#so rather than elf i went aasimar because like

[ryttu3k]

Current masterlist of BG3 runs

Spoilers for most game ends and outcomes.

Summary

Complete: Custom Tav 1 (Tae, pastel drow druid/cleric, romanced Karlach)

In Process: Dark Urge 1 (Tavias, resist!Durge half-elf sorcerer, romancing Astarion)

Pending: Dark Urge 2 (Sativa; Sativa 1.1, Sativa 1.2, Sativa 2.1, Sativa 2.2), Custom Tav 2 (Sascha), Custom Tav 3 (Etavia), Astarion 1, Astarion 2, Astarion 3, Astarion 4, Karlach 1, Karlach 2, Gale, Wyll, Shadowheart, Lae'zel, unknown respec run

[current spreadsheet]

Complete

Custom Tav 1: Ta'varin 'Tae' Arkenval (see also: here). Chaotic good pastel fluffball. Surface drow, level 11 Circle of the Land Druid, level 1 Cleric of Eilistraee. Romanced Karlach, went to Avernus with her and Wyll.

In Process

Dark Urge 1: Tavias, resisting the Urge. Soft boi, trying his best. Wood half-elf, Draconic Ancestry Sorcerer (Gold/Fire). Romancing Astarion and Halsin.

Pending

Dark Urge 2: Sativa, gives in to the Urge. The first murder will be her softer side. High half-elf, Bard/Storm Sorcerer. Will have Ascended Astarion, Dark Justiciar Shadowheart, Vlaakith-sworn Lae'zel, Would-Be God Gale, Minthara. Jaheira gets sacrificed to Sarevok. Karlach, Wyll, Halsin, and Minsc absent.

Branches twice - both start with hooking up with Minthara then starting a romance with Astarion. Sativa 1.0 stays with Astarion, Sativa 2.0 offers Astarion to Araj, sleeps with him, and they break up, before romancing Minthara. Sativa 1.1 and Sativa 2.1 reject Bhaal and destroy the Brain, Sativa 1.2 and Sativa 2.2 become Chosen of Bhaal and claim the Brain in his name, with all characters ending up thralls.

Custom Tav 2: Sascha Vykos, aasimar and unintended enabler of chaos. Romancing Gale, God end. That's God end, not good end. This is... definitely not a good end.

Custom Tav 3: Etavia. Tiefling Cleric of Selûne, full Enemies to Lovers romance with Shadowheart. Probably a fairly standard 'good' run.

Astarion 1: Romances Gale. Respeccing from Thief to Arcane Trickster after 'channelling the Weave' scene. Soft 'they can fix each other' run.

Astarion 2: Defying devils and diabolists to fall in love instead (Karlach and Wyll). Will end in tragedy because Karlach always dies in a spawn Astarion run, and also Gale is going to sacrifice himself ;_;

Astarion 3: T A D P O L E T I M E . The gods never saved you - the mind flayers did. Siding with (and romancing) the Emperor, using illithid powers and the astral-touched tadpole, and Ascending. Taking over the Netherbrain alongside the Emperor, all others ending up thralls.

Astarion 4: Romances Halsin. Multiclassing into Druid for wildshape shenanigans. Become d i r t w i z a r d.

Karlach 1: Romancing Wyll and Astarion. This time, she lives! Finishes in Avernus with her lovers.

Karlach 2: Romancing Shadowheart and Lae'zel. Chooses to become illithid and ends up staying with her lovers in Faerûn.

Gale: Romancing Astarion. The one where they make each other better instead of making each other worse. Respeccing to Storm Sorcerer (but keep a level in Wizard for scroll learning).

Wyll: Romancing Karlach and Astarion. Finishes in Avernus with his lovers (hopefully). Multiclassing as Bardlock, because fancy dancer.

Shadowheart: Romances Karlach and Lae'zel. Chooses to keep her parents alive, but then has to choose to stay with Karlach, since she also encouraged Wyll to stay with Mizora to save his father...

Lae'zel: Romances Shadowheart and Karlach. Chooses to become illithid to save Orpheus from having to do so, then opts to kill herself rather than live as a mind flayer.

Unknown!: Everyone gets respecced! Origin run or Tav/Durge? If Tav/Durge, play Rogue or someone who learns Knock. Currently thinking: resist!Durge whose Dream Visitor looks like Alfira in an attempt to guilt trip them into doing what the Emperor wants. Arcane Trickster Rogue. Definitely more 'trickster' than straight-out evil, enjoyed causing a bit of chaos, which is very moderated by the brain surgery into the more harmless realm. Gnome? Gnome would be kind of fun. Romance or nah?

#baldur's gate 3 #bg3 spoilers #ry plays bg3 #oc: tae #oc: tavias

[palidoozy-art]

Oh god, I could gush and gush about 2CGaming’s stuff all day. Again, my ONLY complaint about them is that their stuff is scaled a bit high, so there’s certainly an adjustment period where if you’re not careful you’ll absolutely destroy your party. But they actually give you straight-up guidelines telling you how to run an “easier” encounter and a “harder” encounter. They also provide some actual guidance in how to build and run encounters for higher level parties as well!

Y’know I’ll use this post to give a shoutout to some other third party stuff I use

For Encounters, or general high-level design:

2CGaming’s Total Party Kill Bestiary 1 and 2

Giffyglyph’s Monster Maker (free older version on his website; you can get the pdf to the updated version through his patreon)

Badooga’s Monster Guidelines - He breaks down a lot of the math with encounter design, and was definitely a good starting point for me to understand how fights can be built. I also use a combination of this spreadsheet someone made as well as standard DMG xp calculations for building encounters.

Kobold Press’ Tome of Beasts (1 and 2), as well as their Creature Codex.

This monster stat cheat sheet tweaked from the DMG.

For player options

Pretty much anything KibblesTasty makes. His warlord class is SO GOOD. I use his crafting a lot as well, as a way of giving random encounters some kind of reward rather than just be time sinks.

The Warrior’s Codex - Martial enhancement, adds some cool baseline effects to weapons to make them all unique rather than just “i deal more damage.”

The Adventurer’s Domestic Handbook - because yes, if my players want to settle down and have kids I will allow them to, dammit.

Adjustments to baseline D&D economy rules - because yes my players bought a brothel and another one of my players wanted to run like 3 shops. If you don’t want to read through the blog, I’ve got the adjustments written down here:

(note: I just stretch out the total cost per day to total cost per month. Easier that way).

An Elf and an Orc had a Little Baby - OneD&D basically incorporated the upbringing part of this into the game (thank god), but we still sometimes refer to this book and its sequel to figure out what the players’ kids will be like (Kelogul’s daughter is quarter aasimar, quarter orc, half elf, for instance).

There’s probably a LOT more stuff, but this is all stuff I use routinely, in terms of 3rd party stuff.

In terms of actual alternate rules/homebrew we also use:

- Gritty Realism (not only does it fix 5e’s absolutely fucked encounters-per-day problem, as well as the short rest conundrum, but it ALSO stretches the time of the campaign out and makes the world feel significantly more lived in. It also essentially obligates downtime so players craft a lot more. Combine it with the fantasy calendar website to keep track of time in your campaign!)

- Spell Points (imo I would not use this outside of gritty realism. It definitely strengthens spellcasters, who do not need to be strengthened. However, because gritty realism is a significant ‘nerf’ to spellcasters in general, spell points helps offset it a bit. Also my players fucking love it. One of my players refuses to go back to vancian casting).

- Homebrew rule: when a player is downed and then healed and brought back up, they gain 1 level of exhaustion. This is to counteract the crazy health yoyo that is pretty endemic to the game. There’s an actual reason to not just let your party members fall so you can just bonus action healing word them now.

- Homebrew rule: when a caster casts cure wounds/mass cure wounds, or a person drinks a potion, the beneficiary may also choose to use 1 of their HD per spell level of the cure used to heal in addition. Potions allow one to use 1 HD per dice it cures.

- fun random additional note: our table has a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ to not use counterspell, because all our spellcasters got together one day with me and went ‘we hate playing with counterspell’ and i went ‘yeah i agree’ and so we stopped. We have an armistice lol.

#palidoozy rambles #d&d #long post

[ravnloft]

hellooooooooooooo i realized i have never done like a full list of my ocs. so here it is

amma theylin: dark elf rogue, chaotic neutral (leans evil), dual-wielding swords and ranged bow, proficient in being sneaky and being hot. tragic backstory is she became infatuated with a guy who was trying really hard to be lawful good and when he dropped the ball on their coup d'état plot she killed him and ran. will do literally anything if it pays well enough. played her in dnd, bg3 and elder scrolls.

lady gwendolyn viridience morrigan, druidess, esq.: half-elf druid, usually chaotic good, majored in botany, minored in ethically questionable usage of charm spells. tends a greenhouse that holds a portal to the feywild, the stewardship of which she was bequeathed by a very powerful archwizard and mentor and good friend, on his deathbed. she never wanted it but the choice was between her and her evil sister/s so the archwizard gave it gwen. now she uses it to (1) be the best damn florist in neverwinter (2) howl's moving castle her way away from bad fantasy tinder dates because she's a hopeless romantic and terrified of commitment. played her in dnd and bg3.

samson o'dare: human/aasimar paladin, true good, big sword and bigger shield, great with animals, has wings like a mourning dove. he worshiped chauntea as a child and then one day lathander appeared to him in the middle of a field and told him it was his holy holy duty to be a paladin of light. samson was like hell yeah i want a sword. and began adventuring. adventuring quickly proved to be far more unpleasant than he had expected and he prays to chauntea every day like "mom i'm scared come pick me up". played him in dnd and bg3.

nol barrow-bound: undead death cleric, ??? (she is extremely impressionable), sickle and staff/half-caster, uses a human skull as an arcane focus and has 1 million holy symbols on her person. used to be a hag's apprentice and then she woke up on the side of the road one day and was just like, "guess i'm an entrepreneur now". gifted alchemist, even more gifted necromancer, makes her living as an herbalist and medium, lowkey cheats on the medium part because she just tells people what they want to hear (or at least what she thinks they want to hear) but she doesn't see it as cheating because she IS contacting the dead she just isn't letting them be RUDE. collects roadkill. also kind of looks like roadkill. one time i thought "haha what if nol and samson were in an adventuring party together" and now they're tragedy-to-romance endgame lovers. played her in dnd and skyrim. she's usually my go-to for dnd oneshots :')

sigg solveig/sigourney gevaudan: human (? she's huge, there's no way she's fully human)/werewolf barbarian, will change her entire ethos if a hot girl says so, sword/axe/hammer so big it is physically impossible for people other than her to wield. tragic backstory is she contracted lycanthropy at a young age and wound up killing her familar. she went into hiding and became a fighter, a laborer, a soldier, whatever put food on her table, but eventually her lycanthropic bloodlust got hard to control and she became a hermit rather than risk killing her loved ones again. she is not smart or wise or especially clever but why would she need to be when she can crush someone's head with one hand. womanizer but her deepest wish is to get married and be a stay-at-home mom baking for her wife every day. played her in pathfinder and skyrim.

princess daisychain frances van pancypants iii: goblin, class variable but generally support/healing, true good. looks like an albino bat. raised by halflings. the sweetest, nicest, tiniest magical girl you will ever meet. completely filled with love. knows one (1) swear word. played her in dnd.

arkhemites "miette" du bäl: tiefling warlock, something evil but might go on a hero's journey idk, worships whatever tentacled space monster is native to the setting. wants to plunge the world into entropy so it can be born anew. she's noble or royal but has like 16 sisters and most of them are older. played her in starfinder.

#piri.txt #behold. my children

[soft-cheek]

this took Way longer than i wanted it to

#Bethany's art #Bethany has ocs wow #so rather than elf i went aasimar because like #he already had wings #and they were in my head because of leio #the wings are see through though and he gets all glowy when using any sort of celestial powers #this hair mightve been fun to draw but lord knows it was hell to color

[beauregardlionett]

all the stars your eyes could hold

AO3 Link

The circumstances under which the Mighty Nein found themselves invited to yet another party in Nicodranas were unclear. Beau was fairly certain it involved someone wanting Marion to perform, but had placed it under the guise of requesting the Nein’s attendance.

Ever since they assisted in the tentative peace treaty between the Empire and the Dynasty, word had been getting around about them. It was mildly unsettling for someone like Beau, who meant to operate in shadow. Thankfully, her more exuberant and colorful party members tended to garner the spotlight.

Leaning against an obnoxiously ostentatious marble column, nursing a drink far too fruity for her taste, Beau scanned the crowd. Caduceus had offered to gift her with True Sight again, but Beau had turned him down. While she appreciated the gesture, she wanted to be present this time.

Nobles in all states of fancy dress swept across the dance floor before her. Women with billowing skirts as they twirled through the ballroom, offering tittering laughter behind fans or hands adorned in silk gloves. Men with ornate suit coats sporting flushed cheeks as they drank away their decorum. Individuals dressed in pristine costume somewhere between a full skirt and fitted breeches flit between the food and drink and the dance floor. It was the sort of contained, upright chaos that Beau grew up around in Kamordah. It was a breed of debauchery that masqueraded as a proper party only nobles could attend and achieve.

With a heavy sigh, Beau took a long drag of her overly sweet drink and prayed the night would end soon.

As much as she loved wearing her slate grey suit, catching many approving, hungry stares from the women here, Beau was tired. Parties like these were far too pompous for her, pointless entertainment for nobles who had nothing better to do with their time.

She was considering slipping out to the garden for some quiet when a soft voice spoke up behind her.

“Beau?”

Twisting to peer over her shoulder, Beau worked hard to maintain her hold on her drink.

Yasha strode toward her, all but glowing in the sensual party lighting.

Jester insisted on splurging for a new dress for Yasha the day before. Something about wanting to amend the height of the slit because she knew Yasha was a little uncomfortable with it. Whatever the real reason was, Beau had no arguments because Yasha’s new dress was stunning. Made of a similar dark velvet as the previous one, this new garment draped over Yasha’s physique enticingly.

The dress was one-shouldered, a long cape of soft fabric cascading down Yasha’s back from the sleeveless strap. Her neckline was trimmed with silver flower embroidery, and a simple off-white belt cinched the length of the skirt into an empire waist. Veth had gently bullied the Aasimar into letting the Halfling style Yasha’s hair. So her now almost entirely white hair was pinned to drape down one side, the braids re-done and ancient tangles brushed smooth.

Simple, elegant, and extremely attractive.

Beau reminded herself to thank Jester for remembering to put the cape on the arm Yasha didn’t have a tattoo on. The jade ink was shimmering in the party’s dim lighting, and Beau had to make sure she wasn’t drooling.

“Hey,” Beau finally remembered to answer, eloquent as always.

Yasha’s lips twitched as she chuckled, coming to stand beside Beau. The monk watched as Yasha’s eyes swept over the crowd, a bit of unease flickering across the woman’s expression.

“You okay, Yasha?” Beau murmured, shifting closer to where their shoulders brushed.

“Yeah,” the Aasimar said, aiming a smile Beau’s way that did anything but convince her that Yasha was okay. “I just don’t really know what to do at parties. And people keep staring at me.”

Beau could hardly blame them. But it seemed to be a reoccurring theme with Yasha that wherever she went, both the best and the worst seemed to be drawn toward the Aasimar’s aura. Beau often failed at reigning in her jealousy born of protective instinct.

“Well then,” Beau pushed off the pillar, downed her drink against the burn of alcohol in her throat, and beamed at Yasha. “Shall we wander, then?”

Yasha blinked at Beau, giving the human a slow, shy smile and a nod, a quiet, “sure.”

Making their way around the perimeter of the ballroom, Beau caught sight of Jester swirling Fjord around the floor. The little Tiefling was grinning ear to ear and Beau could see her giggling giddily as her pink chiffon swirled around her and Fjord’s legs. The half-Orc was smiling with fond amusement down at whatever Jester was saying, looking rather smitten. Their second lap around the ballroom, deep in discussion about what the Elf wearing a bright green ball gown might do for a living, Beau scanned again. This time she spotted Veth and Caleb sitting at a table with Caduceus, the Halfling talking with rapid intent and animated hand-gestures. Caleb seemed fixated on whatever she was talking about, nodding every few seconds. Caduceus, smiling indulgently, caught Beau’s eye after a second. The Firbolg raised a brow her way and made a slight shooing gesture.

Waving Caduceus off, Beau continued her conversation with Yasha. But she did subtly steer them towards the exit, remembering the small side garden she had spotted on the way in. Part of her hoped it would offer some quiet, the other part hoped to see that adorable grin Yasha got on her face whenever she saw flowers.

Sure enough, the second they stepped out of the side hall and into the moonlit garden, Yasha’s lips curled into a wider smile. Beau trailed off from her description of a very crude occupation the Elf back in the ballroom could have to watch Yasha smile. The Aasimar’s profile all but glowed in the silver night, Beau transfixed with the way Yasha’s smile pushed her cheeks to round and scrunched her nose just a little. Her eyes crinkled at the corners just so, and Beau studied the temporary crow’s feet that nestled there.

Yasha looked her way and Beau blinked back at her, smiling in return on instinct.

“It’s gorgeous out here, Beau. How did you know this was here?”

“I just...saw it on the way in. Figured you might like it better than inside.”

“It’s very beautiful,” Yasha agreed, sweeping a look over the flowers as she walked through the neatly planted flora. Beau followed, drawn toward her like a moon caught in orbit with no choice but to gravitate.

As they strolled through the garden together, Beau’s hands shoved in her pockets, she tipped her head back to stare at the stars and the low-hanging moon. Maybe it was the nearby ocean, but she swore the night sky always shone brighter in Nicodranas. Yasha’s hair caught Beau’s attention out of the corner of her eye, all but glowing in the silver moonlight.

Everything about the Aasimar beside her beckoned like a lure, and Beau wondered not for the first time how she could have ever lived without Yasha. It was one of those moments where she found herself hard pressed to remember a time before Yasha, before the Nein. There was always an unfortunate set of memories that never failed to surface, but the more mundane memories were harder to access. Everything she did with the Nein felt like they had always been together, had always understood her. Beau knew it wasn’t the truth, but she didn’t care.

They were with her now, that was what mattered.

Time, Beau thought, was such a fickle and inconsistent mistress. She always lingered, but she didn’t serve everyone kindly or evenly.

Some got less - like Mollymauk. Some got more - like Caduceus brought back from death. And some like Lucien got multiple chances, while others like Yasha couldn’t even recall what Time had already given them.

Beau, uncertain where she fell on that sliding scale, knew one thing for sure.

“Yasha,” Beau said in a voice that sounded steadier than she felt. Back near the building where they started, Beau spotted an alcove with a small pristine marble fountain tucked into it. The Aasimar looked over at Beau curiously as the monk grabbed Yasha’s elbow and huddled them into the corner.

Yasha looked surprised as Beau put her own back against the wall and drew Yasha in closer. Even in the half light from the moon, Beau saw the blush on Yasha’s cheeks turning darker, her sturdy hands finding purchase on Beau’s hips.

“I’ll be honest,” Beau sighed, emboldened by the simple action. “This isn’t quite how I pictured doing this. I had, like, this whole thing planned with the tower, but I don’t think I can wait any longer.”

Yasha’s eyes seemed entirely transfixed on Beau’s lips, as if watching the monk craft every syllable she spoke.

“I read your letter,” Beau confessed in a rush. “I actually read it like...weeks ago. And at first I uh...I didn’t know what to do. I had told myself that I wouldn’t make a move, that the ball was in your court because of all the shit you’ve gone through. But then you did make a move, and I haven’t ever really had someone look at me and understand me in the way you do. So I kind of panicked and procrastinated and told myself I’d figure something out. But then all this shit kept happening, and it never felt like the right time to breach the topic, y’know? But then I realized...we’re never promised tomorrow. Especially people like us. So uh...in an effort to spend as much time with you as possible, because I really want to spend a lot of time with you...”

Beau had to pause for a breath, her own cheeks now warm with the emotions swirling messily in her chest.

“I really like you, Yasha,” Beau whispered, feeling short of breath. “In a way that’s kind of terrifying, but that I’m also super into. I like you in a way that makes me nervous, the same feeling I get when we do something fun and dangerous. My heart races and there’s this thrill in my veins. I get stuck in this five-foot world that’s composed of everything and everyone I can see in the moment.”

Biting down on her tongue to stop her rambling and catch her breath, Beau looked up at Yasha. The Aasimar’s fingers curled a little tighter around Beau’s hips, and her lips parted with surprise. Wide eyes and flushed cheeks greeted Beau’s frantic search for emotion, and the monk was acutely aware of her own heart pounding behind her ribs. The moonlight back-lit Yasha, outlining her in silver, and Beau swore for a moment that it crafted a halo above the barbarian’s head.

“Beau,” Yasha whispered. “Can I kiss you?”

“Yeah,” Beau rushed out breathlessly. “Please.”

Yasha ducked her head down so quickly that the press of her lips against Beau’s ended up gently knocking the monk’s head against the wall behind her. Beau didn’t mind at all, too busy smiling against Yasha’s lips and reaching to wrap her arms around the Aasimar’s neck.

It felt like all the air fled from Beau’s lungs for a moment, leaving her breathless and dizzy. The wall at her back and Yasha’s hands on her hips seemed like the only things keeping her upright at the moment. She had wanted to kiss Yasha for a while, but had never put much thought into it beyond that. Beau never imagined what it would feel like to kiss Yasha.

It was like melting and solidifying in the same instance. Beau had never felt more bodily present than she did at that moment, every place Yasha connected with her a physical anchor for her soul. But in the same breath, every fiber of her insides turned to contented mush under the searing, moonlit heat of the Aasimar’s attention.

Their kiss could have lasted seconds or minutes, and Beau wouldn’t have cared either way. Yasha pulled back enough for their noses to brush as they caught their breath.

“Fuck,” Beau managed eventually, sounding strangled with giddy pleasure.

Yasha smirked and offered a quiet, “maybe later, yeah?”

Beau’s brain promptly short-circuited and she stuttered what one might consider an enthusiastic agreement. Yasha took amused mercy on her after a moment and stepped back to let Beau breathe.

“We should uhm...” Yasha started, then stopped, glancing over her shoulder.

“Head back in?” Beau squeaked, recovered enough to speak once more.

“Probably,” Yasha nodded. The Aasimar hesitated, holding out her arm in an awkward, wordless invitation. Beau stared at her for a moment before recognizing the gesture for what it was. Straightening out her jacket with a firm tug and brisk pat down, the monk wound her arm through Yasha’s elbow and shot a giddy grin her way.

Beau decided, as they made their way back into the ballroom, that this was definitely one of the best parties she had ever been to.

#cr #critical role #beauyasha #beauregard lionett #yasha #writing #my writing

[runicmagitek]

Talk about your dnd OCs! I would love to hear about them 😁🌟

Oh Wiz! Thank you!! This is so sweet. Let me round up my faves I've collected over the years.

Viuly - this is one of my oldest OCs in general that I converted into a D&D character. She's a high elf pact of the blade warlock who accidentally became a warlock while coming home after essentially flunking wizard school. Her heart is in the right place, but her methods can be questionable. She's the vodka aunt of the group.

Ilumina - Viuly's kid sister, who was mostly an NPC in Viuly's campaign, but I played her in a follow-up campaign. She's a high elf knowledge domain cleric. She's a good girl who suffers from insomnia and just wants her sister to come home safe and sound. If Viuly is the "someone's gonna die" character, Ilumina is the one jumping in to go, "of fun! :D :D :D"

Rivyn - my anxious murder girl. She's a tiefling assassin rogue (with some levels in cleric) who grew up abandoned on the streets and is like a feral cat - kind of lashes out at anything that moves, but is a sweetie once she warms up to people. Her claim to fame was stumbling upon a cursed deck of many things and then making it her mission to destroy it.... yeaaaah it went exactly as well as you imagine it would. tl;dr - some deities got involved and before she was escorted to hell, Sarenrae intervened and took Rivyn in. So she's now an ascended tiefling(??? whatever we houseruled this) who acts on Sarenrae's behalf to bestow redemption in times of need (and she's a lot less murder-y about it lol). Whenever we do campaigns in that particular universe, sometimes Rivyn pops up as a patron saint to orphaned children. People respect her by leaving blankets out at night for her spirit to snuggle in (she had an extensive blanket collection).

Zaki - She's a half-elf battle master fighter. She was once a military officer with a promising career, but after discovering the toxicity behind the scenes, she abandoned that role to join others who wanted to do the right thing. Her campaign is about 200 years after Rivyn's and she used to idolize the (very exaggerated) stories of the now ascended tiefling; she even managed to summon Rivyn to "smite" a corrupt politician (probably the most epic 100 roll I've ever done). Sadly, Zaki's campaign has been on hold for a while, but last she left off was heading into another plane to stop a lich. You know, like you do.

Zephyr - Oh this little gem. Zephyr is a paladin of Shelyn (we incorporate a lot of Pathfinder lore, if that wasn't evident already), who most people believe is an aasimar. And they believe it too, because they were totally left on the temple's doorstep as an infant and not... you know, a newly hatched silver dragon separated from their family who panicked and turned into a human. They grew up surrounded by art and want nothing but to spread beauty and love wherever they go. I haven't gotten far in their campaign, but they are a ray of sunshine amongst a bunch of other nerds who'd rather talk things out than stab a guy.

Megami - We once ran a homebrew D&D game incorporating Shadowrun stuff, because while I love Shadowrun, I hate playing Shadowrun lol Megami is an elven bard (essentially a street shaman) who summons two kitsune to either buff or debuff, depending on what's going on. She dressed like an avant-garde cyberpunk kabuki actress and danced and sing to cast her spells. Her claim to fame was assuming some asshole hospital director's identity (I forget which bard ability it was, but wow did I jump on that) to go live on a broadcast stating that all homophobic/transphobic rules and regulations were lifted - this was a part of some quest we had with a biker gang that were turned down for gender-affirming surgery. It was amazing.

Damianos - my other murder child. He was a human rogue/paladin/sorcerer in a Ravnica campaign we did. He originally was a pirate from Theros, who was then ripped away and plopped into Ravnica, lost a bunch of his memories, and woke up as a Dimir spy. All he cared about was serving himself and trying to find a way back home (bonus points if he could bring his boyfriend with him, another Dimir informant). He was very bursty damage-wise, but quite squishy and had the worst luck with skill check rolls. A lot of "I can do this!" and immediately falling flat on his face. He was like if Jesper Fahey and Trevor Belmont had a kid. Sadly, he did not get a happy ending in that he couldn't break free from House Dimir or go back home, but he's at least got his boyfriend!

Also, not D&D characters, but here are some honorable mentions from other TTRPS:

Hiccups (from Shadowrun) - a human street mage who only became a runner so she could pay off her college debt. She's too pure for this world and the white mage of the group (her only weapon is a taser, I kid you not). Also doesn't do well with gruesome deaths and she earned her runner name due to constantly hiccupping and crying when she did witness an awful death.

Remi (from Vampire) - a Khaibit vampire from the punk rock days of London. She was the bodyguard for a Toreador vampire, specializing in boxing. She was a quick lil' thing who was also good with computers and preferred doodling in her spare time. Barely talked, but that's what her fists were for ;D

#my barrel of ocs #d&d

[bubblelliot]

Here's my second character! I will also present their teammates a bit since the crew is much more like a family this time! (Might also add pics of the others in following posts and MAYBE of his animals too)

Særos Sandiel and The zookeepers

(This art is a picrew which I do not have the rights on, here is the link to it: https://picrew.me/image_maker/62745)

The name of the team mostly comes from a joke saying that "Mama Lyræ is our zookeeper and that we are the Zookeepers to a ton of pets. Also, Yarina can shapeshift into beasts sooooooo yeah.

Technicalities:

Særos is my very first character played in D&D. We actually started playing on the other game I talked about last time, but we switched to D&D. His character sheet is actually available on DND beyond, but I'm still gonna give details here.

Those are his attributes. (He actually got an additional point of charisma after I wrote this and was too lazy to take another screenshot sorry x) )

He is recorded as a high Elf, but is actually of two different bloodlines. He is VERY young for an elf, but his exact age is unknown (well yes but know, you'll see). He has 5 wizard and 2 cleric levels, making him currently level 7.

Equipment:

I am NOT gonna go through everything Særos has, cause that would be VERY long. He has a heavy armor, he has a staff of healing and a shortsword, but he mostly uses his magic. He also has, in his spellbook, a collection of dried flowers.

Familiars:

Særos has a TON of pets he acquired through the different quests the party went on. The first one is a frog named Lepiota he found wounded and saved. He then bought an old black cat he named Persephone (even if the cat is a male 😂). Finally, he also bought two ferrets (fluffy noodles ❤️❤️) which he named Elton and Freddy (this one was as a reference to one of our former player who really loves Elton John and Freddy Mercury). He loves them with all his heart and will absolutely kill anyone who tries to hurt his babies.

Allies:

Særos' main ally is, obviously, his twin, Edran. They are very similar, but Særos is usually pretty well kept with his short hair always brushed and his braids made every morning, whereas Edran is a bit shorter, more immature, usually pretty dirty with blood all over their clothes (which are poofy dressed he hides poison in 😂) and messy hair. There is also Lyræ. She is a paladin coming from far away lands. She is a human with elf ancestors and dragon blood. She has a wife and children and thus, she is pretty much the mom of the group. (The DM literally gave her two custom attacks she can use in RP: the flick of anger that gives 1pt of bludgeoning + 1pt of psychic damage and the disapproving look that gives 2pts of psychic damage everytime she does it + makes the target intimidated). Then, there is Finian, a human assassin. Finian and Særos are pretty neutral about each other, but Edran is in absolute admiration of him, so Særos is grateful that Finian doesn't just shatter his sibling's trust. The last member, who was actually someone that was rescued by the party, is Yarina. She is a very shy aasimar and is pretty much the definition of being pure EXCEPT she is obsessed with daggers (no joke, she has 23 of them). They were recently joined by a rogue elf called Adressin who actually attacked them at first.

Appearance:

This picrew is already pretty accurate. Særos (as well as Edran actually) has blond almost white hair, but it's actually fluffier than on the picture. He has two braids, one in front of each ear, a few freckles and red-pink eyes. He is very pale, quite small and very frail. He looks pretty androgynous and rather young, though he usually passes as a bit older since he is an elf.

Backstory and campaign:

So the campaign isn't really a big story like in Rhodrag's case, so I'll tell the party's story, but not the quests.

The twins' first memory is waking up in a bed, only knowing their name. They meet with the lovely wood elf lady who save them, and learn they were found in the sand by a nearby river. For that reason, they are given the last name "Sandiel".

They live a relatively normal life with her, for around 10 years, until they are attacked by drows. Their adopted mother successfully hides them by using magic and they learn they are wanted because they are part drow and part high-elf, meaning pretty much every every elven races will want to kill them. The woman successfully protects the twins. She is taken out of the house and, to this day, the twins don't know what happened of her, whether she was killed or taken.

They left and reached a nearby city. There, they survived by stealing and being street entertainers (for example, even if he has no rogue level, Særos is proefficient in stealth, sleight of hands, deception, etc. He also is proefficient in performance. He learned to sing, the art of divination and a bit of magic.)

One night though, Særos came back to their hiding place to find his sibling dead. All he could understand was that they died of both malnutrition and hypothermia.

Out of desperation, he tried every spell he knew, but nothing happened. He tried reanimation, but it had been to long. Out of despair, he prayed any god possible to help him, saying he couldn't live in this unfair world without Edran.

A god did answer. He is actually a god from the other game we started the campaign in before switching to DND.

He is called Nuodai the Trickster.

He offered a deal to Særos: he would bring back Edran and even guarantee him power and success, and in exchange, when Særos would be powerful enough, the Trickster would take his elven traits which hold part of his powers, as well as 200 years of his life. Out of desperation, Særos accepted.

He woke up the next morning. His sibling was by his side, clearly not dead, but not entirely alive. They were now a revived.

Things went on, Edran not knowing, and Særos eventually stopped thinking about the deal, only happy to have his twin back. They moved from the city, trying to reach a bigger one, and were, once again, attacked by drows. He used a spell to put his twin in safety and attacked the drows, but was, if course, neutralized.

He was taken and they made him a slave while they tried to capture Edran to kill them together.

Fast forward, Edran is taken into an underdark prison. He meets again with his brother and both if them are beaten up. They successfully defend though and they are thrown in a cell as it is decided they're are to be executed the next day. This is where they meet Lyræ and Finian.

They plan to escape as well as a few other NPCs. They are able to leave the cell and steal a bit of stuff while a vrock attacks the guards. They escape and reach a teleporter. There, Særos successfully brings everyone back to the surface. Newly free, they all start to look for a village. After properly introducing each others, they finally reach a tiny elf village. The twins stay as stealthy as possible but end up being noticed and attacked by guards. They then have a choice: they could be changed into simple would elves or they have to leave. Særos knows it's not gonna work on Edran, and bargains to be able to stay. At first, the headmaster threatens to kill him for that, but he ends up agreeing to let them in the city, guarded, until the night falls.

They then shop and leave the city.

They end up in a forrest Særos realizes is corrupted. There, they were attacked by a HUGE snake touched by the corruption. At first, everyone tries to kill it except Edran and quickly, Særos and Finian join them. Særos finally cuts the tip of it's tail where the corruption was and Edran and Finian calm it.

Lyræ is terrified of it and finally lets them all know that her best friend was killed by a giant snake who ate her alive. (This is freaking terrifying yo.)

In the end, a fight starts and Særos, enraged, leaves everyone and runs towards the center of the corruption. There he is attacked by corrupted elves and tree creatures we happily called Groots. Edran joins him and Særos basically rages (he used they most powerful spell he had and literally exploded them.

Edran, while attacking, starts gaining weird memories.

Fast forward to the end of the quest, Særos is happily searching for animals and flowers when he and Edran hear strange noises coming from a tree. Edran climbs it and a wood elf girl falls from the tree, before Edran jumps on her from the too of the tree.

The team introduced themselves to her and she happily talks to them. So yeah, that's how we met Nayhru.

The team reaches a weird village and after the whole snake incident, leaves the party for a while, promising to find them again soon and assuring she would always be closer than they think.

They reach the village which reveals to be a village of gnomes and there they meet with a gnome (who's player inspired the names of my furrets x) ) and a Goliath travelling together. They all find the village empty before being attacked by a troll and... Metal gnomes?

They kill them, uneager to die, and search the village. They find flowers in the middle of the village and Særos takes one for his collection. Særos and Edran are attacked by an ooze and at some point, the ooze attacks Edran just before being killed by Nayrhu. At that moment, Edran starts turning into a robot as well, with the corruption growing from their arm. Særos tries to cut off the arm, but us unable and the corruption takes Edran's whole body.

They leave the village and are able to find a Druid eager to help them make a cure for Edran and the gnomes, but he needs Elder sage. He describes it and Særos shows his flower to the Druid, who confirms it is Elder sage. They go back to the village to get flowers, cane back and turned Edran back into a flesh being.

And that's when they remembered dying and being brought back to life. Edran and Særos cried in each other's arms and then continued on.

They got in a cavern near the village from where the trolls always came. There, the found a girl, chained, with glowing wings. They freed her and she introduced herself as Yarina. (Fun fact: Yarina's player is my SO, and both Yarina and Særos have the spell suggestion, so when the crew found a the boss hiding something, we just made it run away. Nice. )

The team found a clockwork dragon and helped it. They then left again. Finian had to leave a couple times, and at some point, the team realized that, even if they are young, the twins were actually a lot older than they thought: They assumed Edran's death happened when they were around 13 and that it had been around 6 years, meaning Særos was actually around 19.

They were reunited with Lyræ and began other quests. In one of them, the team encountered a wishing fountain that filled any wish you had under certain conditions. Særos asked to know his whole story, from the lives of his parents up to now. The fountain gave him a magic book that tells his story and updates. It has no name so Særos just calls it The story book.

Some time passed and the team continued on. They were traveling to the capital until one night, Nayrhu and Edran caught a thief about to steal their stuff. They quickly stopped him and realized he was very young. Instead of kicking his butt, they woke up the whole team and decided together to bring him to the capital and help him make money to survive there. And that's how they met Adressin.

The zookeepers reached the capital where they are supposed to find Finian who joined outlaws he met in another quest.

Before finding Finian, they decided to do a few quests to earn money with Adressin.

Everyone through the day kept noticing Særos bring super bold, a lot bolder than he usually is, for example, telling Yarina who was wearing a magic dress that she looked "Incredibly beautiful" as if she was "made if pure light". No one really thought anything of it though and just shoved it away.

One night, they decided a drinking contest was a good idea and everyone joined except Adressin. The next morning, everyone was doing good, maybe a tad nauseous, except for Lyræ and Særos who were absolutely fucked up. They both used spells to heal their hangover, but Særos remained mildly unwell, choosing to go on their quest anyways.

Symptoms were the following:

-A headache that was mostly located to the top front of his head

-His low back itching and hurting a LOT

-His eyes feeling dry

No one really knew what was going on, some didn't even really notice.

As they went on with their first quest, they started noticing weird stuff about Særos' appearance: His hair looked more golden than white, as they used to, there were two bumps appearing on his forehead around the location of his headache, his eyes looked.... Weird...? But no one really saw anything peculiar, his skin, usually also white, now looked kinda pink.

He doesn't really notice the changes and doesn't understand what is happening which utterly FRIGHTENS him, but he hides it. Yarina started understanding what was happening and Edran out all the pieces together and now they know everything.

To be continued...

[homebrewsno1asked4]

2B

And now for something that’s 100% different from my first post… 2B, from Nier Automata!

Class/Subclass

I juggled a few options for 2B's "canon build" - including Kensei Monk and a couple different Ranger subclasses. Ultimately, I went with an Eldritch Knight; not only do the Fighter and Eldritch Knight features feel close to 2B's core abilities, you can flavor the Eldritch Knight’s spells to feel like her pod abilities, or the bullet hell segments.

Suggested Spells (Abjuration and Evocation spells are bolded):

Cantrips

booming blade

encode thoughts

fire bolt

message

sword burst

thunderclap

true strike

Level 1

catapult

chromatic orb

expeditious retreat

feather fall

ice knife

longstrider

magic missile

shield

thunderwave

witch bolt

Level 2

blur

cloud of daggers

flaming sphere

levitate

locate object

magic weapon

scorching ray

shatter

Level 3

counterspell

fireball

flame arrows

fly

haste

lightning bolt

Melf's minute meteors

protection from energy

sending

tiny servant

Level 4

fire shield

locate creature

Otiluke's resilient sphere

wall of fire

Race

Visually, aasimar or high elf could work well for 2B. But from a mechanical standpoint, two races fit 2B the best: Juggernaut Warforged and Revenant.

Heh... Mechanical standpoint? Warforged? Okay, moving on.

Warforged Resilience provides the following benefits:

You have advantage on saving throws against being poisoned, and you have resistance to poison damage.

You are immune to disease.

You don’t need to eat, drink, or breathe.

You don't need to sleep and don't suffer the effects of exhaustion due to lack of rest, and magic can’t put you to sleep.

With the exception of (possible SPOILERS! but I’m assuming you’ve played the game already if you’re reading this post) the logic virus, these fit the abilities of a YoRHa android.

If memory/research serves, YoRHa androids don't really need to sleep. They can, but it's not imperative. Whatever their version of sleep is, I doubt it's too far a cry from the warforged's Sentry's Rest.

Aside from the one scene where she dons riot gear, 2B never wears armor. Bam; Integrated Protection.

2B's far stronger and heavier than she looks, making the Juggernaut's Strength increase and Powerful Build features good fits.

I know warforged are supposed to be more clunky and robot-looking, but you could flavor your 2B warforged to be constructed in the likeness of a cute waifu because reasons. Maybe her creator's a pervert, idk.

I'm aware that revenants are less of a race and more of a template, replacing the subrace.

But

I think the mechanical benefits of the revenant's Relentless Nature match up quite nicely with some of Nier Automata's mechanics.

"If you are below half your hit point maximum at the start of your turn, you regain 1 hit point." The Auto-Heal Chip, maybe?

"If you die, you return to life 24 hours after death. If your body is destroyed, you reform within 1 mile of the place of your death at a spot determined by the DM. If your equipment was also destroyed, you do not regain it." A good fit with how Nier Automata treats death.

"You know the distance and direction between you and any creature involved in your goal, such as a person you seek vengeance against or someone you pledged to defend." Quest radar!

A close runner-up is the grugach, an elf subrace from Unearthed Arcana. The Strength boost makes sense; as does the Grugach Weapon Training, since 2B can use pretty much any weapon.

Suggested Grugach Cantrips: Guidance, Produce Flame, Resistance, Thunderclap

Background

For Background, I think Haunted One from Curse of Strahd might fit best for 2B.

YoRHa already kinda worships mankind as their creator deity. Wouldn't be a far cry to reskin YoRHa as a holy order of sorts.

There's no single moment/mechanic that screams "proficiency in Survival," but I don't imagine that's too weird for her skillset. We at least know she can fish, right?

Exotic Language: the "chaos language" from the Nier series. Reflavor as Abyssal or Primordial or something?

Suggested Characteristics

Personality Trait: I don't talk about the thing that torments me. I'd rather not burden others with my curse.

Ideal: I kill monsters (robots?) to make the world a safer place and to exorcise my own demons.

Bond: A terrible guilt consumes me. I hope that I can find redemption through my actions.

Flaw: I am a purveyor of doom and gloom who lives in a world without hope.

Stats

I suggest prioritizing Dex, followed by Strength or Con. Wisdom could be slightly higher than average. Intelligence can be average; 2B's not dumb, but compared to the booksmarts of other characters like 9S or Pascal, this isn't a defining feature for her. Charisma can be a dumpstat; 2B's as blunt as a bat to the face.

Out of the fighter proficiencies, I'd pick Acrobatics and Athletics. History or Intimidation would work too.

So with Standard Array stats, I came up with:

STR: 13 or 14

DEX: 15

CON: 13 or 14

INT: 10

WIS: 12

CHA: 8

As a Juggernaut Warforged, STR becomes 15 or 16.

As a Grugach, DEX becomes 17 and STR becomes 14 or 15.

(Hmmm... Based on stats alone, I might go with Grugach.)

Suggested Feats

Dual Wielder

Durable

Elven Accuracy (assuming you make her an elf)

Great Weapon Master

Magic Initiate

Mobile

Sharpshooter

Spear Mastery

Spell Sniper

Weapon Master

Feels like Toobs, I’d say! But she’s not all “smack stuff with sword and then throw explodey.” Kinda feels like we’re missing Nier Automata’s flashy flippy combat maneuvers. Well stay tuned, for a 2B-inspired subclass!

#d&d 5e #5e homebrew #2b #yorha no.2 type b #nier automata #fighter #warforged #eldritch knight #elf #revenant #haunted one #critical toll

[cupcakecoterie]

Cupcake Coterie vs Consequences

@true0neutral - Hazel, half-elf cleric

@fauxfire76 - Darvin, human bard

@hyperewok1 - Remi, human paladin

@sfwarlock - Nai, elven warlock

@miaaoi as Froseth, dragonborn monk

Marion - Ava, human ranger

It’s going to be a weird recording of the session because OBS decided to fuck me up today, but that’s what you get when having to reinstall everything. Oh well, it’s the sound that counts. And the write-up.

We had @hyperewok1 only turning up at the halfway mark because of previous commitments, but it worked out because Remi was largely brooding and quiet and trying to give Alisaie space but doing it way too well. Ava, meanwhile, realised that the red dragon Alisaie killed, and was killed by, was ... wrong. It turned out that the dragon was actually a young red dragon - made the size of an ancient dragon without the additional durability, grace and literal fire power that would make an ancient red so dangerous. Alisaie, always a bastion of common sense despite exhaustion, explained that the reason that her trip was so expensive was that she was on a fast ship that took a roundabout route to keep one of the oasis settlements of Alama-Ver in walking distance at all times, just to make sure that if they did crash, they wouldn’t be stranded in the desert. So, after stripping the dragon of a significant amount of hide (some of it destined to be good fire-resistant leather armour for Ava), several of the dragon’s teeth, and the gland in its throat that allowed it to breathe fire (which she did to sell because all of her gear had been on the airship and the crew would probably sell her stuff, never assuming she’d have survived an encounter with a red dragon), they headed for the nearest settlement of the Agwe people of Alama-Ver. At which point life got complicated. Darvin, in usual fashion, managed to insult the elders of the settlement by sounding like he was turning away their hospitality, and also managed to get them very interested in Alisaie because of the whole “they have red dragon bits to trade and the lady who killed it is asleep but will probably need to have dinner at some point so might join your big evening meal etc” thing.

Since Alisaie and Hazel were too exhausted to do anything but nap, and Remi was going to stand guard (and brood), and Nai decided that he didn’t want to ‘open mouth, insert foot’ the way he normally did, they left Darvin, Froseth and Ava to do the necessary trading. They learned that the Agwe have some significantly advanced leatherworking techniques that make their leather stronger, more supple and quicker to tan than anything else on the continent, so Ava would have her armour in a hurry. For the bits Alisaie scavenged from the corpse, she got 50 platinum and the entire group got run of the market ‘within reason’ (her haul was worth way more than 500 gold but they didn’t have that kind of cash on hand in the settlement for obvious reasons).

By then, @hyperewok1 was back, so after the break, we dealt with what Hazel, Nai and Remi were getting up to. Nai eventually came out of the tent to sort of ... be there and maybe talk to Remi but eventually not so much. Remi eventually squeezed his shoulder and thanked him for what he did for Alisaie. At which point, Remi noticed a light in the tent and went in to determine its source. What she (and Nai, who followed her) found was a very tall man in robes with huge white-feathered wings, who was looking in on Alisaie. He then turned, told them to wake Hazel and bring her out so they could talk. Remi woke Hazel with a hand clapped over Hazel’s mouth, which was a good call because Hazel took one look at the visitation from one of Pelor’s Celestial servants and freaked right the fuck out. The being left and let Remi calm Hazel down ... a little ... and they all went out to have the conversation without disturbing the sleeping Alisaie.

Remi got tight-lipped about exactly why she stepped in to plead for Alisaie’s life to be returned to her, but everyone more or less got the point. Hazel, after she was prevented from effectively doing the “I am not worthy” bowing thing, was told that if she ever tried to channel more power than her training allowed again, it would kill her. Nai was informed that mastery was a function of memory, and while he could learn where his home was and go back there some day, he can never have a return of his first-hand memories of his training, or the home he knew when that training happened, ever again - the fragmented memories he has of his home now are all he will ever have, at least first-hand. He may unearth a couple of more, but that’s it. Remi, meanwhile, was informed that this being owed her a debt as much as she owed Pelor one, and that they were in a position to help each other pay said debts, and that what she felt after the bargain was struck needed to be investigated.

Why did this being, who they later identified as a Solar, owe Remi? Because the Solar in question was the one who provided the celestial spark that let Alisaie be born aasimar to a family of humans. As Hazel put it, the Solar was, in a way, Alisaie’s father.

In any case, Nai had a very quiet breakdown, Hazel had a complete religious flip-out, and Remi tried to calm them both down ... but the noise attracted the attention of both the group at market and Alisaie, who had a bit of a talk with Remi about the distance and the brooding and “Are we actually doing an L-word thing?” - answer apparently being ‘yes’ to that last - before letting her go and explain in a sensible way what had happened. Honestly, Alisaie really doesn’t want to know until she’s less exhausted and can deal with it appropriately.

Once Darvin, Froseth and Ava were apprised of the situation as much as they could be given the various stages of freaking out that were going on, they had another complication - this time, the arrival of Kreia Bendis, who had heard of the dragon in her territory and came to check it out. Darvin ran into the tent to get away from her potential wrath, which woke Alisaie because he did just dive into the tent and hide under the covers on one of the beds (MAGICAL TENT), and she went out and basically told the ancient bronze dragon governor of Alama-Ver, “I killed it, and also fuck you, I don’t want to be a Brass Arrow because you were a bitch about it, so understand that you lost out on a great hunter because of your bullshit and also, eat me”. Then she turned her back on the glaive-wielding ancient bronze dragon and walked back into the tent - she was waaaaaay too tired to give a shit, which Kreia actually respected. So Kreia handed Remi the 100 platinum she had intended to share among the group that killed the invading dragon, telling her to give it to Alisaie, and also said she’d put in a word with both Bahir Zet in Zlato-Aur and Vieve Alled in Eun-Bac so Alisaie has all the options in the world now (and enough money that she doesn’t have to do shit if she doesn’t want to), and then said it was probably just as well that Alisaie didn’t want to stick around because “there’s only enough room for one alpha-bitch in this province”. Darvin was gobsmacked, and everyone else was impressed as hell - Froseth enough to repeat the line about the alpha-bitches and the disposition thereof.

The rest of the session was largely Alisaie dancing the story of her killing of the red dragon for the Agwe settlement folk and her adventurer friends, and getting rather drunk ... but before Hazel got herself blitzed to fuck on tequila, she asked Ava a little bit about why she was looking for Constance Langerhan, and why she’d been asking about a blonde with a burn scar on her face. Ava told Hazel about her family - including her half-sister, who was apparently got on her mother by King Jain Nerrand III and raised with said asshat king ... so Ava’s sister is half-dragon, and was at least partly responsible for the razing of House Vanedar. Which will, of course, need to be dealt with at some point but not when people are exhausted, too drunk to move, and freaking out over religious experiences and the accidental giving away of some significant shit.

Also, Alisaie calls Remi ‘Ree’ now. Because she’s not good at mushy words but cute nicknames are a start.

#cupcake coterie #full session #Write-up

[diamondnokouzai]

oc master post for the earlier anon

long under the cut

BERNARD

bernard is the fourth child (2x twins) of a farmer.. his father and twin sister died in a hunting accident when he was three,

the first set of twins were aasimar, and 6 years older than bernard and his twin sister georgia. they both left when bernard was 6, but not before teaching him celestial

so he grew up with only his mother. his mother went through a lot of stuff after that, which resulted in, in order,

half-elf triplets (two girls and a boy) (misky (f) tayze (f) and beauregard (m))

a gold dragonborn foster child (cotalla)

a half-drow son (drixben)

tiefling twins (a girl and a boy) (diana (f) and johann (m))

a halfling stepchild (jessie, but theyre the same age as the triplets)

a half-orc daughter (tarora)

these kids didnt start coming around until bernard was six. so bernard’s mom (molly) had nine children over the course of nine and a half years, and then when bernard is sixteen, his mother dies because of a terrible illness. so now heres bernard, who had a steady boyfriend, and now bernard has nine children, all under the age of ten, two are under the age of five, and he just. he cant be dating right now. so instead, he joins the guards of sarenrae (essentially the army, bc bernard’s country is devoted to sarenrae) because the guards get a good pay and their children get a good education

(the thing is, though, bernard’s mother died surrounded by all of her children except for bernard, who only stepped away for a minute to get her a glass of water and she died while he was gone, and thats. thats the worst thing that’s ever happened to bernard)

so youve got bernard, who is quite possibly the kindest, sweetest guy in the world, hes a paladin of sarenrae, and every week he drags in his nine siblings to services, usually carrying five or six of them with the other three or four on toddler leashes so they dont wander off.

so bernard is just, doing the best he can, and five years after he joins the guard, he gets called away to go to war. hes got nine kids to take care of, only three are old enough to take care of the others, but misky, tayze, and beauregard are all much less trustworthy than bernard. they arent bad kids, by any mean, because they were raised by molly, who was the nicest woman in the world, and bernard, who is the nicest man in the world, so these are pretty nice kids. in game theyre considered to be chaotic good, but like. misky and beauregard arent above pickpocketing to survive, and tayze will only do things for his family.

bernard still goes, because bernard believes in sarenrae and believes in fighting the good fight. so he leaves the farm in the hands of the triplets and jessie, and after giving every single one of his kids a hug and a kiss, he goes out to fight the war. hes gone for three years.

when he comes back, tayze and misky are gone. all that beau and jessie will tell him is that the two of them are out on the ocean

(tayze and misky are pirates. they have shifted to chaotic evil and chaotic neutral, respectively. they make a good profit, and bernard’s hometown is fairly far inland, so they arent at great risk when they go home to visit, which they do once a year. they take tarora and the twins on a tour of the ship once and let them pretend to be part of the navy of sarenrae, even though the ship is very obviously a pirate ship.)

so now bernard is twenty-four, beau and jessie are eighteen. beau is terrible at farming, and he really doesnt like to do it, so beau moves to the middle of the nearest city and joins the thieves guild there. he does it on the DL tho bc bernard does not, precisely, approve of thievery. he tells bernard that he studies from the school of summoning (bc he summons things from other peoples pockets into his hands, and bc he makes things disappear) so bernard is very proud of beau. beau is proud of himself too, but he keeps lying about being a thief because bernard’s Disappointed look is a terrible thing to suffer. beau also has some fun with bands of roving thieves that try to attack the farm, because beau can use a scimitar like no ones business

jessie goes kind of the complete opposite direction. they leave the farm and head into the nearby woods, and they keep going north. they get to the northernmost part of the continent, and they just start. living there. so they become an ice druid, and they also get a moose companion that they name afeeha. jessie comes back south every so often, shows tarora and the twins how he can polymorph into a snowy owl. bernard is VERY proud of jessie for following his heart, and jessie is all ‘yes yes thank you, how are tayze misky and beau?’ because he is the ONLY one that knows everybodys secrets and he uses that to his distinct advantage

cotalla is fifteen at this point, and they go to a nearby city (not a big city or anything) and they join the bardic college there. they are very good at singing and playing the lute and other string instruments, but cannot play a wind instrument for the life of them. so cotalla becomes a bard of kord (the fightin’ god) and essentially, what that entails is cotalla sings a shitload of battle songs with the guards of sarenrae, and then gets nasty when the fighting gets to them. bernard is SO proud of cotalla, because cotalla kiiiiiiiiind of technically joined the military? and he really loves the guards of sarenrae, who helped give all his siblings basic education, so hes real proud that cotalla joined.

drixben, at this point, is thirteen, which is a bit young, honestly, for him to go to any college. he doesnt, really, actually, want to do much of anything. he visits beau sometimes, who is lying to everyone about being a wizard, so beau invites his warlock gf and bf over and lets them teach drixben about magic. this is a terrible idea, actually, because drixben kiiiiiiiind of sort of becomes a warlock. which, if you done know, is, like, he made a contract with an ancient bestial terror.

so beau and drixben are like, ‘okay, this is a Secret From Bernard’ (its mostly beau because he kind of ruined drixben, even though bernard would still love both of them) so now drixben has warlock powers but he doesnt really ever use them. so now drixben is kind of having. problems. with his powers.

diana and johann (yo-hahn, yes these two and bernard are the only ones in the world with normal names) are nine years old. so they dont do much. u know. they still have to go with bernard wherever he goes bc those two would definitely burn down the house if left alone

tarora is eight years old, and is kind of in the same boat as the twins. the thing everyone asks when they come back to visit bernard is ‘where are tarora and the twins’. at this point its tarora-and-the-twins as one word, and, honestly neither tarora nor the twins like that.

so you have

tayze, chaotic evil half-elf pirate (who loves her big brother to death)

misky, chaotic neutral half-elf pirate (who loves her brother but also is less mean than her sister)

beauregard, chaotic good half-elf rogue

jessie, true neutral halfling ice druid

cotalla, chaotic good dragonborn bard

drixben, neutral good half-drow warlock

diana, ??? tiefling

johann, ??? tiefling

tarora, ??? half-orc

bernard is very satisfied with his life. however, its at this point that the current king, who was a SUPER good dude, dies and gets replaced. not by his daughter, who was a super awesome girl, but by his sister in law, who is not so phenomenal. she kind of ruins the country, and the guards of sarenrae TECHNICALLY serve the goddess sarenrae, so theyre like, i will not serve you. and the new queen is like, i will not force you. and then she takes their families captive and is like, but i recommend you do because otherwise your families will die.

the queen does not manage to nab all nine of bernard’s siblings. she does nab tarora, diana, johann, and drixben, whereas jessie is too much trouble to get, beau is too damned sneaky, misky and tayze are already technically wanted by the crown (but they use stage names, at first because they didnt want bernard to know about how bad they were being, but now theyre like ‘yes!! we knew this would happen we are so smart’), cotalla is actually in a foreign country fighting a war, and then when the war is over, theyre like ‘no thanks’ and they just. dont come back.

so bernard leaves the farm. he puts his ex in charge and now hes traveling the country,  searching for his family. hes no longer part of the guards of sarenrae, but he still considers himself a paladin, except he hates the government.

so anyway thats bernard and i love him.

ZYRICK

zyrick is a huma bard and he is 19. he was sold by his human noble grandfather (one Ryxal Corriendone) at the age of two in order for the corriendone family to escape their debts. however, zyrick’s twin sister zyra (zigh-ra vs zee-rick) was kept with her family. zyrick was sold to the master of a massive slave gladiator pit, known as Mr. Zalfroc. zyrick first became eligible for the fights at the age of 10, but managed to avoid the worst opponents by means of his skill with musical instruments. zyrick thus spent the majority of his time in the pits as a side attraction rather than a fighter, although he did not completely escape from the fights.

at the age of 17, zyrick finally ran away from the pits and mr. zalfroc in an effort to both find his family and to. well. yknow. escape the fucking gladiator pits.

after spending 15 years in an underground gladiator arena, zyrick kinda sorta hates nobles with all the hate in his body. both because mr. zalfroc constantly reminded him of what his family did, and also because of what he saw of nobles in the pits. he works REALLY REALLY hard to move past it though, because he wants to meet his family and he wants to know whats up with them and to tell them that he forgives them.

but he doesnt really know? where it is? and so he just wanders around, staying far away from mr. zalfroc’s circle of influence, and then some girl (who looks too much like him) runs up to him, with a bunch of her allies with her because shes got her own adventuring party, and she explains that she is zyra corriendone the second and that hes her twin brother, and he kinda gets tugged along with this girl to the corriendone estate, and its kind of a spooky affair, with zyra the second and zra the first (their mother) and ryxal corriendone, and their mother is a little lost after the trauma of losing her son, and ryxal is a little lost because hes old, but they both come into it when zyrick enters the estate.

and zyra i explains that hes her son, her beloved son, and then theres drama with ryxal and zyrick runs because he does NOT trust angry adult men. and zyra runs after him, and tries to explain that everythings alright, that he can live with them now and they can be family now, but then zyrick just explodes with all his anger. “they fucking kept you, zyra, but i wasnt fucking good enough. they took me away from my mother and my father- do i even fucking have a father? no, i fucking doubt it- but they kept you, they loved you, you got to grow up in this fancy fucking house reading your fucking books and taking fucking music lessons and praying to fucking pelor once a fucking week and wearing your stupid fucking pretty fancy clothes. and guess how i grew up? i fucking killed people, ive killed people and i bet youve never so much as gotten a fucking hangnail. i taught myself everything i fucking know and i clawed myself up from the mud more than once and i saw the worst fucking parts of you people, and i hate it. and you can never make me be one of you. im not a fucking blueblood.” and he runs.

and thats not really fair, because zyra ii has her own issues with growing up, but zyrick doesnt care about being fair when hes talking to his silver spoon sister.

zyrick very much puts up an airheaded, kinda stupid/floaty/happy-go-lucky personality, but rest assured: he is thinking about murdering you. every soft half-smile and chord strummed on his lute? thats him stabbing you in his mind. and he will kill you with great pleasure.

JYNXLUCK

jynxluck is a young-ish drow warlock and shes absolutely nuts. i mean off her fuckin rocker. mostly thats because she was kidnapped from her village by ghaunadaur-worshipping elves who decided to torture her into seeing visions of the future because of the drows rumored genetic dark magic. and then one day she woke up in captivity and discovered all of the elves were dead, and shes now on a quest to find whoever did that and thank them graciously. she is also chaotic evil and does everything in her power to make her visions come true. this often backfires.

jynxluck is chaotic evil, as opposed to bernard being lawful good and zyrick being chaotic good.

also jynxluck does not lie. shes kind of a fae creature in that trickery and wordplay is fine but lying? lying is uncool and the worst. but she will kill people when she thinks things are going badly. she is c-r-a-z-y. but no lying also means that jynxluck WILL tell you what she thinks of you. shes like a much worse-organized GLaDOS.

oh also she hates all wood elves and take a guess why.

#.aphelion #.txt #dnd

[zichiandhisnonsense]

dont leave us hanging like that. now you have to tell us all about these characters.

Hue.

Okay, so chances are you might know about Zefri already. If not, go here. He actually has a blog. As for the others...

Sassy and flamboyant wizard who probably should have been a bard

This guy is Ephriam Skyblade, a human Bladesinger. Now those of you who know your d&d are probably thinking “Zichi, what the fuck, only elves can be bladesingers”. And you would be right, if I played him in one of the canon settings like Greyhawk/forgotten realms/sword coast etc... No, he appeared in homebrew worlds where the DM allowed it.

When Ephriam applied to a wizard school that specialized in Bladesingers, the headmaster (who was a racist elf) figured he’d milk some tuition fees from this dumb human before he dropped out. Unfortunately, Ephriam aced his studies. Basically, where Ephriam struggled with conventional bladesinging, he used what his bardic mother taught him to adapt and improvise. When his peers and tutors were getting very aggressive with Ephriam, he decided it was time to bail... In the process of bailing however, he seduced and eloped with a half-drow woman who was the headmaster’s ‘servant’. Ephriam and Lyndis would have been perfectly happy to go their own way, but the slightly-crazy-and-senile-at-this-point headmaster tracked them down and cast a spell on Lyndis, trapping her on another plane of existence. The headmaster laughed at Ephriam, saying it would be a hundred years before he would find Lyndis again. Ephriam sassed back, saying the headmaster said the same thing about his studies, and he’d find her in a year. That’s where his wanderlust and travelling turned from aimless seeking of beauty in the world to a personal quest to find a way to reunite with his wife.

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Magical university professor who is mocked; insulted and DARVO'd by the entire party and will probably enact his revenge at some point

Unfortunately, I’m not playing this character any more, because I had something of a falling out with the group I was in and decided “fuck it, it’s not worth ruining my evening”. But basically, Horatio Crestfall was the son of a paladin knight-turned-noble, but unlike his father, Horatio was physically weak. Rather than try forcing himself to be his father’s copy, Horatio turned to magical study as a wizard. He gained a rather unique reputation at school because he did not see much in magical rivalry, thinking clerics, wizards and druids were all viable and equal (in-game, he was a theurgy-wizard, because the party needed some decent healing magic). He ended up being the professor that got all the trouble-kids, or the kids who didn’t make the school look good. Yes, pretty elves and cunning humans look great to the public as wizards, but tieflings, goblins and dwarves are frequently shoved onto Horatio. Horatio originally joined the party by basically one of his apprentices botching a teleportation spell badly.

There was also a sub-plot in that he’s an aasimar but doesn’t know it and every time he uses the radiant soul ability, he has no memory of it. His mother was an angel who abandoned the family to protect them from a powerful devil, but we never got to that point before I lost my patience with the pasty white boys insulting my character and their obsessive use of the N-word.

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World's best dwarven wizard prince (no that category is NOT mindlessly small)

While not my first character, strictly, Flint Bronzelight was my first proper character, the first character I played in a group that knew what it was doing. He found magic fascinating and wanted to study it under an arcane perspective rather than traditional divine and priesthood. Fortunately, the Bronzelights were never a conventional clan, being traders and inventors, pioneers of black-powder firearms. His father permitted him to go abroad to study. By the time his studies were complete however, Flint had a gnawing curiosity and desire to learn more, so he enacted an old Bronzelight tradition, to leave home and seek his fortune, which he would do through his magic.

Also, he ended up carrying a magnifying glass around and I eventually bought a real-life magnifying glass and would slowly bring it up from beneath the table whenever Flint got curious about something. The first time I did it was met with great enthusiasm.

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Evil Overlord Paladin who WILL kill 3/5ths of the party

Devrique Crownbreaker was half orc peasant under the rule of a fat, obese and cruel man who used money and power to hire thugs to do his bidding. Trodden on, beaten and disrespected, the boy was fueled by rage until the day that nobleman overstepped his authority and had Devrique’s father killed for insolence (he hadn’t actually done anything, the noble was just feeling cruel). Now a man, Devrique snapped and vowed to see the nobleman dead by his own hands. A vow he would uphold very swiftly. Biding his time, Devrique struck when the lord’s mercenary forces were at their lowest and slaughtered his way through. The fat old man begged for his life, offering money, power, everything he could want. Devrique slew the man without even a response, taking the fiefdom as his own.

Devrique ruled with an iron fist. He demanded obedience, but rewarded loyalty. Those who served the kingdom received Devrique’s protection and shared in his riches. Those who defied him or threatened his people, he offered them a sword and a duel, to decide through strength who was in the right.

I can’t remember how exactly the game he was in went, but I think he was forced to leave the little kingdom he built to defend it. I think mindflayers were threatening to attack it, but I’m not sure.

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Grumpy dwarf cleric forced into team dad role

Halrin Stonebeard, last of the Stonebeard clan. As a youth, Halrin was an orphan raised in a temple of Jarbaleth the Forgemaster. With no known family, Halrin took the cloth and priesthood eagerly, but he was dissatisfied with just praying and healing wounds. He wanted to go out and fight evil on the front-lines, to protect people rather than heal the wounds after evil had struck. With the chapel’s high priest blessing his mission, he took to the surface with his hammer and shield and fought the good fight.

For a few years, a good fight he did, until he was ambushed by goblins. Despite the ambush, Halrin slew half of the goblins and their wicked shaman chief before falling. But the goblins were not done. In revenge for their fallen leader, the goblins performed a ritual that fused Halrin and Grettick’s souls into a dagger, dooming the cleric to untold time with only a cruel monster as company.

200 years would pass by before Halrin’s soul was released from the dagger. During that time, Halrin would discover that his clan had been nearly wiped out. Dragons had attacked his clan homes, scorching his clan halls and leaving them condemned. Surviving Stonebeards believed the clan cursed and so forsake the name, taking the name of the clans who took them in. But Halrin, stout and stubborn, refused to give up. With his second chance at life, he returns to fighting evil, with the goal of slaying the dragons who attacked his clan home and inspiring faith in the name Stonebeard.

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flirty cleric girl who got retconned into a demon spawn bc the party wanted to be massive douchebags.

This was my character before Horatio in that group I have disagreements with. Basically, when I first joined, the GM said the party lacked a decent healer, only having a bard who always preferred shooting to anything bardic and probably should have been a ranger imo. But regardless, I rolled a cleric first, a life cleric Crystal Starwell, who was a cheerful, playful and flirty woman. The DM had an interesting way of introducing my character. The party was hunting a demon, and my character would be introduced having been mind-controlled by the demon, but the party’s influence would help her break out...

Unfortunately, the characters everyone was playing (and some of the players too) were complete dicks. They were constantly convinced that I was a spy or double-agent who would stab them in the backs. They insulted and belittled her, never gave her a share of the treasure saying she’d have to “earn their trust”. Never mind the fact she was healing, buffing, protecting and raising dead all the time...

I eventually got the message and tried to swap to a more serious, less happy-go-lucky character, but in order to justify my characters sudden mid-sungeon disappearance, the DM decided “oh wow she’s a demon after all”. Stiiiill a little sore about that, tbh.

#Anonymous