Dropping Patreon

 Patreon kinda did some sus stuff.

I'm taking it seriously and dropping them.

Please support me on Ko-fi.

Relax and Chill Game Day 001

Tried to play MegamanX2, but instead had to play Rogue Legacy 2!

What is it about retro games that they can't handle running while newer games run amazing! Why do I need more power to run a retro game than a new game?

Chrono Trigger - Episode 14

Chrono Trigger - Episode 13

Chrono Trigger - Episode 12

Chrono Trigger - Episode 11

Weapon Techniques for D&D 5e

So, on my ko-fi shop and patreon, I have released an updated werewolf pdf and a new pdf on weapon techniques.

The idea for weapon techniques are a combination of factors. I got to the base idea from my attempts at creating a stunt system for my campaign. Stunts were things I had put into the game all the way back in the late 90s when I was playing Advanced D&D 2nd edition! Wow! So long ago. Recently I have been codifying what was always an internal judgement of what would be too strong or not strong enough.

Thankfully, my players are capable of being munchkins about the whole thing, without actually being munchkins about the whole thing.

How to activate stunts is something that other people have come up with over time. One of the things I really liked, because I like interesting choices in games, is giving up advantage to get an effect. Now, the important part of that, is that the reward has to be greater. I aimed at 150% damage increase for giving up advantage. I applied this in different ways depending on the weapon being used.

Later I added spell casting focuses to it.

Finally, I wanted more options so I found another trigger, this time as a way to reward martial characters who already have a higher chance of appearing weak, especially in comparison to casters. So I made the 2nd trigger be on a miss. This allowed them to show off their prowess by making critical misses improbable.

My third trigger was for casters, so that their saving throw spells had a chance of doing a bit more damage or effect to those spells.

Base rules: "These special techniques can only be used Proficiency Bonus times per short rest. Once you give up advantage, you cannot gain it back on any of the attack rolls you make until the start of your next turn."

Weapon Sample for One Handed Slashing Weapons (Scimitar or Hand Axe for example)

Pass Through

When you would have advantage on an attack, you can instead move through the enemy's space to the other side, without provoking opportunity attacks. You make three passing attacks as you move, each dealing half weapon die damage instead.

Now in our campaign, we round damage up. But for most people, damage is rounded down. So you could end up dealing no damage!

Focus Sample for Bard Wind Instrument

Leaf in the Wind

When someone fails a Saving Throw against your spell save DC, with a natural 1, you can allow all your allies to move 1 space without provoking attacks of opportunity.

Now that's what I call utility!

I managed to cram 38 of these into a small and affordable pdf!

Chrono Trigger - Episode 10

Chrono Trigger - Episode 009

Chrono Trigger - Episode 8

Chrono Trigger - Episode 7

Chrono Trigger - Episode 6

Low Level Character Concept - Swashless Roguelock

I couldn't DM this weekend and one of the players ran a one-shot. Another player needed a temporary one-shot character and doesn't have experience building characters whole cloth. So I offered my services, and built him the Swashless Roguelock.

Now the build I gave the player was meant to work on a ship one-shot. So I made choices that I wouldn't have made otherwise. I'll skip the basics of levels, and focus on what I did for this specific build.

Level 1-4

We went with a Swashbuckler Rogue build. Now I had a huge internal debate about going to Rogue 5 for additional sneak attack dice, or going Warlock 2 for the spell slot and evocations. The extra spell slot won out.

Our focus on Swashbuckler is to get Fancy Footwork and Rakish Audacity. This lets you green-flame blade later, and run away to reposition yourself better if you were out of position, and it lets you add your higher charisma (because you want high charisma for a warlock) to your initiative, allowing you to be more likely to go first in a fight.

Level 5-6

We then proceed to Fathomless Warlock. This gives a powerful ranged, bonus action attack, and also allows for swimming and water breathing in case they fell overboard.

Now, the main choices here were of course to get Agonizing and Repelling blasts. You should be pushing people off boats whenever possible.

Racial and Background Choices

This I went with something basic, I gave them a Sailor background, so they could take sail enemy ships if needed, and had them go as a Tiefling of Levistus. Legacy of Stygia gives them the Ray of Frost cantrip (slow down option since we didn't get that evocation) and Armor of Agathys (at 2nd level) and Darkness. These options are just great combat tools. Had them take the Flame of Phlegethos feat at Rogue 4, so that Green-flame Blade and Armor of Agathys causes a strong set of retributive damage to anyone attacking them.

In the end, they didn't get into melee at all (they weren't meant to TRY, the melee portions were there in case things went bad), but it also means they could have skipped the rogue levels completely.

In a longer campaign, I feel like these choices would come up more. But as of right now, I have no testing proving so.

Thanks for Reading!

If you like this build, let me know over on twitter @PangoriaF

You can also support me on Ko-Fi where I sell dnd PDFs.

You can also gain exclusive access to other things I'm working on over on my Patreon.

I'm planning to do videos of these builds on my youtube channel.

If you need any special work done for your business or personal projects, check out Fiverr! It's a great place to get character drawings for your campaign!

Chrono Trigger - Episode 5

Low Level Character Concept - Holy Storm Priest - D&D5e

  I love DnD5e and I keep thinking about one of my first character ideas, the armored mage. The point of it is to be incredibly tanky. The build didn't actually work out. So let's look at the build concept and go from there.

Please forgive me if I gloss over some things that don't relate to the build at a level up. I assume you have some knowledge with the classes already.

Level 1 - Celestial Warlock

So we are starting up as a healer for the party. For your two spells, go ahead and pick up the spells from the Celestial Warlock expanded spell list: Cure Wounds and Guiding Bolt.

You will have 2 bonus action heals per long rest and 1 Cure Wounds.

For cantrips you get Sacred Flame, and Light for free, and you pick up Eldritch Blast and Sword Burst.

We are putting everything into Charisma and Constitution as far as stats go. My personal build had me going higher on Wisdom so I could multiclass into Trickster Cleric, but that was more for RP reasons than gameplay.

Because of the playstyle I recommend races that have free high AC options, like Dwarves, Tortles, Lizardfolk, etc.

Level 2 - 2nd Spell Slot Warlock

You'll get two Eldritch Invocations, the first one should be Agonizing Blast and the 2nd can be anything you don't mind swapping out for later, I recommend Fiendish Vigor, as it doubles your HP for these early levels.

You also get another 1st level spell, I recommend Arms of Hadar or Armor of Agathys.

Level 3 through 5 - Storm Sorceror 3

Here we unlock that secret past you had and start getting Storm Sorceror levels. We get a lot of cool cantrips, I usually pick up Mold Earth, since it's my favorite cantrip. You also learn Primordial.

The Bonus Action 10ft disengage/fly that you get is great for running in, Arms of Hadar everyone and flying out, or getting an extra 10 feet of movement.

Now I went Quickened and Subtle for my meta magic, but that was for RP reasons. I recommend Quickened and Twinned.

As for spells, get what you like, same goes for cantrips.

Level 6 - Warlock 3

Now at this point, I chose to change Fiendish Vigor for Book of Ancient Secrets since I got the Pact of the Tome. I did this because we had a Cleric, Druid and Wizard in the group, and would be able to just take all the Ritual spells I could!

I pick up Flaming Sphere here, as it lets me microwave an enemy with Mold Earth plus the sphere. You can also replace Guiding Bolt with Lesser Restoration.

Pact of the Tome also gives you any 3 cantrips: You will be getting a lot out of your Eldrtich Blasts, so I like getting utility cantrips.

Future of the Build

At this point I recommend going 4/4 to get your ASIs. Then getting to 6 one at a time (go 5 and 6 in one then 5 and 6 in the other). This gets you a ton of resistance.

After that you will be level 12.

I personally went 8 levels into Trickster Cleric for my build, allowing me to make 4th level slots with my 6th level Sorceror, and using that to cast extra Death Proof spells.

You can also go 14 Warlock for Searing Vengeance or 14 Sorceror for the Reaction.

Just follow your heart for the later levels. If you like using the Sorcery points then get Sorceror.

Thanks for Reading!

If you like this build, let me know over on twitter @PangoriaF

You can also support me on Ko-Fi where I sell dnd PDFs.

You can also gain exclusive access to other things I'm working on over on my Patreon.

I'm planning to do videos of these builds on my youtube channel.

If you need any special work done for your business or personal projects, check out Fiverr! It's a great place to get character drawings for your campaign!

Chrono Trigger - Episode 4

Chrono Trigger - Episode 3

Low Level Character Playtest - The Armored Mage - D&D5e

 So I played the armored mage that I wrote about last week.

I was level 10 though, so it wasn't the level 5 build, but it did bring in quite a bit of information for how I would want to change things.

So let's start with what I did, what worked, what was lacking, and what I would change.

What I Did

So I built this as a Minotaur. Since this was a one-shot, we had a bunch of magic items, so my focus was more on having an action economy. My DM let me use Hammering Horns after Booming Blade. So that I could boom someone then toss them over my head. I also had a belt that increased my strength, and a way to fly. While those helped keep me in play with everyone else, I really felt like there were things missing in the build.

What Worked

Booming Blade as an attack was just perfect. I could focus on my Intelligence almost exclusively and used a magic item to enhance my strength. At 5th level, you'll be doing weapon+str/dex+1d8 damage. It's nice and consistent. You also add those extra psi-warrior d6s for a few attacks per fight.

Leveling up as Artificer gave me access to Sanctuary, which is surprisingly a great tank spell when you have a support build in your group. Actually Artificer gave a lot of options for the character and was a great 3rd class to step into. I would definitely try to go, full Artificer, if I were to go into it though.

I never got hit, as for my saves though ... Arcane Deflection almost never came up by 10th level, because either I rolled too low or too high. I don't want to say no to it just because of these 5 fights though. But this does lead me to:

What Was Lacking

This build is very reliant on Reactions and had almost no Bonus Actions except for an Artificer spell and a racial ability.

The power level of spells wasn't very high, so you can really just hold on to Silvery Barbs (again a reaction!), and having magic missile as a ranged attack option, that you know will hit is very useful.

The build also wants so strongly to attack with Booming Blade and has no synergy with the extra attack from Fighter or Artificer in that regard. Which is why I started thinking:

What I Would Change

As far as subclass recommendations, I feel like Psi-Warrior leaves you over filled with reaction possibilities and didn't interact well with the spell casting aspects of the build, while it worked fine with Booming Blade, which is your focus. So, if you are not going past level 3, I would have to change the recommendation of Psi-Warrior, to perhaps Battle Master (for additional Maneuvers).

You really want to get a bonus action attack. My DM allowed my Minotaur to use hammering horns with Booming Blade, though the wording does make it less likely for other DMs to approve it. Eldritch Knight lets you do a bonus action attack after the cantrip, and later on, after casting a spell.

Either way, if you only go 3 fighter levels and don't go to a full 8 or 18, you will not get enough benefit from the Psi-Warrior aspect of the build.

The Armorer suggestion worked great, but like I said earlier, the spell levels never reached high enough, and so you were mostly sitting on reaction spells like shield, silvery barbs and feather fall. Actually, because of how this actually played out, getting Arcane deflection wasn't worth it even as a free mini shield spell. Instead, I think going with the new Bladesinger (which is open to more races and gives you an extra attack with a cantrip) is actually the stronger option, even though you literally can't bladesing in heavy armor. This would be my recommendation if going deeper into wizard levels.

In the end, I played with the Artificer 3rd class option. You really don't want to use your spells for attacking with this playstyle. While the Artificer class gave things to do, it also takes too long to gain the cool benefits, especially when it's your third multiclass and it doesn't really kick off with cool stuff until 6th and 10th levels.

This build is one of the few that I would say should focus on certain racial abilities. If your DM allows it, I'd go with a Centaur or Minotaur for bonus action hoofs or horn toss. Goblin also has a benefit that you can run up, Booming Blade, then disengage making them have to chase you and trigger the boom.

Thanks for Reading!

If you like this build, let me know over on twitter @PangoriaF

You can also support me on Ko-Fi where I sell dnd PDFs.

You can also gain exclusive access to other things I'm working on over on my Patreon.

I'm planning to do videos of these builds on my youtube channel.

If you need any special work done for your business or personal projects, check out Fiverr! It's a great place to get character drawings for your campaign!

Chrono Trigger - Episode 2

Hello Gaymers, it's your Retro Sovreign, Pangoria Fallstar!

This time we get play an oldie but a goodie with Chrono Trigger. So now it's time to see the past, the future, and everything in between so stay tuned.

Show me some love on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/PangoriaF

Watch my livestreams on Twitch:

https://www.twitch.tv/pangoriafallstar

If you like these videos, please consider supporting me on Patreon for more:

https://www.patreon.com/pangoriafallstar

Buy my pdfs on Ko-fi!

https://ko-fi.com/pangoria

Low Level Character Concept - The Armored Mage - D&D5e

 I love DnD5e and I keep thinking about one of my first character ideas, the armored mage. The point of it is to be incredibly tanky. The build didn't actually work out. So let's look at the build concept and go from there.

Please forgive me if I gloss over some things that don't relate to the build at a level up. I assume you have some knowledge with the classes already.

Level 1 - Fighter

Whenever you're building a multiclassing build that has fighter, you usually go with the fighter 1 for the heavy armor proficiency.

So what stats do we need for our end goal and what do we get from fighter 1?

Strength: 15

Dexterity 10

Constitution 14 + 2 = 16

Intelligence 13 +1 = 14

Wisdom 12

Charisma 8

I recommend getting +2 to Constitution and +1 to Intelligence.

We need at least 13 intelligence to get wizard levels, but we don't need to worry about it for most spells, but we do want to get it up higher to help us hit later.

So we get all the basic fighter stuff (gear, strength and constitution saving throws, hit points and skills).

Get chainmail, martial weapon and shield, hand axes and your favorite of the two packs.

Fighting style we are picking up superior technique with menacing attack.

And we get 2nd wind.

Level 2 & 3 - Wizard 1 and 2

We go multiclassing right away! We want those defenses! We are going with War Wizard at level 2. I like getting Component Pouches when I go multi-classing.

You get 3 cantrips:

Booming Blade (V, M which is your weapon)

Sword Burst (V)

Anything Else, depending on the DM I would choose Mold Earth or Presto (avoid those with material components)

You get 6 first level spells:

Find Familiar (You only ever cast this again if the Familiar dies, and you can ritual cast it)

Silvery Barbs (V)

Shield (V, S)

Magic Missile (V, S)

Feather Fall (V, M) (if you can't get a Gem of the Warmage, just go ahead and get something else that doesn't require material components)

Sleep (V, S, M) (this is usually not always a combat spell, so its okay that it has a material component)

Then 2 more at 2nd level:

Fog Cloud (V, S)

Detect Magic (V, S) (Ritual)

You also get Arcane Deflection (what we are here for!) and Tactical Wit (bonus to initiative).

And that's the build! We are online at level 3. We attack with booming blade, and scare the enemy so they run away from us and trigger the booming blade. We use Arcane Deflection to keep attacks from hitting.

So where do we go from here?

After wizard is online, we don't need too much more from it

Level 4 & 5 - Fighter 2 and 3

We pick up action surge and then become a Psi Warrior fighter. Psi Warrior abilities key off of Intelligence. You get damage reduction ability, which deals extra damage, and the ability to move large to tiny objects from far away.

Future of the Build

Well that's it! That's the build. You are pretty much doing what you wanted to do. Which is Booming Blade with Menacing Attack. You just wait for a critical hit. You get to force the Booming detonation. You also get a reaction bonus to your AC and Saves. And there are a lot of really cool choices for you!

Fighter

You can level up any which way from here, including going 18 levels into Fighter (you get great subclass features from Psi-Warrior all the way up). If you do so, you'll want to use Future ASI to bump up intelligence.

That means Level 4, 6 and 8 gets you to Intelligence 20, which you will want because your attack combo is Booming Blade, Menacing Attack (Fear), Telekenetic Thrust (Prone).

You get War Caster after that. And get more techniques with any other ASIs after.

Now you Booming Blade the enemy to the ground and make them scared of you. They get up triggering the explosion from the blade. They go running away from you, and you reaction attack them with Booming Blade, they immediately trigger it again as they move out of your reach.

Artificer

You can also go Artificer. Battle Smith gives you a Robot Buddy, and you can go 15 levels and get the full Subclass features for it, which can all work with the build. If you go for this build, swap your intelligence and strength starting scores. You will also want to get to Artificer 3 as soon as possible.

Armorer Artificer also lets you do some true tanking, with an actual taunt. If you are planning to go this route, you can just not take Magic Missle for your Wizard level.

Either way, one of your first infusions should probably be Armor enhancement.

Artificer likes getting to level 10 if you don't go 15. This gives you 5 levels which you can use to get to Wizard 6 for extra force damage from War Wizard, or Fighter 8 which gives you 3 ASIs and the 2nd set of Psi-Warrior abilities.

Wizard

You can mix in Wizard levels as well, though I am personally not a fan of War Mage after the first couple of levels, you are still a Wizard, which is just.... amazing. If you go deep into this, you'll be a full caster. The war wizard capstone would give you like 21 damage across 3 targets (7 each) that they don't get a save from, every time someone attacks you. You'd still have 3 levels to get to Fighter 6 or Artificer 3.

If you are planning to take artificer levels (which should be Battle Smith if you are going wizard), I suggest taking those levels first before going 14 Wizard.

You can also take the full 17 levels of Wizard and have level 9 spells.

Thanks for Reading!

If you like this build, let me know over on twitter @PangoriaF

You can also support me on Ko-Fi where I sell dnd PDFs.

You can also gain exclusive access to other things I'm working on over on my Patreon.

I'm planning to do videos of these builds on my youtube channel.

If you need any special work done for your business or personal projects, check out Fiverr! It's a great place to get character drawings for your campaign!

Chrono Trigger - Episode 1

The (Un)characteristic Urge to Quit Retail

 or

How I'm Currently Feeling

It's difficult to go around and say, hey, lets do this work here and have to deal with customers. I'm telling you right now, customers are the worst. I love helping people but I hate customers. People I can deal with, customers are just transactional vampires, who want to make everything one-sided in their favor, while not actually spending the amount of money necessary to get those benefits.

A guest of mine, would understand my limitations, and what I can offer them. We work together to give them the value they can afford. I guide them through the help they need to accomplish their goals, and using my advice and guidance, they reach their goals, because they try.

Customers want things done for them. They want you to do the work. They do not, can not, and refuse to do the work. Customers are stupid, lazy, and often bigoted.

So how can we avoid customers in our life?

I think it's about how we present ourselves. We want to filter customers away quickly. Get them to give up and move on as fast as possible. That means, we want to set our boundaries with them and enforce them. If they feel hurt by those boundaries, that's not our fault. Because plenty of others work around our boundaries.

Say NO

So one of the first things I realized when I started to get tired of kowtowing to customers was that I valued myself higher than I valued their money for the company that fails to pay me enough to pay my rent. With that in mind, I learned to say NO.

And honestly, there's nothing quite like saying no to an old entitled white person. They get angry so quickly. I don't know if it's the shock or embarrassment that they should have known better, but they become so furious. Like cartoony in how their face deforms.

"Can I get the key to the bathroom?"

"No."

"Why not, why won't you let me use the bathroom?"

"Because someone is in there right now."

Take time OFF

I also do my best to stay away from my job. I use my sick time when I need it, even if its just because of a headache, or I woke up feeling mopey. I take my time off, and don't hold onto some grand vacation I'll never take and can't afford anyway.

I also make specific time for friends and family. Seriously, spend time with people that love you.

Also while at work, take your breaks. And don't feel like you have to be the person who handles the crazy customer. Excuse yourself and grab your manager. That's what they are getting paid for. For trouble.

Do not let customers dictate your mood

And focus on those wonderful guests of yours. They are the ones that make the work worth it.

Do not help those who will not help themselves

The frustration of it will be too difficult to be worth it. Ask them to try to do it themselves or tell them you will guide them.

My D&D 5e Build, the Charlatan

 In my D&D campaign, that I'm finally a player in, I have gotten to level 6 using a Warlock/Sorcerer build. Now part of what I was trying to figure with the build is, if it works on its way from level 1 to level 6. And it has some serious hiccups along the way.

The Beginning

I started off with Warlock 1, using the Celestial Patron. I chose my homebrew god, who encourages lying as a way to make people feel better about things, and said I was a Priest. I went 3 levels into this, until I got the subclass and chose Pact of the Tome. My eldritch invocation was to I could get ritual spells.

These first 3 levels were pretty typical warlock stuff, with some bonus action healing sometimes.

At level 4 when I got my first level of Sorcerer I chose Storm because of the bonus actions. I lied to everyone about getting hit by lightning and boom, I had storm powers.

I have to say, that the extra bonus action to escape was very useful. I was new to using a familiar (thanks to ritual casting) and was not using it to its full potential.

The Continued Mistakes

I then got to level 5 and messed up on prepping my spell slots for the day. The conversion is very unfavorable, and annoying to calculate. Not to mention you have to have a really solid conversation with your DM about this early set up. How many short rests can I take before I'm useless and have wasted too much of the day?

I didn't position myself well enough in some fights, and kept forgetting to save my slot for cure wounds with my familiar that's supposed to be doing the help action, but I didn't realize he could this whole time.

So I got up to level 6, where I can finally get Meta magic (I chose Subtle and Quickened). With my ultimate goal being Mold Earth and Flaming Sphere on enemies.

Future Planning

My current plans for this character aside from being a coffee lock, is to get a 6/6 split in Warlock and Sorcerer followed by an 8 level finalization into Trickster Domain Cleric. The final result being infinite Death Proofs.