#Building Support

[ghosted-jazz]

The protagonist of Legends ZA being Sycamore's kid is real TO ME

[shreetmtbars]

Learn everything you need to know about shuttering in construction, including its various types and significance. Discover how shuttering plays a crucial role in shaping and supporting concrete structures during the construction process. Enhance your construction knowledge with insights from ShreeTMT.

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

so the synopsis of The Ring is: you will die 7 days after watching this videotape. my question is does that apply to rewatching the tape. let's say I watch the tape, wait 6 days, and watch it again. does the timer reset to 7 days? can I do this indefinitely? can I become functionally immortal by watching the evil videotape on a weekly basis?

[plushpilled]

I love secondhand plushies! I love going to thrift stores and finding new friends! I love taking them home and giving them baths and brushouts! I love adopting already loved plushies from other folks' collections online! I love loving them again! I love brushing out their mats, cleaning their eyes, fixing their stuffing, and just generally bringing life back into a friend! I love bringing home plushies that have sat on shelves for years, collecting dust and finally loving them! I love saving the environment by not buying new and encouraging the production of more when we already have everything we need! I love secondhand plushies!!!

[aardvaark]

i don’t mind suspending my disbelief for leverage’s person-sized ventilation shafts bc that’s pretty standard for the genre, but that doesn’t mean i won’t laugh a bit at some of the egregiously large vents. particularly in the crowning acheivement job (lev: red s2 finale) because - well just look at this lol! harry and parker, two adults, can kneel side by side in those vents. parker can sit upright.

that museum was made for vent crawling purposes. that’s just an extra room in the museum they forgot to decorate. the leverageverse has a thief union that successfully lobbied for a better working environment. these vents double as a playground for museum-goers’ children. i was crying with laughter thinking about this and harry’s vent crisis was NOT helping me remember that there was a serious heist thing going on lol, i love this show.

[wolfhidewinter]

"The Howling Howff is a support group run by werewolves, for werewolves: specifically, new, potentially emotionally (and physically) scarred werewolves. This book is a 101 on what it means to be a werewolf and how to navigate a sometimes confusing existence. Other ‘bitten’ werewolves who have reviewed this material have mentioned words like “tone deaf” and “drastically out of touch”, but we here at The Howling Howff understand denial and anger are an intrinsic part of their human side and we do not hold it against them – or you!" ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ If you like satirical folk horror and werewolves, then this is the book for you!

The book itself is 60 pages (including covers) and is currently available to pre-order once more in my Ko-fi shop - THE HOWLING HOWFF PRE-ORDER . I have to hit around 30 orders to be able to bulk buy, at which point it'll take around 2-2.5 weeks for the printer to sort (the covers have metallic ink inlaid :D) and then I'll happily ship them out!

My ko-fi shop also has a separate upgrade option for tracked shipping and I've shipped all over the world with little issue. You can purchase it here - TRACKED SHIPPING UPGRADE

You'll also find a bunch of other goodies in my shop like Art Cards, Prints, Patch and Stickers :) - OTHER GOODIES ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Any support is much appreciated! I'm currently working towards a second book which will be available as a Kickstarter project hopefully around June! ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I'll be closing pre-orders on Monday 21st of April as I'll be putting the bulk order in :). Book sales will resume in 2-3 weeks time after the pre-orders are packed and shipped.} Huge thank you for everyone who purchased a copy so far! You've made the second re-print possible

[nickmarini]

Ayden’s Build 

TL;DR: Barbarian 1, Druid  2 (Circle of the Stars), Paladin 8 (Oath of the Ancients), and Cleric 9 (Peace Domain). Feats: Squire of Solamnia, Remarkable Recovery, Warcaster, Knight of Crowns, Spelldriver, Tough.

Building Ayden was a joy and a journey. To begin we were told we had 20 levels to work with and stats of 20 across the board. The only thing I knew about Ayden from the session 0 was that he was going to be a Cleric of the Everlight and that I wanted to make him the best support character I could. I also knew that the Dawnfather was aware of the mission briefing and so would have directed his growth to the task at hand. 

Stats of 20 meant multiclassing into any class was possible and that any ability score based bonuses or proficiency based abilities were going to be very good. I figured that with a warlock and a sorcerer we’d have some pretty good counterspelling and 9th level spell access, so I didn’t worry myself about either of those, instead focusing on making sure we all survived. 

The Dawnfather and The Everlight share 2 of 3 Domains. Life and Light. The Everlight’s 3rd domain is Peace. The Peace Domain cleric is an excellent subclass and its 6th level ability, Protective Bond, was something I knew I wanted to build around. The ability to take hits for, and aid, my siblings while teleporting around the battlefield is an excellent support ability and it also lets allies in the bond do the same, fostering sibling unity and cohesion.

With the Dawnfather having Nature as his unique domain separate from the Everlight, and literally sending himself to Exandria to infiltrate a city full of the greatest mages of the age, the Oath of Ancients Paladin seemed like an obvious path. It is the nature Paladin, (his domain) and 7 levels gives you both Aura of Protection and Aura of Warding. This means as Ayden moves through the battlefield with Protective Bond he will be granting allies +5 to saves from his cha as well as resistance to damage from spells. Incredibly good going up against the wizards of Aeor he knew he would encounter. I didn’t want to go to 10 with Paladin because I didn’t want to be immune to frightened. I just felt that fear played too large a role in the reasons the gods were here and although aura of courage is probably my favorite ability going back to 3rd edition, I felt like it wasn’t right for Ayden. He had to fear in order to reinforce his need to hope. 

These two classes were set relatively quickly and then I began looking at how else I was going to build him out. 

I really liked the idea of being able to grant my allies some extra attacks and so I was looking at battle master to get commanders strike and goading attack as well as maneuvering attack to help take hits for and position my allies. Action Surge is also a great ability that could really come in handy if I needed to save someone and needed one extra action to do so. 

I was also looking at the 2nd level Divination Wizard ability Portent. The ability to fully dictate 2 rolls is very powerful in certain circumstances, especially if the numbers are very high or very low.

Both these seemed good but weren’t feeling totally right from a character perspective. They felt too forced.

As I was playing around with these two classes I was also building Aydens backstory. I really liked the idea of him being agriculturally focused, as this aspect of the Dawnfather is actually his youngest. Sun begets days, and thus time and seasons, and as civilization evolves agriculture follows. The fighter levels lent the idea that he has spent some time training under a knight or some such warrior, and I knew that he would eventually find his way to Trist to begin his tutelage and become her cleric. I liked there being these different eras of his life. 

It was around this time that I got an awesome email asking me to describe Ayden visually so that the incredibly talented Hannah Friederichs and Cael Lyons could begin to bring Ayden and the Dawnfather to life. I wanted Ayden to be a simply dressed with a shield he took from his mentor, but no sword for striking. They sent 4 sketches and told me I could mix and match as I desired. Image #1 however was exactly as I had envisioned him. It was the simplest and had this depth to his eyes that told the story of a much older soul in this 15 year old body. It was so perfect that it made me realize I had been going in the totally wrong direction with fighter and wizard. The concepts of nature and agriculture were suddenly staring me in the face. It was not wizard, but druid, and his mentor could have taught him to be a paladin as easily as fighter, but if he is the bringer of agriculture who has he brought it to? A remote tribe still hunting and gathering was the answer. Barbarian therefore replaced fighter. I can’t tell you how influential the sketch I received was. It felt like a bolt of lightning suddenly clarified everything. 

I was for sure cleric 6, Paladin 7 and now looking at druid and barbarian. 

I didn’t know Druid subclasses very well but Circle of the Stars jumped out from the pack just with its name. The Sun after all is a star. When I read its 2nd level abilities Starmap and Starry form it was so obvious. I can cast Guiding Bolt to set up those attacks I wanted to grant, and I can glow instead of wild shape and either heal more or have a massive bonus to maintain the concentration spells I knew I wanted to cast. For the keeper of time to know how to read the stars just felt right. It also feel right that the druids of a tribe that had been hunting and gathering during the tumultuous Calamity would have learned to navigate by the stars, a singular constant in an every changing age. 

Barbarian has a number of interesting subclasses but none felt like they clicked. 1 level of Barbarian though, for a character with 20 dexterity and 20 constitution, catapults your AC to 20 and it also gives you a proficiency in Constitution saving throws if you take it as your first class, again reinforcing those concentration rolls. He was found as a child by this barbarian tribe and his first class is also his first community. Barbarian was the strong foundation I would build upon. 

I was now Cleric 6, Paladin 7, Druid 2, Barbarian 1. Reorganized to be the order Ayden would have taken them in it becomes the following:

Barbarian 1, Druid  2 (Circle of the Stars), Paladin 7 (Oath of the Ancients), and Cleric 6 (Peace Domain)

4 more levels to distribute. As a player who has mostly played 3.5 (I think downfall just about doubled the amount of 5E I have played) feats are my absolute favorite things, so getting to multiples of 4 in class levels to grab some was something I wanted to do (also I didn’t have to worry about ability score increases)! I had already given one feat up by taking barb and druid but I made up for it with the human variant. I also took the Knight of Solamnia background to give me Squire of Solamnia, the prerequisite for Knight of the Crowns which would give me the ability to grant attacks to my allies without needing battle maneuvers. 

So I upped paladin from 7-8 for a feat and then decided to take Cleric from 6-9 because it gave me a feat and access to the spell Dawn. I mean the Dawnfather should be able to cast Dawn after all! 

Now to feats

1) Background: Squire of Solamnia to give me the prerequisite for Knight of the Crowns

2) Human Variant: Remarkable Recovery. I knew I’d be taking extra damage so having 5 extra hp from any healing I get might just be the difference. It also plays into his background. He had to leave the Barbarian tribe he brought agriculture to because his skin could not retain the ceremonial tattoo ink that would have symbolized his initiation into the community. 

3) Cleric 4 Warcaster to get advantage on those concentration checks, that along with proficiency and starry form of the dragon means I need to take 28 damage (56 if it’s a spell) to even have to roll, and when I do I get advantage and proficiency on the check. Getting me to lose concentration is gonna be a task. 

4) Paladin 4 Knight of the Crown getting to grant an attack proficiency times per day combos wonderfully with Starmaps free guiding bolt, conveniently also proficiency times per day. 

5) Cleric 8 Spelldriver I’m gonna be casting a bunch of spells so the ability to cast multiple each turn is going to make my support spells come out much faster. I have a big fam to take care of!

6) Paladin 8 Tough I really went back and forth between this and Inspiring Leader. Granting all my siblings 25 temp hp is amazing but ultimately I decided that as I’d be tanking a bunch of damage I’d need toughness. Toughness gave me 15 more hp than Inspiring leader would have, and I ended up going down to 14 at one point so it was a decision that very much paid off by a single HP! Don’t wanna pop a deathward if you can help it!

Last but not least we were granted 2 magic items. One very rare and one uncommon. For my uncommon I chose a cloak of resistance, a parting gift from the tribe that Ayden could not join. This upped my saves to 11s or 17s and took my AC to 23. For his very rare magic item I took a spellguard shield, inherited from the knight who brought him from the remote tribe to Trist‘s school, giving me advantage on saving throws vs spells and magical effects and inflicting disadvantages on spell effects targeting me. Combine that with resistance to spells from Aura of Warding and that’s a nasty nasty combo v wizards. 

All in all Ayden’s build is an incredibly hard to target tanky support character who can move through the battlefield protecting his allies and being an absolute nightmare for enemy spellcasters. The only thing I really didn’t fully consider was just how much damage he would take from Warding Bond which totally bypasses all those wonderfully crafted defenses. As crazy as it is, I think we barely got to scratch the surface of Aydens full potential and it’s probably good those mages decided to cast spells at everyone else because Ayden was going to be a tough character for a spell caster to crack. The Commanding Rally did get to shine allowing characters who specialized in weapon attacks to get a little extra out of those 20 level commitments. Ayden’s build was crafted to keep his siblings alive and let them shine as bright as possible together. I’m very proud of him!

If you read all this then you’re as nerdy as me and deserve a reward!

[rasoyas]

the sulani arc ‘fits y’all didn’t get to see 🏝️

[if-you-like-pina-colada-s]

I have to know what everyone else thinks of this

[inafieldofstarflowers]

Don't get me wrong, there's never a point in aftg where Aaron and Neil are close personal friends, but I think that the slow escalation of their hostility towards each other actually offers an important insight into who they are as characters. I think it makes so much sense that Aaron and Neil dislike each other more as they learn more about each other, because the two of them are mirrors in a lot of ways.

There is, of course, the Andrew of it all, which is sort of at the center of everything and what gets the most focus: it's how Aaron looks at Neil and hates him for holding Andrew's attention in a way Aaron feels like he's never been able to, and it's how Neil sees Andrew's unyielding commitment to Aaron and how him being Andrew's brother gives him the sort of belonging Neil desperately wants.

But I think their similarities only fuel the negative feelings that arise because of those things—they both had complicated relationships with their mothers, and continue to be affected by the memory of them. They both have a goal for their lives and work toward it with an intense focus. Neither of them feels the need to hold back from shit-talking people (Aaron just doesn't care enough to do it as often). Neither of them is willing to talk to Betsy about their trauma (a fact which probably makes Aaron even angrier about Neil's plan being to get the twins in therapy together, because this fact paired with Andrew's relationship with & comfort around Betsy makes these sessions an uneven playing field).

And so, while tensions are already building for other mafia- and Andrew-related reasons, these things, little similarities between the two of them that are mostly tied to bad memories, are adding fuel to that fire, giving them more reasons to dislike each other.

[feastofchildermass]

Public libraries are a blessing that want to help their communities. Mine has over the past few months been putting on free hot drinks in the mornings. This is tea, coffee, cupasoup, a fruit tea, a decaf tea, little uht packets of milk AND soy milk, as well as free little biscuit packets like you might get at conferences.

It isn't the best coffee in the universe, and uht milk might taste utterly ghastly, but you throw in an extra sugar and dunk your chocolate biscuit like your life depends on it.

There is something about faffing about with the library's push top hot water samovar - where there is never the right amount of pressure to apply without splashing tiny pinpricks of boiling water onto your hand - that makes you feel deeply grateful to this institution for looking after its people.

The weather is turning cold again and there is absolutely nowhere to sit in my entire neighbourhood where you don't have to pay or be fully exposed to the wind and rain. Here anyone could come in, grab a book or a magazine, make a golden vegetable cupasoup and relax for a few hours.

My library has already had to go down to closing three days a week because of the fucking council cuts. But these buildings are a blessing. Please use them, love them, cherish them.

[love-ardour-anarchism]

sorry y'all (not sorry) I just heard about the "unemployed friend" meme and I gotta say, yeah, I'm the unemployed friend.

i'm on an actually surprisingly livable disability pension (yippie, till they slash it) so when I'm not busy doing ALL the shit I need to keep my fairly low standard of living up by jumping through all sorts of hoops, polishing psych ward and doctors office doorknobs and begging the government to let me live another year I'm THAT unemployed friend

things I've done within the last year or so that are a bit random but cool:

clean up a bunch of fashy graffiti and stickers just as I walk around town on my silly little mental health walks

ask a local retirement home for a ladder to get rid of some particularly nasty stickers WAY up high (prolly shouldn't tell them I'm a LITTLE mobility impaired and def shouldn't be doing those kinds of impromptu acrobatics)

repair a bench in front of a grocery store that senior citizens sit on a lot that became a safety hazard because it was broken and the store claimed it was "the city's" and the city claimed it was "the store's"... i just went there with a powered drill and some screws and fixed that shit

helped a neighbor do some laundry just cause, also learned that the washer/dryer situation in the building is shit so I offered my personal washer/dryer for use

removed some fash graffiti that was on the back of the door of a government office only for the gov workers there to proclaim me the savior of the broken or some shit which made for a very funny conversation as I stood there with my "acab antifascist" punk patches

first email then call a local government branch incessantly to tell them about ALL the ways their website is fucking broken and inaccessible, then got to talking with them about the specifics which they said they'd relay to their IT department which then proceeded to email me back to let me know their website's fucking broken links are "client side" (sure lol)

paid for some guy's bus fare and had an argument with the bus driver who wouldn't let me use my "my support worker rides for free with me" bus pass cause that random old man who doesn't speak good German "isn't my support worker" when the bus driver was about to call the cops on me for "fraud" I just smacked down my pay card and was like "okay I'll pay for him then", the old man then blessed me and said I'm going to heaven and my "husband... or wife" is very lucky to have me

almost got mugged but when I joked with the 4 guys surrounding me while talking to me aggressively they suddenly eased up and were like "you're cool, actually" to which I responded with "haha cool I thought I was gonna get mugged" to which they replied "you were" so I just smiled politely and walked away in a leisurly pace

given a guy some rolling tobacco, papers and no cigarette filters because he doesn't like the taste and been given a VERY expensive chocolate in return because I refused his loose change in return for the loose handful of tobacco and 1 rolling paper, I offered him the whole open bag of tobacco and he said no he doesn't smoke

removed ANOTHER shitty graffiti (there's too many of those, geez) and got asked by a guy if I'm "from city council" (imagine me, wearing combat boots, a punk vest and covered in tattoos) which I responded to by saying I deny any such allegations. man who asked thought that was very funny and asked if I take tips, I said I don't, he was disappointed and left.

So yeah, I do a little mischief and a little community service when I can

[rocketbirdie]

putting kunsel in the og ffvii because it's what he deserves

[deerspherestudios]

GOOOODDDD i played the demo for mushroom oasis

and holy shit im so excited for more,, im rattling the bars of my cage

(i mean this might be spoilery for one part but idc rambling anyways)

that one choice where it vanishes because mychael chooses for us??? SO FUCKING COOL! literally went "oh thats a neat color- WAIT A SEC!"

i love the art style. the storyline. (i named my cat Jeep) i love every little bit oh my god

Aaa thank you so much!! It genuinely rejoices me seeing new people react to the game (shoutout to people who comment on itchio game pages beloved I rarely respond on itchio but know I read them and love you all <3!!)

I'm rattling bars of my own rn, due to some life circumstances progress is slow (matters concerning my PC and the fact I'm working on moving out this week!) ,,, but queue is revived so people have something to check in on at least!!

I'm still so happy with how I implemented that bit; I didn't want him to just turn the screen pink throughout the whole game and call it a day, but the idea that he can take your choices away in a visual novel where choices are a key component just did something for me hehe!

[wolfscratch24]

ONLY 14 DAYS LEFT AND ONLY 58 BACKERS!! PLEASE SHARE SO THEY CAN REACH THEIR GOAL BEFORE THE DEADLINE!!

I WANT ONE SO BADDD UGGHH