#played a duel wielding no shields no gain build

[nerdythebard]

#60: Susano'o-no-Mikoto, God of the Summer Storms

Welcome back, Gods and Goddesses!

This anonymous request brings us face to face with the mighty Susano'o, Japanese God of Storms and Sea. Susano'o, wild and impetuous, became a wandering hero after his banishment from the divine realms and created several kinds of plants and crops (and many, many descendants) while on his travels across Japan. Let's see what this short-tempered troublemaker can bring to your game.

Next Time: Reluctantly, I have to accept this one... Because I am Nerdy the Bard of the D&D Library... and I am burdened with Glorious Purpose.

Now then, let's see what do we need to focus on:

A MIGHTY STORM: Heh heh... old SMITE jokes are great. Anyway, yes, we need to have some connection to the raging storms, hurricanes, and the seas. Their destructive power shall serve us.

An even mightier Sword: While we embody the raging power of a storm, we are also a skilled and peerless warrior god. We are, in fact, the bone of our sword (love you, Grailfinders!) and it is the extension of ourselves.

Gotta Go Fast: Mobility will be important for us, as the God of Storms and a wandering warrior. We need to be able to position ourselves to face any danger.

---

Normally, I'd use my usual trick and make a god we're building an Aasimar (as I did with his sister, Amaterasu -> see HERE). This time, however, I want to play around a little, so let's make Susano'o an Air Genasi. Going by the guidelines from Mordenkeinen's Monsters of the Multiverse, we get a +2 and a +1 to two abilities of our choice (Dexterity and Strength respectively), our movement speed is just slightly better at 35 feet per round, we get 60 feet of Darkvision, we are able to hold our breath indefinitely if not incapacitated (effectively gaining resistance to gaseous attacks and ability to remain underwater forever) and are resistant to lightning damage. Thanks to the Mingle with the Wind feature, we also gain the Shocking Grasp cantrip and some other spells in the future.

What better for a banished god than a redemption as a Folk Hero. We gain proficiency in Animal Handling (poor horses) and Survival, as well as one type of artisan's tools and land vehicles. We also gain the Rustic Hospitality feature; the pathetic mortals kind common folk may offer us their kindness on occasion and provide with shelter, food, or perhaps the latest gossip. They may also shield us from danger, although it's unlikely they'd risk their lives for a stranger right away. Although...

ABILITY SCORES

We will start with Dexterity on this one. We strike fast, we strike often. As a being of heavens, we also boast a divine Constitution. Finally, we need to strike with the power of the storm, so we're also investing in Strength.

Charisma will be next, we have enough to intimidate the weak and trick a giant demon snake. Intelligence will be on the lower end, and we're dumping Wisdom - we are definitely not thinking about the consequences of our actions.

CLASS

This one had a few options, but I decided that the best balance between Susano'o's divine abilities and his swordsmanship would be to make him a Fighter start-to-finish. Fighters get a d10 as their Hit Dice, [10 + Constitution modifier] initial Hit Points, proficiencies with light armour, medium armour, heavy armour, shields, simple weapons, and martial weapons. We can see Susano'o wear some armguards in the art, but since we cannot get just those in the game, we're going to start him without any armour. And we will give him a longsword that you can reflavour visually as a katana. Our saving throws are Strength and Constitution, and we get to choose two class skills from the list (Athletics and Intimidation).

Level 1: We begin by choosing our Fighting Style. For this, we shall take the Dueling style, which lets us add a +2 to our damage roll when we wield a weapon in one hand and nothing in the others. We also get Second Wind, which we can use as a bonus action once per short or long rest in order to heal [1d10 + our Fighter level] Hit Points.

Level 2: Thanks to Action Surge, we can now take one additional Action during our turn in combat. We can do so once per short or long rest.

Level 3: We choose our subclass, our Martial Archetype. Susano'o is a warrior first and foremost, but due to his divine heritage he also displays some supernatural abilities; therefore, we shall make him an Eldritch Knight.

From now on, we get access to Spellcasting. Intelligence is our casting ability, and we know cantrips and regular spells. We start with two cantrips (Gust and Sword Burst) and threee 1st-level spells, two of which must be either from the Abjuration or Evocation school of magic; we'll take Mage Armour, Thunderwave, and Disguise Self). From our Air Genasi race, we also get Feather Fall.

We also make our sword truly mighty by developing Weapon Bond. From now on, we cannot be disarmed unless we're incapacitated or allow so. Additionally, as a bonus action, we can summon our sword to our side from whenever it is as long as it is on the same plane of existence as us. We can Bond two weapons at once (giving us now a full set of samurai swords).

Level 4: We get our first Ability Score Improvement where we upgrade our Strength by both points. We also get another spell (Fog Cloud).

Level 5: At this level we get Extra Attack. From now on, during a single Attack action we can strike twice. We also get our final Air Genasi spell: Levitate.

Level 6: Time for another ASI. Let's raise our Strength and Wisdom by one.

Level 7: At this level we get another subclass feature. With War Magic, if we cast a cantrip as our Action, we can make one weapon attack as a Bonus Action. We also unlock 2nd-level spell here; we can grab Magic Weapon to recover some of our lost divinity.

Level 8: Time for another ASI. Let's raise both Strength and Dexterity for that nice 18 on both, and pick up another 2nd-level spell: Warding Wind.

Level 9: We gain the Indomitable feat. We are now able to re-roll one failed saving throw. We must, however, use the new result even if it's worse than the original one.

Level 10: Halfway through the build and we're getting another subclass feature. With Eldritch Strike we can now place a cut on our enemy that makes them vulnerable to magic; when we hit a creature with our melee weapon, it has disadvantage on the saving throw of the next spell we cast before the end of our next turn. With that, we can now pick a new 2nd-level spell: Shatter, which will force a Consitution saving throw.

We also get another cantrip; let's take True Strike that will synthesize nicely with our War Magic subclass feature.

Level 11: Here, we get an upgrade to our Extra Attack. From now on, whenever we Attack we can make a total of three strikes per turn (six if we decide to take Action Surge). We also get another spell, See Invisibiliy, to always find our enemies.

Level 12: Another ASI. This time, we shall cap our Dexterity into 20, which will increase our AC and Initiative bonus to make sure we get the first strike before anyone else.

Level 13: Our Indomitable can now be used twice per long rest. Additionally, we finally unlock 3rd-level spells. Let's grab Call Lightning to become the Thunder Bringer (yes, EPIC the Musical released a new Saga and it is awesome!)

Level 14: Time for another ASI. Let's cap our Strength to 20 for that divine striking power. But what's power without more mobility, so for our next 3rd-level spell, let's grab Thunder Step.

Level 15: For our final subclass feature, we shall get Arcane Charge. After using our Action Surge, we can now teleport to an unoccupied space within 30 feet of us. With that, and our last choice, we can now cover quite a lot of distance whether in combat or outside of it.

Level 16: With the next ASI, we will actually bump up our Constitution and Charisma by one point each. We also get another spell. Here, let's pick Pulse Wave and flavour it as a sheer wind pressure coming from our sword slashes.

Level 17: We get a few upgrades to our fighting mechanics. We can now use Indomitable three times per long rest, and we can use Action Surge twice per short or long rest.

Level 18: For our final subclass feature, we get Improved War Magic; this lets us make a weapon attack as a Bonus Action if we use our Action to cast a spell.

Level 19: For the final ASI of the build, we will round off our Constitution and Charisma to nice even numbers. Here is where we unlock 4th-level spells, however we will keep to the previous level in order to grab Lightning Bolt.

Level 20: As our capstone we are Fighter 20, which gives us improved Extra Attack. During a single Attack, we can now unleash up to four strikes. For our final spell, let's grab Tidal Wave to create the ultimate storm.

---

And that's Susano'o-no-Mikoto, the wild god of storms. Let's see what we came up with:

First and foremost, we're a combat beast. Plenty of attacks, both physical and magical, maximum score for both Strength and Dexterity, solid Speed; we're clearly a frontline fighter. Mobility and Crowd Control is our strongest tactic here.

Our unarmoured AC is 15 (18 with Mage Armour), we have a +5 to our Initiative, and the average of 211 Hit Points.

Unfortunately, though a solid build, we cannot do a lot outside of combat. We don't have a lot of skill proficiency and out mental ability scores are pretty weak; we need to procure some sort of item that will help us not being mind controlled. My personal recommendation: the Mindguard Crown from Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk.

---

And that's it. As promised, we're back my dears. As penitance, I shall work on the next build right away, so keep watch!

-Nerdy out!

[taxadvance]

Unlocking Financial Success: The Importance of Advance Tax Planning

The magic wand that optimizes your tax liabilities and propels you towards your wealth goals. So, buckle up as we navigate the intricate terrain of advance tax planning, unraveling its significance at every twist and turn.

The Prelude: What Exactly Is Advance Tax Planning?

Let us begin with a little introduction. Advance tax planning is a calculated financial move rather than merely a form-filling and number-crunching exercise. It entails planning for your income, assessing your possible tax obligations, and putting procedures into place to reduce your tax burden. It's like to playing chess with the tax collector; if you make the proper moves, you win.

Anticipating Income: The First Move

In terms of advanced tax preparation, the first step is to forecast your revenue. Whether you're a salaried employee, a business owner, or a freelancer, knowing your expected revenues is essential for effective planning. The Art of Timing: A Tax-Saving Symphony They say that timing is everything, and this is especially true when it comes to taxes. By intelligently scheduling your income and expenses, you may create a tax-saving symphony. Consider it like orchestrating a financial orchestra, with each instrument (income or deduction) playing in perfect harmony to produce a beautiful tax return.

Investments as Allies: Building a Tax-Optimized Portfolio

Imagine your investments as loyal allies in your financial conquest. From tax-efficient mutual funds to retirement accounts, these allies can significantly impact your tax liabilities. We'll explore the battlefield of investment options, deciphering which ones align with your goals and shield you from unnecessary tax burdens.

The Act: Implementing Strategies for Tax Minimization

Now that we've set the stage, it's time for the main act – implementing strategies that can minimize your tax obligations. Get ready to witness the magic unfold as we delve into the heart of advance tax planning.

Deductions and Credits: Your Secret Weapons

Meet your secret weapons – deductions and credits. These are the tools that can slash your tax bill like a skilled swordsman in a duel. From business expenses to educational credits, we'll explore how these weapons can be wielded strategically to maximize your tax savings.

The Art of Deferral: Postponing Tax Obligation Ever heard the phrase, "Why pay now when you can pay later?" Tax deferral is the name of the game. We'll explore the art of deferring tax liabilities, such as tax-deferred retirement funds, which allow you to kick the tax can down the road while allowing you greater financial flexibility in the present.

Tax-efficient Withdrawals: Maximizing Returns It's not just how much you earn; it's also how much you get to retain. We'll break down the concept of tax-efficient withdrawals, ensuring that your hard-earned money stays in your pocket rather than being consumed by taxes. From strategic withdrawal plans to capital gain optimization, we'll provide you the tools you need to keep more of your fortune.

Inheritance and Estate Planning: Securing Your Legacy. Advance tax preparation is about more than just the present; it's about leaving a legacy for the future. We'll look at inheritance and estate planning, and how these techniques can safeguard your assets while also ensuring a seamless transition for your heirs without the burden of high estate taxes.

The conclusion: reaping the rewards of strategic planning. As we reach the grand finale, it's time to reap the benefits of your strategic planning work. Imagine standing at the pinnacle of Mount Financial Success, taking in the panoramic view of reduced tax payments and optimized wealth development. Financial freedom is the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal of expert tax planning is financial freedom. It's more than just saving money on taxes; it's about stepping into a life where your finances work for you rather than against you. We'll look at how proper tax planning can lead to a future where you have complete control over your finances.Wealth Multiplication: The Ripple Effect. Advance tax planning has a long-term benefit that enhances your wealth. We'll look at real-life examples and case studies to show how people who mastered the art of tax planning saw exponential rise in their net worth.

Conclusion: Your Journey Begins Here

In conclusion, dear reader, the journey to financial success begins with unlocking the power of advance tax planning. It's a journey filled with strategic moves, calculated decisions, and the sweet taste of victory as you watch your wealth flourish. So, embrace the challenge, arm yourself with knowledge, and embark on the path to financial prosperity – where the key to success is in the art of planning, one tax strategy at a time.

[zenopic]

#girlfriend review

“YES you should def watch your husband struggle through a Dark Souls game ୧༼ಠ益ಠ༽/ ”

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #121: Lancelot (Saber)

Today on Fate and Phantasms we’re building the one Frenchman who could do no wrong (until he did) Lancelot du Lac! This time instead of his snarly dog version we’re making his Saber class form, so buckle in for a huge smite and a whole lot of other stuff to fill time between getting smites.

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

Next up: How sad. Alexa, play Despacito.

Race and Background

Fun fact: Lancelot was raised by the Lady of the Lake, the same woman who would one day give Artoria her sword. Sorry, I think I said that wrong, I meant to say he was raised by a lady in a lake. Like, under the water. To celebrate this weird ass origin story, we’re making Lancelot a Triton, because I honestly don’t think I’ll ever get another excuse to make one of those. Tritons get +1 to Strength, Constitution, and Charisma, as well as the option to breathe air and water thanks to being Amphibious. You’re also an Emissary of the Sea and Guardian of the Depths, allowing you to talk to any water-breathing beasts, and giving you resistance to cold damage to boot. You can also Control Air and Water, which right now means you can cast Fog Cloud once per day using charisma.

Finally, as a knight of the round table you’re a Knight of the Order, giving you proficiency with Persuasion and Religion. 

Ability Scores:

As fitting of someone who turns lancers into fine smears on the ground, your Strength is going to be your highest score. After that is Charisma. Half the time you’re in some sort of situation where nobody can tell who you are, but they still like you anyway. I’d think a high charisma would make you less forgettable, but I’m not English. After that is Constitution- Dolorous Guard requires you to fight twenty knights, and they cheat on top of that! You’d better be ready for the long haul. Your Dexterity isn’t terrible, you’ll mostly be in plate mail anyway. Your Intelligence is a bit low, but your plans generally get summed up as “hit things”, so it’s not much of a loss. Finally, dump Wisdom. If you could resist charm effects you wouldn’t be in this mess. 

Class Levels

1. Paladin 1: I hope this isn’t too surprising. First level paladins get proficiency in Wisdom and Charisma saves, as well as two paladin skills. Athletics will help you lug three shields around, and Intimidation will make that look even remotely scary to anyone else.

You also get a Divine Sense that will help you detect celestials, fiends, or undead near you for a turn. If you’re hunting down the holy grail, it’s probably guarded by celestials or undead, so this might give you an edge on your son. You can use this a number of times per long rest equal to 1 + your charisma modifier. You can also Lay on Hands for a bit of healing that recharges each long rest.

2. Paladin 2: Use your new Fighting Style to get better with your great sword with Great Weapon Fighting. This lets you re-roll ones and twos on your damage rolls with two handed weapons. when you combine this with your smites, it’ll get a lot of use. Oh, speaking of, you can use Divine Smite to add some radiant damage to your melee weapon attacks by burning a spell slot. Speaking of speaking of, you can cast and prepare Spells now using Charisma. Lance is more about the smiting than anything else, and you can also swap spells at will, so don’t get too worked up over what you take. 

3. Paladin 3: As a knight to the great King Arthur, you’re an Oath of the Crown paladin, meaning you can use your Channel Divinity in two different ways. Once per short rest, you can either issue a Champion Challenge or Turn the Tide. The former forces creatures within thirty feet of you to make a Wisdom save (DC 8 + your charisma modifier + your proficiency bonus) or they’re unable to move more than 30′ away from you. This ends if you can’t fight any more, or the creature is ever more than 30′ away from you. Interestingly enough, this doesn’t end if they’re incapacitated, so it’s good for locking down prisoners. The latter heals creatures you choose nearby if they’re bloodied. A lot of people get bloodied near you later, so it might be a good idea to save this. Both options use your bonus action.

You can also Harness Divine Power, spending a bonus action and your channel divinity use to regain a spell slot. Once again speaking of, you get the oath spells Command and Compelled Duel, meaning you don’t have to prepare them to use them. Forcing people to duel you would have solved a lot of problems you had while questing. Not the big one, but a lot of them.

Also, your Divine Health makes you immune to disease. Also also, Control Air and Water makes a comeback, and now you can cast Gust of Wind once per day too.

4. Paladin 4: We’re giving you a breather from all that stuff we got last level. This level, use your first Ability Score Improvement to grab the Tavern Brawler feat. This bumps up your Strength by one, makes you proficient with improvised weapons, improves your unarmed attacks by making them 1d4 instead of 1 damage, and you can grapple enemies as a bonus action after attacking with an improvised weapon. “A knight’s hands are never empty”, after all.

5. Paladin 5: Fifth level paladins get an Extra Attack with each attack action, and Control Air and Water comes back once again for one more freebie. Now you can cast Wall of Water once per day.

Speaking of casting, crown paladins get another level of spell slots and two more oath spells. Warding Bond will protect your fair maiden for up to an hour, giving them a bonus to AC and forcing you to take half their damage. You also get Zone of Truth, whose main purpose is to make things incredibly awkward between you and Artoria.

6. Paladin 6: Our last stop on the paladin train gives you an Aura of Protection, giving you and nearby allies a bonus to all saves equal to your charisma modifier. You’re good at saving against charms now, but at least you were lore compliant early on.

7. Warlock 1: Remember how you were raised by a faerie early on? It’s time to collect. Thanks to your Archfey patron, You can use your Fey Presence to frighten (or charm) creatures that fail a wisdom save once per short rest. You also get Pact Magic, spells that recharge on short rests that don’t quite mix with your existing magic. Just keep your paladin slots and warlock slots how they look on the paper. One class’s slots can cast the other’s spells though.

Speaking of spells: Sword Burst and True Strike for swording good, Armor of Agathys for armoring good, and Cause Fear to be more intimidating.

8. Warlock 2: Second level warlocks get Eldritch Invocations, ways to customize their changeling experience. You get Fiendish Vigor so you can cast False Life on yourself at will, and save the other one for next level. You can also cast Charm Person- nobody said you weren’t sexy.

9. Warlock 3: Getting fancy new swords must be pretty common for knights. At third level you enter the Pact of the Blade, giving you a fancy greatsword you can summon as an action. If you’d prefer something a bit lighter, you can also cast Shadow Blade for a smaller blade... made of shadow.

You also get the invocation Improved Pact Weapon, adding 1 to your attack and damage rolls.

10. Bard 1: You’re the poster boy of being good at just about everything you try, with the exception of keeping it in your pants. That’s a bard, alright. First level bards get any one skill proficiency- Animal Handling will help you stay on your horse better (It doesn’t actually, but it really should).

You also get Bardic Inspiration, d6 you can hand out to allies to help them with attack rolls, skill checks, and saving throws that recharge on short rests. Finally, you get another round of Spells that use Charisma to cast. These spell slots mix with your paladin slots, so check the multiclassing page to figure out how many you have at any given time.

Grab Friends to be scarier and more charming, Dancing Lights and Faerie Fire for a bit more faerie magic, Heroism to lead your knights to glory, Longstrider to push yourself, and Speak with Animals. There were a lot of talking animals back then.

11. Bard 2: Being a Jack of All Trades makes you somewhat good at just about everything, adding half your proficiency to all skills. Camelot also gets a bit livelier thanks to your Song of Rest, adding a d6 to healing done on short rests.

Half the time you can hide your identity with as little as a new shield, so you can practically cast Disguise Self already.

12. Bard 3: You’re a master of weaponry, and so are Swords bards. You get another Fighting Style, and the Dual Wielding style will help you out when your hands are full by adding your strength to your offhand attacks. You can also spend your inspiration on Blade Flourishes, adding that much damage to your attack and gaining one of three options. A Defensive Flourish adds the same number to your AC, a Slashing Flourish deals that damage to another creature near you as well, and a Mobile Flourish forces the target backwards, and you can react to push the initiative. You can only flourish once per turn, but even if you don’t, attacking also adds 10 feet of movement to your speed for the turn.

You also get Expertise in two skills, doubling your proficiency in Religion and Intimidation. You came in second place in the Grail treasure hunt. That’s something to be proud of.

You can also cast Enhance Ability this level. It’s not quite the strength of four men, but it does give you the strength of two Lancelots, which is still quite a bit.

13 Warlock 4: It’s been a while since our last ASI, huh? Grab Fey Touched to bump up your Charisma and cast Misty Step or Gift of Alacrity once per long rest for free, or at any time like a normal spell. The former is teleportation, the latter gives a creature +1d8 to initiative for up to eight hours. You can also cast Booming Blade for even more swording, and Calm Emotions to delay your execution once the whole Guinevere thing gets out.

14. Warlock 5: Fifth level warlocks get third level spells like Spirit Shroud, giving you that cool shadowy thing your berserker self has to deal extra damage, slow down creatures nearby, and prevent them from healing. You also get the invocation Eldritch Smite- now you can smite while you smite!

15. Bard 4: Use this ASI to round up your Strength. This leaves you with one odd number-feel free to put this into anything you’d like, maybe you already got a +1 from something your DM gave you?

You also get Prestidigitation because I’m running out of cantrips to give you and Knock for a handy battering ram.

16. Bard 5: At fifth level of barding, your inspiration increases to a d8, also increasing the amount of damage your flourishes do. You also become a Font of Inspiration, allowing you to recharge inspiration dice on short rests.

Your final bard spell is Fear, because we haven’t spent enough time hammering home how scary an angry man wielding literally everything is yet.

17. Warlock 6: Sixth level feylocks can Misty Escape away when they get hit, using their reaction to turn invisible and teleport up to sixty feet away. Again, this would have been very useful in a multitude of situations while you were questing. Frankly this also would be super useful with the whole adultery thing too. Just bite your tongue and you’re out of the bedroom! You can use this once per short rest.

You can also call in a favor from your extended family by casting Summon Fey.

18. Warlock 7: Seventh level warlocks get fourth level spells, and we’re just gonna dip into your berserker self real quick, just for flavor. You get Shadow of Moil for another version of your shadow cloak, and the invocation Cloak of Flies for yet another version that makes you even scarier than usual.

19. Warlock 8: Use your last ASI to bump your Charisma even higher for stronger spells, stronger saves, and stronger persuasions. You can also cast Banishment now to help in your fight against more supernatural foes. Remember how I said the holy grail is probably guarded by celestials? Now you can deal with them.

20. Warlock 9: Your capstone level of warlock gives you fifth level spells and more importantly, fifth level spell slots. You can cast Contact Other Plane if you want to chat with those celestials you just threw back to Mount Celestia if you really want to. You can also use your final invocation Whispers of the Grave to chat with your ancestors or King Arthur.

Pros

Much like your boss, you’re really good at Smiting. A greatsword, plus eldritch smite, plus divine smite, plus a spirit shroud, plus a blade flourish, plus a crit is 4d6+28d8+5 damage in a single swing. It just beats out Lartoria’s smiting power, dealing an average of 145 points, with the added benefit of blocking the target from healing that back for a full round.

Bardadins are kind of good at everything. With at least half proficiency on all checks and +4 on all saves, you’re just about as skilled as you can get without excelling at anything. Aside from scaring your enemies.

Being good at everything also relates to being able to turn anything into a deadly weapon. Smiting a lich with a sword? Pedestrian. Everyone knows if you kill a lich with their own shinbone all their phylacteries break out of shame.

Cons

Your saves might be a bit better, but you still have low wisdom. Good luck finding that grail when you can barely find your own armor.

One big flaw of all that smiting? Almost no range. Flying and fast enemies can seriously put you through your paces.

Like most three fold multiclasses, this build takes forever to get online. You don’t get your final subclass until level 12, and you don’t get Eldritch Smite, which is kind of a selling point of the build, until level 14. Most games don’t even get that far.

[raeynbowboi]

How to Play as Pyrrha Nikos in DnD 5e

Today I’m eager to build the Untouchable Girl, Pyrrha Nikos from the good seasons of RWBY. For this build, we need to be a one woman army, after all we fought off a four man team single-handedly and then held our own against a fully realized Fall Maiden. We’ve got magnet powers, so we’ll see what we can do to incorporate that into her build. And it would be embarrassing if the Untouchable Girl was constantly getting hit, so we’ll want an extremely high AC to make sure she only rarely takes damage.

As with any Anime Character, I’ll use Variant Human for Pyrrha’s Race and give her +1 DEX and +1 STR. For her bonus feat, I count Pyrrha’s weapon as a shortsword or scimitar, so Defensive Duelist will be able to improve her AC by her Proficiency Bonus while wielding a finesse weapon. For her extra skill, we’ll  pick Persuasion so that we can appeal to others.

Pyrrha’s arc is defined by her penchant for duty and self-sacrifice. Pyrrha is Lawful Good.

For background, Pyrrha is a recognized athlete made famous for her combat prowess and her victories in tournaments and competitions. She would work well as a Gladiator for Performance and Athletics. However I might alter it to give her Acrobatics and Athletics instead to improve her skill on the battlefield.

A Pyrrhic Victory

FIGHTER

   Battle Master. You gain a lot of neat tricks for the battlefield at the cost of pretty much only getting your flashy maneuvers. This can be absolutely fantastic for controlling a battlefield, but at the cost of being weaker as an actual warrior.

   Champion. You’re a more devastating fighter, you’re harder to take down, you get +8 to your Initiative which makes you a very effective frontliner, and you gain a second fighting style, allowing Pyrrha to stack both Dueling and Defense for a better striking damage and an improvement to your AC as well. A fantastic choice for a tank.

   Eldritch Knight. The only reason to take this subclass is the power to summon her sword and shield back to her at will, but you can’t double up on the same class twice, so you can’t take Eldritch Knight and another Fighter Subclass, and Pyrrha simply doesn’t have the need for the spell slots and magic this subclass offers.

Stats, Proficiencies, and possible Feats

STATS For our high AC and our melee combat, we’ll want a maxed out Dexterity stat. While we strive to avoid getting hit, a high Concentration stat will ensure that even if someone does hit us, we won’t go down easy. A good Strength skill will make us a skilled athlete, even though we won’t be swinging with it. The rest of her stats are base 10 to ensure that while she’s not perfect at everything, she’s also not bad at anything either.

PROFICIENCIES Acrobatics Athletics Perception Persuasion Survival

FEATS  Blade Mastery. +1 to sword weapon attacks, +1 AC as a reaction  Defensive Duelist. Finesse Weapons add her Proficiency Bonus to her AC  Heavy Armor Mastery. Reduces melee damage taken by 3.  Resilient. +1 DEX and proficiency with DEX saving throws.  Shield Master. shove as a bonus action, +2 to DEX saves, and Evasion feature  Tough. Makes Pyrrha tougher and better at shaking off hits. +40 HP.

Name: Pyrrha Nikos Race: Variant Human Background: Gladiator Alignment: Lawful Good Class: Champion Fighter (20) Base Stats: Strength: 16 (+3) Dexterity: 20 (+5) Constitution: 18 (+4) Intelligence: 10 (0) Wisdom: 10 (0) Charisma: 10 (0) Saving Throws: Strength: +9 Dexterity: +7 Constitution: +11 Intelligence: 0 Wisdom: 0 Charisma: 0 Combat Stats: HP: 204 AC: 27 Speed: 30 Initiative: +8 Proficiency Bonus: +6 Passive Perception: 19 Dark Vision: 0 feet Proficiencies: Acrobatics Athletics Perception Persuasion Survival Skills: Acrobatics: +11              Medicine: 0 Animal Handling: 0        Nature: 0 Arcana: 0                       Perception: 6 Athletics: +9                   Performance: 0 Deception: 0                  Persuasion: +6 History: 0                       Religion: 0 Insight: 0                       Sleight of Hand: +8 Intimidation: 0               Stealth: +8 Investigation: 0             Survival: +6 Items: Plate (AC 18, Stealth Disadvantage) Shield (AC +2) Shortsword or Scimitar (+12 to hit, 1d6 + 7 slashing or piercing damage.)

Features:

Action Surge. Make a second action twice per rest. Blade Mastery. +1 to sword attacks, +1 AC as a reaction, and opportunity attacks made with advantage. Defense Fighting Style. +1 AC while wearing armor. Defensive Duelist. Finesse Weapons add your Proficiency Bonus to your AC. Dueling Fighting Style. +1 to melee attack damage. Extra Attack. Make a fourth attack as an action each turn. Indomitable. Reroll failed saving throws three times per long rest. Remarkable Athlete. +3 to STR, DEX, or CON throws you’re not proficient in. Second Wind. Regain 1d10+20 HP once per rest. Shield Master. +2 to DEX saving throws, successful DEX saves take 0 damage. Superior Critical. Critical hit on 18-20. Survivor. Recover 9 HP each turn when your HP is less than half.

While we can’t incorporate Pyrrha’s polarity semblance as much as I’d like, we still made her extremely effective as a fierce warrior. Pyrrha should be a true force to reckon with on the battlefield. If possible, giving Pyrrha a +3 Shield will improve her AC to 30 to truly make her untouchable, give her +10 on DEX saving throws, and a +3 Shortsword or Scimitar will inflict 1d6 + 10 damage. Scimitar of Speed would be marvelous for her, giving her +8 to attack rolls and +2 on damage rolls, as well as allowing her to make attacks as a bonus action, turning her 4 attacks per turn into 8, making Pyrrha a devastating attacker. She’d be dealing 1d6 + 9 damage for a total of 8 times a round, dealing 8d6 + 72 for 80 - 120 damage per turn. With that weapon, Pyrrha becomes an absolute beast who can easily fight off an entire hoard of foes by herself. If you’re looking for a one woman army to tank her way through any encounter, this build will conquer just about anything you put in front of her.

[stained-glass-fragments]

[ Stained Glass (Fragments): Black & White Pt. 5]

Granted, he had come close to achieving it once. Yune had taken a pierce in the shoulder that may or may not have missed grazing the arm of the unprepared knight. But it was hardly shielding her from a killing blow and his wound was healed relatively easily. Keeping her from harm was something that he always did his best to accomplish in any situation, yet when the trio had been ambushed on the lowest level beneath Geffen tower, even he had not been fully prepared for what was in store...

Choruses of ghostly whinnies were the first and last warning before Yune, Farona, and Ryshun found themselves shrouded in thick mist. The rest of the monsters they had been attending to seemed to vanish--or perhaps retreat. And out of those heavy clouds, flanked by a series of spectral nightmares... he appeared.

Yune watched himself form out of the mist, wearing the same sunglasses and bunny ears and even sporting the same kind of grin he wore on his lips day to day.

Doppelganger.

The high priest's jaw clenched. He should have seen this coming. Out of the three of them, the shape-shifting monster would have no doubt chosen the strongest and biggest threat on the team to copy the form of. His companions probably did not know enough about the boss monster to realize that fact, but this creature now posed a great threat---he had Yune's raw strength and power at his disposal. Those were attributes to his demi-human abilities that his current party members knew nothing about. The only stark difference was the fact that his mirror image was also wielding a large, deadly-looking sword.

No one realized the true danger here except for him. And while the priest could care less about the stupid assassin, Farona's confusion and uncertainty over what was happening was making a strange feeling of dread form in the pit of his stomach.

She looked reluctant to fight. Fierce, headstrong, impulsive Farona was barely keeping her hand on the hilt of her sword, much less preparing to attack.

"Don't be fooled!" he shouted, his voice carrying through the underground area. "It's Doppelganger! Disarm him!"

Ryshun seemed to take the cue, going into cloak mode in some hopes of taking the monster by surprise. However, the knightress was still hesitating. Even as he blessed her and increased her agility and used every skill that he had to aid her into gaining the confidence to act, the only step that she took was one in the backwards direction.

With the outstretch of a hand, his carbon copy sent a wordless signal for all five of his nightmares to charge at Yune, obscuring the knightress from his view briefly as he was forced to take his attention to the horde. But no sooner did he take care of three of the rather weak spectral horses with a few holy light spells before a fresh dozen was suddenly galloping in to join them.

He could only catch glimpses from beyond the fiery, purple bodies. Doppelganger, completely ignoring the swipes that the assassin was trying to take at him with katar weapons in-between his vanishing, had gone straight after Farona.

There was a loud clash of steel on steel---she must have finally drawn her weapon, at least. But Yune still had a bad feeling. Farona was always swayed by emotion and unstable physically when her emotions were unstable. The sight of someone she considered an ally viciously attacking her would teeter her balance to the point of dumping her straight off of the deep end.

And that thing was using his face to do it.

Yune growled in frustration as he disintegrated a few more of the nightmares---only for even more to replace them. He could have obliterated everything here with ease if he unleashed his true inhuman powers, but he stubbornly held back, refusing to tarnish and throw away everything that he had been working toward so far.

He could not reveal himself at this time. It was too early.

The clangs of sword against sword filled the air, but the volley of the noises was off-beat from a proper sword duel---as though one party was only defending against the other ruthlessly assaulting them.

"You must attack it!" he yelled forcefully, seeing a flutter of red hair somewhere in the gaps. "Doppelganger is aggressive and will not back down! You have to overpower it!"

But even as he spoke those words, the feeling of dread only expanded further. If it came down to a battle between himself and the knightress, he already knew who would overpower the other. The difference in their strength, even on the inhuman side of it, was like night and day.

The only one who could strike down this Doppelganger successfully was himself.

"Y---Yune! Stop!" her wavering voice cried out.

The high priest's eyes widened from behind his sunglasses. It was as he thought. She still had not been able to differentiate the image of him attacking her from his real self.

And then, he heard it. With a resounding clang and clatter, a blade had hit the ground. And his eyes confirmed what he already realized, spotting the glimpse of silver---Farona's claymore.

She was defenseless.

Yune grit his teeth. He was going to have no choice---he had to get to her, dammit! That idiot friend of hers clearly wasn't doing anything to help. He would think of a lie to cover for himself later---plans could be changed. All that mattered now, was---!

With a burst of fiery energy, the demon within scraped the surface long enough for nightmares surrounding him to all but explode in wisps of bluish-purple flame. His path and vision now clear, he immediately lunged in her direction---

But Doppelganger was already in the process of lunging upon her himself---currently masquerading as the identical twin of the high priest---a sword arched overhead, aimed to mercilessly cleave the stunned, weaponless woman's skull in two.

Yune's mouth fell open. He would be too late---just like when he thought he had lost her in the facility so many years prior, she was again on cusp of death, right before his eyes---

And then, out of thin air, the assassin materialized, grabbing Farona around the middle just as the sword sliced down where she had been standing and tackling both of their bodies to the ground a short distance away. They rolled several times in the ancient dirt before they came to a stop.

Doppelganger was already regaining his balance and preparing to pursue, but with the attention of his party currently off of him, Yune tapped into his true abilities---just long enough to grab Farona's fallen fire claymore and drive it through the unsuspecting back of his mirror image.

The monster briefly turned into the image of a blond male swordsman before he vanished, defeated, and the sword, no longer having a body to hold it up, toppled and clanked with a dull noise on the ground. A few treasures lay scattered about, but the high priest took no notice of them.

His eyes were glued to the display nearby, where Farona was holding onto Ryshun for dear life in their prone position, her head tucked protectively beneath his. There were murmurs of something---likely the assassin reassuring her that it was over.

Perhaps a normal person in his position would have felt grateful or relieved. But upon seeing the way her trembling fingers clung to the fabric of Ryshun's attire, Yune's eyes only narrowed sharply from behind the cover of his sunglasses.

An ugly, frothing feeling of utter detestation filled him from the inside out.

Not only did the damn assassin just happen to show up at the right moment to play hero, but he saved her from a being that, at that point in time, looked exactly like Yune.

Remembering that time still made a shot of something hot burn through his veins and fester deep in his tainted blood. Yune gripped at the white fabric covering his arms, baring his teeth. He hoisted to his feet in a billow of robes and turned to head for the stream nearby. He needed to cool down. A splash of water on the face should do it.

...How infuriating.

Why were his own carefully-controlled and easily-dismissed emotions so unpredictable when she was involved?

He did not understand it as a child and even after such a long period of time traveling with her and learning countless things about her as an adult, he still did not. And one of the most frustrating things to him had always been not having the knowledge to explain or figure something out that he needed to know. Yune couldn't build solid plans around something---or someone---that he could not accurately predict.

And being unable to predict himself was one of the most dangerous things of all.

He had her now. He had a way to keep her wrapped around his finger.

But strangely, it was not enough.

Yune removed his gloves as he settled down on his knees at the stream and reached into the quiet waters, cupping his joined hands beneath the surface, gathering enough to fill them--

It was never enough.

He splashed his face with the water, drenching his bangs with a flood of the cool liquid--

It would never be enough.

The droplets streamed every which way down his features, dripping from locks of wet hair and dropping into the water below. Small ripples obscured and temporarily altered the moonlit image of him that looked back up at him from in the calm waters.

Then, so suddenly that he almost thought it to be a mirage, another image appeared alongside his.

"Yune?"

Farona's reflection stood at the side of his, her voice hovering over his right shoulder. Even in the scant amount of light from the moon, her ocean-colored eyes were bright and shining.

Yune reached down to touch her image in the water, watching as the tiny ripples rolled over her frame in soft waves. When the waters stilled, she remained in place beside his reflection, ears perked and eyes lit from within by that special something he never could decipher.

Farona never belonged on his chessboard from the beginning.

But she stood next to the Black King better than any Queen ever would.

[hellyeahheroes]

Building Gwen Poole in D&D 5e

Hey, guess who just got told my company is not working next week. Well, let’s celebrate by doing another D&D build, I had lately few ideas, including a character that makes me smile, unless she is making me feel bad for her

Let me quickly list the Goals for this build. First of all, we need to be able to enter Whitespace, cross beyond panel borders and then back. Second, we need to have knowledge only someone from real world entering a fantasy one could have. Finally, we need to summon Gwens from previous books to aid us. And one more for me is to not make this identical to Tulok the Barbarian’s Deadpool build, since the man already been an inspiration so much for these posts. Which will be hard since Gwen does lend herself well to similiar combination of two classes, spoiler alert.

As always, Ability Scores will be determiend by Standard points Array of 15, 14, 13, 12, 10 and 8, if you or your DM prefer point buy or rolls, go ahead and treat these as guidelines.

Strength: 10, we really don’t need it but Gwen carries a lot of weapons around so I cannot give this an 8

Dexterity: 14, despite the big boots I really doubt your suit is a medium armor, what with those bare legs and all.

Constitution: 13, hit points aren’t meat points and you survive in dangerous situations just fine.

Intelligence: 12, you are well-read in world of your heroes

Wisdom: 8,  you let Ms. Marvel convince you you’re an enteirly different species and your life is a lie and you also tried dating Quentin freaking Quire.

Charisma: 15, people like you and even if they don’t believe your claams of being from another world, they’ll likely dismiss them with a heartfelt laughter than trying to book you a psychologist appointment.

Now for Race, I hinted I don’t believe the “Gwen is a mutant” retcon so I’m going with Variant Human. If you think everything must be a mutant now, then go with any Aasimar or Half-Elf. Variant Humans get to be bitter about X-Men, add +1 to two Ability Scores, go with Charisma and Constitution, gain one free language and one free Skill, pick History since you know it because you’re a human from our world, and a feat. Crossbow Expert lets you ignore loading quality of crossbows, let’s you shoot creatures within 5 feet of you without a disadvantage and make an attack with a loaded crossbow as a bonus action after you hit a foe with a one-handed weapon attack. Crossbows are easy to reskin as guns but be warned that this does not turn a crossbow into an automated gun - you still need a hand to reload the crossbow after every shot, which now counts as a part of your attack, but requires a free hand. Which means you cannot wield two crossbows or fire more than one shot in a single round without a free hand. It could be fixed with some Artificer levels but we’re not doing that here, so make sure you’re on good terms with Riri Williams if you want to shoot two guns or use gun and a blade in an accord.

For Background, Far Traveller is someone who came from far, far away and you are literally from real world. You get Insight and Perception proficiency, can pick any free language of choice and one musical instrument or gaming tool and world has All Eyes On You - people notice you’re not from around and take interest in you.

Time to go with Class Levels

1st Level: We’ll kick things off as a Bard, letting gets to be proficient in any 3 skills, let’s go with Persuasion, Deception and Acrobatics. You are also proficient with Dexterity and Charisma saving throws, light armor, shields, simple weapons, hand crossbows, longswords, rapiers, shortswords and three musical instruments of your choice. 

You also get Bardic Inspiration, giving you a number of d6 dices equal to your Charisma modifier per long rest that you can hand over to someone that they can add to any ability check, attack roll, or saving throw that they make in the next 10 minutes. They can do it after they roll but before DM declares result of the roll. So you can now cheer on your heroes while fighting alongside them.

Bards are also spellcasters. You get to know a number of spells and have a number of spell slots per long rest that you can spend to cast them and if you cast one from higher level spell slot, it will be stronger. You learn more spells as you advance but cannot know a spell of level higher than highest spell slot you can use. You also get Cantrips which you can cast always and scale with your level, getting stronger at 5th, 11th and 17th character level. If a spell requires you to make an attack roll you sum up your Proficiency Bonus and your Charisma modifier to add to the roll. And if you add 8 to those two values you get your Save Difficulty, which a creature has to beat if your spell forces them to make a saving throws.

A Bard starts with two Cantrips and 4 known spells

Vicious Mockery is a staple for Bards, it lets you mock someone so bad, they must make a Wisdom saving throw or take 1d4 psychic damage and have a distadvantage on next attack roll they make before end of its next turn.

Message is a spell functioning as a magic phone, letting you send a short message to someone within the range and then can make a short reply.

Identify lets you see if you recognize an item as something you once read in a comic book - it tells you if the item is magical, magic-imbued, what magical properties it has or what spells are affecting it, how to use it, if it requires attunment and how many charges it has.

Tasha’s Hideous Laughter makes you tell a joke that forces the target to make a Wisdom Saving Throw or fall prone and be incapitated and unable to stand up due to overwhelming laughter. Target gets another save at end of each of its turns or a save with an advantage whenever someone deals damage to it.

2nd Level: We stick to Bard to gain 2nd-Level feature Jack of All Trades, letting you add half of your Proficiency modifier to all skills you are not proficient with. You also gain Song of Rest, letting you play some music when your team is resting and rolling hit dice to regain hitpoints, letting everyone roll an additional 1d6. I don’t think it is a power per se that Gwen has, but could totally see her try to cheer up her friends and heroes.

And speaking of cheering up, you get one new spell - Heroism let’s you instill the bravery in one willing creature, making it immune to being frightened and on each of its turns letting them gain temporary hit points equal your Charisma modifier. Again, Hit Points can represent someone’s luck or will to fight so if you see Batroc having a hard time against Captain America, you can cheer him up to keep fighting. I mean, you would but you like Cap too, so maybe hope Batroc fights Taskmaster or something?

3rd Level: And it’s still a Bard, on 3rd Level gaining admission to something Gwen never got in real life - a college. Bardic College, to be more specific. I was thinking of College of Satire but really, College of Lore fits our needs much better. You gain profficiency with three more skills, I’d go with Athletics, Stealth and Sleight of Hand. Since all bards also gain Expertise, letting you choose two skills for which your Proficiency Bonus is doubled, use it on Athletics and Perception which depend on two lowest Ability Scores you have.

Your spell for the level is Invisibility, which lets you skip through eniemies you don’t feel like fighting, we can refluff this as early “slipping out” to the whitespace, but some creatures can still see you and you are “pulled back” (read: made visible) if you try to interact with something or attack anyone. 

College of Lore also gets Cutting Words, which lets you say something that spooks or confuses a creature. Mechanically it lets you use your Inspiration die the opposite way they are normally used, letting you roll to subtract from attack roll, saving throw or an ability check.

I mean, that’s basically how it works

4th Level: Still sticking with the Bard for an Ability Score Improvement, go for your Charisma, since not only your spells but also Bardic Inspiration relies on it.

You also get a new spell and a new Cantrip

Prestidigitation lets you make a number of smaller effects you can play as you messing around with Whitespace. Knock let’s you unlock one nonmagical lock on door or an object. Maybe play it as you “skipping” the door through Whitespace or cutting out to when the object is already unlocked?

5th Level: Surprise, surprise, it is still Bard. 5th Level mostly improves Bardic Inspriation - now it uses d8s and you regain them on a short rest as well. You also gain the access to 3rd level spell - Nondetection can make you or someone else immune on being spied by magical means for 8 hours. Situational? Yes. But something Gwen can do as a person capable of walking out of the reality where people like Doctor Strange or Professor X cannot find her? Very. You can also use it on objects. 

6th Level: Bar...oh hey, we’re doing Fighter now. 1st Level fighter gains proficiencies with light and medium armor and martial weapons as well as Second Wind, letting you once per short rest as a bonus action regain 1d10+your Fighter level hit points. You also get to choose a Fighting Style - Archery grants Gwen +2 to ranged weapon attacks.

ALTERNATIVES: As you can see, I decided to do Gwen as someone gun-toting, if you’d rather her use a sword then picking Defensive Duelist at first level and Dueling style now. Mind you, you need to have a free hand for spellcasting so unless you take a War Caster feat (which is also an option) you cannot duel-wield either sword and crossbow (which would also require sacrificing your Ability Score Improvement for Crossbow Expert) or two swords and use many of your abilitties. On a side note, Gwen is also profficient now with heavy Crossbow, so you can use that as a shotgun.

7th level: 2nd Level Fighter gets Action Surge, letting you once per Short rest gain an extra Standard Action

8th Level: 3d Level Fighter gains a Martial Achertype. I was thinking which one Gwen would choose. Wade went with a Champion but we don’t want Gwen to be exactly like him even if we’re already mixing two of the same classes Tulok did. I have a better pick. Gwen is suppsoed to represent the modern fandom that jumped into comics during New 10s, right? If that’s the case then, without streotyping here, we should ask ourselves what would likely be her possible gateway to D&D.

Echo Knight has been introduced in Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount, the world designed by Matt Mercer for his Critical Role games. You can use your bonus action to Manifest Echo, letting you pull an echo of yourself from another timeline or, in your case, another book you were in. This Gwen has AC 14+ your Proficiency modifier, 1 hit point and immunity to all conditions, uses your saving throws and you command her to moves on your turn. She vanishes if she dies, you’re incapitated, you dismiss her, summon another Gwen or find yourself more than 30 feet away from her. 

As a bonus action you can  sacrifice 15 feet of your movement to swap places with other Gwen, you can choose if your attacks originate from your position or her and you can use your reaction to have her make an opportunitty attack if an opponnent would trigger one. And a number of times equal your Constitution Modifier per Long rest you can make her take an extra attack as a part of your attack action with Unleash Incarnation.

Now, to get third Gwen we would need 18 levels of Echo Knight, but we would lose or all other abilitties about Whitespace then. Instead I suggest you circle through Gwens, as it seems that Echo Knight can summon an Echo as many times as they feel like, just not at once. 

9th Level: 4th Level Fighter gets an Ability Score Improvement, Round up your Charisma

10th Level: 5th Level Fighter gains an Extra Attack, letting you attack twice as a part of the same action. Meaning you can make up to seven attacks with Action Surge, two uses of Unleash Incarnation and Crossbow Expert, provided you’re having a free hand. Unless DM allows it I do not think you can have other Gwen reload your guns, so all problems of Crossbow Expert still apply. Dual Wielding meele or mixed meele and ranged Gwen would get to the same level of attacks.

11th Level: 6th Level Fighter gets another Ability Score Improvement, start focusing on your Dexterity - even a meele Gwen is better off using finesse weapons and it adds to your AC.

12th Level: The Bard returns! 6th level Bard learns Countercharm, letting you use your action to give everyone you consider friendly an advantage on saving throws against being frightened or charmed - I guess it’s Gwen cheering other heroes up more or warning them she read about the baddie they’re facing and he has mind altering powers

You also get one more spell. It is sad we are behind with the spells...or are we? College of Lore Bard can gain Magical Secrets - a Bardic feature we will gain later as well, but this is an additional one and early. It lets you add two spells from any spell list to your spells known, as long as they’re on a level you can cast. Unlike the standard Bard version we will get later, the two spells we get now do not count to our maximum of spells know. Meaning we get three new spells

Tongues will let you read world baloons translated to English for the American readers and apparently let you add translation to  your own dialogues for an hour.

Blink lets you roll at the end of each of your turns and if you get 11 or higher you slip into Whitespace a.k.a. Etheral Plane and reappear in space no more than 10 feet away from where you were at the beginning of your next turn. When you are in whitespace you cannot be attacked or interacted with creatures on material plane. It is not as powerful as in Pathfinder but still - don’t cheat on this, don’t be an asshole and if you are pray you never see a spider.

Fireball is your grenade/rocket launcher. Creatures within range are dealt 8d6 fire damage, half on a succesful Dexterity saving throw.

13th and 14th level: 7th level Bard gains an acess to 4th level spells and 8th Level bard gains an Ability Score Improvement, invest in Dexterity again. I’m doing the two together since each gives you one more spell too add:

Dimension Door lets you teleport anywhere with range of 500 feet, as long as you can see, visualize or know the area. You can bring anything up to your carrying capacity and one creature also carrying no more than its maximum with you. However, if another creature occupies the selected space, you run into it and get knocked back through Whitespace, taking 4d6 force damage.

Greater Invisibility works like Invisibility, but now you can take things with you or attack until it ends naturally. Play it as you slipping in and out of Whitespace.

15th Level: 9th Level Bard gets to improve Song of Rest, now using a 1d8 instead of 1d6. And you gain access to 5th level spells. Legend Lore is a spell seemingly tailor-made for a fangirl - you can gain (or in your case, recall that you’ve read) knowledge about specific person, object or location. It may be vague, the more you already know the better results. This lets you put fun in your fangirl...wait.

16th Level: 10th Level Bard improves Bardic Inspriation dice to d10s, gains Expertise in two more Skills, I’d go with History and Persuasion, and learns one more cantrip and Magical Secrets - this works like before but these spells count to your maximum of spells know.

Blade Wards grants you until end of your next turn resistance agaisnt bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage from weapon attacks. Your armor is at best light, this may help if you want to go into meele.

Banishment let’s you force a creature to make a Charisma saving throw or let you send them into Whitespace. They get to come back like Paste Pot Pete did after it ends, but if they’re not from this plane and if you don’t break your concentration for one minute, they’re banished for good.

Banishing Smite is similiar - next time you hit a creature with a weapon attack, and it does not specify it must be a meele attack, you deal it extra 5d10 force damage and if you reduce it to 50 or less hit points, you send them to the Whitespace. There is no save, but there is no chance to keep target permamently out. Either spell still can save lives against tough enemies.

17th Level: 11th Level Bard learns to cast 6th level Spells, but I don’t see any so we will grab one more from 5th level - Scrying let’s you poke through Whitespace to find a person and observe them and their activities. They get a Wisdom saving throw to resist being spied on, I guess trying to reassert that their current narrative place is off-page. The better you know them and better materials connecting to them you have, the harder resisting your prying eyes gets. Just please don’t use it to stalk your friends, okay?

18th Level: 12th Level Bard gets last Ability Score Improvement, round up your Dexterity.

19th Level: 13th Level Bard improves Song of Rest to 1d10 and gains access to 7th level Spells. Etherialness lets you just hop to the Whitespace...I mean, Etherial Plane, for up to 8 hours, effectively saving you from an encounter if you would die othertwise. It let’s you regroup, regain your strength, plan ahead, move away or even bypass whole area, effectively skipping to different pages, and doesn’t require concentration to do it.

20th Level: And we wrap things up with 14th Level of Bard. College of Lore grants you Pearless Skill, letting you now use Bardic Inspiration on your own rolls. You also get two more Magical Secrets

Delayed Blast Fireball is a bomb - you put on a fireball in a place. Any creature that touches it must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw to be able to throw it in a different place. Whenever they suceed or not, it explodes anyway, same if your spell ends or you break concentration. It deals 12d6 fire damage plus an extra 1d6 for each of your turn that ended without it detonating, half on a succesful Dexterity Saving Throw.

Plane Shift lets you and up to 8 creatures move to a different plane of existence, meaning you can now team-up with Squirrel Girl to kick Mephisto’s butt. Teleport could be more useful as it let’s you move within a single plane, but then you don’t get to freak Squirrel Girl out by pointing there is no reason someone isn’t punching the devil in the face at all times.

Overview: So this is how I’d do Gwenpool - College of Lore Bard 14/Echo Knight Fighter 6. Let’s see how valid this build is

Pros: You have a pretty decent amount of hit points, somewhere around 160 on average, while having multiple ways to avoid damage. You are a good utility caster with multiple ways to gather information or scout ahead and you have a pretty good array of skills on top of that, making you a good use for non-combat situations. You also have pretty good mobility options, letting you move as you wish across the battlefield. Finally, whenever you picked meele or ranged options, you can dish out a lot of attacks if needed, or even blast out some foes.

Cons: Your Constitution is mediocre, meaning your Concentration and use of Unleash Incarnation could be better. Second, your spell selection is somewhat situational, some of the options we took may not always be useful, even if they are in character. Third, your Wisdom saving throw is horrible so charming, frightening or just Hold Person will be your bane. Finally, you do not have any ways of dealing magical damage, unless your DM throws a magic rapier and/or crossbow your way and your fireballs deal fire damage, which many creatures are resistant or even immune to.

However overall you are able to fill or support in multiple roles, from scout to party face to damage dealer to information gatherer, which makes you great to have. Remember, however, that this is not one-person show and you work better as a part of a team.

For example

-Admin

[breaks-soulgem]

D&D Magireco builds

Character-Tsuruno Yui

Class-Fighter (eldritch knight)

Race-Human (variant)

Ability score (two,+1 race bonuses are shown and in STR and CON)

Strength-14 Dexterity-8 Constitution-16 Intelligence-14 Wisdom-10 Charisma-12

Proficiencies-Investigation,perception,acrobatics, arcana

Tools-Cooking utensils,playing cards (yui cards)

Starting gear-chainmail,2scimitars(Iron fans),2 hand axes (the fans being thrown)

Note:Swap damage types from slashing to bludgeoning for her iron fans

Variant feat-

Lucky(her magic ability is good luck)-You have 3 luck points per long rest.you can use a luck point on any attack,ability,saving rolls,or when you're being attacked, roll another D20 and choose that new roll instead, choice can be made after the roll but before the outcome

1st lvl

Fighting style-

Two weapon fighting-add ability modifier to second weapon attack

(When fighting with two weapons you can use a bonus action after you attack to attack with the other weapon)

Second wind-heal up to one D10+fighter level of hp per short or long rest

2nd lvl

Action surge-once per short or long rest you can take an extra action on your turn

3rd lvl

Martial archetype-Eldritch knight

spell save DC=8+proficiency bonus+INT

spell attack modifier=proficiency bonus+INT

Weapon bond-you can take an hour to bond with a weapon(up to two),you can't be disarmed,you can summon your weapons if they're away from you as a bonus action(1 at a time)

Cantrips

Firebolt-as an action, shoot a mote of fire up to 120FT for 1D10 fire damage(2D10 at 5thlvl,3D10 at 11thlvl)

Light-As an action, for one hour you can choose anything that's 10ft or less and it will shed up to 20ft of light and 20more feet of dim light,if you target a creature it has to make a DEX save to avoid it.

Two first level spell slots.

Spells known three-

Burning hands(flame spray from her fans)-as an action,shoot a 15ft cone of fire,creatures within the cone must make a DEX save,on a fail they take 3D6 fire damage,on a pass they take half.When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the damage increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 1st.

absorb elements-1st lvl spell.as a reaction.The spell captures some of the incoming energy, lessening its effect on you and storing it for your next melee attack. You have resistance to the triggering damage type until the start of your next turn. Also, the first time you hit with a melee attack on your next turn, the target takes an extra 1d6 damage of the triggering type, and the spell ends.

Notes:For RP purposes I suggest ignoring the stored and released magic melee damage unless the element is fire

detect magic-1st lvl spell.as an action.For the duration(10min), you sense the presence of magic within 30 feet of you. If you sense magic in this way, you can use your action to see a faint aura around any visible creature or object in the area that bears magic, and you learn its school of magic, if any.The spell can penetrate most barriers, but it is blocked by 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt.

4th lvl

Feat-

Warcaster- advantage on CON saves when keeping concentration while taking damage.

You can cast spells with weapons in both hands.

You can use a spell as a reaction attack instead of melee opportunity attack

Three first lvl spell slots

Known spells four

Shield-1st lvl spell.as a reaction, An invisible barrier of magical force appears and protects you. Until the start of your next turn, you have a +5 bonus to AC, including against the triggering attack, and you take no damage from magic missile

Note:I know she doesn't have a shield ability,but flavor is everything!Tsuruno's a skilled fighter and taking moment (spell slot) to go on the defensive wouldn't be out of character in the least

5th lvl

Extra attack-you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.

6th lvl

Duel wielder-You gain a +1 bonus to AC while you are wielding a separate melee weapon in each hand.

You can use two-weapon fighting even when the one-handed melee weapons you are wielding aren’t light.

You can draw or stow two one-handed weapons when you would normally b e able to draw or stow only one.

7th lvl

War magic- when you cast a cantrip as an action you can weapon attack as a bonus action

Four 1st lvl spell slots

Two 2nd lvl spell slots

Spells known-five

Aganazzar's scorch-2nd lvl spell.as an action, A line of roaring flame 30 feet long and 5 feet wide emanates from you in a direction you choose. Each creature in the line must make a Dexterity saving throw. A creature takes 3d8 fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the damage increases by 1d8 for each slot level above 2nd.

8th lvl

Six spells known

Dragons breath (connect)-2nd lvl spell. as a bonus action,You touch one willing creature and imbue it with the power to spew magical fire energy from its mouth, provided it has one.Until the spell ends, the creature can use an action to exhale energy of the chosen type in a 15-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a Dexterity saving throw, taking 3d6 damage of the chosen type on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the damage increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 2nd.

Note:im aware the spell let's you choose other elements but im keeping thematic with fire.

Ability score improvement- Either two points into STR or two into INT ,at level twelve you'll take whichever you didn't choose here

9th lvl

Indomitable- you can reroll a save throw twice per long rest,you must use the new roll

Three times at 13th lvl

10th lvl

Eldritch strike-When you hit a creature with a melee attack,that creature has disadvantage against the next spell saving throw from a spell you cast till the end of your next turn

Three 2nd lvl spell slots

11th lvl

Extra attack-you can attack three times, instead of twice, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.

12th

Ability score improvement- two points into STR or INT,whichever you didn't choose at lvl 8

13th lvl

Two 3rd lvl spell slots

Spells know-nine

Fireball(flame waltz)-3rd lvl spell.as an action,a point you choose within range (150ft)blossoms into an explosion of flame. Each creature in a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on that point must make a Dexterity saving throw. A target takes 8d6 fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

14th lvl

Ability score improvement-two points into either STR,INT or CON no wrong answer really

15th lvl

Arcane charge-you gain the ability to teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space you can see when you use your Action Surge. You can teleport before or after the additional action.

Note: honestly couldn't think of a solid flavoring for this,I'd just say work it almost like "disengage" but without the use of it taking your turn

End notes:

While eldritch knights aren't the best at dishing out raw magic damage,Tsuruno's the only actual caster of the bunch!

This was probably the most complex of the Mikazuki villa team to make but it was real fun to do!

I have the other characters ready i just gotta write them up

If anyone wants other builds for different girls just let me know!

[ravenofsigurd]

The God Of Heroes

Lore for Michael Flanagan's D&D setting

 In their mortal life, the person who would end their existence retaining the title of the God of Heroes, was known as Alektos Fastfoot, the Demi-God offspring Gond, God of Crafts and the Princess Paloma of the dead Kingdom of Acroptis. After being exiled by the murderous intent of their Grandfather, the King of Acroptis, Minon, Alektos found their infant self and mortally wounded mother in a Hafling village where the Princess died and the baby was taken in by a kindly Halfling family.  Enraged by the exile and murder of his lover and the exile and attempted murder of his child, Gond cursed the land of Acroptis so they could not use or retain memory of skills to use any technology, even fire was denied them causing most of the people to slowly die out, the land to be overrun by monsters and the few survivors to devolve into savage, bestial creatures.

 Alektos stood out amongst the village, not just because they were a human in the midst of Halflings but because their royal blood showed through in their dark brown skin and obsidian coloured hair of tight curls, a contrast to the pale, loose curled halflings. They also stood out in their strength, that seemed to exceed that of average humans, and their long human limbs meant they were swifter in movement that all others in the village, earning them the name 'Fastfoot', both a reference to their speed and a play on the name of their adopted family, Proudfoot,  Despite being raised as a girl, Alektos felt no need to conform to the expected gender roles of village tradition and nobody felt the need to force them into said roles, them being human and the halflings being an easy going people who conformed to traditional roles out of habit and laziness rather than a strong desire to keep society a certain way, favouring the idea of contentment and full bellies over any kind of ideology. Alektos would wear both feminine and masculine clothing depending on mood, making most garments themselves, as they found they had an affinity for weaving and tailoring.  Upon reaching their teenage years, Alektos became increasingly uncomfortable and annoyed with being referred to as 'girl', believing their actions and interests indicated that they were not a girl by halfling standards and by the same token neither were they a boy.  Alektos was heard to say on many occasions, 'Men are copper, women are tin and I am bronze.'

 As Alektos grew older, they found with little effort they could learn any craft skill well, from cooking to woodwork, basket making to weaving but their favourite was smithing.  After only a year of apprenticeship, they made the finest bronze in the village. Their rate and quality of production was such that the village had all the tools and weapons they could need, as such Alektos spent much time with travelling traders, trying to sell their backlog of bronze goods.  Through their interactions with the traders they got to hear of foreign crafts, the fine bronze of the Crannog Gnomes on the Winged Isle, the great engines of the  people of Archimedian, the clever mechanisms in the counrty of Daedalon, the fine of the cloths and weaving of the Arrack people and the enchantments put on crafts at the University of Hecathen.  Alektos was fascinated by these tales and resolved that the skills to make wonders such as these were ones that they should learn.  Forging themself a short sword and spear and bidding farewell to their Halfling family,  Alektos left with a trading caravan having secured their passage in exchange for working as a guard.  

 They travelled to all the lands and learned all the crafts they desired and learned them well, weaving the finest cloth, forging the finest bronze, designing ships and siege engines, devising cunning contraptions and imbuing many of these fine crafts with arcane properties.

Alektos faced many obstacles in their travels from bandits to monsters to tyrant warlords, forcing them to use their skills in craft to incline to the martial, making for themselves arcane armour, an enchanted shield and the sharpest sword not made by gods that never lost it's edge. These adventures and mishaps lead Alektos to realise that all the great crafts in the world were worth nothing were they not used well.  A sword was simply a piece of metal until it was wielded by a warrior, and Paladin and Tyrant alike could wield a finely made sword.  Alektos concluded that their crafts should be used as tools with which the right crafters could make a better world, and so spent their days making weapons for heroes and the armies of the just, making swifter ships so that food and riches could be more easily brought to the poor and refugees move swiftly for the places of war and disaster.  They became a great hero themself, slaying evil monsters, leading uprisings against Tyrants, gaining the admirations of many peoples, and the love on many as well as proposals of marriage from two Kings,  But Alektos was never know to have a lover or spouse, preferring the platonic and sibling love of their friends and allies.  

  Monarchy was almost thrust upon Alektos themself  after the reclamation of the land of their birth.  When the Fire Giants caused the great mountain n the Isle of Wokklen to erupt and devastate the land, Alektos and several other heroes lead the evacuation of the island that after several years of the eruption continuing would one day sink into the sea.  The refugees were lead to the border of Acroptis where Alektos vowed to enter the cursed land and remove the curse making it possible for the Wokklen's to settle. The hero knew that they could use no technology, not even fire, but relied on the curse being there to punish those who hurt them, hoping that meant the knowledge of crafts would not leave their head, especially since the curse could only be lifted with their return to the palace they were born in, in the nation's capital at the centre of the land.  Alektos left their weapons, armour and tools, going forth in tunic, sandals with a bag of bread, fruit and dried meat. After the first day of travel, Alektos' tunic, sandals and bag had disintegrated into their component parts, the bread broken down to grain and salt and yeast and the dried meat softened and bled as is it had never seen fire. Naked and only able to carry what fruit would fit in their arms, Alektos journeyed for a week to the capital, mostly avoiding but sometimes having to come to bare handed blows with monsters and the feral Acroptians until she came to the rubble of the capital, for when technology was taken, so were masonry and architecture, causing in one day all buildings to collapse.  Picking their was though the piles of once cut rock, Alektos found their to the rubble of the palace and there found a winged, red dragon.  The dragon sat atop pile of nuggets of precious metals and uncut precious stones, the treasure of the nation, the shaping of crafts worked upon is removed. Alektos despaired upon initially seeing the dragon, knowing in their starved and exhausted state with none of their arms and armour they had gone from little chance of slaying the creature to no chance. Alektos had slain dragons before, but none so big and old and had only done so with those others with careful planning and cunning devices.  Then they saw the horde, and rage filled the heroes heart. Here was another monster, picking at this dead land like a carrion bird at a carcass, not enough that her father destroyed this culture and people with their crafts and songs and stories to spite one man, now this beast would stop the building of something new and great for a people who had all stolen from them.  Unacceptable.  They strode forward, naked and dirty and bloody and cried, 'You, foul lizard, are intruding in my home,  I am Alektos Fastfoot, Dragon slayer, Pegasus tamer, master artificer,smith and enchanter and heir to the last King of  Acroptis and you will leave my birthright be!'

 The Dragon was shocked to hear human speech and language, having only met the feral locals for decades now, but after it's shock it refused to leave threatening to kill Alektos.  Alektos called it a coward before the gods, saying the god's watched their deeds as their father was Gond and should the dragon kill and unarmed, naked mortal the gods would curse it.  So the dragon took the form of a naked human man, and agreed to duel via wrestling for ownership of the land.  The duel lasted a full day and night with neither giving ground, until Alektos found an opportunity to use an arm lock taught to them by a Monk of Yondalla that put the dragon in such pain it begged for mercy. Conquered the dragon agreed to leave the land and carried Alektos back to the refugees at the border in a matter of hours so the news could be given that settlement could begin.  

 The refugees wanted rule to go to Alektos as their rulers were killed in the initial eruption and the land they would now live in belonged to Alektos, but Alektos refused,championing the ascension of their friend and fellow hero, the Dwarf Hespicus, who slayed the king of the Fire Giants as the giants pursued the refugees, insisting the Alektos launch him from a ballista, striking the giant king with his great stone war hammer in the face while airborne, killing the giant instantly and causing it's subjects to flee in fear.  Hespicus made a good and brave king, inviting immigrants of all races to join his fledgling nation, and Alektos stayed with him on his council for many years, rebuilding the cities, ridding the country of  monsters and forcing the feral folk, now turned to cannibalism and far beyond rehabilitation away from the civilised places to live in the remote woods, swamps and mountains, action that pained Alektos seeing these folk as innocent victims of their Grandfather and Father's malice. They did make attempt to rehabilitate a male they captured, calling him Hope, however most called him Mutt and thought of him as Alektos' pet as his behaviour never got much better than that of a captured wolf.

  As the years past and grey started to sneak into the obsidian of Alektos' hair, they and some other heroes became aware of an alliance of Giants who were massing to invade the land of the Gods. Despite the resentment Alektos felt to their father for deciding punishing their Grandfather was more important than protecting their Mother, Alektos knew the Gods were essential to the order of the universe, eliminating them would lead to a chaos that the forces of Entropy could use as a opening to end all life.  As the Gods were completely oblivious to this threat, Alektos went forth to make an alliance of their own, finding all the world's heroes, both Alektos' past friends and enemies, bringing them together to form an army that would stand between the Giants and the Gates of the Gods. When the battle was met, whatever trickery was hiding the Giant army from the God's was dispelled and the Gods came to fight along side the heroes defeating the Giants after Alektos personally killed their General in single combat and then went on to expose the agent of Entropy that manipulated the army together.  For arranging the defence of the Gods and for their acts of skill and bravery in the battle with the Giants the Gods agreed that an appropriate reward would be to raise Alektos to Godhood.

 And so did Alektos Fastfoot become the God of Heroes.  After their ascension Alektos was able to become truly genderless as they had always in their deepest heart of hearts desired. King Hespicus renamed the capital city of Acroptis, Alekopolis in honour of his risen friend and build one of only two Temples ever built to the God of Heroes, the other being in the Feywild, placed their so that the path to it would be a gauntlet that only Heroes could pass.  Hespicus himself made a pilgrimage to the Feywild Temple, bringing the items Alektos has utilised most in their heroic career, the Winged Isle Bronze Sword, Arcane Armour, Enchanted Shield, Helm of Invisibility, a spear that when thrown would become a lightening bolt and a knife made of a tooth of a tunnelling desert creature that devoured arcane energy, so the knife could cut through any arcane shield or defence. Brought there each was placed on a statue of Alektos, line the walls of the temple and guarded by a Fire Elemental in a brazier in front of each statue.

  Alektos chose to stay away from their father, creating their own divine forge where they learned to work adamantine and made weapons and tools, not for the Gods, for that was their father's domain, but for heroes in as rewards for great acts or to help them in their time of greatest need. Alektos first tried to use their godly power to help the feral folk of Acroptis, return them to sanity and civilisation, but the best that could be done was to remove the curse of Gond from them, allowing them to make tools and light fires.  Alektos came to some of them in their Godly visage to gift them fire in the hope that it would be the first step in the formerly cursed people developing themselves back to what they once were.  For 1000 years, Alektos would appear to heroes and potential heroes, some they would guide, some they would push appearing to them only a touch more androgynous than they had been as a mortal, but still as a human of dark skin and hair.  Only once did they appear as anything other that that, when they appear as a Goblin. Alektos was aghast at the hubris of the Hobgoblins creating a slave race and was enraged when no other Gods would intervene, and so appeared to a young he-Goblin, Mzznit, who would be the first hero of the Goblins. Mzznit had existed only as a slave told of his race's creation as slaves and that they were literally less than all forms of life, so Mzznit was awed when confronted by a divine entity in the form of a Goblin who gifted him a sword of adamantine and told him to free his people. And so he did. Many Goblins went off to form feral tribes and engage in banditry imposing Hobgoblin power structures with  mean Goblins in charge, but many followed Mzznit's  example and made villages and towns where they could live peacefully.  Mzznit became a great hero of the age and a faithful Acolyte to Alektos whom always ensured that Mzznit only see them in Goblin form.  

 Though prayers and conversations with heroes, Alektos began to notice patterns in gathering of monsters that seemed similar to the gathering of Giants orchestrated by the forces of Entropy,  These gatherings were ones Alektos could not perceive, only hear reports of them, leading Alektos to concluded that the same thing that hid the Giants was hiding these forces.  Alektos tried to bring this to the attention of the Gods, but they did not give consideration to their concerns, and Alektos began to search for a way to ensure victory without the gods. Alektos became increasingly aware of magic in their Godly form and had followed the flow of magic back to it's source, the primordial energy of  creation,  Now, daringly, Alektos tried to alloy this energy with adamantine, producing crystals.  Alektos made many thousands of these crystals,but found that they were so powerful that a mortal could only handle one at a time and so the crystals were set in weapons that Alektos gave one each of to their followers, Mzznit had made alliances with the aloof Forest Tieflings whom he convinced to pray to Alektos to be allowed to fight in the coming conflict and so they too received the crystal set weapons and became an army waiting for Alektos. The Tielfings having a knowledge of magic rivalled only by Elves and Dragons, built a temple to the crystals with a vault to keep all that Alektos had forged.  The spells and enchantments on the Temple would test the character of the people who entered and gift the worth with a crystal set weapon.  Alektos was not limited to a single crystal, being a God, and so made a breastplate, grieves, vambraces, helm, shield, sword and spear all from the crystal, shaped like glass.

 Alektos would not wait for the threat to be at the gates and so lead a pre-emptive strike against the enemy with the army of heroes and Tieflings and their crystal enhanced weapons.  In the charge the army not only found terrible creatures but a creature of Entropy, a God-like creature that predated creation itself, and this creature Alektos faced alone, The duel shook heaven, earth and underworld stirring the Gods,  By the time the God's arrived at the battle Alektos' army had routed the minions of Entropy and the Elder God lay slain beside the broken body of Alektos, their armour shattered, spear splintered and sword broken.  All that remained of Alektos was the flesh of their mortal body.  Mzznit, raged at the Gods for their complacency costing the universe one so great and selfless as Alektos.  He and several Teiflings took Alektos' body to the Feywild Temple to burn it upon a pyre, and in that Temple the Ashes of the Hero God are kept.  Alektos did not die in vain, galvanised by their grief the Gods fought alongside the followers of Alektos in a war lasting 500 years, keeping the forces of Entropy from the world.  But when the war was over the Gods reverted to complacency, the Tieflings made the deal that cursed their race and Alektos' crystals were forgotten, but still, in the Feywild is the Temple of the God of Heroes, waiting for new pilgrims to prove themselves.

[gamerszone2019-blog]

The Surge 2 Does Combat Better Than Its Predecessor In (Almost) Every Way

New Post has been published on https://gamerszone.tn/the-surge-2-does-combat-better-than-its-predecessor-in-almost-every-way/

The Surge 2 Does Combat Better Than Its Predecessor In (Almost) Every Way

After a few days with a preview demo of The Surge 2, it certainly feels like developer Deck13 listened to fan feedback when it came to 2017’s The Surge. There have been noticeable changes to how combat works that make for more enjoyable duels. If the demo is any indication though, The Surge 2 does stumble in one regard when it comes to its predecessor.

The Surge 2 takes place after the events of the first game and sees us take on the role of a new, nameless protagonist instead of Warren. The game is set on a dystopian Earth where humanity has used up most of the planet’s natural resources and automated drones have created mass unemployment. This has forced middle- and lower-class individuals to augment themselves with exo-skeleton rigs to increase their strength in an attempt to remain competitive with robot workers. It doesn’t work and the rich stay rich, so most humans now modify their exosuits with all manner of armor or weapons and survive by killing other people and stealing their food, water, and weapons. In The Surge 2, you’re an escaped convict that finds themselves in Jericho City, a metropolis created by a wealthy elite but full of gangs and dangerous scavengers.

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The Surge 2 Preview Build Livestream

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In terms of combat, The Surge 2 is a much faster game than its predecessor. The general conceit is still the same: manage your stamina as you wear your opponent’s defenses down and end the fight with a brutal evisceration of their head, torso, or one of their limbs. Aside from the aforementioned focus on body part removal, it’s a very Souls-like inspired combat system. Though this suggests a careful approach to combat is the way to go (like in The Surge), additional mechanics and features in The Surge 2–namely in regards to healing–encourage an aggressive playstyle, one that prioritizes quick decision-making.

Gain A Nice Bonus For Dying

This is most true in one of the best new features in The Surge 2: the benefit of dying and losing your scrap. Much like Dark Souls’ souls, you collect scrap in The Surge 2 from every enemy you defeat and you can use it to craft new weapons and armor as well as level up and improve your stats. And just like Dark Souls’ souls, you lose all the scrap on your person when you die and can only reclaim it by traveling to the spot of your death and looting your fallen stash before being killed again.

The Surge 2 adds an interesting wrinkle to this by having your dropped scrap emit a healing beacon. If you stand near the scrap and don’t pick it up, your health will slowly regenerate. Like the original though, you have a limited amount of time to pick up your scrap before it’s gone for good, so you can’t just leave it on the ground and keep returning to it as a way to heal. This creates an exhilarating risk vs. reward dynamic for challenging fights, especially bosses. Now when you die, you can use your fallen scrap as a way to boost your health in the subsequent run. Of course, if you die again without picking up the scrap, or simply become too distracted by the boss and forget to grab it before the timer runs out, you’ll lose it all. This implements a welcome level of strategy into the currency recovery process.

New Tricks For Recovering And Playing Defense

Blocking is unreliable in The Surge 2. It requires large amounts of stamina and some attacks–typically long-range ones–can break through your guard and damage you regardless if you’re blocking or not. In the first Surge, that meant you were mostly regulated to carefully attacking and dodging, hoarding your limited amount of health items to recover from tanking attacks too quick or long-reaching to dodge.

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Surge 2 Demo – 20 Minutes Of Combat And Extended Gameplay

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To speed up combat and make it more exciting, The Surge 2 implements directional parrying and a new health replenish mechanic. If you block in the direction of an attack, you can parry and counter an enemy–a mechanic that encourages you to stay in the thick of things instead of dodging out of the way. The battery charges you use to pull off a dismemberment are now also tied to your health, so you can also use one of your charges to heal while in combat. Battery charges fill up by attacking enemies, so as long as you keep landing blows, you’ll keep gaining the ability to heal.

Together, directional parrying and battery healing allow you to more easily engage with enemies and bosses in frantic duels where you get to set the pace of the fight instead of just reacting to attacks and staying out on the fringes of an opponent’s reach. Plus, the ability to replenish your available health charges allows you to survive longer without returning to a med station, encouraging exploration.

Deal Damage From Afar

Enemies are a bit smarter this time around and work together to surround and punish you the second you let your guard down. More weapon types mean you’ve got more types of attacks to work with, but that means the same goes for the enemies you’re fighting. The Surge 2’s drone helps out in this regard.

Initially, the only weapon affixed to your drone is a pistol, which helps with shooting down enemies that are out of reach. However, you can loot additional attachments from dismembering enemies, ranging from Molotov cocktails to assault rifles, and customize what your drone is carrying at any time. You are limited by the number of bullets and grenades it can hold at any one time though.

The drone is a versatile tool that adds some new strategies to combat. You can throw it out to delay the advance of an enemy while focusing on their partner, blow away a foe’s protective body shield, or just augment your own attacks by hitting the same foe from two sides. By far, the best use of the drone is attracting one enemy at a time to your position, though. In the first game, you typically had to try and bait one enemy at a time to follow you to a safe spot when confronted by groups of three or more, a strategy that worked with various levels of success. In The Surge 2, you can just shoot whichever enemy you want to attract the attention of, making it much easier to dwindle down the numbers of a large group.

The Direct Path Isn’t Always The Best One

Unlike the first game, The Surge 2 is spread out over different environments. In the demo, we got to explore the first three and they’re all fairly distinct–fixing the homogeneous look of the original Surge. Better yet, the environments are designed with multiple paths, allowing you to occasionally tackle the same fight from multiple angles.

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Cutting Off Every Limb We Can Find In The Surge 2

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For example, early in the second area, you’re tasked with reaching a certain building. To reach the bridge connected to it, you need to cross an intersection that’s being guarded by a Molotov throwing scavenger and his buddy, who’s armed with a powerful rifle. You can rush them, but the enemy with the rifle will carve a huge amount of health out of you if you’re not careful or quick enough. So instead, you can circumnavigate the pair by going down a side street, crossing a reservoir by running along some pipes, and then climbing some scaffolding. Weaker enemies guard this path and it puts you directly behind the rifle-wielding enemy, allowing you to get an easy backstab and then take out their Molotov throwing companion.

In The Surge, you could start out with a tank-like exosuit or nimble one to decide which type of character you wanted to play as. The Surge 2’s environments allow you to switch up your strategy on the fly. If you think you’re equipped to rush ahead, then you can, and the inclusion of alternative routes allow you to stealth your way into getting the drop on an enemy if you’d prefer a less direct approach. As environments are built with a more vertical focus as well, there are specific locations where you can ride a lift to change your latitude in relation to an enemy and then shoot them from afar with your drone–letting you take on a challenging foe from out of their reach.

Enemies Are Pretty Much The Same

Though combat in The Surge 2 is mostly an improvement over the first game, there is one area where it seemingly falls short. At least in the first three areas, The Surge 2 has very similar enemy types. Despite the diversity of those three areas–a prison, city streets, and a junkyard–the enemies are mostly human, all look like slight variations of each other, and all utilize similar battle tactics. The major difference between them comes through in the types of weapons they use and where on their body they’re wearing armor, but the position of the environment has a larger impact on what type of strategy to use, not the enemies themselves.

The Surge had machine, drone, zombie, and nanite enemies to change up combat in the latter half of the game, encouraging the player to evolve how they react to the world. Zombie enemies wouldn’t come alive until you stepped near them, for instance, creating a need to be aware of corpse-looking piles in every new room, while nanite enemies would relentlessly keep attacking until they were overloaded–adding another consideration when encountering them within a crowd of enemies. It’s disappointing to not see more unique enemy types in the early hours of The Surge 2. Hopefully, more will be added further into the story, as some of the battles near the end of The Surge 2 demo were beginning to feel repetitive.

Source : Gamesport

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