#my bard: gets access to basically wild shape

[little-piece-of-tamlin]

some panther studies . i actually quite like the coloured one!

[greyplainsttrpg]

5e Villain Arc 5.5 2024 One Next

The last post was a diatribe into specifically the absurdity of turning into a Brown Bear at Level 2. My problem with turning into a Brown Bear is that it is really easy and really powerful for a Level 2 Character to be able to do consistently. My complaint is not that the Brown Bear is the best thing that the Moon Druid can turn into. No. What makes the Moon Druid so unbelievably ridiculous is that the Brown Bear is THE FLOOR of what you can do at Level 2. The Floor, mind you, is twice per day getting a bunch of temporary HP, literally healing as you do it, getting a bunch of Str and Con, getting Longstrider, getting multi-attack, getting to-hit bonuses, etc. The Ceiling is MUCH higher, especially in comparison to what every other Class can do at Level 2. This ceiling is also far and above what every previous iteration of the Druid. Yes, including "omega-busted 3.5." The 3.5 Druid IS good, but not that good.

Let's first start with an overview of some of the crazy animals that a Druid can transform into at Level 2:

Dire Wolf: Fast, strong, bulky, stealthy, solid perception (best skill in the game).

Giant Eagle: 80 flying movement, strong, advantage on sight-based Perception (not a Spot Check btw inshallah) (still the best skill in the game) (also, the druid keeps THEIR Wisdom, btw).

Giant Spider: We'll circle back to this in a moment, HOWEVER, Climbing Movement, +7 stealth, stupid bite attack that does a crapload of damage, web projectile to control any non-martial Str-based Character (worst Ability Score, btw).

Lion/Tiger: The two are pretty similar, tbh. I think they are okay. They have a conditional multi-attack triggered off their pounce action, but like this is clearly just a worse bear in most situations. Getting advantage to attack as a lion (so long as sduifbewivb) is AN upside.

Reef Shark: This is not a CR 1 monster, but it is important to note that the Moon Druid gets immediate access to a pretty solid aquatic option on command. If the DM planned a "hard fight because water" and they forgot that they have a Moon Druid in the party, well that fight is pretty much over now. That is a bit of an exaggeration, but it adds to the overall stew of "why being a 5e DM sucks." The Moon Druid has a solution to basically every problem at Level 2 via spellcasting or wild shape. It peeves me a bit that the shark does not specifically require salt water to function, but whatever.

This is just what is available in the Player's Handbook. This does not include everything in the Monster Manual that the Druid gets access to. Granted, these are actually pretty slim pickings. The Giant Octopus is an upgrade to the Reef Shark in many cases. Nothing else stood out to me at CR 1 that was not better than the ones in the Player's Handbook, tbh.

Let's compare this to what every other Class gets at Level 2:

Barbarian; Reckless Attack and Danger Sense: The Druid gets ways to have Advantage via its various forms without the downside of giving opponents Advantage to hit them. Danger Sense does not matter if the Druid turns into a literal spider that cannot activate traps, a bird that flies above traps, just tanks the damage from the pathetic traps in 5e by being a self-healing bear, or is turned into something with excellent Dexterity.

Bard; Jack of All Trades: Why have 1/2 Proficiency when you could have +7 Proficiency to the skills you need by turning into the animal that accomplishes it? Yes, I know that an animal form will NOT give you all the skills you might want. The Druid cannot perfectly replicate this, but they can often outperform it when possible.

Cleric; Channel Divinity: Turn Undead and maybe a feature from their Divine Domain. If you happen to be fighting undead, this feature is great. If you are not fighting undead (most of the time), then this feature does literally nothing.

Fighter; Action Surge: This gets better, but for now Action Surge is strictly worse then being a Bear and always having more movement and multi-attack.

Monk; Ki and Unarmored Movement: Ki for multi-attack and Unarmored movement for bonus to movement. Literally just being a worse bear with more resources and without the option to have a flying movement speed of 80.

Paladin; Spellcasting, Divine Smite, Fighting Style: The Druid already has better spellcasting. many of the wild shape forms are similar to paladin fighting style. Divine smite is somewhat similar to the Druid healing themselves with Spell Slots during the transformation into Wild Shape in how they work. I think Divine Smite is better, but the average damage of being a bear out-performs the paladin with divine smite until the paladin receives Extra Attack. Even then, the bear is still doing pretty solidly at Level 5 with fewer resources.

Ranger; Fighting Style and Spellcasting: Strictly worse than the Paladin because no Divine Smite. Otherwise the same (excepting that the Ranger has Fighting Styles that the Druid cannot emulate).

Rogue; Cunning Action: LMAO. Okay, buddy.

Sorcerer; Font of Magic: Being able to shift how your magic works a bit is not overall as good as the inherent flexibility of being able to turn into so many different animals at Level 2. I'm strictly comparing the depth of flexibility between the two features, and I would rather be able to turn into anything.

Warlock; Eldritch Invocation: Again, in a purely flexibility comparison, whenever you have to choose anything you are losing to the Druid which does not really need to compromise.

Wizard; Arcane Tradition: A few of these are quite good. Portent, from Divination, is maybe the single only feature that is similarly potent to Wild Shape. Twice per day, the Divination Wizard can replace any d20 roll with an alternate roll. Depending on those dice rolls, that could be more critical to success than turning into a Brown Bear. On average, turning into a Brown Bear or anything else is probably better, but it is is debatable. Other than that, Abjuration is pretty good. Enchantment is okay. Evocation is okay.

So, besides the Divination Wizard, no other Class can compete with the Mood Druid at Level 2.

The counterargument I have heard a lot is "yeah, but the Moon Druid is not as good at higher Levels." Well, considering D&D 5e falls apart at higher levels anyway, idk how much I believe that or care. For one, the Druid is still a full Caster. For another, they eventually get to turn into an elemental which is... okay. I see it like this: between levels 2-8 or so, the Moon Druid is the party's primary combat threat and best utility option. After that, they shift solely to the party's best utility option and remain a solid combat threat. Also, by the time Combat Wild Shape becomes less good, the Druid can just cast Polymorph instead to be a CR ridiculous beast. Let me say it like this: I would prefer to be a level 15 Moon Druid over a Level 20 Fighter (any archetype). This is purely for the utility/power of being a full spellcaster with a huge upside of being able to quickly spam out extra HP as a Bonus Action. What the Moon Druid eventually lacks in offensive output with their Wild Shape they make up for in being the bulkiest spellcaster in the game (and it is not even close). I would likely prefer to be a Moon Druid over anything else in the game at basically any Level. Adaptability, speed, and bulk are just that good.

The Druid was not always this way. Combat Wild Shape has a lot in common with the bizarre power-creep of Dexterity (discussed in Villain Arc 4). In an attempt to simplify the nature of Wild Shape for players, the result is something obviously over-centralizing. It's not a perfect 1-1, obviously, but they share a number of aspects in game design failure. What is interesting about Combat Wild Shape is that it was actually fine in the D&D Next Playtest. In fact, it was actually way more interesting in that version. Let's take a look at what Wizards was cooking up before they burnt the house down.

So the text formatting describing what you get after the entry itself is... questionable, but this is not a final product so filing an actual complaint about that is actually unfair. This is the kind of thing I was expecting to change going from the Playtest to the Final Release. Not whatever the hell happened.

The important thing to note with this version of Wild Shape: You get access to kinds of forms over several levels. So all Druids start with the Hound, and then the Moon Druid gets bonuses to being a Hound. Then all Druids get the Steed, and then the Moon Druid gets the Bear and Cat. All Druids get the Rodent and Fish form at 7th Level. Finally, the Moon Druid can turn into a mammoth or some other huge animal. The Moon Druid gets access to a couple of unique forms (Bear, Cat, Behemoth) and they get bonuses to being them. It is a pretty okay subclass. In its current form, I would argue that it is actually somewhat weaker then Land Druid. If I were to make some edits to this Druid Circle, I would add a bird (or "Raptor") option instead of Cat. I think the Cat is too much of an in-between of the Bear and Hound and does not provide enough utility over what a Raptor would provide. Additionally, I think they should get Proficiency to the relevant Saves in their Wild Shape forms. Infinite uses of Wild Shape is a bit silly, but it is Level 20 so I don't really care. Like, it basically means that the Moon Druid can always heal themselves back to at least half-health+. It's not THAT overpowered though, so it's fine I guess. Now that I'm thinking about it, I would probably increase the healing from reverting from an animal form to be Double Level or Level + WIS MOD + PROF or something. It needs a little more sauce, in my opinion because the Druid doesn't just, like, get an infinite number of health-bars. I also think the bonuses to STR and DEX could actually go up. +2 and +4 are not amazing.

That's the primary difference between this Druid and the released Druid. This Druid assumes the SHAPE of an animal, but they can also fudge it around with room for player expression. The Release Druid just IS a bear (or whatever). One of the reasons that Release Moon Druids are so overpowered is because they do not need to spread their ability scores out, like, at all. They can roll up with a 8, 8, 8, 15, 15, 15 pre-species point-buy and do totally fine. Because in what situation are they not using the physical attributes of a better form? When they are casting spells in the background? The Next Druid needs to actually consider their ability scores. They are not a Bear, they are a Druid with the appearance of a Bear. It is a huge distinction that sets a wildly different tone for the game.

Another interesting thing to note here is that the small forms (fish and rodent) are locked away to a higher level than the more obvious combat or utility forms. That's because being Small but with the HP of a Druid is actually pretty epic and powerful. This is why CR is NOT a good metric to determine what is or is not reasonable for a PC to be able to turn into at X Level. Small is kinda cracked actually, and being able to access these forms should be gated to a higher level.

This leads us to the elephant (CR 4 btw) in the room. Binding the Druid to the worst thought-through mechanic in any TTRPG was always going to lead to disaster. This is my conspiracy theory, but I genuinely believe that the Moon Druid in particular is responsible for the entire cascade of nonsense that is the CR system in 5e. Maybe not intentionally, but certainly functionally. Let me explain.

Let's pretend that I am a WotC Designer in the years 2013-2014. We have come up with this system called "Challenge Rating" that clarifies what a party of 4 PCs should be able to fight and defeat with using some amount of resources. Similar to WoW and Skyrim, some of the early enemies a party should be able to fight are animals. I'm not sure WHY this is the case, but it is. However, there are now two questions: 1) what Level should a party be to fight the animal and 2) what level should the moon druid be able to turn into it? The result has beast-master results. Because I don't think the average person knows just how truly nightmarish and kaiju-adjacent brown bears are. They are faster than horses, can run as long as horses, they weigh several hundred pounds, their claws are razor-sharp, they consistently carve and powerlift their way through cars to get a baggy of peanuts, they can climb trees and other objects as fast as they run. Do you know how bears deal with wild fires? They run INTO the wildfire to get to the other side as quickly as possible. Their survival strategy for the kill-everything button is to just tank the damage. And it works. Bears are more powerful than your wall of fire spell. Bears have some of the most sensitive noses in nature, exceeding dogs by a fair amount. The actual power of grizzly bears is not properly reflected on their stat block. Why are they so terribly nerfed? Probably so that the Moon Druid can turn into them at Level 2. All the animals in 5e are not accurately portrayed. They are all much slower, weaker, and less adapted than their real-life counterparts. Take for example the expected Strength Score of a Brown Bear. It naturally has 19 Strength. As a game mechanic for a Player to turn into, that is a pretty impressive number, but for an actual bear that number is pretty terrible. Think about it like this: the strongest humans can temporarily power-lift something as heavy as a sedan car for a few moments by a few inches. Bears have been known to simply push these kinds of cars over for scraps of food. This is funnier when you think about elephants. Elephants have 22 Str? That's it? Like, no. They don't. Bears should probably have like 25-30 Str, and elephants probably have like 50 Str. HOWEVER, this would be really weird game mechanics in the situation that something were to turn INTO a bear or an elephant. Imagine being an elephant for a moment. You just are the biggest thing on land currently existing (that is alive and can move). One mid-level wizard and a couple of elephants could probably defeat most dragons.

Think about it like this. Ignore the the total number and consider just the modifier as it presents on a d20. Each number on a d20 is equivalent to 5%. RaR, a Brown Bear is 20% (+4) stronger than a guy/gal/gaul (first thing that came in my head and I thought it was funny--don't tell Caesar lol). An elephant is 30% stronger than a commoner. Like, think about that. What the hell? What--the hell. That's not how elephants work. 30% stronger? If you could deadlift around 250lbs with some practice, then an elephant could deadlift 325bs. Now, how much can an Elephant deadlift is a confusing question because they don't/can't do that. However an elephant can lift over 650 lbs with their trunk alone. So an elephant's trunk, not the elephant itself, is 260% stronger than an average-ish human. And an elephant does not practice specifically to be the swolest elephant, so we don't really know what the peak strength of an elephant's trunk is. Anyway, put into 5% increments and then added to 10, the elephant's trunk should have a Strength of 62 and possess a modifier of +26. That is not the elephant itself. That is the trunk, okay. Now, as game design, should the elephant's trunk have a +26 to attack and damage? Probably not. That's why it MIGHT not be a good idea to give enemies the same kinds of ability scores as player-characters. Would you believe that D&D did not use to do enemies this way?

Is AD&D/2nd Edition perfect? No. Does this game properly represent an elephant? Probably not. However, the elephant has an effective +11 to attack, 5 attacks that each do 2d6 or 2d8 damage, has an average of 55HP (you have to understand, that's a pretty solid amount of HP for AD&D) or more if you assume max role (many GMs do, thus 88HP), and they appear in groups of up to 12. What is the CR of AN elephant, let alone 12 elephants? You might say, "but Mr. Greyplains, this is not strictly more powerful than the 5e version!" True. Again, this is not a perfect translation of an elephant either. However, the numbers that are smaller are scaled to a game that generally has smaller numbers. Assuming a Character is the same level as the Elephant's hit die, a Wizard will have an average of 32 HP at Level 11, and a Fighter will have an average HP of 61-70 (if they have at least 15 Con for the second number). So 2d8 + 2d8 immediate damage could high-roll 1-shot a Level 11 Wizard. It could then Trunk/Stomp the fighter for 2d6/2d6 and then stomp something else for another 2d6. Then up to 11 more elephants get to resolve. Back to the primary subject at hand.

This leans the conversation back into Villain Arc 4 territory. I think that the solution to Strength's problems, in particular, is to just let it get unbounded from the other ability scores. You want to have super-heroic strength? Sure. Put enough levels into Fighter, and you can have like a 26 Strength or something. Pop-off king/queen/themperor. I'm not against super-heroes being as strong as bears. I'm against bears being as strong as a strong guy. Strength can be less useful overall (as per Villain Arc 4) if the number is allowed to get gigantic. This hits on the similar subject as Villain Arc 3. The Beast Master Ranger is partly so bad because of how weak the animals they control are. The real-world elements of Dungeons and Dragons 5e are worse then their reality equivalent IN ADDITION to being worse than their magical alternative. Truly, it is the Strength Ability Score, in particular, that is the actual through line of WotC's terrible game design.

What level should 4 adventurers be able to fight a brown bear? Like, a real one. I have no idea. You see, the problem with CR is that I have no idea who the party is, what their levels are, what their equipment is, what the temperament of the Players are, what the temperament of the GM is, etc. A PC that is optimized to fight a bear could probably do it pretty easily with planning. Say for example you had a character who could train several dogs (impossible RaR, btw) who could spook a bear into a specific position. At this point, the character would take their very powerful projectile to the place wear the bear is cornered and then kill it from a safe position. This is how bear hunting works. It is terrible for the bear but also the dogs because the hunters VERY OFTEN just leaves the dogs in the woods, however people CAN kill bears with a winning strategy. Is this hunter a Level 1 Player character? Are they part of a Level 1 party, they being a Level 1 character and each of their three dogs also being level 1 characters? People hunt elephants. It sucks, but it is achievable. It's not that hard. The general trick is to 1) have a car and 2) have a gun.

The Moon Druid is just the perfect synthesis of everything wrong with 5e. The Moon Druid is too powerful, yet they are also too weak. They are too weak because otherwise the non-casters would not be able to compete with their most common form--the brown bear. The same kinds of non-casters that historically are absolutely capable of killing the un-nerfed, real-world bear with proper strategy (without character levels). The Moon Druid should not be able to turn into a bear because turning into a bear should be essentially game-ending. The game is fundamentally vexing because the elements which are based in reality are weird and video-gamey to a comical degree. I can see an anti-simulationist argument here of "yo, this is a game, it does not have to be realistic." Sure, but if the designers want to use real creatures in their game, those will be used as touchstones to compare all other elements of the game to.

The result of this nonsense is that 5e is not a power-fantasy game. The PCs are not that powerful, really. The universe they inhabit is just so incredibly flaccid that it crumbles to the slightest bit of organic strategy and exploits of mechanics. It is a daycare. You are a child in a padded room with little toys to smash into each other with no actual risk. And I, as the DM, am the underpaid daycare worker who is begging you to play with the toys fairly and to stop hitting the other children with the toys. The parent, WotC has LEFT the building and only comes back to reprimand me for not allowing their precious little child to do whatever they want because "I'm paying for this service" in the sense that we only are working daycare because they provided the context to allow it to exist. Not a perfect analogy, but that's how it feels DMing a 5e game with a Moon Druid PC. "Oh yeah, I turn into a bear! Oh yeah, I turn into a giant spider! Oh yeah, I turn into a shark!"

Fucking kill me.

#transrights

#freepalestine

#buymybook

Previous Villain Arc Post:

[pinacoladamatata]

so you want to multiclass Astarion?

a shitty and simple guide bc i'm bored and going insane. Here are some Specifically Astarion Rogue multiclass ideas

pls consider: rogue with 2 lvl druid dip. No hear me out! okay! if you give him 2 levels in rogue. then 2 levels in druid; he gets druid spells + wild shape! Then do the rest of his levels in rogue. ok. so. he could literally sneak around as a cat, or infiltrate as a badger. (handy? yeah? also if possible you could mod the cat form to be a rat for flavour and he could sneak into cazadors house like this either for scouting or with the express purpose of jumping a surprise round on the motherfucker.)

druid/rogue doesn't tickle your fancy? we've also got rogue / 2 barbarian! just for the rage and reckless attack ability. imagine it: he's got 2 daggers + crossbow, fuck armor. he can now rage and take half damage, and add reckless attack combined with sneak attack, yes. (might need to respec his strength here bc its 8 by default lmao)

still not good enough? we've also got the rogue /ranger gloomstalker: idk what to tell you here. assassin + gloomstalker is raved about. you get hunters mark, favored foe, superior mobility. i could go on. basically you can't fuck this one up. go nuts.

next I present a classic: the rogue / fighter 3 (or 5) *slaps hood of astarion* this bad boy can fit so much damage potential in it. Give him 2 handed fighting bc it's sexy and he has cunning action. now he also gets action surge. 3 attacks baybeee. not to mention second wind + his bite ability

*you could also take 5 levels in fighter, the other 7 in rogue. and he'd gain access to extra attack. cazador might as well just walk outside.

and last but not least; rogue/ vengeance paladin. yeah i know, wtf astarion as a paladin? and this build needs 5 levels in paladin to really be worth it- BUT! he'd get lay on hands, divine smite, and extra attack with this. and Tell Me he wouldn't be down to swearing an oath of vengeance against cazador? we can make this work! also you Know that divine smite is gonna come in handy for inevitable vampire fights.

im not interested in mixing the other classes. like at all. i guess bard and monk have something but i dont like it for him. the only thing remotely appealing to me with rogue/sorcerer is making him an arcane trickster and then going sorc for meta magic to be able to use subtle spell while hiding.

anyway that's my shitty astarion guide. bye

[artsyarcane]

Setting concept:

A “low magic” setting that’s actually a standard high magic setting but flavored so that magic has a more grounded or somewhat believable explanation. So each of the magic classes are flavored differently.

Bard: Bards are weird. That’s it. If you want another explanation, here’s my suggestion: Maybe the world used to be more magical and bards are tapping into that ancient magic. Bard spells often don’t visibly do anything but it’s clear they’re doing something magical because they’ll sometimes dance with statues or teleport short distances with little explanation. They’re basically stage magicians.

Cleric: Divine magic. They just pray, this one writes itself. Like bards, clerical magic rarely has any visible effect but the results are undeniable. You don’t normally get up and continue kicking ass after breaking an arm after all. (Also applies to Paladins)

Druid: This one likely has more of a witchy vibe. Calling forth the power of Mother Nature to aid the caster. Druids probably always have some material components on them for their spells and even if they don’t they can easily find the necessary components nearby. (Also applies to Rangers) Wild shapes probably take the form of polymorphic potions created during the last long rest.

Sorcerer/Warlock/Wizard: Though the origins of their magic are all different in the lore, all 3 of these classes gain access to their spells the same way. All 3 classes have access to hammerspace which provides whatever gadget they need to mimic a particular spell. (Ex: Fireball=grenade or rocket launcher.) Wizards probably research the tech required for such things and their “spellbooks” are actually notebooks full of blueprint sketches with runic symbols on the cover that gives them access to the hammerspace. Warlocks gain access through their pacts. Sometimes a familiar or pact item is the conduit for this extra-dimensional pocket. And sorcerers… sorcerers are just cartoon characters. They woke up one morning with a lighter in one hand and a can of hairspray in the other with no knowledge of purchasing either item.

Obviously, these are only suggestions, you can flavor things differently to better suit your own setting but I think this gives a lot more freedom to the usual restrictiveness of low magic settings which I’ve heard can be a lot of fun with the right group and the right DM. Some of us, however, are antisocial but still want to try out the low magic vibe.

[geneticdriftwood]

Note: I originally wrote this in the replies but it got so so long so I deleted and moved it here

So a critical thing to note when looking at Keyleth’s match-up with the arcane casters: Archdruid (the lvl 20 feature) gives you infinite wild shapes (infinite HP!) and lets you cast spells in beast form. But it also has the often overlooked bonus effect of making Keyleth totally un-counterspellable (!!), drastically limiting everyone else’s options for dealing with her.

Explanation after the break.

Part 1: Keyleth is A Wizard’s Nightmare

(Next Up: Dark Star Death Cube, a.k.a. why Essek probably comes in second place)

So to understand why Keyleth can’t be counterspelled, we need to look at two things.

From the 20th level Archdruid feature:

“Additionally, you can ignore the verbal and somatic components of your druid spells, as well as any material components that lack a cost and aren’t consumed by a spell. You gain this benefit in both your normal shape and your beast shape from Wild Shape.”

This is essentially Subtle Spell metamagic on everything you cast, for free, all the time.

And from Counterspell:

“Casting Time: 1 Reaction, which you take when you see a creature within 60 feet of you casting a spell.”

(emphasis mine)

Archdruids never have to cast their spells with verbal or somatic components, which means there’s no visual element to their casting. The spell just happens. They do still need to provide any material components with a cost, but they don’t need to do anything with those components, so still no indication of casting. Because there’s nothing to see, there’s no trigger for Counterspell. You can’t counter what you don’t know is being cast!

I cannot understate how good this is in mage vs mage fights, particularly if your enemies tend to Counter high level heals. This fully makes up for the fact that druids don’t get Counterspell.

I think Essek maybe has a chance at beating her, if he’s a Chronurgy wizard and you pick his spells very carefully? You can do very broken things with Find Familiar + Arcane Abeyance, and Convergent Future has a VERY high cost but is afaik the only ability in the game that lets you get a guaranteed success on basically any d20 roll. Not sure the exact build, but there might be one.

But it’s still very long odds, and he can’t even rely on the notoriously broken combo of Arcane Abeyance + instant Leomund’s Tiny Hut to pull it off, bc druids, bards, and wizards all get access to Dispel Magic. (Not gonna explain that combo here unless someone asks me to, bc it’s not directly relevant beyond being very cool, and this is already way too long.)

Even my favorite dunamancer special combo, Dark Star Death Cube, doesn’t reliably work on high level sorcerers and 20th level druids, and doesn’t work at all on 20th level moon druids (explained in the next reblog).

The Critical Role Heartbreak Prince Battle Royale

Okay, I made this joke over on Twitter and now I'm curious how this would actually shake down.

If you put all of Liam's CANONICAL love interests across all three campaigns in a battle royale, who would win?

(Before anyone gets their knickers in a knot, these are people for whom there was RECIPROCATED AND ACTED-UPON INTEREST.)

For sake of equality, we're gonna level-set EVERYONE at level 20. Let's have the fur REALLY fly!

Also, once you vote, please reblog for a larger sample size? Thanks!

EDIT: I am *LOVING* the commentary in the tags. :D

[raeynbowboi]

Building an Embodiment of the Fairytale Princess (2.0)

This is nothing new. I’ve done this build before, which I’ll link right [here]. The post did really well, and people seemed to love the concept. However, since then, Mythic Odysseys of Theros and Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything have both come out, bringing with them not only new subclasses, but new features, spells, mechanics, and elements that I couldn’t take into consideration the first time around. So, I decided that rather than just adding a tag on post like I did before, I’d just remake the build with the new features being taken into consideration. Like before, the focus of the build is to create an embodiment of the generic fairytale princess and not any one particular character. So without further ado, let’s get into it.

Like before, we’ll be choosing Variant Human for our race of choice. We’ll channel Sleeping Beauty to be gifted by the fey with blessings of Beauty, Grace, and Song for +1 CHA, +1 DEX, and Performance proficiency. We also get a bonus feat, and thanks to Tasha’s, we can now take Fey Blessed for +1 CHA. However, if she doesn’t cast with Charisma, then substitute those CHA bonuses with Wisdom instead.

The generic fairytale princess is a maid of purest heart, so we’re Lawful Good. But for your more rebellious princesses, Neutral Good or Chaotic Good are also valid.

Background is obviously Noble for proficiency with History and Persuasion.

CLASSES & SUBCLASSES

BARD

This one seems pretty obvious. Bards love to sing and dance, like your stereotypical princess. Because Charisma is their top stat, and they have expertise, it can make them great negotiators, and allow them to excel in dialogue interactions.

GLAMOUR

This college is very fitting for a fairytale princess, as it is focused on making oneself as beautiful and charming as the Fairest of Them All.

LORE 

Lore bards share information, whether they tell stories, recite plays, share philosophy, or spread juicy gossip, the Lore Bard gets more magical secrets, and added expertise to make your princess an even bigger Mary Sue. In actual medieval history, princesses often learned to play instruments and sing, recite prayers or poems, or tell stories to visiting guests, and it was considered a part of her education and duty to do so.

CLERIC

While not every princess is a devout religious girl, their stories tend to be set in the medieval period when a good princess would have been expected to be chaste and pious. So on that front, worshiping a good deity would be befitting of such a character.

LIFE

The fairytale princess raises up those they care about, and nothing is more supportive and helpful than keeping your friends on their feet. The Life Cleric turns your princess into a kind soul who weeps for her friends and patches them up after the battle, turning your princess into a useful ally against the wicked witches and dangerous dragons.

LIGHT

Not all Fairytale Princesses are passive or support players. Those who lean toward Light are the princesses who stand as the Big Good of their story and battle the forces of Darkness with the power of the Light. Of the three Cleric options that fit the archetype, this is the best option for being a powerhouse in combat.

PEACE

Don’t get me wrong, I still hate this domain for wearing the skin of the Love Domain we were supposed to get, and you can absolutely still play it that way. How this domain went from Love to Togetherness to Pacifism is beyond me, but it’s a fairly strong subclass. The classic princess archetype is supposed to be gentle and kind, fitting for one who worships a god of mercy and forgiveness. It’s a value often toted as the strongest characterization of the early Disney princesses.

DRUID

My first time building the fairytale princess, I ignored Druid as an option because the wildshaping didn’t really make sense for a fairytale princess, but a lot of the Bardic Magical Secrets were used to steal Druid spells. However, thanks to the optional rules from Tasha’s, Druids can now use their Wildshape to summon fey that take on the shapes of animals instead of turning into the animals themselves, which makes Druid far more viable, as summoning animals is very in-character for a fairytale princess.

DREAMS 

The Circle of Dreams has heavy Fey associations with references to the Summer Court ruled by Titania. It also is strongly focused on healing, and has a very Fairy Tale flavor to it. It’s an especially great option if you want to invoke Sleeping Beauty, as you can cloak your party while you sleep and send messages to people through your dreams.

SHEPHERD

The fairytale princess is strongly associated with animal buddies, and nothing makes better use of that than the Shepherd Druid, which focuses on amassing an army of critters. What’s more, the Unicorn Totem is very fitting, not only because Unicorns only approach maidens with pure hearts, but Shepherds of the Unicorn Totem get empowered healing.

SORCERER

The sorcerer is born with a spark of something special in them, and a lot of fantasy royalty have magical powers that other people in their world lack.

DIVINE SOUL

The princess doesn’t literally have to be the descendant of the gods, as the original name for the subclass was more about being favored by the gods. Still, if you want to lean into the idea of the princess as the Big Good against the Big Bad, then having her be born with the spark of the gods inside her makes for a neat characterization.

WILD MAGIC 

With the new Sorcerer Shards as I’ve come to call them, we were introduced to the Feywild Shard, which was heavily geared toward Wild Magic Sorcerers, which seems to be WoTC’s way of saying that Wild Magic Sorcerers are the fey-linked sorcerous origin, so I’m including it because of our fey connection. 

WARLOCK

This is the only class where there’s exactly one good option, but it’s one that works surprisingly well.

ARCHFEY 

As a Warlock with a Pact of the Chain, your fairytale princess can choose to Find Familiar any cute little animal companion, or a Sprite to be your Fairy Godmother. Or rather, you can sign a pact with your Fairy Godmother, and use your Chain Pact to summon one of her emissaries to help you. The Archfey patron themselves can act as your Fairygodther, granting you and your party boons and aid where they need it.

WARLOCK INVOCATIONS

Agonizing Blast Armor of Shadows Beast Speech Eldritch Mind Eldritch Sight Gift of the Ever-Living Ones Shroud of Shadow Voice of the Chain Master

CHARISMA vs WISDOM

The big split in how you build your princess falls down the line between these two camps. The wise princess works better as a Druid/Cleric, while a charming princess is more of a Bardlock. For me personally, as much as the Cleruid fits the fairytale princess, the stereotype of the princess is usually that she is gullible, naïve, and overly trusting. Insight is a wisdom check, and something the classic princess archetype is usually bad at. Granted, Animal Handling is also Wisdom, but the Bard’s expertise can overrule a low Wisdom score. Think of it like a clash between Princess Zelda from the Legend of Zelda vs Princess Peach from Mario. Princess Zelda is wise and is much more focused on leadership and protecting her kingdom. Peach is more about the pretty dresses and having servants help her. They’re two very different camps on the princess archetype. Ultimately, which one you choose will depend on the type of princess you wish to invoke. The Classic Damsel or the Wise Matriarch.

SIDEKICKS

A new feature added in Tasha’s, sidekicks are secondary characters that can help the party and are basically simplified character builds with fewer bells and whistles. There are three main camps:

Expert. Experts are clever and knowledgeable, be they minstrels, librarians, pickpockets, merchants, or assassins. They can pick proficiency with DEX, INT, or CHA saving throws, and can be proficient or an expert with any five skills of your choice, and humanoids also gain proficiency with light armor, simple weapons, and two tools of your choice.

Spellcaster. Trained in the secrets of the Arcane, be they a priest, a fortuneteller, or a magical creature. They can choose proficiency with INT, WIS, or CHA checks, and can be proficient in Arcana, History, Insight, Investigation, Medicine, Performance, Persuasion, or Religion. They choose a roll to determine their spell list: Mage (Wizard), Healer (Cleric, Druid) or Prodigy (Bard, Warlock). The sidekick has access to the spell list of the classes their role aligns with, as well as casting with that stat.

Warrior. trained fighters, be they a soldier, a city guard, a trained animal, or a hired sword. They can pick proficiency with STR, DEX, or CON saving throws, and their skill options are Acrobatics, Animal Handling, Athletics, Intimidation, Nature, Perception, and Survival. Warriors can pick a fighting style: either Offensive to add +2 to attack and damage rolls, or Defender to impose disadvantage on hitting creatures other than them while within 5 feet of the princess.

Generic Princess Sidekicks

Humanoid Guard Warrior (bodyguard) Humanoid Commoner Expert (handmaiden, governess, etc.) Humanoid Magewright Spellcaster (court mage, or advisor) Any Beast-type Warrior (animal companion)

Fairytale Inspired Sidekicks

Seven Dwarves - Dwarf Warrior Fairy Godmother - Sprite or Pixie Spellcaster Prince Charming - Humanoid Noble Warrior Wicked Witch - Barovian Witch Spellcaster Beast - Gnoll, Jackalwere, Orc, or Troglodyte Warrior Puss in Boots - Awakened Cat or Tabaxi Warrior The Frog Prince - Awakened Frog or Grung Warrior Three Little Pigs - Awakened Pig Expert, Spellcaster, & Warrior Big Bad Wolf - Wolf Warrior or Awakened Wolf Expert Robin Hood - Redbrand Ruffian or Bandit Expert Djinn of the Lamp - Dust, Ice, or Magma Mephit Spellcaster Pinocchio - Giant Stone Statue Warrior White Rabbit - Awakened Rabbit Expert Cheshire Cat - Awakened Cat Expert or Spellcaster

There is no actual limit to the number of sidekicks your character can have, so in theory, your fairytale princess could have an entire posse of talking animals hanging out and helping her.

Skills, Spells, and Features

As a Variant Human, we got Performance proficiency alongside our Fey Touched feat, and as a Noble, we have proficiency with Persuasion and History. For everything else, we’re just looking to be a standard Fairytale Princess. So we should look to be proficient with: Animal Handling, Arcana, Religion, Nature, or Medicine.

BASIC FAIRIES

Dancing Lights Faerie Fire Healing Spirits Spirit Guardians Summon Fey Conjure Woodland Beings Conjure Fey

BASIC PRINCESS THINGS

Animal Friendship Command Heroism Speak With Animals Animal Messenger Calm Emotions Find Steed Warding Bond Zone of Truth Conjure Animals Mord’s Magnificent Mansion

SNOW WHITE

Armor of Agathys Mirror Image Beacon of Hope Aura of Purity Heroes’ Feast

CINDERELLA

Fabricate Creation True Polymorph Wish

SLEEPING BEAUTY

Sleep Phantasmal Killer Dream Wall of Thorns Dream of the Blue Veil

THE LITTLE MERMAID

Charm Person Shatter Suggestion Tidal Wave Compulsion Control Water Dominate Person Maelstrom Control Weather Tsunami Storm of Vengeance

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

Charm Monster Unseen Servant Tiny Servant Animate Objects Awaken Hold Monster Summon Fiend

Last time I built the fairytale princess, I gave her exactly 1 build. 18 levels of glamour bard and 2 levels of Archfey Warlock. But recently I’ve begun to instead put more stock in leaving builds open, showing instead the options that a player has to choose from. So, for this update, I’m not pushing for a specific build. I’ve laid out the appropriate spells, and the types of princesses that a player can strive to emulate with their spell lists. Consider this more of a guide to help you decide how you want to play your fairytale princess.

[mihidecet]

Sbi&CO d&d AU: The Dream Team (Character Analysis)

Dream Team? In my Sbi d&d AU? More likely than you think!

As requested by the lovely @floofyboons, here are the character analysis for Dream, Sapnap and George!

[I will write an overall backstory for all three of them because it’s doable and they are also best friends your honor]

First up, Dream. If any of you caught my small preview in Calvin’s chapter, you already know what’s coming ahaha

The thing with Dream was being able to make a character that would manage to stick to all of his abilities. He was a bit hard to pin down.

A barbarian would reflect well how he’s usually dealing a lot of damage with well placed hits - like, choosing an axe that deals more damage in one hit and is slower, opposite to a sword that is faster but deals less damage per hit in minecraft.

But also, a rogue, for how fast and nimble he is, and to reflect his skills in parkour.

Since I don’t see him as a monk, Dream is, to me, a fighter.

Fighters have the bad reputation of being “basic”, but they are also the most versatile class you can choose (that’s why they are usually suggested for first time players, because they’re easy to pick up at basic levels and you get tons of things to choose from at higher ones).

So, fighter. But what type of fighter? As I mentioned, fighters get a lot to choose from.

But the thing is, Dream seems to enjoy using potions and enchantments and eyes of ender a lot. So this, to me, means that Dream is definitely an Eldritch Knight, which are fighters with access to spells, which he casts with Intelligence (this sounds so dumb but like, Bards cast with Charisma and Druids with Wisdom, I swear ahahah) and bonuses to casting attack spells.

Not to mention that at third level he gets access to a bond weapon, so he can’t be disarmed and he can summon his weapon directly in his hand instead of unsheathing. Which is cool.

Dream has always been an half-orc in my heart. I just really like half-orcs, and they get a bonus to strength which is pretty cool. Also green. And tusks. I rest my case.

[Listen this is my dnd au, I want buff frat boy Dream with tusks, and the ability of being just a bit unhinged. It’s what he deserves]

As for his background, I’d say soldier is pretty good overall (we can define being trained by Calvin as doing military time).

Sapnap was a mistery too for a while. I had a talk about him with my sister, because I literally could not think of anything that would fit.

And then! The realization.

A monk of the way of the Sun Soul. A skilled fighter, that not only can punch his enemies into oblivion, but also shoot orbs of fire? YES.

Monks are a bit like rogues, in the sense that they are dexterity based, but instead of dealing massive damage in one hit, they just punch very hard and very fast. They are also extremely quick - their speed increases by 10ft every 5 levels, more or less.

And the Sun Soul subclass, while not necessarily being very strong, adds a distance attack that scales in damage like the punch attack all monks get. And it is fire, which fits with Sap’s penchant for setting fire to things.

I’ll just have to accept this time that a variant human is the best option.

And since I do like the idea of Sapnap just zooming through the battlefield, the Mobile feat gives him 10 additional ft of speed, plus some additional mobility bonuses.

[this means that while a normal character's speed is usually 30ft per round, Sapnap's is 50ft per round. And if he uses a bonus action to dash HE CAN RUN 100ft IN A SINGLE TURN. A d&d turn lasts 6 SECONDS. And this isn't even the fastest he can go, he's at 70ft (140 total) from level 18]

[He deserves to nyooom]

Add maybe the urchin background, and Sapnap is all ready to kick asses.

And finally, George! This man is such a wizard, it’s not even funny. Maybe it’s just me tho, because I see a coding youtuber and go WIZARD.

In any case. George is a wizard coding nerd, but he also has a terrible sleeping schedule. So, you know what this man needs? Some more time.

Since Matt Mercer loves all of us so dearly, he shared with us the wonderful world of Dunamancy spells.

Now, the Chronurgy Magic subclass is spectacular. It feels a bit like the Divination subclass BUT. You can literally rewind time. Freeze enemies in time and prevent them from acting on their turn.

It is brilliant.

And like, George is smart, and enjoys pranking when he’s just with his close friends.

We can give him a nice time shaping spell as a gift.

Now, the only problem is whether his familiar is a cat or a dog.

George is also going to be an half-elf, with Wood Elf heritage because that gives him Mask of the Wild, which means that he can try and hide in most natural phenomena. Basically, if he’s out of his house, he can easily nope out of social situations, which I think he deserves.

He, like Scott, also gets the sage background. For obvious reasons (which will become more obvious in the next paragraphs).

So! In summary:

Dream is born a half-orc and, for all he knows, he is the son of nobody.

When he is but an infant, he is left on the doorstep of a random house during a stormy night - it is a miracle that its inhabitant discovered him before he froze to death.

Dream grows up resilient, under the watchful eyes of Calvin, a veteran that chose to retire in a town stuck in the middle of nowhere in hopes of helping people defend themselves from incursions.

Calvin trains Dream, but he also helps him grow, just like he helped another one grow several years before.

Most importantly, Dream doesn't grow up alone: alongside Calvin, there is a monk, and all around him are the two man's students.

One in particular Dream seems to bond with: a bright human with a heart of gold, always too keen on getting into trouble, and one of Fruitberries' best students.

Him and Sapnap become quickly best friends, and they train together so much they start to work as a single unit.

When they are both of age, Dream starts to display some latent magical abilities; Calvin is quickly able to recognise this thanks to his adventuring years, and he suggests moving a couple towns over, where a friend owes him a favour and he could train him.

But Calvin's home is what Dream has always known, and change is hard, especially if he doesn't know whether or not Sapnap would be able to stay with him.

After some time discussing about it, Dream agrees to "check it out", taking advantage of this to try and compete in the yearly tournament that is held by the very same friend of Calvin he would train under.

Of course, he leaves with Sapnap.

Meanwhile, in the town where the tournament is being held, Scott is celebrating because he finally got his best student to agree to participate, as long as he gets to choose who to team with.

In the end, he’s not even going to choose, because the two jackasses pester him endlessly until he agrees to team up with them.

[ketchup-monthly]

Sanders Sides D&D 1

imagine virgil just cursing janus while out of combat, and theres one time where they end up going into a combat scenario while hes still cursed

but the thing with the curse is that if the creature dies while cursed, the warlock gains temporary hit points

so if cursed janus were to die, virgil would gain temp hp

Patton: omg, we need to save Janus Virgil, who cursed him yesterday: how about we let him die, then resurrect him later, yeah?

(roman and remus) lol they would totally just run into each other and instantly just hate

everyone else (except maybe patton) would figure out that theyre brothers but they would just deny it until their father (who maybe they were looking for) spelled it out for them

concept: they're an aasimar and tiefling both on a quest to find their long lost brother, but their both expecting their sibling to be the same race as them. they don't get along for both personality reasons and because, you know, aasimar and tiefling, but they're both in the party anyway

I just realized that as a changeling Janus can just change his height at will

Like to make a point to the twins when theyre acting up, he can change to be like 7 foot (still a medium creature tho)

But like. Subtly adjusting his height so much that no one notices until hes suddenly as tall as patton

"Im a growing boy" (true but also false)

tricking people by slowly growing/shrinking on them but trying to convince them it's the other way around

"dude, weren't you shorter a few minutes ago?" "i have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. are you feeling alright?"

"Youre getting taller" "No youre just getting shorter"

he gets like a full six inches on whoever he's pranking before they start really panicking

Except Virgil, who panics immediately

virgil also really notices bc in normal form, janus is only an inch shorter than him

despite being smart, Logan usually doesnt notice at all until Janus has gotten at least 4 inches taller, and then he knows whats going on

Virgil, realizing his sight line for Janus is slightly off: narrows eyes

roman takes a while to notice and he panics as well. remus thinks its hilarious. patton notices once Janus is taller than him (after 4 or 5 inches)

oh! because of the type of tiefling he is, Remus knows the vicious mockery cantrip

the thing is though, he would end up using it on the rest of his party too (everyone takes psychic damage on a failed wis save)

he would purposefully use it on his party members

as if he were a bard. he would try to inspire them but would instead harm them

remus is a barbarian who thinks himself a bard

he is a harbinger of chaos, we stan

he'd make your dad jokes at roman lmaoooo

not knowing hes talking shit about his own dad

he'd keep making them after they find out their siblings, probably tho

Roman: we have the same dad! Remus: >:)

im thinking about making romans name actually romulus but he goes by roman

bc romulus and remus

and bc roman seems to tame for a noble

okay so their dad is named Mars or some derivative of Mars, and their moms are Rhea and Silvia. Remus was in part raised by a beasthide shifter (the wolf kind) named Lupe (bc i need feral child remus)

probably romans mom was an aasimar and remus's mom was a tiefling (and while their dad was human, they ended up being an aasimar and a tiefling, respectively, bc dominant genes)

also the boys have inverted hair and eye colors

remus has dark hair with a white streak and red eyes, roman has white hair with smaller dark streaks all around and green eyes

as a drow, Virgil has light purple skin, white and purple hair, and eyes that have black instead of white and purple irises

Remus: hey, man, i need a heal Roman: no. go bother Patton Remus: Pat's out of heals Roman: Remus: dude, pls Roman: you are covered in muck and i don't even like you. no. no way Remus: Roman: Remus: please, brother Roman: ..........fine

roman heals him for 1hp

Roman: take a nap

what would be funny is if remus called roman his brother long before they knew they had the same dad but he did it to annoy him bc he knew roman hated it when he did it

Remus: hello, brother Roman: we're not brothers Remus: we're brothers-in-arms, aren't we? Roman: that's not the same! Remus: eh, close enough

Roman at Remus is the line from trail to oregon thats like "why am i even trying to help you, i hate you"

roman also just straight up refuses to heal janus, even when pat is out of spell slots

yeeee i have Patton as a druid but its just because i want his wild shape to be a giant frog (also druids are healers and have access to both cure wounds and healing word)

well in the first one, roman and remus are looking for their dad/the brother their mothers said they have

janus wanted to fuck shit up (not really, he was bored and annoying virgil is fun. and remus needed a babysitter)

(logan maybe knew roman previously and was sent as his babysitter)

romans got no brain cells. hes a noble on a quest. of course someone smart would be sent to keep him from dying

logan might work with Jan

(Bro, big dramatic reveal x chapters in, Jan knew Remus and romans father)

janus (handshake emoji) logan tired of keeping the twins from dying

i was thinking he was chosen by romans mom originally as like a "logan you are the only smart one please keep him from doing something stupid"

as a courtier, Janus would have known Roman and by extension Logan

so if hes really the one orchestrating the reason the main party got together, then (eyes)

virgil was a street rat, thats his background, so he likely knew at least of roman, janus, and logan. pat and remus are both wanderers of sorts, so that may be Pats connection to the main 4

okay but i had remus as an outlander, so like. maybe he was but then his mom took him away?

i had him as like a wild man child whose mom was like "hey you have a brother" and remus was like "sweet imma find him"

they were completely separate. romans mom was the daughter of a noble, so he was raised as a noble. remus's mom was either the daughter of a tribal chief or the chief herself, so he was raised like that. they had no idea that they had a brother. the moms likely knew, or they were told somehow by the dad, but they were completely separate

Mom: remus you have a half brother Remus: okay Mom: thats it? you're not shocked? Remus: mom do you think he'd like my bug collection?

(the answer is no, Roman does not like the bug collection)

Patton also does not like the bug collection

virgil and logan love it, and janus is used to it

so changeling janus, right? if he orchestrated it all, then he could have been in different forms in the court and in the tribal village

so like he knew basically everyone (but Pat, who Remus met and then kept)

Remus, to patton: I like your funny words, magic man

Remus, upon meeting Pat: so you like frogs Patton: ....yes? Remus: cool i like them too. they taste slimy. Patton: ??????? Remus: Patton: are you okay? Remus: nope! Patton: ....okay... Remus: wanna see my bug collection?

Remus, setting himself on fire: ahhahaaha nothing can hurt me Janus, quick to douse him in water: resistance is not the same as immunity!!!

[dungeonmalcontent]

Ah, well, I have done this a lot. However, there's a lot to consider. The first step to making a class is, of course, asking whether or not you can achieve the same result by not creating an entirely new class.

You can add or replace features and abilities on the frameworks of existing classes for tremendous effect when adapting content to unorthodox settings (like sci-fi). Also there was a UA a while ago with content for more cyberpunk sort of gameplay with tech spells and such. Worth looking at before you go further.

Anyway.

The thing about creating a class is that the "class" itself must have a prominent core mechanic to it. Barbarians have rage, wizards have spell books (and have the largest pool of spells they can learn because of it, making them the most versatile caster), sorcerers have sorcery points, bards have inspiration, druids have wild shape... You get the picture.

When building a class you should ideally have a core idea like this in mind. And really just the one. It's easy to get carried away and just start picking bits off of other classes and making an unholy abomination of a class. Classes should start with very basic mechanics in mind, and you can expand on them further with subclasses (and if you're making a class, you really need to have subclasses, usually 3 per class; I like to do aggressor, utility, and tank builds for basic subclasses).

As an example: The class I'm the most proud of is my sacrifant class. It's a full casting class that specializes in blood magic. The core mechanic is monitoring your hit points and taking advantage of being damaged. While you must sacrifice hit points to cast spells, staying at low health can make your spells more powerful and taking damage from attacks can open the way for casting spells as a reaction.

See, once you have your core mechanic down, you can start brainstorming other mechanics. Ideally your other features and abilities in your class' kit provide either some kind of coverage or utility for dealing with things they otherwise wouldn't be able to (like healing, stealth, arcana, etc.) or they interact directly with the core mechanic. That core mechanic connection can be synergistic, like you trigger your core mechanic and you can chain on more effects from the other abilities, or they can create opportunities to use your core mechanic (or use it more effectively).

So if you're building something more technologically advanced you have to get a core mechanic centered around that. Usually creators imagine that as manipulating technology to some degree. And your features and traits that surround it often fall into the category of either specifying what kind of tech you get access to or how powerful or flexible your tech can be.

I do want to add an addendum on this, because WotC ran into a particular issue while writing out that UA I mentioned before. The biggest feedback was centered around how present the tech had to be in a given game. Most core classes can do all of their abilities regardless of their surroundings. However, centering a class around tech in the aforementioned and tried approach means they need to be around tech all the time in order for them to be useful and fun.

So, my actual recommendation is to figure out how you want your class(es) to approach problems regardless of tech integration. But, while doing so, consider what kinds of problems arise from an abundance of tech in certain areas and less or no tech in others. Something like being able to produce machinery from the self, interact with anything as though it were machinery, or being non-interactive/non-detectable to tech that also works with non-tech entities. That's where I'd start if you were set on making full classes.

But, like I said first, consider altering existing features or creating subclasses. It's far less time intensive and it makes your content easier for players to approach when they only have to worry about learning specific functions rather than the whole control panel.

If you have more specific questions, my ask box is always open and I check it regularly. I love player content design, it's my bread and butter, and I'd like to think I'm pretty dang good at it by now.

Hey, do you have any advice on homebrewing whole classes? I'm trying to do a more technologically advanced setting for my next campaign and I think one or two classes finely tuned to fit into that world would be great, but I'm not really sure where to start.

Unfortunately I don't have any advice for homebrewing classes. Most of my experience is in subclasses, and I'm not confident enough in my own abilities to balance classes to make my own. But there are a few other creators on here who I know have done full classes! They might be willing to give some advice on where to start. The ones that immediately come to mind are @homebrew-a-la-traumaverse , @akkator , and @dungeonmalcontent.

[utilitycaster]

can you share some thoughts on a druid/rogue multi class? i just started playing a firbolg druid. he used to be a scout before adventuring so sneaky assassin sounds like it could be a fun thing to play with. are there other classes you think would go good with druid? ty!!

So here’s the thing: if you want to do this for story reasons, do what works for the story.

Mechanically, druid kind of works best on its own. The general concept of multiclassing is that you trade depth for breadth - taking a few levels of fighter, for example, so you can attack better, but you don’t advance as quickly in spellcasting. The problem is druids have a huge amount of breadth already so there’s not a whole lot of benefit:

Wild shape is the core of the class, and while in wild shape you retain your mental stats but your attack abilities are those of the wild shape. You can’t spellcast in wild shape until very high levels. I guess sneak attack and cunning action would still apply, so you get those benefits, so actually rogue might work better than most options. But things like extra attacks (which other battle classes have) or spell benefits are all useless while in wildshape.

When you’re not in wild shape, rogue is not particularly useful because you’re a spellcaster and unlike a wizard, you have almost no attack spells. Druid damage spells tend to be area of effect, which means no sneak attack damage. You can do some damage with shillelagh if you have a staff, so you could sneak attack with that, but that’s melee which is less useful for a rogue assassin which works far better with a distance weapon; druids do have access to some distance weapons but they tend to be the lower damage (like d4) ones.

And of course, you set back your spellcasting and wild shape progression. Druids, between wild shape and spellcasting, basically have all the areas covered - wild shape is essentially a way to become a melee fighter and/or a damage tank as needed, spellcasting will do damage at a distance but won’t as mentioned benefit from sneak attack, and you can also heal. Multiclassing is going to typically be weaker, in my opinion, than just taking more levels in druid, because you already have access to the same overarching benefits a few levels in another class would give you - why be a fighter or rogue multiclass when you can turn into a bear with a multi-attack every short rest? Why dip into cleric when you already have healing and radiant damage?

Which doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it, just that in that case it’s going to be driven not by a mechanical advantage but by the story you’re telling, and you’re going to know that far better than I ever will.

One thing I want to plug though is that you can explore story beats without multiclassing! You should explore story beats without multiclassing! Your character can still have a history as a scout and let that inform who they are without multiclassing. This can be mechanical (eg, taking the Alert feat), or it can purely be a story choice. Even the Player’s Handbook says that not every devout person is a cleric or paladin and not every musician is a bard. If you want your druid to be a rogue too that’s fine, but by no means feel that’s the only way to round them out as a character.

[maeamian]

Some D&D theorycrafting for y’all, since unearthed arcana came out with a playable centaur I wanted to take a look at the mounted combatant/sentinel combo in that context. It’s probably gonna be a bit wordy so here’s a cut underneath which it is (sorry mobile users):

So my current dude is a dwarven druid, and one of the interesting paths you can take with the moon druid is specing into full time mount duties for a qualified rider, but the key to that long term is the rider taking mounted combatant and the druid taking sentinel. The rider gets advantage on attacks against creatures smaller than their mount, which is pretty nice, and can force attacks directed at the mount to instead be directed at them. The mount meanwhile gets an improved evasion where they take half spell damage on failed saves and none on successful ones. Sentinel meanwhile gives you an attack of opportunity against creatures who attack your allies and hitting with an AoO means their speed for the turn becomes 0. 

A rider with mounted combatant provides a huge amount of frontline survivability to an otherwise squishy mount, which in the druid’s case means fewer burnt wild shapes and better damage output, but for a centaur it means you can put a normally squishy character on the frontline with a much more limited risk than usual, since mounted combatant provides good cover against both attack and spell damage, excepting pretty much the no save spells like magic missile. It’s not quite as good for the rider here as it is for the druid who has access to very big shapes while a centaur is gonna be the same size barring an enlarge spell. Sentinel in a mounted target meanwhile means that your rider is constantly drawing attacks meant for you which in turn means you get to use your attack of opportunity every single turn and it has the added bonus of forcing lockdown by setting that target’s speed to 0, it’s helpful not essential if we don’t go a class that uses attack damage, but if we go this route we do want to keep an eye on our AoOs. 

Basically what we want from this is a rider who can be the target of a lot of attacks without dying from it as well as crowd control options, your traditional tank essentially, and a centaur who can output a lot of damage or some other form of utility and take advantage of frontline positioning that they might otherwise die super hard in. What follows is a quick overview of the 12 classes and where they might fit in in all of this:

Barbarian: Raging barbarians can output a lot of damage per weapon attack, meaning that your AoO is gonna get decent value, and since barding is pricy the unarmored defense could help in the early game, but the huge hit pool is a bit redundant with the damage avoidance you’ve got. Those hitpoints make it good for a rider who will be taking more hits than usual and should armor themselves accordingly, but none of the paths really offer the combat synergy that other later options will. Overall Barb is a great frontline class, but it isn’t going to really benefit from either side of this combo.

Bard: This one’s pretty funny to imagine, consider a decked out knight charging you down on a horse whose head is a human with a fuckin’ hammered dulcimer and rage in their eyes. With the college of Valor it’s also fairly plausible, it gives you the proficiencies you need to stay safe at later levels in shields and armor and it also gives you the ability to use inspiration to improve your rider’s AC which they’ll be thankful for. The College of Swords (Xanathar’s) also offers some interesting options for combining attacks with your bardic inspiration to get some neat effects as well as some improved damage as a baseline. Not the strongest choice here, IMO, but there’s a lot to work with mechanically and concept wise.

Cleric: Clerics are generally already known for being able to kick it on the frontline without having to worry too much, so they don’t need the extra survivability as much. Clerics have access to a powerful selection of buffs and healing spells that are nice to have on hand up front, which is why they tend to be there even with their generally lower HP.  The life domain is an obvious choice and makes you very good at healing and buffing, but overall I think it loses value by not being able to do other things and I don’t think it takes advantage of the combo. The War domain offers that utility in combat and provides some very nice buffs as a constant on your spell list. The Grave domain (Xan’s) offers some interesting combo options including cursing them to take double damage from your rider and turning crits against them into normal hits. Solid choice for our centaur, and there’s some excellent RP options with your rider if they’re a Pally, and an interesting choice for a rider if you’re looking to get a bit more support from that portion of the combo

Druid:  Druids have a lot of spells that work good at the front like gust and vine whip, but generally want to stay back due to their prohibition on having good AC, since you’re not taking the hits you don’t need the AC, so Land druid and their stronger spell casting focus may be the way to go here. The circle of dreams (X’s) is also a good option with healing, rest protection and later on combat teleportation which you can use to get space in which to charge. The circle of shephards lets you overwhelm the front with summoned creatures and change battles with powerful totem effects to your allies. A lot of the best druid spells require concentration which means you’ll need to grab war caster too, which is a solid pickup for any caster on this list. A solid centaur choice too, but in many ways redundant.

Fighter: This is the first of our rider choices, a protection fighter lets you impose disadvantage on attacks that you don’t chose to soak, and of course fighters can put together some of the highest AC in the game, and the battlemaster archetype has some very powerful combo moves in its maneuvers, for instance pushing attack plus sentinel can strand a frontline enemy in the backline for a turn letting you charge into the backline and mess it up, while trip+sentinel lets you keep an enemy prone by leaving them without movement speed to stand up with. Cavalier (X) seems like it would be good for a mounted combatant, but ends up being fairly redundant or else unhelpful for the play style this combo encourages, since your mount won’t be taking many hits. Fighter is a very strong option for the rider, and a bit less definied in characterization than our other major rider options.

Monk: Monks are the quintessential wants to be upfront and doesn’t want to get hit class, and combos alright with your extant hoof attacks, for the first four levels your unarmed strikes are a die better than they would be, but that’s a problem regular monks can solve with a monk weapon. Even the baseline options for spending ki can do you a lot of good, the disengage bonus action can prep charges and extra attacks are nothing to sneeze at. The way of the open fist offers even more melee options as well as bonuses to your flurry of blows. Way of the shadow offers solid ambush options if your party is more built for opening bursts, as well as movement options. A very strong centaur candidate, but miss this class for your rider.

Paladin: Now here’s a fuckin class for the rider. the 6th level aura of protection improves the already excellent spell protection from mounted combatant by adding the rider’s cha bonus to saves vs spells, the healing options and high AC let the Pally kick it up front and soak those nasty shots intended for his centaur friend. Oath of the Ancients is a strong choice here with good buffs added to the spell list and can use the channel divinity to cast a targeted entangling vines. Oath of conquest (X) has powerful combat options especially for lockdown, but not everyone wants to play that character style and I get why. A generous interpretation of the Find Steed spell gives you some nice combo bonuses allowing the paladin to target the mount with self-only spells, nice if your GM allows it, but don’t be shocked if they don’t. One of the go to choices for a rider

Ranger: ,The Hunter archetype offers some really powerful combat options, especially for someone who doesn’t have to worry too much about getting hit.  Monster Slayer (X) has some really strong options for dealing extra damage and punishing strong targets as well as locking down the backline once you truck your way into it. Strong choice for the centaur.

Rogue: Sneak attack reads “You don't need advantage on the attack roll if another enemy of the target is within 5 feet of it, that enemy isn't incapacitated, and you don't have disadvantage on the attack roll.” If you’ve got a rider you’ve always got an ally within 5 feet of your target. This is very good to get every single round. The rogue’s evasion feature is wasted here, but a your cunning action can let you zip around the battle field really fucking shit up. None of the thief archetypes really offers too much, although the thief’s second story work seems to negate the one major drawback of the centaur: garbage climbing skills. Swashbuckler (X) seems to be the only option that actively benefits the play style, but the rogue’s base kit is very strong in this anyhow so all of the archetypes are going to be somewhat viable. Alternatively, this is an interesting option for a rider who gets that sneak attack advantage and can wrangle a rather high AC out of dexterity. A great choice for our centaur and a maverick choice for the rider

Sorcerer/Wizard: WotC tried to separate these two more, but essentially these are both backline casters and have no place on the front line even in the context of this combo, they’re good to support it especially benefiting from spells like flaming sphere that hurt opponents who stay in the same place a lot, a useful member of this party perhaps but not someone who should be involved as the rider or the mount

Warlock: is pretty similar to the above, but offers one somewhat interesting frontline option in the Pact of the Blade, particularly down the Fiend path. Their play style is to get hit and deal out massive retribution through hexes and curses, so in this context you’d want them as the rider more than as a mount. That means you’re going to want a more supportive class like cleric on the mount to make sure that as they’re taking in the hits they’re also staying up. The hexblade version might work for your centaur

A few generic notes if you’re considering this route: First, the strength of the feat combo runs on AoOs so you want to be careful about things that use your reaction to do things other than hit. Secondly, since this feat is best applied on single strong targets, you’ll want to make sure you or your parties have some strong AoE options to deal with larger groups of enemies

Anyhow, this has been one person’s thoughts about an fun D&D roleplaying thing you can do and how to make it mechanically powerful, by no means am I an expert except that I’ve thought about this sort of thing a lot. It definitely has the opportunity for a very cool interpersonal dynamic for the two of you in addition to some of the best single target lockdown available in the game.

[newyorktheater]

Patti LuPone sings in her basement for her Twitter followers

A singer from the “Couch Choir” of the Rotterdam Philharmonic sings Burt Bacharach’s (They Long to Be) Close To You — one of the many virtual performances by orchestras and choirs that have sprung up worldwide since the stay-at-home orders

Alvin Ailey’s magnificent 60-year-old “Revelations,” with its inspiring Negro spirituals and spirited modern dancing, (pictured) streamed for free as part of the new online series Ailey All Access , added to the growing list of online offerings

Faith Prince and Richard Kind perform in The Tale of the Allergists Wife on Stars in the House, which is branching out from variety talk show to live readings of full-length plays.

T.R. Knight in “Transition” by David Lindsay-Abaire, one of the plays from 24 Hour Plays’ Viral Monologues, Round 3

Pirates pitcher Steven Brault sings Broadway

Max von Essen sings “What More Can I Do” from Falsettos for Intermission Mission, one of the new online series, this one from Today Tix

J Harrison Ghee from Mrs Doubtfire

In the first week of April, as the news remained scary and theaters remained closed, theater – and especially theater music – became a balm.

Mrs. Doubtfire didn’t open on Sunday, the first of the 10 Broadway openings originally scheduled for April, but they celebrated in song, with a virtual performance of the show’s song “As long as there is love”

The New York Philharmonic canceled its season a couple of weeks ago, but its musicians offered a ravishing Bolero by Ravel, remotely

  For those who’ve enjoyed @nyphil‘s digital “Bolero,” check out earlier virtual orchestra/choir videos — the “couch choir” of @rdamphil (pictured), @CamdenVoices , @BerkleeCollege , @CO_Symphony, @dycireland https://t.co/ijv1Z0wbOK pic.twitter.com/d4s8U3podm

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) April 4, 2020

Bette Midler offered a song for New Yorkers

From some dear New York friends of mine: Sung by Zora Rasmussen Piano by @marcshaiman pic.twitter.com/nAGbOSt9bR

— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) April 2, 2020

Patti LuPone offered us a singing tour of her basement

Ya bored yet? pic.twitter.com/kDZR1jYWyG

— Patti LuPone (@PattiLuPone) April 1, 2020

Even Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Steven Brault was singing this week, releasing a showtunes album with the almost-punning title A Pitch at Broadway A Pitch at Broadway

Oscar winner Parasite debuts on Hulu

Jodie Foster and Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver, on Netflix

James Corden at National Live at Home

She Loves Me on PBS

April 2020 Calendar of “Openings”: What’s Streaming on Netflix, National Theatre, Hulu, PBS Great Performances, Amazon Prime, HBO Etc

New York Theater Quiz for March 2020

Theater Book Reviews

Death By Shakespeare  “Plague shaped Shakespeare’s life,” Kathryn Harkup writes in her new book. Death By Shakespeare: Snakebites, Stabbings and Broken Hearts (Bloomsbury Sigma, 368 pages, May 2020 publication date.) The first outbreak of the Plague during Shakespeare’s lifetime occurred three months after his birth in 1564, and he was among only one-third of the children in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon to survive. He was just starting to make his name as a playwright in London in 1592, when there was a severe outbreak that resulted in the shuttering of the theaters – drying up opportunity for playwriting and thus pushing the Bard to become a poet, which arguably enhanced his writing when he returned to drama. Plague was so common at the time that authorities decreed that theaters could reopen if the weekly death rate from the epidemic sunk below 50 for three consecutive weeks. And so, Harkup says, it’s no surprise that the Plague pervades Shakespeare’s plays “Death by Shakespeare” doesn’t just fact-check the playwright’s scripts. The author uses death as the lens by which to describe life in Elizabethan England – the conditions, the attitudes, the practices surrounding death. Full review

Terrence McNally Selected Works: A Memoir in Plays Terrence McNally considered Shakespeare and Chekhov his gods, and Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera his goddesses; he learned a lot from all four. That’s what he tells us within the first few pages of Selected Works: A Memoir in Plays (Grove Press, 659 pages) a book published in 2015 that presents the scripts of eight of his plays*, written from 1987 to 2013, interspersed with a few pages of introduction, recollection and digression. full review

Note: Monday night April 6 at 8 p.m., McNally’s Lips Together, Teeth Apart live online reading performed by Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Zachary Quinto and Ari Graynor , in support of the BC/EFA COVID-19 Emergency Assistance Fund

Online Theater Gets Seriously Comic

Stars in the House, which has been a twice-daily online variety hour and talk show, has now added a twice weekly “matinee” – a live reading every Wednesday and Saturday afternoon of popular play performed by a starry cast. They’re calling in Plays in the House. The first up last week were Wendy Wasserstein’s The Heidi Chronicles, performed by the original cast, and Charles Busch’s The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife starring Busch himself (as Marjorie herself) and Richard Kind, Faith Prince,

The hosts promise that future plays will star Harvey Fierstein, Tony Shaloub, and Brooke Adams, among others.

T.R. Knight in “Transition” by David Lindsay-Abaire, one of the plays from 24 Hour Plays’ Viral Monologues, Round 3

Playwright @lindsayabaire on writing plays, successively, for @TheRealDratch (a comedy), Marylouise Burke (a haunting mystery), & @TR_Knight (a fantasy) in @24HourPlays‘ #ViralMonologues. My interview w/ him in @DC_theatrescene: https://t.co/8Zutj6eLda pic.twitter.com/YZc8W1qabf

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) April 3, 2020

Methuen Drama will publish the Viral Monologues as a book, edited by Howard Sherman, who inspired the solo series.

  Added since last week to my roundup Where to Get Your Theater Fix Online: Old Favorites and New Experiments

Ailey All Access

Humana Festival of New Plays offering two of the plays from the season that it had to cancelon stage

Intermission Mission from TodayTix “At home performances from the Broadway community” — basically a single song each day by a different Broadway star

Joe’s Pub Live

L.A. Theatreworks

Play at Home — new original short plays available to read for free commissioned by five great theaters, including the Public Theater and Woolly Mammoth. This echoes what were called “closet plays” during earlier eras when theaters where shut down either because of Plague or political repression. The playwrights then never expected them to be produced, so went wild. Presumably, the 21st century playwrights are just as wild, but expect eventually to see them on stage.

The Shows Must Go On A different Andrew Lloyd Webber musical launches for free every Friday for 48 hours on this new YouTube page. First up: Donny Osmond stars in the 1999 film of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”

News

Arts industry unemployment claims in New York rise 3,880 percent.

Broadway is still selling tickets for April performances. But why?

The Off-Broadway League has announced that its 2020 Lortel Awards, honoring Off-Broadway will go on as scheduled — nominations April 14, winners at May 3 ceremony — but all now online. This is the only New York theater award so far to keep to its original schedule.

The Bret Adams & Paul Reisch Foundation is offering 40 emergency grants of $2,500 each to playwrights, composers, lyricists and librettists who have had a full professional production cancelled, closed, or indefinitely postponed due to the COVID-19 closures

An inspiring story: Director @JeffWhitingNYC is leading some 900 theater professionals, mostly wardrobe & costume people from Broadway shows, to create protective gear. And that’s just in NYC! Theater pros are helping throughout the country.https://t.co/EnQbRWYpLl

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) April 1, 2020

Pandemic theater is already here examples in this L.A Times article: Skylight Theatre of Los Angeles and the 24 Hour Plays’ Viral Monologues. “Pandemic-set plays were bound to happen sooner or later, and it’s so close to home. Numerous members of the theater community have tested positive for the coronavirus, including Tom Hanks, Aaron Tveit, Daniel Dae Kim, Laura Bell Bundy and Brian Stokes Mitchell. The disease took the lives of Terrence McNally and Adam Schlesinger.”

American Theatre Magazine editor Rob Weiner-Kendt offers a scattershot overview of what’s happening in a piece entitled No Show.: If we can’t have theatre until we can gather again safely, what are U.S. theatres and artists going to do in the meantime, and after? One paragraph:

“Theatre has survived worse, even in its cradle. The plague of Athens killed some 25 percent of its population in 430 B.C.E., and inspired the Theban plague in Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex. Shakespeare’s career was famously interrupted by the Black Plague, during which time, as [San Diego’s Old Globe artistic director Barry] Edelstein pointed out, the Bard and his colleagues did three things: “They made plans for what they were going to do when theatres reopened. They toured the provinces, sold props, costumes, bundled plays and sold them—that’s how the First Folio got made. And they went to the King and said, ‘Help.’”

Rest in Peace

Adam Schlesinger, 52, from COVID-19. Known for his work with his band Fountains of Wayne and on the TV show “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” he was also a 2-time Broadway veteran (comical co-songwriter of Cry Baby and Act of God)

a sweet “egobituary” about Adam Schlesinger https://t.co/IdQB1YiS8Q

— New York Theater (@NewYorkTheater) April 2, 2020

William Wolf, 94, theater critic who wrote reviews and columns for Cue and New York magazines and taught at NYU.He was a past president of the Drama Desk. He too died from complications from the coronavirus.

The NYC health workers who have died of COVID-19

#AloneTogether, singing! Online theater gets seriously comic. #Stageworthy News of the Week In the first week of April, as the news remained scary and theaters remained closed, theater – and especially theater music – became a balm.