#But she's also able to give you boons. So maybe also more like Artemis or Selene

[mbohjeezart]

Hermit a Day May: Day 20, Gem, Personification of Luck!

And here's her full portrait without the text and background:

[dreadfutures]

impressions from the hades ii technical playtest

absolutely chock full of spoilers but also theories

Amazing gameplay, feels just as good as Hades 1 with improvements and creative changes. So many different builds/play styles will be possible. in the dev stream they talked about melee close quarters vs sorcery ranged, but I find myself doing HEAVY spellcasting while also stacking in heavy melee boons on the knives, and mixing and matching.

The boons have a few familiar perks but so many of them are new and creative, even for gods we know from the first game. All of them feel really good.

The SOUND EFFECTS are amazing. The sounds of your weapons change based on the boon equipped to each attack. the sounds of the arena change depending on the god at the end (if any). Nothing and I mean nothing makes the dopamine go off more than the sound of Hephaestus' boon blasts when I do my fan of knives and they all explode. PING PING PING.

I find myself doing "resource runs" and "story runs." they do overlap. It's tough to only have one harvesting item equipped at a time and I spent so much time looking for silver and looking that my eye has started slipping over the lone spirits who gives you psyche, even when Selene leads me to them lol. I do like that they have her guiding light, but it is subtle. I also like the way you can pin certain items when you're in a run so you can remember what you needed for a recipe.

Unfortunately I did so many harvest runs that I actually got all the recipes before I had a chance to USE forget me not on a run so.... woops on that fated list lol.

We are maybe going to romance Moros or Nemesis (probably both are options?) but maybe not both at the same time? since they're siblings technically (technically) (I wouldn't mind though). I love all these children of nyx and want to protect them and smooch them all.

EXCEPT. Mel is a Silver Sister, with Artemis and Selene. Does that mean she's gotta be a virginal girl squad? lol

I love sister Artemis. I love that she throws snacks!!!!! which is even more endearing bc it's fried and a chocolate bar and soda. I wonder if sometimes I hear a note of disapproval from her and I wonder where her plot will go later. Selene it's said may not be able to reach us in Tartarus, but Artemis might.

Speaking of found family.

I fucking adore Odysseus. I love Od. So. Much. Like I loved Achilles but Od is such a good girl dad for Mel, and his pep talks are the best and so sensitive ;_; what a guy I love him.

I think? that Hecate's familiars must be placeholders, since they're just little statues that vibrate when you give them treats. I can't wait to see where they go in the full game.

It's an interesting take on Hestia, that she hates everybody. It makes me wonder if we'll see Hera or not, since I kind of expect that behavior from Hera.

Hephaestus and Demeter and Aphrodite remain my favorite boon givers.

As far as I can tell there is no fishing rod in the playtest but there will be in the full game and I'm excited.

Arachne's self esteem hurts me 😫 I love you little bug!!!! I wonder if we'll find her shop in Olympus or in Tartarus -- and I worry about her. At least Athena is too busy to bother her! I hope! I love Mel's different outfits.

The amount of pets that Mel gets to have is delightful. I love her frog so much.

Hecate is fascinating. She is SUCH a mother, she is SO compassionate to Mel and trying to build her up! She is wry and dry but never cruel or negative. I love her sm. Poor Mel has some low self esteem and understandable doubts and is putting so much pressure on herself. And I really wonder about Hecate's relationship with Persephone and the house of Hades and with nyx. Nemesis says something that makes me wonder if Hecate is innocent. Either way I don't think she'll really be a villain. My heart would break if so. Mel would break.

Mel is so sweet and pure. ;_; and she says "death to chronos" so coldly. When she says "Hence I go" I just hear her as a little baby playing hide and seek with Hecate and it gives me so many feelings.

I want to know about Mel's arm!

I can't wait to see the other regions just from the Crossroads, since there's currently two doors we can't enter.

Also what are we going to DO with the fish?

Very exciting stuff.

[raeynbowboi]

How Piety could change the face of 5th Edition

With the announcement of the upcoming sourcebook Mythic Odysseys of Theros for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, we were informed of an upcoming new feature called Piety. While we don’t have all the details yet, we can at least speculate about the impact this few mechanic will have on DnD character builds.

Discount Domains

A little storytime for you, the very first character I ever rolled was a Cleric. I wanted to be a Cleric of Sune because she was the DnD goddess of Love and Beauty, and I was eager to be introduced to the DnD faith. Only to find, much to my disappointment, that there was no Love Domain. So I ended up stuck as a Light Cleric for Sune which never really felt right. However, with this piety system, we could potentially build Clerics for all the domains that we don’t really have. So, build a Glamour Bard that’s pious to Aphrodite, build an Aberrant Mind Sorcerer and worship Dionysus, or be a Sea Sorcerer who prays to Poseidon. While you probably won’t get the same benefits as a proper Cleric, you can flavor your subclass abilities as being divine boons from your God. This can also work for gods where the existing domains don’t quite match the character. Sure, you could make a Nature Cleric of Artemis, but wouldn’t a Beast Master Ranger be a little closer to home?

Templar Knights

Not every religious character is held up in a temple. Say you’re devoted to Athena. Sure, you could be a Knowledge Cleric, but you could also be a Psychic Warrior Fighter who has weaponized your mind as part of your melee combat that worships Athena and has an oath to stop the censorship of information by any means necessary. You’re still pious to your diety, but the build itself is less restrained by needing to take a level in Cleric or picking the Acolyte background. The piety system can be a great way to build characters that are very religious but choose to serve their gods in more physical ways. Another thing, not all Gods have domains that fit them well. Aphrodite’s only domain is Light. But if you visit Kythera or Sparta, you’ll find statues of Aphrodite adorned in armor. Aphrodite Areia, the Warlike Aphrodite. War isn’t an option for Aphrodite, but you can absolutely use flavor to rework this. Whether you pick up a War Cleric and choose to be Pious to Aphrodite or if you make her as a College of Swords Bard or Hexblade Warlock with the same piety, you’re able to work a lesser known aspect of the goddess into your character. Thus, piety could offer much more versatility in devout characters outside of the standard Cleric build.

The Casual Observer

While there’s devoted deacons and militarized faithful, there’s also the common man in the street. In my research, I’ve found very little talk of Aphrodite’s priests and priestesses, but I do know that many members of Aphrodite’s Cult were prostitutes. Compare as well to characters like Link or Nightcrawler. Sure, Nightcrawler is a very devoted Catholic, but taking levels in Cleric or a background in Acolyte isn’t a great fit for his build. He’s a circus performer whose primary focus is on teleportation. Link is a servant of Hylia and the Three Golden Goddesses of Hyrule, but I doubt many people would ever build Link as any sort of Cleric. Thus, Link is a perfect example of the Casual Observer. A character who doesn’t have room in their build to pick up Cleric levels (or perhaps where Cleric spells wouldn’t work for the build) and still allows them to be religious.

Double Dipping

When I did my build of Apollo for DnD 5e, one thing I found difficult was choosing which of his many many domains I wanted to focus on. Between being a god of Light, Healing, Plagues, Prophecy, Music, and so much more, it made it hard to balance all of his skills. But through Piety, it might be possible to double-up on worshiping the same God but through two different lenses. We don’t know yet how Piety will work or be set up. It’ll probably paint in broad strokes like a War Domain Piety or something. But if we’re lucky, I’d much rather have individual deities have their own Piety systems. Because while you could argue that two Tempest Gods could give the same features, worshiping Zeus or Thor should really each offer something unique to that God. Plus, there’s still gods without a unique domain. So if it’s just by Domain, Poseidon’s followers might still end up with features that don’t reflect what Poseidon’s about at all. But this can still be a huge plus for builds. Say we’re building Apollo like before. If we assume we’re using the Domains angle, we could worship Apollo as a god of Light, but then choose Apollo as our god of Piety under the Life Domain for better healing. Thus better encompassing Apollo’s abilities. Or, perhaps if Apollo is given unique features, those features might already offer something akin to divination powers as a god of prophecy. Having those would nullify any need to dip into Divination Wizard. As another example, it might be possible to Worship Athena as a War Cleric, then be Pious to her under the Knowledge Domain. Or if Athena’s unique Piety features are more combat-focused, you could worship her as a Knowledge Cleric and get more melee fighter features from your Piety. Thus, allowing the player to encompass multiple angles of a single deity’s domains.

Mismatches

It’s important to remember that not every character’s deity of preference is going to perfectly match what they do. While many in Ancient Greece prayed only to the gods that mattered to their daily life, that can cover multiple angles. As an example, Athena was the patron goddess of Athens. But the Athenians also had a very strong naval presence. Thus, it’s possible to have an Athenian who would be devout to Athena just based on where they’re from, but they might be just as or more devoted to Poseidon if their life as a naval soldier made the sea an equally important aspect of life. Similarly, War is a big aspect of Sparta’s image. Ares was very important to the Spartan people and their way of life. Except, Ares wasn’t the patron god of the city. It was Apollo and Artemis. So, while a proper Spartan soldier might pick up a War Cleric or some sort of Fighter or Barbarian, they might also pick up a Piety for the twin archers, even if they themselves aren’t an archer. As a more personal example, I’m a very creative person. Apollo, as the master of the muses, should be the most important god to me for the purposes of my work. But in terms of personal preference, Aphrodite is my favorite of the Olympians because at my heart, I’m a hopeless romantic. A character’s faith isn’t always the most straight forward and obvious choice, and the piety system could really help add depth to character creation going forward.

This was admittedly a long one, but one I’m glad I focused on. I don’t know what all the Piety system will deliver, but I’m personally excited for it. I think it’ll add a lot of flexibility and flavor to character-building. Especially if Wizard of the Coast decides to go the extra mile and make individual piety features for every god. Granted, I know there are a crap ton of gods in DnD, so that might be a very tall order. At the very least, I’d like to see them maybe lay out some official ones by Domain, but then maybe also lay out a list of other piety rewards in a big table and the rule that players and DMs can trade out piety features with other existing ones from the table or even build their own to really give players more flexibility. Especially for campaigns where DMs build their own worlds and pantheons, the ability to essentially homebrew a new piety system for any god they make up from a list of pre-approved piety features would be a fantastic way to keep the system flexible for player customization. Still, regardless of how the piety system we end up with works, I think it’ll go a long way in expanding the possibilities of what our characters can do.