Recent content by Kobold Stew

I quote Butch Cassidy and The Princess Bride more than anything else, but the perfect film for me is The Philadelphia Story, with Katherine Hepburn, Jimmy Stewart, and Cary Grant.

I think I disagree with the premise, that a single miss in combat creates a frozen narrative. If the state of play hasn't changed between the start and the end of the players' turn, that's on them -- they have the opportunity to move, and often they have bonus actions (which are a clunky...

A player can always create and religion or deity for their characters. Nothing I provide is unable to accommodate one more god somewhere in the cosmos.

I'd encourage you to look at a book series that Goodman Games put out for 3.5, which they called the Power Gamers' [Warrior] Strategy Guide. It was a step above many similar guides, crunching the numbers (with clear tables). Despite its name, it didn't point to a single way to optimize, and it...

It's not much, but any healing has the potential to have a disproportionate impact for the recipient of the healing. It can stop the need for death saves; and it gives you, without any other investment or specialization, the ability to get a colleague that's down back on their feet. It may not...

Of course he's not explicitly casting spells; if that's the requirement then there will be no casters at all. But, in Od 11 he is able to call up souls form the underworld (it starts as a necromancy) -- that's casting Speak with Dead. He can remove Exhaustion from himself (Odyssey 5-6, after...

And some fighters at Troy: Agamemnon: as leader, he believes he has Charisma. At his best (Iliad 11), he's out on the battlefield inspiring others. Maybe Paladin 10+? Ajax and Hector. In Iliad 7, we're told explicitly that they're the best two fighters apart from Achilles, and they are equally...

Oedipus has tricked out knowledge skills, with expertise in History and Investigation. The Noble background really works well for him (with the Keen Mind feat?). I first thought you might want an intelligence-based rogue (and in 2014 you'd want to have 3 Paladin levels so he's immune to disease...

Medea is at least a level 14 Glamour Bard. I was thinking Sorcerer or Warlock, but Mantle of Majesty is the closest to what we see at the end of Euripides' play when she appears in the dragon chariot, and she can cast Raise Dead (as she does on Pelias) -- not quite right, because once raised he...

Jason (in Apollonius' Argonautica) is an unoptimized high-charisma Ranger (class chosen because it's the one everyone thinks is the worst designed). He truly believes Hunter's Mark makes him best at battle.

Odysseus is tough, but I'm going to suggest he's got at least ten levels of Trickster Cleric in him (able to help others be stealthy; able to call on a favour from Athena when needed. That, and at least 7 levels of Rogue (possibly Assassin 9). But he's also proficient in longbows, so give him a...

Diomedes in Iliad 5 is a paladin; he's hitting and wounding gods; and so at least level 11. In Iliad 10, he's got at least two levels of rogue, and expertise in stealth (unless his stealth comes from being with a Trickster Cleric...)

There are a number of FATE games that do this. Not with full combat played out, but you can set the terms for your own character development, save the world if you want, all before adventuring starts. In Spirit of the Century, you work through 5 phases, and get 2 aspects from each of them...

I'm not sure this follows from the evidence in the poll. The poll is designed to skew conservative ("top 3 playable species"), and within that, only three species cross the 25%-of-those-sampled threshold. It would be nice to disambiguate those who chose half-elf; was that conceptually separate...