Sam's Mug
The removable section reveals a picture of a red bowling ball on the mug. On the underside of the removed piece reads:
"COULD THIS BE YOU???"
Bonus adorable moment
The removable section reveals a picture of a red bowling ball on the mug. On the underside of the removed piece reads:
"COULD THIS BE YOU???"
Bonus adorable moment
(TWITTER LINK)
Flight
, See Invisibility
, Amphibious Travel, Extreme elasticity (Mr Fantastic squeezing through vent grates, etc)
"You better work."
Retired Florida couple
Sam's angry handjob
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All in all Ayden’s build is an incredibly hard to target tanky support character who can move through the battlefield protecting his allies and being an absolute nightmare for enemy spellcasters. The only thing I really didn’t fully consider was just how much damage he would take from Warding Bond which totally bypasses all those wonderfully crafted defenses. As crazy as it is, I think we barely got to scratch the surface of Aydens full potential and it’s probably good those mages decided to cast spells at everyone else because Ayden was going to be a tough character for a spell caster to crack. The Commanding Rally did get to shine allowing characters who specialized in weapon attacks to get a little extra out of those 20 level commitments. Ayden’s build was crafted to keep his siblings alive and let them shine as bright as possible together. I’m very proud of him!
If you read all this then you’re as nerdy as me and deserve a reward!
Nick Marini posts Ayden's build on Tumblr
Ayden’s Build
TL;DR: Barbarian 1, Druid 2 (Circle of the Stars), Paladin 8 (Oath of the Ancients), and Cleric 9 (Peace Domain). Feats: Squire of Solamnia, Remarkable Recovery, Warcaster, Knight of Crowns, Spelldriver, Tough.
Building Ayden was a joy and a journey. To begin we were told we had 20 levels to work with and stats of 20 across the board. The only thing I knew about Ayden from the session 0 was that he was going to be a Cleric of the Everlight and that I wanted to make him the best support character I could. I also knew that the Dawnfather was aware of the mission briefing and so would have directed his growth to the task at hand.
Stats of 20 meant multiclassing into any class was possible and that any ability score based bonuses or proficiency based abilities were going to be very good. I figured that with a warlock and a sorcerer we’d have some pretty good counterspelling and 9th level spell access, so I didn’t worry myself about either of those, instead focusing on making sure we all survived.
The Dawnfather and The Everlight share 2 of 3 Domains. Life and Light. The Everlight’s 3rd domain is Peace. The Peace Domain cleric is an excellent subclass and its 6th level ability, Protective Bond, was something I knew I wanted to build around. The ability to take hits for, and aid, my siblings while teleporting around the battlefield is an excellent support ability and it also lets allies in the bond do the same,fostering sibling unity and cohesion.
With the Dawnfather having Nature as his unique domain separate from the Everlight, and literally sending himself to Exandria to infiltrate a city full of the greatest mages of the age, the Oath of Ancients Paladin seemed like an obvious path. It is the nature Paladin, (his domain) and 7 levels gives you both Aura of Protection and Aura of Warding. This means as Ayden moves through the battlefield with Protective Bond he will be granting allies +5 to saves from his cha as well as resistance to damage from spells. Incredibly good going up against the wizards of Aeor he knew he would encounter. I didn’t want to go to 10 with Paladin because I didn’t want to be immune to frightened. I just felt that fear played too large a role in the reasons the gods were here and although aura of courage is probably my favorite ability going back to 3rd edition, I felt like it wasn’t right for Ayden. He had to fear in order to reinforce his need to hope.
These two classes were set relatively quickly and then I began looking at how else I was going to build him out.
I really liked the idea of being able to grant my allies some extra attacks and so I was looking at battle master to get commanders strike and goading attack as well as maneuvering attack to help take hits for and position my allies. Action Surge is also a great ability that could really come in handy if I needed to save someone and needed one extra action to do so.
I was also looking at the 2nd level Divination Wizard ability Portent. The ability to fully dictate 2 rolls is very powerful in certain circumstances, especially if the numbers are very high or very low.
Both these seemed good but weren’t feeling totally right from a character perspective. They felt too forced.
As I was playing around with these two classes I was also building Aydens backstory. I really liked the idea of him being agriculturally focused, as this aspect of the Dawnfather is actually his youngest. Sun begets days, and thus time and seasons, and as civilization evolves agriculture follows. The fighter levels lent the idea that he has spent some time training under a knight or some such warrior, and I knew that he would eventually find his way to Trist to begin his tutelage and become her cleric. I liked there being these different eras of his life. It was around this time that I got an awesome email asking me to describe Ayden visually so that the incredibly talented Hannah Friederichs and Cael Lyons could begin to bring Ayden and the Dawnfather to life. I wanted Ayden to be a simply dressed with a shield he took from his mentor, but no sword for striking. They sent 4 sketches and told me I could mix and match as I desired. Image #1 however was exactly as I had envisioned him. It was the simplest and had this depth to his eyes that told the story of a much older soul in this 15 year old body. It was so perfect that it made me realize I had been going in the totally wrong direction with fighter and wizard. The concepts of nature and agriculture were suddenly staring me in the face. It was not wizard, but druid, and his mentor could have taught him to be a paladin as easily as fighter, but if he is the bringer of agriculture who has he brought it to? A remote tribe still hunting and gathering was the answer. Barbarian therefore replaced fighter. I can’t tell you how influential the sketch I received was. It felt like a bolt of lightning suddenly clarified everything.
I was for sure cleric 6, Paladin 7 and now looking at druid and barbarian. I didn’t know Druid subclasses very well but Circle of the Stars jumped out from the pack just with its name. The Sun after all is a star. When I read its 2nd level abilities Starmap and Starry form it was so obvious. I can cast Guiding Bolt to set up those attacks I wanted to grant, and I can glow instead of wild shape and either heal more or have a massive bonus to maintain the concentration spells I knew I wanted to cast. For the keeper of time to know how to read the stars just felt right. It also feel right that the druids of a tribe that had been hunting and gathering during the tumultuous Calamity would have learned to navigate by the stars, a singular constant in an every changing age.
Barbarian has a number of interesting subclasses but none felt like they clicked. 1 level of Barbarian though, for a character with 20 dexterity and 20 constitution, catapults your AC to 20 and it also gives you a proficiency in Constitution saving throws if you take it as your first class, again reinforcing those concentration rolls. He was found as a child by this barbarian tribe and his first class is also his first community. Barbarian was the strong foundation I would build upon.
I was now Cleric 6, Paladin 7, Druid 2, Barbarian 1. Reorganized to be the order Ayden would have taken them in it becomes the following:
Barbarian 1, Druid 2 (Circle of the Stars), Paladin 7 (Oath of the Ancients), and Cleric 6 (Peace Domain)4 more levels to distribute. As a player who has mostly played 3.5 (I think downfall just about doubled the amount of 5E I have played) feats are my absolute favorite things, so getting to multiples of 4 in class levels to grab some was something I wanted to do (also I didn’t have to worry about ability score increases)! I had already given one feat up by taking barb and druid but I made up for it with the human variant. I also took the Knight of Solamnia background to give me Squire of Solamnia, the prerequisite for Knight of the Crowns which would give me the ability to grant attacks to my allies without needing battle maneuvers.
So I upped paladin from 7-8 for a feat and then decided to take Cleric from 6-9 because it gave me a feat and access to the spell Dawn. I mean the Dawnfather should be able to cast Dawn after all!
Background: Squire of Solamnia to give me the prerequisite for Knight of the Crowns
Human Variant: Remarkable Recovery. I knew I’d be taking extra damage so having 5 extra hp from any healing I get might just be the difference. It also plays into his background. He had to leave the Barbarian tribe he brought agriculture to because his skin could not retain the ceremonial tattoo ink that would have symbolized his initiation into the community.
Cleric 4 Warcaster to get advantage on those concentration checks, that along with proficiency and starry form of the dragon means I need to take 28 damage (56 if it’s a spell) to even have to roll, and when I do I get advantage and proficiency on the check. Getting me to lose concentration is gonna be a task.
Paladin 4 Knight of the Crown getting to grant an attack proficiency times per day combos wonderfully with Starmaps free guiding bolt, conveniently also proficiency times per day.
Cleric 8 Spelldriver I’m gonna be casting a bunch of spells so the ability to cast multiple each turn is going to make my support spells come out much faster. I have a big fam to take care of!6) Paladin 8 Tough I really went back and forth between this and Inspiring Leader. Granting all my siblings 25 temp hp is amazing but ultimately I decided that as I’d be tanking a bunch of damage I’d need toughness. Toughness gave me 15 more hp than Inspiring leader would have, and I ended up going down to 14 at one point so it was a decision that very much paid off by a single HP! Don’t wanna pop a deathward if you can help it!
Last but not least we were granted 2 magic items. One very rare and one uncommon. For my uncommon I chose a cloak of resistance, a parting gift from the tribe that Ayden could not join. This upped my saves to 11s or 17s and took my AC to 23. For his very rare magic item I took a spellguard shield, inherited from the knight who brought him from the remote tribe to Trist‘s school, giving me advantage on saving throws vs spells and magical effects and inflicting disadvantages on spell effects targeting me. Combine that with resistance to spells from Aura of Warding and that’s a nasty nasty combo v wizards.
(so far)
Over in the Dimension 20 Universe, a tidal wave of gasoline, adrenaline, and gunpowder has appeared in the distance. It is estimated to land on June 26th.
bonus
You see Laudna in the process of this terrifying banshee nightmare transformation and the spirit of Delilah swirling around and aparrating. Uncertain what is friend and what is foe, what do you do?
Aura of Life
castSacred Flame
Bardic Inspiration
Sacred Flame
and wants to change it to a white stream of hot force.Relentless Rage
immediately brings Ashton back upConcentration: Aura of Life
(that has already saved unconscious allies) is broken.Wild Magic
roll, Liam scampers off cameraDiamond Form
rolls a 97
granting maximum damage on the next attack spell and gets up to leave out of shame.Identify
a few times, "The fuck is this? The fuck is that?"Soul Anchor
's properties and potential useHighlights
Insight Check
gets Whispersbrings out the Orb of the Thalamus
Insight Check
gets a whisper for LiamBanish
es Teven back to the Nine Hells.Insight Check
♪Episode Song References♪ ᕕ( ᐛ)ᕗ
Highlights
Matt:"Sometimes the short rest gets you, brother"
Chetney:"Ooh, surgery! I'm gonna go scrub in."
Inspiration
Dorian:"Sorry, mine's a little bigger."
Braius:"I'm a grower."
Liam:"Cube no more...I mean, if we just need deft fingers, I've got that."
Dorian:"Just like my dad."
Braius:"Oh, ba, ba, ba, ba. Are you sure you wanna do that?"
Laudna:"It's like a sloth. Once a month I have to climb down a tree..."
Liam:"Spit up the dust ball with your lungs."
Robbie:"Owl pellets."
Essek:"Chetters..."
Chetney:"Chetters! chettERS!...Doctor Chetters."
Ashton:"Stop it."
Matt:"...you see a label that says Brenatto at the bottom..."
Guidance
by Fearne adds two...Matt:"The DC was fuckin' twenty..."
Mark of the Messy End
to Delilah (any roll >= 18 counts as a crit for the next round).Imogen:"I know you have. This will give you a chance to fight another day."
These years of being your puppet. It ends today, one way or another. I think it's your turn.
and
casts Void Puppet
(recently acquired ability)There is a burning hatred in her eyes. A purple flame that grows brighter and more intense. You feel like if you had flesh in this moment, it would be burned away with the piercing volume of hate in that flame. As she opens her mouth to speak, every one of those threads pulls her away. As she gets pulled silently into the shadow behind, Essek presses his hands down on Laudna's chest and finishes the incantation. Her entire body begins to glow internally, a vibrant purple to the point where the ribcage itself is the only darkened spot. The rest of her flesh is now alight, like a lantern from the inside. Her back is arched and her eyes and mouth fire out beams of that same purple light. That blackened shadow gets cast off like a torch into the darkness.
As you (Chetney?) pull your hands back, the light diminishes. Laudna's body relaxes and Essek pulls back (floating in the air, looking down) his eyes scattered around, looking for any sign of success.
She's there, Delilah. She's there, but she's yours.
What you see is that burning hatred and that screaming, shadowed face, quiet as it rails against this ancient Aeorian crystal that holds her. Her flames, her shadow, drifting out like a sieve into the bone-like ribcage that contains her for as long as you walk this realm. You look down upon this, inside yourself, inside your spirit. She is entirely yours.
As you conjure Pâté, you feel (where once you had to borrow energy from this darkness inside you as a request, as a sharer) now you siphon it from this crystal and you watch that purple flame in her hated expression dim, as you draw from her as you please.
Sam:"I draw my weapon."
20 damage to Pâté
who is immediately disintegrated.Braius:"I have smited Delilah."
Chetney:"Oh Braius, you're so brave."
Travis:"The Batwing."
Matt:"Oh, yeah. A lot of us grew up before the internet. We had a lot of time to pass."
Sam:"Your phone has a flashlight on it."
Laudna:"We have 'hells' in our name, though. It's honestly very fitting."
Braius:"When you told me that, I got really excited."
Chetney:"All right! I'll stop."
Laudna:"Yes."
Essek:"If it even exists...who knows. Whatever the dunamantic power source is, it is quite divergent from divine power sources. If indeed Predathos seems an entity that feasts on divine power, then I do not think it would be as interested in the Luxon. That is just a theory."
Chetney:(laughs)"Tha-hirstee. My man is in a drought! Feed that plant!"
Dorian:"Seven minutes in the Hells?"
Braius:"Six. Gotta be six."
rolls a d10
and Braius gets the first hit, but tells the group his moment was killing Stanley (who stabbed him in the back and who his drinking mug is made from) without even needing to, which is probably for the best because his hooves made smoking very difficult.rolls a 33
on persuasion or deception.Ashton:"God, you're pretty."
prestidigitates
a curtain to obscure them.(continued)