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wangxianficrecs · 8 months ago

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utility by magicites

utility

by magicites

G, 2k, Nie Mingjue & Jiang Yanli

Summary: Jiang Yanli and Nie Mingjue's wedding is a political one — a gesture of unity between their Sects. A way for her parents to finally get some use out of the plain-faced sham of a cultivator they call a daughter. “Jiang-guniang,” Nie Mingjue says, and the formality in such a setting as intimate as their wedding chambers startles her, “I don’t wish to bed you. Or any other woman, for that matter. It isn’t fair for you to live alone because of my own preferences.” She rests her hand on his arm, cool relief flooding her body like water on a summer afternoon. “If it helps, I don’t feel desire for men,” she whispers. Kay's comments: The lavender marriage between Nie Mingjue and Jiang Yanli I never knew I needed but thorougly enjoyed. Really enjoyed Jiang Yanli's POV and how she's making a home for herself in Qinghe. Excerpt: A wolf slips under the fortress walls. Jiang Yanli sidesteps the frantic servants as she examines the hole it left at the gate. She tracks its muddy pawprints through the Unclean Realm. Somewhere between the fortress’s entrance and its heart, Nie Huaisang appears at her side. Nie Mingjue, her husband of three weeks, finds her at the staircase. His saber is drawn and his face is wary. “Stay back,” he warns. “Starving animals get vicious when they’re desperate.” Jiang Yanli shakes her head with a smile. She thinks of A-Xian, six-years-old and flat against the ground at the mere mention of wild dogs. “I can’t fault them for that.” Her husband and her newest younger brother watch in silent awe as she coaxes it outside with nothing more than her gentle voice and a strip of smoked pork belly. “How were you not scared, saosao?” Nie Huaisang asks, once the wolf’s fluffy tail disappears under the gates. “It was so big!” Jiang Yanli smiles at him. “I’m bigger.”

pov jiang yanli, canon divergence, arranged marriage, jin guangyao/nie mingjue, nieyao, jiang yanli/wen qing, yanqing, platonic relationships, lavender marriage, in-laws, getting to know each other

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(Please REBLOG as a signal boost for this hard-working author if you like – or think others might like – this story.)

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grailfinders · 4 months ago

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Grailfinders Viewers' Choice #31: Kadoc Zemlupus

today on Grailfinders, it finally happened. that’s right, it’s finally, finally, lupus. Kadoc Zemlupus, that is. the very first crypter we fight is a Monster Slayer Ranger to pick up some anti-beast specialties and his mystic codes, as well as a War Magic Wizard to use his wits more than raw magical power.

check out his build breakdown below the cut, or his character sheet over here!

Ancestry & Background

I know we were making the crypters reborn back when we did Ophelia, but we forgot about that entirely for wodime and honestly going with the lower-power option just works better for Kadoc, so he’s a Human too. that gives him +1 Dexterity & Intelligence, as well as proficiency in Survival to somehow never die and some freebies from the foreign god since he’s Shadow Touched. that bumps up his Wisdom as well, and gives him Invisibility and Cause Fear, both of which can be used once a day for free, or by using spell slots. did you know Kadoc has a stealth spell that he just never uses? it’s true!

he also has the same Foreign God Agent background as Ophelia (which I’m pretty sure is just faction agent), so he gets insight and intimidation proficiency. he was the first crypter we ever saw, so he was pretty scary until we had a frame of reference.

Ability Scores

we’re being a bit goofy this time around and using Point Buy to get the strengths and weaknesses we need, because we’re a little Multi Ability Dependent and spellcasters don’t get a lot of ASIs. so! first up, your Intelligence and Wisdom are all the way up at 15. mages be magin’. next, Dexterity is set at 13. this is both for multiclassing and because you don’t wear platemail and also aren’t dead. after that is Constitution. iirc Kadoc is the one we see walking the length of America in the simulated singularity montage, and while he’s complaining he also has the breath to complain, so he’s not bad. this all means your Strength and Charisma is at 8. Kadoc is a mage, which automatically applies a debuff to those two skills.

Class Levels

1. Wizard 1: I promise we’re not making Kadoc weaker on purpose, but he’s a mage so being a wizard first just makes sense.

as a wizard, you get proficiency in Intelligence and Wisdom saves, as well as Arcana and Investigation to be the mage society info guy for the audience. You also get a ton of Spells you can cast and prepare using your intelligence, all tied up in your handy-dandy spellbook. you get six spells now and two more every time you level up, plus whatever other spells you can copy down as you travel. as such, the spell list in the character sheet is more of a guideline than a a hard rule. mages will always take whatever gives them the best advantage in a situation, and so should you.

your cantrips are more set in stone though, so pick up Create Bonfire to set up camp, Message for the chaldea walkie-talkie, and one other cantrip of your choice.

on top of all that magic, your Arcane Recovery lets you recharge a few spell slots on a short rest up to a combined level total of half your wizard level rounded up. right now that’s 1 first-level slot, but by the time we’re done wizarding you’ll have enough recharge to get a third level spell, three first level spells, or one each of first and second level. say what you want about Kadoc in terms of power, but the man just refuses to die.

2. Wizard 2: second level wizards get their arcane specialty, and as a War Magic wizard you specialize in putting what you know into practice. you can use up your magical power for an Arcane Deflection, adding 2 to your AC or 4 to a saving throw as a reaction to being hit at the cost of not using leveled spells next turn. your Tactical Wit also lets you add your intelligence modifier to your initiative. going second makes people die, have you seen what Tametomo can dish out?

3. Wizard 3: third level wizards get second level spells. again, take what you want, though I will say Enhance Ability feels pretty mage-y. it gives you or an ally advantage on one kind of ability check for a minute, plus some extra bonuses if you pick a physical stat. it’s an all-rounder, and definitely pretty useful.

4. Wizard 4: use your first ASI to bump up your Intelligence. now your spells are stronger and you’re less likely to get ambushed by billy the kid. sorry, too soon?

5. Wizard 5: fifth level wizards get third level spells, and I will insist on you getting Counterspell. a running theme throughout Kadoc’s appearances as a master is that one of his skills blocks or severely weakens noble phantasms, so countering a big spell fits right in.

6. Wizard 6: sixth level war wizards can make a Power Surge. you start off with one surge at the end of each long or short rest, and you can gain extra by countering spells. once per turn, you can use a power surge to add three points of extra damage to one of your spells.

7. Ranger 1: swapping over to ranger gets you some skill with martial equipment, as well as the Survival skill. you also become a Natural Explorer of the Arctic to get around Chaldea and your lostbelt easier. again, I swear I’m not deliberately picking the worse options just to make Kadoc weaker. I wouldn’t blame you for not believing me, especially after we pick up Favored Enemy so he can track beasts better instead of the other thing. but look, favored foe only works on weapon attacks. I’m sure Kadoc’s good with a knife, but he’s still supposed to be a mage.

8. Ranger 2: speaking of being a mage, second level rangers can pick up a Fighting Style, and as a Druidic Warrior you can get two more cantrips from the druid class like Druidcraft and Guidance. this whole build’s just kind of generic good stuff spells until we get stuff from ranger.

speaking of getting spells from ranger, you get Spells from ranger this level! now you can cast Absorb Elements and Hunter’s Mark using your wisdom! just make sure you only use hunter’s mark on beasts.

9. Ranger 3: okay again, I swear I’m not picking up Primeval Awareness just to make Kadoc weaker. most of the primal awareness spells are pro-beast, which entirely defeats the point of anti-beast magic. besides, having one option is way less complicated in the long run.

third level rangers also pick their conclave this level, and as a Monster Slayer you get extra magic as you level up, starting with Protection from Evil and Good. a lot of celestial and demonic enemies are really just beasts with wings and horns when you think about it. you also get a Hunter’s Sense, letting you spend an action up to wisdom modifier times per day to learn a creature’s damage immunities, resistances, and vulnerabilities. most beasts don’t really have any of those, but you never know!

more on-brand, you can mark a creature as your Slayer’s Prey as a bonus action, letting you deal extra damage to that creature with weapon attacks once a turn. again this is kind of getting away from maging, but it has other uses later. there’s no limits on what you can do with this one, aside from only having one prey at a time, and it only lasting until you rest.

also get Goodberry. is berry. is good. what are you, jokester?

10. Ranger 4: use this ASI to bump up your Wisdom for stronger spells. mages like spells, wild.

11. Ranger 5: fifth level rangers get a second attack, but more importantly you can now Find Traps! mechanically this spell is pretty useless, but it’s still something we’ve seen Kadoc do, so it’s gotta go here. you can also use Zone of Truth. we haven’t seen Kadoc use this one but it’s gotta be something mages can do, right?

12. Ranger 6: sixth level rangers get extra stuff from favored enemy and natural explorer. since we’ve already got beasts and your regular home turf we’ll expand with your greatest enemies and further adventures, i.e. the crypters/Guda and areas from lostbelt 7. so now you get a bonus to figuring out stuff about Humans and Dhampir, and have a bonus while traveling in Forests.

13. Ranger 7: seventh level slayers have a Supernatural Defense. whenever a creature marked by slayers prey makes you roll a saving throw, or an ability check to escape a grapple, you add a d6 to the roll. octopi are beasts, fuck octopi.

you can also cast Lesser Restoration, the closest thing D&D has to a debuff cleanse this low-level.

14. Ranger 8: use this ASI to bump up your Dexterity to start sooner and get a higher AC. you also gain Land’s Stride, letting you move through difficult terrain without issue and pretty much ignore dangerous plants. plants are not beasts, but beasts tend to hang out near them so… I guess it helps? you can go full clownfish and hide in a poisonous plant now, which is fun.

15. Ranger 9: ninth level rangers get third level spells, including our most directly offensive spell so far, Conjure Barrage. just so you have something, y’know? you also get Magic Circle, which sadly can’t summon any servants.

16. Ranger 10: tenth level rangers enter the next strata of Mictlan, the Grasslands, giving them all the natural explorer bonuses therein. you can also use Nature’s Veil as a bonus action to become invisible for a turn, proficiency times a day. see, we don’t always take the worse option!

17. Ranger 11: at eleventh level a monster slayer becomes a Magic-User’s Nemesis. when a creature casts a spell or teleports near you, you can react to counter it, forcing them to make a wisdom save against your spell save DC. you can use this once per short rest. sadly this technically doesn’t mingle with your power surges at all, but tbh I’d definitely allow it, it’s good flavor.

also you can use Barkskin now to not die even harder.

18. Ranger 12: use this last ASI to improve your Constitution for more HP and less dying.

19. Ranger 13: thirteenth level rangers get fourth level spells- Dominate Beast is about as anti-beast as one can get, and automatically puts you on PETA’s shitlist. you can also Banish creatures back to the planes they came from. again, save it for the animalistic monstrosities.

20. Ranger 14: at level 14 you can Vanish as a bonus action to hide, and it’s impossible to track you without using magic. everyone you’re fighting is a mage. fuck.

you also get one last boost in favored enemies, so now you can track Reborn and Halflings really well, covering every master build we’ve done so far.

Pros & Cons:

Pros:

Kadoc is pretty dang good at shutting down enemies when they try to do something too cool. he’s got counterspell and a ton of higher-level spell slots just gathering dust, plus his ranger ability if he ever runs out. sure, higher level enemies might just force a success, but that still removes one of their guaranteed saves.

as a ranger, Kadoc comes packed with a ton of out of combat skills that can come in handy during travel. I know a lot of games don’t care for survival elements, but when your party gets in a big chase or has to be somewhere before a deadline you’ll be thankful for that speed boost.

Kadoc ended up weirdly good at saving throws. all of the big three saves are relatively high, and you can boost them further with your slayer’s prey abilities too!

Cons:

Kadoc’s spells don’t do a lot of damage, at least the ones I picked. this one’s borderline since you can choose a lot of them for yourself, but it can still be an issue.

he also ended up being a lot more martial than I was really hoping for. I know rangers are supposed to be martial, but having several of their features only proc on weapon attacks really hurt the build overall. I’m sure Kadoc can use a knife in a pinch, but this was a bit much.

you have minimum Charisma, with almost no proficiencies to help out either aside from scaring people. thank goodness you hang out with Fujimaru all the time.

#fgo #dnd 5e #D&D #kadoc zemlupus #wizard #ranger #utility

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