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has-gilgamesh-doneanythingwrong · 2 years

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Aśvatthāman and Master Supporting one Another Through Tough Times (Headcanons)

It's been a long time since I've last written headcanons. These ones focus on the ways in which Aśvatthāman and the master might support one another when they feel down!! (Feel free to interpret this either romantically or platonically)

Note: This was inspired in part by his interlude. I was really awed by how he and his friends work through his trauma together. ^^

Ash helping Master out

❂ Aśvatthāman is all for expressing emotions openly and freely, raging like a blazing pyre of passion!! Therefore, if you're the type to bottle up and suppress your emotions, he'll feel very inclined to lend you a hand.

❂ Watching you act as if everything is okay- despite you struggling so clearly inside- sends frustration bubbling through his throat. You were there for everyone when they relied on you for support, so why wouldn't you let others support you too?!

❂ Though he does show consideration for the fact that you may not want to talk about what's going on or express how you feel, he can't shake the feeling of concern gnawing at him. If you don't burst soon, he probably will first!!!

❂ "Oi, Master!! If something's up, don't be afraid to say it! Let it all out!!" His sudden declaration- after an extremely mundane lot of farming -catches you by surprise. You could've sworn that you had hidden your feelings perfectly enough behind that mask of yours, yet he had perforated through it with one statement. Ash's straightforward nature pierces right to the very core of the situation at once.

❂ However, if you still refuse to share what's up; then he will respectfully concede by abiding by your wishes. He may moan and groan a bit, but decides that if talking about things isn't for you, he'll be happy to be there in other ways, such as assisting you with duties and trying to get you to join him and his friends more often; hoping that he can help loose some of the stress weighing you down.

"...If that's how it is, I get it. But I'll be keeping an eye on you from now on!! I'll rage at it all on your behalf, so don't think you have to carry it all on your own!!"

There's no way that Aśvatthāman would leave you to suffer alone, come hell or high water.

❂ On the other hand, if you choose to open up about your feelings; then he's happy to hear you out and listen to your woes. Just like how others have talked and guided him through his feelings, he wants to stand up strongly for you as well!! It fills him with pride to be relied on by you. "Hey, Master. Thanks for relying on me. If there's anything else you need, let me know."

❂ If you're the type that struggles with expressing anger and aggression- such as either imploding or exploding with it at times- Aśvatthāman can relate wholeheartedly to your struggles! However, it would pain him if he sees you wielding it in destructive ways, for it brings back uncomfortable memories and searing wounds from the past, of his own mistakes and perils.

❂ "Hey. You feel it too, don't you? That broiling, rushing feeling that threatens to engulf you. But you ain't gotta let it take over you like that. C'mere, let me show you something." Anger is strong. It's powerful when used correctly. And for that very reason, Ash wants to help, so that the indomitable flames of rage would not become your very destruction!!

❂ Befuddled by his approach, your mind boggles once he leads you to the simulation room. What would a place of battle do to abate your anger? Wouldn't it only make things worse?

❂ "Well, that all depends on the kinda anger you have. Sometimes, confronting things head-on can work wonders...you know? Like the time we all fought together." A slightly bashful expression flickers across his face from this. "...It meant a lot to me."

❂ Beaming at his words, you decide give his methodology a go. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to find safer ways to project your feelings instead. (Although it sure as heck takes up a lot of energy!)

Ash being Supported by Master

❂ Ash had developed many wonderful and supportive bonds in Chaldea, both from his original iteration; as well as his recent lives as a servant- from a vast varieties and eras. These are the beings that he holds dear.

❂ Amongst them, you stand as well. Aśvatthāman values you greatly, honoring the bond that you share.

❂ So when he seeks you out for support, he waits until you're available; perfect for some good old quality time!

❂ "Oi. You awake...? Alright to come in?" Except this time, it's the crack of dawn. The entirety of Chaldea is submerged in darkness. Yet here the two of you are, somehow mysteriously up and about at the same time! With an abnormally meeker gait than his usual bold appearance, he respectfully inquires for a bit of your time.

❂ Wanting to seek a companion to talk to through the feelings nipping and reaching at him through dewy veils of darkness, he looks to you to kindle some warmth, like a small fire that stays alight even through the worst of storms.

❂ It's okay if you don't really understand the feelings he expresses, or the way his mind works. Just the fact that you're willing to get to know him and give him that space to be himself means a lot to him. Talking through the rest of the night, he sidles closer towards you as he talks about his experiences, the things on his mind; as well as other miscellaneous topics (such as the things he finds cool).

"It's dawn already, huh...? Time sure as hell flies when it's fun. Thanks again for the good time, Master."

You may end up having more visits from him henceforth....

(A/N: oops well im going to cry now)

#Aśvatthāman #ashwatthama #fgo #fate series #gilgawriting #fate servants #gilgablog #ashvatthaman

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grailfinders · 3 years

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Fate and Phantasms #248

Today on Fate and Phantasms we're getting angry, but not completely losing ourselves in that anger, with Aśvatthāman! So, just to be clear, he's not a barbarian. Aśvatthāman's gotta do a lot, and as we learned from Karna barbarians don't play well with builds that do a lot of stuff. Plus, that second ascension is totally heavy armor. Don't worry, by the end of this you can rock the shirtless look or platemail, your choice.

What Aśvatthāman is, however, is an Eldritch Knight Fighter to get your Chakram back after throwing it and mix in some literal firepower, and a Clockwork Soul Sorcerer to gain magical protection from your Gem of Mani. And also for more fire. What can I say, dude likes fire.

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

Next up: *insert joke about tea-drinking firbolg here!*

Race and Background

Admittedly I didn't check Aśvatthāman's whole lineage, but his direct parents are human so he's Human. Again, to combat power creep he has the Mark of Sentinel, since we won't really get gem powers until level 7. This gives you +2 Strength and +1 Dexterity thanks to Tasha, as well as Sentinel's Intuition for an extra 1d4 on all insight and perception checks, and a guardian's shield to cast Shield once per long rest for free. You're also a Vigilant Guardian, letting you spend a reaction once per day to swap your position with an attacked creature, taking damage in their stead. You also get extra Spells in your spell lists, but those only really matter if you take them.

Aśvatthāman's also a Soldier. That's some athletics and intimidation proficiency.

Ability Scores

A chakram is a thrown weapon, that's Strength based. After that is Constitution. If you're gonna go around shirtless it helps if your abs are rock hard. Speaking of, Dexterity is after that. If you're gonna go around shirtless, it helps to not get hit at all. Your Charisma is middling, you're good at freaking people out, but not a social butterfly. This mean your Intelligence isn't great, and we're dumping Wisdom. Turns out, the guy who chose to not think about things and be angry all the time is easy to fool.

Class levels

Fighter 1: Starting off as a fighter is the only way we're getting heavy armor proficiency, but it also makes you proficient in Strength and Constitution saves, as well as History and Animal Handling. I mean, the guy's named after horses, he's gotta be good on one, right? For your Fighting Style, pick up Thrown so you can draw and attack with thrown weapons at the same time. This will also add 2 to your damage done with thrown weapons. See? You're practically a barbarian already! On a side note, we still have to figure out what to use for a chakram. If your DM likes homebrew that's cool, but just in case we're calling them a Javelin here. You throw it, it goes far, and it's got big ol spikes to deal most of the damage. If all that isn't enough for you, you can use a Second Wind as a bonus action once per short rest to heal yourself. Whether you're resisting damage or healing it back up, the end result is you never dying, which is pretty nice.

Fighter 2: Second level fighters can use an Action Surge to make two actions in a turn once per short rest. You've got two hands, throw it twice! Wait, you've still got to get it back... one sec!

Fighter 3: Third level fighters get a martial subtype, and the Eldritch Knight is great for when you feel the need to throw your own weapons away. With Weapon Bond you can spend a bonus action to summon one of two bonded weapons back to your hand! "But how do I bond weapons?" I hear you cry. It's easy! Spend an hour with it over the course of a short rest, and you're done! Now you can't be disarmed, and you can summon the weapon to you from anywhere on the same plane. You also learn Spells that you cast using your Intelligence. You might've noticed we don't have a lot of that, but don't worry, we'll save as many of the save-based spells for the other class. Most of your spells have to be from the evocation or abjuration schools, but you get one from any class at 3rd and 8th level. For cantrips, pick up Create Bonfire and Control Flames for obvious reasons, then for your leveled spells grab Shield for a short-term gem usage, as well as Mage Armor for a decent AC outside of your suit. Plus, grab Catapult to throw non-chakram things at people. Force dex saves, wack people upside the head, good fun.

Fighter 4: At fourth level we're using our first Ability Score Improvement to round up our Strength and bump your Charisma up to the multiclassing minimum. Odd numbers stink, but we'll fix it pretty quickly. You can also Absorb Elements, since demons tend to like to throw fireballs around.

Fighter 5: Fifth level fighters get an Extra Attack every action. They don't give awards for "attempted" murder, get back out there and try again!

Fighter 6: At sixth level we can finally get the Gem of Mani and fix our odd number problem at the same time by using this ASI to obtain the Gift of the Gem Dragon. This bumps your Charisma up one like we said, but you also get a counterattack. When you take damage from a creature within 10' of you, you can use your reaction to force a strength save based on your charisma. If they fail, they take some force damage and get pushed up to 10' away. The telekinetic flavoring isn't super on brand, but I can totally believe a person-sized chakra could send someone flying. You can use this reaction proficiency times per day.

Sorcerer 1: Okay, now that you actually have the gem we can be a Clockwork Soul Sorcerer. Don't look at me like that. It's an artifact, it protects you, it's magic, it's totally a clockwork soul. As a sorcerer, you can cast Spells using your Charisma, but you also learn Clockwork Magic: an extra two spells each time you reach a new spell level. If you don't like one, you can swap it out for an equal level spell of Abjuration or Transmutation from the sorcerer list, or either of the two W casters. Starting with cantrips, Blade Ward basically makes you a barbarian for a round, while Booming Blade and Green-Flame Blade add effects to your melee attacks. If you'd rather fight at a range, check out Fire Bolt. As for leveled spells you get Longstrider and Protection from Evil and Good for free. Hey look we actually completed what the Gem of Mani is supposed to do, go us. You can also use Color Spray to blind someone and fight dirty, as well as False Life for even more beefyness via temporary HP. Also while we're talking about spells, multiclassing like this means your slots aren't super obvious. Check the multiclassing table to figure out how many slots you should have. Each fighter level counts as 1/3, each sorcerer level counts as 1. Add them up, then round down. For example, with 6 fighter levels and 1 sorcerer level, your multiclassing spell level is 3: that's 4 1st level slots and 2 2nd level slots. You can also Restore Balance as a reaction to negate advantage or disadvantage on any d20 roll proficiency times per day. I like proficiency scaling, it makes multiclassing feel a little nicer. This also makes it a lot easier to throw your Chakram at long distance, quadrupling your reach. (Sharpshooter could also do this, but you wouldn't be able to use the damage thing, and that eats up a feat.)

Sorcerer 2: Second level sorcerers are Fonts of Magic, gaining Sorcery Points equal to their sorcerer level. You can spend them to get more spell slots, or burn slots for points. Either way your max is your level, and they refresh every long rest. Also, learn Burning Hands. Pretty much every part of you is burning, now that I think about it.

Sorcerer 3: Third level sorcerers get the big draw of the class, Metamagic. Now you can spend sorcery points to get bonuses to your spells! Empowered spells let you re-roll some of their damage dice, and Quickened spells use a bonus action instead of a regular one. You can't cast two leveled spells this way, but this does open up your main action for chakram-ing. On top of that, you learn second level spells! Pick up Warding Bond for more angsty bodyguarding, as well as your freebies: Aid for even more HP, and Enhance Ability so you can get advantage on strength checks without raging.

Sorcerer 4: At our last level of sorcerer for a bit, you get another ASI. Use this one to bump up your Charisma again for stronger spells. You also learn Friends (despite the name it helps with intimidation checks too) and Scorching Ray.

Fighter 7: Seventh level eldritch knights learn War Magic, so you can use your action to cast a cantrip and your bonus action to make a weapon attack. It's kind of the opposite of quickened spell, but this one doesn't cost resources. You also reach second level spells in fighter now, so pick up Continual Flame to decorate your armor. It basically means you don't have to hold a torch now.

Fighter 8: Use this ASI to bump up your Constitution. Remember, HP scales retroactively, so you get an extra 12 HP from this. You also learn how to cast Magic Weapon. Weirdly enough, weapon bond doesn't make your weapon magical, so now you can fight demons a little easier.

Fighter 9: Ninth level fighters are Indomitable, letting you re-roll a failed save once per day. Save this for something you're good at. I don't think you'll be making that wisdom save either way.

Fighter 10: Tenth level eldritch knights know Eldritch Strikes. When you hit a creature with any weapon they get disadvantage on saves against your next spell before the end of your next turn. This doesn't have a limit beyond timing, so you can hit a bunch of people and then hit them with a quickened Burning Hands to catch all of them flatfooted. Alternatively you can use one of your two new spells, Sword Burst or Aganazzar's Scorcher. Spin your chakram around or send it out like a yoyo, either way it's gonna hurt.

Fighter 11: Eleventh level fighters get an Extra Attack each attack action. Again. So, by that we mean you have three each action. You can also cast Shatter, which is literally just you throwing your chakram into whatever destructible environment your DM set up.

Fighter 12: Our last level of fighter gives us one last ASI, so let's make our Constitution a little better. Again, this is another 16 HP on top of your current amount.

Sorcerer 5: Fifth level sorcerers learn third level spells. Ashardalon's Stride makes you too hot to handle for up to a minute, increasing your speed and ignoring opportunity attacks. Also, when you move within 5 feet of another creature they'll take fire damage once a turn. You can also Remove Curses, and gain Protection from Energy, just in case you need to launch a fireball at your feet. Apologies, one second.

Sorcerer 6: If you need to launch a Fireball at your feet, knowing the spell may be helpful. You also become a Bastion of Law, letting you spend up to 5 sorcery points as an action, creating a shield around yourself or an ally, lasting until your next long rest, or until you make another. Whenever a warded creature takes damage they can expend a number of points to roll that many d8s, reducing their damage taken by that amount. This gives you up to 5d8 points of damage immunity per use, and you can theoretically use the ward forever, as long as you have enough sorcery points. I feel we've matched the barbarian for tanking capabilities now.

Sorcerer 7: Seventh level sorcerers get fourth level spells. Death Ward makes you so angry you can't die, either dropping you to one HP instead of zero or negating an instant death effect once per casting. You also learn a Freedom of Movement to escape any sort of confinement, and Stoneskin for all the perks of blade ward with none of the wasting your action.

Sorcerer 8: For our ultimate level, it is only fair we receive the ultimate feat. Use this last ASI to pick up the Tough feat for a full 40 extra hit points. For all their benefits, sorcerers are not a good source of hit dice. Our final spell for the build is Elemental Bane. It forces a constitution save on a target, and then for the next minute they will not only lose resistance to an elemental type of damage, once per turn they'll take extra damage instead. A must have for any pyromancer.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

Aśvatthāman has a lot of health, and he can use it to the whole team's advantage. By interposing himself between the party and attackers, warding bonds, and even gifting bastions to other party members, Aśvatthāman's presence on a team will soak up a lot of damage.

Defense aside, he also comes with a lot of variety in combat, excelling in melee and ranged fighting as well as spellslinging when needed. Aśvatthāman can fit just about any role on the team aside from healer.

That being said, while his spell list is mostly focused on damage is also has a few key utility spells, such as Aid, Friends, and Enhance Ability, meaning you're not going to be completely useless in RP heavy sessions.

Cons:

Multiclassing into two different spellcasting classes and focusing on physical stats, predictably, makes you quite MAD, on top of Aśvatthāman's usual cantankerousness. His Dexterity and intelligence are both very low for stats that come up so often, and his Charisma isn't where we'd want it for a main spellcasting stat. Fortunately heavy armor and Eldritch Strikes help ease this burden, but it still is one worth mentioning.

Aśvatthāman focuses heavily on fire damage, and we don't get Elemental Bane until twentieth level. Once again we have our physical fighting to fall back on if facing a dragon or demon, but it is still something that needs to be discussed.

Thrown Weapons simply aren't that effective in Dungeons and Dragons. Even with weapon bond, you can only throw your chakram once a turn unless you want to keep several on hand. It also prevents you from using more damaging weapons.

#fgo #fate grand order #Aśvatthāman #D&D #DND 5e #Fighter #Sorcerer

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