#there are so many good bard items and if you don't have a bard in your party they go to waste

[flashhwing]

I love seeing everyone post screenshots of Astarion where he's wearing the drow armor in dark colors and then going to my own game where he's wearing the bard tunic in white. we are having fundamentally different experiences of this character

[ultimategenshintournament]

Ultimate Genshin Tournament: Round 5

Propaganda below cut

Venti:

calls the Traveler "his warrior" plus he's like our long-time friend??? He basically asked us out during the alchemy event???? You can choose to bring him up during the fight with Signora????? He's the best idc

He. Is. Amazing. So many layers, so interesting...So much trauma and potential...Not to mention look how AWESOME he is generally!!! He's kind and caring towards everybody, and also carefree and mischievous!!! How can you not love him??

he’s TOO GOOD for this world- he’s just a little guy!! Like he cares for his nation and the people of Mondstadt SO MUCH it hurts when people say he doesn’t. Like, my poor trauma-driven little mega-powerful war god who’s actually just a tiny little wind spirit honoring his dead friend!!!! I love him so much

his lore means he gets brought up almost every patch. he convinced a bunch of the most lethal women in Teyvat to have tea instead of screwing him up. he would always rather take the path of least resistance. he’s the three time best bard in Mond. he never seeks glory, only wishes to offer it to others. he was a better father to Diona than her real one five minutes into meeting her. he gives Glory whispers of what the world looks like so she can navigate. when a nun of his own church denied his identity he decided to run a heist to steal back an item that is only holy because it is his. he keeps his misery and loneliness trapped within, and does his best to bring joy to every person he meets. how can you not love him? 

He's Venti. How do you beat that? Answer: you don't. You can't. 

they say that an nation is most like their archon but is the anemo archon a god that took after the people's traits or did the people take their archons traits (the only correct answer is that venti took after old mond's people traits and it's so disgustingly sweet, he's a lil baby who cared so much that he kept old mond's wishes heard and their dream a reality — of freedom (without a god, as much as he could) where humanity leads trust. he left mondstadt because he trusted that humanity would do that right thing always but then he got betrayed by the Lawrence clan but he forgave them???! the anemo archon gave them no punishment , but mondstadt did . venti has me ugly crying

Kaeya:

He's cool, he's mysterious, he wears an eyepatch, he has a super tragic backstory, he's good with kids, he takes care of his friends, what's not to love!!!

despite all the hardships he’s suffered, he’s still such a kind person 

This is the character of the everyman. Everyone should love Kaeya because he's with you no matter what. He has the great mystery of his origins and his damage with his family and his brother, but he is with you til the end. That's what makes him so special to me

Furina:

girl deserves therapy and hugs and the best life in the WORLD because oh boy she went through a lot!!!! wouldn't pretending to be a god for 500 years with no support mess you up? and yet she still kept on going for her people!! she wanted to save her nation from a doomsday prophecy and she DID

After act 5 she deserves the world :(

“If all the people of Fontaine are on one side, and I am on the other…is it not obvious where the scales of suffering should tilt?” NO IT ISNT YOU’RE JUST ABNORMALLY SELFLESS AND INCREDIBLE AND PERSISTENT. Even the Archons praise Furina’s name and say she is a human with strength and capability worthy of an Archon. That’s not even to speak of Focalors. She snapped at Arlecchino only when the Harbinger implied that Furina had done nothing to preserve her people from the flood. Meanwhile every minute she was working to prevent the prophecy. A month after we took her to court and almost got her killed she agreed to help us direct a play, a favor for a favor

[tragedybunny]

Fangs and Fairytales - Chapter 4

༺Summary༻

The Netherbrain has fallen and Baldur's Gate has been saved. Excited about their new life together, Astarion and Serafina, a warlock who’s past remains hidden, journey to find a way for him to walk in the sun again. But there is no easy path to happiness and even Sera's own patron blocks their way. Together, they can face it all and find their own happily ever after.

Chapter 3: Astarion has an amorous plan to fix Sera's melancholy, it gets a little delayed by an encounter with a peculiar bard.

༺Pairing༻ Astarion x Serafina (Female Tav/OC)

༺Warnings༻ Light bondage, anal play, vaginal sex

༺Word Count༻ 4114

༺A/N༻

Hello Lovelies!

This is the smutty chapter. Takes a bit to get there, but I promise the second half is steamy.

Many and eternal thanks to @icybluepenguin for betaing and always encouraging me!

Also, if you recognize a certain bard and his ballad in this chapter - he's on loan from my dear friend @snowfolly If you don't recognize him, please check out Endlessly, one of my fave fics.

Read on AO3

All chapters here on Tumblr

The camp was in high spirits tonight and buzzing with activity. They'd turned the courtyard and upper floor into some sort of communal festival, all because some ostensibly famous bard had come to play there in an act of “charity” that Astarion found gratingly self-aggrandizing. 

The cheery mood and sense of community had even led the denizens to give the camp a proper name, erasing its last ties to Shar.

“Selûne’s Embrace.” He couldn't think of it without disdain. He wanted to be done with gods, and couldn't fathom why everyone else still would cling to them, Dame Aylin excepted.

The bard’s distraction served his purpose though, so he couldn't complain too much. The event kept Sera distracted while he made preparations for a very special night. He'd left a note before trancing telling her to go enjoy herself and he'd be along later, there were some things he wanted to do.

He shut the door to their private cave hideaway with a satisfied smile. Everything was perfectly set, including the items he’d snuck off to the night market in the Wide to procure. Now to fetch his beloved. 

Sera had seemed back in high spirits the last couple of days. They'd started making preparations to travel and Astarion had to admit, he felt more hopeful as well. He still wasn't happy about losing the sun, but seeing Sera smile after that terrible night made even the light of day seem less important. They'd leave in a couple more days after dinner with Duke Ravengard.

The night crowds were thicker tonight, swarming to the surface, bringing along a tide of food and drink for the revelry. Astarion weaved through them with dexterity, avoiding any brushes against his skin that would reveal it as too cold, and any lingering looks that would expose anyone to his too red eyes. 

He glanced down at his fingertips– his nails had become much more claw-like without the tadpole and, though not as animalistic as they once had been, they still required much more attention. Thankfully, the glowing eyes and maw full of jagged teeth had not also returned, those would be much harder to hide. He had a theory that being well-fed had something to do with it. An idea he could possibly discuss with Dal at some point, but for now he’d simply be thankful.

Thus far, they’d managed to keep his nature to whispered rumor, and no one really wanted to force the issue and confirm they were sharing quarters with a vampire. Especially since this particular vampire was the partner of the hero of Baldur’s Gate. It would seem Sera was still his great protector.

And that thought didn't have the sting it used to. They were rather good at protecting each other. 

Astarion’s thoughts were interrupted as he exited the stairs onto the ground floor and the notes of a song reached his ears. His jaw tightened and his teeth ground together. “That fucking song…” The Golden Lyre. 

“Dark haired maiden, play it true,” a rather pleasant voice crooned from outside.

Despite the pleasantness of the voice, the lyrics were still like listening to Lae’zel sharpen her weapon for hours on end. Astarion charged outside, determined to find Sera as quickly as possible. 

“The golden lyre, I beg of you, hold my heartstrings, in your hands.” 

It wasn’t a bad song, it simply was the song; every bard knew it and would play it in every godforsaken shithole in the city. The sort of place he used to haunt. He’d heard it so often, he would find himself singing it involuntarily and recoil, cursing himself. 

“Dark haired maiden, my love, my muse.”

Down the stairs, into the courtyard, Astarion spotted the ridiculous creature, furiously plucking away at a violin, dancing about like an ungainly bird, a mane of gray hair flowing wildly around him. And of course, at the end of a table nearest this display, sat Sera, sipping from a wine glass, with a smile on her face. A smile that was a little too fond for his liking, 

“Oh my love, my muse…”

Astarion shouldered his way over to Serafina, coming up behind her to rest his hands on her shoulders in what was definitely not a possessive manner, fingers on the light blue fabric of her dress. “Hello darling.” 

If her smile for the bard seemed fond, for him it was radiant adoration. “There you are. Done with your business for the evening?”

Astarion suppressed a smile, thinking of what awaited her in their cave sanctuary. “Indeed. In fact, part of it was a surprise for you. Shall we away?” he purred at her. 

“You’re such a tease. I’m dying of curiosity now.” 

He gave Sera his hand and helped her from her seat, ready to whisk her away from the scene and the hells-damned song when the music abruptly ended. The crowd started to applause raucously and Astarion attempted to make their exit before another song that would remind him of his lowest days started. Who knew what else was in the bard’s repertoire; The Wilting Rose, Summer’s Sweetest Wine? They all made him shudder. 

He’d gotten maybe two steps when the bard’s melodious voice called out behind him. “Corellon fucking wept… Serafina?”

At his side, Sera froze, eyes going wide with a look of terror he hadn’t seen since Cazador had bound him into the ritual. Astarion felt himself tense as well; from what he understood of the warlock pact, no one in Baldur’s Gate should recognize Sera. They gave one another a look and Astarion released her hand to wrap his fingers around the dagger always at his side. 

“It is you! Don’t you recognize me, it’s Tali?” The tiny elf – moon, if Astarion was any judge – flailed his arms about, jeweled rings catching the fire light and a fine scarlet coat swaying with the effort. 

“H-how? You shouldn’t be able to…” Sera stared at him in wonder. 

“Exactly.” Astarion gripped his dagger tighter. Had her family somehow found her? Was this their agent? 

Through the vaguest of conversations and some deduction on his part, he'd been able to put together that Sera had accepted a warlock pact with Titania, Fey Queen of the Summer Court to escape an awful family. Said family were almost certainly Patriars here in Baldur’s Gate. Sera had tried to disguise that noble bearing she’d been taught since birth, but he'd seen his share of nobles and rabble. There was no way she was anything but the former. And that was all he was allowed to know, lest the magic that hid her shatter. 

Tali’s eyes went wide as he caught sight of Astarion’s hand at his weapon. “Hells, call off your attack vampire!” 

The last word was so loud that the crowd started to look their way. Though there had been talk, they had worked hard to keep Astarion’s nature as secret as possible. That effort looked to be going up in flames. All because of… whoever the hell this Tali was. 

“Why you–” Astarion began to draw the dagger from its sheath, causing Tali to  back away. 

The sound of Sera’s laughter caused them both to freeze. 

“The two of you are ridiculous, you know that.” Sera turned and gave Astarion a quick hug and peck on the cheek. “He’s an old friend.” 

“One that is now extremely worried about you, I might add!” The bard fell into a sulk. 

“Could you give us a minute?” Sera asked, barely waiting for Astarion’s nod before dragging Tali off by his hand. 

Astarion sighed and tried to bury the frustration of the delay to his romantic plans. Slinking off, he disappeared into the shadows, the attention of the crowd having diminished without their entertainment present. 

Crossing his arms, he leaned against the wall, definitely not annoyed with the delay. Agonizing minutes passed as he waited, his fingers tapping against his arm and a fang worrying his bottom lip. Finally, Sera returned without the unwanted company in tow. 

He was already preening for the crowd, readying for another performance. Astarion doubted he could know what had passed between them but at least she didn’t look troubled by it. He held out his arm until she hooked hers through it, giving him a reassuring look, and they started back inside.

“He’s a friend, a friend that seems to have some immunity to Titania’s glamour. It’s fine though,” she answered the question he hadn’t asked.

“Oh so this random bard–”

“Taliesin. Honestly I’m surprised you don’t recognize him, he’s quite famous. He wrote the Golden Lyre.” 

Astarion pretended that did not make his blood boil further. Of course the foppish creature wrote that damned song. “Whatever. He’s allowed around Her Majesty’s spell, but I, the love of your life, am not.” 

Sere halted their progress, turning to shoot him a look. “Astarion, you know that’s not how it works. She can’t just make exceptions.” 

“I know she despises me. And she clearly can make exceptions.” 

Sera sighed and started walking again. “You’re being impossible.” 

Astarion followed, now being pulled along by Sera, despite being a head shorter than him, and slightly built. “Don’t act like it’s not true,” he groused. 

“So you're telling me that all a Fey Queen wanted from you for all this power was a child. How very… cliché.” Astarion was setting up a simple trip wire around their camp. They’d just dealt with a pack of gnolls and didn’t need any more surprises for the night. 

“It's not that simple,” Sera answered from where she stood watch behind him, scanning the horizon for any more danger. “She wants a lineage to serve her, my family line.” 

“And you agreed to that? Was life at home really that bad?” Nothing to compare to his, he was sure. 

The night sky over the Risen Road was turning the brilliant colors of twilight as the first stars appeared.  Astarion had agreed to help with security measures and immediately asked Sera to be his look-out. A chance to spend a little more time with her and “strengthen” their bond. They were on their way to the Githyanki crèche, and perhaps a way to be rid of these worms. He needed to ensure his hold on their warlock leader was as tight as possible. Without the tadpole he might well be entirely dependent on her. 

Oddly, the last couple of nights they hadn’t done much more than chat pleasantly by the fire and share a few kisses. Not for lack of trying on his part. Leading to his desperately attempting to ignore the creeping dread that his protector was losing interest in him, and his mouth was running without much thought. 

Audibly, she inhaled. “If only I could tell you.” 

Astarion felt an awful weight in his stomach, the feeling of knowing he'd screwed up. Only it was disturbingly not like when he'd misstepped in front of Cazador. That was fear of reprisal, of one of his master's many punishments. 

This was… he didn't know exactly. He just didn't like being the cause of any distress to her. “I– no, I should trust you on it. Although I have to say, she'll probably be disappointed if you keep carrying on with a vampire,” he finished with an awkward laugh and was glad she couldn’t see him cringing at himself. 

At least the trip wire was done. No explosions, only noise if something tried to cross into their camp. He stood up, shaking off the clumsy exchange. “There, no gnolls in camp this night.” 

“My hero,” Sera gave him a playful smile and headed back toward the cluster of tents. 

The smile soothed his nerves and he made to follow her when a voice whispered in his ear. 

“Watch how you go, Spawn, I won’t tolerate disappointment in my bargains.” 

That had been the only time he’d heard the voice of Titania, but the threat had remained with him, her distaste for him extremely clear. 

“It doesn't matter. And stop being jealous,” she scolded, and Astarion almost groaned in frustration. 

This night was rapidly spiraling out of his control. 

Letting go of her arm, he pulled her closer to him by her waist. Leaning down to purr into her ear,  “Of course my love, let's not spoil the evening. Not when I have such delicious plans for it.”

He was rewarded with a little shiver and smirked to himself. Oh, how he’d come to know her and what made her body respond. And the love they shared made using his considerable experience something he no longer reviled. For the most part– sometimes the skeletons of the past decided to venture outside the shadowy corner of his mind where he kept them. 

The crowd and the noise faded as he led Sera back toward their quarters. The steady increase of her pulse echoed in his ears, and the scent of her arousal filled the air, more alluring than any perfume. Tonight was safely on its way back to being a success. 

When they reached their room, Astarion swiftly shut the door behind him and locked it. No well-meaning visitors to interrupt them tonight. 

Sera turned to face him, eyes heavy-lidded and pupils wide with desire. “What did you want to show me?” 

“It’s in the cave. But first, take off your clothes.” The words were firm, an order, and he watched her swallow hard. 

For his part, Astarion could give or take control with equal pleasure, but Sera, with the rare exception, desired to relinquish it to another. Which made taking it all the more pleasurable for him. 

“I–” Sera started. 

“Shh, just be a good girl and do as you're told.” 

Her skin flushed a deep pink but she wordlessly moved to obey, already sliding into that space in her mind where thought gave way to feeling and reason to desire; the world ceasing to exist outside the two of them. 

When she was freed from her dress, Astarion– still clothed himself– took her hand, careful to not touch any other part of her, and lead her toward the door to their private refuge. “Go on,” he prompted, letting her enter first. 

He didn’t need to see her expression, the ragged, gasping breath she took told him everything he needed to know. The old Sharran rug had been discarded, and a newer plush one was laid down in its place. Currently, a bedroll had been laid over the top of it for extra comfort. And at each corner of the bedroll, attached to a stake driven into the ground, a leather restraint. Nearby was a small box, open to display an assortment of other toys should the night call for them. 

Astarion wrapped his hands possessively around Sera’s waist and leaned to down to speak in a low, throaty voice. “You see, my love, I think I finally understand your problem from the other night. You simply have too many thoughts inside that pretty little head of yours. So I’m going to fuck every last one of them out of it.” 

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the blindfold that had been waiting there and slipped it over her eyes. As he did, each breath came more rapidly despite her stillness, like a rabbit frozen in the path of a predator. “And you are going to lay there, and not say a word while I do it. Just make all those lovely little sounds of yours for me.” 

Guiding her toward the bedroll, he laid her down on it, the soft light of the moon from the opening above them bathing her in an ethereal glow. Even without her sight, she obeyed him with perfect trust, following his commands without falter. She gave over each of her limbs to be secured into the restraints until her body was spread gloriously open for him. 

Leaving her to ponder what was next, Astarion wordlessly moved away to strip himself; spending longer than necessary as he watched her chest heave with nervous breath and the minute movements she made out of anxious anticipation. He could feel himself already hardening without even touching her yet. 

Kneeling next to her, he began to skim his nails over her skin, the faintest of marks appearing in their wake. “Now, what am I to do with you, my poor overthinking, anxious love.” His touch idly circled her breasts, avoiding her stiffened, rosy nipples 

“Ast–” she gasped as his fingers closed around one of those nipples and pinched.

“Ah, I said no words, only noises. Behave or we'll have to find a way to keep you from talking.” 

Sera didn't say anything more, only panted and whined as he rolled the nipple between his fingers. 

It was actually the perfect place to start. Shifting so that he kneeled between her thighs, he rubbed the head of his cock over her slick folds and felt her try to buck into him. He gave a soft chuckle at her efforts. 

“You're not getting it quite so easily, pet.”

Not that he didn't want her desperately by now, but that would ruin the fun. And more importantly the effort he was making to give her this: a night about her pleasure only. 

He leaned forward, the scent of her - wildflowers and forests - filling his nostrils, intoxicating him. Hands resting on her shoulders, her flesh like satin under his fingers, he stilled her. 

His mouth began to water as he leaned down towards one firm nipple. Instead of latching on to suckle at it, bared fangs pieced the skin above it, withdrawing quickly to create two small streams of blood. 

Sera let out a sharp cry and he was thankful he'd thought ahead to set up here, away from their door.

With her delectable blood flowing enticingly, he wrapped his lips around her nipple and sucked. Intoxicating. 

Eyes fluttering closed, he let the taste and scent possess him.  Lazily his hips rolled, cock sliding over her clit, no relief for either of them as he drank the blood flowing from her breast like mother's milk. All the while she gasped and sighed beneath him. 

He could stay like this for hours, teasing the drips from her, not enough to drain her but enough to make his mind and stomach sing. But there was more to be tasted.

With a final lick over the wounds, he withdrew to a noise of disappointment.

“Oh don't you worry, I'm not done with you yet.” 

He’d let himself relive every wicked idea and lustful fantasy he’d had about her while planning tonight. Only some were fit for tonight's purpose, the rest he would get to in time. They had so much of it now. The fantasy enticing him would definitely serve his goal though. 

Getting up, he retrieved a toy and vial of oil from the box, placing them between her legs on the rug, making as much noise as possible. Sera adorably tried to hide her curiosity in silence but the sound of her blood did not lie. 

Coming to stand next to her head, he dropped to his knees, smirking at the intake of breath as he caught her off-guard. “Mouth open, darling, and trust me.” 

Obediently she opened wide for him, a welcoming, waiting hole. 

Very carefully, he placed his knees at her shoulders, and lowered himself over her, sliding his cock into her warm mouth. Wantonly, she moaned around him and he couldn’t stop his own answering groan. Elbows on either side of her hips he gave an experimental thrust, felt her tongue lapping at him. She was good - so, so good, sucking  from underneath him, pliant and submissive.

His hips moved again and he felt his cock twitch inside her. Not yet, he scolded himself. 

Arms wrapping around her thighs, nails digging into her soft skin just enough, he buried his face in her cunt, sodden in expectation of him. Nothing was as intoxicating as her blood, but the taste of her juices, flowing for him, was as close as one could get. Not even bothering to tease, he lavished his tongue over clit, relishing in the much-muted noises. 

It wasn’t enough though. Two of his fingers slipped into her sex, working her as his tongue continued its ministrations. His own hips picked up a rhythm, carefully fucking her mouth. 

Sera’s breath was coming in desperate gasps, the poor thing was nearing her limit. 

“You can wait a little longer, my pet, can’t you? For me?” 

The sound that answered he took for a yes. 

Sucking on two fingers from his unoccupied hand, he coated them with his saliva, and began to tease the last of her holes gently. She was tight and untried, sowith a delicate touch, he worked his way inside. 

Frantically, she lapped at the cock in her mouth, as though to plead with him for release as he fucked all her holes at once. A noise like a scream erupted from her as she shook against him. He could be merciful, he supposed. 

“Go on then, love, come for me.” To punctuate his words, he took her clit between his teeth and sucked. 

It was only moments later he felt her clench around his fingers, and a soft whimper followed. How he wanted to let go too, to spill his seed down her throat and let her taste him. Instead, he pulled his mouth from her and eyed the toy he’d left waiting. 

“Shall I ravage you properly, pet,” he teased, knowing she still couldn’t answer with words, but the thunderous melody of her heart spoke for her. His favorite sound in the whole world, that organ, beating out the song of her vitality, a real and living love. 

“But I’ve got one more treat for you. Now be patie– hgn!” Sera sucked deeply, tongue flicking over his sensitive head. “Naughty little thing,” he scolded. “I should stop right now.” 

They both knew he wouldn’t make good on that threat but still she ceased the attempt to goad him. 

Taking the vial of oil, he carefully coated the small, metal bulb in it. It was delicate work, he knew from horrible experience, but she’d been curious for some time, and was so eager for his fingers just now. The tip of the toy pressed against her and she tried to roll her hips into it. Once, he never would have bet sweet little Sera could be so wanton and needy. And it was all for him. 

Gently, he pushed it inside her, until she had taken it all. A couple of teasing pumps to keep her desperate, and he rose back to his knees, cock slipping from her mouth. 

He took a moment to admire his handiwork; drool running from her mouth, tears escaping her blindfold, her cunt swollen and dripping. 

Gods, she was beautiful.

Kneeling between her thighs, at long last, he gripped her hips, and drove into her, letting out a sigh of relief. Her warm slick squeezed him tight, eager to take all he could give. The feel of the toy inside her pressing against him added another dimension of pleasure, almost too much. 

He thrust with a desperate cadence, his mind fading into only feeling and wanting, almost the same as when he drank from her. The sounds of her pleasure were muted as though miles away. Hips slapped against skin, fingers dug bruises into her skin. 

Again he felt her, climaxing, thrashing, moaning uninhibited now. His cock twitched, gods, it was too much, and he felt himself let go. 

There was stillness and gradually the sounds of the cave penetrated the haze. Sera lay still, her breathing evening out after the exertion. Leaning down, he kissed her with all softness, his undead heart almost quickening with the raw, unbridled, affection he felt for her. 

“You did so well,” he whispered into her ear, “now let’s get you out of all this and into our bed.”

Under a mound of covers, Astarion held Sera close, as she lay with her head resting upon his chest. Idly, her fingers traced lines across his chest. Finally she made a thoughtful hum that drew him from his thoughts. “Yes, love?”

“I was thinking– if this is your treatment for melancholy– do you believe in preventive medicine?” Sera tittered giddily. 

“Oh my darling,” Astarion purred exaggeratedly, “I can most assuredly give you whatever dosage you require.” 

He tightened his arms around her and pulled her up to kiss her properly. They were so lost in the laughter that followed, Astarion barely noted the ease with which he lifted her, strength he hadn’t had before. 

Edited to add my tag list. Oops.

Tag list: @writingmysanity @snowfolly @sunfire-ancunin @vixstarria

@just-a-refrigerator @ladyofcrowsandcoffee @tallymonster @azu21

@wilteddreamsofbaldursgate @spacebarbarianweird @cilil @bg3obsessedsideblog

@talentedbitch @claryvoyantfray

[utilitycaster]

If you have time, I'd be really interested to hear any thoughts you have about the Bad Kids in terms of party/combat mechanics! I know they have a number of homebrew abilities/items that make them a little different from RAW character builds, but what do you think about them in terms of party balance or combat effectiveness? The thing that usually leaps out to me is how many of the Bad Kids are able to buff each other in and out of combat, and they seem to work fairly cohesively in battle. What's your read on them?

I don't have a ton of thoughts - in general, assume my CR thoughts will always be much more involved in part just because I'm more involved and also the ease of looking up information for CR works - but what does interest me actually is that the Bad Kids started off a pretty standard split of three casters (all competent support casters but capable of damage) and three martial classes, and that everyone but Adaine has undergone a subclass change, a multiclass, or more, and nearly all those changes were in the direction of higher utility and support. Adaine meanwhile was always a divination wizard which is simply a fantastic class and subclass with high utility and cool abilities so there's no need to change:

Fabian was originally a champion fighter, which is a great subclass but not really focused on party support other than being extremely good at killing foes and a decent tank. During season 2 he switched to battlemaster and multiclassed into bard (college of swords). His focus is still primarily on damage, but he can now maneuver and aid allies with his fighter abilities rather than just being super good at hitting, and he has the spells and inspiration of a bard, arguably the class most defined as a support/utility class.

Gorgug was originally a pure barbarian, and branched off into artificer late in season 2. It's a weird multiclass and one that Brennan has worked with Zac to homebrew but it did make a lot of narrative sense for him, and he then put the work in this past season. Artificers are also a good support class, whereas barbarians (especially Beserker, which he originally was) are also all about tanking and damage. By multiclassing into battlesmith he adds familiars onto the field, and maintains taking abilities.

Fig was originally college of whispers, which kind of sucks as a bard subclass, and so switching to lore, which gives you more access to spells and ways to help your allies helped. She also addressed the lack of bard ability to do damage by taking first a level in hexblade, and then multiclassing into paladin. She can still serve as support, and frequently does via inspiration and healing, but she now has pretty much all options available to her.

Kristen was originally a life cleric and is now twilight, and honestly both are super strong but twilight has a wider array of powers whereas life is very strongly healing-focused. Clerics also just get exponentially stronger as they level up and get higher level spells.

And finally, Riz switched from inquisitive, which is a solid rogue class in terms of solving mysteries, to arcane trickster, which gives him access to spells, dramatically expanding his repertoire. Also, to be honest, rogue abilities at high levels are really good, it's just, you spend a lot of time in levels where all you get is sneak attack.

So: all the martials ended up with some amount of spellcasting, the most pure support caster took some wise martial dips, and clerics and wizards are just really good classes that get better as you get more powers. You end up with a party that, as you say, can all buff each other.

[speakergame]

Hi Rhi! Hope life's been going smoothly for you!! There's always the "what D&D class would everyone be" question that goes around but I wanted to know what kind of player you think everyone would be? (i.e. who's the min maxer? Who gets super into RP? Who refuses to play, etc.)

ooooh this'll be fun

I've already done "what DnD class everyone would be" here, and "what kind of class would they play" here, but as for what kind of player they are:

Sebastian and Rory are nerds and have definitely played before, and would be up for playing again. Kana and Azalea haven't, but are willing to try.

Li and Seer it would depend on if Speaker had played before; if Speaker has, then Seer has, and so has Li if bff/crush background. Aquaintaince!Li hasn't either way. Seer would go along with it if it's what everyone else wants to do, but if she hasn't played before she'd be a little timid at first.

Bff/crush!Li likewise would go along with it, but I think it would take a lot of convincing for aquaintance!Li to play as an adult. They just don't know any of you well enough for that yet (unless you let them DM)

But assuming you can convince them to play, Li is the kind of player that thinks outside the box. They read all the rules so they know the best way to bend them. They're the type of player to make an axe machine gun character. or ask if an enemy counts as a "location" for spells like Conjure Water or Heat Wave.

Seer loves! to play! support classes! If you ever need a cleric, or a bard, or a support wizard or tank, she's your girl. Terrible at dealing damage, but can heal from hell to breakfast. Uses spells and items in ways not necessarily intended, but for good rather than for evil like Li.

Azalea loves to RP and is fantastic at it. Her characters are always interesting and poignant and she puts a lot of effort into tying them into the world. Makes everyone cry. Takes forever on her turn in combat because there's too many damn spells and she panics a little under pressure.

Kana, on the other hand, is a bit of a murderhobo. They do enough performing in their everyday life, so in DnD they just want a big sword and something to hit with it. Except for the occasional unexpectedly heartrending RP moment.

Rory's just here for a good time. They're good at fitting into whatever kind of story the party and DM want to tell, be that hack-and-slash or theatrical-improv-plus-math. Brings a silly character to a serious campaign and a serious character to a silly campaign; somehow makes it work.

Sebastian is a Forever DM. He doesn't get to be a player very often, because he's a really good storyteller and absolutely magnetic behind the DM screen. As a player, he always tries to make characters that challenge him in some way, be that in a roleplay or tactical way. Tries to be the "lone wolf, doesn't play well in a group" guy and keeps ending up the party leader anyway.

[thebrawlerina]

Hello! Hope youre having a nice dayy, may I request some Draco hcs from you?

:3

MASTER OF THE STARR PARK, RULER OF THE WORLD! SAY DRACO!

Draco HC's

Draco's start at the park was actually as a member of staff in the Ruined Castle Courtyard (Ash and Grom's arena). He was one of the staff members meant to give the various arena's and park attractions more life by playing as characters/people who lived there, and Draco's role was to play a pretend knight.

He often brought his guitar along with him to work so he can play on his breaks. One day, he played a bit too loud in a not so private area, and whoops now hes got an audience. Being himself, he just continued to play and began to adlib a song about the Ruined Castle Courtyard by taking his usual talking lines and making it a song.

The park goers absolutely loved that and upper management heard about this knight-bard. They saw a lot of potential in making him a brawler since he already amassed a bit of a fan base and promoted him to being a Brawler.

He was originally supposed to stay in the Ruined Castle Courtyard and be considered part of Ash and Grom's trio, until someone had the brilliant idea to incorporate his heavy mental affinity into another location of the park.

Because of this, the park now has new lore for these places. The Mad-Evil Manor, was the reason that the Ruined Castle Courtyard looks the way it does, thus creating a new story for fans to get invested into.

Draco is extremely extroverted. He always tries to find a way and a reason to hang out with people, even they don't have any big plans to do anything.

That being said, his favorite things to do with people is anything involving music or storytelling. He loves having little jam sessions or kareoke with people, and hes actually fond of slam poetry and of silly little writing exercises. DND will always top his favorites however.

Draco has been playing Dungeons and Dragons ever since he was a little kid. He loves playing through campaigns, but finds the most amount of joy in being the dungeon master and making other people go through plot shenanigans.

He tends to be a pretty merciful DM, unless you challenge or annoy him too much, in which case he will make your character suffer while keeping everyone else somewhat safe from the retribution.

He has plenty of characters but his favorite one is a blatant self-insert thats a Bard and Barbarian multiclass. A Bardbarian if you will.

Draco is a dice fiend and he has a LOT of fun and pretty dice. Since becoming a Brawler, hes been trying to see which ones in his collection matches his Brawler friends the most. IF he doesnt have one, he'd probably buy some more.

Yes he is trying to get an official Draco dice set to be sold in the shop. Hes having some problems convincing the managers that it would be a good merch item and in trying to pick the perfect color scheme to represent himself, but by god hes gonna do it.

Draco made his original Mad-Evil costume himself. But the higher ups want him to wear something that wouldn't fall off and break in battle so they made him some fancy proper clothes based on his design. He is very stoked about that.

Draco is very proud of his long hair and its very clean despite its messy appearance. He doesn't really know how to style it though, so thats why its all flowy and loose. The most amount of styling he does for it would probably just be tying it in a low ponytail so he can get it out of his face.

Draco has several notebooks filled with cool quotes, story ideas, and little scenes which hes collected over the years and plans to use in a new story.

He plans on writing a book. But like all writers he struggles to get his ideas on a page. Hes just way better at telling a story than writing it.

Draco is pretty friendly with Poco and they like to jam sometimes and learn about each others techniques. Draco is also willing too help pick up some of the slack on the many many performances Poco has to do, which he is grateful for.

Draco was a bit upset at first that he wouldn't be in the same group as Ash or Grom, but thinks that this new deal is way better. None of them have any beef with each other so its all good.

[waffleweirdo]

I finished tbf season 2! It was all around great, and I'd say overall it has been my favorite season by far!

All of the new characters were great, even if I do think Xiao Kuang Juan maybe overstayed his welcome a little bit.

Out of the new cast Lang Wu Yao and Xie Ying Luo were definitely the highlights. Lang is really cool, but also very interesting alongside Shang as his partner. Specifically their different beliefs in violence in service of the greater good. I can totally see how they'd get along and they have interesting differing opinions! Plus I'll be honest I'm a sucker for bard characters, seriously when Lang started singing the theme song it was just really cool.

Xie Ying Luo started off as a fairly simple villain, which there's nothing wrong with. Her plotting nature, and somewhat playful interactions with Shang made her enjoyable right off the bat, and in managing to steal part of the index she really proves herself as being a genuine threat. But what makes her really stand out is her overcoming the Seven Blasphemous Deaths and her search for purpose. I'm not even quite sure how to describe it, but her determination to defy it was just really impressive, and even if she was a villain her resolution with Shang felt really satisfying and was great.

Honestly I don't have a ton to say about Shang other than that he continues to be just so awesome because there are genuinely too many great moments! But the fact that he was so powerful he made crossing the wasteland of spirits easier for everyone on accident only causing himself more trouble is really funny. And my biggest takeaway from this season is his talk with Xie Ying Luo and his definition of strength. The idea that the strongest person out there is someone who can spare all their opponents and never be worried about them seeking revenge is just wonderful.

Lin Xue Ya was about the same for me this season. Getting to see his frenemies relationship with Shang cemented was nice, and seeing his usual antics is always fun (though its a bit funny that two times out of two he's sort of failed in the end when manipulating the villains, and seeing him pout is pretty funny).

The season as a whole really gave a greater focus on the sorcerous sword index which I thought was cool. Now that we've seen first hand the trouble it can cause the whole premise is really interesting to me. Essentially in a world filled with all the legendary swords and magical items that you hear about in stories there's just an insane amount of dangerous artifacts everywhere, and someone needs to make sure they don't destroy the world. Which I think is just really neat. This season did tone down the typical pulp adventure elements a bit, which I did admittedly miss at times, but overall I still really enjoy where the narrative went, and I'm excited for more!

[thecynicalcinephile]

So, About Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,

A solid well-written visual feast and overall entertaining romp through the world of the Forgotten Realms. I'd almost forgotten what it feels like to actually watch a good movie.

First of all, I'd like to note that this movie makes surprising use of practical effects. I was concerned that this would be some overly-CGed marvel-level schlock, but right off the bat we're presented with a completely practical dragonborn and aarakocra (bird person), and this continues throughout the whole movie, with everything from zombies to tabaxi (cat people). I loved every second of it.

Then there's the acting. It honestly just feels like everyone was having so much fun with their roles. It's almost like the writers and all the actors really were just a bunch of friends playing DnD together. Chris Pine particularly seems to embody his role, for the duration of the runtime he honestly becomes a bard.

The film also remains surprisingly faithful to the source material, frequently citing specific spells & abilities, in addition to locations, that would seem like deep cuts to anyone who doesn't play the game.

However, that does lead to my one immediate problem with the movie: they're so accurate in some places that it causes the areas where they take some liberties to stick out like a sore thumb. As a DnD player myself, let me say that druids cannot wildshape anywhere near that many times a day. Additionally, the Hither-Thither staff was somewhat frustrating, as that is an original invention of the film from what I can tell. With how many spells & magic items have been released over the years, I guarantee you they could've found something pre-existing that would work. More importantly though, the staff is ridiculously overpowered. I don't think it can be safely ported over into the game without running the risk of breaking absolutely everything for a variety of reasons. Overall though this is a minor complaint, especially since no one who doesn't play the game would ever notice.

And the end of the day, all I can say is definitely give this film a watch when you get the chance. It's exciting, delightful, and fun for the whole family, while still taking itself seriously and treating the audience with respect.

[selfproclaimedunicorn]

4, 16 and 21 for the tav questions!

Thank you, omg, somehow I did not anticipate one of these ��. Also I'm doing this for both my Tavs because I love Mardora & Guemarir equally

4: What would your Tav's romance scenes look like? How many would they have?

For Mardora, I think she'd have 4 if you picking her to spend time with at the Tiefling party counts? The first one/tiefling party would be pretty lowkey & sweet. Drinking together to celebrate & having a quick little kiss before Mardora sends Tav/Durge to bed because "we should make this choice with clearer heads;" the second one (also in Act 1) would be a "we have clear heads now" followup. Third scene is after you've unlocked some quest progression you can only do in Act 2/learned her backtory & Tav/Durge gets the option to be like "Mardora, you don't have to take care of me, let me take care of you this time" (save her from being a people pleaser, please). And then finally, in Act 3, there'd be a really sweet star gazing scene where she talks to Tav/Durge about dwarf stuff & reveals she's been calling them the sappiest, most intimate-&-reserved-for-life-partners pet-name in existence ever since hitting "excellent" opinion/reaching Act 3 (depending on when you hit scenes/vs approval)

Guemarir feels a little tougher to figure out because you are definitely, 100% able to flirt with him from moment 1. You meet that man & you are immediately able to tell him how pretty he is & how much you want to hit (because believe me bestie, he's doing the same). I think he'd have more than Mardora just by virtue of his own sluttery. Maybe 5? I do not know what is a normal amount of romance scenes because I've only finished Lae'zel's & I'm maybe only halfway done with Astarion's? This ain't about them though.

So I think Guemarir's tiefling party night would be him promising to stop being a tease & finally give Tav/Durge that dick after the party's died down & he's not entertaining people with his ✨️dulcet tones✨️ anymore. The second scene is about Guemarir having tiefling angst & daddy issues because by this point the refugees are on the way to Baldur's Gate & you've definitely encountered his dad, so he's having a rare moment of depth; Tav/Durge has the option to comfort him & give him a lil smooch, mayhaps cuddle by the fire at camp. Scene 3 is at the beginning of Act 2, & Guemarir apologizes for his moment of vulnerability "won't happen again, silly manwhore hours only from here on out," & Tav/Durge can talk him through not having to put on a persona with them because of sincere feelings. Guemarir is taken aback, but jazzed because this is new territory for him. Scene 4 is Guemarir trying very, very hard to take Tav/Durge on a "date" at camp; he made dinner, there's a tablecloth on a stump, he lit candles, he plays a love song on his lyre. It's very precious & he is doing his best to do sincere romance instead of "wham, bam, thank you ma'am/man." Last scene is in Act 3, Guemarir invites Tav/Durge to hang out with him & he has a really sweet talk with them about being grateful for them giving him the opportunity to have a romantic relationship instead of just a bunch of random hookups, Guemarir & Tav/Durge can fuck at the end of this scene, though.

16: What do they do for fun when not adventuring? What are their hobbies?

Mardora is a huge book worm, she reads a lot when not adventuring. Maybe not as much reading as Gale, but enough to discuss books with everyone's favorite magic item eating wizard to a pretty satisfying capacity on his end. She also keeps a very meticulous journal, & she knows how to make jewelry. She's not good at it, but she can do it, & being able to do something even kinda rudimentary with metal is a source of pride for her because Dwarf.

Guemarir's whole thing is being a wandering bard (and slut), so he's mostly just playing music. I feel like he's dabbled in poetry & writing his own compositions, but never in any kind of serious way he likes showing to people. He also knows a lot about tea & is a pretty decent cook!

21: Describe a defining moment from their past which makes them who they are today!

When Mardora was the dwarf equivalent to, like, 10, she got separated from her mom while they were out-and-about, & it was a priest of Moradin who calmed little Mardora down & helped her. That plus getting the virtues of the dwarffather & of helping others in a personal, one-on-one way while looking for her mom left a big impression & very much laid the foundations for a lot of later events that turned her into the Mom Friend Ultimate Good Guy she is by the start of the game.

13-year-old Guemarir was forever altered when he met his dad for the first time & found out he's the son of his mom's patron. Until then he just kind of...had not questioned why a half-elf's kids were tieflings? He probably had some theories about a tiefling baby daddy, but learning him & his 2 siblings are fully a demon's kids & that he's got boocoo half siblings left an impression. Especially since his dad is just, like, really invested in having a lot of (his own) kids at his disposal "if he needs them." That whole thing just really made him...kinda judgemental & gave him some very, very hard stances on making deals with devils.

[nailsofvecna]

I feel like you'd have some interesting oppinions on this.

What do you think of spells having "prerequisites" to learn, and I mean besides being of the appropriate spell level and class. Like maybe you need to know "spell a" before you can learn "spell b", or something like that?

It's a good question. Narratively it makes sense, right - it'd be like real life where you have to know about certain concepts before you can understand ones that are built on top of them. And we already have rules to say you can't craft certain magic items unless you know the spells contained in them.

I think it's an idea that could work well, but the system would have to be designed to accomodate it. Assuming we're talking about 5th edition D&D, I think it runs into a couple of issues, which I'll explore below the cut.

Not to mention that it wouldn't work at all for clerics, druids or paladins.

I feel like there's a pretty high risk that this would act as a tax where you have to take spells you don't want in order to take ones that you do, which doesn't really serve any gameplay purpose and wouldn't be fun for players. Espeically considering that wizards can know basically as many spells as they want, while all other known-spell casters are already hard pressed for making their choices count. So it's not even a fair tax.

A key issue for me is that 5e lets you boost spells by casting from a higher level slot. That means there aren't any spells that are just direct upgrades of lower-level ones any more. The core rules only have a handful of 'spell Bs' that would warrant a prerequisite. Granted, quite a few of my own homebrew spells are just modified versions of canonical spells, but I don't think it adds much to them to say "you can't learn this unless you already know the vanilla version".

And again, most of the obvious candidates for needing a prerequisite are cleric spells (lesser restoration -> greater restoration, revivify -> raise dead -> resurrection -> true resurrection, cure wounds -> mass cure wounds).

The flavour we've been given about how spells are learned somewhat alleviates the lack of realism, too (i.e. "how can you know delayed blast fireball if you don't know how to cast a regular fireball?"). Wizards learn spells by rote by studying books and scrolls, with each spell's mechanics being essentially sui generis. Bards pick up secret tricks here and there on their travels and don't really know how their spells 'work'. Warlocks are directly gifted their spells by their patrons and also don't usually know how their spells work. In all of those cases, there's a built-in explanation for why you know the spells you know, which doesn't depend on knowing simpler versions. Meanwhile I don't think the ranger list has a single spell that would logically need a prerequisite.

That does leave sorcerers. It's harder to wave away the above delayed blast fireball question for a sorcerer. Plus you could say that any spell cast with metamagic is actually a different spell, so they're already kind of doing the whole 'know spell A in order to be able to cast other spells' thing. Unfortunately, sorcerer is the class that's hurting the most for spells known, so it'd be unfair to tell a player they can't learn a spell because they don't have it's prerequisite. I guess you could imagine that they did know how to cast the prerequisite spell, but just forgot it because they weren't using it any more? They can replace spells on level up, after all.

One thing I have done in the past as a DM is require a character to know a spell A in order to create their own custom spells (which I've then let them have without it taking up a 'spells known' slot). For example, I required Astra's player to learn haste before she was able to forumlate Astra's instant antique. I'd say something like that is reasonable and can lead to fun interactions, without running into the problems I've discussed above.

[grasslandgirl]

also wanted to say that I LOVELOVELOVE the outfit inspo oh my goodness! the beautiful range of everything on adaine's board is soooo. mwah. flowy dresses....shiny cloaks....useful leather belts....flowy pirate shirts and big boots...love it. also so delightful to see the costume screenshots from galavant and peaky blinders on fabian/gorgug and riz's boards respectively. legendary. okay question: Do You Have A Favorite Outfit That Comes Up In The Fic. if it's not spoilery. (or even if it IS spoilery.)

THANK YOUUUUU I had a lot of fun with them !!! I used Shuffles (which is a sister app to Pinterest, for those interest) to make them like digital collages and it was fun to dig thru so many varying eras of costume inspo to find stuff that suited the Vision <3

hmmmm favorite outfit. honestly despite having made fashion inspo boards for the main characters I don't have like. concrete visions for most characters' outfits ?? I put adaine in a fancy dress like. twice (three if you count the wedding dress she only wore briefly) (teehee) and those were fun to describe but. idk. I guess I don't put a lot of focus in my scene setting on outfits/fashion <//333 I think its bc I don't usually have a clear vision in my head and therefore it doesn't occur to me to describe beyond that which is like. immediately relevant (oh its cold I'm putting on a sweater. oh I am pulling on my Boots for Walking oh I have a cloak on to hide my face. etc etc) that said I do love pirate bard fig. shes so <3333 if theres anyone I have a clear mind vision outfit for its probably fig just bc I love her and I think pirate bard fig is suchhh a fun vibe

OOHH this is not technically an outfit but !!! adaine does have a necklace that was given to her as a birthday gift from fabian and gorgug that is a silver necklace w a charm that has three intersecting circles.... :)) yk..... and I think that's really lovely and fun and adaine like. fiddles with and holds it a lot as like a comfort item shes always wearing <3

[thisbelongsto-nohbodys]

Azura’s grandparents’ opinions on the calamity siblings?

Camila:

Likes the calamity siblings since their chaotic nature reminds her of Luz when she was their age. She does approve of Azura x Lily after meeting Lily ("Oh, so this is the Lily girl you were talking about?" "*smugly to Azura* You talk about me?" "*deadpan anger* I complain about you").

Eda:

the siblings' chaotic nature reminds her of herself when she was their age and as such she taught them whatever she could get away with in terms of crime, like pickpocketing. She is a bit annoyed when Maddi asks a bunch of questions (the little one only wants to learn everything she can about these strange new people and world)

Raine:

Just like Eda, Raine sees younger versions of Eda in the siblings (both a good and bad thing in their opinion). They teach Percy a few Bard songs and even gifted him with an instrument. Maddi loves playing with Raine's fox palisman. Lily however Raine is very much a "don't break my granddaughter's heart or you'll answer to me" when it comes to Lily.

Alador:

He hasn't met them too many times but when he did he enjoyed their company, just like his other grandkids. He is very interested in how they were made after hearing about their lineage and that science was used, since he didn't know humans had that type of tech. He and Maddi get into a loop of "what's this?" "*explains*" "neat...what's this?" "*explains*". Lily likes to test out Alador's latest Abomiton experiments and he is surprised by her endurance, tho' he is confused by her since "This can't be the same 'Lily' girl that my granddaughter was complaining about. She hates that 'Lily'".

Odalia:

Azura makes sure that the siblings don't encounter grandma Odalia but they did and she was very interested in that 3 strange humans have items from another world than Earth and the Isles (Lily's sword and shield, Percy's instrument and Maddi's books about Amphibia). She's tried to tell her how to get to this new world so that she can "open up business relations with them"

[borom1r]

saw your essays about the rohirrim as a culture centered around their ancestors/the dead and wondered what your thoughts are about eomer loaning the horses of their fallen to aragorn, legolas and gimli in that one scene considering the horses of fallen riders would most likely traditionally have a lot of significance? (idk if the way i framed this question makes sense lol)

YE ok short answer: i think it was the best option considering the circumstances

long answer: this opens a lot of fun doorways actually and i've been meaning to touch on Horse Significance for a while skjdfhksjd SO.

th first thing that i think really needs to be tackled is the difference between horses and Mearas. bc Hasufel and Arod are both explicitly regular ass horses— which makes sense! Mearas would only let Kings or Princes of the Mark ride them (and also Gandalf and Aragorn sjkdfhksjd) according to The Canon Lore. but anyways Mearas are explicitly a distinct race of horses who are Exceptional. The Best Of The Best! Mearas are not going to be sacrificed or gifted to anyone, least of all someone who is NOT Rohirric.

(again Mearas lore is not. the most defined, so i tend to interpret it as Mearas choose their riders. Shadowfax chose Gandalf and Brego, after Théodred's death, chose Aragorn. prior to that, Mearas only chose riders within the line of kings)

having established that Hasufel and Arod are Just Plain Horses, quite honestly I'm not surprised Éomer gifted them! considering his circumstances, there's no way for him to get them safely back to Meduseld and he's technically exiled from. The Entirety of Rohan so he also can't really stop and chill in one place. his best bet is to keep moving with his Éored and hunt as many Orcs as possible without attracting too much attention.

quite honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if the plan prior to the three hunters showing up was sacrificing the horses

and this gets into like. grave rites and cultural beliefs around the dead and the multi-part soul again but we really don't see much of Théodred's funeral. we see him carried into the barrow and that's it— we don't see any of the preparation or any grave goods that might be in there. extrapolating from iron-age Norse culture, it was veeeeeeeeery common for horses to be sacrificed for noble burials, especially since horses were especially sacred to Óðinn who was most widely worshipped by nobility (Óðinn's horse, Sleipnir, was also said to be able to cross the boundaries between life and death and was sometimes loaned to other gods when they needed to travel to Helheim— something of note when considering horses and death here)

all this to say, I would expect to find a sacrificial horse in Théodred's barrow, along with more weapons, hunting dogs or falcons, his barding for Brego, and any other significant items. the soul doesn't simply vanish in death, and the physical body, the Lik, is part of the soul— you also wouldn't separate a rider from his horse. now, obviously you'd never sacrifice a Mearas, so Brego is off the list, but another riderless horse could very easily be killed so that Théodred's soul would have a steed on the other side.

pivoting back to Hasufel and Arod, obviously common Rohirrim aren't gonna be left in barrows, least of all when they're following Éomer into exile. Gárulf and whoever the hell rode Arod were most likely burned. this practice of burning would hold true for most common Rohirrim anyways— the dead would generally be buried for a week or two, then dug up and burned (or "graverobbers" would pillage the grave goods and return them to the family, so valuable weapons/tools weren't lost. you can't exactly afford to lose your best sword when you're broke). the Lik is kind of the glue that holds the soul together, in my interpretation— it's the vessel; too much of the soul hanging around in one place is how you wind up with restless dead, draugr.

so, you've got two burned bodies and two horses with no riders who 1) don't have the living significance of Mearas and 2) are only going to be a burden on the living. had the three hunters not shown up, and had they found no way to house the horses safely, again— I would expect they would have been sacrificed. that way their souls might join their owners' and they might take the road to the afterlife together. (and this would be more of a practice for Riders in the capital-R sense, alongside nobility, not your everyday Rohirric farmer)

since the bodies of their owners had already (presumably) been burned and Éomer and his men are exiled, gifting Hasufel and Arod was, again, the best option available. especially since Aragorn had named himself a friend of Théoden (and a hunter of Uruk-Hai) — and even if they had been brought back to Meduseld, considering what we know of old Norse burial culture and how closely Rohirric culture aligns, I would not have been particularly surprised if Hasufel or Arod had wound up sacrificed anyways

on the flip side, had it been the HORSES who died in battle and not their riders, I would expect that their bodies would have been honored as warriors and they would have been burned alongside any men. with the multi-part soul, you have the Fylgja, a sort of guardian spirit that takes the form of an animal— for Rohirric culture in my own writings, I've extrapolated that as a shared part of the soul between steed and rider, a way of explaining the bond that forms between a Rider and their warhorse. as such, a horse who died in battle would be so honored with the explicit hope that their soul might return as the Fylgja of their Rider's child

(you also get into fun stories like þorsteinn Ox-foot who'd been raised apart from his birth family, and was identified when his granfather Saw his Fylgja and recognized it as related to þorsteinn's true family— a Rider's Fylgja therefore might take the shape of their own steed, but have some distinct marking shared by their bloodline, making them identifiable to those who can see Fylgjur. there's also the idea that Fylgjur can serve as portents of somebody's death; if your Fylgja is a goat and you see a dead goat that nobody else can see, well...... <- if you see your horse, dead, but nobody else can see it.......)

i hope this like. Made Sense???? but yea Mearas would not be touched ceremonially but regular ass horses are open to sacrifice and I think once the Fylgja-connection is severed there's no issue at all w/ Hasufel and Arod being gifted to others. very uncommon for those Others to be non-Rohirrim, but strange times and all that

[alfiely-art]

Does anybody wanna hear about my minimum wage employee skeleton oc

Good I'm gonna talk about him !

His name is Sam and he works in retail, nuclear war happened and he ended up becoming a living skeleton. His boss became a mutant monster thing, still insists that Sam works at the store. He can't take a break because all his coworkers are spread out to other stores (the ones who lived, anyway,) but on the bright side most of the population is dead so he doesn't get very many customers. He makes references to Sans Undertale. He's probably high on weed most the time. He went to college to become an artist but it didn't work out

The Mc meets him by walking into a seemingly abandoned shop to ransack it, he goes "hi welcome to Thrifties how can I help you", spooking the protagonist. They draw a sword on him and he goes "Hey. Please don't attack me, my benefits don't cover being attacked by warriors. Wait, do I even have benefits in an apocalyptic wasteland..."

You get a quest to work part time at the store and eventually get a quest to kill his boss so he can leave that store for once. Once you do he joins your party and he's basically a bard. His weapon after joining your party.... is various retail items. Like he chucks a register at monsters. Scans em with a scanner (checking stats). Eats a twinkie to heal

Oh and he looks like this

[utilitycaster]

i really enjoy your opinions on different builds! build-wise, do you have a favorite character for each campaign? (simply build-wise, so i suppose the question would be better phrased as "favorite build per campaign")

Hi anon!

Campaign 1 is hard simply because between the cast learning the system and there not being a huge number of options, most of the builds were pretty simple. Percy, Pike, and Keyleth don't really have many build choices at all - they're all good builds, and the players played them well, but it's pretty much as simple as "this is my class and subclass ok done" because Pike and Keyleth are both prepared casters. Grog taking fighter levels is solid but fairly straightforward. Vax gets points for narrative integration but it was so item-dependent and base assassin rogue is so weak. I am torn between Vex and Scanlan and I think I'm calling a tie, which I also am going to do for C3:

Vex makes the most out of a limited base subclass, and the observant feat is an excellent touch. The choices she made for terrain and enemies were well-integrated into her story, as was her choice to multiclass into rogue (assassin rogue as a multiclass for a dex-based combat class is a different story than for base class). Her spell list was solid to the point that she was a strong secondary healer, unusual for a ranger.

Scanlan had a good spread of feats (warcaster and tough) but what puts him here is that he was often the only full caster in a position to cast on the field, since Keyleth was frequently wildshaped and Pike absent. This is incredibly hard for a bard, and his spell list was an extremely good one that had to straddle healing and arcane utility all at once, and he did an admirable job.

Campaign 2 is Fjord; this has been discussed extensively, feel free to check my archives.

Campaign 3 is tough but I'm going for a tie between our Crownkeeper members, Fearne and Orym:

Fearne's level of rogue, while it initially made me take a sidelong glance, is why she rolled that 30 on persuasion this episode, and also is a very true choice to her character. A lot of the rest is, to be honest, the fact that her subclass is one of the best out there, but I've found her spell choices to generally be very well done, she's adapted to the divine damager role (honorable mention to Laura for doing this adeptly with Jester in C2 once Cad showed up), and I have to applaud taking ASIs instead of feats when appropriate. Her stat configuration also makes perfect sense for the character.

Orym as a fighter is strong out the gate but his choices of battlemaster moves make perfect sense for the role he played and are very useful in a party with two glass cannons but also two damage reduction tanks; it's good to have a dodge tank in the mix. His feats are focused on rounding out his skills and his optimized perception is truly ridiculous.

[d-saster-chron-cles-1986]

OC Deep Dive Questions - Duskwalker edition!

I'll put them under a cut to avoid eating the dashboard. I'm also going to tag @dude-wheres-my-ankheg , @elf-ranger , and anyone else who has a character they would like to post about. All are welcome!

[It can even be a character from another fandom, if not BG3!]

Also... Thank you @hippotooth for tagging me for this!

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What common/uncommon fear do they have?

Haryk's greatest fear is of being left alone and being completely forgotten. At the young age of fifteen, Hqryk lost his mother to an incurable illness. His father, torn apart by grief and unable to look Haryk in the eye, decided to cast him out. Before the tadpole, Haryk had been living alone for thirty-five years. [He will tolerate a lot of shit as long as it means he doesn't have to be alone.]

Do they have any pet peeves?

It takes a lot to irritate Haryk, but if he's going to be irritated it's going to be directed at anyone whose actions don't match their words. Don't promise Haryk you'll do something and then do the opposite. He won't be happy, and you might just take an arrow to the knee.

What are 3 items you can find in their bedroom?

Some pleasant smelling incense. Furs for extra warmth during the colder winter months. A keepsake box containing all of the little trinkets and treasures that belonged to his mother. [She gave them to him for safekeeping a few days before she died.]

What do they notice first in a person?

Eyes - especially if they are an unusual or exotic color. He also tends to notice when someone is making eye contact or avoiding his gaze. If someone won't even look at him when talking to him, it's a good way to tell if they are being evasive or worse... lying.

On a scale from 1-10, how high is their pain tolerance?

Haryk's pain tolerance clocks in at anywhere between five and eight. It depends largely on how tired he is. If he's run down and exhausted, there's a good chance that he won't be able to focus on what he's doing, and he'll notice the pain of his injuries more.

Do they go into fight or flight mode when under pressure?

Flight first, to gain some strategic distance. Once he's at range and has found himself some cover, he'll turn around and start to let arrows fly. He is frighteningly accurate, and rarely misses his mark.

Do they come from a big family/are they a family person?

Haryk isn't from a big family. He only ever knew who his parents were. Then, after his mother died and he was cast out, he stopped looking for the other members of his family. His father had left him feeling so unwanted and so unwelcome that he ran.

What animal represents them best?

A hawk or other bird of prey. No one sees him coming in a combat situation until it is far too late and he is already on top of them.

What is a smell they dislike?

The city in general, but it's because there are so many smells there that are off putting. He especially hates the stink of the sewers.

Have they broken any bones?

Haryk has been fortunate in that he has never broken a bone, or even lost a tooth, in his life. He's 100% intact, and has all of his parts.

How would a stranger likely describe them?

Quiet and a bit of a lonely soul, but a good listener. Haryk might not talk much, but he is always willing to lend his ear to someone in need.

Are they a night owl, or morning bird?

A night owl. He got his new surname, Duskwalker, from the fact that he would hunt for his food at night instead of during the day.

What’s a flavor they hate and a flavor they love?

Haryk isn't a fan of pork. He'll eat it if he's at risk of starving to death or there is nothing else around, but for the most part he thinks it's too fatty and greasy tasting. He would rather bite into a nice, crisp apple.

Do they have any hobbies?

Haryk is shy about it, but when no one else is around he likes to sing, He's by no means a bard, but he can carry a tune rather well. He's also good at trapping rabbits for camp supplies, and has a decent knowledge of which wild plants and animals are the best to eat.

Boom, surprise birthday party! How do they react to surprise?

Haryk's not a big fan of surprises, so he might be startled at first. Once he recovers, however, he will relax.

Do they like to wear jewelery?

He has a series of silver hoops in each ear, and that's it.

Do they have neat or messy handwriting?

Haryk's mother tried to teach him to write in a nicer way, but even with her best efforts his writing remains an unreadable scrawl.

What are the two emotions they feel the most?

Loneliness and shame

Do they have a favourite fabric?

No favorite, really. Haryk will wear most anything that is inexpensive, durable, and long lasting, He doesn't have the funds for the expensive things like silk, velvet and satin. [Frankly, they'd look out of place.][

What kind of accent do they have?

For the most part it's the standard in game accent, but when he speaks his native elvish, his accent switches over to a more fluid one.

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