#dak'kon

[githkisser]

Some little jellybean giths I drew a while ago !! Use however u like :3

My Twitter is @/ transpennywise (the blog on tumblr under that name is not mine.)

#baldurs gate 3 #planescape tourment #githyanki #githzerai #d&d #laezel #lae'zel #dak'kon #kith'rak voss #prince orpheus #little orpheus ily #yippie

[wuhuha]

Just a small project I was working on, until I wasn't. Kinda forgot to share it.

(Feel free to share what you headcanon Gith and Zerthimon to look like.)

#baldur's gate 3 #planescape torment #neverwinter nights 2 #bg3 fanart #githyanki #githzerai #lae'zel #kith'rak voss #bg3 orpheus #vlaakith #zhjaeve #dak'kon #my tav #emotes

[paragonrobits]

Lae'zel is young when she first reads forbidden words, and it is a long time before they mean anything to her.

They are heretical; as much as any githyanki would care to call it. These are words at the heart of a forbidden figure, the arch-traitor (in the eyes of Vlaakith, and then Lae'zel has no reason to think anything but that her will is law). Then, she thinks the proscribed thoughts, and feels the proscribed hatred of him.

The gith who, at the precipice of their victory over the illithids and over all that was not gith, all that might pose a threat to them and their absolute security, had split their people into two.

Once, the gith had stood under one sky. And then he spoke, and they stood under two skies. No longer was there simply gith; they were the loyalists to Gith herself, the githyanki. And then there were the githzerai, the followers of Zerthimon.

So. They are instructed not to read the words of the githzerai. Lae'zel is told, in such ways does heresy creep in.

She reads it, nonetheless, as she destroys the records. They are gone, from the world. But later, she realizes, the words remained.

The words were a part of her now.

They were not spoken by Zerthimon. But they were spoken by a githzerai who followed him; who was chained in slavery through words and the false promises of a treacherous monster, and through many lifetimes that githzerai suffered the indignity of those chains.

The monster died, again and again. And where once there was cold ruthlessness, something else woke up. And the githzerai came to know the friendship of a tormented immortal, who vowed to free him from the chains of promise. And so, that githzerai vowed to meet death with his blade, and together they came to a fortress made from regrets and sorrows. And there, that githzerai met his death.

It was not his final death. He rose again. But his first death was against impossible odds. He knew he would die; he knew what was coming. He met it anyway.

Now, Lae'zel's nostrils flare. Now, she breathes in the air, and she thinks that now, she may meet her own death.

Vlaakith comes. Now, Lae'zel thinks that all she has heard of the githzerai and Zerthimon has come from Vlaakith and those who speak her lies, and she remembers those words from a githzerai himself, untainted and sincere.

Now, she repeats the words that githzerai spoke. It feels right to do so, and suddenly she feels a surge of kinship; to one who may well have counted her an enemy, but for a moment she fancies journeying to the plane of Limbo, and opening herself to the danger of the githzerai, if that also means she may open herself to what wisdom they have, that could never live in githyanki philosophy.

Now she wonders if her people, chained by deception and obedience, have ever had philosophy. Was there ever anything for them but Vlaakith's chains?

She breaths out again. She greets what may be her death.

She speaks, and now she speaks the word of that githzerai, whose heart seems to echo her own. She thinks of the chains of words and false promises.

The wings of red dragons come closer. "I may be bested in battle..."

She readies her blade.

Beside her, the movement of her allies (her friends) stand close. They are with her, to the end. If she dies, she thinks, she dies with them, and she will die with honor.

"But I shall never be defeated."

And, for a moment, two skies became one again.

#balder's gate 3 #bg3 #bg3 spoilers #lae'zel #dak'kon #queued

[rolyleritae]

just wonder what would happen if they met

#fanart #doodle #baldurs gate fanart #baldur's gate 3 #planescape #planescape torment #lae'zel #Dak'kon #morte #bg3 astarion #bg3 fanart

[siviom]

hey!stop bothering him

#planescape: torment #the nameless one #dak'kon

[spooky-donut-ghost-house]

Despite she will never know this Lae'zel's grandfather was Dak'kon

#planescape torment #baldur's gate 3 #baldur's gate iii #bg3 #planescape: torment #dak'kon #lae'zel

[thyeternalhunger]

Sketch cuz I dunno if I have enough time to draw them a duo Christmas art

But I need to see my idiots in ugly sweaters

#esp Practical Incarnation in that funny sweater he'd be def like #what Christmas? Oh okay then merry xmas ya not-smart-as-I-am fools #i can't with him #and for Dak'kon #he's good at being serious and silent while wearing something funny #and that is super funny cuz he won't like it at all #i need TNO to put all those tiny hat on him #he could use more laughter #Aaaaaah I'm talking so much ugghhghhh #my rkgk

[nullconvention]

Thinking about Planescape Torment because I've said that I like the game - I do - but it's very much a flawed sort of thing. But notably for me is that it's very clear that it's before the Bioware RPG era of assuming there's going to be romance options (no matter how shallow) bundled into it.

It's got a few nods to romance - you can sort of make passes at Annah and Fall-From-Grace but it feels deeply skeezy while I'm wearing Deionarra's wedding ring. The game makes it all too clear how TNO weaponized love and affection in previous incarnations. So it makes SENSE to keep your distance.

But it's apparent there's a misogynistic streak in the game that's buried just a little under some plausible deniability in the core game but it's very present in the notes and design documents and there are signs of it present in the portrayals of women, particularly party members.

Annah and Fall-From-Grace are designed to be very conventionally attractive and the game remarks on it with Annah (which feels skeezy again, she's a teenager). The male party members? Guy on fire, ghost armor, elderly man, cube, floating skull.

It's just clear what women are FOR in this game and, moreover, there's just much less you can do speaking to Annah and FFG. Dak'kon, Morte, Ignus, Nordom all have ways of unlocking potential and delving into their pasts, but the women don't nearly as much, despite being potentially fascinating.

It cries out for a Balder's Gate style remake.

[appendingfic]

Me: *respecs Lae'zel into an eldritch knight* Me: For Dak'kon

#bg3 #planescape torment

[the-tzimisce]

being called out as a dak'kon enjoyer before I had played one minute of planescape torment was very funny though

[gothyanki]

I just rediscovered the Unbroken Circle of Zerthimon texts from Planescape: Torment (it has been A While) and I am SHOUTING. It's a githzerai religious text, so obviously not an unbiased source in-universe - but still very interesting wrt early gith lore and Gith-Zerthimon characterisation. Vlaakith is not mentioned, but that absence in itself gives me a lot of thoughts about where she might fit in.

Some disjointed notes, v. messy because I'm tired:

The implications and phrasing of the First Circle are disturbing in terms of where it places the blame for illithid slavery (and this is a teaching direct from Zerthimon himself, if Dak'kon is to be believed).

Early illithids didn't grasp the concept of metal weaponry because "all their weapons were made of flesh". Hmmm.

Gith and Zerthimon founded two separate rebellions using different methods - Zerth in the shadows, Gith using a more direct approach. Both were powerful leaders in their own right, but "even Zerthimon" eventually laid his sword at Gith's feet.

"In hearing her words, he wished to know war. He knew not what afflicted him, but he knew he wished to join his blade to Gith. He wished to give his hate expression and share his pain with the illithid." Oh, there's a lot going on here - the kind of leader Gith was (highly charismatic speechmaker who knew how to utilise/weaponise her followers' emotions!), Zerth's relationship to her, his mental state. He is Struggling.

Zerth had an ally named Vilquar who turned spy and helped the illithids hunt down members of the rebellion; in turn, he tricked Vilquar into thinking the uprising had been foiled, (presumably?) knowing that V would be killed once he was no longer considered useful. Which is exactly what happened! (Love this insight into Z's methods. Also, it adds some real bite to a fic line I just wrote where Gith taunts Z about his followers being less loyal than hers.)

Even though it's a biased source, it seems to be quite fair to Gith; she's described in complimentary terms as a "warrior-queen" (when/how did the gith in general adopt monarchist terminology?) and the description of the schism sounds pretty neutral/similar to how the 'yanki describe it. Definitely much kinder to her than githyanki texts are to Z and his followers! (Can we just put this one down to 'zerai philosophy, or is it an actual reflection of G and Z's feelings on each other during/after the breaking of their alliance?)

Veeeery interesting to think of the 'yanki/'zerai split not as a fracture that developed later on, but a case of two different philosophies grafted uneasily on to each other that were fraught with division from the start. Maybe not even the only two - just the core two that survived.

#gith the liberator #zerthimon #just me waffling on again

[umbralreactor]

It occurs to me that I have this thing so I can dump the various lists and other thoughts relating to whatever hamster has jumped on the wheel in my brain to run its little paws off, so I should probably do that, huh.

This time, the thing that's rattling about is, specifically, the way the various Exotic weapons are implemented in Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. I am going to put this behind a Read More, as I did in the past, because it's lengthy and only of interest to a select crowd. The "shorten lengthy posts" thing exists now, but best practices, you know.

Now, before I do this, I will specify that I am not taking the actual itemization into account, this is all purely on the merits of the weapons themselves. There are metagaming factors involved whenever discussing this kind of thing, of course, which is why a Fighter/Mage in Baldur's Gate 2 might want to specialize so they can use katanas and hammers, so they can dual wield Dak'kon's Zerth Blade in one hand for extra spell slots and Crom Faeyr for 25 strength in the other, but that's getting a bit far into the weeds for this kind of thing.

The other question is "why the hell are you bothering with this," and the answer is that in the Midnight Isles DLC, there's a roguelike mode, and each run after the first gives you something called a "tailwind." These are various bonuses. There are thirty, you are presented with three, and you must pick one. One of them is the "Whimsical Tailwind," which causes all Exotic weapons to hit as if they were one size larger (1d8 to 2d6, and so on). This is a tremendous boon in the lower levels, before you're stacking so many bonuses that the weapon itself is largely irrelevant, and I will largely be judging things in that context.

So, first off, let's go with the light weapons.

First off is the Kama. 1d6 slashing, x2 critical. This is only notable because it's a monk weapon, so monks can do their Cool Monk Things with it, and maybe you'll run into something where you need slashing damage, like a zombie. If you aren't a monk, it's crap. And even then, its value is dubious. In tabletop, the kama has the Trip tag, which means "you can use it for Trip attacks, and if you lose the roll and get tripped yourself, you can drop your weapon instead of falling down," but none of the special tags are implemented, which means that a lot of weapons are missing their raison d'être.

Then there's the Nunchaku. 1d6 bludgeoning, x2 critical. Same thing as the Kama, but worse, because you already do bludgeoning. In tabletop, it has the Disarm tag, meaning you get a +2 when attempting a Disarm maneuver, but again, that's not implemented.

Finally, the Sai. 1d4 bludgeoning, x2 critical. The smaller damage die is offset in tabletop compared to the nunchaku because, in addition to the Disarm tag, it also gives a +2 on Sunder Weapon attempts, but since none of that is implemented, you're just left with a worse nunchaku, which is in turn worse than using your fists, unless you get lucky and find really good magic ones, I guess.

So the only light weapons are all monk weapons, and the only reason to use any of them would be "you are a dual-wielding rogue with a dexterity of Yes and just enough strength that your knees don't buckle when you put on your armor," but since the bulk of rogue damage comes from Sneak Attacks anyway, there's only so far this can go. I guess you can be a Knife Master and dual wield sais so you're swinging with a pair of d6 weapons and still getting those d8 sneak attack dice, but that mostly feels like a parlor trick so you can get bludgeoning sneak damage, and I doubt it's worth the feat (or level dip) to get an average of one extra damage.

Now, on to the one handed weapons, and there's more of a selection here.

First off is the bastard sword. 1d10 slashing, 19-20/x2. It's a longsword with a slightly larger damage die, there's not much to say about this one. It's pretty good, but remember: the context of this is the Whimsical Tailwind that makes exotic weapons have bigger dice.

That's why I much prefer the Dwarven Waraxe: 1d10 slashing, x3. On paper, it's basically the same kind of split as longsword versus battleaxe, but in practice, the waraxe wins out for a very simple reason: Dwarven Weapon Familiarity. Dwarves treat the Dwarven Waraxe as a martial weapon, which means that if your dwarf has martial weapon proficiency, they can just use this weapon for free.

The estoc is in a similar sort of position: the bastard sword is a longsword that gets a slightly bigger damage die, the dwarven waraxe is a battleaxe that gets a slightly bigger damage die, and the estoc is a rapier with a slightly bigger damage die. 2d4 piercing, 18-20/x2, and finesseable. There's not really much to say here, it's just "if you need a one handed piercing weapon you can finesse, the estoc has you covered."

However, the Dueling Sword gives the Estoc a serious run for its money. At 1d8 slashing, 19-20/x2 critical, it's basically just a longsword that you can use Weapon Finesse on. This is probably not worth a feat in and of itself compared to anything else, but you can take the Aldori Swordsman background to gain proficiency with it for free (in addition to bucklers and adding Persuasion to your class skills). There are also feats that exist specifically to support use of the Dueling Sword, and an entire prestige class devoted to its use, although if you're going for Aldori Swordlord, you may have taken the Aldori Defender archetype for Fighter anyway.

The Falcata is 1d8 slashing, 19-20/x3 critical. It strikes me as for people who can't decide between the better threat range of a longsword or the bigger critical of the battleaxe, and are willing to spend a feat to get both. There's not much to say about this one, really, but if you're not a dwarf and willing to spend a feat on the exotic weapon proficiency, this seems a good choice.

The Tongi is 1d6 slashing, 19-20/x3 critical. It is a strictly worse falcata, and even in tabletop, there is nothing going for it. Apparently it was a Light weapon in Kingmaker, thus giving it a place, but it's just garbage here.

Next up I'm going to do the double weapons. Double weapons are interesting in Wrath because of the way they're implemented compared to tabletop. They maintain the original benefit of "slightly better damage die compared to two light weapons," such as a double sword's 1d8 to the short sword's 1d6, but they lose the benefit of "if you're only making a single attack, you can count as using both hands so you get 1.5x your strength bonus." (Or at least, I think this is the case, as I haven't tested it. I probably should.) However, they gain a new benefit, which is that you don't have to pay to have each end of it enchanted. So if you're buying weapons, instead of buying a pair of +5 weapons which can be pretty expensive, you just need the one.

Anyway, the weapons. Double sword, paired 1d8 slashing, 19-20/x2. It's the equivalent of holding a pair of longswords (or, if you've got a Whimsical Tailwind, a pair of greatswords). There's really nothing special to say.

However, for much the same reason the Dwarven Waraxe beat the Bastard Sword, so does the Orc Double Axe beat the Double Bladed Sword. 1d8 slashing, x3 critical, but half-orcs treat it as a martial weapon, so they can use it for basically free.

The Dwarven Urgrosh is in a similar sort of position as the Orc Double Axe, as it's an exotic weapon that dwarves can use as a martial. Same 1d8 damage with x3 critical, but the big difference is that the main head of the urgrosh deals piercing damage instead of slashing. There are situations where this matters, but not enough to tilt you towards dwarf or orc for this. The strange thing is that the urgrosh loses the Brace tag from tabletop, but seems to get the die size of the spear end increased to compensate, which is the only weapon to get compensation for not being as capable as its tabletop counterpart.

The Gnome Hooked Hammer is another one that can be used for free by the right race, but in this case the race is Gnome, which means you are Small, which means you move slower and your weapon damage die is smaller. But with Whimsical it comes right back up, so it's a net wash. The main head deals 1d8 blunt damage with a x3 critical, and the off head deals 1d6 piercing with x4. So I guess if you're making a gnome ranger or slayer or something it can be pretty good. Loss of the Trip tag doesn't hurt it too much, as it's a perfectly competent weapon even without that.

And finally, the two handed weapons. This is a much shorter list, since there's just the two.

There isn't much to say about the fauchard. 1d10 slashing, 18-20/x2, reach weapon. Normally I'd shrug about if the one extra threat range over a bardiche was worth the feat, unless you were a Fighter and thus had feats coming out of your ears, but for a Whimsical Tailwind, it is absolutely worth the feat for the slightly expanded threat and better damage dice. This is another in the "lost the Trip tag" club, but it's another one that fares just fine without it.

The elven curve blade is weird. 1d10 slashing damage, 18-20/x2 critical. So you'd think that it's another longsword/bastard sword situation where you have to either spend a feat or be an elf to use a slightly better falchion (2d4 slashing, 18-20/x2), right? Well, mostly, yes, but the thing about the elven curve blade that always struck me as odd is that you can use it with weapon finesse. Which is fine, I guess, but it's a two handed weapon, and two handed weapons get 1.5x their strength modifier when used two handed, and if you have enough dexterity that taking weapon finesse seems like a good idea, odds are pretty good you didn't go hard enough on Strength to make it super worthwhile. I guess if you have a feature that lets you use Dexterity instead of Strength to calculate your damage bonus, it might get a 1.5x multiplier too, but I don't have a character handy I can use to test this.

Now, there is a ranged exotic weapon, but it's not terribly worth getting into. The Sling Staff is 1d8 bludgeoning, x3 critical. It's not worth it even with the Whimsical tailwind, because "is it worth it to spend a feat to go from Piercing to Bludgeoning" is a "hell no." If it's worth it to go from 1d8 piercing to 2d6 bludgeoning should be a "hell yes," but the problem is that ranged weapons are potent in Wrath not just because of the "you don't have to move to take your full attack" thing, but because of the things that make bows stronger. You're stronger initially thanks to the bigger damage dice, that's true, but you lose out on Manyshot, Bracers of Archery, and Hurricane Bow if you have some way to apply it or have it applied for you. The better damage dice are a nice early boost, but you can live without it, and you will absolutely be feeling the lack of all those other things later, when the bulk of your damage is coming from various bonuses more than the actual dice of the weapon. This is another one that didn't come out of the translation from tabletop as well, because it's properly the halfling sling staff, meaning halflings should treat it as a martial weapon, but they do not. It also lost the ability to be used as a club in melee, but "can be used in both melee and ranged combat" is a feature that was generally lost and made a lot of other weapons just strictly worse.

[wuhuha]

#githzerai #planescape torment #neverwinter nights #dak'kon #zhjaeve #sketches

[paragonrobits]

thinking about Dak'kon in Planescape Torment (initially because Lae'zel's popularity in Baldur's Gate 3 has me thinking about how the contrast between her and Dak'kon is a pretty good description of how thier respective peoples have diverged and also why they hate each other so much) and specifically his statline in how that nicely corrosponds to his own personal conflicts

Dak'kon is a zerth, a sort of warrior monk that practices martial skill and magical ability and serve as guardians of the githzerai cities, and due to a partially manufactured crisis of faith, he no longer truly has certainty in anything; not in the teachings of his faith, and not in himself. This is reflected in him being the only multi-class character in the game in a traditional sense; he is a fighter/mage, leveling up one after the other.

Dak'kon's stat layout is, after he is fully upgraded: Strength 18, Dexterity 18, Constituion 18, Intelligence 13, Wisdom 13, and Charisma 13. On the one hand he has high stats across the board; mechanically, he's both a capable spell-slinger that can act in support or as a combat caster, and he's a frontline tank. In what is most likely intended to be the canon-ish playthrough, he is the ONLY front-line damage dealer in a traditional sense. He can hit like a truck, once you add him to your party he is likely to be your main damage dealer, and he's just very strong across the board. This is an excellent stat line... for a fighter.

But he is also a mage, and for this, his intelligence isn't AWFUL (in fact, he's significantly more intelligent than an ordinary person would be, which is also reflected in interactions) but its not as high as would be ideal for a more specialized mage. His intelligence is significantly lower than it should be for anyone that is taking any kind of levels in wizard (and Torment's mage class is very much a wizard); his spell slots are notably less numerous, and he's most likely to be a fighter with some casting capability.

This reflects his in-game story. Dak'kon's crisis of faith was exacerbated by a holy writ of sorts that takes the form of a complex puzzle, and one of the accounts is of how Zerthimon, the prophet revered by Dak'kon's people, deceived his illithid masters by pretending to submit to them. Dak'kon has his doubts because another such teaching concerns a traitor, and then what he assumes to be the final teaching is of Zerthimon's conflict with Gith, founder-queen of the githyanki, when their peoples split. Dak'kon has come to fear that Zerthimon gave in and became a slave to their illithid captors, which was why he divided their people at the eve of victory, and if you ask him about this, he gives one of the VERY FEW impassioned and furious speeches he makes in the game, when normally he is very calm and detached.

If you have a high intelligence and wisdom scores (significantly higher than Dak'kon's, in fact) you can puzzle out more combinations to the teachings and unlock further ones Dak'kon had not found; these provide him an answer to his crisis of faith and ease his soul; Zerthimon did not give in to the illithids, but he recognized that should his people follow the path of war and conquer all that might threaten them, they would lose who they are. But the mechanical bit is that Dak'kons stats are too low to do so; he has no idea these teachings exist at all.

Furthermore, to recruit Dak'kon at all, you must speak to him on philosophy; its not difficult to have a fairly high Wisdom and Intelligent stat combination to pass this without much trouble, and this further indicates how his statline is a bit sub-par for someone in his line of work. He expresses some profound philosophical attitudes and says them well, but he's hard pressed to defend them when you poke holes in them, and he just gloomily concedes. Part of this is that, again, he IS having a crisis of faith and he has difficulty reconciling these problems to other people.

#planescape torment #planescape torment spoilers #dak'kon

[terripig]

Dungeon travelers 2 walkthrough tower of piertan

Special: Sets Lore Skill to 100, allowing the NPC to Identify all items in his or her inventory for a short period of time.įound in several places and bought from all Magical Items merchants.įound in the Civic Festhall and in Curst Prison, bought from Magical Items merchants. Special: +50% Resistance to Fire, +25% Resistance to Magical Fire.įound in the Alley of Dangerous Angles, can be bought from all Magical Items merchants. Used to open the portal on the 1st floor of the Mortuary.įound in the Mortuary and in Curst Prison, bought from magical items merchants throughout the game. Specials: Heals 3 Hit Points, increases Regeneration – which means that you will slowly heal over the next several rounds.įound in the Mortuary or in the Dead Nations, can be bought from Magical Items merchants. Invokes the spell "Adder's Kiss" which poisons the target.Ĭan be bought from all Magical Items merchants.īought from several Magical Items merchants These are magical items that can be used to cast spells or heal creatures.īought from Merchants, gained from Sybil for sneaking out of the Tenement of Thugs, found in Undersigil. A few of the items can also be found in the Traitor's Gate Tavern in Curst.īought from Quell in the Private Sensorium.īought from Quell in the Civic Festhall or found in the Traitor's Gate Tavern in Curst.īought from Quell in the Private Sensorium, found in the Traitor's Gate Tavern in Curst. You can buy these items from Quell in the Private Sensorium in the Civic Festhall. Given to you by Ravel in her maze if you ask her about Marta the Seamstress.ĭropped by Strahan Runeshadow in the Mausoleum, bought from Aalek in the Lower Ward Market.īought from Aalek in the Lower Ward Market, found in the Warehouse in Carceri.īought from Aalek in the Lower Ward Market or from Vrischika in the Curiosity Shoppe. Usable only by Fighters and living creatures. Special: Immunity to Panic, +1 to Strength. Memorize 1 additional Priest Spell per level 1-6.īought from the Curiosity Shoppe in Clerk's Ward, found in Curst Prison.Nameless One, Dak'kon, Annah, Fall-From-Grace, Ignus, and Vhailor can wear one bracelet each.ĭropped by the Greater Glabrezu in Undersigil in Act 9. These are items that can be worn around a wrist. Special: Increases Regeneration (will slowly heal Fall-From-Grace). Memorize 2 Additional 2nd Level Priest Spells.Memorize 3 Additional 1st Level Priest Spells.Other NPCs come with their own Armor, or they can use magical items to improve their Armor Class.Īvailable from the Tailor Shop in Clerk's Ward. The only armor in the game are bodices and jerkins for Annah and Fall-From-Grace, available from the Tailor Shop in Clerk's Ward. Miscellaneous items that don't fit any other category.This list describes important items in the game.

#Dungeon travelers 2 walkthrough tower of piertan

[siviom]

#planescape: torment #dak'kon