#not all the subclasses will be this crazy though

[sunbeargames]

I knew pretty early on when starting the Oracle that I wanted a martial subclass. Oracles are generally relegated to the backline in combat, using their abilities to get information that will help the rest of the party be more efficient, but people always seem to like martial classes for casters and I figured there was opportunity here as well.

The solution was fairly obvious; an Oracle subclass that specializes in getting a lot of detail about the immediate future, so that they can engage foes in combat with a high degree of effectiveness. The subclass is called the Battlemind, btw.

However, I once again ran into the issue of 5e not handling divination very well, because there are existing effects that have virtually the same flavor. For instance, the Foresight spell:

This is a 9th level spell that has effectively the same net effect, it makes the target very good at fighting, but it does so in a boring (albeit powerful) way.

Foresight might be fun to experience for a session or two at the end of a long running campaign, but it doesn't make for a good mechanical basis for a character.

My main issue with taking this kind of approach to the Battlemind is that it wouldn't be very fun to play; you'd just be a Fighter but with big bonuses to your rolls instead of any of the fun stuff (action surge, fighting styles, maybe maneuvers, etc).

So maybe there could be a different way? What if instead of granting the character a massive statistical advantage and labeling it as precognition, we gave the PLAYER information about the future and can use it to navigate the fight better?

Two Steps Ahead is essentially a permanent Auspice effect, which I discussed in a previous post. Basically, you know what your next two attack rolls are going to be, but if they are bad, you can still find some source of advantage to mitigate that.

Then, two levels later, you get Warrior of Fate. This has some cool new ways to use your resources, but the thing I want to focus on right now is the third point. You can force attackers to use the rolls from your Two Steps Ahead feature. That means you now have a use for the bad rolls as well as the good ones.

I haven't gotten the chance to playtest this subclass yet, but it really excites me. I want this martial to FEEL totally different, because the way you see the fight is so altered. Your go-to actions on each turn aren't the same anymore. Rather than just attacking the closest thing and hoping you hit, you already know whether that will work out. If you have high rolls on deck, maybe you walk over to a key target and take it out. If you have low rolls, maybe you do something else with your turn then watch enemies flounder as you use Warrior of Fate to make them use those numbers for their own attacks.

The key difference between Two Steps Ahead and Foresight is that now you have to play smart. You have to actually USE the information you have about the future, and adapt as new information comes in, rather than just sitting back to coast along on a statistical advantage. You could choose to play a Battlemind and totally ignore Two Steps Ahead, only looking at the results there when the time comes to use them, which I think makes it a much better approximation of having powers of precognition.

Unfortunately, part of the fantasy of characters like this is that they could land every blow and avoid every hit, but the math of 5e just isn't built for that. I could give you a ridiculous AC and attack bonus to make it happen, but again there's no fun in that. However, with a little luck and a bit of skill, I think you could get very close to a "flawless" performance in combat.

[violaextract]

NOT ONLY CLASS SWAPPED SCYTHEBELTS, BUT ALL CLASS SWAPPED FATED??

you try to give a flower to your crush and your powers go haywire smh

hi so if you saw the og class swaps i did for the fated in like,, 2020 maybe,, uhhhhhhh no you didnt ( you can see the og ones behind them in the line up )

this time i chose sub classes for them!! and they are very silly, BELOW THE CUT IS MY THOUGHTS AND WHY I CHOSE THE SUBCLASSES I DID, IF YOU WANNA HEAR MY RANTING VVVV

sylnan is circle of shepherd, i felt that it suited him, especially with the idea that he could steal from people with the help of animals, also because he lived with the rats, so,, ykyk,, also the vines can be used to climb stuff because thats cool, i love the guardian spell too, basically you get downed and you can summon a spirit that will attack anything that gets near you, ( even if the spell doesnt attack teammates or non threats its a nice idea for braad to be the only one who can get near him when this happens, and possibly as the party grows together the others can also approach him ) also the vest design is meant to mimic a ribcage, i think i had an idea of why i did this but forgot,, it just looks cool. maybe something to do with his death or his emotions, whos to say

braad, arcane trickster, SURPRISING NO ONE, hes silly thief guy who maybe became a rouge to help their situation, but he was kinda just hiding it from his brother, until the pact thing happened and then after the pact is severed, hes a trickster instead of a bard. he needs to be able to do his silly illusions, also i like to think he just happens to doge stuff, like by sheer coincidence

velrisa, college of lore, i thought because she wouldnt be a cleric for weejas, she could be a sort of, storyteller if you will, spreading the word and fighting for her god with music, she still does stuff with undead and whatnot being raised by clerics, but she simply found another way to show that,( maybe she struggled with normal cleric magic also maybe she relates to mountain )

taxi, battle master fighter, it was this or champion, but i feel like it fit what with what we know about his parents, in this he was trained and whatnot, it was probs a gillion tidestrider thing where it was fucked and he throughout the fated travels learns to fight for himself and protect the people he cares about instead of listening to what people told him he should be fighting for. also maybe he could become some sort of champion because its taxi, i love him.

mountain, war domain, like with taxi i was inbetween war domain and death domain, i felt death domain because the death of his wife maybe threw him into that, but i felt that what with mountain being in a fighting ring and meeting his wife there, that war fit better, he is a crazy good fighter and healing also possibly learnt from Hilda and heightened after her death. hes still mountain though so alcholic cleric punch healing and shenanigans, dont think that just because hes a healer now hes devoid of everything that makes mountain, mountain. plus with taxi, maybe hes very involved with helping taxi find his fight, and with vel, she knows about cleric stuff despite not being one so ykyk

okay rant over, the read more thing didnt work so IM SORRY, i put too much thought into this BYEEE

[deconstructthesoup]

I've seen some good ones floating around, so here's my take on a Fantasy High Swap Class AU:

Adaine: She's a College of Creation bard, something that stemmed from needing something to keep herself sane growing up in the Abernant home. She channeled her studies of the cosmos and magic into songs, and she actually managed to pass herself off as a Conjuration wizard... until she got found out and sent to Aguefort. Luckily, it's the perfect place for her to hone her craft, and she winds up becoming an incredibly well-known songwriter---more on the indie folk side of things than punk rock, but still. (And she does also become the Elven Oracle, if only by accident.)

Kristen: She starts out as a Zealot barbarian under the Church of Helio, but it doesn't take long for her faith to waver, and she eventually falls into the unpredictability and beautiful chaos of the Path of Wild Magic---and eventually multiclasses into an Oath of the Ancients paladin, inspired by claiming Cassandra as a deity. She's got a lot of righteous fury and craziness at her disposal, and she's never gonna back down from a fight.

Fig: While still keeping her rebellious attitude, she decided to still accept the girly side of herself when her horns grew in and be more pastel-punk (kinda like K Tanaka), and she embraced her devil side by becoming a Trickster Domain cleric---specifically, a cleric of Asmodeus. She's still a lover of disguises, a shameless flirt, and has a shaky relationship with the truth, but it's cranked up to eleven due to her serving a deity of all that. She does eventually multiclass into being an Alchemist artificer, which is... just as chaotic as you might expect.

Riz: He's still a detective at heart, of course, but he winds up using his smarts and sneakery to become a School of Illusion wizard. This actually makes him perfectly suited to being the guy who's always trying to figure out the truth, even if his disguise habit is almost as bad as Fig's sometimes, and he takes on his secret-agent style way earlier than in canon. He's not strictly lawful---he's a big fan of finding out loopholes---but he's definitely the team's designated "smart guy."

Gorgug: His subclass was the hardest to figure out, but I decided he would be good as a Cavalier fighter---his martial prowess is still focused on helping and supporting his friends, regardless of whether it's through rage or skill. Eventually, though, he gets inspired by Adaine's creative ways of using magic and multiclasses into a College of Valor bard. And yes, he uses these skills in part to become a band member of hers. Fig is also part of the band.

Fabian: And last but not least, our Fabian got inspired by both Cathilda and a much more sober Hallariel to become a Swashbuckler rogue. His story is kind of an inverse of canon, with him learning from his mother and mother figure more than his father---partly due to the fact that Bill died before canon in this---and gaining a lot more pride from that (and yeah, that includes him introducing himself as "Fabian Seacaster, son of Hallariel Seacaster, the greatest swordfighter who's ever lived!"). But after his Bad Day, he realizes that there's worth in appreciating what his father has to offer, and he becomes a Fiend warlock of Old Bill---Pact of the Chain, of course, so the Hangman can be his familiar.

So, uh... yeah!

[phoenixcatch7]

Every so often I drift back to the overlord anime but I can never stay for long because it's a good 70% smut with the succubus and 20% side character drama that never goes anywhere. It's a similar premise to svsss, in that a modern guy accidentally gets sucked into a fictional fantasy world he was obsessed with as the villain with a group of people and a place he rules over and wants to protect, and his paranoia/procrastination combo strategises his way to victory.

So of course I thought, 'let's get our dear old scum villain (affectionate) in here'.

Cuz i'mma be real sy would make an infinitely more interesting panicking lich king. Take off that emotion nullification, for starters.

A) pidw was a vr mmorpg with a vast, overarching storyline of the rising emperor lbh, whom players could battle or wed for rewards. A respawning final boss of such strength it took a world wide unified invasion of top players to fell. When sy gets pulled into pidw and all the npcs come to life, so too does lbh, who is very confused as to what happened but remembers sy as one of the players who fronted the invasion (having dug up every nugget of lore on lbh and using that vast knowledge in strategy) and carries an immense grudge that eventually turns into love as he gets to know sy. Sqh is there too, of course, the uncredited game dev who made lbh and his right hand man mbj, who's own base in the north got retaken when mbj also resurrected and is having his own worrisome love story.

B) sy and sqh are in the same guild, named cq, and the demons are sqhs overly detailed npc. Lbh works as the guardian overseer, aka the head npc, and as they wait for the game to shut down sy sneakily makes a joke in lbhs character sheet about him loving sy. They get sucked in, the characters come to life, and sy spends the time he isn't using panicking about the situation, five dimensional politicking, or protecting the base being in denial about the whole lbh thing (and his no homo) and feeling DEEPLY guilty (and hiding it from sqh). Lbh, of course, now having free will, thinks about it a bit and decides to fall madly in love with his kind, gentle, soft hearted lich king boss in spite of his loyalty to his creator. Sqh goes 'dude, wtf' and so goes a very long back and forth as sy tries and fails to come up with the right code of ethics to deal with this insane situation he inadvertently created, meanwhile lbh is strategising how one could feasibly get railed by a skeleton and being the Best Housewife Right Hand Man Ever. And get headpats in the process.

C) sy was part of the xianxia themed cq guild, and everyone (the peak lords) got sucked into either ygddrassil (overlord world) or pidw (svsss). Basically, all the peak lords are millennials old friends running around trying to deal with the consequences of their role play and finally getting to try out the fancy food and drink. I love this one because everyone would be really comfortable with each other, lots of slang and in jokes, a well oiled team stuck in a crazy situation together with ridiculously powerful characters each and every one, and you could have sj as a member! Sy could be the beast tamer peak lord. It'd be so interesting to see what they'd class and subclass as. Sy might still be a lich, but Yqy would be a really interesting choice! Him and sj would definitely still have history though... Hulijing, wood elf, bamboo spirit, human, who knows!

D) sy spent a few years as the lich king guild leader in ygddrassil (I'm definitely not spelling it right), bored by the lack of anything interesting, before the system intervened (maybe as a remnant of the original game interface?) and whisked him off to svsss. Post canon he gets either revealed as an imposter or there's some past life wife plot (some animal that was a boobacious beauty in its past life getting cursed to switch between them?) that turns sy into his old big bad lich overlord form, which is hilariously incongruent with his personality but utterly terrifying and anathema to the jianghu, but lbh is now having to crane his neck back and desperately trying to figure out how to get dommed. Everyone is fully convinced this is sy's og body, and not some modern human one they don't even get to see.

E) sy gets yoinked by system and when lbh (and maybe some others?) catch up a few years later he's in the skeleton body in ygddrassil dabbling in world domination and very eager to see them. The npcs get introduced and draw many incorrect conclusions.

[alt-wannabe]

MCSR D&D

here's fulham's character sheet!

College of Lore Bard 12 / The Fathomless Warlock 3 (Pact of the Blade)

Fulham is the last HBG member that I had ideas for a character sheet for but I ABSOLUTELY want to make more, I just don't want to mischaracterize the streamers I unfortunately know a little less about. That being said please please please lmk who yall wanna see next and i can make some polls in order to help me get started. Thanks :3

More under the cut!

Fulham's always seemed really well spoken so bard immediately stuck out to me as a good pick, and college of lore was also a pretty easy subclass pick bc my guy is EDUCATED. The warlock multiclass is a little more for player usability than characterization- eldrich blast with some invocations on a 20 CHA character can get some crazy damage. Also fun fact that purple is the pinkest accent color on D&D Beyond it's tragic.

Spell picks were like 40% normal D&D picks, 30% minecraft references, and 30% pure vibes/intuition picks. I gave him a lot more support/enemy debuff spells than pure damage as fulham tends to really shine in team events imo (plus bards tend to lean more on that side of the spell spectrum anyways).

I admittedly went a little crazy on the inventory. The smaller easter eggs include and herbalism kit, melons, and a cactus in the chest along with cooks utensils (tubbathon cooking show) and a playing card set (poker). Going along with poker/gambling I HAD to give him the Deck of Many Things- that things gambling incarnate and is such a fun iconic item (if my memory serves correctly this makes Fulham the only HBG member so far to have a legendary item). Manual of Iron Golems and Cube of Force are straight up just slap in the face minecraft references and I'm impressed it took me this long to spot them. Bag of Beans was another reference to the melon/cactus shenanigans (even though the actual utility of the item isn't super related to the theme but shhhhh). The Lantern of Revealing and Necklace of Adaptation were a little more vibe picks than the rest, Fulham just seems pretty observant and quick to adapt to his surroundings so I felt like they fit well.

Here are the feats I picked. Fulham has a masters in mf ENGINEERING so it would have felt so wrong not giving him something artificer related in some way. Fey touched was partially for the charisma boost and another partially just straight vibe pick.

Finally here's just a few of the bard features he picked up that I thought were fitting- specifically Jack of All Trades and Cutting Words.

Again I hope y'all are enjoying these as much as I enjoy making them! Please please send any suggestions for other HBG members and what would be fitting (I know I want to make silverr and poundcake at the very least but I'm struggling with what choices to make for them)

[poisonquinzell]

Just had a terrifying thought that Porter could have 360 hp and has 6 rages (if he’s a 17th-19th level barbarian) or 5 rages (if he’s a 12th-19th level barbarian) and Jace has 180ish if he’s a 20th level sorcerer. I don’t think we know each of their subclasses and Porter probably has less from the paladin multiclass but if they are all level 20 or multiclasses to 20 this is going to be a crazy hard fight. The two things I’m thinking could work though is if fig or maybe adaine could somehow convince/communicate with the rat grinders or Cassandra or Ankarna and end their rage, or if the rat grinders are a high level but can’t work together. I said it before but since we know they only really leveled up from Jace/Porter fighting monsters for them and then the rat grinders coming in a doing a killing blow it’s possible they aren’t able to work with each other the same way the bad kids can. The bad kids are so in sync with each other and are always helping each other out because they know how they fight together. I feel like the rat grinders might be a little more lost compared to them. I do feel like if they are able to save the rat grinders in a way of taking their rage away it will be at the end of the episode or maybe not even until next week which makes me so nervous. The only thing that really worries me is what Kristin said about maybe only a really good cleric could say no to the rage so what if the rat grinders literally have no way of defeating it until Porter is dead and Ankarna island Cassandra are uncorrupted…

[anonymous-dentist]

QSMP Characters’ DnD Classes

Cellbit- Half-elf Inquisitive Rogue/Pact of Order (Homebrew Federation warlock subclass)

Once upon a time he was actually a barbarian (his rage was fueled by hunger), then he shifted his levels into being an assassin rogue, and now he’s an inquisitive rogue who refuses to acknowledge his new warlock abilities. But sometimes he still feels the urge to rage

Roier- Changeling College of Whispers Bard

Haha no you’re crazy?? He’s literally a glamour bard? He definitely doesn’t have a crazy good insight score and he DEFINITELY doesn’t add 2d6 psychic damage to his weapon attacks once a turn? He absolutely doesn’t have the ability to spread dissonance and confusion and learn people’s secrets and keep his own? Definitely no secret magical shapeshifting ability that he gets from stealing people’s shadows?

Fit- Human Battle Master Fighter

This man is a variant human fighter with the skulker feat and you cannot convince me otherwise like?? Dude probably has the gladiator background straight out of 2B2T and all he does is Fight Good in his mind

Bagi- Half-elf Inquisitive Rogue

She’s an Actual Detective and she has a +3 Frying Pan signature weapon that she had custom forged the last time she was in Waterdeep, okay? She is thinking about multiclassing into wizard, though. It’d be fun!

Antoine- Great Old One Warlock

He is his own patron and he is not afraid to say this. Shame nobody believes him.

Baghera- Aarakocra Arcane Trickster Rogue/Pact of the Watcher (Homebrew Watcher warlock subclass)

She’s just a silly little guy who has acquired a depressing amount of bloodlust thanks to her new warlock patron! Technically, Cellbit should have the same patron as her, but Cucurucho always shows up at the wrong time and ruins everything!!

[sieglinde-freud]

so the way endings in awakening work is a bit off if you have the gay mod because it reads single people normally, but married people have the man’s ending read, and then his wife just. attached. and so that alters which ending you see for both of them. unfortunately, that means if i have f/f pairs, which most of them were, i dont get to see any because none of them were read. and at least with the second gen, i did almost entirely f/f pairs, which dont show up, or m/m pairs, which had nothing written, so. everyone please give it up for gerome and cynthia, the only second gen ending i got to see!

😭😭 good for them!!! anyways unorganized final thoughts under cut so i dont have to make a whole other post for it

awakening lunatic sucks! but project thabes makes it suck a little less. in all honesty i had a lot of fun, awakenings a good game to revisit, and finding a way to make it challenging while being able to use my favorite units (awakening second gen) ever was awesome. normally having all 13 (or 14 in this case, with both morgans) would break the game, but lunatic kept the enemies strong, so it didnt matter what my units had. i actually got overwhelmed a lot 😭 HUGE difficulty jump between hard and lunatic all i’m saying. and then the games like “hey now u have lunatic+ if that interests you” NOOOOO THANKS.

anyways. here are my top three guys according to the medal thingies at the end

im so proud of them :3 of all the kids really but yeah these three were huge standouts. virion actually got a change in the mod where one of his subclasses was swapped for myrmidon, so yarne got to inherit astra which was actually insane? it procced ALL THE TIME so. that was crazy. chrom!inigo and fred!cynthia are always good thats not new but they were really clutch in the last few chapters. i had them both hopping around classes for most of the game bc thabes redoes skill progression so. IT TOOK CYNTHIA SO LONG TO LEARN LUNA. ITS FROM WYVERN LORD. GOD. she went through a LOT of classes yall dont even know. also honorable mention to marc and morgan, the best rallybots ever, and dancer lucina, who was outserving everyone she was in a scene with. my girl.

like ok serving cunt on the back of the god youre about to kill? get it girl!

anyways so for second gen pairs i did: lucina/f!morgan, owain/m!morgan, inigo/laurent, yarne/brady, severa/kjelle, nah/noire, and cynthia/gerome and you know what. i think i have a great taste. a lot of these were born from being unable to do other pairings but thats ok. i liked how it turned out. though i was gonna do nah/noire anyways because they were actually like. an insane duo. honestly im surprised noire didnt get a medal thing bc i feel like her nostanking with nah backing her up got me out of so much shit. maybe its because i didnt see her ending… oh. oh wait thats probably it. well. anyways.

i think awakening is not a properly balanced game, nor are the maps made for a difficulty like this. towards the end game especially, the maps are just. flat. most of them anyways, and they just become really repetitive and bland and boring. and despite this being the game with the tactician character of all the time, they dont really allow you flexible strategies, because if youre not pair up stat stacking, you will die! and that sucks. mid game is alright, but the last arc is really weak and kinda dampered my whole experience. im glad i did it, but i wouldnt actually reccomend it to anyone unless you like to play like that (which is totally fine! its just not my thing). definitely requires some solid planning as well. all in all, not the worst fire emblem ive played but… well. im not doing it again. ok anyways heres inigo mouthing off at grima

[neoncat666]

extremely long shadows over welde character analysis post

by extremely long i mean its fucking 3k words cause I go too silly.

Spoilers up to ep 8 and its mostly rambles so apolocheese. I also posted this on my twitter so if u saw it there here's an actual text version LOL

Argentum:

Oh my god. You are soooo…… First of all, in the story we’ve gotten this. Argentum is a strong headed, curious person who is a bit stubborn and holds themself at a bit of a graceful appearance on the outside. They are smart, witty, but also a bit of a temper especially when it comes to frankly a little stupid ideas. They are also kind and care for others. We were shown from the beginning that they enjoy their work and meeting fans and even with people they just met are willing to help them stay safe. Also they’re a little dumb. Sometimes curiosity overrides rational thinking and that was shown when they touched the weird fucking webbing in the cave and also that ENTIRE plan when there was the confrontation between Vhaeraun and Lolth which was fucking actually crazy. This isn’t even beginning to talk about the head friend. I am constantly thinking about that voice and who that could be. Brings us speculation around them. Argentum is not human, or at least fully human. Their eyes are def not human and Hayden is a silly lil guy who would pull a trick like that. There was one speculation on them possibly being a Kalashtar and I think it could fit but honestly for now it hasn’t been on my forefront. I also bought the inscriptor class finally and was looking at how possibly they were built. What stats what subclass ect. I don’t fucking know.. Now you might be asking “Hey why don’t you just ask?” CAUSE IM SCARED. But honestly cause I wanted to see if I could figure it out myself lmao. It boiled down to either Mystery or Historian subclass is what Snail helped me narrow to. Could be wrong tho. There’s also little tidbits about Argentum that have come from outside the sessions like when I asked if they had a canonical birthday cause “celebrating fictional characters birthdays is cringe” “fuck you happy birthday argentum” is funny. Still honestly wanna know if any of the party has canon birthdays. I got hit with the “Oh they don’t know their own birthday.” and then swindled. There was also the discussion on Hayden’s pcs never really having parents or family and Argentum was included in that list which more or less got confirmed in session this episode (7). I still don’t know their motives, still don’t know their relationships with others because it seems everyone is connected to someone except Argentum, and I still don’t know who their patron is and if that is the same as the voice in their head. Love the silly though

Phoenix:

Fifi….. Not much was known about you until today and holy shit did it rock my world. Before we had known he was the apprentice to Ipswich and was sent in his place as guest of honor. We also then found out he was a spy working on tailing Lolth and that’s kinda all we knew about Phoenix for a bit, at least heavy lore wise. He’s a sarcastic, witty, bitch and I love him so much. I could never surpass Snail as Phoenix Enjoyer but it’s close. We learned a bit more during the nightmare drink sequence where he met his patron and got his powers fucking zapped. A couple things stood out to me from it. How his patron looked and specific wording from Phoenix. We know Ipswich isn’t mortal anymore but Phoe had said something along the lines of “I’d get my ass kicked and be right back here the next day.” He is surrounded by death or even just the undead. His patron deals in undead magic and I don’t think if Phoenix gets knocked down he wouldn’t be back again looking all fine the next day. We don’t know his patron’s name which like. Fuck. but lmao. Anyways Ipswich is tracking him like crazy and says he has this important quest although we don’t know a lot of Phoe’s thoughts and feelings on what he’s doing. To me it almost seems like he’s a tool or pawn for others and idk if I can fully call him a good person. Doing a bit of research into his pact and such it seems that he’s just going to possibly lose more and more humanity as he gets stronger but also i couldn’t tell you how much he has already. There’s also the whole cousins and throne thing that got dropped this episode. It seems his family is also involved with this whole scheme but Phoe is the favourite of the bunch. The idea that he could possibly be royalty was also thrown around and i think if he was like secret prince it would be from a large family all vying for a throne or he is working with Ipswich and others to usurp the current ruler and take the power for himself. Although knowing Fifi it’ll probably be like a secret third option. Not much except he’s so 90s movie older sister to me and the fact Ipswich runs a school for swindlers which is kinda funny.

Sunder:

Babygirl. Pookie. Love of my life who I want to kill me. God. This is now my love letter to you. I saw you across the bar and thought you were sooo scary and I’ve been enraptured ever since. Anyways that’s a freak. He’s not the most talkative and seems more lonely despite everything. They’re funny, loyal, kind, and ruthless. We didn’t get much for Sunder for a bit until mostly the shopping episode. We learned a bit through Kelly and the nightmare drink of what makes up Sunder but it didn’t really culminate until the head crushing I would say. Honestly I don’t even care I just fucking love the way Sunder is played. Like I’m sitting here trying to find words that aren’t just I think he’s neat cause I do think analyzing him is intriguing. They’re going to get angry and they’re going to get violent and you are not safe. It’s something that was so surprising at first because of how much Sunder kind of fell into the background. The nightmare drink gave us the first look at this, that Sunder had apparently killed someone, a kid even, but a lot of their violence was played off as a joke by the community, I know I did. Learned today that the person in that nightmare was Ilmater and it shows that she wasn’t lying when she said that visions and nightmares of this accident are a plague. I believe them when they say it was an accident and idk how young they were but to harbor that from a young age will fuck you up. Their morals are something that intrigues me i would say the most. No trouble in murder although I assume that’s more or less towards people who piss him off or are generally bad people. He’s kind hearted and that’s shown a lot especially with this last interaction I’d say. I still need to like rewatch a lot of parts of it but “we were just kids” genuinely fucking rocked me to my core and it got me i won’t lie. We’re still very early in but idk, I want to see Sunder truly happy and not haunted by the ghosts of their past. I feel this was most likely the first step but it’s hard to say as we go forward. I think violence and blood will always follow it’s just how they choose to take it.

The Wall:

I think now Wall is the character we know the least about, at least to me. We know his duty to Eilistraee and his duty to Zephrael and also his little foodie quirks (love him dearly) but outside of that I don’t think we know a lot. He’s the character I have the least notes for now but I do know this. He is loyal to a fault, a little dense, kind, and revels in battle and violence. I think about his nightmare and the fear of losing her and the sword then what happened to this episode. He’s had this since he was a child and then he had this dream, this trip to the beastland plane and looked Eilistraee in the eye and fought her. I believe he still loves her, cares for her, but I also think it has changed since that episode no doubt. Rewinding a bit, I think a bit about him being told he has to be pure of heart in order to wield the sword. What does pure of heart truly mean? Wall loves fighting and murder. He actively committed torture. Also he’s the bodyguard for an objectively bad man. There’s the argument of his intentions are pure although I doubt you can do a lot of what he did and have those intentions be fully pure. It’s just something I think about more than probably a normal person should teehee. Anyways the conversation he and Rae had at the beginning of this session should classify as psychological warfare cause I genuinely do not think I’m ever going to recover. I have been talking about it for weeks how they are the chosens, favored, by literal enemies and seem to have some sort of hit on them by a couple of deities now. I thought about how it might affect relationships and how Wall views them. We know he’s very loyal but I always wondered how far he would need to be pushed before that is broken. Seems like an extreme amount. His morals are probably what intrigue me the most tbh. I’d kill to know what his alignment is LMAO. Most of all I just really love the Wall because he is goofy and silly but he also isn’t a stupid brick wall that doesn’t know anything and I really enjoy seeing the times he gets to explain things. Fuck it we Wall.

Zephrael:

Okay so this will be the longest one cause I’m biased and yes Zephrael is my favourite. I always feel a little bad when it comes to that and showing that favouritism because I truly do love the entire party so much. This hit me the most when the show was just starting out and I did feel like I needed to show how much I loved each character and not just focus on Rae lol. I hope this thread can at least show that (if you even make it this far) Anyways Zephrael is a fucking freak and I love him so much. I’ve done multiple posts on him before and yeah Im gonna repeat some of it here i wont lie. Right out the gate we probably learn the most and yet the least about Rae’s past and present. He is an emissary for the reformed church of Lolth and an honored guest. He had known about Edo’s work before and talked about how it had helped with relations between the public and the reformed church. This means everything and nothing to us. But it does show that despite Rae’s… oddness, he is extremely well spoken when he wants to be and I think about that speech a lot. The next few episodes gave us some more information yet also a lot more questions. These weird pains that seem to predict disasters, the extreme phobia of spiders despite being a paladin of Lolth, and his both egotistical yet self deprecating attitude. It was fascinating to watch him because he clashed but never in a way that made him irredeemable and I’ll go more into that at the end section. A few early things I thought about a lot before the catalyst that was the nightmare drink were who the reformed church was, where did Zephrael come from, why was he chosen as this ambassador, and why he didn’t know undercommon but knew abyssal. These are still questions I have to this day LMAO. The nightmare drink vision I possibly overanalyze the most next to Phoenix’s. It stood out due to the fact that it wasn’t, bad. Rae could see again, he saw his father and best friends again, he got told he was going to learn the truth again. Why was this considered a bad thing? Everyone else experienced horrors and regrets yet Zephrael got sorrow. It jumpstarted the part aasimar Rae theory tho. Angel imagery Rae makes me clinically insane I won’t lie and his father having these large wings and bright white light did not help. There’s the big question of what he is and also how he joined the church. Hell, even how he feels about the church as well, truly at least. During one of the hiatuses fandom went crazy and Snail Snailmuds dropped out of nowhere that the runes on Rae’s body weren’t just random but fucking translated abyssal that said “PAIN CHAOS POWER” which first of all goes hard second of all what the fuck.

Theory crafting for Zephrael always feels like climbing uphill and also being constantly shot at cause every time something happens with that man it turns out to be a secret third thing going on oh mygod. Anyways I’ve discussed whether or not he was forced into this church, was kidnapped, born into it, ect because at the end of the day, he seems to very much be a tool or pawn for this church and/or Lolth. Also the whip being an artifact of Lolth or whatever they’re called again I forgot??? What the fuck dude. ALSO HIM SLEEPING IN BATHTUBS????? Grizzly has said this will make sense later but genuinely what the fuck there is something wrong with him. Moving on, revelation about the tattoos comes out and we get the torture episode. Well we get the holy shit they just killed those guys begining and then torture. First of all, I cheered louder than anyone else when Rae actually did fucking combat instead of running away and also the fact he can use his whip. Anyways dumb and dumber torture a guy and first of all the lay on hands to keep him alive during torture was insane and I hope to see it again in anything and it’s also where it’s learned that the tattoos on him were “forcibly engraved” which was honestly brushed off and a lot happened that I think most people forgot but I didn’t cause I’m crazy. Anyways moving on from THAT we get the typical Rae. Dodging questions when Argentum tries to interrogate him and also dunno if he’s just fuckin lying or not when he does actually answer them.

Episode 6 and 7 are where I think Rae slightly pivots. Not really noticeable but he feels a little more, close. It was also a change I noticed with the cast and I think that helped a lot of character dynamics as well. Rae’s stupid beef with Argentum was so fucking funny and I do think about him wanting to heal Sunder before himself after the Bulette because if he heals Sunder, how would that help him. Yes they’re his bodyguard but the monster is dead and it’s not like Sunder can heal him back. It was a decision that I think was the most different for Rae because he was shown to care deeply for Wall but not so much the others as much. He still doesn’t care for the others as much as he does The Wall but I do think he has grown a fondness or care for the others whether he wants to or not. And thats the thing, I could not tell you if he does actually wanna care for them or not. Yes they are allies and help but he seems to try and keep things at a transactional level or how much power it may bring him. He still does but like his dynamic with Argentum seems closer cause the antagonizing feels more like siblings getting on each other’s nerves rather than a growing distance. I think Sunder also displaying that brutality may have put him more into Rae’s good books too. Anyways he read a fucking book huge day. Now he has even worse mommy issues. Ep 7 killed me with hammers but that was spoken about. His relationship with Wall is something that fascinates me though. Rae is selfish, it’s not hidden at all, yet he does seem to care deeply for Wall and almost defends him more than he would defend himself. It’s nice to see for this bodyguard and his charge dynamic but ep 7 spread some light on it and I do think their bond will outlive the will of the Gods but what do I know, I’m not anyone at that table. Zephrael is rude, odd, egotistical but also masochistic and does care deeply when he wants to and you don’t see that kind of character as much I wanna say. He’s my favourite cause his weird gnc swag enraptured me thats all he is post over.

Not actually over cause there’s one last thing. These characters would not be these characters without the wonderful players behind them. Each episode brings out better and better performances that have me actually going crazy over them. I genuinely wouldve had nothing to write about if it weren’t for the fact everyone brings so much life into these characters and loves them so much that they feel so fucking real. They don’t feel flat or simple but very nuanced characters that I love to study and even be wrong about (i actually hate being wrong and every time im wrong i get so ashamed) but Argentum’s flourishes and talks to get out of situations, Phoenix’s wit and holy shit that dread form voice, Sunder during the market fight and then the softer scene with Varic, Wall’s humor and even talking about the more serious stuff, and Zephrael’s ability to balance harshness and endearing at the same time. That’s Hayden, Leizu, Juzo, Ben, and Grizzly and I genuinely cannot fucking talk about the performances enough. I’ve thought about making a post just about it but I fear I just wouldn’t be able to articulate what I wanna say enough. Then obviously it wouldn’t even be possible without the fucking amazing world building and npcs Jonah has provided. Everything is so immersive and I find myself caring for each and every npc we meet whether caring for their safety or caring too much cause I dislike them. Every npc sticks with me and I grow so attached so quickly because they feel so real in this world that also feels so fucking real. It feels like we are just peeking into another world and I actually can’t multitask when watching sow cause I get too sucked in. It’s really hard to do that and I talk about it a lot but never really publicly so I thought I would here.

Anyways for real this time post over, this ended up way longer than I thought it was gonna be so ur a real one if you read this all the way through lol. I’m off to go think about sow merch again as I wait for permission and stuff cause im crazy. See ya later

[vaporgutz]

"First Meeting"

Session 1

- Night: Outside the College -

Solares night consisted of trailing a suspicious woman. One thats been delivering letters, linked to a few mysterious disapearences. Then seeing that she's not the core problem, instead, it's a man blackmailing her into delivering the letters. After tailgating the man, through crowds, he noticed that the man eventually got switched for a mysterious entity that blocked sound from its surrounding area and moved strangely. This ended in him getting spared by said entity because it threatened to spill blood, and he found it may be best to play it safe due to not knowing what it was.

- The Library -

After all that, Solare finds himself knee-deep in the collage library to try and find what the entity he encountered was. Was it a demon of some sort? A subclass of demon, maybe... but there, he finds a shorter man, albino in skin tone, with pinkish-purple eyes and a big afro. SpongeBob on his T-Shirt. The man asks him curiously about what he's studying, and apparently, the two are researching similar topics. Demons. A short, yet slightly awkward conversation occurs as Solare isn't very much of a social butterfly with other college students, but the other man talks Solare into studying together. Maybe they can get better help out of each other than alone. They introduce. Merlin. Is his name. As Solare is walking to the help desk, though, he feels a pull towards Merlin. A familiar—magical—one, but he wasn't too sure. After sitting down, Solare decides to pursue and pry. Why exactly was Merlin in the demon's section? Merlin plays it off and says a general interest. Merlin bounces the question back, and Solare answers with a gesture to his cross, saying it was in his studies. Merlin then says something that sets off a red flag in Solare. Merlin says he's been to a church recently and claims he had an experience that was more akin to "schizophrenia" and doesn't know if he was going crazy. Solare put two and two together. Merlin in the demon's section? Couldn't be what happened. He'd be dead if a demon was there! But Solare asked if he knew the father, Baros, and Merlin confirmed, yes. He met him. With an intense gaze, Solare stared Marlin down and asked if the father was safe, for that was HIS church that Merlin was at. Tensing, Merlin confirmed he was. That's when Solare felt the pull once more, strong this time. He's been feeling it the entire time but this— it was extraordinary strong. A pull only a fellow tarot holder would have. It clicked right there: This was another Tarot Mage! Solare paused, then slowly showed his Tarot card symbol at the back of his hand with his magick. Asking Marlin if he knew what this was, and if he had one too. Merlin took a second to realize, even going as far as to compliment the "tatoo," but then the realization hit him too. The two conversed more freely then. The cat out of the bag that they were in the presence of an ally. But—Solare suggested that the public collage library wasn't the safest place to say sensitive mage information. So, they moved to the dorms, where Solare met the rest of the party. Turns out, they were all freshly awakened mages by only a week. All given Tarots by Richter. But Richter hadn't told Solare about the 4. He normally would have. Strange.

---

Note: I joined the campaign around session 7. So, everyone else was pre-established. That's why it's more of Solare 'meeting' one party member, and then getting introduced to the rest. Also, these small glimpses into the TTRPG itself will be from purely Solares POV. Since the other players are their own POV characters. And no, these blurbs won't have the whole session. Only parts. But enjoy what is provided.

[sadruru]

A quick sketch and short story on the topic “Character is the complete opposite of self”.

I was inspired by one response we have at RuPatfinderAsk. Trust me… You'll be a little surprised at some in the facts at the end. Personally, I'm pretty dumbfounded still!

The text will be written as if you were a commander yourself:

The fight is over.

Since the attack on the camp, many events have taken place. The dead crusaders have found peace, some of them you were able to save, and the monsters have been killed.

But that's not what matters now.

You've been puzzled by a strange tiefling woman. She appeared quietly and suddenly during the battle, skillfully shooting the undead. While you were looking at the woman, she didn't even pay attention to you. Whispered words came from her lips, addressed to the corpses lying on the ground.

Prayer?

Later, after the prayer, you finally aroused her interest.

The stranger began to scrutinize you closely. After a few moments of awkward pause, she lowered her bow and ordered the leopard to stand beside her.

“Put the weapon down. I know who you are and I do not desire a battle. For the moment, we share a common purpose.” The tiefling's voice was calm and confident.

No one and nothing you've ever trusted in this place. You asked who she was, what her purpose was, and how she knew you.

“It's my job. Especially since everyone has known the Knight Commander of the Crusade for a long time. I heard that a few necromancers and undead had taken up residence here, but I didn't think things were so out of line,” the woman's cold gaze seemed to pierce through you. “The cultists have made quite a mess here.”

/ Religion Check: Passed!/

Blue and white colors. Necromancers. The symbol on the amulet... There can be no mistake. The stranger sighed heavily, hearing your curiosity and insistent questioning.

"Well... Then I'll introduce myself, even though it's pointless. Melissa. Inquisitor of the Lady of Graves, Pharasma."

AU, where Melissa is a Lawful-Neutral Inquisitor Pharasma with the subclass “Sacred Huntsmaster” (I was able to keep Fluffy, it was fate). Her story turned in a completely different direction as well as her personality.Sounds really crazy, but those are the conclusions I've come to based on her alignment change.

Omg, you didn't know that our writer did on this thread with Woljif (we have people in charge of text and art separately). From what I've read, he became a Lawful-Neutral warlord (WHAT?!?!).

Now imagine my face… This sounds REALLY insane and genius at the same time! I screamed for a long time at the ultrasound.

It's very hard to imagine this… But our writer did a good job. I reread it all the time.

Now back on the path of the Trickster 🤡

[theworldbrewery]

In your opinion, would a ranged battlemaster fighter work well mechanically? I'm aware that many of the Maneuvers are for melee fighting, but I've been toying around with an idea for a crossbow or gun wielding battlemaster. Tbh the only reason that I'm concerned about the "functionality" of it is because the rest of my group minmaxes like crazy and I don't want my character to die cuz it can't keep up with the rest of the group. Not to yuck their yum or say I'm not having fun in the group! I just wanna know if this is a build that will hold up.

I am pretty much constantly thinking about Battle Master maneuver strats, so you came to the right place!

A few key points:

The only Core Rulebook maneuvers that require you to be in melee when attacking are feinting attack, lunging attack, and sweeping attack (pushing attack is in a grey area; I would rule the "pushed up to 15 feet away from you" as being up to 15 feet in a direction away from your location, not that 15 is a limiting distance from your character--but another DM might not agree).

Parry and riposte involve an enemy getting into melee with you, which is possible even if you're a ranged attacker, but not necessarily ideal.

Disarming strike, distracting strike, goading attack, menacing attack, precision attack, and trip attack are all delicious options for a ranged attacker to take. (Ambush, from TCoE, is another good choice)

Basically, you should always have *some* means of melee attack if you're going to choose this subclass, because you can't guarantee that your enemies won't move around the battlefield and Get You. But in general, focusing your skillset around ranged attacks is perfectly possible.

Battlemaster mechanics are made for manipulating your enemies' and allies' options. A disarming strike gives an ally in melee a chance to steal the enemy's weapon, for example. Other options mentioned above might give your allies' attacks advantage, put the enemies at disadvantage, or impose other conditions (frightened, prone) in addition to more standard effects like dealing extra damage or boosting your own rolls.

With that in mind -- if you have a caster-heavy party and they also enjoy these types of strategic moves, you will want to choose your maneuvers with care. Nerfing an enemy will always feel cool, but with AOE effects, they can often hit multiple enemies with their effects at the same time. Assuming you're playing with people who aren't all about hogging the spotlight, though, you can just tell them this is a mechanical role you're planning to take, and they will likely not step all over your fun.

Now, as you've noted, the Battle Master isn't built with ranged combat in mind. There is another option: the Arcane Archer. It works in a similar way; you get a limited number of special effects you can apply to your ranged attacks. These effects are explicitly magical, but they are not spells. The main caveats to this proposal are as follows:

This subclass calls for a high (or at least decent) Intelligence score, since the save DCs are calculated using that ability.

You get fewer uses per short/long rest. When you take the subclass, you get two uses of the special "arcane shot" effects per short rest, instead of the 4 you start with in Battle Master.

This is likely negotiable with the right DM, but Arcane Archer is dedicated to archers specifically -- no firearms allowed, RAW.

With that information at hand, I really do recommend reviewing the list of Arcane Shot options -- they're long, so I can't recap them all here, but they tend to work more like particularly beefy cantrips with multiple damage effects and an additional, usually single-round debuff, e.g. reduced speed, banishing an enemy for a round, or limiting the enemy's field of vision.

To me, this subclass needs some reworking (a core subclass ability shouldn't be a two-and-done, IMO), but it has a charm of its own. In many ways, these two subclasses are mirrors of one another. I just think that structurally, Battle Master is more mechanically sound -- and therefore, unless you have a homebrew-minded DM, you should probably go for that one.

(Also! If you're concerned about the so-called "caster-martial divide" or other "power creep" issues, talk with your DM about it! They ostensibly want you to have a good time and not feel left behind, so if a liberal hand with martial-oriented items you can use to offset some of those power gaps.)

[tiredflowercrown]

Ginny Gothel

More Dnd!!

Ancestry: Human

While there's a lot to play around with in terms of Mother Gothel and ancestry, I think it's more fitting to be human and Mother to just be power crazy rather than long lived.

Class: Circle of Stars Druid

Circle of Stars is a subclass that is based on constellations and what's the sun but a big star.

Truthfully when I started thinking of this idea, I immediately knew I wanted Ginny to be a druid. She would get a lot of her knowledge from her mother and earth magic would be some of the easiest to teach on the Isle because its a lot of herbs and learning what goes together. (How much of knowledge did she want to know is debatable)

Main Ability Score: Wisdom

Druids have to have Wisdom as the main score otherwise they don't function. However, that doesn't mean Ginny choses to use said Wisdom at all in her day to day life.(or at all)

Skill Proficiencys: Arcana, Perception, Medicine, Nature

I feel that all of these are self explanatory, though you could replace Medicine with Survival. (Not that she cares if she lives or dies. Though dying means she can't spend time with Harriet or Anthony anymore)

Background: Haunted One

The Haunted One background is essentially trauma with maybe a little crazy mixed in. If that doesn't describe Ginny then I don't know what does.

Feats: Poisoner and Resilient

Poisoner is a feat that is exactly how it sounds. When it comes to Healers or anyone with knowledge of nature, you learn what helps as well as what hurts. A good poison probably come as easy as breathing to Ginny.

Resilient gives her just a little extra something because she's survived this long. (Surprisingly)

Weapons: Daggers

She doesn't need to get close and probably shouldn't ether, but if she does then a poison covered dagger takes of the problem.

Armor: Studded Leather

Studded Leather is both flexible and fashionable. The two things that Ginny cares about. (Not if it protects her at all. Why should she care about that?)

That's it for what I have about Ginny!

Again if anyone wants me to go more in depth or explain, just ask!

[heehoothefool]

3 am funny thoughts again so here we go.

Hermits as DnD Classes and Races

Unlike the empires cast, I'll be doing this one based off of generalized knowledge or my favorite version of them, depends on the Hermit. Not restricted by particular seasons.

To be kind to myself, I am only doing Hermits that are active or busy with some other series like Vault Hunters (Mumbo is included here). I won't be doing former Hermits because this list is already crazy long.

Let's go

Bdubs: Light domain cleric gnome. He is a little man of the moss, and have you seen his affinity for animals? He has to be a gnome. And the whole sun thing? Yeah, dude's a light cleric.

Cubfan: This man is a wizard, illusion focus. No other class has enough hubris to build that kind of pyramid just because, and to me, what would a member of ConVex/ConCorp want more out of magic than to trick the eyes of those around them? As for race, I'd pin Cub for the Unearthed Arcana changeling, the one with Unsettling Visage. Seems like he'd get good use out of it.

Doc: Artificer, Maverick subclass. He is constantly working on new reality breaking projects that only someone like himself could pull off. As for race, I think you could do some kind of earth genasi/warforged homebrew combination that would work wonderfully for him. He would be a wild character to play for sure.

Etho: Half elf assassin rogue. Great at pvp, and very pretty, but still very down to earth.

False: Unlike her Empires counterpart, Hermit False to me reads as more of a Monster Hunter Fighter. Protecting her friends from whatever monsters may be nearby, or evil individuals with bad intentions, this class would work for her quite well. Still human for the race though.

Gem: She's only been around for 2 seasons and season 8 was very short, but she definitely seems to have a very Natural theme to her stuff, so I want to call her a circle of the moon druid. And also a faun for the race, probably forest. She is absolutely a fae of some kind and forest just fits her aesthetic so nicely.

Scar: Okay. This man is a college of glamor bard that rolled triple 6s and put that straight into charisma. He will talk you out of the clothes on your back in excahnge for a cactus. He's also 100% a changeling to match Cub, but also because it's the only way I can possibly explain the Many Faces And Forms Of Scar. However, I would say he probably also multiclasses into the Sharpshooter Fighter for his HotGuy persona.

Grian: Aaracokra for the whole avian thing with wings and all, but for his class I'm a little unsure. I'm considering Trickery domain cleric, but I think, all things considered, Great Old One Pact of the Blade warlock might be the best fit, allowing us to incorporate the Watchers as the patron, while also giving him good combat versatility. The charisma focus will be good for his shenanigans too.

Jevin: Seeing as Jevin appears to be very skilled all around, it's hard for me to place his class. With his evident skill in making highly efficient mob farms, and overall mob knowledge, I'm going to place him as a Ranger, monster hunter subclass. As for race, the Slimefolk race on the 5e Wiki seems like it would do just fine for our favorite goopy guy.

Impulse: The scale to which this man makes anything is impeccable. After his soup gang shenanigans, I wanna call this man an Oath of Vengeance Paladin, and I'm so attached to him as a dwarf I'm keeping to it. It's very him, stout little guy sticking up for everyone else.

Joe Hills: With Joe's very chaotic nature and ability to just kinda convince people to go along, I wanna call them a college of glamor bard. I have never been so confused and intrigued by an individual's goals. Also, Joe gives me just straight up fae vibes, the race you can find on the 5e Wiki.

Keralis: Look into those big eyes of his and tell me that's not a wild magic sorcerer. Brimming with charisma, that stuff is running through his veins. He would be the type to get startled and accidentally polymorph into a potted plant for a few seconds. As for race, I think human works just fine. Kinda just some guy (affectionate).

Pearl: Ah yes, the cleaning lady and epitome of go big or go home. With her penchant for keeping objects orderly and the server in a state of upside down chaos, I want to pin her as an Arcane Trickster Rogue. As for race, I think mothkin could be fun.

Rendog: That's a college of glamor bard that multiclassed into lycan order blood hunter. Keeps the whole werewolf thing around, and acknowledges the Red King, while still acknowledging that no other class than a glamor bard is going to commit that hard to a bit. Racewise his base race is probably human.

Tango: Artificer, archivist subclass to play into his role as the Decked Out Dungeon Master while still being very, very aware of his Redstone tomfoolery. As for race, Fire Genasi acknowledges the fire motifs we as a fan base often use for him while respecting his wishes to not be represented with horns by not making him a tiefling. And also fire hair is fun.

Beef: I don't know a lot about Beef but I do know that this is a very dedicated artist of a man. He gives me half elf vibes, and as for his class I wanna say some sort of charisma caster, I'm gonna go bard, College of Creation. Have you seen those maps? Those bases? This man is an artist.

XB: This guy and his underwater thing, I'm calling him a triton for fun. He seems to be very big on games and builds with story, so for this I think I want to actually make him an Illusion Wizard. Give him the stuff he needs to make things look wonderful and tell the story he wants to tell. And also to prank. I think he would enjoy it.

Xisuma: If there was ever a man more suited to play a Wild Magic Sorcerer it has to be him. The Admin with an evil doppelganger? Brother? Whatever Evil X is. X himself is your best, charismatic friend who just happened to also have the Sage Background to explain his very deep knowledge of "the world around him" (Minecraft). A changeling to explain away all of his various looks and also the fact that nobody knows what he actually looks like. Also Wild Magic funny and a good origin for a guy who is as powerful as he is for "no real reason" in lore.

Zedaph: Alchemist Artificer. Satyr. Need I say more? This is a chaotic little goat fey man who makes wacky ass contraptions. And I never stop thinking about that auto-brewer. It lives in my mind rent free at all times.

ZombieCleo: Despite the name, I don’t know that the Zombie race fits. Rather, I think Cleo could be better suited to the Wight race created by u/callmepartario over on r/UnearthedArcana. It plays into her little rivalry with Jevin, I think, that it's the need for vengeance keeping her "alive." As for her class, with her armor stand skills and penchant for head collecting, I think it would be very funny to pin her as a Necromancy Wizard. Why else would she need so many skulls? Why else would she raise so many "bodies?"

Hypno: Another Hermit I don't know much about, but I like his vibes. He gives me Assassin Rogue feelings so I'm gonna go with that, and say his race is blue dragonborn because again. Vibes.

Iskall: Oh look at them. Look at them and tell me that is not a Mastermaker Artificer wood elf. Look at the fun mix of nature and science and tell me I am incorrect I dare you. I love Iskall.

Mumbo: This, my friends, is really quite simple. Mumbo is a Maverick Artificer without a doubt, very skilled in just about all manner of Redstone contraptions. Mumbo is also a man of many projects (some of which get pushed off to the side for a while) so I think this suits him. As for race, this man strikes me as a tuxedo cat tabaxi. Idk I just like it, I think it'd be funny if Grian's bestie was a cat.

Stress: Circle of the Moon Druid she is so friend shaped oh my god. Incredibly friend shaped, incredible flower vibes, what kind of wood elf do you take her for?

Wels: Oath of Devotion Paladin. Stays true to his morals and does his best to do good, what more is there to say on that? He is incredibly human to me, love this man.

And that's all! If you have any alternative ideas go ahead and tack them on! I would love to get further input about the Hermits I'm not super familiar with, so if you disagree with something feel free to put it in the reblogs or tags or even pester my inbox! Oh my god this post took so long.

[drainbangle]

also here's your free pass to talk about god's least favorite cleric, temenos (even though i probably won't be able to see your response bc i have spoiler tags hidden </3)

send me a character

first impression: was pretty apathetic to him, would you believe it.

impression now: how did we fucking get here. i started writing longform stories again because of him. he drives me crazy bonkers, will never be the same, 8/8 would travel that octopath again.

spoilers under the cut, feel free to just read this after you finish oomf

favorite moment: "the wool dilemma". hands down one of my favorite banters in the game, i love how he uses stories to communicate his feelings because doing so bluntly is... not what he does. it's a fantastic moment for he and throné's dynamic as well, especially if you believe in the theory that they're siblings. her saying that he's the first person she's felt any familial warmth for and them just having to sit with that? fucking annihiliates me

idea for a story: i'd love to write a fic about the claudelets during the darkest night. any situation where you don't have sunlight for long periods of time (i mean... see: 2020 lockdown) affects you both physically and mentally, and while everyone else in the party is negatively affected by it, temenos and throné instead have no issue. in fact they're getting stronger. no longer needing to sleep, eat, etc, and it scares them after they know what they were created for.

unpopular opinion: writing wise, we'd be here all day if i got into it unfortunately. ig for the bit i'll say that i run warrior temenos in endgame since i prefer him as a support breaker, also he does crazy damage with rai mei's spear stacked with conjurer runes.

favorite relationship: ochette, throné, crick, and— would you believe me if i said kaldena? while i talk mostly about temenos being claude's son, that also ties in with my headcanon that he's one of the kal due to the massacre taking place exactly 30 years ago.

i have this whole au outlined where dena got him out since they were the youngest, on top of them being cousins through temenos' mother— and how she keeps in contact with him as a framework to tweak temenos' story as a whole.

one of these days i might write it, but i enjoy what i got cooking for them in the outline already.

favorite headcanon: kal/claudelet temenos my ultra fave. also because of how i run him using a dancer and/or warrior subclass using either blessing in disguise builds + specific weapons/builds, he volunteered to fight in the montwise arena after hikari and ochette realized the champion uses magic attacks— which they don't handle too well. crick's like "don't do that. what are you doing. temenos what if you get hurt—" and temenos is just fine. he won in fact

[sky-whale-creations]

Out of curiosity, how happy are you with the balancing of the Vessel? I showed it to my DM a while ago as a 'hey if I had known about this at the time I would have liked to make that my character, what do you think?' thing and he was very unsure about it due to a lack of DMing experience, and another player straight up called it overpowered. Have you found it to be like that at all?

So here’s my run down of experiences and opinions on it

1: I have played a Vessel in 3 one shots now, tweaking them a little each time

2: I have run a vessel multiclass for a player for quite some time now, her party includes a monk and rogue

3: I currently place a vessel pc with another party member, we are the only martials, and with a sorcerer, druid, and bard

From my experience, Vessel does three things very well. Its tanks damage very well and it does solid damage. The choice of subclass adds great utility with a focus, either being a face or some tricky little powers or something like that to augment them a bit with synergies and such

For the ranger/vessel I run for, we are very late in the game and is consistently touted as the tank slower than her party but with great damage. Her subclass, Dire Bloom, along with her magic items have choice have kinda given her all that she could ask for. She can defend her allies, crowd control with her subclass or spells, heal a bit, and with various ranger plant spells for bonus uses. She’s a real cornerstone for solutions and can help with anything, very well rounded. 

For the one I play, I am a Destroyer and my party member is a Dragon vessel. The sorcerer also has a 3 level dip into vessel. In this party, as the only martials, I think they stand great. They soak up attention and do well in combat, tackling problems before they hound the casters. We have been challenged plenty over time. Thematically, however, there has been some overpowering as the DM has stressed the very high side of the importance to the 3 vessels, notably the other 2 and not me lol. Our stories have a bit more sway and loose ends, not that the other characters don’t, but the baked in conflict of vessel and choosing narratively important entities has gravitated larger plot threads around them

Overall I have had good experiences with playtesting. A big issue with a lot of martials is a lack of versatility and utility. A wizard has endless options, a fighter does not. At my table and the table I sit at, we have stressed giving martials more things to do. My monk has additional ki features, my rogue has a homebrew system someone made called debilitates to spend sneak attack dice on special effects. In a party with just the 2 vessel martial characters, I have not felt anything out of the norm

But that is not what happens at all tables. Some tables make no concessions to martials and like them as they are. And that’s ok! My friends and I have just customized our game a lil with options for them. So mechanically this could pose a problem for your say, champion fighter and berserker barbarian, as a vessel can easily fill those roles and have tools to be something besides a sack of hit points

On the topic of being overpowered in general though, that’s fair, there are some places that could use fine tuning and I have gradually over time. But there will always be slightly unbalanced things

If you introduced the barbarian for the first time, people would call rage overpowered. If you introduced paladin auras and smites, people would call them overpowered. Same for rogue and monk evasion, just avoiding all dex damage on a success. Same if you suddenly introduced spells, especially the crazy 7th, 8th, and 9th level spells

Classes get plenty of defining and strong abilities, for sure, and that is a very fair concern

I’m so glad that you want to play the class! Your friends are not without good reasoning and I think your GM is beyond fair to be unsure of running a homebrew class. It sounds a bit weird to say, but as a person who has been playing for years, I think it would be the best to save your GM the worry and allow them to learn the vibe and flow of the game themselves before introducing something entirely new to the game

I hope this helps! <3