#not getting into subclasses or anything because this is more like. not even specifically dnd just generally

[commsroom]

do you have headcanon dnd classes for the other wolf 359 chars?

YES, i absolutely do. sticking with what they'd be (in the archetypal sense) rather than what they'd play:

other than bard eiffel, my strongest opinion is that minkowski is a paladin. she just has the right values and the setup for a sort of crisis of faith and reclaiming/restructuring of power really works for me.

ranger for lovelace, maybe? i think it could fit her brand of resourcefulness, and the way she's sort of had to become... adaptable and acclimatized to her environment more than the others have.

in one of the AMAs, sarah shachat suggested druid for hera and i really latched onto that because i'm fascinated by the implications, but again, as more of an archetype... i think maybe sorcerer. i really like the idea of hera with storm/lightning magic, especially with the association in wolf's sound design of storms and memory.

i guess hilbert is a cleric, since it's like. the common stand in for medical professions and despite everything that research is kind of what defines him. whether that actually makes him a healer is dubious.

jacobi is a rogue, maxwell is an artificer, kepler is a fighter.

[fanfictiontrash]

Current Ability Scores Part 2

I plan on doing 2 characters at a time, so next up is Yann and Hannah! Yann has a 10 in Strength (STR), a 14 in Dexterity (DEX), a 12 in Constitution (CON), a 16 Intelligence (INT), a 11 Wisdom (WIS), and a 12 Charisma (CHA).

Hannah has a 10 in STR, a 14 in DEX, a 12 in CON, a 16 INT, a 10 WIS, and a 12 CHA.

The reasoning under the cut!

Both Hannah and Yann have similar stats, it wasn't intentional but now is a good time to mention that these stats are more so their base stats, when the levels from their classes are added the 4th level will allow for either a feat or an ASI (Ability Score Improvement) so that's why Yann's WIS is an uneven number. Yann's an Artificer! The Alchemist subclass to be specific! 10 in STR is just enough to be able to pick up heavy equipment and his kids. The 14 in DEX is useful for his sleight of hand, I imagine it'd be useful for the more delicate lab procedures. A 12 in CON gives him a sturdy nature from living on his own and traveling the world. An Artificer's spellcasting modifier is INT so his 16 in INT reflects that and the knowledge gained from being a Forensic Expert. Now, an 11 in WIS, it's like that for a reason, odd numbers in DND stay on the same modifier as the even number before it, so a 10 and 11 have a +0 modifier when it comes to adding a bonus to a roll. That's also the reason why anything less than a 10 is on the bad side. With an 11 WIS I'm planning on using his 4th level to boost it to a 12, he's able to understand a lot quicker when someone might be upset or the saying of when you get older you get wiser. A 12 CHA is from his kindness, he knows what to say and keeps good conversation. Hannah! She's also an Artificer, but the Artillerist subclass. 10 in STR so she can pick up heavy equipment and her girlfriend with ease. 14 in DEX because I like to think it'd be used for super-fast typing and hacking. A 12 in CON from her time in Inner Chaos, have you seen that base? I'd want a good CON if I was in there. Like Yann an Artificer's spellcasting modifier is INT, the higher the INT the better for the class, hence the 16, and her knowledge and skills in technology from both hacking and becoming a Tech Expert. Hannah is on the younger side of the cast, so she gets a 10 in WIS, she makes good decisions most of the time. Her 12 in CHA is from her time in Inner Chaos, spreading propaganda is easier when you know what to say to earn the people's favor. I'd like to think she made some herself and it wasn't just her spreading what the others made the entire time.

[writing-plurals]

I’m back! After like two hours of intense brainstorming and scattered notes, we’ve got a three person system with bad communication (they use a physical journal to communicate, this was chosen specifically so I could have fun with “well member A doesn’t know your name cuz member B didn’t write any names down but you’re unaware of the system so time to awkwardly ask what your name is” and keep track of stuff better)

I’ve decided to have them all the same class but with different subclasses—specifically, druid subclasses. They’ll share spell slots but the ways those spells look and what ones they use will vary (for example, one of them is big on healing and hates fighting whereas another is absolute trash at judging when something needs healing and thus doesn’t heal ever) and I’m going to adjust their subclassing abilities so that they’re not overpowered (for example, only the subclass of the person in front is active when that person is in front. No multi-subclassing unless they’re co-fronting!) and to make it easier to track.

I’m super excited for this, even moreso then before, because I’m planning to keep it a secret from the other players! They’re going to have to figure it out or coax the system into sharing that information and I can’t wait to see their confusion because I live for that stuff!

I’ve also figured that, since I’m making their subclassing notably weaker to ensure no OP’ness, they are gonna be resistant to mental attacks and stuff. This also means that if they try to use message, it’s going to be a jumble of different thoughts—two thought streams that are unaware of the external situation and one who is, which is going to be super fun to confuse people with too!

If you get any ideas at all or suggestions or anything please share them because I love talking about this stuff! I’m really excited for this! I’ll finally be able to introduce people to plurality in a way that will ensure they have a positive view of it!

Absolutely!

As always, I imagine this is actively being workshopped with the DM, yeah? Because at the end of the day, DM really decides if something is OP, but that sounds like a really cool way to go about it!! You've got some different personalities going on that effect the way they play, and since they're druids, they're all spellcasters, which makes it easier to navigate stat wise too.

I can't publicly tell you where you can get in touch with me personally, but if you send an off anon ask, I can answer it privately with our tumblr or discord!

That said, I have dinner and then our *own* dnd game to get ready for tonight, and I can talk more specifics with you later for sure!

-Mod Tick Tock

[madam-kumo]

My BG3 characters

(This is a collection of my various characters that I use in BG3 and things about them. I like to draw them a lot and have even converted some into DnD characters!)

Yue

Race: Aquan Tiefling

Class: Selunite Life Cleric

Romancing: Originally it was Halsin, but now it's him and or Zevlor :)

She was originally made to be a foil to Shadowheart, but the more I figured out her story, the more she sounded more like a foil to Karlach. They're both have fallen under horrible circumstances that have given them a life ending curse. They foil each other because Yue is more accepting of the fact that she is going to die and can't really do anything about it, while Karlach fights to the end. (and they're personalities are polar opposites) I'll probably post a post later of her backstory as it's by far the most intricate out of all of my characters. '^^

Adva

Race: Wood Elf

Class: Circle of the Spores Druid

Romancing: Karlach and or Dammon

Poor Adva was actually made as an ironic character and I built her solely with Karlach in mind (I do this for a lot of my BG3 characters.) and came up with the idea of her being a druid with a girlfriend that's literally on fire. After a while I developed a pretty peaceful backstory for her. She grew up with her grandparents in a forest near the Underdark where she soon met Halsin and the other druids of the grove who began teaching her druidic magic. One day, she travelled to Baldur's gate to get specific materials and "woops" now she has a tadpole brain. So, yeah, I love Adva.

Luljeta

Race: High Elf

Class: College of Valour Bard

Romancing: Wyll

Luljeta was also kind of made as a joke. When I as describing her to a friend, I said "I made a princess to romance Wyll cause he's a pretty princess" so yeah, that quickly turned into these two being one of my favorite Tav/companion ships I've ever written. Luljeta grew up as a noble alongside Wyll in the upper city of Baldur's Gate, actively learning her various skills beside him as they grew up. However, when Wyll was exiled from the Gate, she lost contact with him for seven years with neither her parents nor Duke Ravenguard telling her what happened. So, she had eventually come to terms with the fact that Wyll was dead. And then she gets sucked up by the nautiloid and has a reunion with her missing friend that soon turns into a budding romance. <3

Panha

Class: College of Eloquence Bard (DnD subclass)

Race: Cambion Fiend of Asmodeus (sorry about the lack of wings in the screenshot, my mods were being weird)

Romancing: Technically Ascended Astarion, but was actively hooking up with Mizora way before that. (Panha's complicated)

Panha was also made for funsies as kind of just a slap in the face to Raphael as a joke who quickly became her own very morally grey character. She was actually supposed to be a succubus in her very early concepts before it turned into her being Raphael's sister, to her just pestering him like a evil sister would and not being related at all. She is basically a devilish bard who I named and based in reference to Niccolò Paganini who has a legend about signing a devil's contract to be a master a violin (for my fellow orchestra people) and once again, ended up becoming much more than that.

Her story is that she grew up in the hells alongside many other cambions and eventually met Mizora during a mission. They quickly began to flirt and hook up and stuff before it became as close to a relationship as two greedy devils could be. I imagine her as more of an NPC like Raphael or Mizora, actively tampering and showing up in the players world. However, unlike these two, Panha is far from immune to the thrill of mischief and would actively tell the player things like "hints" about what Raphael's really after and bring up the idea of just stealing it, fulling expecting the player to die in process so expect another devil in your camp. She will still help you in the final battle along side Mizora, not really wanting the world to end for the sake of her own entertainment before going back to the hells.

Alyace

Race: Lolth Sworn Drow

Class: Wild Magic Sorceress (but in DnD she is a divine soul sorcerer)

Romancing: Kar'niss

I wrote a story a few weeks ago of this Tav and was finally able to get a good screenshot of her. I made her when I kept seeing really heart wrenching Kar'niss fanfics about his time before becoming a Drider. I made this characters with some existing characters in mind like Kie Kamado and Tamayo from KNY both in appearance and personality. (Her sketches are more accurate to these characters, I'll post them later though.)

Basically, her story was that she was once an active noble in Menzoberranzan, specifically the oldest daughter of her house at the time, and soon met Kar'niss years before his test of faith to Lolth. What was a few spare moments of kindness from Alyace (still quite cold to an outsider, but naive and merciful to the Drow around her) soon became meeting up at abandoned oasis's and behind her house hidden in the gardens. Soon, a genuine companionship began to rise, but so was the time for Kar'niss's test. When Kar'niss inevitably failed his test and was casted out of Menzoberranzan, Alyace ran away with a sickle in her hand and a large pack on her back. She then roamed the underdark in hopes for salvation, a way to get away from Lolth entirely, even with a new divine being watching over her. (This was just from the prologue of the story)

Perico (Durge)

Race: Seldarine Drow

Class: Class of Valour Bard

Romancing: Shadowheart

He's my son and I love him, even though idk what to do with him. He's kind of a dumbass, but it's okay cause he's got the spirit to make up for it. He's kinda slow, but happy go lucky, even if he can't remember anything to save his life. He's a bit loud, kinda like Karlach, but it's okay cause the party secretly loves him. Basically a himbo. That's it, that's my son.

Thilvi

Class: Vengeance Paladin

Race: Scourge Aasimar of Lathander (Again, my mods were being weird so the Aasimar race wouldn't work 😭)

Romancing: Halsin

Thilvi was a character I made to not only work well with Halsin, but to also contrast my other characters. I noticed when I was thinking of all of my characters that most of them have cool toned color schemes so I decided "why not make one that's bright orange and yellow and basically a demigod?" and alas, Thilvi was born.

(Some bits and pieces of her appearance were based off of descriptions from @aurora-darling 's Tav used in their fanfictions so go give there stuff a read ^^.)

Anyways, Thilvi was raised by her elven mother who was a very devoted Priestess to Lathander (she literally had a baby with him) and was always taught that her father would guide her, and he did, giving her his blessings on the battlefield. She fought in many battles along side her mother's clergy before her mother's old age caused her to be killed in battle. Thilvi then made her Oath to avenge those that were lost and to bring justice to those that caused it, giving her the role of the Vengeance Paladin of her temple. She continued to protect her clergy until new generations gradually outnumbered her and took on her role, giving her the freedom to protect those outside of her home, which is how she ended up near the emerald grove, spotting a large hoard goblins attacking a few mortals. Using her father's blessings, she soon became an adamant member of the grove, being able to call it a home for a few months and becoming close with a particularly large elf that was just as fascinated with her as she was with him.

Misty

A/N: I might be changing her name later though

Class: Way of The Four Elements Monk

Race: Levistus Tiefling

Romancing: Idk yet

Misty was actually recycled from a different bg3 character I had in mind originally named Galatea and I found out someone had a Tav already named that with a similar color scheme so I decided to change her a bit. I'm still keeping her backstory, just made a few design and race changes.

Misty lived in town in the middle of a cold mountain and lived a generally pretty poor life. Her and her older sister constantly fought tooth and nail just to get by with their lack of wealth, constantly stealing and reselling goods just to get some food. The locals didn't like Misty or her sister at all and were basically shunned from society as a whole. It wasn't uncommon for Misty and her sister to get berated and picked on by other people their ages and this would soon lead to an important event of Misty's life.

A wealthy girl seemed to just love tormenting Misty and chance she got, throwing threats and names at Misty, but she never got violent about it. However, when Misty's sister passed away from an illness, Misty snapped back at the girl and beat her until she was black and blue. Because of this, Misty was chased out of the town with only a pack of some gold and food and the clothes on her back.

As she got older, Misty began a healing journey of sorts to put her past behind her and fall into a state of constant peace. She retired to a monastery before getting kidnapped by a rogue Nautiloid being chased by dragons, where her story with Mind flayers begins.

[cloud-monki]

My favorite build in dnd

Honestly I think I only like this build I’m cuz I found it by myself and it does a consistent shit load of damage, it isn’t the best build, but it’s cool and fun.

Ok we’re going to need only 4 things (technically 5, but I don’t care), we need:

To be a Thri-keen

Be the UA Fighter subclass “Brute”

A great sword or maul (maybe a great axe if you’re feeling silly

2 1d6 light weapons.

First explaining the build:

1 - Thri-keen have 2 hands smaller arms underneath their normal arms which can’t do much in combat except use a light weapon.

2 - If you have 2 light weapons, each in different hands and attack with your action with a light weapon you can attack an additional time as a bonus action without the modifier you used to attack. Specifically you only need to attack once with a light weapon with the attack action to get this benefit, which normally wouldn’t matter because most species have only 2 hands.

3 - The brute subclass let’s you add 1 dice to the damage of every attack you make. That dice grows in later levels, but it starts as a d4.

4 - By level 5 you get extra attack allowing you to attack twice as an action.

I think you can see where this is going.

Unfortunately levels 1 and 2 aren’t that crazy, but if you take the Two-weapon fighting style, you can add your modifier to the bonus action attack, and you can still use a shield, basically meaning, so with chain mail you’d have 18 AC while doing the following damage:

Level 1, if both hit: 2d6+6, Average of 13, minimum of 8 and maximum of 18.

Level 2, if both hit: Same as level 1

Level 2 with Action Surge, if they all hit: 3d6 +9, Average of 19.5, minimum of 12, Maximum of 27.

Now with level 3 is when things get cool, with every hit we deal an addition d4 of damage

Level 3, if both hit: 2d6+2d4+6, Average of 18, minimum of 10 and maximum of 26.

Level 3 with Action Surge, if they all hit: 3d6+3d4+9, Average of 27, minimum of 15, Maximum of 39.

Then we assume that we are going to max out our strength before anything, so now we do +4 to every attack instead of +3.

Level 4, if both hit: 2d6+2d4+8, Average of 20, minimum of 12 and maximum of 28.

Level 4 with Action Surge, if they all hit: 3d6+3d4+12, Average of 30, minimum of 18, Maximum of 42. Aka MORE AVERAGE DAMAGE THAN FAILING A SAVING THROW AGAINST FIREBALL.

Level 5 is where things get good, store that shield or give it to someone else, cuz we’re using out 2 good hands for a Greatsword! This means we deal the following damage.

Level 5, if they all hit (1 big weapon attack and 2 light weapon attacks): 4d6+3d4+12, Average of 33.5, minimum of 19, maximum of 48.

Level 5, with Action Surge, if they all hit (3 big weapon attacks and 2 light weapon attacks): 8d6+5d4+20, Average of 60.5, minimum of 33, Maximum of 88. THAT’S ENOUGH TO KILL A YETI IN 1 TURN!

Level 6 we max out strength

Level 6, if they all hit (1 big weapon attack and 2 light weapon attacks): 4d6+3d4+15, Average of 36.5, minimum of 22, maximum of 51.

Level 6, with Action Surge, if they all hit (3 big weapon attacks and 2 light weapon attacks): 8d6+5d4+25, Average of 65.5, minimum of 38, Maximum of 93.

At level 7, our damage doesn’t increase, we instead get a defensive ability called “Brutish Durability” which is pretty good.

At level 8 we can take Great weapon master, which I won’t consider in this thought experiment cuz it’s too hard, but trust me it’s good.

At level 9 we get indomitable and our proficiency bonus is now +4, meaning we got a +9 to attack rolls, even more with magic items.

At level 10 we get a really good increase in damage with our d4s turning into d6s and we get and additional fighting style, which will be Great Weapon fighting which basically means we’re basically never getting 1s or 2s whenever in the damage for our great weapon, including the additional one. Also not including it in the thought experiment cuz hard.

Level 10, if they all hit: 7d6+15, Average of 39.5, minimum of 22, maximum of 57.

Level 10, with Action Surge, if they all hit: 13d6+25, Average of 70.5, minimum of 38, Maximum of 121.

Then Level 11, 3 attacks per action. Oh yeah.

Level 11, if they all hit (2 big boys and 2 light boys): 10d6+20, Average of 55, minimum of 30, maximum of 80.

Level 11, with Action Surge, if they all hit (5 big boys and 2 light boys): 19d6+35, Average of 101.5, minimum of 54, maximum of 149. THAT’S MORE DAMAGE THAN DISINTEGRATE!

Levels 12-15 are kinda boring so here’s a quick recap:

12 - ASI

13 - +5 Probono and a second use of Indomitable.

14 - ASI

15 - On a crit we extra deal damage equal to our level.

At 16, our extra dice turn into d8s, increasing our damage even more.

Level 16, if they all hit (2 big boys and 2 light boys): 6d6+4d8+20, Average of 59, minimum of 30, maximum of 88.

Level 16, with Action Surge, if they all hit (5 big boys and 2 light boys): 12d6+7d8+35, Average of 108.5, minimum of 54 and maximum of 187

17-19 we also don’t increase our damage at least not directly

Level 17 - we get to do action surge twice per short rest now, another indomitable and +6 in proficiency.

Level 18 - We get some slight regen when at half or less health.

Level 19 - Last ASI.

Then level 20, our magnum opus, we get another attack per action, but also our extra damage die turns into a d10.

Level 20, if they all hit (3 big boys and 2 light boys): 8d6+5d10+25, Average of 80.5, minimum of 38, maximum of 123.

Level 20, with Action Surge, if they all hit (7 big boys and 2 light boys): 16d6+9d10+45, Average of 150.5, minimum of 70, maximum of 231. Liches shivers by thought of your mear existence.

You can probably make the build more powerful with hunter’s mark or rage or something, but I dunno, I think this is still really strong.

[riddlerosehearts]

baldur's gate 3 thoughts again except this time i made a mistake while trying to save the draft partway through and lost a bunch of random screenshots and things i wrote 😔 oh well. good news is that this post marks the end of act 1 for me!

the underdark is so cool. i really wish i had a better PC because even with my crappy specs this place is so gorgeous and fantastical while also being vaguely unsettling lol. definitely not regretting my decision to double back after finishing the mountain pass stuff. also, i feel like elenion would definitely enjoy getting to visit a myconid colony and see how they live and how their society works up close, so that could be an additional roleplay reason for me to be doing this.

...you know things are getting bad when at this point i really think elenion would be okay with trusting a literal mind flayer to help him because wtf else are we supposed to do LMAO. genuinely at this point it sounds less insane for the party to ingest dangerous mushrooms at the suggestion of a mind flayer than it would be to let volo give any of them eye surgery. we have to get these tadpoles out of our brains somehow, i guess.

omeluum is actually a fascinating character, though. an illithid who broke free and literally just wants to do good and live a peaceful life? i'm surprised that i wasn't spoiled on literally anything about him before i played. i hope that's not because he's a secret bad guy or something, because he seems really earnest and trustworthy right now.

LMAO GALE PLEASE. i'm so glad i brought him along to the arcane tower.

oh huh, interesting that the history check here was a bard-specific option! i'd always heard that the bard colleges in DND weren't neccessarily actual colleges and were more just representations of just different schools of thought and such, similar to wizard subclasses being called schools, but apparently larian wants our bards to have gone to college! sure, i guess i can work that into his backstory.

anyway, bernard makes me sad. the whole tower is incredibly ominous and makes me sad for lenore, who we don't even get to meet... like she literally programmed a robot to give her a hug and emotionally support her on command!! :( i wish that when we went back with the mushrooms we could tell omeluum and blurg that lenore was missing, because they act like they didn't even realize she wouldn't be there.

obsessed with the fact that this is a bard option for when omeluum wants payment for the ring. and that you get to make him so happy that he gives it to you for free awwww.

i love how sometimes, the bard specific dialogue options actually allow your character to be studious and knowledgable about poetry and folk tales and music, which i was not expecting considering the way bards are generally stereotyped--

and sometimes they allow you to be a snarky little shit ASFKJGDFHJ 😭😭

since i went mountain pass -> underdark and i've already found the adamantine forge and done everything else it seems like i can currently do in my journal, i... think i'm actually ready to move onto act 2? i will say that i forgot to talk to dammon for karlach before the tieflings left the grove so i really hope that won't be too big of a problem. but if i did miss anything in act 1 (and i'm sure i must have) or mess anything up, then i think that's fine with me because i'm planning on doing several replays of this game anyway lol.

i went up the elevator, ended the day, and immediately mizora shows up and starts barking orders. i passed a perception check to pick up on her being desperate and this possibly being a chance to negotiate wyll out of his pact, and now i'm really wondering what would've happened if i failed that check?? would i have missed out on this whole scene where we try to negotiate with her?? would i have lost the chance to do this??

ngl i'm not so sure elenion actually would do that because it's a little too goofy for such a serious situation, but i couldn't resist trying it. and then i went back and tried the history check instead and they actually result in more or less the same thing--you recite an incantation you remember from an old children's story and she laughs in your face. where's the option to punch mizora in the face smh >:(

and now we get another ominous visit from the dream guardian! also, astarion told elenion he wants to talk to raphael and they told him they want to know what he's planning, which he disapproved of and refused to do. astarion why are you literally so hard to get along with omg.

this seems like a good place to stop for now but i am so excited to be making it further through the story.

[hazardsoflove]

disclaimers abt my st + dnd chatacter sheets sets below the cut because it’s A Lot

it’s MY own opinion. i am not interested in the tags if you think a character should be a different class or subclass. ESPECIALLY WHEN I MAKE THE WILL + CLERIC SET. i’ll block if i see this in the tags/comments bc i worked hard on this and i don’t want to see people being an asshole in the tags

i also don’t want to hear it if you think they should be a different race/background/alignment etc. make ur own post if you disagree

i’m using 5e rules/classes/races/etc so no one get on my ass about anything. it’s not timeperiod accurate because it’s a tumblr gifset

i actually rolled stats and then based the build on the ST CHARACTER not on how to correctly/logically build a character of that class which is why some of the builds will look weird/impractical based on the class (esp when i get to robins bc she’s a rogue but not dexterous)

the proficient skills chosen also reflect the st character BUT i’m picking from the allowed skills per class + whatever skills the bg grants. i’m trying to be at least semi accurate to character creation

i also did not add the proficiency bonus on the skill list bc i did not feel like it - a skill is marked proficient if the bubble next to it is colored in

i do include the stat bonuses/skill proficiencies that come with racial traits

i’m not overthinking this more than i have to. i’m not taking into account any of the ability score increases/access to feats for any of the characters. the stats they have is what i rolled + the racial bonus nothing more

i rolled hp myself. it literally was up to chance the roll of the dice and the con modifier i didn’t make anyone have a high or low hp for any specific reason. same goes for armor class i’m basing it off the armor that the class gets in their starting equipment and dex mod it’s nothing special

each set highlights just one class feature and one subclass feature bc if i did all of them it would get way too insane

if a class has a fighting style i picked the one i thought best suits the character for an additional gif

i did not pick feats for anyone bc i would’ve spent wayyyyy too long doing that

the backgrounds i gave everyone are only from the phb and are VERY loose in relation to the chatacter bc some characters i was struggling to pick a bg that fit their character best. some fit rly well some don’t fit that well get over it it’s FINE

this is likely gonna take me a long fucking time sjskshkshsjs

i’ve been playing dnd for 6+ years i know what i’m talking abt

that all being said i do hope u guys enjoy them even if u don’t know a single thing abt dnd i had so much fun making the first set and i’m v excited to make the rest <3

to find all the sets click here!

[raeynbowboi]

Making a 3rd Disney Princess DnD Party

KIDAGAKASH LIFE DOMAIN CLERIC

I’m sure some will argue that she should be a Fighter of some kind, as Kidagakash is clearly an Atlantean warrior when we meet her, but the crystals all Atlanteans wear have healing energy, and the Heart of Atlantis is a very powerful and sacred relic that Kida herself is connected to. This is why I chose Cleric, as it lets her be a healer, using the life-giving energy of the crystal. If that doesn’t tickle your pickle, there are other options, like making her a Champion Fighter or an Ancestral Guardian Barbarian.

MOANA HUNTER RANGER

I never realized until now that there’s no Ranger subclass for just being an explorer, navigator, or wanderer. Most are protectors against the wilderness. I made Moana a Ranger because finding your way and journeying to uncharted places is a balanced part of a ranger’s breakfast. Survival checks help people to navigate, and no class is more devoted to this skill than the ranger. So, it’s the best way to make Moana a wave finder. As such, I opted for Hunter because she has some fighting skills, and none of the other options were a better fit.

TIANA GLORY PALADIN

This is probably the farthest stretch I’ve ever had to make for one of these characters, but Tiana is really hard to translate to DnD. The only three things we really learn about Tiana in the movie is that she can cook, she believes in hard work, and she wants to own her own business. While those are fine traits, a lack of abilities or anything we can assign to Tiana basically means we have to shoot for the closest target. Tiana values hard work and puts no stock in destiny or wishes. Well, the Paladin believes in holding themselves to codes and conducts, and the Glory Paladin specifically seeks fame, recognition, awards, or other forms of success. I know it’s meant in more of a grand scheme of life thing, but she’s not driven by a desire to uphold the law, serve her country, or protect those who can’t protect themselves. I don’t know what else to tell you, the Oath of Glory puts a lot of emphasis on the Paladin’s personal ambitions. It’s a loose and weak connection, but it’s about all we got. Otherwise, you’re just stretching to make a Druid because someone else Polymorphed her into a frog.

EILONWY OF THE HOUSE OF LYR ARCHFEY WARLOCK / SEA SORCERER (Optional)

I had to cheat a little by looking at the Eilonwy from the books, and the books describe Eilonwy as being the daughter of a long line of enchantresses, but that her magical studies were interrupted when she was very young and inexperienced, leading to her being very unskilled in her magic. More importantly, her Bauble can only be summoned by her, and the Warlock not only has a very small pool of spell slots, but the Chain Pact Warlock gets unique familiars that nobody else can summon. This way, even mechanically, nobody can summon her Bauble except for herself. I went with Pact of the Archfey mostly... because there’s very little else to go on, but her Bauble seems like a Pixie to me. As she does come from a long line of magic-users, it’s not out of the question to multiclass into Sorcerer at higher levels once she’s had more training. Specifically, she is related to Lyr, the Welsh god of the Sea, so the Sea Sorcerer is an excellent subclass to Multiclass into.

RAYA KENSEI MONK

With a fine mixture of hand-to-hand and weapon training, as well as the Eastern influences of the film, Raya feels right at home as a weapon-skilled monk. You could absolutely multiclass her into a Fighter for more weapon proficiency, but she fights in relatively little armor, and her martial arts skills are better than Mulan’s which is why I lean more Monk than Fighter for her.

[mayakern]

I saw on your Twitter you play dnd! What kind of character do you play and what system? Also, do you do your own commissions of your characters or do you get it from other artists?

oh hell yeah i love dnd!!! i mostly just play 5E but my regular group did our second session in city of mists last night and it was SUPER fun (we play that instead of our ongoing game whenever our aussie players can’t make it)

i don’t usually reuse dnd characters because even tho i love my characters, they usually all end up with their own history and relationship to their games so adapting them feels weird, but here’s a run down of some of my favorite characters i’ve played! (and ye all this art is by me)

1. anenome (or nem for short)

she’s a water genasi arcane trickster rogue/divination wizard. she’s from a game where we started out playing kids (nem was 11) and then after a Big Event had an 11 year time skip where everyone in the party had to separate before a big reunion. she used to be a really shy and sweet and optimistic kid, but after everything fell apart and she became an accidental criminal, she stopped believing in any sort of fairness in the world and grew up super jaded and nihilistic, tho she still strives to protect that spark of optimism in others (not that she’d admit that). she is SUPER SUPER gay and is married to flare (fire genasi sorcerer). they have a bunch of history and i love them a lot!

2. nora

this is my city of mists character!! she’s a twitch streamer/cam girl/only fans model/l33t h4x0r. she’s clever and compassionate and very silly and a bit gross. part of her backstory is that when she was a relatively new twitch streamer, someone tried to cyberbully her by calling her a “garfield looking ass motherfucker” and so she immediately dyed her hair orange and made that her entire persona just to fuck with them (thus the custom garf headset).

3. hemlock

hemlock is an onomancy wizard! she was made for a storybook game — essentially all the characters lived on a bookshelf in someone’s home and can travel between books.

when characters travel into a new book, especially if it’s an “active” book (i.e. currently being read), they get assigned a role that is both available and closest to their archetype (so, as a wizard, if hemlock entered a book of king arthur’s tales she would likely be assigned as morrigan or merlin if available, or another magic user if not).

hemlock herself was from a story where her family (two sisters and her mother) were turned from good witches/princesses (it was unclear) into evil hags/witches and hemlock bartered her name (and right eye) to keep her mind/heart/goodness.

the onomancy wizard subclass is SUPER interesting and fun and is all about the naming of things and works super well with fairytale stuff (which i love). tbh i REALLY want to play hemlokc more. that game was insanely fun and ended prematurely due to scheduling difficulties. i just don’t think there is another game setting that would ever work for her bc she is so specific.

4. althea

my most recent character is althea! she’s an aasimar grave cleric. she woke up in a morgue about two weeks ago (in game time) and instantly fell in love with the mortician who discovered she was still(?) alive. she has no memories of her past (and tbh no real desire to go looking for them). she is smart but also a dumb ass, has 6 charisma and no sense of self preservation and is completely and utterly in love with rosemary (the mortician, now barkeep) and will literally do anything she wants, no questions asked (and will even do things she THINKS rosemary wants unasked... such as maybe yoinking a very obviously cursed goblet from a ritual circle of living corpses in literally the first game session just bc she thought rosemary would think it was cool).

5. penny

penny was my first long-term dnd character! she was my third dnd character ever but in a lot of ways i consider her my first because the other two were run primarily in 4E and didn’t meet often enough (or just enough period) for me to get a grasp on them or the game mechanics.

penny is a light domain cleric. she was made for a buddy cop game i joined randomly on roll20 because i couldn’t find a consistent group to meet with IRL. i was super nervous to join a random game with strangers but really wanted to play dnd so i gave it a shot and i am SO glad i did because i still play with that group! or.. what became of that group. it started out as a group of me and a bunch of strangers, but i quickly made friends with the DM and one of the other players, then devin joined a couple months in, and slowly original players left for various reasons and we invited other ppl in (a couple of my friends, the other longterm player’s gf, etc) and now that is the main group i still play with! (nem and nora and a bunch of my other characters are from games w that group)

when the game was open for player/character apps, we were asked to pitch what role our character would play in a buddy cop movie and i picked the straight man archetype (haha i know). penny is very sweet and shy and wholesome.

i have a bunch of other characters, most of which can be found on toyhouse, but this post is already way too long as is! whoops!

[creacherkeeper]

happy sleepover saturday luka!!! all even numbers for the dnd asks go tf off bestie!!! (maxwell for character q's) :)))

omg thank u my boy

(dm)

2. What is your NPC creation like?

i mostly create npcs to fill a needed role in the story, decide on some basic traits that fits or contradicts that roll, and then they flesh themselves out from there. my npcs tend to get a mind of their own very quickly so i have to do very little work

4. What's your favorite part of DMing?

creating characters or lore or scenes to Target Players i just love knowing whats going to drive them insane and then doing that on purpose as much as possible

6. Plot or character focused?

as a dm, very plot focused tbh. but i like to, as much as i can, create my plot around the pcs and players. lost has become more character driven because of choices the players have made and scenes they want to run

8. Do you prefer world or character creation?

for lost, ive actually been enjoying both fairly equally? im usually such a character bitch but making the world FOR the players & pcs and coming up with lore that will be interesting to them and tailoring it all to a wild west setting has been really fun and interesting. and my players have already started making secondary characters to explore and flesh out the world more so i guess its working!!!

(player)

10. How do you come up with characters?

i am VERY mechanics driven when it comes to pcs. i usually come up with class/subclass/multiclass first, then as i build the sheet try to figure out what kind of person they are based on the mechanical choices im making. personality and backstory usually come from that, but sometimes i do start with a basic concept or theme. i knew erley was a cowboy paladin, bo was going to be a ranger at a national park, and maxwell was an adhd mad scientist. but for example i decided that my new short shot character solare is very [redacted] because he has a +20 in [redacted]

12. What's your favorite part of playing DND?

when the other players are all really invested in the story and each others characters. like yeah we made all this up and we care so much!!! fuck yes!!! love getting emo about our little guys

14. Do you like to player characters with family?

i do!!!! i did notice a trend in my main game pcs of Only Children With MessyTM Relationships With Their Parents and we simply. arent going to examine that <3

16. Do you have any archetypes you tend to play?

not really? ive played a freakish amount of pcs at this point so they tend to be all over the place. i do love a Sad Boi tho <3

18. Do you prep for sessions?

daydreaming :))))) but thats it

(for maxwell)

20. Is your character religious?

he is!!!! he's a follower of burnlow, the god of fire, lightning, creation, and destruction. he truly does believe himself to be gods specialist little boy <3 im still trying to decide how/why he became a cleric though, waiting for my dm to help me flesh that out :) (i also decided the erley curse CANNOT continue so i gave max a +13 to religion)

22. How do they feel about the rest of the party?

he hasn't met them yet! but i do imagine it's going to be like "hello i am your new annoying gay best friend and you are Stuck with me as i have imprinted on you like a baby duck". maxwell doesnt really. have boundaries. he might have to work on those <3

24. If they were the god of anything, what would they be the god of?

self-expression

26. What kind of music would they like?

tbh prob like heavy metal and screamo. he would love welcome to the jungle by guns n roses

28. What would they do if they were betrayed?

smash everything with his big hammer <3 bonk

30. What are their thoughts on justice? (highly specific now)

that bad people get whats coming to them and most people are bad people which is why the world is so fucked up and violent

32. If they were on GBBO, what kind of contestant would they be?

would burn literally everything he baked either on purpose bc he claims it tastes better that way or because he was talking to the hosts or other contestants and forgot to set a timer. he would be kicked out very early but would be a meme-ified fan favorite

34. What would their thoughts on the fall of Rome be?

that empires deserve to fall and things would be better if everyone just kept each other in check

[swarmkeepers]

oo top 5 d&d classes (or subclasses if u wanna be even more specific)👀👀

5. wizard/warlock - tied because i truly can't choose but i promise i do actually like spellcasters alsdkfj arcana is way more interesting to me personally than the cleric/druid divine casting, warlocks are so incredibly fucked up and i could not explain their mechanics to you for anything but whoooboy warlock pacts make me go bonkers conceptually. wizards are so classic and i'm love them, there is power in knowing!

4. fighter - one of my wishlist classes to play someday, especially the arcane archer/echo knight/battle master/eldritch knight subclasses! dnd was built for combat really and fighters are good at combat in a really satisfying way, with lots of fun flavor of the more magical subclass options. the meta of: who do you fight for? what do you fight for? is very fun and sexy to me!

3. rogue - being very skilled and good at lots of things + having lots of fun options of things to do (both in terms of the diversity of subclasses and choices—just look at all the different rogues in d20 and how distinct they are from each other—but also like. having built in bonus action options to make combat interesting) is just. it feels so good to play. hell yeah.

2. paladin - the wandering isles got to me, okay, but before that the naddpod homegame universe meta got to me, and ricky matsui got to me— it's a class i still don't necessarily think i'd want to play but the meta of oaths and conflict and devotion and commitment is simply. so much and so good. especially paladins devoted to an idea or to people than to a god. absolute chefs kiss.

1. barbarian - getting power from your weaponized anger, in whatever form that takes for each character individually, continues to be the absolute sexiest concept to me. the mechanics are just straight-up Powerful especially at higher levels! i will always have a soft spot for this class; i think it was a really good entry point into dnd and i just. love my girl tâm so much you don't even know, so unbelievably biased and do not care <3

[bad-pun-king]

I'm gonna make this really bizarre campaign in dnd, and I got a shardton of ideas but I can't really tell my discord friends since they're the players and my Q friends don't really care so I'mma say it into the void of tumblr

Basic premise of what I'm calling the Microcosm? Dungeons and Dragons, except it's Risk of Rain.

If you're unfamiliar, Risk of Rain is a game where you crashland on an uncharted alien planet where all the native life is immediately hostile for no apparent reason, and you have to use whatever cargo you can find from the crash to fight your way to survival. The endings imply many of the characters carry scars from the experience even if they do escape, such as Commando losing his humanity, Engineer being more steel and circuit than man, and Enforcer being mutated beyond recognition. Eventually you have to kill the god of planet to escape, which it turns that god was the one who shot down your ship in the first place.

In my campaign, instead of an alien planet it'll be an unknown demiplane. There is no native life, but much the players, monsters get dragged into it at random and have to fight eachother off for survifal. There are chests scattered throughout the demiplane that contain all kinds of items from DnD, ranging from a simple rations pack to the Orb of Dragonkind itself. To compensate and balance this, the players don't get anything except a set of clothes when they enter.

The demiplane itself, the Microcosm, is essentially the Great Wheel Cosmology but as a single demiplane. They start in the center, the Prime Material. If they go east they'll enter the Feywild, then the Deep Ethereal, then the Air Plane, then Deep Ethereal again, then the Astral, then Limbo, then the Astral again, and finally they'll hit the Far Realm. West is similar, except instead of Feywild, Air, and Limbo, it's the Shadowfell, Earth Plane, and Mechanus. There's no equivalent for the Feywild or Shadowfell to the north or south, but otherwise it's the same with Water and Elysium to the north and Fire and Hades to the south. There's also different areas if you abuse the wonky physcis of areas like Air, Astral, or Deep Ethereal to go up or down. Above the Prime Area is the Positive Energy area, and above that is the Outlands, below the Prime area is Negative Energy, below that is the Elemental Chaos, except of course the Elemental Chaos isn't directly in the Astral area like other areas as far out as it, just in an extended Deep Ethereal area. Should they try to brave the Far Lands, they'll find themselves looped around to the other end of the demiplane, going west past mechanus and ending up finding limbo. If you know Great Wheel Cosmology, you should be able to figure out where other planar areas would be located based on this, so I won't explain further.

There's also another group of survivors they can meet and take allies from occasionally. These allies are dnd expies of Wildbow protagonists. A swarmkeeper ranger going by Swarm based on Taylor in Worm, a fiend warlock named Blake and his familiar Rose based on Blake and Rose from Pact (I know Evan exists but it was easier to fit Rose into the dndified backstory), a mastermind rogue going by Agent Wyvern based on Sy from Twig, a glory paladin named Victoria based on Victoria in Ward (gonna give her a heroic title relating to stars but I haven't thought it yet), and a trio of wizards going by Feline, Vulpine, and Elaphine, based on Verona, Lucy, and Avery in Pale. Elaphine is a conjuration wizard, and of course has Snowdrop as her familiar, but I'm less sure on what to have for Feline or Vulpine's subclasses. I'm thinking maybe illusion for Feline, and either abjuration or war magic for vulpine, depending on where Lucy's character goes in Pale. Everyone in this group will be higher leveled than the party at first, but not level up as fast, and only 2 will ever accompany the party at a time.

They'll level up faster than a traditional campaign, so I'm starting at level 1 instead of the 5 or 6 my group usually goes for.

How do they escape the plane that's imprisoned them? Well, mostly they have fight a being called the Spirit of Adventure. The Spirit of Adventure is an illusion of someone's idea for a god of adventurers manifested in the real Deep Ethereal plane, and since that plane brings illusions to life sometimes, they came to life. What's fighting them like? Well, dude's level 20 in all 13 classes, but they specifically limit themself because they know going all out they'll never get the fight they always hoped for, so they don't use items at all, or spells with material components, and they're mechanically treated as if they don't have any subclasses. This will also be the only time the party can bring in everyone, making it a 1v15 not counting familiars or minions. And they have to be level 20 to get the chance to fight him. But if they try to cheat and exit the plane early, he'll stop them in their tracks and reveal what's going on.

Also an idea for Blake specifically, if he dies over the course of the campaign, he can come back as a hollow one. He'll lose his warlock levels and gain equivalent champion fighter levels instead. A reference to him becoming a bogeyman in Pact but losing his practitioner powers.

I think that's everything. I'll be using random number generators to decide what items they get each session. 

Man, that felt good.

[utilitycaster]

Do you rely on any DnD books beyond official WotC stuff while DM-ing? I know there's lots of 5e compatible stuff out there but it's confusing to navigate

I don’t - I’ll google things (like the unarmed strike question) to get some perspectives, but that’s about it. The only D&D book I have that isn’t official WoTC is the Tal’Dorei campaign guide and I mostly got that for lore and understanding how to build a setting, more so than any rulings. I do use unearthed arcana, which is official WoTC but in playtest format, but I haven’t really used that as a DM except for some NPC ideas.

I guess my question to you (if you’re looking for advice over just asking me what I do, and either is cool) is what you’re hoping to accomplish with additional books:

For monsters/enemies/NPC stat blocks: between all the official WoTC stuff it’s easy to just take a stat block for an existing creature and reflavor the specifics to fit your setting. I’ve heard good things about Kobold Press and I know it was featured a lot in NADDPod, and I find that just flipping through books gives me good DM-ing ideas for monsters which then gives me plot ideas, so if you’re like me and you’re mechanically strong but not necessarily the greatest plot writer, it might be worth it, but also the monster manual + Mordenkainen’s + Volo’s will put you in a pretty good place if you just need combatants and NPCs.

For character classes/subclasses: unless you like getting really creative and in-depth with NPCs, just follow your players’ leads and make sure you have the sourcebook for what they’re doing. Having more books is fun and will help if you ever want to homebrew, but like, while I plan on getting Eberron so that I’ll have the artificer class available for NPCs, none of my players are taking that route so it’s not a necessity.

For rulings: I don’t think I’ve ever referred to anything but the PHB, DM’s Guide, or Xanathar’s Guide for rulings in terms of books; obviously I search things a lot and refer to both DM advice content online and what I’ve seen in actual play. At the end of the day, what matters the most is are you consistent, are you fair, and are you and your players on the same page even when you say no. It’s okay to rule in the moment to keep the game going, as long as you either maintain that ruling or talk through with your players before changing it. (though I will say, if it’s really a matter of character life and death it is worth making sure you’re making the right choice even if it breaks the flow; player comfort comes before being perfectly in character all the time).

For setting/plot ideas: there’s tons of that in official WoTC material. I don’t have any adventures although I’ve been thinking about getting the Curse of Strahd and possibly Princes of the Apocalypse, and I have the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide in PDF form despite dragging it, and I have physical copies of the Wildemount and Ravnica campaign guides because they’re helpful in understanding how to build a campaign setting and because I love lore, and also the regular writer rules apply: read a lot of published fiction, and honestly, read a lot of published nonfiction! Watch movies or TV shows, and don’t limit yourself to fantasy! Listen to podcasts, and not just actual play! I’ve never really been a videogame person but those are good too. Consume ideas from everywhere and let them bounce around.

[probablygoodrpgideas]

Wizards of the Coast released a new Unearthed Arcana with a Cleric, a Druid, and a Wizard subclass. If you’re interested in my opinion, read more:

Keep in mind that all of this is just my personal opinion and only based on reading, not on playing!

Twilight Domain

Flavor: A very nice addition to the domains that already exist. I added it to 9 gods of my setting and especially for the goddess of the moon, it feels like a needed addition.

Mechanics: 

Domain Spells: Yeah they look good. I don’t know every spell by heart, but I feel like they got all the spells I would associate with this domain

Bonus Proficiencies: Almost every Cleric domain gets either bonus cantrips or proficiency with heavy armor and/or martial weapons. So far, only Tempest and War get heavy armor and martial weapons, and I think Eyes of the Night and Vigilant Blessing aren’t stronger than those domain’s level 1 features. I also think the juxtaposition of the martial Twilight domain to the spellcasting Light domain is pretty cool

Eyes of Night: This is pretty good but also situational. I am currently running Dungeon of the Mad Mage and the party includes a drow so I know that longer-range darkvision is an advantage but nothing too major. The power of this feature widely varies depending on your own race and party composition, from very powerful in a no-darkvision party to next to useless in a party where everyone has darkvision.

Vigilant Blessing: Initiative can be very important and this is basically a +5 to initiative. I think it’s a bit weird that you have to give it to someone before rolling initiative, I think it would be better if you just had advantage on initiative permanently, without the option to give it to someone else. I like the inclusion of “including possibly yourself” because that’s something new players often forget with things like Lay on Hands

Channel Divinity: Wow. This is powerful. A 30-foot radius sphere is likely to catch your entire party, and then it allows you to grant 1d8 temporary hit points, which in battle is similar to casting healing word, or end a charm or frighten which is a limited lesser restauration. And it provides light. All that for the low price of 1 action, and it doesn’t even require concentration. I think it’s too strong.

Steps of the Brave: The only other domain that grants a flying speed is Tempest, and they get it at 17th level. The Sorcerer bloodlines that grant (unconditional) flight do so at 14th level. It feels weird to say because I am a big defender of Aarakocra not being OP, but this just might be too early for flying. I also don’t see the connection between twilight and being able to fly. The advantage against frightened is good though.  

Divine Strike: As a martial domain, of course, they get divine strike. I am not too sure about psychic damage, I feel like radiant might be more appropriate

Midnight Shroud: It’s a great feature that provides some good utility but there’s a problem if your party has more than 5 members (including pets) or if you chose to not max out Wisdom. I think you should be allowed to exclude any number of creatures from the spell.

Overall verdict: A needed addition to the Cleric class but I am not sure about the features. Many of them are situational, the channel divinity is very strong, and I feel like this subclass doesn’t have a real focus. You just get a lot of good stuff without a clear identity. 

Circle of WIldfire

Flavor: I like the idea of a druid that knows that destruction is important for growth, similar to how the circle of spores druid knows that death is important for life. I could see this as the subclass of a Gruul Shaman.

Circle Spells: I don’t like the trend of giving druidic circles extra spells, I thought that was the thing of the Circle of the Land. I do like the spells though, and the fact that for every level, there is one spell that nourishes, and one that destroys. I don’t think Druids need Raise dead though, they already have Reincarnate.

Summon Wildfire: I like the trend of giving druidic circles new things to do with their wild shape. Overall, I really like this feature, but Fiery Teleportation might be a bit too good at level 2, it might have been better to unlock that at a later point.

Enhanced Bond: This pretty good. A d8 bonus to damage might not seem too big a deal, but remember that this also applies to Cantrips that deal fire damage. A d8 bonus to healing is insane. Your Healing Word does more healing than that of a Life Cleric. I don’t like this feature but not because it’s too strong (I think it’s fine). It makes you very powerful while you have your spirit, and while you don’t have your spirit, you basically don’t have a subclass. This kind of win-more mechanic is usually not very fun. Another issue is that without metagaming, nobody except for the druid will know that it’s the spirit that causes these buffs, so if the DM wants the enemies to be more strategic, they can’t take out the source of the Druid’s power without at least some metagaming. On the other hand, an enemy immediately focusing down the spirit could be used to show that they did their research and prepared to fight the party. 

Flames of Life: See above for issues with only buffing you while you have your spirit. I like this feature but I think “touches the flame” is very weird. Why would an enemy touch these flames? Maybe they saw an ally of your touch the flames and get healed and wanted to get healed themselves? Regardless, you don’t want enemies to touch the flames, because the healing is way stronger than the damage in most cases. I would change it so it triggers when a creature enters the space that was occupied by the deceased, and you can create a flame even if you don’t have your spirit.

Blazing Endurance: It reminds me of the Phoenix sorcerer which I really liked. I also really like this.

Overall verdict: A great subclass that has a bit of a win-more problem. It is great at dealing damage and healing, and pretty decent at tanking as well (Blazing Endurance and the extra hit points brought into combat through the spirit). I don’t know if it’s a Jack of all trades, master of none, or a one-person party that out-damages the Wizard, out-heals the Cleric, and out-tanks the Barbarian. I would love to hear some playtest reports of that.

Onomancy

Flavor: This is a tough one. Names having power is a concept taken from real-world belief, but it was never really a part of 5e before which makes it hard to buy. If Xanathar knows that some Wizards have more power over him if they know his true name, nobody would know he’s called Xanathar. I think “Do names have power in my setting” is a question every DM has to ask themselves. I did and decided they don’t. (I’ve been told Onomancy was in earlier editions of dnd but that doesn’t really change anything about this). I like the box on true names, and appreciate that a trans creature’s deadname isn’t their true name.

Bonus Proficiencies: It makes sense to have them here. Nothing else to say.

Extract Name: “You can’t use this feature on the target again” seems a little too harsh. “You can’t use this feature on the target again for 24 hours” is the same against most enemies, and for the reoccurring villains, you want to have the option to try again during your next confrontation. 

Fateful Naming: I like that your allies are encouraged to give you their true name, even though that means that if you betray them, you have more power over them. 

Resonant Utterance: I like them, but I think there should be more for buffing your allies. Right now, there’s only Nullification and Sympathy and those can also be used to hinder your enemies.

Inexorable Pronouncement: Getting more options is always a nice thing, and certainly not too strong.

Relentless Naming: Cool idea, but I think it should be limited to spells that target only that creature. I can’t suspend disbelief enough for a fireball that hits 8 people. 7 of them burn, and Vajra Safar, who I specifically called out, takes psychic damage. 

Overall Verdict: Flavor is up to everyone to decide, but mechanically, I love this class. It almost makes me want to change my mind about the power of names in my setting, just because I love it so much. Almost. 

[cantfoolajoker]

the phantom thieves as dnd classes

ok as a dnd nerd who likes using class assignments as character study opportunities, im here to assign the thieves to some 5e classes and subclasses.

im putting it under a read more bc it got lengthy when i explained why i picked certain things.

so for starters, akira/ren is def a mastermind rogue imo. mastermind rogues flavor wise focus a lot on the concept of manipulating higher powers like rulers or high ranking members of society for your own cause. in akiren’s case, this falls right into what joker does as a phantom thief. the mastermind subclass over all also gives a lot of tools in order to just plainly not be yourself, which is something akiren also does a lot with how he presents himself.

morgana definitely leans on the side of the more radiant subclasses since he’s the manifestation of the hope of the people, so i pinned him as a divine soul sorcerer because of the innate divine energy resting in someones soul being a fitting description for him. this suits the fact that divine soul is actually a more healing based subclass ala a stereotypical cleric, giving morgana access to healing spells like he does in game, and at that, divine souls actually get an alternate form called the angelic form, which suits morgana having his cat form and his monster cat form. this subclass also references a lot of the people belonging to it are servants of the gods, which morgana is also referred to as. 

i feel like saying ryuji is a barbarian is like the small brain of this, and then i was like maybe a paladin? they do damage and stuff, but then i realized that tempest domain cleric is like right there, and that’s like his bread and butter. now i know what you’re thinking, dont clerics heal?, and let me just tell you cleric is such a versatile class you could have an entire team of clerics and so long as theyre different domains they could all functionally be different. tempest domain clerics focus on outputting dps in the form of lightning based attacks and also are one of the tanky cleric classes with getting martial weapons and heavy armor, so theyre expected to be super dps heavy, which is what ryuji does. usually gods of the tempest domain are patron sea gods that sailors pray to, which fits in with captain kidd and all that. these gods usually represent things like courage too, which is something ryuji has a lot of. also he def uses bludgeoning weapons just saying.

i threw around a bit what ann would be since her weapon doesn’t give much direction other than ranger, but i feel that a light domain cleric would fit her well. like i said in ryuji’s, clerics don’t have to heal constantly, but this gives ann the option of being able to like she does in game. light clerics basically automatically get most of the fire and light based spells in their domain spell list, covering ann’s biased toward fire based attacks as well with spells such as faerie fire, scorching ray, and everyone’s favorite spell fireball. gods representing the light domain promote ideas of renewel/rebirth, truth, and beauty which describe ann and her story pretty well. also it’s a fun contrast against ryuji as they’re the first two human party members.

okay so like i Know samurai fighter is a thing, but i also think yusuke would fit super well as a moon circle druid. druids overall focus a lot on old gods and magic- they’re described as being priests of old faith, which i feel fits yusuke’s traditional theme. moon circles mainly focus on using wildshape and can be very good at both melee dps and at tanking, both of which yusuke does combat wise. plus he’s called inari (the patron god of foxes) by futaba, he’s called fox as a thief nickname, and he wears the kitsune mask as a thief- if anything him Not wildshifting into a fox at this point would just be... well wild.

makoto gave me a headache since like, her fighting style does not translate well between melee punching and having a mount. i threw the idea back and forth with a friend and we agreed that a dex-based paladin multiclassed with a monk would be a good fit for her, since paladins get summon steed as a spell and also focus on the concept of being a justice holy servant while monk gives her the ability to throw actually good punches with a hit die. as for her paladin oath, two fit her very well between oath of the crown and oath of vengeance, with one focusing on upholding justice and society and the other focusing on punishing wrongdoers who step out of line with an iron fist, as both fit different aspects of makoto’s character and her goals. plus the religious undertones of the paladin class regardless mirrors the religious undertones she has as the priestess card and johanna.

so i had the choice of either leaning into being a navigator or letting her do her own thing, and i think futaba would probably be an alchemist artificer- which yes i’m counting since it’s going to be official soon. they’re all intelligence tinkerers with a knack for item analysis and can even create a construct for a companion, which futaba would probably adore if how much she loves cat morgana doesn’t speak its own volumes. they get things like infuse magic and can pull out combinations of concoctions from their alchemy satchel to do random things that range from damage dealing magic attacks like alchemical fire to creating field hazards like smoke stick.

since a lot of haru’s personal story focuses on her family, specifically her grandfather and her father, i feel that ancestral guardian barbarian is a good fit for her. for one she gets her big battle axe, but also it highlights a lot of the cold rage she has that isn’t touched upon, since raging as a barbarian doesn’t always have to be loud and yelling but can be silent and bone chilling too, which fits haru’s anger quite well. ancestral guardians focus a lot on heritage and using that heritage to buff yourself in battle, which falls in line with haru’s connection to her family.

finally nobody can tell me akechi isn’t an archfey warlock, especially one that’s pact of the blade. warlocks make connections with higher powers to get what they want, which whether you look at his relationship with shido or the fact yaldabaoth gave him his powers, he’s a warlock regardless. i picked archfey specifically because i feel akechi embodies a lot of the trickster fey elements over all, but also feylocks are buffers generally, which is a role akechi slots into quite easily. blade wise, a fey blade probably would resemble a toy saber with it being all mystical, which is why i can see him as pact of the blade. also, whether you want to argue he’s a charisma based warlock or an intelligence based one, he has both anyway. i also completely forgot to mention too that archfey’s given spells includes the calm emotions spell, which is just entirely ironic given what loki can do.

bonus: mishima is a valor bard, no i do not take constructive criticism. literally watch the final battle again and tell me he isn’t one. singing about heroes in order to inspire others and literally is the bard with the feat to give inspiration die mid battle? mishima.

[creacherkeeper]

How is the cowboi doing? :) I’d love to hear about some of their recent adventures.

OH WELL IT'S ME + ALSO MY DICE HATE(/love) ME SO YOU KNOW THEYRE GETTING WHUMPED CONSTANTLY LMAO

there have certainly been some Events Unfolding so those are under the cut, casey since youre in our campaign now NO PEEKING

fair warning this is .... long ..... you have asked me to talk about my dnd character and you simply CANNOT stop the floodwaters now. enter at your own risk

okay so basically the first arc of the campaign kind of kicked off with them getting a vision from their goddess (the grain goddess/goddess of agriculture) saying that she was trapped in a fey gate and that they needed to come rescue her

so erley immediately Rallied The Posse and set off to do that. they NUMEROUS times tried to pray to her, commune with her, basically just get ANY sort of communication or guidance from her, but the dice like to tell their story so i literally never got above an 11 (paladin with only +2 to religion my beloved) and they never heard from her, which was making them. pretty nervous. when it seemed like everyone else was able to talk to their gods just fine

well we eventually figured out that there was a huge gathering of fey in the woods (me: this might be too big for us to fight. what if its like 30 fey? / my dm, glancing at his notes where he has 2000 fey written down: (: ) and basically the fey like. had captured and were trying to kill what was left of the pantheon so they could bring back gaia as the One True God

we found all this out because it turned out several members of the party had been lying about how much they knew of the fey and had personal connections to the fey they'd kept hidden. and erley, who is ALSO HIDING A LOT from the party like. immediately went on the offense and was just generally very unhappy about this

there had been this fey merchant who kept popping up wherever we were trying to sell us magic weapons that seemed tied to us specifically. erley was always VERY suspicious of her and did everything in their power to stop the others from buying her weapons (which we literally had to buy with -5 to a skill point, not money, v sus) to mixed results. but basically when we got to the fey gathering (we called it gaiapalooza) erley rolled a 1 on their survival check to get through the magic field and like. got teleported to her. and they really wanted information from her so they basically were like LEORA I DONT KNOW WHO TO TRUST I THINK MY PARTY HAS BEEN LYING TO ME, CAN YOU TELL ME ANYTHING ABOUT THEM CAN YOU SEE US WHEN YOURE NOT THERE? and basically pretended to need a therapy session in order to milk her for information lmao. she also seemed like. REALLY interested in erley and i was also very nervous about that

and i was RIGHT to be suspicious of her because we found out she WAS ACTUALLY THE BIG BAD and we had to fight her in the arc finale. and several of our party members had rl stuff and were not there, and in game our druid was away casting an 8 hour long spell to try and stop the palooza ceremony, so our party was SUPER nerfed and also as soon as erley realized it WAS actually leora who was behind all of it and she WAS trying to hurt them with those weapons (the weapons were tethers to the gods to be able to kill them basically), they got .... a little angry

and my party found out after irl a year of playing these characters that erley's first level is barbarian :))

so erley raged and did frankly a staggering amount of damage in this fight, and also only stayed up because of rage because they took a LOT of hits. but also. they dont rage FOR A REASON so it sort of took them over and when leora dropped, one of the other pcs ran over to stabilize her as she was making death saves and erley :) maybe :) drove a spear through her heart and killed her :)

and her body immediately just like. overgrew with plants and vines and flowers and basically wrapped the spear in a bed of plants and it was very cinematic and cool

(we have since found out that leora was like. actually an aspect of gaia so. that is. interesting)

of course then erley popped out of rage and was like FUCK this is why i dont do this, i went too far, it always goes too far, THIS is why im ashamed of this, and just got very emo boi about it. so they used their last spell slot to cast restoration on the space they had fought in and reached out to their goddess, having just saved her and the rest of the pantheon like she had asked them to

and i rolled a nat 1!!!

(the dm was like "you have committed this violent act, you feel so low and so bad and in need of guidance, and reach out to your goddess. and the absolute lack of a response just makes you feel empty inside" and i was like :) oh :) okay cool :) you love to see that with your paladins huh)

at this point the druid came back in and, instead of erley like. examining any of their own shit immediately lashed out at her and was like "why did you lie to me about the fey, why did you lie about why you were here, why ARE you here because i realize now it wasnt to help me"

and at that point ONE OF THE FEY QUEENS WALKED IN and the druid was like "... mother ..." and we were all :O

so it turns out the fey queen is her birth mom but had like? kidnapped one of the children of her firbolg tribe and was holding her hostage and the druid was on a quest to find her and bring her back

so erley :) felt :) even more bad about that :) and very shamedly pledged their help to her, and basically was like "as long as youre on this noble quest i will follow you if you'll have me"

so we're on our second arc now, which is traveling across the country to go meet the fey queen and get this kid back. as we were traveling my dm had me roll religion and a luck check and i got a 21 ON RELIGION FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER and a 6 luck. and he was like "you dont usually dream, but you have a nightmare. you know this nightmare was given to you, it was divinely inspired, but you dont know who sent it" and it was just erley killing leora over and over and over again. so they were like. well fuck

(my dm also messaged me privately and we talked and he was like. yeah you can get rid of your oath of devotion and change it to oath of the ancients, i am not telling you or erley why the subclass has changed and you also might get nerfed later. also level up barbarian for the next fight)

so erley was. feeling PRETTY DANG BAD and very guilty and stressed and all that. they did also realize their barbarian side was getting stronger which, considering their backstory is all tragic barbarian shit they were NOT happy about. i was fully prepared to have them be more ostracized from the party and go into full angst mode, but then the druid actually like. pulled them aside and explained why she had hidden information from them, and had a very sweet conversation with them and held their hand and it was VERY touching (she also had the baller line "you think your goddess can hear you and she's not answering. but maybe you're talking in a whisper and she needs to hear you scream")

we had another fight (we're level 7 and my dm told us after it was a cr 32 fight like. dude??? what the fuck?????) and once again erley didnt go down only because of rage

THEY ALSO UNINTENTIONALLY CAST MISTY STEP (which is an ancients spell they didnt have before) and were like WELL NO TIME TO UNPACK WHAT THAT WAS RIGHT NOW, HAVE TO NOT DIE

after the battle was over i asked to roll a check to figure out why i had access to that spell and got :) yeah you guessed it :) another nat 1 :) so erley has literally no idea how they cast that or what it could mean. we just had a new pc introduced who is a sorcerer so erley is definitely going to talk to her and see if she knows anything. because they are FULLY IN THE DARK about their subclass change or what that means in game

we're also (because of the fucking cr 32 fight) going to be leveling up again soon, and babey you KNOW im leveling barbarian. after rage kept me up and then rolling another nat 1 religion check, and also me the player not knowing whats up with their goddess/magic, i simply cant level paladin rn. so im BETWEEN A FEW SUBCLASS OPTIONS and ive been thinking them over but i think it really depends how the next few games go

my FULL ANGST option was to make them level into zealot barbarian like their awful dad, but i thought that made the least sense in universe rn

secondary angst option is to level into berserker, which i think fits pretty closely with how i've been roleplaying the rage so far. trading off an extra attack for a level of exhaustion fits pretty closely. also whump central

the NICE option is to have them be a totem warrior barbarian, and have both their paladin steed and their totem be a bull :) (they are a cowboi after all) i think thats the closest i can marry their two classes and potentially have some healthy growth for them, let them see that the rage doesnt HAVE to be a bad thing, that being a barbarian isnt something they HAVE to be ashamed of. reskinning the bear totem would give them resistance to all damage but psychic while raging, and im planning on taking the tough feat, so theyd pretty much be ... an unstoppable tank. plus i can still divine smite while in rage so theyd be VERY powerful

and now youre all caught up on my very special boi :))))) bet you didnt expect quite that much of an infodump but. listen. listen im simply obsessed with dnd i cannot help it. any chance to talk about my characters i WILL TAKE IN A HEARTBEAT (thank u for prompting my ramble lmao)