Anghraine

Okay, so I finally got the Mass Effect LE on sale just after my birthday this year, after my best friend and I had a blast playing two full runs on his old Playstation with his original discs (a noble, heroic Infilitrator!Shepard/Liara game and later, a tragic, somewhat edgier Vanguard!Shepard/Thane one). I haven't allowed myself to play it because of the diss etc, but my best friend and I needed to blow some time, so we got it up and running and figured we'd do the character customization for the Adept!Shepard I've been itching to try.

(My fantasy-loving brain is like "ahh, the full spellcaster, I have to try it out.")

Although Elizabeth in my percolating Mass Effect/P&P fusion is an Infiltrator while Darcy is an Adept, I suspect playing an Adept will get me more in that fun Shepard!Elizabeth/asari!Darcy frame of mind.

ANYWAY the point is that, holy shit, the Legendary Edition looks so beautiful on my computer. I thought the original held up pretty well considering, but this is going to be so cool once I can actually spare the time to play it!!!

Tangent: we were talking about how we'd make a homebrew spacefaring TTRPG, and I reminded him of a previous conversation about how we would TTRPG-ify Mass Effect to our specific preferences, and what kind of person we'd want to play.

me: I still want playable vorcha.
J: But you have to do the voice.
me: Oh, for sure. And playable hanar! A gun in every tentacle!!
J: No first-person, though, you get punished somehow if you don't say "this one."
me: Of course. Disadvantage every time you skip it.
J: What would you play, though?
me: Hmm, I'm not sure. I'd have to think about it. What about you?
J, after a moment's consideration: Honestly? I think I'd play a really, really old Ardat-Yakshi.
me: ...damn. Now that's a character concept.

My warlock managed to survive to level 6, so naturally, I’ve been looking at the powers she’ll have if she manages to get to … 14

When you have to make a death saving throw at the start of your turn, you can instead spring back to your feet with a burst of radiant energy. You regain hit points equal to half your hit point maximum, and then you stand up if you so choose. Each creature of your choice that is within 30 feet of you takes radiant damage equal to 2d8 + your Charisma modifier, and is blinded until the end of the current turn.

hell yeah

Tagged: #also i get to add my cha mod to any radiant or fire damage i do at all #so that would actually be +10 to whatever the roll is #this character is designed for theme and not effectiveness (her aasimar and celestial abilities overlap at multiple points) #but still #:D #and i have counterspell and dispel magic now so i feel a bit better about things

[ETA 4/26/2024: somewhat (though not always) hilariously, this character built entirely around her backstory and theme, sometimes to mechanical detriment, was more or less regarded as incredibly powerful by the group. This was fairer later on because Protector Aasimar used to get a trait that's minor at first but scales incredibly well at higher levels—i.e. your bonus damage is based on level rather than your spellcasting modifier, so any attack that hits at level 14 would add +14 damage. As a warlock with Eldritch Blast+Agonizing Blast, by level 11 she'd have to miss three separate rolls to not get the damage bonus. The real difficulty was avoiding melee combat aka death, hence my relief at getting her all the way to 6 in this post!]

I just found out that my warlock’s patron belongs to a legendary subspecies with a CR of 21.

:D

Tagged: #SHE IS WORTHY

[ETA 3/9/2024: She was a solar! It was awesome, but even her fantastic stats couldn't save her ;_; RIP to my character's awesome patron, she went out heroically]

diocletianscabbagefarm responded to this post:

I can imagine races like the Genasi as the offspring of minor nature deities like river gods, and Aasimar as ‘olympian’ children

I replied:

Oh, that could work! I was mulling it over, and thinking that a lot of demigods are more like supercharged humans than D&D races, and given how great Human Variant is in a more prosaic way, it might actually fit pretty well.

I take short breaks between one horrific story and the next, and I thought … okay, if there were an Ovidverse campaign and all the players were demigods, how would I build one?

…And now I have a character sheet open and am trying to decide between aasimar paladin and storm sorcerer. >_<

Tagged: #running over a name i really like (even in the actual character has a terrible story) sealed the deal

I was just thinking about how I've never really understood why some of my TTRPG gaming friends deliberately make ineffective characters built around some joke or bit. I mean, I get it intellectually, I just don't get the appeal subjectively—I build characters I find interesting, but also have a strong preference for being competent (at the least). But I often don't get the appeal of most humor, so it's not that strange.

However! I'm so tempted by the idea of doing a BG3 run with a cleric of Mystra/Gale romance for shits and giggles that it's making a little more sense to me now.

In response to this post, I added:

My Aasimar celestial pact warlock has gotten approval! HELL YEAH.

#i will stop talking about this now but i am SUPER EXCITED