#watch them ditch this pact in season three

[kierreras]

THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY s2e05 «love fool»

[remidyal]

What is Fig Doing? - Mechanical Discussion edition

So! I know a lot of people who watch D20 are relatively new to DnD, or may not have much experience with the game itself at all, and as a lover of exploring weird and mechanically ineffective multiclasses I thought I might dive in in advance of whatever the hell Emily's about to do to Fig's character sheet following episode 7. Spoiler alert: Weird it may end up being, but this is absolutely NOT going to be anything like an ineffective multiclass.

First, here's Fig's character splash screen as of episode 7:

In addition to the information shown here, we know that she's currently subclassed into a Hexblade patron and into being a Lore bard. The Lore bard part is less important, but Hexblade is an incredibly common subclass for multiclassers into warlocks and might actually be the most common multiclass subclass in the entire game for reasons we'll get into.

There is a very small elephant in the room: Multiclassing into or out of Barbarian would, by the rules as written, require 13 strength; multiclassing into or out of Paladin requires 13 strength and 13 charisma. The charisma Fig has in spades, but she's short on strength, and in fact I would actually argue that Fig's overall stats are the worst of the entire party - she has a whole lot of 0s or +1s, where most everyone else either has multiple +3s or higher or has almost all +2s past their primary. However, the multiclass requirements have been consistently ignored in Dimension 20 as a whole and have been ignored in Fantasy High in particular in the case of Gorgug going into Artificer back when he was at 8 int; I think it's safe to say that if Fig/Emily wants to add Paladin and/or Barbarian that either they'll move around stats to allow for it or just ignore the requirement, because that strength stat is, in fact, completely irrelevent to this build.

So let's get to the meat of this: There is almost no combination of bard, paladin, and warlock that Fig could end up with that is not going to be an incredibly effective build, as long as she has pact of the Hexblade and is at at least two levels of Paladin for access to Smite (the first level of paladin gets her almost nothing). There are some that are going to be better than others, but mostly it's going to reflect different strengths and focuses, and the reason for this is this little section of the Hexblade level 1 abilities:

The influence of your patron also allows you to mystically channel your will through a particular weapon. Whenever you finish a long rest, you can touch one weapon that you are proficient with and that lacks the two-handed property. When you attack with that weapon, you can use your Charisma modifier, instead of Strength or Dexterity, for the attack and damage rolls. This benefit lasts until you finish a long rest. If you later gain the Pact of the Blade feature, this benefit extends to every pact weapon you conjure with that feature, no matter the weapon’s type.

Fig is a one-trick pony, statwise. Being a hexblade allows everything she would want to do in combat across all of these classes to use that trick. She'll have dials she can tweak across the three classes, and they're going to impact just what she can do, but if she's really decided to leave being a Bard behind it wouldn't surprise me to see her ditch Bard levels for Paladin and Warlock ones over the course of the season.

For those dials, one key thing to consider is the spell slots she'll have, which are WEIRD to calculate for any warlock multiclass with another caster. For every other caster class in the game, there is a pool of spell slots that go up as you level any of them that refresh on long rests. Warlocks, however, have a seperate pool from any of those, so her warlock spell slots are seperate and refresh on short rests. If she stays at level 2 in warlock, this pool will be two slots of first level. If she levels in warlock, the level of these spell slots go up but the number of them doesn't (unless she somehow were to end up at level 11, when warlocks finally get a third slot.)

The paladin and bard combo is a little simpler to look at - she's going to have spell slots from the table that a primary caster would have at the level equal to her bard level plus half her paladin level. Just as an example, let's say she by the next combat were to drop two bard levels for two paladin ones and she were to end up 7 bard/2 paladin/2 warlock. She would end up with the two warlock first level spell slots that refresh on short rests, and 7 + .5*2 = level 8 from the primary caster spell slot table. (4 1sts, 3 2nds and 3rds, 2 4ths). A very deep pool for using Divine Smites - a full paladin wouldn't be able to match this until level 16, and that's not even counting the warlock first level spells!

Key level breakpoints that might be worth looking at: At level 5 of Paladin, she would have multiple attacks; at level 6 Paladin gets one of the best abilities in the entire game, an aura where she and allies within 10 feet get her charisma mod as a bonus to ALL saving throws. In Fig's case this is an absolutely incredible +5 - at their level, this is a bigger boost than being proficient is! If she really wants to guard her president, this would allow even Kristen to have a +2 on dex saves! I'm not certain I could overstate how good this ability is in general; with a +5 it's completely insane.

She can also get multiple attacks through either Bard or Warlock, but neither is automatic. For Warlock, she would have to choose to take Pact of the Blade at level 3 (warlocks have, somewhat confusingly, two more-or-less subclasses, and Hexblade and Pact of the Blade are in fact different things) and Brennan has been HEAVILY hinting at wanting her to take Pact of the Chain so that Baby can be a class feature instead. She'd then have to get to level 5 in warlock and take the Thirsting Blade eldritch invocation, which are sort of little bonus powers warlocks get. I think this is the least likely path to multiple attacks but it is there. (Mechanically, while it's all still fine, I also think leveling warlock would be the worst of the three in a three-class build.)

Bard CAN get multiple attacks at level 6 but Fig would need to change subclasses to either Swords (which is what Fabian is) or Valor (which is, frankly, a worse version of what Fabian is, though it's still fine.)

Getting multiple attacks is a really big deal - Paladins can smite multiple times per round, and given being able to lay on mid to low level spell slots for ages Fig would likely want to.

I have no idea what Oath Fig would pick for a paladin if she gets to level 3, but honestly the level 3 subclass features for Paladin are mostly not that big a deal; she'd need to get to level 7 for the subclass aura for it to really matter all that much.

You'll notice I haven't been talking much about Barbarian above. If Fig dips into Barbarian mechanically at all, it's almost certainly just for one level given how spread thin she might be. This is a level she won't get any spell slots for, but she will get two rages per day, which will add 2 to damage rolls if Brennan allows it (technically it wouldn't apply normally because it does specify only to rolls made for attacks using strength) but much more importantly will halve quite a lot of incoming damage - bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing damage, more or less all of the physical attacks in the game.

Barbarian is a massively bad combination with caster classes in general because you can't concentrate on spells or cast them while raging; there's been a lot of in-character noise made about Gorgug's multiclass being unique and a bad fit together for exactly this reason. The exception to this, as Porter demonstrated to Fig in their last scene together, is that Smiting things is burning through spell slots but is NOT casting and you CAN do it while raging.

So, if by the end of the season, we see some wild 6 Paladin/5 Bard/2 Warlock/1 Barbarian build, know that it's going to be an absolute menace. And if Fig and Gorgug keep trending the directions they are, where she's adding heavy hitter abilities and he's shedding Barbarian levels for Artificer ones, don't be surprised if on the last boss she's the one up on their face and he's casting spells next to Adaine or casting the key Revivify.

[medea10]

My Review of The Rising of the Shield Hero: 2nd Season

Season One Review

Lord, if we can make it through this entire season without seeing Bitch, I will become a believer for about five minutes.

A few seconds later…

AH-HA! I’m going to remain agnostic. As you can see, Bitch is still there and has her head still in tact.

I think we all know why we came into Rising of the Shield Hero. You were either an Isekai lover and jumped into this series, a devoted follower of the light novel, or you came out of curiosity after everyone screamed in fury over a certain character. Regardless, we’re in this for the long haul. Okay, maybe it isn’t that stark. Many people, myself included liked the story of the shield hero. The first season was nearly top-tier perfection in modern-day isekai animes. We’re not just watching some twat transferred to another world and having him automatically be an OP hero! This guy started at less than zero.

HISTORY: Naofumi Iwatani was once a regular college boy reading light novels when he was transported to another world. Naofumi and three other boys (Ren, Itsuki, and Motoyasu) from three different dimensions of Japan were sent to the Kingdom of Melromarc where they were seen as saviors. The role of the hero must save people from these ongoing cataclysm events known as “waves”. Once they save them from these waves, the people will revere these heroes. Except for Naofumi! While the other boys had different and more powerful roles, Naofumi’s power was the shield and because of that he was treated worse than dog shit. He was shunned and later tricked by the royal family leaving Naofumi alone and penniless. This story is about a young lad who must rise up, form a party, and survive in this unforgiving, new world. Along the way, he buys a slave, a demi-human named Raphtalia and hatches a filolial egg where he makes a pact with the hatchling named Filo. And every now and then, Naofumi gets help from one member of the royal family who is on his side, Princess Melty.

SEASON TWO: For now, there is peace throughout the lands. But that does suddenly change as the heroes lost the ability to tell when the next wave is going to hit. And then there’s word of a tortoise god about to give trouble. Once again, it’s up to the queen of Melromarc to count on the four heroes. And once again it’ll probably be all up to Naofumi’s team because Ren, Itsuki, and Motoyasu are still arrogant cucks. Meanwhile, Naofumi made it official with the addition of a new member to his team. Rishia was once on Itsuki’s team, but was ditched for being too weak. That still doesn’t stop her from mentioning his stupid name several times an episode. We get it, you have a crush on him and he spurned you. Could we all move on now?

Oh and Rishia wears a filolial and penguin costume because, fuck if I know. It’s not brought up; we just see this in episode 1 and accept it. And we see two people hanging around and training Naofumi’s crew like we’re supposed to know them. There’s only one explanation for that!

Rush job!

Guys, we waited three years for a continuation. The least you could do was…NOT give us a rush job!

NEW CHARACTERS INTRODUCED: Hmm, let’s see if there’s anyone worth mentioning here. We meet several characters that seem to be in good with Naofumi this season. It’s just that their introduction was sloppily given to us. Oh well, let’s see what I can do with this category without sounding snotty.

Let’s start with Rishia since I really didn’t talk about her in the previous review. She was introduced in the final couple of episodes as an abandoned member of Itsuki’s team. Rishia was not at the castle at the very beginning where everyone was choosing which hero they were going to serve. Instead, Rishia joined Itsuki later down the line when he saved her. Because of that one heroic act, Rishia was forever smitten over this ass. Even after he ditched Rishia, she continues to praise him. Rishia ends up being a somewhat helpful member to Naofumi’s team.

Next, I’ll talk about Éclair. We’re introduced to her and this old granny that we’re suddenly supposed to know without any true introduction in the anime. Éclair kinda resembles an OC of mine from a Pokemon fic I wrote back in the day. So, she’s kind of a bombshell. Éclair serves the queen and will occasionally be there to help Naofumi this season.

Ost is the human incarnation to the spirit tortoise that seems to be causing havoc. But other forces are behind that. Again, this season was pretty piss-poor when it came to explaining things.

And finally, there’s Kizuna! She wasn’t introduced until the last couple of episodes of this season. Much like Naofumi, she came from some alternate version of Japan and was dubbed a hero in this world. And she’s friends with Glass, L’Arc, and Therese. But again, like Naofumi, she found herself in a lot of trouble and was imprisoned until Naofumi saved her.

With all that said, here’s what you might recognize these folks from.

JAPANESE CAST: *Rishia is played by Natsuko Hara

*Éclair is played by Ruriko Aoki (known for Onemine on Komi-san)

*Ost is played by Kana Hanazawa (known for Chloe on Pokemon Journeys, Kanade on Angel Beats, Mayuri on Steins;Gate, Nadeko on Monogatari, Anri on Durarara, Shiemi on Blue Exorcist, and Rize on Tokyo Ghoul)

*Kizuna is played by Miyu Tomita (known for Riko on Made in Abyss, Crim on Interspecies Reviewers, Miko on Kaguya-sama, and Ebisu on Dorohedoro)

ENGLISH CAST: *Rishia is played by Kira Buckland (known for Jolyne on Jojo’s Pt. 6, Beatrice on Re:Zero, Setsuna on Yashahime, Mary on Kakegurui, Izumo on Blue Exorcist, Luculia on Violet Evergarden, and Mitsuri on Demon Slayer)

*Éclair is played by Dawn M. Bennett (known for Yamada on Zombieland Saga, Kale on DB Super, Sister Lily on Black Clover, Frieda on Attack on Titan, Frederica on Re:Zero, and Neiru on Wonder Egg Priority)

*Ost is played by Amber Lee Connors (known for Komi on Komi-san, Pieck on Attack on Titan, Fortuna on Re:Zero, Brandish on Fairy Tail, Kotegawa on To Love Ru, Emi on My Hero Academia, and Mei on Citrus)

*Kizuna is played by Lizzie Freeman (known for Chizuru on Rent-A-Girlfriend, Trish on Jojo’s Pt. 5, Hinata on Tokyo Revengers, Chisato on Lycoris Recoil, Sumire on Love Live Superstar, and Mujika on The Promised Neverland)

LICENSING: Crunchyroll and FUNimation have control over this series. Crunchyroll has been a big driving force with this series. After all, they’re the company that assured us sometime after season one aired (in 2019) that not only were we getting a season two, but a season three. And better yet, they were going to continue giving us dubs as the simulcast began several weeks after the season two premier. Unfortunately, it came upon some grim news about one of the stars. More below!

A BIG CAST CHANGE: I’ll say more on the matter at the end of this review, but as everyone should know by now Billy Kametz is not voicing Naofumi anymore. This is something we have to accept and respect.

Naofumi is now played by Stephen Fu (known for Weather Report on Jojo’s Pt. 6, Douma on Demon Slayer, Henry on Black Clover, Mr. Sawaki on Wonder Egg Priority, and Pax on Mushoku Tensei)

ANY CHANGES IN DISLIKE…

Nope. I still hate Bitch. Kyo can be an ass-hat all he wants this season, but if I see even one second of Slutty Bitch over here, she’s going to be on my hate-radar.

ANYTHING TO ADD WITH SHIPPING: Naofumi always seems to be surrounded by the ladies. But as we all know, Naofumi never once spoke of romance about anyone at any time. He’s got other shit to deal with. No matter how many cute outfits Raphtalia wears or how many hints she drops, we’re not seeing anything this season.

While I’m here, Rishia, girl, please stop with the love for Itsuki. Bro has absolutely no interest in you. He dropped you like a sack of hammers. You can do so much better. You can respect the fact that he saved your life, but other than that just let it go.

ENDING: At the halfway part, Naofumi and his crew were about to take out this asshole named Kyo who was manipulating the spirit tortoise and they were all transported to another world. This world is the place where Glass, L’Arc, and Terese came from as heroes. There, everything is reset for Naofumi. All his stats are back to one, Raphtalia is tiny again, and no one knows where Filo is. Add to this, there’s a wave attack going to occur in one week’s time. At least they know when they’re going to hit here in this new land. But there seems to be a bit of betrayal against the heroes in this land as well. They meet Kizuna, a hero like L’Arc, Terese, and Glass but was being held against her will. After saving her, that ass-hat Kyo is back at it by making shady deals with other ass-hats in this world.

Naofumi was able to rescue Filo, but also lost Raphtalia when she took the brunt of an attack. Raphtalia wound up imprisoned (again) and lost the slave crest that Naofumi bound to her at the very beginning of the series. On the plus side, she was able to seek help from L’Arc and the others and was blessed with a new weapon. She eventually returned to Naofumi and I suppose is seen as a comrade more than a slave. Now to stop Kyo and stop the upcoming waves! As it turns out, Kyo has been trying to find a way to stop waves himself. At least that’s what his childhood friend turned cult follower says.

Now is Kyo a good guy with bad intentions or just a dick? If he’s creating his own waves and unleashing them on the people, I say the latter. Kyo is like Rudeus from Mushoku Tensei if Rudeus was an evil prick. Kyo committed suicide in his previous life (where he was a fat shut-in) and was reincarnated in another world where he can do as he pleased. So he created waves that caused a lot of havoc and killed people to turn them into loyal chimeras. Bro needs a good ass-kicking right about now. Naofumi and crew were able to take out this prick in less than one episode. Let me guess, another rush job?! Okay, let’s see what’s up with the final episode of the season. After killing Kyo, Naofumi’s mission was complete so he and the girls head back to Melromarc. Best of all, they’re no longer in feuds with Glass, L’Arc, or the others. But waves are still a thing and they still have to figure out how to get rid of them. But not for the last episode!

The last episode was as fillery as you could possibly get. You had fanservice, you had a Tom Hanks in Cast Away montage, and sex talk. But they end the episode with Naofumi and the crew honoring their comrade that passed away (Ost). And the anime says it’ll be back, we just don’t know when. Crunchyroll announced there’d be a season 3 two years ago. They didn’t think we’d remember. Pepperidge Farm remembers. At least they gave us a promo poster at Crunchyroll Expo and assured us all that season three is happening.

For someone who didn’t read the light novel, this season didn’t impress me. When I go into an episode asking more questions than getting answers, you know I’m in trouble here. I’m seeing characters socializing with the main characters you don’t remember ever seeing and we get no information about other crucial things (including Rishia). And tell me if I’m wrong but don’t you think Raphtalia’s growth and getting the new sword should have been longer than half an episode? Maybe it’s just me. I think they were trying to smush this entire tortoise arc into a 12-episode season and it just didn’t sit well with many of us fans.

Sorry guys, wasn’t feeling this season. Didn’t really have a fascination with it as much as I did with the first season. That sucks because I gave the first season a glowing review and put it on my top 20 list of best animes of the 2010s. That’s great considering this anime also had one of the worst characters ever created. I guess that’s a blessing with this season as we only had to see Bitch once. Probably best if we all read the light novel’s telling of the tortoise arc. I’m going to hope for a better third season and possibly read up on what happens that the anime neglected to touch upon.

If you do want to venture on to the second season, Crunchyroll has it available for watching in multiple languages.

IN MEMORIUM: When it was announced in April that Billy Kametz was relinquishing all of his roles due to a grim cancer diagnosis, I held out hope that he could beat this thing. Yes, stage four colon cancer is nothing to fuck with, but still! Sadly, this cancer was very aggressive and it wound up taking him faster than anyone could have anticipated. It’s always tragic to lose someone to cancer, but to lose someone so young hits you pretty hard. This guy had so much ahead of him and I betcha he would have gone down as one of the best English voice actors like Johnny Yong Bosch or Crispin Freeman. Hell with that, he was that great! Billy Kametz was one of those people who was loved throughout the entire community. Fellow voice actors always loved working alongside him and fans cherished him with the roles he brought to life. I’ve heard him in several roles including Ren from Pokemon Journeys, Jousuke from the fourth part of Jojo’s, and Metal from Boruto. But the two roles I really loved him in were Aggretsuko and Shield Hero.

In the days following Billy Kametz’s death, I looked at so many responses from his fellow voice actors and was surprised by how much love there was. I’m really upset I never got a chance to meet him at a convention. I think I had an opportunity to see him at Sakura Con in Seattle, but it was cancelled due to Covid. But that didn’t stop me from listening to his performances and they were stellar. In fact, I don’t think I ever hated anything he played. I am going to miss his neurotic Metal Lee. I’m going to miss Ren’s geekiness on Pokemon. I’m going to miss Anai’s rap skills on Aggretsuko. I’m going to miss the style and flare Kametz brought to Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure and Promare. But most of all, I will miss his Naofumi Iwatani. Thanks for bringing all of these roles to life.