#not really. i dont have that much spellcasting ability

[diseasefork]

its my personal belief that don CANNOT handle someone being taller than him (let alone doom) which is what inspired this piece

plus other doodles

[basil-does-arttt]

Do you think a spellcaster character could work in DMC games? I'm not talking about a summoner like V, but your typical elemental or energy blasting mage.

Hmm, im not sure. Maybe someone else could find a way to make it work, but personally i dont see it working for a main protagonist's gameplay.

The whole point of DMC's gameplay is to build cool combos using your carious weapon types after all, which naturally lends itself to more melee/hand-to-hand based combat. Its easier to keep up your combos that way and by proxy your style ranking. Generally, your guns (and vergil's summon swords) are used as filler in-between weapon attacks to keep the flow of combat when you dont have a chance to use melee. They're a supporting mechanic, basically, not intended to be used as your main attack even though you can if you want, only at the cost of damage output and style rank.

With spell-casters, they tend to lean more on the ranged-attacks side of things, In my experience at least. This ties into the issue mentioned above. Theres not really much opportunity to get in close and build a cool combo like that, and thats not even considering the possibility of spell cooldowns, charges, or like an energy gauge needed to cast said spells in the first place. (Which, if a spellcaster were to be introduced into DMC i dont think there'd be spell cooldowns or spell slots or whatever. Maybe an energy gauge for big finisher moves kinda like JCE with Vergil, but nothing to limit how much/often you can attack and what you can attack with, thats defeats the whole purpose of DMC as a game.)

I guess if the spells were being used to create magical weapons it could work... but that also kind of defeats the purpose of a spell-caster anyways so-

Story wise, however, i can see how it could work into the lore surrounding demons and the underworld quite well. Maybe theyre a sorcerer born from demonic heritage and an inate ability to harness demonic magic. Maybe they're a wizard, someone who's studied the realm of demons their entire life or even an apprentice attempting to harness the power of the underworld for better or for worse. Maybe they're just some Average Dude who finds themself suddenly able to use and work with demonic magic, having never been able to prior. Who knows.

Thats my take on it. Like i said, maybe someone else can find a way to make a spell-caster work with DMC's gameplay style, but i myself cant really. Apologies if thats not what you were hoping to get out of this ask oof :'D

[rui-drawsbox]

Okay obligatory DnD person as per the Dungon Meshi post(dnd/fantasy au + our life is amazing and I love it) but also I just wanted to say that there is a subclass of elves in dnd called aquatic elves that are kind of a happy mix between a mermaid and a, well, normal elf. I stick more towards spooky rather than nautical campaigns myself, so I’m not too familiar, but if I remember correctly they’re amphibious but with two legs rather than full mermaid.

Also obviously please ignore if you have different ideas but based off of what people have written about battle roles I could absolutely see some subclasses for the four!

Derek I could absolutely see as a Paladin(subclass possibly being oath of devotion or glory) basically the more defensive tank guys bound by an oath they make to themselves or someone important to them, which gives them a little spellcasting as well as actual auras that buff their allies later on.

Baxter I could see being a Bard (College of Swords), or what I kind of think of as a sort of battledancer. It would be a little less of a full spellcaster, but you can do special flourishes when fighting with a rapier which I always imagine as pseudo-dancing, plus he’d still get all the flashy bard spells. And to top it off, Bards actually use their charm(charisma stat) to cast spells which just screams Baxter to me.

Cove is a little harder but if you were going with him having a fish/animal companion while still being a melee fighter a Ranger(Beastmaster or Swarmkeeper) would be a good fit IMO, obviously with the Cove Creater he’s harder to pin than Baxter or Derek, but Ranger is pretty flexible. You basically get to choose a companion that’s from the land, air, or sea; and they can help you out in battle and follow you around, or as Swarmkeeper he could have his swarm be a school of fish.

Ruri is obviously a bit harder because you know your OC best, but if you really wanted to lean into more into the familiar/animal buddy route. Druid(circle of the shepherd) is always a fun choice! It’s kind of like the more spellcaster version of rangers’ Swarmkeeper where you can summon a lot of critters while still having some super strong elemental spells.

But anyway! I hope this wasn’t too long, I saw some (kinda) DnD our life content and I couldn’t resist! But thank you again for the adorable art of the main boys(and your lovely OC!) in a fantasy setting!

Second ask from dnd anon:

Oh! DnD anon part two!

But basically the theoretical party composition would look like:

Derek = Tank/Damage

Cove = Weapon Damage/Companion(s)

Baxter = Spells/Weapon Damage

and Ruri = Healing/Spells.

Also one last note about Druid is while druids have a lot of elemental spells (create water, spike growth, etc.), they also have the ability to do something called wildshape, where they can shapeshift into an animal for either out of battle(wildshape into a mouse to get under the crack in a door, then returning to normal and unlocking it) or battle (at later levels imagine fighting a spellcasting bear or even dragon) but also has more silly implications like wild shaping into a songbird to sing with Baxter, or a cat or sloth to ride on Cove’s shoulder.

got these asks a few days ago but i let them marinate in my brain hope you dont mind anon KJDSAUH

anyways AQUATIC ELF THATS PERFECT i tried to stick to what i knew about dumenshi rules in that post but for my first fantasy AU ideas i was going to do Cove a half mermaid (Cliff human x mermaid Kyra or elf Kyra [shes just so pretty its insane] x mermaid Cliff) that lived in a house right on the beach lmao, im happy that actually makes sense somewhere in dnd

i tried to look at the aquatic elves wiki from the forgotten realms fandom and omg so much text in the main page

also paladin Derek canon‼‼ imagine he does his oath to his brothers right after something dangerous happens to them when they were kids (im not saying his parents should die but im not saying they shouldnt--)

and bam!! tragic backstory 10x worse than his canon that is already bad enough :DD (try to make him feel less responsable now i wanna see that)

baxter turn rn. DO YOU THINK HE WOULD PLAY VIOLIN? I WANNA SEE THAT (<-this person didnt thought about drawing him with an instrument until it was time to write her thoughts) anyway it would def be a fancy instrument, daddy and mommy wanted to keep appearances i bet

one his spells makes his sword and moves shine and when hes under the sun his enemies become fucking blind

everything about him screams I HAVE MONEY but everytime people try to rob him he just rolls a nat20 in persuasion and they end up giving him money

and omg just imagine Cove's school of fish are all his pet fishes from the game JGASDFJK

im also. not discussing roles when the most i know about dnd is bg3 and i just finished 2 playthroughs. if you say ruri is a druid she's a druid, she makes super artsy flower fields and decorates every tree she sees with organical paint or smth jkfhds

Ruri's forest has a tree that connects with the ocean and they both just hangout sometimes (as if theyre not together 60% of the time already)

DRUID RURI THAT LIKES TO BRAID COVE'S HAIR WITH LITTLE POPPIES‼‼‼

MERMAID COVE THAT LETS RURI (otter form!!) RIDE HIS BACK WHILE HE SWIMS‼‼‼‼

mermaid cove humming a song and ruri falling to the river in trance/j

anyways anon i agree with everything tbh, there's so many ways to do a fantasy AU and i adore the dnd version (id kill for a dnd group or smth in my city)

i also have another fantasy au more vanilla but not-really. basically isekai baxter LMAO mostly an excuse to make ruri and baxter being domestic but before baxter developed any real domestic skill JHASFD

[thebramblewood]

hi Shannon! I'm on my second read through of hzid and can I just gush a moment? I'm gonna gush

God, your storytelling abilities are masterful. I am utterly enamored by the way you have balanced so many aspects of this story. I know it's probably not many people's favorite part, but I do very much adore the slice of life aspects of the early story, I remember literally crying the second time I read Ulrike and Helena's breakup AAAAA. Complicated yuri.....anyway , I also love how many emotions I can feel about these characters. Caleb, Lilith, and Helena are all so utterly complex and there's moments, especially with miss Serial killer vampiress over here cough cough, where I adore them and I utterly hate them, which in my opinion is always a mark of good storytelling. That isn't to say that I think the side characters have any less importance. I'm obsessed with Ulrike, Julia, Grace, and so many others. Though, if I had to chose just a few of my favorite parts so far in my read through, id have to save the early parts with Caleb and Lilith and their ever going back and forth as well as Calebs trip to the magic realm. Im going to be honest, i dont usually care for cagyn but god they both fuck me up in this story so badly that ive come to enjoy the ship much more now. JUST! UGH! I LOVE THIS STORY IT'S MY CURRENT HYPERFIXATION. Hope this wasn't too weird and long, have a great day :)

Thank you for this! I really appreciate how deeply some of you engage with the story. Second reading?!? I can't believe it! 😱 I suppose it just goes to show that all my past creative writing experience was actually useful because sometimes I surprise even myself with how well certain elements fit when I didn't even think of them until partway through. I second guess the pacing all the time, so it's nice to know it doesn't bother others! Anyway, thank you for pointing out those specific moments. I was so hyped on that first Vatore Manor scene. It felt like such a meaningful vibe shift. And I loved using the Magic Realm so much! I want to bring the spellcasters back. I just have to find the best way to do it!

[adacatlovelace]

Some Morrowind thoughts now that I've gotten around to playing it

I love the dichotomy of Early Game being somewhat difficult vs becoming a god of this world shaping it to your whims. It really gives you an appreciation for when you manage to break the game becuase it doesn't just feel like making an already manageable game even easier but instead meeting that challenge the game presents you in a way that makes you feel clever. Like the game straight up feels FUCKING AWFUL until you get your stats up so you actually FEEL the difference from going from slow running and jump basically being useless to VVardenfell's fastest boy who can leap over buildings in a single bound

Speaking of breaking the game, there are an incredible amounts of ways to do so and there are PLENTY of options. Wanna raise your intellect to 60x the stat cap? You can by stacking potions. Wanna make even stronger potions? Well INT affects potion strength and there are potions that raise int. Put two and two together. Low on health/stamina/magicka? Press T as long as you aren't in a town or near enemies and save the potions for combat.

I am incredibly sad what happened to the Alteration school in later entries. Alteration let you influence the world around you including your own body. Open locks, shield yourself, lighten your carryweight, make someone elses carryweight heavier, Water Breathing, becoming jesus and walking on water, levitate, use telekinesis to increase your interaction distance (which is really helpful if you wanna grab something from a position where you are hidden and increase your jump height to ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS AMOUNTS, which combined with a high acrobatics to substantially lessen fall damage makes for the most fun way to traverse and even makes navigating Vivec City much more fun. In Skyrim however, its the most boring class of magic in the game. Yeah paralyze is really funny to cast on people, but A. Telekinesis is basically just the gravity gun from half life and rendered almost completely useless by the ability to just move things around B. Transmute is... neat I guess and can be really useful for leveling smithing but its really tedious if you have a lot of ore to transmute C. Equilibrium is great for leveling restoration but not much else since theres not a lot of situations where it would be good to trade some health for emergency mana (Its a shame its not in Oblivion as it would be a GODSEND for those born under the Atronach sign who don't regen magicka naturally) D. I can kind of see what they were going for with Oak/Stone/Iron/Ebony/Dragonflesh to give a defensive option to those who perfer wearing robes over armor but "Activate ability to temporarily receive less damage" never really feels particularly fun or interesting

Speaking of magic, it really does feel like a core part of the game and I dont think NEARLY the amount of fun I did playing Morrowind if I avoided it

Enchanting is amazing system in Morrowind. Activated Effects, Constant Effects, effects on hit allows for SO much creativity without interfering with spellcasting. After all, why ever cast levitation if you can make a ring with a constant effect of levitation you can pop on and off whenever? The answer is that it is FUCKING EXPENSIVE to have an enchanter make you one or EXTREMELY risky to make it yourself. This sounds like a bad thing but really either A. It provides a valuable money sink so you're never just hoarding a shitton of gold with nothing substantial to spend it on or B. You figure out how to substantially shift the odds in your favor. I really cannot stress how much a GOOD money sink that has substantial rewards in return really adds to keeping the player engaged. Theres doing quests and exploration for their own sake and theres doing quests and exploration while keeping in the back of your mind that there is an 80,000 gold enchantment you are slowly working for so you ALWAYS want to come out of dungeons with as much loot as possible

Spellcrafting fills a similar role, except its for your magic stats rather than your gold. You can make superpowerful spells but you need a superpowerful amount of magicka to actually cast them. This works IN TANDEM with the enchanting system as it can be a great way to boost your stats high enough to cast "Angry Ron's Penile Explosion" (Thank you for letting me name my spells)

Alchemy is kind of tedious (Which thankfully got better in Oblivion and Skyrim, UI-wise) but offers a great way to both make money and temporarily boost your stats, as well as keeping you alive. I also like the little bit of flavor of restore fatigue ingredients usually just being various foods

I've heard mixed things about the fatigue system in general but as much as I hated it early game I sort of grew to enjoy it. I've never really enjoyed "survival" type mods where you have to eat drink and sleep but I feel like the fatigue system is a really good balance between that and just normal regenerating stamina. Rather than outright say "you need to perform bodily functions regularly or suffer for it" It gives you an organic push to take a short rest between large encounters or keep a couple restore fatigue potions on you or maybe take things slowly and walk through the dungeon instead of sprinting everywhere or maybe dont jump unless you need to, all with just a little green bar that says "This is how effective you'll be at everything you do"

The "Fast travel" system is also a GREAT way of getting around thats a good middle ground between "Travel to any location on the map" and the tedium that is walking across the map and back several times over to beat a single quest. By having multiple types of travel, each with their own places they can go, it adds that small amount of required planning in quickly traveling from Point A to Point B to keep it engaging. Stilt striders can take you to landlocked towns while boats can take you to just about any town reachable by water. The mages guild will teleport you to other locations of the mages guild. Bigger cities will have more travel options while smaller towns will have few, if any. Even then you have the two intervention spells which will take you to either the nearest Imperial Cult or Temple which you can CHAIN together. Wanna reach ebonheart extremely quickly? Travel by silt strider, boat or mage guild to vivec, cast Alsimi intervention to teleport to the south end of vivec then divine intervention and BOOM. You're in ebonheart. On TOP of all these options you also have Mark and Recall. Mark will set a place and recall will take you there, which is great for both a quick option to get to your player home OR back to the area you need to return to multiple times over the course of a questline (Looking at you Morag Tong)

10. One of the first NPCs you meet is Caius Casodes. He is a high ranking member of a secret organization of spies for Uriel Septim VII called the Blades and he acts as your sort of handler for most of the main questline. He is a shirtless man in a dingy apartment, he LOVES moon sugar and skooma and basically tells you to fuck off and do the whole "open world" thing for a while multiple times to "give him time to think" which Im pretty sure just means getting blasted. 10/10 character I love him

11. Ahnassi is just a gem. Shes friendly, gives good advice and leads (As well as a discount for the best acrobatics trainer in the game) She has a former partner who's got a skooma addiction who you help and its all very sweet. As you go out of your way to perform various acts of kindness her gratitude PALPABLE and will literally offer you the clothes off her back. Just such a kind, lovable character that makes you GENUINELY wanna help her and give her gifts.

12. I dont really like Crassius Curio (part of it is just the stank of 2003-era homophobia as a character) or anyone who uses their position of power to leverage political favors in exchange for sexual/romatic favors but it is REALLY funny that he actually is the one that wrote The Lusty Argonian Maid and the guy in it is named "Crantius Colto"

Overall Thoughts: Great Game, highly recommend if you dont mind a lot of reading and a steep learning curve that suddenly plummets downward as you obtain godlike power

[discountskeppy]

some funnies to get my brain going about how different spellcaster items work in my little wizard college world... under the cut is my insane ramblings that prolly wont be very true even once its not one a.m. ask for clarification tho if u want on smthn . gnaws

orbs are like, well if youre reading this you read the text, they can conjure images and pretty much like. just makes stuff happen in the mind. theres different applications for it, its like major to major obviously like my art guy darnius uses it for inspiration and stuff, while there can be like a prophecy class that uses it to . do prophecy. and maybe it can work like a computer basically if youre good enough at prophecy, you can just ask the orb all things and its just right.

wands are, yknow, wands. in this universe wizards (saying wizards for simplicity, i guess its just a general magic college so maybe there are mages and warlocks but like. its wizard college) can use their hands for spells too i imagine its a big debate within wizard circles "wands are such beginner magic shit, anyone whos born a wizard just uses their hands" "there are many benefits to a wand actually? research shows they are about 40% more precise so". as it suggests warlocks dont really use wands, like obviously laziso finds a way but they just all find staffs (dunno why i said sceptre? lol wrong word past b-no) much better and cooler to use

speaking of! magic is usually inherited thru birth, everyone is capable of learning magic but its just something they sort of have to like, unlock in themselves. and sometimes you can have a spellcaster parent and also have to unlock your magic, like laziso did! him learning hes like a warlock is a huge thing dude its like. his arc. anyway yeah thats how magic works

and tomes. tomes are the textbooks yeah ive decided. they have the ability now to like mass produce these ancient tomes to study its kinda fucked up. however spellbooks are a different thing ive decided. spellbooks are like, imagine someones like fuckin glittery gel pen notebook. thats a spellbook pretty much like its honestly wonderful. some normal ass college rule composition notebook is someones spellbook here its nuts. wum forever go. whatever there mascot is im tired

[vyrim]

Im semi excited for the full Balders Gate 3 release in a month. I have no issue with the divinity style even if some aspects of it, such as the little amount of interesting stuff that comes from leveling up, arent the most exciting. My major concern is the performance side of things. First couple of hours I was fine, able to explore the beginning of the area with a constant 60 fps. Then it just kept dipping and dipping as I played, until I basically got to the end of the ea content barely able to keep a stable 30. With that teaser video they did of the actual Balders Gate city supposedly being massive and detailed, im worried that my computer wont be able to run it at all, let alone at a non eye straining frame rate. We'll see though I guess.

Minor complaints underneath

TLDR: Wish this game looked shittier but played better. I couldnt give two shits how realistic the models or environment if it was just really well tuned. Probably gonna be one of those "Devs bit off more than they could chew" situations that Ill end up getting angry at around the second half, finish, and never play again.

-Ive always hated the spellcasting system of most tabletops. Cast a spell and its gone, if it missed or failed then sucks to be you. Its not a fun idea, and I wish most of the spells were simply made weaker or placed on a cooldown rather than limited. That was what was cool about divinity, if you figured out some really cool combos then you wouldnt have to resort to resting every couple fights just to use them again. Sucks, especially since most stuff is subject to roll rng, so your big lv 3 spellslot ability means nothing cause dipshit beat the dc by chance. Even worse when alot of spells are channeled, so if your character gets hit even once and then proceeds to fail the concentration check the spell fizzles out. Lame shit.

-THE CAMERA. The camera is atrocious, and I dont know what they did differently compared to Divinity 2, but it is a nightmare to control. If you pan too far from your character theres this, like, invisible leash that sudden kills any further movement. It also hates and form of horizontal movement, which means if your character is really high up it wont go down, and if youre trying to look up a cliff it'll just rub the wall.

-The cast is underwhelming. You have a githyanki which is neat, but otherwise its literally two human guys, a half elf, and a vampire elf. Theres not a single dwarf, halfing, gnome, or even a tiefling in the party, which is super lame. They could have easily had a dwarf with the weird magical item hunger problem, or a tiefling vampire wouldve been funny as hell.

-While the variety of extra actions are cool (I cant count how many people Ive killed by shoving them off cliffs or into lava) but theyre really clunky. The environment has so much detail that shoving or shooting in a direction is at massive risk of being just caught on some stray rock or pillar.

-The AI for npcs is still as dumb as it used to be, had a slave get mad at me for shoving its captor into lava. Guys that have never pathed will suddenly turn around out of the blue, even had one person just t-pose and vanish.

-Most of the magical equipment I got wasnt very interesting. Even the adamantite stuff I got after the big fight in the forge was just a debuff on hit. I want silly shit, I want game breaking shit, I want more stuff like those weird tentacle grenades that pull people in.

-Very buggy, and with how big theyre saying the game is gonna be I dont think its any better on release, probably worse actually. I wouldnt have such issues with it if reloading the game didnt take thirty years to complete. Poor Shadowheart made a jump only to glitch out and plummet several stories mid way.

[conjoinedpubes]

Adventures of Solis - Chapter 11: Ultimate Showdown(s)

Adventures of Solis - Chapter Index Written between RL 102 +20 and 131 +25 End-game and optional bosses

Malenia, Blade of Miquella - A patience battle about choosing openings. Pretty much the opposite of Fire Giant, in that bursting with weapon arts over main moveset is the winning play.

Solis has quite poor damage and so you cannot win damage trades with her.

Projectile dodge means that most spells should not be used.

Many of the lunge/thrust weapon arts do not have hyper armour or good aim. Malenia's 'common' attacks often have side-movement and are fast - trying to aggresively swing into her will almost always fail to due to above.

On the flip side, 2 uses of Glintblade Phalanx will completely break her stance in neutral state. Do note that Malenia has hyper armour during any of her moves - if the Glintblades hit her mid swing; they will not count. Additionally, the blades can miss due to terrain.

In general...

Only use your 'all-in' moves (main-hand weapon art, Glintblades etc.) after she commits to a big lunge/grabs.

This is the one fight where you should actually count the enemy poise. Hits against her mid-action will not count toward stance break.

Balance your spacing from her. Malenia's crit window is small, so dont stand too far. On the flip side, Solis is stamina intensive - so you don't want to be too close and with no stam - incase of Waterfowl etc.

Her spell dodge reacts when a skill is used, and not when it fires at her. You can use Glintblades to 'bait' an empty action out of her.

Dragonlord Placidusax - Another 'wall fight', huge hp with elemental and status resist. Similar to Fire Giant in that spells will barely harm it, just slowly and methodically chip with a weapon.

Placidusax can be stance broken quite easily, and the crit window is *very generous* - that said, the boss has such high magic resist that criticals dont even deal that much damage.

Gideon Ofnir - cant really 'out-mage' this guy, just draw your weapon of choice and beat him down.

Godfrey - Another surprise pushover fight. Then again - Godfrey is the ultimate 'bigger than average dude'. Here, I adopted the same approach as Morgott - and despite slipping up many, many times, he still fell over easily.

IMO, just throw anything at him - it just works

Radagon - Similar to Malenia; trim down your moveset. Radagon has a very aggresive spell parry and moves in a 'slippery' manner, none of our spells are good here - save for Glintblade.

In general, prepare Glintblades and run away from him until you see his hand drop back to a neutral pose before you engage.

Most of his moves are easier to roll forward/through as opposed to away.

Dismounter moveset is very good here - wide sweeps + momentum to keep hits going after you roll through his moves.

Elden Beast - The Dismounter + Glintstone Pebble 2 part combo is your main damage move here. Spam Glintblades and swiftshard to chip poise.

The critical window is *very generous* on this boss. You can easily Glintstone Pebble combo and still have time to draw your dagger and crit.

Magic weapon infusion is an option due to status immunity. Basically - Frost in you want to burst Radagon. Magic for better damage vs Elden Beast.

Mohg, Lord of Blood - 2 main points - watch your distance, roll through not away.

Mohg's attack range/timings are very good at catching mid spellcast. You have to simply feel out the range at which various spells are safe to use at.

In phase 1, his 'countdown' ability is the biggest window for casting

You can switch back to Flamberge + Impaling Thrust. The bleed status and fast thrust are advantaged here.

As per usual - remember to Swiftshard chip.

Mohg is very tough in poise and hp, we dont have any means of burst damage - this will be a slow brawl.

Adventures of Solis

Chapter Index

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[mono-red-menace]

i also really like how healing spells are approached between the two classes, specifically how the wizard has no access to it. it's another thing which, mechanically, i enjoyed.

i think, in my setting, a wizard doesn't necessarily have an incapability to approach healing, but rather that healing is such a difficult thing for them to approach, as their approach to magic and how they source it is extremely contrary to the nature of healing magic, but i dont think it's impossible for them, but honestly potentially dangerous to practice.

but i think, in my setting, that wizards can heal, but it requires such a like, specific dedication to the craft of healing that it becomes difficult for them to find the ability to practice anything else to the same level, and maybe there is a little elitism in many of the college settings of it, that it's a simple craft that any spellcaster can do (which is true, in a way), that the reason it's difficult for them is because their approach to magic inherently draws more power from the source, and it is a waste of magical power to dedicate so much to perform a task that can easily be done by even the least practiced druids or priests, or replaced with potions, which is considered a far more refined and flexible art in college circles.

so i think wizards who can heal would be rare, especially from college backgrounds, but like, practitioners of hedge wizardry- as in the self-taught wizards, or the wizards who were taught folk-wizardry, the ones that can often particularly blur the lines of the 4 magical arts- are wizards that can heal as well, because it is a magical art that would be most often required of a hedge wizard, seeing as the others in the town would often ask of you to cure their ailments if you were one to cast magic, and some ailments might be beyond the simple potions you could craft with your local ingredients.

i was thinking of the capabilities of the different types of magic in my setting, and i wanted druids and wizards to both do more "physical" magic.

and i wanted a big comparison point, mechanically, between the two spellcasting types to be how they approach their physical spells, as in my setting, wizardry and druidry are both "physical" magics, as in magics which draw upon or influence the physical world, as compared to priestcraft or witchcraft, which are magics that draw upon or influence the metaphysical.

so like, when i was considering how a druid would cast fire spells, or lightning spells, or ice spells, or anything like that, it came into my mind that druids are manipulating nature, basically using their magic to call upon the aid of nature to produce effects. so a druid wouldn't convert their magic into a ball of fire to blast their enemies, it would be more in line for them to create a small spark and call upon the land to take the spark to convert it to a wall of flame. or a druid doesn't create lightning from their fingers to launch at their enemies, they call forth a storm to do it for them.

and wizards are the reverse- a wizard doesn't ask anything of nature, they enforce their will. their magic is channeled directly into their desired effect. when a wizard creates a flame, they draw the fire from the well they draw their magic from, then conjure that into the world. if a wizard creates a wall of fire, they don't ask the land to carry the flame, they create the fire themself. when a wizard wants to use lightning, they don't call for a storm, they convert their energy to lightning and direct it themselves.

anyways, then i realised that a similar thing is done in dnd, when i was looking at the spell lists in pathfinder. i saw spells like fireball and lightning bolt and cone of cold on the druid spell list and was instantly hit with a "this isn't right- this isn't how a druid casts spells." and at first i was like "well duh, that's because that's not how they cast them in Aletan," but when i went back to dnd and was looking at the spell lists, i realised that that's not how they cast them in faerun either.

and i kinda really appreciate that little bit from dnd now. there's plenty of things i dislike from dnd, but the distinction in elemental spells between druids and wizards is a really neat.

[adolin-is-best-boy]

okay ima put down a list of characters and the vague ideas i have for their powers in my au and y’all are gonna help me come up with their powers, okay?! help me please! (/nf)

also if you don’t know what the tell im talking about with classifications (ex. Bloodline, Boon, Magic Item, Melodic) don’t worry about it! it’s really just what the magic actually DOES that i can’t figure out.

but if you want to learn more, check this post on my magic system, and if you have any other questions you can ask me or check the “scattered fantasy aa au” tag :)

———

Franziska - I want her to have Bloodline magic, preferably something in the “”evil”” vein of magic, like a vampire or demon (NOT a Succubus). keep in mind that Manfred will also have a similar powerset. 

Susato - probably Spellcasting. of course she can cast all spells, but what kind of thing would she specialize in? the group already has a healer and people that can constitute a more front-liner role, but i can’t see her being exclusivley a ranged caster, since shes good at hand-to-hand combat.

Kazuma - Bloodline but also Magic Item. Karuma is gonna be a magic item ofc, but he doesnt actually have it for most of the story. I want him to have swordy magic but i cant think of what exactly he can do, and also what he can’t do without Karuma.

Clay - probably a Boon of sorts, and maybe a Magic Item too. i wanna have it be related to gravity/planets/space/science, and if he uses his intelligence he can be super powerful. 

Trucy - Gramarye Bloodline (duh) and maybe also some Melodic magic from her mother. She’s gonna be the “average” gramarye, so i gotta have it be good but also match her specifically. Bloodline magic naturally is slightly different between each person in it, but most of the things gotta be the same. Definetly want something to with the ‘focus’ ability they have and make it creepy and shit, but also other fun stuff.

Apollo - Bloodline(x2), Magic Item, Melodic. okay yeah he’s clearly my favorite character, but i dont wanna make him super powerful. i’m thinking his bracelet enhances and builds on some of his natural abilities, but completely dampens most of his others. Like, his whole thing is gonna be creepy focus ability with bleeding eyes and shit, but i dont know what it can actually DO. He has an extremely high Melodic potential bc of his parents and his crush, but he doesnt realize it (and even when he does he doesnt care that much). 

Athena - maybe Boon or Bloodline? Maybe a Magic Item too? and maybe something to do with electronics/electricity? Oh but she *is* somewhat attuned to Melodic magic bc of her hearing. Other than that i have no idea. 

Ron DeLite - no idea on classification on this one. little ideas on actual powers. the group he’s in is already has alot of extremely flashy/loud magic, but i cant decide if i want his powers to be more flashy or more quiet. Maybe he can do both? Maybe he can fuck with sound? illusions?? idk.

———

okey that’s all i got for now, but be sure that there will be more to come! if you have any ideas, even if they’re small or you think they’re stupid, i wanna hear them!! literally anything can give me ideas and it makes me very happy :)

[stayatsam]

hey so my friends n i are going to start a new campaign soon and i really wanted to play a warlock after hearing you talk about them. do you,,maybe have any tips for playing them?

this is going to be... very long bc im SOOO into warlocks so it’s under a cut LOL they’re a really complicated class but you can do literally anything with them imo!! so fun

i’ve actually been meaning to make a like “Guide to the warlock” thing for a while and this could be like the outline of it LOL i hope this helps! 

Story and Roleplay

Warlocks are INCREDIBLY customizable. Your patron can be just about any powerful being in the universe. If you want to throw fireballs and have a character with severe edgy internal strife at the same time the Fiend patron is great.

Or if you want to be like a wizard and be a scholar but are interested in like, eldritch abominations than the Great Old One is for you, or maybe the Seeker. i love thinking about the relationships between my characters and their patrons. my first warlocks patron was the arch devil Belial, who acted as an invisible surrogate father to him as a child, manipulating him to corruption to hurt others. but they had an interesting father son dynamic! Chat with ur DM about your relationship 

My second warlock was the with a Hexblade. hexblade is the way to go if you’re interested in dueling like a fighter. your patron is a sentient weapon!!! my warlock Gatz felt his family’s heirloom axe speak to him and give him the power to kill his abuser, and it became an aspect of the ideal of vengeance!

i feel like warlocks have one of the best potentials at some serious role playing. you’re providing essentially a possible powerful NPC that your DM can use to move the story forward if you’re stuck. also, even if they have a reputation as being the tormented edgy ones. they can provide a lot of insight into magical motivations. clerics get their magic from faith and wizards study and sorcerers just have it. But warlocks consciously interact with a living creature that personally (unless u take Great old one or how you flavor other patrons) that saw something in your character that made them gift you amazing powers. and also, warlock powers aren’t necessarily taken away easily even if you break your pact, they’re yours to keep.

Mechanics and Build

in terms of raw mechanics, warlocks are pretty difficult to play your first time. but honestly, eldritch blast + agonizing blast are so amazing that you’ll really never have to worry about your damage output

starting with warlock you have to basically throw out everything that other spell casters do. you’re basically a half caster but with all the power of a full caster. EB will probably be your go to attack if you are out of options (unless youre hexblade)

Spells

take eldritch blast!

warlocks, for the most part, will only have 2 spell slots. it sounds daunting but definitely talk with your DM about taking short rests. it’s something they might neglect but Warlocks are short-rest characters, just like fighters. every short rest you get both your spell slots back. 

also, your spell slots are ALWAYS cast at the highest possible level. you only have two spell slots but if youre a level 9 warlock, your fireball will always be cast at level 5. not to mention you recharge on a short rest, so say you take three short rests a day you’re getting 6 of your highest level spell slots. use your spells wisely! Pick out whatever you want! it’s very difficult to go wrong with warlock spells. for example, my first warlock had the fiend patron so i took fire spells, but i also took some sneaky spells like dimension door

also, warlocks get an expanded spell list. if you want to do a bit of healing, you can go with the celestial patron!

Pact Boon

Your pact boon is really a fun part of the class. 

Pact of the Tome is if you’re big into ritual casting and want some extra spells. you’re kind of like a ritual wizard. if you take book of ancient secrets, you can add ritual spells to your book that you find on an adventure! and a bunch of cantrips from any class. i played two tomelocks and they were fun, my first one was like a scholar of all things infernal

Pact of the Blade can help you get some melee damage in there if you really want. It’s honestly really weak and almost no one chooses it because eldritch blast will almost always be better than your pact weapon. If you want to play the Hexblade patron line, then absolutely take this! Hexblade warlocks with pact of the blade are incredibly powerful, especially with some invocations. my hexblade warlock was a force of nature in a fight, with both some slick spellcasting and some really hard melee attacks.

Pact of the Chain

This is the only pact boon i haven’t played, but I have a build for it as my next character for something. Pact of the chain gives you a beefed up familiar. the Imp is the most powerful but they’re all pretty good and you can reflavor the imp if you’re not playing a fiendlock. 

With certain invocations, your familiar is the perfect scout. imps can turn invisible, and as a familiar you can teleport your friend back to you as two actions. i feel like this invocation is incredibly versatile and is something you can talk with your DM about, because your DM may be the one roleplaying your familiar , bc these ones are intelligent

Invocations

This is my favorite part of the warlock class!!!! invocations are really part of the charm of warlocks because you get amazing abilities, and if you dont like them you can simply replace them the next time you level up. Agonizing blast is almost always a certain to get. 

But there’s a lot of good combinations. like with my hexblade warlock i took the darkness spell and the invocation that lets you see in magical darkness.

honestly picking whatever you want that makes you feel like your warlock is cool and strong is great! they’re all very interesting. like one invocation lets you cast detect magic as much as you want. and another one lets you summon a cloud of flies. and one that makes it so you never have to sleep 

sooo many fun things. 

SORRY THIS IS SO LONG im super passionate about this class! i hope you have as much fun with a warlock as i have!

[vajra-furor]

Honestly, for anybody who enjoyed the basic vibes and types of adventures 5e's rules want to tell, I cant recommend Pathfinder 2e enough. It's slightly crunchier, which can be intimidating at a glance, but much of it's rules are just clarification on the DM's side and are far more intuitive than they look. Not to mention, it actually gives you abilities, skills, and tools for non-combat situations, and in combat makes martial classes actually compete with spellcasters in terms of both general damage output and ways to interact with the fight beyond standing there and slapping someone every turn, while also giving each class a huge pool of possible builds if you want to get really funky with it, while still having fairly straightforward simple build paths if you dont. And, most importantly, every single rule that you need to play is available completely free at the website Archives of Nethys, which is a community project that Paizo, the team behind pathfinder, fully and openly support and endorse for people curious about their system. Having spent a good 8 years DMing 5e, and then switching over to PF2E about two years ago, I've found that despite the meatier rules its easier to run, and my players find that it's easier to understand on their end as well. If anybody who reads this wants to know more about the system or want help learning it, I would be happy to help people learn.

So there’s a lot of hubub over dnd right now. If you aren’t up to speed, parent company Wizard of the Coast/Hasbro is looking to better monetize dnd. The first step they’re taking is locking down the property financially, better controlling who can and can’t make money off their property. They are doing this by modifying its open source policy and essentially negating it. It doesn’t look good, in fact it look really bad.

I can tell you as someone who watched magic the gathering get monetized this is how it starts. WOTC clamped down on fanmade projects and required trademarking at the end of fanmade works. It only got worse from there now there’s a $1,000 30th anniversary product nobody wants. This is very much the beginning of putting heavier monetization on dnd.

That doesn’t mean this is the end. Not by any means. My own home region of Alsium is very easy to decouple from dnd, I just need to change a few names and we’re there. While you won’t get dinged by WOTC for playing in your own group they are looking to get you to spend more money regularly, with their new dnd system and dnd beyond my guess is they’re going to move players off books onto subscriptions/paid microtransaction content.

It absolutely doesn’t mean this is the end. If you like 5e you don’t have to move off it. You can totally continue to use the books for your adventures. There is also a plethora of other rpg content you can explore and read up on new systems that might better fit what you’re looking for.

I’d love to hear what dnd alternatives you’ve found and try to compile a master list. What are systems you enjoy you’d love to share with people looking to move away from dnd?

[mydoorin]

this is long and made for no one but myself

I like certain aspects of C1, and a lot of Vox Machina is endearing and wonderful, but I find all of the first campaign really hard to watch

From a player and a DM perspective I just cannot watch a 5 1/2 long episode with half the cast yelling over each other and the other half doing world-breaking shit. I know there was a sort of loosey-goosey transition between their Pathfinder homegames and 5e, and Matt and Taliesin are used to editions older than 4th even, but there were a lot of times when I felt basic rules got swept under the rug for Vax and Percy but were unfairly or even sometimes incorrectly applied to Keyleth and Vex. Vax literally broke the game multiple times, and I know a lot of the campaign was like Matt’s gift to Liam, but it’s a campaign with 8 of your friends that you’re now producing as a show so it can’t just be about the one guy anymore. No one likes playing D&D where one character is literally touched by fate and can move 120 feet and doing 5 attacks a round. even if the rest of the team are like, high level barbarians fighters and spellcasters it feels unbalanced and it isn’t fun to watch.

a lot of the combat mechanics in C1 feel sloppy too, in terms that PCs didnt know their own character abilities or had a misunderstanding of how Action-Bonus Action-Reaction 5e combat works. It’s not really anyone’s fault, that happens when you change game systems, but to the point that I actually skip combat scenes, which unfortunately can be like a majority of the episode (and have really important character moments, like death). the Kraken fight comes to mind (there aren’t 40 feet fast eels Keyleth I’m sorry), it felt like Grog had the best grasp on his character’s mechanics and goals, and I was yelling at the screen for the other PCs to look at their character sheets. i dont know why Keyleth wasnt a water elemental to start or why Vax didn’t spend all his time stealth-investigating for the lodestones or why Percy didnt think to try luring the beast or talking to it or why Vex didn’t- actually Vex did everything she could Rangers have massive drawbacks. But!! These are issues I have with VM in most fights, theyve gotten better in their level 20 one shots, but still there I want them to please read their character sheets, bc Keyleth is an archdruid who doesnt use spell components anymore and can cast from Wild Shape and that’s tight as hell. Vex’s character mechanics still suck at level 20 but that is not her fault at all 5e literally just hates Rangers. And can we talk about that? Why do Rangers not get half the shit other classes get? How come Rangers have to wait until level 17 to use hide as a bonus action? Rogues get that at 2nd level. Anyway.

I think another part of it comes from player experience, and what kind of PCs are and are not fun to have at the table. Personally I dont like the fate touched concept, I don’t have fun as a player when one character is designed from the start to be more special and important, esp when that character talks about hating it so much all the time. TBH I don’t know why Vax is such a shit about the Raven Queen deal it seems like you got something no one else has ever gotten (she let you have your sister back bro) and you literally signed up for this. A God is giving you Special Awesome God Powers that make you more of a terrifying game breaking monster and you’re gonna keep calling the Raven Queen a bitch? for what? because you didn’t check for traps? because you didnt have a spellcaster that could use telekinesis? what about that situation wasnt entirely character choices lmao

betwen Vax and Percy (dont get me started on Mr. I Know Better Than Everyone, i really fucking hate PCs like that and i will fight about my distaste for percival von frankenstein monsterenergydrink the third) there are a lot of moments in C1 that aren’t fun to watch bc I know they arent fun for everyone at the table to play. it can be really cool to watch someone else’s backstory unfold, but if that’s all you’re doing it’s super easy to check out (I dont think it’s an RP decision when Grog has no idea what’s happening, I too haven’t been listening to Percy argue about this inconsequential thing to no one in particular) think of all the early C2 Caleb-Beau moments when it was clear half the tabl wasn’t paying attention, and how quickly that was resolved after people voiced their opinions on it (Matt for sure talked to them about dominating RP and making too many smaller moments that leave out the rest of the table, I wish a certain wizard would take it to heart), but that didnt feel like a conversation anyone had during the first campaign.

maybe it’s because i didnt watch C1 live or because I watched C2 first, but I have- not even a preference really a deference to the Mighty Nein. I think they’re more fun, more entertaining to watch, more emotionally involved and driven, better developed and created, better in all aspects, smarter and funnier and sexier than Vox Machina. I dont care about high fantasy stories with legendary heroes that are basically gods that is such a boring way to play D&D, I want the dumbass characters to use and magic to play pranks on local shopkeepers and i want the lesbians to have a slow burn romance.

I dont even wanna touch on C1 romance bc like, gag me with a spoon I don’t like the way Kashaw or Vax interact with Keyleth theyre both so fucking annoying. Idk why men cant be normal and talk to the fantasy girl they have a fantasy crush on, but Fjord managed just fucking fine.

i need to go back to sleep but in essence my opinions are that C1 was a classic 1980s D&D campaign that would have made Gary Gygax proud. And now that D&D is a lot better than it was in the 80s, more accessible and a lot less shitty, we can have cool modern fantasy stories that expect more from PCs, DMs, and the audience. We can do cooler, better things than we used to, and the structure of 5e actually helps facilitate more roleplaying between characters. The 5e PHB has whole sections devoted to roleplaying your character, and now Tasha’s gives everyone a way to get rid of stupid racist features and make your characters cooler. I’m really happy to see the progession of both WOTC and Critical Role into better, cooler, more awesome and less shitty versions of themselves (this isnt a WOTC defense post im not a shill they should pay the Dragonlance writers)

[teamdoesminecraft]

Everything about the pokemon au is perfect... is there lore???

oh you know me of COURSE there’s lore

It’s all kind of tangled together and hard to explain right now, so this post is gonna be a little less narratively-written and a little more expository. but as always, shoutout to @crystalfloe​ for being my partner in crime in developing this!

Some of the Ninetales dex entries say that it “came into being when nine wizards merged into one.” Naturally, we took this and ran with it: you know how illusioners are a sort of “secret mob” in Minecraft that were never actually implemented? Hundreds of years ago, in this lore, nine illusioners (possibly the last of their kind) met together in secret to preserve themselves. After a lengthy process of spellcasting, all of them gave up their physical forms and agency to create a new, pokemon spellcaster: Seto. Seto is his own person, not a conglomerate of nine, and he never really feels that he’s not; sometimes, though, when he argues with himself, it feels like there’s nine voices in his head all with different opinions. Being based on a kitsune and also having access to magic and curses in this AU still, he can shapeshift/illusion himself into a nearly human form-- he can’t/won’t get rid of the tails though, ever.

In these hundreds of years ago, Seto did some travelling, and his illager background eventually brought him to a wooden mansion. He lived there for a while, learning new magic under an evoker, and developing a gradual distaste for most other “humans” because of everything negative the illagers had to say about it. One lone adventurer, though, as they always do, stumbled upon the mansion, and found their way inside. Many illagers were asleep at this point in the night, but Seto wasn’t; he was the one who “greeted” the intruder firsthand. Said intruder wasn’t the nicest person either; they lashed out and tried to grab Seto’s tail to hold him down in a fight.

More Ninetales dex entries will tell you that “grabbing one of its tails will result in a 1,000-year curse on you and your descendants.”

Said adventurer lived and died uneventfully after that, but their descendants bore the burden. Sneaking around at night, looking to steal from illagers, and digging their way through the frostbitten winter woods, the family line was cursed with Weavile aspects; the original adventurer was doomed to slowly become one, even losing their mind in the body. Their bloodline wasn’t quite as unfortunate, but became a version of werewolf; were-weaviles, technically. Looking at too much moonlight at any one time causes them to transform and be mentally “replaced” by a far more animalistic version of themselves.

That’s why SSundee wears his glasses; they block out any excess moonlight. Of course, on the full moon, he has no choice but to close every curtain, because at that point there’s just too much to avoid. SSundee lives a rather quiet life, running a pastry shop in a no-name village, keeping his transformations to a minimum. He somehow inherited the original map that led to the mansion in the first place; he keeps ahold of it just as a reminder to not go there, ever.

SSundee’s got a friend, though, who’s willing to do anything for easy money.

Husky took the map, and ignoring SSun’s protests as just standard-SSun-paranoia, went to find the mansion to dig up any potential treasure there. Once inside, he was pursued by illagers, and fell between the walls; in the darkness, he reached for what he thought was a rope. It wasn’t, of course, and Seto had a whole new curse to lay. Husky had never been a fan of rain, surfing, or even baths as much as showers; Seto thought it would be the funniest thing to ruin the experience for him even more. (do I really gotta specify what pokemon Husky is) Husky’s started down the path of slow transformation, with an extra wrench in the formula; if any part of him gets touched by water, that part takes on more kip-like traits until he dries it. He found out while using SSun’s shower, and blamed it on him like it was some sort of shitty prank; when SSun wasn’t open about what he thought happened, Husky threw the door open.

It was a full moon that night (because of course) and Husky was terrified for a short while (because of course), running as far as he could. SSun, before he lost it, was even more terrified, because as far as he knew Weavile were nothing but predators; he doesn’t know much about Weavile, though, and what he neglected to learn was that Weavile are pack bonders, and that he had already built up a strong friendship with Husky. In summary, Husky spent that night trying to avoid being force-fed dead sandshrew by this terrifying demonic weavile that was also still somehow the mom friend.

BACK TO SETO, he has 1 (one) friend who isn’t an illager: a fellow troublemaking fox. Lox is a lonesome zorua who somehow wormed his way into the mansion (because doesn’t everyone eventually) and learned how to control his illusions by watching Seto in secret. Lox uses these illusions, generally, to fuck with people; it doesn’t help that Seto finds it absolutely hilarious. Eventually, Lox learned to create his own individual human form to cast, and learned sign language; he set out on his own just to explore, planning to find more people to mess with. Lox eventually discovered a small cottage in the woods, and was ready to just completely ruin this person’s day by unveiling that Deep Pokemon Magic--

--but True was, unfortunately, already a pokemon fanatic.

Even disregarding Tepig and Zubat, True tends to a bazillion wild pokemon, all the time, constantly. He’s invested in learning everything he can (scientifically) about how they work, especially their ties back to humans. (True is, in this AU, the one person who would be 1000% on board with being part pokemon, and also the one person who never will be.) When Lox tried to mess with him by impersonating people, True immediately recognized him as a Zorua, and tugged him inside for interrogation. True was relentless in his efforts to understand, poring over books, tests, and learning sign language to communicate with Lox better. Lox eventually mentioned that he didn’t want to be pinned down to one location, and didn’t plan on living forever in True’s little house; True realized this, of course, and waved him off, saying Lox was free to go wherever he wanted. Once away, Lox realized that though he liked the outside, he had enjoyed his time with True almost just as much; now Lox looks for any excuse he has to come back, and pops in from time to time for no reason.

One big excuse to come back, of course, is discovering another human-pokemon anomaly; when Lox saw a man with golden horns quietly using telekinesis to steal a lunch in a market square, he intercepted him and led him all the way back to the cottage. Sky was, understandably, confused and a little distressed; eventually after True sat him down they were able to have an actual conversation.

Sky’s history is (surprise surprise) Mary-Sueish. He’s a shiny hoopa (the only hoopa, so technically nobody knows he’s shiny?), and in this world, all legendaries have the ability to form-shift between pokemon and human. He was created by two other legends-- Notch (Arceus) and Herobrine (Giratina) to assist in preserving/expanding/helping the world. They both act as sort of guides for him in this AU, with neither really being evil or omnipotent. After creating Sky, they realized that while he was powerful, he had no experience in the world; they set him in a mostly-human form and instructed him to travel the world, meeting new people, and understand how humans and pokemon interacted and got along. They also, via a certain amount of magic, prevented him from saying what he or his history was; they didn’t want anyone finding out about the legendary child and trying to kidnap/control him. One notable ability of Sky’s is wish-granting; Hoopa being based on a djinn, we had to give him the magical bullshit. He can only grant one a day, though, in total, and he has plenty of restrictions on them-- no time travel, changing things that already happened, etc, etc. 

While Sky couldn’t tell True any of his actual history, True has been helping him learn more about his abilities and is 100% willing to travel with him anywhere to learn more about him.

SPEAKING OF NOTCH ARCEUS did you know he had a bastard son?? And that son was Xephos? YEAH THATS RIGHT TC/YOGS CROSSOVER AND I DONT GIVE A SHIT

Respawning doesn’t exist in this AU, so the yoglabs complex serves a real purpose via the cloning machines. Xephos doesn’t actually know he has any Arceus genes in him; they’re locked away and not apparent at all. That’s not why we’re looking at yoglabs right now, though: we’re here for Bajan.

Backtracking once again, Bajan grew up in a relatively decent-sized village, watching Wizard of Oz (Poke-Oz?) and absolutely loving the Infernape character. When he was about eight, his village was raided by pillagers; he had to run, as fast and as far as he could. Eventually he stumbled into the mountains, and up to Xephos and Honeydew, who were conducting a relatively boring test compared to normal, and YES i’m saying that Bajan’s gay dads are from the yogscast, nothing matters anymore

Bajan was adopted into the compound and was a very curious and energetic child. So curious and energetic, in fact, that he stole a transformation talisman and used it without calibrating it first; he passed out and was given two weeks to live, with his human DNA in constant conflict with the over-abundance of non-specified Pokemon DNA. Not wanting to support child murder, Xephos developed a particular method that he severely hoped would prevent Bajan from dying; he had Bajan pulled out of his safety-fluid-tank for a few hours so he and Dew could talk to him. They explained the procedure and asked if he had any requests-- Bajan still loved Infernape, so that was the first thing out of his mouth.

In the experiment, of course, they had to use Chimchar DNA to more closely match Bajan’s youth, but the procedure worked; he was given a very specifically calculated transformation talisman to wear to prevent him from becoming unstable again. (He was a little miffed that he had been given the “baby” form, but hey, what could you do.) Bajan lived for the next few years as a poke-human hybrid in the labs, generally being a good, if destructive, kid, practicing his firey abilities. On his birthday, he committed a small act of mischief; he lied to Dew and was able to go outside the labs for the first time since he got there.

Bajan fucken loved the outdoors, because who wouldn’t, and went running around way past his curfew before he got lost. While lost, he stumbled upon an absol-- Jerome had been on the run for as long as he could remember, because of the human superstition of absols causing natural disasters. After enough poking and prodding, Jerome eventually agreed to lead Bajan back to the vault door; on the way back, he locked up and refused to move. Bajan followed his gaze and realized that Jerome had sensed an avalanche before it could even begin-- there was no way they were going to outrun it. Bajan positioned himself between the oncoming snow and his new friend, and put every effort he could think of into spitting out the most powerful flamethrower he ever would--

--and he evolved. Bajan had never realized he could evolve before, and spent the next five minutes in complete and utter glee before yanking Jerome back to the labs to show off his new form and his new friend. The yogs weren’t as excited as he was to bring an absol into a place prone to nuclear disaster; he was grounded for lying, staying out past curfew, and the aforementioned absol-napping; Xephos took a mild amount of pity on Jerome, though, and agreed to test whether or not he was actually the cause of natural disasters. Eventually, when nothing really proved that he was, Jerome was allowed to talk to Bajan again-- at which point Jerome asked Bajan to translate his request to the yogs. 

Jerome had lived his life being unable to enter human society, even as a pet, because of the superstition around absol; seeing Bajan, a healthy and happy human-pokemon hybrid, had give him an idea. As Bajan translated, Jerome himself wanted to be a hybrid, so he could talk and interact with people. Xephos, though skeptical, was never one to turn down a scientific opportunity, and eventually was able to complete the procedure. Armed with a new half-human friend, a newly evolved form, and an advanced understanding of maturity, Bajan approached both Xephos and Dew one night with a request: he wanted to go outside the labs, with Jerome, and explore the world on his own to participate in battles. Eventually, they conceded; Bajan was abso-fucking-lutely ecstatic, and so was Jerome, to be travelling with someone for the first time ever. They currently roam the world as a duo, picking fights and having fun.

The entire team will eventually meet up, either through Sky’s wish-granting, Bajan and Jerome’s roaming, or Lox’s people-hunting; maybe a combination of all three. From then on they can travel the world together, working hand-in-hand to discover new things about each other and help one another as some of the only of their kind in this world.

Xephos, however, still sits in the labs, working on understanding pokemon in a much less communication-based way than True. Every time he re-clones himself, some piece gets lost, sending his mind into a darker spiral... it’s only a matter of time before he discovers his locked Arceus genes, and uses them in a way he definitely never should have.

[dungeonmalcontent]

Building NPCs

As a DM, making NPCs is essential. You can't drop your players in an empty shoe box with just monsters. How would they have gotten there? Where would they have come from? You can't escape these questions in a story based game. Even if your players are a party of frontiersmen expanding the edges of civilization—going where no man, elf, or orc has ever gone before—they were probably hired by someone to do that, or maybe they were chased into the wilderness... this means that there are NPC forces behind them (in one way or another). My point being that there's no real reason to play if there are no other people (friends, allies, and people to protect/exploit). NPCs create game play value. As the DM, it's our job to create characters that give the players reasons to keep playing. Whether that be friends, allies, arch-enemies, lovers, or just a really nice barkeep that nothing bad is ever allowed to happen to, that's all on us.

So how do you make good NPCs? Well, not the same way you make a player character.

This is sort of a lesson I learned more recently, but I've found that a good NPC is more like a monster than a player. They have simple mechanics that don't distract too much from game play, and they have their own motives that aren't based solely on the needs of the players.

I'm not saying that every merchant, tanner, or map maker your players encounter has to have a life goal and aspirations unique to them. That's some Mercer level dedication that really just functions as the cherry on top of a DM's performance.

This is probably a good time to make clear what I mean by an "NPC."

While it essentially means is any character that isn't a player, you don’t need to make a big deal about all of these characters. Most of them, at least how I have seen them played, are simply merchants. What I want to focus on are those NPCs which are more integral to the story telling experience, the ones you put actual effort and serious planning into (though, that could be all of them for some people). More specifically, a designed NPC is one that the players don't control but can essentially do everything they can.

The first villain I ever designed was meant to be nothing more than a very strong character with strong allies. I wanted my players to meet him early, thinking he was an ally, and experience how strong he as when he was working with them so that they would be adequately afraid of him when they learned he was evil. The problem was that he was so mechanically complicated that I felt like I was taking time away from my players so that I could play my own character. I didn't want to be in charge of the enemies in a fight and one of the characters fighting them, particularly when I had to look through the monster details and the character details. It was a lot of time where my players were doing nothing.

So how do you build an NPC? Mechanically speaking, like a monster. But how? That's the hard part.

There's a science to making enemies, and believe me I'm no scientist (or mathematician). Generally you want the levels to be the same, but challenge rating (CR) isn't exactly the same as a player level. If a monster has a CR of 5 that means it should be suitable for 3–4 level 5 player characters to fight. Depending on your group size, a creature with a CR at the players level would generally be a "boss" monster. You can go higher for greater difficulty, but you probably shouldn't go too much higher unless you don't plan on making that encounter a fight that can be won (which is what happened when I dropped a vampire spell caster on my level 6 party of four, they figured out pretty easily that they needed to grovel and escape).

CR has several implications. It relates to three key factors of monster design: hit points (HP), armor class (AC), and attack ability. HP and AC are pretty straight forward (just look at all the stats of similar monsters in the same CR bracket, Fight Club 5 is great for this). The hard part is attack ability, which isn't so much a stat as it is a limit to what the monster can do.

Monsters typically have one or two special abilities (like spellcasting, magical features, or a reaction attack), but they also have simple attacks they can make as "default" actions. These are generally an attack or multi-attack with a weapon or a weaponized feature. The more chances to attack a creature has, the less overall damage they tend to be able to do (big difference from, say, a PC fighter).

Not to stray too far away from the topic, NPCs should operate in a very similar way. As far as combat goes, they should really only be able to do one or two things (unless they're supposed to be a boss sort of encounter), and the rest of your notes for them are better spent as role playing information.

Great examples of well designed NPCs can be found in the modules made by WotC, particularly Storm King's Thunder.

These days, when I design a character to help my players I follow these basic steps:

If I want a paladin archetype, for instance, I give them a quick stat build based on the array. Then I give them a weapon that fits their personality, not necessarily their class. If they're going to be strong enough, they get a second attack each round. The rest of the features can mostly be ignored, maybe give them a cantrip. That's it. And, if I can, I give them a reason not to fight.

The goal of the game is to challenge the players after all.

Reblog with your favorite NPC encounter?

Also, maybe I’ll make a post on how to turn a character sheet in Fight Club into a compendium bestiary entry. Because that’s a good in-between.

[ninesixninetwo]

ok so first context

theres no names for most things because i dont waste my PRECIOUS time NAMING things but theres this planet near the center of the universe (i dont think i ever explained to you the universe lore so i dont know if youll get any meaning from that)

and its similar to our society except a bit more advanced and its more globally synchronized

also most of it runs on synthetic magic which i will get into later

so people here are normal people 99% of the time but occasionally someone will be born with innate magic + spellcasting abilities. this is constant across the entire universe but much more common on this planet bc its so close to the center. theyre called warlocks on this planet. they come with innate magic power inside of them + the ability to maninpulate that power. all of them have some sort of physical manifestation of this power that if removed would remove their ability to use the magic (however they still have the power source inside of them they just cant use it now)

the power source itself is basically useless unless they manage to get ahold of a wand built for natural magic or a natural magic user comes and uses them as an additional power source to boost their own spells

also magic isnt crazy strong it could never be a oneshot tactic in combat it serves more practical use in normal life

but theres also synthetic magic which is much more widespread. it functions the exact same as regular magic except its power source comes from regular energy (fossil fuels :drooling emoji: or wind turbines or you know) and it requires some sort of apparatus to manipulate (like a wand but here a wand is defined by anything able to manipulate magic so a wand could also be idk a glove that when powered heats up your hand or a mirror that when powered connects to another mirror so its like zoom)

the only thing is synthetic and natural magic interfere with each other a lot. you cant use them together or else theyll both expertly fail

so this leads to natural magic just pretty much being unused a lot of the time bc synthetic magic is everywhere and more convenient and you using natural magic just kind of ruins everything for everyone

it also means high risk or authoritative positions dont allow natural magic users bc like if youre a surgeon and you accidentally use your magic all the computers and equipment nearby would fail + your magic would fail so theres no benefit

also syntehtic magic just kind of replaces most electricity in our world

now we get into our guy abel

so hes a warlock and has a pair of deer antlers on his head and he really wants to be an astronaut so he studies really hard and trains really hard to become an astronaut and he gets into the equivalent of nasa but they say he cant be an astronaut bc hes a warlock + his horns overcomplicate designing a helmet anyway

hes sacrificed so much to try and achieve his dream of becoming an astronaut and to hear this when hes so close is devastating for him

so he goes home and saws off his horns thereby making him elligible

and then wow hes an astronaut yahoo he spends a few years up in a space station and whatever

and then he gets called or a solo mission to a distant moon to set up a moon base

now these guys have set up a few bases on other planets and moons already but the majority of the population resides on their original planet

abels like yahoo!! and goes off to da moon where the base has already been mostly constructed (they sent some guys there to build it previously)

but when he arrives the ppl who built it just arent there

so he tells the control center that and theyre like "oh man ok hang tight idk look around or something"

and he does that

but when he tries to report back his findings (nothing) the communication panel just doesnt work - it just plays static

so like what is there for him to do besides wait

and abel waits and waits and after three months and still nothing he starts losing his mind and realises if this continues he'll lose his sanity soon enough so he comes up with a plan

the food oxygen and water systems are all self sustaining but the heating and lighting systems are not (theyre supposed to be but it seems like the ppl in charge of installing the required parts never got around to it) so theyre currently running on backup generators

so he makes a crude wand out of whatever materials he can find and reroutes the generator energy to the wand and uses it to erase his own memories

so he only remembers the first 3 days so he wont go insane from the isolation

he leaves himself a note explaining that he has to erase his memory periodically but doesnt explain why (because if he knew that he had been alone for months he might go insane anyway)

and slowly as he repeats this more rooms of the base become inaccessibile bc their heating shuts off and hes kind of running out of time but theres literally nothing he can dobecause there is no possiblity of there being enough fuel on this itty bitty moon to get him back to his planet which is so far away he cant see it

and thats it he just stays on the moon for 3 years repeating that

hes left to wonder whether the ppl on his planet abandoned him or one reason or another (his guess is the cost of retrieving him was more than it was worth) or something happened to them

he sort of accepts the possibility of him being abandoned there and makes peace with it

its actually a very tranquil time for him despite his oncoming doom

until he finally gets pulled from it to enter the main story of piss lore

he believes he was only trapped on the moon for maybe 6 months until its later revealed he was there for 3 years and hes like BRUH!!!!!!

personally id like to imagine his entier planet jsut exploded one day and then later when ari sees that theyre like ohhhh my gruh what do i tell abel

@alias-mike i want you to do this specifically