grailfinders

[grailfinders]

Can I suggest a character?

yeah, of course! we’re always accepting new entries for viewers’ choice characters!

#not a build

[grailfinders]

No Artificer because of the option limit

#go my psionic warriors #not a build

[grailfinders]

Viewers' Choice #27

#fgo #D&D 5e #DND #Fate Grand Order #FF14 #FFXIV

[grailfinders]

Grailfinders Viewers' Choice #26: Nrvnqsr Chaos

today on Grailfinders, I’d say we’re due for a big ol’ storm of chaos! Nrvnqsr Chaos specifically, though you’ll have to forgive me if I simply call him Nero throughout the build- I’m not going to remember that alphabet soup of a name.

anyway, our dear friend Keysmash Chaos is an Aberrant Mind Sorcerer to pick up some spicier summons and some flexibility, as well as a Shepherd Druid for summoned beasts out the wazoo that can really pack a punch. check out his build breakdown below the cut, or his character sheet over here!

Ancestry & Background

Nero was a human but now he’s chaos, which is a bunch of animals grafted together in a semi-humanoid shape. you could go Simic Hybrid here if you love the smell of fish, but since there’s no way in hell I’ll find another chance for this I’m going to make him a Plasmoid instead. that gives him +2 Charisma and +1 Constitution, as well as an Amorphous body type that lets you squeeze through small spaces and get advantage on making and escaping grapples. you also get Darkvision up to 60’, and can Hold Breath for up to an hour with no negative consequences. you’ve got 666 pairs of lungs, I’m sure it’ll all work out. your unique body plan also gives you a Natural Resistance against acid and poison damage as well as the poison condition, and you can Shape Self as an action to add or remove limbs and a head from your general shape, or use a bonus action to send a bit of you up to 10’ away in a little cord that can manipulate lightweight objects. chaos doesn’t keep a solid form, go figure.

you used to be part of a reclusive bunch of mages that threw themselves out of normal reality, so calling you a Hermit is pretty spot on. you get proficiency in Medicine and Arcana instead of religion bc I said so, and the Wandering Sea is definitely more about science/magic than gods. I’d argue your backround’s flavor feat Discovery is also pretty in-character for once since it gives you a reason you became goo to begin with, but it’s not totally necessary.

Ability Scores

nero’s highest score is his Charisma. his magic comes from inside, and I mean that literally. next is Wisdom, animals tend to have a high wisdom score, and you are animals. also, mind-controlling you is probably pretty hard given how many you have. third is Constitution, because you don’t die til your beasts do, and your beasts don’t die til you do. a real catch-666 here. this does make your Dexterity a little lower than I’m 100% comfortable giving a caster, but with a healing factor like yours getting out of the way isn’t an issue. your Intelligence is only average- you were smart, and probably still are, but your brain’s been getting eaten by wolves the last millennium, I wouldn’t bet too much on it. that means we’re dumping Strength, which feels weird for a super strong vampire, but we can patch that up with magic better than most other abilities.

Class Levels

1. Sorcerer 1: starting off as a sorcerer gets you proficiency with Constitution and Charisma saves. you can survive the eyes of death perception, which is definitely a high save DC for one of those. you also get proficiency in Intimidation and Insight checks. you have 600+ beasts inside you- that’s a lot of growling and a lot of eyes.

at level one your Aberrant Mind lets you use Telepathic Speech, linking up with a nearby creature for a couple minutes so you can speak with just your minds. you also gain Psionic Spells, which are kind of like a regular extended spell list, but you can swap these out with other divination or enchantment spells as you go. if we do that, we’ll be sure to bring it up.

speaking of, at level one you get Arms of Hadar and Mind Sliver which we’re keeping, but we’re swapping out Dissonant Whispers for Identify. you’ve been around a while, you know what magic is. you also get regular spells this level- Mage Hand lets you send out a lil bird to carry something light for you, Sword Burst flings claws everywhere for some cheap damage, Chill Touch deals damage and blocks healing, and Blade Ward lets you goop up to block the worst of incoming physical damage. for your leveled spells, Mage Armor is practically a necessity since it gives you an extra +3 to AC, and Catapult is nice too, letting you fling a nearby object at a creature, possibly damaging both in the process.

2. Sorcerer 2: second level sorcerers are a Font of Magic, which right now just means you can cast an extra 1st level spell each day by doing some rigamarole. a 1st level spell like Feather Fall perhaps. you’ve got a lot of birds in you, I’m sure they can help break your fall.

3. Sorcerer 3: at third level your font of magic actually becomes interesting, because you can use your sorcery points from that to make Metamagic, altering the effects of your spells to your liking. most of your summons are literally you pulling something out of you, so they’re pretty Subtle. subtle spells don’t require somatic or verbal components, so they’re a lot harder to counterspell too!  speaking of, those summons are basically animals when they’re not in you, so they last a while- an Extended spell can help with that, doubling the duration of whatever you cast.

you also get second level spells now! we’re swapping out Calm Emotions for Hold Person for your weak shitty eyes of enchantment, and Detect Thoughts. mortal mages can do that, and you’ve been around ten times as long, so I can’t imagine it’s that difficult for you. you also get Enhance Ability, giving you advantage on one kind of skill check for up to an hour. and all the options are flavored after animals, score!

4. Sorcerer 4: fourth level sorcerers get their first Ability Score Improvement, so bump up that Charisma for stronger spell, like the cantrip Infestation to sic bugs on people and Shatter to break shit! I think adding a swarm of poisonous insects to your chaos would probably bump you up to at least 6,666 beasts but I’ll allow them to all count as one.

5. Sorcerer 5: at fifth level, everything just kind of goes right for you thanks to your Magical Guidance- spend a sorcery point, re-roll a failed check. you’re a villain, so you have plot armor right up to the end of the story.

you also get third level spells- Haste lets you move fast enough to keep up with arcueid (probably), and your freebies Hunger of Hadar and Sending let you blast some goo to slow down enemies and chaos them to death, or use a cell phone. you were born in the 900s, an iphone might as well be magic to you.

6. Sorcerer 6: a sixth level weirdo gets Psionic Sorcery, so any of your psionic spells can now be cast purely through sorcery points, and doing so makes it subtle as well as allowing you to ignore material components unless they are spent by the spell. that’s important for later.

you also get Psychic Defenses, giving you resistance to psychic damage as well as charms and spooks. you have a lot of brains in there, it’s going to be hard to freak all of them out at once. which is good bc the rabbit one is always freaked out.

also you can finally eat people now! with Vampiric Touch, you can touch people and drain their life force, regaining half the damage you deal as HP!

7. Sorcerer 7: seventh level of a spellcaster means fourth level spells! as for nero, it’s Polymorphin’ time! now you can turn into a beast with a CR equal to your level or less for up to an hour, changing all your stats and basically giving you a big beast-shaped shield to your HP. you also get your new psionic spells, Evard’s Black Tentacles and Summon Aberration! the former’s basically hunger of hadar but again, and the latter’s our very first summoning spell for phantasmals! yeah it took a while to get going, but if putting animals in people was easy everyone’d be a furry already. don’t worry, we’ll speed things up next level.

8. Druid 1: bouncing over to druid gives you more Spells that you cast and prepare using your Wisdom. multiclassing spellcasters gets a lil complicated, so check the PHB to see what spell slots you have at any given time.

the important thing is you get Primal Savagery and Shillelagh, giving you more melee options to avoid having to punch people with your puny caster hands. you can further enhance your physicality with spells like Jump and Longstrider, or drag people into your chaos with Entangle. you even learn druidic! it’s a language!

9. Druid 2: at second level you get to enter the Circle of the Shepherd, which teaches you the Speech of the Woods. not only does it teach you Sylvan, famous for being a language, but you can talk to beasts now as well!

more excitingly, you can summon a Spirit Totem as a bonus action, bringing a phantasmal to the battlefield for up to a minute per short rest. you can pick between three options- the bear giving creatures you choose extra HP and advantage on strength checks and saves, the Hawk letting you grant advantage on an attack as a reaction and giving advantage freely to perception checks, and the Unicorn gives advantage on checks to find creatures and extra HP from healing spells.

to get even beastlier, you can now Wild Shape twice per short rest to turn into a beast without using a spell slot. the CR for this one is a lot more limited, but free HP is free HP. alternatively, you can do the more in-character thing and summon a Wild Companion, letting you spend a wild shape use to cast Find Familiar without materials. it’s not that strong, but a flying spy camera can be pretty useful.

10. Druid 3: if you need a long-distance helper, you can always use Animal Messenger or Beast Sense instead. the former will fursonally deliver a message to someone you describe, while the latter lets you see and hear through a beast for up to an hour, but without any control over what it does.

you can also Summon Beast which is nice. we’re still a ways away from mass chaos, but it’s a cheaper summon option.  hell, it’s honestly the better option for a fourth level spell slot anyway, unless you’re hyped about having a regenerating chaos.

11. Druid 4: at fourth level you can turn into CR 1 creatures that can swim thanks to your Wild Shape Improvement, and you can also use this ASI to bump up your Charisma and Wisdom to max out the former and set up the latter for later.

you also get another cantrip, so I say weaponize that pseudopod of yours with a Thorn Whip. it whips! it thorns!

12. Druid 5: the real reason we’re here is third level spells, and the only one I care about here is Conjure Animals. by using a third level spell slot, you can summon a single beast of CR 2, or twice as many by halving the CR, all the way to 8 CR ¼ beasts. it says the DM has the stats for whatever you summon, but tbh if you’re going to summon eight extra fighters every combat you should probably just bookmark your own PHB to help out.

13. Druid 6: one last pit stop before we head back to sorcerer- at level six shepherd druids become Mighty Summoners, adding an extra 2 HP per hit die to your summoned beasts/fey, and giving them magical attacks to boot.

14. Sorcerer 8: another ASI, this time you’re Resilient in Wisdom saves, giving you advantage and also rounding up your wisdom score for a cool plus 1 to all your spells and such.

also you can summon a Spirit of Death now, which lets you track whatever it’s zero’d in on anywhere in the material plane.

15. Sorcerer 9: with fifth level spells, it’s time for things to get real spicy. your freebies this level are Scrying to send out a spy bird with none of the fuss (esp. since you can use psionic casting to get around the 1000 gold casting cost) and Telekinesis to lift stuff like the big strong man you’re supposed to be. you can also Summon Draconic Spirits now, giving you access to the most powerful phantasmals available. not only can it deal adequate damage with breath attacks, but it also protects you from elemental damage to boot!

16. Sorcerer 10: now that you’ve spent some time vamping it up, your magic can now be Empowered, forcing disadvantage on one person trying to save themselves from it. you also get the Message cantrip bc I’m running out of good cantrips to give you, and the Enervation spell for a more chaos-flavored way of consuming your prey. you slap a target with a tentacle, and if they fail their first save it latches on, letting you drain their health each turn for up to a minute.

17. Sorcerer 11: I’ll be honest I’m kind of on the fence as to whether Tasha’s Otherworldly Guise should be called your 999th beast or not. on one hand it makes you look more demonic and gives you all kinds of cool abilities, but tbh I think turning into a T rex makes you a lot tougher for less magic cost. either way, you definitely have it now.

18. Sorcerer 12: use your last ASI to bump up your Dexterity to not die as much. yeah you’ve got plenty of spare lives, but it’s a pain to use them, y’know?

19. Sorcerer 13: our final spell of the day is the Finger of Death, which is a big single-target attack that can even turn a person into part of your chaos if it kills a humanoid target. really your whole body is Of Death, but a finger works too I guess.

20. Sorcerer 14: our capstone ability makes you a Revelation in Flesh, letting you transform yourself as a bonus action for ten minutes. for each sorcery point spent to transform, you get one of the four available bonuses. the first lets you see invisible creatures, the second gives you a flying speed, and the third lets you swim and breathe underwater. the last and both most- and least-important turns you into chaos good, letting you and anything you’re wearing move through a 1-inch space, or spend 5’ to break any grapple. it’s technically something you could’ve done already, but now you can do it without getting naked.

Pros & Cons:

Pros:

you have pretty good health for a caster, but it gets even better when you include all the extra health you can get from your uses of Polymorph, Wild Shape, and of course your vampiric spells. unless they can rush you down, you can cling to life in a fight for a good long while.

your spells are also very flexible, as are you. yes, you can summon 32 wolves or transform into a T Rex to cause havoc, but you can also summon or become smaller creatures for the sake of stealth or reconnaissance. and of course while using these spells on just yourself is in-character, a lot of them can be used on teammates as well to help them out.

you’re hard to deal with, magically speaking. you have solid saves in two of the big three saves, and you resist some common status effects really freaking well, so other mages can have a hard time taking out your HP faster than you can regrow it.

Cons:

your AC isn’t great, so melee fighters can still carve you up pretty easily. and if one of those happen to get creative with their mystic eyes of death perception you’ll definitely still be in trouble.

also, almost all of your summons are super weak compared to other spells of the same level. Conjure Animals is great for area denial or dealing with large groups of weak enemies, but using a ninth level spell for 32 wolves that’ll survive all of one turn before being fireballed to death just feels bad. the extra health from Mighty Summons is nice, but you’re getting at most 14 extra HP from that if you’re making CR 2 beasts, and that won’t last long at higher levels.

you yourself isn’t that strong either- while you don’t have to worry much about getting grappled, but you’re still easy to push around or fall into a magical strength-save spell.

#tsukihime #fgo #D&D 5e #DND #dnd build #sorcerer #druid

[grailfinders]

apologies for the Chaos build being late, and probably for the Super Bunyan Event stuff being late too. we're feeling a bit under the weather atm, we'll get everything sorted out when we can

#not a build

[grailfinders]

Grailfinders #338: Taisui Xingjun

if I can say one nice thing about taisui xingjun, it’s that lasengle went out of their way to make him feel very cursed. sometimes waiting for a servant to pop up in their event gives you cool new abilities to work with that aren’t part of their in-game kit, and sometimes they show up at the last second, throw out a vague party buff on for the last fight, and then fall asleep immediately. this time’s the second one.

thankfully, taisui’s not all that difficult a build, at least on the surface. he’s a Divine Soul Sorcerer, and that’s it! though to be fair, that class alone is really kind of mashing together two classes as-is, so he’s still not that simple.

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

next up: make sure to like, comment, subscribe, and turn on notifications to see this build first!

Ancestry & Background

if we were being more objective taisui’d probably be a custom lineage, but it’s our build and I want him to be able to turn into his big form at will, so he’s a Changeling. with that, he gets proficiency in performance and persuasion, and his plastic presentation makes him a Shapechanger as well, so he can turn into any small or medium race as long as they have the same number of limbs, and you can’t turn into anyone specific without having seen them first. on top of all that, you get bonuses of +2 Charisma and +1 Dexterity.

finally, your background. you literally just sit there the whole event until like three deus ex machinas pile on top of each other to summon you into a vaguely human body, so that sounds like the Book of Many Things’ new background, the Rewarded, to me. that nets you proficiency in Insight and Animal Handling, as well as the Lucky feat for literally free. why anyone would ever pick a different background ever again, I don’t know, but now you get three luck points a day, and you can spend them forcing a reroll on any d20 roll directly affecting you and pick the better option of the two. whomst’d’ve the fuck thought putting that on a background was balanced.

Ability Scores

your highest score is your Charisma, because you’re basically skating by on your good looks and hoping that’s enough to make people farm the ungodly number of Cons needed for all your ascensions and NP levels. it is, but that doesn’t mean I’m happy about it. second highest is your CON. yep, there’s a buncha them in there. third is Dexterity, because you don’t wear armor. like, at all. honestly this should probably be lower considering how easily you get eaten, but I’m trying to make a build that’ll survive level 1. after that comes your Intelligence, because the Con are quick studies at least when it comes to construction and video games, so they’re at least a little above average. that means your Strength is nothing to write home about- you’re a god, but you’re a kid, and your arms are kind of noodly. finally, we’re dumping Wisdom. as the Con you’re easily swayed, and as a god your tired ass isn’t helping anyone on watch duty.

Class Levels

1. as mentioned before, you’re a Divine Soul Sorcerer, which gives you Spells you cast using your Charisma. before we go into those, you also get Divine Magic, letting you pick spells from the cleric spell list as well as the sorcerer’s. you also get Inflict Wounds for free for your spooky shadow hands. I know taisui is technically true neutral, but his god form’s a god of curses and retribution, so I’m saying at the very least his powers are evil-leaning. speaking of, you’re Favored by the Gods, so if you fail a save or attack, you can add 2d4 to it once a short rest. whether being favored by this god is a good thing or not is anyone’s guess.

so then, spells! for cantrips, Blade Ward will keep your body in once piece for now, Morgan worked hard on that, while Chill Touch is another kind of spooky hand that prevents people from healing, which is pretty cursed in my book. you can also whip out your bell and Toll the Dead, dealing extra damage to injured targets, your you can curse someone with an Infestation, forcing them to move in a random direction if they fail a constitution save.

for leveled spells, Bane is a light cursing for a first level spell, forcing up to three creatures to make a charisma save. if they fail, every attack or save made for up to a minute gets a d4 taken away from it. we’re also giving you Mage Armor for +3 AC because we’re not that sadistic. even if taisui is.

oh, speaking of saves, you have proficiency in Constitution and Charisma saves, as well as Arcana and Religion. you kind of are a god, after all.

2. second level sorcerers become a font of magic! rn that just means u can cast another first level spell every day, like your new one, earth tremor! most of you is still down there, after all, just twitch a lil.

3. congrats! you survived long enough to get second level spells! now you can feed your party parts of yourself to aid them, giving them a bigger hp bar for the day! you also learn metamagic this level, so now your font of magic actually does stuff that’s important! you can spend your sorcery points to make a spell heightened, giving your target disadvantage to their save, or careful, automatically making the save for some of your friends! taisui’s got kind of a yin-yang thing going on between his feeding and his cursing, so this is the best of both worlds!

4. since ur kind of a nega-jupiter, you’re now a scion of the outer planes! yaaaay! since your god’s evil, you get resistance to necrotic damage, and you get chill touch again!

you can also cast mold earth to cover yourself up again, and you can cast wither and bloom! with this spell, every creature you choose takes necrotic damage, and one creature you choose can roll a hit die and gain hp back! it’s literally everything you do in a single spell!

5. fifth level, you have magical guidance, spend sorcery points to reroll checks, whatever! the important thing is now you can bestow curses! the phb gives some suggestions, but really you can do anything your dm lets you get away with!

6. sixth level divine souls have empowered healing, so whenever you or someone next to you heals someone, you can spend a sorcery point to reroll some of those dice, once a turn! i’m not sure if that works for life transference or not, but either way this spell makes feeding yourself to someone a lot more visceral. you take damage, and then someone else gets healed for twice the amount of damage you took!

7. you can now give urself an aura of purity, making friendly creatures in it immune to disease, resistant to poison damage, and they get advantage on saves against a buncha common status effects too!

8. at eighth level you get another ASI, so now you’re a Baleful Scion. that rounds up your Charisma and lets you pull people into the Grasp of Avarice- once a turn, you can add some necrotic damage to the damage you deal, which also heals you for that amount. your best healing spell so far uses your HP, so you need to fill that back up somehow.

you can also summon a Spirit of Death for an hour, making a floaty medium boy you can ride around on! you don’t even need to spend any actions commanding it or nothin’. it can only attack one creature at a time, but it’ll lock on to them and let you know where they are the whole time!

9. you can now make an insect plague! don’t misspell that, trust me. now you can make a 20’ radius sphere of locusts that obscure the whole place, and everything inside it has to make a constitution save or get piercing damage!

10. tenth level sorcerers have another kind of metamagic like extended, doubling the length of a spell you cast, up to an hour. you can also cast resistance to protect someone from a saving throw-related dangers.

speaking of saves, you can cast the most messed-up spell in the game, Contagion! if you hit your target, they have to make a constitution save at the end of each turn, working like death saves. after three successes, the spell ends. after three failures, you can curse them with a terrible disease for seven days.

11. at eleventh level, you can cast sixth level spells like Heroes’ Feast! after casting this, you can feed yourself to up to twelve creatures, curing them of all diseases and poisons, immunity to poison and being frightened, and they had advantage on all wisdom saves! on top of that, they gain extra HP, and all for a full day! just… maybe don’t tell them what the feast’s made of.

12. twelfth level, another ASI! bump up that Con for more Cons! it’s health, you’ll get more health. this is retroactive, remember, so you get an extra 12 HP this level.

13. thirteenth level sorcerers get seventh level spells, and its time to get real curses! with Divine Word you can hit any number of creatures within 30’ of you, forcing a charisma save on all of them. depending on how many HP they have, they’ll become deafened, blinded, stunned, or even straight up dead if they fail a charisma save. this also banishes any celestial, fey, or fiend if they’re not from around here, so that would make Dagon a real cakewalk. also, on the “instantly killing people” front, this gives you more than enough room to take out some poor bastard’s whole extended family.

14. your Angelic Form is a lot different than most people would expect, but you can still use your bonus action to fly around on your curse lump, with no limit on flight time!

15. eighth level spells! you can now Regenerate your allies by forcefeeding them a whole Con, giving them a healthy amount of HP immediately, with a trailing 1 HP per turn for an hour afterwards. two minutes into the spell any missing limbs grow back, though they can also instantly be reattached by just slappin ‘em back on if you got ‘em.

16. another ASI, another Con for more HP.

17. you can now use twinned metamagic, turning a single-target spell into one that hits two creatures!

speaking of single target spells, Power Word Kill’s a hell of one, ain’t it? if the chosen target has 100 HP or less, they die instantly! no saves, no nothin’.

18. you spent so much time putting Cons into other people, we almost forgot to get some Cons into you! with Unearthly Recovery, letting you spend a bonus action to regain half your HP once a day! big heal energy.

19. one last ASI before the build finishes! with the Tough feat, it’s like you ate two Cons at once, giving you an extra 38 HP now, plus another two next level.

20. at level twenty you get the sorcerer’s capstone, Sorcerous Restoration! every short rest, you get four extra sorcery point!

…yeah there’s a reason we usually multiclass.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

you have an amazing Con-stitution for a caster, giving you way more HP than most would expect of you. having a healer that doesn’t die easy is super helpful. this also means you have great con-centration. your more powerful spells don’t need it, but dropping a spell always hurts.

not only are you a great healer, you’re great at making other people heal too! you also have access to some strong defensive buffs like heroes’ feast, aura of purity, and resistance. also, being able to grow back limbs can be pretty useful!

you also dish out devastating debuffs, destroying enemy defenses with divine words, curses, and disease.

Cons:

yep, there’s a lotta them in there.

(but seriously, a lack of direct attacks drags fights out, the sorcerer capstone sucks)

#fgo #fate grand order #D&D 5e #DND #Taisui Xingjun

[grailfinders]

Grailfinders #26: Boudica

hey, remember that time we changed our username to pivot to pathfinder builds, completely breaking everyone’s saved links in the process and letting a spambot take our old name only to actually make like 2 dozen builds before stopping for almost a year?

yeah, good times.

anyways, we’re finally doing a pathfinder build again! we’re picking up right where we left off with Boudica, britain’s queen of victory! she’s a Ranger to ride well and hunt down romans even better, and we also dabble into Cavalier to grab the other horse for her chariot and Bastion to shield her allies from harm!

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

next up: so no head?

Ancestry & Background

Boudica is a Versatile Human, giving her a boost in Constitution and Wisdom, as well as a free general feat to start off! with Ride, you don’t need to make animal handling checks to move your horse around while you ride on it. you’re a rider, you shouldn’t be falling off your mount. you’re also a Viking Shieldbearer, so you can Shield Block as a reaction to block incoming damage. it’s also more than a bit geographically inaccurate, but that’s never stopped us before.

you’re also a Noble, which is a step down from queen but we do what we can. this gives you free training in Society, as well as Genealogy Lore, because I don’t think heraldry was a thing when you were around. you also get a boost in Charisma and Strength, plus the Courtly Graces feat, so you can use society to make an impression on nobles instead of diplomacy. you’re not gonna be using that much, but maybe you’ll meet a non-roman noble on your travels.

at level five your Cooperative Nature boosts your Aid checks. at level nine you can give Group Aid, only spending a single action to help multiple people as long as it makes sense with what you’re actually doing to help. at level 13 you can Bounce Back once a day, preventing accumulation of wounded conditions from dropping to 0 HP. finally, at level 17 your Heroic Presence inspires Zealous Conviction, making it easier to command people as long as you don’t make them act completely out of character.

Class Levels

1. again, getting everything out of the way real quick- as a Ranger you are trained in Nature, Survival, Crafting, Diplomacy, Athletics, Plains Lore(or whatever type of land your character is supposed to hail from in-game, britain’s a big place it’s got range), all weapons, Unarmored, Light, and Medium Armor, your Class DC, Will Saves, and as you improve your intelligence Medicine and Religion. you’re also an expert in Perception, Fortitude, and Reflex.

your Key Ability is Strength, so that gives another boost and informs all save DCs you have as a ranger. you also get a level 1 Ability Boost to Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Wisdom. as a ranger, you can Hunt Prey as an action, targeting one poor sap in particular for a bonus to seek and track your prey. that alone isn’t special, but your Precision Hunter’s Edge adds an extra d8 of damage to your first hit on your prey each turn.

you also get an Animal Companion. hey, free horse! (the horse also hates romans, so it gets the benefits of your Hunter’s Prey and Hunter’s Edge too.)

technically you can use Warden Spells now, but this build doesn’t do that, so enjoy having less complications in your life.

2. you can now deliver a United Assault once per turn as an action, gaining extra damage on your attack depending on how many of your friends have ganged up on whatever you’re hitting. it’s like the whole party has bonus damage against romans now… and they’re just rolling really badly!

you’re also a Forager, because you can’t cook if you don’t have food. basically, you can always find food for yourself and up to four creatures. there’s more benefits at higher levels of survival, but FGO parties are three people at a time, so you’re fine.

finally, your Bastion Dedication sets you down the path of defense, giving you the Reactive Shield reaction. if you didn’t raise your shield before something tries to hit you, you can do so at the last second for a boost to AC.

3. you can now Pick up the Pace to hunt down the romans faster, increasing how much time your party can hustle while exploring.

your will saves and athletics checks also improve this level.

4. you can now Disrupt Prey as a reaction, so any romans trying to manipulate anything around you might get wacked on the hand and stop.

speaking of stopping, you don’t do that, because you’re an Express Rider! you can make a nature check to move 50% faster. no word on what percentage cooler this makes the horse, but I bet at least 20%.

you can also block and knock at the same time with Disarming Block! it’s exactly as the name implies- if you shield block someone, you can try to disarm them.

5. another Ability Boost, this one improving your Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma. your Ranger Weapon Expertise makes you an expert with ranger weapons, yes, but it also gives you the critical specialization of all those weapons if you’re attacking your chosen prey! your Trackless Step makes it harder for any of those romans to find you though, as you’re always covering your tracks without slowing down.

all that, plus it’s high time you got trained in Cooking Lore. for cooking.

6. your horse is all grown up- now it’s a Mature Animal Companion. this means that now your horse can chase and attack enemies without you needing to spend an action to command it! it only gets one action per turn this way, but hay. fuck romans, all my horsies hate romans.

speaking of, you can make romans Say That Again! as a reaction if they crit fail demoralizing you or lying to you. this shoves them back and lets you roll intimidation on your initiative check!

you also have a Nimble Shield Hand, so you can interact with things while wielding a shield in one hand and a sword in the other! I’m sure you cook that way due to sprite limitations, but it’s a thing you can do now.

7. seventh level rangers get Evasion, which isn’t quite as awesome as D&D’s but it’s nice. you’re a master at reflex saves now, and all your successes are critical.

you’re also an Experienced Professional (and an expert Cook Lorist), so you gain twice as much money from failing to earn income cooking, and you prevent critical failures. you’re no beni-enma, but you’re pretty damn good at what you do.

your Vigilant Senses make you a master of perception, and your Weapon Specialization deals bonus damage based on how much you’ve trained with whatever you’re wielding.

8. you can now give a Warden’s Boon as an action, giving your hunt prey and hunter’s edge bonuses to an ally you choose for a round. your anti-roman damage buff’s party wide, but we’re still getting there!

also your Unmistakable Lore means you’ll never get a critical failure while recalling cooking knowledge. I’d advise not to cook with mushrooms before this level.

your bastion feat Reflexive Shield now adds a raised shield’s AC bonus to your reflex saves as well, and you can even shield block whatever made that save happen to boot! rangers are already great with reflex saves so this is just icing on the cake.

9. your Nature’s Edge gives you an advantage on attacking people in difficult terrain. I’d argue all of britain is difficult terrain these days, but that’s due to england being anti-human life rather than because of anything slowing you down.

you’re also an expert in your Class DC, and trained in Intimidation.

10. your next Ability Boost improves your Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, and Wisdom. you’re also a Hazard Finder now, so you get a little boost to perceiving traps and hazards, as well as to save against them. rome put you through a lot, so you had to survive all that crap too.

on a lighter note, you’re now a Seasoned chef, so you get a +1 bonus to crafting all food and drinks.

finally, you can Quick Shield Block, gaining a second reaction that can only be used for blocking with your shield. given how much your shield can block now, that’s well-appreciated.

11. as a Caravan Leader,  you’re able to hustle your group for much longer than before. you’re also a Juggernaut, so all your improved fortitude saves are critical on a success, and you’re an expert with Unarmored, Light, and Medium armor.

your Wild Stride lets you move through natural difficult terrain without issue, and your Intimidation improves too. this is because the british are terrifying.

12. at level twelve you can target Double Prey- as it sounds, you can target two creatures in the same action. unfortunately, there’s more than one roman in the world. fortunately, you can do something about that. you can also Rapid Mantel, pulling yourself up a ledge as soon as you grab it.

you also get the Cavalier Dedication this level, so now you have a second horse! yeah that’s it.

13. your survival is better now, and so is your skill with all weapons. not every level’s gonna be a book report.

14. remember double prey? now instead of two prey, how about two hunters? with Shared Prey, you can pick a single target and give your hunt prey and hunter’s edge bonuses to an ally as well as yourself! with this and your ranger companion, you now have three people all dealing extra roman damage! not three separate servants, but I told you we were getting there!

you can also make a Powerful Leap for Standard Anime Jumps, jumping up five feet or across by an additional five feet.

you also have a Mounted Shield, so while on your horse your raised shield and shield blocks will protect you and your mount! horses tend to not have a ton of HP, so this helps a lot.

15. one more Ability Boost improves your Strength, Constitution, Intelligence, and Wisdom, and you gain an Intimidating Prowess that transcends language. servants are stupid strong, and if I saw a woman crush a car like a tin can it really wouldn’t matter if she spoke english or not.

you also get a bunch of small improvements- Greater Weapon Specialization adds more damage to every weapon attack, Improved Evasion makes you a reflex legend and you can’t critically fail, Incredible Senses gives you legendary perception, and you have mastered Cooking Lore!

16. your Incredible Companion now becomes nimble or savage! I don’t think there’s any romans that resist nonmagical bludgeoning damage, but it never hurts to prepare. either way, they can Gallop by using two actions, increasing their speed.

speaking of, you can now lead your horse on a Trampling Carge for three actions, moving through smaller enemies and dealing damage to each one.

again, servants are really strong, so you’re a Hefty Hauler, letting you carry more stuff before getting encumbered.

17. you’re now a Masterful Hunter, improving your class DC again and giving you a bonus with ranged weapons we don’t care about. on the plus side you get an even bigger bonus to seeking your prey, and your once-per-turn damage bonus now applies to multiple attacks!

also- better athletics. have fun.

18. with the Masterful Companion feat, your horse now gets the full multi-strike damage boost of your Masterful Hunter bonus

you can also Quick Climb, just because I thought it looked cool. we’re running out of general skills, you see.

but we still have plenty of cool archetype stuff! with Shield Salvation, you can prevent a shield from breaking when you block damage with it! this works once per day per shield, but that’s still going to save you a lot in the long run.

19. you’re an Ancestral Paragon, giving you some Haughty Obstinacy so the romans can’t push you around. you critically succeed on saves against mental effects, and if someone fails to coerce you they critically fail instead!

your armor has become a Second Skin to you, so you can rest in it. feels a bit weird to get that this late in the build, but we gave you a level 12 feat at level 18, so who are we to judge?

you also get better with Society, and you can size up Swift Prey in an instant- you get a free action each turn if hunting prey is the first thing you do.

20. last level, last Ability Boost. this last one improves you Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma. we can also finally buff the whole party properly with Triple Threat- you can mark three romans for yourself, two romans for yourself and an ally, or one roman for the whole party of three to beat up.

you get Wall Jump because again why not, and we finish the build with a Legendary Rider, giving you another free action each turn to command your horse.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

this build really maximizes the effectiveness of the ranger’s Hunt Prey ability, sneaking in as much bonus damage as we can by sharing our precision damage with just about everyone in the party. also, by sneaking shields into a class that usually doesn’t really use them, we improve the ranger’s defense by quite a bit, improving the longevity of Boudica and her horse.

Cons:

like a lot of build so far, playing to character completely removes any kind of ranged damage from the build, and in a game like pathfinder where positioning is important, not being able to attack at range can be a big issue. also, while you have plenty of defense, you have no way to repair your shields on your own, or regain HP in battle, so you’ll still lose that war of attrition.

#fgo #fate grand order #Pathfinder 2e #PF2e #Boudica

[grailfinders]

Grailfinders #337: Hai Bà Trưng

happy easter y’all, I hope you’re all enjoying your chocolate, eggs, chocolate eggs, and eggs in the shape of chocolate. we’re back at it again with a crisis, both a water monster crisis, and the fact that I can’t really spell the Trưng Sisters’ names right on this keyboard, so from this point on expect me to use the wrong kind of u.

spelling aside, the Trung sisters are a combo of Glory Paladin for their winning attitude and glowy weaponry, as well as an Echo Knight Fighter because… duh. there’s two of ‘em.

check out their build breakdown below the cut, or their characters sheet over here!

next up: “so what’s it like being split into a thousand consciousnesses?” “eh, it has its pros and Cons”

Ancestry & Background

the Trung sisters are probably human, unless you believe in that ascending to the heavens bit, but either way they’re close enough for it to work here. that means they get +1 Strength and +1 Charisma, as well as proficiency with Animal Handling for their elephants and the Ritual Caster feat to actually get those things. with this feat you get two first level wizard spells like Find Familiar and Comprehend Languages that you can ritual cast as many times as you like- the former one of your lil elephant friends, and the latter is the grail translating for you. you can even add new spells to your ritual book if you find them lying around in scrolls or other spell books, so keep an eye out!

also the Trung sisters are Nobles, so they get proficiency in History and Persuasion. if you took a shot every time we released one of these builds with a noble background the only thing that would save your liver is our update schedule. and again, we know noble is a big step down from king, but we do what we can.

Ability Scores

going off the standard array, Charisma should be your highest stat to start out with. it’s literally one of your abilities, and it makes all your paladin stuff extra juicy. second highest is your Strength, since you kill things with spears and swords. R.I.P., Infinitiger. your third highest stat has to be Intelligence since that’s how we qualify for ritual caster, and you definitely know your way around a battlefield. this means our Constitution is lower than I’d like again, but it’s okay for now. the real problem is your low Dexterity making your outfit choices a little difficult to work with, but at least that’s better than your Wisdom. half of you is too busy being a siscon to pay attention when they’re on watch, and you died because your underlings betrayed you. rough.

Class Levels

1. Paladin 1: starting as a paladin gives you proficiency in Wisdom and Charisma saves, as well as Athletics and Insight. despite dumping their wisdom, the Trungs are good leaders and judges of character. paladins also start out with a Divine Sense, letting you pick out extraplanar creatures nearby. you learn their location and what they are, but not who they are. I don’t think the kons are extraplanar, but if they were that would make them so much easier to round up. also if they get chomped on by a fishman you can patch them up with Lay on Hands- you get five HP per day per paladin level, and you can touch someone as an action to either heal them or use five HP to cure a disease of theirs. real useful when you live on a deserted island with no casters.

2. Paladin 2: second level paladins get a Fighting Style, and while Defense would be the smarter choice for +1 AC your spear and sword are both one-handed weapons, so I’m getting the Dueling fighting style instead. that gives you +2 to the damage done with a one-handed weapon every time you hit with it! extra armor might protect you from some damage, but killing will protect you from all future damage!

you also learn Spells which you cast and prepare using your Charisma, but the only spell I really want at this point you’ll get permanently next level so I’ll cover it then. for now, you can also use your spell slots for some Divine Smites- burn a spell slot, deal extra radiant damage when you hit something, deal extra extra damage when you hit a demon or zombie.

3. Paladin 3: third level paladins have Divine Health, so now you can never get sick. anime characters don’t get sick unless they do, and if they do it’s plot related anyway so your DM probably won’t let you off the hook even if you have this.

more importantly, you are now fighting for the Glory of your people, so you get some oath spells! they’re always prepared and they don’t count against your prep limits- Guiding Bolt hits a guy and gives the next person to attack them advantage, and Heroism is the spell I was talking about in level two. with this spell, you can give a creature immunity to being frightened plus some bonus temporary HP every turn for up to a minute!

you also get two Channel Divinity options, and you can use one of those each short rest. you can either become a Peerless Athlete for ten minutes to make up for how spread out your stats are, or you can use an Inspiring Smite to give temporary HP to nearby creatures after you make a divine smite. both of these options use your bonus action, so you can squeeze them into your turns pretty easily right now.

4. Paladin 4: now that you can cast spells you can become an Eldritch Adept using your very first Ability Score Improvement- technically I should save you getting your Armor of Shadows for later to coincide with your third ascension but I’m not going to leave you at 10 AC for the whole dang build. now you can cast Mage Armor on yourself for free, adding 3 to your AC total while unarmored.

5. Paladin 5: fifth level paladins get an Extra Attack each action, so now you can hit twice a turn! I mean. there’s two of you, that tracks. you also get 2nd level spells, including your freebies Enhance Ability, again to overcome stat spread, and Magic Weapon, to make your weapons all glowy for your NP.  they also get +1 all attack rolls and damage rolls.

you can also Find Steed now to give your elephant the boost it needs to be ridable! sure it’s still not elephant sized yet, but you can get it up to a warhorse, that’s pretty neat! also you can use Gentle Repose to keep those water monsters from doing their con-eating trick. they might not be undead, but it keeps them from getting up again so it’s close enough.

6. Fighter 1: we’ve got plenty of Trung now, so let’s work on the sister part. bouncing over to fightergives you a Fighting Style, which means we can take Defense after all! or Dueling if you were smart and took the AC first. speaking of AC, you also get a Second Wind once a short rest, letting you heal up as a bonus action!

7. Fighter 2: second level fighters get an Action Surge, so now you can make a second action with a second attack for a total of four in a single turn!

8. Fighter 3: third level fighters can become Echo Knights, letting them Manifest Echo as a bonus action. this creates a copy of you with better AC and 1 HP that you can move around the battlefield as you wish, as long as it stays within 30’ of you. you can attack from its position as well as your own, and you can even swap places with your sister as a bonus action too!

you can also Unleash Incarnation up to Constitution Modifier times a day, adding an extra echo attack to your attack action! right now that’s only once, but it’ll get better as we go.

thanks to the echo knight’s funky splitting, we can use buffing spells like Magic Weapon and it will improve both sisters’ weapons at the same time!

9. Fighter 4: fourth level fighters get another ASI, so grab the Slasher feat to round up your Strength score as well as protect the precious cons! once a turn you can slow down a creature you hit with slashing damage, and your critical hits force disadvantage on the attack rolls of whatever you sliced through! if you’re going to bring marshmallows to the front lines, it’s best to make sure they don’t die.

10. Fighter 5: fifth level fighters get… nothing! extra attacks don’t stack like that.

11. Fighter 6: as a consolation prize, sixth level fighters get a bonus ASI, so bump up that constitution for 11 points of health (remember that +1 each level is retroactive) and for more unleashed incarnations! now you can attack up to six times in a single turn! that would use up literally every spell slot you have right now, but you can!

12. Paladin 6: sixth level paladins have an Aura of Protection, so everyone around you gets a +3 bonus to all their saves! now your cons won’t get blown up by a fireball… as much. I’m sure a successful save would still get the cons knocked out though.

13. Paladin 7: seventh level glory paladins get an Aura of Alacrity, so everyone around you gets a movement speed boost. again, it’s keeping the cons out of harm’s way!

14. Paladin 8: at eighth level you get another ASI, so bump up your Strength for stronger attacks!

15. Paladin 9: ninth level paladins get third level spells, and you get Haste and Protection from Energy for free! I’m sure you could argue a D&D build would have to be perma-hasted to even stand a chance at keeping up with a servant, but really the only third level spell I want here is Elemental Weapon. in contrast to magical weapon, you still get a +1 bonus to attacking, but the bonus damage is a little stronger, and you can make that damage an elemental type like acid or fire. I’d use cold damage here for their demon slayer-esque water sword attacks. or you could use something like Crusader’s Mantle to give everyone around you mini-smites for up to a minute.

16. Paladin 10: at tenth level your natural leadership abilities give you an Aura of Courage, so nearby creatures can’t be frightened while you’re around. it’s a shame it only has a range of ten feet, that would’ve really come in handy while you were alive.

17. Paladin 11: I hope you like radiant damage, because an eleventh level paladin has an Improved Divine Smite, adding a d8 of the stuff to every melee attack you make. that basically doubles your damage output most of the time- there’s a lot of doubling going on in this build, almost like you’re two people or something.

18. Paladin 12: twelfth level paladins get one last ASI, so bump up that Constitution again to not die! not dying’s my favorite hobby, and I bet its yours too, we have so much in common.

19. Paladin 13: our last level of paladin gets you Compulsion and Freedom of Movement and a bunch of other spells but who cares because it also gets you Find Greater Steed, letting us finally have an elephant-sized elephant. well, actually a rhino-sized elephant but it’s waaay closer than a horse.

20. Fighter 7: our true final level is going back to fighter to become an Echo Avatar. now you can transfer your mind to your sister and basically play as her, with the max range of the echo increasing to 1,000 feet while you do so. this also doesn’t prevent you from switching places with her, so you can trivialize a lot of traps by just sending the more expendable sister ahead of you.

obviously I don’t think this level’s in character, but it’s at least slightly moreso than the next paladin level where you can break curses by touching people, so here it is.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

while I didn’t go over it much in the build itself, Paladin has some nice spells, and unless you’re super dedicated to playing in-character I highly recommend you look at the full spell list before committing to just using spell slots for smiting and elephants. also, ritual caster doesn’t look like much on the surface but if you play your cards right it gives you access to a ridiculous amount of Utility, giving you plenty to do outside of combat. with ritual caster you have access to spells no paladin would ever be able to cast like drawmij’s instant summons, and you can become the party’s communication hub with spells like Contact Other Plane or Skywrite.

you can attack way more in a single turn than a paladin really should be able to, which means you take the paladin’s burst damage potential and crank it all the way up to eleven! with action surge and unleash incarnation, you triple the number of attacks a paladin should ever be able to get, making you a burst damage machine. assuming a regular longsword with elemental weapon on it, you deal 6d8+36 slashing + 25d8 radiant + 6d4 cold, for an average of just under 200 damage in a single round.

 I know this last one isn’t much, but. riding an elephant is so cool y’all, it gets its own section.

Cons:

pretty much all the damage you do is either radiant or physical, so the second you come across something that can handle those two your damage output is completely neutered. I really hope there aren’t any celestial monsters on the islands…

I know paladin spell slots are really, really good for smiting, but as written we aren’t using them for anything else. okay yeah there’s summoning elephants, but that’s still a very small part of what paladins can do- they’ve got plenty of healing spells and defensive buffs they can offer, and while that might not be in-character, it’s a smart tactical decision.

your AC is bad. but you can just wear heavy armor if you feel like it. yeah two of these are just “if you deliberately kneecap yourself, you play worse,” and I’m sorry, but paladin’s a good class, fighter’s a good class, they’re just two great tastes that taste great together. their biggest real weakness is a lack of area of effect spells, but that’s not super punchy, and even then you can slice through six guys like it’s nothing with the only area you’re really affecting being your sword!

#fgo #fate grand order #D&D 5e #DND #Trung Sisters #Hai Bà Trưng #ha

[grailfinders]

also I cannot believe we failed to get the suzuka build out on foxgirl friday, i'll be kicking myself for that one for a bit.

#not a build

[grailfinders]

Viewers' Choice #26 Poll

#fgo #fate grand order #tsukihime #D&D #FGO arcade #Final Fantasy XIV #FF14

[grailfinders]

Grailfinders Viewers' Choice #25: Suzuka Gozen (Santa)

today on Grailfinders we’re finally striking back against arcade by building one of their unique servants! sure they finished their story and stopped releasing new servants almost a year ago, but it’s better late than never!

today we’re building Suzuka Gozen Santa, who is to date the only evil santa servant, afaik. she’s a Peace Cleric to inspire love in those around her, as well as a Divine Soul Sorcerer to get her demon fox magicks. there’s precious little arcade info available outside of official trailers and machine translations, so forgive us if we speculate.

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

Ancestry & Background

once again, since we’re building an existing servant in a new outfit, her race and background are pretty much unchanged from the original. mostly because WotC still hasn’t returned our calls about adding a fox race to D&D, but I digress. Suzuka’s a Swiftstride Shifter, giving her Darkvision and free proficiency in the Acrobatics skill. she can also fox it up with some Shifting, giving her faux ears for up to a minute as a bonus action. while be-eared, she gains temporary HP equal to her level + her constitution modifier, and gains an extra 10’ of movement speed. on top of that, you can react to someone moving within melee range to run away from them without provoking opportunity attacks. she also gets +2 Dexterity and +1 Charisma.

as Santa Suzuka’s probably more of an acolyte than before, but it still gives her proficiency in Insight and Performance.

Ability Scores

her stats, on the other hand, have changed rather dramatically. this time her Charisma is as high as possible, with her Wisdom in a close second. everyone loves Santa, and you probably have four ears so you’re great at hearing things. spears are still Strength weapons, so that has to be decent, and I’m not going to be cruel enough to give you a +0 in Constitution, so those are third and fourth, respectively. that means your Dexterity isn’t great, but we’re dumping Intelligence. I don’t think Suzuka’s actually that dumb, but I do think she’d act that dumb to play the part of a high school girl better.

Class Levels

1. Cleric 1: if we want to be a lancer, we need to start as a cleric. that means we get proficiency in Wisdom and Charisma saves, as well as Religion and History. Saint Nick’s old as balls, and since you’re a Santa Cleric, I guess that means Santa’s a god now. not the weirdest basis for a religion I’ve ever seen. as a Peace Cleric, you are an Implement of Peace, giving you proficiency in Persuasion. Santas publicly admit that they watch children while they sleep and nobody’s creeped out by that, that’s some god-tier persuasion right there.

you can also give your party an Emboldening Bond as an action Proficiency times a day, choosing up to Proficiency number of creatures to bond with for up to ten minutes. as long as any two of those creatures are within 30’ of each other, they can add 1d4 per turn to an attack, check, or save. kind of like guidance, but through the power of love.

you also learn some Spells, which you prep and cast using Wisdom. since you can change spells to match the occasion, the exact ones you pick each day don’t matter, but I’ll give you some highlights. that being said, Clerics have one of the strongest spell lists in the game, so you’re definitely spoiled for choice.

that being said your cantrips are pretty stuck on, so let’s go over them, Light lets you make your spear all shiny, and since it doesn’t specify the light has to be a static color you can totally make your spear say something if you spin it around fast enough. Thaumaturgy will help your ho-ho-hos carry through the night, and Resistance will help you not die. nobody likes dying, so don’t do it, lest whatever killed you becomes the new Santa.

as a peace Cleric you’ll always have Heroism and Sanctuary prepped- the former gives a teammate extra HP and immunity to fear, while the latter gives a creature protection from attack for up to a minute, or until they attack first. honestly, who would punch santa? anyone who succeeds on their wisdom saves. you also get spells like Ceremony, which isn’t in character but it does mean you can marry people, which feels like a natural endpoint for the “make everyone fall in love” character. you can also Cure Wounds now. think of it as a little christmas gift to whoever has the lowest HP.

2. Cleric 2: second level Clerics can Channel Divinity as an action, either Turning Undead and making them run away, or delivering a Balm of Peace to your allies. with this, you can move up to your speed without getting attacked, giving every friend you pass a little pick-me-up as you go. and that’s how you deliver presents to everyone in the party in a single turn.

3. Cleric 3: third level Clerics get second level spells, like Aid and Warding Bond. aid makes extra HP for everyone, and warding bond lets you take hits for someone else. but you barely have positive constitution, so. don’t. you can also Calm Emotions now, which sounds like the opposite of what we’re trying to do, but it’s hard to let love into your heart when anger’s in there too, y’know? you could also Enhance Ability to make someone more charismatic, or make a Prayer of Healing for a group heal when you have the downtime.

4. cleric 4: at fourth level you become a dual wielder thanks to ur first ability score improvement! this one doesn’t improve your ability scores which makes the name kind of pointless but it does let you carry two spears at once! while doin that u get a +1 bonus to ac which you rlly need and you can draw both spears at the same time!

this is actually a pretty bad feat but we need it for lore reasons!

5. cleric 5: fifth level clerics get to Destroy Undead instead of turning it, instantly killing any undead monster of CR ½ or lower whomst fails their wisdom save. they also get third level spells or whatever.

Sending lets you direct tweet anyone 25 words or less and they can send a message back, though if you try to target someone on another plane, there’s a 5% chance the spell fails. Beacon of Hope gives as many creatures as you wish within 30’ of you advantage on wisdom and death saves, as well as maxed-out healing.

as for your chosen spells, Bestow Curse and Remove Curse are kind of like single-person versions of your NP, weakening obstacles to love, or freeing someone to find love, respectively. if you just want an AoE attack, get Spirit Guardians.

6. Cleric 6: at sixth level Clerics can channel divinity twice as often, and your bond is now a Protective Bond, so if any bonded creature takes damage while another one is nearby, the latter can teleport next to the former and take the damage for them. given that you currently have less than 30 HP and an AC of 11, you’ll probably get a lot of use out of this.

7. Cleric 7: seventh level Clerics get fourth level spells! you get Aura of Purity and Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere for free, and to be honest there’s not much else we need for the build here so let’s just enjoy the mercifully short level for a change.

8. Sorcerer 1: okay enough of that time to pile it back on. as a Divine Soul sorcerer, you’re Favored by the Gods, letting you add 2d4 to any failed save or attack roll once a short rest.  foxes are just cooler, it’s a fact.

you also get Divine Magic, which is like normal sorcerer magic, (cast with charisma, mixes with cleric magic so check the phb to see how many spell slots you have, spells only change on level-up,) but you can also pick from Cleric spells too! you could already pick from Cleric spells by being a Cleric, and with more freedom due to the preparation system, but it’s there.

in more useful news, you get Inflict Wounds for free, so now you can deal a lot of damage in a short amount of time. you also get another cavalcade of cantrips, like Friends to make friends, Mending to keep your unrealistic battle outfit in one piece, Message for more texting, and Sword Burst to spin around and poke stuff.

on top of that, you get first level spells like Charm Person to again make friends, and Fog Cloud to set the scene. I imagine reflavoring the fog to be a bunch of falling snow wouldn’t be too big a stretch.

9. Sorcerer 2: second level sorcerers are a Font of Magic, letting you turn spell slots into sorcery points and vice-versa. right now, this just means you have an extra 1st level spell slot every day you remember it exists.

you can use that spell slot to cast Mage Armor, so your AC is no longer terrible! now it’s just kind of bad!

10. Sorcerer 3: third level sorcerers can spend their sorcery points on Metamagic! it’s magic, but meeeetaa! you can make a spell Heightened to force whatever you’re hitting to have disadvantage on the save or Subtle so nobody can notice you cast the spell.

you can also turn one of your spears into a Magic Weapon, dealing +1 damage and gaining a +1 on all attack rolls. ideally your legendary spears would be given by the DM at some point, but if you need a magic spear, now its here.

11. Sorcerer 4: fourth level sorcerers get another ASI, and with Piercer your Strength can finally get evened out while also making all your spears better! now you can reroll one piercing attack’s damage die once per turn to avoid 1’s, and your critical piercing hits get an extra die of damage slapped on! I wouldn’t call suzuka a melee powerhouse, but she’s got more mightocondria now.

you can also cast Blade Ward now to not die on impact with an actual fighter, and Snilloc’s Snowball Swarm. Suzuka probably can’t summon snowballs at will, but it feels Santa-ish and nobody can say otherwise.

12. Sorcerer 5: fifth level sorcerers can spend their SP on Magical Guidance, letting you re-roll a failed check.  you also get magical magic like Slow, our real NP for the build. I’m sure the part in Suzuka’s bio that talks about hindering obstacles to love isn’t quite so literal, but for a third level spell it can seriously mess people up- up to six creatures can be affected, and if they fail their wisdom save they’ll have half speed, -2 AC and dex saves, can’t use reactions, and have to choose between their action or bonus action. on top of that, spells have a 50/50 chance to take two turns to cast. the big downside is they keep making wisdom saves every turn, but particularly unwise individuals can get slowed down for up to a minute.

13. Sorcerer 6: sixth level holy soulies have Empowered Healing- whenever you or someone next to you casts a healing spell, you can spend 1 SP to re-roll any number of dice you wish. dying is a pretty big obstacle to love. so are fireballs, now that I think of it, so grab Protection from Energy as well.

14. Sorcerer 7: our last level of sorcerer is just to pick up the fourth level spell Dimension Door. you gotta be able to take all your selfies at the best angle, after all.

15. Cleric 8: now that we’re back in our original class, you get a long-awaited ASI to spend on Wisdom. plus, you get a stronger Destroy Undead that kills anything CR 1 or lower, and Blessed Strikes! once per turn, you can add an extra die of radiant damage to any damaging cantrip you cast or attack you make. turns out jamming a glo-stick into someone’s ribs hurts!

16. Cleric 9: ninth level Clerics get fifth level spells, and again there’s not really much to talk about- though that’s because the one I really wanted you get for free. Greater Restoration can cure an ally of tons of different kinds of impairments to love, like exhaustion, petrification, or paradoxically enough, charming. true love doesn’t come from the magic of magic, it comes from the magic of christmas! you also get Rary’s Telepathic Bond if you want to put everyone on your cell plan.

17. Cleric 10: tenth level Clerics get one of the most powerful features in the game when it works, Divine Intervention. basically, once a day (with a week’s cooldown upon working) you have a 1/10 chance of calling up your dad and having him solve whatever problem you’re dealing with. given that he’s a demon king, that might end badly.

or you can use your last cantrip Guidance for a 1d4 bonus to an ability check for a bit after you cast it. if guidance could help I’d hold off on summoning a god.

18. Cleric 11: Destroy Undead hits CR 2 creatures now, and you get 6th level spells like Heroes’ Feast, one of the better party-wide buffs you can use. you spend a short rest chowing down with friends to cure all diseases and poisons, gain immunity to the poisoned and frightened conditions, gain advantage on all wisdom saves, and their HP maximum goes up for 24 hours. (also you could argue that combining this with Beacon of Hope’s healing feature you can max out the HP buff for a couple people, but that’s pretty close to rules lawyering)

19. Cleric 12: we get one last ASI, so bump up that Wisdom once more for stronger spells and harder to make saves.

20. Cleric 13: our final level of the build gives us access to Suzuka’s reality marble, letting her make a Temple of the Gods, or in Santa terms, a shopping mall. this spell takes an hour to cast, but lets you set up a 120 square foot complex of your choosing, and your temple can block out certain types of creatures, forcing them out if they fail a charisma save and reducing all their rolls while inside. it also blocks divination, and improves your healing to boot!

Pros & Cons

Pros:

this santa does a little bit of everything, with offensive spells for damage, weapon skills to fall back on if magic fails, healing, buffing, debuffing, and even social spells, you’ll never be a fish out of water. because you’re a fox, and a fox out of water is pretty standard all things considered.

while a lot of buffers tend to focus on making one character powerful, you have access to a suite of party-wide buffs to make everyone a bit better! love doesn’t play favorites, after all! (also you never know who the necromancer’s going to try and charm, even if it probably will be the barbarian again)

thanks to being a swiftstride shifter, you move a lil faster than most casters, and that means it’s easier for you to stay out of danger. you’ve also got access to plenty of ways to escape from melee range without provoking attacks, which can really come in handy when you resort to throwing spears around.

Cons:

you need all that speed, because if you do get caught unawares you’re going to go down easily. you have barely over 100 HP at level 20, and your AC is atrocious right up until you get mage armor at level 9. don’t get killed, we can’t take another santa clause reboot.

we didn’t have enough ASIs to max out your casting features, so your heightened spells are a godsend. unfortunately, you don’t have a lot of sorcerer points, so you can’t actually use them too much without burning spell slots.

on a related note, this build lacks focus. that’s not inherently a bad thing, but it means you’ll have to get creative to stand on par with more specialized builds.

#fgo #fate grand order #D&D 5e #DND #Suzuka Gozen #fgo arcade #cleric #sorcerer

[grailfinders]

In regards to the continuation of making FGO characters in Pathfinder 2e, I do have two important things to note. 1. Pathfinder 2e are currently remastering some of their old content. Since alignment is getting removed this means Champion may be getting some major changes. 2. A brand new class known as Exemplar will be released in a new book known as War of the Immortals and it basically screams "Made for Gilgamesh".

oooh, neat!

#not a build

[grailfinders]

Grailfinders Viewers' Choice Poll: Losers' Bracket part 2

it's been another five polls, and that means we've had another five last-place build ideas. (tbf some of them lost to Mash Again and Beast Koyanskaya During the Tunguska Raids, so it's not so surprising.) it's time to give them a proper send-off with one last chance at redemption.

if you need a refresher of who everyone is, check below the cut!

Suzuka Gozen Santa is Suzuka Gozen, but santa! if you want to play FGO arcade but live anywhere other than Japan, this is the closest you'll ever get.

the Daycare Attendant from FNAF security breach is... a robot! who gets stunned by bright lights and things getting knocked over. that doesn't sound super interesting, but he can also teleport to your exact location if you mess with the timeline too much and violently correct the problem.

I don't think I need to say who Genghis Khan is too much, he’s a pretty big deal. he unified the mongol tribes, and then de-united them the second he died bc he never got a succession system up and running. rip to a real one.

Simo Hayha was a sniper during WWII who was famous for his ability to blend in with the snow around him, giving him the nickname "the white death". he's commonly considered one of the most deadly snipers in history, racking up around 500 kills in about three months. (tbh he's been in second place so often I'm surprised he ended up here)

Kumiho Cookie fits the bill of just about every kitsune stereotype you can think of. she's a fox that can turn into a woman and seduces people. where she stands out is she also happens to have a pet that gives her the ability to turn into a giant and run straight through walls. some people would still argue that counts as seduction, but that's not the point here.

#fgo #D&D 5e #DND #Cookie Run #Five Nights at Freddy's #fnaf security breach

[grailfinders]

Grailfinders Viewers' Choice #24: Dark Sakura

today on Grailfinders we’re making the big bad of Heaven’s Feel, Dark Sakura. she’s Sakura, but dark! I admit we haven’t played F/SN yet (heresy, I know), so if we get any lore wrong I profusely apologize. she’s got that grail gunk all up in her, so you know we had to give her the ol’ sorlock treatment. she’s a Great Old One Warlock for that GOO, and a Clockwork Sorcerer to get some of her own power. with those two in place, we have everything we need for omnipotence! maybe.

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

Ancestry & Background

Sakura’s a Human, or at least she was before the goopening, and she grew up with a special pattern on her that’s teaching her magic. that’s a Mark of the Sentinel if I ever heard it, giving her +2 Charisma and +1 Dexterity (thank you Tasha), as well as the Sentinel’s Intuition for a d4 bonus on all Insight and Perception checks. the most important part of hiding yourself from people is making sure they don’t know if you know that they know what you know, y’know? you can also use the Guardian’s Shield once a day for a free casting of the shield spell, and you’re a Vigilant Guardian, letting you throw yourself between an ally and an attack once a day. we’re not really using that last one here, but maybe you’ll use it during Today’s Menu for the Emiya Family, who knows. bacon grease really hurts, so maybe that counts as an attack?

you also get an extended spell list, but we’ll just go over the ones we want as we get them.

you’re also a Haunted One, because dear christ is the Matou family fucked up. on the plus side, you’re proficient in Arcana and Religion. that totally makes up for the trauma, right?

Ability Scores

your highest stat is Charisma. if you want people to think you’re doing alright, you need to lie to them constantly, and that’s a lot of charisma checks. also, your magic comes from within, and also from a cup, and also from a cup within, and all of those are charisma based. second up is Constitution. you can keep fighting with like, 80% of your body gone, so yeah. you’re pretty tough. third is Intelligence, as magic in Fate is a mix of sorcery and wizardry- it would feel weird to have this low, even if we don’t need it. this means your Dexterity is just okay. as implied by that bit about your body getting torn apart, you clearly don’t get out of the way of attacks easily. which kind of makes sense, you’re still just a teenager with magic powers. speaking of, your Wisdom’s low. I don’t want to assume as to how you got a grail stuffed inside you, but I will say it probably makes it hard for you to focus on stuff. that means we’re dumping Strength. you are a teenage girl. plus you’re going to have plenty of minions to do all the heavy lifting for you. I hear one of them is the strongest in the world.

Class Levels

1. Warlock 1: starting off as a warlock gets you proficiency with Wisdom and Charisma saves, as well as Deception and History. you also get an Awakened Mind from your GOO! (that’s Great Old One btw, but both work to describe grail mud) that gives you an Awakened Mind, letting you speak telepathically with anyone nearby as long as they know at least one language. I know the grail let Medusa speak Japanese but wouldn’t it be funny if it didn’t? now you’re prepared.

The grail will also give you Pact Magic like all warlocks, allowing you to cast spells using your Charisma for the spell modifier and save DC. You only have one first-level spell slot at the moment, but it recharges each short rest, and you’ll receive more and stronger spell slots over time. Eldritch Blast gives you a basic ranged attack that any caster should know, while Infestation allows you to call upon the grail mud to poison a nearby creature while also forcing them to move one space in a random direction. If your DM is fond of pits and hazards, you will be fond of this spell.

For your leveled spell, you can bring the mud to bear against anyone near you with Arms of Hadar, attacking friend and foe alike around you, while also preventing them from making reaction. For your second spell, go on the defensive with Shield of Faith giving you or an ally +2 AC for up to ten minutes. Any damage avoided is effectively damage healed, if you think about it.

2. Warlock 2: Second level warlocks get Eldritch Invocations to shape the grail mud to your liking. with these you can don an Armor of Shadows for free castings of Mage Armor on yourself, instantly adding an extra 3 points of AC while not wearing armor. you can also use Agonizing Blasts, adding your Charisma modifier to all damage done by your Eldritch Blast.

Speaking of dealing damage via Eldritch Blast, your new spell this level is Hex. With this spell, you deal an extra 1d6 necrotic damage to your target every time you hit them, and they also get disadvantage on all checks made with an ability of your choosing. If your target falls to 0 HP before your hour is up, you can even move it to another target! Given how many attacks Eldritch Blast can fire off in a single turn, this is a great boon to any killer of humanity.

3. Warlock 3: At third level, warlocks receive their Pact Boon, an extra special gift from your patron to shift the tides of battle! When you enter the Pact of the Talisman, anyone can wear it and add a d4 to a failed check up to your proficiency times a day. If you know what’s coming, you can be better prepared for it. Failing that, you can at least pretend you were prepared for it and make your rolls better anyway.

You also gain second level spells this level, and Hold Person is a doozy! One creature of your choice needs to make a Wisdom save, and if they fail, they’re paralyzed for up to a minute, or until they make another Wisdom save at the end of their turn.

A paralyzed creature is Incapacitated, and fails all strength and dexterity saves. In addition, all attacks against them gain advantage, and attackers within 5’ of the creature always deal critical damage whenever they hit. If you want to kill a humanoid as quickly as possible, this is how you do it.

4. Warlock 4: At fourth level, warlocks gain their first Ability Score Improvement, allowing us to round out your Dexterity and Charisma at the same time! We still can’t summon Saber Alter just yet, but you can use a Sword Burst for more or less the same effect. You also gain your first pseudo-summon this level thanks to Phantasmal Force. This illusion can be of anything you wish, but if you make an illusion that would deal damage to the creature, they will take a little psychic damage each turn.

5. Warlock 5: Fifth level warlocks learn third level spells. Counterspell will allow you to no-sell just about anything in the game, when it works. Countering the right attack or escape attempt can instantly make you the MVP of any encounter, which feels appropriate for a holy grail.

You can also don a Cloak of Flies thanks to your new invocation. With this, you deal poison damage to every creature within 5’ of you while also gaining advantage on Intimidation checks, at the cost of disadvantage on all other forms of charisma. You can use this once a short rest, and it has no time limit! it’s literally free damage.

6. Warlock 6: In contrast, your new Entropic Ward is free anti-damage. Whenever a creature attacks you, you can react to give it disadvantage. If this causes the attack to miss, your next attack against the attacker is made at advantage. You can only use this once per short rest, but I’m sure most people would prefer to have as few stab wounds as they can manage.

You can also further spread the mud’s influence thanks to the Hunger of Hadar, making a 20’ radius sphere of darkness that slows movement within it and deals damage to anything that starts and ends its turn within it.

7. Sorcerer 1: now we’re going to jump back to Sorcerer real quick and pick up some regular Sakura spells. you can argue we should’ve done this class first then, but I wanted the extra HP. so yes, you have Spells, you cast them with Charisma too. these refresh on long rests, but you can use warlock spell slots for sorcery spells and vice versa. this also doubles your cantrip count with the addition of Fire Bolt, Frostbite, Lightning Lure, and Chill Touch so this level isn’t 100% regular Sakura. you can also use Magic Missile if you like multiattacking but hate missing, and Silvery Barbs for another way to make the infinite power of the grail work for you. react and force someone to re-roll an attack, save, or check. if they fail, you can give an ally advantage on their next attack, save, or check. it’s great.

speaking of roll fuckery, you’re a Clockwork Soul, which lets you Restore Balance. 90% of the time grails are doing the exact opposite, but whatever, it lets you remove advantage or disadvantage from a d20 roll you can see Proficiency times per day. you can make the grail do literally anything, so everything we do here is 100% canon. people will believe that, right?

8. Sorcerer 2: second level sorcerers get a Font of Magic, so you can burn spell slots to make sorcery points and burn points to make sorcerer spell slots. if you’re not aware of the “coffeelock” gimmick, this lets you turn warlock slots into sorcerer slots, then short rest to regain the warlock slots for infinite magical power. as long as you can stay awake and not die in the process, at least.

to help you not die, here’s False Life! it gives you temporary HP! that’s almost as good as healing!

9. Sorcerer 3: third level sorcerers get Metamagic! it lets you customize spells almost as much as your invocations let you customize you. Heightened spells give one creature in their effect disadvantage on their save for 3 points, while Quickened spells let you cast an action spell as a bonus action. you blast hard, and you blast fast. it makes sense, given the magical reactor you’re stealing power from.

also you can cast Alter Self now! I don’t know what your cool red and black dress thing is supposed to be made out of, but if it’s made out of you, now you can make it by using the Change Appearance option. you can also choose an Aquatic Adaptation or Natural Weapons if you want.

10. Sorcerer 4: fourth level sorcerers get an ASI to max out your Charisma for the strongest spells, as well as the cantrip Mind Sliver to mess up human brains even more, and Maximillian’s Earthen Grasp for a sorta giant. why make a giant the size of a mountain when you can make a giant out of a mountain? think smarter, not harder. (it restrains a creature for up to a minute if it fails a strength save and you can make the hand crush people while grabbed.)

11. Warlock 7: Seventh level warlocks can use fourth level spells like Dominate Beast, turning any beast you can see into your loyal companion for up to a minute, forcing it to obey any command you give it. Most of our enslavement tactics only work on humanoids, so if you have to fight Hessian Lobo, this can help bring him into the fold.

If that’s not beastly enough, you become a Sculptor of Flesh this level, letting you cast Polymorph once a day with a warlock spell slot. This will transform you into a beast with a CR equal to or lower than your level for up to an hour. This is effectively summoning a giant to fight for you while also giving you a much larger HP pool to work with. You can’t cast spells while polymorphed, but I don’t think you need to if you’re a T. Rex.

12. warlock 8: at level 8 u get another asi, this time you’re getting lucky! congrats, some people have to stay up all night for that one. with this, yu can re-roll a creature’s attack, check, or save (as long as it directly affects u) up to 3 times a day! you can’t loop the whole war, but you can loop an attack or two. or three, if you were paying attention!

you can also summon a guardian of faith now, it’s only large so pretty small for a giant, but it blocks an area and stabs stuff for radiant damage! plus these are concentration free, so you can make as many as you want!

13. warlock 9: ninth level warlocks get fifth level spells, and if you really wanna make a shadow giant, then you need BIGBY’S HAND!!! it makes a big hand you can control. sure it’s not the whole thing, but all the cool giant boss fights only let you hit one body part anyway. also yer eldritch blast is a lance of lethargy now, so once a turn you can knock 10’ offa someone’s move speed for the next turn. that’s why this build’s so late!

14. warlock 10: tenth level warlocks can toll the dead and deal extra damage to anyone not at full health, but more importantly you get a thought shield! your mind cant be read by anybody you don’t wanna deal with, and you get resistance to psychic damage bc the amount you block gets launched back at the sender! you’re mostly mud by this point, i think. you ever try to make mud freak out? doesn’t go well.

15. warlock 11: leventh level warlocks get a mystic arcanum, a fancy way of saying you have normal spell slots now that only work for the one spell you get them for. no upcasting allowed past this point! now you can create undead! wit this you can turn up to three corpses into ghouls that’ll stay under your control for 24 hours. you can refresh this control with another casting, or you can just let them run free on the populace, your choice. boom, creepy skeletons, done!

16. Sorcerer 5: fifth level sorcerers got Magical Guidance, giving you another way to boost failed checks if you got the points for it. also, you can dispel magic now. if you couldn’t counter it, at least you can cut through it after the fact! (kinda ironic you died to rulebreaker, huh?)

17. Sorcerer 6: at sixth level clockwork sorcerers become a Bastion of Law, letting you spend sorcery points to give yourself a barrier to block up to 5d8 incoming damage.

18. warlock 12: at twelfth level you get your last asi, makin you tough! that’s 36 hp now, and another 2 every time you level up from here on out! if you want to heal a lot of hp, you need a lot of hp. or not, you can just turn into a huge giant crab if ya want. you also get the protection of the talisman this level, letting whoever is wearing it get an extra d4 on their save proficiency times a day! you’re just better than everyone, huh?

19. Warlock 13: a thirteenth level warlock gets a seventh level arcanum like Finger of Death. it kills people and can turn them into your zombie minions, just like the grail mud.

20. Warlock 14: all of this is nice of course, but it’s not warping a servant to serve you indefinitely. thankfully, that’s why you can now create thralls! you can use your action to touch any incapacitated humanoid and charm them indefinitely, or until they get hit with a remove curse spell. as long as you two are on the same plane, you can also talk to each other with your minds!! just. convince someone to play Saber. alter them. boom, salter.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

Create Thrall is a huge boon, letting you turn just about anyone into your minion for practically free. there’s no save, even! while finding an incapacitated humanoid sounds daunting, it’s easier than you’d think with a liberal sprinkling of heightened Hold Persons. suck a servant into goop and make them your servants. or zombies, or just lie to them!

as a sorlock you get infinite magic as long as you’re willing to work without sleep, which lets you blast away with your strongest spells without issue. well, not your strongest spells since those are arcanum, but still, infinite upcast Magic Missiles and Hungers of Hadar. it’s nice!

of course if you want to talk defense, infinite spell slots means infinite sorcery points means infinite shields. your infinite magical power makes Bastion of Law just a silly power to have, with no limit to the number of times you can use it outside of how much mana you have to burn meaning you can block up to 5d8 damage every turn with no limit outside of your patience. this is on top of your decent (for a caster) hp, as well as an ungodly number of ways to block, disadvantage, and stymie attackers at every turn. if someone somehow manages to fight you directly, it’s going to be a while before they can even pretend to land a hit on you.

Cons:

it a good thing you have those shields, because your AC is terrible without them. 15 AC isn’t bad, of course, but it means you’ll have to use every trick in your book if you get cornered by someone with actual fighting experience.

also, that big pro I put up there with the Bastion of Law? it takes a bonus action to burn a slot into points, then an action to make the shield. that’s your entire turn gone every time your shield needs to be refreshed. if someone really gets you on your backfoot, you can last a while, but that’s about all you can do. this is why you need the minions.

but now that I brought up that “ungodly number of ways to block attacks”… you have an ungodly number of ways to block attacks. that means not only do you have to be really paying attention to the DM’s turns, you need to keep an eye on all those methods of defense so you A) can use them well, and B) you don’t burn through them too quickly. complexity isn’t a death sentence, but you should know it before going all-in on a build. some people just want to relax in D&D, after all.

#fgo #fate grand order #D&D 5e #DND #Sakura Matou #Sorcerer #Warlock

[grailfinders]

Grailfinders #336: Manannan mac Lir (Bazett)

happy valentines day! I hope y’all are enjoying your new year’s ships and a waifus, and… uh… whatever else alloromantic people get up to. I’ll be enjoying the cheap chocolate on the fifteenth. today on Grailfinders we’re building Manannan mac Lir, but they’re mostly just Bazett again.

we’re mixing up this build a bit- she’s still a Monk, but an Astral Self monk this time. the Death portion of the build is taken over by her Cleric half this time.

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

next up: Infinitiger, R.I.P.

Ancestry & Background

Bazett’s literally a Human, no getting around that. with variant rules, you get +1 Constitution and +1 Wisdom, as well as proficiency in Arcana because you are a mage, and the Mage Slayer feat because killing mages is kind of your job. with this feat, you can slap people who cast spells within 5’ of you, and your attacks force disadvantage on anyone who needs to maintain concentration. on top of all that, you get advantage on saves against spells cast by people within 5’ of you. so, slam your hand into the wall to keep that wizard from escaping and kiss them beat them up. what. I’m not being weird you’re being weird.

speaking of weird, your background! there’s a spell I want that we could only get otherwise through convoluted class nonsense, so you’re a Gruul Anarch for your background. they don’t like magic either, and I gave the Mesopotamian gods Ravnican backgrounds, so I guess this is still consistent? you get Animal Handling and Athletics proficiency for free, plus an extended spell list to prepare from. when you learn spells you can pick between Compelled Duel, Speak with Animals, and Thunderwave at level 1, Beast Sense and Shatter at level 2, Conjure Animals and Conjure Barrage at level three, Dominate Beast and Stoneskin at level 4, and Destructive Wave at level five. we’re only really here for conjure animals, which I’ll explain when we can cast it, but anything that breaks stuff or makes you harder to break is a good pick too. don’t worry about coloring inside the lines too much, we can’t afford to send out Enforcers.

Ability Scores

your highest score should be Wisdom, that’s how you hunt down mages, summon weapons, use spells, and avoid dying. it’s a good skill, you should be good at it. after that is Dexterity. you can’t summon your weapons right away, so being good at regular punching is a good idea too. third is Constitution. you don’t die easy, a good trait for any PC to have. I wish we could make your Strength higher, but it’s still positive, and we can cover that with wisdom later. that means your Intelligence is also lower than I’d like, I assume you have to be clever to fight mages, but honestly the power scaling in this universe is pretty inconsistent, so who knows. that means we’re dumping Charisma. you just don’t plain get along with other people. thank goodness you’re not a paladin.

Class Levels

1. Monk 1: we’re starting off as a monk so you can fight in a suit, dress, or whatever the fuck that second outfit is. that’s because you have Unarmored Defense, adding your Wisdom modifier to your AC for some extra protection. everyone should have extra protection on valentines day, unless you want little bazletts toddling around in a year or so.

you also learn how to beat people to death with your bare hands thanks to your Martial Arts. when attacking unarmed or with a monk weapon (simple weapons and/or shortswords) you can use your dexterity for the attack and damage rolls, always deal at least a d4 (or more as you level up) in damage, and you can make an unarmed attack as a bonus action! you can bring all the fancy toys you want, but sometimes you just have to get your hands dirty. make sure to trim those fingernails.

starting as a monk also gives you a bonus to Strength and Dexterity saves, as well as History and Stealth. you fight servants a surprising amount for a human, and you need to fight those servants with your bare hands.

2. Monk 2: second level monks gain Ki equal to their monk level each short rest, which you can spend to dash, disengage, dodge, or attack twice as a bonus action. you can also make a Dedicated Weapon as part of your short rest, turning a non-monk weapon you’re proficient in into a monk weapon for the rest of the day. right now this does nothing, but your cleric subclass gives you proficiency with all weapons, so if you’re hankering for more weaponry it’ll be along shortly.

you also get Unarmored Movement this level, increasing your speed as you level up. your fists aren’t ranged weapons, so you’ll need a gap closer.

3. Monk 3: third level monks can Deflect Missiles as a reaction, reducing damage from a ranged attack and giving you a chance to throw it back if you spend a ki point. it’s not quite fragarach, but it’s a good point to start.

you also start getting in tune with Manannan, and unlock your Astral Self. at level three this grants you the Arms of the Astral Self. spend a ki point and your bonus action, and boom, magic weapons floating around you. when you enter this mode all creatures near you need to make a dex save or take force damage, and then it lasts for a whopping ten minutes, no concentration required. now you can use Wisdom to make attacks, using your new arms to make unarmed strikes. you get increased range with these, and they deal force damage instead of the usual kind. you can choose your arms’ appearance, so they can be literal arms or any kind of weapon you want. of course, if you want a “real” ranged weapon you can always stock up on throwing knives.

4. Cleric 1: now that we have your basic weapons and ascension gear down, we need a horse. yes this is important. as a Death cleric you start off as a Reaper, giving you a bonus necromancy cantrip like Toll the Dead to really beat the hell out of children, or anyone else who gets in your way. if the target fails a wisdom save, the take a moderate amount of necrotic damage, with the damage die growing if they’re not at full health. you can also hit two creatures with it instead of one if they’re next to each other. you’ve got two hands, after all.

you also learn how to cast and prepare spells using your Wisdom this level! since you can pick and choose every day, don’t stress too much about getting the perfect spell list down. that being said, you get Guidance and Resistance for cantrips to be better than most mages, as well as Light for a little holy background.

at level one you get False Life and Ray of Sickness for free, but I’d pay more attention to Thunderwave from your Gruul spell list, as well as Inflict Wounds for a major suckerpunch and Detect Magic to make fighting mages a lot easier.

5. Cleric 2: second level clerics can Channel Divinity once per short rest in two ways. all clerics can Turn Undead to make skeletons run away on a failed wisdom save, but you also get a Touch of Death, adding a bit of necrotic damage to a creature when you hit them with a melee attack. thankfully, both your astral arms and regular arms count as melee attacks. but not melee weapon attacks, which is why we didn’t go paladin.

6. Cleric 3: third level clerics get second level spells this level, you get Blindness/Deafness and Ray of Enfeeblement for free, but I’d like to draw your attention to the Gruul spell Shatter. punching through walls is usually hard, but not for you. you can use Protection from Poison for some debuff resistance, or you could summon a Spiritual Weapon if you’re still miffed you’re not technically summoning swords most of the time.

7. Cleric 4: fourth level clerics get their first Ability Score Improvement, and it’s also your first ASI. sorry it took so long to get your Wisdom higher; we needed a good base to build on first. now your wisdom helps you out in every conceivable way, so I hope it was worth the wait.

you also learn the Thaumaturgy cantrip this level- you’re part god, you might as well sound like it.

8. Cleric 5: fifth level clerics can Destroy Undead when they’re turned if they’re CR ½ or lower. you also get third level spells, so if you want chocolate skeletons of your own, Animate Dead can help out there. you also get Vampiric Touch for free, but again we’re here for the Gruul spell Conjure Animals. you need a horse, and it was this or going paladin for find steed. on the plus side with this spell you’ll get plenty of replacements for when your horse is inevitably shot out from under you. you can also use Dispel Magic and Remove Curse for some retroactive debuff immunity, and Protection from Energy to kind of counter magic.

9. Cleric 6: okay, we’re done with walls of text each level for a bit. at sixth level you can channel divinity twice a short rest, and your Inescapable Destruction sounds cool but just means your spells and CDs ignore resistance to necrotic damage, so that touch deals a near-guaranteed 17 bonus damage now.

10. Monk 4: fourth level monks also get an ASI for more Dexterity for those times you run out of arms and spells, as well as Slow Fall to counter gravity as well. you can also spend 2 ki and an action for some Quickened Healing, taking a breather to keep up your fighting spirit. It’s Second Wind, but worse!

11. Monk 5: fifth level monks get an Extra Attack each action for up to four fisticuffs a turn. you can also turn any one of those into a Stunning Strike, spending ki to force a Constitution save on someone you hit. if they fail, they can’t do much of anything for a round, and melee attackers get advantage to slug ‘em again. finally, you can also spend ki on Focused Aim to nail a jumpier target, turning ki into attack bonus.

12. Monk 6: sixth level monks have Ki-Empowered Strikes, so your unarmed attacks are all magical now! you could’ve gotten around those sorts of defenses with your mind fists already, but a free alternative is never a bad idea. speaking of those arms, you can either spend a bonus action or combo together with your Arms of the Astral Self to summon a Visage of the Astral Self for 1 ki point. while masked up, you see in all kinds of darkness for 120’ and have advantage on Insight and Intimidation checks. your charisma’s bad, but seeing someone punch a car and keep going will put the fear of god in anybody. on top of that, you can mute your voice so only one person can hear you, or amplify it so everything in a 600’ radius can. beating mages to death tends to be either very loud, or very quiet. now you have options for both.

13. Monk 7: Seventh level monks can counter fireballs with ease thanks to Evasion blocking half the damage of failed dexterity saves and all the damage of successes. you also get Stillness of the Mind which shuts down effects charming or frightening you as an action. hooray for more debuff immunity!

14. Monk 8: of course an ounce of prevention equals a pound of cure, so let’s max out that Wisdom this ASI for stronger saves, attacks, spells, and stuns. wisdom: it’s what’s for dinner!

15. Monk 9: ninth level monks get Unarmored Movement Improvement. now you can run up walls and over water, though you’ll fall down if you end your turn off solid ground. is it really an anime fistfight if you haven’twalked on a wall at least once?

16. Monk 10: at level ten, monks have a Purity of Body that makes you 100% immune to disease and poison. given how much chocolate the average master has to eat every year, you’re going to need that.

17. Monk 11: eleventh level astral monks get the real fun stuff when you start making the Body of the Astral Self. it’s a free bonus you can put on if you’ve summoned up both your arms and face. with this you can counter magical attacks better with Deflect Energy, using your reaction to reduce incoming elemental damage. of course your counter attack also uses your reaction, but you can’t counter something if you’re not alive to do so, so it’s kind of a moot point by then.

the real reason this level’s great for counter attacks is your Empowered Arms. once per turn, you deal an extra die of damage when you hit someone with an arm. an astral arm. your regular arms are nice but they’re not magic. probably. I mean they are magic bc of the ki-empowered strikes, but- yknow what? this is getting too confusing, next level!

18. Cleric 7: whew, now we can talk about something simple, like… fourth level spells! you get Blight and Death Ward for free, but I’m more interested in the gruul spell Stoneskin. it gives resistance to nonmagical physical damage! that doesn’t sound so great, but when you punch through one too many support pillars you’ll be happy to have it. Locate Creature is also a great spell to hunt down whatever your mark of the day is.

19. Cleric 8: you get one last ASI, so bump up that Constitution for extra health. it’s retroactive, so that’s 19 bonus HP! your fight plan is to deliberately get hit with someone’s strongest attack- trust me, you need that health. also, Destroy Undead works on CR 1 creatures, and once a turn you can make a Divine Strike, adding 1d8 necrotic damage to the target of a weapon attack once a turn. remember, your unarmed attacks are both melee attacks (so they work with Touch of Death), and weapon attacks (so they work with Divine Strike), but not melee weapon attacks (so they don’t work with Divine Smite). this is all completely reasonable.

20. Cleric 9: ninth level clerics get fifth level spell. I hate to be repetitive, but once again your freebies Antilife Shell and Cloudkill aren’t really what we’re after. That being said you do get Destructive Wave for a big stompy AoE attack, as well as Holy Weapon if you’re really itching for a shiny white sword. whatever weapon you touch deals extra radiant damage, and it can explode if you end the spell early. you could also use something like Dispel Good and Evil to knock a servant back to the throne early, if you wish.

Pros & Cons:

Pros:

as mentioned in Cursed Arm’s build, monks have great mobility, and being able to use that mobility without ever having to enter an enemy’s melee range is a huge bonus to a monk’s survivability. you got long arms, basically, and with those and your speed boosts, you can deal all the damage you want while staying pretty safely out of the range of most monsters.

if you really want to fight at long range, you have access to one of the best spell lists in the game, only made better by the additions from your background. I know we didn’t touch on many spells in this build, but that just means you have even more wiggle room to work with when you prepare each day.

for once, we have a build that isn’t Multi-Ability Dependent! I know that’s not much to say, but monk builds usually tend to be a bit messier than the others. being able to hard-focus on wisdom makes your whole experience a lot smoother.  also I didn’t have anywhere else to put it, but you deal a lot of damage in a single hit, which is unusual for a monk. this, plus your usual monkly number of attacks, means even the most nimble of enemies only needs to get unlucky once to feel the brunt of your power.

Cons:

you have a lot of resources to keep on top of. two that recharge on short rests, and one that recharges on long rests. add in the flexibility of ki, spells, and divine channeling, and you’re bound to get a headache from all that thinking.

of course there’s a good chance you won’t even be able to use most of that if you spend your time trying to counterattack like you’re supposed to be able to. we still never really found a better option than simply holding your action, and that sucks! it eats up most of your turn on the off chance someone else does something cool. you’re the PC! you should be the one doing cool stuff!

we took a whole background just for a horse. it’s not even a special horse. just flavor something else as a horse and pick a more fitting background, it’s really not worth it. cleric already has damage spells and protection spells up the wazoo, the Gruul spells mostly add flavor tbh. they don’t hurt, but you won’t be using these horses in a fight, and outside of a fight you can just buy some.

#fgo #fate grand order #D&D 5e #DND #bazett fraga mcremitz #Manannan mac Lir #monk #cleric

[grailfinders]

Are there plans to go back and do Pathfinder builds for all the Servants initially done in 5E? Or is that (rather understandably) considered too much work for not enough payoff?

it fell by the wayside due to life events, but we’ll try to pick it back up again

[grailfinders]

Was wondering, when Lostbelt 7 comes out, are you planning to do the weaker, playable version of U-Olga? She's a pretty straightforward School of Graviturgy Wizard, with a focus on "Space" spells like Dark Star (that spell would probably be a must).

if she ever becomes summonable she’ll definitely get a build, but we can also stick her in the viewers’ choice polls too