Cleric of Sune

[raeynbowboi]

The Jock Studio Guys As A D&D Party

Normally, it's fun to speculate and figure out what class a character might be. But fortunately for us, Jock Studio straight up tells us. When determining which love interest a route will steer you toward, the game has you fill out a questionnaire. One such question asks: What's your favorite fantasy class? Each Jock has a corresponding answer, thus informing us what each Jock likes to play. From there, I simply extrapolate which subclass best fits the Jock's personality.

DEREK KINGSFIELD OATH OF GLORY PALADIN

In his questionnaire, Derek's answer is: The Paladin. When it came time to pick his subclass, there were two top contenders: Devotion and Glory. The Oath of Devotion prioritizes truth, justice, and the greater good, which Derek definitely values. Derek is a good, kind, and honorable man who believes in the good of the many. He will break up bickering and tell people to knock it off when they're getting too rowdy. But Glory fits him even better. The Oath of Glory is focused on making a name for oneself through hard work and dedication. It values actions instead of words, honing your body through hard work and exercise, learning discipline so that others can not dim your glory, and inspiring others to strive for their own excellence. As a nutrition major that doubles as the group's gym instructor, Derek cares greatly about helping everyone in the Jock Studio Film Club reach their peak physical health, all without judgement, scorn, or ridicule. Derek is patient, understanding, and tolerant of every shortcoming of his clubmates, handling Ace's lack of confidence and Bryce's brash temper with the same ease, support, and understanding. After Jacques as the president of Jock Studio and Ace as the Director, Derek is the defacto leader of the jocks, which makes sense given he's the oldest student in the club, and has experience in the film industry. His fame as The King makes Derek the only person in the group who has achieved glory in the sort of films the Jock Studio Film Club is making. Thus, making him the ideal party member to help his clubmates navigate this experience safely. He's able to understand what his clubmates are going through as newbies experiencing this industry for the first time. Because of Derek's own experiences, he's able to help them to succeed in the same industry where he's made a name for himself.

BRYCE CALLAHAN PATH OF THE ZEALOT BARBARIAN ZEALOT OF SHAR, GODDESS OF LOSS

In his questionnaire, Byrce's answer is: Barbarian. But the rest of his answers provide further insights. Bryce is a very direct and blunt person, and would only feel comfortable showing vulnerability through an alt account. He presents himself as a very macho heterosexual man. His hobbies include drinking and partying, and his preferred media is action movies and FPS video games. While he likes country music and dogs, his ideal vacation is in a big city, and none of his answers paint him as particularly outdoorsy. His other answers point to a crippling fear of being humiliated, judged, and mocked, and a secret wish he could live authentically, but being terrified to embrace his true self. A few of his answers don't even answer the question, but come across as defensive deflections to keep people at arm's length. But when he does let himself give answers, he does reveal a little more of his true self. When asked the best way to say good-bye to someone, his answer is: Sashay... away. A clear homage to RuPaul's Drag Race, suggesting he's a fan, or at least aware of it. The game has not come out yet, so we don't know every detail about every character, but based on Bryce's behavior, I think Bryce suffers from some combination of social and/or religious guilt for his closeted queerness, and hates that part of himself. The Path of the Zealot works well for a Barbarian whose rage comes from religious anger. Since he's a wrestler, the Path of the Giant allows Bryce to make himself bigger and heavier, allowing him to throw his weight around on the battlefield. The Path of the Berserker works for your garden-variety Barbarian with no particular flavor. Ultimately, I chose the Path of the Zealot because it makes a lot of sense for religion to be a major source of Bryce's trauma, shame, and guilt. I chose the goddess Shar because she's sought out by those hurting who would rather forget. Bryce is someone who wants these urges and desires taken away, and would fall into the clutches of the Dark Lady in hopes that she would make him forget these parts of him he'd rather live without. But, Sharrans are also miserable goth kids, so it is worth highlighting a few other standout options:

Tempus, God of War, suits his macho bravado.

Talos, God of Destruction, fits Bryce's hair-trigger temper.

Waukeen, Goddess of Wealth, suits his claim to have joined the film club for the money.

Lliira, Goddess of Joy and revelry, might cater to his joy of partying.

Sharess, Goddess of Lust and Passion, comes the closest to a Faerunian god of Hedonism.

Sune, Goddess of Pleasure, is as much a goddess of Hedonism as Sharess, but also governs love and beauty.

Hanseath is the Dwarven God of beer and revelry.

Asmodeus is the evil god of sinful indulgence, which might translate to alcohol, lust, partying, and/or self-loathing.

LEO MENDEZ ABJURER WIZARD

Leo is one of only two characters who does not list a specific class. When asked what his favorite fantasy class is, Leo's answer is simply: Mage. However, through other questions in the questionnaire and Demo 2 gameplay, we can deduce that Leo loves RPGs, is very intelligent, and good with computers and technology. Which may point toward a traditional Wizard. But, Leo is also someone who overextends himself to the point of exhaustion to help others. He prefers to socialize over studying, and when asked what role he plays in his friendships, his answer in the questionnaire is: I offer support where I can. All of which supports the possibility of him being a Support casting class like Bard. All things considered, I believe the devs used Mage to mean Wizard, but Leo's urge to support others is what made me think that his Wizard Subclass should be one supportive of his party. Thus, I chose the Abjurer, as it is one of the most supportive and party-focused wizard subclasses. One could make a case for the Diviner or the Enchanter, but presently, I feel the Abjurer is the most apt choice for Leo.

AVAN GEISERFORD ORDER DOMAIN CLERIC CLERIC OF AMAUNATOR, GOD OF THE SUN

Avan is the other character who does not name a specific class, but instead lists a party role. Avan's answer is: the Healer. Cleric, Druid, and Bard are the most common examples of healers in DnD. But from what we know so far, he's not overly religious, not a fan of nature, and not much of a performer. In the Questionnaire, Avan says that if he were to learn an instrument, he would pick the Piano, and he's a fan of classical music. He enjoys fantasy movies, strategy games, and his favorite part of a party is planning and organizing the event. Avan's questions and gameplay dialogue suggests that he's an orderly, organized, and mature young man, always open to learn, adapt, and grow from his experiences. That to me tells me that Avan makes a lot of sense as a Cleric, as Clerics not only take care of others, but also value discipline, structure, and order. In many towns and cities, Clerics don't just heal people, they also donate their time and energy to support the city in whatever way they can. He is roommates with the chaotic Yuuto, whom he keeps in line and takes care of by effectively being Yuuto's scolding mother-figure, reminding him to do things, or making him be responsible. Avan is a Swimmer in Poseidon House, which could lean toward a Tempest Domain Cleric, but although Tempest includes sea gods under its umbrella, it really is not a fitting choice for a sea-themed cleric. He's an honor roll student which could suggest a Knowledge Domain Cleric. He's also the President of the Student Council, which could suggest he works best as an Order Domain Cleric. After weighing all of my options, I would label Avan as an Order Domain Cleric. He values hard work, order, discipline, structure, serves in an leadership position in campus politics, and keeps his chaotic roommate on a short leash. There are two top contenders for Avan's deity: Amaunator and Tyr. Tyr is the God of Justice, worshipped by Judges, Lawyers, and Law Enforcers. Amaunator is the God of the Sun, worshipped by Lawmakers. The difference is that Amaunator's clergy perform bureaucratic duties like overseeing contracts and the signing of wills, while Tyr's clergy enforce the laws when broken. Given this distinction, Avan leans more toward Amaunator, favoring bureaucratic governance over judicial justice.

ZAYNE ALEXANDER CONCLAVE OF THE FEY WANDERER RANGER

Zayne's answer to the questionnaire is: The Hunter, which just means a Ranger. The frustrating thing about Zayne is that he's rather tight-lipped about himself. Even by the end of Demo 2, you end the game still knowing relatively little about Zayne. His answers to the questionnaire is the strongest evidence we have to go on for his personality beyond what we can see at surface level. On the surface, Zayne is a cool, charming, and popular man. This already caused me to lean toward Fey Wanderer, as they are described as having a fey mystique and a glamourous charm. He's a fan of mystery movies, his favorite super power is mind control, he enjoys dating sims, and believes he'd most likely be arrested for a love affair. But further details reveal he's a cat person, he prefers to spend his time alone, and when asked what his dynamic is with friends, his answer is a haunting: What friendship? All of which hints that behind that cool popular guy, there's a very lonely man putting on an otherworldly glamour to hide behind.

YUUTO NAKAJIMA SOULKNIFE ROGUE

Yuuto's answer to the questionnaire is: The Rogue. Yuuto's answers in the questionnaire don't tell us a whole lot that talking to him in the Demo doesn't already tell us about him. He's a hyperactive, impulsive goofball with a dirty sense of humor and class clown energy. He's earnestly eager to prove his worth, but so forgetful that it's a hazard to his life. He is a big fan of ninjas and anime, even giving overly stylized anime-esque names to his "power moves" which is just... spiking the ball. His over-eagerness often lands him in trouble, even from the people he's trying to impress. But his impulsiveness also gets in the way, even when he's trying to be helpful. When he thinks his team has left him behind for an away game, he decides to mop the court but was going to use lubricant instead of sop and water, then abandons that to make a move on Ace. His intentions to be of service to his team by cleaning the court was good, but he immediately abandoned that act of service to act on impulse. All things considered, there are two good options for Yuuto's subclass: Arcane Trickster and Soulknife. Both have anime flavor by allowing Yuuto to do flashier semi-magical feats as a rogue, which I think suits his style. But Arcane Trickster requires Intelligence as a casting stat. Yuuto's not dumb, but he doesn't strike me as a high Intelligence character. Thus, I lean toward Soulknife. It caters to his love of anime-esque powers, it's flashy and stylized, it has a unique mechanic that impacts his playstyle on the battlefield, all without being a typical, ordinary rogue.

ACE ANDERSON COLLEGE OF VALOUR BARD

Ace is the protagonist of Jock Studio, and is the one filling out the quiz. Based on how you build him, Ace can join any of the sports teams of the other jocks, including changing his fitness and stats to reflect his playstyle. Ace is someone who can be anything or do anything you need him to. He's the director of the Jock Studio's films. As the Player Character, it is up to Ace to navigate the social dynamics of the club, get close to people, and encourage them. Thus, the Bard feels like a natural fit. It's a jack of all trades focused more on support and crowd control, lacks damage output, but in a social situation, takes over handling the dialogue. The College of Valour best reflects that Olympus University is primarily a sports college, and all of the love interests being jocks on different sports teams is key to the gameplay.

[clericofsune]

I really really think the story-telling aspects of DND are cool. I have wishlists for character like backstory and occupation. How do I translate that into a proper playable character? Let's assume the 5e rulebook is being used.

This is a very vague and broad question, but I'll see what I can do to help. The biggest issue is that I don't know what occupation or backstory you're trying to use so I don't know what coaching I can offer. So, since I cannot provide personalized help, let me see if I can provide broader help by building by example. For this question, I'm going to walk through how I built a character I am actually actively playing at a table right now.

It's very subtle, but observant people may notice that I have a fondness for Sune, the Faerunian Goddess of Love and Beauty. The first character I ever played was a Light Domain Cleric of Sune way back before I knew anything about the lore. Or what spells were in the game. Or what the classes were like. But although that little Cleric will never see the light of day again, my fondness for Sune still prevails. So, I knew I wanted to make a character in some way connected to Sune.

The obvious choice would be a Cleric. It is the default class for characters tied to the divine. But it's not mandatory. Driz'zt is a Ranger and is still devout to Mielikki. You don't have to play a Cleric to have a god. There's two major problems with playing as a Cleric for me with this particular character. Firstly, if I'm serving a love and beauty themed goddess, I'm going to want access to charm spells to debuff and stall enemies, but Clerics don't really get these kinds of spells, and there is no Cleric Domain that scratches that itch. Trickery comes the closest which is why when I DM, Trickery is one of Sune's domains. The other problem is that as a player, I'm a yappy little roleplayer. I want to talk a lot, and Cleric is not a good face class. They do get proficiency in Insight and Persuasion, but if there's any Charisma-based character in your party, that Cleric is not doing the social skill check rolls for the table.

Thus, there were two subclasses I really looked at when building this new version of a Sunite character: College of Glamour Bard and Divine Soul Sorcerer. Bard for its part does a lot of what I want a love goddess worshipping character to do. Inspiring allies, debuffing enemies, has a lot of charm spells, gets skill expertise, and relies on its Charisma score. It's a very good yappy face class. The College of Glamour really focuses on charm magic and beauty as key elements. The Bard's 2024 updated rules for Magical Secrets also means that from level 10 onward, a Bard can take as many spells as they want from the Cleric spell list, meaning that from level 10 onward, the bard is going to give you a really good mix of bard charm and crowd control magic, and the cleric's holy divine light of heaven flavor, really allowing a Sunite to get the best of both worlds.

The other option was equally alluring. The Divine Soul Sorcerer marks you as somehow divinely ordained, blessed with a spark of divine magic. Right from level 3, you have access to both the Sorcerer and Cleric spell lists, but through metamagic, you can also do things with your spells that a Bard can't. You can Twinned Spell a Revivify (well, you could in 2014, 2024 nerfed Twinned Spell), you can throw down a Hypnotic Pattern or a Faerie Fire and use Careful Spell to not hit your allies in the Area of Effect. You can Subtle Spell your charm magic so no one can tell you're casting a spell. And unlike 2014 rules, Sorcerers in 2024 are no longer limited to 15 spells known across their entire 20 levels of character building, which was a major reason why I never played Sorcerer before then. A boy has to have options.

So, both Divine Soul Sorcerer and Glamour Bard offered what I was looking for with this character. A mix of holy cleric magic and crowd control through charm magic, charisma-focused builds, and proficiency with yapping skills. Ultimately, I chose Divine Soul Sorcerer because I got holy magic right away, rather than having to wait until 10th level to get divine magic, allowing my character to be tied to Sune much faster.

As for the backstory, I ended up merging two prior Sunite concepts into a single character, one that had been a Cleric and one that had been a Divine Soul Sorcerer. The Cleric was raised in a very religious household because his mother's business was greatly aided by the church, and she owes all of her success to the priestesses showing her charity. The Divine Soul Sorcerer was a total nobody who was on a pilgrimage to take their clerical vows in a temple only to find herself in a dire situation she had no chance of surviving unless Sune intervened, receiving a single spark of divine magic to arm herself with to survive this perilous ordeal.

ERYSTAN FIREHAIR DIVINE SOUL SORCERER

Erystan Firehair is the son of Deirdre Wheatley, a Commoner living in the hamlet of Longsaddle in the Sword Coast, where she worked as a bar maid at the Golden Horseshoe tavern. One day, a strange man came to town and wooed Deirdre with his charms and flirtations. Deirdre disappeared for three days before showing up with no memory of the lost time, only recalling that she was never once afraid and felt like she was in a state of blissful euphoria. But, when asked about the gentleman, could only recall the name he'd given her and that he'd claimed to be a nobleman from Waterdeep, and nothing else. Deirdre soon realized she was pregnant with the stranger's child. Not long after, a band of Gnolls raided Longsaddle, and although the Harpell family defended the settlement, enough homes were destroyed that some decided it was safer to leave Longsaddle. Recalling the father was from Waterdeep, Deirdre packed up her belongings and joined the caravan of refugees heading for the City of Splendors.

Once in Waterdeep, Deirdre found it hard to get herself on her feet financially. Deirdre asked if anyone knew where to find the noble family the father of her child belonged to, but she quickly learned that no family by that name lived in Waterdeep, and there was no one who could help her raise this child. With her entire life uprooted and her funds sparse, she was ill-prepared for the louder, busier, more expensive lifestyle of finding work in the big city. She had to take odd jobs where she could get them, often relying on the charity of temples to feed and house herself. Then, one day, a passing priestess of Sune took notice of the dress Deirdre was wearing while working and praised the craftsmanship. Deirdre admitted to making the dress herself, as sewing was a hobby of hers. The priestess asked Deirdre to design something for the church, and when she brought the design in, the many priests and priestesses at the Temple of Beauty marveled at her craftsmanship, asking her to make things for them as well. At the next Grand Revel, a noblewoman took notice of the new vestments and accessories the clerics of Sune were wearing, and asked to be introduced to Deirdre, comissioning her to design her a ballgown for an upcoming masquerade ball that would make her the envy of every other noble lady in the city. Deirdre complied, and when the noble woman debuted the couture design at the masquerade ball, her envious friends demanded to know who'd styled such an exquisite gown. Through the church's sponsorship and the income of noble commissions, Deirdre eventually opened her own high-end boutique in the Sea Ward of Waterdeep: The Preening Peacock. When Erystan was conceived, Deirdre was at the lowest point in her life. By the time he was born, she was a moderately wealthy and successful entrepreneur.

Except Deirdre had brown hair and brown eyes, while her son was born with flaming red hair and bright green eyes. Deirdre took Erystan to the Temple of Beauty, wondering why he looked so different from her, as neither of her parents nor grandparents had red hair or green eyes either. The high priestess asked about the boy's father, to which Deirdre sheepishly admitted she could remember nothing of the father's appearance and suspected he'd used a fake name as well. The priestess informed Deirdre that when people are Chosen by Sune, their hair turns flaming red. Red hair is a sign of the goddess' divine favor. Thus, the priestess gave Erystan the surname of Firehair in reverence to Lady Firehair, ever assured that the boy had the goddess' protection and favor.

Growing up, Erystan worked in his mother's clothing store, becoming a Merchant. Having the divine favor of Sune made Erystan a rather Lucky child, as if protected by divine providence. Being a Human, Erystan was both Skillful, showing an aptitude for Perception, and Versatile. His years of working in his mother's shop made him something of a Crafter, learning how to sew with Weaver's Tools, tan hides with Leatherworker's Tools, and craft jewelry with Jeweler's Tools.

Erystan never intended to become an adventurer. He was content with the successful yet quiet life of living with his mother and running their business together. Despite his mother telling him the story of his father, Erystan was just grateful for the family he had in his mother and his step-father, an elven jewel smith who'd taught Erystan the art of jewelry making.

But everything changed the day Erystan was attacked in the streets of Waterdeep. While making an ordinary dress delivery, Erystan was assailed by a Cultist of Bhaal intent on ending his existence. In a rush of panic, Erystan cast the first spell he'd ever used in his entire life, searing his assailant with a Guiding Bolt.

Suddenly, Erystan had a ton of questions and very few answers: Why was he attacked by a cultist? Did his magic just suddenly awaken or had he always had that gift and just never used it until now? Why had Sune blessed him with this magic? Did Sune have plans for him? Did he have some grand destiny she needed him for? Or was she just trying to keep him from dying in the middle of the street on a random weekday afternoon? And did Erystan's missing father have anything to do with any of this? The only thing he knew for certain was that he wasn't going to find it by staying in Waterdeep. So, he packed up a travel chest of samples of his mother's goods to sell while traveling, bid his mother farewell, and set off in search of answers.

***

I'm rather proud of this backstory because it's extremely flexible. Because a lot of it is built upon unanswered questions, I could bring Erystan to 4 different tables and have each DM provide a completely different interpretation. Was the father a god like Bhaal trying to make more Bhaalspawn? A vampire luring prey? An Archfey that took Deirdre to the Feywild, explaining why her memories were so fuzzy? Did Deirdre beg a hag to make her forget the horrible man who fathered Erystan? Or was it just a redheaded deadbeat human and the reason Deirdre can't remember anything is that she just had a really hard bender, and didn't sober up for three days? Why was Erystan born with red hair and green eyes? Why DID Sune grant him magic? Did she need him for something? Or was it all just coincidental? Did Erystan even have Sune's divine favor or was he just a naturally born redhead?

I don't know if all of that answered your initial question. Your question was rather vague. I did my best. If that wasn't helpful, reach out to me again with a more specific question, and I'd be willing to take another shot at helping you. If this did help though, then I'd be glad to hear it. I'm kind of taking a shot in the dark here and hoping I hit something.

[raeynbowboi]

How to Play as Alistair Theirin in DnD 5e

I only recently got into playing the Dragon Age games and was drawn to Origins definitely not because a certain handsome knight looked very kissable. So, after installing mods to let Alistair have a boyfriend and making my way through the game, I enjoyed the character enough that I decided to try building Alistair in 5e using the 2024 rules. So, let's see how we can translate the Prince of Fereldan to Dungeons and Dragons.

ORIGIN

Alistair is a Human with slight Elven blood. 2024 edition removed Half-Elves, and even if they were an option, I wouldn't call him one. He is a Human in every way that counts. So, we will start by making his Species a Human. Humans gain 1 bonus skill and a free Origin Feat. For his bonus skill, we'll give him Perception as a nod to his elven ancestry. We'll pick the Tough feat to increase his Hit Points.

For his background, Alistair Theirin is the illegitimate son of King Maric Theirin and Fiona. Unable to be raised by his true father, he was raised by his half-uncle Arl Eamon until the Arl took a new wife who felt threatened by the boy's presence, and Alistair found himself sent to the Chantry to live out his life in the monasteries. It is only because Duncan saw potential in him and fought to recruit him as a Grey Warden that Alistair was able to escape the fate of becoming a true Templar. Despite being a common-born bastard, Alistair was raised in Castle Redcliffe by the Arl, which could be reason to call him a Noble. Joining the Chantry at age 10 could certainly count toward the Acolyte background as well. The Chantry did train him to become a Templar, which could justify a Soldier background. All three allow him to boost his Strength, Charisma, or both so you can't go wrong with any of the options. However, being King Maric's illegitimate bastard son plays a very big role in his storyline and has had huge ripple effects throughout his life. As such, it feels like the most important aspect of his backstory and leads me to label him a Noble for +2 STR, +1 CHA, proficiency in History and Persuasion, and the Skilled Feat. The Skilled feat lets Alistair gain 3 more skills, and we'll give him Survival, Deception, and Insight. The boy's not the sharpest spade in the shed, but he's pretty good at knowing when the player character is being bothered by something and knowing when to say something.

Alistair is undeniably Good. He projects a lot of confidence and hides his insecurities behind a veil of humor to keep people at arms length, but he does usually speak in favor of freeing and helping others. Doing the right thing is a surefire way to win approval from him. Even when he disapproves of freeing the blood mage Jowan, he also disapproves if you execute Jowan. He cares a lot about duty, and will begrudgingly admit that he should do something because it is his duty as a Grey Warden to do so, no matter how much he might dislike it. As such, I would label Alistair as Lawful Good.

CLASS

PALADIN OATH OF THE WATCHERS

Alistair's class is pretty straightforward. Templars are holy warriors trained by the Chantry to fight mages. As a Grey Warden, he can sense Darkspawn and Blights, and the story involves fighting many Darkspawn, Undead, Demons, and Dragons. He is very obviously a Paladin. The Watchers come the closest to fulfilling the duties of a Grey Warden. They swear an oath to thwart the mischief of extraplanar creatures who would threaten the stability of the multiverse by crossing over into the prime material plane. They can also bolster the party's saving throws against INT, WIS, and CHA saves, which are primarily made as Spell Saving Throws. They also get Detect Magic and Counterspell, making them somewhat better as anti-mage classes. For our Paladin skills, we'll choose Athletics and Religion.

BUILD OPTIONS

I can't assume what technique your DM will use for stats. So, I'm going to use the Standard Array. If you're using Point Buy or rolling for stats, treat the Standard Array as a template for which stats matter the most for Alistair. As a Noble, Alistair gets +2 STR and +1 CHA.

STR 15, DEX 12, CON 14, INT 8, WIS 10, CHA 13

Alistair is prebuilt in Dragon Age Origins to be a Shield & One-Handed Weapon Warrior with a Templar Specialization. As such, we'll focus on building Alistair under the assumption he'll be using a Longsword and Shield.

For his Fighting Style, Dueling is going to make him more effective at using his sword.

At 4th Level, take the Mage Slayer feat to get +1 STR, bringing our STR to 18 and making us better at shutting down mages.

At 8th Level, take Shield Master to get +1 STR bringing our STR to 19, and granting us Evasion on successful Dexterity Saving Throws. This will not only protect us again spells like Fireball, but it'll also potentially negate any damage from a dragon's breath weapon.

At 12th Level, put +1 into STR and CHA capping out our STR at 20 and bringing our CHA to 15.

At 16th Level, take Inspiring Leader as Alistair comes into his own as a leader, raising his CHA by +1 to a total of 16.

At 19th Level, the epic boon Boon of Energy Resilience not only allows Alistair to choose two damage types to become resistant to, he gains the chance to redirect damage of those damage types to other creatures during the fight, allowing him to redirect some of a mage's fireball back at them. However, he could instead choose the Boon of Epic Fortitude to get +40 Hit Points to negate his rather low Constitution score.

Alternatively, if during your campaign Alistair finds items that raise his Strength such as Belts of Giants Strength or Gauntlets of Ogre Power or you just manage to roll high for stats, you might choose to more heavily invest in increasing his CON and CHA. But Mage Slayer and Shield Master are the two most important feats for him to take since fighting mages is what he was specifically trained to do. It is worth pointing out that a higher CHA improves his Aura of Courage, boosting not only his but his allies' saving throws against everything, not just spells.

PALADIN SPELLS

1 Alarm, Detect Magic, Detect Evil & Good, Divine Smite, Protection from Evil & Good 2 Moonbeam, See Invisibility, Find Steed, Shining Smite, Warding Bond, Zone of Truth 3 Counterspell, Nondetection, Crusader's Mantle, Dispel Magic, Remove Curse 4 Aura of Purity, Banishment, Staggering Smite 5 Hold Monster, Scrying, Circle of Power, Destructive Wave, Dispel Evil & Good

ROLEPLAYING AS ALISTAIR

On the surface, Alistair can come across as a proud, confident, charismatic comedian with a knack for cheeky remarks and sarcastic retorts. His sense of humor is rather irreverent, with a mix of self-deprecation. He can also come across as somewhat immature and childish, openly showing hostility toward Morrigan and cracking jokes at Wynne about her age.

Alistair is used to being pushed away by others: by his birth father, by Arl Eamon, by the Chantry. He uses humor to deflect when you try to get to know him, a defense tactic meant to spare him future pain by not allowing a genuine connection to develop. Underneath the swagger, confidence, and humor, Alistair has very low sense of self-worth, always afraid he's not good enough or important enough. To the point that he seems genuinely shocked when the player wants to actually get to know him, and even more surprised when they return his affections. Much of this comes from lacking a sense of belonging and always feeling like an unwanted outcast or an unwelcome intruder. And those that did try to get close to him often only did it because they found out he was a prince and wanted something out of him, leaving him with very few real friends or a real sense of family.

Alistair also doesn't want to take charge. He prefers to be a follower rather than the leader and laments the idea of being looked to or stepping up into leadership. In one dialogue, he fiercely rejects the idea of leading, saying that it just leads to getting lost, people dying, and him ending up stranded with no pants. While this sounds like a Noodle Incident we're never given the full context for, it could be deeper than that. His fear of leadership likely ties back into his feelings of inadequacy and irrelevance, as though he's not good enough to be king, or fearful that he'll make a stupid call that makes everything worse. Alistair's dream life when he's controlled by the Sloth Demon gives us a glimpse into his deepest desire: to be an ordinary man with a happy and loving family. He would be content to find his family, settle down as a loving brother and uncle, and never have to fight again. Which makes it all the more tragic that his sister blames him for her lot in life and he basically has to earn her love. Just one more relationship where he's left to feel unworthy. One more person who only values him as a Prince they can get something out of.

Alistair is very emotionally reactive. Smashing his mother's amulet against a wall as a child. Screaming in the chantry just to see how long it would take for a priest to come check on him. Being consumed by grief after the death of Duncan. Alistair feels things very deeply and wears his heart on his sleeve. When humor fails to deflect, sometimes he'll emotionally lash out with words instead. When he does manage to be reserved, it's him actively suppressing his emotions, such as not wanting to talk about the incident after his sister blames him for ruining her life, or barely saying two words to Arlessa Isolde who is the main reason he was sent to the chantry.

While Alistair is by no means a scholar, he's actually rather astute when it comes to reading people and situations and can be rather thoughtful and wise. I would actually say he's probably got a 14 or 16 in Wisdom in-character. He recognizes when the player has started having dreams of the Archdemon and stays up at night to reassure and comfort them. There's also the rose he plucks in Lothering and later gives to the player if they've romanced him, where he explains that it stuck out to him because it was something beautiful growing in a bleak place. This thoughtful and poetic side of him is rather indicative of a sort of wisdom he doesn't openly showcase a lot, but is there just below the surface.

So, some things work thinking about while playing as Alistair:

He's not very good at hiding how he really feels. Whether it's his dislike for Morrigan or being caught staring at the player's butt by Wynne, subtlety is not one of his strengths.

While Alistair won't raise alarms when you pick locks, lie, intimidate, or pickpocket, he draws the line at cold-blooded murder. This is to say he's not a stock archetype goodie-two-pauldrons paladin that refuses to do anything wrong ever.

He's quick to speak of redemption when the party finds the murderer Sten imprisoned in Lothering, but objects when the party considers freeing the blood mage Jowan imprisoned below Castle Redcliffe.

Alistair does not like dwelling on dark or uncomfortable topics, often either handwaving the issue, refusing to talk about them, or cracking jokes to distract people away from the things he doesn't want to address.

Much of his decision-making comes from the heart, and it takes some convincing to get him to make decisions based on logic.

I'm fairly satisfied with how Alistair turned out. His stats could be better, but beyond that, he's doing a fairly good job at translating from Dragon Age to DnD. This is the first time I've written a "how to roleplay" them section so, lemme know if you want me to keep doing that. And while I started with my favorite himbo boyfriend, I really like most of the Origins characters, and I'll probably build a few more of them eventually. But Alistair is the reason I got the game, and by the Maker, he's going to get top billing.

[clericofsune]

Any suggestions for spells that could translate well into blood magic? I keep told "just go blood hunter!"

I've covered in another page how to play as the Ultimate Dark Mage in DnD 5e, but I'm not really sure what you mean by "blood magic". If you mean hurting yourself to deal more damage, then play an Evocation Wizard with the Overchannel feature, where you can hurt yourself to increase your damage. If you mean healing your character by hurting your enemies, you want spells like Wither and Bloom, Vampiric Touch, and Enervation. If you mean more like spells that attack with blood or use blood, play Pathfinder. Spells like Call the Blood, Sanguine Mist, and Vampiric Exsanguination will satiate that desire for blood magic. Sorry for keeping you waiting, I've been in the process of moving.

[clericofsune]

How would you build a bard that's basically "So anyway I started blastin'!"

Simple. Bard with 2-4 level multiclass in Warlock. Fiend is preferable. Take Agonizing Blast, and make sure you get blasty spells like magic missile, Scorching Ray, Fireball, Crown of Stars, and of course Eldritch Blast. Then take the feat Metamagic Adept to pick up Twinned Spell and Quickened Spell from the Metamagic effects. Being able to cast a leveled spell and follow it up immediately with Eldritch Blast (or even just two EBs in one turn) turns your charming bard into a rapid fire machine g@n of damage output.

If you're talking more about using a bow and doing weapon damage, you want to dual wield hand crossbows, go Valor or Swords for Extra Attack. Probably a good idea to multiclass Fighter for Action Surge and Archery Fighting Style, or invest 3-5 levels in Gloomstalker Ranger to get a fighting style, Dreadful Ambush, and possibly Extra Attack (if not from your Bard subclass). If you are investing 5 or more levels in Fighter or Ranger, then you can use ANY Bard subclass because you don't benefit from two level 5-6 Extra Attack features. Hexblade Warlocks can also make their pact weapon a single hand crossbow, but it doesn't really cover dual-wielding without DM approval. But you can use Eldritch Smite, which is the only way to smite in DnD with a ranged weapon. But between Eldritch Smite, Sharpshooter, Thirsting Blade, and Lifedrinker, a ranged Hexblade Warlock with a single two-handed crossbow "riffle" can be a good multiclass for a Bard that wants to "just start blasting"

[raeynbowboi]

Playing a Heroic Necromancer in DnD 5e

Necromancy is one of the most evil-skewed powers in just about any fantasy setting. However, unless you're running a villain campaign, most DnD parties are made up of heroes who won't like having an evil character in their midst. You want to play a necromancer, but you also realize that DnD is a very collaborative game. So, how do you make your party more amicable towards the thought of you raising a family? Here's some possible backstory ideas that can fuel a heroic necromancer for your next campaign.

The Scholar

The taboo, illegal, or forbidden nature of studying necromancy drew your interest. Whether you studied with a secret sect, uncovered a grimoire of necromantic magic, or made a deal with a devil for profane knowledge, you were driven by a desire to study magic. The sparse availability of necromancy forces you to remain mobile, making party formation easy. You may be hunted by law enforcement, clerics of Kelemvor, or other necromancers angry at you for stealing their arcane secrets. And now that you know what so many tried to hide from you, it's your choice how to use it.

The Chronicaller

History is written by the victors, the rich, and the powerful. But every life holds valuable knowledge and secrets. Ancient bones know things lost to time. Knowledge that was never written down. Stories which have not been spoken in centuries. Opinions of the common people during a historical event. Experience with phenomenon that can no longer be encountered. The Chronicaller wishes to unearth the secrets of the past already laid to rest.

The Physician

The Frankenstein of Necromancers wishes to understand the medical and scientific elements of life and death itself. To understand the body by inspecting it and digging into it. They may study how to cure diseases or how to spread them. Try to find a way to slow or even halt the slow decomposition that turns the body elderly and frail.

The Thayan Rebel

Once a Red Wizard of Thay, you have left Thay and the Red Wizards, letting your hair grow back slowly as you seek to expand your arcane talents beyond the limitations of Thayan conquest and oppression. The Red Wizards and Szas Tam become personal antagonists for your character and party as a result.

The Undead

Be they a Revenant, a Dhampir, a Vampire, a Lich, or something else, they are already imbued with undead power. They simply embrace their anti-life energy already flowing through them, channeling a power most others would avoid. You may be undead, but you desire to staunchly defend the living from other undead who are less compassionate.

The General

A wizard with a soldier background and optional martial multiclassing, your undead horde is your army of loyal soldiers, putting their lives on the line again and again to serve their general. An Oathbreaker 7/wizard 6 adds your CHA mod to undead within 10 ft, and proficiency bonus to all undead you control. But the steep dip into paladin locks you out from higher level spell slots for stronger undead minions.

The Noble

Similar to the general, the undead serve you out of loyalty, not fear or force. But where the general commands their soldiers, the Noble may command their staff of servants, their commoner citizens, their knights and soldiers, or their own noble ancestors. The Noble utilizes their horde to fulfil the services and duties of their noble house. They're just as likely to conscript skeletons to pave a road or build a bridge as they are to form a wave of zombies to break up a smuggling ring in their city.

The Immortal Guardian

You have or want to become immortal not out of power hunger or greed, but to protect the innocent forever as an unwavering guardian against evil. Everyday people can't protect themselves, and even legendary heroes die eventually. Only an immortal protector can be an eternal defender of the people.

I hope if nothing else, this gave you some ideas for some good and noble necromancers you could bring to your next table. Did I miss any Heroic concepts that you thought of? Let me know, and help make the world a more morbid place.

[prideknights]

In honour of disability pride month, we made a disability Pride Knight! Stay proud! ⚔️🌈

[middleagedandoutoftouch]

BEAUTIFUL!!

[raeynbowboi]

Creating a Thematic Bard

Through Bardic Magical Secrets, any Bard can pick up any 6-8 spells of their choosing depending on their subclass. I thought I’d go through some thematic options for a Bard to choose from to cater to different themes and archetypes the Bard aspires to do. For each, I will offer the 8 spells I would recommend if you were to play as a Lore Bard, and if you pick a different subclass, just elimate two of the options.

HEAVENLY CHOIR 6th Spiritual Weapon, Spirit Guardians 10th Flame Strike, Destructive Wave 14th Holy Weapon, Summon Celestial 18th Divine Word, Holy Aura

THAT INFERNAL BARD 6th Hellish Rebuke, Summon Lesser Demons 10th Summon Greater Demon, Planar Binding 14th Summon Fiend, Tasha’s Otherworldly Guise 18th Planar Ally, Shapechange

WOODLAND WOODWINDS 6th Spike Growth, Plant Growth 10th Grasping Vine, Wrath of Nature 14th Transport Via Plants, Wall of Thorns 18th Tree Stride, Guardian of Nature

NECRODANCER 6th Animate Dead, Summon Undead 10th Spirit of Death, Danse Macabre 14th Create Undead, Finger of Death 18th Negative Energy Flood, Antilife Shell

PYRODANCER 6th Scorching Ray, Fireball 10th Ashardalon’s Stride, Flame Strike 14th Immolation, Investiture of Flame 18th Fire Storm, Meteor Swarm

CRYODANCER 6th Ice Knife, Rime’s Binding Ice 10th Ice Storm, Cone of Cold 14th Investiture of Ice, Otiluke’s Freezing Sphere 18th Wall of Ice, Control Weather

WET T-SHIRT CONTEST 6th Tidal Wave, Wall of Water 10th Control Water, Maelstrom 14th Watery Sphere, Summon Elemental 18th Tsunami, Water Breathing

TAKE THE WORLD BY STORM 6th Thunder Step, Lightning Bolt 10th Control Winds, Storm Sphere 14th Chain Lightning, Investiture of Wind 18th Whirlwind, Storm of Vengeance

DOWN TO EARTH 6th Max’s Earthen Grasp, Erupting Earth 10th Stone Shape, Wall of Stone 14th Bones of the Earth, Move Earth 18th Investiture of Stone, Earthquake

A DANCE OF DRAGONS 6th Chromatic Orb, Dragon’s Breath 10th Elemental Bane, Summon Draconic Spirit 14th Fizban’s Platinum Shield, Draconic Transformation 18th Illusory Dragon, Shapechange

BARDS GONE FEYWILD VOL VII 6th Summon Fey, Spirit Guardians 10th Conjure Woodland Beings, Healing Spirit 14th Heal, Conjure Fey 18th Mass Heal, Wish

FIND ME SUMMON TO LOVE 6th Conjure Animals, Summon Undead 10th Summon Aberration, Summon Draconic Spirit 14th Summon Fiend, Summon Celestial 18th Summon Construct, Summon Elemental

ROCKY HORROR NIGHTMARE SHOW 6th Dissonant Whispers, Fear 10th Phantasmal Killer, Dream 14th Mental Prison, Feeblemind 18th Maddening Darkness, Weird

CLOAK AND DAGGER 6th  Counterspell, Pass Without Trace 10th Death Ward, Steel Wind Strike 14th Contingency, Simulacrum 18th Feeblemind, Foresight

NECROSIS 6th Inflict Wounds, Wither and Bloom 10th Blight, Enervation 14th Harm, Finger of Death 18th Abi’s Horrid Wilting, Destructive Wave

STEP THREE: PROPHET 6th Augury, Clairvoyance 10th Divination, Commune  14th True Seeing, Detect Thoughts 18th Astral Projection, Foresight

GLOWING REVIEWS 6th Blinding Smite, Spirit Guardians 10th Destructive Wave, Wall of Light 14th Sunbeam, Crown of Stars 18th Guiding Bolt, Sunburst

SIMPLY PSIONIC 6th Mind Spike, Tasha’s Mind Whip 10th Raulothim’s Psychic Lance, Telekinesis 14th Rary’s Telepathic Bond, Synaptic Static 18th Telepathy, Psychic Scream

SONG OF WAR 6th Hunter’s Mark, Spiritual Weapon  10th Staggering Smite, Steel Wind Strike (or) Swift Quiver 14th Holy Weapon, Blade Barrier 18th Conjure Volley, Blade of Disaster

SHIELD MASTER 6th Armor of Agathys, Shield 10th Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere, Wall of Force 14th Fizban’s Platinum Shield, Globe of Invulnerability 18th Forecage, Invulnerability

MAGIC MIKE 6th Magic Missile, Glyph of Warding 10th Arcane Eye, Bigby’s Hand 14th Arcane Gate, Symbol 18th Demiplane, True Polymorph

SPELLBREAKER 6th Absorb Elements, Counterspell 10th Circle of Power, Synaptic static 14th Fizban’s Platinum Shield, Forecage 18th Feeblemind, Antimagic Field

SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED 6th Spiritual Weapon, Spirit Guardians 10th Guardian of Faith, Bigby’s Hand 14th Mordenkainen’s Sword, Blade Barrier 18th Max’s Earthen Grasp, Blade of Disaster

TWO-FACED 6th Alter Self, Water Breathing 10th Guardian of Nature, Stoneskin 14th Tasha’s Otherworldly Guise, Draconic Transformation 18th Animal Shapes, Shapechange MASTER OF ILLUSIONS 6th Blur, Pass Without Trace 10th Phantom Steed, Creation 14th Mental Prison, Nystul’s Magic Aura 18th Illusory Dragon, Weird

A DANCE WITH DEATH 6th Wither and Bloom, Vampiric Touch 10th Blight, Enervation 14th Contingency, Soul Cage 18th Clone, Invulnerability

MERCY MAIN 6th Aura of Vitality, Beacon of Hope 10th Aura of Purity, Aura of Life 14th Heal, Regenerate 18th Mass Heal, True Resurrection

PLAGUED BY GUILT 6th Hex, Bestow Curse 10th Vitriolic Sphere, Contagion 14th Eyebite, Harm 18th Feeblemind, Weird

BARD EX MACHINA 6th Elemental Weapon, Tiny Servant 10th Fabricate, Creation 14th Animate Objects, Summon Construct 18th Mighty Fortress, Blade of Disaster

CONCLAVE OF THE HOUND DOG 6th Hunter’s Mark, Conjure Animals 10th Swift Quiver, Conjure Volley 14th Guardian of Nature, Dominate Beast 18th Animal Shapes, Insect Plague

OATH OF MERRIMENT 6th Blinding Smite, Crusader’s Mantle 10th Find Greater Steed, Destructive Wave 14th Staggering Smite, Banishing Smite 18th Circle of Power, Holy Weapon

 And of course, you can always mix and match. Going for a Fire Dragon theme? Mix the Pyrodancer and A Dance of Dragons spell lists. As an example:

LOVE AMONG THE DRAGONS 6th Dragon’s Breath, Fireball 10th Flame Strike, Summon Draconic Spirit 14th Investiture of Flame, Draconic Transformation 18th Illusory Dragon, Meteor Swarm

These are all the bard themes I could think of, but if you can think of some more that I missed, or have better suggestions for some of my choices, let me know your own thematic magical secrets builds. Obviously, these were made with the Lore Bard in mind, since it gets the most magical secrets, but I’m sure some synergize better with other bard types, such as Song of War with the College of Valor. I just used Lore as the default. How well do these magical secrets builds work for you?

[clericofsune]

Piety Boons for DnD 5e: Sune

Sune is the Faerunian Goddess of love, beauty, and passion. She holds sway over the whims and desires of mortals, driving them to love, crave, and create. Her highest ranking priests and priestesses are known as Heartwarders. The Order of the Red Rose is her faith militant, which safeguard the temples and clergymen devoted to her. Though her primary sphere is love and beauty, she is also the patron of all artists and craftsmen, blessing them with skilled hands and wondrous imagination. In this way, she ensures that life is beautiful in all ways, and she pities any who would deny themselves of their passions out of fear or shame. Her two primary Exarchs are Liira, the goddess of Joy, and Sharess, the goddess of cats.

Her alignment is Chaotic Good. Sune values above all else freedom. Freedom to be, do, explore, and create whatever one pleases, and follow where their heart leads them. Even clerics devoted to the goddess are known to step away from the church to pursue other desires without ever incurring the goddess’ wrath. As the goddess of beauty, Sune abhors all things which mock and tarnish the beauty and pleasure that is a mortal existence. Fiends, undead, and anything rotted, diseased, or mutilated disgusts her. However, her anger can be misguided, such as her displeasure for scars and physical imperfections, which can cause her to come off as superficial and judgmental.

EARNING PIETY

Seek out and enjoy life’s pleasures and revel in your passions

Follow your heart wherever it may guide you

Compose or commission works of art

Impart knowledge of fashion, art, cosmetics, and etiquette to others

Destroy anything which tarnishes the beauty of this world or its people

Destroy armies which threaten the stability of the world

Restore and beautify damaged structures, landscapes, and communities

Bring lovers together, or help lovers overcome social obstacles to love

Build or restore a temple to Sune

LOSING PIETY

Deny yourself your passions out of fear or shame

Practice necromancy and other unholy arts

Tarnish the beauty of the world or the creatures within it

Willfully upset the balance of the world for personal gain

Willfully tarnish your outer appearance, especially through necromancy

Consort with Baalzebul, Ssendam, Evil Gods, other fiends, or undead

Condemn the love, relationships, and passions of others

Tear lovers apart, stand in the way of love, or deride the value of love

Destroy or desecrate a temple to Sune

PIETY REWARDS

3+ = You can cast Charm Person or Color Spray (choose only 1) 10+ = You can cast Hypnotic Pattern. 25+ = Friendly creatures within 30 feet gain +2 to their AC as well as their INT, WIS, and CHA saving throws. This includes you. 50 + = Increase your CHA or WIS by 2 and increase your max for that score by 2

SUGGESTED CLASSES

Artificer

Bard

Cleric

Paladin

Sorcerer

SUGGESTED BACKGROUNDS

Courtier

Entertainer

Far Traveler

Guild Artisan

Noble

SUGGESTED DOMAINS

Life

Light

Peace

Trickery

SUGGESTED SUBCLASSES

College of Creation

College of Eloquence

College of Glamour

College of Valour

Conclave of the Fey Wanderer

Oath of the Ancients

Oath of the Crown

Oath of Devotion

Swashbuckler Rogue

Archfey Patron

Celestial Patron

School of Enchantment

Divine Soul Origin

WORSHIP & FESTIVALS

A ritualistic morning bath in scented water is preferred, though if water or perfumes are scarce, a ritualistic washing of the hands can suffice.

Sunites that wish to commune with their goddess must stand in water and look into a mirror or reflective surface lit by natural light or candle light.

The Feast of Love is held every Tenday. Dine on exquisite delicacies, whether exuberant or humble as time and availability allows. Even just stopping to savor a pastry or a slice of cheese can suffice in the wilderness.

The Grand Revel is hosted once per month from dawn to dusk, with Sunites displaying artwork of great beauty, donning elaborate costume and hairstyle, performing beautiful works of music, dance, or recitation, or engaging in pageantry and showmanship. This event is open to the public.

On Greengrass, the first day of Spring, Sunites take their jubilations outdoors to engage in picnics, romantic strolls, amorous dalliances, playful chases, and public performances to celebrate the rebirth and liveliness of spring.

[clericofsune]

Dimensions & Demigods: Building Raven at Level 40

For those not in the know, I’m currently playing in a campaign that’s basically Descent into Avernus stretched out to include all Nine Circles of the Nine Hells, followed by a detour through Into the Abyss, and then running out to Barovia for some milk, pack of smokes, and bullying the local goth shut-in. This campaign is designed with the players intended to fight Archdevils, Archdemons, entire armies, and a hyper roided-out Strahd. As such, the DM has told us ahead of time that our level cap will be level 40. I have dubbed playing at this level “Dimensions & Demigods” because by level 40, a mere dragon in a dungeon is child’s play. And as part of a little treat, I’ll be building the ENTIRE Teen Titans for a Dimensions & Demigods level playstyle. But, I am starting with Raven because in case you’re new to my page, she isn’t just my favorite character in the show, she’s my favorite superhero PERIOD. DC, Marvel, or otherwise. So, it would be an insult to my queen to not give her the honor of being first.

PARTY BALANCE

Before we get into actually building Raven herself, I need to talk about how the Teen Titans fares as a party. Broadly speaking, there are 5 major roles that need filling in a party: DPS, Tank, Healer, Blaster, and Stealth. For the Teen Titans, Raven is not the “Blaster”. That role belongs to Starfire. Starfire is the damage-heavy “black mage” of the party, while also being somewhat of a secondary Tank alongside Cyborg/Blue Beetle and Beast Boy. Raven, by contrast, is what’s called a Utility Caster. A Utility Caster is someone who can use their spells to get the party around tricky situations, such as using magic to open a locked door, scout ahead, disarm traps, help the party get past obstructions in their path, and more. However, there’s a major role that the party lacks: Healer. Whenever one of the Titans gets hurt, it’s usually Cyborg who looks over the team member in the sick bay, but Raven has displayed the rare occasional ability to heal wounds, but only ever by touch. This means that the role of Healer is split between Cyborg and Raven. Neither is a dedicated healbot. However, Cyborg is an Artificer, which is a half-caster, whereas Raven is a full caster. As such, more of the responsibility would fall on her. Furthermore, if you’re going by the DC Animated Universe team composition, Cyborg is technically in the Justice League and not even in the party. While he’s with the team in the first movie, he’s completely absent in the Judas Contract. Thus leaving the entire burden of Team Healer on Raven. Yes, Beast Boy is a Druid, but he has no magical powers. While someone could build a fantasy counterpart Beast Boy that is a dedicated team healer, we can’t rely on a Beast Boy player to want take up the mantle of healer because Beast Boy does not canonically have magical powers beyond his wild-shaping. As such, someone wanting to play as Beast Boy may not want to take any spells, and might even dump his Wisdom stat just high enough to qualify for the Druid class. So, we need Raven to fulfil the Healer and Utility Caster roles for the party.

Raven Roth is the half-fiend daughter of Trigon the Terrible and the mortal woman, Arella Roth. Arella was lured into a demonic cult where she was chosen to lay with their demon lord to conceive his heir. Afterwards, Arella and the unborn child were spirited away by Azar and the Monks to the plane of Azarath, where Raven was born and raised. From a young age, Raven was taught to conceal and control her emotions, focusing her mind to accomplish great psionic abilities.

On paper, Raven sounds like a perfect Tiefling. She’s a humanoid with fiendish ancestry, and it’s not a bad choice. However, I feel there’s a stronger choice for Raven’s race: Fallen Aasimar. Tieflings get Fire resistance which, near as I can tell, Raven is not particularly fireproof in the slightest. Whereas Fallen Aasimar lets Raven unleash her Dark Side. Starting at 3rd Level, Fallen Aasimars get Necrotic Shroud. As an action, they can take on a dark and frightening form so horrifying that all nearby creatures have to pass a saving throw to avoid being scared of her. For the next minute, she adds her level in Necrotic damage to one attack damage roll per turn over the course of 10 rounds. I don’t know about you, but to me, that reads like she’s tapping into Dark Raven, or even Red Raven. Plus, Aasimars get Healing Hands, a feature we can see that Raven obviously possesses. They still get Dark Vision just like Tieflings, and get two resistances instead of one: Radiant and Necrotic, which in DnD, are often used to signify Holy and Unholy magic, tying Raven closer to her brand of demonic magic.

Raven is an extraplanar visitor from Azaroth, which I would most likely call the Astral Plane, though the Upper Planes would also make sense. A DnD counterpart to Raven could have also been raised by her father in the Nine Hells or the Abyss. Regardless, Raven is a newcomer to the Material Plane having come from another plane of existence. I would label her a Far Traveler, giving her proficiency in Insight and Perception. Two skills which are very important for an empath like Raven.

For Alignment, I believe that Raven is Lawful Good, though she can veer into Neutral Good when necessary. Raven has a strict moral code and enforces mental discipline on not only herself, but those around her. When her teammates react emotionally, Raven reminds them to apply logic, even to the point of suppressing and denying her own feelings on the matter. When Robin appears to have become a full-fledged supervillain, Raven is the first Titan to say that they have to stop him, no matter how they might feel about it. Their duty as superheroes comes before their feelings about it being Robin. Occasionally, Raven will stoop to less Lawful actions like convincing Gizmo to help the Titans fix Cyborg by scaring him with something horrible under her hood and being thrilled to tease Beast Boy about his real name being Garfield, stating that she’ll ‘get a lot of mileage out of this one’. However, by-and-large, Raven puts her beliefs, duty, and discipline before anyone and anything else, so long as it serves to benefit the greater good.

WARLOCK FIEND PATRON (PACT OF THE CHAIN)

While I am aware that Concentration is one of the best saving throws in the game, I’m also aware that a common weakness of Raven is that it’s very easy to break her concentration on spells. She’s often interrupted, loses focus, or even becomes weak and enfeebled after using a lot of power, especially in the DC animted films where she faints often after using a lot of magic. So, for accuracy’s sake, we’re starting Raven as a Fiend Warlock because they get proficiency in Wisdom and Charisma saving throws. As a Warlock, we’ll Give Raven proficiency in Arcana and Intimidation skill checks. If you’re trying to Power Build, by all means, grab Sorcerer at level 1, but I’m trying to also stay true to Raven as a character. We want anywhere from 2 - 20 levels in Warlock. This is really a build-your-own-Raven because between the three subclasses I’m showing you, there’s not really any wrong way to go. Having Raven Hurl Through Hell her enemies is just as in-character as being a heal-bot. So cater to what the party needs. For her familiar, go with a spectral raven.

WIZARD

No matter what kind of Wizard we choose to build, we’re going to want at least 14 - 20 levels in Wizard. It will be our primary class for building Raven. There’s a lot of good choices for Wizard subclass, but the main thing we’re here for is that massive spell list. Raven’s psionic powers translate well to a wide variety of spells, and Wizard really lets Raven do a lot of the more interesting things with her spells. The 18th level feature also lets Raven cast any 1st and 2nd level spell indefinitely. Throw Shield and Blur on her, and she has a permanent +5 to her AC and enemies have disadvantage on hitting her. Choose Detect Magic and Detect Thoughts, and she’ll be able to really flex her extrasensory perception.

SCHOOL OF ABJURATION

As an Abjuration Wizard, Raven becomes a shield maiden for her team, able to protect herself and others with her forcefields. While her forcefields are by no means her main method of combat, she uses them often enough that the School of Abjuration feels like a good fit for Raven. Plus, in the early levels, having a little extra Temporary HP on a Wizard is extremely valuable. At higher levels, she can protect her friends with her Arcane Ward which you could flavor as her sending out her astral raven to guard them, projecting her soul as a shield. And by late game, she becomes resistant to all magic damage, showing her to be a true master of magic.

SCHOOL OF ENCHANTMENT

For anyone familiar with Raven from the comics, the School of Enchantment is very fitting for Raven. Dealing with the manipulation of emotions, senses, and mind control, the School of Enchantment would let Raven summon two demons and be able to cast Dominate Monster on both of them. Twin casting enchantment spells is extremely good, and on brand for the types of things we see Raven do in the comics. She doesn’t do this sort of thing as much in the show or movies, but emotional manipulation is a part of her empathic abilities.

SCHOOL OF PSIONICS (UA)

To this day, I am salty that this subclass was never formally published, but Psi Knight and Soul Knife were, because it basically screams ‘Raven’ at the top of its lungs. If I were to pick the perfect wizard subclass for Raven, this would be my first choice. However, because it never made it past the Unearthed Arcana phase, some DMs might not allow it. Granted, this is a build for a level 40 character, so your DM is probably going to allow UA. I’ve never had a DM that didn’t allow UA. But, those DMs do exist, so I have to put a little asterisk next to this subclass, even though it’s the best choice for Raven. As a Psionics Wizard, Raven can cast Friends without enemies turning hostile, turn into her astral raven form, add her INT mod to Force and Psychic spell damage rolls, can cast Telekinesis, Scrying, or Dominate Person once without using a spell slot, and at later levels, her Astral Form can move through solid objects, letting her fly through walls. Also worth pointing out, Eldritch Blast is a Force damage spell. So a Fiend Warlock with Agonizing Blast, Empowered Psionics, and has maxed out both INT and CHA is rolling 4d10+40. At least, so long as all four beams are aimed at one enemy. Empowered Psionics only works on one enemy per turn. Still, dealing 44 force damage at bare minimum is going to really help elevate Raven from out of the Utility Caster role to let her do a bit of Blasting, helping her to feel more useful and powerful in combat encounters. I’ve never gotten to really use a Raven build for a full campaign, but the few times I’ve tried to build her in a campaign, she lagged a bit behind in the combat department due to her squishy hit points and abundance of utility and support spells. So, this combo really turns Raven into a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. And you can get both features as early as level 12, so it comes on relatively early as well, at least for a level 40 build.

SCHOOL OF THEURGY (UA)

The only reason you should grab this subclass is because you need a healer, but you also want all of the Warlock levels. If you want to build a pure Wizlock, but also be a healer, then this subclass will be a good fit. Similar to Psionics, this subclass never made it past Unearthed Arcana, so you will need your DMs approval to use this subclass. You also get to pick features from a Cleric Domain. Life, Grave, and Knowledge are great choices for Raven, though even Peace can fit her. If you choose Knowledge, Raven gains Expertise in Arcana and either Religion or History. Since Arcana was a skill we chose as a Warlock, if you’re planning on taking the Knowledge Theurgy route, take Intimidation and either Investigation, History, or Religion as your second Warlock skill.

SORCERER DIVINE SOUL ORIGIN (EVIL)

There are two reasons we want these Sorcerer levels. Firstly, it’s a way to give Raven healing spells without being a Cleric and splitting her casting stat focus between three stats. The second is that it gives Raven access to Sorcery Points and Metamagic Options. Lorewise, this is the most accurate way to build Raven. Her powers stem from her demonic heritage, though they are also a gift from Trigon. Her powers are also tied to her emotions, so connecting her powers to the emotion stat is very appropriate. I count Trigon as working for the Divine Soul Origin because he maps very easily onto Asmodeus, the King of the Nine Hells, who is also a Greater Deity. You don’t need to take any Sorcerer levels if you only want to build a Wizlock, but if you only want 2-4 levels in Warlock, you can take 18-20 levels in Wizard and 18-20 levels in Sorcerer. This is why I haven’t really given any hard numbers for this build. If all you want is 8 levels of Sorcerer, 14 levels of Warlock and 18 levels of Wizard, by all means. Again, the main reason we’re here is metamagic and healing spells. If your party is set on healers and you don’t care about metamagic, you don’t need it.

MAGICAL OPTIONS

ELDRITCH INVOCATIONS

Agonizing Blast

Armor of Shadows

Ascendant Step

Chains of Carceri

Devil Sight

Eldritch Mind

Eldritch Sight

Gaze of Two Minds

Gift of the Ever-Living Ones

Grasp of Hadar

Maddening Hex

Repelling Blast

Visions of Distant Realms

METAMAGIC OPTIONS

Careful Spell

Empowered Spell

Heightened Spell

Twinned Spell

Quickened Spell

FEATS

I want to point out that these are merely suggestions, and you do not have to grab all of these feats to build Raven properly. This is merely a masterlist of all the feats I feel are appropriate for Raven.

Alert: Raven uses her extrasensory empathy to sense incoming lifeforms.

Eldritch Adept: For when you want more warlock in your warlock

Fey Touched: Just call it Devil Touched for flavor.

Linguist: Raven is a polyglot, speaking multiple languages

Magic Initiate: For when your Wizard wants to learn Cleric spells

Metamagic Adept: For when you want more sorcerer in your sorcerer

Observant: Your an empath that can sense the locations of people. High passive perception is never not good.

Prodigy: Expertise in Perception or Insight goes a long way to turn Raven into a living lie detector or the ultimate Hide-n-Seek champion.

Resilient: Give Raven proficiency in a necessary saving throw like CON, WIS, or DEX.

Shadow Touched: For the goth palette swap of Fey Touched

Skill Expert: Same as Prodigy, Expertise in Insight or Perception is very good on Raven.

Telekinetic: Raven has Psychic powers.

Telepathic: What did I just say?

Toughness: How to stop your Wizard from crying after being hit once in an encounter.

War Caster: Opportunity attacks with magic and advantage on concentration saves is always useful.

MAGIC ITEMS

Arcane Grimoire (+1, +2, +3): Higher wizard spell DC and attack roll bonus.

Bloodwell Vial (+1, +2, +3): Higher sorcerer spell DC and attack roll bonus.

Rod of the Pact Keeper (+1, +2, +3): Higher warlock spell DC and attack roll bonus.

Cloak of Protection: The cloak’s not just a fashion statement

Astral Shard: Raven teleports after every use of metamagic

Far Realm Crystal: Raven creates dark tendrils that attack, deals extra Psychic damage, and enemies might become frightened of her.

Heart Weaver’s Primer: Wizard Spellbook for the School of Enchantment.

Mantle of Spell Resistance: Raven’s cloak repels enemy magic.

Outer Essence Shard (Evil): Enemies take extra necrotic damage when Raven uses her metamagic. Perfect for Raven’s forehead gem.

Shadowfell Shard: Enemies have disadvantage on a saving throw of your choice until the end of your next turn.

Wings of Flying: A magic cloak that lets Raven fly. Useful for limitless flight/levitation.

Ring of Telekinesis: Permanent Telekinesis is very on-brand for Raven.

Grimoire Infinitus: The ultimate wizard spellbook

Robe of Stars: A black or dark blue robe that lets Raven teleport to the Astral Plane.

Robe of the Archmagi: White robes on Raven usually signifies that she’s older, wiser, and more powerful. So these legendary white robes that boost her AC so high are a very fitting high level item for her.

Book of Vile Darkness: Trigon’s unholy doctrine is fitting for Raven.

Demonomicon of Iggwilv: A Pokedex for Demons.

PIETY & PATRONS

While Raven is not strictly-speaking a Cleric of Trigon, her mother was in his cult, and she does owe some of her power to Trigon granting it to her, though he does not seem to be able to take her powers away from her. Piety was a system introduced in Mythic Odysseys of Theros. However, while it is not a “core” mechanic, I still enjoy it enough that I thought I’d take a crack at giving Raven her own Piety for serving Trigon.

TRIGON

EARNING PIETY -Destroy your enemy ruthlessly, especially if you land the killing blow. -Learn knowledge you were not meant to know -Outsmart Devils and intimidate demons into obedience -Give in to anger, hatred, jealousy, and vengeance -Gain and maintain power through domination, fear, and control

LOSING PIETY -Show mercy to those who have wronged you -Failing to seek out knowledge and expand your mind -Falling for the tricks of devils, or dominated by demons -Refusing to give in to hostile emotions -Allowing yourself to be subjugated through domination, fear, and control

3+   You learn Hellish Rebuke 10+ You learn Summon Lesser Demons 25+ Fiends summoned by you that are CR 1 or lower are friendly towards you. Furthermore, when a Fiend type creature summoned by you makes a saving throw to stop obeying you and turn hostile, the saving throw amount rolled by the fiend is reduced by half your level rounded down. 50+ Increase your Charisma or Intelligence by +2 to a maximum of 22

WARLOCK SPELLS

Due to the fact that the Warlock and Wizard spell list overlap quite a bit, I aimed primarily for spells Raven can only grab as a Warlock. However, since Wizard is the primary class for this build, 

C Eldritch Blast, Friends, Mage Hand, Mind Sliver, Prestidigitation 1 Arms of Hadar, Hellish Rebuke, Hex 2 Darkness, Flock of Familiars, Shadow Blade 3 Enemies Abound, Fear, Hunger of Hadar 4 Blight, Shadow of Moil, Summon Greater Demon 5 Dream, Enervation, Far Step 6 Circle of Death 7 Etherealness 8 Maddening Darkness 9 Psychic Scream

DIVINE SOUL SPELLS

C Guidance, Resistance, Sacred Flame, Spare the Dying, Thaumaturgy, Toll the Dead 1 Cure Wounds, Inflict Wounds 2 Lesser Restoration, Warding Bond 3 Spirit Guardians, Spirit Shroud, Speak with Dead 4 Control Water 5 Commune, Mass Cure Wounds 6 Heal, Planar Ally 7 Regenerate 8 Divine Word 9 Mass Heal

RAVEN’S WIZARD SPELLBOOK

Wizards can learn 44 spells by level-up, but they can also learn any spell on the wizard spell book by purchasing a spell and recording it in their spellbook. So, I’m going to put more than 44 spells in Raven’s wizard spellbook, because these are more-or-less every spell on the Wizard Spell List that can work for her, and I’ll leave it up to the player to shape her spell list how they want to. Obviously, there’s going to be some overlap with the Warlock spell list, though that’s fine if you prioritized Divine Soul over Fiendlock.

CANTRIPS Blade Ward, Chill Touch, Friends, Mage Hand, Mending, Message, Mind Sliver, Mold Earth, Prestidigitation, Shape Water 1ST LEVEL Catapult, Cause Fear, Charm Person, Detect Magic, Feather Fall, Find Familiar, Identify, Mage Armor, Magic Missile, Shield, Tenser’s Floating Disk 2ND LEVEL Arcane Lock, Augury, Blur, Borrowed Knowledge, Crown of Madness, Darkness, Flock of Familiars, Gift of Gab, Hold Person, Knock, Levitate, Mind Spike, Misty Step, Nystul’s Magic Aura, Phantasmal Force, Shadow Blade, Suggestion, Tasha’s Mind Whip,  3RD LEVEL Bestow Curse, Blink, Clairvoyance, Counterspell, Dispel Magic, Enemies Abound, Fear, Fly, Gaseous Form, Magic Circle, Protection from Energy, Spirit Shroud, Summon Lesser Demons, Summon Shadowspawn, Tidal Wave 4TH LEVEL Arcane Eye, Banishment, Charm Monster, Confusion, Control Water, Dimension Door, Divination, Edvard’s Black Tentacles, Locate Creature, Otto’s Resilient Sphere, Phantasmal Killer, Polymorph, Raulothim’s Psychic Lance, Summon Greater Demon 5TH LEVEL Bigby’s Hand, Contact Other Plane, Dominate Person, Dream, Enervation, Far Step, Geas, Hold Monster, Infernal Calling, Legend Lore, Modify Memory, Negative Energy Flood, Planar Binding, Rary’s Telepathic Bond, Synaptic Static, Telekinesis, Teleportation Circle, Wall of Force 6TH LEVEL Arcane Gate, Eyebite, Fizban’s Platinum Shield, Globe of Invulnerability, Mass Suggestion, Mental Prison, Move Earth, Tasha’s Otherworldly Guise, Summon Fiend 7TH LEVEL Etherealness, Forecage, Plane Shift, Symbol, Teleport 8TH LEVEL Demiplane, Dominate Monster, Feeblemind, Maddening Darkness, Telepathy 9TH LEVEL Astral Projection, Gate, Imprisonment, Psychic Scream, Time Stop

LEVELING GUIDE

As stated before, I feel the most accurate way to start Raven at level 1 is to start as a Warlock, proficient in saving throws to control her willpower and her emotions. Raven should spend the first 4 levels as a Fiend Pact Warlock, picking up the Pact of the Chain for a shadowy raven familiar. From here, what you choose to focus on first is entirely dependent on what you think is more important to pick up around the level 20-ish midpoint of the campaign. If you focus on getting Wizard to level 18 first, Raven will be able to cast a single 1st and 2nd level spell at their lowest levels at will, which can be extremely useful for a lot of utility spells like Cure Wounds, Detect Magic, Hellish Rebuke, Hex, Find Familiar, Mage Armor, Shield, Blur, Hold Person, or Suggestion. However, by taking Sorcerer early, you could have limitless flight and Unearthly Recovery for most the campaign, which is very useful on a squishy caster, but trades off having a wide array of powerful spells by the midgame for being a powerful healer for most of the game.

Ultimately, I believe the best use of Raven is to give her 4 Levels of Fiend Warlock, 18 Levels of Wizard, and 18 Levels of Divine Soul Sorcerer. However, if you’re not interested in all those high level Cleric spells, Raven could also work with 14 Levels of Fiend Warlock, 18 levels Wizard, and 8 levels of Divine Soul Sorcerer. Depends on how badly she needs to be the healer, and how fast she needs to get good at providing that service to the party.

Again, this build is for the ultimate Raven. The Raven who can fight Trigon. The Raven who can fight off a demon invasion and stop apocalyptic-level threats. Obviously, not every DM is going to want to run a Level 40 campaign, the Dimensions and Demigods play style is not a common thing. But, if you get lucky and your DM wants to challenge themselves and the party, this can be a great example of what Raven can do when she’s fully realized. And like I said, I’ll be building the whole Teen Titans team so that Raven doesn’t have to face the armies of Trigon alone. Together, they might just be strong enough to bring down a god-tier foe.

[clericofsune]

How to Play as Raven in Pathfinder 2e

I’ve only recently started looking into Pathfinder 2e almost entirely on a random whim, and was surprised to learn just how malleable and adaptive the building process could be. So, for those who play Pathfinder 2e, I figured I’d return to beat a dead horse and talk about how to play my all-time favorite superhero in this game. Keep in mind, I’m a lot newer to Pathfinder than I am to Dungeons and Dragons, so I might make a mistake or two along the way.

ANCESTRY HUMAN ANCESTRY, TIEFLING HERITAGE DEMON LINEAGE

In Pathfinder, race comes in two stages. Ancestry is your main “race”, while Heritage defines the kind of that sort of creature that you are. Tieflings in Pathfinder are only a Versatile Heritage, allowing someone to be a Dwarf Tiefling, an Elf Tiefling, or a Skeleton Tiefling. Raven’s mother, Arella, is a Human, so we’ll say Raven has Human Ancestry and Tiefling Heritage. Characters get Ancestry Feats as they level up, so Raven gets to choose from Human and Tiefling options. Furthermore, Tieflings have a number of Lineage feats that are entirely optional, but must be taken at level 1. Raven does not have to take these feats if she does not want to. Raven can have a lineage descended from Devils, Demons, Daemons, Rakshasa, Velstrac, or Qlippoth. Of these, Trigon maps the closest to a Demon, so we’ll say that if Raven wants to take Lineage feats, she should take the Pitborn and Demon Magic feats that mark her as having Demon Lineage if she so chooses.

BACKGROUND

For her background, a few stood out. When I build characters, I try not to only think of what’s the best choice, but to lay out my entire thought process to let people make their own conclusions and tweak my builds to suit their own preferences. In Pathfinder 2nd Edition, Backgrounds give +1 to 2 stats, one of which must be between one of two options. For instance, the Scholar background makes you take either INT or WIS, plus a second of your choosing, so you could choose INT and DEX or WIS and CHA. Most also usually give you training in 2 skills, and one extra feat is attached to the background that you choose.

CHOSEN ONE (Rare): Raven is the Chosen One of Trigon’s prophecy. Any feature with the (Uncommon) or (Rare) marker is not “core rules”, and therefore should be discussed with your DM as to its applicability. STATS: STR or CHA SKILLS: one related to your prophecy, Lore: Fortune-Telling FEAT: Prophecy’s Pawn (unique)

CULTIST: Arella was literally in Trigon’s cult. That’s how she came to be Raven’s mother. So, by proxy, one could make the same conclusions about Raven. STATS: INT or CHA SKILLS: Occultism, Lore: Cult of Trigon FEAT: Schooled in Secrets

MAGICAL EXPERIMENT (Rare): We only want the Enhanced Senses feature. Tieflings already get Low-Light vision, so Enhanced Senses gives Raven Dark Vision and Thoughtsense, letting her see in the dark and sense things with her mind. STATS: CON SKILLS: Occultism, Lore: Academia FEAT: Enhanced Senses (unique)

OCCULT LIBRARIAN: They collect creepy tomes about esoteric mysteries ancient magics, and forbidden lore. Sounds like Raven. STATS: INT or WIS SKILLS: Occultism, Lore: Academia FEAT: Schooled in Secrets

SCHOLAR: You studied magical lore, becoming trained in either Arcana, Occultism, or Religion. STATS: INT or WIS SKILLS: (Arcana, Occultism, Nature, or Religion), Lore: Academia FEAT: Assurance

STUDENT OF MAGIC: This is just another variation of Scholar and Occult Librarian, just with a different free feat. STATS: INT or WIS SKILLS: (Arcana, Occultism, Nature, or Religion), Lore: Academia FEAT: Recognize Spell

CLASS OPTIONS

I’ve built Raven in Dungeons and Dragons before, but Pathfinder uses different classes and has different subclasses as well. It’s also worth pointing out that a lot of the time, “subclasses” are rather bare-bones. Most of the build comes from the many varieties of feats you get access to. Feats are linked to classes, ancestry, and skills, meaning that these elements are more important when building Raven, whereas DnD 5e puts more of the emphasis on the subclass. Meanwhile, Pathfinder 2e seems to treat subclasses more like additional flavor rather than the crux of the build. Some subclasses, like Sorcerers and Clerics come with a few set spells or features, while others are largely indistinguishable. The only real difference between an Abjuration wizard and an Enchantment wizard is that they add one 1st level spell of their school to their spell list, and get a subclass unique spell that’s not cast with spell slots, but rather, with focus points. Furthermore, different gods can give different spells, meaning that what deity Raven worships as a Cleric is just as important as which domain she chooses. Even as a Knowledge Domain Cleric, there’s a difference between worshiping Pharasma, Raumya, and Mephistopheles. The Cleric Spells came from the god you chose, while the Domain Spells came from the Domain you chose.

CLERIC MAGIC DOMAIN (Nethys)

Divine Ability: Wisdom or Intelligence Divine Font: Harm or Heal Divine Skill: Arcana Favored Weapon: Staff Cleric Spells: Magic Missile, Magic Mouth, Levitate, Blink, Prying Eye, Wall of Force, Warp Mind, Maze, Disjunction Domain Spells: Magic’s Vessel, Mystic Beacon

Across the official deities, while I’ve only given it a cursory glance being relatively new to Pathfinder’s lore, I believe that Nethys is the most fitting deity for Raven to worship, a god of Knowledge, Magic, Protection, and Glyph Domains. While the Darkness Domain is fitting for her shadow magic, none of the official deities seemed to really feel like they fit Raven.

PSYCHIC THE DISTANT GRASP (Occult Spell List) EMOTIONAL ACCEPTANCE 

Standard Psi Cantrips: Mage Hand, Telekinetic Projectile Unique Psi Cantrips: Telekinetic Rend, Vector Screen, Dancing Blade Granted Spells: Kinetic Ram, Telekinetic Maneuver, Levitate, Fly, Telekinetic Haul, Poltergeist’s Fury, Telekinetic Bombardment, Falling Sky, Implosion

Psychics are interesting because they effectively get two subclasses. The Conscious Mind is the main subclass, giving them granted spells and unique features, while the Subconscious Mind determines their casting stat and gives one Psyche Action. The Conscious Mind subclass I chose is The Distant Grasp, the subclass which prioritizes Telekinetic abilities. The Subconscious Mind subclass Emotional Acceptance focuses their power through control over their emotions. More than that, they can empathically bolster the emotional state of their party, revitalizing their confidence, healing their wounds, and protecting them from mental harm. Emotional Acceptance causes Raven to cast with Charisma.  For the purposes of this build, I will be using this class for Raven.

SORCERER DEMONIC BLOODLINE (Divine Spell List)

Bloodline Skills: Intimidation, Religion Granted Spells: Acid Splash, Fear, Enlarge, Slow, Divine Wrath, Abyssal Plague, Disintegrate, Divine Decree, Divine Aura, Implosion Bloodline Spells: Glutton’s Jaw, Swamp of Sloth, Abyssal Wrath

By DnD rules, Trigon is closer to acting like a Demon than a Devil. He’s not charming or manipulative in the way that a Devil would be. He is a raw force of nature, like a Demon. The unique Bloodline Spells being tied to three of the Deadly Sins is also appropriate, given that in the comics, Raven is the Sin of Pride, while she has 6 brothers who each represents the other 6 deadly sins.

SHADOW BLOODLINE (Occult Spell List)

Bloodline Skills: Occultism, Stealth Granted Spells: Chill Touch, Grim Tendrils, Darkness, Chilling Darkness, Phantasmal Killer, Shadow Siphon, Collective Transposition, Duplicate Foe, Disappearance, Weird Bloodline Spells: Dim the Light, Steal Shadow, Consuming Darkness

Raven’s powers come from her bloodline, but while that power does come from Trigon’s demonic powers, her actual powers and abilities always skewed more shadow and darkness than fire and brimstone, which makes the Shadow Bloodline rather fitting as it ties Raven’s lineage to the Plane of Shadow.

WITCH NIGHT PATRON (Occult Spell List)

Patron Skill: Occultism Hex Cantrip: Shroud of Night Granted Spell: Sleep

The Witch is basically Pathfinder’s version of Warlocks. Instead of selling your soul, it’s more about forming a mystical connection to the universe and drawing power from a natural source in a way that’s different from a druid. Night Witches hear their patron in the shadows and darkness, and feel the magic of the universe flowing through the darkened night sky. The secrets the shadows tell them teach them how to command the powers of shadow, murk, and darkness. Witches also get a familiar, letting Raven have a Raven for her familiar. Though the Shadowcaster Archetype, Raven could have a Shadow Familiar that takes the form of a Raven.

WIZARD (Arcane Spell List) SCHOOL OF ENCHATMENT IMPROVED FAMILIAR ATTUNEMENT

Like Psychics, Wizards effectively get two subclasses: Their Arcane School and their Arcane Thesis. One determines which school of magic is their focus, and the  other determines what their magical research focuses on. School of Enchantment doesn’t give much, much like with the Subconscious Mind with the Psychic. It’s rather bare bones, providing only really two features, while the Thesis provides the real meat of the build. Given the importance of Raven’s spectral raven, I figured that a stronger bond with her familiar was the most appropriate.

ARCHETYPES

In Pathfinder, one does not multiclass. If you start as a Wizard, you will build a Wizard all the way to level 20. But, you can augment your build by taking an Archetype, allowing you to pick up predetermined features from another class, or completely unique Archetypes. As such, one can make a Rogue with a Trickery Cleric Archetype, Druid with a Ranger Archetype, or an Illusion Wizard with an Assassin Archetype. It’s also worth mentioning that a character can take multiple archetypes at once. You can play a Bard that takes the Cleric archetype to pick up the Trickery Domain, while also picking up the Assassin archetype as well. It’s mostly about balancing the feats you want to take, because archetype feats level with your main class. Furthermore, taking an Archetype feat at 8th level won’t stop you from picking up a 10th level class feat, and vise-versa, you could ignore your 6th level archetype feat and still pick up your 10th level archetype feat if that’s the only one you want. So, Raven could class-wise be a Shadow Sorcerer, while also taking the Psychic Archetype if you so choose. It’s also worth mentioning that some DMs let you take class features AND archetype features on level up, which helps alleviate the Sophie’s Choice at certain levels, though this is very much a house rule, and not a guaranteed rule. Speak with your DM before taking an Archetype because if you want so many class features, you may not have room for Archetype features at all. I ran into this issue myself while doing a demo build of Raven. I liked too many of her Psychic class features, and ended up with no room to fit in any Archetypes, though I did want to include them.

CLASS ARCHETYPES

Cleric

Psychic

Sorcerer

Witch

Wizard

UNIQUE ARCHETYPES

*Familiar: Raven does not get a familiar as a Psychic. If Raven wants a Familiar, she will have to take the Shadowcaster Dedication feat, and then the Familiar Feat, both from the Shadowcaster Archetype.

CATHARTIC MAGE (Uncommon) Raven gains further power from tapping into her emotions. Anger is the most appropriate, as that is the main emotion Raven needs to keep under control. Each strong emotion can give Raven specific spells, she can focus to trigger emotions at will, and empathically extend her emotions to her allies. 

FAMILIAR MASTER Raven’s familiar is more adept than most. She can improve the abilities of her familiar, cast spells through her Familiar’s location, boost team moral with her familiar, her familiar can outgrow needing a corporeal body, and it can receive even more benefits than it got through an earlier feat.

LIVING VESSEL Raven has been made the vessel for Trigon’s powers. Causes Raven’s appearance to change and allows her to manifest demonic claws, drain the lifeforce out of enemies, infect others with her demonic possession, and taking on a more fiendish form.

SHADOWCASTER (Uncommon) This archetype lets Raven learn a number of shadow-related spells, have a familiar no matter her class, and do a variety of shadowy magical things. She expands her spell list to include more shadow magic, gains shadow-related domain spells, can further enhance her shadow form familiar, and becomes better at stealth through mastery over shadow.

SPELLMASTER (Uncommon) Raven becomes a master of her spellcraft. She can transform into a raven herself, ward against enemy spells, absorb magic, and gains a more powerful counterspell.

SKILLS

In Pathfinder 2e, Skills are not simply Proficiency and Expertise. Rather, they come in Four Stages: Trained, Expert, Master, Legendary. As you level up, you gain Skill Increases that let you raise 1 skill of your choice to the next highest rank, though some increases can only be done after reaching a certain level, thus keeping you from having Legendary Stealth by level 9. These Skill increases occur at levels 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, and 19. So, Raven can choose to focus on making a few skills legendary, or she could instead prioritize having more skills at the Expert and Master range by not evolving any to Legendary. It’s entirely up to the player. However, these are the skills I would most highly recommend for Raven:

Arcana: Knowledge of the mystical, enchantments, and arcane magic Deception: Ability to Lie convincingly Diplomacy: Ability to Negotiate easily Intimidation: Ability to Coerce easily Lore: A knowledge skill for one exact topic, can have several at once Medicine: Knowledge of healing, physiology, and medical treatments Occultism: Knowledge of ghosts, cults, legends, and Occult magic Religion: Knowledge of Celestials, Fiends, Deities, and Divine magic Society: Knowledge of customs, manners, and history Stealth: Ability to move undetected easily

FEATS

There are a variety of feats in Pathfinder 2e that really shape how a character plays. Keep in mind that this post is a Guideline, not a rule book. For the purposes of this post, I won’t be including any Archetype feats because when I built Raven, I ended up only taking base Class feats from her Psychic Class, so that’s what I’m going to prioritize. If you want to make your own changes, just swap out the feats you don’t like. To simplify things, I’m just going to lay out her feats as they become available by level. For this list, I’m going to build as though Raven has taken the Magical Experiment background simply because the added Darkvision and Thoughtsense frees up room for more feats I want Raven to take, though Raven can gain Darkvision as a level 1 Tiefling feat, and Thoughtsense from Level 8 onward as a Psychic Class feat. I filled a lot of the late game skill and general feats with Assurance, a 1st level feat that just assures that Raven rolls well on skills she’s trained in. Because each skill has unique feats that unlock depending on how high you’ve trained them, I didn’t want to load up my guideline build post with a bunch of feats that only fit the way I would play as Raven. The only one that’s truly “mandatory” for the build is Occultism, as it’s connected to a few features, and is also the skill associated with her spellcasting. So, many of the Assurance feats are merely placeholders for high level skills depending on the skills you chose to invest further attention toward.

Level 1 Ancestry Feat: Pitborn Skill: Athletics Additional Feat: Assurance (Occultism)

Level 2 Class Feat: Psi Burst Skill Feat: Root Magic

Level 3 General Feat: Toughness

Level 4 Class Feat: Thoughtform Summoning Skill Feat: Recognize Spell

Level 5 Ancestry Feat: Fiendish Resilience

Level 6  Class Feat: Violent Unleash Skill Feat: Schooled in Secrets

Level 7 General Feat: Disturbing Knowledge

Level 8 Class Feat: Dark Persona’s Presence Skill Feat: Bizarre Magic

Level 9 Ancestry Feat: Light from Darkness Once-Per-Day Spells: Paranoia, Shatter

Level 10 Class Feat: Emotional Surge Skill Feat: Assurance (Arcana)

Level 11 General Feat: Ancestral Paragon Ancestry Feat*: Fiendish Lore

Level 12 Class Feat: Psi Catastrophe Skill Feat: Assurance (Lore: Fiendish Plane)

Level 13 Ancestry Feat: Summon Fiendish Kin

Level 14 Class Feat: Conscious Spell Specialization Skill Feat: Assurance (Religion)

Level 15 General Feat: Multilingual

Level 16 Class Feat: Constant Levitation Skill Feat: Assurance (Diplomacy)

Level 17 Ancestry Feat: Final Form

Level 18 Class Feat: Target of Psychic Ire Skill Feat: Assurance (Society)

Level 19 General Feat: Diehard

Level 20 Class Feat: Become Thought Skill Feat: Assurance (Intimidation)

SPELL LIST

Psychics, like Bards and Sorcerers, are what the community calls Spontaneous Spellcasters, which means their spells work the most like spellcasting in DnD 5e. Once Raven knows a spell, she can cast it at will assuming she has the right spell slot for that spell. However, in order for Raven to cast a 1st level spell at a higher level, she must learn the spell again at that level, so if she wants to cast Fireball at 9th level, she has to learn 9th level Fireball. For this spell list, I will be listing every spell on the Occult spell list at it’s initial level that I feel fits her. I will be ignoring the spells she already gets from her Conscious Mind. This is more of a spell list to pick from what you like, and of course, if you want to have a spell upcasted, don’t forget to have Raven relearn the spell at a higher level. Some spells are from supplementary material, and thus are marked with an Asterisk.

CONSCIOUS MIND SPELLS (The Distant Grasp) Standard Psi Cantrips: Mage Hand, Telekinetic Projectile Unique Psi Cantrips: Telekinetic Rend, Vector Screen, Dancing Blade Granted Spells: Kinetic Ram, Telekinetic Maneuver, Levitate, Fly, Telekinetic Haul, Poltergeist’s Fury, Telekinetic Bombardment, Falling Sky, Implosion

CANTRIPS Detect Magic, Message, Phase Bolt, Prestidigitation, Read Aura, Sigil, Shield, Warp Step

1ST LEVEL Charm, Fear, Floating Disk, Grim Tendrils, Ill Omen, Lock, Mage Armor, Magic Missile, Mending, Mindlink, Object Reading, Penumbral Shroud, Pet Cache, Phantom Pain, Protection, Sanctuary, Sleep, Soothe, Spirit Link, Thoughtful Gift

2ND LEVEL Blur, Calm Emotions, Comprehend Language, Darkness, Darkvision, Dispel Magic, Empathic Link, Impart Empathy*, Knock, Mind Games, Paranoia, Remove Fear, Remove Paralysis, Reduce Energy, Restoration, Restore Senses, Spectral Hand, Swallow Light*, Umbral Extraction, Vicious Jealousy*

3RD LEVEL Agonizing Despair, Circle of Protection, Dream Message, Enthrall, Familiar’s Face, Locate, Mind Reading, Shadow Projectile, Shadow Spy, Wall of Darkness*

4TH LEVEL Dimension Door, Discern Lies, Gaseous Form, Globe of Invulnerability, Necrotic Radiation*, Rebounding Barrier, Resilient Sphere, Spell Immunity, Suggestion, Telepathy, 

5TH LEVEL Banishment, Black Tentacles, Crushing Despair, Death Ward, Forceful Hand, Glimmer of Charm*, Invoke Spirits, Mind Probe, Repelling Pulse, Sending, Shadow Blast, Shadow Siphon, Shadow Walk, Synaptic Pulse, Telepathic Bond, 

6TH LEVEL Collective Transposition, Phantasmal Calamity, Scintilating Safeguard, Teleport, Wall of Force

7TH LEVEL Energy Aegis, Force Cage, Plane Shift, Possession, Shadow Raid, Tempest of Shades, Visions of Danger, Warp Mind

8TH LEVEL Devour Life*, Discern Location, Dream Council, Hypnopompic Terrors, 

9TH LEVEL Telepathic Demand, Unspeakable Shadow, Weird

10TH LEVEL Gate, Shadow Army, Time Stop

Given how new I am to Pathfinder 2e, I may have made some mistakes, overlooked something important, or missed something crucial to her build, but for what’s here, I think we managed to fit in a lot of who Raven is. As a tiefling, she’s able to summon demons and take on a demonic form. As a Psychic, she’s got great access to telekinetic powers, permanent levitation at level 16, and focusing her mind is a key component to her play style. The occult spell list makes it possible for her to use a wide variety of shadow magic, and even emotion magic to let Raven make good use of her empathy powers as well as her emotional manipulation powers that she uses more in the comics. Overall, I’m very pleased with how Raven came out here. Let me know if you guys liked this. Maybe I’ll do more Pathfinder builds in the future.

[raeynbowboi]

[dev-the-dm]

Creature: Beast of Gévaudan

“ Beast of Gévaudan, feared no sword and feared no gun, sent from Heaven, the seventh of creatures. Beast of Gévaudan, for the wrath of God to come, came to sanction the mass and the preachers.

To the father and the son came the Beast of Gévaudan, terminator, a traitor, half wolf, and half machine. To the prior and the nun came the Beast of Gévaudan, a redeemer, believer, all fatal, mad, and mean. “

Divine adjudicator. Some locals from the surrounding areas of Gévaudan believe the Beast to be a creature sent by the gods to root out the persistent corruption in the heart of Gévaudan. Others believe it simply to be a pest upon the lands, preying on farmers and court officials alike. Naturally, it is true that the Beast prowls the land with the most corrupt government - but to conflate the two facts to be one divine fact is madness… right?

Bloodthirst. Those who live their lives in the vicinity of the Beast’s territory are intimately aware of its presence. It often shows itself, if only to cause fear and panic amongst the peasantry, and vanishes as quickly as it appeared. It’s true that it does occasionally attack locals with lower status, but magistrates, dukes and duchesses and attendees of the court have silently but unanimously decided to reduce social appearances everywhere. With no more corrupt counts and scheming queens on the road, the Beast is becoming impatient, and ready to unleash its frenzied eradication methods upon the higher class once again.

Hybrid nature. The Beast has two creature types: celestial and monstrosity. It can be targeted by any effect if it applies to one of its creature types.

Celestial nature. The Beast requires no sleep, food, or drink.

Lyrics from Powerwolf’s “Beast of Gévaudan”, from their album Call of the Wild.

[raeynbowboi]

How to Play as Karen Walker in DnD 5e

Today, we’re doing something a little different by building Karen Walker from Will & Grace. Karen defies my normal logic for doing a character build. She doesn’t have any powers, she doesn’t fight anyone, nor is she superhuman in any form. She’s a character from a 90s sitcom. She’s about as mundane as you can get. But we’re still going to build her, because I said so. So, for those who don’t know, Karen is the vapid, rich, drug-addicted, alcoholic, gold-digging socialite wife of Stanley Walker, CEO of Walker INC. She’s also the assistant of Grace Adler, Owner of Grace Adler Designs, a small start-up interior design company.

Karen is a standard Human. However, a running gag in the show is that nobody knows how old she is, she refuses to tell anyone, and when Grace asks Karen’s maid what Karen’s real age is, Rosario grabs Grace by the ear and refuses to let her go until she promises to never ask that again. As such, we’ll label Karen as a Variant Human because the joke of her being older than she seems is such a prevailing running gag.

For her background, Karen used to be forced to run scams by her mother when she was little. As a result, I would make Karen a Charlatan, giving her proficiency with a Disguise Kit, Deception, and Sleight of Hand.

In terms of Alignment, Karen is Neutral Evil. Her alignment is made the clearest in the episode where Grace wants to expand her business, and Karen offers to loan her the money for an expansion. However, she forces Grace to give her a presentation to persuade her to give her the loan, and afterward, tells her no and traces out of the office like nothing happened. But, when she’s stuck in the company elevator, Grace demands for Karen to explain why she made Grace jump through all those hoops just to shoot her down. Karen admits that it would be fiscally irresponsible for Grace to expand right now. Due to the state of the economy, Grace is actually better off in a smaller business. But, unwilling to crush Grace’s dreams, Karen wanted to just make it seem like she was being unreasonable and be the bad guy to spare Grace’s feelings. There’s plenty of other times though when Karen makes it extremely obvious that she’s an evil character, but this moment helps show us that there are lines she won’t cross, and hurting her friends is one of those lines. From helping Jack find his biological father, to signing up with Will’s law firm so he can keep his job, or doing her best to help Grace get through a break-up, Karen proves time and again that while she is a vain gold-digging socialite who would sell a child into indentured servitude for scuffing her fur coat, she’s also a true friend who will go to bat for the ones she cares about.

WARLOCK THE FIEND PATRON (Pact of the Chain)

While there are no demons actually present in Will & Grace, it’s sort of a recurring gag that Karen is the devil, made a deal with the devil, the devil owes her favor, she could get God to cry, etc. From an off-hand remark about selling her soul to live forever, to Will insinuating that she’d burst into flames if she walked into a church, Karen is hardly a beacon of morality. She was also born with little to nothing, as what little we see of her childhood home makes it clear she was lower middle class at best. It was only by marrying Stanley Walker that Karen escaped the life she had before. Karen often likens her marriage to a series of trades: if she gives Stan a little lovey dovey, she gets a pretty necklace or a summer home in the Bahamas. Almost transactional. Don’t get it twisted, Karen does love her husband, even misses him at times and chooses him over wealthier suitors. That being said, Karen’s general characterization feels like a DnD counterpart of Karen likely would have sold her soul to an Archfiend for a rich husband and power, and just so happened to end up loving the account holder just as much, if not more-so than the bank account itself. You could even go a step further by making her husband a literal Fiend in disguise. Which, considering Stanley ended up being investigated by the FBI and found guilty of his crimes, that’s not entirely out of character. Karen has plenty of hired staff, so we’ll give her Pact of the Chain so that she can have an Imp that serves her and can talk back to her. After all, that’s why Rosario is so dear to her. She takes Karen’s verbal jabs and gives them right back.

BUILD INFORMATION

Name: Karen Walker Race: Variant Human (+1 CHA, +1 DEX) Background: Charlatan Alignment: Neutral Evil Class: Fiend Warlock (20)

STATS STR 8 DEX 14 CON 18 INT 8 WIS 10 CHA 20

SAVING THROWS STR -1 DEX +2 CON +10 INT -1 WIS +6 CHA +11

SKILLS Arcana (+5) Deception (+11) Intimidation (+11) Sleight of Hand (+8)

FEATS

Magic Initiate: Bard (Friends, Vicious Mockery, Silvery Barbs) or (cure wounds) Shadow Touched (Inflict Wounds, Invisibility) (+1 CHA) Resilience - CON (+1 CON) Elemental Adept - Fire

ELDRITCH INVOCATIONS

02 Agonizing Blast 02 Eldritch Mind 05 Gift of the Ever-Living Ones 07 Investment of the Chain Master 09 Tomb of Levistus 12 Sign of Ill Omen 15 Chains of Carceri 18 Shroud of Shadow

KAREN’S SPELLS

As Karen doesn’t actually use spells in the show, I based her spell list on her personality and what would speak the most to her. A mixture of spells that give her servants, means to forcefully maintain control over those under her command, and means to get rid of anyone who steps out of line. Everything else lets her either verbally abuse the people in her life, siphon the youth and beauty out of others around her, or just use some demonic magic to deal some damage. 

C Eldritch Blast, Friends, Mage Hand, Prestidigitation, Toll the Dead, Vicious Mockery 1 Command, Hellish Rebuke, Hex, Inflict Wounds, Silvery Barbs 2 Hold Person, Invisibility, Scorching Ray, Suggestion 3 Fireball, Magic Circle, Summon Lesser Demons, Vampiric Touch 4 Banishment, Summon Greater Demon 5 Enervation, Flame Strike, Hold Monster 6 Summon Fiend (or) Tasha’s Otherworldly Guise (Lower) 7 Plane Shift (or) Finger of Death 8 Dominate Monster 9 Imprisonment

KAREN’S FEATURES

Dark One’s Blessing When you kill an enemy creature, gain temp HP equal to CHA mod + Warlock Level (max 25) Gift of the Ever-Living Ones While her familiar is within 100 feet of her, Karen regains maximum hit points that she could roll for. Dark One’s Own Luck Add 1d10 to a saving throw or skill check once per rest. Tomb of Levistus When damaged, Karen puts herself On the Rocks and encases herself in ice, gaining temp HP equal to 10x her warlock level (max 200). After the triggering damage is calculated, she becomes vulnerable to fire damage, she becomes incapacitated, and her speed is 0. Fiendish Resilience After a rest, choose a damage type to become resistant to. Hurl Through Hell Once per long rest, when you hit a creature, send it to the Nine Hells until the end of your next turn. If it’s not a Fiend, it takes 10d10 psychic damage (max 100). Chains of Carceri Karen can cast Hold Monster at will on any Celestial, Fiend, or Elemental. Shroud of Shadow Karen can cast Invisibility at will. Eldritch Master Karen can spend one minute communing with her patron to get an advance on her allowance and regain all of her spell slots once per long rest.

I’m surprisingly happy with how well Karen turned out. It’s a bit of a goofy build, but a good one. She’s got a good CON score and proficiency with CON saves not only to keep her concentration while summoning The Help from Hell, but to also stay on her feet while drunk, high, and whatever else she might be at any given time. Karen has the power to hurt people with her words and with her sugar daddy’s power and influence, but she can also outsource her problems to the help by summoning demons and devils to do the work for her. And she has means of deporting them if they raise a fuss or talk about unionizing. Karen is not a character I expected to translate to DnD, but I’m honestly going to have to put her on my list of characters to someday try playing in a campaign some day.

[clericofsune]

How would you go about building a paranormal investigator?

I'll take that challenge in my next build

[clericofsune]

Do you think you'll do a sailor moon build in the distant future?

Sure. Especially with that new moon sorcerer, it's worth looking at.

[raeynbowboi]

DnD 5e Subclass Ideas

ARTIFICER

Plague Doctor: Not all healers use magic. These doctors have studied disease and can give or take these diseases on a whim. They can spread a sickness just as easily as they can patch a wound or nurse a sickness. Their exposure to diseases also makes them immune to disease and resistant to poison damage.

Mutagen: These people have had their biology tampered with. Whether they’ve injected themselves with experimental serums or implanted foreign body parts, their spliced genetic make-up has granted them a variety of powers and magic from tampering with their genes.

BARBARIAN

 Path of the Heartfelt: Barbarians are warriors of passion. Normally, this manifests in rage, but some Barbarians fuel their passions with other emotions. Love, Sorrow, Joy. The Path of the Heartfelt is founded on the principle of keeping momentos that trigger the emotions that fuel their passions, replacing their rage with other emotional states.

Path of the Hellbound: Sometimes, a raging barbarian is as terrifying as a demon let loose upon the battlefield. Other times, they really are one. Those who follow the Path of the Hellbound channel the ferocity of demons and the flames of the Lower Planes, fighting with all the savagery of an archfiend.

BARD

College of Hymns: Bards of this college study the songs of prayer and faith, singing hymns to the gods, and gaining access to the Cleric spell list as a result. Due to their holy leaning, this bardic college excels at healing, and their song can call forth the favor or ire of the gods.

College of Keening: Utilizing the Irish practice of Keening, the bards of this college perfect the art of using melancholic song to bring their foes to tears and drain their foes of strength. They sing songs of grief and mourning to process the loss of loved ones, and channel the grieving wail of the Banshee to deafen their foes.

CLERIC

Charm Domain: Love is a fickle thing, influenced by capricious gods at a whim. The clerics of these gods follow suit, bending the hearts of mortals to their charms and impulses. Some use these powers to broker peace and negotiate, some seek only their own pleasures, and others choose to play matchmaker, helping others find love in this dark and dreary world.

Fate Domain: No mortal can control the wheel of fortune. It spins endlessly. But there are gods who decide when the wheel turns, who it favors, and who it crushes as it rolls. Gods of weal and woe, destiny and prophecy, order and chaos. These are the gods who pull the threads and weave a tapestry of mortal lives.

Ocean Domain: The sea is another world unto itself. A realm inhabited by creatures unlike any other. And this realm is ruled over by gods of the tides and the waves. Of the deep abyss and the darkest trenches. But most importantly, it allows sea gods to not fall under the Tempest Domain anymore.

Madness Domain: It’s not uncommon for gods to have an otherworldly hold over a mortal’s senses, but gods of the madness domain take this a step further, warping the mind and senses into a tapestry of mania and panic. Masters of illusions, psionics, and nightmares, the clerics of the madness domain excel at distorting the senses and misdirecting their enemies to attack one another or a figment of their imaginations.

DRUID

Circle of Tides: Druids who follow this circle connect themselves to the rhythm of the ocean. Druids who follow this circle have mastered the ability to flood areas, creating floating pools of water, or open portals to the Plane of Water in order to call upon their oceanic abilities regardless of where they are, and without permanently destroying the local ecology. They gain access to wild shaping into swimming creatures sooner than other druids.

Circle of Seasons: Druids of this circle gain power from the season they embody. Some dedicate themselves to a single season, becoming the embodiment of winter’s hardships or summer’s vitality, while others change with the natural rhythm of nature, cycling through the seasons as the year passes, and others change seasons from day to day, acting on their own whims.

Circle of the Abyss: Druids form bonds with and draw power from the natural world, but the material plane is not the only plane with nature. Some druids tap into the natural rhythms and wildlife of the Lower Planes, wild shaping into abyssal chickens and cacklers just as easily as other druids would shift into eagles or bears.

FIGHTER

Herculean: Some fighters have the strength and endurance of a demigod, and these fighters can hit like a tank, survive being hit by a tank, or pick up and throw a tank. These fighters can pack a stronger punch, and shrug off damage that would bring other warriors low.

White Knight: Warriors of honor and virtue, these knights gain access to the Cleric spell list up to 4th level spells, with an emphasis on abjuration and healing spells. They cast with Wisdom.

Black Knight: Warriors of ferocity and hostility, these knights gain access to the Warlock spell list up to 4th level spells, with an emphasis on evocation and necromancy spells. They cast with Charisma.

Dragon Knight: Knights whose martial skills spark with the elemental power of dragons, they can enchant their weapons, armors, and shields with the elemental affinity of their draconian element. They are free to choose any type of dragon, chromatic, metallic, or gem.

MONK

Way of the Phantom: Monks who follow this discipline meditate on the nature of life and death. They gain the ability to slip into the Ethereal Plane, passing through walls and avoiding attacks. They can charge their fists with ghostly energy, and strike non-corporeal creatures like ghosts with their bare hands.

Way of the Tiger: These monks channel the predator’s ferocity from the tiger. They land critical hits more easily, and can shake off damage that would bowl over others. This monastic tradition emphasizes being an offensive player on the front line, your hands as deadly as a tiger’s paw.

Way of the Pugilist: These monks can choose to use their STR stat over their DEX stat, specializing as bare-knuckle fighters who study a monastic tradition. This also extends to their Unarmored Defense, and their subclass features can be based on STR or DEX.

PALADIN

Oath of Gallantry: Of all the paladins, none is so noble as the Gallant Paladin. Taking vows of honor, fidelity, and chivalry, they rise as the knights in shining armor who do good for the sake of love, glory, and honor. Their reputations are as sterling as their armor.

Oath of the Grave: Nobody escapes death. The paladins who take the Oath of the Grave aim to hunt down both the living and the undead alike to slay all who would dare defy death. This grim reaper inspired subclass is dedicated to making sure all are met with their demise. Their spell list focuses on finding people, inflicting damage, and making it impossible for their target to heal or flee. But they have no skill in the necromantic arts, and will not raise the dead so carelessly.

Oath of the Templar: Some paladins serve the crown, others serve the forces of nature. These paladins serve the whims of the gods. These Paladins gain access to the Cleric spell list up to the 5th level, and act as holy crusaders or wrathful inquisitionists. While there are paladins who serve churches or temples, this subclass is much more devout. Their Oath Spells can be chosen by one set of domain spells appropriate to the god or temple they pledge their blade to. They also copy that domain’s Channel Divinity, though no other feature of that Cleric Domain. This subclass also has one unique Channel Divinity that is the same, regardless of the domain chosen.

RANGER

Conclave of the Spellbreaker: Magic can be a dangerous thing. Curses, illusions, wildfires, necromancy, polymorphs, earthquakes. Magic can distrupt a great number of lives across the realm. The Rangers of the Spellbreaker Conclave roam the land breaking spells and protecting people from the destruction of magic.

Conclave of Exploration: These Rangers can treat any terrain as favored terrain, and gain different spells depending on the terrain surrounding them. At higher levels, they can recall the spells of a terrain they’ve encountered before, but cannot do so with a terrain type they have never been to.

Conclave of the Blood Hunter: These Rangers can learn the weak point of any creature, making them better suited for slaying the wild monsters that ravage the countryside. Their spell list seeks to prepare them for as many monsters as possible, and studying a creature can reveal weak points that increase the ranger’s damage output. However, these tactics cannot be applied to humanoid creatures.

ROGUE

Poisoner: These rogues specialize in crafting and utilizing poisons. More than just relying on one type of poison, this subclass can brew a number of poisons. Poisons that make people sick, sleepy, paralyzed, and more. There are multiple kinds of poisons, and this subclass makes rogues who are masters with every kind there is.

Faceless: The rogues of this group are masters of disguise, making them excellent spies and saboteurs. They are equally adept at forging legal documents, and others have a hard time discerning that they are lying about who they truly are.

Fearmonger: Whether they don a frightening mask, are accompanied by a dangerous pet, or simply possess a terrifying presence, Fearmonger rogues destabilize their enemies with dread and horror. Enemies are hesitant to fight them, and others are more easily intimidated by them.

SORCERER

Profane Soul Sorcerer: Just as mortals can be born with divine bloodlines, so too can their bloodlines run afoul from an eldritch source. Those children of fiends, fey, undead, and old ones. You can choose a warlock patron your lineage stems from, and your sorcerous origin spells become the patron spells of that warlock subclass. You also gain access to the warlock spell list, but cannot access eldritch invocations. 

Vampiric Bloodline Sorcerer: Vampirism is a bloodborne disease, and as such, can be contracted, or passed down biologically. However, not all vampires follow the Vampiric Bloodline. No, this requires dedication and sacrifice to truly unleash the full potential of their vampiric blood.

WARLOCK

Ancient Dragon: Dragons are ancient and powerful creatures, and some may even endow mortals with a shred of this ancient power. From breathing a dragon’s breath, to changing Eldritch Blast to match the breath of your draconian patron.

Vampire Lord: Vampire society is a strict hierarchy, and as intricate as any royal court. None stands more paramount than the vampire lord. Whether one wishes to become a vampire knight, a blood mage, or a courtier, those who pledge themselves to a vampire lord will be bestowed with the blessing and the curse of vampirism, and all the eldritch power that it entails. But those with the vampire lord’s mark are bound to their master, a bond not easily severed. Or betrayed.

The Wild Ones: For as long as there has been man, there has been magic. These beings were known to man long ago. A force of nature, primal and primitive. One which thirst for blood and bone, which twisted its roots into the foundations of early societies, and called people to the tree line, never to be seen again. Perhaps they are some long forgotten gods, their temples overgrown and reclaimed by nature. Perhaps they are the land itself, stirring from its slumber. Perhaps they are the violence of nature personified. Whatever calls out from the wilderness, they bestow their druidic power on those who willingly serve them, granting their followers dominion over plant and beast alike.

Pact Boon: Eldritch Companion: Some patrons bestow their warlocks with weapons, tomes, or pets. But sometimes, a Warlock will instead be given a companion. A lost soul owned by the patron, and given willingly to the warlock. They are often silent, though some can speak and even think for themselves. Some are undead warlocks of bygone eras, fallen soldiers from wars long forgotten by man, others are sentient souls made flesh, while others are henchmen and underlings from the patron’s court. You can choose to make them Fighters, Thieves, or Mages, and their race will be one appropriate for your patron to bestow. Regardless of how they came to be in the warlock’s services, they are bound through magic to obey and serve their warlock master, though some are more the patron’s agent, acting as the patron’s eyes and ears, and serving the patron above even the warlock.

WIZARD

School of Demonology: The wizards who study the occult become experts at tangling with extra planar foes through magic. Fiends, Aberrations, Fey, Undead, Dragons, and anything else that threatens the stability of the material plane. These wizards learn the secrets of arcane threats and use their knowledge of magic to protect mortals from the things that go bump in the night. These wizards have access to the Cleric spell list, and cast with intelligence.

School of Rune Wrought: These wizards do not have spellbooks. They instead inscribe their bodies with runes and words of power from which they draw their magic. Wizards of this school have made magic one with their body, and can read spells anywhere on their body, even if it’s in a place they can’t see without a mirror.

School of Arcane Secrets: Those wizards who study this school seek the arcane secrets of other casting classes, gaining access to their spell lists. Each wizard can only gain access to the spell list of one other type of caster, as it takes a life’s devotion to unwravel the secrets of another arcane branch. These wizards always cast with Intelligence, no matter which spell list they study.

School of the Planeswalker: The wizards who study this school are experts at teleportation magic, able to open portals and walk the various planes more easily than others. They also have greater knowledge of the things that exist on other planes. At high levels, they can even see into planes that border the plane they are currently on, and can banish creatures to a plane other than the one the originate from.