dels-and-dragons

[dels-and-dragons]

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer

Red robe baby, Thayan lady

Priestess for Szass Tam

Pretty eyes in a vial

You’ll marry a vampire man

Undeath reaper, you must’ve seen her

Cast Create Undead

Now she’s in me, always with me

Necromancer in my head

Gnomish freaks out in the street

Handing tickets out for Gond

Turning back, she just laughs

The Lord of Smiths is not that bad

Vampire man, he makes his stand

In the Black Academy

Looks ahead, she Tolls the Dead

The bell she rings, the foes decay

But oh how it feels so real

Lying here with no one near

Only you, and you can hear me

When I say softly, slowly

Hold me closer, necromancer

Count the lives caught in your Soul Cage

Lay me down in Spirit Shroud

You had a busy day in Thay

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Fuck it, we ball.

Monster Manual Smash or Pass of the Day: Lichen Lich

[dels-and-dragons]

Should I start posting Monster Manual Smash or Pass of the Day like I do on Discord?

[dels-and-dragons]

An aarakocra rogue/bard multiclass. Double skill expertise and Jack of all trades make him able to adapt easily to just about any occupation out there. He can’t speak a word of Common, but his Disguise Self and Charm Person spells make it easy for him to navigate social situations despite this. More than anything, he dreams of being accepted into human society. But every time he impersonates a human, it blows up in his face. Because he’s not a man - he’s a Chicken Boo.

[dels-and-dragons]

Tabaxi who gets disadvantage on all vision-based checks but advantage on all hearing-based ones.

[dels-and-dragons]

Character #2: Belle

Race: Human (Variant: Mark of Handling

Beast tamer’s intuition: when Belle makes an Animal Handling or Nature check, add 1d4 to the roll.

Primal Connection: Belle can cast Animal Friendship once per short rest.

Skill proficiencies: Medicine, History, Animal Handling, Insight, Persuasion

Ability scores:

Strength: 11 (0 mod)

Dexterity: 14 (+2 mod)

Constitution: 15 (+2 mod)

Intelligence: 16 (+3 mod)

Wisdom: 13 (+1 mod)

Charisma: 16 (+3 mod)

Level: 9 (Artificer - Battle Smith Level 4, Bard - College of Stories Level 5)

Magical Tinkering: Years of watching her father’s inventing has given Belle a working knowledge of creating and modifying objects. Using her trusty set of tools, she can imbue her animated servants with certain abilities. Her candelabrum can emit 5 feet of bright light without flame. Her clock can record a ten-second message, which it will recite with a chiming voice when tapped. Her teacup can emit any scent or wordless sound. And her teapot, when filled with water, can turn it into either tea or soapy water.

Artificer infusions known: Homunculus servant, mind sharpener, returning weapon, replicate magic weapon.

Battle Smith Feature: Steel Defender - Belle has learned how to breathe life into her father’s latest invention. It no longer needs coal to run, and can follow basic commands. This construct of steel and wood is fully loyal to Belle and her allies. It can melee attack with its axe or throw logs with a 20ft range.

Bravery will follow: Belle’s presence inspires goodness in others. Three times per long rest, she can grant inspiration to another creature; for the next 10 minutes, this creature may add 1d8 to an ability check, attack roll, or saving throw of their choice.

Book of Tales: Belle draws inspiration from her favorite tales, which she can impart on her allies. With her book of stories in hand, she can roll her inspiration die to choose a tale from her book. Using an action, she can give the effect to an ally of her choice.

1 Tale of the Tod: For the next 10 minutes, whenever the target makes an Intelligence, a Wisdom, or a Charisma check, the target can roll an extra die immediately after rolling the d20 and add the extra die's number to the check. The extra die is the same type as your Bardic Inspiration die.

2 Tale of the Jilted Fairy. You make a melee spell attack against the target. On a hit, the target takes force damage equal to two rolls of your Bardic Inspiration die + your Charisma modifier.

3 Tale of the Golden Hair. The target and another creature of its choice it can see within 5 feet of it gains temporary hit points equal to a roll of your Bardic Inspiration die + your Charisma modifier.

4 Tale of the Glitch. The target can immediately use its reaction to teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space it can see. When the target teleports, it can choose a number of creatures it can see within 30 feet of it up to your Charisma modifier (minimum of 0) to immediately use the same reaction.

5 Tale of the Brother Bear. For 1 minute, any creature that hits the target with a melee attack takes force damage equal to a roll of your Bardic Inspiration die.

6 Tale of the Draft Horse. The target gains temporary hit points equal to a roll of your Bardic Inspiration die + your bard level. While it has these temporary hit points, the target's walking speed increases by 10 feet and it gains a +1 bonus to its AC.

7 Tale of the Facilitator. The target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or take psychic damage equal to two rolls of your Bardic Inspiration die, and the target is incapacitated until the end of its next turn.

8 Tale of the Czernobog. The target becomes invisible until the end of its next turn or until it hits a creature with an attack. If the target hits a creature with an attack during this invisibility, the creature it hits takes necrotic damage equal to a roll of your Bardic Inspiration die and is frightened of the target until the end of the frightened creature's next turn.

Spells known:

Cantrips: Mending, Spare the Dying, Blade Ward, True Strike, Friends, Guidance

1st: Catapult, Expeditious Retreat, Identify, Comprehend Languages, Cure Wounds, Heroism, Shield

2nd: Enhance Ability, Heat Metal, Borrowed Knowledge, Calm Emotions, Aid

Feats: Eldritch Adept (Eyes of the Rune Keeper - can read all languages), Keen Mind

My Reasoning: Admittedly, the idea for Artificer!Belle came from two different DnD characters I’ve come up with. Given her father being a tinkerer/inventor, it makes sense that she would learn at his knee. But also, a key part of Belle’s character is bringing out - inspiring, if you will - goodness in others. This suits Bard class. Bard and Artificer don’t multiclass all that well, but given Belle’s main stats being Intelligence and Charisma, it fits.

Obviously, her magical tinkering objects were based off of the Beast’s servants, and her Steel Defender is based off of Maurice’s wood-chopping invention. I went with College of Spirits for her, but I would flavor it (and have named it accordingly) less as ghosts and more as other Disney/fairy tale characters. No tarot cards, no spirits, no rituals - just stories. Taking the stories that formed her into the person she is, and using them to help her in battle just seems very Belle.

[dels-and-dragons]

Character #1: Nynaeve al'Meara

Welcome to my blog, where I indulge in DnD fandom bullshit! For the first character I want to build, I'm going with my fave from the Wheel of Time book series: Nynaeve al'Meara.

To clarify: This build will be for Nynaeve while she has the block on her powers. I wanted my first post to be something challenging. I may revisit her post-block to give her a class change some other time.

Race: Human (Variant: Mark of Finding)

Wisdom’s Intuition: Add 1d4 to any Wisdom (Perception) or Wisdom (Survival) rolls.

Wisdom’s Magic: Once per long rest, Nynaeve can cast Hunter’s Mark and Locate Object, using Wisdom as the spell casting ability.

Skill proficiencies: Animal Handling, Insight, Medicine, Survival

Ability scores: Strength: 12 (+1 mod) Dexterity: 14 (+2 mod) Constitution: 15 (+2 mod) Intelligence: 11 (+0 mod) Wisdom: 18 (+4 mod) Charisma: 6 (-2 mod)

Level: 10 (Barbarian 3 (modified Storm Herald), Cleric 7 (modified Tempest))

Rage Variant: Wilder Rage For most barbarians, casting spells requires more concentration than they can maintain while in the throes of a rage. For Nynaeve, her anger and her ability to access the One Power have become so intertwined that she can only access leveled spells while raging. She gains no strength, physical attack bonuses, or damage reduction while raging, but gains a +2 to damage, spell save DC, and healing output for leveled spells while raging.

Storm Aura: Starting at 3rd level, any time Nynaeve enters a rage, she gains a 10-foot radius aura that grants 2 temp. HP to all creatures she chooses within that aura.

Wrath of the Storm: when struck by an enemy within 5 feet of her, Nynaeve can call on thunder or lightning to deal 2d8 thunder or lightning damage. This can be called upon a number of times equal to her WIS modifier.

Channel Divinity: Destructive Wrath - Once per long rest, Nynaeve can use her abilities as Wisdom to deal maximum thunder or lightning damage. This replaces the Turn Undead feature.

Thunderbolt Strike: At 6th level, dealing lightning damage to a Large or smaller creature can push that creature up to 10 feet away.

Spells known:

Cantrips: Guidance, Resistance, Spare the Dying, Thaumaturgy

1st: Faerie Fire, Longstrider, Ceremony, Create or Destroy Water, Cure Wounds, Detect Poison and Disease

2nd: Locate Animals or Plants, Locate Object, Hold Person, Lesser Restoration, Warding Bond

3rd: Clairvoyance, Speak With Plants, Aura of Vitality, Motivational Speech, Beacon of Hope

4th: Divination, Locate Creature, Aura of Life

Domain Spells: Fog Cloud, Thunderwave, Gust of Wind, Shatter, Call Lightning, Sleet Storm, Control Water, Ice Storm

Feat: Metamagic Adept (Seeking Spell, Twinned Spell)

My Reasoning: While the bloodline of Manetheren which gives Nynaeve her power would be better associated with the Sorcerer class, I went with Cleric for two reasons: 1.) She is a healer, first and foremost, and 2.) Charisma is my girl’s dump stat. And while the healing domain would have been appropriate for her, I went with Tempest due to her ability to listen to the wind. This also informed my choice for her variant race; Mark of the Finder focuses on communing with nature to find what is lost and gain knowledge and insight.

The Barbarian multiclass is there specifically to make things more difficult for her. In the books, Nynaeve is so afraid of her powers that she accidentally locks them away so that they’re only accessible when she’s very angry. So while she might be a magical powerhouse, she’s essentially worthless in a fight if she’s feeling any emotion that isn’t rage. Even healing is only available to her if she riles herself up with the very idea of people being sick, wounded, or otherwise helpless. This gives her an increased urgency to heal in the midst of battle; as soon as the battle ends and her anger fades, so does her ability to cast. I could have given her a single level of Barbarian just to give her the rage feature… but giving her three is a much bigger inconvenience.

For spells, some of them came from the Mark of the Finder variant. For her cleric spells, I tried to focus on ones that focused on healing, water, or her position of leadership in Emond’s Field. The Metamagic Adept feat was given to her for both practical and thematic purposes: to increase the versatility of her magic, and as a nod to the bloodline aspect of her abilities.

I hope you enjoyed this write-up! If you’re interested in me attempting this with other characters, feel free to hop into my inbox.

[dels-and-dragons]

Welcome to my nonsense!

This blog, spawned of pure boredom, is where I'll be dumping my thoughts on how I would build my favorite fictional characters as DnD characters, purely for funsies.