#swap to casters or a two-handed warrior

[edgeofsilverpineforest]

Cont. from Below (Post #7)

Sparrows

“Where is the signal?” “Look.”

Feather Three pointed to a small clearing ahead for Feather Two to discover Shadow Sparrow in combat, surrounded by an icy landscape.

“Oh shit!” “Let’s do this?” “Yep. It’s time.”

The two lept forward among the trees, realizing that most of the fire was centered over the Worgen front line. They began climbing lower among the branches and looking for targets after drawing their small crossbows. Feather Two took aim and pulled on the trigger. He felt the slight recoil while pulling back on the crank and notching the next bolt, all in the same action. When his first bolt claimed its target, a small explosion went off. The Worgen’s shoulder burst, spreading gore all around to reveal inside organs (including its beating heart).

Feather Three loosed a larger bolt that opened up to capture a Worgen inside a barbed net. As soon as the warrior struggled, the barbs took hold and dug in deep. With each tug or attempt to gain freedom, the sharp curves embedded among the net’s webbing sought to slice further along the Worgen’s flesh. Laced with some of the Shadow Sparrow’s poison, the Worgen’s blood poured out more than anticipated, which sent the warrior into a panicked frenzy. By the time Feather Three had another netted bolt in place, the Worgen’s struggles had halted. 

—

Left Wing repositioned stealthfully, gaining a new line of sight with the addition of the fires falling from the treetops. Their main sniper required shelter from the rainfall, and the sighters needed a wider range to call out potential targets. A large pine provided natural refuge on top of a rocky rise. There were plenty of lookout notches to reposition to keep the enemy guessing once shots resumed. 

“Swapping ammo.”

“The fun shit?” “Yea. Azerite should break the ranks further. Try spotting the casters. Then the berzerkers.” 

“You got it.”

Within moments, the arcane sniper peered through her unique scope and down the barrel at one of the targets. Just as her finger pulled on the trigger, the Worgen turned to peer back at her precise location. “Fuck!” “Did he just….” “Yeah.” “Won’t it still….” All of Left Wing pulled their heads down and waited for the azerite bullet to hit, that is, if it did. 

Worgen Front Line

Haywood blinked and took in the scene around him. A fallen Worgen lay dead in a web. Another bled to death with half his torso gone. Several appeared to be bleeding to death from self-inflicted wounds. And still, the forest burned, raining down branches from above. He could feel something occurring within him, some unseen affliction warring with the Worgen’s ability to heal. His blood felt near boiling as it fought to keep him standing, to remain alive. Even as his heart pounded inside his chest, his feet felt heavy with each step. Whatever this enemy had hit them with was unlike anything he’d ever known. Was it a spell? Maybe if he got past the boundary….

Movement caught his attention to the right through the tree line.

“Over there,” Haywood pointed his axe before stepping forward. A sizeable clawed hand reached across his chest, barring his advancement. Ears pointed upwards inquisitively at the gesture when the ground suddenly burst open, and a figure appeared, attacking. Haywood lifted his battle axe and issued a warning growl. The two beside him roared. One pounded their fists together while the other swept their club toward the night elf. 

Sparrows

Feather Four had waited as long as they could, but the smoke lingering across the ground had begun reaching them. The first footfalls that approached drew the first from the earth, a distraction to catch them off, guard. It apparently worked, as only one of the three massive Worgen took a swipe at him. Retreating backward, the first Feather Four barely missed having his ribcage cracked to pieces. The second Feather Four eased from the ground with blade drawn, behind the three Worgen unaware. Crouched low, he quickly ran the line and his blade across the back of their legs to render their mobility useless. A clean swipe sent blood splattering all across the ground, and the second Feather Four moved out of sight. 

Feather Four number one pointed his palms toward the three and lifted his hands upwards. Now that the sacrifice had been made and blood had been spilled, vines rose from the ground, entangling along the three Worgen’s legs and torsos. Thorns sprang forth, digging into the massive warriors before him, protecting him from them. He saw Feather Four two had taken cat form and positioned himself strategically should any of them gain their freedom from his brambles. 

“Time for us to add to the light show,” he muttered, calling down beams of painful Starfire onto the three Worgen. When their cries were not loud enough, “Again,” he whispered. Theo had brought druids of his own. 

—

When the mechanical sparrows returned to their roost and all were accounted for, one of the Feather Sixs sent a bird call to signal for a mount. The pair loaded up the small caged crate, and away the mount went. With hands now free, they took out binoculars to measure the state of the field below. They gave themselves a full minute to take in the chaotic state of the Worgen, the location of their fellow Sparrows, and the battle the Shadow Sparrow was in before putting the binoculars away and exchanging a shared look. 

Setting off, they descended the slope and headed to circle behind the Worgen front line. Their secondary job was clean-up crew: to kill those in retreat or Worgen hanging on to life. 

<<to be continued>>

[toomuchdickfort]

*sits in Merrill’s house to put off getting back to the plot*

[dailycharacteroption]

Esoteric Starseeker (Psychic Archetype)

 We’ve talked a bit about fantasy astrology on the blog here and there, but now it’s time to cover an archetype that actually mentions the constellations of the Varisian “zodiac” by name, the Esoteric Starseeker!

While diviners of many disciplines have used these constellations and other celestial bodies to make predictions for thousands of years, the symbology of each sign can be tapped into those with mastery of psychic magic, granting additional power each day as these psychics tap into different signs each day to suit their needs.

Though the powers of this technique are tied specifically to drawing power from the signs, I imagine that most also actually make a living off making such predictions and horoscopes, making a little side money while adventuring, or perhaps being diviners to royalty.

In any case, their power and flexibility cannot be denied, and many might manifest brief visions of the constellations they are currently invoking when using these powers.

 Those these psychics still follow a discipline, instead of drawing spells from it, they instead choose a constellation each night to focus on, which determines what spells they have access to each day. As they gain mastery, they can draw upon two constellations at once, picking and choosing which spells to take from each. However, as a tradeoff of tapping into different spells each day, they choose a school of magic each day to weaken their connection to, forcing them to take more time to cast such spells that day.

The constellations are as follows

The Thrush, which is seen as a herald and therefore associated with travel and the transmission of information. As such, it grants spells that facilitate communication, let them speak remotely through planted messages or dreams, create shelters from the elements, gain impressions of distant locations or locate things from afar, link minds with another, create doors where none exist, and bend reality.

The Lantern-Bearer, depicted as either a serpentine angel or lillend azata, is a guide and a protector. It’s spells free others from imprisonment, conjure all manner of glittering lights to dazzle and harm foes, magically guide the user back to a location, see past all deception, take on a form of vibrations, and even call down meteors to destroy foes.

The Newlyweds, depicting a pair of intertwined scarves or a couple eager to slip away for privacy, representing devotion and new beginnings. It grants spells to charm, enthrall, overwhelm with raw emotion, as well as break enchantments, reincarnate the slain in new forms, and even appear in two different places at once.

The Bridge represents transition to new destinations. It grants the psychic magic of protection, ranging from resisting environmental extremes and the elements, creating light in dark places, creating personal shields against heat and cold, walls of force, projecting fiery magic that spreads from foe to foe, inverting gravity, creating extradimensional refuges, and animating the terrain to carry them far.

The Daughter is a light-hearted dancer and first to cross the bridge, representing the coming of spring and warmth. It brings with it spells of positive emotion, bolstering allies with vigor, overcoming foes with fascinating light, sleep, or uncontrolled dancing, freeing allies from mundane or supernatural bonds, and even forcing foes to swap places with you as if they were swept up in a dance.

The Rider watches over the caravan and is either a savage warrior or a boisterous reveler. It grants many methods to sense incoming danger, ward the caster with layers of force or swirling blades, catch foes with a mighty hand of force, intimidate foes with raw malice, and even transform into living lightning.

The Patriarch guides the caravan through danger. The spells it grants include those that force a surge of authority on foes, conjure weapons of force to attack foes, dispel harmful magic, send warriors rocketing forward into the fight, ask for guidance from beyond or the path forward, guide other directly, or even open portals to other planes, securing a path forward or calling forth a mighty ally.

The Wagon carries the other signs forward, without it the metaphor of the cosmic caravan would not be able to progress. It grants magic of transportation and speed, ranging from acceleration to distorting space, to teleportation, as well as becoming fluid like, or even stopping time for a brief moment.

The Pack is a group of beasts, and may be loyal hounds or predators depending on the interpretation. Either way, they grant spells of altering animal behavior, various forms of animal shapeshifting, bolstering might, and ways to conjure bestial allies.

The Mother offers comfort and sustenance as winter approaches. It grants spells of aid, as well as those that recognize the true nature of things, ward against physical or mystical harm, prepare magic ahead of time, teleport someone to a safe location, or provide a barrier that suppresses magic.

The Stargazer is sometimes a fool, sometimes a prophet, and always searches for new wonders. This constellation grants a multitude of divination spells, as well as magic to suppress the mind or force compliance, and even the ability to travel through dreams.

The Stranger represents an unknown figure, someone who crosses path with the caravan for good or ill. It provides multiple ways to hide oneself, to see from afar, trap foes in extradimensional traps, and divide one’s attention.

Finally, the Follower, the constellation with the dimmest stars, represents death, the constant companion on the journey through life. It grants spells of quiet, darkness, fear, and life draining, as well as transport through shadows and the creation of illusory duplicates.

With all of this power, it’s no wonder that these psychics learn major amplifications later than others.

The various constellations of the Cosmic Caravan offer a quite versatile version of the psychic, with essentially 12 different sets of bonus spells to choose from each day, though obviously they can only pick and choose so much with their limitations. If you’re looking for a flavorful way to make your psychic character more versatile, this archetype may be for you. Just remember that you lose out on a few phrenic amplifications, so take that into account with your build.

 The constellations that form the Cosmic Caravan are all very iconic options (Though technically not an actual zodiac, as there’s like what, one animal on the whole thing? Zodiac literally means “wheel of animals”) But what if you’re playing in a completely different setting with different constellations? In that case, you may have to homebrew or reflavor them appropriately.

  When she was a child, most wrote off Ilgia the ganzi as a lost cause, her mind unable to focus on any of the lessons they tried to teach her. However, this changed when she looked to the stars, which she became fascinated by, learning how to achieve focus with the constellations in her heart and mind.

 Though normally disinterested in the stars, the leprechauns of Blue Eye Marches are famed for a mystical brew made in part by infusing the liquor with starlight and moonlight. Eager to explore the legend, a psychic by the name of Talvatz wishes to partake of the magical drink, certain it will work well with his combined discipline of stargazing and mind-warping substances.

 In the nation of Kelbeross, the king Kelbus is feared for his erratic moods, having not one dark half due to the nature of his psychic power, but 12, one for each constellation he draws from. Each one seems to have it’s own agenda, and in those rare times when he is fully himself, he struggles to accommodate them. In truth he only wishes to be understood.

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #199

Today on Fate and Phantasms we're making the Jotaro Kujo of FGO, Semiramis! (Seriously, how does that cape/hair... thing work? It's wild.) The queen of poisons is a Graviturgy Wizard to make building a floating castle slightly less difficult to make and cooler to live in, plus a Witherbloom Druid for some dove friends and extra poisons. If you've seen our builds for Waver and Edison, you might know already that building things with magic is costly and time-consuming, and for once that is 100% accurate to the character. Get ready, this is gonna be a weird one.

Check out her build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here!

Next up: I'm 40% appendicitis!

Race and Background

Semiramis is technically an aasimar, but she doesn't fly around or heal people, so we can just focus on her human side. .... Oooor we can focus on those ears, because we need to nick some stuff from being an Elf. Specifically, we're going with the Vahadar Elf from Plane Shift Kaladesh, since they've got the ears, the proficiencies we'll need later, and their backstory's still about living in general society, unlike wood elves and other Kaladeshian elves. Thanks to Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, this gives her +2 Intelligence and +1 Wisdom, as well as Darkvision, Fey Ancestry against being charmed, a Trance instead of sleep so she can't be put to sleep, Keen Senses for proficiency in Perception, the Mending cantrip to piece together the castle later, and most importantly Elf Weapon Training. Normally this would give her proficiency with four weapons, but thanks to Tasha's we can swap this out with four tools instead. Carpenter's, Glassblower's, Mason's, and Smith's Tools proficiency should give us everything we need to build a castle later- we'll go into the why when we get there.

Semiramis is also a Noble- grab History, but swap out Persuasion for Deception. Yeah, not even her background can escape how weird this build is.

Ability Scores

Poisoning skills come from Intelligence (I think. WotC are really nonspecific about how to actually fucking make poison), and it's also your main casting modifier: put that first. Second should be your Charisma, nobody drinks poison on purpose, so you'd better get good at lying. After that is Wisdom. If your poisons aren't made with Intelligence it'll definitely be wisdom. That means your Dexterity isn't great- yeah, you fight in a dress, but if you're fighting and not your lackeys, something's gone wrong. We're not dumping Constitution because we're not stupid, so dump Strength instead. You've got minions to carry rocks around for you.

Class Levels

Wizard 1: Starting as a wizard nets you the weakest hit die in the game, but it also gets you proficiency in Intelligence and Wisdom saves, plus the Arcana and Medicine skills. You're half caster, and if you want to ruin someone's bodily functions you have to know what those are first. Starting as a wizard also gets you Spells that you can cast and prepare using your Intelligence. You get six at first level and two each level after. That's a lot, so we're just going to over spells that are important for the build here, though there's a full list of what we'd get in the character sheet. For cantrips, grab Infestation and Poison Spray for poison damage. For once infestation is completely kosher as is, since Semiramis can summon any creature as long as its poisonous. Also, grab Message. Castle halls are big and echo-y, and it's probably not a good idea to shout at people to find out which glass they put the poison in. Aside from that, grab Mage Armor so you die less, Magic Missile for Assassin balls, and Tenser's Floating Disk to carry all the raw materials you'll be using later. Finally, you get an Arcane Recovery once per long rest, letting you recover a couple spell slots on a short rest. The total level you recover is equal to half your wizard level, rounded up.

Wizard 2: Going into second level of wizard gives you a school of magic, and it's hard to lift several tons of stone into the air if you're not into Graviturgy. When you take the subclass, you can Adjust Density as an action, doubling or halving a large or smaller creature/object's weight for up to a minute with concentration. If you reduce a creature's weight it'll increase their speed by 10', double their jump distance, and have disadvantage on strength saves and checks, and vice versa if you increase it. I checked, and stone is roughly 1,000 times denser than air, not 2, so we'll have to do some brewing later to make this work out. Make your strong minions stronger, your fast minions faster, or do the opposite for your enemies.

Wizard 3: Third level wizards get second level spells. You won't get any dragons in this build, sad to say, but you can use Dragon's Breath to turn just about anything into a dragon. They can even spit poison breath, which is really good with the poisoner's feat. Speaking of..

Wizard 4: First Ability Score Improvement of the build, so grab the Poisoner's Feat for more poisony goodness. All poison-based damage rolls you make ignore resistance, you can coat weapons as a bonus action, and you get proficiency in the poisoner's kit. You also learn a special poison that'll force a dc 14 constitution save on the creature you use it on, dealing 2d8 poison damage and poisoning them for a round.

Wizard 5: Fifth level wizards get third level spells. Animate Dead will help you make dragontooth warriors, a.k.a. skeletons. You can make one per casting right now, but you can recast the spell to retain control over up to three skeletons at once. Otherwise they'll be uncontrollable monsters, which is probably less of a goal.

Druid 1: Semiramis might be known for her poisons, but she's really a multifaceted person. Well, not really, but if you want poisons, you're going to get them from animals. If you want animals, you're going to get them from druids. First level druids learn Druidic- it's a language! They also get another set of Spellcasting using their Wisdom to cast and prepare spells. Check the multiclassing table to figure out your spell slots. Grab Guidance and Resistance to be a bit better than everyone else. For first level spells, look for Entangle and Snare to summon chains to slow down enemies, and Speak with Animals to make sure your dovey-woveys know their work is appreciated. We haven't gotten dovey-woveys yet? Don't worry, they're coming.

Druid 2: Second level druids join their circle, and you're so goddamn smart you just joined another school. At the college of Witherbloom, you'll learn how to turn the vitality of nature into deadly poisons. Right off the bat you get circle spells, which are always prepared for you and don't count against how many spells you can prepare. Right now you get the Spare the Dying cantrip as well as Cure and Inflict Wounds. Now you don't literally have to summon a whip every time you want to hit someone. You can also tap in creatures' essences with your Essence Tap. As a bonus action, you empower yourself for 1 minute, gaining one of two options. Overgrowth lets you heal yourself with a hit die each turn as a bonus action, adding your wisdom modifier to the amount healed. Withering Strike lets you change your damage to necrotic when you hit someone with any sort of damage, ignoring resistances to make your poisons even deadlier. You can use this proficiency times per long rest. Most importantly, you gain a Wild Shape / Wild Companion. Both features use the same two charges per short rest. You're limited to what you can turn into based on its CR and movement options, but those limits and how long you can transform/summon a creature for grows as you level up. Currently I'd stick with Wild Companion for dove familiars, but some versions of Semiramis' story include her turning into a dove herself at the end, so Wild Shape isn't out of the question. As long as we sink eight levels into druid, at least.

Druid 3: Third level druids get second level spells, like your freebies Lesser Restoration and Ray of Enfeeblement. Look, if you're going to make poisons it only makes sense that you'd have antidotes on hand. You can also grab spells like Animal Messenger to send your doves out for ingredients, and Locate Animals or Plants to find them yourself.

Wizard 6: Sixth level graviturgists can make a Gravity Well when you cast a spell, moving the target 5 feet in any direction if it is willing or you successfully hit it with the spell. Speaking of spells that push people, Pulse Wave does just that, stepping in for the big stompy dragon animation. Creatures in a 30' cone make a constitution save, and if they fail they'll take force damage and get pushed back 15', or 20' with Gravity Well. You can also pull them, but that's not really stompy at that point. You can also Summon Undead to create a stronger skeleton to lead the others.

Druid 4: At fourth level, druids can transform into swimming creatures, and you also get another ASI. Bump up your Intelligence for stronger spells. Also, grab the Control Fire cantrip, it'll be cold in your castle without it.

Druid 5: Fifth level druids get third level spells, like Revivify and Vampiric Touch. Neither of those are in character, but you can also Conjure Animals (as long as they're poisonous) and Dispel Magic to keep your throne room free of nonsense.

Wizard 7: Seventh level wizard get fourth level spells, including the one we've been working our way up to, Fabricate! As long as you have the raw materials, you can turn them into products of the same material. Since you're working with stone, you're limited to creating Medium objects this way. Just line the outside of the medium objects you make with halves of smaller objects, then mend them together, and eventually you'll have a castle. This will take a while. For a decent-sized castle of 300'x400', you'll be looking at roughly 480 medium-sized blocks per floor. At level 20 you'll have 12 spell slots of fourth level or higher, so you can knock out a floor in roughly 40 days, not including things like doors or other furniture. Also worth noting, you can't make fancy things like glass without proficiency in the tools required to make them normally, hence all the tool proficiencies from your racial bonuses.

Wizard 8: Use your next ASI to bump up your Wisdom for better healing and stronger druid spells. You also learn Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum, so you can prevent creatures from spying into your hanging gardens. Especially useful is the ability to block creatures from teleporting or plane shifting onto your grounds, as that's probably the only way to approach your gardens safely. Or at least it is after you learn Ice Storm, a long range spell that pelts enemies with ice and turns the area into difficult terrain. Of note, it doesn't say the ground, so the entire cylinder will be difficult to fly through. If you want to build giant arcane cannons instead for authenticity, I salute you. Just remember that'll have to come out of your budget.

Wizard 9: Ninth level wizards get fifth level spells, and Wall of Stone will help you speed up construction by making ten 10'x10' panels or ten 10'x20' panels. You can also use this spell to create bridges or the like, and if you hold concentration for 10 minutes the stone remains permanently. If you want to skimp on materials so you can just get this fucking thing in the air already, this'll help with that. You're also learning Geas. If you can't summon a dragon, forcibly controlling a dragon is the next best thing.

Druid 6: Did you think we were done with druid? I said we were stuck here for 8 levels, didn't I? Sixth level witherbloom druids can make a Witherbloom Brew thanks to their new proficiency with Herbalism kits. At the end of a long rest, you can use that kit to make Proficiency brews, which last for 24 hours. A Fortifying brew gives a creature resistance to a damage type chosen at brewing (cold, fire, necrotic, poison, or radiant) for an hour. A Quickening brew heals its drinker, and ends one disease or an effect of charming, frightening, paralyzation, poisoning, or stunning. Again, antidotes might be useful to have on hand, but the real reason we're here is for the Toxifying brew. You can apply the brew to a weapon, and the next time within an hour that weapon hits a creature, they take 2d6 poison damage and have to make a constituiton saving throw (DC 8 + your wisdom modifier + proficiency) or be poisoned for a minute. This is literally so much better than the poisoner feat what the hell.

Druid 7: Seventh level druids get fourth level spells, like Blight and Greater Restoration for stronger poisons and antidotes respectively. You can also Dominate Beast to hold any poisonous critters still while you milk them, or summon Giant Insects instead. They obey you and stay giant until they drop to 0 HP, dismiss the effect, the spell ends.

Druid 8: Our last level of druid finally lets you turn into a dove with a second Wild Shape Improvement. You also get another ASI, so bump up that Wisdom for stronger spells and poisons.

Wizard 10: Tenth level graviturgists can create a Violent Attraction between a creature's face and a weapon, causing a nearby weapon attack to deal an extra 1d10 damage. Alternatively, you can increase the attraction between a creature and the ground, adding 2d10. I doubt your hanging gardens need help making the fall more deadly, but now you can help out of need be. You can do this Intelligence modifier per long rest.

Wizard 11: Eleventh level wizards get sixth level spells, like Guards and Wards. This will make it so much harder for enemies to breach your castle it isn't even funny, if the "hanging out in the stratosphere" thing didn't tip them off already.

Wizard 12: By twentieth level you should have a castle set up, so grab the Lucky feat. Basically, everything that can go right for you does while you're in your castle, so now you get 3 luck points per long rest to make sure that happens, letting you re-roll your attacks, saves, and checks, as well as attacks aimed at you.

So how the fuck do I get a flying castle?

So, admittedly this is up to DM fiat, but let's be real, a flying castle sounds sick as hell and gathering resources is a great reason to go adventuring. If I was your DM, it'd go something like this; After x months of research, you find a way to prepare materials so Adjust Density is permanent on them if you concentrate for the duration. Then you make and fuse together castle chunks as described in level twelve, and eventually you lighten the load on the special rocks so much they're lighter than air. Boom, liftoff, you're fucking awesome now. If you want to go down, just make the float rocks heavier again.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

Even if you don't build a giant floating castle in your adventure, that doesn't mean all this prepwork went to waste. You are a master at protecting areas from invasion, so no matter where you lay your head you know it's going to be safe. Not as safe as a floating castle, but still, safe.

By mixing together all your tool proficiencies with Fabricate, you can make pretty much whatever you need from raw materials. No more paying a smithy for fancier armor!

If you do get your castle in the air or you're near a cliff, you are incredibly deadly, with plenty of ways to shove opponents around or otherwise control movement. Slow them down, trip them up, or shove them off a cliff it's so good. Pulse people off the edge of your garden and laugh at them as they fall.

Cons:

There's literally no rules about building your own castles & poisons, so most of this build is entirely dependent on your DM. If you get a cool one, cool! If you don't, this build is pretty much a writeoff.

You need to hide away in your castle and send out minions because you're kind of pathetic in person. With only 14 AC and less than 100 HP, you'll go down faster than Medb if you don't use your Wild Shapes well.

A lot of that can be chalked up to mixing caster classes, meaning we have to spend more ASIs to make both spell modifiers good, and we miss out on higher level spells. Also, spending 8 levels in druid just to turn into a dove isn't that great unless you really want the flavor. I highly recommend skipping out after 6, the last graviturgy effect is great both to knock people out of the sky and make them bow if they get to your throne room.

But, getting to your throne room is 90% of the fight. This build is one that emphasizes patience, and that's what puts you above the common folk. Hang out in the stratosphere, attend social events in style, and let your poisons and skeleton warriors do the fighting for you. Just be glad there aren't any wacky knights riding hippogryphs around.

[tigerkirby215]

5e Ekko, the Boy who Shattered Time build (League of Legends)

(Artwork by Riot Games)

Ekko is a character who’s way better in the lore than in-game. An orphan with a heart of gold doesn’t translate well into this immortal bastard who bursts your entire team before pressing one button to instantly get all his health back. Regardless Ekko has a simple kit that makes him easy to adapt into the meta and very fun to play! And who doesn’t want to time travel?

GOALS

Don't blink! - Shattering time means that you can zip around in the blink of an eye.

I'll help you this time: duck - Batter up! Time stuns coming your way!

If you can’t make the most out of any given moment... - Then you don’t deserve a single extra second. Thankfully we’ll have a lot of chances to make the most out of every single second.

RACE

Ekko is a human but he’s very different from all the other kids in Zaun, making him a Variant Human. As a Variant Human you get a +1 increase to two skills of your choice: choose Dexterity and Wisdom to keep on your feet with your wits about you. You also learn a language and a skill of your choice: your language doesn’t matter much but for skills pick Perception to notice exactly how you can defeat your foe without too many rewinds.

But of course the main appeal of Variant Humans is the ability to get a Feat at level 1, and when it’s time to rewind look no further than the Lucky feat. You have 3 Luck points (or as I like to call them Rewind Die) that you can spend to roll an extra d20 on an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw. You can choose which d20 result you want to use after rolling your Rewind Die.

The best part about Lucky? You can use it against enemies too! If an enemy attacks you you can also roll to potentially make them miss! Remember that you only have 3 rewinds which only come back on a Long Rest, so use them wisely!

ABILITY SCORES

15; DEXTERITY - Shattering time means you can zip around at the blink of an eye.

14; INTELLIGENCE - Ekko created a time travel machine, as well as many other inventions that would put the Pilties to shame.

13; WISDOM - Ekko stays in Zaun because he cares about the people.

12; CHARISMA - Ekko’s a good kid, as evidenced by how many skins he has.

10; CONSTITUTION - You can take a hit but you’re still primarily an assassin.

8; STRENGTH - You’re a kid who fights with nothing more than a bat. A magic clock bat, but not a heavy bat.

Feel free to swap Charisma and Constitution if you want more health but weaker RP.

BACKGROUND

Ekko is an Urchin but he doesn’t really fit the typical description (he has parents, for one), so I’m going to suggest changing it up some. Swap your proficiencies out for Acrobatics and Investigation to puzzle your way though defeating your foes, and your tools for Tinkerer’s Tools and Smith’s Tools to make your gadgets.

But your feature City Secrets still fits you perfectly, allowing you to easily make your way around the streets of Zaun without getting lost. I mean, you probably do get lost sometimes but your party doesn’t need to know that.

(Artwork by Riot Games)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - WIZARD 1

Oh boy my favorite class that I have to spend way too long explaining! Regardless Wizard is the perfectly class for smart kids who use magical time-warping devices. You get proficiency in two skills from the Wizard list and I’d opt for Arcana for knowledge of your Z-Drive and History for knowledge of what happened. Because you were there!

As a Wizard you also get access to Spellcasting. You learn 3 cantrips from the Wizard list: Ray of Frost lets you toss out a Timewinder to slow and damage your foes, Mending will let you reverse any small damage an object may have received, and Message will let you coordinate in team chat. You also learn 6 spells at level 1 with Wizard, but you can prepare a number of spells equal to your Intelligence modifier plus your Wizard level:

Absorb Elements will let you resist some incoming magic before returning it with Z-Drive Resonance.

Alarm will let you know that someone’s coming, or rather reverse time when they do arrive to give you time to prepare.

Detect Magic will help you figure out what any Hextech might do.

False Life can give you a Parallel Convergence shield.

Both Mage Armor and Shield will help you defend yourself and dodge attacks you wouldn’t otherwise be able to avoid.

Need a break from all that time warping? Arcane Recovery lets you recover spell slots equal to half your Wizard level, rounded up. Confused how it works? Read it yourself because I’m bad at explaining it.

LEVEL 2 - WIZARD 2

At level 2 you can choose your Arcane Tradition. Oh man if only there was a tradition dedicated specifically to time manipulation... oh wait Chronurgy Magic, which is automatically one of the better ones because it isn’t a school! Regardless Chronurgy Wizards get Temporal Awareness, letting them add their Intelligence modifier to Initiative rolls.

They can also turn back time with Chronal Shift! As a reaction you can force yourself or another creature to reroll an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw. The target must use the result of the second roll, and you can choose to use the ability after knowing the original result. You can rewind twice per Long Rest but that should be more than enough to find the perfect way around a problem! (Especially with Lucky helping you as well!)

You can also add two more spells to your spell list: Gift of Alacrity is a Chronurgy-specific spell that lets you prepare to add a d8 to a creature’s initiative check, so you can make sure your initiator is the first in the fight! If you want to slow everyone down however Earth Tremor will force enemies in an area to make a Dexterity saving throw or be knocked prone, and regardless of if they succeed or fail they’ll still be slowed by difficult terrain!

LEVEL 3 - RANGER 1

What? You didn’t think this was just a pure book nerd build, did you? Nah Ekko’s a special kid who knows Zaun like the back of his hand: sounds like a proper city Ranger! You get proficiency in one skill from the Ranger list when you multiclass, so grab Insight to know what people are going to do after they did it... before they did it!

Class Feature Variants is an Unearthed Arcana that’s soon going to be made official so I’m going to use Ranger features from that PDF instead. Deft Explorer lets you choose from one of three benefits: Roving lets you speed yourself up by 5 feet and also gives you a climbing speed to climb clock towers and a swimming speed to... swim. Favored Foe meanwhile lets you cast Hunter’s Mark a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier without using Concentration, for some more Z-Drive Resonance!

LEVEL 4 - RANGER 2

Second level Rangers get a Fighting Style and I figure now would be a good time to talk about Ekko’s weapon: he uses the clock needle of his as a bat most of the time but a club is a simple weapon that uses Strength and does very little damage. As a Ranger you have proficiency in martial weapons so I’m pretty sure that needle could be passed off as a short sword. Fight the short sword in your main hand and nothing in the other, or grab a shield just for the sake of the AC: regardless Dueling will make your sword do +2 damage.

You also get access to Spellcasting! Again! Check chapter 6 of the Player’s Handbook for information on how multiclassing between full casters and half casters works, but you get two first level Ranger spells: to dash in and strike an important target Zephyr Strike will let you avoid opportunity attacks and do an extra d8 damage on hit, letting you ride Z-Drive Resonance out with 30 more movement speed. If you want to stun a target for a beat down Ensnaring Strike will restrain them with vines. Time vines! Yeah...

LEVEL 5 - RANGER 3

Third level Rangers can choose their Ranger Conclave (or subclass as its otherwise known.) Time to up the Z-Drive with Horizon Walker! Horizon Walkers can Detect Portals within 1 mile of them but that’s not important. What’s important is that they have Planar Warrior, letting them use their Bonus Action to make their weapon do magic (Force) damage and deliver an extra d8 damage thanks to Z-Drive Resonance! (I’ve been mentioning that a lot, haven’t I?)

You also get Primal Awareness from the Class Feature Variants UA for the ability to cast Detect Magic and Speak with Animals once per Long Rest without using a spell slot. Think you’ve got enough magic? Well Horizon Walker Spells give you Protection from Evil and Good as a Ranger spell, and you can add one more spell to your list like Jump to Phase Dive across leaps and bounds... look level 1 Ranger spells suck give me a break! Take Cure Wounds if you want something more useful!

(Artwork by Riot Games)

LEVEL 6 - RANGER 4

4th level Rangers get their first Ability Score Improvement: to keep elusive and hit hard with your bat shortsword get more Dexterity.

LEVEL 7 - RANGER 5

5th level Rangers get an Extra Attack, letting them attack twice when they use the Attack action. It should be mentioned that Planar Warrior will only make your first attack forceful while your second attack will do regular damage.

You can also learn second level Ranger spells like Pass Without a Trace. You’ve got all the time in the world to sneak around, and you’ve also got all the time in the world to figure out why the Ranger spell list sucks so much where you refuse to take Healing spells. At least you get access to Beast Sense and Locate Animals or Plants thanks to Primal Awareness, and Flash (I mean Misty Step) from your Horizon Walker Spells!

LEVEL 8 - RANGER 6

At 6th level you get another ability from Deft Explorer: Canny lets you learn one skill of your choice from a given list, and get Expertise in any of those skills that you know. (That isn’t quite how it works but that’s how I make it work for convenience's sake.) Expertise in Perception will let you spot any valuable junk in the Zaun trash heaps, and Stealth proficiency will help you get away with your loot! You also learn two languages which uhhh... just pick whatever really. You’ve got plenty of time to talk to people.

LEVEL 9 - RANGER 7

7th level Horizon Walkers can phase out of time with Ethereal Step, letting them cast Eternalness for a turn once per short or long rest. Not something that Ekko can normally do but you can accomplish a lot while messing with time.

Speaking of accomplishing a lot you get another spell: Darkvision will help your regular human eyes see why kids love the taste of Cinnamon Toast Crunch! Wait...

LEVEL 10 - RANGER 8

8th level Rangers get another Ability Score Improvement: max out your Dexterity to be as quick as you can when striking down your foes. You also get Land’s Stride to move through difficult terrain without using extra movement, avoid taking damage from nonmagical plants, and have advantage against magical plants. How does a kid from Zaun know his way around dangerous plants? Well you had plenty of time to read up on botany.

(Artwork by Jason Chan, Senior Concept Artist at Riot Games)

LEVEL 11 - RANGER 9

9th level Rangers get access to third level spells. With Primal Awareness you learn Speak with Plants (look, I can’t justify everything in this build. D&D isn’t Runeterra), and as a Horizon Walker you get access to Haste! You can also find your ways around the dark streets of Zaun more easily thanks to the spell Daylight.

LEVEL 12 - RANGER 10

10th level Rangers can get the last feature from Deft Explorer: Tireless lets you spend an action to give yourself temporary hit points equal to 1d10 + your Wisdom modifier. You can do this a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest. Additionally your Exhaustion goes down by 1 every time you finish a Short or Long rest.

And while Hide in Plain Sight may make more sense for Ekko, Fade Away is just so much better. You can use your Bonus Action to turn invisible for a turn! Maybe you turned back time to the DOTA days when Shadow Blade was an item you build buy? Yeah I know DOTA.

LEVEL 13 - RANGER 11

11th level Horizon Walkers can finally Phase Dive with Distant Strike! When you take the Attack action, you can teleport up to 10 feet before each attack to an unoccupied space you can see. Additionally, if you attack at least two different creatures with the action, you can make a three hit combo against a third creature!

You can also learn another spell at this level, and while there are a lot of options to choose from I’d personally suggest some magic resistance. Protection from Energy will let you put on an Adaptive Helm to resist a certain type of elemental damage.

LEVEL 14 - RANGER 12

12th level Rangers get an Ability Score Improvement and since your Dexterity is maxed out now would be a good time to hit the books and increase your Intelligence!

(Artwork by Riot Games)

LEVEL 15 - WIZARD 3

Hey remember when we took levels in Wizard way back at levels 1 and 2? Well third level Wizards can learn 2nd level Wizard spells! Blur will make it harder for an enemy to hit you unless they can sense where you really are, and if you want even more chances to turn back time Fortune’s Favor is a spell reserved to Chronurgy Wizards (and Graviturgy Wizards) that lets them give themselves or an ally some more time with an extra d20 to roll in case they’re in danger!

LEVEL 16 - WIZARD 4

4th level Wizards get another Ability Score Improvement: more Intelligence will help with all the time manipulation.

You can also add another 2 spells to your spellbook, and you learn another cantrip! Sapping Sting is a Dunamancy-specific cantrip and it can make your opponent trip! If you want to be even harder to hit Mirror Image will let your time doubles do some distracting for you, and if you want to shake off the time police Nystul’s Magic Aura will make it easy to fool the Pilties.

LEVEL 17 - WIZARD 5

5th level Wizards can learn third level spells: you can already speed up time with Haste but Slow will let you do the opposite to your foes! But if you want to Phase Dive around the battle field some more at risk of glitching out time Blink is the spell for you! "The timeline was already this broken when I found it. I swear."

LEVEL 18 - WIZARD 6

Isn’t it funny how it took this long to get Parallel Convergence’s stun? Momentary Stasis takes an action to force a large or smaller creature to make a Constitution save or be unable to move. The effect ends if they take damage or at the end of your next turn, but that should be plenty of time to either set up or run. You can do this a number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier and regain all uses at the end of a Long Rest.

Speaking of stuns: Hold Person from second level will let you stun an enemy for quite awhile, and you can still hit them! But if you want to turn back your opponent’s spells? Good ol’ Counterspell.

LEVEL 19 - WIZARD 7

7th level Wizards can learn 4th level spells: to travel far and get out of danger Dimension Door will let you warp out of the way. If you want some protection from time warping around you Intellect Fortress is an Unearthed Arcana spell that gives resistance to psychic damage, as well as advantage on Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws.

LEVEL 20 - WIZARD 8

Our capstone is the 8th level of Wizard for your last Ability Score Improvement: if you want to maximize the effectiveness of your time manipulation increase your Intelligence, but if you want more combat features from Ranger Wisdom will give you more charges for those abilities.

And you can grab your last two free Wizard spells. After this you’ll have to (gasp!) read! For some retributive damage Fire Shield will make you foes think twice about hitting you. But if you want to bring your foes back to the future look no further than Polymorph, to turn people into dinosaurs!

WHAT I DIDN’T USE

Just a quick mention of some of the options I didn’t use for this build, since I think that a lot of questions will be asked about them:

Echo Knight - Sort of the first thing you think of because... you know... Ekko Knight? But truth is that while Ekko gets a time clone for some of his abilities he doesn’t really use the clone to fight? If you want a time fighter that uses clones however I would suggest my Isaac build (Skullgirls)

Divination Wizard - Some people (especially those without Wildemount) might ask why I picked Chronurgy Wizard over Divination. I mean other than the fact that Chronurgy is literally the time Wizard? Well other than that it’s because while you can reverse time you don’t know the outcome of all fights. Adding intelligence to your Initiative also works to simulate Ekko’s speed.

Artificer - Ekko builds his own stuff but put bluntly none of the Artificers really fit his abilities. He doesn’t make potions, doesn’t have a robot dog, definitely doesn’t have a gun, and certainly doesn’t have an Iron Man suit. (That’s on Viktor!)

FINAL BUILD

PROS

This is how we say “hello” in Zaun - You aren’t exactly the most damaging combatant, but you have tons of tricks to up your DPS, all while keeping safe yourself.

Show me something new! - Investing in both mental stats means you’ve got some really good skills. 24 passive perception, anyone?

One more time! - Who would’ve guessed the ability to rewind time would be a lifesaver? Five rerolls per day, three of which you can pick the result from means that you should never be rolling bad. And you aren’t even a Halfling!

CONS

Good a time as any to act reckless - Double the spellcasters means that you can’t get the best of both stats. While it isn’t a big deal since most of your spells are buffs your low Wisdom score means that you won’t be able to use your Ranger features very often.

That worked in another timeline - Wizard levels and a neutral Constitution score means that your health is subpar to say the least. Rewinding won’t save you from Power Word Kill.

I need to rethink a couple things - In order to get Momentary Stasis we had to skip over Spectral Defense from Horizon Walker level 15. Truthfully while Momentary Stasis is nice for a stun you would’ve been far better off further honing your combat skills: the extra Rewinds from Chronurgy 2 was already more than enough of a boost.

But Zaunites know how to work with what they’ve got. Make the best out of a bad situation and use your wit to outsmart any foe! And maybe chat with the Rogues and the Fighters to see if they’d like some time to be Bards? If you move too fast it’ll be like moving in slow-mo.

(Artwork by Riot Games)

[housedzemael-archived]

Name/Title: The Fell Huntress - Urth’s Font Extreme

Battle Music: 

Phase 1 - Daughter of a Dark God

Phase 2 - Darkeater Midir

Phase 3 - Primogenitor

Appearance: 

Phase One - Ender of Stories

She appears as a black armor glad warrior atop an equally as fell looking steed, mirroring Odin and drawing from what little she remembers from their story. Her spear is held in her hand, blacked and caked with the blood of those unlucky enough to cross her path and be found wanting. Her eyes, blindfolded, though those whove manged to get close enough and live speak of what appears to be tear stains running down from beneath the pitch black cloth. In this phase she is totally mounted, upon a draconic looking horse and utilizing her spear for a variety of heavy hitting melee attacks, before throwing it in the air to create quick crisscrossing patterns of aoes that increase with speed as the phase progresses. 

Phase Two - Shade of a Memory

In this phase, she has been knocked from her horse which splits into three humanoid knighted shaped adds. Two which use spears shaped from the bones of the draconic looking horse, and one that uses a staff. Currently untargetable, the Ender of Stories mutters of memories long forgotten as this fight slowly reminds her of those she has lost. Those she never had, but the one in whose image she is forged once did. The Two spear adds are named “Memory of Azure” and “Memory of Sunlight” while the Caster ad is named “Memory of Snow” As each is killed they kneel their light growing dark and shadowy, before enveloping The Huntress.  If not killed in time, each will begin casting “Myth to Legend” doing massive raid wide damage as they turn to dust which The Huntress lights aflame using her spear.

Phase Three - Danica Voss, the Crimson Dragoon

This phases Start is triggered after successfully passing the Add phase. Signified by the Huntress declaring “Yes! Yes! I Remember Now.” The shadows that had enveloping her the entire time grow and glow, soon exploding in a massive cloud of cold snow that changes the battlefield into something resembling a snow covered mountain top at night. Stars sparkle overhead, the constellations outlined much like on a map, the largest and most centered being one shaped like Midgardsormr behind her. The Huntress herself has changed drastically; She’s grown much taller, her blindfold has been removed revealing a pair of draconic looking golden and green eyes, her black armor has been replaced with a brilliant deep red set of scale armor that glistens as if caught in the morning sun, Her spear too has changed, taking the form of Ryunohige and glowing faintly. Horns, massive and curled back rise in two pairs from her head, and massive crimson scaled wings rise in two pairs of two from her back. She once again restarts combat by declaring; “I am Voss, Spear of Both Man and Dragon. Prove yourself as I once did to the Father of Dragons.”

Start of Battle Quote: 

“Do you seek a true ending Mortals? If so, look elsewhere, for my blade seeks naught but the cruel cutting of the threads of your life, short and ended” 

DPS Check, moveset name or quote said when casting:

Tank Buster Phase 1:

Spear of Ages, a frontal cone aoe focused on the primary target that has her spear split out around her, and then dive into each of the targets in the area (think Fleche)

Aoe Patterns Phase 1:

Beyond the checkerboard going on through most of this phase she also has “Spear of Destiny and Spear of Defiance”; Spear of Destiny targets four players with Donut Aoes, where Spear of Defiance targets one of the remaining four with a stack marker. The party needs to gather to mitigate the donuts and take the heavy hitting stackmarker together else all shall surely perish

She also has “Steel Reign” a skill that creates at first eight meteor markers upon the ground that must be soaked to avoid a stacking vulnerability up debuff, then four which must be soaked with two each and then two which must be soaked by three each as two players are then marked with “Skalla’s Curse” which puts their hp to 1.

During a pause in the checkerboard aoe she will activate “Calling the Hunt”, where she will rush to the outer edges of the Arena, split into three spectral versions of herself, and rush across in a line. 

Add Phase Mechanics:

Memory of Azure is a heavy hitting, but squishy Dragoon like add. Jumping from target to target delivering heavy attacks to the secondary target. On occasion, he shall start casting “Azure Dive” which will target two dps, a healer, and a tank, with an aoe that leaves lingering pools of shadows. When defeated, The Huntress whispers; “I remember partners, of the bond of souls made stronger together.” 

Memory of Sunlight is a a less heavy hitting, but tankier Dragoon like add. Focusing on the main target with relentless single target attacks before using a point blank aoe named “Maerwynns Memory” which has his spear break apart into white and black copies of itself much like the tank buster above. When defeated, the Huntress Whispers; “I remember being found, and the search that must have eaten years.”

Memory of Snow is a heavy hitting, but squishy Black mage like Caster, who will focus on spamming heavy line aoes out from himself until taken down. He should be targeted first, for if not killed in time he will cast “Weak Foundations” which applies a SPICY damage down, vulnerability up on the whole party. When slain, the Huntress whispers; “I remember the silence of the cold, I remember the company I found there.”

Tank Buster Phase 3:

Requires a Tank Swap, Drawing from memories of previous battles with previous dragons or snakes she is recalling. She casts “Hunters Mark” upon the previous target, who is surrounded by black coils of thread that will explode doing damage to the entire raid based on how much damage the target takes.  Then “Hunters Strike” delivering a powerful blow with her spear to the primary target. 

Aoe and Stacks in Phase 3:

Utilizes traditional dragon attacks such as Akh Morn, hitting a heavy five times before the stack can split as well as Ala Morn which instead of being a single target tankbuster here is a proximity based tether charge

Will occasionally jump off the platform, placing proximity based markers on the ground for where she will jump in, first targetting a player before placing the marker.

On occasion she will declare “Humanities Greatest Strength is to Work Together, Prove to me you stand at one another shoulder”  wrapping one random party member up in the air under a Sable Price that must be destroyed before it completes its sentencing, killing the target. 

Then one final mechanic plays before she starts her soft enrage, where she splits and instead of running across the platform like previous phases, she dives down in four areas upon the map and must be stopped by a player standing in a location deflecting her but taking massive damage. After this she starts her soft enrage, doing raid wide damage via “Akh Rhal” With each cast she gets a buff that increases her damage and decreases her damage taken.

Enrage:

After the final mechanic she begins a slow cast of an altered version of the Dragoon level 3 limit break, Dragonsong Dive on a massive scale, summing a temporary and spectral form of the progenitor of dragons the wipes the party if not defeated in time. 

Party losing to Primal WoL quote:

Phase 1 -

“Even endings can be killed, mortal.”

Phase 2 - 

“Is my Truth truly lost forever?”

Phase 3 - 

“I swore to hunt, long ago. That you, worthy mortal proved the target brings me great sorrow.” 

Primal WoL losing Quote: 

“May I finally rest? I am so tired.” 

[aodhfyn]

Witchwood Concepts

Given the keywords Blizzard already revealed, I have tried to conceive of cards for every class that utilize each keyword and concept (except the even/odd set). Simply put, I’m predicting cards that would be good in each class and further some theme of that class’.

NOTE: I purposely made each of these as strong as I reasonably could, since I want to explore good ideas, not mediocre ones.

 CLASS CARDS:

Warrior:

“Destined Warrior”: A 4 mana 5/4 Warrior Wargen-styled card with rush that reads “Every turn this is in your hand swap between a 5/4 with rush and a 4/5 with charge.”

“Stone Behemoth”: A 5 mana 5/7 Warrior Echo card with taunt that reads “Battlecry: remove 4 armor from your hero.”

“King Golem”: A 10 mana 10/10 Warrior card with rush that reads “Battlecry: has windfury this turn.”

“Battle Song”: A 2 mana Warrior Echo spell that reads “give your weapon +1 attack and gain 5 armor.”

-----------------------------

Shaman:

“Deepwater Avenger”: A 2 mana 3/2 Shaman Echo card tagged as a murloc with rush.

“Endless Guardian”: A 2 mana 1/8 Shaman Echo card with taunt and overload (2).

“Twisted Harbinger”: A 4 mana 3/6 Shaman Wargen-style card with rush that reads “Every turn this is in your hand swap its health and attack.”

“Heavy burdens”: A 1 mana Shaman Echo spell that reads “draw two cards and overload (3).”

-----------------------------

Rogue:

“Dirty Scavenger”: A 2 mana 1/1 Rogue Echo card that reads “Deathrattle: add a coin to your hand.”

“Cheap assassin”: A 1 mana 1/1 Rogue Echo card with stealth that reads “Combo: deal 1 damage.”

“Info Dealer”: A 3 mana 3/3 Rogue Wargen-style card that reads “Every turn this is in your hand swap between Deathrattle: put a secret from your deck into the battlefield and Battlecry: the next secret you play this turn costs 0.”

“Dangerous Play”: A 0 mana Rogue Echo spell that reads “draw a card and add a 3 mana ‘dead weight’ spell to your hand.” (It does nothing.)

-----------------------------

Paladin:

“Silverhand Scribe”: A 3 mana 2/4 Paladin Echo card with that reads “Battlecry: draw a card at the end of your turn.”

“Faithless Knight”: A 5 mana 5/6 Paladin Wargen-style card that reads “Every turn this is in your hand swap its attack and health and switch between divine shield and rush.”

“Faithful Squire”: A 2 mana 2/3 Paladin card with rush.

“Absolution”: A 4 mana Paladin Echo spell that reads “Deal 2 damage to all enemy minions, and heal your hero for 3.”

-----------------------------

Hunter:

“Backwoods Murder”: A 3 mana 2/1 Hunter Echo card tagged as a beast that reads “Battlecry: summon a copy of this minion with charge.” (NOTE: crows)

“Big Bro Brown Bear”: A 4 mana 3/5 Hunter card tagged as a beast with rush and taunt.

“Deepwoods Wolfman”: A 5 mana 5/5 Hunter Wargen-style card that reads “Every turn this is in your hand alternate between +1 health with taunt and rush.”

“Web of Traps”: A 2 mana Hunter Echo spell that reads “Put a random secret into play.”

-----------------------------

Druid:

“Benevolent Boar”: A 2 mana 5/3 Druid Echo card tagged as a beast that reads “At the end of your turn, lose 2 attack.”

“Daring Hare”: A 4 mana 4/5 Druid Echo card tagged as a beast with “Choose One, taunt or rush.”

“Herald of the Moon”: A 3 mana 3./4 Druid Wargen-style card with taunt that reads “Every turn this is in your hand alternate between taunt and rush.”

“Tooth and Maw”: A 2 mana Druid Echo spell that reads “Choose One, gain 2 attack and lifesteal this turn, or gain 1 attack and 3 armor.”

-----------------------------

Warlock:

“Hellish Recruiter”: A 3 mana 2/2 Warlock card that reads “Battlecry: recruit a demon with a cost 2 or less and give it rush.”

“Devious Destroyer”: A 3 mana 2/3 Warlock Wargen-style card that reads “Every turn this is in your hand swap it’s health and attack, Battlecry: deal damage equal to its attack to an enemy and to your hero.”

“Dark Spawnling”: A 1 mana 2/2 Warlock Echo card tagged as a demon that reads “Battlecry: deal 2 damage to your hero.”

“Fell Flare”: A 2 mana Warlock Echo spell that reads “When this card is played or discarded, deal 2 damage to a random enemy.” (Note that this can be discarded multiple times in one turn.)

----------------------------- 

Mage:

“Group Caster”: A 1 mana 1/1 Mage Echo card with spell damage +1.

“Pest Manager”: A 3 mana 2/3 Mage card with rush that reads “Battlecry: recruit a Pest Manager.”

“Witchy Speller”: A 4 mana 3./4 Mage Wargen-style card that reads “Every turn this is in your hand swap its attack and health and switch between untargetable and Battlecry: cast a spell from your deck with random targets.”

“Sparkswarm”: A 1 mana Mage Echo spell that reads “Deal 1 damage to 3 different enemies.”

-----------------------------

Priest:

“Duskwood Cleric”: A 3 mana 1/6 Priest Wargen-style card that reads “Every turn this is in your hand swap its health and attack.”

“Blackheart Healer”: A 2 mana 1/3 Priest Echo card that reads “Battlecry: restore 2 health.”

“Dragon Cleric”: A 3 mana 3/3 Priest card with rush that reads “Costs 1 less if you have 2 dragons in hand.”

“Wyrm Fodder”: A 3 mana Priest Echo spell that reads “Grant a dragon +1/+1. --Costs 2 less if you have a dragon in hand.”

-----------------------------

NEUTRALS

“Final Guardian”: A 6 mana neutral Echo card, requires coin/innervate to play twice. It’s a 6/7 with taunt that reads “Battlecry: if you already have a Final Guardian, become invulnerable until the start of your next turn.”

“Ghostly Wisp”: A 1 mana 1/1 neutral Echo card.

“Hungry Wargen”: A 3 mana 3./4 neutral Wargen-styled card with lifesteal that reads “Every turn this is in your hand swap its attack and health.” (Look what I did there--I added 1 attack. Pure genius.)

“Weird Treant”: A 4 mana 4/4 neutral Echo card with taunt and untargetable.

“Horrid Hybrid”: A 5 mana 5/5 neutral Echo card tagged as a beast with taunt and rush.

“Freshwater Oracle”: A 2 mana 1/1 neutral Echo card tagged as a murloc that reads “Battlecry: both players draw a card.”

~Aodhfin

[redhackrules]

Character Creation

1. Attributes

Roll 3d6 for each of the following attributes and assign the total result of each roll in order:

STR

DEX

CON

INT

WIS

CHA

You may then swap the values of two attributes.

Next select

2. Class

Select a class from the following:

Warrior

Starting Hit Points: 1d10+4 Starting Hit Die: 1d10 Attack Damage: 1d8, 1d6 improvised or unarmed. Prime Requisites: STR & DEX

Armour Maintenance

As a Warrior you have advantage when rolling the usage die for Armourer’s Tools.

Cleave

Warriors can cut a swathe through lesser foes. When making an attack you may assign additional an additional d6 damage die to one target within range per level. You must roll to hit these additional targets as normal. Each target may only receive one cleave die, but this may be in addition to the die from your primary attack. If you do assign a die to your primary target you do not have to roll to hit that target twice; you may roll both damage dice together.

Parry

Whenever you successfully defend, if you have cleave dice remaining, you may immediately assign one to the attacker. You may only assign one per attacker regardless of how many attacks missed, but you may assign dice to them even if you earlier assigned dice to them during your attack, and vice versa.

Thief

Starting Hit Points: 1d6+4 Starting Hit Die: 1d6 Attack Damage: 1d6, 1d4 improvised or unarmed. Prime Requisites: DEX & WIS

Thief Skills

Thieves have advantage when: • Picking locks (with thieves tools.) • Listening for noises. • Searching for traps. • Disabling traps (with thieves tools.) • Picking pockets. • Moving silently. • Hiding in shadows. • Climbing walls (with rope.) • Gathering information.

Backstab

Attacking an unsuspecting opponent with a small or missile weapon grants advantage on your attack and deals 2d6+level damage. You may backstab when any of the following are true:

You have surprise.

You are invisible.

You are hidden when the combat begins.

Your target is stunned, held, or blinded.

You attack someone who had no reason to suspect you were going to attack.

Nobody was attacking you and you spent an action to hide in a previous round.

You attack an opponent who fulfills all of the following criteria:

You did not attack them last round.

They were not close to you last round.

They have already been attacked by someone else this round.

Cleric

Starting Hit Points: 1d8+4 Starting Hit Die: 1d8 Attack Damage: 1d6, 1d4 improvised or unarmed. Prime Requisites: WIS & CON

Turn Undead

Test WIS as an action, with a penalty equal to Creature’s HD. Disadvantage unless holy symbol used.

Divine Fortitude

Advantage on CON saves vs Poison & Paralysis.

Divine Magic

See spellcasting.

Wizard

Starting Hit Points: 1d4+4 Starting Hit Die: 1d4 Attack Damage: 1d4, 1d3 improvised or unarmed. Prime Requisites: INT & WIS

Learned & Wise

Have advantage on checks relating to arcane lore, history, the planes etc.

Legend Lore

Identify magical items with a secret INT check.

Arcane Magic

See spellcasting.

Bard

Starting Hit Points: 1d6+4 Starting Hit Die: 1d6 Attack Damage: 1d6, 1d4 unarmed. Prime Requisites: DEX & CHA

Performance

Advantage on rolls to perform, entertain, Gather Information, Carouse, or Develop Relationship.

Folklore

Bards have advantage on knowledge tests about history, politics, magic, religion, monsters, geography, in fact almost any area of human concern, but will recall rumour, story, or legend, which may or may not be entirely accurate. They can identify magical items in this way, and cast spells from scrolls like a wizard.

Tricksy

With a DEX test against a creature (or CHA against foes who can understand the Bard) a Bard can trick his opponents in combat. Choose one of the following effects: • Target takes 1d6 damage from dirty tricks. • Target has disadvantage on their attack. • Target is forced to block a creature attempting to move into combat, including an ally. They do not have to attack each other, but they do end up close to one another instead of their target. • Target takes a free attack on the bard; if they miss, they instead hit a target of the bard’s choice.

3. Backgrounds

Each background is a sentence that helps to flesh out your character and define who they are and where they are coming from.

They serve three purposes:-

The DM may give you advantage or disadvantage on particular rolls due to your background.

They serve as an invitation to the DM to incorporate particular elements into the game - if you're on the run from an evil cult and choose that as a background, you can expect the cult to show up at some point.

They can provide specific abilities - special combat moves, ritual spellcasting, anything within reason you want to be able to do that is not covered in the rules.

Introduce special abilities, roles, and titles unique to the setting.

Backgrounds maybe very broad or very narrow. A narrow background is not a problem for the DM; if a backgrounds says that you were a childhood friend of a particular NPC, the DM can and should arrange for that NPC to appear in the story. If you have a love of wine, perhaps the local lord is a wine enthusiast or you have advantage when haggling to sell the contents of a looted wine cellar.

A very broad background is more difficult to adjudicate. For example, a character like Alan Moore's Tom Strong or Arnold Schwarzenegger's character from the movie Twins might have the following background:

Background: Raised as a physical, intellectual, and spiritual paragon.

This seems like it would grant advantage on almost everything. Academic exercises, feats of athleticism, and Charisma tests to inspire others would all come easily to such a character.

One way to deal with this is to convey disadvantage on equally many tests outside of the background; such a character can be expected to struggle every time they wish to lie or dissemble, anytime they attempt stealth or sleight of hand, in any situation involving street smarts, and when answering questions about any specialized field of knowledge that their mad scientist father didn't think to include in their curriculum.

Sample Descriptive Backgrounds

Raised by goblins.

Second son of a noble house.

Defrocked priest.

Cellmate of a mysterious sage while in prison, from whom she learned many secret things.

Led an uprising in the fighting pits of Jaroon.

Sample Technique Backgrounds

Defensive Fighting: You have been trained in defensive fighting. If you forgo your attack for a round, you have advantage on defense rolls. Also you may move to block two enemies per round, as long as both are attempting to advance on targets Close to one another.

Twist the Knife: After scoring a successful hit with a small blade, you can keep the knife in the wound. If the target attacks you before your next action, you defend against that attack with disadvantage. If your next attack is against that foe, you attack with advantage and deal bonus damage equal to your level.

War On Two Fronts: Warrior only. Make two attacks in a round against different targets, dealing your full damage plus a cleave die if you have enough remaining; you may not apply cleave dice to any other targets.

Ritual Caster: You may cast spells or prayers of level 1-2 from the book, taking 10 minutes per level of the effect, regardless of your class.

4. Starting Equipment

To save setup time here are some starting equipment sets, pick one of the numbers under your class, that's what you start the game with.

Warrior

Armourer’s Tools ud8, Torch ud6, Hand Weapon 1d8, Leather Armour, Large Shield, 2d6 coins.

Armourer’s Tools ud8, Torch ud6, Hand Weapon 1d8, Leather Armour, Two Handed Weapon 1d10, 4d6 coins.

Armourer’s Tools ud8, Torch ud6, Hand Weapon 1d8, Gambeson , Shortbow 1d8, Arrows ud8, 3d6 coins.

Thief

Thieves Tools, Torch ud6, Hand Weapon 1d6, Leather Armour, 1d6x10 counterfeit or stolen coins.

Thieves Tools, Torch ud6, Hand Weapon 1d6, Gambeson, Light Crossbow 1d6, Arrows ud8, 4d6 coins.

Wizard

Spell Components ud6, Torch ud6, Hand Weapon 1d4, Gambeson, 4d6 coins.

Spell Components ud6, Torch ud6, Two Handed Weapon 1d6, 2d8 coins.

Cleric

Holy Symbol, Torch ud6, Leather Armour, Shield, 2d8 coins.

Holy Symbol, Torch ud6, Gambeson , Two Handed Weapon 1d8.

[itsworn]

Jamie Marsh’s 1993 Ford Mustang Fox-body is a Roush Stage 3 Tribute

“The car was built to be a reliable driver, while still handling the occasional autocross or track day,” says Jamie Marsh from Lancaster, South Carolina. “The upgraded brakes and springs, along with the added power of the supercharger, have made the car a fast, reliable weekend warrior.”

Jamie’s Fox-body started life as your run of the mill Performance White 5.0 LX hatchback with an AOD. Since the car first rolled into the dealership brand new, this 1993 5.0 LX has always been a part of Jamie’s life. It all started senior year of high school when his best friend, Isaac Rush, received the then brand-new Fox-body as a graduation present. Jamie even tagged along to the dealership with him to pick it up. Senior year was full of memories in the Fox-body, and after that Isaac used it to commute to and from Wilmington for college for several years after that.

During those college years, the LX fell victim to wheel thieves, and at the expense of the insurance company, Jamie’s friend opted to forego the standard silver ponies, and ordered some factory summer edition white ponies as a replacement.

Not completely content with the Pony R wheels, he vigorously searched for a set of 1999-2004 18-inch Roush wheels to complete the 1993 RS3 look. After a long search, he found a set of flaking 18×9 Roush wheels that he completely stripped down and refinished in a shade of white that almost perfect matches the 20-plus year old factory color.

After college graduation in Wilmington, the car made its way to Virginia Beach. Always wanting a five-speed manual, the car was retired from daily driving duties and was swapped over using a fresh factory Ford T-5Z with all accompanying hardware. Soon it was sporting FRPP B springs, FRPP shorty headers, 3G alternator, Kenny Brown subframe connectors, and 3.73 gears. The interior was given an Auto Meter Ultra-lite amp; oil; and water gauges below the radio; and a FRPP shift knob.

As most of us know, life goes on and time changes things. Isaac was soon was engaged, and he lost interest in the car. Jamie purchased the car from him in 2008. “I had just wrecked my Honda autocross/road race car, and was looking to mod this thing to autocross and track,” Jamie explains.

Getting straight to work, Jamie swapped over to 1995 front spindles and hubs and fitted the front with 13-inch Cobra brakes and installed 5-lug drums on the rear. For better handling, he added Steeda competition springs and caster camber plates from Maximum Motorsports. He then swapped out the shorty headers for MAC longtubes, a MAC 2.5-inch x-pipe, and one-chamber Flowmaster mufflers and tailpipes. To set off the exterior, he went with a set of Chrome 2003 Cobra wheels.

Fast forward to 2010, and Isaac expressed interest in buying the car back. “I had other projects at the time, and didn’t mind one bit,” Jamie said. Isaac requested a set of factory Ford Bullitt wheels in place of the chrome 2003 Cobras, and Jamie was happy to help.

Three years had gone by, Jamie’s longtime buddy decided to buy some land and build a house and the car was offered back to Jamie yet again. “In April of 2013, I drove the car through snow and crazy weather to bring the car back home to stay this time. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with the car, but I did have a polished Vortech SQ supercharger that was intended for a previous project, so that was a definitely part of the master plan,” Jamie tells us.

Right around the same time, another good friend had picked up an old Roush intake at the Autofair in Charlotte, North Carolina, from Sam at Out to Pasture Pony Parts. “None of us really knew anything about it, but I did know this would make the perfect centerpiece for my build,” Jamie says. “We hadn’t seen one in person, and I was able to talk my friend out of it and started researching. Luckily, the intake was mostly complete. It still had some of the key pieces to make it work.”

The metal gaskets were intact, as well as the intake specific fuel rail. With it being set up for a supercharger, Jamie knew it was meant to be. After doing some digging, he found out that the intake was taken from a 1995 Roush Stage 3 Mustang out of a performance shop in California. It also sported serial number 0007 out of just 100 of these intakes produced.

“According to a reputable Roush forum, only 18 were put on Roush turnkey cars, hence the serial numbers,” Jamie explains. “The remaining intakes were put on sale to the public but didn’t sell well due to the price. They sold kits to fit Fox cars, but were mainly intended for the 1994-1995 models.” That’s when Jamie found out that he had a rare piece on his hands.

The initial plan was to install the Roush intake with the Vortech SQ supercharger and leave the car stock otherwise, but then he thought, “How is anyone going to know about my special piece of history under the hood?” That’s when the idea came to life of building the car around the Roush intake and to make his very own version of what a Roush Stage 3 may have looked like back in 1993 if Jack Roush had made a turnkey car.

“The first step, the installation of the intake, was more difficult than anticipated,” Jamie said. The intake was huge, and it required things that had to be procured that he wasn’t aware of until after they had started the process. Jamie and a friend decided to do the install a week before Mustang Week 2013, and they ended up pushing hard to get it finished. For the intake to work on the Fox, it needed two 1994-1995 style valve covers without oil fill holes, a 1994-1995 throttle linkage, and TPS.

“I had very little time and was lucky enough for Mike at East Coast Mustang to get me everything that I needed,” says Jamie. “Along with the intake, we installed GT40 heads reworked by Kannapolis Engine Service, a MSD Digital 6AL, a Contour dual fan setup, an upgraded aluminum radiator, 340lph in-tank fuel pump, 42 lb/hr injectors, the previously mentioned Vortech SQ supercharger, and an Auto Meter boost gauge mounted Roush-style in the AC vent.

After that, Jamie added 1995 Cobra 11.65-inch rear brakes to complement the front 13-inch Cobra brakes already in place. To tie everything together, Rob from Powercurve Motorsports got the car in at the last minute and got it tuned and ready just in the nick of time for Mustang Week. While there, the car made 419 horsepower and 401 lb-ft torque, even with the stock cam and stock rockers.

After the week full of Mustangs and sunshine in Myrtle Beach, Jamie decided it was time finish off the look. He purchased a set of Corbeau LG1 seats and harnesses, and Matt at Fox Mustang Restoration rewrapped the rear seats in matching fabric.

Fast forward to Mustang Week 2015, Jamie submitted a photo and a short description to Gibson exhaust as they were searching for a display car. Jamie was lucky enough to display his Roush tribute Fox-body as their Mustang Week display car to show off their new BMF muffler series. “Gibson exhaust sent me a pre-production handmade set of their new BMF mufflers before Mustang Week, and the car was started and revved numerous times during the event, and everyone loved the sound,” Jamie tells us.

In the summer of 2016, he was contacted by Mike Rey, the marketing director for Roush, who had seen his car at Mustang Week and offered a personal invitation for Jamie’s car to be displayed at the Mustang Memories show at the Ford World Headquarters in Detroit, Michigan. The car would sit in a special section dedicated to 40 years of Roush. “I was beside myself, but knew that the 11-hour drive, hotel and traveling expenses, and time off work were probably more than I could afford, and I had to politely turn him down. As soon as a couple of friends heard about the opportunity, they told me that I had to go. They graciously helped me with the expenses, and we made the August trip. It was awesome to be parked right next to the Roush trailer in my creation with these other beautiful Roush cars,” Jamie said. Jamie was presented with the Roush sponsor award for the show.

The biggest highlight Jamie’s build came earlier this year at a Roush Fenway fan appreciation day. He had taken the day off to attend the event hoping to take a piece off his car for Jack Roush himself to sign. Upon arrival, he was told to park in a grassy area, which required driving over a 3-inch concrete curb. Jamie knew the car couldn’t make it over and tried to back out of it. After some trouble with the parking attendant, Jamie ran into Lyle Sturgis from Tindol Ford, one of the key organizers of the event, and he recognized the car. Lyle told Jamie to go ahead and park beside the other Roush Mustangs at the event. “All of the actual parking spots were full so Lyle directed me right between the display and the other Mustangs, and then asked if I would like Jack Roush to sign my car. I couldn’t say yes fast enough!”

Jack was going to be spending a few moments with each Roush owner and sign their cars. Jack went down the row of newly purchased Roush Mustangs and as he reached Jamie’s car, his first words were, “I don’t remember building this car.”

“Lyle introduced me to Mr. Roush, and I began to explain to him what I had done. He told me the car looked good, and that I had done a good job. He then went on to sign my dash and Roush intake.” Jamie explains. “I knew at that moment that I had done something right.” A big thank you goes to out his high school friend Isaac for selling him the car and giving a great starting point for his creation, longtime friend Billy White and his dad Rick White for their help turning wrenches, East Coast Mustang’s Mustang Mike for the hard to find parts, Kannapolis Engine Service for the great work on the heads, and Rob at Powercurve Motorsports for a reliable and safe tune, his wife, Barrie, and son, Cooper, for having patience with his hobby, and last but not least, thank you to all the members of Southeastern Foxbodies for all of the support and friendships.

The post Jamie Marsh’s 1993 Ford Mustang Fox-body is a Roush Stage 3 Tribute appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

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[dailycharacteroption]

Mindblade (Magus Archetype)

If the Spellblade was Paizo’s first attempt to recreate the feel of the 3.5 psychic rogue-ish class, the soulknife, then today we’re covering an archetype that stays true to the nature of the source material, though I still feel the spellblade is a good and fun archetype on its own.

Regardless, the mindblade blends psychic magic with the training of a magus. Or perhaps in some settings it is a similar, but unrelated mixed discipline of mentalism and martial prowess. Either way they are versatile and powerful warrior mages.

Few things are more iconic than projecting a weapon made out of manifested will, and their reliance on such weaponry has its own advantages over a purely material blade.

 Not only are these magi psychic casters, they are also spontaneous in nature, casting the spells they have learned instinctively with the power of their mind. This gives them a much smaller pool of spells learned, but give them more uses of magic each day. Additionally, the psychic magic means they do not need a free hand to cast their spells.

The innate reserve that magi normally use to fuel their non-spell magic comes from the mind, rather than arcane knowledge for a mindblade, and they can use this reserve to project weapons of psychic force. The larger the weapon, the more energy needed, but said weapons are naturally magical, and can be spawned with various magical weapon enhancements, rather than needing to be enhanced separately.

Given the nature of their magic, these warriors also learn the secrets of spells associated with true psychics, allowing them to add them to their repertoire as an ordinary magus might with wizard spells.

Whether it be two or a double-ended weapon, eventually mindblades are able to keep two mind weapons manifested at once, allowing them to use a two-weapon fighting style.

Over time, they learn to manifest their blades faster to better react to danger, and eventually can manifest both weapons at once with the same exertion.

If a two-bladed, or perhaps two-handed weapon magus appeals to you, but you prefer the feel of psychic magic over arcane, this archetype might suit you well. I think both the mindblade and the spellblade have their uses, and are worthy choices, rather than one being an “improved” version of the other. In any case, dig through the psychic spell list for some unique spell choices to combine with a melee build, such as creating force effects to hedge in foes, or even dragging foes you would have difficulty facing in melee into psychic duels.

 Given the nature of their abilities, its easy to imagine that there might be some connection between the source of mindblade powers and aether-aligned kineticists, given how the latter can form shapes of force with enough practice. Furthermore, though it is canon that the kasatha brought the tradition with them to the system, the mindblade might also be an ancestral discipline that influenced what would become the solarion tradition in the era of Starfinder.

  Raised by a mystic order devoted to the art of the mindblade, Norpi the kobold is hardly the most impressive warrior, but he makes up for it in his own way, wielding a projected greatsword and creating fields of etheric shards to control how foes are able to approach him.

 The city of mentalists, Yan Orbodi, has been the home of many schools of psychic and occult learning for generations. However, it is not above sinister plots. A brain mole monarch has hatched a plan to swap the minds of its collective gestalt with those of the mindblade honor guard, hoping to get a chance to strike down the Eternal Princess, a doomed, but nonetheless dangerous plan.

 Recently, star-emblazoned figures have been watching the drills of the Order of the Mindful Blade. While the order allows this, some fear these strangers are attempting to steal their secrets for some sinister purpose. Those that face them will discover their uncanny mastery over fire and gravity.