#she could be druid??

[ryonello]

wanted to doodle my tavs :3

[druidshollow]

i know i said i wanted brilliant fire to attack dune earlier but im not sure on that now lol. idk yet theres so many options with him

dunes group all have their own masks and other than whimsy's theyre all modified enforcer masks. i think fire wears his the most (and dune the least), especially after he sees blade and realizes he could still be recognized on ground level, since its where his mom is from. its got the symbol for "ghost" on top of it so people call him ghost sometimes i imagine

hes so edgy. like. intentionally. edgy teen! edgy teen. he hates his dad and he loves shooting guns

[the-faultofdaedalus]

shadowheart is a werewolf you CANT change my mind

[thechaoticdruid]

Shhh....Eeepy time...

Sim Lae'zel has only been here a day and she and Gale for some fucking reason are sword fighting in their pajamas the next morning.

Wyll is in character as usual.

Okay well this makes much more sense than Gale with a sword.

Dressed her up in something else cause the druid outfit made her arms all wonky in some animations.

Smooch 💋

He got a little hungry. 😅

[worldsokayestmagicalgirl]

*clears throat* *pulls out pitch pipe* why do I only wanna draw you when you CRY

I can’t believe I’ve never completed a full picture of Amoré & Agatha, since she’s another NPC I tend to yoink for AUs a lot.

Anyways, this is the first addition to the character scrapbook that I never got around to drawing when it happened in session.

Amoré has a really complicated relationship with her (great 10x??) Aunt. She didn’t even know she existed until her parents sent her off to get some magic items appraised by a reclusive relation that lives in the woods.

Within half a day of being there, she got hit with the knowledge that this woman now has full guardianship duties over her. Despite the fact that Amoré had only seen her parents as a convenient but minor annoyance for many years, it still completely blindsided her that they could make this decision at all. And without her finding out until she was already out of the Estate.

This woman she barely knows somehow holds all the authority to strip her of her family name & status. She declares that Amoré has failed to perform well on a task she set for her, bringing into question her worthiness as the next heir to the Bellridge Legacy. She suspects that Amoré has lost her connection to her Angelic Guide, & is forcing her to face the reality of it.

Also…she stole two highly trained Bellridge staff & gave her Sylphi as collateral, which Amoré did not hesitate to make it known she found it to be “not a fair trade.”

After their first night in Agatha’s home, Amoré’s old nightmares begin to resurface after a few months of deceptive peace. And now she is torn between shoving away this woman who pokes mercilessly at her most tender wounds, & leaning on her as a source of support as the only person who could probably guide her through her broken Guide connection.

Too bad Amoré is allergic to asking for help ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[selunesfavouriteprincess]

I can’t even lie over time this pathetic little elf has grown on me and now I really like her as a character. she’s SUCH a loser. and someone said that she should’ve been recruitable instead of Halsin after uncovering the Shadow Druid plot and she could’ve had a redemption arc and now I can’t stop thinking about that alternate reality

[nightmarist]

Shadowheart's Tent

Lots of purple and gold. The crest at the top of her tent, plus the overall tent itself is surprisingly ostentatious compared to what she actually has.

Several potted plants, large and small. Her camp is behind a rock where people can't really see her, but there's clovers right at the edge of her tent. A bundle of herbs sits off to the side by the net of jars and candle pan. A simple set of matching silk pillows. A set of incense near the mouth of her tent. Several scrolls and books for studying and writing on her table. A fan sits on the floor by the table (for herself or for fanning smoke, flames, incense?).

Her tent has little "windows" to look out of. A basket and crafe of water inside with a simple bedroll. One toppled over potter, but probably because there's no plant in it yet. The table is also beautifully crafted, and the awning over it has a simple pattern inside the scalloping.

Practical in that the back is against a rock (no surprises) and windwos to see outward while also having more personal privacy than Lae'zel or Astarion. It's an interesting, almost jarring difference to see such a beautiful tent with such minimal decor. Feels very streamlined without sacrificing beauty.

[vanhelsingapologist]

“Well, I’m a doctor.”

“Licensed?”

“What? God, no. Not being licensed gives me more room to move. I don’t have to worry about any of those pesky oaths or ‘ethics.’”

—

It occurred to me I never posted my backup character! I’m currently playing her while my other PC is imprisoned in Ravenloft. Her name is Emilia and every time she brings someone back from the dead, she gets a Frankenstein-esque white streak. I think she is the party darling but it’s because her moral compass is a propeller hat. More in tags!

[dumb-byesexual]

true love is struggling to learn how to draw armor so that I can draw minthara proper

cleaner work in progress of my eilistraee worshipping drow and her bff minthara now with a background (no more void)

[sesamenom]

alright you’ve been extremely extremely kind and indulgent to me about my oc and i cannot possibly thank you enough <333333 so MY turn now to ask YOU about YOURS. please tell me about maglor’s distant granddaughter who is also your bbeg?? .w. or about the chatty hobbits i would very VERY much love to hear about both!!!

~ @nelyoslegalteam, reporting from main <3

(long post, sorry for the random people stumbling upon this lol)

so I'm the dm for the chatty hobbits campaign and essentially it's set in a beleriand-adjacent continent, but with a few extra races and stuff. of the founders of the original settlements, the king of elende (the elf kingdom) is Gil-galad's (invented for the campaign) twin brother Finellach/Finwain. originally he was inspired by the fact that gil galad has a ton of names but only uses ereinion/gil, so I just invented a new character and gave him half the names. I headcanon gil galad as maglor's son, so finwain is in universe maglor's son (left at the havens with gil bc his wife divorced him for kinslaying and his kingdom, being next door neighbors with morgoth, is far too dangerous for small children).

Anyways, his descendant Elinyel (also known as aramire or elinnor) is the current queen of Elende! she's an evil fire-themed bard who is extremely feanorian in all the worst ways - her actual kingdom prospered under her reign, but she just does not care about everyone else as long as she's protecting her people. There were some tensions with one of the major kingdoms to the north (conflict over unclaimed territory between the kingdoms and some tariff stuff), so instead of risking the other kingdom starting a war and hurting her people, she just preemptively invaded it and started burned all the border territories to the ground.

her actual coronation was pretty weird- so she's the second child, but her older sister was born in wartime and there's a general belief in elende that children of peacetime make better rulers, so Elinyel was chosen as her family's heir. her grandfather (the crown prince of his generation) died defending Elende in one of the major wars, but his younger brother and two young kids survived. there's a whole feud between their houses because the brother chose to retain the kingship even after the kids were old enough to take the throne. anyways, two generations later Elinyel killed her cousin Arendil (the previous king of Elende) over a dispute about the legitimacy of his house (and what she believed to be a dishonoring of her grandparents' sacrifice) and took the throne.

obviously she has many Issues. arendil also has two surviving kids who are now essentially trying to stop her from murdering all their neighbors in proactive defense of her people.

however, when she first ascended she recruited her friend group as her elite guard/vassals of the kingdom. (aka the other bosses in the storyline). so it escalated to a war between her forces and the children of arendil, which ultimately culminated in her beloved sister being killed by one of arendil's children. this in turn led to her having basically a massive mental breakdown and feeling like she failed to protect her loved ones (exacerbated by some of her other friends being killed in battles she led). a normal person might decide this is was kind of her fault for starting a war and putting her friends in charge of the army. instead she decided she needed to destroy everyone who could ever potentially pose a threat. which is, in her eyes, literally everyone on the continent (except for her kingdom, of course).

so now she is at war with absolutely everyone of all factions! She is also somehow winning by virtue of Song almost on the level of maglor himself, and ten (now six) also incredibly powerful friends. Anyways, she has decided that the best way to wipe out the continent (except her kingdom) and start fresh is to literally find an ancient lost stone that can break the Doors of Night, summon Morgoth himself, and start the Dagorath. obviously this will Not go well for anyone at all if she succeeds, but she is on a full-on rampage and genuinely believes she (plus friends) can protect her kingdom from Morgoth's army while he wipes out everyone else.

Here's some old art of her btw!

And some slightly more recent unfinished art of her and the Evil Friend Group from when they were younger:

and here's (L-R) her cousin who is the 3rd boss, Elinyel, and her sister from before the war!

[sagesariadnd]

Revisiting Doric's Chase From a Dungeon Mastering Lens

So, we've established by now that Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is a great movie. Fun, funny, heartfelt, everything genuinely feels like a D&D game from the goofy to the grand. But I wanna talk a little about my pick for the best scene in the movie: the wild shape chase.

A quick recap, if you haven't seen the movie or it's been a while; the party is trying to break into Castle Never in Neverwinter, to try to contact the party leader's daughter, who had been entrusted to the BBEG when he got arrested in a heist gone bad. The BBEG campaigned to become Lord Neverwinter when Lord Neverember mysteriously fell ill (gee, what a coincidence) and rules under the advisement of a bigger BBEG, Sofina, a Red Wizard of Thay. The party is using the goods stored in Castle Never's vault, where nobles from around Faerun are contributing wager money for the controversial High Sun Games, as the payment for helping in this endeavor, but they need to know how to get into the vault. So they hire the druid Doric to spy on them and gather intel on the vault. Sofina senses her presence, and the result is the chase we'll be talking about today.

Now, I could go on forever about how much I love this scene. The tension, the quick thinking of all her different forms, the hilarity of a whole platoon of guards desperately failing to dogpile on a single rat, the music that isn't on the soundtrack cd for some reason (I'm not bitter!), the 'one shot' cinematography, the payoff on Holga's running gag of suggesting she become a deer...but there is a non-wildshaped elephant in the room.

I don't particularly like rules-lawyering, especially for a movie. Especially considering how Doric was in hot water with D&D Nerds (tm) from the moment the trailer was released, because she was white (forgetting that tieflings, by the book, CAN in fact have normal human skin tones), and because she can wildshape into an owlbear, which is a monstrosity, not a beast. (Come on guys, let her have her fun, there's plenty of ways a DM can make that happen.)

But regardless, there is a continuity error, if not a game error. According to Doric's official stat sheet, she can only wild shape five times a day. She wild shapes seven times in this scene - fly, rat, rat again, hawk, cat, axe beak, deer. And that's assuming this was on a different day than their first meeting with Doric, when she had already shaped into a horse and the aforementioned owlbear.

But stow your blades, friends. This isn't a rant about how they got a rule wrong in the D&D movie. In fact, I offer a far more charitable take on this error, by offering a meta perspective. I posit that this error is the Hand of the DM.

It could be as simple as being in the moment. Think about your past battles and encounters in your games; how many times have you forgotten basic things under pressure? Don't lie. My DM and I have both gotten so caught up in a fight scene that we both forget that I already used my bonus action when I try to Flurry of Blows. Hell, I think all of us have been guilty of forgetting entire skills on our sheet that could have been useful at that exact moment. The chase is pretty intense, and I imagine playing it in an actual D&D game would be even moreso; you don't have the privilege of hindsight or time to think. You have to just GO, and it could be very easy to belief that Doric's player and the DM just completely lost track of the number of wild shapes she used. Probably didn't even think of it as they're both biting their nails to see if Doric makes it out. Just imagine the delight and release of tension at the table as Sofina is hot on Doric's heels and the player, in a moment of panic, blurts out "I turn into a deer!!!" Holga's player must have been losing her shit. Even if she wasn't already over budget, if I was the DM in that moment I'd let the extra wild shape slide JUST for that moment of bringing the running gag full circle.

And then, as I was watching the movie last night, an even deeper meta headcanon occurred to me.

I don't mean what I'm about to say as a putdown of Sophia Lillis; I think she did great and she definitely resonated with people as a favorite character in the movie. But Doric as a character is a little strange. She's a bit stiff and seems nervous, her lines have a slightly uncanny tinge, she generally seems kind of awkward...

Call me crazy, but doesn't that sound like a new D&D player to you?

I don't know if this was a deliberate choice on Lillis or the director's part, but Doric's awkwardness feels like a great representation of what it's like first getting into the hobby. Even if you've been interested in roleplaying before, it can feel weird when you first start out, getting used to talking out loud as your character, on top of the ongoing D&D struggles of getting to know your character as it is, and of course figuring out and memorizing all of your character's abilities. As a new player, I can imagine Doric's player latching onto "I can turn into animals" and considering that in every problem, because not only is it cool and useful, it's a simple concept to remember.

The spy mission was Doric's big moment. Her first non-combat scenario at the table. On top of that, it's a solo mission, and one that the entire plan relies on. This is Doric's player's time to really cut her teeth on D&D. Not only is the pressure on her to succeed, but the pressure is on the DM to give her a good experience to boost her confidence and have her wanting to keep playing.

So, the DM encourages her. He praises her quick thinking when she tries to sneak away in the armor, even when the guard passes his insight check. He reminds her as she's about to hit the ground that she can fly. He puts obstacles in her way as she flies off, watching her excitement and anxiety rise as every bow shot misses her. She gets tangled in the flag and could have tanked the fall damage because she'd just revert back to herself, but she wildshapes into a cat. She's getting into the groove!

And that leaves her spent on wild shape slots, slipping out the door thinking that if she stays hidden, she'll be safe to escape. But it's not over. She still needs to make it to the gate, and there's Sofina - she followed her out. Doric's player asks if there are animals around - the axe beak flock. The DM could have checked if she could still wild shape, but Doric's player is coming out of her shell. He could make her find another way out, but she's so deeply on a roll that stopping it now could not only get Doric killed, but possibly snuff out that light that's hit the player's eyes at every triumph. So, the DM calls for Rule of Cool - just one wave of the wild shape count, because hiding among the axe beaks is a cool idea, even if Sofina can ultimately see through it. The one axe beak lifts its head at exactly the wrong moment to take the hit meant for Doric - warning shot; the DM wouldn't just kill her like that. She just needs to book it to the gate - if she can make it that far, then the DM will call it a win.

And then there's the last wild shape - a deer. It would give her the speed she needs to outpace Sofina's horse. And Holga had clearly planted the idea in her head. It's too perfect to not use. And probably worth a point of inspiration, at that! The DM has to let it happen now. And besides, she's so close. A few more nail-biting rounds of chase, and Deer-ic power slides under the portcullis and gallops away. Cheering, screaming, claps on the shoulders. Doric's player collapses into her chair, a frazzled mess but the biggest smile on her face. She just had pure, concentrated D&D and now she's hooked. And after the game they can have a talk about how this was an exception for the sake of a good story and rewarding good roleplay.

Of course, nobody can know for sure how the game really happened, or how the writers imagined the D&D game to go. But Honor Among Thieves has such a special balance on the line of the in-universe story and the real world that I think it's good to look at these kinds of gaffs. No DM is perfect, no player is perfect, not everything goes according to plan or in perfect adherence to the rules. But I've said it before and I'll say it again; sometimes that just makes a better story. It's always important to be clear with your players that you won't always have kid gloves with them, but it's also important to make your players feel appreciated and rewarded for their choices, which is ESPECIALLY vital with new players. Their experience in moments like this could make or break the hobby for them; make the experience a good one.

[y-rhywbeth2]

In themes, BG3 feels to me a bit like the original Baldur's Gate games and Neverwinter Nights 2 both got sequels and then they fell in a blender and accidentally came out as one game. More NWN2 than BG tbh:

Bhaalspawn shenanigans + references + location = Baldur's Gate

Githyanki presence + Illithid Empire threat, linking back to Gith's rebellion (and thus her sword, which was key to their defeat) + Plane of Shadow nonsense + undead villages consumed by the Shadowfell + the long overdue opportunity to punch Myrkul in the face + fuck you Karsus stop ruining things + human wizards with too close a relationship to the weave causing apocalyptic events + THANKS SHAR + my ongoing hobby of making life difficult for devils + *squinting at Withers* didn't I see you on the fugue plane? = Neverwinter Nights 2

I crave the silver sword of gith in this game. Lae'zel would lose her fucking mind.

[miku2]

my hag, Antigone. might clean this up at a later date ^w^

[greenskellyblob]

Astarion makes me uncomfy when he drinks blood??? That first time he feeds on you, his mask slips a bit and you see the hunger in him. How, at that moment, blood is all that matters, and you're just a convenient vessel to hold it all.

My first Tav got REALLY creeped out and told him to never drink blood from a person again. As a druid she already had reservations before and that pushed her over the line. She was also often quite annoyed by him! Like, I disliked the vampire twink with all I had while playing her! He got on my nerves!

My current Tav? That bitch is DUMB. She saw him walk away all high and hungry, and she was just like. Ye :D he'll be better at killing now! She also gave him permission to drink from her each night and to bite enemies because well. They'll die either way so. why not. She's got her campmates and she'll kill for them if need be and that is all that matters to her.

[blujaydoodles]

Zhartook catches Melliwyk clearly intending to stay up working for the second night in a row, and drops the full name trying to convince her not to overextend herself. It definitely got her attention-- it's an impressive feat, for one thing-- but to what extent she allows herself to be convinced remains to be seen. After all, she still didn't go to bed that night...

[nat-without-a-g]

@francisabernathysparkingtickets has a beautiful post they just made about the generational trauma in dungeons and dads season 2 and made a compilation of some of the most HEARTWRENCHING moments go look at it right now. And I’m about to reblog it, but I took the wrong thing away from it and I don’t want to put it in their tags after the gorgeous work they did.

Because lark suggests that he used to be able to cast resurrection or true resurrection by saying he used to have the power to raise the dead and that they’d be the same as they were before they died. Now, I’ve been beating myself up trying to find out what class he, Nick, and Terry Jr. are, but Lark especially has been difficult because the two classes I DO know (Sparrow is a Druid and Grant is a Ranger) crosses off the only two options I had in mind for him, too. That’s an over-exaggeration, there is no way lark became a Druid after everything with Henry, I just thought he was a ranger because of the guns and nature experience.

The three classes that can cast resurrection or true resurrection are Druid, bard, and CLERIC. I already said Druid is off the list and unless Glenn rubbed off on Lark he has no reason to be a bard.

IS LARK THE SAME CLASS AS NORMAL???