#and even I don't pick up on skills in movement based games as fast as he does

[kafus]

i'm really glad that i started with pokemon at the time and age that i did. there's a lot of reasons for this but i'm thinking about two in particular atm:

i was precocious with academics as a child and constantly felt bored by stuff that was considered to be for my age range. playing pokemon leafgreen for the first time on my 5th birthday required me to read dialogue/signs/etc, do some basic number processing, and use logical thinking to get to the end in ways that other games i had tried did not, and it gave me the freedom to do so at my own pace without having a cartoon character in annoying voice ask me if i can do XYZ like most edutainment games at the time lol

pokemon was easy to pick up in terms of controls, 99% of it is moving on a grid and navigating menus, which once their UI was learned, were incredibly easy to control. there is no need to have fast reaction time or the ability to do complex controller input. so long as i was willing to engage with the rpg mechanics i felt confident as a 5 year old with some motor skill issues with navigating the game

it's interesting to me because a lot of people don't like RPGs and even if they play pokemon, they may not like the RPG aspects of them, which is fine. but for me all of the RPG mechanics of pokemon slotted perfectly into my child brain that craved Brain Stimulation and only had a history of edutainment games prior. it really showed too because as i got older i did shit like discovering that IVs/EVs existed before they were ever so much as mentioned to me, of course i didn't have the name for them but just for fun i experimented with raising two of the same pokemon species to the same level after hatching them from eggs (level 20 or something) and noticed that despite being the same species and level, they had different stats, which must have meant pokemon were genetically different from each other. i found the math-y stuff genuinely interesting before i had any context for competitive etc later in life

additionally even now i sometimes struggle with more complex controls, like i love legends arceus but i think it took me longer to figure out navigating that game than most people and games that are more difficult or require more complex inputs or better reaction time tend to be really inaccessible for me. i'm very happy to just interact with a menu, i love turn based battles and the notion that they are objectively outdated when i find them genuinely engaging is so annoying

i started thinking about this because i tried to get my mom to play let's go eevee a while back since it's a pokemon game made for beginners basically, but i did not anticipate just how difficult she would find basic navigation using the controller - catching pokemon, the main part of the game, was incredibly frustrating for her, but she could do the battles alright. with pokemon moving in an open world, 3D direction, it requires you to get used to the controller if you don't want to be falling off stuff and running into pokemon constantly. and while SV isn't particularly hard to navigate or anything, and kids are getting into tech earlier and earlier than they ever were when i was little, i still really appreciate the simplicity of control when i was younger and i think it's interesting how much other people hate the relative slowness of RPGs and value freedom of movement and action a lot to the point of considering turn based gameplay really outdated while it's still my preferred way to play video games lol

[kanohirren]

How to Make Rendog in DnD

I’ll go level by level and explain the reasoning behind my decisions and how I think it fits them in character. This build assumes starting at level 8 but includes notes on differences if you start at level 1 and progress to 8. This is not intended as a guide on how to play dnd, just how to build this character. I also don't explain every feature, but I may briefly touch on it and explain my reasoning for taking it.

Class: Barbarian 5 (Path of the Beast)/Bard 3 (College of Swords)

Race: Shifter (closest to an official dog race in 5e)

Base Ability Scores:

Str 15 (+2) + 1 from race = 16 (+3)

Dex 10 (+0)

Con 14 (+2) +2 from race = 16 (+3)

Int 8 (-1)

Wis 10 (+0)

Cha 14 (+2)

Background: Folk Hero

Ren is a strong player with a good track record when it comes to pvp in the life series. What he lacks in game knowledge he makes up for with pure charisma, being able to swing many people to his side (renpire, shadow alliance). Depending on how you look at it, he really is a hero to some (especially martyn) and knows how to make a good show.

Before we get into the class features, here’s the race and background ones.

Shifter:

Bestial Instincts: Skill proficiency. Choose Athletics.

Darkvision 60ft.

Shifting: Become more beast-like as a bonus action and gain temp HP. Become doggier.

Shifter type: choose Swiftstride to be fast, but if you want tankiness then Beasthide is also a good option. Barbarians often struggle with movement speed which is the main reason for choosing Swiftstride.

Folk Hero Background:

Skill Proficiencies: Animal Handling, Survival

Tool Proficiencies: Any Artisan’s tools, land vehicles.

Rustic Hospitality: Common people like you and will help you.

Shifters get to choose their animal ancestry and traits, so you can choose to be a dog. Longtooth is usually the default option for dog (the other options are associated with other animals) but the feature is quite useless in this build, which is why we pick one of the other ones.

Time for class levels! At 1st lvl, we start with barbarian, which grants us:

Proficiency in Light and medium armour, shields

Proficiency in simple and martial weapons

Proficiency in Strength and Constitution saving throws.

Skill proficiencies: choose Intimidation and Perception

Rage: Core barbarian feature. Hit harder and soak more hits. Keep in mind you cant use spells while raging, which will matter after multiclassing.

Unarmored Defense: Add your Con to your AC if you have no armour. Goes well with being a bard…

The red king Ren was very vicious kind of king who goes to war leading his troops rather than hiding in the backline. Barbarian is a perfect class for Ren who is both very good at and goes unga bunga on occasion. Keep in mind both Shifting and Raging are bonus actions, so you have to use them on different turns. The temp HP gets doubled value vs weapon damage if you’re raging because of resistance, so it might be usually better to rage first but it also depends.

At 2nd lvl, we continue with barbarian and will do so up to lvl 5.

Danger Sense: Advantage on dex saves against things you can see. Very useful for avoiding traps.

Reckless Attack: Advantage on your attacks is always good to have if you don’t mind taking more hits.

These features fit Ren perfectly too since he is pretty good at surviving and avoiding traps (unless a stalactite is involved) and in combat he can go pretty wild.

At 3rd lvl, we get:

Subclass: Path of the Beast

Path of the Beast gives:

Form of the Beast: When you Rage, you get an extra bestial trait to be even more dog-like. Bite gives you healing at low hp, claw gives you an extra attack and tail gives you extra ac. All fairly useful in different situations.

Now Ren becomes even more doggy. I always envisioned Ren being more of an axe-wielding barbarian, but these are still good to have. Keep in mind you choose the trait when you rage and can’t change it until a new rage, so choose the right one for the situation (low hp? Bite for healing. Two claw attacks actually deals more damage than the axe because you add your strength mod twice. Tail is good for avoiding hits or hitting something barely out of reach.)

At 4th lvl, we get:

Ability Score Improvement OR Feat: Take the Ability Score improvement and bump your Strength up to 18 (+4).

The extra strength helps everywhere as a barbarian.

At 5th lvl, we get:

Extra Attack (more damage! Woo!)

Fast Movement: an extra 10 ft. of move speed if you aren’t wearing heavy armour which you can’t really use as a barbarian anyway.

If you took Swiftstrider at the start, you’ll now have a whopping 50 ft. of walking speed, which is pretty dang fast. You’ll be able to run across deserts in no time.

At 6th lvl, we begin multiclassing with a level in bard, which grants us:

Musical Instrument Proficiency: Choose a Horn.

Skill Proficiency: Choose Persuasion

Bardic Inspiration: Increase chances of success. Not a spell, so you can use it during rage.

Two Cantrips: Choose Message (whisper chat msgs) and Minor Illusion (fun spell)

Four 1st lvl spells: Speak with Animals, Identify, Charm Person and Color Spray.

Now we get to the more… seductive side of Ren. Ren’s a really fun person but is also known to be a little on the less PG side of things if you know what I’m saying (not to mention the fact that as a barbarian with unarmored defense… fully exposed while being beheaded). I also tried to pick spells that are more useful outside of combat since he can’t cast spells while raging.

At 7th lvl, we take a second level of Bard, which grants us:

Jack of All Trades: Half-proficiency in all ability checks is good.

Song of Rest: Listen to Ren sing Britney during a short rest and heal up extra good.

One more spell: Command (Kneel before your king!)

Jack of All Trades will make up for some of Ren’s poorer stat checks now.

At 8th lvl, we take a third level of Bard, which grants us:

Expertise in Two Skills: Choose Persuasion (man literally persuaded people to go to war) and Athletics (good in general for strength builds).

2nd lvl spells: See Invisibility (doesn’t use concentration)

Subclass: College of Swords

College of Swords grants us:

Bonus Proficiencies: Medium Armor and Scimitars. Redundant because we get that from Barbarian.

Fighting Style: Choose Dueling and use a battle axe with a shield.

Blade Flourish: Even more movement speed when you attack, and the flourish options are all useful on top of the extra damage they provide (more ac, knockback and aoe damage). The go-to would probably be Defensive Flourish to stack with your Tail. If you chose Beasthide Shifter, your AC will go even higher.

Flourishes are especially useful because they aren’t spells and they don’t take any action economy. This is a surprisingly good synergy between a barbarian and a bard multiclass, especially since you get access to a fighting style with this subclass for some extra damage consistency.

Summary:

Final Stats:

Str 18 (+4)

Dex 10 (+0)

Con 16 (+3)

Int 8 (-1)

Wis 10 (+0)

Cha 14 (+2)

Two Attacks

Battle axe attack: +4 (str) +3 (prof. bonus) = +7 to hit, 1d8 + 4 + 2 (dueling) slashing dmg.

Three Bardic Inspirations

Cantrips: Message, Minor Illusion

1st lvl spells: Speak with Animals, Identify, Color Spray, Charm Person, Command

2nd lvl spells: See Invisibility

In summary, lots of combat power (as is fitting for the Red King himself) and a decent amount of Bard utility. A similar build to Scar’s, though more towards the combat end of the spectrum.

And that’s it for Ren! I think I managed to capture a bit of his savagery but also his fun and charming side into this build. He’s built for combat but he’s also quite good in social situations and he’s gonna be a tough nut to crack!

[georgeeehd]

no but dream gets good at new games kind of quickly if he just keeps fucking around on them...like by the end of the genshin stream he was decent and if he played more he would be good...he’s a talented boy

Yeah! In my opinion, one of dreams biggest skills is that, when he's given advice/tips/strats, or has time to develop a strat on his own, he's very good at implementing it. Or if he does struggle initially, he can correct it pretty quickly and doesn’t require as much practice. I think the best and most recent example would be him using sams tip in rocket spleef during mcc, it took him a try or two to get the hang of it, but he instantly shot up in the leaderboards after.

He didn't have any help during genshin, including no tutorial, but I'm sure once he picked up on what worked and what didn't work, he got good at sticking to it. I think thats why he seems clueless when he plays new games, because he’s usually jumping in feet first with no tutorial, or he isn’t taking it seriously in the same way he is with minecraft.

I guess I just think dream has the potential to be very good at a lot of games if he really wanted to, especially movement based games^o^