Okay, so housemates have a new 5e campaign going and they've invited me to join. The party is mostly casters and one fighter, so when I said I'd been thinking about a monk they were super enthusiastic. I'm feeling a little weird about gender right now. Like, I've played many characters over the years, run plenty of npcs, so I've never had qualms about gender in the past. But right now the idea of portraying a recognizably masculine character feels reeeeeally uncomfortable, and my friend who is DMing strongly advocates playing your own gender, bc of I guess some really disruptive players he's dealt with in the past. Which is kind of a dumb rule but I don't feel like starting a whole argument about it, and I kind of don't want to bring up my whole genderweird thing with him until I'm more comfortable with it myself. Plus some of the other players are new to me, so I don't want to get into it in general. So I decided to stealth that shit with an androgynous af wood elf. I found a picture that I love - actually I found a lot of great pictures googling "androgynous elf" but I mean I found a good one for a character portrait. Spoiler: Beautiful and fierce pic is a little obviously afab but close enough So I intend to play him as pretty, pan, and powerful. Confident and serene, even. Feeling pretty good about this rn. (the one thing that could be even better would be if he allows a changeling a la Eberron - bodyfluid monk ftw)
On a less plotty note, my dragonborn acquired a very fancy hat last night. She plans to wear it - it will look good right in front of her spiny crest. But it had a faded and ratty feather. This will not do. Her personal sidequest is now to find the FANCIEST FEATHER for her hat.
::bouncebounce:: I'm excited about my character! I found an old 2e Dragon Magazine with a guide to making elvish names, so I named him Sylfienn Ki'Sar, which in the means "The sprite of the autumn rain seeks the void." The fact that the elvish word for Void happens to be the same as the monkish Ki energy inspired me to say that his martial art tradition recognizes the four elements of nature within the body, but seeks to harmonize with the void: the element that is no element, the empty space between them. Because even when I'm a player I can't help inventing lore ^_^ Spoiler: I made a mini I edited the art that inspired me and painted it out, taped it onto a spare pathfinder pawn And I don't know why that pic wants to be sideways Spoiler: Backstory Elven society values liberty, tending toward chaotic alignment, but this isn't ideal for every individual. Young Sylfienn needed more structure in his life; without it he was frequently acting out, causing trouble, and getting into fights with other elf kids. His parents knew of a reclusive hermit, once an adventuring monk, and convinced him to teach Syl the ways of self-discipline and inner peace. Over the years, Sylfienn learned to quiet his own spirit in emulation of the stillness of the elemental void. He learned to master his body and mind, and strives to perfect his inner essence as well. He is unfortunately not much of a scholar, and so has reached the limit of what he can glean from meditation and study. His teacher has sent him to wander the world, to learn what he can through practical experience and unlock the riddle of the void by finding stillness in the midst of activity.
Ranger, 5 seconds after rolling initiative against the very large snake: "Wait. I did not think this through."
concept: a bard whose entire character revolves around emulating the Bard, i.e., William Shakespeare. his dialogue would be entirely in iambic pentameter and as dense with dick jokes as humanly possible.
does anyone want me to find my various lists of everything that counts as a euphemism for genitalia or any other kind of dirty joke in Shakespeare? I'm probs not going to return to the "highlight ALL the dirty jokes" project, but I might be able to find one of the completed versions, and can give anyone who wants it my resources for finding every dick joke he stuffed in there (sry couldn't help myself)
[9/2/16, 3:25:58 PM] player: I have decided that canonically, we were executed for [this player's character] burning down the village. Then we loaded our last save game. [9/2/16, 3:26:11 PM] gm: TRU [9/2/16, 3:26:36 PM] another player: Yey we're all dead in the original timeline
[9/2/16, 4:16:31 PM] a: I promise I will not try to burn down the village.... [9/2/16, 4:16:41 PM] b: Try harder this time [9/2/16, 4:16:42 PM] a: As apparently that was a thing. [9/2/16, 4:16:57 PM] c: ...and that is how it got drowned
I plan to try out the D&D Adventurer's League at the geek shop tomorrow (a week late to be in the Storm King's adventure from the start, alas). So I need a character who's viable by the League rules. And I've been thinking on and off about monks and druids. The biggest thing that I found, looking for character build concepts based on what others have done, is that a lot of people really want to be bears who can use flurry of blows, but per RAW that's not a thing. Natural weapon =/= unarmed attack. But frankly, it's probably for the best that it's not an option; I won't be tempted to use up all the limited ki and wildshape for the sake of a (frankly cool, but silly) combat trick. And multiclassing would sure make those resources limited. But... those classes can multiclass pretty easily. They've got the Wis requirement in common, and druids will tend to have decent Dex (especially in 5e with the finesse weapons). So now I ask myself, okay, what kind of character would a multiclass of them be like? Druids have the flavor/design of being about balance in nature. Monk has that Four Elements archetype. Those mesh together pretty neatly into a warrior of nature, after all. Someone who draws power from the elements and life force flowing around and through them. After 3.5 and spell shortages, I have a love affair with cantrips being reusable. So whenever I think about a caster class, I look first and foremost at their cantrips. Druids have Shillelagh and Thorn Whip. Shillelagh is basically the Starless/Wilsh Tree Staff effect, imbuing a club or quarterstaff with nature power to make it more badass. Quarterstaff is a viable monk weapon. Thorn Whip makes a big ass pointy tentacle tug at an enemy, potentially dragging them away from an ally and closer to the caster. Okay, a character who protects others by doing a little battlefield control, wants to have good Con and Wis and at least decent Dex. No need to worry about putting armor on or carrying any, no need to worry about fancy shmancy weapons, no worries about getting surprised in the middle of the night by monsters raiding the campsite. This character is always ready to take a blow and protect somebody else, hard to knock down and keep knocked down. ...Steve Rogers, half-orc monk/druid? Kid with chaotic idealistic anger problems courtesy of half-orc. Tigress from Kung Fu Panda, and her origin story... Yoda telling Luke Skywalker that he was too old and angry to be trained in the ways of the force... Forest Born, and the balanced groundedness that Rin sought from the trees. Mindfulness and grounding as means of surpassing that instinctual draw to CE that orc-blooded characters struggle with. A discovery that helps a not-quite-lawful character nonetheless maintain the discipline necessary to the monk-styled self-mastery. ...And even if wildshape+flurry of blows doesn't work, there's nothing stopping some of the other monk powers from working with a wildshaped druid. Like a wolf spinning to deflect arrows with its tail. Or the same bear using Fangs of the Fire Snake to sprout whips of fire from its paws for a round. eta: I still like the concept, but.... blah. I don't know how many sessions it would take to reach level 5, where I'd have all the basic things in place. It might be better for me to start as a pure monk, and maybe redesign the character before starting a session as a 5th level. And there's always the Magic Initiate feat, if I'm really just looking for the two cantrips and maybe a healing spell... Even the Martial Arts ability to get a bonus attack in probably doesn't work while shapeshifted, which would mean the wildshape power would be best for scouting, not combat... blah. IDK.
My drow cleric of Zinzerena, drawn by @PRelations , who's also in my game. We're only two sessions in and it's super fun so far. Favorite thing that happened: we met a dryad sick of her forest being messed with, so when we met with the mage-rulers of the island our campaign is set on for reasons, our bard started the conversation with singing a catchy song about how if they kept fucking with the forest, the dryad was going to kill them all, oooh don't shoot the messengers, we're just passing this along, but she's totally going to kill you, so be nice and stop fucking with the forest, she's got a lot of monsters~. The chorus rhymed!
At the conclusion of the song multiple guards set down their weapons to applaud. It was a good performance roll, is what I'm saying.
I'm really bad at remembering names in real life, but in d&d I seem to remember all the names. The other players in our campaign can't always keep track of the made-up names, so they have started pausing to let me insert the name they need in their dialogue. Example from yesterday's game: She: Excuse me, we are looking for Guard Captain... Me: Blanche Robinson She: to discuss the current crisis with the cult of... Me: Orgothoa She: We have just come from... Me: Jakoun She: and we have this letter of introduction from Mayor... Me: Aethelstan She: Do you know where we might find the captain? DM: .................yes
(Pokes head in) Hi I have no experience with anything even tangentially D&D related but I think it sounds hella fun. Any advice on how to get started? Or find a group that's welcoming to newbies?
Can I just point out the wonders of a level 3 High Elf Warlock of the Pact of the Tome? Positively oozing in cantrips.
My first 5e character was a tome warlock, half elf though. His ranged attack rolls for his eldritch blast were consistently crummy, but his melee attack rolls for shillelagh were consistently great, even though they used the same stats and bonuses! Thanks seebs
