#what if i just. played wotr

[americankimchi]

playing rogue trader is immensely fun but i did just get the second season pass of wotr and my mind is constantly telling me to go play the angel mythic path for the first time 😭

[starlightcleric]

No no no no I am *so* close to the end of Divinity: Original Sin 2, I finally made it all the way to Arx again so I can actually finally finish the game, and I feel my interest starting to wane...

[rivilu]

I started making Ellu in the dav cc for fun and. Tell me why I'm tempted to actually play him.

[mukuharakazui]

bg3 is crazy for being a massive $70 larian + wotc collab game whose accessibility menu features subtitles that are present for less than half of all idle character dialogue and almost zero battle dialogue

[dmagedgoods]

Can we cross the lines a little bit and think about Eneas x Sosiel?

How insane does it sound that I think Eneas x Sosiel is a far, far better match than Salvadore x Sosiel? Ohh, Eneas would see this potential in him and challenge him.

I have a scene in mind right away. Eneas quietly demanding that he paints him, then looking at the result with a little smile. It would be beautiful. Flawless. “The next time you attempt to, I expect you to look closer.”

Of course, Sosiel’s Menschenkenntnis (insight regarding people’s intentions, but I use the German word here because you understand it and I never found a satisfying English equivalent) is terrible, so it would take him forever and then some longer to see what Eneas actually is. But they are not in a hurry.

And Eneas would play with him, use his feelings, even his love for his brother, to guide him this way or that, excited for his reactions, what he’ll find in him when he peels away the self-control and looks right into his soul.

I wonder if Sosiel would finally recognize what he’s doing, his true self underneath all the masks and silken words. – If it would be enough to bring out the rage in him, the pain, something more violent underneath. And if it would be so strong and devastating to not only cause fascination in Eneas but heavy guilt as well. He has the talent to notice it too late when he loves, actually loves.

How would the next painting look he does of him? Would it show the truth now? Would it hurt Eneas how his view has changed?

Maybe it would be too late. Or there was never any time at all. Sosiel may despise a creature like Eneas, no matter what … Or would he learn to look even deeper than that? Not only see behind the masks but the truth behind the truth? Something worthy of his love?

Maybe there would be another painting eventually, a third one, in all the colors now, ugly and beautiful.

[fantastic-mr-corvid]

got lots of work done this week, and i feel like treating myself to doing some writing, leaning towards something to continue it makes you hurt the ones who love you at least in spirit but im split between

A- sad ish fic giving context for Conficcares character and specifically why hes such an asshole in hurt the ones who love you [centered around how joining passione was meant to be an opportunity to grow beyond the roles they were forced into but they all failed to make it stick & all ended up going back to old habits & masks]

B- Celia getting her spotlight as a massive cunt, dealing with her giving up Rametto [multi pov of everyone realizing just how far shes willing to go to protect them and reacting badly. no celia pov you just get other peoples perceptions of her and she tears their family apart for 'their own good' and the grief and rage when they realize she was right but it still hurts]

[C- Secret option: work on my numerous wips. lol no]

[celticwoman]

realising my wotr hyperfixation is gone and i havent even finished a single playthrough because for some reason i decided it would be a good idea to buy the last sarkorians and kiss ulbrig. killing myself

[amatres]

just learned about the apparent woljif jealousy lines during a lann romance and i'm being totally normal about it

[rivilu-2-electric-boogaloo]

Ok, this far Underdog is much more fun for me in general combat but Adventurer is much more fun for bossfights

[halamshirals]

[lesbiansforboromir]

Alright, I was holding off for journalistic integrity but now that I've seen the WotR film I can make posts about it without restraint.

Jesus christ the racial politics of this film are atrocious. Some character might as well just tell Wulf 'not to play the race card'. Wulf is a liberal snowflake who blames racism for all his troubles and can't pull himself up by his bootstraps and he is also brown-skinned and obsessively pursues our PORCLAIN white dainty-drawn female protagonist with both romantic and murderous intent. Oppression of dunlendings by the Rohirrim exists only in Wulf's head apparently, though it can be tasted in every spat 'dunlending' perjorative that comes from Helm or Haleth's mouth. But Hera has absolutely no racism within her of course! She refuses Wulf because she doesnt want to marry anyone and Wulf just assumes it's because his dunlending blood disgusts her, so entitled of him!

But also maybe the racism is '''justified'''? If it exists? Which it doesn't! But IF it did, don't worry because ONCE AGAIN all the dunlendings are just greedy, clutching, unwashed, skull wearing, violent barbarians with no unique culture to speak of and no reasons to be making war on Rohan except to sieze what isn't theirs (ignoring the fact that it totally was theirs until Rohan seized it from them and OH BOY are we ignorin' that) And the only dunlending we see not frothing at the mouth for violence or showing any introspective depth at all is General Targg who is the mouthpiece with which we get to hear 'the girl (Hera) is right' whereupon he is promptly killed by Wulf.

Oh but of course, what else could Helm have done? Freca was some greedy FAT man (boy does everyone love calling him fat, happy to lean into THAT aspect of canon) whose lands were too prosperous for his own good (hang on isn't keeping your lands prosperous the platonic ideal of lordship?) And he called a 'Witan' (no he didn't, he came to one of the regular councils of lords that Helm called himself) just to make a scene about how Helm was going to marry Hera to a lord of gondor which is bad because Gondor has some nebulous hold over Rohan so Hera should marry Wulf instead (literally none of that, Freca simply asked Helm to wed his daughter to Wulf, his son, a completely normal and legitimate political strategy to secure a better relationship with the King's family since Helm already mistrusted him for having dunlending blood. Freca is a lord of Rohan, he is rich, he traces his ancestry back to King Freawine, this could not be a more reasonable suggestion in canon.)

SO OBVIOUSLY Helm had to get angry and call Freca fat again (true he did do that) and THEN claim that Freca only wanted his throne (there was never any suggestion of this in the books, it was just the offer of marriage which insulted Helm) to which Freca answered "Old kings that refuse a proffered staff may fall on their knees," and Helm is like okay lets take this outside.

And now THIS change is actually so important in understanding the extreme nature of the Rohir/Helm favouritism that is the main focus of this film. In the film Helm pretty much immediately takes Freca outside, he reassures Frealaf that Freca just needs to be shown his place, this is the only way to settle the matter, if he doesn't embarass him here then Freca will try to take his crown and slay his family apparently, his hunch ig etc etc. Freca punches Helm three times in full view of the whole of Edoras including Freca's two men who came with him, then Helm punches him back and he is knocked out cold and dead by the time he hits the ground. Film!Helm does not realise he has done this and tells Freca to get up, Wulf realises his father is dead and threatens Helm with revenge, swords are draw against him which he tries to calm before Wulf attacks him. Helm incapacitates Wulf, his sons draw THEIR swords and Helm exiles Wulf for drawing his sword on his king. Messy right? Like not a good thing to do, generally brawling with your lords is a bad idea full stop, but if you fear for the lives of your children then idk maybe it's excusable? And then it's just an unfortunate series of events right? And Freca was rude and insulting to a king in his own halls, heat of the moment etc etc

I feel so comfortable in telling you that Helm murders Freca in cold blood in the books, fully intending that to be the outcome.

He does not take him outside initially, Book!Helm tells Freca that this marriage dispute isn't important and they will deal with it later. And then;

When the council was over, Helm stood up and laid his great hand on Freca’s shoulder, saying: "The king does not permit brawls in his house, but men are freer outside"; and he forced Freca to walk before him out from Edoras into the field. To Freca’s men that came up he said: "Be off ! We need no hearers. We are going to speak of a private matter alone. Go and talk to my men!" And they looked and saw that the king’s men and his friends far outnumbered them, and they drew back. "Now, Dunlending," said the king, "you have only Helm to deal with, alone and unarmed. But you have said much already, and it is my turn to speak. Freca, your folly has grown with your belly. You talk of a staff! If Helm dislikes a crooked staff that is thrust on him, he breaks it. So!" With that he smote Freca such a blow with his fist that he fell back stunned, and died soon after. Helm then proclaimed Freca’s son and near kin the king’s enemies; and they fled, for at once Helm sent many men riding to the west marches.

(Appendices, 'The House of Eorl', emphasis mine)

I think we can all agree that forcing someone out of your city, isolating them away from their fellows with threats of violence, telling them you will break them, killing them in one blow and then proclaiming their kin your enemies and forcing them to flee to escape a murderous pursuit, is pretty clearly premeditated murder. There is not much nuance here, Freca tresspassed over a line with Helm that Dunlendings are not allowed to cross and Helm killed him for it.

And listen like, the description of this whole story within the appendices is barely more than three pages. This is not an obscure missable aspect of the tale, nor is it outside of what rights they had to adapt. The choice was made, actively, ONCE AGAIN by the Warner Bros cinematic universe makers, to drastically alter book events in order to sand down any immorality within Rohan's narrative, especially where the Dunlendings are concerned. And in the end the only 'mistake' Helm is allowed to learn and grow from is some nebulous and trite 'not believing enough in his daughter' schpiel, which needs to be the subject of a whole 'nother post actually.

And what's agonising is they COULD have done it like they were so close, there are multiple moments where me and my friend watching were like struck!! With grief! Over how impactful this moment could have been if only the racism actually existed as an acknowledged theme in the story. If only it was something Hera had to come to terms with, if only IT was the true driver of these horrors to the point where it's Avatar, Hera's father, a man who loves her and whom she has loved all her life, turns into a cold icey ghost of brutality, far more vicious and barbaric than the people he so reviles, and reveals to her the terrible truth of his actions and motivations. It's agony I tell you.

Anyway I did not like the film.

[resart]

Wrath of the Righteous features a roster of splendidly written and enjoyable companions, but the majority of their interactions are, sadly, easily missable on individual playthroughs. A collection of camping banter made by the amazing @neverwintrians remedies this issue to some extent by making some of the dialogues easily accessible for all the players. Since the characters’ input goes much further, a good while ago, I started a project to record all their comments and interjections. The idea was to copy-paste them from the localization file into a convenient spreadsheet. Since a new wave of players pick Pathfinder games after playing Baldur’s Gate 3, and we have more DLCs on the way to reignite the interest of the old fans, I figured it’s about time for me to share the results so far. Whether you want to use it for all sorts of analyses, as an inspiration or a reference for fan content, are simply curious, or want to get a few laughs: here you go.

Now, a few notes to keep in mind.

The data is still incomplete. My current playthrough goes very leisurely, and I only finished Act 3 recently. Almost everything past this point, save for some crucial parts of the story I revisited, comes from the run during which I wasn’t yet using Toy Box. I intend to continue slowly patching the holes as I go on, but please take what you see in the later chapters with a grain of salt for now (and don't expect to see Ulbrig's lines there).

Having that said, the branching, especially in later acts, gets crazy, so naturally, I wasn’t and won’t be able to find every last bit of dialogue on my own. What you see is based on my Angel playthrough, in which I haven’t even activated most of the romances. I managed to cheat my way into some interactions that normally would be unavailable to me, but the results were mostly confusing. Cells highlighted in yellow contain dialogues that I found via game files but either have some of the information missing, or I simply wasn’t able to trigger them while playing. There are also red cells that include lines that, to my knowledge, might not have been implemented since I found them in localization files, but the blueprints folder doesn’t confirm their presence in the game.

So here’s where I have a request for you all. If anyone can help me fill in the already existing blanks or spots a dialogue is missing and can provide a screenshot or a transcript of it, please contact me. I will add it to the document and credit you. All I need to know is when and where the conversation occurs, what/who the companions are reacting to, and if there are any specific requirements to see it.

The areas of special interest are:

mythic path exclusive interactions,

romance exclusive lines (especially in Acts 4 and 5),

Greybor’s, Arueshalae’s, and Lich companions’ lines during the celebration in Heaven’s Edge

late game dialogues for corrupted Arueshalae

I also want to thank GardathWhiterock from Pathfinder reddit, who advised me to look into the blueprints folder. Once I figured out how to work with it, filling up the majority of the blanks became super easy.

I will most likely edit this post in the future to note some important updates and milestones. For now, I just hope you guys will find anything of interest in what I have gathered.

[katrina37973]

Thoughts on WOTR Part 1/?

I had the joy of watching this in the cinemas with my friend and both of us deeply deeply enjoyed it.

TLDR: Good solid movie with compelling characters and story. Excellent homage to Tolkein. It's not pretending to be anything but an addition to the current Legendarium, an insight to a period of history which has very little actually written about (canonically at least).

Apologies for horrible grammar and spelling in advance. The following's just my thoughts on Helm, Hera, Wulf and Targg.

Spoilers for The War of the Rohirrim. It's a long one.

Helm Hammerhand

Really liked how they depicted his hot-headedness and his love for his children. I jsut adore parent and children bonds, and the weight of his love was so very clear. The whole thing was so very tragic, seeing two of your children killed and the third probably awaiting a worse fate? Tragic, absolutely tragic but so fun to watch. His temper is something that sort of parallels Wulf I think. There's a line there somewhere but I can't really voice it yet, maybe it just needs a little more time to stew.

It was a little unexpected for him to exile Wulf; it felt strange as while it was a rash decision, and while that fits his character, it didn't really make sense? From the brief sense of the culture of Rohan, it seemed family and strong relationships were extremely valued which made him purposefully exiling Wulf strange as a) it basically is an invitation to hate Helm with reason and b) he’s aged and, set up to be, wise in terms of battle and strategy which means surely, surely he would have realised the moment he said it that this would come to bite him back? This points a bit of a nitpick, but I can't help wonder if they went the way of self-exile for Wulf, what that would have changed in terms of storytelling. 

Another thing that sorta applies to other characters too is how they depicted the time passing. Originally when the narrator says ‘seasons past yet no sign of Wulf appeared’ thing, Helm looked exactly the same as he did in the beginning which was his hair. If they made him grey-haired, then it would be easier to show the time passing eg, give white streaks throughout hair; in addition to this, you could have had his entire hair white in Hornburg to emphasise the extent of his grief. Might even help play with the whole wraith arc. 

Speaking of which, the wraith-arc was excellent, I loved how they incorporated that view from ordinary people into it, it really sold the power and influence Helm had on his people and his enemies. The thing I really didn't like/felt negatively about but understood was how he immediately became this tough, muscled fit person especially so soon after being depicted as a gaunt, skeleton, shell of a man due to his grief. It doesn't make sense narratively too as it disrupts the whole thing about being trapped and supplies dwindling low in Hornburg. Unless he stole from Wulf’s army but still, the timeline is a little confusing and his sudden supernatural strength (despite being human) to go toe to toe with a troll broke the immersion a little. 

I'm just a sucker for those story-telling narrations okay? Those implications of this becoming a legend, a myth retold again and again, there's just something about a legacy well left behind that tickles my fancy.

Hera

Loved her whole character arc except, EXCEPT, her fucking hair. I don’t mind her clothes, though her rider outfit, the one that strongly reminds me of Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff, was a little too modern aesthetic. 

Starting off good/strong, I love the fact they didn’t change her thoughts on marriage. I was apprehensive for a long time throughout the movie because that’s usually how it goes, that there should be an arc, a start and an end which differs from that start belief but thank all that it didn’t go that through. She feels very ace-coded to me, the whole I'm married to nothing but death? Gorgeous. I might be a little biased here tho. 

I adore how they show her intelligence and strength. The way they subtly used her skill/knowledge with horses to set up Hama’s finale was gold. I would have loved to see more of her with her horse, and the bond they had, like short stories where she travels throughout the land before nad after the events of the movie. Just the whole movie had excellent writing and storytelling. The way they had side characters like Lief and Olwyn, build each other up is such a simple but effective way. It felt very grounded, that they had a lot of history and respect for each other. It didn't feel like any side characters were missing potential/felt out of place.

Her intelligence was not in your face, not arrogant and forced and random long tirades which I adored. As much as I loved BBC Sherlock, the way they depicted his intelligence was iffy and I’m glad they didn't go that route for Hera. I don't think I have any specific scenes in mind, just overall excellent storytelling with her. Minus that one scene where she was captured by General Targg and grunts, lass you had a sword in your belt and you’re beating your hands against the man’s back? I guess shock and adrenaline and all but it felt really weird and slightly out of character. (Unless I’m remembering wrong, I hope that’s the reason)

Now, I know this is done by a Japanese company and thus has strong ties to anime (and thus main character hair syndrome), but really? Really? I can’t get over her hair. Why would you make it red? Sure you can argue her mothers could be red-haired and that her brothers had a different mother, but what does that do but detract from the storytelling? Moments such as her brother's deaths could have been made more moving (not that it wasn't, I teared up during Hama’s scene so much, just the way the music is so mournful and muted compared to previous loud battle scenes and thundering hooves, the bond he has with his old mare, ah that scene was a masterpiece). It not only visually ties her to her family more strongly, but it signals visually the transfer of the line of kings to Frealaf. I just think it was such a missed opportunity. 

Actually, now that I thinking more, I really adore how she knows Wulf so well. Especially in that last battle, the way she purposefully pushes all his buttons, and fighting in a wedding dress? Any other movie I would be thinking distasteful thoughts but here? Beautiful shock but understandable. She’s been shown to fight before, she has access to armour (ill-fitting though they may be) but instead of acting sensible like Wulf probably expects, she trades defensive for psychological warfare and hell yeah, it rocks. The whole wedding dress was pointless and taunting and by Gods it was lovely.

A tiny nitpick but understandable why the producers did this; I like it when shows/movies show grime and tears on clothing to show the journey they went through but I understand animations long and time-consuming and really keeping track of all the rips and tears would be a such a pain.

Wulf

I love his design okay? He’s the typical bad/angsty lad and it's a stereotype that works for a reason. His character stays amazingly consistent, he’s so fixated on Hera and his vengeance and the lengths he goes for it, terrifying in the best way possible. While the inciting incident was his father's death, I think it came through quite strongly that that wasn’t the true reason why he continued on his attack. Someone else probably has already made a detailed explanation and breakdown so I‘ll leave this part be.

Other than that I don't have much strong feeling on him? Its a little strange, I appreciate him as a character but it doesn't really invoke in me anything strong. Good character set up with their childhood flashback where he gets the scar due to his loss of temper, good consistent decision made with reckless abandon.

General Targg

Okay, not gonna lie, this is my favourite character, besides Olwyn and Hera. Like dude’s doing his best and making so very sensible suggestions and he keeps getting ignored. He keeps getting ignored. He’s a strong, experienced veteran who served under Wulf’s father, probably knows Wulf since a young age and he’s doing his damn best to keep Wulf alive and satisfied (I would say happy but I think that’s not quite possible) despite the hilariously stupid decisions Wulf keeps making. I use the word hilarious because it is. Especially from Targg’s POV. This leads to the thing I’m most confused about; why did Targg stay? What is his motive here? In the end he’s killed by Wulf himself, despite him being a reasonable commander who had supported Wulf all this time. While it enforces Wulf’s character, it feels really strange to never see why Targg stays on the same side especially when Wulf makes a whole bunch of strategic blunders. It might be loyalty to father, loyalty to son thing but I dunno, I wish they had a scene or dialogue that just gives us a bit more info. Like, looking back the only reason Wulf is not as banged up as he should be with that personality and temper of his, is that Targg there’s to soothe things over and manage strategic decisions. I’m not saying Wulf’s stupid, he’s is smart and clever but you cannot convince me that Wulf would not antagonise (purposefully or accidentally) would be allies and Targg would have to play diplomat.

Honestly I think he and Olwyn would be those type who would meet in a bar/tavern and trade good stories with good (or shitty) drinks between them, and probably also complain about idiots who get themselves into trouble all the time. They're like the duo who could and absolutely would look at each other in a situation over their fighting charges, have their eyes meet and say get a load of this bullshit. Honestly, Targg didn’t get what he deserved, man really got betrayed while doing nothing but what he did for the entire movie, AKA making reasonable suggestions. 

Side notes, I really liked the depiction of horses in Rohan. Like the bond all Rohans had for horses. There were so many scenes where I was thinking, and getting annoyed, go on kill that horse and kill its rider, like the easiest way to kill a man, get their horse to kill them for you. But then I was like, but this is Rohan. Their crazy about horses (or at least what I know, the little I do of Rohan) so it absolutely would make sense for them to not treat their horses as meat shields. Their whole country/state is (probably) based on horses and travelling place to place so while it would make economic and practical sense to keep as many horses alive as possible, I think its just neat if it’s their culture that influences this decision.

[ravel-puzzlewell]

Hi! Do you mind elaborating on what you meant by "tiefling politics" on that wotr vs bg3 post? Just curious, ignore if you want

its about the fact that bg3 has a lot of tiefling characters, somehow more than wotr, and huge theme of like hells and connections to demons\devils and somehow manages to say absolutely nothing interesting about it.

in wotr we have examination of tieflings fitting into human society, ostracization and (literal) demonization of them, where even if some of them would want to help in war against hell, they are scared (frex, group of tieflings thieves you save which you can ask to help u and they are like are u kidding me, crusaders will torch us). woljif in particular is a deconstruction of selfish chaotic neutral tielfling rogue archetype, his story both exploring how both he was pushed into being a criminal bc he had no other options, but also interplay with how he then himself tends to dismiss his own agency in being able to decide for himself and choose better, forever excusing himself with "well this is a crappy hand dealt to me", his survivalist attitude of everyone for themselves vs desire for community, how when given a smidge of stability and access to decision making in council, he tries to awkwardly, but eagerly advocate for societal improvement for all tieflings, and this is one of his most sincere moments - and gets laughed at immediately, etc etc. and speaking of community, v interesting intersection between "good" and "bad" marginalized groups of mongrels vs tieflings, with Lann being self-righteous about both his moral superiority and how mongrels "have it worse", while ignoring that mongrels - and he himself specifically - are mistreated literally bc they are mistaken for tieflings.

btw if anyone wants me to talk more about mongrels vs tieflings thing, hit me up, i think there was a interesting stuff, even if not properly dramatized

meanwhile in bg3 being tiefling largely means nothing? like the refugees would sometimes like drop a line out loud about how tieflings should stick together bc humans won't help them, but like that's it. the refugees could literally be humans running from war or blue cat ppl from avatar running from capitalism and nothing in the plot or characters would need to be changed. tieflings is just cosmetics for them, like idk its cool to have colorful NPCs with fire eyes and sexy horns. And even companions wise, you know I love Karlach and tried to romance her, but being tiefling is just looks for her, its not meaningful. It doesn't matter for her backstory, she could have been a strong human from poor background who was sold out to idk, underdark. like it sucked bc she was forced to do violence and everyne was an asshole and she couldn't see sun, but otherwise it being Blood War specifically doesn't come into play. and like. Blood War has famously huge effects on ppl with hell heritage! I'm not saying she should have been Valen Shadowbreath with entire plotline about struggling with blood war calling, but like. idk, something?

my point is that tieflings and hell has a lot of lore and like, FLAVOUR in this setting, which were not explored at all. these are just ppl with horns and generic Bad Place.

and then like. devil essentialism. bg3 has central motive of how evil races are not ontologically evil, but like, devils are. sdfghjk. apparentely mind flayers can fight actual mind control if they are V Special, but all devils/demons are evil with no exceptions. karlach was in hell for 10 years and never met a single sympathetic devil. the closest one he had mocks IS Evil when we meet her in game. and I actually liked Raphael (transition could've saved her), but there is nothing particularily interesting about him, he's also straighforwardly evil. this severely limits how interesting interactions with hell are. in wotr there is a wide range from reformed succubus to most evil sadists, with every shade in between, which allows for complex stories, like that that fucked up love between that betrayer dwarf and demoness who seduced him. she's legit evil, but she also has actual twisted affection for him, and he knows she uses him, but he was pushed too far by humans and chooses her anyway. this background story is honestly has more depth than wyll's and mizora relationship, where shes just evil and he's straighforwardly martyr. when mizora offered to have fun wink wink, i immediately knew she's gonna Evil It. and she did. and she didn't even get anything out of it! it was just staining your soul to be evil:3 like ok, but boring tbh.

and like yeah war with hell is central plot of wotr, obviously it has a lot more to say and explore about it, but like. bg3 didn't HAVE to have to include so many tieflings and have us follow their stories through all acts. it didn't have to include hell in "no race essentialism" game if it didn't want to talk about it. it chose to, and when game has big chuncks of content about smth connected by a theme, i expect it to say smth about it? anything interesting? eh.

btw, this is not to say i think wotr's writing is perfect, far from it, i can talk for ages of my problems with that game's writing, but this initial phrase was from shitposts specifically comparng things in wotr to bg3, so

[thatoneblogthere]

Advice wanted on dealing with Combat Slog

What I mean by combat slog is often a traditional D&D or Pathfinder (can be other systems too, frequently turn-based with larger numbers of combatants) combat encounter will be fun at first, but after a number of encounters, I am doing a routine attack sequence and then stuck waiting for the party or enemies to do their turns.

I want to be able to say this is an attitude problem, and it might be, but I’ve always felt this more acutely when playing rpg video games, thinking of games like Pathfinder: Kingmaker, WotR, Rogue Trader, Baldur’s Gate 3, hell even my beloved Pillars of Eternity. But I also feel it playing D&D, Pathfinder, Starfinder, etc., with friends too.

Despite being the sort of person who will sit down and have fun making character builds specialized for combat, maybe I just don’t enjoy traditional combat that much.

Often it feels like combats are present as a time fill to prevent from getting to something interesting too quickly, especially egregious when having to fight through a number of distinct groups of enemies to be able to continue a conversation, that once again leads to more combat encounters.

Anyone else have this problem or have any advice?

[rannadylin]

Veilguard: Ranna's Rook intros!

Waaaay back in November, I might have posted a time or two about my first Rook? Since then I've been a bit distracted from Tumblr by, uh, playing three more of them. XD I just started the fifth playthrough so I'd better pop in and show some Rooks off before I get too far into this one and forget how to blog again!

Possibly mild spoilers to follow along with pretty pictures and very brief summaries beneath the cut...

Caeda Mercar, Shadow Dragon rogue who romanced Lucanis (alas, yes, she saved Treviso at the expense of her home Minrathous! worth it. She did also flirt a bit with Davrin early on when Lucanis was still being shy about it, but basically I started the game thinking I'd probably romance Emmrich and then Lucanis spited right out of that Ossuary cell and through a gaggle of Venatori in five seconds flat and Caeda went all heart eyes and set her cap for him irrevocably.) Started out more of an archer rogue (usually one of my favorite DA playstyles) but halfway through she started leaning more toward daggers. We'll assume that was her favorite Crow's influence. (Or that Ranna was figuring out how to play XD)

After Caeda I jumped straight back into CC to make...

Veryl Ingellvar, Mourn Watch mage who romanced Emmrich. Whereas Caeda had the first-playthrough honor of just picking whatever dialogue options I felt like at the time, so she had a pretty broadly mixed personality, this one specialized in what, in ages past, we would've called Blue Hawke personality. :-D Very golden-retriever, Miss Positivity, etc. (She reminded me of Violet Itzli sometimes. :-D) I thought she'd be a staff mage but then I fell in love with orb & dagger so she did a lot of that too, though not as much as the yet to come 4th playthrough would...

Next up we have:

Akish Thorne, Grey Warden Warrior who started out sword & board (throwing shields is fun!) and switched to mostly two-hander (when I realized you can still throw the shield even when you're not apparently holding one!). He romanced Bellara (who reminded me of Yolotli Itzli from the moment I met her :-D ...Akish is not exactly Anselm though), and if Veryl was a Blue Hawke Rook, Akish was mostly Red Hawke, except for being a big softie whenever it came to Bel. (Also, for his endgame I played through once with Neve doing the wards on Tearstone and then again with Bellara and...I like that second one better. Oh the narrative parallels between him being a blighted Warden and then seeing Bellara get blighted but survive it too! Also I like Bel better for that part of endgame in general; it's a bit of character development - her moving from seeming more of an innocent to someone who has survived something pretty massive and draws strength from it to save the day in the end! - that she just needs more than Neve does.)

Other than Bellara, Akish's favorite thing in the world is griffons. :-D Also his eyes are supposedly violet though the screenshots make it hard to tell.

I had plans to play an Adaar Inquisitor in DAI but never got around to that playthrough before burnout hit so Akish is my first Qunari OC and I had such fun with him!

Next up: I just finished playing Rook Number Four:

Arucari "Rook" De Riva. Yes, Rook is short for Arucari. :-D She romanced Lucanis because, um, it appears that he is my Daeran for this game (i.e. I played WOTR 7 times through one summer and romanced Daeran for three of them. Guess I've got at least one more Lucanis romance to go this time around. XD) She is a mage because I missed playing as a spellblade, and a Crow because it is technically the Crow Spellblade specialization, and because I wanted to see how romancing Lucanis with another Crow went. (Conclusion: It went spectacularly! She was such fun.) She was my Purple Hawke girl, always teasing and deflecting with humor anytime things are awkward, but also generally positive beneath that. Also she got extra-large eyes in homage to DA2 elves. :-D Here is a better view of them:

She is an excellent Crow. No one ever expects assassination from anything this cute.

And last but not least...

Linza Laidir is my 5th playthrough, just barely begun! Go Team Dwarf. :-D (Team Dwarven Rogues, to be specific! We gained a Neve just after this screenshot and dear Neve has never looked so tall, being surrounded by Children of the Stone.) Don't know yet if she will be more of an archer rogue or a daggers rogue, whichever lends itself more to Gold and Glory, of course! Not sure yet about her personality (probably swinging between Blue and Red Hawke types? She did beat up everyone in the bar to get Neve Gallus' location, whereas most of my Rooks have talked the bartender down. But I think despite a knack for highly effective violence she's also a sweet little Team Mom who will be teaming up with Lucanis and Bellara for the cooking. And probably romancing Davrin. (Was I inspired by Antoine & Evka's elf/dwarf dynamic? No comment.)

So clearly I'm enjoying Veilguard overall, and from the factions & romances I've played so far, I rank them as follows:

Grey Warden

Crow

Shadow Dragon

Mourn Watcher

And...

Lucanis <3

Bellara

Emmrich

Which. Considering I went into the first playthrough expecting to fall for Emmrich, is interesting to see how it actually played out so far! Also, clearly I need to play a Warden for my third Lucanis romance, right? :-D