#rogue rankings

[cagemasterfantasy]

Phantom Ranking (5e)

Guide

1=useless

2=often useful

3=sometimes useful

4=perfect

Whispers of the Dead 4 the ability to pick up a proficiency on short notice is incredibly useful. If you can combine this with other buffs like Enhance Ability and Guidance you can get around nearly any skill-based or tool-based challenge if you have time to prepare. Most of the time you can leave this on a low-importance skill proficiency but most tools won’t come up unless you’ve got time for a short rest. No one is going to ambush you and ask you to break out the Brewer’s Tools and make them some beer

Wails from the Grave 2 starts very slow (1d6 twice a day) but ramps up exponentially as your Sneak Attack damage and your Proficiency Bonus increase. The damage is Necrotic which is rarely resisted and it’s automatic provided that you made a successful Sneak Attack so it’s great for enemies that may be difficult to hit. Even as it gains in power you don’t want to throw this around needlessly. You’ll never get more than 6 uses (not counting Tokens of the Departed) and they’ll never deal more than 5d6 damage so you need to be strategic

Tokens of the Departed 4 I love everything about this feature. The theme is cool the mechanic is fun the resource pool is appropriately limited but easy to restore and the benefits are fun thematically appropriate, and really good. You get three benefits at level 9 but at level 13 you can recharge Ghost Walk with a trinket and at level 17 you wake up from longs rests with a free soul trinket. The first benefit is without doubt the best of the 3 and it’s good enough that you should nearly always keep a Soul Trinket handy. Advantage on Constitution saves isn’t quite as good as proficiency but it’s close. Unfortunately Phantom doesn’t need to worry about Concentration unless you take Magic Initiate or Multiclass so you don’t get to wave your token around every time you cast a Concentration spell. The second benefit helps with Wails of the Grave and it’s easily your most frequent way to spend trinkets. Wails from the Grave is a decent bit of damage by this level matching what a spellcaster can do with many cantrips. However the Proficiency Bonus usage limit won’t get you far so you can destroy a trinket to get a free bit of damage. Every time you think “is a new trinket worth my Reaction right now?” remember that it’s a small pile of easy necrotic damage when you need it later. The third benefit is basically Speak with Dead, but you only get 1 question. Otherwise it has all the same problems where the subject can be vague misleading or otherwise unhelpful. Very situational but if you can somehow make it work it’s excellent. This also has a curious edge case where the creature which allowed you to produce the token might be alive again especially in cases where your allies die and a raised from the dead. You might use this to ask a question of a creature who is currently alive leading to hilarious situations where the ghostly apparition of a living creature appears in the same room as that creature only to say something totally unhelpful before disappearing. The one flaw in the whole thing is that it falls prey to the classic Bag of Rats trick. You can kill any creature to generate a new Soul Trinket so if you have a bag of rats or access to other easily-expendable creatures you can kill them out of combat to recharge. Your DM might justifiably make some adjustments to disallow that (requiring a CR above 0 may be sufficient especially at level 9) so try not to lean on the abuse case too much. This generally won’t work with summoned creatures (they need to die not just be reduced to 0 hit points) and since death and being reduced to 0 hp suddenly mean different things I encourage DMs to start tracking death saves for enemies

Ghost Walk 4 a 1-minute duration on this would be good. A 10-minute duration on this is fantastic. 10 minutes is obviously plenty if you’re using this in combat but it’s more important outside of combat where you might need to move through walls floors or ceilings while scouting. The 10 ft. move speed is tiny but remember that you have Cunning Action so you can Dash as a Bonus Action. If you can get buffs like Longstrider they’ll do a lot to help both because any flat numeric increase is relatively large compared to 10 ft. and because you can essentially double the effect by dashing without spending your Action

Death's Friend 3 at this level Wails of the Grave deals 4d6 damage just short of its maximum at 6d6. Adding that damage to your primary target when you use Wails of the Grave means that your Sneak Attack deals 50% more damage though it’s not clear if you can multiply the damage on a critical hit. I believe that you can’t because the damage is applied to the target from a separate source rather than added to the damage of original attack like effects like Divine Smite. The second benefit of this feature ensures that you have at least 1 Soul Trinket at the end of a Long Rest. This is a crucial benefit so that you can benefit from Advantage on your Constitution saves so try not to burn your trinket the first time you want to use Wail of Souls. But since you get the trinket for free this also makes it easier to spend your last trinket right before you take a long rest. Of course you could just use the bag of rats trick to get free Soul Trinkets

Final Ranking 3 ok what if Ouija boards were a subclass? What if you got class features from talking to dead people? And what if those class features included necrotic damage and turning into a ghost? Enter Phantom. Phantom is a novel exploration of interactions with the dead as a class feature making Necrotic damage and death-related stuff available to a class with no ability to cast spells. Normally interacting with the dead is primarily done by Clerics and certain necromancy spells. Phantom has a much more direct connection to the spirits of the dead gaining proficiencies damage output and the ability to turn into a ghost. Phantom’s most novel and interesting mechanic is their pool of Soul Trinkets. These trinkets allow Phantom to fuel their most interesting features by gathering trinkets when creatures die nearby then spend those trinkets for extra damage or to ask dead creatures questions. Tragically this feature doesn’t become available until level 9. Waiting for creatures to die rather than being reduced to 0 hit points also makes it important for the DM to track death saves for enemy creatures which is a minor annoyance that most DMs are happy to avoid so discuss how your DM would prefer to handle that aspect of the subclass. Players may also find that Wails from the Grave is underwhelming at low levels compared to other subclass features at the same level. Phantom definitely builds slowly and may not feel really satisfying until level 9

[neonhellscape]

okay its no secret i dont buy into marazhai being the persona he puts on. so as i've officially met him in game now, im making a list of all the in-game reasons i think he's a bit of an idiot [which i love btw. i find him far more compelling if he's a bit stupid/weird and he's trying so hard not to be but you just know nobody in commorragh is inviting him to parties]

the very first time you get a glance of him on a rooftop and. 'deal with this' "of course" proceeds to just walk off like 3 seconds after the other two

ambushes you. has you cornered. is in optimal position to kick your ass frankly, high ground and better weapons and utilising shock against you. ...he bitches at you for a while, gets insulted, then runs off into the forest with a maniacal cackle

heinrix fired a mild insult [considering what he's like to everyone else its barely an insult] and he took big enough issue with it to start saying how he'll break him and turn him into a pet. oh sure dude you're responding super well to this mild comment from the guy who accidentally insults everyone and their entire ancestral line at some point

i think it says something that he's learned to speak your language fluently too. that Has to be some kind of Yikes moment to admit publicly in drukhari culture. buried family secret great great grandfather drukhari-georg learned to speak mon keigh and now we claim he just spoke oddly because was shot in the head as a child to prevent the shame

he also knows the mon keigh lore that says youre a super special little guy as rogue trader and actually LISTENS to the fact you're the special little guy as rogue trader. and he does treat you as more equal/with more respect than the other characters. thats not just a drukhari culture yikes thats what gets you checked for a concussion or brain damage

literally socially atrocious enough its believed he's working with you [read: with you. not using you, not manipulating, cooperating. this is a big difference i feel] and only he himself doesnt believe it

ignore the fact he eventually DOES work with you which. is its own follow up statement

challenges you to fight him, to give chase then and there. i made him wait while i went through english government simulator where i queued for multiple days, did multiple day/week voidship trips back and forth, got distracted by accidentally starting jae's romance, pasqal telling me to servitorise her, getting blackout drunk with her, shipwide broadcast tm, giving her a voidship, her getting me a space cat, attacked by pirates, dealt with a plague, explored a few extra systems.......................

he destroys your palace. ...its rebuilt effectively within a week. most of the damage is in bodies which are just sent to the poor district to rot [almost feels worse than the damage done good job imperium]

the throne has claw marks. he could've blown it up or shot it or piled corpses on it but no he wanted to sit on the fancy chair and so turned into a common housecat mauling the sofa arm

how long was he just sitting there lounging on that chair? again see how long i kept him waiting. he was just sitting there trying to find a comfy position on this [for him] kinda small chair JUST so he could briefly taunt, break your window with his space motorbike, jump off the chair in a dramatic [but not gunna lie not that impressive] feat of gymnastics, then fly out. he doesnt even shoot at you as he leaves

i will continue my list as i see more that entertain me

[oceanwithinsblog]

i've taken a couple days to try and elaborate my thoughts on the season finale ... still, my reaction hasn't changed.

i firmly believe the acting for this season was REALLY great (especially ncuti and millie's), but the rest of it keeps feeling rushed and not cured in enough detail. plus, as good it was to have a nemesis back from 1975, it feels silly (at the least) to me that suketh has been hiding in the tardis and travelling with the doctor for SO LONG ... they've assisted to so many events and could have taken action wayyyy before to annihilate earth & co. why would they wait for the doctor to meet ruby and find out who her biological mother is? idk the explanation we've been handed in the last episode doesn't fully satisfy me. besides, i would have loved to know more about ms floods but oh well i guess i'll have to wait :) the whole last ep was like an anticlimax, to me.. i wished it had taken another direction, plot wise.

i don't know about you guys, this season felt very fresh and exciting in respect to the returning and brand new cast. at the same time, it was poorly written for some episodes and i personally don't agree with many "artistic choices".

i had VERY HIGH expectations (and i still hold them for the next season) but some of them weren't met. what about you?

[quenthel]

BTW. My rouge trader Belladonna. Her limbs n neck are long bc shes a voidborn (and why her skintone is so unhealthy looking lol) Shes also a psyker ofc

[squarerankinsigniasacramento]

SIGNAL BASED TIME TRAVEL: IF YOU HAVE MILITARY COMPUTERS THAT ENABLE YOU TO TRAVEL TO A FOREIGN PLANET AND DISGUISE YOURSELF AS A MEMBER OF THE CIVILIAN POPULATION, AN ILLEGAL SPY IN TERMS OF LAWS RELATED TO WAR, YOU CAN USE THOSE COMPUTERS TO SEARCH OUR COMPUTER NETWORK, WHICH WE CALL THE INTERNET. CAN YOU SAY IT WITH ME? IN TER NET. LET ME REALLY SLOW IT DOWN BECAUSE YOU SEEM TO BE HARD OF HEARING OR FUNCTIONALLY DEFICIENT IN TERMS OF COGNITION OR COMPREHENSION

In tur net

Iiiiiiiiiiiiin teeeeeeeer neeet

[jynjackets]

what kind of fucking job is expert movie critic helper 😂

[gingerfan24]

Ana meeting Heinrix for the first time: “Geeze what an ass. I need to study him under a microscope.”

[bnbc]

Personal Case: Isabella von Valancius

"…you are given access to very sensitive information. As a new Master of Whispers you are the first to ensure it will never end up in the wrong hands. Do we have an understanding here, mistress von Gellman?"

Name: Isabella Lenner Place of Birth: 'Isabella of Llorn', Astra Telepathica Mother: Sirsha Lenner (deceased) Father: Unknown Psy-level Prognosis: Epsilon Assignment: Training Facility 'Awakening', Grade 2, Astra Telepathica

They say, people born in the void possess a strange gift of luck. Born in the warp, on board a Black ship, Isabella was lucky to keep her life, indeed, even though not a single drop of a true voidborn was in her veins.

A group of people inside Astra Telepathica was collecting children whose parents were confirmed psykers for a long-term experiment. The desired outcome was a program that would allow to control the moment of the first manifestation and and level of psy-abilities.

The children were provided with access to psykana practices intended to prepare them for future manifestation along with special medication. Needless to say, a fair amount of Imperium loyalty indoctrination was a part of the training.

But, luckily to some 'students,' not every trainer in the facility saw them a nothing more but future tools. Adept Mossmore became the first person in Isabella's life who divided from the letter of the law to better serve its spirit, but not the last. She made Isabella's days tolerable, at least, before the sanctioning.

"…Lord Captain insisted on erasing some… details."

Name: Isabella Lenner Psy-level: Iota Assignment: Training Facility 'Awakening', Grade 3, Astra Telepathica

During the sanctioning, Isabella's luck turned away, leaving her alone against the horrors of warp for what seemed to her like days. Isabella found her way back, but the experience she survived damaged her psyche, blocking out a major part of her potential.

Even broken, she still had a decent psy-level to work with. Equipped with a set of transducer implants and a psy-amplifier, she started her training as a future battle psyker. Alas, a psychological block didn't allow her to produce a single decent attack. Her implants were recalibrated and Isabella was transferred to the Telepathic training group.

One of the adepts observing her suspected that with time psychological block might be healed and insisted on replacing the amplifier with the inhibitor system in case of such events, but was ignored.

"..some people we had a chance to interview mentioned, that during her 3rd Grade training years, Isabella was trying to find any tracks of some young man who went through the sanctioning two years before her but she was unsuccessful."

Name: Specialist Lenner Psy-level: Iota Assignment: 'Penitent Halo', Navis Imperialis

The speculations about future assignments were a major part of 3rd graders' talks. The most popular version was they were trained to be future Inquisition acolytes.

Isabella's first assignment turned out to be far from this. Assigned into the supervision of the fleet Commissar of 'Penitent Halo', she was used as a mental wire to find the focuses of disloyalty at their very birth.

"…it took me years — and my personal connection to a certain member of the Holy Ordoses — to confirm the fact my first assignment was nothing more than a payment. One of 'Awakening' wards was in debt to the 'Halo's captain, so he gifted me to her as a toy. It explains why she felt so sure about herself parading me at her 'parties'. Good thing, a person of Captain Reynolds' caliber happend to be among the usual trash of her 'friends'."

Name: Bosun Lenner Assignment: 'Blood of Phlebas', Navis Imperialis

The second assignment left Isabella in confusion. As soon as she reported her arrival for duty, she was told that her services to a ship disciplinary division is not required. And moreover, from now and on she was forbidden to use her abilities onboard of 'Blood of Phlebas' by a special dercee of captain Reynolds.

Assigned to the ship supplies division, she spent months trying not to draw any more extra attention than her shaved head with a full set of psyker implants already did.

One day she was asked by her superior officer to read the mind of the person he suspected of stealing. Isabella resisted, remembering the captain's order, but her superior told her that the captain also ordered to finish this situation by the end of the shift. After all, the captain doesn't have to know how this problem was solved.

Isabella agreed to help and this was the first step for her to become a part of the crew.

"…when I met her last year and we talked Lord Captain to Lord Captain she told me why she saved me from 'Halo' just to send me away. Lord Captain Miranda Reynolds lost a sister to a Black Ship and never heard from her again."

Name: Midshipman Lenner Assignment: 'Blood of Phlebas', Navis Imperialis

Celebration of Isabella's promotion was spoiled by the news: their fleet group was assigned to escorting some piligrim ships. The captain's… displeasement with a new mission was palpable in the air, since everybody know what it was: someone stole her glory, leading the strike force to a pirate nest 'Blood of Phlebas' and its group found.

Hovewer, someone had to make sure piligrim's ships are in no need of anything, and checking their decks, Isabella sensed some psy-active cargo. The presence was growing and all Isabella had time to do was to send other people away before something happened.

She never done this before and, happily, never had a chance to try it again, but somehow by her bare will itself she managed to collapse an opening warp manifestation. The news of this event spread fast among the starts and soon Lenner's name was known across the sector.

It sounded a lot alike surname of von Valancius side branch, de le Nier, whose trails got lost somewhere in the hives of Gheisthaven. After the confirmation, she was requested to be re-assigned to von Valancius dynasty flagship.

"…we share your concern, but we are aware of the situation. The fact that information about psyker abilities of Midshipman Lenner was not spread widely was the result of a certain decision. The legend of a brave naval officer saving pilgrims is more needed at the moment than improving of the general image of imperial psykers."

Name: Isabella von Valancius de le Nier af Cadian Psy-level: Theta Assignment: 'Lightness of Being', von Valancius dinasty

Isabella von Valancius (nee Lenner) reported her arrival to von Valancius's flagship. The materials of the following events are stored in different files.

"…she jumped from Iota to high Theta? Interesting."

[ghost-bxrd]

Dude I just finished catching up on the Owl Song series and I am equal parts excited and terrified about what’s going to happen at the end. I swear to god everytime that series updates I just get more nervous, why does every endnote have to be so ominous?! You’re killing me here. I’m gonna start naming my grey hairs after you author, I swear /aff

MWAHAHAHAHA I HAVE ACHIEVED MY GOAL!! 👹 each endnote is to make you more afraid of the ending! Terrified of the pain! MWAHAHAHA!!! I ASPIRE TO BE A FEARED VILLAIN

Nah but we still have 3-4 parts to go before disaster time :333 you know, fluffy family time and mild angst with lots of cuddles, to make the ending hurt even more ✨🦉

[cagemasterfantasy]

Scout Ranking (5e)

Guide

1=useless

2=often useful

3=sometimes useful

4=perfect

Skirmisher 3 spectacular for ranged builds but less helpful for most melee builds and since it works as a Reaction it can conflict with Uncanny Dodge. Cunning Action can also solve the same problem so Skirmisher feels like a miniscule addition your capabilities. You can’t use this until an enemy ends their turn so they’ve already done any attacking which they plan to do and you may have used your Reaction on Uncanny Dodge to mitigate damage from a hit. If you’re built for melee using this often means spending more movement on your turn to get back into melee so reserving your Reaction for Uncanny Dodge is a better investment. If you’re built to fight at range you can use this to get out of almost any creature’s reach then you’ll still have your movement and your Bonus Action on your turn to use Cunning Action for something else more exciting than Disengage

Survivalist 3 2 new skills and Expertise in both of them giving you Expertise in a total of 4 things (provided that you’re not also getting Expertise from other places). Both skills are Wisdom-based and Survival isn’t especially important but Expertise will easily make up for a relatively poor Wisdom score compared to Druid or Ranger

Superior Mobility 3 really helpful in conjunction with Skirmisher and you need to stay as far away as you can

Ambush Master 4 consider the Alert feat for the bonus to Initiative rolls. You want to go first to maximize the utility of this feature. Encourage your allies to focus on your target and quickly eliminate high-priority targets early in the fight before worrying about other enemies

Sudden Strike 4 this extra attack consumes your bonus action so two-weapon fighting is redundant. Allowing you to Sneak Attack twice in a turn effectively doubles your damage output which is amazing at any level. Unfortunately you can’t Sneak Attack the same target twice in the same turn with Sudden Strike so this is considerably easier to use with a ranged weapon

Final Ranking 3 Scouts easily outcompete Rangers in skill use with Nature and Survival but lack any of the actual Ranger flavor. If you want to play Rogue in a wilderness game you could definitely do worse and it’s hard to think of a better way to make a Rogue that uses a bow. Scout manages to keep you at a nice safe distance keeping you safely out of attack range while your allies distract enemies long enough for you to Sneak Attack them

[merrilark]

AAAA.

Alright, okay, alright. I didn't realize this was a two parter.

That was good. That was the kind of writing I wanted. I still don't feel Ruby and the Doctor's connection (so many of their adventures really did just happen off screen??? I kinda hate that a lot actually; oh well, it is what it is) but this episode makes up for it with much better pacing, anything with Ruby's family feels nice and Ruby feels much more Whole when they're around, love seeing Rose Noble again, love seeing the Doctor actually getting to do something finally, and it had fantastic suspense and a great twist.

Part of me is very relieved atm that this episode didn't reveal that this has all been a TV show, and part of me hopes that it still could be true just to make the more rushed and slightly ooc nature of some of the episodes feel intentional rather than just poor writing. I know I keep harping on it, but besides the lack of growth and all the showing rather than telling in the Doctor and Ruby's relationship, "Rogue" was so terribly ooc. But I could be more okay with it if it turned out Ruby is the goddess of stories and was unconsciously manipulating the episode to fit what she wanted, which was a big melodramatic, fast, period drama romance. Idk if I believe that theory and it does leave too much wiggle room for writing to be bad without the cushion of more episodes, but it would make a lot of choices throughout the season more logical.

But anyway. That's all tangential. I loved this episode and if the second half sticks the landing, these will definitely become two of my favorites of the season. Love love love it. I was on the edge of my seat and it stayed interesting the whole time. I suppose I will keep watching, albeit with slightly lower hopes just in case.

[quietwingsinthesky]

im just saying that the moment she thinks she can kiss bobby, she does so like she wants to eat him alive. and im just saying. that canonically. logan would let her.

[mariocki]

Milano rovente (Gang War in Milan, 1973)

"We lost a ton of money."

"You didn't lose a goddamn cent! If anyone lost money, it's me! But those bastards are going to pay. Word of Cangemi!"

[tennessoui]

such such such good taste. my favourite is bail organa as well

obi-wan and anakin finding out they’re not even in my top five:

[dragondreamers]

share for a wider sample size!!

[gingerfan24]

Void Shadows Spoilers

Welp, Ana doesn’t quite trust her lower deck crew at the moment. Would she like to replace her confessor with someone from among their ranks so they’d have someone they can relate to and trust to seek counsel and confession with? Absolutely. Is she going to in light of all this Genestealer business? Nope. Outsourcing it is.