#planar combo

[rubywolf0201]

Theorycrafting on Boothill

Yes. I’m afraid this cowboy android man has won my heart over. So here are some Relics and Light Cones that I plan to put on him.

Relics

2 pc Champion + 2 pc Grand Duke (I think he has a Follow Up in his kit)

2 pc Thief + 2 pc Pioneer

2 pc Champion + 2 pc Thief

4 pc Pioneer (Unlikely combo since I don’t think it would work in the long run)

There are other combo I could use but these are the ones I listed out.

Planar Ornaments

Talia for Break Effect

Inert Salsotto to increase CRIT Rate

Rutilant Arena is the same as Inert Salsotto but it can increase Basic ATK and Skill by 20%

Light Cones

Either Only Silence Remains or Swordplay can work (assuming my luck isn’t shit and I plan to roll for his signature LC)

[wynterrolls]

【Honkai: Star Rail Build TLDR】

❆ Pela

There are two builds recommended for Pela. First build is focused on her DEF-reduction uptime, while second build is focused on her break dmg from Ultimate.

For Debuffer Build (Recommended!)

[Relic Set 1 = more basic ATK DMG, gets SPD to self, gives ATK buff to allies] → 4pc Musketeer of Wild Wheat → 2pc Fleet of the Ageless

[Relic Set 2 = more basic ATK DMG, gets SPD + EHR to self] → 4pc Musketeer of Wild Wheat → 2pc Pan-Galactic Commercial Enterprise

[Relic Set 3 = to keep her squishy HP safe] → 4pc Guard of Wuthering Snow → 2pc Fleet of the Ageless

[Relic Set 4 = more turns, more SP for team] → 4pc Eagle of Twilight Line → 2pc Fleet of the Ageless

For Break Effect Build

Cavern Relic Sets [Choose either 4pc or 2pc+2pc] → Hunter of Glacial Forest → Thief of Shooting Meteor → Musketeer of Wild Wheat

Planar Ornament Sets [Choose 1] → 2pc Talia: Kingdom of Banditry → 2pc Space Sealing Station

** The ranking of each combo sets will be found at the bottom of this post.

Main Stats → Head = HP (constant) → Hand = ATK (constant) → Body = Effect Hit Rate% (EHR%) → Feet = SPD → Sphere = HP% (for debuffer) / Ice DMG% (for break effect) → Rope = Energy Regeneration Rate (ERR)

Sub Stats → EHR% → SPD → HP% (for debuffer build) → Break Effect (for break build)

Things to Consider

➤ Without ERR rope, rotation to get her ultimate up would be: → using Tutorial event LC, use 3 basic (SP-positive) → using any nihility LC, use 4 basic (SP-positive)

➤ With ERR rope, rotation to get her ultimate up would be: → using Tutorial event LC + Lv 7 talent, use 2 basic (SP-positive) → using any nihility LC + Lv 5 talent, use 3 basic (SP-positive)

** The highlighted ones are the recommended rotations for Pela.

➤ Optional: Build her with 120+ SPD to get the atk buff from Fleet of the Ageless set effect.

Things to Remember

➤ DEF% Reduction in Ultimate and Technique. Ice RES% Reduction in E4. She needs 67% EHR to guarantee these debuffs. She has a base 20% EHR from traces alone, so she only needs 47% EHR more from relic or lightcone stats.

Lightcones

* Lightcone list is from Honkai: Star Rail General Build Guide. Link below in the post. (They did the calcs, so now we have the weapon rankings.)

Before the Tutorial Mission Starts (4☆) [S5]

Incessant Rain (4☆) [S1]

Resolution Shines As Pearls of Sweat (4☆) [S1]

Eyes of the Prey (4☆) [S1]

Void (3☆) [S5]

Additional Block of Text Below

The most recommended build for Pela is to build her with the needed EHR values and the rest of the substats would be for SPD and HP%.

Musketeer of Wild Wheat is a set mostly recommended for her because her rotations is only using basic attacks to get her ultimate up.

The Guard of Wuthering Snow is a niche build that is recommended if you are farming for Quantum set and you get a lot of good Wuthering relic pieces from the same relic cavern. This is niche because you are mostly prioritizing her HP pool over her damage potential.

Eagle of Twilight Line is only recommended for her if you don't need to speedtune her in your team. The purpose of having the Wind set and the SPD boots on her is to guarantee that she'll be having more turns than usual compared to using the other relic sets on her. She can carry the SP economy of your team due to her SP+ nature.

As for the planar ornament sets, only use Pan-Galactic Commercial Enterprise if you are having hard time getting the required 67% EHR for her, but if you can achieve that with only using EHR body and some EHR substats, you could use Fleet of the Ageless instead to give ATK buff for your team.

** Broken Keel & Fleet of Ageless for support usage is explained here.

— Break DMG Calculation —

To start off, break effect is a multiplier that enhances three things:

Break DMG

DoT/Delayed DMG dealt by inflicting Weakness Breaks

Action delay caused by Quantum and Imaginary Weakness Breaks

Since Pela is Ice element, she's isn't capable dealing DoT DMG, but she could deal initial break DMG from both her Basics, Skill, Technique, and Ultimate. The calcs only consider single instance of initial break dmg. So yeah, my values might differ with other break dmg calcs. ** There's a break dmg calc in the sources below, but I didn't used it cause I'm running with my last remaining brain cell when I did my calcs here, but feel free to check that out.

TLDR;

Highest break dmg set = 2pc Thief + 2pc Musketeer + 2pc Talia

Lowest break dmg set: = 4pc Hunter + 2pc SSS = 2pc Hunter + 2pc Hacker + 2pc SSS

%Difference between highest break dmg set & lowest debuffer set = ~30%

Sources

Guoba's EHR Guarantees

Honkai: Star Rail General Build Guide

Relic Sets

Relic Stats

Edisonsmathsclub's Energy Requirements Sheet

MrPokke's HSR CN Analysis Sheet

Pela Artwork

Character Toughness Damage

Break Damage Calculator

Normal DoT and Break DoT Calculation Analysis by Nable

Toughness Formula

Uploaded on Patch 1.2

➥ Back to my HSR masterlist.

Update Log

08/29/2023 - Uploaded this post

[blujayonthewing]

Future and/or mask for Aubree and/or June? :)

future: What's the worst possible future for your OC? Are they taking steps to avoid that outcome? Are they even aware it's a possibility?

Juniper has a nasty combo of a martyr complex and a terror of loss and letting go, which could very easily lead to a Bad Ending June who is consumed with desperation to avoid or undo a terrible fate befalling someone she loves, and driven by that desperation to give up too much of herself in the process. She's spent a lot of the campaign warning others against making deals with fey, especially more obviously malicious ones, and she's been right to do so-- but it's less that she thinks sensible advice doesn't apply to her, and more that she thinks her (life, personhood, moral code, etc) is worth less than others' sacrificing to protect someone she cares about. I don't think she's... completely unaware of this. It makes her nervous. Themes of self sacrifice for a greater good have already come up in this campaign, for one thing; it's a concept she's had to confront, on some levels. Also, Fengling's backstory villains need her magical/ ceremonial tattoos to stabilize a planar portal that's going to inevitably tear the world apart if it can't be controlled, and while mostly Juniper is, of course, on team 'we have to find a way to defeat the bad guys and save the world,' she was startled by her very first impulse being 'Good. They deserve to have to live to helplessly watch the apocalypse they caused by violently driving Fengling away.' There's a tiny part of June that would rather let the world literally burn than risk those people getting their hands on Fengling again, and it scares her-- so, she's definitely aware her own moral compass can be compromised.

The thing is, mostly her plan for 'don't martyr yourself' is 'try to prevent it from being necessary', and her plan for 'don't compromise your morals' is 'well OBVIOUSLY I wouldn't ACTUALLY do anything evil,' neither of which is... extremely helpful if push ever actually came to shove 😬 TL;DR Bad Ending Juniper permanently gives up her freedom in some way, likely in the sense of actual autonomy or personhood through some supernatural means, in some kind of desperation fey bargain to save someone else.

AUBREE... it's harder to... pinpoint. I feel like a lot of Worst Possible Futures for her are kind of.... out of her hands, in ways that I don't know if they're interesting to talk or hear about? Our warlock keeps looking for excuses teetering on the brink of catastrophic angst explosion; there's definitely a darkest timeline where Lisbet self-destructs in a way that feels meaningless and tears the party apart-- timelines where all of our/ Aubree's efforts to do good in the world feel pointless to the point of inescapable despair-- timelines where she gives up on everything she believes in, the convictions that drive her forward, and ends up drinking the rest of her life away, bitter and jaded and hopeless, regressed to the lowest point of her life and unable to ever recover again. The good news is that this is all very unlikely; she's deeply stubborn and her convictions run very deep, and it would take losing everything she's fought for, which isn't the kind of story our DM is trying to tell. The bad news is that's not a very interesting answer, aaahah.

mask: Does your OC wear a mask, literally or figuratively? What goes on beneath it? Is there anyone in their life who gets to see who they are under the mask?

Not that she's very good at it, but Juniper is insistent about keeping up the front that she's fine, really, of course she's fine, why wouldn't she be? She's deeply aware of how much more real everyone else's problems are than hers, and doesn't want to burden anyone else with her silly, petty problems (all of them, of course, as far as she's concerned). She's let Fengling in, a little, just once or twice, and she's cracked when pressed once or twice, but for the most part she maintains that she's perfectly fine and no one ever need worry about her, let her do the worrying please, thank you very much

Oof well... on the one hand, for the most part, Aubree is a very straightforward, heart-on-the-sleeves, staunchly only ever Herself sort of person; not wearing a figurative mask no matter what has historically gotten her in more trouble than anything else, but she couldn't be any other way even if she wanted to, which she doesn't. That.... said. She has also become, increasingly, an '... I'm fine.' sort of person as well. Some of the party are fragile to the point of dangerously unstable, some are detached to the point of harshly callous, and we're all sort of bound together by circumstances in a way that makes conflict harder to manage and irreconcilable differences harder to call the relationship quits over. Nearly any time she's voiced concerns, or fears, or grief, or (god forbid) anger, she's been either talked over or shouted down... so...... she's been keeping that shit to herself instead, as much as possible. It's new for her, and she hates it, but it beats any alternative available to her right now, so. I'm sure it's fine (:

ask about my OCs?

[hydralisk98]

LibreVast, my newest toybox 2D+3D workflow Quake-clone in town, devlog #0

More aesthetic references...

Loosely based onto this previous concepts...

Yes, I intend to make such a "Layered Z-axis 2D-to-3D workflow" copyleft first person "toybox" at my pace starting after next Monday, taking elements from Qodot (4), "BUILD2", "Red Eclipse" and "Aleph One" (the mainline open source Marathon port) legacies as to craft a new curiosity-driven experiences akin to a modular mashup between the puzzlers of "Narbacular Drop / PUNT / Portal / F-STOP / Frame" and the creative programmer havens of "Quadrilateral Cowboy / Zachtronics' / Hypnospace Outlaw".

And I do plan to have a thesis of a hyperlinked overworld multi-planar editor (Using one top-down overhead pane layers that interact with each other a bit like the OpenTTD / RollerCoasterTycoon-like 4D Golf editor I saw online here) following the 4x area rule (Great for converting to hexagonal and square-based tilemaps towards my Civ5CE + FreeCiv set & the SC4 + TS2 combo for example) that might take advantage of several new innovations I saw as of late. (EVALDRAW, N-dimensional Rotors, six great code snippets for Verlet Integration, Spatial Hashing, Contraint Solving... )

But until I get back home, the progression will most likely be halted much before my return. So until Monday September 18th or its very next day, take care of yourselves and farewell!

[thecornwall]

Cornwall's Random Card of the Day #610: Braids, Conjurer Adept

Braids, Conjurer Adept is a rare from Planar Chaos, seen here in its Double Masters printing.

So, Braids was a scary Nightmare Conjurer from Otaria, a continent on Dominaria that was ruled by the nasty Cabal, who used nightmares to keep the public in line and entertained when they fight in the arena. She was a complete scumbag sadist who was nonetheless very charismatic and popular with people in the real world who didn't have to live with her.

THIS Braids is a "What if?" Braids, one shown in Planar Chaos, the "What if?" Magic set. What if Braids didn't join the Cabal and become a Nightmare Conjurer, but just, like, a normal Conjurer? Maybe the Cabal didn't exist in this universe, maybe whatever traumatic bullshit that made Braids like she was never happened to her, we're never really shown, we just get this little flash of "Shit coulda been different" which I find fascinating.

The OG Braids card made each player sac an artifact, creature or land(cause back then black got no way to remove enchantments of their own, since there were a lot of "deal with the devil" type enchantments which could fuck you over and they didn't want any easy outs to them) at the start of their turn. Fun fact: Braids is banned in Commander!

THIS Braids, on the other hand, is beloved in Commander, since it's such a great way to cheat big costly stuff onto the field. It's balanced in other formats, where aggro...you know...EXISTS, but in Commander it can be in a deck REALLY suited to it. I find the effect fun. Things that universally make things happen are neat, kind of a shame she's probably most often used as combo fodder.

[gandalfsbignaturals]

Okay the foil in Hebrew is actually fucking gorgeous holy shit???? Also I do agree with the one you posted earlier, the gold brings out that sort of dusky hot pink in the background SO well! I'm super out-of-date on mtg, but I still really like listening~♡

RIGHT?? its nowhere near the most expensive promo in my collection but its by far my favorite. i recently got a mirri the cursed foil of the original planar chaos art

it looks *extremely* good in foil, the stark shadows contrast amazingly with the bright background and piercing eyes. another one that looks good for very similar reasons is deathgreeter

because the foiling brings out the gorgeously colored lighting on his skin, plus his eyes and the moon are the same colors and really stand out

i just love how white and black cards especially look when theyre foil. the color combo as a philosophy is so built on stark differences, on the shadows cast by the brightest lights and all of the shades in between, and i really enjoy card art that reflects that

[jeweledrosestudios]

Here’s the two Astral NPCs: a Hadozee ex-privateer whose ship was wrecked by a Cosmic Horror and led to her becoming a wandering hunter of extra-planar bogies; and Toby, a scotty dog who was accidentally shunted to the Astral Plane and became Awakened by the god of the Wild Hunt Arawn, before taking up the wrench to tinker his way across the cosmos!

Fun facts: the Swashbuckler/Watcher Oath combo was accidentally the most OP-against-Aberrations combo I’ve stumbled upon. And, Toby’s ears are red colored due to Arawn, and he likes putting mythological heads on his Darpa-dog-like Eldritch Cannon. He also still likes head-scratches ^^

[krawlernyannyan]

HSR 8-26-24

Did this week's Cyclical Extraction! Really fun for me as a DOT player, and did really well even considering that.

8x Planar Extractions, 4 for Arena and 4 for Salsotto. While I didn't what I was looking for, while I was burning up the surplus I swapped out Relics on Herta and Dr. Ratio and got them way better spheres on both (and Ratio a new chestpiece to get his Crit Damage up). Going to need to get the new Relics leveled but improvements are improvements.

Did a few extra DU runs mostly to try and farm Occurrences. Got a nifty Elation/Remembrance/Abundance combo going on the first run, and a Hunt/Remembrance/Propagation run on the second.

Five-Star Fund: 195/180 Days to v2.5: 13.5

[crustys-superduper-adventure]

Name: Kaliviya Weapon: Sword ???: Quantum Bifurcation Branching: Katana

Core Kit:

Normal Attack Talent: In Our Time

Normal Attack: Deal DMG with your sword in a combo up to four.

Charged Attack: Uses a secret technique to launch a swift slash with her sword, dealing AoE DMG.

Plunging Attack: Plunge down to the ground with your sword whilst in mid-air, dealing AoE DMG upon landing.

Elemental Skill: Consume: After Rain

Immediately applies all nearby opponents with Suspension and attacks using Ad-Interim Tempo.

Ad-Interim Tempo: Lasts 15s. Gain a Quantum Infusion to your sword, and increase Normal Attack DMG equal to a percentage of Kaliviya's Energy Recharge. When unleashing Normal Attacks, Kaliviya will temporarily enter il-Locus Nunc for the duration of this Normal Attack, dealing Throb DoT four times when hitting an opponent with the Normal Attack which decreases Quantum RES minorly for a short amount of time. After using il-Locus Nunc 4 times, Ad-Interim Tempo will end. Additionally, after using all uses of il-Locus Nunc, Consume: After Rain's CD is decreased by 4s.

Suspension: Lasts 10s. Decrease the enemy's Quantum RES and increase the DoT this enemy takes. Hitting an opponent with Throb DoT will generate 1 Energy for Kaliviya. When enemies with Suspension take Quantum DMG, they take one instance of Throb DoT equal to that inflicted by il-Locus Nunc.

Throb: Deals Quantum DMG equal to DoT DMG once. Additionally, if the enemy has three or more debuffs, the instance of Throb DoT will deal DMG one more time.

Suspension Quantum RES reduction: 9.2%-18.4% from Lv. 1 to 13 Suspension DoT DMG Bonus: +16%-+32% from Lv. 1 to 13 Ad-Interim Tempo Normal Attack DMG Bonus: 24% of Energy Recharge-48% of Energy Recharge from Lv. 1 to 13 Quantum RES reduction via il-Locus Nunc: 2.7%-5.4% for 8s, with stackability, up to 4 stacks from Lv. 1 to 13 Throb DMG: 89%-203% from Lv. 1 to 13 CD: 18s

Elemental Burst: Embrand: Darkness Surrounding

Transport yourself to the Eternal Turf, an eternal and empty domain and enter the Planar Suffering state.

Planar Suffering: All enemies within the Eternal Turf are rendered immovable if able to be so. All incoming damage that Kaliviya recieves within the Eternal Turf are rendered as Immune. After entering the Eternal Turf, Kaliviya enters her Stance and her Elemental Skill will be changed to Sweeping Blade. After executing Sweeping Blade, she enters her Stance again and her Elemental Skill will become Bleeding Edge. After executing Bleeding Edge, Kaliviya enters her Stance one last time and her Elemental Skill will become Torturous Cut. Executing Torturous Cut ends Planar Suffering and makes Kaliviya leave the Eternal Turf.

Sweeping Blade: Deals minor AoE Quantum DMG, dealing Throb DoT once to enemies hit.

Bleeding Edge: Deals AoE Quantum DMG and deals Throb DoT three times to enemies hit.

Torturous Cut: Deals major AoE Quantum DMG and deals Throb DoT six times to enemies hit.

Stance: When entering Stance, all DMG will be increased equal to a percentage of Kaliviya's ATK and Energy Recharge for 6s or until she enters Stance again.

Sweeping Blade DMG: 88%-197% from Lv. 1 to 13 Bleeding Egde DMG: 287%-495% from Lv. 1 to 13 Torturous Cut DMG: 614%-801% from Lv. 1 to 13 Stance DMG Bonus: 12% of Energy Recharge + 157% of ATK-24% of Energy Recharge + 327% of ATK from Lv. 1 to 13 Energy Cost: 90 CD: 15s

Bifurcation Branching:

First Branching ⟶ Destructive-type: All-In Or Nothing

Branch 1: Heal for 14% of your ATK when dealing Throb DMG.

Branch 2: After using Consume: After Rain, consume 5% of Kaliviya's Current HP for each il-Locus Nunc that she unleashes within this use of Consume: After Rain.

Branch 3: For each percentage under Kaliviya's Max HP her Current HP is, increase Energy Recharge by 0.4%. This buff can only reach a maximum of 20% Energy Recharge

Branch 4: Passively heal for 2% of your ATK every 1s.

Second Branching ⟶ Support-type: Unforgivable Nightmare

Branch 1: Increase Energy Recharge by 20% and ATK by 24% of Energy Recharge.

Brach 2: Upon activating Consume: After Rain, enter Millenial Drought for 10s: Throb DoT deals extra DMG equal to 15% of Energy Recharge and 150% of ATK whilst in il-Locus Nunc.

Branch 3: Each time Kaliviya deals DMG to an opponent whilst in Planar Suffering, she gains one Furrow stack. Each stack passively increases her DMG by 1.5%. All stacks are consumed when Torturous Cut is unleashed, and each stack consumed increases the DMG that Torturous Cut deals for 5% more DMG

Branch 4: Decrease Consume: After Rain's CD by 15%. Dealing DMG with Throb DoT creates a Vigilant Pulse stack which records 200% of Kaliviya's current ATK. The next attack that Kaliviya unleashes that deals Quantum DMG to an enemy will consume the Vigilant Pulse stack and increase the attacks DMG based off of 90% of the recorded ATK. A maximum of 10 Vigilant Pulse stacks may be in Kaliviya's posession at any time.

Branch 5: Increases ATK SPD by 30% whilst in Ad-Interim Tempo. Increase the maximum amount of times il-Locus Nunc can be activated to 6. DMG dealt whilst in il-Locus Nunc or Planar Suffering has 30% increased Crit. Rate and 120% increased Crit. DMG.

Third Branching ⟶ Stagger-type: Throbbing Heart, Shaken Soul

Branch 1: Throb DoT deals 130%/160% of it's original DMG when 1/2 other Quantum characters are in the party.

Branch 2: For each status effect or debuff on the enemy, increase the DoT they recieve by 6% of Kaliviya's Energy Recharge. For each buff in Kaliviya's possesion, Energy Recharge increases by 7.5% of its maximum value.

Branch 3: If an enemy recieves Throb DoT, the enemy will recieve DoT equal to 90% of the activating DoT's DMG as Pyro DoT, Hydro DoT, Electro DoT or Cryo DoT randomly. An enemy can only recieve such extra DoT every 2s.

Branch 4: Upon activating Consume: After Rain, enter Amidst Thunderstorms for 6s: Throb DoT deals extra DMG equal to 35% of Energy Recharge whilst in il-Locus Nunc.

Kaliviya's Story:

A mysterious guard who works under the Igrok Society of Snezhnaya.

She enjoys gambling, although this is something she cannot do within her work shifts.

Mostly, apart from her interest in gambling, she does not recite any hobbies or special characteristics, and has a unclear story of who she is, where she came from, and why she works under the Nine Sacred Seats of Igrok.

[jadagul]

the-world-annealing Why level 13 specifically? Simulacrum?

I don't know that it was any one specific spell; at that point you have most important options unlocked. I think the big one is the Greater Teleport and Greater Scrying combo, which unlocks scry-and-die; but you also get Banishment, Simulacrum, and Limited Wish, and these all stack on top of Contingency, True Seeing, and Planar Binding, which unlock at level 11.

But scry-and-die is just very broken because D&D 3.x has a ton of powerful round/level buffs. So you can't possibly stay fully buffed as like a regular thing; but if you can dictate encounter timing you can go in fully buffed, while your opponent isn't. So you cast, like, six round/level buffs, then on round seven you cast Greater Scrying to locate your enemy; on round eight you cast Greater Teleport to show up in his room; then you have rounds eight through twelve to murder the shit out of him while he's basically unprotected, and on round thirteen you leave.

And no, in the written rules there are very few countermeasures here. A Mind Blank makes you immune to scrying, but if there's anywhere you're going to predictably be that doesn't help that much. (That said, a high-level wizard who lives alone in a wizard tower under continual mind blank is relatively safe, until you find a way to locate them.)

If you want to lock down an area, Dimensional Lock will prevent travel for one day/level, but it's an eighth-level spell and it covers a 20-foot radius. So a level 20 wizard gets six casts a day, unless they're really abusing stat bonuses in which case they get seven. If you devote all your arcane power to just casting Dimensional Lock, you can lock down 20 times seven 20-foot radii at a time; if we're generous and use the taxicab norm so this is a 40x40 square, this covers about 200k square feet, or about nine thousand squares, or a 90-square radius. And this can in fact lock down a castle pretty well, but notice this is using the entire eighth-level spell array of a 20th-level wizard, so it represents a huge investment of resources. And even then, you just have to wait for them to leave their fortress once while you're scrying them.

That night he dreamed. A duel between magicians makes a fascinating tale. Such tales are common—and rarely true. The winner of such a duel is not likely to give up trade secrets. The loser is dead, at the very least. Novices in sorcery are constantly amazed at how much preparation goes into a duel, and how little action. The duel with the Hill Magician started with a dream, the night after the Warlock's speech made that duel inevitable. It ended thirty years later. .... And in his sleep he concentrated, memorizing details. A narrow path curled up the hillside. Facts twisted, dreamlike. There was a companion with him; or there wasn't. The Warlock lived until he passed through the gate; or he died at the gate, in agony, with great ivory teeth grinding together through his rib cage. He woke himself up trying to sort it out. The shadowy companion was necessary, at least as far as the gate. Beyond the enemy's gate he could see nothing. A Warlock's Wheel must have been used there, to block his magic so thoroughly. Poetic justice? He spent three full days working spells to block the Hill Magician's prescient sense. During that time his own sleep was dreamless. The other's magic was as effective as his own.

Larry Niven's novelette "What Good is a Glass Dagger" isn't generally super well remembered; to the extent people think of it, it's in relation to the much more famous sequel, "The Magic Goes Away", which used magic as a metaphor for the oil and energy crisis.

(It's also one of the first stories to use the word "mana" to refer to magic power; it's still exotic enough that Niven italicizes it in the text. It's not the first ever, but I believe it's the actual source that RPGs drew on when they used that word.)

But this passage has always stuck with me. Wizard duels aren't flashy explosions of power. They're very careful maneuvering, with decades of prescience, and the winner is the one who best manages that careful maneuvering around their opponent's blind spots while creating blind spots for their opponent.

(There's a truism in D&D3.x that a level 13 wizard, with time to prepare, can kill anything that isn't preparing in return. And I feel like this story represents that concept really well, though the details are all different.)

[mmeveronica]

So, you want to play a Demon Summoner?

In DnD 5e you'll most likely be drawn to the Wizard and Warlock classes becuase they gain access to the spells used to summon demons from their classes' spell lists, however there is a better option.

The College of Lore Bard through a Bard's magical secrets offers you all the necessary demon summoning spells with some extra advantages.

You use charisma as your spellcasting modifer and have access to expertise in persuassion/deception/intimidation allowing you to more easily control fiends summoned by the "Infernal Calling" spell.

You can use your magical secrets to gain access to protective spells unavailable to Wizards and Warlocks, such as the "Forbidance" and "Temple of the Gods" spells.

You can the College of Lore's "Cutting Words" and "Peerless Skill" features to cause summoned fiends to fail the ability checks necessary to control them through the "Infernal Calling" spell.

You can actually get some use out of the "Countercharm" feature to help protect you from a fiends attempts to charm or frighten you without breaking concentration.

So, what are the necessary decisions to play a Bard like this? Choose the College of Lore and pick some spells to summon fiends, that help you control fiends, or that protect you from them. If I had the chance to play this, here are what my picks for Magical Secrets would be;

At 6th Level I would choose the "Magic Circle" and "Summon Lesser Demons" spells. "Magic Circle" is crucial for some combinations later on and the "Summon Lesser Demons" spell, while hard to control, is a great start for your demon summoner's journey.

At 10th Level I would choose the "Infernal Calling" and "Banishment" spells. "Infernal Calling" lets you summon powerful fiends who, as mentioned earlier, can be made to do your bidding if you're charismatic enough, but can fall out of your control unless you cast the "Planar Binding" spell from the Bard Spell List to control them for a month at a gp cost. It is easiest to do that combo with the "Magic Circle" spell from earlier. The "Banishment" spell is there to yet your fiends away if they start causing problems.

At 14th Level I would choose the "Forbidance" and "Summon Fiend" or "Temple of the Gods" spells. "Forbidance" creates a space of a shape you can manipulate, as a ritual spell, which makes the space damaging to fiends you haven't given the password to. It serves as another excellent layer of protection. The "Summon Fiend" spell lets you summon a perfectly controlable fiend, which demonstrates a mastery of demon summoning. However the "Temple of the Gods" spell could help you bind more powerful fiends summoned by "Infernal Calling" to your will by damaging their saving throws and being a great protective spell, but it is difficult to use.

As for feats, if your DM allows them I'd recommend the "Resilient" feat. to give you proficiency in wisdom saving throws, it just offers protection from any mind fuckery a fiend might want to do. After that it's up to you, though the "Eldritch Adept" feat. particularly with the "Devil's Sight" invocation makes for some excellent flavouring while also being useful.

So get on out there and sing the Ballad of the Demon Summoner by playing this Bard!

[thecornwall]

Cornwall’s Random Card of the Day #332: Tangle Wire

Tangle Wire is a rare from Nemesis, seen here in it’s From the Vault: Twenty printing.

Fading is such a weird mechanic. Not the general concept of something which you get for only a few turns, but the way they enacted it. You don’t lose the fading permanent when it runs out of counters. It dies when you are prompted to remove a counter and CANNOT. I think it was done this way so you knew with creatures how many turns it could attack for (because this accounts for summoning sickness and you lose a counter on the first turn you can attack) but it’s still just so unintuitive. I’m glad Planar Chaos did Fading right, with Vanishing, which worked the intuitive way and used time counters, a counter already in use during that block.

Tangle Wire itself? Seems like a stally spell which is best in creatureless decks, which were definitely a thing back then. Just stall the game for a few turns while building up mana, then get your combo off or whatever. I take it that From the Vault: Twenty had to have a card of some note from each set that had been printed back then (Doing so now would be far, far, more intense a prospect considering the ramp-up of products since) and SOMETHING had to be picked from Nemesis. Masques Block, you were a cruel mistress.

[psychcomposer]

Alright, I have too many feelings about a video game that’s going to come out in a month that I really just need to get out. It’s been over a decade and one of my favorite games, The World Ends With You, is finally getting a sequel. I’ve been brooding on the trailers for months, and I just finished the demo, so it is time to put down my capital T Thoughts on Neo: The World Ends With You.

As a warning, this will be entirely too long. But I’m not about to keep this bound up any longer.

TWEWY is my favorite title for the Nintendo DS. It is a JRPG starring Neku Sakuraba, an aggressively antisocial teen living in the Tokyo district of Shibuya. He is suddenly pulled into a test of survival called The Reaper’s Game, where he is forced to join forces with a partner in order to survive a week of lethal objectives in a sub-planar version of Shibuya. I love the story, its such an honest and interesting take on learning to get outside of your comfort zone. But more than that, it is a game that does so much to put a modern twist on every piece of your typical JRPG. You control two characters at once, Neku with the touch screen and his partner with the control pad, forcing you to split your attention and giving mechanic weight to the idea that Neku can’t survive alone. Armor and weapons are replaced with clothes and outfits, with a character’s ability to wear them restricted not by class but by a character’s bravery. The music list is filled with punk, alt-rock and hip-hop that are a stark contrast to the symphonic tracks of other titles. Battles aren’t random impediments, but fun diversions that sport a robust reward system that encourages players to push their limits.

But even more than that, the most modern thing I appreciate about TWEWY has to be the characters. Neku, Shiki, Beat, and Rhyme all feel like believable teens that grew up in the 2000′s. They bicker, clash, and banter like teens struggling to survive and make sense of their situation. One of my favorite little gimicks of the story is just how many nicknames there are for every character. Almost everyone has earned a few nicknames. One of my favorite examples is Sho Minamimoto. He’s a reaper with an obsession with math, often infusing his speech with mathematical jargon or expressions, and seems to enjoy erecting “art installations”, which most people can only decipher as towers of trash. Over the course of the story, he gets called Pi-face, the Grim Heaper, and another nickname I can’t even mention because of spoilers. It’s just... such a nice little human touch, these kids throwing crafted insults at a human enforcer of their doom that could almost certainly tear them apart.

I’m getting into this to try to give a sense of why I enjoy TWEWY so much, why it has such a unique place in my heart. Its a game I’ve 100% completed several times over, a task that’s no easy feat with the sheer amount of collectibles and post-game objectives. Unfortunately, for the last year or two, I’ve been kind of dreading this sequel.

Neo:TWEWY has been... a long time coming. Way back in 2007 they had a whole website counting down to some sort of announcement, with the music slowly building in intensity. I remember following it with bated breath, until it finally hit zero! And we got... An ios port of the game. Talk about a let-down. To be fair, apparently it is a solid port, even managing to re-work the old battle system, one that required a second screen to work properly, into one that only needed one. But what that really offered to someone like me was the hint of a sequel, a single image of a new character being shown. They kept flirting with the idea of bringing the series back. The main cast even featured in a Kingdom Hearts game, of all things, even if they didn’t really do a whole lot. But these acknowledgments grew sparser and sparser.

A few years ago, they released a switch port of the game. Not only that, it included an epilogue! They were finally getting a sequel rolling! Of course I bought that game, beat it yet again, and fought my way to the new content and the hint of the new story ahead.

It was... Well. I found it disappointing.

The gameplay was competent, even if it was clear that the epilogue itself really hadn’t had too much put into it. One new character,  new enemies just being reskins of old ones. It wasn’t meant to be dlc itself or anything, it was just there to herald a return to the series. That wasn’t what bugged me. What bugged me was the writing. It was heart-wrenching. It just didn’t feel right. It just felt flat compared to the story I’d enjoyed so many times. But what really killed my excitement was the new character, Coco.

Now, odd personality quirks are not too unusual among the ensemble of TWEWY. Pi-face is just one of the characters that is so infused with a particular theme that it shows in how they express themselves. It’s part of the charm of them, discovering the personalities that live in this dark underworld of Shibuya. But Coco... she talks like the most stereotypical young teenager possible. unironic lols, totez (yes, spelt exactly like that, in a speech format), OMG’s, and just, like, likes everywhere! It felt like someone who knew they needed to make a quirky character but had no idea how to write one well, and just made the most stereotypical caricature possible. I hated seeing that. It embodied every fear I had about the sequel being just a cynical project, pushed forward after so many years  by people who just didn’t understand what made the original great. That mild dread was so persistent that even the release of the first few trailers couldn’t really get me excited for the game. Neo:TWEWY was shifting into 3d from the original 2.5d, with all the problems that could cause. What I could see of the story felt so much more like a generic fantasy tale with some modern buildings than the story I had grown through my teenage years with. And, well... Just look the original Neku and the new one they showed off.

Look at this. Look at one of the most vibrant, eye-catching character designs on the market for any JRPG in history, one that manages to mix purple and orange with striking lights and darks. And then look at the teenager edgelord bullshit they did with him. It’s atrocious. I hate it. He’s just another guy in a black outfit and just too much fucking cool guy protagonist power to not have the story be about him at this point. And look, I know that there’s Story LoreTM, I know that there could be some twist that explains this, I know that him being such a denial of his old self could be the entire fucking point. But let me tell you, when I saw this, I felt years of shifting, misplaced unease coalesce into a hard lump of dread.

And... Even... So... I did the stupidest thing I could have possibly done and preordered the game anyway. Don’t look at me like that, nostalgia is a hell of a drug.

But you know what? The damnedest thing happened. They released a demo for the new game a month before its release. And I played it, and... I enjoyed it.

Did you see that coming? I certainly didn’t. Welcome to the roller coaster.

Right off the bat, the writing soothed a lot of the fears I had. It felt right at home, like being plopped between to teens exchanging banter. One of the first exchanges is Rindo and Fret, his best friend, trying to meet up. Fret wants Rindo to meet him at  someplace called Wunafo, an area Rindo is clueless about. After some annoyed texting, it turns out Fret is actually referring to 104, a local landmark of a building. Fret insists that its a stylish improvement on the name. Rindo only gives him some grief about it..

I’m not doing the scene justice, or I could just be really desperate for half-decent writing, but I can’t deny that it quickly put a smile on my face. I am almost sure I’ve had this conversation before in years past myself. And beyond that, this game boasts voice acting that brings out a ton of personality in the large cast they are introducing (besides Rindo, which is a shame because he’s the protagonist... hopefully he gets over his apathetic teenager shtick eventually). Not everything is voiced, but it conveys so much appeal and personality, and even when the character’s aren’t voiced there is a conversation screen that occasionally breaks out some stylish layouts to convey mood and temperment and clearly draw from the style that made the original game pop so much.

The battles, of course, have been completely revamped. TWEWY had you control two characters, one of which you could customize by equipping up to 6 different pins that all used different motions and unleashed different attacks. Now you control up to four characters, but each one can only use one pin. But even so, it feels very genuine to its roots. An effective build in TWEWY was usually one that let you stagger an opponent so you can unload a bunch of attacks on them, and in Neo:TWEWY the game actively pushes you to folllow up attacks with characters in succession. It would be easy for this to devolve into a mash-fest, but even with the little time I had with the game it introduced a wrinkle in that- an attack that unleashed a single powerful blow, but couldn’t just be unleashed at the end of the previous combo. It needed to be charged for a while, long enough for the combo timer to deplete. So now an effective combo requires thinking ahead, and even after that you’re paying attention to enemies to dodge out of the way when they strike back. It’s entirely possible this system will flop in the late game, but so far it is robust enough for me to think that it will be one that could make me look forward to battles.

The music hasn’t impressed me so far, besides the tracks that have made the transition from the original. But I remember those strange tracks needing some time before I appreciated them too.

Finally, the story has hooked me. I don’t think that needs much more explanation. I want to see more of these characters and see the changes that have been made to the world in what I assume is years after Neku’s game. And to address the elephant in the room, Neku has not made his appearance in what is available in the demo. Odds are I will probably hate whatever they do with him. But there is enough happening in the space around it that I’m interested in exploring, and a bruised apple can still taste sweet.

Almost all of this, of course, is mostly just saying that Neo:TWEWY is not doomed to fail. There is still plenty of room for things to go wrong later on. There are entire systems I haven’t really seen in game, like shops, pin evolution, clothing and food (Though it looks like they have changed the food system significantly, which I approve of). The things that unnerved me so much in the trickle of information after this game’s announcement could still be enough to turn this sour. But I’m smiling as I’m strapping myself in for this ride now, one I’ve waited quite a long time for. Whatever’s coming, I’m excited.

[omnifatal]

Dragon Standard: Esper Control Deck Report

A friend of mine came up with an idea for a tournament some months ago. The concept was pretty simple, it followed the premise of the Khans of Tarkir block (minus the time travel, maybe): Dragons vs Everyone Else. It combined the aforementioned Khans block standard with the famous Dragonstorm Standard from Worlds 2007. The legal sets were:

Coldsnap

Time Spiral

Planar Chaos

Future Sight

10th Edition

Lorwyn

Theros

Born of the Gods

Journey Into Nyx

M15

Khans of Tarkir

Fate Reforged

Dragons of Tarkir

There were also some "Form of" cards legal, like Form of the Dragon, but I don't think anyone played them.

Pro Tour Dragons was one of the first I watched as a player, and I remembered the Esper Dragons deck from that year fondly and thought I'd replicate it in this format, with some powerful upgrades. I also really, really just wanted to cast Dig Through Time again. And so, the following list was born. (One of these days, I’ll figure out how to get the iframe to work). 

The person running the tournament (I use that term liberally, it was just the four of us playing here) did their own breakdown of my deck afterwords and I think they had a lot of good points. The biggest takeaway I had from the tournament was that making control in such an unknown metagame is really difficult. I drew inspiration (read: copied) from the successful Esper Dragons lists from the PT DTK era. Unfortunately, we were just a set or two off of the card that really cracked this deck in half: Jace, Vryn's Prodigy. 

As a result, I had to play a "gimped" version of the deck without the powerful Planeswalker, and many of the strategy and deckbuilding articles about Esper Dragons were from the Origins era, which didn't help me out. That said, I was pretty happy with my 75 going into the tournament. I'd known from previous times I'd played with this group to expect some kind of off-the-wall combo, hence the grave hate in the board. I wasn't super impressed by Anticipate, and I honestly thought Ponder would be enough card selection, paired with fetchland-powered Dig Through Time, to find me the cards I wanted when I wanted them. It turns out that wasn't the case.

As I said, playing control in a wide open, totally unknown format is tricky. This deck probably had the strongest finisher/anti-control tool in the format in Dragonlord Ojoutai, and in theory we had actual, factual counterspell in the form of Silumgar's Scorn. Crux of Fate could clean up any wide boards and Foul-Toungue and Hero's Downfall were solid removal options for big threats, and the former also doubled as a life buffer verses aggro. In hindsight, I was woefully unprepared for the aggro matchups, and I probably should have cut most of the walkers for more removal. Cryptic command, unsurprisingly to anyone who's tried to play triple colored cards in a format without the mainstay fetch-dual interaction, was hard to cast in a three colored deck. My mana base also ended up being a little too slow to keep up with some of the aggro decks, and while the life gain and scries were helpful, I felt like my scries often went to getting rid of extra lands and ended up making me too slow to actually be able to cast my sweepers and removal. Speaking of, who let me play 27 lands with only 4 Ponder as cantrips?!

All this is to say that the deck performed fine, but not fantsatic. I ended up taking second place to a super neat Naya Megamorph deck which very obviously poked at my lack of good removal and applied a quick clock with beaters such as Tarmogoyf and standard all stars Nest Invader and Den Protector to out-value my Digs and Cruxes.

In a reversal of the DTK timeline, the dragons lost this round. Although, to be fair, I was outnumbered 3 to 1. In the future, I'm probably not going to try and make a control deck for a pseudo-block format like this without a lot more thought, I really just stole an old list and shoved Cryptics and Ponders into it and expected it to work. This might have gone better if I'd just copied it whole cloth, as I'd at least have some better card selection and ratios of removal. But oh well, live and learn, right?

[himboangelpaladin]

Here’s my attempt to make my blog “respectable”

I figure if I’m going to be blogging about D&D/TTRPG, I should introduce all of my characters.

Games I Play In Into the Maw (#c:maw) Play-by-Post, Concluded -A collection of seasoned adventurers travel to a beacon of powerful magic on the Astral Sea in an effort to receive a Wish spell. -I play Lander, protector aasimar Oath of Redemption (formerly Vengeance) Paladin 19/Divination Wizard 2 (#char:Lander) -Lander’s here to make the Wish to get his dead sister and family back -Everyone lived. It’s a relief to write that, but we managed to save everyone. Barney and Fionn are alive, Elianna got unmazed, and with a clutch combo of a high level Bigby’s Hand and a 7 portent roll, the Maw (entity) was defeated and we got our wishes. -Lander realized he couldn’t get his sister or his family back, and instead of wishing for it, his Wish was simply to remember the people lost to the Maw (who stole memories of the deceased from the living) and save those stuck in Beacon. He got his Wish and now gets to settle down, pursue his new oaths, and spend his time helping the downtrodden, instead of the angry single-minded pursuit of vengeance that has characterized a good portion of his adult life.

Nyx (#c:nyx) Play-by-Post, Ended -A world in darkness, where light is feared. A collection of paladins (er, charisma casters actually) are going on a journey to figure out why light is spreading from the fallen kingdom. -I play Taliesin, scourge aasimar College of Lore Bard 6 (#char:taliesin) -In a world where darkness is normal and light is Bad, having this aasimar, cursed with light, sure will be interesting. -He’s a bard but emotionally, he’s a paladin. His goal is to collect and protect important stories, and I love him. The Entropica (#c:entropica) Play-by-Post, Ended -This world is a forest of many different demiplanar fey courts, and we’ll be adventuring through them. -I play The Tinkling Sound that Glass Makes as it Falls Onto Cement, a glass sprite (mechanically kenku) Warlock of the Inevitable 4/Wild Magic Revised Sorcerer 2 (#char:glass) (this is a subclass from the 3rd party D&D 5e supplement Tasha’s Crucible of Everything Else, which is excellently designed) Evil & Evil (#c:evil) Play-by-Post, Ended -This game is going to be run by two DMs, and is a concurrent game, with another party of four in the same server, but blocked from our view. Both parties, working for different factions, are attempting to control the planar rift in the center of a valley. -My character was Perithecia, an Entropy domain cleric of Daughter Nature. (#char:peri) -This game is now actively running and while everything is still very secret, my party and my character are all really hot and evil and I’m having a great time.

Deck of Many Things (#c:domt) Play-by-Post, Active -The campaign opens on a party who has already defeated the BBEG, and are drawing from the Deck of Many Things, which will prompt the plot of this adventure. -I’ll be playing Nikola, high elf Artillerist Artificer 15 (#char:nikola) -Nikola is joined by his homunculus servant, Faraday. -Nikola was promptly stolen away by the Deck of Many Things and has since been replaced by Reese, human Circle of Wildfire Druid 15 (#char:reese) -Reese managed to sever her bond to the Wildfire Spirit that made her Circle of Wildfire, and has reclassed into Circle of the Shepherd. -Nik has come back! But now Reese is missing D: And we’re also stuck in an egg world populated by clones of people we’ve met

THE (THe Escaperoom) (#c:the) Voice, Concluded -The party entered a Virtual Reality escaperoom heist where we are to rob a manor house. -I played Wyatt/Petrichor, dwarf Storm Sorcerer 10/Tempest Cleric 5 (#char:wyatt #char:petrichor) -This is a three shot, final session is set to come up this week. -Wyatt’s boyfriend Xander/Xanderus died and was reincarnated as a lizard-folk and it happened because I forgot that sorcery points is a thing so that’s where we’re at. -We won, receiving the high score on a final nat 20 roll by @compelledduel

Strixhaven (#c:strix) Play-by-Post, Active -Set in an adaptation of the new Strixhaven game setting, we are just students attempting to get our degrees. -I play Wayland Tolliver, a cleric of Klothys, with a homebrew domain. (#char:wayland)

Games I DM Library (#c:library) Play-by-Post, Active -A magical demiplanar Library is in danger, and a team of adventurers have been asked to help collect artifacts hidden in the Library to help fix the problems. -The party has now completed the first two tower dungeons (the Divination Tower and the Evocation Tower). In the first, they were betrayed by their wizard, who stole the artifact and teleported away. In the second, they successfully retrieved the artifact, but three of the PCs died (which ate up all the revivify components :pensive:) Gaslamp Frostmaiden (#c:gaslamp) Play-by-Post,Active -A reskinning of Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden, set in a world where the sun was put in the sky by a Saint, and she has gone missing. The Astral Express (#c:trains) Play-by-Post, Benched -An episodic game that follows a group of people who live on a magical train that move through the Astral Plane, taking the passengers to places where people need help, and also helping these wanderers to find a home. -The passengers will potentially rotate out as old characters leave the Express for a new home, and new characters (and players) board the Express for the first time, looking for a home and a family.

Desert Game (#c:desert), Play-by-Post, Active -A game set in a secluded and remote desert valley.

[krawlernyannyan]

HSR 8-19-24

3x Cavern runs for Wind Relics. Decided to start getting some of these stockpiled since it's one of the Relic sets I have basically nothing for and I want to be ready for when Feixiao arrives just in case. Actually wound up getting a decent-looking headpiece already.

Finally got Luocha's Relics maxed out using the surplus from today's Cavern runs!

Did the Cyclical Extraction for this week! Really fun, plus I managed to get the combo of the Fragment-boosting robe and the Fragment-eating tooth so by the end I was getting 250%+ on CRITs.

6x Planar Extractions. 4 of those were the week's freebies spent on Salsotto, and 2 for Arena. Nothing good either way.

Almost finished with the March event! Did the Silver Wolf route today, and the story wasn't quite what I was hoping for but the mechanics were fun. Honestly, I'd love to see a version of this event where you could mix-and-match everybody's training buffs because they've all got something nice on offer. I still have to go back and do Huohuo's special ending but I'll save that for tomorrow.

Five-Star Fund: 172/180