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pomrania · 4 years

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D&D Spells for TMA Entities

Since I'm currently on a The Magnus Archives kick, I thought I might as well look through the sourceboks, and go over which spells would fit with which Powers. Might also work as inspiration for flavouring in unrelated D&D games.

Spells marked with a (x) are from Xanathar; everything else is from the PHB. This isn't complete; more spells will be added as I write up description for each of the Entities associated with them.

For simplicity's sake, all the "fire" spells that are only associated with Desolation: Aganazzar's Scorcher (x) / Burning Hands / Create Bonfire (x) / Fireball / Fire Bolt / Fire Shield / Fire Storm / Flame Blade / Immolation (x) / Produce Flame / Scorching Ray / Searing Smite / Wall of Fire

Animate Objects Stranger: It shouldn't be moving, yet it is.

Antimagic Field End: Even magic itself shall eventually die.

Arcane Gate Spiral: Doors appear wherever you want them to.

Arms of Hadar Dark: You carry the night within you, and the night is hungry. Web: Spider legs sprout from your form and thrash about, sucking the life out of those they touch.

Banishment Dark: You send someone to commune with your god for a little while, somewhere that light never existed; the place may be "harmless", but they don't know that. Lonely: Spend some time, completely alone. Spiral: A door opens on your target, and they wander the endless halls. Vast: Enjoy the endless falling, for a moment.

Blindness/Deafness Dark: It's a gift, really. End: Temporary death of the senses. Lonely: When you can't see or can't hear, you are cut off from others; as you always were. Web: You seal shut the target's eyes or ears with fine silken threads.

Call Lightning Vast: The sky's power is your own.

Calm Emotions End: There's no point in feeling, when death will take us all eventually. Lonely: You're distant from everything, including what you might feel. Web: You can still feel the terror or anger or joy; but it's distant, and something prevents it from determining your actions.

Charm Person / Charm Monster (x) Spiral: You've always been their good friend, even if you just met. Web: They will do what you want, because they like you.

Clairvoyance Beholding: Your eyes aren't limited to what you have in your head.

Comprehend Languages Beholding: Nothing shall be a barrier to your understanding.

Compulsion Web: You tug the strings to drag them around.

Control Flames (x) Dark: Extinguishing and dimming only. Desolation: It only takes a spark; and you'll make sure that that spark heads to where it can cause the most devastation.

Cordon of Arrows Stranger: Imagine the looks on their faces when an arrow starts shooting itself!

Create Food and Water Corruption: Even as you chew and swallow them, the summoned insects won't stop moving. Flesh: You won't like where it comes from, but it DOES technically create something that can be eaten for nutrients. (Optional: requires material components of a blade and a fleshy body, which can include the caster.)

Crown of Madness Slaughter: Sometimes you need to encourage them a bit before they start killing. Web: So many people already want to cause harm, it only takes a tiny nudge to direct that desire.

Cure Wounds Corruption: Cancerous growths seal shut any injuries you may have. Flesh: It hurts, a lot, but it will cure your injuries. Up to you to decide if it's worth it. Stranger: Wood and plastic meld to your form and fix any breaks; after enough of these, you'll look more like patchwork than a person. Web: Your wounds are stitched closed by phantom spiders; they leave behind them a silken embroidery where your scars would have formed.

Darkvision Beholding: Night is no protection against your gaze. Buried: Deep underground, away from the sky and the sun, you can see perfectly. Dark: "Needing light" is for the weak.

Death Ward End: Whenever this spell triggers, somebody else dies, instead of you, and you are aware of it.

Detect Evil and Good / Detect Magic Beholding: It doesn't matter if it's hidden; you know.

Detect Poison and Disease Beholding: If you spare the effort to look, nobody can secretly poison you. Corruption: Like calls to like, and you can feel others that have been touched by your patron.

Detect Thoughts Beholding: Even within your own mind, you're still being watched.

Disguise Self Spiral: If you absolutely need to, you can look normal. Stranger: Even if they've seen you before, you can still be unfamiliar.

Disintegrate End: You leave nothing behind.

Dispel Magic End: Against death itself, mere "magic" cannot stand.

Dominate Beast / Dominate Monster / Dominate Person Web: Sometimes you need a more direct control.

Dragon's Breath (x) Flesh: The potential is there within each body, and you can release it.

Earthbind (x) Buried: Flight shall be no escape.

Eldritch Blast Slaughter: Distance can't stop the killing.

Enemies Abound (x) Lonely: No matter how many people are with you, nobody is truly on your side. Spiral: You can't trust your senses; it's best to assume that everyone is a danger. Stranger: Everyone seems unfamiliar, and you know they mean to hurt you. Web: Maybe they don't want to hurt you, but they're being controlled, they're dangerous to you.

Enhance Ability Corruption: There's so much strength to be had, if you let the bug take over your weak form. Flesh: The body will eventually fall back into its normal state, but for now, it is at peak performance. (Optional: only for Constitution, Strength, or Dexterity.) Stranger: If you can use someone's skin, you can tap into their power. (Optional: requires material component of a piece of skin from a creature with a high score in the desired ability.)

Etherealness Lonely: Nobody can touch you and nobody can see or hear you.

Expeditious Retreat Hunt: The name is misleading; you don't retreat, you CHASE.

Eyebite Beholding: Being seen by you is dangerous. End: You hold the power of death within you, and can bestow aspects of it with but a glance.

False Life Corruption: You're part of something greater than yourself, and it protects you from harm. End: You know death well; you can place yourself a little bit farther away from it. Flesh: Anything will have to get past your vestigial organs to deal actual harm. Stranger: So much of your body is made of things that look like you but aren't you.

Feign Death End: If you pretend to have already been taken, maybe death won't take you. Lonely: They left you behind because they thought you were dead.

Find the Path Beholding: The way to go is obvious.

Find Traps Beholding: Your eyes are drawn to what you need to know about, to avoid.

Fly Vast: There's nothing more delightful than finally being free of the need to set your feet somewhere.

Fog Cloud Corruption: Spores and tiny insects answer the call, and form a thick cloud. Dark: It's not true darkness, but it will do. Lonely: There might be nobody else around. Vast: Who knows how far it is beyond, when you're enveloped in cloud?

Foresight Beholding: You can't see the future; but you can see all the factors affecting what's around you, and that's a close approximation.

Freedom of Movement Hunt: You will not slow your chase. Slaughter: Nothing can stand in the way of violence. Vast: You will not be held down.

Friends Web: People just need a little encouragement to do what you want them to, at times.

Geas Web: Your will shall be done, or there will be consequences.

Gentle Repose Buried: The earth protects what is entrusted to its care. Flesh: Keep the meat from going bad.

Goodberry Corruption: Insects and fungi are your friends, and provide so much nutrition. Flesh: It's not a berry; you can still eat it, but it's not a berry.

Gust (x) Lonely: Give yourself some personal space. Vast: You are intimately acquainted with both wind and distance.

Heroism Slaughter: Don't let injury or fear hold you back from hurting others.

Hold Monster / Hold Person Vast: Vertigo prevents you from moving. Web: You know you can move; but for some reason, you choose not to.

Identify Beholding: Knowledge just comes to you.

Illusory Dragon (x) Dark: Shadows take an intimidating form. (Optional: the breath weapon can only be necrotic.)

Inflict Wounds Corruption: Skin rots at your touch. End: Tissue death. Desolation: Liquefied fat. Flesh: You control the blood and muscles and bones in their body, and can damage them as you will. (Optional: caster can choose to deal bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage, instead of necrotic.) Slaughter: No weapon, no problem. Web: You start to drain them dry.

Insect Plague Corruption: Share the love with everyone.

Investiture of Stone (x) Buried: The earth's embrace stays with you, even when you get up.

Investiture of Wind (x) Vast: Carry the sky with you.

Invisibility Lonely: If nobody knows you are there, then you're basically alone.

Knock Spiral: It was never locked.

Legend Lore Beholding: If it's important, you will know it.

Levitate Vast: Height is what you tell it to be. Web: Invisible strings hold you up.

Locate Animals or Plants / Locate Object Beholding: You have eyes everywhere, and you can tap into them just enough to find what you seek and not be overwhelmed.

Locate Creature Beholding: Nobody can hide from the eyes that see all. Hunt: Without a direction, there's no hunt.

Maddening Darkness (x) Dark: This is everything you desire for the world. End: You create a small area that displays what awaits people when they die.

Mage Hand Corruption: Insects swarm at your willing, to manipulate what you direct. Spiral: Why should you have to touch something in order to move it?

Mass Suggestion Web: Spin your influence even further.

Maximilian's Earthen Grasp (x) Buried: Share the embrace of the earth; either they'll learn to love it, or they'll die, win/win situation.

Mending Spiral: Apparently it wasn't broken, after all.... Stranger: Parts of the object come to life and knit themselves back together.

Meteor Swarm Desolation: Such utter destruction of everything in its path, it's glorious.

Mind Spike (x) Beholding: Once you've seen someone, there is no hiding from you.

Mirage Arcane Spiral: "Reality" is but a plaything, and "stability" is only an illusion; even the ground under your feet isn't how it seems.

Mislead Spiral: Even your apparent presence is a lie.

Misty Step Dark: You dissolve into shadows, or your form melts in the light, then you appear someone more suited to your tastes. Lonely: You don't have to stay with them for one second longer than you wish.

Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum Dark: "Being seen" is antithetical to your nature. Stranger: No prying eyes allowed.

Nondetection Dark: Your truth stays hidden. Stranger: They can't see you coming in advance.

Nystul's Magic Aura Spiral: One more lie to tell.

Passwall Spiral: Walls are, at best, only a suggestion.

Phantasmal Force / Phantasmal Killer Spiral: It's all in your mind, of course; but it will still hurt you.

Power Word Kill End: Death is unavoidable.

Power Word Pain (x) Desolation: Their agony is delightful to you. Hunt: You haven't torn into your prey yet, but you describe how your teeth will rend their flesh, and their imagination cripples them.

Protection from Poison Corruption: It will not harm you; it loves you.

Scrying Beholding: You cast your sight outwards, to view that which you seek.

See Invisibility Beholding: You can see what would be concealed from all else. Hunt: Prey can try and hide from you; it won't work.

Seeming Spiral: Appearance was only ever an illusion to begin with.

Shadow of Moil (x) Dark: The embrace of the dark is a home to you, and a weapon against those who would hurt you.

Silence Dark: This is the natural state of the world. End: All sound dies.

Silent Image Spiral: You can see it, but it isn't real, and was never real.

Skywrite (x) Vast: The expanse is beautiful, and also informative.

Slow Spiral: You are ripped from the natural flow of time, cast into a world that moves too fast. Vast: Hard to move when you feel like every step will send you falling over the edge.

Spare the Dying End: It wasn't your time. Yet. Flesh: It's important to keep the meat fresh until you need it.

Staggering Smite Slaughter: They don't know how to react to the sheer force of your violence.

Stinking Cloud Corruption: You corrupt the very air that others breathe.

Stoneskin Buried: The earth's embrace surrounds you and protects you. Desolation: Wax is difficult to meaningfully damage. (Optional: caster only.) Flesh: Your meat is thick. Stranger: Flesh becomes as resilient as plastic.

Suggestion Web: It's the only sensible course of action.

Thunder Step (x) Vast: The sky sends you on your way, striking out at those who would hold you back.

Toll the Dead (x) End: Once death already has a grip on someone, it gets harder to resist. Slaughter: The pipes mark your doom.

Tongues Beholding: You are the common language.

True Seeing Beholding: There are eyes that cannot be fooled by anything, and you have access to them.

Unseen Servant Dark: The darkness caters to your whims. (Optional: can't be cast in bright light.) Stranger: Around you, objects do actually pick themselves up.

Web Dark: Shadows take physical form, and bar the way. (Optional: the webs dissipate if they take radiant damage.) Web: Duh.

Zone of Truth Beholding: They can try to hide their stories, but they can't lie to you.

#fandom: magnus archives #gaming #original content #not a reblog

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grailfinders · 4 years

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Servant #2: Artoria Pendragon (Saber)

Moving along, our next subject is the face of Fate, King Arthur herself! For this build, we need to accomplish three things: A very fancy sword, laser beams coming out of said sword, and mana burst-esque abilities for when you need to give it 110%. A quick rundown of the build can be found here, and details under the cut!

Race and Background

Surprising no one, Artoria is a Human, meaning she gets +1 to all abilities.

Once again we are using the standard array (15,14,13,12,10,8). You can roll if you want to, but make sure it’s good enough for multiclassing.

We start with Strength as our highest stat. If we’re putting this much effort into pimping out our sword, we better be worthy of wielding it.

Next is Charisma. Artoria’s the king for a reason, and it’s because she’s surprisingly good at deception. That, and being a paragon of goodness and all.

This is followed by Dexterity. Artoria needs to be able to move if she wants to.

After that is Constitution. Artoria is tougher than your average bear, but it’s not what she’s known for.

Then we choose Intelligence. Artoria has a good head on her shoulders, enough to know she needs to keep Merlin around anyway.

Finally, Wisdom is our dump stat. She doesn’t have a good sense for interpersonal relationships, even if she can rally an army. Just ask Lancelot. Or Mordred.

For Artoria’s background, the obvious choice is the Noble variant, Knight. This gives you proficiency to History and Persuasion, and gives you the Retainers skill: three ordinary people who’ll take care of all that day-to-day stuff for you. Feel free to base them after your less popular family members. My personal suggestion is to make three clearly different people and claim they’re all Gaheris. Nobody will be able to prove you wrong.

Class Levels

1. Paladin 1: Starting off to no one’s surprise as a paladin, Artoria has proficiency with Wisdom and Charisma Saves, as well as All armor and weapons, and Intimidation and Religion. Your status leaves you difficult to approach, and you’re most well known for hunting down religious artifacts. This is your life now, you’re the shiny cup guy.

You also get Divine Sense, letting you sense extraplanar entities around you, and Lay on Hands, providing yourself and your allies with welcome healing.

2. Paladin 2: At second level, you gain your fighting style, Great Weapon Fighting. Even from an early age, Excalibur is calling to you.

You also gain Spellcasting with Charisma as your ability. There are plenty of spells you can use here, I’d suggest looking at Ceremony, Detect Magic, Divine Favor, and Searing Smite. Searing Smite lets you turn your sword into a lightshow and bring the pain, which is one step off of our final goal.

You also have Divine Smite, a skill that lets you burn spell slots to make your sword moreso.

3. Paladin 3: You’re finally taking the Oath of the Crown, for obvious reasons. With this oath, you gain Command and Compelled Duel as your oath spells, and can Channel Divinity by issuing a Champion Challenge or Turning the Tide. As king of England you will need to set an example for all the realm to follow; no evil can be allowed to get past you. This is also around the point you meet Merlin, and everything goes to hell.

4. Warlock 1: Merlin is your Archfey Patron, granting you a whole trove of magical goodies. At this level, you gain a Fey Presence, letting you spend an action to force a wisdom save on everything within 10′ of you or else they are charmed/frightened of you until the end of your next turn. Now that Merlin is in your support, everybody wants to be on your friends list.

You also gain Pact Magic. It should be noted that unlike most magic multiclassing, pact magic and spellcasting don’t mix. You get exactly the spell slots listed for each level of paladin and warlock you gain. You can, however, use warlock slots for paladin magic and vice versa.

At this point you should pick up the Booming blade and Eldritch Blast cantrips, along with the spells Expeditious Retreat and Faerie Fire. Expeditious retreat is functionally replacing part of your Mana burst ability, allowing you to move much faster at the cost of magical power. Eldritch Blast is a stable of the Warlock Community, and one day it will become the closest thing to a laser sword we can manage.

5. Warlock 2: At this level, you gain Eldritch Invocations, small effects that alter your life just a little bit, like everything Merlin does to you. Here, choose Repelling Blast and another invocation that will be getting immediately replaced next level. You also gain another spell at this level, but that will be getting replaced shortly as well, so pick whatever you’d like right now. Also, Repelling blast isn’t absolutely necessary, so feel free to pick whatever flavor of blast you’d prefer.

6. Warlock 3: At this level, you gain your Pact of the Blade. By now, you’ve probably noticed your life is getting pretty much dominated by oaths and pacts. This is kind of a running theme for you. The good news is you finally get Excalibur, the magical greatsword you’ve spent so long working towards! If you find a cooler sword later, you can also turn that into your pact weapon, but for now let’s bask in your achievement.

At this point, replace that one invocation with Improved Pact Weapon, turning your sword into a spell focus so you can shoot lasers out of it, plus turning it into a +1 weapon in the process.

You also gain another spell, and your slots move up to the second level. Gain Calm Emotion and Invisibility. Now your allies can repress their emotions as well as you do, and I’m sure if you asked nicely your DM will let you target your sword instead of a creature for the latter spell.

7. Warlock 4: For your first Ability Score Improvement, add to your constitution and charisma, to make your spells a bit stronger. At this level you also gain a new cantrip, Create Bonfire, and a new spell, Enthrall.

8. Warlock 5: For your final stop as a warlock, your spell slots move to the 3rd level, and you gain another spell, Tongues. You also gain a third eldritch invocation, Eldritch Armor. This allows you to spend an action to magically put on any suit of armor you can touch, even if someone else is already wearing it. The effect only works if you’re not already wearing armor though, so don’t go thinking you can sneak two sets of armor on. I would think it should also let you take off armor as an action, but you’d have to talk to your DM about that. It would be pretty on point for Artoria, though.

9. Paladin 4: Now that Merlin’s done ruining your life, we can get back on point. Put your next Ability Score Improvement into Strength, and try to forget the last 5 levels happened.

10. Paladin 5: You gain an extra attack each turn, and some 2nd level spell slots that won’t leave you like the warlock ones did. You gain Warding Bond and Zone of Truth as Oath spells, and should also take a look at Branding Smite when you get a chance to prepare your normal spells.

11. Paladin 6: You gain an Aura of Protection. Friendly creatures (including yourself) gain a bonus to saving throws equal to your charisma modifier if they’re within 10′ of you. You’re so good at ruling you inspire people just by being around them.

12. Paladin 7: You gain another crown skill, Divine Allegiance. If someone within 5′ of you is going to take damage, you can react and throw yourself in front of the bullet.

13. Paladin 8: Another Ability Score Improvement, once again going into Charisma. A lot of your abilities are riding on this stat now.

14. Barbarian 1: We’re taking another detour to grab some barbarian skills. Rage acts like your mana burst, giving you a sudden boost of strength when you need it the most. You’ll need to remove your heavy armor for this (again, push to tweak that Eldritch armor with your DM), but in return you gain advantage on strength checks and saves, +2 to melee attacks, and you resist bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage. This eats up your mana pretty quickly though, so you can’t use spells or concentrate while doing so. You also get Unarmored Defense, so you aren’t completely defenseless when your armor’s off. The lowest your AC can go now is 10 + your dexterity modifier + your charisma modifier. A good king is ready at any time, after all.

15. Barbarian 2: You gain a Reckless Attack, letting you have advantage on all attacks this turn in return for your enemies having advantage on their turns. Hopefully by this point your sword is fancy enough that they don’t get those.

You also gain Danger Sense working in place of your instinct skill. This gives you advantage on all dex saves caused by sources you can see.

16. Paladin 9: Back on track yet again, you gain your third level spell slots, complementing the warlock slots quite nicely. You gain Aura of Vitality and Spirit Guardians as oath spells, and should look into preparing Daylight and Crusader’s Mantle.

17. Paladin 10: You gain an Aura of Courage. Your presence is so calming, allies within 10′ of you can’t be frightened.

18. Paladin 11: You’re so holy now, you have Improved Divine Smite. Now your weapon is so fancy it deals 1d8 extra radiant damage without even trying.

19. Paladin 12: Spend your last ability score improvement on Inspring Leader. Good kings send good men to die for them in battle. Great kings make them happy to do so.

20. Paladin 13: At your final level, you gain the ability to cast 4th level spells. You gain Banishment and Guardian of Faith as oath spells, and should look into Aura of Purity and Aura of Life as well.

The strength of this build lies in its combat versatility. You’ve got one fancy sword with 57 flavors of smite for close combat, a couple useful cantrips for midrange fighting, and even a bit of healing if things go Camlann.

The tradeoff is you’re not particularly great at any one thing, a condition I like to call “Terminal Protagonist Syndrome”. You’re also pretty bad at social interactions, but you’re Artoria, so that’s to be expected. Finally, if you can’t convince your DM to let you tweak Eldritch Armor so you can take your armor off with it, your barbarian levels are pretty much wasted. Nobody said it was easy being the king.

#fate grand order #fgo #2 #Artoria Pendragon (Saber)#dnd

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fritillus · 7 years

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heleddi stormfist

race: half-orc half-dwarf alignment: lawful neutral [tending towards good] background: guild artisan class: barbarian

const: 17 (+2 racial) = 19, +4 bonus //// str 14 (+2 racial) = 16, +3 bonus dex: 13, +1 bonus /// wis: 13, +1 bonus int: 12, +1 bonus // char: 12, +1 bonus

speed: 30 feet max carry: 210 lbs

hit dice: 1d12 per level lvl 1 hp: 12 + const = 16 // hp per level: 1d12 or 7 + const (4)

ac: 10 + dex + const (class bonus) = 10+1+4 = 15 passive perception: 10 + 1 bonus + 2 proficiency = 13

personality

rolled / selected largely from the guild artisan tables and embellished:

personality trait: 1 and 3 and 5

i believe that anything worth doing is worth doing right. i can’t help it — i’m a perfectionist.

takes pride in her work, but tends to progress slowly and carefully. a firm believer in measure twice, cut once.

i always want to know how things work and what makes people tick.

observant; won’t attempt a new task or behavior until she’s seen it executed successfully enough times that she’s sure she understands how it works.

attentive to the emotional states of the people around her; wary and somewhat emotionally closed off herself.

i’m rude to people who lack my commitment to hard work and fair play.

somewhat judgemental. tends to assume the worst of other people’s motivations; especially so towards people she judges as motivated strongly by chaotic self-interest.

ideal: one and five and six

community. it is the duty of all civilized people to strengthen the bonds of community and the security of civilization. (lawful)

people. i’m committed to the people i care about, not to ideals. (neutral)

the above two: not necessarily the security of civilization, but the security of the places and people she considers hers.

aspiration. i work hard to be the best there is at my craft

to further her craft

but also to master and channel her emotional rages, so that she can go home and settle down with a nice dwarven boy

bond: one, secondarily three

the workshop mountain where i learned my trade is the most important place in the world to me.

i owe my guild a great debt for forging me into the person i am today.

character flaws: [not rolled]

paralyzing self-distrust, second-guessing

she does not trust her own judgement, her own emotions, and is concerned with how she appears to others. she has no desire to be intimidating, and she is frightened by her culturally proscribed emotionality.

wary and insecure.

she spends a lot of time watching others and attempting to fit in socially as she could not physically. this has made her unusually discerning of others’ emotions, but she isn’t always the most accurate at determining why people react the way they do. she has a tendency to assume the worst of others.

character and background

orcish name “elet” dwarficized to heleddi

grew up in a dwarvish metalworking community; she is the result of a an ill-conceived tryst between her dwarven father and orc mother. her mother reappeared in the mountains with a toddler a few years later, and left her behind. she barely remembers her time in the orc tribes, and may or may not have any mementos from her mother1; her command of orcish - once fluent - has lapsed over the years (reads/writes fluently, speaks without an accent and can pass among orcs without detection for simple sentences; complex conversations require a saving throw to determine whether she fucked up a grammar).

she grew up in lawful good dwarvish society, very aware of her status as an outsider both by appearance and temperament. her branch of the clan was seen as unusually modern, her father was already considered impulsively experimental even before her birth. hyperaware of the fact that her existence caused a tremendous scandal and badly damaged her father’s reputation, she isolated herself from her peers in early childhood, and no one tried hard to stop her (aughts). she was kept away from combat training for much of her adolescence2 (teens) due to fears that her increased size and strength, emotional volatility, and orc blood might make her a danger to herself or others.

she spent much of her time watching others and attempting to pattern herself after dwarvish behavior, but still found herself wracked by worryingly strong emotional whirlwinds: tantrums and rages, bouts of sobs or laughter so intense her body was wracked with them, immobile, while they siezed her. most of her emotions were fleeting as summer storms, disturbing the steady and slow-moving dwarves around her. worse, her emotional disturbances sometimes stuck with the same powerful certitude that defined a typical dwarven emotional range, but with depths and peaks rarely reached by dwarves outside of isolated moments. her rage wasn’t the slow simmer of a dwarven grudge, but a shrieking boil that would refuse to abate; her worry would sink into her bones, leaving her sorrowful and weeping for weeks at a time before the next emotion hit.

eventually, she learned to focus her emotionality through her metalwork, to find some regulation of her excesses. here she finally found connection: her increased strength and passionate emotional range caused her to struggle with inconsistent craftwork her dwarven peers did not face, but her willingness to redo her work until it was perfect, her struggle to ensure that she would make a perfect piece on the first try no matter how gripped she was by emotion: this struggle and her deep, stubbornly-held dedication to this craft helped other dwarves relate to her and resulted in artistic and technical discussions that were the seed of her first true and lasting friendships. (twenties)

**figure out her eventual weapons training - she’s proficient with light hammers and hand-axes just because... you’re dwarf-raised you learn how to use them, but possibly not AS proficient using them in combat (doesn’t have practice hitting a Moving Bleeding Target with them). her actual weapons are likely to be larger/heavier than typical dwarvish warhammer/battleaxe - ideally greataxe & maul3

[[something happens that brings out her Rage in combat - possibly a sparring accident in which she injures or kills someone close to her, possibly acting in defense of her friends but terrified with the violence with which she lashed out.]]

either way, it both frightened her enough to cause her to remove herself from the community which she had been raised to value above all else, in order to learn to master - or at the very least channel - her rage, until she feels she can safely return home.

1 - at dm’s discretion, possibility of backstory for future plot, etc. 2 - possibly trade some forms of proficiency for others - she’s late to the game and somewhat banking on natural talent but also likely to use heavier/larger weapons 3 - at dm’s discretion but holy shit PLEASE

skills & proficiencies

species: half-dwarf, socialized dwarf (no orcish skill proficiencies beyond the language itself)

languages: dwarvish (primary), common (accented secondary), orcish (tertiary semifluent; roll a deception during involved speech).

see background for additional language skill (gnomish)

resilience: resistance to poison; 1/2 poison damage

stonecunning: advantage in history (int) throws => history of stonework; add double the normal proficiency bonus to the roll

tool proficiency: smithing

combat training: proficiency in battleaxe1, warhammer1, hand-axe, light/throwing hammer

mountain dwarf armor training: proficient with light and medium armor

1 - again, trade for greataxe / maul proficiency at the dm’s discretion

class: assumes a Barbarian Tribe training background not relevant 2 her.

proficient with light and medium armor

proficient with use of shields

proficient with simple and martial weapons

skilled in (choose two): animal handling, athletics, intimidation, nature, perception, survival

all of these overlap with dwarven proficiencies with the exception of shield usage, which i’m not sure i can justify her taking given that she probably largely relies on two-handed weapons.

also, given that she’s fairly sheltered with very little real-life battle experience the only skills i’d feel make sense would be perception (people-watching! she’s an observer!) and maybe athletics.

her barbarian classing is like an innate characteristic of how she fights, not representative of her character background or training.

background: guild artisan

skill proficiencies: insight, persuasion

she’s probably got insight from Peoplewatching but maybe not persuasion? poorly socialized? half a proficiency bonus?

tool proficiencies: one type of artisan’s tools

smith’s tools (overlaps with dwarven training)

languages: one of your choice

limited conversational and written fluency in gnomish - enough for trade, but possibly not to discuss philosophy.

feature: guild membership. guaranteed food/lodging from members; funeral paid for; guild halls to make connections (jobs!). political connections. will help you @ trial.

cost: 5gp per month in dues to remain in good standing

equipment

barbarian starts with:

(a) a greataxe or (b) any martial melee weapon

ideally a maul (10lb/2hand/2d6 bludgeoning)

failing that a greataxe (7lb/2hand/1d12 slash)

(a) two handaxes or (b) any simple weapon

handaxe (light, thrown 20/60, 2lb/1d6 slash) 4lb total

an explorer’s pack (59lbs)

backpack, a bedroll, a mess kit, a tinderbox, 10 torches, 10 days of rations, a waterskin, and 50 feet of hempen rope.

four javelins

trade javelins for light hammers?

light hammer: (light, thrown 20/60, 2lb/1d4 bludgeon)

guild artisan starts with:

a set of artisan’s tools (one of your choice)

weaponsmith’s tools: 20gp / 8lb

a letter of introduction from your guild

a set of traveler’s clothes

a belt pouch containing 15 gp

trinket:

roll closer to play

math for ability scores:

2 5 5 1 = 12 5 2 3 4 = 12 3 1 6 4 = 13 6 3 4 2 = 13 2 5 4 5 = 14 4 6 5 6 = 17

5 notes · View notes