#but god all of these subclasses are pretty cool

[deathbind]

Here's a selection of spells from The Complete Sha'ir's Handbook that I think are just fucking cool

[rielzero]

Just saw your post about ascended Astarion and male Tav fanfic. I am willing to rise to the challenge

If you need any prompts! here's some concept I've danced with in my head (up for anyone to use) inspired by my own character's potential AUs. Please do not claim ownership over the ideas, I'd love to see people's different spins. Please keep it to Male Tav, there's so many Female Tav fics out there already- I had ideas specifically with a male character in mind. M x M focus is preferred. I'm not bi or pan, so anything hinting to tav being exclusively gay is nice.

THESE ARE all PROMPTS / IDEAS not demands. I'm not here to control anyone's creative progress :V

I'm just a nerd be nice

Brain Damage Tav has used the tadpole powers but refuses to become half-illitid and keeps it how it is. Tav ascends Astarion- but is convinced by Jaheira or someone else that he is incapable of feeling love now and becomes afraid of him- (Astarion still is very much capable of love) Astarion responds of course like a scorned ex, and lies through his teeth when the break up happens and breaks tav's heart. Timeskip- it is revealed Tav's altered brain still has mindflayer powers, but because of the trauma of the final fight he suffers from severe memory loss and pretty much got themselves in a position were he is dying- only for Astarion to come around and save him by turning him- then be met with guilt and over-protectiveness when he realizes Tav does not remember their time together anymore. (would work for a series, this concept is what I intend to use for an AU of my character but it would be very different.) Lots of angst but soft ascended astarion towards male tav :3 very gentle- very protective.

You were There too AU were Tav was kept by Cazador but never turned, just kept as a snack- so Astarion knows him and they may have fallen in love during that time. During the ritual Cazador threatens to replace Astarion with Tav- Astarion goes feral.

I forget you're an Urchin Playing into the fact that Astarion was a corrupted Noble- knows what luxury life is like- inspired by how my tav is an urchin and very unfamiliar with luxury- Tav is Astarion's consort- but is very awkward not knowing ANYTHING about noble life, from etiquette to wearing jewelry and fancy garbs. Wholesome stuff- Probably lots of fluff. Astarion spoiling Tav and showing him off.

Three of them AU were Gale and Astarion and Tav are a in a polycule, after ascension Astarion becomes a little overly possessive over Tav- Gale notices a bit late and feels left out, but supports his loved ones new life goals... Of world domination.

I'm married, get over it Au were male tav has an horrible ex who breaks in the mansion because he thinks tav is enslaved to Astarion- but he's not- He's just as evil as Astarion. And they're very affectionate- Astarion enjoys rubbing it into the ex's face. Extra points if the ex is a human cleric, paladin, or bard with too much facial hair. (COUGHS)

Warlock? cool Any fic that plays into the warlock theme openly for tav, not similary to Wyll- all though I don't want to restrict anyone to a specific type of patron. (my patron is a great old one) keep in mind there's warlock patrons outside of the subclasses in the bg3 game if you need inspiration. If tav's patron is female, give them a mother-son kind of bond since tav is gay.

Other, Tropes I like described vaguely cuz my brain stoopid but ideas that can be expanded into one fic or more -oh shit you're dying don't worry I can fix it with a bite -you're so beautiful I want a 100 paintings of you akjdkhgkfhgk -The gods literally made you to ruin me god damn it I should've known -tav is small / fragile looking man but he can stab you 100 times over -tav can sing, or is creative but he doesn't like sharing this side of him (loki is 100% exactly this lol) hes easily embarrassed -tav is internally panicking because he is very very very gay. -tav has scars too and is very insecure about his body. -overprotectiveness, lots of handholding keep you close kinda stuff -wholesome physical affection, does not have sexual implications even if they talk dirty or flirt silly -words being used like petite, twink- or cute in the right context. -maybe a fic focussing on tav being half elf and the struggles that come with it. Otherwise leave race up to reader. -Tav was already a vampire before they met, or is a dhampir -Astarion and tav knew each other 200 years ago -I will pet you aggressively and affectionally and you will like it -who the fuck are you drawing? wait thats me??? oh -Astarion is creative too and might doodle. -love at first sight but in denial.. cuz its funny -tav has insomnia and needs cuddles... -tav is a necromancer and familiar with vampire lore. -anything reflecting the vampire bride/groom lore in a scene. (there's a reddit post explaining this) -Vampire hunters coming after tav in attempt to hurt Astarion because he's become pretty untouchable -Vampire Tav does not want to feed on his victims because he finds that too intimite -Vampire tav is a vampire lord too- but not an ascended one- and he isn't corrupted by greed. -Astarion technically can compel Tav, but has no desire to do so and voices this openly to anyone who tries to argue Tav is a slave. -If Astarion hurts tav by accident in any way he feels horrible and will shower him in gifts or thousands of love language things just to affirm that it was an oopsie and he did not want to do that. He'd never do that willingly. -consent consent consent anything with consent- love language is consent -tav was a sex worker himself before they met but not anymore -lots of fluff stuff -scheming husbands plotting the downfall of the world together, bonus points if tav is the mastermind and a genius -Polycule with Gale, either as Triad, or Triangle -Admiring from afar, staring- lots of staring- intense consential staring -astarion beating up tav's abusers while tav sips from a chalice like a spoiled consort -dramatic vampire parties and all the normie vampire lords are scared of Astarion and his consort -vampire politics are kind of like ballroom hissing contests with fancy banquets and showing off your partner -I will go feral if someone hurts or touches you -steer clear of the consort, or the master will gut you -jealous vampire lord tries to seduce tav but tav is very loyal to astarion and not having it -astarion gets a cleric or powerful mage in his court just to revive tav if tav dies -You offended my husband? I'm setting your village on fire -Everyone thinks the consort tav is weak- but the consort might actually be more dangerous oh no -None of the above lines have to be necessarily restricted by ingame universe, can all be AU- does not have to include the whole mindflayer drama. Rule of Cool.

Avoid these please? I personally dislike that -misgendering tav (babygirl, queen, girly, strictly effeminate- any words that might demasculinize tav, as a gay man this stuff makes me really uncomfortable) -Overly describing tav's features as if they're set without leaving it open to the reader (long hair, skin color, favorite colors, etc) -Astarion knew tav when tav was still a child and Astarion was an adult. -Astarion abusing tav physically, just.. Please no. -...they're teenagers in high school... *dies* -brainwashing.. No offense to people who like some tropes I don't- You're fine :V We all have different tastes!

Headcanons for how Ascension works that you can use (inspired by ingame dialogue and such) -Tav isn't a regular spawn, but a vampire groom- He was turned differently, not buried for 2 days. Astarion can sense Tav is in danger if he is a groom, or sense strong emotions from him. -Tav is not immune to sunlight unless he stays in close range of Astarion. (based on dialogue) -Astarion might be a bit warmer to the touch since he is a living vampire now. He does not have to feed on blood- but Tav still requires blood and is cold to the touch.

Might edit this post later with more.

[maegalkarven]

Obsessed with how Gortash in "Empty Prayers" AU fits in with the team.

He is a failed chosen of god, as well as Gale, Shadowheart, Nemo and somewhat even Lae'zel.

He is the war criminal type with a really cool class/subclass. He has (bad) history with Karlach and Wyll (due to kidnapping of his father) and (good) history with Nemo.

The party of Gale, Nemo, Gortash and Astarion is pretty much "bad and/or questionable decisions" bingo. They can not be allowed to go out exploring like that because things will go badly (for everyone else involved).

He wants to rule the world, but doesn't have the means to anymore + his former patron god WILL torture him endlessly if he dies, so he cannot die.

He WILL have to learn to rely on other people bc not only he doesn't have a choice in that, but his own survival is closely linked to how well he'll adjust to the new reality.

He probably tries to avoid sleeping or sleeps as little as possible at first because he doesn't trust anyone in the camp but Nemo, and Nemo is kind of the reason of his downfall, so it's complicated.

Nemo has to convince him to sleep and stay guard for him because Enver lowering his defenses amidst strangers and enemies? Absolutely not.

The awful adjustment from being at the top of the world to being at the end of the food chain (again). The determination to climb back no matter what.

The fact what he wears his coat at all times bc without he is vulnerable to fear and that won't go.

Bonus point: Bane not answering his prayers and abandoning him while Bhaal tries to claim Nemo over and over again.

The "my god left me" VS "your god can't leave you alone". Hating Nemo for still having his god's attention, pitying Nemo because Bhaal is the last god you want to be acknowledged by.

[blorbologist]

Hi 👋 sorry to bother and I hope it's okay: I have a question about AooD (my brain decided to randomly scream Thoughts at me today)

Will characters fit into classic DND classes or are you planning to step away from that? I was wondering if Vex will still be a ranger/rogue or some other multiclass, like adding some paladin because of her close connection to divinity. Or maybe some other characters would have minor changes because they're living in a different age and society looks much different from what we know from VM campaign.

MORE than okay! I'm always looking to talk about this AU and poke at it more <3

I do want to broadly work with the constraints of the world; in Calamity characters still had classes, so I'll be sticking to that.

Here's where things get a lil interesting:

I'm sure you'll have noticed Trinket was not in that first chapter :)

Vex is a rogue/paladin in this AU! This was mostly inspired by Laura's responses to a question about alternative classes; she noted that she initially wanted Vex to be a rogue (but went with ranger so Liam could be rogue), and that the idea of late-campaign Vex being a paladin was pretty cool. The fact this exactly mirrors Vax's canon multiclass (bar the last level in druid) is also very intentional. ;3 However I'm letting Vex have ranged smite, because though everyone bickers that it'd be OP to allow... she's the twin of a god. Beastmaster was chronically underpowered in C1. She deserves this.

(Trinket is in the fic I repeat the boy is in the fic he's just not Vex's ranger companion!)

I'm a bit indecisive about Percy. Either he's an artificer, flavored that all his abilities are just gadgets and tinkering, or he's straight fighter like canon. He's 100% magic-free though, without any warlock abilities, and that definitely puts a chip on his shoulder in this mageocratic society. I fully intend for him to flatly call himself a diversity hire at some point. In much the same way that Cerrit has a bit of hubris for being a rogue keeping wizards in line, Percy has a lot of pride staked in doing just what these fancy mages can without any arcane abilities of his own, using SCIENCE!! to accomplish what they do. Not many people in Aeor who know him personally like him lmao.

As a hint of what's to come, most of the other characters remain the same class as canon, if potentially a different subclass or with a multiclass/different multiclass level distribution. Ex: Tary is either a pure artificer or artificer/wizard, Grog might be a zealot or giant barbarian instead of berserker... Ripley is still fighter/wizard, if an opposite split ;3

The one other major class change might be Pike, due to the lack of strong religious belief during the Age of Arcanum. Back in the day Vasselheim placed at least some importance in the divine, hence labelling attempts at ascension hearsay; see Calamity episode 1. But I don't think even they would be quite as zealous as they are in the modern day; Vespin was a mage, a titled archmage, within the city, and we don't know if Vasselheim had the amount of space devoted to temples it does now. She might be a Divine Soul Sorcerer with one level dip into Cleric, but I'll see how my Vasselheim arc shakes up.

Oh. I lied. There's one more major class difference, but it's with an NPC, and that I'll keep to myself ;3

[unsleepingtales]

I should not be doing this I should be writing an essay but ok fantasy high junior year episode fourteen let’s fucking go

I’m so stressed guys I need nothing bad to happen to them tonight

D&d is fun because it allows you to play out such fantasies as: finishing an essay for once in your goddamn life

“I will not be proselytizing” I do not believe you!!

Beesbees time!

Gertie height confirmed! 6’5-6’6 ish

Of the many honeyed confections I believe baklava is king I LOVE HER SO MUCH

She speaks in romance languages <3

Buckyyyyy

(Awkward and quiet)

Yeeeeesh

Bucky being drawn to Cassandra what if I cried

WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO FORGET

Oh shiiiiit

The wizard seems pretty cool Adaine!

Oooooh official subclass!

Creeeeepyyyy

Good to get some confirmation that Jace is weird

It’s the only time they get to hang out 😭😭

I’ll MISS YOU oh my god

Holy shit! She’s the ghost teacher!

To lie in prayer???

Loved the little ominous music after that

Made hand legerdemain! Let’s everybody hear it for mage hand legerdemain!

Oh that’s fascinating

Oh yeah Fig’s writing a song called Dawn of Justice but she’s never gonna believe in Ankarna

Fuck

What the hell is happening

Emily Axford your mind….

Took a break from the episode to submit an extension request because I am having a terrible time of it but we’re back now

The rat grinders have been to the mountains of chaos! Ok!

Girl what are you doing

You got an a+ for writing a note 😭

Oh right. Forgot about that.

We’re hemorrhaging money on the groundskeeper jawbone!!

Yessss the crying was fake

I love her soooooo much

For whyyyyy for what does he want that though

Regular ass freak

I’m too freaked out about my real life for this shit 😭

Dome art <3

Ok! I think (hope) Buddy will be willing to raise them

What the fuck are you talking about

Oh they have to actually know the answers oh god

I would love this but I know I am not the norm with that

I love that Gorgug has warding bond SO much

Did they JUST print out rat swarms oh my god

I’m so stressed

God this set is so cool

They put pipes on his mini 😭

Sleep is such a good spell

The amount of shirtless Agueforts gently bobbing in the background

Oh these are probably the butter jellies!

(Heavy breathing into imaginary pipes)

Ally looks so tired learning about the hydra

I hate thisssssss

I love their shenanigans though

That IS what school feels like :(

I love academia and learning I swear I’m just having a really bad time right now

I love Zac’s stamp flips <3<3

Sorry did Lou just do. 110 damage in one turn.

Fucking hell!

(Rolling so many dice)

God they’re so good. They’re so good at this.

Oh my fucking god!

I’m seeing d20 live the night the next episode comes out which is insane. Next week looks batshit. What a fun time we’re all having.

[kon-konk]

Hand headcanons for team Melancholy?

Oh boy, hands! My favorite! (I wrote these down while at work the other day, and have had them tucked away for the past few days.)

Overall, I think Tsubaki would be very big on making sure his subclasses take care of themselves, so he recommends ways to better do so, but won't force them if they don't want to do it (unless it falls into the unhygienic category).

Tsubaki - More or less average sized hands, leaning towards the small end of average. But they're so perfectly smooth and delicate you'd think they were made from porcelain and painted to look like flesh. I hc he has quite strong hands, it just doesn't look like it. His hands feel so delicate that you'd be afraid you're going to break them if you squeeze too hard. They're smooth enough that you'd have to double check that he did, in fact, have fingerprints and it wasn't all just freakishly smooth skin. And they're so soft. Like, his hands feel like you're touching very large flower petals. Uses moisturizer, but his hands are just naturally like that even when he doesn't. Very nicely manicured nails. Also, I feel like his hands are cool to the touch. Not freezing cold, but noticeably cool.

Sakuya - The large end of average size. Long fingers with lightly defined veins. His hands look like they'd be soft, but they're actually rougher than they look. Probably uses moisturizer, but only when he sees someone else using it. Takes care of his nails, but not to the level Tsubaki, Shamrock, or Otogiri do. I hc he has very warm hands. Not like sweaty warm, but like he's just taken them out of his pockets kind of warm.

Otogiri - Tiny, cute little hands. I think her hands would be very strong, and very dexterous. Her hands are rougher than you'd think they'd be, but not quite over the line from soft to rough, and they're covered in the thinnest scars from times her strings have dug into her hands. You can see the larger veins in her hands, but they're not defined. I also think she'd have naturally blushed knuckles. Absolutely beautiful hands. Very well manicured nails. For sure moisturizes. Very neutral temperature hands. Like they're not noticeably warm or cool. BUT they do warm up very fast if she's holding something warm/hot.

Higan - Very large, very rough hands, with very nicely defined veins. Definitely artist's hands. Covered in various scars from art-related incidents, and callouses from paintbrushes and pencils. Does not moisturize. Basically just cuts his nails and goes. Also usually has a smudge of some art product on them. Another with neutral temperature hands.

Shamrock - Man has fucking beautiful hands. Like everything about this dude's hands are damn near perfect. On the larger size, and probably with some notable faded scars from his time in C3. Nicely defined veins. The perfect line between rough and soft. A third with beautifully taken care of nails. I can guarantee you that for the longest time he moisturizes only when he sees Tsubaki do so (which is fairly often), but always carries moisturizer with him (it's the same kind Tsubaki uses just in case Tsubaki forgets his). He's gotten better about this over time, and now carries both a moisturizer he likes and the kind Tsubaki uses. Hands are relatively warm (warmer than Sakuya's, but not by much).

Berukia - Absolutely middle of the road average sized. Very pretty veins, but not much definition except between his knuckles, where they're very defined. They're just barely over the line from soft to rough, but oh my gods why are they so dry. It's not that he doesn't use moisturizer, his hands just dry out quickly. He leaves his moisturizer in random places because he'll use it and sit it wherever he is at the moment, but never puts it back where he got it from. (I hc that Tsubaki will "randomly" ask Berukia if he's used his moisturizer lately to make sure his hands don't dry out too much.) Tries to keep his nails manicured, but I feel like he doesn't go through that effort very often (maybe once a month or every other month), but keeps his nails cut on a weekly basis. Has the boniest fuckin' knuckles you've ever seen. And for some reason his hands are always freezing cold.

Lilac (this is my son, I don't care that he's taller than me, so he gets included) - Little kid hands. Like, they're the perfect size for his body, the proportions just resemble a small child's. He probably bites his nails pretty badly. Also probably only moisturizes when someone reminds him. His hands never seem to be the temperature you're expecting, though.

[wreckedregent7]

Regent’s Ramblings - The Osteo Striga is Overpowered

Holy fucking shit Regent’s yammering about something that isn’t League of Legends! Is it a blue moon out tonight? Obviously if it were I’d have a positive winrate, but here we are.

Destiny 2 is a weird game for me to talk about, especially right now with the current story shenanigans, but I wanna talk about balance real quick, and something that isn’t really balanced. A weapon given pretty prominently in the Witch Queen expansion, the Osteo Striga is a really cool, unique SMG that is just, really hard to avoid running, and even harder to consider Vaulting for any length of time.

So, why is this weapon “overpowered”? Well, to put it simply, the only thing it doesn’t do well is crack shields with Match Game. But, keeping it to shorthand when I could go into excruciating detail isn’t my style, so, let’s talk weapon archetypes and encounter design.

Guardians have a pretty expansive arsenal of weapons, each with their own unique perks - depending on if you need precision, spread, crowd control, long range, short range, midrange, etc.; there is a weapon for your unique need.

Bundling weapon categories (not counting weapon archetypes, that’s its own can of worms) into simple paradigms, you kinda get something like this;

Short Range - Sidearms, SMGs, Shotguns, Swords, Fusion Rifles

Mid Range - Auto Rifles, Hand Cannons, Special Grenade Launchers, Heavy Grenade Launchers, Glaives, Machine Guns

Long Range - Rocket Launchers, Combat Bows, Scout Rifles, Pulse Rifles, Sniper Rifles, Linear Fusion Rifles

Precision - Sidearms, Hand Cannons, Combat Bows, Sniper Rifles, Scout Rifles, Pulse Rifles, Linear Fusion Rifles

Crowd Control - Special Grenade Launchers, Heavy Grenade Launchers, Machine Guns, Rocket Launchers

Sustained Damage - Machine Guns, SMGs, Auto Rifles, Scout Rifles, Hand Cannons

Burst Damage - Rocket Launchers, Sidearms, Special Grenade Launchers, Heavy Grenade Launchers, Glaives, Combat Bows, Pulse Rifles, Sniper Rifles, Linear Fusion Rifles

And these are just rough paradigms for each weapon type - but the general idea is that each weapon has a pretty solid niche. Auto Rifles are good for extended fights, HMGs and explosive weapons are good for clearing large groups of enemies, snipers and 4FRs are good for bursting down big targets, etc.

Now, to take a moment to talk about encounter design; a lot of encounters in most activities (aspirational or otherwise) tends to orient around a basic principle; flood an arena with chaff enemies (either melees, basic infantry, or a mix of the two), perch snipers or other pesky long-range attackers on the periphery, and maybe toss in a heavy unit or two to distract the Guardian from their main task.

Some encounters don’t require that much in the way of chaff enemies (look at any encounter in the Duality Dungeon; Cabal basic infantry are tanky enough that just 6 of them can be tough to chew through), but nevertheless, the problem isn’t typically with the quantity, but persistence. More adds will spawn in to keep you under pressure, and the more bodies you have shooting at you at a time, the more difficult any single task is going to become - god forbid you have a boss to dodge as well.

In this regard, you often have to kit yourself out very carefully; you want synergies within your subclass build, but you also want to be able to perform in the specific content. Cabal Commanders have Solar shields, better pack a Solar Weapon; War Hounds flood the room, I should bring an SMG or a crowd control weapon. I wanna do damage to the boss, gotta bring my 4FR.

But what if one weapon tackled multiple problems at a time, all without any real effort required? What if you had good sustained damage, crowd control, and damage mitigation rolled into one weapon?

Osteo Striga does exactly that.

Its bullets track targets roughly within your aim, and multiple consecutive hits on a target poison it. Deal multiple Precision Hits or kill something with it, and it does a small burst that poisons nearby enemies. If an enemy dies to the poison...You refill ammo from your reserves, and even overflow to quite a substantial amount.

So you can fire it haphazardly into a crowd of enemies, and the bullets will reliably hit. You’ll poison a few, maybe get in those precision hits, the whole group is poisoned now, and hey, you’ve got 110~ rounds in the magazine now, and have breathing room to assess your plan.

And because the poison deals damage over time, you can weave Osteo into your damage rotation on a boss - trigger poison, swap off to your main damage weapon, swap back, poison, swap off...And your damage becomes much more consistent.

And add onto that the general ubiquity of Overload Rounds on Auto Rifles and SMGs through the Artifact Mods - I don’t think I’ve seen a single season where Overload SMG/Auto wasn’t on the table - and you now have consistent damage, reliable add clear, AND the ability to lower an enemy’s damage output with casual spray-and-pray.

In the context of PVE content, the only reason you’d opt not to take Osteo Striga is if Overloading Champions aren’t on the table for the activity you jump into - and even then, unless you’re going solo (or have some other means to deal with multiple Champions at once), Osteo might still be your best general tool.

And it’s pretty telling that the only thing that can come close to competing with Osteo Striga in terms of damage and crowd control effectiveness is Witherhoard with Breach/Weakened Clear. And between the two, seeker bullets are much more broadly reliable than a puddle of Taken gunk, which leaves Witherhoard only capable of reliably competing for boss damage, as it’s even easier to work into a damage rotation thanks to its innate auto-loading holster, and that you can just plunk a target with it and resume your damage.

And the big problem is, I really don’t know what could be done about Osteo Striga to make it less egregious. Making it an Energy Weapon only risks exacerbating the problem, since a lot of Subclass builds involve synergy with same-element weapons. Similarly, adding Anti-Barrier or Unstoppable traits would only remove one facet of the problem.

I think the only thing that can really be done is to change something about the poison burst (either remove the on-death effect or the Precision hit effect; I think on-death would be better to prune) and also place a bit more of a strict cap on how many bullets you can stockpile from getting poison kills. Just something to tone down the extreme versatility of the weapon.

If you happen to play Destiny 2 and read this (I pray god you play D2 anyway, dunno who would want to read a bunch of nonsense about a game they don’t play), I am curious if any of y’all agree. Osteo Striga, to me, just feels way too powerful in any PVE context to ever not use.

[keyleth-clay]

I was planning on doing this on this coming Saturday, but then I realized that there’s a non-zero chance of getting at least one of these this week, so I figured I’d better do it sooner rather than later.

Also, in case it isn’t clear by now, I’m doing these 30% because it’s fun and I want to, and 70% because if/when they do happen, I can have this in writing and therefore have bragging rights.

KC’s Top 5 CR Player Character Classes Wishlist

(Note that this says “classes” and not “subclasses”. The options on the list should make it clear why, but also I Don’t Actually Know DnD That Well, and don’t have particularly strong opinions re: subclasses.)

Number 1. Literally Any Artificer. There’s been exactly 1 player character artificer in all of Critical Role, and that was Taryon way back in campaign 1. We only got him for 15 episodes, he rarely actually gets included as a member of Vox Machina (even though he absolutely is, dammit), and back then artificers were still Unearthed Arcana. I was SO sure that we’d be getting one in EXU: Calamity, but things didn’t work out that way. Also I just think they’re cool.

Number 2. Literally Any Ranger. Fun Fact: There have only been two player character rangers in all of Critical Role. Vex’ahlia in campaign 1, and Sam Riegel in Liam’s Quest parts 1 & 2. I know Rangers in 5e are Not Great, but there’s some really cool stuff depending on subclass choice. Swarmkeeper, Horizon Walker, Fey Wanderer – there’s so many really cool & creative options. It mostly just boggles my mind that there have been so few of them, across main campaigns and mini-series and one-shots, despite being a core 5e class.

Number 3. Monk (but not Way of the Four Elements). In a very similar vein, there have only been a handful of player character monks. Beau, Farriwen, and Fy’ra Rai are the only monk PCs in Exandria canon, two of which are genasi Way of the Four Elements monks and the other of whom is a homebrew subclass. The only others are Marisha in Liam’s Quest (no subclass given), The Headmistress in CelebriD&D and D&Deisel (no subclass given), and Mezzek in the goblins Pathfinder one-shot from way back when.

There are so many other cool monk subclasses to explore, and while I know that we just had a monk as a main campaign character, that hasn’t stopped them from having a barbarian and a rogue and at least one cleric in every main campaign party. Also Liam would rock Way of the Long Death or Way of Mercy, and you know it.

Number 4. Any Blood Hunter that isn’t Order of the Lycan. Have you figured out the theme of this top 5 yet? :p

But seriously. There have been six player character blood hunters so far, and five of them have been Order of the Lycan (Tova, Chetney, Portia, Benicio, Lawrence). Thank all the gods for Mollymauk Tealeaf for at least attempting to be an Order of the Ghostslayer. I certainly don’t begrudge Travis his manic pixie werewolf dreams, but some variety would be nice, y’know? I’d particularly like to see somebody play an Order of the Mutant, but I’d be fine with any of the other three subclasses.

Number 5. Lingering Soul. Very shortly after I started watching Critical Role, I found out about the plethora of homebrew stuff that Matt has up on DMs Guild. Of course, I purchased and read through all of it, and of course I immediately loved the Lingering Soul class/post-death option that he created. I know it’s a really tricky thing to try to work into a campaign, and it’s something that he’s barely talked about (pretty much everything else of his on DMG has been used by either a player character or an NPC). Right after Molly died in C2, Taliesin was asked on Talks Machina if he would bring him back as a Lingering Soul, but he chose not to. I just… really fucking wanna see someone play this it’s so fucking cool.

DIShonourable mention goes to yet another fucking fighter or rogue. Across campaigns, mini-series, and one-shots, there have been 23 rogue player characters and 19 fighters. I have no problem with either of them, but holy shit pick something else.

[theabominableblogger]

All right, this is gonna be a long one... 1, 5, 10, 14, 15, 20, 25, 30, 32, and 37 for the CR questions.

Legit the first words out of my mouth were "oh Jesus!"

Here we go! CR time bay-beee! I've only been in the fandom for about a year and a half but I'm raring to go!

1- Character you don’t particularly like, but will defend vehemently when people dislike them for the wrong reasons.

Starting things off with a bang (hehe), I'm gonna go with Scanlan. A lot of people overlook him as the archetypal horny bard, which is the point of the character. His growth is subtle and doesn't really become extremely noticeable until he leaves in "A Bard's Lament." He's saved Vox Machina's butt on countless occasions and yet the team still kinda pushes him aside. They touched on this a little bit too in the first season of TLOVM with this little teases of foreshadowing and shots of him looking disappointed and I thought that was really cool. Also the clutch counterspell at 8th Lvl against Vecna is just *chef's kiss*

5- Meta you would write if you did not fear people would be SUPER weird about it. This is also an invitation to write that meta and block the haters.

I feel like a bunch of meta I've thought about has already been talked about. I've seen a bunch of phenomenal posts by many Critters on this site, including @captainofthetidesbreath and it's very intriguing and sometimes refreshing to get different perspectives on things that happen. One of my favorites I've read was a breakdown on the infamous Trent dinner scene in C2 which IMO is VERY reminiscent of the dinner sequence in Curse of Strahd. Matt defintely takes elements from well known DnD campaigns and salt bae sprinkles them into Exandria.

10- Favorite and least favorite Matt Mercer Original Subclass.

Super easy. Favorite is the Blighted Druid from Taldorei Reborn mainly because of its AoE in higher levels and addition to AC. Least favorite is the Blood Magic Wizard because as a piddly widdle wizard, your hit die is A D6. And you want your wizard to WILLINGLY cause damage to themselves?!? Hard pass.

14- Describe the art you would most like to create or commission if talent/money were no object.

God, there's so many things I wanna create. Right now I'm working on the Callowmoore supercut (which sits right now at about 35 min) and a few attempts at animatics here and there. The main two animatics I wanna try my hand at are Fearne and Ashton's fireside chat in C3 and Capeleb in C2.

Cosplay is also a thing I wanna get more into. I did a few CR casual cosplays this year (Imogen and Vax) for a ren faire and GenCon and I was so surprised by everyone's compliments on them.

15- Favorite one-on-one conversation (can be between two PCs, or a PC and NPC).

Oh God. So far Fjord and Essek's conversation after Molly's failed return made me bawl like a baby and so did Orym telling Will he couldn't stay in C3. Also for the Mighty Nein Reunited, Essek stopping by. 10/10 will die happily.

20. What non-D&D TTRPG would you most like to see Critical Role run a one shot in?

Arkham Horror would be pretty cool, I'm not gonna lie. Or Dresden Files. Or Balikbayan: Returning Home

25. What class do you most want to see Matt play if he is in a future EXU campaign as a new (not Dariax) PC?

Matt sure does love his spellcasters so let's mix it up. I wanna see him as an absolute madman of a paladin.

30. What is your favorite theory or headcanon that has absolutely no bearing on the plot and isn’t important at all, but which is completely compliant with canon?

I still think Caleb and Essek would have tried to go back for that freaking necrotic gem that Caleb almost got nuked trying to get. That whole scenario is freaking hilarious.

32. If the CR main cast were to play the original 7 tombtakers per The Nine Eyes of Lucien (Brevyn, Cree, Jurrell, Lucien, Otis, Tyffial, and Zoren) in a one shot, who should play whom? Assume Matt DMs, but you do not need to have Taliesin play Lucien.

Oh absolutely Matt plays Lucien. I would have Ashley be Brevyn (because it only makes sense given the connection), Zoren be Liam, Sam be Otis (because karma is a god), Cree be Laura actually, Travis be Jurrell, and Marisha be Tyffial. Have Taliesin switch out with Matt sometimes when Matt comes in as Vess DeRogna. Double DM!

37. You have to take a 16 hour road trip with one NPC from each campaign (all at once, ie, three other people). The NPCs cannot shorten the road trip in any way and the road trip must be via driving but you can do it in two 8 hour days and share a motel room if you’d like. Who do you pick?

Oh geez. Probably Gilmore and Essek and Weva and I'll explain. Essek would be the person I would talk to for small talk and get along with (and talk about how exhausting it is to just be) and Gilmore to absolutely come in and be like "I got the music!" and slams on the soundtrack from Priscilla Queen of the Desert. Weva would also be the one who tells really extravagant stories because she has to be some sort of death cleric who has stories from being a magical mortician.

[cloud-monki]

My cool ass dnd characters

Character #22: Necalli Huaytletl

Class: Fighter

Subclass: The Samurai Archetype

Species: Hobgoblin

Alignment: Lawful Neutral

Personality: Stoic, fearless, well actually more like unfeeling, but smart and respectful towards everyone. He only lives to serve the empire.

Appearance: A red skinned hobgoblin with dark grey hair and yellow eyes. He wears an outfit of that of an Aztec jaguar warrior with heavy armor underneath, he holds a sword made of obsidian and a wooden shield. He always looks serious, but a bit sad underneath.

Stats:

Strength: High

Dexterity: Above Average

Constitution: High

Intelligence: Above Average

Wisdom: Medium

Charisma: Medium

Age: 18

Where did you get your powers? From the training I’ve done since childhood, and that’ll never stop doing.

Gender/Pronouns: Male. He/Him

Sexuality: Unknown

Backstory: He was born in an empire of warriors, a group of people that worshiped the gods of blood, a society in which the strongest children are selected to become fearsome warriors. Necalli was the same, from a very young age he was trained in all sorts of manners, with teaching methods that’s some might outright call cruel, but it made him what he is now, a killing machine. He was sent on some kind of quest that was requested of him by his emperor, so he must comply.

Roles: Frontliner and striker.

Conclusion: I originally wanted to make an Aztec themed character, so I thought that a Jaguar warrior would be pretty cool, then I read about the shit they did to blossoming warriors and holy shit, this character needs angst. Now here’s my Aztec samurai hobgoblin!

[echo-master]

I am obsessed with D&D

I spend two days a week just playing D&D. I also have work, so it's not like I just have the free time to do it. No. I work around it.

I love playing D&D, and despite loving kobolds, I've never played one in a campaign. This all changes on my next Wednesday session, however!

My old character, a barbarian bunnyfolk named Celeritus has died (I made everyone cry, proudest moment of my D&D career,) and I've made a new character! The DM has finally let me be a kobold, with a couple rules in place.

"Please don't be sexual, I swear to god-"

They are a bard. Who used to be the house pet of an abusive vampire. Horny is all they know, hun.

But actually, it's a pretty cool character idea. Their name is Chami, (Ka-Me) with the nickname of Chai because that's a lot easier to say, and they're a college of sketching bard.

Well echo, what's a college of sketching bard? It's a subclass I made myself, and focuses on using your bardic inspiration die to mark an enemy, making them much easier to hit and raises the damage floor on your spells against it. This all comes at the downside of when using these skills, the marked target gets a bardic inspiration die to use on whatever they want.

Chami also has a magical paintbrush called the "Brush of the Eight", which creates magical ink with different effects. Each ink type has an effect, a charge cost, and a fatal flaw (A downside to using the ink type.)

A fatal flaw can be negated by spending twice as many charges on the ink. Here's an example, the Orange ink:

Can be applied to a creature with a range of 20 ft. Increases the walking speed of the creature by 15 ft for two turns.

Fatal Flaw: Once this ink runs out after two turns, the creatures walking speed is reduced by 15 for two turns.

I'm very proud of myself, as I came up with all of this in just one day!

Read more for a bit of character lore!

Cool, you're still here!

Chami is a green fluffy kobold, definitely the best kind of kobold to keep as a house pet. She was kidnapped by vampires at a young age, around 13, succumbing to Stockholm syndrome and magically induced amnesia at around 17, forgetting what life was like before her time there, only wanting to serve her master through housework and other menial tasks. Once she turned 18, she was marked by her master, shown by a red diamond in her pupils. Her master also started feeding on her from that day onward, rotating between her and the other, less obedient servants. Her obedience and work ethic made her the favorite, however.

At the age of 23, she was out doing errands for her master, before getting lost, losing the map to get back as well. This is how she'll meet the party.

I'll add anything here that's important, or that I forgot! I'll also try to add the other ink types, as I get them! They're not all unlocked at once, sadly.

[funnygirlthatbelle]

i’ve been seeing a lot of posts recently about how bell’s hells are different from vox machina/the nein/most parties, and there’s been a lot of really interesting insights! but to me, one of the things i find most intriguing and relatable about these characters is how many of them can be viewed through a lens of disability/chronic pain. i’m not used to being able to relate to any characters through this lens, let alone so many, and it’s really exciting. like, just going around the table, there’s so many different flavors of this throughout!

like, you’ve got chetney. he’s old, but also pretty new to the scene. he’s trying to develop control, trying to find others like him- while also having to keep in mind the stigma that surrounds his new condition. 

and then there’s laudna, and oh my god, her body doesn’t work in any of the ways a normal body does. she cracks and pops and dislocates, and it’s been going on for so long now that she isn’t even phased by it anymore, even as it horrifies others. sure, it’s inconvenient that she has a 5 strength and things fall off sometimes, but it doesn’t really bother her after all these years. 

fcg? i mean, there’s so much there. large parts of the world are inaccessible without help. people don’t see them as a person. he doesn’t really seem himself as a person. trying to disguise aspects of your body (their wheel) so as to look more like everybody else. not being able to participate in certain activities, particularly surrounding food and drink, to the same extent as others. trying to take care of others. having to go to a specialist (milo) when something unusual happens with their body for fear it might be something serious. 

i’ve mentioned before that i very much see imogen through an invisible illness/ chronic pain lens- particularly, she reminds me of a friend from school who experienced chronic migraines. the way she navigates the world always uncomfortable and always on high alert for things that could make it worse is extremely familiar, and her joy at being out in the jungle and getting to experience almost no symptoms? good for you, girl, i’m jealous. 

and then there’s ashton. like, he’s very visibly disabled after the chaos fairy magic humpty dumpty situation. their entire subclass is based on how they didn’t heal exactly right and the results. and that’s even before we get into the whole “i used to be soft” thing which is like !!!!!! the amount of times i’ve heard a similar sentiment of being just like you before the x happened. it’s so good. 

and i dunno, i just think it’s really cool! i don’t necessarily think any of the cast had this sort of allegory in mind, but disabled/characters with a potential disability allegory are kind of a rarity, and i’m really excited to have so many flavors of it this time around!

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #198

Happy New Year! (If it is not new years, please disregard.) Today we're crossing into the 2020 servants; hopefully this build makes that clear.

Today we're building Katsushika Hokusai, the daughter/fatheroctopus painter duo, most famous for... waves? And also making a deal with Cthulhu. We're grabbing some levels in Creation Bard for the former, and Hexblade Warlock for the latter. Don't worry, it'll make sense as we go.

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

Next up:

Race and Background

Oui is a Human. Her dad's an octopus, which is weird, but we'll deal with that later. Also, we're making her a variant human for cool stuff. She gets +1 Wisdom and Charisma, as well as Animal Handling proficiency to get along with her parents and the Magic Initiate feat, which uses her Wisdom to cast druid spells. Since magical paintbrushes aren't an official weapon in D&D 5e, we'll call it a quarterstaff instead, which means you can use Shillelagh to make it fancy and magical for the duration. It also turns the damage die into a d8, deals magical damage, and uses your wisdom instead of strength to hit things and deal damage. You also get Frostbite to splash cold water on people, and Protection from Evil and Good. You can cast that last one once a day for free, and it'll protect you against aberrations (plus celestials, elementals, fey, fiends, and undead) for ten minutes with concentration. They'll have disadvantage to hit you, and they cant' charm, frighten, or possess you, and any existing effects of that ilk you can shake off with advantage. No spoilers, but that'll come in handy soon enough.

You also get the Guild Artisan background, because you paint for money. That gives you Insight and Persuasion proficiency.

Ability Scores

Make your Charisma as high as possible. You paint good, and you have the mental fortitude to keep an elder god from yeeting your soul from your body. Good job. Second highest is Dexterity, painting lifesized waves in the air around you doesn't actually need all the backflips, you just like to show off. Your Wisdom is also pretty good, it's hard to paint things you can't see well, and again that whole "mental fortitude" thing. Your Constitution is pretty good, you handle all-nighters pretty well. That means your Strength isn't great, but we're dumping Intelligence. You're kind of a hick, after all. Plus, really? Swordbeauties?

Class Levels

Bard 1: You weren't born with the squid powers, so we'll grab those up a bit later. Right now you're just a plucky young artist with a dream. As a bard, you get proficiency with Dexterity and Charisma saves, as well as three skills of your choice. Performance and Nature will help you paint nature, and Arcana will help you find the squid guy in the first place. You get Bardic Inspiration, Charisma Modifier d6s per long rest, and you can give one to your allies to boost one attack, check, or save by however much they roll. Nothing like some tasteful nudes to get the spirits up. You also get Spells that you can cast using your Charisma. Friends makes it easier to pass charisma checks against a creature for a minute, but they'll know you magicked them afterwards. Thankfully, getting paid doesn't take that long. Minor Illusion helps you bring your paintings to life, but just a little bit. It'll create a still object or sound that lasts for up to a minute. Creatures can tell it's an illusion with an investigation check, or by touching it. You also get Animal Friendship- your dad can be hard to get along with. Color Spray weaponizes your paints to blind creatures in the area, and Illusory Script lets you write one thing, but really write another. I'm sure you can argue this should count for paintings as well. Oh, you also get Dissonant Whispers. You're a Foreigner, you can be a little creepy if ya wanna.

Bard 2: Second level bards become a Jack of All Trades, adding half their proficiency to skill checks they aren't proficient in. You're an anime character, it's an unwritten rule you should be good at everything. You also get a Song of Rest, adding a d6 to healing your party does over a short rest. On top of that, your bardic inspiration becomes Magical Inspiration, letting your allies add it to the damage or healing of a spell. Finally, grab the spell Silent Image for moving images, so now you can paint birds and/or waves and have them look just like the real thing. Now, third level of bard is where things start getting funky, so before we can do that, let's make a deal.

Warlock 1: Bouncing over to warlock lets you become a Hexblade, which sounds kind of weird, but there's a reason for that. You don't do weird mind stuff like the GOOlocks, and you don't really use Tentacles like the Fathomlocks. What you do need though, is a fancy magic brush, and a fancy magic octopus. There isn't a familiar-based subclass yet, so we had to go with the weapon-based one, and we'll pick up your dad later. Anyways, starting off as a Hexblade lets you invoke a Hexblade's Curse as a bonus action, dealing your proficiency in extra damage to the cursed creature, crit on 19s, and heal yourself when the cursed creature dies. The curse lasts 1 minute, and you can use this once per short rest. Hokusai also become a Hex Warrior, turning one non-two-handed weapon into a special weapon at the end of a long rest. Now your brush uses your Charisma to attack, nice. Unfortunately, this doesn't include magical damage, but you can stack this with Shillelagh if you really need to. You also get another set of spells with your Pact Magic. These slots recharge on short rests, and it means your multiclassing doesn't mix slots like most spellcasting classes would. You can still use one kind of slot to cast the other kind of spells though. Speaking of spells, grab Eldritch Blast for some paint splashes, and Mage Hand for a pseudo-octopus that'll grab things for you. Cause Fear lets you paint a really creepy thing one target can see, forcing a wisdom save and scaring them if they fail. Arms of Hadar will give you a little bit of tentacles, as a treat. They'll force a strength save on creatures near you, dealing necrotic damage and making them too gooey to take reactions.

Warlock 2: Second level warlocks get Eldritch Invocations, mini-feats to help you cope with only having two spell slots. Grab Armor of Shadows for free Mage Armor on yourself at will. Your family is your armor, and I mean that literally. Stop wearing your dad, it's creepy. You also get a second one, but we're saving that for the next level. Don't not take one now though, I'm just saying it won't matter in the long run.

Bard 3: Now that your pact is sealed, we can get the real living paintings going. If you're thinking 'bout an inking feel free to shuffle levels around, I just want to hit Font of Inspiration quickly. As a Creation bard, Hokusai gets an Inkling of Potential, adding extra effects to her bardic inspiration. Ability checks let the user roll twice, attack rolls deal extra thunder damage, and saving throws add temporary HP to the user. She can also enact the Performance of Creation, creating a nonmagical item nearby. Currently it must cost less than 20 times your bard level, and it has to be medium or smaller. You can do this once per long rest, or by spending a 2nd level slot, but doing so destroys the first object if it still exists. Right now this only makes medium objects, but a 5' wave of water is nothing to sneeze at. You also get Expertise in two skills, doubling your proficiency them. Pick up Insight and Performance for the ultimate style-copying skills. Finally, you get second level spells. We can't focus too much on non-charisma abilities, but this'll give you a leg up on seeing the true nature of things. It gives you advantage on any one kind of ability check for up to a minute.

Bard 4: Use your first Ability Score Improvement to bump up your Charisma. Now you have more inspiration, better spells, and a bigger brush. Charisma's good, you'll like charisma. You can also paint Dancing Lights and a Phantasmal Force now. The former lights up an area, the latter creates a phantasmal creature or object that only one creature can see for up to a minute. It can break the illusion with an Investigation check, but until then it treats the thing as completely real, rationalizing away inconsistencies. It also can take a bit of psychic damage if the illusion would cause harm within 5' of itself.

Bard 5: Fifth level bards become a Font of Inspiration like we talked about earlier, giving you inspiration recharges on short rests instead of long ones. Your inspiration also jumps to d8s. Finally, grab Major Image for more major illusions than minor image. It creates an object up to 20' on each side, and includes effects like sound, smell, and temperature, as long as they wouldn't deal damage. You can also move the illusion using your action. Same rules apply to breaking it though- investigation check or just touching it.

Warlock 3: Finally back in warlock, you get your pact boon, and the Pact of the Chain gives you Find Familiar as a ritual, and you can skip your own attack to attack with your familiar. Wildly enough, Octopus is already a rules as written option for Find Familiar. Awkward point; octopi can only be out of water for 30 minutes. Good luck with that! On top of that, Mirror Image lets you paint duplicates of yourself, making it harder to hit you. Boom, evade skill achieved. You get three extra copies, and every time you get hit, there's only a 25% chance of actually hitting the real one. If an illusion gets hit, it's destroyed, so the odds go up to 33%, then 50%. You also put in the Investment of the Chain Master, giving your dad a flying speed, the ability to attack as a bonus action, magical weapons, your DC for saves, and you can react to give the little bugger resistance to one instance of damage. Literally everyone else's dad is dead already, try not to add one more to the pile. Except for Romani's, but that's sad in its own way.

Warlock 4: Another ASI, max out your Charisma. It's good, you use it for literally everything. For spells, Mind Sliver deals psychic damage an makes the target's next save a bit harder to make. You also get a Crown of Madness, which gives you control over a creature's attack action. Just because you're less spooky than Abby doesn't mean you're not spooky.

Warlock 5: Fifth level warlocks get a new invocation and third level spell. Summon Shadowspawn lets you paint one of three kinds of shadowspawn, creepy little things that can scare people by screaming at them. They'll obey your commands, and it'll last up to an hour, until they hit 0 HP, or you drop concentration. Your last invocation is the Gift of the Depths, letting you breathe underwater and swim as fast as you can walk. Now it's slightly less awkward to carry your dad around, yay. You can also cast Water Breathing for free once per long rest.

Bard 6: Finally back in bard now, sixth level creation bards can put on an Animating Performance, turning a large or smaller item into a Dancing Item with its own stats and everything. You have to use your bonus action to command it in battle, but you can inspire people at the same time. I'm not sure how well animating water would work, but it's something to look into. You also learn how to Countercharm, spending your action to give creatures near you advantage on saves against being charmed or frightened. For something better, grab Intellect Fortress. For up to an hour, you'll resist psychic damage, and you get advantage on all Int, Wis, and Chr saves.

Bard 7: Seventh level bards get fourth level spells, like Hallucinatory Terrain! Now you can paint a landscape- literally! It's only 150' in range, but that's still plenty of space to mess with people. It doesn't really change anything, but forcing people to look at non-euclidean geometry is its own reward.

Bard 8: Another ASI. Bump up your Dex now so you're less likely to get hit, then grab Phantasmal Killer to paint a scary creature that will follow the target around and beat them up. It's a shame only one creature gets to see it.

Bard 9: Ninth level bards get a better song of rest, but more importantly you get fifth level spells. Legend Lore will help you see the true meaning of things more easily, and the more you already know about something the more you'll learn. That's why your Arcana and Nature skills are so high. Oh, wait, sorry, one sec...

Bard 10: And that's why your Arcana and Nature skills are so high... starting now, with another round of Expertise. Your inspiration also jumps to d10s, and you learn Magical Secrets, two spells from any spell list you can cast. On top of that, you get Prestidigitation to paint up small objects. For your secrets, Conjure Animals lets you paint up some real animals that'll attack enemies for you. Alternatively, you can Control Water to make those waves we've been trying to do with way less fuss than a Song of Creation or Animating Performance. It does come with the limit of using existing water, though you can also Part Water, cause a Whirlpool, or Redirect Flow with this one.

Bard 11: Eleventh level bards get a sixth level spell, and True Seeing will help you see All Things in Nature, letting you see through illusions, invisibility and the like.

Bard 12: One last ASI; bump up your Constitution for better concentration and more HP.

Bard 13: Your Song of Rest is a d10 now, and you get a seventh level spell. Prismatic Spray is the return of Color Spray, but it's taken steroids. Now it deals plenty of damage of a random type to each creature in its area, or it has a chance to shove them into another dimension or petrify them.

Bard 14: Your last goody from the college of creation is a Creative Crescendo, allowing you to paint up to your Charisma Modifier in items when you use a Performance of Creation. Only one can be a biggun, the rest have to be small or tiny. Also, your max size is Huge now, and a 15' cube of water will make a pretty big splash. You also get another round of Magical Secrets, grabbing you Conjure Elemental for a more symbolic approach to flooding people, and Wrath of Nature to paint a landscape that'll really fuck with someone. The grass turns land into difficult terrain, the trees will slash at enemies nearby, Roots and vines restrain enemies, and Rocks will throw themselves at enemies, knocking them prone on a failed strength save. It's not mind melting geometries, but it's still mess with people's heads.

Bard 15: Your ultimate level gives you a d12 inspiration die. You also get one last spell, of the eighth level. Feeblemind will handle all the mind melting the last level failed to live up to, forcing an intelligence save and dealing damage regardless. On a failed save, the creature's Intelligence and Charisma drop to 1, and it can't cast spells, use magic items, talk, or understand people. The only ways to fix this are with another Intelligence saving throw (every 30 days) or using Greater Restoration, Heal, or Wish.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

Like the regular Hokusai, this build has a great deal of flexibility, with pretty good AC, HP, and physical attack options to get up close and personal, as well as ways to buff allies and attack with spells at a distance.

Speaking of spells, they give you a lot of crowd control options. You can create extra allies with summoning spells and Animating Performance, blow them away with waves from Control Water or Performance of Creation, or keep them tied up with various illusions.

You're also really good at fighting other spellcasters. Spells like Protection from Evil and Good and Intellect Fortress will shore up most of your saves against fancier spells, and you can use Feeblemind to completely shut down anyone who isn't a wizard or artificer.

So piss off your patron and kick the ass of their flunkies, easy! Wait, there's still cons.

Cons:

Okay, so there are some problems with throwing waves all over the place: they're hard to control where exactly they end up. Also, your best wave requires real water, which won't always be available.

On a similar note, you specialize in summons and illusions, both of which tend to require Concentration saves. Yours aren't that great, and on top of that it means you can only have one up at a time. Unless you're cool with an elemental running around willy nilly, but that fits into Con #1.

Your Familiar can only stay on dry land for 30 minutes at a time. If you're going to play this in a landlocked campaign, switch the octopus and last invocation for something else, it'll be a pain otherwise.

Okay, she isn't perfect, just make sure you carry an aquarium with you, problem solved, right?

[rainbow-dunk]

*teleports behind u* language

full build and rambling under the cut!

BadBoyHalo

6 shadow monk/2 rogue

Asmodeus tiefling (feral)

Urban bounty hunter

stats:

Str - 10

Dex - 18

Con - 12

Wis - 16

Int - 10

Cha - 14

miscellaneous:

saves: strength, dexterity

proficiencies: insight, stealth (exp), perception, athletics, sleight of hand (exp)

tool proficiencies: thieves' tools

languages: common, infernal, thieves' cant

armour: light, unarmoured defense

weapons: simple, shortswords

feats:

AC: 17 (unarmoured defense)

spells:

cantrips: minor illusion, thaumaturgy

2nd level: hellish rebuke, darkness (both 1/lr)

god this one was difficult. bbh you enigma of a person. for pretty much everyone else, i had at least an idea going in of which class i wanted them to be, but with bbh? i had no clue! i kind of wanted to go along the heavily armoured/paladin route, mostly because it works with his vibe, but at the same time i wanted to go down the dex-based route with his knife-throwing and skin design. it was so hard! i ended up just going through the entirety of the class section on dnd5e wikidot just noting down all the classes/subclasses that could work for him. i ended up with shadow monk, rogue, gloomstalker ranger, and twilight cleric. i discarded the paladin route pretty quickly. i found it really hard to decide, and that shows in the original build of 5 gloomstalker ranger/2 rogue/1 twilight cleric. however, when i started reviewing the builds for designs, i decided that a) it was too messy and spread out and b) we already had a gloomstalker ranger in dream. so i rebuilt it, this time focusing entirely on the dexterity side, and ended up with this build! i put a lot into the shadow monk to put emphasis on the darkness thing, and also to give him shadow teleportation, because if i can't give him steps of night from twilight cleric then i can absolutely give him teleporting. the rogue levels are mostly just to fill in and make his attacks more effective.

it was pretty much certain from the start that he was going to be a tiefling. tiefling is actually the only race out of the ones i used for my builds that has more than one - we have three! but they're all different subraces. i don't think you can technically combine a subrace and feral, but i did it anyway because i do what i want. it just works! i gave him urban bounty hunter mostly because of the manhunts, i'll be honest, but it also just works really well.

this design was hard. it was difficult to pick a focus, and i did variations aimed more at casually worn formalwear, but through troubleshooting with my brother i went with a design that just went all in on the "scary ninja" feeling. i didn't add holes in the hood because the horns being under it gives it a shape reminiscient of kuroko, which is (i think) where the image of a ninja in all-black came from! i did a variation where he had a cloth face covering to really hammer home the kuroko likeness, but ended up leaving it out. realistically, he would be in all black, but the red accents are just there to make it look good. maybe the cloth is enchanted and can change to black? who knows! red is the colour that first vanishes in low light, so it could work. i debated whether to give him shoes, but ended up giving him cat-like feet, both to emphasize the feral variant and the stealthiness! the... hand wraps? gloves? whatever they are, like the red accents, they're more for just cool design purposes than anything else, but they can function as hand wraps! probably! honestly, this is by far the most unrealistic design i've made in this series - it's almost too over the top. but honestly i think it works! especially if bbh is known as a feared assassin or something, like a sort of urban legend, and you finally see him and he's this intimidating figure of black and red with white glowing eyes and then he cheerfully says hello and tells his party members off for swearing. incredible.

[jeannedarkterraguard]

Exandria Unlimited episode 1 thoughts:

-it's wierd not having sam doing some crazy shit for the ad

-holy fuck! That intro is impressive

-starting out with inspiration? Wow!

-halfling fighter for liam? Interesting choice...

-Lisa just informed me that the air ashari have something to do with campaign 1 but refuses to tell me what exactly...

-dorian storm... blue skinned bard... i'm guessing air-genasi (mostly because of the name "storm") maybe water-genasi or triton?

-druid for ashley? Not what i was expecting. Also are they using faun just as another name for satyr or did they use a homebrew race?

-so fearne is clearly circle of wildfire right? With the fire spirit/monkey and her "not gentle" magic... i won't speculate on subclasses for characters that haven't chosen one yet but as a druid she already has one at level 2 soooo...

-i'm already in love with fearne...

-dariax and dorian... i can already tell that i'm going to confuse those two names a lot

-he's sleeping on a roof? Must have been a wild night

-a dwarf sorcerer? Cool, i love sorcerers. Probably the only full caster class (besides cleric but that's different) i ever considered playing as. No idea what his subclass could be though...

-"i'm gonna wash myself and my spear" -mathew mercer 2021

-and a warlock... that's a pretty caster-heavy party.

-okay but what race is opal? Human? (Half-) Elf? Aasimar? Maybe even kalashtar? Everything's possible and i'm exited to find out.

-do not try to outdrink the dwarf... yep my character sirene learned that the hard way too

-so opal peed on his spear... Mystery solved everyone! time to end the episode...

-okay now i'm in love with opal too. Screaming for food instead of just looking is... honestly relatable.

-and now she's screaming for her grandma. This is great

-not even an hour in and we're having a literal pissing contest... i'm already sad there's only gonna be 8 episodes because i know i'm gonna need more

-bacon lips? Bacon Lips?!? BACON LIPS?!?!? please tell me that's not a real thing

-matt just listing of city-names... in the world that he literally created 😆 he could just make them up on the spot and say they exist

-they're all just missing a week? Wow!

-time is a weird soup. I feel like essek would agree.

-"Ooh!" Let's file that under: 'things you don't want to hear from your DM after you make a saving throw'

-i know he said it's just decoration but wouldn't it be funny if that thing actually was a working compass and dariax just continually wanders north?

-holy shit! Dariax has just NO impulse control. I think matt is enjoying this

-the way ashley said 'insight check'. Fearne is just the cutest

-yep, just a gardener...

-oh my god! Now opal is screaming for the city guards.

-and now she's asking if they actually want the city guard to come... kinda late for that

-thordaks attack... this is now the third time that Lisa literally jumped up from the couch with joy and i have no idea why. I feel like i should watch campaign 1...

-one and a half hours in and the party decided to become criminals... i'm more and more convinced this is just a normal d&d campaign but as a speed-run

-wow, it kinda took me a second to realise that they're actually all siting at a table together in the uk'otoa bit

-orym is babysitting? Yeah that seems accurate

-common and elvish. So that rules out kalashtar and aasimar...

-yeah if you don't want people to bother you just carry around stuff and act like it's important to carry that stuff

-aand dariax has shit on his face... again.

-what the hell was that accent, fearne?

-he's got Bless? Divine soul sorcerer?

-wait do the players not know each others class? That sounds... potentially dangerous but admittedly also very fun

-"why are we all idiots?"🤣

-darkvision, blindsight and tremorsense?!? What the hell?!?

-well, good news is: they found the Crew...

-Yeah dariax. Put this obviously evil crown on. What's the worst that could happen?

-have you ever had such a bad day that when someone wiped blood on your shoulder your only thought was: 'Well at least it's not shit'?

-"Not infernal but you recognize the lettering" so i assume it's abyssal

-or just comic sans that's even more obviously evil

-500 PLATINUM!!!!!

-oh great now dorian is vomiting ichor

-chaotic good: vomit. Neutral good: nearly vomit. Chaotic neutral: nothing. So this thing doesn't like good alligned characters

-time is a sandwich now? I thought it was a weird soup

-ankheg? At level 2? Wow aabria wasn't lying when she said she wasn't afraid to kill them.

-"It's in a cage" Yeah sure but it can still spit acid and honestly i'm surprised it hasn't already

-no darkvision so yeah opal is a human

-illusory script... sharpie... Really what's the difference?

-"Let's make ourselves a little more suspicious" wow this episode is just full of great quotes

-initiative!!!

-first blood! Opal just atomized that dude

-wait so dariax has the crown in a papoose... i feel like i've seen something like that before on a different d&d show...

-okay opal is a hexblade warlock

-holy shit opal! That was brutal

-and matt gets the hdywtdt!

-opal how could you lie to your friends like that?!?

-could someone please heal dariax?!? That man is clearly suffering

-wait are they now stealing from poska?

-obliterating 4 dudes in less than a minute and then they take like half an hour to get through a door

-40 pounds of residuum? So that's another 20000 gold. Just to check: is the goal of this to accumulate so much money that it will colapse the economy, rendering all currency worthless?

-now i kinda want them to just randomly find a Baby somewhere

-we get post-credit scenes?

final thoughts: i really liked this episode and already can’t wait for the next. my favourite character so far are (perhaps unsurprisingly) fearne and opal. and while i don’t like dorian and orym as much that’s mostly because i’m just not a big fan of bards and fighters but i’m sure they will grow on me. Aabria’s DMing style (while substantially different from matts) is really fun and honestly it was barely noticable that Aimee and robbie were new to the game. Seeing Matt as a player was just great.

[varianthumanwizard]

Critical Role Campaign 3 Character Predictions

I have no way of predicting what happens in these peoples heads, but this is just what I would love to see them try playing:

Laura Bailey- I think that Laura deserves to get to play the Rogue she's always dreamed of, but she's also the type of person who loves some spells, so either a race with some innate spellcasting like an Aasimar or Genasi or a subclass that gives her funky options, like a Soul Knife or an Arcane Trickster

Travis Willingham- Travis is often the secret mastermind behind the teams plans, so it could be fun seeing him play up his intelligence a bit more. I think playing an Artificer or a Bloodhunter would let him scratch that melee itch, while bumping up his Int. Race wise, I just wanna see Travis play something small, so maybe a nice Halfling or a Gnome

Liam O'Brien- I do not care what this man plays so long as it is happy! But in all seriousness, I would love to see Liam play a Charisma heavy character, specifically a Sorcerer or even a Bard, maybe as a Tiefling as a spirtual twin to a wonderful little Trickster cleric.

Sam Riegel- Cleric. Cleric Cleric Cleric Cleric. Not only would it be amazing to see Sam play a high Wisdom character after playing two pretty low wis characters. Additionally, Sam kills with spells and has never really played a divine character so I think that would be neat. In the opposite of Travis, I want Sam to play something big, so maybe a Firbolg, Goliath, or even Minotaur

Marisha Ray- I've been seeing a lot of people throwing around Paladin, and I can see it! Gets melee, a bit of healing, and a lot of damage, as well as being able to do things that no one should be capable of (How do you have a +4 to all saves? Dope Paladin Shit!) To compliment paladin maybe bring in something with inate spellcasting and charisma, so maybe a Triton, Tiefling, or even a Drow!

Ashley Johnson- Yasha has had heart eyes for Beau since day one, but Ashley's been eyeing that Monk class for just as long. I think Ashley really enjoys playing a martial character, but with a monk she'd get to flex those muscles while creating all kinds of shenanigans, especially if she picks Mercy Monk to compliment the melee with osme sick healing. Personally I'd like to see her play a Warforged, kind of the opposite of an Aasimar as it's created completely from mortal invention rather than the power of a god.

Taliesin Jaffe- The man, the myth, the legend, what can't he do! Honestly I've adored every kind of character Taliesin has come up with, but I'd love to see him play another full caster, maybe focusing on more of a blaster role as a Wizard. I think it's be neat for Talesin to play a smaller race like a Dwarf, but a Halfling or Goblin could be just as fun.

Suprise Bonus Character under the cut!

Mica Burton- Okay we have no official rumor that Mica might be joining campaign 3, but I heard someone mention it and I can't get it out of my head. I personally loved her as Reani and I think that if they wanted to expand the table she'd be a great addition. I think she's great in melee but she also appreciates some creativity and magic to throw in, so maybe a Gloomstalker Ranger or a maybe a Wild Magic Barbarian. A Pallid Elf would also be really cool to see if it continues in Exandria, and I'd love to learn more about them from Matt!