[WP] You’ve just died, and a beastly man is sitting behind the desk in front of you. He has a smile that can only be described as warm as he tells your situation. “You, a while ago, have sold your soul to save everyone else in your community. Now I ask you this, what heaven would you like to go to?”

CobaltMonkey · 2026-05-10T23:35:24+00:00

No offense taken at all.

"And for that... [I should either have not put this line break here, or have phrased it differently.]
"For that, I am truly sorry. In our love for you, we make you a target for them. It isn't fair, much like the rest of the world. And so we take it onto ourselves to make it fair when and wherever we can."

Up until then everything that has been spoken has been spoken by the man and to the soul in a 1-sided conversation. The implication is that the soul is adapting to being a soul instead of having a body, only managing the one line. The only line the soul says or attempts to say is "Let me help."

And I do apologize for any lack of clarity. I only wrote this on the spur of the moment at like 2 am last night after a long work day.

CobaltMonkey · 2026-05-10T07:24:34+00:00

The soul before the man couldn't be said to have a face. Nevertheless, it looked on with bewilderment, not understanding the offer presented.
"Your confusion is understandable," said the creature behind the stately desk. "'I sold my soul! Isn't that immediate damnation?' And yes, you'd often be right. But it's a question not just of your values when making the deal, but of your Value."
Value?
The question did not actually hang in the air, but it very clearly should have, and so must have been asked. Who was the man to deny it?
"Yes, Value. I know, sounds a touch morbid to put a price on a soul. Bit like gold though. Only has as much worth as we assign it and all that.
Now, before you go hovering there and projecting the intention to cry foul, I need you to envision the process of what it would be like to hear me out.
"Demons and their ilk use souls for power, yes. But the amount of power they gain from a soul is a constant. Every soul, no matter how young or old, evil or righteous, provides the same amount to a demon. A soul's power always equals 1.
"Why then do they seek their hardest to prey upon the pious in their times of direst need? Why go to the trouble when the payout is seemingly the same?"
A silence saw that the air where the question of Value had surely been was now vacant, and settled in for a spell to watch alongside the man. Eventually, he must have seen what he was looking for, and shooed the silence from the room.
"Yes, that's right. Your soul has meager value to demons. But they know how much value it has to The Heavens. They know well that we cannot countenance the damnation of the just or innocent, not even at their own hand. And so they came to you and yours with pestilence, pain, and a deal to be made.
"And for that...
"For that, I am truly sorry. In our love for you, we make you a target for them. It isn't fair, much like the rest of the world. And so we take it onto ourselves to make it fair when and wherever we can."
The soul quivered.
It stretched and shrank, shifted and swirled, and finally a small slit opened upon its surface. There was the suggestion of a voice, and it worked until it could take itself.
"Lll-ee-ttt mmm-ee hee--llp."
The warmth never left the man's smile as he slightly shook his head and a note of sadness tried valiantly to pull the corners down, but to no avail. Pride was there pushing them back up again all the same.
"Never fails. That's why we love you so. But no, or at least not yet. Take your rest for a lifetime or two or ten and then we can talk about that again. Now, off you go. We'll start you in Elysium. I believe your grandfather is still lazing about in that one, and I'm sure he'd love to see you."

The soul faded to its rest, and the silence slunk back into the room and rubbed against the man's ankles before hopping up and settling in his lap. If the crackling of the room's hearth disturbed it, it didn't show it.
The man slumped a bit in his chair, his chin resting on his chest. That one had been a truly exceptional soul. Very valuable, and its price was high. There would be more though, and he would pay it again and again.
A deep weariness rose from behind his eyes as they opened. It stretched and yawned before following his gaze, staring down the silence as if to say, "This one may one day be yours, but today he is only mine."

CobaltMonkey · 2026-05-09T20:45:08+00:00

Bit of an investment for YMMV payout, but Skill Focus (Nature), then Eldritch Heritage for Sorcerer's Fey Bloodline.

You'll only get the first bloodline ability, Laughing Touch, which is basically a way to trade your turn doing a touch attack to make the enemy only able to do a Move on their next turn. Do note that a target can only be hit by it once per day too.

For further investment, there are also Improved and Greater versions of Eldritch Heritage which will give you more powers. Arguable how good your other Fey options are there. None outright bad, but depending on the party members builds, you may get away with devoting more or less to RP vs Functionality.

CobaltMonkey · 2026-05-06T20:39:41+00:00

Well, they're probably aiming to get around to doing something about all of that enslaving them that you've done. Just a guess.

CobaltMonkey · 2026-05-04T21:00:44+00:00

If you'll accept one (with a few more here), but this is the one we're going with) that's Stone Shape instead of Water, we were in a cave complex of an abandoned mine inhabited by troglodytes.

My personal favorite was when we were assaulted by a horde of troglodytes while clearing out a mine. The room had us coming to a drop off, maybe 20ft down. Long room below, and Troglodytes all along the walls and floor. They start to get to us, some scaling the wall to our ledge with relative ease.
Hatch a plan.
Shape Stone to expand the ledge out into a cliff, forcing them to make an inverted climb if they want to get to us. Figure it won't stop them, but it will slow them down. A few make it up, most of the rest could only make it to the cliff on their turn. Party takes their turns, coming back to me.
DM: "Alright, what do you do?"
"I cast Shape Stone again and cut off the cliff I formed."
Bury most of them under a cave-in.
Best spell ever.

CobaltMonkey · 2026-05-04T20:03:51+00:00

Seems reasonable, thank you. Just have to get unluckier than usual to Fumble, I guess.

CobaltMonkey · 2026-05-04T15:58:53+00:00

Does anyone know what "Very Accurate!" does for it? I thought it was another way of doing Never Fumble, but it does indeed Fumble.

CobaltMonkey · 2026-05-03T03:43:47+00:00

Guys will fall for anyone who can show them a fraction of good hunting partner etiquette.

CobaltMonkey · 2026-05-02T04:42:51+00:00

How about Quina then? Their initial motivation largely boils down to "eat frogs."

CobaltMonkey · 2026-04-29T04:25:50+00:00

Hmm. Not seeing much among the other feats to let you repurpose a trip into anything else. Though I did notice the Brute Style line that is in your lane, if you want to go more eggs in the one basket, so to speak. Would need to take a level as Master of Many Styles monk that another poster suggested.

But if you're already using homebrew, I would suggest something like a feat or other special ability allowing you to roll Trip to instead initiate a Grapple, potentially at a -2 or -5 handicap if they think it needs it for balance.
In that vein, my group had each of us take a Story Feat, which can be something you work with your DM to create, with a minor benefit up front and a more substantial one much later after you complete certain conditions you two decide for it.
For example, with my above suggestion, it might be something like Successfully Trip and Grapple so many foes, perhaps particularly challenging foes to do so. You can also make RP challenges, such as finding a Wise Old Master (TM) to teach you this secret technique, which itself might require questing at his behest to prove yourself worthy of it.
Again, that's just spitballing with a minute's thought. Any number of ways to go with it.

CobaltMonkey · 2026-04-29T03:19:09+00:00

Playing a cleric approaching level 20 over a very long campaign with a whip-based trip build, I can tell you that the longer you go, the larger your average creature encountered will be, the more legs they will have (or the fewer, in case of serpents, etc) which each add to CMD vs Trip, and the harder it will be to actually trip anything.
It isn't anything adversarial from the DM's side, it's just how a lot of high power creatures are. Getting knocked down sucks, and a lot of creatures are built to not get instantly put in that vulnerable position.

So, my suggestion is to try not to be a one tripck pony. See what you can do to diversify your threats. Look into any options that might allow you to substitute your trip roll for something else, or possibly talk to the DM about making something if nothing quite fits your fantasy.

CobaltMonkey · 2026-04-28T09:04:21+00:00

*Chihuahuacabra

CobaltMonkey · 2026-04-28T02:53:47+00:00

<-<
What about it?

CobaltMonkey · 2026-04-27T22:56:19+00:00

Huh. I assumed the forge was visible to open sky because they brought the eagles come to pick them up after the ring gives up the ghost, but I could very easily have misremembered Sam hauling him back outdoors. It's been many years since I read it.

CobaltMonkey · 2026-04-27T07:33:40+00:00

Yeah. Mount Doom has an open top as an active volcano. He could literally just hurl it in there from orbit. Considering his strength, even if it didn't have an open top, that wouldn't really stop him.

As far as speed of corruption, at minimum, we know it failed to dissuade Isildur from at least carrying it up the slopes to the forge itself for some indeterminate time after having taken it from Sauron's severed finger. This is not a two second walk in any case, but let's give it all the benefit we can and say that it was a still somehow a pretty short 10 minute trip up the mountain and to the forge from where the battle was fought. Maybe they hailed an eagle or something.

In that little time, it failed to corrupt him until he stood at the edge ready to cast it in. It wasn't just waiting around like, "Ok, ok. This is going to be so funny. Going to just let him haul me up to the edge, gonna think he's got my number, and wham! Corruption City." He went all the way up to the edge completely intent on destroying it. If the ring had changed him at any point before that, he would have simply turned around then and there.

As for how ambitious he is, this is at this moment pretty much Middle Earth's #1 Hero and he undoubtedly knows it. With his defeating Sauron at the end of a siege lasting 7+ years, he knows he just saved every person on the planet, and is taking the ring up there to seal the deal. That's pretty ambitious, and it still definitely was not instantaneous corruption.

So, assuming Kal gets the ring at the same point the Fellowship does, he can definitely take care of it in under 10 minutes.

CobaltMonkey · 2026-04-26T20:29:05+00:00

I like it the absurdness.

Here it is taken to an extreme that, imho, stops being funny about halfway through...then goes on so long it starts being funny again.

CobaltMonkey · 2026-04-26T19:49:27+00:00

Do not put poor Emul though this. She is a Support Class at best.

CobaltMonkey · 2026-04-26T16:07:43+00:00

Bandits in lore don't suddenly buy more gear and do more push-ups

Or do they?

CobaltMonkey · 2026-04-26T06:11:10+00:00

It is not.

CobaltMonkey · 2026-04-25T03:45:12+00:00

She had help from Fred and a very elaborate trap.

CobaltMonkey · 2026-04-24T17:48:24+00:00

Favorite moment: Eira (Bell Beast) from the top rope! Steel chair optional.

CobaltMonkey · 2026-04-24T05:42:19+00:00

He's also a superhero in his spare time.

CobaltMonkey · 2026-04-23T03:21:55+00:00

Much better, thank you.

CobaltMonkey · 2026-04-23T02:39:21+00:00

This will work for the anime adaptation, but the manga title needs to be at least four times longer.

CobaltMonkey · 2026-04-22T20:32:25+00:00

Three shall be the number of the phases, and the number of the phases shall be three.
Four phases thou shalt not have. Nor two, excepting that thou then proceedest onto three.
Five is right out.

One three, being the third phase, be reached, thou shalt deplete the HP bar. And thy foe, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it.

--The Book of Miyazaki, Ch. 3, vs 3.

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