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grailfinders · 9 months

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Grailfinders Viewers' Choice #16D: Richard the Lionheart

hey, what’s up, it’s ya boy, Richard the Lionheart again. somebody wanted the Richard build but in D&D, and I thought it would be cool. not sure if/when I’ll get to the other Viewers’ Choice builds since a) I’m still catching up to NA again and b) summer is just around the corner, but it’ll probably happen eventually. if WotC doesn’t fuck up again.

anyways, Richie 2.0 is a Glory Paladin to smite at maximum speed, as well as a Swords Bard to be good at literally anything he wants to do.

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

Race and Background

as you likely remember from the pathfinder build, King Richard I is a Human, as well as a Noble. that being said there’s something funky going on in the state of France, so he’s got a Mark of Passage, giving him the standard +2 +1 stats of other races. (we’re also messing with the specifics here thanks to Tasha’s Cauldron, so that’s a +2 to Charisma and a +1 to Strength.) that means you have Courier’s Speed, a permanent +5 boost to walking, and Intuitive Motion, letting you add a d4 to any acrobatics or land vehicle check. riding skill, baby! you can also find Magical Passage once a day with a free use of Misty Step, and you gain some Spells of the Mark which you can add to your spell lists. we don’t pick any up as a bard, but feel free to prepare some using your paladin spells later! the ones you can do that with are expeditious retreat, jump, misty step, pass without trace, blink, and phantom steed.

and again, as a noble you have proficiency in History and Persuasion.

Ability Scores

Richie’s so dang persuasive his soldiers follow his orders in the afterlife, so Charisma has to be high on his priorities. after that is Strength. it’s hard to cut rocks in half without it. unless you’re playing a monk, which we’re not. though that does mean Dexterity is next. I know it’s not “really” needed for speed, but it’ll keep you from tripping, which is pretty dang important when you’re moving twice as fast as everyone else. Constitution comes next. from what I’ve heard Richard’s not unusually tough, but he is a melee fighter, so keeping this stat positive will help immensely. that means your Wisdom isn’t great. that and we’re dumping Intelligence. sorry, we needed everything else more.

Class Levels

1. Paladin 1: starting as a paladin gives you plenty of cool toys to play with, like your new proficiencies in Wisdom and Charisma saves, plus Athletics and Religion.

you can also use a divine sense to detect celestials, fiends, and undead nearby! it’ll tell you the type but not their identity, so i guess its kindof a servant senser? you can also lay on hands as an action, patching up your allies with but a touch! this recharages on a long rest, and it’ll only give you five times your level in hp per day. you can even spend 5 points to heal a poison or disease! we’ll get you some magic resistance later, but this is pretty good for a start.

2. paladin 2: second level paladins can get a fighting style of their choosing, and we’re pickin up interception! now if, say, a big chunk of ceiling is about to hit somebody you can react and use your sword to reduce the damage they take by 1d10 plus your proficiency bonus! you can’t use this on yourself, but you’re a cool dude, right?

you can also cast spells now! you can use your charisma to cast ‘em, and you can swap ‘em out each long rest when you’re bored! that also means we don’t have to go too in-depth about which ones to pick, but I’d definitely grab Compelled Duel or Searing Smite if you have a chance. the former essentially codifies a duel between you and another servant, while the latter is a damage over time kind of smite.

speaking of, you can use Divine Smites now. they’re not spells, but using one will eat up a spell slot, and deal radiant damage based on the level of slot spent. just stick one onto one of your weapon attacks and you’re good! you can use this with just about any melee weapon, so… yeah, noble phantasm 1 achieved.

3. Paladin 3: but that’s just one phantasm, we still have another one to get, plus your other skills! to help with that lightning speed, we need to dive into the Glory oath. this grants you Divine Health, giving you immunity to disease, as well as two ways to Channel Divinity once a short rest. you can either become a Peerless Athlete for advantage on your athletics and acrobatics checks, your carrying capacity is doubled, and you can jump ten feet further! alternatively, you can turn a divine smite into an Inspiring Smite, spending your bonus action after smiting to give temporary HP to nearby creatures.

you also gain access to Oath Spells, a special subset of spells that you can always have prepared without counting towards your limit, even if paladins couldn’t get these spells normally- sort of like your mark spells. right now, you have Guiding Bolt, which deals damage and gives the next attack on your target advantage, and Heroism, which emboldens creatures while giving them temporary HP each turn.

4. Paladin 4: fourth level paladins get an Ability Score Improvement like any other class, so now you can even out your Strength and Charisma scores. only even numbers really count in D&D, so that’s two half-price +1 bonuses to the relevant stuff strength and charisma do. which is a lot on a paladin.

5. Paladin 5: for example, your strength can be used even more now that you have an Extra Attack each attack action, and your charisma helps out a ton with your new second level spells! you get enhance ability for free, giving you advantage on one kind of ability check for a minute, or you can use Magic Weapon to give your stick a little boost. I’d also recommend you pick up Protection from Poison for more magic resistance. everybody knows poisons are magic. or is that friendship?

6. Bard 1: speaking of magic, let’s swap over to bard real quick for more spell slots! you get another list of spells you can cast. you have to mash your classes together to figure out how many slots you have at any given time, so check out your PHB for that. bards get their spells hard-coded in and can only swap them when they level up, so we’ll go into more detail here.

for cantrips, grab Blade Ward for a chance to go on the defensive and take half damage from physical attacks for a round. it’s not usually the smartest move to make, but at least it’s better than True Strike! yeah, we’re not here for much magic, we’re just using bard for extra physicality, a sentence I am sure has never been said before.

that being said, some spells are pretty nice. Animal Friendship will further improve your riding skill, and Feather Fall can keep you from taking fall damage after your Jump and Peerless Athlete-boosted jump launches you 50 feet straight up in the air. Command will help you keep ahead of your knights, which I swear are coming eventually, and Disguise Self will help you blend in with the human populace. I assume this is the kind of thing that happens in other fate works, right?

you also get proficiency in Animal Handling for multiclassing, and you can give allies Bardic Inspiration as a bonus action Charisma Modifier times per day, letting them add a d6 to a check, save, or attack roll of their choice in the next minute.

7. Bard 2: a second level bard is a Jack of All Trades, adding half your proficiency bonus to any check you make that doesn’t already add it, like your initiative. see, you’re faster already! this and Enhance Ability also covers your “good at literally everything” skill. you’re not the best in the party, but you’ll always be ready to give it the old college try.

you also get the song of rest, giving your party more HP when they heal up on short rests! yay, unexplained healing!

you’re also even faster with your new spell this level, Longstrider. speed, you are speed.

8. Bard 3: at third level you can give everything the ol’ college try thanks to attending the college of Swords. with it, you can now cast bard spells through your sword, and you get the Dueling fighting style for an extra 2 damage with one-handed weapons.

more importantly, you can now spend inspiration to make Blade Flourishes in one of three flavors once per turn. a Defensive Flourish deals the inspiration in extra damage and adds it to your AC for a round, a Slashing Flourish deals the inspiration in extra damage to your target and any other creature you choose next to you, and the Mobile Flourish deals extra damage and pushes the target away, giving you a chance to react and get back into range. also, even if you don’t use a flourish your speed will still go up by 10’ when you take the attack action.

you also gain Expertise in two skills, doubling your proficiency bonus with Religion and Athletics checks. and you gain second level bard spells now, like Borrowed Knowledge, allowing you to have full proficiency in any skill you wish for an hour.

9. Bard 4: fourth level bards get an Ability Score Improvement like any other class, but we’re going to cash this one in for a feat. the Crusher feat can add a point to your Constitution, as well as greatly improve your unarmed attacks and any other bludgeoning weapons you choose. once a turn you can push a creature you hit with a bludgeoning attack five fee, and when you score a critical hit, attacks targeting that creature get advantage for a round. it’s not quite the unarmed fighting style, but it’ll definitely make your boxing skills more noteworthy.

you can also make a Light with the cantrip of the same name for a shiny sword, and you can make a Kinetic Jaunt with a spell slot, adding to your speed, preventing anyone from attacking you opportunistically, and letting you pass through people as long as you don’t end your turn inside of them.

10. Bard 5: the fifth level of bard is the best level of bard, because you’re now a Font of Inspiration, so your inspiration dice recharge on short rests instead of just long ones. on top of that, your inspiration dice are now d8s instead of d6s, and you learn third level spells!

spells like Intellect Fortress, which will give you advantage on all intelligence, wisdom, and charisma saves to supercharge your magic resistance! just ignore that next level it’s fine just focus on the cool spell.

11. Paladin 6: six level paladins get an Aura of Protection, adding your charisma modifier to all your saves, supercharging your magic resistance! just ignore that last level it’s fine just focus on the cool feature of your class.

12. Paladin 7: that’s not the only aura of coolness you’ve got though! as a seventh level glory paladin, your Aura of Alacrity gives you another 10’ boost in speed to you and anyone standing within five feet of you.

13. Paladin 8: use this ASI to bump up your Strength. I don’t have anything witty for this level, you just hit better now.

14. Paladin 9: ninth level paladins get the vaunted “third level spells”! the most important one here is your oath spell Haste, which can double your speed and give you an extra action each turn for dashing or attacking once. whichever you pick you’ll speed up at least a little bit thanks to your flourishes! you also get Protection from Energy for damage resistance, or Crusader’s Mantle to turn all your knights into paladins. I swear they’re on their way just hold on a sec.

15. Paladin 10: our final level of paladin comes with a final aura, the Aura of Courage, which prevents you or nearby allies from being frightened. it’s not that flashy, but it’s wayyyy better than bard’s next level.

16. Bard 6: speak of the devil, it’s bard’s next level! Countercharm takes an action to use and is pretty much a worse Aura of Courage, and Extra Attack doesn’t stack.

at least you can speak in Tongues now?

17. Bard 7: at seventh level you can use fourth level spells, finally giving you your first knight, the Phantasmal Killer! …which isn’t a creature, so it can’t have the crusader’s mantle on it. darn. still, it’s kind of a summon. we’ll work on getting something more corporeal.

18. Bard 8: at level eight you get one last ASI, so grab the Resilient feat to round out your Constitution and give you proficiency in constitution saves. it sucks to drop concentration on summons, and a +12 will go a long way towards helping with that.

you also have a Freedom of Movement now, which will help you speed your way out of any difficult terrain or getting chained up.

19. Bard 9: at ninth level you get a better song of rest, yes, but you also get fifth level spells! with Planar Binding you can keep your summons on this plane of existence for a full day rather than just an hour or so with concentration. it’s really expensive, but you’re a) a 19th level adventurer, and b) you can upcast it up to seventh level right now for a month-long knighthood. now we just need to get the summons…

20. Bard 10: at tenth level bards can get those summons thanks to knowing Magical Secrets, giving you two spells from any spell list. Conjure Woodland Beings will allow you to summon a mob of fae creatures at a time, while Summon Celestial gives you one glowy paladin to pal around with.

while we’re on the topic of spells, you get one last cantrip like Message to speak with your Master in silence.

your Bardic Inspiration dice increase one last time to d10s, and you get another round of Expertise in Animal Handling and History.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

given enough time you can just. have a private army of celestials and fey now. they probably won’t be thrilled to work for you, but that’s when the charisma comes into play. go forth, abuse the action economy as you see fit!

you’re also just. stupidly fast. your base speed is 55’, and with haste you can get up to 110 feet normally, or 130’ if you attack someone with two actions. monks wish they were you. and you can mobile flourish to add another 130’ onto your movement speed for no goddamn reason.

your saves are ridiculous, with a +4 bonus to everything and possibly advantage on your one weak save by using Intellect Fortress, magic just kind of doesn’t work on you that well.

Cons:

your friends are expensive, needing 1,000 gp per binding. plus you don’t actually get them until level 20, by which point they’re not useful for much more than guard duty in your private castle.

no matter how fast you go, you’re still a saber, so you can’t do much at range. the second an enemy learns how to fly it’s over for you.

you don’t need that much speed. it’s a nice flex, but I doubt your DM’s going to include that many situations where being able to go across the map and back in a single turn is super useful.

#fgo #fate grand order #D&D 5e #DND #Richard I #Paladin #Bard

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thepastisalreadywritten · 11 months

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Iconic Mont Saint-Michel Abbey celebrates 1,000 years

By Solène Tadié

13 June 2023

It was exactly a millennium ago that the first stone of the abbey church of Mont Saint-Michel in French Normandy was laid.

The monument that the poet Victor Hugo called the “Khéops of the West” has since become one of the highest symbols of French Catholic identity and one of the most important pilgrimage sites in the world, with more than 3 million visitors a year.

This important anniversary will give rise to a number of celebrations that will continue through the fall of 2023.

Standing on relatively inhospitable terrain, enthroned on a rocky islet less than a kilometer in diameter, surrounded by a vast sandy plain subject to the vagaries of the tides, the UNESCO World Heritage Site has stood the test of time, offering itself as a spectacle for dozens of generations to see.

Indeed, the history of this place of prayer and pilgrimage was as precarious and tumultuous as its surroundings.

While the construction of the present abbey church dates back to 1023, a first church dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel is said to have been built as early as 708 on the mount, then known as Mont-Tombe.

According to “Revelation,” the oldest text reporting the context of the abbey’s construction (written around the beginning of the 11th century), St. Aubert, then-bishop of Avranches, was visited three times in a dream by the archangel, who instructed him to erect a sanctuary in his honor on the summit of the site “so that he whose venerable commemoration was celebrated at Mont Gargan [the first great shrine dedicated to the Leader of the Celest Army, in the Puglia region of Italy] might be celebrated with no less fervor in the middle of the sea.”

St. Aubert undertook the building of a first church with the capacity of about a hundred people, consecrated in October 709 and given the name Mont-Saint-Michel-au-péril-de-la-Mer.

The prelate installed 12 canons there, responsible for praying the Divine Office and welcoming local pilgrims.

The canons were replaced in the 10th century by Benedictine monks at the behest of Richard I, Duke of Normandy, who had little taste for the canons’ opulent lifestyle.

In 1023, the order undertook the construction of the abbey church we know today, based on three rock-cut crypts and the former chapel.

This ambitious project marked a decisive step in the international outreach of the site, where miracles abounded as the flow of pilgrims from all over Christendom expanded.

“This edifice is like Noah’s ark laid over the crypts,” said François Saint-James, a guide and lecturer at Mont Saint-Michel, in an interview with Le Devoir newspaper, underlining the architectural prowess required for this medieval project.

“It was a time when France was covered with a white cloak of churches, as a monk from Cluny once wrote. You have to imagine the gigantic scale of the work.

The granite blocks were cut on the Chausey islands, 34 kilometers from here.

Caen stone, a soft, light stone that’s easy to carve, was used. ... When, in the midst of the Hundred Years’ War, the Romanesque choir collapsed, it was rebuilt in flamboyant Gothic style.”

While the abbey’s architectural evolution continued uninterrupted until the 19th century, one of its highest points was the construction of “La Merveille” (The Wonder) in the 13th century, a jewel of Norman Gothic art.

It consists of two buildings on three levels, supported by high buttresses, with a cloister and refectory, 80 meters above sea level, beneath which were built an almshouse, a storeroom, and guest rooms.

The fame of the shrine started to decline in the 17th century, when part of the abbey was turned into a prison by the royal power.

Seized by central government during the revolution, it became a detention center for priests deemed hostile to the Jacobin terror.

In the 19th century, the site, listed as a historic monument in 1874, was gradually returned to monastic life and its original vocation as a sanctuary.

The abbey’s distinctive silhouette was further enhanced by a neo-Gothic spire in 1897, topped by a gilded statue of the archangel.

To mark its 1,000th anniversary, a special tribute is being paid to the abbey that many have dubbed the “Wonder of the West” with the exhibition “La Demeure de l’Archange” (The Archangel’s Abode), retracing its glorious and tumultuous history through some 30 masterpieces, until November 5.

Many of these items, which include sculptures, scale models, statues, and silverware, will be on display to visitors to the abbey for the first time.

Another highlight of the many celebrations taking place over the summer and part of the autumn will be the “Millennium Solstice,” a never-before-seen light show projected onto Mont Saint-Michel from various spots in the bay on the evening of June 23.

The beauty of this sacred site, trodden by millions of pilgrims over the centuries, has been celebrated and immortalized in the writings of many great men of letters over the last few centuries, from Gustave Flaubert to Théophile Gautier and Victor Hugo.

In particular, it inspired the novel “Les Merveilles du Mont Saint-Michel” (1879) by the prolific writer Paul Féval.

He had already paid tribute to the monument a few years earlier, in “La Fée des grèves,” with these lines often quoted by admirers of the famous Mont:

“Twilight broke. Mont-Saint-Michel was the first to emerge from the shadows, offering the golden wings of its archangel to the reflections of the dawning dawn; then the sides of Normandy and Brittany lit up in turn.

Then again, a sort of light steam seemed to rise from the receding sea, and all was veiled except for the statue of Saint Michael, which dominated this wide ocean of mist.”

#Mont Saint-Michel #Khéops of the West #Victor Hugo #UNESCO World Heritage Site #pilgrimage #St. Aubert #Revelation #Mont-Saint-Michel-au-péril-de-la-Mer #Richard I #Duke of Normandy #La Demeure de l’Archange #The Archangel’s Abode #Millennium Solstice #Gustave Flaubert #Théophile Gautier #Paul Féval #Les Merveilles du Mont Saint-Michel #La Fée des grèves #St. Michael the Archangel

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