Random DM nagging.

[Anastasia]

Canderella

To be totally honest, I don't have a lot to say about Canderella. She's not a bad character, I like her even, but she's never been one with a lot of depth. Her issues tend to be played more for light amusement rather than deep reflection, which matches how self assured she is. If there's one thing she has in spades, it's self confidence - to the point she managed to mutually befriend Ebony, who is the last person you'd think would.

Mechanically she was a mess. Her rebuild helped, but she was a case of being too experimental and too dippy. I'm not sure how I'd fix it to be frank.

Sylvie

Not everyone who wanders the planes gets what they want. Those that do find their dreams sometimes find it wasn't what they needed, no matter how much they wanted it. This can be seen Sylvie, who is ultimately a tragedy of talent and circumstances. Her life went wonderfully and then became a nightmare in B2 thanks to Shar and Janson's demise. She was unable to accept that he wasn't coming back and left to travel the planes. Ultimately she became entangled in 21 and ended up keeping it in spite of all plans, which lead her to...well, whatever awaits her as she continued to change as the game reached its climax.

Make no mistake, in 99 of 100 times Sylvie could be powerful, happy and well off if she applied herself. This is the 100, a time where circumstances went brutally wrong and kept going wrong when it mattered. She was never able or willing to fully heal from losing Janson, which lead her to her journey, which lead her to 21, which lead her to that tragic fight with Jaela over 21, which lead to her keeping it longer and longer. For all that it's usable by mortals, 21 was never meant to be and is more than what is seen. The tools of the Incarnations are not mere magical trinkets to be used, but things far more primal and grand.

21 has changed Sylvie and will continue to change Sylvie. Where that path will go...well, none of you know and may never know. I only hope she finds happiness again one day. Sylvie wasn't meant to keep 21, but circumstances are circumstances and she's taken on a destiny meant for another. Rather fitting with the heavy destiny of Balmuria's world, no? At least it got rid of Taelfagn forever, which was worth the price of admission.

Mechanically I really enjoyed Sylvie's build. Factotum is rock solid with support, especially as you gain levels and can help fill it in more. Chameleon is also good - to the point I consider it soft banned in gestalt, Sylvie got grandfathered in. Together and with a few dashes of other classes for flavor and direction, it's top notch and let Sylvie do almost anything she wanted. Playing a genuine, nearly omnitalented character was fun. In the end I prefer someone like Adrian or Kascha, who is more focused, but Sylvie was well worth the mechanical effort.

[Ebiris]

Canderella and Ebony doing stuff in the background was always a nice bit of set dressing if nothing else.

As for Sylvie, at least she seemed to have fun hanging out with Ithea and Balyss and Simmer? The timeline where Janson got resurrected then retired from adventuring is probably much nicer though, yes.

[Anastasia]

It was, those two made good background whenever desired.

I'm not saying Sylvie didn't have fun at times, but her overall story arc is tragic. Especially later on as 21 was understood by her more. Her trip to the Far Realm and managing to lie with 21 briefly opened a door for her, one she ultimately chose to step through. Not that she liked it, but well...[spoilers].

[Yuthirin]

I always got a kick out of Canderella trolling Vivantha.

[Anastasia]

Tepen

Tepen is a tale of two characters, but at heart he's an old man thrust into one last war. He was given horrible circumstances and survived, all by being a mentor, sage and supporter for Aurora. Not every hero is one who fights directly, many heroes are nurturers who see the wisdom in supporting others and letting other heroes grow. Above everything else, Tepen is a teacher. Aurora was his class and he made sure they graduated with flying colors.

When all else said, isn't that enough?

Unlike a lot of other characters, I don't have deep thoughts on Tepen. He works for exactly what he is.

Mechanically Tepen worked fine. Splashing in factotum was amusing, but the simple truth was that he was intentionally uninteresting mechanically. Tepen doesn't need to be interesting mechanically, he just needs a wizard spell selection to cover what he needs to cover.

Misalea

Misalea faded greatly in the coda. No reason in the end other than I feel she got a bit lost in the shuffle. That being said, she was good at what she was, a minor character who took up a fallen NPC's blade and tried to fill her shoes. She had a decent story arc there, one that could've had more time but still did what it needed to do. Still, she slipped into blandness as things went on, so I let her mostly retreat into a safer role.

Her romance with Adrian was purely a fluke of the dice, one I went with since why not? It's perfectly normal for two people to meet and hit it off, and sometimes it keeps going until rings and vows are exchanged. It was nice and ultimately not really focused on heavily. It was a story but not really any of your stories, one between those two alone. I can't imagine what their children will be like genetically - a star elf with a fey bloodline and a hagspawn with dragon's blood equals ???. Spoiler: Elf base with all sorts of odd traits and add ons. Adrian's a fairly muscled and large warrior, combine that with the dragon blood and you'll likely see abnormally tall children if nothing else. That trait's likely to breed true thanks to the dragonsblood. They'll likely have a natural bend to being sorcerers, as that's one of the few things all of their genetics agree on.

The fact that they can even breed is one part D&D and one part Selune, FYI. She's had her eye on Adrian awhile and she has an interest in mothers and childbearing, so a tiny push there solved a few potential problems. Magical prenatal care doesn't hurt, either.

Mechanically Misalea is an absolute mess. She needed a rebuild, never wanted to do it, ugh. If she ever sees action again, it'll be after a lengthy rebuild.

[Anastasia]

Today's post was late, blame life. Tomorrow's I'll hit Dana and Baleruk, hopefully in the morning.

[Ebiris]

Misalea basically got superceded by Mirima as far as Graceful Blow representation goes when the latter showed up.

Also she caused trouble by refusing to use her bard buffs to help people out whenever she took part in fights which definitely took some of the shine off her.

[Anastasia]

Misalea basically got superceded by Mirima as far as Graceful Blow representation goes when the latter showed up.

Also she caused trouble by refusing to use her bard buffs to help people out whenever she took part in fights which definitely took some of the shine off her.

Yeah, no argument to any of that. You aren't wrong.

[Anastasia]

Yuth and Cor are still finishing up, but we're winding down fast.

So hey, what about that game while I take a vacation. Was that gonna happen?

[Anastasia]

Also Yuth, I'll try and get with you Saturday or Sunday for a long posting run.

[Anastasia]

A bonus credits post will be up once everyone's done, just FYI.

[Yuthirin]

Sunday would be best

[Anastasia]

Sunday would be best

Cool, we'll see how it goes.

[Anastasia]

Dana

Not every hero is a shining exemplar. Every so often you get one who is a hero for other reasons, far from altruistic. In Dana's case, she's a messed up woman who is more at home fighting than talking, killing than romancing, bleeding than nurturing. A brute who wants pain rather than pleasure, she combines this with an innate disrespect for authority, challenging nature and altogether defiant attitude. The fact that she's also an aasimar is one of those strange, strange quirks of fate.

Anyway, I always enjoyed playing Dana. She was intensive to run and required a good mood and mental clarity to make her diatribes flow well, but she was fun. She worked. I always felt Dana had a unique voice amid Aurora's cast, one willing to be her own person and not giving the slightest of fucks about what anyone else thought of her. An egotist who was only non-evil because she preferred to beat up evil and a lack of any one thing that pushed her into wickedness, she fought the good fight with Aurora.

To point out an elephant in the room, Dana is a masochist. That's obvious based on how she acts. That by itself isn't intrinsically evil. It can easily go there and usually does, but merely enjoying pain isn't an innately evil thing. Likewise being defiant of authority isn't automatically evil - it's chaotic if anything. The fact that she likes to fight isn't good or evil, it's D&D where combat is a big deal on all sides. She's the sort of person who could easily be NE or CE, but never really found a motivation or push into it, so ends up firmly neutral. She's a bit of an odd duck as far as alignment goes, as she has a lot of calling cards of someone who slips into evil, but somehow it never happens. Maybe her aasimar blood is good for something after all.

Mechanically Dana sucked at first, then got a rebuild into a pure psychic warrior/fighter type. Her new build was much better and one I enjoyed, it's a shame she wasn't in a game where she got more focus with it. I really enjoyed what she did with it.

Baleruk

THE MIGHTY BALERUK-ah, heck with it. Baleruk's a lot of fun but he's essentially a study in egotism. That's his entire purpose, draconic arrogance and selfcenteredness taken to the next level. He got dumb lucky that the PCs decided to aid him instead of stop him, then he managed his apotheosis after all. By any standard of planar politics he's won beyond his wildest dreams, even with a curse laid on him.

I really enjoy Baleruk, especially that for all his belligerent nature, he ultimately tends to fold if push him just so. For all his bluster and noise he's a bit of a house of cards, something that made interacting with him fun. It lets his windiness get punctured on occasion, which does a lot to make him more likeable. Y'all picked up on that as time passed and you gained skill in wrangling the dragon quasi-power.

Mechanically Baleruk was simple. Not much to say here, his lack of classes in gestalt is eh. Probably a mistake in hindsight and something I'd rebuild him out of for power reasons, but at the time I was worried he'd be too strong. Whoops.

[Anastasia]

Any further announcements about B3 or future gaming will be in here. I'm going to try and post something in here every day, responses are welcome. Most of this will be B3 analysis, though some will be about future gaming as well. Incidentally, my vacation won't begin until I finish up with Yuth soon enough and post the credits topic.  So the absolute earliest we may be gaming again, and that's if all the stars line up, is mid/late April.

I may try running two smaller but interconnected games, or simply two different games with a smaller PC cast. I don't know right now.

This is also the one chance y'all have to suggest new game ideas. Not veto or oppose ideas, just suggest them. I reserve the right to reject an idea for any or no reason whatsoever.