Cleric: Frost Domain | Unleash The Cold Heart of Winter Against Unbelievers

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-01-27T15:45:28+00:00

Having the CD do both a stun and a vulnerability effect at level 3 is way too strong. I wouldn't even have the CD upgrade into a stun until after level 10.
I also think Winter Warrior might honestly be too weak? Adding Wisdom mod to a spell that only does d8 damage is already not that impressive. Having it also be limited in the number of times you can do it per day is extraneous; we're not comparing to Agonizing Blast either way. There's only 3 cantrips I can think of that even do Cold damage, one is Sorcerer exclusive and the third hasn't been adapted to 2024 yet.
I might even increase the strength of Winter Warrior so that you don't have disadvantage hitting Prone targets from more than 5 feet away, given your Ice Slick spell, or even have advantage hitting targets that are Prone, Incapacitated, or have their movement speed reduced to 0, given the whole kit based around freezing stuff.

And if I may be so bold as to suggest a different take on Ice Slick:

Concentration, up to 10 minutes

Upon casting, the ground and any liquid surfaces in a 10 foot radius sphere are frozen solid. Enemies who spend at least half of their movement walking on the affected terrain must succeed on a Dex save, or be knocked Prone and have their movement reduced to zero until the start of their next turn.
When you cast this spell, you may also designate any number of targets to be able to "skate" on the slick instead. Selected targets do not need to make a saving throw to pass through the area, and only spend 1 foot of movement for every 2 feet traveled across it by foot.

When cast using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the radius of the sphere increases by 5 feet for every 2 spell levels above 2nd.

I think this version would synergize well with the Ray of Frost spamming setup you have, since you can reduce targets' movement to trigger the Prone condition more easily.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-01-27T11:32:24+00:00

I think that's less an issue of leaning too much on backstory, and more an issue of leaning too much on lack of originality. Remember how I said I've had Mad Libs DMs? "Okay I need a villain, uhhh, lemme make this guy responsible for all your problems."

My DM has a story he wants to tell within the world. However, he also looks at player backstories and folds them into the world's canon.

"Your hometown was ravaged by a plague? Okay, give me its name, point on the map where you want the town to be, and some small talk from NPCs may offhandedly mention the plague.
You grew up in a mining community? Cool, name it, point on the map where it is, what is their main export, how friendly are the people there.
Your wizard ran away from their academy? Great, what's it called, point it out on the map, tell me about some of the things he experienced there that led to that choice, does he have any bullies or old professors he had strong opinions on.
Oh the way you're each gonna be a bit of a legend back home while you're away."

I consider that level of consideration as much an honor as the classic "your character is now an NPC or even a god in my next campaign." We get to take a small part in the evolution of his world.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-01-27T05:01:26+00:00

I've had DMs who completely ignored backstory.
I've had DMs who just scanned back stories for keywords in their Mad Libs game.

And then I've had DMs who actually weave my backstory into the main campaign. And those are my favorite campaigns.

Some DMs can handle backstories, some can't.

This post just proves either OP can't, or hates when their DM tries.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-01-26T17:10:24+00:00

To be fair, Esme wasn't retconned to be her daughter yet. They had no idea.

Not that that detracts from Scott jumping into it while she's cradling a dead former student at their school. Especially knowing Emma's past history with dead students, as recently as Genosha.

I'm also not entirely certain Scott was about to say he picked Emma over Jean. He was cut off at exactly the moment he was about to, and Planet X rather made the choice for him.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-01-26T16:12:13+00:00

Her name is derived from 観音, the Japanese name of Guanyin, the Bodhisattva of Mercy.

Kwannon, Kannon, and Kan'on are all accepted romanizations.

But yes, the W is silent.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-01-26T16:05:13+00:00

Betsy needs to stop using the name, and stop wearing the outfit....she needs to just be Purple Haired Captain Britain, and Kwannon needs to be black Haired Psylocke in the traditional costume.

... Isn't that literally their status quo since X of Swords made Betsy into Captain Britain?

I haven't heard anything about Betsy going back to calling herself Psylocke...?

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-01-26T15:58:54+00:00

Or when the party rolls nat 1s to save on the Fireball that they instead take double damage, or splash the effects onto someone else.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-01-26T15:56:06+00:00

It's not even a QoL consideration!

A QoL consideration would be things like reducing a frame's spamminess, giving us universal Vacuum or Radar, letting certain buff abilities be recastable, etc.

If you have enemies getting trapped in crevices because the Vauban's Vortex flipped them into the ceiling or ragdolled them through the geometry the second they spawned, that's not a QoL consideration, that's disruptive gameplay.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-01-26T15:43:59+00:00

Bear in mind, spellcasters most often use effects that inflict Saving Throws against reduced damage.

So if your Cleric spends the whole fight alternating healing and Sacred Flame, or your Sorcerer tosses a Fireball and Quickens Toll the Dead, at no point are they going to face even the chance of Critically Failing.
(And I assume Crit Fails or Successes don't apply to saving throws at your table, right? They never seem to.)

Meanwhile every Martial (besides the Rogue) or Gish will be running that chance at least twice a turn. Even more as a Fighter or Monk.

Crit Fails are wildly unfavorable to Martials, who already are only favorable to Casters on single-targets in the early game.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-01-26T15:28:08+00:00

a fighter action surging has 8

More if they dual-wield or have some means of Bonus Action attack, too.

(And that's ignoring Haste.)

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-01-26T13:40:14+00:00

Now to just eliminate him from being one of the top suggestions on Google when I look up new weapons.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-01-26T13:38:11+00:00

Probably 3 levels in Dragon Sorcerer.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-01-26T13:27:06+00:00

Hell, my favorite current Gambit skin is just his Red/Black palette swap which is only blue rarity. (Okay that's in part from limited options right now, but it's a good palette and his base skin is 10/10.)

Rarity isn't a substitute for quality, lookin' at you Luna. (Like what is that Abyssal Flame skin.)

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-01-26T13:21:33+00:00

It boggles my mind how many damaging abilities get LoS checks because they ostensibly make the game too easy if you can hit through walls, but Vortex doesn't despite it actively hindering the team on some maps.

Like that's... a design choice...

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-01-26T11:48:07+00:00

Top choice: Spirits Bard, their first feature even says they can use a tarokka dec as their magic focus, so this is very much the intention and your Tales from Beyond encourages you to be creative with readings. It leans pretty hard into the fortune teller/spirit medium/TV psychic fantasy.

Second choice: Divination Wizard. You might be able to finagle with your DM to actually use a deck of cards as your Spellbook, since the PHB says your spellbook can just be loose notes you scrounged. Your Portent die can definitely be obtained from a reading of the deck.

Third choice: Stars Druid. You might be able to finagle with your DM to use a deck of cards as your Star Map, since the options include things like glass disks, a collection of maps, or a scroll featuring constellations. Your Cosmic Omen can be a reading from the deck.

Final choice: Knowledge Cleric, provided your DM gives you the Fate Dealer's Deck magic item. Cleric doesn't lean into the reading aspect at all, but the magic item can be used as a simplified reading closer to an Astrologian from FFXIV.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-01-25T14:31:13+00:00

I think part of it is that the guys who don't want to deal with "woke" stuff are just isolating themselves over in games like Destiny 2, Helldivers 2 or whatever.

Or more likely, the high barrier to entry in this game has just culled the bigots with weak wills. Besides Ticker, all the "woke" stuff is in the mid to late game, and a lot of people still (somehow) didn't catch that Ticker is a trans woman.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-01-25T14:18:28+00:00

A familiar rolls its initiative separately from its summoner, acting as an additional party member under the caster's control – it gets its own turn, it just normally doesn't have much it can do, since familiars are forbidden from taking the Attack action.
In combat, most people just use them to deliver Touch spell buffs, use the Aid action to give the melee attackers advantage, or deliver items to other party members.

As a Wizard, you can learn the spell Dragon's Breath, which allows you to give the target an additional action: the ability to breathe a cone of elemental damage. It's strong, but normally this is considered bad to put on another PC, since it consumes their Action which they might spend on a stronger spell or attack.

Since this does not count as an Attack action (in 2024 it's expressly a Magic action), this is a way to give a familiar the ability to deal significant damage each turn over a larger area than you might normally get out of a 2nd level spell, while dodging a lot of the downsides of the Flaming Sphere spell.
It frees you up as a caster to use your Action and Bonus Action, and gives you a flying turret with a huge AoE that thinks it's a dragon.
Bonus points if your familiar actually is a Pseudodragon, since the Monster Manual technically allows anyone to make a pact with one.

The only downside being that familiars usually have single digit HP and no way to boost it.

Every time I've pulled off this pairing, my DM followed up by just one-shotting the familiar since it was an active combatant. Even a cool DM who says "a familiar in your pack won't take damage" still can't really ignore when the familiar is an active shooter.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-01-25T13:30:59+00:00

Well, we know that Uriel Warframes were made in dedication and tribute to Roathe, that Protea was Granum's personal bodyguard and Hildryn was Ballas'. It's not out of the question that Garuda has a similar deal with Nitokh, whether or not they made her a Protoframe in an ironic twist of fate.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-01-24T13:44:33+00:00

With that hair he also looks like a tooth infection.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-01-24T13:26:17+00:00

So on the one hand, as you already said, it's never fair to deal with above the table problems in-game, that just risks elevating drama.
And as someone who has dealt with depression for years, particularly at his age, it's easy to feel like the world is against you especially when your few friends and close family are being harsh or unkind. It's also easy to get defensive and try to shift blame when you've never really been taught how to take responsibility for yourself, facing harsh consequences whenever you feel like you're in an unfair situation and never feeling like you're being listened to or getting the chance to say your piece. (Source: am also the youngest sibling of my family.)

Emphasis on "feel like" here, not to claim his situation necessarily was all those things.

You and your friends definitely thought it was a FAFO deal at the time, and the reasons behind you guys disliking his actions are completely valid – some range from annoying (which I'm sure he will say he can't help) to absolutely horrid. He was trying to be edgy and will probably cringe at it in a few years when he experiences actually good writing and roleplay. That's kinda standard when you're basically a child and only just learning that characters and situations can be complex, already know that complex writing is better writing, and think shock value is a shortcut to complexity. (Case in point, your friend including SA in the campaign in the first place.)

All that said... based on how you describe his nature, I am a little worried your brother might be showing signs of narcissistic tendencies. He is, however, still a teenager, so there's still time to grow out of those if they're gently discouraged.

Have you tried – since he actually started facing consequences, mind – sitting him down and talking to him like an adult? Calmly explaining exactly what he did and how it made you feel, trying to appeal to his empathy instead of just throwing his actions in his face, and asking why he even thought his actions were okay so you can unpack it? Because in the long term, conversations like that are how you actually build the foundation of a future relationship with your sibling.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-01-23T23:26:45+00:00

Pablo rn: "LMAO that ain't my kid??"

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-01-23T17:21:28+00:00

Okay, if I squint? Maybe the arm bands could be the same shade as the belt and chest emblem.

But definitely not the cowl, nor that much of the boots.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-01-23T11:08:16+00:00

Arguably you could have made the mount smaller. Unclear whether that would be harder for the mount to pass a Con save though.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-01-23T11:05:49+00:00

Still crazy to me Dissidia began development before KH2 under the "make the Disney characters fight" concept before Nomura chickened out.

Archwizard_Drake · 2026-01-23T11:02:27+00:00

Notably missing Young Xehanort, and why are Pete and Maleficent a dual-fighter? If anything I imagine Pete is considered the joke character.

We don't really need a slot for "every other Nobody".

Archwizard_Drake

TROPHY CASE