#they may not have a ranger but four of them have ranged weapons

[gods-favorite-autistic]

Need a tshirt that just says “counterspell this bitch” with either Fig Adaine or Riz holding their guns

[monstersdownthepath]

Herald of Milani: Courage Heart

CR 15

Chaotic Good Medium Outsider

Adventure Path: Reign of Winter: The Shackled Hut, pg. 84-85

The baby of the bunch among the Heralds, Courage Heart here also has the dubious honor of serving the youngest of the gods we've seen thus far, with Milani becoming a full-powered deity only a century ago with the death of Aroden, for whom she formerly served as a saint. Courage Heart is even younger, being only a few decades old, having perished as a mortal in the upheavals of Galt, only to have her soul rescued by Milani and transformed into a being of divine freedom. She is so young that she still has immediate mortal family, as in brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, parents... but she refuses to ever see them if she can help it, and has cast aside her past name in favor of her divine title so that no connections can be made between her and her family. Not out of shame, or pride, or hatred, but because Galt isn't a very nice place to live, and if anyone ever found out who her mortal family is, that's a weak point that could be exploited.

She still remembers being mortal and will sometimes return in the guise of one to avoid suspicion from fiendish onlookers, taking on the shape and abilities of a Ranger of 4th or higher level, staying only long enough to fulfill whatever mission she saw fit to accomplish before departing, never revealing her divine form or purpose until she's safely back in Elysium. She never stays long enough to form attachments and purposely hardens herself against any attempts to know her, not wishing to put any allies (or potential friends) through the grief of watching a beloved companion vanish without a trace. One must imagine it a terribly lonely existence, but at least she has the benefit of friends she's made in Elysium waiting for her between missions.

Despite her appearance preceding Inner Sea Gods by a full year, Courage Heart really benefits from the two-page spread she's afforded in the book. Compared to the rest of the Heralds who have their stats, art, and lore crammed onto single pages with no room to breathe or stretch, CH has a fully realized lore block, beautiful art, and a statblock that puts an enormous number of other Heralds to shame despite being younger and, thus, much less experienced than any of them. There's a few Heralds who punch above their weight class, and CH is one of them. Let's see just what that looks like...

Almost immediately, one's eyes are drawn to CH's weapon of choice: A +3 Anarchic Morningstar, a weapon a full +1 tougher than any other Herald's. Her attacks are both highly accurate (+29 to the first hit, +14 on the last) and powerful, dealing 1d8+11 damage (+2d6 vs Lawful targets) up to four times a round, or 2d8+11 once via Vital Strike if she can't make a Full-Attack... though if you stay out of her melee range, she may instead decide to swap to her even more intimidating ranged option.

Oh yes, from a distance, her silly little rose may not seem all that impressive as a weapon, but anyone who knows anything about Milani knows just how dangerous a rose can be in the hands of her believers (that link to her article above? scroll down a bit until you read what she does to Wall of Thorns). Indeed, CH's Bloody Rose is not just a token she can hand out, but a shockingly potent weapon: A +1 Anarchic Dart, meaning it deals 1d4+9 damage on a hit (+2d6 vs Lawful) and it can hit up to four times a round, as CH can conjure as many as she wishes as a free action. While seemingly less damaging and less accurate than her melee morningstar at first, she has two to back it up: Point-Blank Shot and Rapid Shot, the first adding +1 to attack and damage rolls vs nearby creatures, and the latter giving her an extra attack if she Full-Attacks with her dart... And ALL of her weapon attacks benefit from her Favored Enemy ability, to which she has +8 vs Lawful Outsiders, +6 vs Evil Outsiders, +4 vs Undead, and +2 vs Humans giving her even more damage than she first appears to have when opposing tyrants and fiends.

Her dart isn't her only ranged option, just the only one that can critically strike: she's also got both Chaos Hammer and Holy Smite at-will to deal a burst of damage to multiple Lawful or Evil targets... but her true power lays not in what she can do on her own, but what she adds to an ongoing rebellion. As servant to the goddess of uprisings, Courage Heart gives hope to the hopeless and bolsters them with the strength to fight back against their oppressors; allied soldiers will feel the most benefit from CH's presence, but even peasants and commoners will feel new strength welling up inside them.

CH's Rebellious Aura quite literally gives hope to the hopeless, granting every ally within 60ft a +4 to saves versus fear effects and a permanent, undispellable Good Hope effect, granting a +2 to every d20 roll and weapon damage roll they make until they're no longer in the aura. In addition, her spell-like abilities benefit others far more than they benefit her, as she can grant Darkvision out despite having it herself, Magic Vestments and Magic Weapon when she already has fully magical equipment, and Protection From Arrows when she's already got the Deflect Arrow feat. All of the mentioned spell-likes can be cast 3/day, and they're not nearly all she can do to aid an ongoing cause; if she can help it, no one will die in her care. She does have Cure Moderate Wounds 3/day, but that pales in comparison to her Martyr's Blood, granting her the power to lower her own Fast Healing 10 by 1 to grant Fast Healing 1 to an ally for an hour, meaning the target regains 600 HP over the course of that hour, one round at a time. There's no limit to how many times she can grant someone her blood, just that she's restricted to only marking 10 targets at a time (lowering her own healing to 0/round for an hour), basically allowing her allies infinite out-of-combat healing. If you can't kill someone under her protection, they'll be back on their feet at full health an hour later.

But a true uprising isn't built on defenses alone, her fellow freedom fighters must be ready to take up arms when needed. Not everyone in her makeshift militia will have proper weapons, but whatever they grab off the ground will serve as a fine weapon thanks to her 3/day Peasant Armaments, a spell unique to Milani followers which allows anyone nearby using an improvised weapon to A) do so without penalty, and B) treat them as their closest equivalent simple weapon. The spell amusingly states that even a butterknife or broken chair leg can be treated as a dagger and a club (respective) while under the effects of this spell, letting a group of peasants fight back against trained soldiers with planks torn from the ground, tree branches, silverware, and furniture. With Magic Vestments and Magic Weapon being handed out, even people in scavenged armor can have a better chance at surviving long enough to escape a tyrant's grasp. Anyone who cannot or will not fight can be shrouded by her 1/day Mass Invisibility to sneak around what cannot be fought.

Also, when I say 'handed out' in regards to her magic, I mean it literally. CH can't be everywhere at once, but she can freely use Imbue With Power to grant anyone she touches the ability to cast one of her 3/day spells, expending one of her uses but allowing the target to cast it themselves at a later time. She can hand out quite the lengthy list: Cure Moderate Wounds, Magic Weapon, Peasant Armaments, Protection From Arrows, Shield Other, and Status! With the power to divide the workload between herself and her allies, it leaves her hands free to go on the offense while other people 'holding' her magic for her can get it to the ones in need, removing any potential for her enemies to try and split her focus. About the only one she might want to keep for herself is Shield Other, as it allows her to take damage meant for a chosen champion, with that damage crashing into her long list of defenses: DR 10/Lawful, and 20 Resistance to Acid, Cold, Electricity, and Fire. With Fast Healing 10 ticking her up each round, she's an excellent Shield Other battery, and even beyond all this she STILL has more tricks!

She can use Tactician to grant all allies within 30ft of her the use of her Outflank, Lookout, and Swap Places feats for 11 rounds, giving them additional DPS, initiative, and maneuverability in a single action. All the while, her allies are benefiting from her long list of buffs, both active and passive. Were it not for the shackles of divine law requiring her to operate in secrecy, there's little doubt in my mind that Courage Heart would actually whip Galt into proper shape in a matter of weeks, if not days... were it not for some factors assuring that her homeland remains in its tumultuous state. But who's to say those factors wouldn't allow CH to shed her disguise and fight at full power? Perhaps, over the course of a specific module, the players see fit to call the Herald of Freedom back to her homeland to finally free it from the parasites that have been ruining it...?

You can read more about her here.

[lukedanger]

6, 9, 11, and 23 for the WOTR mechanics asks?

For Elaina:

6: What about their skills - what story is told by their skill and feat selection, or was it pure gameplay?

Between 14 INT, being human, and Fast Learner, Elaina had a full spread on Persuasion (her primary skill) and both Lore and Knowledge skills, with (Mythic) Skill Focus in Persuasion. She had a formal education in rhetoric, particularly as part of the Order of Heralds where she used it to challenge overzealous Inquisitors or to help get the minor orders working together. While not a full time scholar, she was extremely well read thanks to her upbringing and education at the abbey, which served to inform the rhetoric she used.

In terms of feats, Elaina going down Dazzling Display, Cornugon Smash, and Shatter Defenses was meant to build on her high CHA and Persuasion during combat. Story wise I see it as where she dips into the ‘Angel of Retribution’ branch of the Angel mythic path, putting the fear of Iomedae into those Abyssal bullies. The rest of her feat distribution I did not have a specific story behind, other than playing on her being in more of a supporting role such as Extend Spell to pair with the angel spellbook or Selective Channel later on to lean into Holy Champion maximizing CPE.

9: How does their Background choice reflect their character, and how does it play into their build?

Healer was more or less why Elaina’s archetype was Hospitaller instead of the standard Paladin or Divine Scion. Build wise, it was also so that she could add her INT bonus to Lore skills rather than using her average WIS. This being bundled under ‘Oblate’ also gave me the idea of her being raised at an Iomedean abbey.

11: How does their mythic path synergize with their build?

Angel naturally synced up well with being a paladin, as it gave Elaina a wider pool of defensive spells to cast on the party (particularly once the communal wards unlock), and Sword of Heaven stacks with Weapon Bond. By the end game, between both Elaina may not be using fancy techniques but when her sword connects it hits hard.

Bolt/Storm of Justice was flashy, devastating (especially with a maximize rod), and also just super fun to use, but ultimately didn’t really sync up with the way she fights.

23: What units did they pick in the Military Council (Infantry, Archers, Cavalry, Spellcasters, Grand Tier), and why?

Infantry - Conscripts. The idea was that they reflected the pragmatic reality of Mendev and the Fifth Crusade’s situation: this is an existential war that has gone on for nearly a century, and the rest of Avistan is (mostly) using the Crusades as a dumping ground for undesirables. Mendev can’t afford to turn those recruits away, especially now that they’re on the offensive and need more bodies to cover more ground.

Mechanically, they also are just absurdly over-tuned: four times the HP of Champions and twice that of Spearmen, only one less AC than Shieldbearers, and only a third/half the infirmary space of those two. For infantry they give really good bang for your finance points without instantly filling your infirmary when something glares angrily at them.

Archers - Marksmen. While conscripts were needed for numbers, with ranged troops vetting quality would pay more dividends as using warbows requires strength and training. Peasants with self-bows or slings would just not do the necessary damage to hurt demons past dretches or babaus. Besides, anyone who wanted to be an archer but couldn’t could be funneled into the infantry afterwards. Rangers were also a viable option, but those specialists were needed for scouting, screening, and skirmishing rather than pitched engagements. Thus, Marksmen.

If Odan had suggested crossbowmen instead of slingers (which would have actually fit the argument he presents), those probably would have been picked on similar grounds to Conscripts. Crossbows compensate for all the issues of using a warbow without training, even if they still need some.

Cavalry - Paladins. It’s not an Iomedean campaign without these righteous warriors and their sheer survivability. Their job of course was to directly engage the nastiest demons and keep them off of the bulk troops, being uniquely equipped for both jobs between Smite Evil and Lay on Hands.

Spellcasters - War Priests. Mechanically, spellcasting tanks that can also heal much like paladins, drawing damage towards a unit that can take it. Story wise, the idea was that they would support the bulk infantry and help them through alive with divine magic.

Also, it felt like a natural evolution of recruiting Priests as “mercenary” units in the first half of the game.

Grand Tier - Dragonslayers. In this case, it was looking to ensure they had specialists who could bring down large demons that were being deployed increasingly often as they closed on Threshold, and to have them as instructors for training troops. The Knights of Ozem would fill many of these roles as well, but they both have their duties in Lastwall and by this point the demons’ undead forces like their ghouls have been eradicated.

[Link to Ask List]

[archive-of-the-guild]

SO!

Dragon's Dogma 2 first impressions!

So far? Pretty decent! The graphics are pretty good, more detail than the last one. The first pawn from the last game, Rook, has made a return so that was cool XD! Poor guy looks like he's been through the ringer though lmaoo. Things seem just a little hand-holdy for what the game wants you to do which i'm hoping levels out after a while. Like it has a direction and it's doing it's best to have you follow it through the npc's.

The combat seems a little clunky to me. not as responsive as the first game and they did change a few things up with how the button layout and overall feel of it works. Not an initial fan but i'll get used to it and figure it out. The also split up the ranger into the Archer and Thief vocations. Not a big fan of that tbh because if you like archery like i do, now you don't have a close range weapon to defend yourself. Besides the initial four vocations, i haven't come across any others yet. The first game had hybrid Vocations and i'm hoping that's still here.

On another note, I MESSED UP WITH MY PAWN!!! Not too terribly but she sounds like a too-peppy know-it-all that honestly makes me giggle a bit XD. I might rework her later but for now, i'll deal! Raza looks amazing! I can probably get a few icons of her with the 2.3 hours i have but i'm hoping for at least one more cutscene before i do.

The pawns have also been talking about ladders but i couldn't actually find them.... I may just be blind though so that may require more testing before i call it a bug.

[mainsfunds]

League spear girl

League spear girl skin#

League spear girl skin#

In Legends of Runeterra, Kai'Sa is a 5-mana 4/4 Shurima Champion with Quick Attack and Evolve who creates a Second Skin (a 0-mana Fleeting Slow spell that grants all positive keywords on an allied unit to all your copies of Kai'Sa) when summoned and whenever you gain the attack token. Kai'Sa also fires an additional missile for every basic attack she made that round. Her ability was changed to Icathian Monsoon, which has Kai'Sa dash to the furthest hex from all enemies, then fires a number of missiles based on her star level that each deals magic damage spread evenly across all enemies. She was removed alongside the other Valkyrie champions in the Return to the Stars mid-set update, returning in season 6 with her base skin as a Tier 5 Mutant Challenger. With her Missile Rain ability, she fires a number of missiles based on her star level at every enemy within 2 hexes that each deal 50 magic damage. She returns in season 3 using her Bullet Angel Kai'Sa skin as a 2 cost Valkyrie Infiltrator. Her ability, Killer Instinct, causes her to dash to the farthest enemy champion, gaining damage-absorbing shield and attack speed buff. In season 1 of Teamfight Tactics, Kai'Sa is a Tier 5 Void unit with Assassin and Ranger classes. Kai'Sa's alternate skins include Bullet Angel Kai'Sa, K/DA Kai'Sa, Prestige K/DA Kai'Sa, Invictus Gaming Kai'Sa, Arcade Kai'Sa, K/DA All Out Kai'Sa, Lagoon Dragon Kai'Sa, and Star Guardian Kai'Sa. With her ultimate ability, Killer Instinct, Kai'Sa quickly dashes to a target location close to an enemy champion marked or recently damaged by her Plasma, gaining a shield upon arrival.Once Kai'Sa gains enough attack speed, Living Weapon upgrades Supercharge to make Kai'Sa invisible while charging. Basic attacks reduce the cooldown of the ability. Once the charge ends, Kai'Sa gains significantly increased attack speed for a few seconds. With her third ability, Supercharge, Kai'Sa briefly charges-up power, gaining a short burst of movement speed but losing the ability to attack while charging.Once Kai'Sa gains enough ability power, Living Weapon upgrades Void Seeker to apply three Plasma stacks and refresh most of its cooldown if it hits a champion. Her second ability, Void Seeker, fires a long-range blast in a target direction that damages, reveals and applies two Plasma stacks to the first enemy it hits.Once Kai'Sa gains enough attack damage, Living Weapon upgrades Icathian Rain to fire twice as many missiles. Her first ability, Icathian Rain, releases a salvo of void missiles that automatically target nearby enemies, dealing damage that is reduced for each missile beyond the first that hits the same target.Living Weapon upgrades each of Kai'Sa's basic abilities once she gains a fixed amount of certain offensive stats: attack damage, ability power and attack speed, respectively.Reaching four Plasma stacks on an enemy consumes them to deal bonus damage based on their missing health. Nearby allies can also apply Plasma through their immobilizing effects. Caustic Wounds causes Kai'Sa's basic attacks to apply Plasma on the target, stacking up to four times and dealing bonus damage for each Plasma stack.Her passive, Second Skin, has two separate effects:.Kai'Sa is Marksman/Assassin hybrid champion who hunts down and picks off isolated targets, and can boost her abilities by specializing in each of the offensive stats. Having entered into an uneasy symbiosis with a living Void carapace, the time will soon come when she must decide whether to forgive those mortals who would call her a monster, and defeat the coming darkness together or simply to forget, as the Void consumes the world that left her behind. Her experiences have made her a deadly hunter and, to some, the harbinger of a future they would rather not live to see. "My appearance may frighten you, but make no mistake—I am on your side, and we fight to the bitter end."Ĭlaimed by the Void when she was only a child, Kai’Sa managed to survive through sheer tenacity and strength of will.

[melhekhelmurkun]

Compiled list of random headcanons I have for various LOTR characters (mostly Faramir because I love him)

Faramir, kind and polite Faramir, swears worse than a sailor. Regularly (unless he’s in Polite Society where that would be Frowned Upon). The Rangers attempted to implement a similar concept to a swear jar, but they abandoned that idea pretty quickly when it filled up within 2 days (just from Faramir, no one else added to it more than once)

Aragorn has eaten pretty much everything edible - and some things that were questionably so. This includes; tree bark, leather, various nuts, food that may or may not have been past its due date, etc. And yet miraculously he has never once gotten food poisoning (until Eowyn’s stew, that is)

Legolas likes to leave little presents for the rest of the Fellowship (sort of like a cat does). Flowers for Frodo, herbs and game for Sam, cool rocks for Gimli, acorn tops for Pippin (relevant in the next thing), bird feathers for Gandalf (which he likes to sneak into the Wizard’s hat), bracelets woven out of grass or plant stems for Aragorn, interesting weapons lifted off the corpses of orcs for Boromir, four-leaf clovers for Merry whenever he can find them. Stuff he knows they’d like, and that he knows would bring their moods up on their perilous and tense journey

Pippin collects acorn tops. No reason, he just thinks they’re cool

Gandalf sometimes pretends to be asleep (the whole eyes open thing lmao) just so he can listen in on conversations happening around him. He is a giant gossip (we all knew this). He also sometimes actually goes to sleep at night purposely staring right at Pippin, because he thinks it’s hilarious when Pippin avoids him the next day

Merry likes telling Gimli, Legolas, and Boromir ridiculously outlandish stories about the Shire (which are, more often than not, true, surprisingly). Reactions range from ‘you don’t ACTUALLY do that, right?’, ‘I’d like to see that’, and ‘oh yeah something like that happened in *blank* before’

Eowyn’s cooking is genuinely poison but she bakes like a goddess. Her strawberry cobbler is to die for

Faramir actually doesn’t like horses very much, despite how good he is with them. This stems from an incident that happened when he and Boromir were 17 and 12 respectively; they’d gone out riding for a bit and on that ride both horses spooked - Boromir’s badly enough to buck him off, while Faramir’s horse reared up and nearly fell backwards. This made him develop a phobia that he only really got over once the War started. Still doesn’t like them, though.

Boromir has the worst alcohol tolerance in Gondor. The WORST tolerance. He cannot hold 2 mugs of ale, let alone more. Immediately drunk after just a mug and a half. What’s surprising is he isn’t the loud impulsive drunk one might expect him to be; he’s actually a depressing drunk who can get very morbid - Faramir on the other hand is likely to start a tavern brawl when drunk, if only because he loses all semblance of brain-to-mouth filter. This is why he doesn’t drink often, and generally only in the company of people he knows (such as the Rangers)

Remember Irolas, the guy I posted pictures of on here a while back when I rewatched Return of the King? Since he was originally meant to be Beregond, I’m now saying he’s Beregond’s identical twin brother. Yes, they did sometimes switch posts just to see if anyone would notice. The only person to notice was Denethor. He didn’t find it particularly funny.

Gimli actually knows a lot about cooking and likes to help Sam with dinner when the Fellowship sets up camp

[thestalkerbunny]

The Week continues to be hard. Make more Shadow Oaks NPCS to make brain feel better. You can really see where my art ranges from looking cute and acceptable to ‘Oh no. Oh NO baby. Oh NO.’

The Hitchcocks

Farish is a hairdresser and Danny's primary caregiver in the family. He's a sweet man who loves his wife Amitya a lot. He often pesters Helena to at least let him fix her split ends. Danny often spends a lot of time at the shop with him. Farish is much more laid back than his hardworking wife and doesn't have any qualms with being the 'male wife' as kids call it nowadays.

Amitya is real estate agent for the next town over; while the Hitchcock family moved to Shadow Oaks so Helena could go to a less problematic school, Amitya still has to drive 40 minutes to work every day. Must like Romero's mom Polly-Amitya worries about Helena not making friends as easily as she thought she would. She also frequently worries about Danny who keeps running off from babysitters and escaping the house some how despite their best efforts to get him to stop.

Danny is the Hitchcock's adopted Kenku Son. He's roughly 5 years old, his favorite thing in the world for some reason is Danny Devito and he absolutely ADORES Helena to the point where he keeps escaping the house or babysitters or daycare to go be wherever she is. Danny seems to think she is a very large Crow and that they are a FLOCK now.

The Garten Scouts are an organization of Scouts who promote 4 ideals of Good Morals, Good Ideals, Good Service and Good Behavior. Much like girl scouts, they go around doing good, raising money selling cookies and go camping once a year during the summer. Not...not the Shadow Oaks branch. The Garten scouts in Shadow Oaks are actually a bunch of highschool aged gnomes fishing damaged boxes of cookies out from a dumpster behind the super market, repackaging them and donning uniforms to resell them in other towns soley for the purpose of hustling a few hundred dollars out of idiots. Not everyone in Shadow Oaks has caught on, but a good portion have.

Laurie 'Lord' Edge is a vampire from Celeste Craven's Colony. A colony in vampire terms can be as small as a family unit to large as a whole town-usually minded by one or two Alpha vampires and several of their bitten 'drones'. Laurie Edge is actually a vampire who was bitten after Celeste was given the boot for her arc events to take her place in her colony. He biologically is the son of a very wealthy family known for forging and making swords, knives and daggers thru the ages known as 'Cutting Edge' and always expected him to be a fighter and to take over the family business. Ever edgey, he rejected his family's desires and ran off-letting himself be bitten and adopted into a Colony. While he still doesn't know how to use any other weapons than swords, katanas and knives; he'd much rather be a barbarian as that's much 'cooler' according to him. Which there's not much hope for that given his noodle body. He unironically has a reddit account and all his clothes are red and black. Despite being edgey and posting nihilistic things and always trying to shock people-he has a horribly weak stomach and can’t stand gore sites or horror movies.

Catfish is a half elf who works at the Gas Station just outside of the National Park-the last one in fact for 423 miles before the turn off, so people who plan on taking the driving path thru the park to get the interstate usually hit up Catfish's place before they go. Catfish spins a lot of weird tall tales and he seems to be a provoker in the Hag Myth-claiming he's seen the Hag in the forest herself.

Grandma Meep Meep is Catfish's grandmother and has been living in the town almost as long as it's been founded. Legally, this woman shouldn't be on the road but it doesn't stop her from driving. She has been banned from the Senior center of cheating at bingo, causing general havoc at the senior singles mixed dance and running someone over with a power chair. She's often at the gas station as well, more as a fixture who sits in the corner to keep Catfish company and make chit chat with the regulars. She keeps a long legged Jackalope she calls Butters. There has been at least 12 butters as far as Catfish can remember.

The Hag The Hag is a blair witchesque entity that has existed as long as the town has. The first recorded note of the Hag's existence was in the town's foundling days when it was more of a fort to hold down the area during a war (Shadow Oaks is actually the site of a large skirmish that happened) Several Soldiers on either side had gone missing and after a search party was sent out-their remains were found eviscerated near the creek. Hag sightings began to kick up after that.  Park Rangers don't want to perpetuate the belief in the hag to tourists because they don't want kids with cameras getting lost out there as the Park is also meshed with the fey wild-but because much like people who work in haunted houses, some claim to have seen her. It is not advised to Whistle or Clap as that may attract her attention. If you're camping-leave a necklace or something on a string outside of the camp so if she does come across you, she'll be more inclined to leave you alone as lore states she is fond of 'things on strings'. She often leaves a unique set of tracks as one of her legs is lame and she drags it about most of the time rather than put weight on it-but she is known to move much faster on all 4s. It's also believed she will turn into a massive barn owl with a woman's face. Catfish claims he saw her at the creek, hunkered on all fours drinking from the creek like an animal. Other than the one incident years ago-The Hag hasn't really done anything other than possibly terrorize campers in rumor.

[thecreaturecodex]

Thri-Kreen

Image by Brian Despain, © Wizards of the Coast. Accessed at the Monster Manual II Art Gallery here

[The thri-kreen was never meant to be a PC race. At least, not originally. They originally appeared in the AD&D Monster Manual II with 6 Hit Dice and a load of special abilities. In Dark Sun, thri-kreen player characters didn’t get all of these abilities all at once, but were partitioned out over the first six levels. The ones with racial HD were called “tohr-kreen”... which then got retconned when 6 HD thri- and tohr-kreen both existed separately later in 2nd edition. The tohr-kreen were forgotten for a long while. 3e made thri-kreen a race with 2 HD and used their level adjustment system. I certainly played a thri-kreen character that abused the heck out of the Multiweapon Fighting chain. 4e toned them down to be a bit more in tune with the player powers of the rest of their Dark Sun races, and 5e went back to the AD&D 1e model, where they are just monsters, not player characters at all.

So I had a lot of history to choose from. I wanted to make them PCs, but that required toning them down significantly from their 3e levels. I created feats that help them get more towards that value, but still not entirely. PFRPG is much stingier with multiple attacks than 3.x was, and a PC race with five attacks from the get-go is right out. A lot of their mechanical flavor has already been swiped by Pathfinder races (the kasatha got the deserts and four arms; the trox got the big bugginess and natural attacks), so I wanted to make sure they were differentiated. I consulted with my friend @bowelfly​ for what they thought were vital to the feel of a thri-kreen, as they are a connoisseur of bug people.]

Thri-kreen CR ½ CN Monstrous Humanoid (kreen) This humanoid mantis is a dusty yellow color. It has four arms, but two seem to be its primary ones. It wears little clothing and carries multiple strange weapons.

The thri-kreen are sometimes called “mantis warriors”, as this describes both their physical appearance and their cultural values. Thri-kreen are nomadic hunters, and combine keen loyalty with a fierce need for competition. Members of a clan would hardly consider betraying one another, but they jockey constantly for position, and fights to the death are not unheard of to obtain a leadership role from a leader considered past their prime. They are skilled and patient hunters, moving frequently to avoid depleting prey items or causing undue ecological stress. Thri-kreen mate for life, and the care of the young is shared between all members of the clan. They grow to adulthood quickly, being mature within 5 years of age, and are considered ancient if they live to the age of 35. Thri-kreen often decorate their chitin exoskeletons with etchings and paints, the latter only for special occasions.

Thri-kreen prefer to attack from ambush, using their ability to change color to hide and their remarkable leaping ability to spring to the attack. The weapons of a thri-kreen are among their only possessions, and are thus well cared for. The primary melee weapon used by thri-kreen is a two-headed, crescent-bladed polearm called a gythka (treat as an orc double axe). As ranged weapons they use oversized shuriken known as chatkcha (treat as a starknife). Unusually, armor is only worn by the boldest and most confident thri-kreen, as it interferes with their camouflage abilities.

Thri-kreen advance by character class. Most of them choose classes with a full base attack bonus, like fighter, ranger or brawler. Their spellcasters are typically psychics, especially with the lore or self-perfection disciplines. Those that cast divine spells are usually druids—they do not trust gods, which they cannot see or taste, as opposed to natural forces which they can.

Thri-kreen as Player Characters Thri-kreen do not have racial Hit Dice, and advance by character class. A thri-kreen character has the following attributes

+2 Dex, +2 Con, -2 Cha Thri-kreen are nimble and tough, but have alien minds and emotions. Monstrous Humanoid Thri-kreens are not subject to spells and effects that target humanoids only Medium Size A thri-kreen gains no benefits or penalties from its size Low-light vision +1 natural armor Normal Speed Bite A thri-kreen gains a bite attack as a primary natural weapon that deals 1d4 points of damage Chameleon Skin (Ex) A thri-kreen can change the color of its carapace to match its environment. It gains a +4 racial bonus to Stealth checks if it is wearing no armor and only light clothing. If wearing light armor, or clothing that covers the body, it gains a +2 racial bonus on Stealth checks. If wearing medium or heavy armor, it gains no bonus. Master Leaper (Ex) A thri-kreen gains a +4 racial bonus on Acrobatics checks made to jump. It takes no penalty to Acrobatics checks made to jump without taking a running start. If it does take a running start, it doubles the distance covered. Secondary Arms (Ex) The secondary arms of a thri-kreen cannot be used to wield weapons or shields, but can be used to draw or stow small objects as a swift action. They can be used to provide somatic components even if both hands are full. Weapon Familiarity (Ex) A thri-kreen treats starknives as a simple weapon, and treats orc double axes as a martial weapon. Languages Thri-kreen start play speaking Kreen. A thri-kreen with an Intelligence bonus may choose from the following languages: Common, Dwarf, Elven, Gnoll, Halfling, Sylvan.

Statistics for a sample thri-kreen character, and feats for thri-kreen characters, under the cut

Thri-kreen ranger 1           CR 1/2 XP 200 CN Medium monstrous humanoid (kreen) Init +3; Senses low-light vision, Perception +5 Defense AC 14, touch 13, flat-footed 11 (+3 Dex, +1 natural) hp 12 (1d10+2) Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +1 Offense Speed 30 ft. Melee double axe +3 (1d8+3/19-20), bite -2 (1d4+1) or double axe +1 (1d8+2/x3), double axe +1 (1d8+1/x3), bite -2 (1d4+1) or bite +3 (1d4+3) Ranged starknife +4 (1d6+2/x3) Special Attacks favored enemy (magical beasts +2) Statistics Str 15, Dex 16, Con 15, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 6 Base Atk +1; CMB +3; CMD 16 Feats Two-Weapon Fighting Skills Acrobatics +4 (+8 when jumping), Climb +6, Heal +5, Knowledge (nature) +4, Perception +5, Stealth +11, Survival +5 (+6 following tracks); Racial Modifiers +4 Acrobatics when jumping, +4 Stealth Languages Kreen SQ chameleon skin, mighty leap, track +1, secondary arms, weapon familiarity, wild empathy -1 Ecology Environment warm deserts and plains Organization solitary, pair, gang (3-6), patrol (7-12 plus 1 leader of 3rd level) or clan (13-40 plus 50% noncombatants, plus 1-3 leaders of 3rd-7th level) Treasure NPC gear (double axe, two starknives, other treasure)

Thri-kreen Feats A thri-kreen’s body and mind can develop in unexpected ways over the course of their lives, enhancing their natural abilities. Thri-kreen may choose from the following feats

Chitinous Claws (Combat Feat) Your fingers end in sharp claws instead of dull points. Prerequisites Improved Unarmed Strike, kreen subtype Benefit: Your unarmed strikes can deal bludgeoning, piercing or slashing damage, as you choose.

Effective Limbs (Combat Feat) You have trained your secondary limbs until they are as strong as ordinary arms Prerequisites Str 17+, base attack bonus +6, kreen subtype Benefit You may use your secondary limbs to wield weapons, hold shields and do anything else a limb can do.

Improved Chameleon Skin You have great control over your ability to change color Prerequisites Wis 13+, character level 3rd, kreen subtype Benefit Your racial bonus to Stealth checks when unarmored increases to +8. When wearing light armor or covering clothing, it decreases to +4.

Improved Venomous Bite (Combat Feat) You can produce paralytic enzymes at an incredible rate Prerequisites Con 15+, base attack +9, kreen subtype, Venomous Bite Benefit You may use the poison from your  Venomous Bite feat a number of times per day equal to your level + your Constitution modifier.

Tohr-Kreen Casting You can tap into the magic of the mantis nobles Prerequisites Intelligence 13+, character level 5th, kreen subtype Benefit You gain the following spell-like abilities. 3/day—mage hand; 1/day—blur, invisibility. You use your Hit Dice as your caster level, and your Intelligence modifier for concentration checks.

Venomous Bite (Combat Feat) You can produce paralytic enzymes in your saliva Prerequisites Con 13+, base attack +4, kreen subtype Benefits You may choose to inflict poison on a creature you hit with your bite attack a number of times per day equal to your Constitution modifier Kreen Poison; bite—injury; save 10 + ½ Hit Dice + Constitution modifier; duration 1/round for 2 rounds; effect 1d4 Dex damage; cure 1 save.

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #160

Today on Fate and Phantasms we’re making... wait a minute! Isn’t King Arthur supposed to be a girl?

Anyways, this faker is a Watcher Paladin and Monster Slayer Ranger to hunt down beasts wherever they may hide, as well as a Zealot Barbarian for his own Mana Burst skill and even bigger smites.

Check out his (god, it feels wrong using that pronoun) build breakdown below the cut, or his character sheet over here!

Next up: He might not be allowed at pride, but I’m not waiting a month to do another build.

Race and Background

Arthur may be from a different reality, but he’s still a Human, and since we need those ability scores more than any feats, this gives him a +1 to all abilities. You’re a Pendragon, so you’re a lil bit basic by FGO standards.

He’s also a Knight, getting proficiency in History and Persuasion.

Ability Scores

Unfortunately your mana burst can’t do all the work, so make your Strength as high as possible to swing your sword sword. After that is Charisma; you have a whole skill named after it, and I mean have you heard his White Day voice lines? Dude’s sexy. If you want to set off on an interplanar hunting trip, Wisdom is also a must. Your Dexterity also has to be pretty good, mostly for multiclassing, but also because sometimes you fight in a tuxedo. Sadly, this means your Constitution isn’t as high as we’d like, and you’ll have to dump Intelligence. I honestly don’t know how smart Arthur’s supposed to be, but we’re juggling a lot of balls here. The only things we could dump are intelligence and constitution, and he definitely doesn’t have a negative con modifier. If you’re really worked up about this one, just remember all his historical knowledge comes from another dimension, so it probably isn’t that useful in this one.

Class Levels

1. Paladin 1: Starting off as a paladin gives you proficiency with Wisdom and Charisma saves, as well as proficiency with Religion and Athletics. You are still a Pendragon, and I’m pretty sure a holy grail fits into your backstory somewhere.

You also get a Divine Sense to help you hunt down extraplanar beasts, and you can use your Lay on Hands as an action to heal a creature you touch as an action, healing up to five times your paladin level per long rest.

2. Paladin 2: Second level paladins get their Fighting Style, and Great Weapon Fighting makes your attacks more consistent by re-rolling damage dice that land on 1s and 2s. This adds up, especially when you start factoring Divine Smites. Yes you too can use up spell slots to deal extra radiant damage to your Excalibur’s attacks!

Speaking of, you can use Spells, preparing and casting them with your Charisma. We’ll go into more detail about which ones to pick when we grab a subclass next level.

3. Paladin 3: Upon taking your sacred oath, you become a Watcher, this plane’s bulwark against extraplanar threats. (I mean, CotTT hangs out in his own demiplane, Tiamat spends most her time in Imaginary Number Space, and Kiara’s from the moon... most of the beasts we’ve seen so far count.)

Once per short rest, you can Channel Divinity in one of two ways. You can use your Watcher’s Will to give your allies advantage on Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saves. You can also Abjure the Extraplanar, turning extraplanar creatures who fail their wisdom save, running away for a minute or until it takes damage.

You also get your freebie spells, Alarm and Detect Magic. The former will prevent your camp from getting ambushed, while the latter will be very useful to track down that beast you’re tailing.

Once you find them, use Compelled Duel to keep them in sword range, or Protection from Evil and Good to even the odds if they go on the offensive. Also, smites. Smites are good.

4. Paladin 4: Use your first Ability Score Improvement to round up your Constitution and Charisma for stronger saves and more health.

5. Paladin 5: Fifth level paladins get an Extra Attack each attack action, making Excalibur’s victory a bit more promised.

You also get 2nd level spells, like the freebies Moonbeam and See Invisibility. Beasts do come with the tendency to transform for the climactic battle... I wonder if forcing them back into their less intimidating forms will actually weaken them?

Beyond the free spells, you can use more Smites, as well as Magic Weapon to make Excalibur a truly legendary weapon, adding +1 to its attack and damage rolls.

6. Barbarian 1: Changing planes to barbarian gives you your Mana Burst in the form of Rage, giving you several benefits: you get advantage on strength saves and checks, as well as bonus damage on melee attacks, and you resist physical damage. The downsides are; you can’t cast or concentrate on spells, the rage only lasts 1 minute, as long as you take or deal damage each round Also, you can’t use heavy armor. Hope you like a breastplate, because that’s the most you can hold onto here.

You also unlock your tuxedo, thanks to your Unarmored Defense, giving you a minimum AC based on your dexterity and constitution. I never said it would be good, but it’s better than nothing.

7. Ranger 1: Switching over quickly now, first level rangers get a free skill proficiency! Grab Survival to track your quarries, then use Canny to double survival’s proficiency bonus so you can track them beyond planar boundaries.

You also gain a Favored Enemy, a kind of foe that you have advantage on checks to track or recall lore about. Most beasts probably qualify as Aberrations in D&D, so go with that one.

8. Ranger 2: Second level rangers get another Fighting Style. Fighting in a tuxedo is pretty unrealistic, so let’s double down on the armor with Protection, giving you +1 to your AC in any kind of protection.

You also get another set of Spells that use your Wisdom. Thankfully Hunter’s Mark and Zephyr Strike don’t really care about your modifier. The former adds extra damage to every attack and makes tracking even easier than it already is. The latter only adds damage to a single attack, but it makes you able to ignore attacks of opportunity and move faster the one turn you deal extra damage. DW might not have given you a wind-based spiritron dress, but you can still make them work for you.

9. Ranger 3: Third level rangers get Primeval Awareness, spending a spell slot to sense various kinds of extraplanar and otherworldly creatures around you to make tracking down beast four a little easier.

Once you find it, you can use your skills as a Monster Slayer to take it down. Your Monster Slayer Magic gives you Protection from Evil and Good as a freebie, and you also gain two actual features! Hunter’s Sense is an action to determine a creature’s weaknesses and strengths. You can use this a number of times per long rest equal to your wisdom modifier.

You can also turn one creature at a time into your Slayer’s Prey, spending a bonus action to deal an extra bit of damage once per turn with your weapon attacks. It sticks to that creature until you finish a short rest.

Finally for your normal spell this level grab Searing Smite. It’s a smite, it sears.

10. Ranger 4: Fourth level rangers get another ASI, so bring your Strength up for stronger sword swings. Wielding the breath of a planet doesn’t mean anything if you can’t hit people with it.

11. Paladin 6: Your Aura of Protection gives you and allies within 10 feet of you a bonus to all your saving throws equal to your charisma modifier. Honestly this is super useful, you might want to think about doing this earlier. Or don’t, I’m not a cop.

12. Barbarian 2: Second level barbarians can make Reckless Attacks, giving you advantage on attacks for a turn in exchange for your enemies having advantage on attacks against you for the round. The smart thing to do is to smite them out of existence before they get the chance.

You also get Danger Sense, giving you advantage on dexterity saves if you can see them coming. You probably wouldn’t last long against Beast 1 if you weren’t able to survive a fireball.

13. Barbarian 3: Third level barbarians get their path, and as a Zealot you can put the fear of god into anything you fight. Your Divine Fury deals 1d6+1 extra radiant damage with each attack while raging, and as a Warrior of the Gods, you can be revived with magic without needing material components.

You also get Primal Knowledge to figure out an Animal Handling proficiency. Riding skill, checked off the list.

14. Paladin 7: Seventh level Watchers exude the Aura of the Sentinel, adding your proficiency bonus to your initiative, as well as the initiative of any creature within 10′ of you. With most beasts, attacking slowly means you won’t be attacking at all.

15. Paladin 8: Use this ASI to bump up your charisma for stronger spells and better saves. I’m still not entirely sure how we’re building Kiara yet, but rest assured those saves will be necessary.

16. Ranger 5: Fifth level rangers get an extra attack, but that doesn’t stack with the one you already have, sorry.

It’s not all bad news, though! You also get Zone of Truth from your Slayer magic, and Enhance Ability as your usual spell. The former forces humanoids to tell the truth if they fail a charisma save, while the latter just makes whoever you cast it on better in one kind of ability check for the duration, giving them advantage for the duration.

17. Ranger 6: If a Beast isn’t an aberration, it’s probably a Monstrosity, so grab that as your second Favored Enemy. You also get another Deft Explorer perk, Roving, which gives you an extra 5′ of movement speed, as well as a climbing and swimming speed. Since you’re never getting a summer version, it’s important that you can keep up with your female counterpart as-is.

18. Paladin 9: Ninth level paladins get third level spells; Counterspell and Nondetection both work to put a damper into beasts’ plans, either shutting down their super form or making it harder for them to spy on you. You also get more smites, Dispel Magic to force them out of their super mode later, or Spirit Shroud for more damage. more damage is good.

19. Paladin 10: At tenth level, you and your allies can’t be frightened because you’ve got an Aura of Courage! It’s level nineteen so that’s not super useful, but it’s still one less thing to worry about.

20. Paladin 11: Your capstone level gives you an Improved Divine Smite, adding a bit of that radiant goodness to all your melee attacks, regardless of what spell slots you do or don’t spend on them.

Pros:

Arthur has a big sword, and he knows how to use it, dealing some heavy damage with each swing. While raging and preying, he deals 6d6+4d8+10 damage each round (assuming both attacks hit), all boosted by great weapon master, and that’s before any kind of smites get included.

Despite your low dexterity score, you’re still pretty quick when you need to be. You’ve got a faster walking speed than most people, your dexterity save is solid thanks to your aura and danger sense, and you’ve got another aura boosting your initiative! Basically you have a high dexterity in everything except ability checks and AC, with almost no direct investment needed!

Mixing your primeval awareness with your divine senses means you are a fine-tuned tracker when it comes to locating creatures from another plane. Just make sure you don’t mix up your quarry with MHX, I doubt she’d be happy to see you.

Cons:

While medium armor does a solid enough job of protecting you, your HP is pretty low for a front line fighter, with barely over 120 HP. You’re here for a good time, not a long time.

As always, mixing spells and rage is pretty bad, forcing you to choose one or the other. That’s especially painful because it means you can’t use your neat gish spells to add effects if you want to deal more damage. Kind of like your smites, when I think about it.

Your paladin, barbarian, and ranger features all want use of your bonus action, meaning it will take a while for you to get up to full speed in a fight anyway. I’d definitely rage first, it’d help with the squishiness.

[tigerkirby215]

5e Quinn, Demacia's Wings build (League of Legends)

(Artwork by Katie "TeaTime" De Sousa. Made for Riot Games.)

lol who gives a shit about Quinn?

I do. I do Riot. :(

Honestly while I haven’t played Quinn in awhile I still think she’s an extremely fun champion, and not just because you get to bully the enemy top laner with discount Vayne. Quinn has a very unique playstyle that’s so different from every other champ in the game which makes her real refreshing to play after sticking to other champs for an extended period of time.

But let’s be real the main reason I’m making a Quinn build is so I can have a cheat day. I mean she’s obviously just a Beastmaster Ranger, right?

GOALS

Valor, to me! - Burd up! I really wish that Quinn was called “Quinn and Valor” in game.

Stick to the plan, Val - When the going gets tough it helps to be a swift scout, dashing around the enemy and vaulting off them if they get too close.

I'd keep my head down if I were you - While it’s perhaps not the first thing that comes to mind Quinn is known for letting down a volley of arrows when she first engages with Valor on her back.

RACE

League of humans, at least until I go back to Ionia to make more furries. Regardless we’ll be switching it up a bit with a Mark of Finding Dragonmark from Eberron! You get a +2 to Dexterity and +1 to an ability score of your choice: I went for Charisma because “League of Legends female body types.”

You get an early set of boots with the Mark of Finding, since Courier’s Speed increases your base movement speed to 35 feet. And to help with backflips Intuitive Motion will let you add a d4 to your Acrobatics checks (or your Land Vehicle checks, but I’d perhaps discuss with your DM to change that to Air Vehicles instead?) But most importantly you get Magical Passage for a one-time use of Misty Step, for Flash!

IF DRAGONMARKS AREN’T ALLOWED: A Variant Human works fine. Take a +1 to Dexterity and Charisma and the Crossbow Expert feat a little earlier than usual.

ABILITY SCORES

15; DEXTERITY - Dexterity is tied to shooting and back flips, both of which you’ll be doing a lot of.

14; WISDOM - You have a bird’s eye view; the best advantage.

13; CHARISMA - This is partially because “League of Legends female body types” but mostly for multiclassing.

12; CONSTITUTION - Demacians are no easy prey, and spending so much time behind enemy lines has made you sturdier than most.

10; INTELLIGENCE - Intelligence is tied to military tactics among other things.

8; STRENGTH - This is partially because “League of Legends female body types” but mostly for multiclassing because we don’t need it over the other stats.

Feel free to swap Wisdom and Constitution if you want worse skill checks but better durability.

BACKGROUND

We’ll be going for Faction Agent not because it fits best but because it has the abilities that make the most sense. I’m sure you could refer to the Demacian Scouts as a faction after all. Regardless you get proficiency in Insight along with one WIS, INT, or CHA skill of your choice: I opted for Perception for that bird’s eye view. You also get proficiency in two languages so once again pick your poison.

The main reason we opted for Faction Agent was for access to a Safe Haven behind enemy lines. You can always find insiders to give you a place to hide, or to give you information. Not that Val needs any help finding people. "Sometimes I swear that bird is just showing off."

(Artwork made for Riot Games.)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - ROGUE 1

Starting off as a Rogue for the skill proficiencies primarily. Acrobatics and Stealth are the two main ones we want but I’d also recommend Investigation and Intimidation. (Persuasion may be more useful in the average campaign but it doesn’t fit Quinn well feel free to build the character however you want but I focus on making the character as lore accurate and gameplay accurate as possible.) Anyways as a Rogue you also get Expertise in two skills: I’d recommend buffing your Perception right out the gate, as well as your Stealth because... it’ll be useful as a Rogue I assure you.

Rogues can chat with spies and infiltrators behind enemy lines thanks to Thieves’ Cant, a mixture of words and phrases that don’t actually mean what they sound like. But of course what we’re really here for as a Rogue is good ol’ Sneak Attack, for a d6 if you sneak attack an enemy (duh) or if Val (or another ally) is distracting them.

I’m going to briefly mention what weapons you’re probably going to want to start out with: a Hand Crossbow is an obvious must but until about level 6 or so you can honestly just stick to a Light Crossbow to do more damage at a better range early on.

LEVEL 2 - ROGUE 2

Second level Rogues can further abuse their range thanks to Cunning Action, letting them Dash, Disengage, or Hide as a Bonus Action. Play around bushes to get the jump on your Harrier marks.

LEVEL 3 - BARD 1

Seeing as Bards are good at everything we’ll be taking some Bard levels. As a Bard you get proficiency in one skill as well as a musical instrument: pick whatever instrument you prefer and I’d of course take Animal Handling to take care of Valor.

You also get Bardic Inspiration to tell your allies of information you scouted ahead with your bonus action, letting them add an extra d6 to skill checks, attack rolls, and saving throws that they know are coming. You have a number of inspirations equal to your Charisma modifier, and regain all expended inspiration die at the end of a long rest.

But of course the main boon from being a Bard is access to Spellcasting! You get two cantrips from the Bard list: Light will let you see with your dumb human eyes, and Message will let you chat with your team behind enemy lines. You also get four first level spells from the Bard list: Animal Friendship is kinda an obvious one, as is Speak with Animals. Other than that Heroism will help you (or your allies) keep their cool behind enemy lines, and Color Spray (ty Tasha’s) will let Valor blind your foes so you can get away!

LEVEL 4 - BARD 2

Second level Bards get Jack of All Trades, letting you flex into whatever role your party may need. You also get Song of Rest to heal for an extra d6 of health during short rests to patch yourself up after getting into a scrap. And finally Tasha’s gave you Magical Inspiration, letting your allies with Bardic Inspiration add a roll on their inspiration die to the damage or healing of a spell.

You also learn another first level spell like Feather Fall, in case Valor needs to drop you.

LEVEL 5 - BARD 3

Third level Bards get Expertise in two skills: Acrobatics proficiency is a requirement for backflips, and Animal Handling would be good to handle Valor. (But more realistically expertise in Insight or Investigation would be more useful.)

But more importantly we can finally get some combat ability out of the Bard! The College of Swords gives you proficiency with medium armor and shields, neither of which we really need. It also gives you a Fighting Style you won’t use with a Hand Crossbow, but Dueling is probably better for your purposes.

What we’re mainly here for is Blade Flourish, which despite the name works on ranged attacks! When you take the attack action on your turn Harrier will increase your movement speed by 10 feet, and once per turn you can use one of the following Blade Flourishes:

Defensive Flourish increases the damage of the shot by a roll of your Bardic Inspiration and let you add the number to your AC as Valor makes it harder for the enemy to hit you.

Slashing Flourish will let you pick up a Runaan's Hurricane to deal extra damage to the target and everyone within 5 feet of them.

Mobile Flourish lets you vault off an enemy, dealing extra damage equal to a roll of your Bardic Inspiration and pushing them back a number of feet equal to 5 plus whatever you rolled on your Bardic Inspiration. If you want you can then use your reaction to run up to them, but I don’t know why you’d want to do that.

Basically no matter what your Blade Flourish does extra damage equal to your Bardic Inspiration, and you can choose to either make yourself harder to hit, do AoE damage, or push the enemy away. Oh and you can now learn second level spells like Animal Messenger so Val can get important information back to Demacia.

(Artwork by Michelle Hoefener. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 6 - BARD 4

4th level Bards get the first of many Ability Score Improvements but we’re actually going to take a Feat: the Crossbow Expert feat will let you ignore the Loading property of crossbows to attack more than once on your turn, attack in melee range without disadvantage, but most importantly if you attack with your hand crossbow you can make one more attack with your bonus action!

You also learn another spell, and another cantrip! For your cantrip Minor Illusion is great to make a distraction, and for your leveled spell Locate Object will help if you need to find an important artifact belonging to the enemy. Are there more useful spells? Yes, but I’m building what would make the most sense for Quinn as a character. Feel free to take Heat Metal or Lesser Restoration as you’re allowed to change my builds however you want.

LEVEL 7 - BARD 5

Grabbing the 5th level of Bard for Font of Inspiration, letting your Bardic Inspiration (and Blade Flourishes!) come back after a Short Rest. Which is good because your Bardic Inspiration increases to a d8!

You can also learn third level spells like Leomund’s Tiny Hut for a safe place to rest after a long combat.

LEVEL 8 - BARD 6

But of course the 6th level of Bard wouldn’t hurt, as you’d now get an Extra Attack from the College of Swords! You can also learn another third level spell like Sending to send information more directly. Again: feel free to take spells that you feel are more practical if you wish.

(Artwork by SixMoreVodka Studios. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 9 - ROGUE 3

Going back to Rogue to get our Scouting badge, specifically with the Scout subclass! You get to officially be classified as a Skirmisher, and can move half your movement speed if an enemy ends their turn within 5 feet of you. This movement doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks either, so I’d flavor it as you vaulting off the foe to safety.

You’re also a natural Survivalist, with Expertise in the Nature and Survival skills. That’s why we didn’t get Survival proficiency earlier! And to top it off your Sneak Attack increases to 2d6.

LEVEL 10 - ROGUE 4

4th level Rogues get another Ability Score Improvement, and we’ve been sitting on an uneven Dexterity score for awhile now. So the Piercer feat will let you increase your Dexterity by 1 while also augmenting your skills with a Light Crossbow, allowing you to reroll the damage die of one of your attacks and deal triple damage if you crit!

I’d discuss with your DM if your Blade Flourishes count as “weapon damage die” for the sake of Piercer, because if they do you’ll likely get a lot more value out of this feat. If not well... it’s still useful regardless!

(Artwork by bekkomi on DeviantArt.)

LEVEL 11 - BARD 7

Quickly going back to Bard for some 4th level spell slots to cast spells like Dimension Door to quickly get out of danger.

LEVEL 12 - BARD 8

But of course the 8th level of Bard will get you some more Ability Score Improvements: more Dexterity will mean deadlier shots and more AC. And you can learn another 4th level spell like Freedom of Movement to get out of sticky situations.

LEVEL 13 - BARD 9

9th level Bards get to pretend that a d8 Song of Rest die by total level 14 is valuable. You do at least get 5th level spells like Rary's Telepathic Bond to keep communication up with your team.

LEVEL 14 - BARD 10

But what we’re mainly here for is the 10th level of Bard. To start off you get Expertise in two more skills: Insight and Investigation would both be the most practical choices. Your Bardic Inspiration also increases to a d10, which means that your Blade Flourishes increase to a d10 as well!

But far more importantly you get Magical Secrets, and hey look by total level 15 we finally got Valor! Summon Beast will let you summon a beast of land, sea, or (most realistically) air to fight alongside you! The flying beast has a 60 foot flying speed, Flyby (which lets it avoid attacks of opportunity), and can attack using your spell attack modifier to deal damage equal to a d8 + 4 + the level of the spell slot you used to cast this spell. It’s only a second level spell but it gets quite strong when upcast, so you can choose how strong you want Valor to be!

Alternatively if you want to fly Behind Enemy Lines, look no further than Fly! It gives you a 60 foot flying speed, plain and simple! And if you upcast it Valor can even bring a friend, or several friends!

You can also learn another cantrip like Mending, because it’s good to keep your armor in check as well as your falconer’s glove.

LEVEL 15 - BARD 11

Seeing as we got Valor we may as well grab a few more small things from Bard. 11th level Bards get 6th level spells like Find the Path, to find the path to the objective. Again: feel free to take more practical spells I am merely taking what makes sense for Quinn.

LEVEL 16 - BARD 12

12th level Bards don’t get new spells but they do get Ability Score Improvements. I’ll leave you with a choice: more Charisma will increase your Bard saving throw DCs (and Valor’s hit chance) as well as give you more Blade Floruishes, but the Sharpshooter feat will let you consistently add more damage to your shots while also ignoring range limitations and cover.

(Artwork by Ina Wong and West Studios. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 17 - BARD 13

Grabbing 7th level spells from the 13th level of Bard like Teleport, to recall back to base when needed. You also get to pretend that a d10 Song of Rest die by total level 18 is majorly impactful.

LEVEL 18 - BARD 14

14th level Swords Bards get the Master’s Flourish, letting you make a Blade Flourish every turn without spending a Bardic Inspiration, as long as you make your Blade Flourish a d6 instead.

But you also get two more Magical Secrets! To call down a Skystrike try Steel Wind Strike, which will damage up to 5 creates in the area and also let you teleport to one of them after using it. Your other spell doesn’t really matter much so... I dunno. Blindness / Deafness so Valor can make a Blinding Assault? Again feel free to make your own choices to customize the build.

LEVEL 19 - BARD 15

We’ll be stopping at the 15th level of Bard for a d12 Bardic Inspiration, as well as an 8th level spell like Feeblemind to weaken an enemy beyond any capability of fighting.

LEVEL 20 - BARD 16

But we may as well grab one more Bard level for one last Ability Score Improvement. Again up to you if you want to cap out that Charisma modifier or take Sharpshooter for some more damage.

Now that that’s done it’s time for some Ranger levels! Oh wait...

WHY NO RANGER LEVELS? - Put simply it would’ve been very hard to get Quinn’s unique skill set without some weird multiclassing shenanigans or a Bard investment. The three things I needed for Quinn were the following:

* Bird companion (Ranger or Druid)

* Flight (Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard, Artificer, or some weird stretches of logic like “be a Druid and turn into a bird to fly lol.”)

* Skystrike (either Conjure Barrage [bad] on Ranger or Battle Smith Artificer, or Steel Wind Strike on [high level] Ranger or Wizard)

Put simply there was no combination of subclasses that wouldn’t result in weird mix of classes other than Bard. Add in the fact that I really wanted Scout Rogue levels as well as Crossbow Expert (both of which would conflict with Beast Master Ranger) and Bard seemed like the most logical course of action.

The sad truth is that in all honesty Quinn doesn’t even use Valor that much in her kit is kinda the main thing. I wanted to prioritize the crossbow shooting of Quinn more than anything. If you want a more traditional Quinn build that prioritizes the Bird then Scout Rogue 8 / Beastmaster 12 (using Tasha’s Beastmaster companions) will give you more bird and just about everything that this build did minus the flight. (If you build like this I’d also recommend dropping Crossbow Expert and simply opting for a Longbow, or seeing if you can get an Artificer teammate to make you a Repeating Heavy Crossbow.)

If you really want flight and are willing to stretch your imagination then Scout 4 / Drake Warden (UA) 16 gets Perfected Bond by Ranger level 15, allowing you to ride the flying mount. Yes you’ll have a Fireproof Valor but you can just call that Phoenix Quinn.

Of course all of this can be avoided if your DM either gives you a magic item that provides Flight or lets you put Fly on the Ranger spell list. The golden rule is to always discuss with your DM if you have a particular vision in mind, or else accept the sacrifices you’ll have to make for practicality.

FINAL BUILD

PROS

Just like hunting thresher geese - 3 hand crossbow attacks per round with a 3d6 Sneak Attack and a d6 (or d12) Blade Flourish adds up to some pretty decent damage per round overall, and that isn’t even considering Sharpshooter.

I'll follow your lead, Valor - Most of your spellcasting is utility based, meaning that you don’t need to worry about your spellcasting modifier. And hey: we got Valor without having to go for Beastmaster Ranger!

Buy me some time - Mixing Bard and Rogue together means that you have proficiency in quite a lot of skills! Expertise in 8 total skills, proficiency in one more, and Jack of All Trades for the remaining skills. You can fill any role that the party may need!

CONS

Look Val; snacks - It takes us quite awhile to get Valor; some would argue too long. Put simply there’s very little way for us to get the very specific spell list required for Quinn (Summon Beast, Fly, Steel Wind Strike) without doing some weird multiclassing shenanigans. You could go Lore Bard if you want to get access to Summon Beast and Fly faster (Scout 3 / Lore 6 = basically everything to play Quinn by total level 9) but then you’d miss out on Extra Attack among other things.

Still heart, steady aim - Low Constitution along with a d8 hit die really doesn’t do you any favors. You’ll likely have a little over 100 health, which means that it won’t take much effort to put you in Power Word Kill range.

Who's there? Jarvan who? - Honestly our Charisma is low for a Bard, and while most of the spells we took are utility based it still sucks to only have two Blade Flourishes. Feel free to use Point Buy instead for some better starting stats and less in those fairly pointless stats like Intelligence. (8 / 15 / 12 / 8 / 13 / 15 would be my recommendation to have the best Charisma you can get while still having decent Wisdom to boot.)

But your job is to scout: any kills you pick up on the way are a nice bonus. Soften the enemies up with Valor by your side and do what needs to be done to win the war without the enemy knowing you’re there. Fight differently, fight dirty, and remember that no matter what at least you’re not playing Vayne top.

(Artwork by Xu “Crow God” Cheng. Made for Riot Games.)

[dailycharacteroption]

Wild Soul (Ranger Archetype)

Art by ViciousCircle

 Not to be confused with the similarly named archetype we covered yesterday, today we are looking at the wild soul (two words) ranger!

To those living far and away from advanced civilization, the innovations and weapons of one’s wall-building neighbors can be unnerving or outright threatening. However, even superior tech has it’s weaknesses. Rule number one of guerilla warfare is learning those weaknesses so that the tide can be turned, taking down superior foes on limited resources.

The wild soul ranger does just that, coming to civilized lands to learn as much about the tactics and power of neighbors so that when the time comes, they can defeat their advantages with ease.

While some of these rangers may be anti-tech and anti-arcane magic for it’s own sake, it’s much more likely that this archetype appears in lands that are encroached upon by invaders and expansionists with superior development in weaponry and magic, advantages that, without people like the wild souls, would surely roll over them eventually.

 Having learned about all these wonders of civilization, these rangers reject them entirely, similar to a superstitious barbarian that refuses the aid of magic, though they only limit their magical taboo to arcane magic, but include alchemy and firearms instead, as well as any technology that is considered “advanced”.

Rather than favor foes based on creature type, wild souls train themselves to be superior combatants, both off and on the battlefield, against foes that use the magic and weapons they consider taboo.

Additionally, they know how best to avoid and resist such powers as well, being harder to strike down with guns, alchemy, and magic alike.

Disrupting magic, ruining extracts, or breaking confidence, these guerilla warriors know exactly where to strike to rob arcane casters, alchemists, and even gunslingers of their most powerful assets when they strike. Successfully doing so bolsters the ranger’s resolve to keep fighting.

Near the zenith of their power, they can disrupt their foes so much they lose focus and cannot use their iconic abilities for a minute unless they can collect themselves.

At their most powerful, wild souls become master assassins of mages, alchemists, and gunslingers, able to slay many in one strike, or simply knock them out.

An interesting archetype that targets class abilities rather than creature type. Spellcasters and ranged opponents alike can range from an annoyance to a serious threat, so having a character that prioritizes and disrupts them can be a big boon. If you’re going for any sort of ranged ranger, the Overwatch Style feat line is good for setting up punishing shots in response to enemy action, while melee characters will want feats that keep them in melee with their foes as much as possible to deliver attacks of opportunity as regularly as possible, such as the Step Up feat line.

 This archetype lends itself to the idea of similar rangers that train against other sorts of technologies and powersets, such as perhaps rangers that hunt divine casters out of an aversion to the influence of the gods, or perhaps against heavily armored foes, all depending on the reasons why they consider them their enemy.

  The Arroki people have no trust for arcane magic, their elders still remember when a brilliant but reckless wizard, Manok Curse-His-Name-Six-Times, accidentally summoned a devourer that ravaged the very souls of their people before it could be put down, and so now they train their hunters where to strike to keep spellcasters from working their accursed magic.

 With the collapse of a bridge, the party, as well as warriors from opposing sides, have fallen into a deep chasm, the only way out a four-day hike through darkness and monsters. They will have to mediate between the rest of the survivors if they are to survive, including a caligni wild soul, and his sworn enemy, an ifrit gunslinger.

 The Steelblood Legion marches from one shore to the other, bent on raiding and conquering all in their path. In order to stop them, the party will need to recruit experts in fighting their alchemical and gunpowder-based arsenal.

[gritsandbrits]

Also Jora's abilities and the full extent of them because I barely talk about her powers

I got the idea from watching Mr. Anybody's videos on Gwen and Charmy :) So now would be a good time to talk about what Jora's elemental power can do.

Overview: Jora is my main OC for Ben 10. A nature Elemental, her powers encompasses natural decomposition, giving her the ability to make plants rot, control multiple species of fungi, and minor Chronokinesis. She is the only main member of Team 10 to be a full human with no alien connection or origins. This was done to give a character a different theme from Ben, Rook and Kevin (aliens) and Gwen (magic), as well as to enhance the context of a human character having powers based on the planet Earth and aspects of the natural world.

Capabilities

- Mushroom Generation: Her most basic power, she can grow mushrooms and fungi. However she can't grow them outright as the environment and soil has to be suitable for any shrooms to take place. She can use existing visible samples of spores and expand them for useful attacks.

- Spore Manipulation: Jo can increase or decrease the toxicity of fungal spores, spray them directly in front of enemies, or create thick, blinding clouds. She carries spores in special vials that she keeps on her person. As an adult she csn sense spores floating in the air around her.

- Poison Immunity: Jo is immune to even the deadliest of mycotoxins. Her knowledge of poisonous mushrooms allows her to create healing potions to treats those suffering from mold poisoning, and to decrease toxic mushrooms to be safe for eating if other foods are unavailable.

- Healing Shrooms: Jo can use mushrooms clinically and scientifically proven to be beneficial and makes special concoctions to heal ailments such as bruises or dehydration.

- Hallucination Inducement: Using the spores of magic mushrooms she can cause a person to hallucinate by spraying the spores on them. It's not a power she typically likes using as she dislikes mental manipulation.

- Rot Inducement: Jo's second major ability, she has the power to spoil organic materials. Her power extends to plants, wood, fruits, and natural fibers. She has trouble using this power on humans as it only leaves swelling & bruising, worse case nasty open wounds, and her own reservations of using this power in combat. She has to get into close contact with that object and touch it with the palms of her hands. She can't shut it off, leaving her to wear gloves all the time (however this only applies to her hands). On the flip side she can slow and even stop the rate of decay once in place, and she can reduce the intensity of her power (removing dead skin cells, perfect for a facial). Her decaying power is weak against metal, minerals, glass, plastic, certain types of fabric, and most synthetic materials.

- Super-Fermentation: A sub-skill, Jo is able to ferment organic materials into alcohol, penicillin, perfumes, etc. She uses her penicillin & alcohol as essentials in her health kit; and perfume for smoke bombs (and emergency deodorant). As an adult she gains the ability to manipulate fossil fuels

Acid Spit: She gains this ability in her adult years; pretty useful for quick escapes.

Weapons and Gadgets

- Pixie Dagger: A pair of short pink and turquoise blades that serves as her primary melee weapons

- Thorn Cutters: A collection of flower shaped throwing projectiles and her primary long-ranged weapons

- Harvest Moon Crown: A diadem adorned with flowers and fruits, this grants Jo limited plant and fruit generation. To charge the crown she must place it under the light of the full moon; it's also weakest during the day and on nights of a new moon.

- Amanita Staff: A long elegant wood and crystal staff modeled off of the Amanita mushroom and her secondary melee weapon.

- The Oculus Oyster: A black seashell embedded with a pearl holding mystery power really me not knowing what power to give it shaped like an eye.

- Swamp Witch's Wand: A magical wand given to her by an alien swamp witch as a token of friendship during the Galactic Monsters Arc.

- Mother Nature's Gift: One of the most holiest elemental items, this grants the user all access to elements and nature. For a temporary time. The trick is that the token works with someone of a genuinely good heart. Anyone who tries to use it for malicious intent well...you'd see why they say "Damn Mother Nature you scary." The token also tends to change its shape depending on its current wielder or time period.

- Communicator: A wrist watch that looks exactly like the OV Omnitrix but allows her to talk to her teammates, access to the Extranet, and store data. She also has all her costumes "downloaded" so she can change out of them easily instead of having to find a bathroom or hiding spot.

Costumes

I plan for Jo to have a total of ten costumes, with a main costume for each season based on the colors of the rainbow & styles

- Season One: Pink, the magical girl inspired Petal Pixie suit

- Season Two: Orange hazmat based on earlier designs

- Season Three: Yellow, a frilly Belle inspired dress called the Enchanterelle suit (pun on enchant & the chanterelle mushroom)

- Season Four: Green, Forest Ranger-esque suit

- Season Five: Blue, another Hazmat called the Cryohazard suit

- Season Six: Indigo, possibly goth because we need more gothic magical girls

- Season Seven: Violet; scifi inspired Galaxy suit

- Season Eight: White; her "Ultimate" form with a decidedly goddesslike aesthetic

- Alt. Costume 1: Her adult suit that she wears in the 10k timeline; it is mostly red

- Alt. Costume 2: Scarab Suit, powerful ancient warrior armor colored mostly black modeled after the scarab beetle

Other

- Jo is adept at hand to hand combat stemming from her unwilling to use her full power on people

- However she is not the fastest nor physically strongest, otherwise she has balanced stats

- Jora's tends to forget things so she often keeps a list; she does make up for it by her resourcefulness and quick learning

- She can combine her powers with the life-granting Phoenix to restore the natural cycle of life and death

- Jora may have been born with her powers bur they haven't manifested until she was six years old. This is what makes her unique to Ben & Gwen in the OS: they had to learn to use powers they weren't born with to fight, while Jo was born with hers and never had prior use for them in certain situations.

Ok I'm going to have to stop there since I kinda made this post too long! But let me know what y'all think of her powers! Is she overpowered? Underpowered? I didn't want to make her a Mary Sue too much 👀 but overall I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. :)

[goldenhydreigon47]

Y'know, I'm bored. May as well talk about the OCs I have for Rebel Hearts.

Aight so context: Rebel Hearts is based on the Terraria Calamity mod and is set after the Supreme Calamitas fight (Henceforth, I shall refer to Calamitas as Cal, Catastrophe as Cat, and Devourer of Gods as Dev. Why? Because that's what they prefer to be called in the story) but before the Yharim fight. Why? Well, simple: The Yharim and Draedon fights aren't in the game yet.

Please note, the only characters original to Calamity mod involved in this story are Cal, Cat, Cataclysm (the youngest of the siblings of themself, Cal, and Cat. I'll make another post about these three and Dev since I like all four of them so much), Dev, Xeroc, Noxus, Ignalius, Providence, Yharim, Yharon, and Draedon. Everyone else is a fully original character. So, uh, yeah. Here we go!

First up is the main character: Mariko Yamamoto (he/him or they/them pronouns). He's half human and half demon and boyfriends with Cataclysm in the story. Mariko's in the Mage class but specializes particularly in ice magic. His father, who was a thief and murderer who also did quite atrocious things I don't feel comfortable mentioning on here, was killed in front of Mariko when he was only 5 years old. His mother, depressed at the loss of her husband, tragically took her own life a few weeks later. Mariko was trained in combat, education, and life skills by his brother, Kronus, until Mariko was 16. A few weeks later, Yharim came along, bringing a then brainwashed Dev and Cal with him, and demolished Mariko's entire hometown, his brother sacrificing himself to save his life. Mariko, determined to save people, guided everyone to the exits while warding off Cal, who was less aggressive seeing how noble and polite Mariko was. Afterwards, Mariko literally dies from exhaustion, but is revived by Xeroc, who mentioned that his brother's dying wish was to, "Keep Mariko safe," or something along those lines and gives Mariko temporary immortality. Three years and three hundred and sixty deaths later, he defeats Cal and her brothers, but spares their lives, knowing that they don't want to live under Yharim. Months later (and additional fifty deaths, one of which caused by a backstab from Mariko's ex-ally Necro. Also, Mariko is 20 by now), Mariko is kidnapped by Yharim and tortured, causing him to die ten more times. However, as he was chained up, Mariko saw remorse in Cal's eyes, and decided to free her himself since her brothers had escaped already. Three months later, he encounters an escaping Cal and Dev and togther, with Cal's brothers, they form an alliance to defeat Yharim, with others joining later on. Speaking of which...

Akira Tadashi (they/them) is the next major OC to join Mariko's alliance. They were a vigilante Rogue class after Yharim burned down their hometown with Yharon when Akira was 15. This, along with constant abuse from his father because of Akira's feminine looks, caused immense trauma and PTSD for Akira. As a vigilante, they sometimes encountered and helped Mariko, with Akira never saying their actual name to Mariko. Upon encountering Mariko, Cal, Cat, Cataclysm, and Dev, Mariko and Akira have a friendly duel to test each other's strength and, after Mariko wins, Akira quickly joins them in their quest to eliminate Yharim (they are 19 during the story).

Next is Josephine Joachim (she/her), or Jojo as she prefers. Raised in the village of Erupis, she is from a long line of Summoners and gained her Stardust Guardian, which she dubbed 「Guns and Roses」 (yes, this is the character most of the Jojo's Bizarre Adventure references are going to) after an encounter with Yharim when she was 14 (she's 18 in the story). Upon meeting Mariko and Cal, she offers to take the team to her hometown but tragedy strikes as her mother is killed in front of her by Draedon and his new assistant, Sunork (keep that name in mind when I give the villains analysis later this week 😉). As she watched her mother die in her arms, she realized her true purpose: Defeat Yharim and free those trembling in fear from his tyranny.

Also, Yhagrim (he/him). Labelled as the "Hermit of the Mountains," most details about him are unknown minus his age (he's 27). After being discovered by Mariko, Yhagrim explains that, in fact, he is the youngest of the sibling trio of himself, Ignalius, and Yharim (Yharim is also related to Mariko but we'll get to that in the villain info). Upon their village trying to kill Yharim for trying to obtain power with dirty deeds, Yharim goes mental and destroys the village, including killing Ignalius. When he saw his brother, Yhagrim noticed Yharim stole the dragon egg that he was given by his parents at age 13 (this egg hatches to become Yharon). Yharim then quickly takes over a majority of the world and banished Yhagrim, erasing his name from all records as well as any info about him. When asked if he wanted to join Mariko's squad, Yhagrim initially declines, but joins after hearing about some of what Yharim did to his subjects (trust me it isn't pretty. Btw, Yhagrim's Joining arc isn't complete yet but it goes DEEPLY in depth into Yharim's childhood and family life. This is just a summary). Being an expert at Melee class attacks, Yhagrim can dual wield two of the Melee's best weapons: Nanoblack Reaper and Triactis' True Paladinian Mage Hammer of Might, so don't cross him.

And finally for the main cast out of the OCs I made, Drakonis Tremaine (she/her or they/them). While this Ranger class hasn't joined Mariko's group yet, her arc is after Yhagrim's so its very soon (she even forms a love relationship with Jojo). However, I wanted to mention her here because, what the hell, I mentioned everyone else, may as well talk about her. She is notably the edgiest and angriest of the group (only getting slightly less edgy during the story might I add) and is very reckless. How this came to be? Well, as a child, she grew up around a very conservative community she didn't really care for, despite how rich her parents were. This hatred only grew as she slowly started to become more comfortable with saying she was trans feminine and lesbian. However, upon coming out to her parents, they screamed at her and abused her for several months because bastards. If that wasn't enough, because her parents were high standing citizens in her city, many of the other bigots living there harassed, bullied, and even attacked her with intent to kill. All she wanted was to be accepted and validated, which she would later gain upon meeting Mariko's group, but her idiotic community wouldn't give her the acceptance or validity she needed (this entire bigoted community thing is based on my experience as a bisexual in the highly conservative state of Kentucky. I am not okay. Send help). So, eventually, her bottled up sadness, pain, and rage erupted and she genocided everyone in her town. This temper and dark side of her was sought out by mega bastard Yharim. However, Drakonis now lived by the ideal of, "Trust nobody, not even yourself, unless your desperate," so she outright refused to join Yharim, shooting him in the arm and nearly killing him, but he escaped because of Draedon's teleportation device. Many years later (she's 18 by now), she encounters Mariko and Cal, who offer her a spot on the team. With an annoyed and sarcastic tone, she again refuses, but some midnight talks with Jojo while the group is in Erupis and another major event that takes place during Drakonis' arc force her hand causing her to join.

Main Character OC Infodump completed. Infodump on Cal, her brothers, and Dev is next, then an infodump on the villains.

Hope you enjoyed this and I'll post excerpts from the story (currently in Yhagrim's arc) soon to show what happens during each arc (which range from two to twenty five sections). : )

[fearsmagazine]

COSMIC SIN - Review

DISTRIBUTOR: Saban Films

SYNOPSIS: It is the year 2524, four hundred years after humans started colonizing the outer planets. Retired Military General James Ford (Willis) is called back into service after soldiers on a remote planet are attacked by a hostile alien fleet. The threat against the human race escalates into an inevitable interstellar war. General Ford teams up with General Eron Ryle (Grillo) and a team of elite soldiers in a race to stop the imminent attack before it is too late.

REVIEW: COSMIC SIN features an impressive cast in an action based plot that tries to address a larger philosophical/morality question about the cost of winning a war, set against the backdrop of a science fiction theme. It focuses the conflict on the soldiers caught up in an alien invasion located on a distant world.

Given the scope of the universe presented in the film, COSMIC SIN feels like an episode in an ongoing series. There are character backgrounds that are briefly touched upon, or hinted at, other significant events that are thinly explained, and the villainy of these creatures hinted at. Given all the banter between the characters we know that they are more intangled than what is presented in this tale. As with episodic stores, having come upon this tale it feels like we’ve missed something and need to catch up. What should feel a bit more epic feels less impactful in the great scale of the narrative. As such, the weighty impactions seem to take a backseat to the action.

COSMIC SIN features three top names in action/adventure/thrillers - Bruce Willis, Frank Grillo, and Costas Mandylor. If the film had included a few more recognizable faces it might have been reminiscent of a classic war film like “A Bridge Too Far” or “The Great Escape” set in space. Grillo is on point and does a consistent job of selling the tale. I enjoy what Mandylor was doing with his character and could have used a bit more screen time. Willis' performance comes across as being cast to play Bruce Willis. His character is a hardened career war veteran. He always has that smoldering expression, his attempts at levity fall flat, and he looks uncomfortable in his mech suit. It feels a tad out of step with what everyone else has going on.

In terms of the overall production, I’m not sure I’m making this connection due to the fact that Saban Films is releasing or maybe it was a criteria for making the film, but regardless COSMIC SIN looks and feels like an adult version of “The Power Ranges.” From the mech suit designs to the alien designs and their costumes, you almost wonder if this film wasn’t pitched as a story for the grown up fans of that franchise. The mech suits don’t morph and meld with these larger robots, nor do they combine into a towering droid, but there is something about them that makes them feel like the precursor to their suits/robots. The suites do transform when they create a wormhole to jump to the planet. When they arrive near the planet the suites are also flight suites and can even navigate a reentry through the planet's atmosphere, never mind flying through space. The rest of the weapons and “the space canon” also look a bit like something from a Saturday morning children’s show. In terms of the aliens, absolutely. From the leader’s mask and cape, to his claw like fingers and weapons, Go back to the very first, Lord Zedd, and work your way up the different series. Except for some of the female villains and their funky headgear, these aliens look like their cousins. There is even something about their alien spacecraft that looks reminiscent in design to the “Power Rangers” universe. You could also say it “borrows” a tad in the designs for the soldiers from the “Halo” franchise, but the Saban association leans me more towards the Rangers. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, it’s just a thing.

COSMIC SIN has an R rating. After I finished watching it I had to go back and look at it again. Never mind movies, I’ve played with more violence, cursing, sexual references than this film. Hell, even Willis seemed to be on his best behavior and was more subdued then in any of his die-hard films. Maybe I’m desensitized but at best maybe it is a hard PG-13. Again, it just leads me to that YA or teenage film for the older “Power Rangers” fans.

COSMIC SIN is certainly no “Dune,” and I mean the upcoming adaptation by Denis Villeneuve. It does have some talented actors, cool visuals, and, okay, some gear and villains that look like it’s from the “Power Rangers” universe. It’s entertaining, you can watch it with your older kids, even though you may not come away with it’s intended message about sacrifice, war, and the human condition.

CAST: Frank Grillo, Bruce Willis, Brandon Thomas Lee, Perrey Reeves, Corey Large, Lochlyn Munro, CJ Perry, Costas Mandylor, Adelaide Kane. CREW: Director - Edward Drake; Screenplay - Edward Drake & Corey Large; Co-Producer -  Daniel “Dano” Katzman; Cinematographer - Brandon Cox; Editor - Justin Williams; Production Designer - David Dean Ebert; Costume Designer - Nataliya Fedulova; Score - Scott Glasgow; Special Makeup FX Designer -  Alien Makeups; Visual Effects Supervisor - Zeke Faust. OFFICIAL: N.A. FACEBOOK: N.A. TWITTER: N.A. TRAILER: https://youtu.be/65ZM_w87ESw RELEASE DATE: In Theaters, On Demand and On Digital March 12th, 2021

**Until we can all head back into the theaters our “COVID Reel Value” will be similar to how you rate a film on digital platforms - 👍 (Like), 👌 (It’s just okay),  or 👎 (Dislike) Reviewed by Joseph B Mauceri

[jace-the-writer-guy]

Siikatsu

Appearance

(From an avatar maker app)

- Female half jungle elf, half panther ferakin with two inch long ears, two black furred ears atop her head, and a long spotted tail. She also has retractable claws on her fingers and toes, and she has a set of fangs.

- She has fairly messy but still tame black hair swept back that is just below shoulder length with multiple small braids throughout

- Deep, almost crystalline emerald feline eyes

- Five feet tall with a petite but fit, tough body

- 30D (Imperial)/ 65D (Metric)-cup breasts

- She has a dark skin color with numerous darker spots covering her arms, legs, and back like a panther

- She has the beauty of her elven side of her genetics, but the rugged features from being out in the wild for most of her life. 

- She has multiple dark tattoos on her face in the form of multiple lines and dots. Two lines and one dot above each eyebrow, one straight down her forehead to nearly the tip of her nose, four lines and three dots below her eyes at the tops of each cheek, and one dot on each side of her nose next to her eyes.

________________

Outfits 

Warm Weather (Adventure/Hunting): She wears a patchwork hide tunic covering her breasts with straps over her shoulders and a skirt made up of a leather belt around her waist and numerous hide and fur straps and feathers sewn into it and hanging from it, with more solid pieces of cloth over her crotch and rear. The belt has a pouch on the right side made of fur and hide. She wears a mantle over her shoulders made of brown fur along with fur bracers over her forearms and fur shinguards. On her left hip is the sheath for her hunting knife and over her back is a brown leather quiver for her arrows with one large pouch near the bottom of it and three smaller pouches along the along the length of it on tbe side with her hatchet hanging off the back of it above the larger pouch, with the feathered ends of the arrows sticking out over her left shoulder. Strapped to her right thigh is the sheath for her machete.

Cold Weather (Adventure/Hunting): She wears another patchwork brown hide tunic over her torso but this one covers her stomach as well as more of her shoulders. Along with that, she wears a longer, thicker skirt made up of more hide and fur straps along with patchwork leather pants under them, and she wears a pair of simple fur boots with slits in the toes for her claws to stick through when she needs to climb. She still wears her fur bracers over her forearms. The mantle she wears over her shoulders is made of thick bear fur, hanging over her back down to her rear along with covering her shoulders very well. Her knife, machete, and quiver are kept in the same places.

Warm Weather (Casual): She wears a much nicer outfit consisting of a nice, simple little cloth dress. The dress extends to her thighs with the very middle in the front and back extending a bit further down to a point. There are small leather straps over her shoulders. She keeps her knife with her at her left hip, attached to the belt around her waist.

Cold Weather (Casual): Her outfit is nicer than her other winter dress, consisting of a very nice dress of a leather tunic with short, soft fur lining the outside and inside and a long fur and leather skirt, all a mix of darker brown colors. She wears her usual fur bracers on her forearms, her fur boots, and her thicker bear fur mantle along with her hunting knife at her left side.

________________

Bio

- She is sixty four years old in jungle elven years, but is around eighteen in human/ferakin years

- She's commonly referred to as just Sika

- She is a hunter/ranger and is extremely skilled in using her shortbow and tracking her prey

- She used to mostly live by herself in the far western jungle continent of Oris after she left the tribe of wild elves and ferakin she was born into, but began to journey with Aurora back to Aerilon so she could explore the world

- Her current quiver, machete, hatchet, and casual dresses were all gifts from Aurora

- Much like Cronus does as a nickname for Aurora, Siikatsu calls her "Ara Ara" as an easy way to say her name

- Always speaks in third person

- She can't speak common. Aurora and Zennia enchanted an obsidian hexagon amulet for her to wear that lets her understand and speak common as best as she can while Aurora teaches her how to speak on her own. Even then, her common if very broken

- She loves to climb and jump around in trees, as it reminds her of her homeland.

- She doesn't like being underground, or in buildings with thick walls, especially made of stone

- After she made the decision for herself to join New Dawn, Aurora hired a druid to grow a large jungle tree in the garden of the keep and helped Siikatsu get the wood from her homeland to make a new house in the newly grown tree, with room for expansion as well

- She carries many snacks in her pouches on her quiver, ranging from jerky to candies that she likes

- Her hunting knife may be unremarkable, but it has a lot of meaning to her

- She quickly grew to be the best hunter in Dawnfire along with Ohan

- She is a follower of Unelanv, and makes sure what animals she hunts have quick and painless deaths

- She goes out to hunt almost all the time for Dawnfire's cooks to keep their food stores up, and makes gold for the guild by hunting for citizens of Aerilon as well

- It's not often, but she does purr at times when she eats something she likes

- Despite her size, she can carry and drag things almost twice her size very easily, and even drag them up trees

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Weapons

1: Heartbeat Shortbow: A shortbow enchanted to draw upon the power of her own heart, the string and shaft gaining more power the harder and faster her heart beats and pumps blood through her veins. It is a dual limbed bow with one longer base shaft and a shorter shaft in the front for added power. It is made of magical mithril wood that was stained a dark brown color with leather wrapped around the base shaft at several places and fur around the grip for her hand to wrap around. The string has two fur sound dampened at each end as well to reduce the sound and the vibrations the string makes when letting arrows fly. The weapon overall is four feet long.

2: Steel hunting knife: A simple dual edged knife with a six inch long, wide blade and wooden handle with string wrapped around the top of the handle and base of the blade. It is perfectly balanced to throw if needed.

3: Leaf-Blade Machete: A very well made, green mithril machete with the blade shaped like a leaf, with indentions in the blade like a leaf would have as well. The blade is a foot long with a dark oak handle and dark leather sheath.

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Abilities

Master Tracker: She can identify the footprints of nearly any animal she comes across and can track them for great distances to close in on her kill. This also helps her track down bounty targets.

Expert Hunter: She knows the spots to aim for to quickly take down animals she hunts in order to make it quick and painless for the animal. 

Climbing and Tree Hopping: She is a master at climbing trees and jumping from branch to branch, tree to tree. She can climb up them extremely quickly. While some may be searching for the best ways to climb something, Siikatsu has already climbed to the top.

Animal Whispering: Siikatsu can speak to different animals much like druids can, but she can't speak to them right away and has to spend a bit of time with them to understand them

[gunblade-revolusio]

Getting S Rank on Mining Base Despair

The long and short of it is this: your ranking is determined by remaining base health when the mission ends. If you have remaining heals, use them before the final wave is over.

Some other things to note:

Do not neglect gathering crystals, but do not solely collect crystals either if in a public game. Contribute in every way you can.

If somebody is incapacitated, revive them as soon as it is safe. This quest is a team effort, and you need as many people actively contributing as you can get. Consider getting the Atomizer Fanatic ring as well, so you have invulnerability during the item’s use animation and so it activates faster.

Take down Falspawn Cannons as soon as possible. They are marked as red dots on the map, and the map will flash when one appears. You can check the full map on keyboard by default by pressing the N key.

Take down Corrupted Aircraft as soon as possible. They are marked as blue circles on the map, and will delete players if allowed to run amok. If you’re a Ranger, focus fire them down with Blight Rounds so they go down faster.

The AIS can perform Perfect Attacks. The only exception is that Perfect Attacks do not affect the Photon Blaster (beam).

In public games, you generally should not deploy the AIS on Wave 1. An AIS on Wave 2 is okay, but not needed. One is fine on Waves 3, 4, and 5.

Stagger out AIS usage on later waves so that you aren’t totally out of them, or so you don’t have a point where there’s two minutes left in Wave 7 and all four of your AIS just ended at the same time.

Call out when you plan to board an AIS so there’s not multiple deployments on early waves. If you call out deploying an AIS, and somebody else deploys before you do, save your AIS for a later wave.

If reasonable to do so, try to buff AIS with Shifta and Deband to greatly enhance their damage output. Do not harass other players if they do not buff your AIS if you don’t work with them.

Burst Barriers do not prevent damage. They inflict freeze on nearby enemies, stopping their advance. They will not stop bosses, nor will they stop ranged attacks.

Burst Barriers will immediately destroy tower infections. Use this to your advantage if you’re on a weaker class that can’t immediately delete one, but don’t rush it if you can destroy them in a short timeframe.

Goldrahdas are susceptible to a special version of freeze that totally stuns them for upwards of five seconds. Ice Techniques, Ice-elemtent Wands with the Wand Focus Element skill, and weapons with the Freeze augment can be powerful tools to keep large groups of them under control.

If a wave times out, all live Goldrahdas will rush the nearest tower and attempt to explode. This explosion deals much heavier damage than their suicide explosion, and can easily overwhelm a tower or even defeat players. The safest way to prevent this is through use of a Burst Barrier, but you can pull them away with skills such as Zondeel and Gravitic Vortex if you’re not able to use one. If they fail to explode, surviving Goldrahdas will eventually harmlessly leave. Surviving Goldrahdas will immediately leave if the final wave times out.

Distract bosses and keep them away from towers as soon as possible, especially Dekor Maryuda and Falz Hyunal. If Dekor reaches a tower, it can shotgun it with all three segments dealing heavy damage in a short timeframe. Similarly, If Falz Hyunal reaches anywhere near a tower and powers up, his ground slam attack can easily do 50% to it if he’s too close.

The War Cry skill at level 3 or higher will reset enemy aggro and draw them to the caster. This is a quick and dirty way of grabbing the attention of bosses and entire Goldrahda waves in one button press.

Fal Vibras launches a bomb at the tower furthest from it at low HP. This bomb will immediately destroy a tower if it detonates, so prioritize its destruction.

The tell for this attack is it will turn around to face a tower, raise its claws into the air, and then begin forming a mass of negative Photons into a bomb, launching it to its target. This is not denoted on the map - you have to watch for this and call it out, or at worst, possibly even intercept it.

Do not focus on killing Fal Vibras before the bomb goes off - focus on destroying the bomb.

Do not quit attacking the bomb out of fear of dying to it if you think you may not destroy it in time - focus on destroying the bomb.

It is fine if Fal Vibras leaves.

Fal Vibras Yuga will immediately fire two bombs in a row at two different towers upon spawning. Similar notes apply.

It is fine if Fal Vibras Yuga leaves.

Both Fal Vibras and Fal Vibras Yuga are temporarily stunned by the Panic status effect inflicted by Light techniques. Use this to your advantage, but this will not stop existing bombs on the field from detonating, so prioritize those instead of greedily focusing on DPS.

Ultimately, remember that your goal is survival. Play defensively with people you don’t know, and if you’re in an organized run, play greedily and to your roles to the best of your ability. And most importantly...

Do not be hostile towards other players if you miss getting an S Rank.

This campaign is extremely difficult, but if we all work together, it’s doable.