heroes’ Feast. Extra Health, a bonus to wisdom saves, and you and your buddies can’t be frightened or diseased. Not entirely sure how a poem about food does all that, but I’m also not sure how food does all that, so... eh?

Bard 12: Use your last ASI to bump up your Dexterity for more AC. I really hope you were using medium armor before we got mage armor, your bast AC isn’t good.

Bard 13: Thirteenth level bards get another boost to their song of rest, but tbh an extra 1d10 isn’t that huge. Definitely not as huge as your NP, Dream of the Blue Veil, that is. After a 10 minute casting time, you and up to 8 creatures fall unconscious for up to 6 hours, or until one of you takes damage. If they stay asleep for the full six hours, they’re taken to another world. Sei’s NP is all about getting lost in nostalgia, so trapping them in a 3.5e game would be appropriate. Now, some qualifications- you need a magical item or creature from the world you’re going to for this spell to work, so make sure you start this build by asking for an innocuous trinket from your DM. Or hope a really good poem about a world will suffice. Also you have to follow them into the new world, but then you can cast this again to get yourself out, leaving them trapped forever. Like this isn’t even a “they might find a portal and come back” kind of trapped, they’re just there. Also they need to be willing creatures for this to work, but that’s why we got those charming spells earlier. Just ask ‘em “Hey you guys want to see this really cool poem I’m working on?” then trap them in another module. Classic trick.

Bard 14: At fourteenth level your Unbreakable Majesty makes you a little more evasive. You can transform as a bonus action for a minute, forcing a charisma save on everyone when they try to attack you for the duration. If they fail, they have to pick a new target. If they succeed, they have disadvantage on all saves against your magic for a round. So goad someone into slapping you, then charm them and trap them in another reality for all time. That NP is kind of fucked up now that I think of it, huh? Also this feature works once a short rest. On top of that, you get another round of Magical Secrets. Mirage Arcane will let you create any kind of landscape, buildings included. So sight-see in another world, then show off your vacation photos in the most extravagant way possible. You can also use Skill Expertise to cheer on your friends when they’re doing something they’re good at, giving them expertise in one skill for the duration.

Bard 15: Our capstone level gives you d12s for inspiration, and the ultimate form of your Meeting Checkpoint in Osaka, Mind Blank. This spell gives its target immunity to psychic damage, mind reading, divination, or the charmed condition. You’ve got more important things to do than check out that succubus all day, dangit!

Pros and Cons

Pros:

You have enough random little skills that you can almost always be the at the center of the party, and I don’t just mean thanks to your +17 to performance. You can heal people, buff them, gather lore for the party, and even do a little bit of healing.

This all ties into your bigger strength, your sheer variety of options. You deal damage, fight with weapons, make better weapons debuff enemies, and even take them or the party to other dimensions.

Also, unlike a lot of charm-heavy builds we’ve done, you’ve got solid weapon skills to fall back on, with a powerful umbrella and fling-no-jutsu meaning you’re never completely harmless.

Cons:

You can do a lot, but not everything you do is useful. For starters, being good with weapons doesn’t help much when your AC is bad and your HP is barely above 100. Also, Blue Veil will only work against charmed enemies, and not at all if your DM isn’t cool with it. And improvised weapons don’t do much, so Tavern Brawler isn’t that great a feat.

You also have low wisdom, so when you’re not using those magic defense options you’re pretty easy to charm yourself.

Again, a lot of your features hinge on charming people, and anybody scary enough to warrant dumping in another reality over fighting them is probably immune to that.

[tigerkirby215]

5e Ezreal, the Prodigal Explorer build (League of Legends)

(Artwork by Suke “hugehugesword” Su. Made for Riot Games.)

In my constant and continued effort to deny Ezreal’s existence I finally had to get around to building him. Again it’s not that I don’t like him... I mean I don’t. But I kinda forgot what I was going to build him as. Lol.

Dorans & Dragons also made a build for Ezreal back in like... early 2020. Christ that’s before the world went to shit, ain’t it? Well regardless they also made their build before Tasha’s Cauldron came out and I think I can make a build that is different enough to warrant my build existing alongside theirs.

In short: this is an elaborate excuse for me to make another Artificer build.

GOALS

Gawk at this! - We need many a glowing projectile to spam at foes before blowing them up. Ezreal isn’t the type to just autoattack.

I always know a shortcut - Flash on a 15 second cooldown is nice. We’ll need to be able to blink around constantly throughout the entire fight.

Time to show 'em who's best - Nothing’s more dangerous than a well-placed Trueshot Barrage sniping through the entire enemy team.

RACE

Back to good ol’ Variant Human. As a Variant Human you can increase two of your ability scores by 1: increase your Intelligence and your Charisma, to be the hot smart twink you are. You also learn a Language of your choice along with a Skill of choice. You spent plenty of time studying The Void so Abyssal would make sense as a language, and for your skill Perception would help you spot traps or incoming ganks... as long as you remember to ward.

For your feat we’re going to be grabbing Arcane Shift as fast as possible with Fey Touched so you can start Flashing. (Not like that!) You can increase your Intelligence score by 1 and also learn the Misty Step spell. You can also add a Divination or Enchantment spell to your list and a little Heroism never hurt anyone. You can cast both of these spells once without spending a spell slot, and can then spend spell slots on them after the fact.

ABILITY SCORES

15; INTELLIGENCE - Archeology is a lot of history and facts... If you do it the boring way, that is!

14; DEXTERITY - Repeat it after me: “something something Medium armor.”

13; CHARISMA - You’re a pretty boy twink who got at least two girls on the Rift to fall for you.

12; WISDOM - Traveling through ancient temples and traps takes a degree of common sense. Not necessarily common sense you have, but a bit of boost never hurt.

10; CONSTITUTION - You’re an ADC, which means you’re squishy.

8; STRENGTH - Twink.

Feel free to swap Constitution around with another stat for better health but worse roleplay.

BACKGROUND

“Archaeologist” is just the nice way of saying Tomb Raider, which is the mean way of saying Adventurer! You get proficiency with History and Survival (hey you’ve gotta tough it out in the desert sometimes!) You also get proficiency in a language of your choice (I went for Dwarvish because Dwarves seem to have built most ruins) and proficiency in either Navigator’s Tools or Cartographer’s Tools... “Who needs a map?”

You spent enough time in ruins to pick up some Historical Knowledge on ancient dungeons and temples to know who made them. And if you find anything that belongs in a museum you know how much it’s worth to the museum!

(Artwork by Sangsoo Jeong. Made for Riot Games.)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - ARTIFICER 1

Starting off as Artificer to “borrow” a few inventions. But also because you get training in Arcana to know your magical artifacts, Investigation to find said magical artifacts, and Calligrapher’s Tools to slay Ascended and Darkin alike in one blow. You also get Magical Tinkering to wave that gauntlet of yours around on some Tiny objects, making them glow or play sounds or do all sorts of things that Prestidigitation would probably do better. But at least you can play your own theme music too!

But of course the main appeal of being an Artificer is the Spellcasting. You can learn two cantrips from the Artificer list like Message to coordinate with your support and Guidance to help yourself find treasure! (Or help others I guess.) You can prepare a number of spells equal to your Intelligence modifier plus your Artificer level (rounded down.) Cure Wounds will let you summoner spell Heal yourself or your Support. Faerie Fire will serve as a more basic version of your Essence Flux, making an enemy easier to hit (therefor making them take more damage!) And Feather Fall is always useful in a pinch!

Also yes you don’t have your gauntlet yet so you’re going to have to use a Light Crossbow for now. Feel free to take a combat cantrip if you want but you don’t really need it.

LEVEL 2 - ARTIFICER 2

Second level Artificers can make Infusions, special definitely-not-stolen magical treasures that make them more awesome than everyone else. For a little more AD an Enhanced Weapon is useful to have. You can also put those goggles on your head to use by making Goggles of Night to see with your dumb human eyes. A Mind Sharpener may feel like a cheat, but I’m not going to say no to keeping Concentration in check. And for your final infusion? A Rope of Climbing might be useful? Honestly the more impressive stuff comes after you’ve done a bit more exploring.

You can also prepare another spell like Alarm, just in case someone’s planning to steal your... legitimately earned treasure.

LEVEL 3 - ARTIFICER 3

Third level Artificers get to choose their specialty and Armorers don’t have to wear an entire suit of armor; just a gauntlet! Along with proficiency in Smith’s Tools you can turn any suit of armor you find into Arcane Armor. The armor has a variety of benefits: no Strength requirement, the inability to have your armor removed against your will, the ability to take it off or put it on as an action, and some replacement limbs. But notably it works as an Artificer spell focus!

There’s two different Armor Models and we’ll be going for the Infiltrator variant for a Lightning Launcher. This makes your Gauntlet a weapon that deals a d6 of lightning damage, with a regular range of 90 and a long range of 300 in case you want to go for long ranged snipes. Additionally once per turn you can pop Essence Flux to do an extra d6 of damage on hit! And I didn’t even mention the best part: this works off your Intelligence! So no more need for the crossbow.

You also get your boots for Powered Steps, increasing your movement speed by 5 feet. And thanks to your Dampening Field you can hide in bushes with free Stealth advantage! I’d recommend trying to get a Breastplate because that’s the best armor you can get that doesn’t also impose stealth disadvantage, but even with Half Plate you can still be sneaky! Heck, you can even wear Platemail if you want! "And my boots are not waterproof. Fantastic."

Oh and you get some Armorer Spells! Magic Missile will autoaim for you like your Arcane Shift projectile, and Thunderwave is helpful for some self-peel.

LEVEL 4 - ARTIFICER 4

4th level Artificers get an Ability Score Improvement: seeing as we have uneven Intelligence take the Observant feat for +1 Intelligence and a boost to your passive Perception and Investigation to watch the minimap for people to snipe! Additionally you can spy on the bad guys if you want and read their lips to gain knowledge of all their secret plans!

More Intelligence does also usually mean more spells prepared but I’m going to wait for...

(Artwork by Xu “Crow God” Cheng. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 5 - ARTIFICER 5

5th level Armorers up their Attack Speed with Rising Spell Force, gaining an Extra Attack with the attack action!

You also get Mirror Image and Shatter added to your list of Armorer Spells, and can prepare spells like Rope Trick for a safe place to rest for awhile, and Heat Metal to really lay in that Essence Flux.

LEVEL 6 - ARTIFICER 6

6th level Artificers get more Infusions which is what I was waiting for! A Radiant Weapon is all the fun of an Enhanced Weapon but it also doubles as a flashlight for your dumb human eyes! And Boots of the Winding Path will let you Arcane Shift back to safety in case you accidentally run into danger.

Feel free to swap some of your old infusions around too. A Lantern of Revealing or Cloak of Elvenkind would be helpful... and Gloves of Thievery never hurt anyone.

And finally you can prepare Aid, as your natural awesomeness rubs off on your allies. "Oh, please, don't die. I can't lose a sidekick. Not again."

LEVEL 7 - WIZARD 1

You didn’t think this would just be a pure Artificer build, did you? Even if that would’ve been stronger I’m legally obligated to needlessly stick multiclass levels into all my builds. And Wizard is definitely a good multiclass for more slots to do Spellcasting! You learn 3 cantrips and six leveled spells as a first level Wizard:

CANTRIPS

To help your allies land their shots take Mind Sliver to weaken an enemy’s saving throws.

Prestidigitation will let you do a bunch of simple magic, and if you want you can have your own hero music too!

Finally Friends is good to make friends you don’t mind losing after they tell you where the ancient ruins are.

SPELLS

I basically just took everything with the Ritual tag. Alarm (yes you have it as an Artificer spell but you can swap that out), Comprehend Languages, Detect Magic, Identify, Tenser’s Floating Disk... and sure why not Find Familiar too? Seeing as you can ritual cast at will most of your early level stuff is going to be reserved for Ritual Casting, as you’re probably going to be spending most of your first level slots on Magic Missile and Faerie Fire anyways.

You also get Arcane Recovery, letting you recover spell slots equal to half your Wizard level (rounded up.) So right now you can get a first level spell slot back at the end of a Short Rest! And later on you can get more!

LEVEL 8 - WIZARD 2

Second level Wizards get to choose the school that their parents left them in before disappearing in the jungle, and the School of Evocation has a surprise tool that will help us later. Along with being an Evocation Savant (allowing you to copy Evocation spells into your spell book with half the time and cost) you can Sculpt Spells so that they only hit the bad guys: when you cast an Evocation spell (from any class, not just Wizard!) you can choose a number creatures equal to the spell’s level + 1. The chosen creatures automatically succeed on their saving throws against the spell, and they take no damage if they would normally take half damage on a successful save. This will be really useful when we get our (pseudo-)Global ultimate; wouldn’t want to fry your pals now would you?

We may as well grab some of those Evocation spells, right? Earth Tremor will let you hit an AoE Mystic Shot because Riot decided that Tiamat should have a cleave I guess, and I mean... Shield is never a bad thing to have?

(Artwork made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 9 - ARTIFICER 7

Back to the big brain plays: 7th level Artificers can make the biggest brain plays thanks to Flash of Genius, letting you boost an ally’s skill check or saving throw with your own natural perfection. The boost is equal to your Intelligence modifier and you can use this reaction a number of times equal to double your Intelligence modifier.

LEVEL 10 - ARTIFICER 8

8th level Artificers get another Ability Score Improvement? Well seeing as Intelligence still controls just about everything we do it would do good to increase that by 2! That does mean you can prepare more spells (both as a Wizard and as an Artificer) but I’m going to wait for...

LEVEL 11 - ARTIFICER 9

Every ADC dreams of being six-slotted; now you can be with Armor Modifications! Your Armorer armor counts as 4 separate items for the sake of your Infusions: the chest piece, boots, helmet, and the armor’s special weapon can all be infused. Far more importantly however you can have two extra infusions! Those infusions have to be on your armor, but you can put the Radiant Weapon (weapon) and Goggles of Night (helmet) onto your armor and save your other infusions for your allies! Or for yourself; yourself works too.

And we can’t forget the third level spells! You get Hypnotic Pattern from your Armorer Spells for an AoE stun, but far more importantly you get Lightning Bolt which will serve as Trueshot Barrage! And since you’re an Evocation Wizard you can shoot past your friends without blowing them to bits. "Oh, a plan. Yeah, I totally have one of those."

You can also prepare spells like Haste for more DPS (just don’t get stunned), Blink for some Duskblade invisibility, and replace Alarm with Revifify... Ya know: just in case.

LEVEL 12 - ARTIFICER 10

As an ADC it would be good to get six-slotted, and Magic Item Adept lets you get your 4th Legendary item! That’s because you can now attune to 4 magic items at once! (And can also craft Common and Uncommon magic items more easily.)

Speaking of Infusions, we can make more of them, such as a Cloak of Protection or Winged Boots! These are just generally useful but not really Ezreal specific; they’re mostly for your allies. "The gauntlet's for show... the talent's all me."

You can also prepare another spell like Fly which is just universally useful, and holy shit you get another cantrip. Take Mage Hand and maybe try to be a little more cautious when tomb raiding?

(Artwork by Bo “chenbowow” Chen. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 13 - ARTIFICER 11

Do you want a lot more Mystic Shots? 11th level Artificers can make a Spell Storing Item and put an Artificer spell of first or second level inside. What’s cool about this is that anyone can use it, allowing them to cast the spell as if they were you!

My recommendation? Give them Mirror Image. It’s an amazing buff that doesn’t require Concentration. Even a low DEX Paladin will appreciate the chance to not be hit, and a high DEX ally can really get value out of Mirror Image. Yeah the Barbarian technically can’t cast while raging, but they can use this before going into a Rage to be very hard to hit!

And speaking of spells you can prepare another one, so how about you grab Create Food and Water to keep yourself sated on longer archeological trips. "Why didn't I eat before I got here...? Ezreal, why?!”

LEVEL 14 - ARITIFCER 12

12th level Artificers get another Ability Score Improvement... we got all we need in terms of stats (Intelligence lol) so now it’s time to really make some impressive trick shots: the Sharpshooter feat will let you attack at long range without disadvantage and ignore cover bonuses, but most importantly you can take a -5 to your attack roll for a whopping +10 to damage! Don’t use this on high AC targets obviously but if you think you’ll hit why not go for the one-shot? "No applause, please. ...Okay, maybe just a bit of thunderous acclaim. ...A little?"

LEVEL 15 - WIZARD 3

I do still want more spell slots, as well as more spells known! Truthfully there isn’t too much I want from second level, so take Locate Object to find hidden treasure and Augry (added to the Wizard spell list thanks to Tasha’s!) to know what to expect in the next dungeon... sorta. "No plan survives first contact with me."

LEVEL 16 - WIZARD 4

4th level Wizards get an Ability Score Improvement: we got all the abilities we wanted really, so why not Get Lucky? The Lucky Feat will give you a bit of anime protagonist power to guarantee that you make the perfect daring escape. Feel free to take Warcaster or just increase your Constitution however; by this point Ability Scores don’t matter too much.

You can also learn two more spells like Melf’s Acid Arrow for another Essence Flux-esque DoT ability and See Invisibility, in case you need a Sweeper Lense to deal with any clowns.

LEVEL 17 - WIZARD 5

Ima be honest I kinda just wanted third level for Thunder Step to get an Arcane Shift that does damage. Artificer 18 / Wizard 2 (or even just Artificer 20) would’ve been a fine build for Ezeal too, if you don’t think this one spell is worth a 5 level class dip.

Anyways you also learn another cantrip and I mean... you may as well take Shocking Grasp for some defense up close? You also get one other spell and I’m gonna suggest Galder’s Tower this time which is like Tiny Hut... but awesome. And really small. This is mostly just a way for me to talk about a fun spell and also recommend my homebrew fix for it.

(Artwork by Alvin Lee. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 18 - ARTIFICER 13

You got third level spells as a Wizard, you can now prepare 4th level spells as an Artificer! Fire Shield and Greater Invisibility are both available as Armorer Spells, one of which is far more useful for you than the other one. Bro imagine how crazy Evelynn would be with Evelynn’s passive. But yeah feel free to swap around your prepared spells a bit for more 4th level spells, since you definitely have the slots to do so.

LEVEL 19 - ARTIFICER 14

14th level Artificers are Magic Item Savants who can attune to 5 magic items at once, meaning that along with your boots which are technically magical but whatever you can finally be properly six-slotted! But far more importantly you can attune to any item, regardless of any class or race restrictions tied to the item!  "I can't get hauled into wizard court again. Technically I don't have a permit for the gauntlet."

Speaking of more attunement: more Infusions. An Amulet of Health will let you boost your bad Constitution from a 10 to a 19, giving you a solid 76 health boost near max level! Other than that more movement speed is never a bad thing, and Boots of Speed may give you more value than your other magic boots.

But holy shit forget all that because you finally get your 4th Artificer cantrip! Grab Mending because somehow we don’t have that yet; gotta keep your outfit in check! Oh and you can get around to preparing another 4th level spell! Truth be told though the 4th level spells for Artificer are kinda... bad? But at least Tasha’s gave us Summon Construct which is a surprisingly strong summon!

"Last time I was in Shurima, I decoded some glyphs. Something about a jackal head... End of times... The usual. All I wanted was this ruby scarab. It looks great on my mantle."

LEVEL 20 - ARTIFICER 15

Our final level is the 15th level of Artificer for the Perfected Armor Armorer capstone. When you shoot an enemy you mark them with Essence Flux, giving them disadvantage to hit you. In addition the next attack (including your own I’m pretty sure!) has Advantage against the enemy while they’re marked with  Essence Flux, and if they’re hit they’ll take an extra d6 of Lightning damage!

FINAL BUILD

PROS

Blast 'em, gauntlet! - With your capstone ability you do 4d6 + 10 damage with your Lightning Launcher, and that’s before using Sharpshooter. Even without your capstone 3d6 + 10 is still really good damage output, especially when you can cast spells for big bursts of damage.

See if you can handle this! - Speaking of spells your slots go all the way up to 7th level, and while you’ll mostly just be upcasting a 12d6 Lightning Bolt is nothing to sneeze at! Not to mention other options like a 7d8 Fire damage Heat Metal or +30 HP Aid.

If anyone asks, I didn't see any of these priceless artifacts for sale - It goes without saying that having two more attunement slots than the average character is massive, especially when you can stick infusions onto your armor to maximize the amount of treasures on your person.

CONS

I wasn't strong enough? - Investing fully in INT gives us maxed out combat stats but it leaves a lot of our other abilities lacking. We’re nowhere near Charismatic enough to sell (somewhat) illegitimately gotten gains, and while Infusions can help augment our health (and even our Strength if you grab a Belt of Giant’s Strength) your Wisdom and even your Dexterity are rather mediocre, which is bad for both skill checks and saving throws.

Impossible comebacks are sorta my specialty - Most of your coolest stuff is tied to spell slots and other Long Rest dependent mechanics, and while you have a lot of spell slots (as well as Arcane Recovery to get some of them back) they are still quite limited. You’re perfectly viable as just an auto-attack and Q spammer, but who doesn’t want to shoot lasers and explosions, ya know?

Never met a problem that I couldn't blast away with magic... that I don't even understand - 5 levels in Wizard give us big spell slots but that’s about it, and yeah a 7d6 Lightning Bolt (that won’t hit your allies) is nothing to sneeze at but for the most part you are more of a Martial character. Just saying that level 18 of Artificer would’ve given you Magic Item Master for a whole 6 attunement slots! And level 20 of Artificer would’ve given you Soul of Artifice, essentially operating as a +6 to all saving throws and a 6 time use Guardian Angel.

But if a teamfight breaks out you’re more than a capable ADC. Artificers are the masters of magic items and it doesn’t matter if you make them yourself or “borrow” them from an ancient tomb; you can be the hero mom and dad always wanted you to be! Just concentrate on your farm in the early game and don’t take unnecessary risks. You may be the perfect man of magic but you’re not immortal, despite what the ADCs I’m forced to support always seem to think.

(Artwork by Jennifer Wuesting. Made for Riot Games.)

[utilitycaster]

I did not even get a chance to talk about how great yesterday’s NADDPod episode was but it was also amazing, in particular, Tenser’s Floating Disk saves the day, all of the flashbacks/unconsciousness sequences but especially us getting to see Bathilda, Fia’s deals with Madame Whitlock while the latter is being eaten by a toad monster, and of course the cliffhanger.

I should add I don’t always like D&D flashbacks but the Eldermourne ones have really been working for me

[swop-bango]

There's a lot that's either misleading or ahistorical here (FWIW I didn't listen to the podcast itself, so I'm working off the show notes).

The claim, also made by Wizards themselves, that the "motivating factors behind changing the OGL were NFTs and Nazis" rings a bit hollow, considering Hasbro, the parent company for WotC, has no problem with NFTs themselves, and D&D still has its share of issues with first-party racist content.

The linked notes also claim that RPG spaces only recently became populated by the far right, which is just not true. The Star Frontiers lawsuit they mention, which has nothing to do with the OGL, is against a company run by Ernie Gygax, who, as his name suggests, has been involved with the hobby from the very start (he's the namesake for Tenser, of "Tenser's floating disk" fame, for one). Also, a lot of early D&D leaned hard into racist stereotypes.

The show notes act like a 25% royalty paid on revenue above $750,000 (not profits) won't be a huge burden to larger third-party creators, which is an absolutely bizarre claim to make. And the claim that Paizo (or Kobold Press or Green Ronin) is hugely successful because they make a whole 34.7 million dollars of revenue each year is a joke. For context, that's about 2-3% of what Wizards of the Coast makes in a year.

Both Ryan Dancey and (allegedly) Brian Lewis, the architects of the original OGL, have come out saying that they don't believe that the OGL gives Wizards the authority to deauthorize old versions.

AFAICT Wizards also wants the OGL 1.1 to cover new content based on material covered by OGL 1.0, such as upcoming game supplements for third-party games released under OGL 1.0. It's unclear if they intend for this to apply to all publishers, or only those who have released any material which uses OGL 1.1, but either way, it's bad.

The assumption that Wizards changed the revenue-sharing portion of the OGL specifically because the success of Pathfinder "blindsided" them is also odd, considering that for D&D 4e, Wizards had changed from the OGL to the far more restrictive GSL, and then specifically changed back to the OGL for the release of 5e, which was published 5 years after Pathfinder came out.

The show notes are also flat out wrong in some places- they claim (and take an unnecessary swipe at Linda Codega in doing so) that the requirement in the OGL 1.1 to distinguish between third-party open gaming content from SRD-distributed open gaming content is also in 1.0. It isn't.

In short,

The leaked OGL is, in fact, bad.

There's every reason to believe that Wizards and Hasbro are being extremely disingenuous with their stated reasoning for the changes.

Fortunately, it's not clear how much of it is enforceable.

A really interesting piece from Opening Arguments about the OGL 1.1 update.

Some quick takeaways (although I do highly rec listening to the full podcast about it, it's from an actual lawyer who does contract law.)

Gizmodo's article was unfair and straight up lied about aspects of the OGL 1.1.

There's no change to the content that can be used from Wizards of Coast on the OGL, what changes is the way that content can be used.

Two large motivating factors behind changing the OGL were NFTs and nazis (preventing people from using their work for NFTs, preventing the apparently rampant issue of nazis using DnD to promote violent rhetoric).

The old agreement, 1.0, still covers and protects everything posted under it. Nothing in 1.1 retroactively applies to content/creations published prior to the update. That would not be legally valid. Only new content published after 1.1 is officially released will count.

Podcast creators or other creators that use a patron system (ie content is not paywalled but people have the option to give the creator money), are explicitly protected by the new OGL.

The actual part of the OGL that is unfair, and that people should be mad about, is 10.B of the non-commercial Agreement and Paragraph 12.B of the Commercial Agreement

In 10.B and 12.B, any original content you create under the OGL is granted to WotC under a perpetual and irrevocable royalty-free license, which is incredibly unfair to content creators.

Now, Andrew (the lawyer), speculates that this is such an unfair rule that it would likely be unenforceable in court, however, he still heavily encourages that people who are upset focus on this rule and force change around that to protect content creators from having their original work stolen.

[creativerogues]

Player’s Guide: Meet The Archmages of Capitol!

Well the Player’s Guide is coming together really well, and thanks to @dnd-chamyra-studies, as well as @paradigmanomaly and @nickle-snatcher for providing so much help on building the City of Capitol.

But without any further delay, let’s get into the details...

Archmage of Illusion, The Archmage Indefinable

The Archmage of Illusion never shares his actual name, and often creates elaborate illusions and personas to hide himself.

He’s a High-Level Wizard (obviously) with the magical capabilities to create up to 8 Illusory Duplicates thanks to his ability to cast Mirror Image at-will, and he’s almost accompanied by his Simulacrum, who can do the same...

He’s used many fancy names and personas to hide his identity: Example names include Salem, Owahl, Zakalis and Morgan.

The Archmage of Illusion became famous for being so powerful that when the rival Kingdom of Rassumurait attempted to sail to the shores of Capitol, he disguised the stars they used to navigate so that they ended up lost at sea and where forced to retreat...

What does he look like?

He’s an older Halfling Man, lightly hunched in posture with wild curly grey hair with an arrow through it like a makeshift hairpin. He’s well over 3-foot-tall, even while hunched over, with gross old barefoot hobbit feet with excessive foot hair, his toenails have clearly never been trimmed, and he seems to have some sort of exotic fungal disease on his feet, even starting to develop small mushrooms...

Because when you literally always have a disguise or illusion on you, you don’t really need to look good or wash at all...

He carries a small wooden staff like a cane, and in his other hand he often holds a pipe.

The Archmage of Illusion is known for levitating in conversations with the other Archmages, so they can speak eye-to-eye rather than top-of-head to crotch; and he has a nervous habit of letting out a little giggle whenever he tells the truth.

He’s also recently become addicted to the Laumadorian Plant known as ‘Weeping Flak’, smoking it and adding it like spice and sugar to everything they consume, since Weeping Flak (also known as Bluegrass) is also known to increase one’s arcane powers for a short time after consumption.

Archmage of Enchantment, Father Jack

Father Jack? Well this handsome dwarven wizard used to get every girl he wanted into bed since his beard started to grow. You may be asking why the Archmages call him Father Jack, better pose that question to his 122 Sons and 99 Daughters...

He’s short, stocky, and very clearly dwarven to anyone that looks at him. His skin is slightly tanned from his days on the coast, and his face carries a big bulbous red nose at its center.

His beard seems quite magnificent, with ornate brass and bronze bands adorning their beard. Their beard is also very obviously dyed. There are streaks of grey that have been colored to match their original shade, but don’t quite match.

Another odd feature is his left eye, since he’s missing it, and it appears he’s had a chunk of solid gold carved to look like an eye implanted in the place of his left eye.

He wears a copper ring on one finger, a ring with intricate carvings on its surface, and this Archmage always seems to be followed by a smell of rum and alcohol on his breath...

Archmage of Conjuration, Archmage Butterfly

Her full name is ‘Clawed Butterfly’. A Conjuration Wizard who is always accompanied by her Faithful Hound and her Unseen Servant. She often chooses to use Misty Step rather than walking...

She’s feline and cat-like in appearance, she often wears an ombre-dyed hood that reminds you of a hunting cat. Meanwhile the feline tail of the Archmage winds and flickers with a mind of its own.

She has cat-like slits for eyes, and just to confirm; Yes, she’s a Tabaxi Wizard.

She has tattoos across her face, starting from the corner of her mouth to the edge of her eye, but barely visible under her tabaxi hair.

Her right arm is bizarre and unnatural: One of her arms is a slightly different tone, and slightly shorter in length than the other one, her right-hand having steel claws that appear to be artificially attached to her fingertips.

Her left arm is even more bizarre: She has an extra hand coming out of her left wrist. This extra hand is as small as a child’s and is blackened and seems to be of no use: A failed conjuration experiment perhaps?

She also has an eye on the palm of her left hand, something she hides behind her back in her always regal-looking pose while speaking.

Archmage of Evocation, Archmage Damascus Iados

A Tiefling Evocation Wizard with bright flames that flicker across the back of their hands, and smaller, heatless flames seem to flicker across their skin while the earth seems to tremor slightly while he walks.

In charge of the Tower of Evocation, Archmage Iados is a Tiefling Man with bright red skin, a bald head and two curling horns atop his head like those of a wild ram.

He wears blue and green robes that flow down to his feet, and every so often has heatless flames flickering across his skin before sputtering out on their own.

His left hand has three fingers, while his right hand has seven, and both hands seem to glow very faintly with a low white flame...

Archmage of Abjuration, Archmage Neskul Nyultin

Urban legends say that there used to be a Silver Dragonborn Wizard so skilled in the magics of Abjuration, yet so paranoid, that he stayed deep underground within his Tower, surrounded by a bubble of powerful magics, though when forced to go outside in-person, he sits cross-legged on a Tenser’s Floating Disk, with a globe of protective magics around him at all times...

Archmage Neskul Nyultin is a Dragonborn Wizard with glimmering silver scales, as is usually seen cross-legged on a small disk of force that floats above the ground. His legs seem withered from atrophy, and his body seems very thin for a Dragonborn...

A shimmering globe of arcane wards almost always surrounds him, as he’s almost always seen with his hands inwards, his fingers intertwined and seemingly always concentrating on the many spells that protect his being.

This Dragonborn Archmage has several scales missing and a long deep gash running along his face. He has two long, spiny and membranous ears, and a slightly off-center snout, akin to a poorly reset broken nose.

Upon his head sit two overly curled horns, and in his chest glows a dragonborn heart, a heart that glows bright enough to be seen beneath his scales and through the sphere of arcane wards that surround him.

 After an encounter with a Red Dagger Assassin as a young Archmage, Neskul has become paranoid, as he knows the Red Daggers are master assassins that always get their target, one way or another. 

This paranoia has caused him to become shut-off and shut-in, though he still teaches the students of his Tower through the use of Simulacrums, Projected Images and various other methods of magic, all while hiding himself away deep within the underground of his Tower of Abjuration...

Archmage of War, Archmage Leowynn Wynanthal

A High Elf War Wizard and Bladesinger, Archmage Leowynn is probably the most prominent figure in Capitol aside Archmage Iados.

An elf with pearl-colored hair that seems to glow in the light, with long and curved ears and incredibly long eyebrows with a small pointed nose. He has pale skin, his face having splotches the color of red wine, with exotic runes carved onto his forearms and a long thin rapier by his side.

He wears flowing robes that looks as if they’re made from specks of starlight, he also wears elven ear clasps made of spun silver and an engraved leather archery bracer on his left wrist.

He has many scars and callouses along his forearms, perhaps formed over many brutal sparring sessions.

But his hands can sometimes be the most fascinating thing about him. He has a recessive finger on each hand, and a Holy Symbol of the Black Hand of Bane branded onto his right hand.

Leowynn is maybe my favorite Archmage out of the lot. He’s the Archmage in charge of both the Tower of War that trains War Wizards, and the War College that trains up the regular infantrymen and soldiers.

He’s probably the most publicly seen figure, and his whole host of magic items, from Bracers of Archery to his Robe of Stars to everything else he carries, also makes him look the part of an Archmage (he’s also the only Archmage to travel to another Plane of existence...)

He’s also known for his spats and arguments with the other Archmages, since the War College has always had an uneasy alliance with the Edhel Halls Library, and with Archmage Leowynn being one of the few Archmages to of taken part in the War Underground between the Elves of the West and the Drow of the East over 50 Years ago, he’s probably the oldest Archmage in the King’s Council, but he seems to favor Archmage Iados and students from the Tower of Evocation especially...

Archmage of Necromancy, Archmage Froja Dundrek

Ya haven’t heard of the old tale of Froja’s head? Well let me tell ya!

There was once a Wizard called Froja who got sentenced to death for using Necromancy and black magics back when it was still a crime, before the War Underground basically. She managed to break free and sneak into the Archives of the Edhel Halls, the place that holds all the scrolls with the old magics in ‘em. She found a spell in those forbidden pages, one that granted her eternal life.

After she cast the Spell, she went in-front of the King himself and asked for forgiveness before demanding her freedom, he refused. Put her in Jail and chopped off her head the next day.

Well as it turns out, she’s still alive! And she now teaches other Wizards. But they still keep her head as a training object for young students...

The best way to describe Froja’s apperance is that of a headless corpse.

She’s a shadowy and shrouded figure, wearing boots and thick black leather straps around the ankles. She also wears grey patterned pants and a slender thin belt made of the same black leather.

A shimmering feathered shawl drapes from her shoulders like a pair of dark wings, and a brooch that seems to be made of woven strands of pure silver hangs from her left breast.

And above her shoulders is a collar made of woven tree twigs, the twigs and sticks thorny and withered black. 

And finally, above this collar, where a head would be, there’s nothing at all! No head, and yet the body lives on...

Archmage Neskul has been at odds with Archmage Froja since the beginning, with Archmage Neskul begging Froja time and time again to reveal whatever magics and spells she used to maintain this life (or un-life) for eternity, never being able to truly die. And time and time again Froja had refused his advances, never revealing even a single detail about the spell she used to gain this eternal life...

Archmage of Transmutation, Drasaaria Argal

There once was a Transmutation Wizard so prolific that eventually any gold coming into her city was treated like scrap metal to her...

Archmage Argal is a Half-Drow Transmutation Wizard, and probably the only figure with a dark elf bloodline that’s tolerated by most people in the Capitol. When she joined the King’s Council, the uproar was tremendous, as the War Underground between the Elves of the West and the Drow had ended not a decade before...

But you wouldn’t think she’s a half-drow if you looked at her, because her skin isn’t dark... It’s metallic!

Her skin has a shine to it like a fine polished metal, and some might even mistake her for a statue standing in the room if you didn’t know her...

She wears very little actual clothing, but hold onto your thirst because she still wears clothes, specifically a pair of white gloves woven from the finest spider silk, while an ornate ear-cuff in the fashion of an orchid spirals around her left ear.

Her leggings have an opalescent sheen, and she’s also one of the many Archmages that likes to stand and walk barefoot...

Argal is another one of my favorites, and I knew I wanted to put a Drow on the Council because I just wanted to see what would happen...

And trust me when I say she’s no pushover, as my Players have found out time and time again.

That shiny skin she has: That’s Adamantine. Yep, she transmuted her skin to become living adamantine, so you try facing down a 20th Level Archmage with 23 AC...

 And she’s also been known to horribly torture people the Council wants dead, or wants answers from. She’s turned a guy’s brains into mercury, polymorphed a guy into a robin before turning said bird into a tiny solid gold statue, she’s even wiped a Player’s memory clean using Programmed Amnesia... She’s a mean one...

She’s also one of the Wizards (alongside Archmage Froja) who’s at odds with Archmage Neskul, since he keeps asking her how she got her adamantine skin and she keeps refusing to answer him.

And due to most of the other Archmages just barely tolerating the presence of a Drow on their Council, that just means she trains up her students in the Tower of Transmutation even harder, which often results in the Tower of Transmutation producing some of the most powerful Mages...

Archmage of Divination, Archmage Ofyne Yuvidet

There used to be a Wizard so skilled in divination magics that she never bothered having a conversation, because she already knew how it was going to end...

Ofyne is a Human Wizard and the Archmage of Divination. She wears old dull blur robes over tattered clothing. She has long and frizzy graying-brown hair that falls just below her shoulders, with what looks like small woodland critters wriggling around in her hair...

Her body seems incredibly damaged. Her hands are stained multiple colors of brown and green, and acid burns that run along both hands.

On her right hand is a small blackened sixth finger that twitches of its own volition. She also possesses what’s left of a still-attached left hand. It looks like it was crushed but was never amputated. She also has a horrid burn mark running down from her left elbow to her crushed hand.

One leg seems severely deformed: Ofyne uses a set of double crutches to walk, but more often floats and flies around as she finds it far easier on her body. She’s also one of the Wizards that walks barefoot, and smells of burnt tea leaves!

She seems blind, her eyes pale and clouded over with cataracts in her old age, with bags under her eyes that suggests she probably hasn’t slept comfortably in many years...

She has no nose, instead having a big hole where her nose would be, and her mouth is permanently crooked, giving her a cocky smirk and almost wicked grin. However, Ofyne wears a prosthetic nose and mask made of silvery-blue mithral, which keeps the prosthetic in place while partially obscuring her face to prying eyes.

Small mushrooms emerge and grow from her neck and shoulders, she also has several scars around her neck, some apparently self-inflicted, almost like she’s had her throat slit multiple times and healed from every wound...

Ofyne (or Archmage Yuvidet if you want to call her that) is probably the most interesting Archmage. She hasn’t cut or groomed her hair in over 8 Years, and her eyes seem to glow when near poison or fresh blood.

She’s in charge of the Library of Saturnity in Fostin, ans she’s also one of the very few Archmages that’s actually allied with Archmage Neskul.

However, the Archmage of Divination is currently missing and has been missing for some number of months now, but this has yet to become public knowledge...

Ofyne is probably the oldest Human on the Council (aside from Archmage Froja and that eternal life thing she has going on...) and Ofyne’s seen a lot.

You’d think for a Divination Wizard she’d be fine right, no scratches at all because she knows the future...

Well when you have to take orders from the King, the Hand of the King, and a bunch of Archmages (lest you be straight up murdered), you’re forced into situations where you know you’re going to get messed up. (Google ‘The Seven Against Thebes’ if you want to see where I got some inspiration...)

And that’s all the Archmages!

And yes, I know there’s other Wizard Schools like the School of Invention and the School of Onomancy, but since those aren’t Official Subclasses yet, I’m yet to make them canon in my world, so no, there is no Archmage of Onomancy or Archmage of Invention... Yet!

But tell me what you think of the Archmages of Capitol, what are your first impression, are they to be trusted?

Let me know in the Comments with your Replys and Reblogs!

[sylvans-sketchbook]

Tenser's Roomba: like the floating disk, but on the ground, happily absorbing things like a tiny gelatinous cube. Doubles as a familiar.

Base -- white, black, transparent backgrounds