#rogue assassin class of course

[teecupangel]

Had the sudden thought of somehow Desmond was dropped kicked into Dragon Age/Thedas, specifically the Inquistion and received the glowy mark of doom. And on one hand, it's all here we go again, and on the other hand, someone keeps a leash on Desmond because he keeps trying to run away

Well, we can’t really blame him considering he just got booted from being a chosen one to another chosen one in a different world where he knows nothing at all XD

And in a world where one of the major faction is called the Templars?

He’d be wary of them from the get go, that’s for sure. XD (not that the mages wouldn't send alarms all around his mind)

Honestly, he’d probably go his own way and travel the new world he finds himself in, trying to understand the geopolitical status of the world.

Well, that seemed like a tall order so he would probably focus on Thedas first.

He’d also build his own Brotherhood along the way.

In his defense, it’s less building it and sorta accidentally setting it up because he kept saving random people during his travels and feeling the need to help them.

He calls them travels.

Leliana calls them ‘Desmond running away again’.

The funny thing though… he’s just traveling but he gets roped into the power struggle all over Thedas and gets railroaded into the original plot.

Not that he knows this.

Perhaps it’s simply fate.

Perhaps the Calculations is still at play.

Perhaps… a certain ‘hedge mage’ is at fault.

Desmond definitely isn’t sure.

He’s just trying to live his life in this new world he finds himself.

.

Oh.

And because this is the kind of curse Desmond is given whenever he gets isekai’ed to another world/game/franchise.

Yes.

The companions and advisors want to bang him.

The people he recruits for his Brotherhood though thinks of him as a mentor and more of a parental figure.

[seekinghelp-adhd]

Chance Encounters (Maribat idea I'm throwing around)

Marinette moves to Gotham to pursue fashion. She has to finish her last year of high school at Gotham Academy and do an internship over the summer, but if she does she gets a massive scholarship to Gotham University. They were more than happy to help out Jagged Stone's famously young personal designer. Obviously, this puts her in classes with Damien Wayne, who barely talks and only ever calls his brothers by their last names.

Jagged insists on setting her up in a penthouse for her stay in Gotham, but Marinette argues that being a single girl living in a fancy penthouse is like asking one of the Gotham rogues to kidnap or rob her. They compromise on a nice apartment with a state of the art security system, one owned by Wayne Enterprises. Another tenant on her same floor, Jason Todd, stops by to scope out the new neighbor. He seems nice enough, but he keeps calling his older brother "Dick" and Marinette can't tell if that's his name or just an insult. Apparently he does this whenever someone new moves in to see if he’ll have to move. Marinette tells him to let her know if he does, Because she says if he doesn’t feel safe living in this building anymore, she definitely wants to leave. Jason is amused by this and decides she can stay.

It doesn't take long for Marinette to encounter Gotham's bad side. After a few months of living there she's seen plenty of rogue attacks. She's been lucky enough to stay out of it. After all, if the villains aren't magical there's nothing her Miraculous Cure could do anyway. Her luck is apparently starting to run out though, because now she's being held up at knife point in an alley. She obviously takes the guy down after years of being Ladybug and calls the cops. Dick Greyson is the officer on scene. He's incredibly friendly and is super impressed that she managed to take the guy down, but Dick has seen corrupt cops take people in for self-defense if it means someone else owes them a favor. He gives her his personal cell in case anything like this ever happens again.

Through all of this, Marinette has been spending more and more time with Damien at school. Marinette is hesitant to trust all the smiles and niceties around her after Lila's manipulation and wants to truly get to know someone before she puts any trust in them. Damien is the only exception. She was warned of his reputation as the "Ice Prince" of GA before meeting him and found talking with him to be incredibly refreshing. There was absolutely nothing fake or over the top about him. He was straightforward and down to earth and Marinette found comfort in that. She decided that she trusted him on day one. Likewise, Damien finds her skeptical attitude toward the other students to be incredibly validating. Growing up in the League, everyone was always pretending, even to the other assassins. You had to act a certain way around the right people, and manipulation was the key to survival. Marinette seems to notice people trying to take advantage of her and recognize when someone just wants a favor, and he respects that. Regretfully, and to Jon's great joy, Damien finds that he thinks of her as a friend.

Word eventually gets out that Marinette is Jagged's designer. This is, of course, entirely Jagged's fault. Some good comes out of all the extra attention, though, when she learns that the co-CEO of Wayne Enterprises is a fan of hers. He makes a commission for a new suit and, upon learning of her situation, offers her a position as his families personal designer over the summer to meet her internship qualifications for GU. They set up a meeting in person for her to take measurements once her midterms are over.

When everything is going well though, something has to throw a wrench into things. The Batfamily raids one of Black Mask's warehouses late one night, and Red Hood takes a few too many bullets and a pretty big hit to the head. The kevlar took most of the hits for him, but he's badly bruised and nursing a concussion. It's the concussion that causes him to stumble into the wrong window of his apartment building and scare his new neighbor half to death. Marinette does what she always does and helps the vigilante without question. To do that though, she has to take off his helmet. She assumed he would have a mask underneath or something. He does not. Marinette is not as surprised as she probably should be, and Jason is pissed when he wakes up. He realizes after a while that this isn't her fault. She's been taking care of him since he was too stubborn to go to Bruce, and if she wanted him or his family dead she could have done something about it by now. He decides to put a little trust in her, but keeps an eye on her just in case. This is what clues him into the situation. In her time here in Gotham, she's managed to meet all of the Wayne brothers aside from Duke, and she has no idea they're even related.

Jason, of course, finds this absolutely hilarious and wants to see just how far this madness can go. He sends Duke to her favorite coffee shop. He refers Marinette to the same dance studio as Cass. Marinette, completely on her own to Jason's disbelief, enters the same Ultimate Mecha Strike tournament as Stephanie and absolutely destroys her. Jason lives for the chaos and Marinette is completely oblivious.

Eventually, after a few AO3 tags (slow burn, feelings realization) Marinette and Damien start dating. Damien feels guilty for hiding that he's Robin from Marinette, but he knows that he'd be sharing more than just his own secret and doesn't want to betray his family's trust. He realizes that if he wants to share everything with her, his family has to trust her as well. She'll have to meet them. He tells Marinette all of this, and she shares that she's been keeping her own secret as well. Marinette hasn't told him about Ladybug even after Tikki has given her blessing, and she's been feeling guilty about it as well. She encourages him to tell her whenever he feels ready and assures him that she can wait until then. She trusts him, and she asks for that same trust in return.

Damien trusts her of course, and everything goes back to normal for about 30 seconds. Then, Damien starts trying to prepare her for the chaos she's about to find in his dining room that night. Little by little, Marinette starts to realize that she already knows every single person he's talking about. Only, that means so much more than she could have realized, because if Jason is Red Hood and his brother "the Dick" is Nightwing, then that means Dick Greyson is Nightwing and Damien's older brother, which makes Damien Robin, and oh no she thinks she knows exactly what that secret is that he didn't want to share yet.

[thelibrarian1895]

Gotham is WEIRD, especially the schools

So, just going to say it, gym classes in each and every Gotham city school, and Gotham private school, result in Gotham educated kids who don't skip gym class being just a little less than world class martial artists by the time they graduate high school. There are some who are better than others of course but for the most part, if you went to school in Gotham and you did your best in gym, you developed the ability to beat up an average of five non Gothamites without breaking a sweat. You also had an immediate edge if you wanted to try stunt work or feature in the action genre in movie or tv shows thanks to your elementary/middle/high school gym classes. This is how Batman can still have trouble with mooks in Gotham. It's not just quantity that gives him trouble, they have some legit skills to go with size, strength, and willingness to try to break someone's skull for money. Most gym teachers in Gotham are defectors from a martially adept cult, retired assassin with no concept of how normal not in Gotham gym classes are generally conducted, or Gothamites who were raised with the weird gym classes so they're teaching what they know and what they know is how to beat the snot out of people who have less than Bat level training. And the rest of school administration is generally too intimidated or doesn't care or they're happy the kids have an extra edge in case of school shootings to say or do anything about the scary gym teacher.

This definitely helped both Jason and Tim when they started their Robin training. This helped Stephanie when she decided to be a vigilante under her own power and gave Duke an edge when he had to go through his whole mess. This also made Dick's childhood athletic antics and Damian's current school antics stand out a great deal less than they would in schools outside of Gotham.

So yeah, only in Gotham is your gym teacher 100% a former assassin/mercenary/goon/mafioso who will make sure that you can hold your own in a fight against almost anyone.

Unfortunately for those who end up being goons or rogues, almost does not include the Bats.

[dartagnantt]

Assassin: Rehired | What if the assassin didn't focus on dress-up?

PDFs of this and more can be found over on at my Patreon here! I release everything for free, so your support makes this possible. I've also started making a new system based off of 5e, 6th Dawn! Become a patron and join the playtest.

This week, as part of a theme most foul, I decided to go upon a foul task and revise our hired killer.

The assassin archetype never really appealed to me as a player, and not as a theme either. First off, just over half of its features are based on disguise. Which is fine, but one of them is literally the charlatan background feature for a price. But also, you may have realised this about me, the guy that keeps making playable monsters, I don't play humans and human-likes very often, so being the only gnoll in this city of mostly humans, there is no disguise in hell that will conceal my identity without magic. So while the disguise kit has its uses, the more exotic a creature you play, the less they are outside of the arts.

Secondly, it's primary feature is very strong, auto crit on any creature that has yet to act in combat. Great vibes, see what they're going for. Because that window is variable (and not always there) and at most a round, you don't actually get that feature most of the time. So, I opted to go for a different approach.

Poisoner

The assassin, in addition to disguise, has poisoner's kit proficiency, why not expand on that instead? In this instance I discard disguise as a proficiency you can go out of your way for. Instead, give the assassin a limited use set of debilitating poisons. Ones that impart vulnerability to weapons (what I intend to get the most use), knock out a target (for sneaky sneaks) and one that inflicts sneak attack damage (for convoluted assassination plots).

Death's Shroud

Bringing more general versatility to the previous poisons, but not quite wanting to ape the cloudkill spell, just gaseous poison. Sneak attacking a whole room at once sounds pretty sweet to me.

Hidden in Plain Sight

Possibly the least exciting option, but kind of how I intend to get around the lack of disguise issue for getting close to a target. Do it the old fashioned way! Not being seen.

Marked for Death

I suspect that this feature name exists somewhere in the D&D's history for something similar, but I didn't really check. This is based on the old capstone feature of the rogue, where you just straight up murder people with a single con save. I mean, you're playing an assassin, of course the capstone was going to be the murder button

And now to plug my stuff. I release homebrews weekly over on my Patreon. Anyone who pledges $1 or more per post don't have to wait a month to see them, and also help fund my being alive habit.

At the moment, they have exclusive access to the following:

Scout Roguish Archetype

Poisons: Reapplied

Finding the Trail

Skill Challenges

I also have four classes, and two splatbooks over on DriveThruRPG to check out:

The Rift Binder. A class specialising in summoning monsters and controlling the battlefield.

The Witch Knight. A class that combines swords and sorcery in the most literal way.

The Werebeast. A class that turns you into a half beast to destroy your foes.

The Beguiler. A spellcaster dedicated to illusions, enchantments, and general fuckery.

d'Artagnan's Adventurer Almanac. A compendium of races, subclasses, feats, spells, monsters and more!

d'Artagnan's Lycanthrope Survival Guide. A book of lore, stats, and werebeast subclasses for lycanthropes.

[utilitycaster]

hi! maybe you've spoken about this before, but i was curious from a mechanics why you dislike dnd rogues! And if you dislike them not from a mechanics perspective i'm interested in that too lol

Hey! It's a combination of a mechanics thing though also for lack of a better way to put it a flavor thing. I like most D&D (and other) rogue characters, though my personal preference for what I like to play, even for works in which rogue classes are good, remains either "person with powerful magic" or "person with huge fuck off sword".

Really, the issue is that D&D has a pretty strongly defined class system with a ton of class-specific features, and this is especially prominent in the martial classes (since a lot of casting classes have levels where the only real benefit is More Spells, which allows for more customization). Rogues are additionally screwed over because "sneaky guy" is an incredibly general archetype compared to, for example, "martial arts specialist" (monk) or "melee tank whose healing powers derive from an oath" (paladin). Ranger and Barbarian similarly have very strong class identities, even if Ranger isn't mechanically great; meanwhile, Fighter is genuinely extremely versatile as a base class - any weapons, any armor, either strength or dex as your main stat, tons of feats/ASIs, and fairly adaptable/generally useful abilities (hitting a bunch of times per turn, healing factor). Rogue, meanwhile, has pretty specific stat requirements and weapon/armor limitations, and fairly specific abilities to boot, mostly surrounding "not getting hit by things" but the concept, again, of "sneaky guy" is very general! It doesn't even do a great job of handling "sneaky but working on your own" given the tight requirements on sneak attack, and you end up spreading yourself thin if you want to play a mastermind - honestly, if you wanted to go for a smooth talking rogue archetype I'd recommend just playing a bard with good dex, and if you wanted to go for an assassin I'd tell you to play swashbuckler since they can actually land a sneak attack face to face on their own.

Which brings me to the mechanics: Rogues only get one attack per turn whereas every other martial plus the martial-focused caster subclasses of Hexblade and College of Swords get two. Sneak attack is nice but as burst damage isn't terribly important in D&D, the ability to do it is kind of useless. And expertise, a genuinely good ability, is also a bard ability to nearly the same degree - and bards get the full suite of casting spells and Jack of All Trades kicks in well prior to Reliable Talent and is more versatile.

Now, because this was prompted by me sideswiping rogues in D&D to talk about why Daggerheart is good I figured it's worth talking about how Daggerheart addresses a lot of these issu.es. The first, of course, is that the system philosophy is much less concerned with You Must Play This Core Class As Such. Again, you can play Seraph as close to a cleric, or as close to a paladin/fighter multiclass, to put it in D&D terms.

Rogue in Daggerheart still has the same core vibes (hope feature is an evasion boost; class features are the ability to hide real good and sneak attack, which functions similarly to how it does in D&D) but that's all accessible immediately and the rest is all in subclasses. No class is terribly limited by a specific stat - you have a spellcast trait of finesse, but you could dump agility in favor of presence (the finesse/agility split also does a lot of work here) - and anyone can use whatever weapons and armor they want. Also, burst damage in Daggerheart actually matters because of the threshold system; dealing major damage twice is better than dealing minor damage three times. (The fact that no one by default gets two attacks per action does a lot of work too in leveling the playing field for rogues).

Perhaps the one downside is that it is genuinely kind of limiting to build a nonmagic rogue - both domains (grace and midnight) are a mix of magic and abilities so you kind of have to pick the abilities available - and the nightwalker subclass is inherently magical. However, if this is an issue for people (not me, I love magic) it's way easier to add new subclasses and domain cards than work around the core features and requirements of the class itself, as you have to in D&D. I also think the emphasis the system puts on reskinning and flexibility is very good; syndicate rogue could very easily be anyone from a criminal to a private detective to a spy, depending on the domain cards you pick.

[kyliafanfiction]

I saw a bit in a Taylor/Amy fic (the latest chapter of Desperate Times Call for Desperate Pleasures) where Amy compared Taylor to a Necromancer Princess (it fits in Context) and that immediately made me think of a Fantasy AU of Worm. No shards/powers, or at least not in the Worm way, but playing with the characters.

And of course that has me thinking about who everyone would be in such a story idea:

Taylor - necromancer, obviously, given the inspiration. Maybe not a princess, but of some high birth. Danny Hebert is still his canon personality, but as a necromancer. Probably a distant father since the death of Annette. Maybe he's consumed with trying to find ways to restore her to full life or something. Doesn't control bugs, maybe? Or maybe she controls swarms of dead insects in addition to or instead of the usual skeletons and zombies? I'd lean to no bugs, just skeletons and zombies, but YMMV. Keeping her bullied/etc experience may be harder, but if Emma is also a noblewoman, perhaps of higher status (maybe Taylor's low nobility? Or not at all?)

Amy - she's a cleric of some healing-related goddess, presumably? The rest of her family are probably all Knights and Paladins of some sort. Her birth father could be some sort of Bandit King type guy who played up a 'honorable highwayman' schtick (and may actually have been a noble as well as a bandit) akin to the 'code' and 'better than the other villains' thing he had going in canon. Her guilt over not healing all the time probably wouldn't be a thing because there'd be too many other healers, but you could still play with the idea, and she'd still have that separation from her family because she's not a warrior.

Tattletale - no magic, just really smart. Probably a 'Rogue', if we were applying classes to it.

Rachel - Ranger, obviously. Has a wolf animal companion, maybe actually gainfully employed as one of the Royal Huntsmen or someone who prevents poaching on a King's Forest type place. or maybe she's a poacher herself. Probably the latter, but the former could be done well, IMO. Either way, definitely still pretty feral from not spending a lot of time around most people.

Brian - maybe some kind of Paladin of darkness type thing. He could be sworn to Taylor's father as her bodyguard (and Taylor still has her canonical attraction to him).

Alec - I'm honestly not sure. If I were wedging it into D&D classes, some form of Bard, but I wouldn't necessarily want to be bound specifically to classes. Still, he could either have magic specially around manipulation and controlling of the body, or maybe he's like, half-demon, or quarter-demon (and Heartbreaker is either a demon or half-demon) and that's the source of his power. I lean towards the latter.

Aisha - Illusionist? Uses her magic for lots of pranks and stuff, and gets really good at making herself invisible, etc.

New Wave - as I noted, the rest of New Wave would probably be knights/paladins of some sort. Maybe Vicky, Sarah, Crystal and Eric ride griffons or some other flying beast? Vicky on a Pegasus sounds really fitting. Also probably a noble family, but definitely recently ennobled or low nobility, to play into the privileged WASP upper middle class vibe New Wave has in Worm

Lung - could be an actual Dragon, could be a guy who shapeshifts into one, maybe a half-dragon (playing on his half-chinese/half-japanese canon backstory and how he was an outsider in Japan as a result). Warlord or roaming bandit type guy, probably. Oni Lee would be a teleporting assassin who works for him, and Bakuda as an alchemist making explosive compounds and such is there.

Armsmaster - a master Smith and warrior. Already has a Halberd. maybe he does enchanted runes into his weapons or something to make them sharper

Miss Militia - either she's a super skilled archer of some sort, or maybe a magic who specializes in big, flashy attack spells (fireball, etc)

Dragon - Secretly a construct (or disembodied animating spirit?) of some kind that has free will and sentience, but pretends just to be a construct-crafting mage? Might not be able to keep using that name if Dragons are a thing in-setting. Depends.

Kaiser - probably a normal noble in his public face (Max, of the House of Anders), known for his charity towards the poor (only the humans, of course), but secretly the leader of a racist militia-type group that persecutes nonhumans in the Kingdom? Or specific groups of humans. Or both. Probably doesn't have magical powers, but does have some cool enchanted gear he paid a fortune for, and hides just how good he is with a sword, except in his secret persona?

Hookwolf - actual werewolf? Still works for Anders, presumably.

None of these thoughts are necessarily final, really, and I have a few more, but nothing quite formed yet.

Obviously, more might need to worked out, including plot and the particulars of the setting (is Brockton the whole Kingdom? Is Brockton Bay one city? A major focus? Maybe Brockton Bay is a larger region, and some of the various parts of the Bay are distinct cities and towns in the Bay area. I have a setting that involves both Paladins and Necromancers in prominent roles that I might repurpose if I was going to write this... which I still might, but not yet).

Other characters could play all sorts of roles, would have to think more on their equivalent versions. Can't just make everyone some flavor of wizard/warlock/witch/etc, and wouldn't want to be married to specific 'classes', but it's a solid starting point anyway.

What would you all envision 'Fantasy AU' versions of some of the characters? Do you think I'm way off the mark with some of them? Obviously 'Fantasy AU' covers a wide swath of possibilities, so there's a lot of variation. Still, curious as to people's ideas with it.

Obviously, if I wrote it, it would be Taylor/Amy in the long run, (I am nothing if not a predictable, hopeless shipper) maybe involving Taylor (and the AU's version of the Undersiders?) kidnapping Amy at some point, who knows.

[bg-brainrot]

As @cosmicchocomuffin suggested!

Which class/subclass each BG3 character would play in D&D (with a little explanation):

Astarion: Draconic Sorcerer - he would pick a character that comes with power innately, no god, no pact, no strings attached, and he would pick draconic for the eventual flight. Also he would want a high Cha character so that he can attempt to be the face of the party.

Gale: Artillerist Artificer - he would pick another Int based class of course, and, as for Artillerist, he still enjoys being useful, so he'd like the fire power this subclass affords. He would take time every day to ensure his infusions are prepared for the day, not allowing the party to proceed without them.

Karlach: Circle of the Moon Druid - she loves animals and nature and would love to transform into them, but wouldn't want to deal with all of those pesky spells, hence the Circle of the Moon. She would definitely be the cause of half of the chaotic druid wildshape memes online.

Lae'zel: Way of the Astral Self Monk - she would pick monk because they're respected martial warriors, pick the subclass because of its potential to reach enlightenment. But to the surprise of no one, she actually gets really into her character to the point of drawing a blade on the DM (Withers).

Shadowheart: Assassin Rogue - the classic lone wolf class and given all of her Sharran training, she would pick this subclass for the ease of roleplay it offers, with its disguise and mimicry. She starts out aloof, but quickly divulges the entire 12-page backstory she created for her character.

Wyll: Monster Slayer Ranger - he heard people looked down on rangers and decided to give them a chance, then he saw Monster Slayer was an option and knew he picked right. The actual face of the party, simply because he's the only one capable of staying on track-- however, put him in front of a cool monster and you've lost him too.

Non-Origins:

Halsin: Nature Domain Cleric - as someone who loves to help others, he would pick a class with a greater lean to the healing side of magic and with a bit of the same druid utility, then pick the subclass to still have that connection to nature. He will happily go along with whatever the party wants to do, and has ended up in jail a few times for it.

Minthara: Order of the Profane Soul Blood Hunter - she would love a class that's willing to go to any extent to defeat their enemies, like a blood hunter, and the order of the Profane Soul just cranks that up all the more. She would be the classic murder hobo of the group if left unchecked, but she will back off when the rewards are good enough.

Jaheira: Battle Master Fighter - she would go for a classic, reliable class like fighter, with a subclass that utilizes her battle knowledge like Battle Master. She is definitely a guest player, who the DM taps in for a difficult boss fight or arc, so she somehow still ends up the mentor figure in the game.

Minsc: Path of the Beast Barbarian - he wouldn't play something too complicated, hence the Barbarian, and he would love to understand Boo better, so he'd pick the subclass for the Beast abilities that come with this subclass. He would never quite know what he's doing, but makes the best accidental one liners at the table so no one minds helping.

Disclaimer: I only picked stuff I at least have the sourcebooks for. While some extra stuff looked cool, I wasn't familiar enough to get the vibes properly.

[broodwoof]

I love that Veilguard nails the "We're just a bunch of people trying our best in a bad situation (which is in no small part my fault)" that made the series what it is, sharing cooking and cleaning duties and chatting in the library. We're not chosen ones, we're weirdos, we're misfits, we're experts, we're all deeply flawed in our own ways, and we're running low on onions again.

I love being able to see myself in the thousand-thought-a-second ramblings of Bellara, the easily misread pokerface that masks Taash's passionate obsessions, the struggles of a baby queer who didn't know that was an option, walking the balance between being afraid of what this means and wanting to shout from the rooftops a declaration of self.

I love the world design, three playthroughs in I still stop to smell the flowers as it were when wandering around every map, listening to passers by and merchants hawking their wares in the market while watching the sky. The cinematography is spectacular, three playthroughs in I still sit back and say "Wow..." out loud in several cut scenes, at the most fleeting of facial expressions.

I love that you can see them looking at how they did things in earlier games and one-upping it, with Weisshaupt and Final Gambit in particular nailing the feel of being stretched thin under siege and all the connections you've made coming to fruition because you can't do this alone.

I love that instead of "rogues (except Zevran) can pick locks, warriors can kick down walls" etc everyone has their own unique thing they bring to the table. Same goes for their combat abilities, there's no "this is a mage so give them good mage equipment and the optimum mage build", they are them and unique in that. I was more than halfway through my first playthrough when I realised Bellara was classed as a mage, because it's much harder to pigeonhole companions between the three classes when they're just themselves.

I love listening them get to know one another better, hearing what different companions talk to one another about, arguing about the ethics of assassins or the squick of undead, comparing notes on speaking in dead languages and speaking to dead people, watching them fall in love one step at a time.

I love that every class feels fun to play in distinct ways, that every origin comes up in conversations and banter. The feeling that who you are matters, and the people who helped you come this far have your back, even if they might not be thrilled to see you back.

I love the mundane things that make the world feel lived in. Anderfelsian cheese. Emmrich's exasperation at the idea of charging crystals by moonlight. Buskers, beggars, cats and dogs. Seedy bars, cosy pubs, waterfront cafés, street fishmongers and stuck-up restaurants.

I've played the full series through several times - four Wardens, five Hawkes, six Inquisitors, but this is the first DA game I've finished and immediately started over again and played all the way through again without burning out on it. And when I finished the second playthrough I started my third.

Happy birthday, I fucking love this game.

yes yes yesss!!

i love how much the vg crew just feel like people. they're on mission, of course, and the mission is enormous, but they're also just people. they have a book club! plan who makes dinner! take note of each other! multiple characters get a lack of sleep pointed out, it's just lovely and thoughtful and these small touches make it feel so grounded

the way you describe both bellara and taash...! yes! practically as soon as i met taash, i was honestly very envious of how straightforward they were. how they wouldn't take anyone's shit, and cut it off preemptively. and the more i learned about them - and the more they learned about themselves! - the more pieces slid into place. i liked their character from the outset, but watching it make sense was an incredible experience

and you are so right, this game is absolutely, unbelievably beautiful. i find myself just wandering around it sometimes, doing nothing more than looking, it's all so beautiful. different kinds of beauty, to be sure, but beautiful nonetheless

yes! they really got that sense of urgency down perfectly, and how it scaled and escalated the deeper into the story we get. i've still only played through the entire game once, but i was so blown away by each part, absolutely taken in and guided by the way the plot wove around me as a player and pulled me into it

i love that too! like ofc the typical rpg mechanics are solid and reliable and familiar, but it was so nice, so refreshing, to see something with such a fundamental difference in approach. and how you weren't even leveling the companions up! they're already experts, they won't really improve by fighting people or whatever, but they'll give more to this mission the more they believe in rook, and the more rook believes in them. that's so poignant, and used as a mechanic, carries a huge narrative weight!

yes!!!! i feel like i'm just yelling yes at the start of everything bc i keep scrolling back up to read your next point but! honestly, yes! i love all the companions. i love their various dynamics with rook, and i'm excited to see more dynamics. but i love that they have these deep relationships - including romantic! - with one another. i love that we get to see it evolve, but that we still see it like a friend would see two friends falling in love with each other. a lot of the moments are not shown, but shared with us otherwise, like they would be with a friend. that approach is something i find really compelling and, again, very grounded, smth that feels very real

yessss 🥺 the origins mattering...! being trans mattering...! rook being who they are mattering...! and u are so right about the classes! played rogue all the way through and now i'm playing a mage, and i'm not always into playing mages, but i absolutely love it in veilguard. so fun! i want to play a warrior, too, and i'm just as excited about that, where usually i'm just content to stick with my rogue

y e s ! literally, all these little touches make things feel so much more vast than what could possibly be depicted in a single videogame. the strong implication that there is a world just beyond what we can see and experience in the game, that if we were to step beyond a gate that will never open, there'd be something to find. just because the world feels that fleshed out, that rich and deep

that is so lovely 🥺 and it's incredibly nice to hear from another long-time fan who loves veilguard!!!! i grew up with these games. played each when it was new - the only games i can say that about - and i have fallen so in love with each and every single one. and now i've fallen in love with veilguard, and i couldn't be happier about it

thank you so much 💖 obviously i'm responding soooo late, but this fandom has been amazing and i have received an astonishing number of these birthday positivity messages. i feel so lucky to be sharing this joy with all of you 💖

[flyingacealienfromspace]

So a thing I like to do in my spare time is stat out ridiculous character sheets for various beloved TV/Film characters in 5e on DnD Beyond. They are typically homebrewed and/or higher level, but I have no plans to play these versions ever so it's fine.

So with the new teaser for Avengers: Doomsday dropping and reawakening my MCU obsession (it died with Tony Stark RIP), I have decided to stat out all six OG avengers from the MCU + Loki. Full disclosure, I did these in like an hour, and I am sure other people have different opinions and approaches to these characters, but these are just the result of a whimsical pastime. Honestly I'm just sharing these for fun.

Bruce Banner - The Hulk (let Mark Ruffalo have a movie pls)

Level 11 Barbarian, Path of the Berserker (Because Rage = Hulking out, duh)

Level 3 Cleric, Knowledge Domain (Banner has like 7 PhDs, + in fanfic, he's their field medic, iykyk)

Feats: Durable

Background: Hermit (2024) - Healer Feat

Species: Human - Tavern Brawler Feat

Proficiencies - Athletics, Intimidation, Medicine, Perception, Religion, Survival

Expertise - Arcana, History

Clint Barton - Hawkeye (in the comics he has a background in the circus and I am here for it)

Level 11 Ranger, Subclass: Fey Wanderer (going with vibes), Fighting Style: Archery (bc obviously)

Level 3 Rogue, Subclass: Scout (it just feels right to me)

Feats: Crossbow Expert, Archery

Background: Entertainer (2024) - Musician Feat

Species: Human - Lucky Feat

Proficiencies - Athletics, Deception, Persuasion

Expertise - Acrobatics, Insight, Investigation, Nature, Performance, Stealth, Survival

Natasha Romanoff - The Black Widow (she is so good at her job that she doesn't need to multiclass)

Level 14 Rogue, Subclass: Assassin (do I need to explain?)

Feats: Actor, Lightly Armored

Background: Criminal/Spy (2024)

Species: Human - Alert Feat

Proficiencies - Insight, Investigation, Sleight of Hand

Expertise - Stealth, Perception, Deception, Acrobatics

Steve Rogers - Captain America (his oath is to freedom - but like real freedom not politically approved conditional freedoms)

Level 11 Paladin, Oath of Devotion (once again going with vibes)

Level 3 Fighter, Battle Master (he is too tactical to not be)

Feats: Inspiring Leader, Thrown Weapon Fighting, Protection

Background: Soldier (2024) - Savage Attacker

Species: Variant Human (the serum) - Shield Master (OF COURSE)

Proficiencies - Athletics, History (he lived it lol), Insight, Intimidation, Perception, Persuasion

Thor Odinson - God of Thunder (in my head, his patron is the people of Asgard)

Level 8 Warlock, Subclass: The Fathomless (mainly for the lightening and thunder based spells)

Level 5 Fighter, Eldritch Knight (needed weapons proficiencies, but also magic)

Feats: Elemental Adept (Lightening Damage), Elemental Adept (Thunder Damage), Great Weapon Fighting, Savage Attacker

Background: Noble (2024) - Skilled Feat

Species: Aasimar (more god-like)

Proficiencies - Arcana, Athletics, History, Insight, Intimidation, Persuasion, Survival

Loki Laufeyson Odinson - God of Mischief (he has three classes and none of them use the same ability modifier which honestly I think Loki is just *that* character anyway)

Level 3 Sorcerer, Shadow Magic (bc mischief)

Level 3 Rogue, Subclass: Phantom (he's a sneaky boi)

Level 8 Wizard, School of Enchantment (Loki definitely studied magic more than Thor he has big nerd energy)

Feats: Spell Sniper

Background: Charlatan (2024) - Skilled Feat

Species: Aasimar

Proficiencies - Acrobatics, Insight, Perception, Sleight of Hand, Stealth

Expertise - Arcana, Deception, Persuasion

Tony Stark - Ironman (my beloved)

Level 9 Artificer, Armorer (for the armor infusions)

Level 5 Bard, College of Eloquence (bc he's the most famous pre-superhero, used to media, and a sassy bitch)

Feats: Heavily Armored, Heavy Armor Master

Background: Merchant (2024) - Lucky Feat

Species: Human - Tough Feat

Proficiencies - Animal Handling (a bit random but it comes with a feat weirdly), Deception, Insight, Investigation

Expertise - Persuasion, Sleight of Hand

[aira-besque]

Alright, I promised lore so here we go! Here's a quick disclaimer! With Drelora, I have tied her backstory in with the main plot line of the Dark Urge storyline as well as Bg3 as much as I can. There are some creative liberties I did take because of certain things that I liked when it came to me creating her so if you see any discrepancies with lore and what not, well, I tried lmao

First let's start with her name: Drelora Zar'ae. The only thing drow about it is her last name, which means 'shadow dancer'. I gave it to her as a way to tie in to her class and subclass, which is a Rogue Assassin. But she is also multiclassed with College of Swords Bard, which comes in later on in her story. So yeah, there's the basics of

Name: Drelora Zar'ae

Class: Rogue Assassin/ College of Swords Bard

Background: Haunted One

So with Drelora Zar'ae, she wakes up with no memories and just her name. Over time and over the course of the story, she starts to get pieces of who she was, like her expert assassin skills in murder and killing, but also, that she has a dark past that seems to be related to murder. Was she always this good at killing? How long did it take for her to learn these skills? Questions that she will continue to ponder along the course of her adventure.

During the course of Bg3, she has strange dreams of a familiar melody that she can't seem to get out of her mind along with two people. A drow child that looked similar to her but with red eyes. And a beautiful elf with dark hair, laying in a bed of roses. This haunting but beautiful song resonates with her, almost as if it was a song that she knew all of her life, and a dream she has had many times.

These two people from her dreams were important to her but what she doesn't know is that they were two people she murdered and were dead before the events of Bg3. The drow child was her sister, Erelas, the first person she feels she truly murdered. The other person was the love of her life, Anireth, an elf that she madly fell in love with and would be deemed as "the one who got away" but in a twisted, bloody version of it.

I will have to go more in depth with both of those in a separate post because they both are now fully fleshed out and everything.

Once she gets most of her memories back, she finds out that she was the scion/Chosen of Bhaal and that she was chosen for Bhaal's prophecy with Orin, and now it's up to her whether or not, she keeps her title as the Chosen of Bhaal, or reject her Father's will and be her own person.

And that's the basis of Drelora Zar'ae! I'll have to break down more lore details with her story with more posts, but I wanted to get the main idea out at least, and then start expanding out with the other details. I'll even go into her bg3 romance storyline with Minthara, annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd her romance arc with Kanara, a Tav that she is in a RP with currently that follows the events of Bg3.

And if you have any questions or requests, please feel free to ask me anything! I have Drelora very much figured out, I just need to start putting her lore here on Tumblr more.

[dailycharacteroption]

Shadowdancer (Pathfinder Second Edition Archetype)

(art by Nether on Artstation)

Yesterday I mentioned that the shadowcaster shared a few feats with the shadowdancer, and now, we’re covering it as well.

The shadowdancer has a history that hearkens back to Pathfinder’s origins in 3.5 D&D, where it was a prestige class typically taken by bards or rogues. It of course made the jump to Pathfinder since it was one of the prestige classes in the 3.5 Player Handbook, and then on to Second Edition as well. However, since it has it’s origins with the time when Wizards of the Coast had ownership of the D&D property, and with the scenanigans on that company’s part which gave rise to the Remaster, it should come as no surprise why the 2e version didn’t get an update/reprint of in Player Core 2, which is arguably the Remaster version of the APG.

In any case, a shadowdancer, for those that aren’t aware, is one who has an innate connection to the shadows, able to hone it through a sort of dance or set of agile motions to slip in and out of them, as well as invoke the power of the shadows into spell-like effects, altogether combining the stealth of the rogue with the spellcasting flexibility of a shadow-focused illusionist. Honestly this is probably the best interpretation of the Shadowdancer I’ve seen so far outside of the original d20 system (be it 3.5 or Pathfinder), certainly better than when 4e merged shadowdancer and assassin into the same concept and 5e made it a monk subclass and synonymous with ninja.

In any case, Second Edition goes the extra mile by giving us lore on how some people, through accident of birth or cosmic circumstance, develop an innate connection to the shadows that beckons them to explore it, should they dare. So let’s have a look!

The base dedication for a shadowdancer, which is one of the rare ones that becomes available at levels later than 2, enhances their stealth as the shadows wrap around them, and grants them with superior darkvision that pierces even magical darkness.

Like shadowcasters, these sneaks can learn to conjure a cloak of darkness around themselves or how to jump from shadow to shadow via teleportation. Another feat gets them the spell they didn’t pick the first time.

If the shadowdancer does not already have training for delivering lethal blows from stealth, they can learn it through the development of this skill set.

Non-rogues can also gain the roguish skill of avoiding and negating being taken advantage of from stealthy or underhanded foes as well.

They can also, like many shadowcasters, create semi-real objects or creatures from shadow, the later of which being stronger than your average illusory creature. (and may be a stand-in for the old shadowdancer standby of having their own shadow be an undead shadow minion, come to think of it).

Continuing with the abilities shared between casters and dancers, they can also learn to use shadow magic to unleash a facsimile of various elemental evocation spells once a day.

Many also learn how to rush from the shadows, striking their foes before they even know what hit them, which is another technique borrowed from rogues.

While their ability to pierce all darkness is incredibly useful, many hone their senses further to notice the presence of hidden threats even their eyes fail to notice.

Shadowdancers often find it useful to resist mental control, and learn the roguish art of finding cognitive loopholes to subvert their orders.

True masters among shadowdancers are literally wrapped in shadows, armoring them against incoming attacks when not in bright light, and even softening the blow of explosive spells, whether it bey by cushioning them with semi-real shadowstuff, or by transforming themselves partially into unreal shadow.

Traditionally, this archetype was meant for agile characters like rogues, bards, and the occasional monk, but with the way Second Edition archetypes work, this need not be the case. Imagine a mighty warrior wrapped in protective shadows, or an investigator that can hunt down fleeing foes through the very shadows they think will protect them. Obviously shadowcaster is probably the preferred choice if you’re playing any sort of mage, but shadowdancer has a lot of fun toys in it’s arsenal for making a shadowy rogue or pseudo-rogue.

Now, it’s important to remember that darkness and shadows, while definitely in the evil power toolkit, are inherently amoral forces just as negative energy is. It’s how you use them that lends morality to them. As such, there are plenty of heroic shadowdancers, even if the majority are of more dubious morality if not outright evil.

In the criminal underworld, it is often considered wisdom to let dead matters remain buried, particularly when it is in fact a corpse. However, when a new young crime lord orders the tombs of past enforcers opened to plunder for magical weapons for his new generation of hired blades, he finds more than he bargained for. Now, his organization is being hunted by an undead killer with even greater power over the shadows than he had in life.

Though her kind thrive in the sun, Daya Moonflower finds solace in the dark, and the suli ghoran delights in the power it offers, becoming a daring swashbuckler thief that vanishes and reappears from the darkness like a figment from a dream.

Eager to unite the various stone giant tribes into an empire, Kuvalk Nightlord (called Kuvalk Night-Tainted by his detractors) is an imposing warrior of a stone giant, with a knack for channeling shadows that he has cultivated over the years, becoming a warrior clad in shadows almost as heavy as his armor.

[spibbee]

HEYY I JUST WANTED TO SAY YOUR WARRIOR CATS ASSASSINATION CLASSROOM (Karmagisa) AU IS EVERYTHING TO ME.

Could you elaborate on it? :D

OH MY GOSH IM SO GLAD YOU'RE ENJOYING IT!!! : D I'd love to elaborate!

Here's my notes on the AU so far (subject to changes as I develop it, of course!):

In Kunugigaoka Forest, four Clans reign separately- these four are the equivalents of the A, B, C, and D Classes in the AU! E Class (or, as I've been calling it, AssClan) is the fifth Clan, but it isn't REALLY a Clan at all. Before Korostar and Karasuma show up, the students are all basically just uncommitted rogues/loners/kittypets who came together to form a fake Clan after repeated rejection and humiliation from the warriors of the Kunugigaoka Four. They aren't a full time Clan and it's more of a make-believe way to pass time than anything.

When Korostar (who I'm still developing, but I'm thinking of making him some kind of bear) shows up and takes charge with a threat to destroy their neighborhood, they're given a real goal. He tells them they've got to shape up to be a real, functioning Clan and train to kill him before the end of next year's new-leaf season. They set up camp at an abandoned building on the edge of the forest.

Now for a couple of other fun tidbits about characters that I've put some thought into, just for fun!

-Karmapaw, previously Karma, was a kittypet who abandoned his housefolk to join AssClan full-time. He has a history with causing trouble for the Kunugigaoka Four.

-Snakepaw, previously Nagisa, was a rogue who escaped his abusive mother to join AssClan for real. He got his new name from his unexpected stealth and prowess in combat.

- Snakepaw and Karmapaw have been friends since kithood.

-Korostar is the hardest to develop because he's just so unique in the show, and I'm struggling to translate it to warrior cats! But for a tiny fact, instead of his face changing color to reflect his mood, his eyes do!

- Karasuma was a loner and he takes killing Korostar very seriously! He assumes the position of deputy and is essential in teaching the apprentices combat.

- Hellabitch was also a loner, and after a failed assassination attempt on Korostar, she joined as a sort of second deputy.

- Two characters I've started working on are Slypaw (Rio Nakamura) and Boulderpaw (Ryoma Terasaka)! Their designs will likely be posted next 🙀

Thank you for the ask !! 😺

[parallel-2-anywhere]

D&D Cartoon Characters As MTG Cards

Was it the D&DBeyond free adventure where the carton kids were the pregens? to coincide with the new Players Handbook? Was it a Brazillian car commercial that stirred a long dormant foreign fandom? Was it my friend @bubblytarts slowly being dragged into Magic the Gathering kicking and screaming? In any case. I decided to try and think what legendary creatures from throughout Magic The Gathering you could Secret Lair style reskin for the kids from the Dungeons and Dragons Cartoon! All of them are going to be legendary creatures who can pilot their own deck. Join me!

Starting with Sheila!

Sheila the party rogue could of course turn invisible via her cloak. So Etrata, Deadly Fugitive working with cloak to turn creatures face down while also caring about assassins (a rogue subclass) was peak. It had to be done!

Next is Presto!

Presto having the random item hat could have been Delina Wild Mage, but consider. Using Averna to build a cascading shell into wild cards and having Delina in the 99. Also pair with Flamekin Herald (who you could make Varla from the one episode) and give the commander cascade!

Next is Bobby!

For Bobby the Barbarian my thought was Maarika (who yes I know was first Zangief but shhh). The fact excess damage is turned into breaking stuff feels perfect for the club he gets and you can put the Secret Lair Crash Through for Uni in the deck to get double duty of the excess.

Next is Diana!

Diana I wanted to make a monk proper because like. Yes her title is acrobat but... ya know. And that led me to Prowess and Narset, Enlightened Exile! You can make the exile aspect into being on another world, but honestly I think any prowess commander can do here!

Next is Eric!

For Eric. I admittedly struggled a bit, BUT I ran into Jared Carthalion, True Heir. The Monarch mechanic feels right for an Eric card to play into. Several episodes of the show temporarily tempt Eric with or properly give him power and authority over the others, like the time he became Dungeon Master for a day. And the ever changing head of the monarch works very well for that. Added to the fact that while you are the monarch nothing hits you is perfect for the shield!

Next is Hank!

For Hank I was gonna do the ranger aesthetic, but more than class, Hank is "team leader boy." SO I went with Tazri, Beacon of Unity. Cuz a 5 color commander that can bring out the party is perfect, caring about the card types that mirror the titles they were given, and also it cares about the party mechanic and gathering the gang and their allies. Something well within the purview of a good team leader!

Finally Venger!

For Venger affinity for artifacts is the funniest mechanic to give the bbeg who spent the whole ass show chasing after 6 or so magic items. The fact that Rakdos also lets you bring in Beholders, Goblinoids, Slaad, Giants and other classic D&D Monsters from both the Adventures in the Forgotten Realms and Battle for Baldur's Gate. Things like Asmodeus, Acererak, and even more villainous icons of the Realm along with powerful artifacts!

And that my friends are my picks! I hope you enjoyed them..............

Psych! Doing one more for Niko!

Niko is from Stormwreck Isle and then the adventure of Uni and the Hunt for the Lost Horn. Designed mostly to ensure there was a healer class for mechanic reasons all we have about Niko is a throw away line about being "new to the D&D multiverse". so how do I use that?..

SIMPLE. So I hear "New to the multiverse" and I think "Flip Walker" showing a newly sparked planeswalker! So. Looking through the existing Flip Walkers I settled on Tamiyo! Focusing less on dealing damage and more about protecting other planeswalkers and gaining informational advantage seems like the kind of thing someone new to the multiverse would focus on. Plus caring about spells when they flip into a planeswalker adds to them being a caster class. It's kind of a stretch but hey. I had so very little to work with.

And with that. For real. I am finally done!

These are only my takes though. What would you set these characters as as commander cards, is there one of them you wanna build? What would you put in their deck? Let me know! If I do end up brewing any of these I will post decklists via Moxfield! :D

[dartagnantt]

Scout Roguish Archetype | Scouts that scout, not set up ambushes

PDFs of this and more can be found over on at my Patreon here! I release everything for free, so your support makes this possible. I've also started making a new system based off of 5e, 6th Dawn! Become a patron and join the playtest.

This week, as part of a theme most foul, I decided to go upon a foul task and revise our hired killer.

The second the theme this month is tracks, so I used it as an excuse to visit the scout archetype. I'm rather fond of it conceptually, but I will say, I was surprised when I realised that the latter half of its features are a better assassin than the official assassin. They get a second attack as a bonus action and can sneak attack with it too! Damn! That said, as cool as those are, I don't think a scout is best embodied by its ability to do devastating ambushes. Moreover, the rogue's base featureset is pretty good at doing that on it's own if you want to go that way. So, I opted to focus on mobility and detection.

Pathfinder

I won't lie, I couldn't resist calling this pathfinder. I didn't have to, but I wanted to. Anyway, the 5e scout gets nature and survival, which definitely gives it a ranger vibe, which is cool but not really the part of the ranger that fits this concept, instead I decided they'd be really good at navigating, reading maps, and making maps.

Skirmisher

This feature is really good in the base scout, so I kept it, and kind of made it its defining feature

Superior Mobility

While I kept the name of the scout feature, I decided that, as a class that can dash as a bonus action, they don't really need an additional 10 feet of movement speed. But they can probably do with other forms of mobility. Also, if you're going about in nature, not being slowed down sounds like a good idea.

Lookout

I'm not the proudest of this feature, seeing as half of it is part of my modified (and the oneD&D) alert feat, but quite frankly I had to try really hard not to make this subclass the Alert feat archetype. Which I mostly succeeded. But these are important skills for a scout to have. I am amused that it's basically the opposite of the lookout feature the other one gets.

Unfond Farewell

I enjoyed naming this one. This isn't much, but it does give the scout more to do during combat, instead of stuff largely surrounding combat.

Right Place, Right Time

I'm not sure if I'll keep this feature going into 6th dawn, but I have been toying with the concept that this one pulls off for a while. How did the monk or rogue evade the fireball and take no damage? By not being in the area, of course

And now to plug my stuff. I release homebrews weekly over on my Patreon. Anyone who pledges $1 or more per post don't have to wait a month to see them, and also help fund my being alive habit.

At the moment, they have exclusive access to the following:

Poisons: Reapplied

Finding the Trail

Skill Challenges

College of Epics

I also have four classes, and two splatbooks over on DriveThruRPG to check out:

The Rift Binder. A class specialising in summoning monsters and controlling the battlefield.

The Witch Knight. A class that combines swords and sorcery in the most literal way.

The Werebeast. A class that turns you into a half beast to destroy your foes.

The Beguiler. A spellcaster dedicated to illusions, enchantments, and general fuckery.

d'Artagnan's Adventurer Almanac. A compendium of races, subclasses, feats, spells, monsters and more!

d'Artagnan's Lycanthrope Survival Guide. A book of lore, stats, and werebeast subclasses for lycanthropes.

[utilitycaster]

Hope I can phrase this in a way that makes sense but—

What well-known actual-play cast member is your favorite for each of the core D&D class? Not necessarily a specific characters, but I’m interested in which players you think brings the most to each class.

This is a very interesting question! It's a hard one to answer for some classes and very easy for others so bear with me; also there are a couple where I could not pick just one.

I'm sticking to the PHB 12 for, as you said, core classes:

Barbarian: While Travis did give us "I would like to rage," I think Ashley and Taliesin get to share this one for me. I think they both really explore what rage means to someone and while I love a good "I'm a tank because I can take the hits and that's what I do and what I'm good at" story, I also think Yasha's messy relationship with her feelings of guilt and grief, and Ashton's chronic pain, are both incredible ways to play with the barbarian archetype.

Bard: much easier. Sam Riegel and Krystina Arielle. I'm a sucker for someone who actually sings even as I don't think you have to (and have played bard without doing so). It's both clearly a class they each love dearly and it shows, and they're incredibly musically talented performers to boot.

Cleric: Lou Wilson. Especially since I didn't like Fantasy High season 1 Fabian until the end of the season Kingston blew me away. I would love to see him explore cleric again, though it's exciting to see him as a paladin on WBN.

Druid: Emily Axford as Moonshine. Emily as a rule understands D&D classes very well anyway, but I think the culture of the crick and the ways that Moonshine must grow as a character while being a druid take it to the next level. (Also I prefer a caster-heavy druid to a shapechanger-heavy one; that's just me).

Fighter: Back to NADDPod because literally who could I say other than Jake Hurwitz, the man who only plays fighters. People who are new to D&D when they start actual play can be hit or miss imo; some pick it up and some lean harder on being showy to make up for it and it doesn't play well for me personally, but Jake is the greatest hit.

Monk: Marisha Ray; Beau is just generally a great character, and I think Marisha's own experience with martial arts informs the way she plays her; monks can be kind of repetitive in combat even with strong players and she manages to avoid this through her description.

Paladin: This is actually super hard because people don't play straight paladin a lot. This is incorrect of them, but it is an intense class. I think Luis Carazo and Zac Oyama are like...the duality of paladin (and indeed, redemption paladin). The tragedy and the comedy.

Ranger: Laura Bailey, natch; it's funny because Vex is in many ways not the archetypal ranger due to having high charisma, but she is simply my favorite and that's that on that. Sorry the mechanics were so bad; I would love to see more rangers in D&D even though Vex will be hard to dethrone. I promise Tasha's fixed them!

Rogue: I think I'm actually going Murph on this one. I like when rogues are more of the detective/spy type than the assassin/criminal type [obligatory "of course that's what you'd say you stupid paladin stan"] and inquisitive and arcane trickster are probably my two top rogue classes so Riz it is.

Sorcerer: I do consider PF1e cheating here because it's technically a different system that also imo addresses a lot of the weaknesses of sorcerer/makes it way better, but Bryn Monroe of RQG did play a great sorcerer. In D&D? Giving Emily Axford a second spot here for Saccharina. I'm going to talk about this for warlock, but I think sorcerer is a class you don't have to justify but if you don't it's a little unsatisfying. Sorcerer really shines in the Crown of Candy setting, and metamagic often doesn't live up to its reputation but Emily makes it work for her.

Warlock: Travis Willingham. I think there are classes that are kind of self-explanatory, for lack of a better term; you can play a fighter or rogue or even a bard or druid without going super deep into why the character is this class and still be an incredible character (though a good backstory never hurts). But there are others where you really need to be engaging with the class at all times to make it work, and warlock is one of them, and Fjord explores the warlock pact and what it means like few others.

Wizard: Aabria Iyengar. NO ONE gets wizard hubris as a player like Aabria. Knowledge is power and boy do wizards love knowledge. I especially like that most people in 5e play wizards as genuine adventurers because it feels very easy to play them as old guy in robes swept up in events beyond them; Aabria plays wizards who are combat ready with the humanity and backstory to make the difficult decisions sympathetic and meaningful, and I think that's how you have to play it.

Note: I want to specifically call out Liam O'Brien and Siobhan Thompson as "people I trust in basically any class or system and just didn't happen to hit a favorite here due to sky-high competition/personal preferences". They are both very close seconds for wizard.

[rindemption]

No one else gets custom outfits, the inventory ui when using controllers is horrible

Also, I gave Nathan 1 level in bard for the dialog options. He gets to be a sarcastic little shit like he enjoys. And he gets to play music and taunt enemies

I figured out how to set up couch co-op, so @katsigian and I now have Nathan and Valen running around Baldur's Gate 😏