#3E-awareness

[aeondeug]

out of these fuckers in exalted the sidereals seem the coolest. yu shan in general seems the coolest. but then i just think the celestial bureaucracy in general is The Coolest.

[talenlee]

Why Is Druid?

Say that like ‘where is Wizard Hut?‘

I love the 4e Druid. This is a marked change from how much I liked the 3e druid, or how often you might see me playing a druid in a Baldur’s Gate game. Back in 3rd edition, the druid, despite being very powerful, never really engaged me, in part perhaps because I was always trying to find something exploitative and powerful rather than merely accepting the juggernaut of a toolkit the game just left in the Player’s Handbook. You couldn’t get clever with the Druid, you just had to pick it up and use it, like some sort of society of creative anachronisms where one of the anachronisms available to the players was has gun. Valid, but hardly sporting.

The Druid in 4th edition is different. Wildly different. Weirdly different, and different in one of those ways that shows what I think of as a seam in the design between 4th and 3rd editions of D&D.

The Druid was one of 3rd edition’s great mistakes, a full spellcasting class with healer capacity to serve as a pinch-hitter healer in a group that wanted things a little more varied, addressing an enormously complex potential build from its earlier edition, 2e, and all in the process, resulting in some deeply confused mash up of abilities that attempted to address confusion with volume. The druid of 2e had a special unique set of rules compared to the Cleric — for example, at a certain level, you passed into a specific category of Druidic ability and now you were technically a Hierophant, and Hierophants had seven extra spells of every level. Of course there was a limited supply of Hierophants in the world, so there was a question of if you could level up if another one existed, and maybe there’s a one-in, one-out policy? First in, first fired?

Anyway, I can’t speak to how it played, but I am at least aware, on the edges of it, that the 2e druid was odd. It had a lot of things it could do, but much of how it worked, reading the books, seemed to be interesting but challenging to manage. You could wild shape, you could heal, you could cast utility spells, you could even fight with some melee weapons — personally, I didn’t see any of it worth it, because none of the things it could do it could do very well.

3e addressed this seeming difficulty by instead taking all those different options and bringing them all up to the same level. Wild Shape worked by checking traits of monster units, which meant that you weren’t limited to specific reinterpretations of animals and instead could do what a druid feels like it should do — you know, turn into an animal. The spells were rebalanced and shared across different classes, which meant that they tended to work in a more standardised way. Armour rules were aggregated, and weapons were made less terrible.

The result was that the 3e druid went from being ‘decent’ at a bunch of things to ‘good’ at everything it wanted to do. The problem of the druid then became about picking the thing you wanted to at every opportunity, and doing a good job of it — you’d have druids carrying wands of healing so they could dedicate their spell slots to more important tasks, like Flame Striking opponents, or messing up the battlefield with roots. You’d also see druids keeping the ‘best’ list of animals on hand, and every new monster book presented a new chance for druids to develop a new best form.

It also created the strange question of What does the druid do?

The answer was ‘everything.’

The 4e Druid, in comparison and contrast to these designs is something very different that touches, at best, on the periphery of what the 3e Druid could be. I mean it stands to reason, you can only ever touch on doing everything when something you’re working from is so powerful. 4e with its role system of Defender, Striker, Leader and Controller, and its reliable, reusable balance math suddenly was confronted with fitting an elephant into a shoebox.

How do you represent something busted that could do everything in the context of a new system that sought to explicitly prevent that? I joked when the game was new that the four roles were Defender, Striker, Leader and Miscellaneous. That any class too powerful, with too much stuff it could potentially do, got thrown to the Controller role as suggested by the first Controller we ever saw being the Wizard. Oh and back in Player’s Handbook 1, the Wizard had a few builds that were pretty ridiculously pushed — the pinball wizard, I’ll talk about it sometime — and that meant that it was easy to feel like the Controller Does Everything.

That impression diluted through experience, of course, and eventually it came to that while yes, the Controller sure has some Miscellaneous vibes, the core of what the Controller was there to do was to attack the enemy action economy. Nice and obvious to a non giga-nerd, right? Okay, how about this: The leader lets you do more things, the controller stops them from doing more things?

And into this space, they poured the druid.

It works beautifully, for my tastes; the druid needs to do lots of things to feel properly druidy, but you need to make sure the doing lots of things doesn’t unbalance the game. Controllers have the widest variety of things they can do and ways they can do them – inflicting status conditions, changing enemy position, preventing specific action types, making areas on the battlefield inaccessible, these are all ‘controllery’ things, and that means there’s a lot of different ways you can flavour them. The Invoker is most famous for making zones in the play space hard to deal with, the Wizard has a build that slides things all over the place, and the psion controls people with immense penalties to their damage rolls.

Obligatory pause where, while reading this aloud, for either Fox or I to comment on how amazing it is that Dishearten is an AOE power.

Anyway, the druid was designed to be a mode switcher class. That is, there are two ways a druid can do things. One is a melee controller that makes a single target’s life harder, the other is a ranged controller that makes a large group of enemies’ lives harder. This mode switching then adds a new element to the class that your powers can interact with, where you now have control powers that can add a mode switching element to them as well. This is your Wild Shape – you transform into some kind of nonspecific beast, which can use your Wild Shape powers. Each form has fewer powers to manage, and you can build your druid to specialise in one or the other or do a mix.

This lets the druid do the ‘a lot’ without letting them actually do everything. You have a lot of choices and a lot of ways to play with those pieces, but even just how often you use the mode switch is part of what the druid does to control the battlefield. When I first played a druid, it was not uncommon to start a fight out of wild shape, use the first turn to make some kind of area control power, then shift into wild shape for the rest of the fight kicking people into that area control power. There are druids builds that work like wizards and only ever shapeshift to get away from problems, and make a hit while scuttling away, or to sit on a specific type of problem. There were druids who focused on summoning monsters and using them as kind of turrets on the battlefield, positioning allies in a way that benefitted them around those summons.

Lone artillery combat encounters, where you have a bunch of stuff in front of a long-ranged attacker? Druids love those. Even at level 1, that artillery is spending their days completely stuck underneath a Fire Hawk power.

Problem is, of course, that if you want to do Everything doing a Lot is going to miss something. That was what led to the subclasses of the druid, the ones that added healer elements to the druid, because the druid back in 3e could do that. It added animal companions, because the druid back in 3e could do that. Now I don’t worry too much about these things because if I wanted an animal companion on my Druid, I’d take a theme for that, but also because these changes were introduced in an Essentials book.

Which is to say, they’re crap.

They’re not crap crap, like I try to defend Essentials as giving players a choice for simplified character builds, but in the specific case of the Essentials Druids, in order to work with the simplified choices, these Essentials druids with their animal companions and their healing powers have to look at all other Druid powers and not use them. The only use they get out of their animal companion is using the specific subset of powers that make them work, and that makes combat more samey. But again: That’s a thing you probably want if you want a simplified build.

Still, it gives rise to my favourite joke – I mean like, funny thing, not really a joke, there’s no subversion of reality or anything here – about the Healer Druid. See, every Leader in the game gets an encounter power, usable twice a combat at level 1, that heals an ally with a bonus. Every class gets their own version that lets them distinguish their class specifically and add some interesting detail that shows how this Leader differs from other Leaders.

The Healer druid build gets Healing Word.

The Cleric power.

Literally, the same power, same name, listed as a Cleric power.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[thequietkid-moonie]

Happiest last days

[ ONE-SHOT ] [ Class 1-A ]

[ My hero academia / Boku no hero academia ]

⚠️ Hidden depression, implied suicide

This was dificult to write between the depresive episode and the write block... but is here! I thought of doing it with class 3E instead but I didn't at the end, maybe other time? Anyways hope you enjoy it!

Also I thought on mention as much characters I could but I the end I didn't do it much, sorry

Become a hero is almost every child's wish! In a world with superpowers the idea of becoming a hero is like a dream come true! And now that you are in the hero course you can't feel happier. Everything about the course seems like a dream, from your classmates to the teachers, the facilities, the dorms, the classes, it all show how close you truly are to become a hero

Everyday in Class 1A is like a new little adventure, with the training and all those exercises that simulate real situations as a profesional hero every day is quite exciting, learning new things and improving your own habilities gives you a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction like anything before, slowly boosting your self confidence

And not forget about you classmates, no matter how shy you have being at the start everyone is so welcoming and cheerful, everyone is kind in their own way that is so heartwarming

You have spend your days having little adventures with your friends, from playing video games non stop with Denki, Sero and Kirishima to not only learning to dance but do it randomly on the common room with Mina, having some time to just relax and talk with your new friends, enjoying some of the tea Momo kindly make for everyone and even the pastries Sato kindly have share with you

Ever when it comes to school, Momo is more than willing to take you in her little study group (and help you not fail on your grades) or training with your friends to learn new things, everyone is a good option to ask for help but Deku is the more analyltical and he is more than ready to give you some advices about what he can see on your quirk (as long as you don't mind the ranting, he just can't control it)

Even whenever you feel down they are always there to offer some help, like Aoyama who is more aware than he seems and would share you some comforting words in his own way and cheese or Kirishima who is always there to tell you how manly you have being!

Clearly, being in Class 1A, studying for in the future become a profesional hero is like a true dream! Or, well, thats what you constantly tell yourself

Everyday you wake up and remind yourself how amazing are the people around you, trying your best to put a smile before getting out of you room, sometimes a sincere one, other time one not so sincere and yet they always manage to sincerely make you smile

Its true that you have being feeling genuinely happy, having so much fun with your friends and even if school is quite hard sometimes it have made you truly happy, looking back you can easily say that this is the happiest you have being since a long time, or maybe in your entire life

And yet, is not enough to take away the sorrow of your heart, to take out those unspoke feelings that live inside of you, those that torture you in the darkness of your room, those feeling that make you feel like trash, that reminds you that not all in life is fun and you wont be good enough when the time comes to confront the real world, that feeling that makes you just want to finish everything

Even when this has being the happiest days of you life you have already made up your mind, you went through your days like always, having fun with your friends, smiling and laughing at their side, doing your best o what you are doing until the end of the week, without them noticing you prepare everything to put an end to your life, even writing a goodbye note to your dearest friends, hopefuly they won't get mad at you for nor saying it in person

When the day finally came you went through the day like always, enjoying your time with them at its fullest until the moment it came, saying a last bye with a smile and going back to your room, taking some small deep breaths to get ready, smiling to yourself for finally achiving what you wanted the most, ready to finally close your eyes and don't open them ever again, quietly thanking life for letting you met such amazing people before letting the heaviness and sorrow that torments your heart win and finally put an end to your life

[alpaca-clouds]

The thing that bugs me about Cazador

Allow me to ramble about a thing that really bugs me about Cazador and his character design.

Let me start out with the fact, that it is super iffy that Cazador is the one recognizable east asian character in the entire game. At least from what I came across. And, you know. It is iffy if you take a minority and make their only representation the "sadistic vampire who wants to sacrifice 7000 mostly white people to become a god". I hope I don't have to explain that.

And yes, technically speaking... yeah, Karlach is technically also East Asian. With just one problem: Her being red-skinned and having the make-up very much hides this fact. Like, I did not realize this until I saw the mod that removed the make-up from the companions.

But outside of the basic issue with the trope... Well, look. I do not think that the folks Larian were like: "Hehe, we will use this character to show how evil the Asians are!" or something like this. But the game very much shows that there was a lot of internalized biases. And be it just in the fact, that we barely come across non-white characters in the entire fucking game. All non-white characters are basically tokens.

And before someone comes in with: "Faerûn is based on medieval Europe!" First off: "Shut up." Second: Going by official DnD Lore Faerûn is a super diverse place, where you will find all sorts of Asian, Arab, and Black people. I mean, just look at the DnD movie, where they made an effort to have half of the cast be non-white. Like, the Faerûn that Larian depicts is basically the Faerûn of 3e, not 5e.

And then... Well, when it comes to Cazador, then there is the Early Access design.

Now, this is actually where WotC stepped in and was like: "Yeah, you cannot do this." Officially by explaining that elves do not have facial hair. But I do imagine that someone at WotC actually looked at this design and was like: "... Do they realize that this is Fu Manchu?"

Because yeah, this design is simply just Fu Manchu. And for those who are not aware: Fu Manchu is a character popular in pulp fiction of the early 20th century, that arose mostly from Yellow Peril stereotypes.

He was a Chinese magician, who was up to all sorts of evil schemes, which suspiciously often involved sacrificing white people (mostly white women) to evil gods or demons. He made appearances in all sorts of media back then, including movies (where he obviously was portrayed by white actors in yellowface) and some off-brand Sherlock Holmes novels that were not written by Doyle but other writers.

Fu Manchu was also what the original Mandarin in the Marvel Comics was based on.

This is one of the Renditions of Fu Manchu in one of those off-brand Sherlock Holmes stories.

And here is the earlier Mandarin design:

And, like, I am sorry. But that stuff leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

Again, I do not really think that this stuff was done on purpose. My best guess is, that Cazador was either based on the Mandarin, or on some of the other "Chinese Magician" villains that some American Kung Fu movies put into their media in the 70s and 80s.

But I also think there was nobody at Larian who did any sort of sensitivity consulting when it came to the inclusion of non-white characters.

[shadow-fell]

Ulder Ravengard

have you met Ulder and gone dude why are you so mean to your son? do you want to write some fun angst for Wyll? well then do I have some meta for you.

This is a summary of the events of Murder in Baldur's Gate, the adventure that introduced Ulder + a lot of other plot points for BG3, plus some bits from his later appearances in Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus and Rise of Tiamat. MiBG isn't widely run, but this is heavy spoilers, so reader beware!

Murder in Baldur's Gate is an adventure very few people have heard of and also one of the most critical to the plot of BG3 (aside from Descent into Avernus which it was introduced as a direct companion/sequel to). It was part of the D&D Next playtest for 5e, and was written so that it could be played in 3e, 4e, or with the playtest rules, and is thus a really weird but fun adventure to run.

The core concept is this: Grand Duke Abdel Adrian (AKA Gorion's Ward AKA Charname from BG1/BG2) is attacked by the last remaining Bhaalspawn. One of them kills the other, and the survivor is turned into the Slayer, who the party is introduced helping to take down. What no one knows is that this also led directly to the resurrection of Bhaal, who proceeds to lurk in the shadows, manipulating events.

The main structure of the module is that there are three characters vying to take control of the city in the upheaval - Duke Torlin Silvershield who wants to consolidate power for the patriars and himself, Rilsa Rael of the Guild who's trying to start a populist uprising, and Ulder Ravengard, who's vying for the open Duke spot and trying to get the Flaming Fist more control over the city.

They're also all three touched by Bhaal, slowly driven over the deep end to drive the city into chaos. There are 10 stages, each with a mission from one of the three. If things go off as written (either because the party, working for that antagonist, did as they were told, or if they failed to intervene) they gain a rank of 'Bhaal's Favor' - with the winner ascending as the Chosen of Bhaal and wreaking havoc on the city.

Who is Ulder Ravengard at the start?

"Ravengard is not a zealot or a fascist - not yet, anyway."

Blaze Ulder Ravengard is the fourth son of a lower city smith, who is intensely loyal to the Flaming Fist, believing them to be the backbone of the city. He's repeatedly described as being disciplined, focused, and utilitarion. He has "no interest in domestic matters" and his soldiers respect rather than love him.

However, unlike most of the Fist, his goals are for the good of the city. He "seethes over the eagerness of ill-doers to control others, steal the fruits of honest folk's labor, and otherwise misuse hardworking people" - what manifests mainly in a crusade against the Guild, but he's no fan of the patriars and their corruption either.

Specifically, he plans to "wage war" against the Guild - and is aware that "wars aren't won without casualties or collateral damage" - pointing out his blind spot that "he excuses all actions taken for the public good while simultaneously deploring identical deeds that others carry out for less altruistic reasons"

Ulder's main flaw is that he thinks the ends justify the means, and that he's willing to do anything to protect the "honest" citizens of the city against crime. He's fine with intense methods if they produce results. That is to say, he's a cop.

To be honest my whole meta on Ulder really can be summed down with "ACAB" but we'll keep going anyways.

Murder in Baldur's Gate

It's Uktar 1482, at the Founder's Day celebration, and Grand Duke Abdel Adriain is dead. Ulder was his right hand, and was there for the death - but unarmed, because the Flaming Fist don't have authority in the Upper City, only the City Watch, who due to poor planning were too far away to do anything to help.

Ulder is the only one of the three antagonists to meet with the players openly, and invites them to Wyrm Crossing where he offers temporary membership in the Flaming Fist. His plan is to regain order, investigate the death (he thinks the Guild is behind it) and put himself up as Adrian's replacement.

Most of the module occurs in "stages" where each antagonist has their own plan going, which the party can either help or hinder.

Ravengard shuts down two gambling dens run by the Guild in the lower city, boarding them up and bringing the owners in for questioning.

Ravengard sends extra Flaming Fist to patrol the docks to check on workers from the Outer City he believe to be behind recent vandalism and tax robberies - they proceed to enact some police brutality.

Several statues (including the Beloved Ranger) are vandalized by a group of patriar youths. Whoever the party turns them over to gains a rank of Bhaal's Favor

Ravengard begins campaigning for Duke. Traditionally, the spot has ties to the Lower City and the Flaming Fist, but the Parliament of Peers wants a patriar instead - Wyllyck Caldwell. Ravengard blackmails Caldwell to get him to step away.

Ravengard convinces the Harbormaster to raise tariffs on luxury items (in response to the stage 2 sumptuary laws Silvershield enacts)

The Court of the Fist is set up - an illegal military tribunal where the Flaming Fist begin capturing suspected Guild members and sympathizers,

Ravengard closes down the Baldur's Mouth under suspicion the Guild is using it to communicate.

Rioting in the city breaks out, the Flaming Fist cracks down violently if the players don't intervene

Ravengard declares martial law. Not complying with the Flaming Fist is grounds for execution.

Ravengard sets up public executions. Over a hundred are killed within the first hour.

It Ends With Blood: if Ulder Ravengard is the Chosen of Bhaal, he reigns death on the city from above using the trebuchets in the Seatower of Balduran.

Event 10 occurs for the top two of Bhaal's favor, and Event 11 for the chosen - which is canonically Silvershield. So, we know events one through nine were at least ordered, even if circumvented - martial law is the only one that can't be averted.

Given that he ends up "winning" (becoming Grand Duke) I think the executions probably didn't happen (and instead Rilsa Rael staged her prison break) but it doesn't actually break canon.

Rise of Tiamat & Descent into Avernus

Sometime around or shortly before 1485, Ulder is named Grand Duke. 1485 is the year Wyll is banished for his pact with Mizora - which means he was only the Duke's son for maximum a few years.

In 1489, Ulder represents the city on the council to deal with the threat of Tiamat, where his traits are:

Ideals: Responsibility, glory ("I am trusted with protecting thousands of lives, and I will not betray that trust no matter what my personal desires.") Interaction Traits: Honest Pledged Resources: Flaming Fist warriors and expert advisers to train conscript troops

In Descent to Avernus, he's described as having been elected "backed by idealistic commoners and enemies of the other established dukes" and that his concerns are the "stability and prosperity" of the city. He's the "voice of reason and common sense" but not egalitarianism.

The central tenet of DIA is that Ulder Ravengard is an honorable man, and without him to keep the Flaming Fist in line, they exercise their power cruelly (guided along by Vanthampur as she tries to consolidate power)

In Elturel, Ulder has taken charge of the city's defense. You meet him as he has tried to recover a relic and been caught by a psychic attack from Baphomet, that is mostly grounds for him to give a lore drop.

Okay, that's a lot of information. Summary please?

Ulder Ravengard is a cop.

He's not a bad cop. He's not interested in power, wealth, or fame. He wants what's best for the city...and he believes that the Flaming Fist, with the right motivation and guidance are it.

But, like, he's still a cop. He's inflexible, and doesn't see much nuance in situations. He's Lawful Neutral, in a genuine sense, he believes in the righteousness of Order, and can't see the nuances or the downsides.

If he's a righteous man, why hasn't he put work into reforming the very corrupt Flaming Fist? Because Good Cops don't fix anything, and I don't think he actually has a problem with most of it. Sure, the punishment is extreme, but you were committing a crime - Mercy is a virtue for a judge to hold, but it isn't a right. He's more concerned with the corruption vis a vis bribes from patriars and the Guild than the police brutality angle.

He's a good man to have running your army. He's a good man to marshal your defenses as your city goes plummeting to hell. Grand Duke of Baldur's Gate? The only thing he has going for him is that everyone else is just as bad.

Of course he exiled Wyll - if you're not guilty, you have nothing to hide. There was nothing more damning than not being able to speak (which Mizora knew; she is, in fact, good at her job). Ulder's views of patriar corruption (and status as being from the lower city) also has him uniquely positioned to be very harsh - he can't be the person who lets his son's crimes slide, not and clamp down on the patriars doing the same thing.

But once he had the context, he accepted him immediately - the ends justify the means. Ulder Ravengard is a man who would make a deal with a devil to save his city...so long as he knows the price.

(now, on the 'leaving 17yo Wyll in charge...look, this gets complicated, but the only way it works is if he's put in charge of the Flaming Fist, not as 'heir to the Duke' mostly because Ravengard doesn't trust most of the Fist to not be corrupt. Even then, I think it's likely to be a bit more of Wyll's POV (I have to step up!) and less an official chain of command, but he could easily have been an official member).

There are definitely places with Wyll that you can see how he has and hasn't taken his father's ideology. He's got some naive views (Baldur's Gate, welcoming refugees??) that suit someone who was taught the theory but never actually practiced politics, but he definitely has a leaning towards some of Ulder's views about law and order and ends and means.

And as for Grand Duke Wyll Ravengard, well....

...let's just say, with the right people pushing buttons, I could see him going down the 'declare martial law' route too.

[xxxdragonfucker69xxx]

The Abyssals crowdfunding campaign closes in about 24 hours.

I did not get to hourinblack all their charms. As penance, I am going to skim just the end of each charmtree, and tell you about the biggest, coolest power of each tree. I am also going to do this for necromancy because i am a necromantic slut.

ARCHERY:

World-Wounding Darkness: Shoot a hole in the world, leaving a black hole that sucks people in. This isn't actually near the end of the tree but it caught my eye and I was like holy fuck.

Heart-Numbing Spike: When you shoot someone, wound their ability to care about things.

Last Days Portent: Shoot out the fucking sun. Kills the lights over the battlefield. If you're being goth about it, kill the lights for miles around.

ATHLETICS

Mountains Become Dust: Physical scale is no longer a limit on feats of scale or destruction.

Light-Killing Stride: Move faster than someone. Didn't ask how fast they moved, you move faster than them.

Temple-Shattering Ruination Curse: Destroy a building to curse the land, making it shadowy and blighted and supernaturally scary. if you were being intense about it, it becomes an abyssal demesne, a permanent upwelling of goth energy

AWARENESS

All-Seeing Overlord's Lair: Extend your senses throughout your stronghold, you can't be surprised inside and your ghostly sentinels (you know, the wraiths you cast to patrol for you) can roam throughout

Morbid Inspiration Witness: Find inspiration in " the morbid, the eerie, or the darkly beautiful: an albatross dropping dead in flight, three  black cats crossing the same street in sequence, lightning striking a distant temple." That inspiration grants you bonuses on various projects, and also makes you care deeply about it. This is enhanced by further charms like Fervent Caprice Fever and Unrelenting Obsession Genius

Piercing Gaze of the Unmaker: Pick a place within, like 20 miles. You see it like it's your lair and you're there. Or maybe you want to cast your gaze on your rival instead? they are going to feel a crawling sensation up their spine from your gaze through <3

BRAWL

Illustrative Overkill Technique: When you kill or incapacitate a guy, it's so fucked up you can use it to threaten anyone else. Or like blow up a building or whatever

Explosive Gore Eulogy (!!): When you do that ^ you can also use their corpse as a weapon. Jesus christ.

Life-Annihilating Castigation: Pyreflame your attack and multiply (!!) damage by your opponent's wound penalty. If you get their ass they explode with pyreflame from within, and if it kills them their ghost burns up on the spot

Void Avatar Embodiment: Now with 0% prana! Envelop yourself in the void, dealing aggravated damage on touch and withering ranged attacks away. Also you're as close to death as you want to be <3

BUREAUCRACY

Hateful Scorn Panopticon: when you use Accursed Overlord Authority to inspire hatred in your followers, you can sense when any of them encounter your enemy, and where.

Rotting Palace Proclamation: Reveal that you embedded a traitor in a rival organization. Or was it someone we knew all along?

Iron Tyrant Reign: When you do that Accursed Overlord thing, if it's a Defining Principle you can carve it into the world as an Old Law: everyone who hears or reads it must follow, words bleed through coverings or hover like fire in the air, the mindless dead automatically obey

Suffer No Betrayal: When you do the Panopticon, you can also count people who've broken your laws as enemies. You can immediately gain Defining Hatred... and possibly carve that as an old law with Iron Tyrant Reign? That isn't in the charm im just reading between the lines

CRAFT

Malicious Mechanism Mastery: Jesus this one is a cartoon supervillain bit. Reveal that an enemy has stumbled into your trap! If it's a corpse-based trap, it's worse!

Fivefold Malice Curse: Lay a curse on something you make, for instance if its bearer breaks an oath or acts against one of your principles. and if they trigger the curse they get blasted by your Bleak Expiations, aka Abyssal Limit Break aka You Cannot Escape The Goth

Soul-Tarnishing Treasure: Instead of an overt curse you can cause it to inspire vice, a sword demanding bloodshed or a chalice inspiring drink. You can't be totally free of this unless you give the object up

Drawn to Death's Beauty: When you use Magnificent Cenotaph Allure to imbue something with emotion, you can also fill it with the mesmerizing lure of death, so that people wander towards it like a will o wisp and cant look away

Betrayal-Spurring Gifts: Annatar their shit socially if you've given them something you've made. &btw cursing that shit is free

DODGE

Hanging Shrike Focus: Dodge up into the air and float back down, or fall on your enemies maybe

Queen of Killers Pirouette (!!): dodge so good you turn it back on them, like fucking zelda's neutral-B in smash

Tenebrous Cloud Dissolution: DRACULA FOG its fucking dracula fog

Breath-Seizing Mist: Hey how would you like it if dracula fog was inside your lungs

Icy Sepulcher Entombment: When you cause someone to despair at hitting you the ice literally grows around your heart and then freezes them over. The freezing stuff is actually pretty early in the tree but this is setup for

In Awful Glory Crowned: When you bring them to despair with Frozen Fears Blossom you can also drain their Willpower, and if you drain it all they become obedient to you. Unless they're unimportant in which case they might just fall over dead, turn into a ghost, and then be obedient to you

INTEGRITY

Freedom In Chains: If forced to act against death's chivalry or your principles, brood about it, then break free

Clarity in Hatred: Shaping defense if you're mad enough

Immortal Malevolence: If you've enshrined an intimacy with Eternal Enmity Approach, you can care so much that you simply do not die. Wake up the next sunset completely healed, but you can't use that intimacy again

INVESTIGATION

Heart-Haunting Condemnation: Scrooge a bitch. Nightmares and omens reinforce your accusations.

Bleak Justice Malediction: If your victim of the above draws on Ties to resist giving in to your accusations, the haunting spreads to those people and things too. If they die they haunt your victim. You can fully Book Of Job somebody here.

Omniscient Spymaster's Web. Know something. Your people told you. You think anyone can keep a secret from you?

[fumiko-matsubara]

Sensing vs Intuition: Explaining the stark differences in Chiba and Hayami's sniping methods using MBTI

I'm back at it again with another essay :D

To put it simply, these two cognitive functions basically determine how each person chooses to absorb and process information. And for Chiba and Hayami, out of all the countless differences that they have, this is by far their biggest.

Sensing is when a person heavily relies on their five senses to absorb as much information about their surroundings as they can. They are extremely observant, sensitive, and they tend to have a wide field of vision, noticing details around them that a lot of people tend to miss. They rely on solid facts and prefer to live in the moment, rather than anticipating the unseen future.

Chiba is a strong sensing type. He has superior spatial awareness, which he uses to accurately determine the distance between point A and point B based from what he could see. He uses his sense of touch to determine the direction and strength of the wind blowing, while taking the light weight of the BB pellets into account.

Hence, he was able to easily take out Kataoka during the 3E civil war even though she was hidden from view and was over 300 feet away. This makes his long distance sniping terrifying, as he almost never misses.

Intuition, on the contrary, is when a person see patterns everywhere and uses that to speculate (guess) what was going to happen next. They can easily make instant decisions because they tend to jump into conclusions immediately after connecting bits of information together.

And because they've been doing this for most of their lives that it comes naturally to them, they're pretty good at guessing what was to come, or at least they feel good about making that guess... even if they have a track record of being wrong.

Hayami is an intuitive type. It might not be most suitable for a sniper to perceive information that way, but it's her superior kinetic vision that makes her pattern recognition ability extremely reliable when it comes to hitting moving targets or hitting targets while in an unstable position, at a near perfect timing.

Basically, Hayami's entire thing is:

"It doesn't have to be extremely accurate like Chiba's. As long as I can shoot and hit at any given moment, it's should be good enough."

A little bit to the left, a little up here, around there, and etc. ー unlike Chiba who takes his sweet time making a bunch of detailed calculations in his head so he could accurately shoot, Hayami doesn't think much about these details. She only estimates where she thinks her bullet will hit and just shoots from there. If it hits, then that's that. If it doesn't, she can just find another opportunity to try again.

Like I said, not really a fitting method for a sniper. Her lack of range and accuracy has been pointed out by people. But it's her "shoot and go" method that allows her to move freely in a specific battlefield like the 3E civil war.

And that covers it!

I could honestly talk more about how Chiba and Hayami's Sensing vs Intuition way of absorbing information isn't just exclusive to their contrasting sniping method, but also extends to their daily lives, how they interact with people, and how they face their problems.

To put it simply, Chiba is a realist while Hayami is a visionary. But this one is a topic I could talk about in another time.

[luna-loner]

Hi!

Take that as me considering you the Kanzaki connaisseur, but I was genuinely curious about your point of view on a trivia:

Yoshida Taisei crush on Kanzaki Yukiko. It's only ever mentionned in the character profiles, and they don't interact in canon.

The logic goes that he sees her - and his expression softens up - when he turns his head to his left, since their seating is next to each other. (and Hazama has the time of her life observing the shenanigans from her seat behind Kanzaki 😂)

I don't ship them in the slightest, but I think that we can look at it as yet another point on how Kanzaki is percieved by her classmates;

Yoshida is her polar opposite, and I personally imagined the crush to be very surface-level, attached moreso to her exterior and assumed identity of "sweet, demure girl with good grades" (very realistic middle school crush, in a way 😂).

But still, I was wondering what your thoughts on it, your input, are. Their constrast is interesting, to say the least, and I guess we can either ignore it/find a way to go around it, or use it to see what it tells us about these two.

Do you have any headcanons or anything about Yukiko's point of view, etc etc.?

Thanks in advance, have a good day! :)

What if I told you I briefly shipped them at one point? The Tough motorcycle guy x Madonna gamer girl dynamic is pretty fun to think about. Give me a proper lady on her boyfriend's bike and I'll kiss your generous hands. (Meanwhile, Papa Kanzaki looks like he's about to have a panic attack XD)

I've never invested in Yoshida, so this ship didn't sail for me. The ideas above were me seeing him as a trope rather than a character. And GakuYuki's already living rent-free in my mind

That said, from what I've read about him, I interpreted his character as a secret softie with a tough exterior. A nice guy who likes other nice people; it'd make sense why he'd like Yukiko.

I think Yukiko has noticed him looking at her, and it has made her uncomfortable given her horrible luck with men. It doesn't help that the Terasaka gang weren't the most cooperative and agreeable bunch early on in the series.

But as the year goes on and the gang gets along with the rest of 3E, she starts to see them in a more positive light. As for bike boy, he challenges her to racing games as a way to get close to her. (Also because he was surprised she turned out to be a master gamer and thought it was cool) Yoshida would always drop some vehicle facts. Sure, it's mostly bike-related but he knows some stuff about cars, trains, and even planes. Yukiko may not be interested in these things, but she respects him for cultivating such vast knowledge on something he's passionate about. My girl can relate since she prolly knows so much about her hobbies and passions (flowers, Japanese, games, elderly care, etc...).

And ofc, we can't NOT bring up Hara. I like to think Yukiko visits her often to learn recipes for the elderly, and Yoshida tags along (when he's not hanging out with the gang). This gives them more opportunities to interact, and Hara probably has some funny stories from Yoshida's childhood. I can also see the three eventually forming study groups even during high school, and Yukiko helping Yoshida with Japanese (and maybe other subjects) either through texts or in-person. Another thing, they'd definitely partner up to plan Hara's birthday surprises and figure out which gifts to buy.

Hazama would not be Hazama if she doesn't tease the living daylights out of Yoshida. Picture the two sitting together when Hazama casually says Yukiko's behind him (she's not) and Yoshida just jumps. She wouldn't overdo it, or tell the rest of the gang about it (though I don't doubt some of them have noticed, like Itona for example). She'd also try to talk to Yukiko and tactfully bring Yoshida up just to know how the other girl feels about him, or if she's aware of Yoshida's crush on her, which brings me to the next point: All of this fanon interaction can lead to one of two things:

Yoshida starts to see her in a platonic light and they become good friends.

Yoshida's romantic feelings for her grow stronger now that he's gotten to know her a bit more. As for Yukiko, she may or may not like him back.

(Or he starts to see her as friend while she starts to catch feelings for him, which is both hilarious and sad imo...also, why must I torment my girl??)

One more thing, you pointed out how similar they are. I'd like to add that their reason for falling into E Class is virtually the same. She spent too much time at the arcade, while he spent too much time at the racetrack. Whether their relationship takes a romantic or platonic route, I'd like to see them discuss this eventually and bond over it.

And that's all I've got. Sorry it took so long; I was busy irl and didn't know how to properly articulate all my thoughts. I tend to be a perfectionist when it's something related to my best girl, but this was really fun to think about. Hope you liked it!

[the-laridian]

2023 Writing Wrap-Up

Current count for 2023: 72 different works, plus 27 Fannish 50 posts, for 99 total. About half the Fannish 50 posts are fics already listed. (and then I see farther down "several prompt fills" listed as 1 item, so, more than 100, let's just say 100+)

Many works would be considered multi-chapter, some are one-shots. Many are exploring an idea without worrying about publishing them, just seeing where it goes. 

(For an extra fun game, ask me about a specific one! I am aware that I use initials a LOT in here. I know this will make it hell for me in a year or two)

Under the cut because listing 72 different items, broken out by type/genre, is a long post. And I'm not even breaking out the Fannish 50 posts.

Original works set in the 3E universe: 3E is an alternate 20th century history with a much longer World War II. All 3E works are cowritten with @porkwithbones.

Wortbuch

BDVV

H&M

POW

Matwin

Plague Year

SFW original works:

Warwilf (Nanowrimo 2023 project) (with @porkwithbones)

Fannish50/Meta posts

Fallout TTRPG

52 separate Fannish50 posts on a wide range of fannish topics, mostly Monkey Island and Fallout (posted to Dreamwidth and Pillowfort)

NSFW original works:

River series

Tangled Threads revisit (with (porkwithbones)

Spaceman (with @the-lastcall) 

IGB (with @the-lastcall) 

AltC (with @the-lastcall) 

Fallout New Vegas:

GFB prompt fills (several)

Postcards from New Vegas, cowritten with @theartofblossoming (probably to be published on AO3 in 2024)

On Opposite Sides (Posted to AO3)

Red Flags (AO3)

The Best of a Bad Situation (AO3)

Fallout New Vegas AUs (SFW and NSFW):

Legion ACG (with @porkwithbones)

Courier/Benny

Enclave AU (with @the-lastcall) 

Swank/Arcade

Vulpes stuff

Arcaleb 1 (with @the-lastcall) 

Arcaleb 2 (with @the-lastcall) 

Courier/Vulpes

Stolen Heir (with @the-lastcall) 

Legion ASC (with @the-lastcall) 

University AU (with @the-lastcall) 

Polycule

NCR/Legion

The Outer Worlds:

Halcyon genemodding 

Repro storyline

Alternate love interests

Old Age prompt

Rowan transfusion

Rowan even worse timeline

postgame Bad Trip stuff

Threescore and Ten (AO3)

Discussion by Ringlight (AO3)

The Outer Worlds AUs (SFW and NSFW):

Werewolf

Cosmic Horror

What If (Rowan and Will are Siblings - cowritten with @the-lastcall)

Max/Conrad

Conrad/Silus

Fallbrook AU (with @the-lastcall)

Get Your Neat Freak On (AO3)

1960s Project and Spinoffs:

Prequel: alone

Farm AU (with @the-lastcall)

prompt: gay cousin

Taylor 1 (with @the-lastcall) 

Taylor 2 (with @the-lastcall) 

Fallout 76 (SFW and NSFW) canon and AUs:

BB&BC

Willow - makeover (AO3)

Disaster Danes (with @the-lastcall) 

Max/Danilo

Death Willows (with @the-lastcall) 

Modus gets a body

Art Therapy

The Accidental Raider/It Could Be Worse (AO3)

The Accidental Raider/We Might Need an Intervention (AO3)

The Accidental Raider 2

Brother Stevie

Murder Shack

Mothman cult stuff

BOS stuff

Raider AU (with @the-lastcall) 

Snow Day (AO3)

Tunnel of Love (AO3)

Monkey Island:

FAFO

random MI stuff

Artisent Chronicles

QPR

[spyridonya]

More about my idiot boy, Sophus. Most of this information is disregarding Faction War, simply because Faction War was never addressed fully due to the changes from 2e to 3e. It may change with 5e Planescape, but we'll see. I am also aware that the aasimar lore in the game is different fom 2e information and not in game yet as a playable race. I don't care. At current I'm using half-wood elf as a race. I do take a few things from Pathfinder's physical depictions of aasimar.

Sophus is a plane-touched human aasimar paladin of vengeance, though he can be mistaken as a half elf or elf. Born in Sigil's Lower Ward, Sophus was raised by his mother named Violette. From what he can remember, he looked a fair bit like her: black hair and warm brown skin. Sophus was unsure of his late mother's career, though he suspects she worked in one of the factories within the ward despite her own celestial heritage.

When he was seven, the row block he lived in caught on fire that was incredibly hard to put out by mundane means. The orphanage that raised him had the belief it was caused by fiends and Sophus took it to heart. After all, his mother died trying to get him out of the building they lived in and ended up scarring his face.

The orphanage was surprisingly clean and while short on warmth, they provided for body and soul. Run by the Believers of the Source, known as Godsmen, they encouraged children on the idea they needed to push their limits and their souls would be constantly recycled until they became a Power (a Sigil term for gods). Sophus took the physical development to heart, but never took the philosophy. Sophus wanted vengeance.

Instead of joining the Godsmen faction, or one of the many other politcal factions in the Cage, Sophus was drawn to one of Sigil's sects called the Guardians. While ancient and complex despite not being a full fledged faction, Sophus clearly sees his job to protect the good by any means necessary with a sharp honed hated for full blood fiends and cambions.

Faerun was not his first visit to the Prime Material plane, but rather his third, and became separated from his compatriots during the raid on Baldur's Gate when he was caught by a nautiloid.

Some current quirks:

Sophus, like most Cagers, is very dismissive of gods. When you can go to their ruling plane on a holiday, it's hard to respect them.

He respects the Lady of Pain and 'gets her'.

There's a slight arrogance to him because he feels like he knows far more about existence than most Primes.

However, this poor man gets easily confused with some conventions on the Prime and has a very, very hard time with the stars and sunsets.

He's not racist to non-fiends. Goblinkin are simply just people in Sigil, raised outside the influence of their dark gods and the circumstances that might lead them to become evil.

Expect illithids. Fuck illithids.

Okay, Githyanki can jump off the spire, too. (... Okay, Lae'zel is likely gonna be his LI. We'll see.)

Gets twitchy with being called 'Soph'.

[darklordazalin]

Azalin Reviews: Darklord Ebonbane

Domain: Shadowborn Manor Formation: 611 BC Final Score: 💀💀💀 ⚫ ⚫ (3/5 Skulls) Sources: Darklords (2e), Secrets of the Dread Realms (3e), Ravenloft (3e), van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft (5e)

Ebonbane is the Darklord of Shadowborn Manor. In van Richten’s most recent guide, the Mists have changed this from a single ancestral home to “The Shadowlands”, which is described as a forested land best known for its order of questing knights known as the “Circle” or the Order of the Circle.

Ebonbane’s history is tied directly to that of the Shadowborn family and in particular, Kateri Shadowborn. Ebonbane is a sword harboring an unnamed fiend forged for the sole purpose of destroying Kateri. The Shadowborn family was one of those do-gooder noble families that are all into donating to charity and other such nonsense, so, naturally, growing up amongst such piety, Kateri became a Paladin to increase her holier than thou aesthetics. Palidanhood suited Kateria and she traveled far and wide smiting foul creatures.

Being old and feeble, like some monster hunters I know that should have retired years ago, Kateri decided to hang up her sword and live out the rest of her days in the Shadowborn Family Manor. Of course, being a hunter of what she deemed to be “evil”, she made many enemies over the course of her life and some of them decided to seek vengeance. It wasn’t enough for them to just kill her, they wanted to do so in such a way that it would destroy her faith.

Priests of an unnamed evil deity created the Ebonbane to serve this purpose. The blade was fashioned from a strange metal from another dimension and carved with archaic, ominous runes of power that glow with an eerie black aura. The Priests summoned a being from the nether regions and sought to bind it to the blade, fully under their control. Foolish. They should have sought out the assistance of a powerful mage, but were secure in the belief that their own faith would be powerful enough to control this being. The spells they had cast to bind and control it were pathetically inadequate and they found themselves slaves to the Ebonbane instead of the other way around. Needless to say, the blade turned upon its creators.

Though, these Priests surprisingly weren’t completely inapt in their casting and they did manage to bestow their hatred for Lady Shadowborn into the blade. Knowing only this drive, the blade found its way into the hands of a monk that served Kateri and taking complete possession of the monk’s body and soul, it came into Shadowborn Manor. A battle of epic proportions raged on through the night, ending only when Ebonbane managed to destroy Kateri’s holy avenger and shortly after landed a killing blow on the aging paladin. This pulled Ebonbane and Shadowborn Manor into the Mists where the blade would be trapped forever as the Darklord of the newly formed realm.

Ebonbane, however, is not aware of its imprisonment, only its continued hatred for the Shadowborn. For, now Lady Kateri lives on as a geist and she can bring those of her blood into the realm in an attempt to slay the evil sword. As you can imagine, the Dark Powers do not make this easy and they play their game over the course of the centuries, neither ever truly winning. However, Kateri has the upper hand as she knows of four elemental keys that, once combined, can be used to destroy Ebonbane forever.

Interestingly, the 5e version of Ebonbane describes the sword as being Kateri’s accursed sword and ties the Shadowlands not only to the Shadowborn family but to Elena Faith-hold and Morgoroth. In past editions, Elena was a fallen paladin and Darklord of Nidala and Morgoroth was a ghost and Darklord of Avoleigh. Both Darklords were tied to the Shadowborn family and I shall be reviewing them in the future.

Ebonbane is a powerful weapon. The runes etched upon its metal allow it various abilities, allowing it to change those abilities on a daily basis. It can control any weapon, regardless of how intelligent said weapon is and use it against the one welding it. It can also dominate anyone foolish enough to try to weld it themselves. Ebonbane is a fiend of some unknown nature, much like the Dark Powers themselves, and trapped within a sword that is trapped within a small manor (or realm depending on which source you’re going with). I will award this sword a rare 3 rating for even though it doesn’t understand what has happened to it, at least it isn’t another vampire.

[ash-l31gh]

Karma Akabane Headcanons

• When he fell of the cliff he wanted to end his life there

• Nakamura and Itona are his favorite class mates while Karasuma is his favorite Teacher not like he'll admit that

• He hates him self because his parents leave him alone for at least a year for a week at most...

• Itona and Nakamura are like siblings to him while Karasuma and Irina Jelavic are parents and Koro-sensei is the weird uncle for him he won't admit shit

• Even after 3e separated he kept in touch with his teachers, Itona and Nakamura mostly and he sometimes talks with the rest

• Everyone in 3e finds him adorable as fuck kind of like a puppy or kitten. Mischievous but adorable and innocent

• He heard that Bitch-Sensei said he's a kitten or a lions cub. Multiple times...

• He also heard that Karma is Karasumas favorite student

• He finds random things on his desk like pranking items, a mini-robot, sweets (mainly strawberry flavored), strawberry milk and ect

• He usually wakes up early and makes his favorite classmates and teacher a bento box and nibbles on the side and everyone else is jealous

• Itona is the only person aware if his safe place and he promised not to tell anyone

• Karma has fell asleep on class or next to a tree and he was so fucking adorable.

1 Class - his head resting facing towards Itona mostly and Itona has sent his photos of it

2 tree - he was was sat down with his knees up and he rested his arms ontop of them with his face turned left

• Nakamura knows not to blackmale him like the rest of class

• Koro-sensei has asked if it was alright if the class could have a sleepover at his and he accepted it with a huge and genuine grin

• That's when the class realized he's a touch-starved baby and he ended up hugging Itona like a teddy bear for the whole night

• Karma and Itona see each other as Brother and Itona tends to sleep over alot

• In 3e he's now longer know as the devil and now the adorable puppy of 3e