#i now have stat blocks from npcs

[centaurianthropology]

'EXU: Divergence' is the Series I Didn't Know I Needed Right Now

I’ve now watched ‘Exandria Unlimited: Divergence’ fully through twice, plus the cooldown multiple times, and from the beginning to the end of the first episode it hit me like a sledgehammer. It's probably the most brutal EXU to date, and it is also somehow the most uplifting.

It's such a departure from the other Calamity-era EXU series in the best possible way, and I wish we could have an entire longform campaign with this cast in this time and place.

Spoilers for episode 1 of EXU: Divergence below the cut.

‘Calamity’ was a tragedy in the most classic sense: powerful people at the height of their strength who damn the world in their hubris. ‘Downfall’ was also a tragedy in a different way, a family of gods coming together briefly to save themselves, but at what cost?

But ‘Divergence’ is a story about ordinary people. As the gods play their family games, and the powerful vie for even more power than they could ever use, and hoard wealth and resources beyond what they would ever need, these are just five people trying to get enough food and water and rest. Trying to survive in a world that acts first as an oppressive prison and then in indifferent chaos as the gods fight above them.

They're not even Level 1 adventurers. These are level 0 nobodies. NPC stat blocks. They don’t have classes; they have jobs. And in each of these people, we see the true heart of what good people can do in desperate and damning times.

I want to talk about all these characters, because I love them so much. I love the story they and their rolls are telling.

Nia isn’t a cleric with magical healing; she’s a nurse with some herbs and bandages and a little knowledge. Hell, in a world where misery is endlessly and pointlessly perpetuated by the games of the powerful, she’s not even a healer. She’s a repairer of bodies. She keeps feeding them back as grist in the mill, because what else can she do?

She can hope. She can believe that change is coming. But more than believing in it, she can act toward it. She can enact tiny acts of rebellion and kindness. Because maybe she is just repairing bodies, but she will desperately overreach and overplay her hand to try to buy them a little more time, a little more comfort, a little more light in the darkness.

She's young and naive, but her hope is still chosen at every terrible moment. Even when she falls into exhaustion, having prayed over her sister's locket and received nothing in return, Nia still chooses to act. She chooses to get up and, if water isn't coming to her, to go looking for it instead. She is doing better than the others, even if she's not doing well. And so she goes. She looks. She sees a friend die, wishing with his dying breath to see the rain.

And it rains. Not, to her mind, because a god walks across the world before her. Even if she sees the god, she's not looking there. She knows that Starmian made the rain. She sees the acts of people good and bad. She sees the power in hope.

Garen isn’t a fighter or a druid; he’s a stonemason with one arm and a hammer. And he’s a man who has spent so long under the boot of oppression, so long being ground down into nothing that he’s learned never to hope except when exhaustion takes him so fully that he forgets not to hope. That's when he can still see the faces of his family, instead of the prison he's lived in for so long he built most of it.

He is a character we meet in complete despair, but he's also the first to move past it. As soon as the opportunity for action arises, as soon as there are people in need, Garen takes his old and tired body and makes it work for people he’s never met, simply because an injustice is being done to them. Because he’s been waiting for longer than he can remember to stand back up after being beaten down. When he brings his hammer down on a guard’s head, when he breaks through a wall to save a bunch of dragonborn he’s never met, when he insists that they will not leave children to die. This is a man remembering what it is to stand up.

He wants to save everyone, well beyond what he's currently capable of, because once hope is rekindled he clings to it. He believes firmly that if people who can help others don’t do so, then what is the point?

Fiedra isn’t a rogue; she’s a gang leader with the ability to talk her way out of trouble. She also isn’t nearly the altruist that Garen and Nia are. She acts out of self-interest because that was how she’s survived as long as she has. She has a roach tattooed on her arm. She is a survivor, someone who can worm her way into a position of slight privilege even in the worst prison imaginable. And when she’s starting to feel the effects of exhaustion from their march north, she sneaks a meal from their dwindling food stocks that no one else gets. Because that is what a survivor does, even if it hurts others.

But she's also not so simple. She only eats the cheese after she checks to make sure her friend isn’t becoming exhausted as well. Because as much as she knows how dangerous it is, Fiedra cares. She shows it again and again in her interactions with Crokas, how she drops everything including her position of privilege and relative comfort in the prison to try to break him free.

Crokas is her family; her gang was her community, and she cared for them fiercely. And now all she has is Crokas (because the dice tell an amazing story, and those terrible rolls were incredible for her character development). So she looks after him. She jumps to his defense when it’s revealed that his breath weapon doesn’t work. She talks him up, tells everyone how great he is, explains things to him when he doesn't understand.

She’s not to the point where she’s capable of expanding that compassion out beyond the two of them (“The best I can do, kid” was a hell of a line). But she’s making steps in that direction. She survived a hellish march with these people. When she and Crokas found Starmian’s body she was the one who immediately asked where Nia and Erro were. Sometimes, when the shit hits the fan, all you can do is care for yourself and those you love. Learning to care for more than that tiny sphere is part of part of reclaiming the best of one’s personhood in the worst of times, and part of finally building a future instead of just surviving now.

Crokas isn’t a barbarian; he’s a massive bodyguard in way over his head. He has no idea what’s going on most of the time. He has an intelligence stat of 6, and he’s stuck in a world that keeps upending itself on him. Maybe he understood how life worked in a city with his gang and with Fiedra guiding him. Even in Rybad Kol, the worst prison imaginable, a man as massive and imposing as Crokas probably did all right, especially with Fiedra talking the Roaches’ way into running the Slop.

And then every dragonborn in the prison was taken to be carted off to die for a goddess he’d never heard of, purely because they were dragonborn. He can barely even understand that he’s part of a singled-out minority group, and certainly can't grasp the machinations of gods.

But he can see that, in the cart with him, there are children. And when they escape he might not understand how this happened. But he understands that this long march toward some hope for a future is currently killing them. They don't have food or water. Their feet are damaged for the rest of their lives by this endless walk north. It is SO BAD.

But he notices when those children start to become exhausted, so he walks like a monitor lizard with them riding on his back.

Because that's what strength is for.

Not to rule. Not to hurt. To lift up those who can’t stand, and carry them. Crokas may not understand what’s going on, but he understands what needs to be done, and what he can do. And the fact that he starts carrying those children, taking penalties against his constitution saving throws at the end of every bad day on the road, right after Fiedra ate that cheese in secret? The look on her face says it all.

Erro is not a ranger or a druid; he's a mapmaker who has survived for far too many years seeing far too many horrors. He is clearly almost as old as Garen, and is far more stubbornly jaded. Their lives have both been destroyed, but all of Erro’s travels, everything he’s done has ground him down to basic survival. He is practical, but still not cruel. Liam said in the cooldown that he’s been on a teeter-totter between simply surviving to live another day, and the thought he could even hope for a better world.

He’s not there yet. He’s more like Fiedra in his fatalism, even if he's not as openly cynical. And yet he still follows Nia when she goes out with Starmian to find water. He still looks after her, just like Fiedra looks after Crokas. And like Fiedra, he sees in Nia the hope he tries to smother in himself. Starmian dies, as Erro knew he would, because he’s seen dozens of Starmians.

But then the rains come. The gods give and take and take and take and give and take. The world is a cruel place, but he still watches a younger, more hopeful person fall to her knees with the rain in her hands as she cries in thanks.

I am immediately and completely enamored with these ordinary people living through extraordinary times. I can’t wait to see what becomes of them, how the world shapes them and breaks them and how they might lift one another and a community up out of the rubble.

I didn’t know how much I needed this right now. Because it’s SO BAD, but the very first word in the very first episode is hope. And more than hope, these people are embodying acting in tiny ways to build a better future. I know that myself and a lot of people have been watching the enshittification of the world around us and feel like ants under the feet of uncaring, cruel tyrants and gods. Like their games always lead to suffering, and they either don’t care or actively enjoy that part of it. And it's so easy to give in to despair, to become convinced that there is absolutely nothing that can be done.

But we are all level 0 ordinary people too. And we can still hope. We can still take acts of defiance and kindness, great and small. We can stand up again when we’re knocked down, even when it hurts. We can help those we love to live day to day, even while we can take what steps we can to build and lift up a larger community. We can live through hell, because even in that hell there will be moments of exquisite beauty and joy.

Because maybe all of us can find the rain.

[equalseleventhirds]

attempting to refine my scatted notes on this city loves you, this city will eat you alive so that maybe perhaps someday i'll be done

and when I say writing ttrpgs is like writing poetry to me. i mean i've been fighting with myself abt these goddamn character stats for like a year, and the phrasing still isn't quite right, but here we are.

also the stats are poetic and weird bcos of course they are. u have to interpret them lmao.

Stats You have seven character stats, which are divided into two categories: Municipal and Neighbor. Municipal stats are rolled whenever your PC is acting on the environment or NPCs–that is, when you are rolling against the Architect–and are defined by how you are acting on something. Neighbor stats are rolled whenever your PC is acting on another PC–whether to help or hinder them–and are defined by who you are acting on and why. Your Municipal stats are: Drive - Energy, properly targeted, can break through almost anything. Roll Drive to increase your velocity; to pierce sharply through problems; to pack a precise punch. Grit - To survive is to suffer, and to continue on anyway. Roll Grit to keep a cool head in a difficult situation; to take a hit and stay standing; to assert stubborn will over others. Grace - There is an art to balance; there is a strategy in style. Roll Grace to nudge opinions into place; to maneuver a tricky position; to present and perform loveliness. Twist - The City is not mundane, and now, neither are you. Roll Twist to attempt the impossible; to alter reality; to attune yourself to the voice of the City. When you create your PC, assign one Municipal stat a D4, two a D6, and one a D8.  Your Neighbor stats are: Salvage - You wish to help this person escape from the harm the City does. Roll this when you try to protect another PC or do things for their own good—whether they want you to or not. Corrode - You covet this person’s share of the City’s love. Roll this when you enact malice and harm on another PC or try to weaken their position in the City. Bond - You can’t bear to lose the few who understand the life you live. Roll this when you try to tie another PC to yourself or to the City. When you create your PC, create a Neighbor stat block for each of your fellow PCs; in each stat block, assign a D4, D6, and D8 to each stat according to how your PC currently feels about each of the others. At the end of each session, name the PC with whom you’ve had the most emotional interaction; swap the dice sizes for two of your Neighbor stats with that PC. If there is no PC with whom you’ve had an emotional interaction, pick one at random. This does mean frequent changes, and this is intentional; your relationships with each other, like the City itself, are fluid, ever-changing, and complicated.

.............also when u roll municipal the gm (architect) describes what happens, whereas when u roll neighbor, u and the other player describe what happens. bcos i think it's funny and also the gm should get a break sometimes i think.

[icarusandstars]

i am playing crooked moon come august

i am playing Crooked Moon when I get back to school in august. have i ever seen EoM? no. do i watch Legends of Avantris outside of their animated shorts on youtube? also no. that said, and i am still gonna pitch my concept character for this horror setting. my DM is pushing for serious characters with strong themes, and rightfully so. the themes i want to include are fear/cowardice, redemption, and what it means to be powerful. that said: I AM PLAYING AN EVIL FUCKING WIZARD they're gonna be an evil wizard. like. irredeemably evil. incredibly evil, even. basically, they were this all powerful illusions wizard during their life span. they sought power via manipulation and illusions and twisting people's fears into a self-brought demise. and then they died at the hand of their own apprentice and ended up in the crooked moon setting. at level one. as a punk ass weak lil bitch of a wizard. from a roleplay stand point, i want to play my wizard as someone who just realized that, what they thought true power was, is actually far from it. during their life, they were charming, cunning, and above all else cut throat. and now they must actively choose goodness in order to get by. they are very much the "how dare you infect me with morals" type, but as the story progresses i can hope that they'll change to a more natural type of goodness. or maybe not, who knows. also, my DM also says that my character can have a tressym npc from their backstory. the tressym will be a rat bastard and so so SO mean to my character, and it will be oh so lovely. she'll be a tortoise shell cat and a little gremlin. to quote my dm "I am the greatest wizard alive!" "you are a moron in a robe. yesterday I watched you get harassed by a pigeon." another funny bit i hope to work into my character is that they are in their late fifties. they are old, and that is therefore funny. from a stat block point of view, i'd likely be looking at a changeling illusions wizard. their second highest stat is probably going to be charisma. i usually make strength my dump stat, but i might toy around with it being wisdom because i find it humorous. in battle, they'd specialize in "i cast fuck you" debuff spells and utility spells. i am going heavy handed on the squishy-wizard-is-a-coward-and-can't-fight trope

[thecreaturecodex]

Ranna

"Slaadi" © Wizards of the Coast, by Sam Wood

[New Year, New Monsters! I am feeling much less burnt out than I was for the back half of 2023, and have built up a small backlog of new writing. I'm going to keep monsters I post to 2/week for now, to give myself time to go through said backlog in case the burnout rears up again when I'm back to work.

So for my first trick, is a monster NPC I actually wrote back in like September, but didn't post. Consider her an epilogue to the whole "Monster Girl Summer" thing. Ranna is @strawberry-crocodile's character, and fits with some of my other monstrous NPCs. She's Doctor Shiny's main minion, and their relationship serves as sort of a nasty counterpart to Gigi and Priscilla's. Of course, if you just want to use the stat block as a particularly burly slaad enforcer type, that works just as well as Ranna's baroque and macabre backstory.]

Ranna CR 18 CE Aberration This blue, frog-like humanoid has a triangular fanged snout, warty skin and enormous claws growing from the backs of their hands. A red gemstone is embedded in their skull, right between the eyes.

Marina Rhynne was an alchemy student at Endirion School in Absalom, prone to anxiety and to thinking with her stomach. She caught the eye of Doctor Agatha Shiny, who used the pretext of a dinner invitation and offer of a graduate program to abduct her and implant her with an alchemically treated red slaad egg. Doctor Shiny succeeded in one of her goals, which was to cause memories to be passed from the host to the parasite, but failed in that the resultant blue slaad did not maintain the intelligence of her progenitor. The resultant slaad, named Ranna, could recall her previous life in a hazy, dream-like way, but the predominant personality trait that was carried over was hunger.

Ranna is now Doctor Shiny’s Number One Minion, her assassin, procurer and lover. If Doctor Shiny needs someone eliminated or an unusual creature captured and brought to her, Ranna is the one to do it. She usually tracks her targets as an unassuming humanoid until she can set up an ambush and remove her greater hat of disguise. Ranna fights with her natural weapons almost exclusively, although she does occasionally toy with targets by battering them with heavy objects hurled by telekinesis. Although she is lapdog-loyal to Doctor Shiny and always follows her instructions for her specified victims, Ranna enjoys collateral damage, which usually involves biting bystanders. She views any red slaadi that are created through chaos phagethe way a proud parent views their children, and is happy to hear of any death and destruction they create.

Ranna’s personality is playful in a cruel way. She sees her progenitor, Marina Rhinne, as a pathetic figure, and has an air of contempt towards academic pursuits in general. She still appears as Rhynne when abroad in Absalom, and is the terror of Endirion School’s faculty, staff and students as Doctor Shiny’s personal assistant. Ranna is happy to play the bad guy so that Doctor Shiny can maintain her impeccable public reputation, and takes matters into her own claws if anyone gets too close to the truth about Doctor Shiny’s goals and activities. Ranna tends to dispose of the evidence of her murders by eating the corpses of her victims. She is also an excellent chef. Doctor Shiny does not eat food that Ranna prepares unless she is very sure of where the meat came from.

Ranna  CR 18 XP 153,600 Blue slaad slayer 9 (cutthroat) CE Large aberration (chaotic, slaadi) Init +8; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +19

Defense AC 33, touch 20, flat-footed 24 (-1 size, +8 Dex, +1 dodge, +9 natural, +4 armor, +2 deflection) hp 303 (11d8+9d10+200); fast healing 6 Fort +22, Ref +20, Will +15 Immune mind reading, sonic; Resist acid 10, cold 10, electricity 10, fire 10; SR 19

Offense Speed 30 ft. Melee +3 bite +32 (2d6+16 plus disease), 2 +3 claws +32 (2d6+16/19-20x3) Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft. Special Attacks augmented critical, opportune target, rend (2 claws, 2d6+22), sneak attack +3d6, stab and grab, studied target (swift or move action, +2) Spell-like Abilities CL 8th, concentration +11 3/day—hold person (DC 15), passwall, telekinesis (DC 18) 1/day—chaos hammer (DC 17)

Statistics Str 36, Dex 26, Con 30, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 16 Base Atk +17; CMB +31 (+33 bull rush); CMD 52 Feats Alertness,Awesome Blow, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Critical (claw), Improved Natural Attack (bite), Intimidating Prowess, Killing Flourish, Power Attack Skills Acrobatics +20 (+24 in urban environments), Bluff +16, Climb +20, Disable Device +25, Disguise +16, Intimidate +34, Linguistics +4, Perception +19 (+23 vs. traps), Profession (chef) +14, Sense Motive +19, Stealth +21, Survival +15 Languages Common, Slaadi SQ legendary, slayer talents (surprise attack, trapfinding [trap sense +3], stalker, street stalker (Acrobatics) Gear manual of gainful exercise +4 (expended), manual of quickness of action +2 (expended), manual of bodily health +4 (expended), belt of physical perfection +4, bloodstained gloves, greater hat of disguise, soulbound eye, amulet of mighty fists +3, bracers of armor +4, boots of teleportation, cloak of resistance +3, ring of mind shielding, ring of protection +2, potion of fly (x2), potion of displacement, potion of haste, potion of lesser restoration (x2), potion of cure light wounds (x4), masterwork cooking tools, 150 gp

Special Abilities Augmented Critical (Ex) A blue slaad’s claws deal x3 damage on a successful critical hit. Disease (Su) Chaos phage; bite—injury; save Fort DC 25; onset 1 minute; frequency 1/day; effect 1d6 Con damage and 1d6 Cha damage; cure 2 consecutive saves. A creature that is reduced to 0 Con or Cha by chaos phage is immediately transformed into a red slaad. This transformation can only be reversed by a miracle or wish. A Small or Medium humanoid with levels in an arcane spellcasting class instead transforms into a green slaad. The save DC is Constitution based. Legendary (Ex) Ranna’s statistics are built with 25 point buy, and she has the equipment of an 18th level PC. These advantages increase her CR by +1. Opportune Target (Ex) If Ranna can act in the surprise round, she can study a foe as a free action and select them as her studied target. Stab and Grab (Ex) As a swift action, Ranna can attempt a steal combat maneuver against a dead or unconscious foe, or against a studied target that she has successfully confirmed a critical hit against. A dead or unconscious opponent takes a -10 penalty against this maneuver. Street Stalker (Ex) Ranna adds ½ her slayer level to Acrobatics checks made in urban environments.

[thehomelybrewster]

Involved TTRPG Combat

I just wanted to give my own two cents on "involved" combat encounters in D&D and similar TTRPGs.

Generally give your players the expectations that combats are something to be solved rather than beaten. Communicate that with them clearly in order to create more fulfilling combat that isn't hitting things until no enemies are still alive.

Give combat encounters a goal. I'll list a few examples later, but generally you should think of what an encounter is meant to achieve for the players. Sometimes it's fine if it's just "an obstacle meant to be overcome", but this shouldn't be the only goal.

Consider tipping points, when it becomes clear that victory is certain for the player characters, but the combat could still continue. Create off-ramps for such encounters, where you can have a satisfying narrative way of ending it earlier. Fleeing minions after the leader has been killed is a classic.

Consider the environment. Cover, different types of elevation, and dynamic elements (vehicles, rotating gears, a rushing stream, etc) will make an encounter more engaging. This is more challenging to run theater-of-the-mind than with minitiatures/VTTs, but still doable.

Use different types of enemies in the same encounter. A simple way is to use both ranged and melee attackers, allowing your players with ranged options to pick off the enemies further away, while the melee-based heroes have their own enemies to deal with.

Have enemies with multiple phases. In 5e, enemies with the Mythic trait (mostly found in Mythic Odysseys of Theros and Fizban's Treasury of Dragons) are one example for this, as they gain more abilities the more damage they take. Alternatively consider creating monsters that consist of multiple stat blocks, where defeating certain parts of it changes what it can do and what your players can do to it. E.g. turn Mazaal from The Legend of Zelda - The Minish Cap, into a D&D monster.

I'm not good at making monster stat blocks, but imagine a construct with two hands (each with a distinct stat block) and a head that shoots beams from its eyes. The head has a Tethered trait that makes it invulnerable while the hands (that can grapple your heroes!) are still active. Once the hands are defeated the head starts jumping around like crazy, knocking over the heroes with shockwaves as it hits the ground. That sounds like a very engaging combat encounter to me!

Now when it comes to combat goals, here are a few suggestions:

Ensuring the safety of an escorted NPC or a valuable item that the party is transporting to a different loccation.

Keeping an enemy in a magic circle that allows it to be killed permanently, since it would otherwise just regenerate or be outright invulnerable.

Waiting for reinforcements as hordes of enemies attack the party, placing a timer on the encounter.

Preventing an enemy from reaching a specific spot on the map, such as an altar or a mechanism.

[danthediamondminecart]

Hello! Took a two month-ish break from asking questions. But I have some now!

Q1: In your AU, why do the hosts sort of sabotage us during season 2? I don't want you to explain it in a really long form essay since that would be sort of tedious, so instead, just make it short but understandable. It really depends on you.

Q2: How do developers and admins work in your rbb world?

Q3: If I recall correctly, you mentioned in BLSMP that there are sort of God-like figures in Robloxia. If so, what are these God-like figures?

Q4: Is Robloxia mostly comprised of humans or mostly non-human beings (such as animal hybrids, creatures, etc.)

Q5: You mentioned before that you have rbb character. If so, any headcannons regarding them?

Q6: How on earth do you find motivation (Istg I have been working on my reworked rbb au, but I just kept being lazy T-T)

Q7: Random headcannons please (any ammount)

That's all, and off for another 2 months wait for me !

Hello hello hello! I like how you told me to Shut The Fuck Up in the first question, that's funny thank you

Q1) ...Admittedly though, this isn't too deep. For one reason and one reason alone: Shits and giggles. Purely to mess with us. I like to think they didn't actually care whether we got it or not, they just tried to make getting the items harder for everyone to get so the reward felt more worth it and so they could have a little bit of fun being the villains. Backfired on them massively, but it was fun while it lasted.

Q2) So. Devs and Admins both have an understanding of the code that Robloxia runs on. Admins can alter playercode (as in, the stuff that makes up the actual people) but Devs can only alter worldcode (the stuff that makes the games).

Devs can take ownership of a world (basically their own private dimension) and shape it however they please to make their games and their lobbies. Admins can do this too, but they are also in charge of the 'home worlds' (where people live & worlds that just spawn in without dev creation), the 'hub world' (basically the home page but...real) and ensuring people don't break laws / aren't affected by glitches, hence why they're allowed to do the difficult risky job of altering playercode.

Q3) That line is a bit of a throwaway, there's no real 'lore' behind it. Think of your favourite game/world. Is there a god established in that game? That's one of them! ...Most gods are NPCs as a result. Player gods, like in the case of the hosts, are rare, but not impossible, there's probably some admins who are gods too.

Q4) When it comes to players, it's a 50-50 split between human and non-human. It's approximately 50% full humans, 20% hybrids/animals, 7.5% cryptids, 7.5% elementals, 15% others (robots, cyborgs, anything else not in those categories). Including NPCs means there's a lot less humans and a lot more robots. (those stats may change, i'm still roughing them out)

Q5) I'm guessing by this you mean original characters in the RBB-universe, right? If you mean my sona trio (YanDan, BN and Pyro), pls let me know I will happily talk about them.

As for OCs in the RBB-world, I would generally call them 'worldbuilding OCs.' Fanmade parents to give the characters backstories, fanmade scientists and people to fill out the world, the likes. I've got a few parent HCs for the finalists, but I suppose I should talk about the two I've actually designed, Lapis and Alan-

I would've made you guess whose parents they are, but...I literally wrote whose parents they are. Instead, I can make you guess who is the better parent! Lapis is the Shadow-demon equivalent of a military general (i am gonna be so fr atp the whole shadow demon species can be considered my own original species all of this lore was me) and Alan is a scientist at Wayfind Labverse.

Q6) My motivation is my posting schedule and my need to be ahead of my posting schedule. As I said, I'm usually...6-7 chapters ahead of where the fic is posted? That way, in case I go a long time writers blocked / unable to write, I still ahve things to post. Also, my motivation is to explore these characters - hence why I have so many AUs I work on intermittently, sometimes, I just need to explore them in different scenarios. Yknow how it is.

Q7) Ooh, I made an update to my host HCs recently! This is a threat.

DJ, what with his powers of agility, has energy constantly so that he can always be ready to move and never tire out. This means that, unless he is knocked out, he cannot sleep. He got used to this after a while, after all he can't experience the effects of sleep deprivation so there were no negative side effects except having 8 extra hours in his day.

Tanqr has a younger brother called Teal. He doesn't know about his brother though.

Leah is now officially a Cupid-aligned angel in my headcanons, I Guess. Thank you Dress to Impress for that. (This will not retroactively affect BLSMP btw, all species mentioned in that are important to the plot/the character in some way to leave room for the reader to imagine things for the others. I wrote Leah's story without her being an angel in mind, so there's no point in me adding it in now. But it will affect future canon/adjacent stuff I write with her moving forward.)

Russo uses his resonators to make the slot bots be his back-up singers. If he was in a musical, he'd do this if he had a solo.

(That's the art I posted on Twitter recently! Meant to post it separately, but might as well put it here.)

I'm afraid that's all I got off the top of my head right now, sorry :(

[wordarttmn]

Omori Observations 9

I hope i’ll have more time to play today. i’ll also be avoiding bullet lists because they’re harder to copy paste

So here’s something surprising i found out today:

Omori can be used with a touchscreen

Not with a mouse, but touchscreens are fine

Also, Hero’s defense stats are starting to be really high. The game mechanics are 100% used for storytelling and i will expand on that much later but yeah hero being a highly defensive character doesn’t surprise me.

I really like the omori tagged kel picture. Kel is comparing sizes, blatantly cheating (like most kids who compare sizes), and either omori has noticed what’s going on,

 or he’s like me and doesn’t even know what Kel is doing because he’s never seen a kid compare sizes and not cheat, so much that he’s unsure what comparing sizes is even supposed to be about.

Also Omori was a (relatively) tall kid.

Just passed level 10 which means i learnt so many new skills

Using them right now would feel like cheating ngl, and so does the fact that using the touchscreen allows you to skip so many steps in the navigation. You can just effortlessly go from point A to point B without having to figure out how for example

I am intrigued by the lots of cardboard boxes, also put a pin in that closet to the left

Pretty sure there are people living in these tunnels?

The cars… the hats…

Yeah all of these things are there for a reason

And here the disposal of stuff is clever.

I need to lead with Omori to cut those traffic cones,

Then switch to Aubrey to smash the block,

And then notice the D is now blurry.

And the D isn’t even an important letter. But it draws subtle attention to the fact that those letters aren’t just a minigame, they’re important to Omori specifically, and the others can’t see them.

Also it draws attention to the letter we didn’t see yet, possibly the most crucial letter in the hangman.

I like the bread-based descriptions

Time to introduce Hero’s other skill:

His hamster summoning skill

Most people do not figure out how to use it again, but it will turn out to be relevant again in the future. Basically hero’s deal is that he is already beloved by nearly other NPC for various reasons, and they’ll give him free stuff.

Everyone, this is EMILY the hamster, but I just call her Emergency Medical Services

Also Rosa was looking at us perplexed the whole time.

Enter Stardust Dusting. it’s Stardust Diving, but sped up.

Luckily for the rosa chase, i’ve found out how to cheat by using my pc’s touchscreen

Wtf she strong

Interestingly i cannot have a picnic with her right now

let’s go to the joke that makes the least sense to me in this entire game

What are we fighting? Is it a windows XP expy? Is it a virus? I guess it’s a virus

Is it just any download window? Why does it start at 99%?

I really think it’s a virus. The way it crashes and burns makes me think of something like goggle.com

The achievement is called alt+f4. now you’re just saying stuff.

This feels like average middle school computer library jokes the way it doesn’t make sense

Hero is the only one unsure of what just happened. Because he’s the most aware of the discontinuity of his experiences.

However I should have put more of a pin into the way that the breakup is talked about. Because that will be relevant.

Also good thing i backtracked because i just found some very useful items and skills that i wouldn’t have found otherwise

This is funny.

Also Otherworld is starting to feel too easy. Good thing i’m almost done with it.

Snaley died fo the first time.

Acting natural.

Aubrey and Kel are both touched by pluto’s speech. Hero does NOT get it.

Native english speakers, are these words rare? They are common in french but i’ve rarely seen them used in english

Kel’s piano version of GOLDENVENGEANCE plays.

Okay, real question: who is daisy?

I don’t have any good theories on that

I really like that with my new headphones i can actually hear the bass

Time to go to the frozen lake!

i’m sorry what

Snow Forest - A Single Flower Blooms is the snow area soundtrack. It definitely does sound like it means everything, but also includes the Trees… leitmotif

What is Hero talking to Aubrey about? Omori’s just laying back

Found

A crab

A boot

Nuclear waste

An orange

A vending machine

An octopus!

Kel restless legs

This might be relevant

I don’t know what either shaved ice or snow cones are. Are they, like, kinds of ice cream?

White Surf Style 6 is the upbeat battle theme version of the previous song, and it has a fun melody in the bridge.

So… the word colony has had many different senses over time. Marselha has been called a phocæan colony and a roman colony and an armenian colony and none of these are the same sense as the one in which Algeria was a french colony, which isn’t the same sense as Senegal was a french colony. Back when twitter was a good place for that i’ve had scholarly discussions with linguists about that, discussions that are now referenced in their published books which is one of the reasons why you can find me on google scholar lol.

But anyways. None of these senses are used here.

Sprout moles have colonies the way ants do. they’re insectoids in the way their society is organized, and i will elaborate on that.

I love how Hero is adapting his way to speak to the crow. How does he know which crow speaks in which register? Crow powers.

This forest is so tedious to navigate that i’m overusing the touchscreen. After all i’ve been playing for nearly two hours and need to cook myself dinner.

Okay but the bassline in Lost, then Found does something very curious and interesting near the beginning

But right now i’m going back to the vast forest for important stuff.

Even Hero’s and Aubrey’s have started dying.

that’s weird. How would he know already?

So, last time i drew attention to the fact the flower pot was hanging from outside the frame. But not to where it was hanging which is right above where basil’s head would be when sleeping

Not a good idea. But probably an idea…

I think i’ll save there though and continue tomorrow.

Tomorrow i’ll go finish a few sidequests then go fight Space Boyfriend.

[phightingaus]

Hello chat, more Swap(NPCs with Phighters) AU shenanigans. Iono how I'd call this one actually but let's uhh see

Now, we need to figure out which phighter takes place of which NPC.

For settings, I think Subspace or Biograft would fit pretty well.

Stats NPC, prolly like.. Banhammer or something since he's the warden and knows a lot about a lot of people i guess

Title NPC I'd give to Scythe, she also knows lots of stuff about people via The Church but a different kind of knowledge, what people are notorious for(like, ___ the guy who tried to kickflip a scooter and fell on his face

Round NPC, I actually don't know who'd replace Zuka. Whoever drives the best, maybe Medkit or Hyperlaser(???). Big question mark on this one tho, I actually don't know who it'll be. Zuka is irreplaceable.

Now, Ranged phighter movesets

Zuka- probably similar to Rocket gameplay but requires a little more skill. His projectiles are even slower than Rocket's but do more damage. I'd also give him a nuke instead of a rocket rain for his phinisher, and maybe a manual heal using a medkit(not the character) for himself or an ally close to him(think Jane Doe from TRUD heal but it only affects one person). Defensive character, tanky, has a big health pool but slow, meant to eliminate high value targets.

Shotgun- close combat ranged, does a lot of damage and takes a lot of damage, high risk high reward. Average health and shield amount, not fragile but not a tank either since she doesn't wear armour. I'd like her to have a melee ability, maybe a serious debuff that takes a while to prepare but if you hit it, the enemy is doomed(call it eviction notice) or a haymaker punch(like Guest 1337 in Forsaken). I'll also give her a block (tales) cause why not?

Spray Paint- meant to take down backlines, supports, people with low health, just anyone who's easy to finish off. The amount of damage you can do can really depend on how fast you can spam his basic attack. I'll give him an ability where he draws a little mural on the wall or floor that boosts allies and himself if they walk near it and a 'woe, spray paint in your eyes upon ye' but instead of blinding the enemy it chips away at health for a small amount of time. He has a small amount of health, so you need to think when picking a fight with someone.

Ghosdeeri- I'll give her a magic staff and fast projectiles, something between a ranged and a support. If the projectile hits an enemy, they take damage. If the projective hits an ally, it gives them a random boost(speed, healing, attack buff, etc). Also, since she is a librarian and a knowledge keeper I'll give her a marker ability. When used, all enemies on the map will get highlighted and take 20% more damage from allies and map hazards and 40% more damage from Ghosdeeri herself. For her passive, all enemies and allies are faintly highlighted and she is able to see the amount of health and shield they have aswell as what buffs and debuffs(call it 'keeper's knowledge)

Lord Pwnatious. I'm torn between giving them a shiny golden sniper rifle or a vintage machine gun, but we're missing a sniper, so I'll settle on sniper rifle. Have a small health pool and low speed. Their passive will have to do with money, each of their abilities aside from the basic shoot have a price, they start out with 20$(30$ in newbie servers). Each successful hit gives them 2$ and each successful kill gives them 5$. One of their abilities is probably a self-buff that makes them do about 30% more damage(costs 7$). And, why not gambling? Spin a wheel for 10$! It has several things you can land on: +20$, +20% damage, +20% speed, a heal for 40 HP, and the rarest one: a 200%(2X) boost to all stats.

- star wars anon

Super neat but I do have to argue a small change for Pwnatious-

It would be really fucking funny if they could just chuck a bag of money onto the ground like a grenade and have it explode to do AOE damage (because of Pwn's gear being an Explosive bag of robux). Make it give a debuff too while you're at it? That's really my only gripe lol this is soupa cool

[slugdragoon]

Devlog #2 (+ video)

Another great week this week! I'm planning to do devlogs once a week from now on, aiming for Monday, but later in the week if I can't.

A lot of progress has been made again:

ART - Decided on a colour palette for the game - this was a prerequesite for some of the assets I want to start making more of- needed to have it decided so assets don't need to be replaced later. I made brick, wood, and dirt textures, currently just blocks, but I plan on adapting them into tilesets based on them.

HEIGHT CHANGE - I noticed that the verticality I have with the stairs made the stairs look massive from the old perspective, so I raised the camera. This led me to add a crouching mechanic, which I think can help design for more hidden crawlspaces in dungeons. Changing the scale also forced me to finally add continuous movement when you hold the button, as without it moving a cell at a time feels slower.

INTERACTABLE PROPS - Added a working treasure chest that stores it's open/closed state and gives items to your inventory. Added a working door. Added a basic NPC that just says queued messages when you interact with them, still need to add UIs for shops and choices in dialogues, NPC movement, all that. Also, added out and inner-corner stair types to make various shapes of raised platforms/elevation possible.

PARTY RECRUITMENT - Party Members now have a spot on the pause menu to see their stats, and enemies can be recruited to add to the party, but the system is very basic and incomplete. Still going to add the choice to recruit/reject a new party member, so randomness to recruitment, as well as party member swapping and deeper stat examination menus, and accessing field-usable skills like healing.

[ladyirisreviews]

Final Fantasy (PSP) - Review

Final Fantasy is a series I was never interested in while growing up, I only decided to check it out because of the endless talk about how Final Fantasy 7 was the best RPG ever made, and when I tried it I did so trying to find stuff to dislike about it.

Because I was such a little hater back then.

After FF7 I also tried other games in the series and I even liked some aspects of them, and also hated some of them, but now it's been years since I played the first few, so I decided to go from the beginning all the way to FFX with an open mind, not trying to hate on the games, and see what I think about them.

So here we are at the start, Final Fantasy 1, I went with the PSP version because I am just not brave enough to play the original NES version, and I was broke to get the Pixel Remaster.

Besides, I always wanted to try this one because I didn't know it existed when I played the GBA version back then, only after I was done with that version I learned about the PSP one.

The plot is very simple, the land is decaying, but a legend speaks of 4 heroes of light that will return the world to a state of balance, and these 4 heroes are the ones you create.

There's not much else to the plot, you have to speak to townspeople to learn of your objectives, and basically, the game progression is that, but repeated over and over, getting stuff to get over obstacles until you arrive at the final dungeon to kick some butt.

And that's why I'll leave it at that and move on to the gameplay.

As I already mentioned, you make your 4 characters, though the only customization you get to make is picking a name and their class.

You get to pick between: Warrior, Thief, Monk, White Mage, Black Mage, and Red Mage.

Warriors, Thieves, and Monks serve as physical attackers, with warriors having the best defense, Thieves the best agility, and Monks the best attack.

The White, Black, and Red Mages are your magic users, White Mages specializing in protective and curative magic, Black Mages in offensive magic, and Red Mages having access to both, though not having access to some of the better spells.

And once you create your party, it's exploring time.

By spawning you right under a city and a castle you are encouraged to check them both out before starting to explore the rest of the world, and there you learn a lot of things that direct you on your journey, so it serves as a tutorial while also letting you know what to do next, which is ingenious design for the time it was created.

And even if you don't, the rest of the world is blocked off until you clear the initial objective.

You will quickly learn that you need to purchase spells, if you have any spellcasters, and spells are divided into several levels, with your characters being able to learn only 3 of each level.

This very deliberate limitation forces you to think of what you value more in fights, do you prefer having a wide variety of attacking spells, debuffs, buffs, or healing ones?

Though to be clear I found debuff spells and ailment-inducing spells to be mostly useless since they mostly don't work on bosses, and the normal enemies aren't that big of a threat to waste a turn on debuffing them.

It is still nice you get the option to pick your playstyle with spellcasters though.

The characters that aren't spellcasters are not very complicated, you just equip them with their preferred weapons, or no weapons for the monk, and just have them attack, their strength is their stats, and not their abilities.

The gameplay loop is pretty simple, you will learn from villages around the map of characters or places scattered around the world, and mention certain items that might do something, so your goal is meeting those characters, listening to them, and extrapolating what you might need to give them or what you need to do to advance in the game.

Despite being an elaborate fetch quest, it's quite fun to travel around the world almost aimlessly, talking to every NPC and checking every nook and cranny of the world map, it doesn't feel like a chore to explore it.

The bosses can actually be pretty challenging, though they can be trivialized later on in the game with the right spells, but they can be beaten with any strategy and they don't become too easy or too hard, which is great.

I do have to mention a big difference between this release and the original and pixel remaster, this release uses MP for spells, instead of the magic charges the original and pixel remaster uses.

What this means is that magic is way more plentiful in this game, like waaaaay more plentiful.

The way I saw charges being described is the following: You get a number of charges dedicated to a level of spell, say you have 3 charges for level 1 spells and 2 for level 2 spells, when you use a level 1 spell, a level 1 charge is used, so after that you are left with 2 level 1 charges and 2 level 2 charges.

It's pretty simple, but the amount of charges is quite limited in comparison to the MP you get in the game.

I mentioned some bosses get trivialized with some spells, these are buff spells for your party. Because there's a lot of MP, you can spam them for your best attacker, but with charges you have to keep in mind that if you spam it, you run the risk of not being able to use any spell from that level, which adds more strategy to the game.

Having said this, I can't actually comment on the balancing of magic because I haven't played a version that uses it, I just wanted to let you know that the version I played is very different from the original and Pixel Remaster.

Despite being a kind of simple game overall, Final Fantasy 1 could be considered half of the reason RPGs exploded in popularity in Japan, the other half being Dragon Quest, of course.

What Final Fantasy brought to the table when comparing it to Dragon Quest was flying vehicles and the ability to pick the roles of your characters, which clearly impacted the genre forever, with the flying vehicles being almost like a requirement for quite a lot of RPGs out there.

Also, even the original version of the game had a map, which does wonders in helping exploring the world.

But I did mention exploring aimlessly previously, that totally isn't because when I played it for the first time I didn't know you had a map for 80% of the game and felt stupid when I randomly figured it out.

Anyway-

Something new to the PSP version are the Souls of Chaos dungeons, these are extra dungeons that get unlocked after defeating major bosses, they provide an extra challenge, but I can't really speak too much about them, as I decided to skip them for now.

I will, however, be replaying this version of the game in the near future to do everything I skipped, and I will also play the Pixel Remaster version eventually to really know how much the balance changes with magic charges as opposed to MP.

And finally, all modern versions of Final Fantasy 1 let you save anywhere, which I really appreciate in RPGs.

So yeah, there's no doubt this is a very important game for the genre, and despite its age, I still find enjoyment in it.

It has aged pretty well in my opinion. The new arrangement of the music is very good, and it also has some killer sprite work. I really enjoyed my time with it for the second time, and it is still a game I would recommend to any RPG fan.

[ob-werm]

On the Removal of Orcs from the Monster Manual

So the new Monster Manual is out and about, and one of the big talking points is how orcs have been removed from it completely. I'm in two minds on the whole thing.

First and foremost, its a good thing that orcs are being treated less like brutal savages that are just predisposed to evil and more like a culture with its own practices, social norms, and economic factors. People much smarter than me have done extensive writing on the biological essentialism that underpinned a lot of DND's early monster design, so I won't poorly rehash all that, but what's important here is that now, a DM (and WOTC's adventure writers) have to think a little bit more when they drop a green skin brigade into their hex crawl. You can't handwave an orc raid on a mining camp by going "They're evil, its what they do." You gotta think a little more, think about motivations, social pressures, ECONOMICS! Horrific, I know. It will be more challenging for newer DM's, but it will make them better in the process.

With that in mind, I am still negative on the deletion as a whole because I am usually against the removal of rules to solve a problem when the addition of rules would have solved it just as much, if not more. The problem is that the removal of orcs solves none of the problems it set out to do, reinforces the bad stereotypes it sought to combat, and along the way, limits new DMs on the types of monsters they can throw out. If orcs are being removed because they aren't monsters anymore, then why are goblins, githyanki, all these creatures who are clearly just as sapient as orcs, still considered monsters and are seen as acceptable fodder for a party of adventurers? I understand that Orcs have achieved full PC ancestry status, but in the fiction of the game, that doesn't really exist.

Now, imagine this alternative; a new monster manual that has stat blocks for orcs, yes, but also stat blocks for fighting humans, dwarves, elves, gnomes, etc. If its a player race, there are stats for fighting them. Not only does this combat the idea that orcs and goblins are monsters that are okay to kill, but it also gives the DM more tools to use, not less.

Now, I'm not (horribly) stupid, I understand these books have a limited page count and WOTC doesn't have infinite money to expend on creature design. They gotta save some funds for designing their AI Dungeon Masters. So, here's an idea straight from one of my favorite games, Lancer. Instead of dedicating multiple pages to every single sapient race, you have NPC monsters (bandits, druids, archmages, etc.) that you then modify with ancestry templates. Want to run a group of goblin bandits. They all can disengage as a bonus action. Want to take those same low level bandits but use them in a campaign set on the astral sea? They're now all Gith and they have limited Psionics. Want to then start a campaign where the main enemy is a group of wood-elf eco-terrorists? Same bandits, but with limited druidic spellcasting and some magical resistances. I can't think of a way this system wouldn't solve anyone's problems.

And to get ahead of people saying, "If you like orcs, just use the old books," WOTC has already shown a willingness to gate off old material, especially in their new digitally focused landscape. They've already removed material from DND Beyond, and there is no indication they will stop this behavior. It is okay to complain about the things you like, especially when the company that makes the stuff keeps making dumb decisions.

[fantasyfantasygames]

Hecatomb

Hecatomb, Bleu Black Mana Games, 1998

For those who didn't play Magic: The Gathering, here's the link to the card info for Hecatomb.

In 1998, everyone was waiting for Magic: the Gathering: the Roleplaying Game. It seemed obvious that it was going to happen. The people who made Magic now owned D&D. It must be on the horizon. Hecatomb wasn't an attempt to get to market first - it was the result of someone getting so excited for what they saw coming that their feelings came out through their fingers and onto their GeoCities site. As it turned out, there wasn't a real M:tG/D&D crossover until 2018, so Bleu kinda jumped the gun here.

Stats are the five mana colors, plus Life. NPCs are rated on Damage and Toughness. They're all rated on a theoretically zero-to-unlimited scale, but mostly 1-7 with some excursions up to 10. Life starts at 20, because you're playing planeswalkers, traveling from world to world, summoning creatures to do battle for you.

Hecatomb has one extremely big weakness: Bleu had no idea how to make the game a fun group activity. Some examples:

You draw mana from your lands once per day. So you're not casting many spells. The game does allow your creatures to have lands of their own, so they can activate their own abilities instead of you having to do it, but once you're tapped out you're tapped out.

There's no indication of why you would work together. There aren't many people out there more powerful than you, and there's no serious benefit to working together.

What you can cast when is still random. Getting mana-screwed is not any more fun in this game than in the original.

There's no real guidance as to what your character... is. Human? Some kind of god-creature? Remember, this was long before we knew any planeswalkers except Mishra and Urza. 1999 was 6th Edition. This game was written during the Urza's expansion block. Lorwyn, the first block with Planeswalker cards, was 8 years away.

There's no indication that Bleu knew any games but D&D, and maybe Fudge. How very different this game could have been if there were some inspiration from, say, Amber or Everway.

Why did Bleu choose "Hecatomb" out of all the cards? It sounded cool. The game is not thematically "black" in any way.

In the end, though, I can't really fault him. This was a teenager's enthusiasm, and there are some cool things in here for a first game. The "when you do things like this color would, roll using this color" is a very modern mechanic. You could do a PbtA version with that and no one would bat an eye. There's a valiant attempt to tie together the lore on the cards into a fantasy setting, and it resulted in some pretty cool descriptions of dragon dens in the mountains, magic islands protected by mist, forests that moved in and out of reality, and plenty of name-dropping of M:tG mainstays like Yawgmoth and Nicol Bolas. I wasn't making substantially better stuff when I was in undergrad.

You can still find Bleu on various RPG fora across the interwebs. Ping him and he'll DM you the game. He was kind of reluctant for the first hundred people who asked for it, but now he sees it as a charming example of what he used to create, and a good example of what makes a game interesting to read but a non-starter to play.

[utilitycaster]

Hi, do you mind answering a mechanics question about Call of the Netherdeep?

I am running the adventure as a first time DM (with mostly new players) and the party has recently arrived in Bazzoxan. They are friendly with the rivals for the most part. The two parties have fought alongside one another a few times, and I feel like the rivals tend to outperform the party with the damage they deal and take. I’d like to be able to put the rivals in danger, but it’s tough to do that when they’re fighting alongside pcs with 1/3 - 1/2 the amount of hitpoints. I’ve also thought about having 1 on 1 combat in a friendly sparring match kind of situation, but I’m worried that the hp discrepancy will make it completely unbalanced.

Do you have thoughts on how the rival stat blocks are balanced for different combat situations (5 v. 5, 1 v. 1, 10 v. monsters)? Have you edited them at all for your game?

Thank you!

I'm going to be totally honest - my party traveled with the rivals to Bazzoxan, where they did indeed fight alongside them though I don't recall the exact situations, but once they got to Bazzoxan this no longer became an issue (and they are on good terms with the rivals). The story is such that there really aren't opportunities to fight together after you get to Bazzoxan unless you diverge from the adventure, until you get to the final push into the Netherdeep when things will be much more balanced. So this might not be a problem anymore.

I don't recall the encounters on the road to Bazzoxan being too unbalanced - it's true the rivals have far more HP at this level, but I found their abilities to be on the limited side, so they can take a lot of damage but they're probably not going to do as much. Their stat blocks are both on the high side right now, as you've noticed, because they'll be at this level until your PCs are level 7; and also ecause their abilities are more limited in scope. I also will deliberately hold back when I run allied NPCs in combat usually, unless things are going super badly for the PCs and a ringer will prevent a death; or unless this is a tenuous alliance or making the NPC seem very powerful is important. Unfortunately I don't have advice other than "don't pick their most powerful stuff."

This might not be helpful but I simply wouldn't have a sparring encounter - I'd focus on running social encounters only if they're on good terms.

[pathfinderunlocked]

Lady of Ash - CR12 Mesmerist

I can save them. And I intend to do so. I intend to make them mine, in exchange for returning their memories and sanity to them. And this will be my city, filled with the accursed walking dead whose sunken eyes still remember life, whose hearts still remember what it was like to be loved by the living.  But now I love them.  My Ashfallen.

Artwork by Oukawa Yuu on Seiga.  Badly edited by me.

The Lady of Ash is a faction leader in my dark fantasy setting of Vorseah, and her stat block reflects a character who is mostly involved in preventing fights, not winning them. If the artwork looks familiar, you probably remember it from the Vampire's Daughter monster that I posted; this is the same character, 600 years later.

The unusual combination of ancient youth dhampir vampire is what happens when someone is born into a vampire family and gets killed by vampire hunters as a child, and then gets raised into undeath as a full vampire by her surviving family members.

Her unique vampire power grants her the ability to awaken undead, in place of dominating humanoids. She uses this power to form a small civilization of intelligent undead. She has little concern for whether the undead she awakens are, or were, good people - she only wishes to provide them the same freedom over their destiny that living creatures possess. She wishes for both herself and her people, the Ashfallen, to get along peacefully with others, whether they be crusading paladins or evil necromancers. Despite that seemingly benevolent goal, her powers and her upbringing have warped her view of the value of life, and she isn't a good person. She has no empathy for the living, only a desire to avoid conflict with them.

However, she lacks the ability to create vampire spawn, and doesn't desire to create new undead regardless. She relies on her allies to subdue undead and allow her to use her powers on them.

When faced with violent undead, she uses her Command Undead ability to stop combat, and then uses Awaken Undead later at her leisure when the target has been secured and restrained. Against living targets, she charms or dominates them instead of fighting. She virtually never uses her energy drain or blood drain attacks; even if forced into combat against something like an aberration or outsider that she can't dominate, she'll either flee or rely on others to fight for her.

She always has her Umbral Shield trick implanted in herself, and begins battle with her other two mesmerist tricks already implanted in her allies. Typically she implants Compel Alacrity in melee allies and Mesmeric Mirror in spellcasting allies.

Have I ever mentioned that I hate making NPCs that use character classes? This stat block has too many special abilities. Some of it is the vampire template's fault.

Lady of Ash - CR 12

Avoiding the light from the window is what appears to be a young girl in a dress with long black hair and a white hat.  She has unusually pale skin, and the hanging oil lamp casts no shadow on the opposite wall.

XP 19,200 Dhampir, ancient youth vampire, spirit walker mesmerist 11 LE Small undead (augmented humanoid) Init +7 Senses darkvision, low-light vision; Perception +23

DEFENSE

AC 27, touch 17, flat-footed 23 (+3 Dex, +2 deflection, +1 dodge, +7 natural, +3 shield, +1 size) hp 141 (11d8+88); fast healing 5 Fort +10, Ref +12, Will +16; +2 vs. disease and mind-affecting, channel resistance +4 DR 10/magic and silver Resist cold 10, electricity 10, fire 5 Weaknesses vampire weaknesses (except sunlight weakness) Immune undead traits

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft., spider climb Melee slam +10 (1d3+1 plus energy drain) Special Attacks awaken undead (11 HD/day, DC 22), blood drain, children of the night, command undead (8/day, DC 22), energy drain (2 HD, DC 22), hypnotic stare (-3 Will/Perception/Sense Motive/initiative/concentration/DC vs. Diplomacy/DC vs. Intimidate, 5 or 3d6 damage, 50 ft.), mesmerist tricks (3 at a time, 11/day)

Racial Spell-Like Abilities (CL 11th; concentration +18)     1/day—charm person (DC 20), command (DC 20)

Mesmerist Spells Known (CL 11th; concentration +18)     4th (3/day)—dominate person (DC 23), serenity (DC 23), speak with haunt     3rd (6/day)—appearance of life, charm monster (DC 22), dispel magic, nondetection     2nd (6/day)—aversion (DC 19), command undead (DC 21), detect thoughts (DC 19), knock, suggestion (DC 21)     1st (7/day)—adoration, hide from undead (DC 18), innocence, mindlink, sow thought (DC 20), undetectable alignment     0 (at will)—daze (DC 18), detect magic, message, open/close, touch of fatigue (touch +10, DC 17), unwitting ally (DC 18)

STATISTICS

Str 12, Dex 16, Con —, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 24 Base Atk +8; CMB +8; CMD 23 Feats Bouncing Spell, Command Undead (see text), Extended Stare, Extended Stare, Demoralizing Stare, Greater Spell Focus (enchantment), Spell Focus (enchantment), Alertness, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, Toughness Skills Bluff +37, Diplomacy +23, Intimidate +9, Knowledge (arcana, local, history, nobility, religion) +6, Linguistics +5, Perception +23, Perform (oratory) +9, Sense Motive +26, Spellcraft +9, Stealth +15, Use Magic Device +14; Racial Bonuses +10 Bluff, +10 Perception, +8 Sense Motive, +8 Stealth Languages Common, Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, Halfling, Infernal, Necril, Orc Gear potion of inflict serious wounds x2, Lily Sunhat, +2 reflecting mithral buckler, ring of eloquence (dwarven, elven, gnome, halfling), amulet of natural armor +1, ring of protection +2 SQ bold stare (allure, distraction, susceptibility), change shape (dire bat or wolf, beast shape II), gaseous form, glib lie, undead inception, shadowless, spider climb

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Awaken Undead (Su) In place of a vampire's Dominate ability, the Lady of Ash has the supernatural ability to soothe and awaken undead creatures and break a necromancer's control over them.  She can use this on up to 11 HD (a number equal to her own hit dice) of undead creatures per day.  This does not cause the undead to become under her control, but it breaks effects such as Command Undead, grants the undead creature an intelligence score if it doesn't have one (typically the same score they had in life), and changes its alignment back to what it was in life.

To use this ability, the Lady of Ash must touch the target as a full-round action.  An undead creature makes a Will saving throw against this effect, DC 22.  If the creature is under the control of a necromancer or other undead, the Lady of Ash must also succeed on a caster level check with a DC of 10 + the hit dice of the creature exerting control over her target.  On a successful saving throw, or if the Lady of Ash fails the caster level check, this ability has no effect.  The save DC is Charisma-based.

A creature affected by Awaken Undead rolls a d100.  On a roll less than or equal to the Lady of Ash's hit dice, it becomes friendly toward her.  On an 80-89 it becomes hostile to her, and on a 90-100 it becomes confused and self-destructive.  Otherwise, the soothed creature becomes indifferent toward the Lady of Ash.

Blood Drain (Su) A vampire can suck blood from a grappled opponent; if the vampire establishes or maintains a pin, it drains blood, dealing 1d4 points of Constitution damage. The vampire heals 5 hit points or gains 5 temporary hit points for 1 hour (up to a maximum number of temporary hit points equal to its full normal hit points) each round it drains blood.

Command Undead (Su) As a standard action, 8 times per day, the Lady of Ash can enslave undead within 30 feet. Undead receive a DC 22 Will save to negate the effect. The save DC is Charisma-based. Undead that fail their saves fall under her control, obeying her commands to the best of their ability, as if under the effects of control undead. Intelligent undead receive a new saving throw each day to resist her command. The Lady of Ash can control any number of undead, so long as their total Hit Dice do not exceed her mesmerist level. If an undead creature is under the control of another creature, the Lady of Ash must make an opposed Charisma check whenever her orders conflict.

Continued Animation (Su) Three times per day, when the Lady of Ash is using hypnotic stare on a humanoid target and the target dies, as an immediate action the Lady of Ash can force the target’s soul to remain in the body. The Lady of Ash can then control the target as if using dominate person for 5 rounds. The creature gains 22 temporary hit points and continues acting as though it were alive and conscious until it loses those temporary hit points or the duration expires.

During this time, the creature counts as undead, but it can’t be healed by negative energy. The target receives a DC 22 Will saving throw to avoid this effect and die normally. The save DC is Charisma-based.

This ability ends immediately if at any point the target’s body is completely destroyed (such as by disintegrate) or restored to life.

Change Shape (Su) A vampire can use change shape to assume the form of a dire bat or wolf, as beast shape II.

Children of the Night (Su) Once per day, a vampire can call forth 1d6+1 rat swarms, 1d4+1 bat swarms, or 2d6 wolves as a standard action.  These creatures arrive in 2d6 rounds and serve the vampire for up to 1 hour.

Gaseous Form (Su) As a standard action, a vampire can assume gaseous form at will, as the spell (caster level 5th), but it can remain gaseous indefinitely and has a fly speed of 20 feet with perfect maneuverability.

Hypnotic Stare (Su) The Lady of Ash can focus her stare on one creature within 50 feet as a swift action.  That creature takes a –3 penalty on Will saving throws, concentration checks, initiative checks, Perception checks, Sense Motive checks to oppose Bluff, and to the DC of Diplomacy and Intimidate checks made against it.  The Lady of Ash can maintain her stare against only one opponent at a time; it remains in effect until she stares at a new target, the opponent dies, the opponent moves farther than 50 feet away, or the Lady of Ash is reduced to 0 hit points.  The Lady of Ash can remove the memory of her stare from the target’s mind; The creature doesn’t remember that it was affected (nor does it realize that it is currently being affected) unless the Lady of Ash allows it. 

The hypnotic stare is a psychic effect, and relies more on the focus of the Lady of Ash than the target's perception of her stare.  It can’t be avoided in the same ways a gaze attack can.  She can use this ability even while blinded, but must succeed at a DC 20 concentration check to do so.  The penalties from multiple mesmerists’ stares don’t stack, nor do they stack with penalties from witches‘ evil eye hexes.  This is a mind-affecting effect, but can affect undead, ignoring their immunity to mind-affecting abilities.

Once per round, when a creature affected by the Lady of Ash's hypnotic stare takes damage, she can increase the damage by 5, or by 3d6 if she dealt the damage herself, and the target must succeed on a DC 22 Will save or become shaken for 1 round. This is precision damage and is not multiplied on a critical hit. The save DC is Charisma-based.

An undead target affected by the Lady of Ash's hypnotic stare loses its immunity to her mind-affecting spells and abilities.

Shadowless (Ex) A vampire casts no shadows and shows no reflection in a mirror.

Mesmerist Tricks (Su) As a standard action, the Lady of Ash can implant a mesmerist trick in herself or a willing ally she touches.  She can do this up to 13 times per day, and can have up to 3 tricks implanted at a time.  The trick remains dormant until either it is triggered or the next time the Lady of Ash regains her spells.

As a free action usable even when it’s not her turn, the Lady of Ash can trigger this trick under the conditions listed for that trick.  The subject must be within 210 feet of the Lady of Ash for her to trigger the implanted trick.  She doesn’t need line of sight, but anything that blocks telepathic contact prevents her from triggering tricks.

The mesmerist tricks the Lady of Ash knows are as follows:

Compel Alacrity The mesmerist can trigger this trick whenever the subject begins its turn within an enemy’s reach. The subject can move 20 feet as a free action without provoking attacks of opportunity. The subject can’t move farther than her speed in this way. The movement from this trick doesn’t count against the subject’s movement speed for that round. Mesmeric Mirror The mesmerist can trigger this trick when the subject is attacked or becomes the target of a spell that requires an attack roll. Three duplicates of the subject appear, and the attacker must determine randomly which it hits (as mirror image). Each image lasts for 11 minutes or until destroyed. This is an illusion (figment) effect. See in Darkness The mesmerist can trigger this trick when the subject moves into an area of darkness. The subject gains darkvision with a range of 60 feet for 1 minute. Telepathic Link The mesmerist can trigger this trick when the subject and her allies are outnumbered in combat. For 1 minute per mesmerist level, the subject and the mesmerist can communicate telepathically. If the subject and the mesmerist are more than 210 feet apart, the telepathic connection is severed and cannot be regained unless the trick is implanted again. The mesmerist and the subject must share a language to be able to communicate. Umbral Shield The mesmerist can trigger this trick whenever the subject would be exposed to harmful bright light (such as sunlight is to a vampire). Once triggered, the subject ignores any harmful effects of bright light or sunlight for 1 minute.  The subject is immune to the dazzled condition while this trick is in effect. Unwitting Messenger The mesmerist describes a recipient to the subject while implanting this trick, then recites a verbal message no longer than 55 words. The subject of unwitting messenger has no memory of the message or the target recipient. When the subject encounters the specified recipient, the subject repeats the message verbatim, but does not recall speaking the message or its contents. This trick ends if not triggered within 24 hours. The subject of unwitting messenger can be fooled by mundane disguises or illusions, causing her to deliver the message to the wrong recipient.

Reflecting Buckler Once per day, the Lady of Ash can use her buckler to reflect a targeted or ranged attack spell targeting her back at its caster. Area spells, touch range spells, and other spells not directly targeting her are not affected.

Vampire Weaknesses Vampires cannot tolerate the strong odor of garlic and will not enter an area laced with it. Similarly, they recoil from mirrors or strongly presented holy symbols. These things don’t harm the vampire—they merely keep it at bay. A recoiling vampire must stay at least 5 feet away from the mirror or holy symbol and cannot touch or make melee attacks against that creature. Holding a vampire at bay takes a standard action. After 1 round, a vampire can overcome its revulsion of the object and function normally each round it makes a DC 25 Will save.

Vampires cannot enter a private home or dwelling unless invited in by someone with the authority to do so.

Reducing a vampire’s hit points to 0 or lower incapacitates it but doesn’t always destroy it (see vampiric fast healing). However, certain attacks can slay vampires. Each round of immersion in running water inflicts damage on a vampire equal to one-third of its maximum hit points—a vampire reduced to 0 hit points in this manner is destroyed. Driving a wooden stake through a helpless vampire’s heart instantly slays it (this is a full-round action). However, it returns to life if the stake is removed, unless the head is also severed and anointed with holy water.

Normally, exposing any vampire to direct sunlight staggers it on the first round of exposure and destroys it utterly on the second consecutive round of exposure if it does not escape. However, the Lady of Ash's lily sunhat prevents her from being harmed by sunlight.

Vampiric Fast Healing (Su) A vampire gains fast healing 5.  If reduced to 0 hit points in combat, a vampire assumes gaseous form and attempts to escape.  It must reach its coffin home within 2 hours or be utterly destroyed.  (It can normally travel up to 9 miles in 2 hours.)  Additional damage dealt to a vampire forced into gaseous form has no effect.  Once at rest, the vampire is helpless.  It regains 1 hit point after 1 hour, then is no longer helpless and resumes healing at the rate of 5 hit points per round.

[tea-with-eleni]

This time on Curse of Strahd...

A coworker (and neighbor who lives four doors down) came over to visit my cats because he was sad and needed cat cuddles.

I told him I had DnD tonight and mentioned my ongoing wish to bring in guests to play some of the more complex NPCs. He perked right up and asked if he could join in. I handed him Rahadin's stat block. "Oh," he said, "This is nasty."

"Want in?"

"....tell me when."

So that's how my players ended up going against Baba Lysaga, Baba Lysaga's House, Rahadin, and a handful of Strahd Zombies.

Also, effectively, two DMs. This particular coworker was hired because he has an eerily identical background/skillset to me and is probably about as close as our manager could get to cloning one of us. We work very well together.

Woe betide the players, who initially underestimated the situation. Or, to quote our artificer:

"You think I can't take one elf twink?!?!?!?!?!"

Rahadin got VERY close to killing our cleric and claiming the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind. He got down to half health before giving Tatyana ("Tatyana, Ireena, whatever her name is") a letter and fucking off.

Then Baba Lysaga's house awoke...

My players have realized that they might have fucked up.

Just a little.

--------------------

I think what may have worked so well on our end is the repressed fury that comes from working in a job where we have to smile and be polite and understanding to people all day. We've been threatening to feed our summer campers to the museum's snapping turtles for a few weeks now. This is a lot more ethical and nearly as satisfying.

[friendshipstates]

Calling for Aid (OOC/Mun Drama)

Here's the situation:

I received a message from my landlord saying that I'm five months behind on rent. I had been unemployed and denied unemployment last summer and went three months without a job. The jobs I did have were are limited hours so I wasn't able to pay all in one go. And then my car completely died. I was able to sell it for scrap and use most of the check to pay rent that month. I've been working part time hours since October, and through that time, only been dropping $175 every few weeks on my $700 monthly rent. Due to family emergencies on his part, the landlord told me to pay what I could at the time. Now, however, I'm finally getting the full time hours, but it's not going to be enough to pay for all my bills. Now, what can I offer for commissions? I'm not artistic, or musical, but what I can do is write. Do you want a fanfiction of your ship in a safe for work scenario? I can write that. Do you want a one-shot for tabletop campaign? I've been running tabletop campaigns since I was 18. I have done everything from D&D 3.5 to FATE, to various superhero campaigns. I've been making magic at the roleplaying table, and I'd be happy to share that magic with first-time and veteran dungeon masters. Here's what I need. My total amount in arrears is $3625. But every little bit helps. For $15, I will write you a SFW fic of your characters of choice, between one and four thousand words. For every thousand words more than that, I ask five dollars more. You give me the characters, the scenario you want to see them in and I will write it for you. For $20, I will write you a one-shot for a tabletop rpg campaign. This will include: a starting location, a few potential quest givers and NPCs for your players to like, love or hate, a location to visit, a threat to face, and stat blocks for a few minions, and a final boss. I do not guarantee that your players will make it to that final boss in a single session but that's on them. For $35 I will do the same as above for the tabletop campaign, but I will also create pre-generated character sheets for your players. This will be easier if I'm familiar with the system, obviously. If you're interested, DM me here, or on discord (username: wraithstrike) and we can discuss what you're looking for.