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tunabesimpin · 1 year

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🐟 TWST SONA INFO 🐟

Did I rush this a lil cause i was struggling to focus? maybe- BUT HERE IS NEW TUNA REF! (no major changes but a few minor lore tweaks, I just felt a new one would be nice to do ^v^)

BASIC INFO

TAG : #twst tuna

Name : Tuna Class : 3-A (Student no. 28) Birthday : September 8th Age: 18 Height : 160 cm Dominant Hand : right Best Subject : PE Hobby : art Dislikes : Being told what to do! Favorite Food: Potato dishes and Cheesecake! Least Favorite Food : Eggplant! Talents : Fast Learner

Quick Summary: Curious and a constant day dreamer at heart. Despite their quietness, Tuna is happy to jump in to help, especially so if the it seems like something interesting. Often off doing their own thing, they aren't fond of crowds and try hard to avoid group speaking. However they'd speak up or take leadership if truly necessary.

APPEARANCE

Hair is natural gray with blue dyed tips, styled short in length. Overall body type is rectangular and flat, they have a slightly lean build with strong thighs and forearms. Kinda short, but height isn't anything they care for on themselves. Prescription glasses that only come off if Tuna is exercising or have lost them LOL. Has a few piercings; belly button piercing, dimple piercings, 0g Gauges, helix on right ear, and extra lobe piercing above gauges. Overall Fashion tends to be comfy/ baggy clothes with no design on them OR color coded outfits. Has an interest in big/ chunky shoes and mary janes.

PERSONALITY + BACKGROUND

Tuna is originally a non-magical human from the Shaftlands. Unfortunately curiosity got the best of them and while watching a big magic fight they got caught in the middle of things. This ended in them getting cursed! What's the curse? They turn into a catfish if strong magic is used near or at them. (Did they turn into one while overblots were happening? yes. Were they confused? absolutely) On the bright side for some reason they can use a magic now!

With the new discovery of magic their family sent Tuna off to NRC to hopefully let them learn how to make the most of things! They end up in Octavinelle dorm. Sexuality and identity wise, Tuna is asexual and nonbinary, they/them are preferred pronouns!

Personality wise Tuna is often seen aloof, but don't let that scare you off! They actually just are really bad at talking and opt to listen rather than talk. This also leads to them having few close friends and tending to go off and do things on their own. They can be a bit stubborn, but are easy to coax into doing things if you have the right reasoning or reward for them.

Academically, they've got good grades. However harder subjects like math tend to drop as they refuse to do work outside of class. If they can't finish the homework in class they're doing it at lunch or in between classes to avoid doing it during their free time.

In their free time Tuna likes to go adventuring, seeing animals in nature, hopping around trails, or just wandering the school grounds accompanied by their fav tunes. At night though they like to practice tumbling and flips. Outside of these they do art or listen to music.

ABILITIES

UM- Curiosity Killed the Cat! "I simply can't help myself! It's a matter of need, a matter of greed! Fulfil my Curiosity! Curiosity killed the cat!" -This unique magic allows Tuna to cast a veil over themselves and others within their touch to become undetectable! -It provides a stealth buff and hearing buff, allowing the users sounds to be muted and for other surrounding people to be easier to hone in and listen to. -This spell is hefty and excessive use (from using for too long or just too often) can cause major blot and other side effects. -side effects include: other senses become slightly weaker, ears may ring or be sensitive to loud noises, phantom noises/ lingering noises -Strong magic users with high spatial awareness may be able to see through this UM if they happen to look directly at the caster. Fishy Beginnings - Insight into just how Tuna received their curse and how they figured out the details into how to activate the curse as well as their own unique magic!

Fast Learner- They're quick to adapt and learn new things. A sort of jack of all trades, but never really excelling above and beyond in anything.

Strength + Flexiblity + Tolerance- Not super strong, but not exactly weak. They can get to a stand-off with Floyd (as long as he isn't out for blood) and lift most their classmates.

Extremely flexible and double jointed. They also have a high pain tolerance and tend not to realize when they get injured or are sick.

RELATIONSHIPS

Full Relationship & character Sprite chart -> here!

Notable relationships! :

Rook & Tuna: They sometimes share the same brain cell. They are classmates and Rook is one of Tunas fav people. Tuna loves hearing Rooks rambles and follows him around sometimes when he is stalking looking out for other students. Tuna is very curious and Rooks habits only fuels their curiosity.

Kalim & Tuna: Best friends. Their hyper happy go lucky natures bounce off of each other to create the ultra sunshine pair. This duo can be very irresponsible and can get caught up in their excitement. At the end of the day though, Tuna will make sure to protect Kalim from harm!

Floyd & Tuna: Tuna has a big fat platonic crush. They're tend to let themself be lax and free when with Floyd. They hangout a lot and will cause a commotion more often then not, whether it be from playing around or from butting heads. Floyd hasn't realized Tunas feelings... or has he?

Thanks for reading and taking interest in Tuna! ^V^ I greatly appreciate your support and time <3 !!!

#tuna be talkin #twst tuna #twisted wonderland #twst #twst oc #twst fanart #twisted wonderland oc

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cerosin-bis · 6 months

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Could I humbly request any nikodim hcs u have persnaps I want to hear more about ur trans nikodim talk pelase pelase holds my hands out eagerly

(puts one knee on the ground) anon thank you so much for this ask..... 🥺 rodion world's most special boy I love you so much. okay so. more Rodion headcanons, centered around the fact that yes I've been hcing him as trans from the start:

It all started because his default skin (as seen in the middle above) has a white, tight-fitting tank top under... his other tank top. so I said "that's his binder". the end.

He was out to his mum (who's always been supportive) before starting HRT or even being out to his friends. Like as a young teen he already felt #gender. he started medically transitioning in his late teens.

He went stealth in the special forces, but not in the military, because he wasn't publicly out (although on hrt and out to friends and family). He ~officially~ transitioned before passing the SF selection.

Literally no fucking one guessed.

Not everyone knows in the Armistice, even within Allegiance. Yegor was the first to know because at this point he's his adoptive dad LOL

Rodion is exclusively transitioning with HRT, no surgery because he doesn't really have dysphoria (yes, being buff helped him. bro started lifting when he was 18). he's just comfortable as he is. boobs are nice.

He goes to the medbay to get his T shot usually, but sometimes Nikto does it.

#rodion #nikodim egorov #headcanons #ask #cod rodion #mw19 #tysm anna and mat for the consulting on this one

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loyaltykask · 6 months

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Chapter 19

@journeythroughjourneytothewest

Can't believe Bajie just HAPPENED upon a true immortal to get him to heaven, like I wanna know how THAT backstory came about

Immediately thought is how in the HIB Video Game they give Bajie a pirate accent and say he commanded a crew I thought that was just flavor for the game, so forget he was a marshall of sailors deadass

HE IS A WATER GOD APPARENTLY AS WELL SO HE BEST KNOWS HOW TO SWIM

Just like Erlang Shen damn there are so many water gods deadass

I know Wukong teasing but also I got a point, like deadass the only reason Gao doesn't want Bajie is for his looks and reputation What a shallow fella

Wukong playing marriage counselor once again

Bajie: MY DOOR Wukong: Did you woo your wife? Wine? Gifts? You didn't even go to the matchmaker therefore a crime for a crime

I imagine this going like a Looney Tunes cartoon

Low key

Man was REFINED into metal damn. Wukong being just a stone egg

WUKONG NOT THE EAR

Metal (Wukong's element) is the naturally superior opposition to Wood (Bajie's element), as it symbolizes how metal can cut trees and foliage down. Mind always overcomes the desires to put them in place Both are meant to make the trip to the West and as such grow as people

Sun Wukong = Monkey Awakened to Nothing Zhu Bajie = Pig Awakened to Power

These are some boss ass names

Got to admit Bajie is a way better nickname than Idiot

I heard it once said that Wukong just thought his name was Idiot and that is why he called him that for so long

And when he did find it he now just said it as his new nickname

Wukong really said: Marriage was nice but you're divorced and single now SO LET'S EAT

I do appreciate that Sanzang doesn't force his own preferences on Wukong and Bajie, as long as they don't get hammered they can have purified wine

Also Wukong a lightweight confirmed

WUKONG IS SO MEAN

Can't believe Sanzang got a damage buff

+5 on heals, +0 on stealth

He really is out here target on his back

Wukong embodies the "Talk shit, get hit" even when some guy talks shit about Bajie Wukong: Only I GET TO TALK SHIT ABOUT BAJIE! A good way to start their first month together

Also, the idea of Sanzang trying to hold back Wukong who is far stronger than him is so funny to me. Probs picked him up cause he was so little

He is the only thing holding this monkey back for the next 14 years XD

#jttw #journey to the west #book club

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its-mekjt · 9 days

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Favourite parts of 3×96 (potential spoilers below the break)

in this episode of critical role, i was joined by bairn (my highland cow stuffed teddy), a bottle of water, an attempt at psychology revision (which failed), a few malted milk biscuits and a sense of impending doom because i agreed to work 12 to 10 tomorrow.

PART ONE

▪︎ this is caleb widogast in an alternate universe btw

▪︎ WHAT LITTLE COTTAGE. WHAT DO YOU MEAN.

▪︎ laura just pulling out a box of tissues.

▪︎ dorian just finding out about the lesbians

▪︎ "fearne and i had a threesome-" // "excuse me?"

▪︎ YES, LAUDNA IS POWERFUL WITHOUT HER, AND IT MAKES ME SOB THAT SHE THINKS SHE ISN'T.

▪︎ fearne loml. she can do no wrong. she's here for EVERYONE. SHE LOVES THEM ALL.

▪︎ "normally, i avert my gaze by looking down, but he's under me." (looks at ceiling instead).

▪︎ travis just slapping marisha and immediately thinking he's hurt her. CSCKLUNG.

▪︎ ah yes. the sibling life. beating the SHIT out of one another. (me and my sister did this bit she got taller than me, and i forgot my own strength, so we were forced to stop)

▪︎ i need the laura bailey vs delilah briarwood one shot.

▪︎ CHETNEY IS ME.

▪︎ bells bells plays spin the bottle when

▪︎ imogen and laudna NOOOO.

▪︎ ashton and fearne YESSSSS.

▪︎ BERTRANDS BLADE. i'm SOBBING.

▪︎ dorian is committed to the aesthetic (the blue)

▪︎ "it's like pulp in my orange juice, get it the fuck out." i'm using that.

▪︎ SUIT UP MONTAGE LETS GO.

▪︎ me looking at dorian's new fit: since when did this become a WHORE HOUSE

▪︎ fearne and ashton's fabric swap

▪︎ they're all going to freeze, but they're all going to look great doing it

▪︎ 'seth' is a bitch about timetables

▪︎ OH GOD HE'S BEHIND THE DOOR

▪︎ dorian blew them up

▪︎ why do i think gelidon is about to appear

▪︎ orym made them go near tal'dorei

▪︎ at least they're in eiselcross now.

PART TWO

▪︎ everybody FUCKING RUN

▪︎ essek swearing

▪︎ "stop fucking floating and lie down essek." fjord stone has entered the chat.

▪︎ guidance, it's nice to have.

▪︎ ESSEK USING ONE OF CALEB'S SPELLS. AWWWWW.

▪︎ of course essek has a face mask.

▪︎ ashton cannot climb trees. too buff.

▪︎ panocy top.

▪︎ JESUS CHRIST +12 TO STEALTH? (also matt's face)

▪︎ what the fuck is happening in aeor

▪︎ oh! bones!

▪︎ OH MY GOD THE TOMB TAKERS

▪︎ essek was a salmon. caleb had to carry him.

▪︎ GRIM PSYCHOMETRY (morbid geometry) ON THE DOME WOOOO

▪︎ creepy slow moving skeleton

▪︎ THEY'RE SINGING THAT SONG (https://youtu.be/ZjlYFWLUDBQ?si=jJlkyaksau0pcsmt)

▪︎ essek is a nursery teacher dealing with a group of children who won't stop touching everything

▪︎ arcane eye let's go

▪︎ who killed those vanguard members?

▪︎ peeking into that tent, then popping out like: nah, i don't need that seered into my mind

▪︎ a fight between them? oh. mind control?

▪︎ oh my giddy aunt, what the hell happened here?

▪︎ well. that's a violent way to go. love it.

▪︎ 🎶asmodeus🎶

▪︎ CHESTY MCCARVEY

▪︎ "there's a faint grinding sound-" // "son of a bitch."

▪︎ the witches + ashton

▪︎ NATURAL 1

▪︎ NOTHING NEEDS TO BE THAT TALL

▪︎ it's giving pale man from pan's labyrinth (oh my god, i have to write a 40 mark essay on pan's labyrinth and city of god in my film exam)

▪︎ MAW.

▪︎ SOMETHING CRAWLING OUT OF IT? FUCK OFF.

▪︎ robbie and taliesin are so hyped for this.

▪︎ two weeks of emotional damage, a week of physical damage.

▪︎ MY LORD THAT MAP IS GORGEOUS

there's a week long break, so there won't be one of these next friday/saturday. see y'all in a couple weeks!

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midnight-musings-of-nyx · 4 months

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How to make house of hope suck a little less:

Take your best sneaky thief with you, whether that’s Astarion or your own character

Take a tank who can carry a ton

Take someone with you who can do radiant damage if possible

Stock up on scrolls of greater invisibility, you’re gonna want like 8 of them.

Have a non-concentration based invisibility method whether that’s a potion or a lesser scroll, or a skill your rogue can do on their own.

Stock up on a handful of Otto’s irresistible dance scrolls, at least 6 (sorcerous sundries sells them)

Longstrider / haste is very helpful

You need fire resist potions for the entire group but DO NOT drink them until you’re about to trigger the boss fight

Potions / spells to buff your persuasion checks will be helpful

Save, save, save. Save constantly. Make 2-3 separate saves to be safe.

Steps once you arrive:

Talk to hope, convince her to disguise your party and that you’ll help her

Follow the path through the dining area and out to the main hallway. Turn right, there’s a hatch. Lockpick it. Go in and kill all the monsters. You can’t free her yet but killing these mobs now will save you a fucking ton of trouble later.

Go back to the main hallway

Follow the main hallway west, you can dip into rooms along the south wall as you go.

One room has an infernal gem on the door. Save. Pass the check to unlock the room. It will have some nice items & yours/mol’s contracts to steal back- take everything.

At the west end of the hallway hope will appear and you can find out about the archivist and that he’s afraid of some bitch. You want to find this out so you can use it on him.

Once you have that info go into the archives and talk to the archivist. Tell him you’re that hoe he’s afraid of and he’ll leave yall alone.

The archivist will also give you an invite to the boudoir. Ignore all the loot in the archive for now and go to the boudoir which is back down the hallway.

In the boudoir, use the faucet on the bathing pool to long rest. Save.

Go up to the back of the bedroom and deal with Haarlep. Loot the safe behind the painting- it’s trapped so disarm that first.

Go back to the bathing pool and use it again to long rest the entire group. Save.

Go back to the main hallway. Break off your stealth character from the group.

Send the rest of the group all the way back to the entrance portal and have them stand there

Take your stealth character back to the archive. Cast greater invisibility on them. Steal the gauntlets and the amulet. Save.

Approach the Orphic hammer and use the code phrase to deactivate the barrier. Steal it.

Go to the door of the archive, and stop there. SAVE.

Cast greater invisibility again, then exit the room and RUN all the way back to hope’s prison. Do not stop for anything.

Go into the prison, use the hammer to free Hope.

Pause at the ladder before going up. Save.

Cast greater invisibility on Hope

Cast a non-concentration invisibility on your rogue, whether that’s one of their skills or a potion etc. It’s important that it doesn’t involve concentration or else Hope’s invisibility will fail.

Once you are both invisible, go back up the ladder

Once you’re out of the hatch, turn based mode should activate. If it does NOT activate, turn it on!

Use turn based mode to activate dash for you and Hope and dash each of you into the first hallway on the left as far as dash will let you, so you now have a head start on the flaming ball of death

Then turn OFF turn based mode, and run to the portal room where the rest of the party is waiting.

Close the door to the portal room

SAVE

Now, set 2 smoke powder barrels next to EACH of the four pillars in the room

Buff everyone, use your fire resist potions, and do what you need in order to be ready

Save again, this time in a different slot so you’ve got a pre-buffs save and a post-buffs save

Click the portal, cutscene ensues

When given the chance to convince Yurgir to join you, save, then pass the check to get him on your side.

When fighting commences, use first action to cast Otto’s dance on Raphael

Then use ranged attacks to blow up the barrels, taking out the pillars as quickly as possible

From there, keep Raphael under Otto’s dance anytime he breaks it, and deal with the adds

Hope is an insanely powerful healer, use her!

Once all the adds are dead, time to wail on Raphael til he ded

Victory!

#bg3 #house of hope #bg3 raphael #baldur's gate 3 #this shit took me 4 hours to get down #so now u can benefit from my agony

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jaypea00101010 · 5 months

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Monster Manual Drow are Kinda Boring: Here's Why, and Here's How to Fix Them

I had a big long post planned going through a bunch of monsters in the monster manual and talking about problems with designs, but realised it was a bit rambly, so going to split it up a bit to go into a bit more detail and hopefully come out with something useful.

One of those monsters I was going to discuss, randomly picked by random.org, was the drow. They're not bad, but they could be so much more, so lets have a look.

Drow have 5 features: Fey Ancestry, Innate Spellcasting, Sunlight Sensitivity, and a Shortsword and Hand Crossbow attack.

Before we even get to the features though, it's also worth pointing out a few other things about the drow statblock. It has two skill proficiencies, stealth and perception, perception being a proficiency all player elves get, so a nice way of typing them in, and stealth telling you a bit about how to build a combat using them. They're sneaky and stealthy, and so would prefer staying in the shadows, especailly combined with their darkvision. They also speak two languages: Elvish and Undercommon. This might not be the best fit for all games as you kind of want players to communicate with NPCs, but having them not speak common as a baseline goes a fair way to establishing how apart from the regular world they are. Fey ancestry like perception proficiency links with all elves, though I can't help but feel it's a little boring, just a static defensive buff.

Innate spellcasting is a nice feature, but, while the spells gotten are the same as the player race, typing them together nicely, I don't think these spells should be on the statblock. In my opinion, spells should only be on a statblock if they add something to the fight, otherwise put them in a sidebar or something so DMs won't spend time looking for them to cast and realising they're not good, or just casting them anyway making the creature seem inneffective, MCDM does this great in Flee Mortals! by giving creatures a 'utility spellcasting' header. As it is though, all three of the spells feel out of place on this drow: dancing lights is weird given they seemingly want to be in the shadows, darkness is weird because they can't see through it, and again, if they're hidden, why do they need to stop people seeing them, and finally faerie fire also feels strange as a way to get advantage given again, the stealth proficiency feels like they should be hiding a lot, it works on the statblock as it is, but not what an ideal drow could look like (which we'll get to later).

The shortsword is just a basic attack, it's alright, but the shortbow is so much better, this isn't a bad thing though, it gives them an option if they're forced to get into melee, but also shows the DM that they're intended to fight ranged. The shortbow isn't just a normal shortbow though, on a hit, the target has to make a con save, becoming poisoned for 1 hour on a fail, or falling unconscious if they fail by 5 or more. Like I said this is pretty good, it tells you how they're meant to play, shooting from a distance, but unconscious feels a little too good for a creature this weak, and once you've poisoned a target there's not much reason to keep doing ranged attacks over melee other than that chance of unconscious, as stated making players unconcious just doesn't feel good at all, and while poisoned is good, lasting for just a straight hour also doesn't feel great either.

So what can be done to fix this?

Well, that's what I've tried to do

First, lets figure out what we want to do with this revision. My goal is to focus in on stealth and darkvision, this revision will make drow more sneaky and focused on hiding in darkness, I also want to give more reason to keep using that shortbow and staying at range, rather than just doing to poison and then doing whatever attack they want.

So, how to do it. First lets just completely scrap innate spellcasting. It doesn't add anything to this revision (or the original), so lets get rid of it. Second, lets add something else to encourage that hiding and staying in the darkness. to this end I've added two features: one that lets drow hide even just in dim light or darkness, and then one that lets them hide as a bonus action.

I then reworked the shortbow, instead of forcing a con save, now just doing extra poison damage on a hit, making it already just better than the shortsword, and then if the drow beats the target's AC by 5 or more, it also poisons them until the end of their next turn. This speeds up gameplay a bit, keeping everything on just a hit, and then also encourages the drow to hide. If the drow hides, not only do they have a better chance to hit, but also now to poison, even more encouraging use of the shortbow.

I did also include a variant that's closer to the original poison/unconscious though, for players that want to use it.

My idea is that with these drow, other statblocks (of other drow) could be used to create darkness and shade, to help these drow and feel more cohesive, in fact I made another drow just like that to go along side this revision, so here they both are!

If you've gotten this far and are interested in this kind of thing, come join my discord where I show these things off first and is generally just a great place to discuss 5e homebrew.

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princess-of-the-corner · 9 months

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Figured Out The Potions!

Green: Aqua

Blue: Ice (Bonus Buff of Freezing Water You Stand On!)

Purple: Space

Red: Fire

Yellow: Stealth (No noise from footsteps + Invisibility when holding breath)

Orange: Hyper (You just want to keep moving, + speed boost)

Pink: Defense (You take no recoil when you get hit by an attack)

Oh nice!

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monstersdownthepath · 1 year

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Monster Spotlight: Giant Sundew

CR 12

Neutral Huge Plant

Bestiary 6, pg. 258

It’s nice to do a simple monster now and then, isn’t it? Especially after the 3000 paragraph monstrosity I recently posted! And so we have the Giant Sundew, a creature just complex enough to be interesting but simple enough that I can write a succinct article in the haze of manic energy I find myself in.

Like many, many, many examples of Golarion’s carnivorous flora, the Giant Sundew’s primary divergence from its tiny and mundane kin are sturdy roots that have evolved beyond the need to try and scavenge for nutrients in the soil and instead let the thing crawl around like a spider. While most flesh-eating flowers crawl at glacial paces, the Sundew is surprisingly speedy at 20ft/round, downright lightning fast compared to the 5ft or 10ft speeds of lesser plants! There’s also its space and reach being a step above other meat-eaters, too, at 15ft each, giving it an impressive threat radius that a party may just blindly bumble into.

Though it has no Stealth capabilities, almost every Plant monster that’s “mundane plant Except Bigger” relies somewhat on fading into the background of their homes right up until they lash out with their vines and leaves, but this trick can’t be pulled on an attentive party more than once or twice in a campaign. Eventually they will catch on and start making Perception checks specifically to watch for plantlife that’s more mobile than it should be. Those vines moving without wind? Those leaves closer than they were a minute ago? Time to start burning them on the off-chance they’re hungry.

... pft, “off-chance.” of course it’s hungry! everything on golarion wants to eat delicious human flesh!

Sundew aren’t particularly picky, though, which is a refreshing change of pace from the man-eating menagerie. They’ll eat just about anything they can catch, from giant bugs to birds to any wildlife that’s drawn in by the tantalizing aroma of honey that they exude, to any adventurers drawn in by the tantalizing sparkle of loot among its leaves from past victims. Most of them, of course, will just end up joining the bones of the past.

That 15ft of reach is put to good use by the Sundews, having two slam attacks they can make, each one dealing 2d6+10 damage... or more, if the plant elects to use its Power Attack. Yes, a Giant Sundew has just enough Intelligence to have access to feats, including Power Attack, Combat Reflexes, and Lunge, extending its reach ever-so-slightly further when it needs to. The Acid of the Giant Sundew deals 1d6 Acid damage to any creature slammed by the plant, grappled by it, or otherwise touching it, but it affects only organic substances; it has no effect on metal or stone. Interestingly, Sundews can recognize if a creature isn’t being affected by its acid and will refuse to attack such creatures--especially when more vulnerable prey is nearby--not wishing to waste time and energy on a creature that it cannot digest. A party wishing to avoid combat with a Giant Sundew can buff themselves with Communal Energy Resistance, dissuading the creature entirely after the first round! So long as the party doesn’t force it to defend itself, the Sundew will wallop everyone once or twice to see if it can get a taste, and will wander off once it confirms it can’t.

Everyone else, though? Hoo boy. Hooooo boy. The highly Adhesive dew on the Sundew’s arms isn’t just for show; that stuff is top-shelf sticky, glomming onto anything it slams automatically without needing a grapple check and quickly becoming a hold that is literally impossible to break without killing the plant or neutralizing the Adhesive. I’m not emphasizing that for dramatic effect, the ability literally states any creature grappled by a Giant Sundew cannot get free without removing the goo, which requires potent alcohol or Universal Solvent. If the Sundew takes 10 or more points of Cold damage, the Adhesive freezes and cracks away 1 round later as well, but it renews the round after unless the chill is re-applied. Just... try to be careful with AoE Cold damage. Wouldn’t want to freeze your poor Barbarian, right?

Any creature grappled by the Sundew can not only be slammed repeatedly, but suffers 2d6+10 + 1d6 Acid in constriction damage as well, which is typically enough to spell the end of anything caught in its grasp... especially since that grasp is inescapable, letting it take its time beating the victim to death. Any weapon brought to bear against the plant is similarly stuck unless the wielder succeeds a DC 23 Reflex save after every attack, so an especially unlucky party may be bereft of their best weapons after a single round, severely limiting their ability to fight back or free their stuck allies. Maybe shoot it from a distance?

A long distance, preferably around 40 feet away, because once per day, a Sundew brought to half HP or lower immediately releases a cloud of Stupefaction Pollen in a 20ft radius around it. Any creature caught in this cloud must make a DC 23 Fortitude save or take 1d6 Intelligence damage and become staggered for 1d4 rounds. It’s not particularly dangerous on top of what it can already do, but when you’re already being eaten by a giant plant, being staggered for a few rounds just feels insulting.

You can read more about them here.

#Monster Spotlight #CR 11 to 15 #Pathfinder #Dungeons and Dragons

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retphienix · 3 months

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I haven't played too much today thus far since I'm confined to solo queue and solo play today (oof) but some opinions on some of the adjustments.

Short version: Looking forward to much much more and thoroughly enjoying what I've tried on difficulties 4~8 range (I don't like soloing helldive since I feel tunneled to stealth and jack of all trades loadouts- so not bothering)

Punisher: MUCH better place than it once was and arguably is just where it should be in terms of how primaries are balanced. It does it's job and does it well as an ammo stable slightly harder hitting but slightly more accuracy demanding Breaker. I think I love it? But I am still holding out for the pseudo med armor pen of the slugger once I get that thing (bought it while typing this).

Heavy Laser: MUCH more fun and useful than it was. I actually never considered the "intended use" the devs claimed for pre-patch, it was a damn poor version of a Machine Gun- infinite ammo or not. But as a medium armor pen weapon it definitely shows a lot more promise and effective utility in a loadout.

But.

It kinda still falls into a middle ground between "swarm clearing" and "heavy targeting" that's a bit awkward- definitely has potential in a squad but not something I would recommend to anyone playing solo like I was.

It instantly melts through any medium armor targets like hefty bugs or most bot targets, but it's still entirely useless against heavy armor and as such struggles to tickle chargers outside of post-charge which is the same period of time when literally any weapon can tear them down so- it has found "a place" but that place is strictly medium armor clearing and slight ammo efficiency buff to your other weapons. DECENT buff, definitely needs some more in my opinion- perhaps a complete rework of lasers in general would help as some have posed that "heat" weapons should melt off armor with extended contact. Purely hypothetical, but that'd do it.

Stick to unsafe-charged railguns for heavy stuff, if you're so inclined. (or any other option, I'm just pointing at the recently-brought-in-line-but-still-extremely-effective option)

Flamethrower: 10x more fun and effective, still demands team play or it slacks. The thing does nearly immediately kill anything in its flames that isn't heavily armored. Not sure what people claiming it does well against chargers are on about- unless they mean in team play where nothing else is involved.

In a "literal 1 v 1" with no distractions I think it'd do alright- it acts like the arc thrower in just "doing damage" and not super caring about the armor, but just like the arc thrower it's not an armor destroying monster- it takes TIME to kill the charger (10~ shots of an arc thrower can do it and I find that far more reliable than using a flamethrower).

But, I was solo and dealing with swarms AND chargers, so maybe in that 1v1 scenario it can melt their health bar reasonably, I can't say after 1 field test.

Now, the flamethrower does not in any way need to be an armor killer, I'm just mentioning it as it's one of the two things I tested against. It's MILES better against adds now, but it's not magically a charger killer- it just "can" do the job. Good buff! Still holding out that they implement some CC to fire damage so that enemies are staggered/scared by flames!

120kg barrage: Eeeeh. It's definitely 300% better than it was, for reference the 120 and 380 were fucking useless prior- their gimmick of "A barrage of explosions over a HUGE area" just didn't serve a real purpose in gameplay- not to mention they didn't even, you know, "barrage" an area, they kinda just went "This 9000 square feet area? We're gonna drop... hmmm.... 3 fire crackers in there randomly. Hope that helps!"

NOW, the 120 is actually pretty nice at softening up some objectives because it actually stayed near the intended target area. I tossed one onto 2 different egg batches and saw it genuinely soften up the area- nearly solo'd one 40~ egg batch on its own while killing a lot of the enemies in the area and even knocking out a nest or two I believe. It ACTUALLY serves a nice purpose of "slightly big area getting softened up".

Now, the utility of that depends on what other strategems people bring, but I know my preference for such things would pick something like the orbital barrage for its spammable cannon spray over this thing- but at least it WORKS now- I can see this actually helping!

Shield backpack: It's still insanely good. I genuinely think this is "almost" the perfect nerf because I can't say I think it's entirely overpowered anymore, but I can say it's still an incredibly versatile "get out of jail free" card that skips staggers and damage more often than it doesn't.

I genuinely think increasing its recharge delay in and out of "shield break" did well to make it no longer a borderline invincibility tool that you feel obligated to have at all times on higher difficulties- opening the way to more backpack options in my opinion. Kinda.

Because I said "almost". It's still an insanely useful tool and I still can't rightly say I'd prefer a backpack weapon over it, but perhaps I'm being a coward for disliking sudden slows from hunter tongues. In truth, that's a skill issue now ain't it, I simply think until we have more options to avoid stagger/slow or "ignore a damage source every now and then" like the shield does- the backpack will remain HIGHLY valuable to almost-if-not-certain overpowered degrees.

Still a good nerf in my opinion.

Liberator Concussive: It just got a name change don't go expecting anything. It's still bad and nothing changed beyond getting a much better name.

Railgun: I don't use railgun like at all, but I know what it did (and used a handful of times) prior to the patch and I have seen/heard what it does post patch. Sounds like it now HAS to overcharge to unsafe ranges to accomplish the same thing it did pre-patch in safe.

So like.

That means it's literally the same as it was pre-patch except you have to put some skill, timing, and positioning (to have time to charge) into using it, lol, sounds like a good nerf to me. If you want backpack-less armor pen with ammo to spare then it's still the tool to pick, you just have to use unsafe all the time now which seems more than fair when every other weapon has to be used intelligently to succeed. lmao

Breaker: It literally lost 3 rounds and some max ammo, big whoop lol

Still need to test the 380 and I plan to run the railgun for a few 7-8-9 runs to get a real feel for this new "actually try" era of railgun, but overall I like most of what we got adjusted.

Oh, and the spray and pray, but I'm not holding my breath much. I mean it's DEFINITELY gonna be better than the unusable state it was in, but it's also just not the weapon I'd strive to use much anyway so I'll certainly test it but I don't expect much.

I'm still looking forward to MUCH more in terms of balance adjustments, as I think many are, but I enjoyed what's here.

Also armor works now. It's underwhelming, but I'll be completely honest, I kind of expected as much because speed > armor in 90% of games so I figured armor would get fixed and still not really impact higher difficulty play much.

Maybe later adjustments will make it matter more? But for now it's still "Be fast, bro." and that's fine enough.

#helldivers 2 #RetPlays

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crystalelemental · 1 year

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Unit Teambuilding - Variety Agatha

Ah, Variety Scouts. I'm sure everyone's happy about this.

General Overview Agatha and Arbok are a Poison support. Weak to Psychic. Uh-oh. Agatha is two BP units wrapped into a limited unit. Poison Sting to Poison, Wrap for Trap, Leer to debuff defense, and trainer move is 1MP with +2 Atk/Sp Atk/Crit. Just +2. Joy. She'll heal the team's HP half the time when she hits a foe with status, raises only her own defenses by +1, and ups her odds of Poison. Grid offers some odd utility like healing and a little bit more boosting of offenses, notably Team Sharp Entry.

Okay let's not mince words: Agatha does not do anything the combination of BP Erika and BP Clemont couldn't. BP Erika has Toxic (better than Poison) and Trap, while BP Clemont has Screech (better in Gauntlet for debuffing) and Synchro Healing (more consistent). Agatha may have all the tools for stall, but her poison is weaker, her healing inconsistent, she doesn't buff team defenses just her own, and is generally odd. She feels like a support you slap on for answering Gauntlet gimmicks. Like, hyper specialized to that function. And that's not terrible. Except it is because Poison is a terrible choice, being bad against Cobalion and irrelevant against Tornadus. If you wanted to answer Gauntlet, why didn't you just bring Glare? Oh because Wrap isn't a Poison type thing, and you need an attack to do Poison? Then drop Hostile Environment for On a Roll 9 on Acid for special defense drops instead of Leer. It's more valuable in every way. Moreover, weak to Psychic means that her best utility traits - countering Uxie and Trapping out Cresselia Phase 1 - are hindered by the fact she's weak to like everything they do.

I dunno man! I get that her defenses are really high, and she’s got some nice healing potential with a +3 crit in one turn function, but I just feel like she’s not doing anything truly unique. Which is a shame because man is the current Trainer Files event selling me on Agatha.

Move Level and EX? Support, so 3/5 is pretty necessary. Even more so because her role is surviving long enough to continuously check gimmicks. She can't afford to drop early. So you need those healing bits. EX gives the stats and the double damage, which means better odds of survival. She's pretty demanding.

Team 1: V!Agatha, Emma, Tech Magneton/Tech Nidoqueen This is, perhaps, a little obvious. But a guaranteed Poison effect means Emma gets to run wild with her Buddy move. Tech Magneton is selected for CS, to further drop defenses and hopefully let Emma perform a full denial on Turn 2. In Gauntlet, Tech Nidoqueen is able to debuff everything for you, which is generally helpful for survival, and specifically helpful for Latias.

Team 2: V!Agatha, Shauntal I'm willing to bet they could do this as a duo. Agatha applies the status needed to answer Uxie, and with Team Sharp Entry, the literal exact buffs Shauntal needs to cap offenses without investing energy in self-setup. Shauntal kicks ass as a DPS unit, and Agatha's passive healing easily offsets the burn damage Shauntal inflicts on herself. If you need a third, you can slot in just about any striker that won't take up extra gauge. Or Tech Nidoqueen again.

Team 3: V!Agatha, Brycen, Lodge Steven Cresselia's biggest weakness during setup phase is Trap. Agatha provides needed trap damage, tearing Cresselia apart in its early phases. Brycen is the usual Haze answer, keeping evasion from factoring in, while Lodge Steven is chosen for a few reasons. One is, special. He'll end later phases quickly. The other is, Stealth Rock. Bonus passive damage. Your goal is to take out Cresselia's first phase without seeing Thunder Wave; you'll need some stall on Brycen's part, but it can be done with enough passive damage. Agatha has Antitoxin, so she blocks Toxic.

Team 4: V!Agatha, Flannery/Electabuzz, Hilda/BP Sophocles Alright, let's address the Gauntlet stages that she doesn't work well against, because Poison is bad. Flannery provide burn, and between the two, you're able to hit every Cobalion phase without issue. Flannery is acceptable as a damage dealer, but Hilda combos well with Agatha thanks to Leer. If using Flannery, use anything that can flinch. If using Hilda, use Tech Magmar. For Tornadus, remember that Agatha heals on every hit against a foe with any status, not just poison. So she can offset the AoE attacks somewhat, especially with heals on Leer. BP Sophocles is chosen because Agatha perfectly caps off his needed attack.

Final Thoughts I admit to having some serious difficulty with teambuilding around Agatha. I don't think she's strictly bad, but I do feel like most of her Gauntlet career is spent on being kinda bad at her job. Poison is just not an effective tool, and being Psychic weak severely hinders her against Uxie, Azelf, and Cresselia, two of which are meant to be fights she answers. I do think in CS, she has utility as someone with a quick burst of buffs, including capped crit, but she has little else to show for it. I think her biggest problem is Poison Sting. Poison Fang with HE1 as a passive would've been amazing for CS stall, but she got basic Poison which sucks. Glare would've been amazing for Gauntlet, swapping out Leer and putting Acid over Sting, but they didn't do that. And it's to her detriment. I just don't respect her kit. I feel bad because I want to love it. But it's just got a lot of problems.

#unit teambuilding #variety agatha

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princess-stabbity · 1 year

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the main reason i haven't been posting much lately is i got pathfinder: wrath of the righteous for my birthday and it's eaten my brain. i suggested amy play it, and offered to compile a mini guide, based on the immense amount of walkthrough reading and trial-and-error i have endured to get the most out of this clunky but enjoyable game. this is that guide. feel free to read or reply with your own tips, tho technically i'm just posting this here so it won't get lost in our messages.

in order (so you can know where to skip to) we have

general tips

mods

combat tips

crusade tips

general build tips

party build tips

chapter 1 tips

chapter 2 tips

chapter 3 tips

chapter 4 tips

general story tips

the secret ending

general tips

if you want a more detailed and spoilery guide, check out neoseeker or search the pathfinder_kingmaker subreddit (which is the main source for neoseeker's guides). the wiki kinda sucks.

the toybox mod is highly, highly useful. it's basically a dozen mods in one: it lets you get achievements with mods enabled, changes the dumb alignment system, allows polyamory, lets you cheat stuff into your inventory, respec characters on the fly, hear dialogue interjections from absent party members, etc. i strongly recommend it.

save like crazy. good god, the backtracking i have done.

owlcat's sense of pacing is real weird. like apparently in kingmaker they completely reverse the usual rpg logic and you need to do main quests before you can kick it with side quests (...usually). wrath of the righteous is a little better, but still kind of weird and uneven. i'll try to give headsups in the story tips section, but if in doubt, check if there's a lil red hourglass symbol in the journal. that means you need to do that before the main questline is done. they also usually warn you if a main quest is a point-of-no-return for the chapter.

the alignment system is...pretty dumb, imo. as i understand it, "good" and "evil" choices actually pull you towards neutral good and neutral evil, so you can end up like a guy i saw on the subreddit recently, who ended up losing his paladin powers while being explicitly praised by an angel for "pleasing heaven." bc it knocked him into neutral good. anyway, this is why i strongly recommed turning on toybox's "fix alignment system" setting, which should make it work the way you'd expect it to.

have at least one companion with high perception (pets are great for this, and every character rolls independently so more is better) and keep your finger on that tab key, brother. there are hidden shinies every goddamn where.

the puzzles are plentiful and most of them are very bad and annoying. i don't recommend bothering trying to figure them out yourself, just look up a solution. i say this as somebody who usually rawdogs bioware's tower of hanoi obsession.

while resting in the field, there are roles that call for one character to have high lore (religion), one to have high stealth, one to have high knowledge (world), one to have high knowledge (arcana) OR (iirc) lore (religion), and two to have high perception. one character can't fill multiple roles at once. that said, the knowledge rolls are optional (crafting/buffs), and the perception roles won't be needed if stealth does well enough. main takeaway being: try to keep at least one character with you that has a high religion score, and one that has a high stealth score, so you can rest peacefully.

if you see a nice item in the shop, it will probably be available in later acts. i busted my ass trying to buy shit early, in case i lost access to the vendors who sold it, but i've found most things are available again later from a different vendor. there are exceptions, but like. don't worry too much. the main upside of buying stuff early is that in some cases, it allows you to get two. main ones to look out for, off the top of my head, are the icy protector and red salamander rings. you can get two of those. broadly i'll say that, if you're debating what to buy in chapter 1, start with hawke and joran's stock.

when you leave an area, a prompt comes up that allows you to snag all the loose gear left on the map. you can sometimes use this to get around weight limits by dropping stuff and picking it back up via this menu, right before you leave. that said, buy bags of holding as soon as you find them.

"bulk selling" allows you to gather all the vendor trash in one go, which saves a lot of time and helps show what is, in fact, vendor trash. which is smth i struggled with a lot, early on. sell those giant spider legs, they ain't used for shit in this game.

in general, if it ain't unique and you're not using it, sell it. i've even sold some uniques i know i'll never use, like that diadem only usable by kineticists.

mods

unity mod manager

toybox. strongly recommend turning on "fix alignment," "allow achievements," and "no jealousy"

modfinder. a tool that lets you browse, search, (un)install, and update mods from both the nexus and github quickly and easily.

won't bother linking them all (should be able to find them in modfinder if you're interested) but for extra subclasses, feats, etc, i use tabletop tweaks, expanded content, and tome of the firebird. i find it kind of tricky and glitchy, but visual adjustment 2 allows changing portraits and character models. respecmod allows you to fully respec characters, rather than being restricted to respeccing them from the level you recruited them at (e.g., you could make seelah not a paladin, or choose new hexes and spells for ember's first 3 or 4 levels).

note that when updates hit, your mods may need to be updated, and since they get baked into your save, you can be SOL if a mod you're using is broken by an update and been abandoned by the author. so maybe don't be like me and download like 4 different class content mods. (that said, in my experience so far, mod authors have been very fast at updating for patches. the toybox dev in particular is quick as hell, thank christ.)

combat tips

the difference between life and death in this game is buffing. try to get a grip on what buffs do or do not stack, and which ones can be cast in advance so you don't have to spend a turn on it. some good ones in my experience: mage armor, protection from alignment, resist/protection from elements, all the stat buffs (e.g. cat's grace), magical vestment, barkskin, haste.

pets are god. dogs, wolves, and velociraptors are especially great, because they can trip enemies (w/o needing to select the "trip" feat), which makes the enemy lose a turn (they have to spend it getting up) and opens them up to bonus attacks from all party members in melee range (attack of opportunity). mounts (esp horses) also rock because their AC and health essentially act as a barrier, so make 'em as chunky as possible. investing in better stats (via the boon companion and/or mythical beast feats) is recommended, esp if you're multiclassing.

don't forget to buff pets! i give them all mage armor and magical vestment, just as a baseline, and if a tough battle is coming i also use bull's strength/cat's grace and uh. animal embiggerer. whatever the name is, i forgot and don't feel like looking it up. both camellia and nenio should be able to get it. oh, barkskin is good, too, i have lann cast his on his pet, since he's rarely on the frontlines and has great AC. magic fang, esp the improved version that lasts for hours, is great.

scrolls are fun and easy to use. they can fail if your character doesn't have a high enough "use magic" skill, but there's no skill check if it's a class spell (i.e., one their class can learn, not necessarily one they already know). this basically means you get a free casting of that spell, no spell slot required. arcane int-based casters can also learn spells from scrolls (tho you lose those extra spells if you respec and will have to learn them again).

scrolls are also good for having access to cures for some of the nastier debuffs, especially in chapter 1, where you don't have access to a cleric unless you rolled one yourself or specced lann into it. buying some emergency remove blindness and restoration scrolls are recommended.

potions can basically act as a free spell, just like scrolls, but with the added bonus of not requiring any "use magic" skill. so have your fighters and rogues etc glug away

crusade tips

the key is to recruit either chief ageboya or setsuna shy as your general (and, if you create a second force, recruit whichever of the two you didn't pick first). place melee units to stand guard in front of archers, and use the archers + your general's scorching ray/fireball to wreck the shit out of enemy units before they can even reach your melee lines. once they get healing spells and some ranks in master of maneuver (+1 unit per army) shit really pops off.

don't accept heavy losses. reload.

never feel like you have to fight an enemy army that isn't marked green. just wait.

bite the bullet and give irabeth that 7k for extra soldiers, it's worth it.

my fav units so far are hellknights, clerics, shieldbearers, and any kind of archer but especially marksmen and mongrel archers. pick up more of these units often.

army get strong from more guys + the general leveling up

it can be difficult to figure out a good rhythm for moving your party vs moving your armies, but you pick it up after awhile. basically, have your army move until they run out of points, then send your party wherever they need to go. once the clock at the top of the page hits midnight, take control of your armies again to hit "continue" so they continue moving. switch as often as necessary to get everybody where they need to be.

when building outposts, start with the engineering workshop (lowers costs for all subsequent buildings), then start placing a supply cart in basically every outpost you've captured. inns can generate income, but only if you place them before/instead of garrison buildings.

i would also recommend saving the left block of space in drezen for the 4-square buildings, and building stuff like hospitals and apothecaries in the lower block of space, leaving the main block for military units and buff buildings. but that's just me.

don't feel like you have to wipe every enemy off the map. due to the way morale mechanics work, it's good to spread battles out a bit.

in chapter 3, it's better to spend funds on buildings and mercs than trainable troops (e.g. footmen, archers, light scouts). try to have a decent number of forts built up by the end of the act.

save a few decrees that boost morale for a rainy day. just in case.

there's a limit to how many forts and bastions you can have, so think strategically about which ones you want to upgrade. having the ability to teleport to different parts of the map can really help cut down on travel time (assuming you want to).

you can save while on the world map (tho only one save per in-game calendar day for some reason), and it's a good idea to save before entering drezen, because often scenes in the citadel will trigger automatically when you load in.

general build tips

i recommend tabletop tweaks and respecmod. the former adds some good content from tabletop (the pet feats in particular are great), and respecmod allows you to fully respec your companions (goodbye, subpar class choice and un-respeccable character levels!) or respec your main character without having to fully remake them from scratch and lose their 'biography' section. i can grab the relevant settings for you if need be (took a lot of trial and error to get a handle on that).

dexterity is king. high dex builds are generally much sturdier than armor-based ones. part of why cat's grace is arguably the best of the stat buff spells.

point-blank + precise shot are basically necessary for everyone except strict melee characters. even spellcasters have to take these as soon as possible, because many spells count as ranged attacks and frankly you don't have enough slots early on not to use a crossbow anyway.

due to an exploit, lots of people take the crane style feats to buff AC. it goes dodge -> improved unarmed strike -> crane wing/riposte/etc. i don't really think they're necessary on normal difficulty (and tabletop tweaks might remove the exploit by default? haven't checked) but it's good to know.

another very good feat chain is weapon focus -> dazzling display -> shatter defenses, especially if you decide to go with the trickster mythic like i did and get the persuasion 1 trick, or have a skald or dirge bard in your party.

the outflank teamwork feat is also fantastic. mostly for melee fighters, but if you have a feat to spare on a ranged fighter, you may as well (iirc they can proc but not benefit directly from it). make sure to get it on pets, too, including mounts (they count as being in range with their rider at all times!). pets need 3 int to choose teamwork feats, so either give them all a boost to intelligence, or wait until you have a +2 int tiara and keep it in the inventory to put on them for levelups (as i do).

archmage armor and abundant spellcasting are very good mythic abilities for spell casters. you probably want to prioritize them. note that archmage armor only works if YOU cast mage armor on yourself (e.g., don't have a party member do it for you), but the bonus still applies if it's via potion or scroll.

cleaving shot is a great mythic ability for ranged characters. it's free AOE.

if you get tabletop tweaks, there's a short feat chain that's smth like nature spirit -> animal companion, which is a pretty low-cost way to get an animal companion without multiclassing. go wild. who needs to fit thru doorways.

combat reflexes and ever ready mythic ability are excellent choices for melee units, especially with trip and outflank. extra attacks of opportunity basically let your melee units say "oh no you don't" when enemies try to run past them to hit your ranged characters.

if you want to plan future builds, you can always save, then use toybox to grant yourself full levels to plot out the possibilities. i did that a lot.

party builds

seelah: a lot of people say seelah is a mediocre tank, but there's actually a pretty easy way to fix that: a tiny dip in oracle. i leveled her up as a paladin until 5, when she gets her horse, then took a level of oracle and chose nature mystery, which gives her access to an ability called "nature's whispers," which lets her use charisma rather than dex for AC. ta da! as a bonus, there's an "extra revelation" mythic feat option, so i also grabbed her the one that gives boosts to nearby animals. now she's one of the strongest members of my party. for the oracle curse, most people would rec wolf-scarred face, but i don't like that for story reasons, so i chose the one that affects her movement speed, because she's on her horse 24/7 anyway. "pranked" is also ok. if you don't use tabletop tweaks (or turn the fix off in settings) you can also take a dip in scaled fist monk, to stack the charisma AC bonus (i didn't).

camellia: pretty solid all-rounder, generally best as off-tank and skill monkey. i recently respecced her original subclass from spirit hunter to shadow shaman because i think it makes more sense, and paired with a two level dip into alchemist vivisectionist, i think i've finally got her in a good place after trying out a pretty subpar build. that said, straight shaman is not bad for her; general strategy is to give her iceplant hex and the icy protector ring to boost her armor early on, then have her slap on some buffs and go melee with her rapier.

lann: i recommend either giving him only one level of his default class, or, perhaps better yet, fully respeccing him into crusader cleric and/or demonslayer ranger and/or wandering marksman hunter. it makes more sense in-universe imo, and it's more useful (zen archer monk has some abilities that are kind of neat, but by endgame they have accuracy issues that weigh them down). i went ranger and it's been pretty swell, but i think next time i'll make him a cleric and give him "impossible domain: animal" ASAP so he can get back the sweet, sweet velociraptor buddy i gave him (true MVP of the party).

wenduag: sadly can't give too much advice here, but i've heard that mutation warrior + throwing axes turns her into an absolute beast. (note, however, that it takes a stupidly long time to get good throwing axes 💀 baby need CARNAGE)

woljif: haha sneak attack go brrrr. generally focus on self buffs (e.g., mirror image) and stuff like grease and haste and he'll do just fine. as long as another character is flanking the same enemy, or he's behind his target, he can dish out good damage, and sense vitals can fill the gaps in-between. that said, despite the name, i don't rec having him go arcane trickster, they're more of a blaster class. "slippery mind" rogue ability is a good idea, along with sneak attack debuffs.

ember: my baby. my joy. light of my life. against murder but very good at it! i personally leveled her as a mystic theurge (YOU get to be an oracle! YOU get to be an oracle! everybody gets a dip in ORACLE!!!), but that has devolved into a very delicate balancing act of spell selection, so you'll probably just want to level her as a pure witch, or witch with a minor dip in loremaster (so she can get, say, greater command, a spell available to oracles and clerics). pop that ring of the red salamander on her, give her weapon focus: rays and a few fire-based feats, maybe some enchantment ones to give her some very in-character non-violent CC options, and she's good as gold. pay attention to the description of hexes. some of them, like evil eye, are reduced to a single round if the enemy saves...which means, if you follow it up with a cackle each round, you can keep them debuffed forever, save or no save. protective luck and fortune are also great if you use toybox and toggle the option to have cackle extend for 10min out of combat. you can have ember buff-cackle-buff-cackle each party member to get universal advantage for hours.

nenio: ok look. scroll savant is not a bad subclass, i am told. but i highly recommend instead fully respeccing her as an arcanist brownfur transmuter. it makes just as much sense for her as a character, and they truly are the best buffers in the game. i am terrified to go anywhere without her now. she can juice all the stat boost spells, AND she can share "range: personal" buffs like shield or hurricane bow (tho i've recently learned seamantle doesn't work, i assume as an oversight 😑). she's effectively a spontaneous caster but can also learn spells from scrolls. as with vanilla nenio, all her lore and knowledge scores are crazy high, she can use basically any magical device (hello, spare wands!), and can take feats/gear to boost her illusion caster level to "fuck you, die." i'm telling you, brownfur transmuter nenio is the blueprint.

daeran: the king of healing. also an extremely solid buffer. honestly just go full oracle, maybe give him a second mystery. i went "bones" because, as a dhampir, i need the mcfucking help. it turns out animate dead is great for throwing meat(less)shields to buy time and protect squishy caster types. truly the backbone of the party.

sosiel: i used "impossible domain: animal" to give him a nice horsey, to keep him safe, since he is basically a dex-free tin can. "community" is also a very popular additional domain choice for him, since "guarded hearth" is apparently a good buff (can't say, have only remembered to use it once). keep him with glaives, there are a lot of good ones and the specialization is free, so...

regill: this little man slays. that said, you're way better off leveling him some more as an armiger, or dipping into cavalier, than giving him more levels in hellknight. i gave mine beastrider so i could put him on a smilodon, purely because that's fucking metal, and he rages around murdering shit. generally you'll want to give him two-handed weapon feats (to continue specializing in his weird hammer thing) and finesse stuff, tho you can compensate for his low strength pretty easily with the "enlarge person" spell, if you want to skip weapon finesse.

arue: honestly op. unless you really wanna try respeccing her from start as a bard or smth, just let her do her thing. "instant enemy" and "ranger's bond" or w/e it's called let her give good damage buffs to the whole party. ranged dps queen.

greybor: personally, i lightly respecced him to use throwing axes, but if you want to go vanilla, crpgguy on youtube has a solid build to check out. if you want to go with my build, keep him a slayer but choose ranged perks (except manyshot), two-weapon fighting, and weapon focus/specialization throwing axes. oh, and same recs as woljif for rogue abilities. i recently got him the ability to damage constitution with his sneak attacks and it's glorious.

chapter 1 tips

when you get to kenabres, an invisible timer starts counting down to a big, tough battle. you'll want to a) put it off as long as possible, and b) prep for it. online sources and my own experience leave the exact mechanics of the countdown kind of a mystery. best guess is that it relies on number of rests, so try to go as long as you can without them. some quests fail or change if you don't do them first, so try to do the following before the battle procs:

recruit woljif in the basement.

recruit ember in the market square.

scout the tower of estrod and kill the enemies there, if you can. this may or may not buy you time, i'm not sure.

meet prelate hulrun and settle the issue between him and ramien (i suggest showing hulrun the sword, and strongly suggest bringing ember).

go to the burning library (there's checks here for perception, lore (religion), and persuasion (diplomacy) you'll probably want to pass.)

as for prep: generally gain as much experience as you can so you'll be as strong as possible before it procs. grease and to a lesser extent create pit are useful for choke points and are available to both woljif and nenio, and can be bought or crafted into scrolls beforehand if need be. just remember you have no access to selective metamagic yet, so try to keep your own guys from slipping around all silly by either having them attack from range behind the trap, or stand in front of it (i went ranged, even for seelah). besides the very obvious chokepoints the game makes you aware of, you can also lay these down at the enemy spawnpoints by the ladders (though you will affect the allied soldiers, too, so keep that in mind). focus on the alchemists; every other enemy is secondary. kill or disable them as quickly as possible.

chapter 2 tips

if you saved the disciples of desna in kenabres and sang along with them in act 1, then solve the (pretty easy) puzzle at the altar of desna at the base of the lost chapel, you can recruit a very useful companion early. look for them in the drezen prison.

chapter 2 is less time-sensitive than chapter 1, but you get a lil reward if you finish it within 2 months. not too hard, imo

try to put off moving the camp to just south of drezen, because a whole bunch of shit kinda pops off at once.

pay attention to nurah. pop into her tent a few times. a high perception skill will get you far.

the only things really worth grabbing in leper's smile are the robe of silky veil (you can use savescum with quicksave to look for it without losing time) and the halfling in the crevice.

honestly i recommend cranking down the difficulty for a lot of the lost chapel quest because the game is keeping track of npc casualties and those motherfuckers pop like grapes if you don't nerf the shit outta enemies, even on normal difficulty. one fight in particular i kept having 3-4 out of 5 immediately die in the first round, even when i got a good initiative roll and came out the gate with controlled fireball. very frustrating experience.

to stop the constantly reviving undead in that one cave, you need to grab the interactable object near the center of the area.

chapter 3 tips

at the beginning of chapter 3, immediately head south, towards the chapel, and keep going until you get two not-so-random encounters.

then head towards molten scar (just south of greengates) with seelah to get a time sensitive quest done.

take arue to wintersun. (probably take someone with a good lore (nature) skill, too. and somebody with fire spells. dear god. you will need so much fire.) don't feel like you need to complete the whole map in one go, you WILL have to come back at least once for one of the side quests.

blackwater has a lot of tough combat. prep for electricity damage.

chapter 4 tips

still in it, so my advice at this point is just to start with battlebliss. the story flows more naturally that way, tho they don't tell you that.

you can turn the fleshmarkets into a tarantino movie, but buy the shit you want from the vendors first. or don't, and cheat it into your inventory via toybox. up to you. if you need the funds, returning to the midnight isles dlc can help.

as it turns out, you only get the one chance to free suture, so if you wanna do that, don't be like me and go "oobh i got plany off time"

general story tips

don't be a buzzkill at daeran's party by making him work. try to keep things fun, and tell him you think he can change or that he can trust you. he likes it if you banter playfully with him, and will interject during a lot of quests (i particularly enjoyed his comments in the grey garrison).

lann's mostly straightforward from what i can tell, but you can miss some of his content annoyingly easily. :/ make sure to check in with him every now and then (i feel like his dialogue updates more than any other companion so far, but there's no notification from the game when that happens, so you just have to swing by and talk to him to see). and take him camping with you, if you want to romance him. there's also no indication of this from quest markers or anything, but at one point he'll ask you to meet him back at your home base, but when you arrive, there'll just be a note in his usual spot. look for him by the local tavern. (not sure if this is romance-specific, but just in case)

wenduag has a massive humiliation kink

don't be judgey of greybor, and pay him what he's worth (or more, if you've got the money and are feeling generous, like i was). make sure to have at least 12,500 gold on hand when you go on the hunt with him, or you'll lose the chance to recruit him permanently.

bring your favs to the desolate hovel! the combat isn't hard, and there are some juicy character moments. kicking myself for not bringing ember, because i bet hers is great (thanks to toybox, i did get to enjoy a cute bit of dialogue between her and daeran).

the secret ending

i'm gonna try to lay out the requirements with as few spoilers as possible. if you don't wanna know, just skip this. i may be missing some stuff, or including some stuff that isn't strictly required, but this is my best understanding of it, distilled as much as possible.

note that unlocking the secret ending does not mean you have to actually choose it.

choose the crossbow in the prologue

keeping the purple stone knife is advised but not required

pick up every midnight bolt you see, and only use them against demon lords. (if you don't get a "new" crystal, you wasted the bolt on an invalid target and need to reload.) apparently if you use one on the big bad himself, you need to grab the crystal as quickly as possible or it'll disappear?

finish your mythic questline all the way through. don't choose the "legend" mythic.

help the storyteller collect elven notes

don't reject the idea of learning from demons

do not enable auto-crusade

research the sword of valor (first available in chapter 3), the crystals (first available in chapter 5), areelu's drafts (not sure, probably 5), and the records of pulura's stargazers (maybe as early as 3 for angels, 5 for everybody else) via crusade management

grab the book, accept its power, find a way to put it back together

have high perception, ask areelu about suture (not an option in the first convo with her, i think this is in chapter 4)

tell hep she shouldn't have trusted her dad

in the secret lab (not on the first visit, since they weren't there when i got there), click on the crib, drawings, and textbooks in that order, which will give you gloves. take said gloves.

pour the secret sauce over the summoning circle in the lab. kill the demon outside the summoning circle for convenience's sake

save the library

the ending date is important. enter the final area between 16 and 21 gozran. doesn't matter what year.

don't waste time examining areelu's wards, launch directly into "stop! listen to me!"

#i say 'mini guide' but actually this is very long! don't say i didn't warn you!

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books-are-my-life-stuff · 2 years

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Now that Legendary Arena is permanently available, I can test out some team compositions against various stages.

1. 2/5 EX Halloween Caitlin & 3/5 EX Summer N & 5/5 EX Sidney vs. Azelf, Latios, and Cresselia

Good god this team is scary. I tested them already in CSMM at Caitlin's stage this week and this Dark dual strike team is just unstoppable. Azelf's third bar folded in just two hits: Summer N's Night Daze dealt 18k damage and Sidney's Brutal Swing after that dealt 8k damage, finishing Azelf off. And I even used wrong grid for Summer N, I used his mixed DPS+Sync grid even though Sidney took all the syncs! The mixed grid was from Latios match because Summer N had to sync to take down the sides, and I forgot to change it before Azelf fight. Still...wow.

Tested this team against Cresselia as well, and damn Sidney made a quick work of Cresselia’s first bar despite Cresselia’s confusion immunity so the team didn’t need to worry about Thunder Wave. Same goes for Summer N, who depleted most of Cresselia’s second health bar in one sync, so no Toxic. And when reaching third bar, Summer N dealt 34k damage Night Daze, finishing her entire third bar in just one hit. I’m not joking. This team is too scary. And Halloween Caitlin is the perfect partner for them because she buffed accuracy and top off Sidney’s attack, so this team didn’t suffer too much from Double Team at the start. And Summer N could also spam Snarl at the first bar when Cresselia was resistant to his damage while Sidney attacked. Sidney’s potions also came in handy to protect the team. I...love this team. I’m glad that they could check Cresselia safely.

2. 5/5 Hop & 1/5 OG Steven & 5/5 EX Skyla vs. Regirock

Pretty easy, and once again I prefer Steven over Solgaleo, because Skyla's flinch chance is too small, so Steven helping in landing some flinches is really good. I think if Steven is 3/5 and having access to Aggravation+Recuperation, he might be able to solo Regirock much like Hop? Who knows. I don't have the resources to test that, but maybe someday.

3. 2/5 EX SS Morty & 3/5 EX Anni N & 1/5 Classic Elesa vs. Latias and Cobalion

That 66k damage was not a crit. When crit, Anni N’s damage hit the damage cap. Classic Elesa really made his life easier in landing not just paralysis but also debuffs. Sadly, Cresselia is immune to paralysis so Classic Elesa’s shenanigans didn’t work really well and better to bring Oak instead. Still, Classic Elesa is such an amazing addition to my team, she’s really helping Anni N, and she’s also Unovan who takes benefit from Unova Flag Bearer. Also, Classic Elesa has such a perfect synergy with SST Red...more on that below.

4. 2/5 OG Ingo & 1/5 OG Emmet & 1/5 Bertha vs. Moltres

Finally got around to test this team, mostly just to see whether or not it's worth it to trade off 60% flinch change for matching theme skill with Ingo, Trap+Stealth Rock, 5 guaranteed Sandstorm usage, and some crit buffs. Turns out: it's not. Relying only on Emmet's 30% flinch chance from Rock Slide is not going to help. There was even one run where Emmet didn't land a flinch at all. Plus, the gauge is horrendous. Sand Tomb is two bar move instead of one. OG Ingo had to buff everyone's speed or use his trainer move sooner. And the lack of flinch hurts the team's survivability as well. Stealth Rock's damage when super effective was decent, and added passive damage were nice, but at the end of the day, I still prefer bringing Acerola than Bertha in Subway team. Near-consistent flinches really help, and losing that hurts. With correct play, the latter half of Moltres third health can be handled without changing weather so only 4 Sandstorm is necessary, plus Acerola has a chance to replenish her Sandstorm MP, so yeah.

The rest are just my various attempts in testing SST Red, whether as main damage dealer or as utility to replace Volkner.

5. 2/5 EX Halloween Caitlin & 1/5 SST Red & 1/5 Classic Elesa vs. Azelf, Latias, Latios, Cobalion, Uxie, Tornadus

I’m a big fan of SST Red and Classic Elesa’s synergy, as the cover each other’s needs very well. Classic Elesa can apply paralysis so SST Red doesn’t need to spend his max move to do so. Classic Elesa can also apply Electric Terrain so SST Red can focus on spamming his B Volt Tackle. Halloween Caitlin is just there to provide defensive supports. I’ve tried with SS Morty as well, and it works well too. Any defensive EX supports work pretty well with SST Red, because he doesn’t need anything else, but he still appreciates the defensive buffs to help his survivability. Usually enemies went down at third Electric Terrain, could be faster too.

6. 4/5 EX Hilbert & 5/5 EX OG N & 1/5 SST Red vs. Tornadus

And now, using SST Red as utility. 1/5 SST Red has no access to Staggering, so he focuses on setting Terrain and softens up the enemy for N to take advantage of. He lacks the flinch utility that Volkner has, but being able to reliably debuff enemies is pretty big. Bolt Strike’s chance of paralysis is unreliable, but luckily both N and SST Red have Piercing Blows, so they can no-sell the status requirements. This team is very much overkill, and it’s better that they perform separately, but yeah, the debuffs are very much appreciated by N.

7. 3/5 EX SC Lillie & 5/5 EX Hau & 1/5 SST Red vs. Tornadus

And because SST Red debuffs both defenses, Hau can take advantage of it too. Discharge’s paralysis chance is also slightly higher than Bolt Strike, and Hau somehow lands a lot of it. Though, in this case, maybe Volkner is better because his paralysis chance is reliable, than SST Red who only has one use. Still, Hau dealing 30k damage on sync is very satisfactory, and if paralysis hasn’t proc-ed, SST Red can cover up Hau’s damage. Maybe this team might work against Aaron...maybe...

#personal #pokemon masters #this was a lot of fun to test out some team compositions #i was hesitant at first to make LA permanently available #but now i have endless opportunity to test out new units and team compositions #and this was nice

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