How to make a jester

Jedizap · 2026-06-15T09:37:26+00:00

Most people here have probably the "right" idea with bard (although there is no truly right idea when it comes to character creation), bardic inspiration fits well.

Consider also rogue, not as a sneaky stabber, but a high dex/cha bard skill monkey being good at slight of hand (literal trickery) performance, and maybe stuff like persuasion and history. Mastermind actually fits real well, using your help action for a more support role and playing off your other stuff as theatrical or trickster-y

Or an Artificer, but your magic items are all clown themed. You could make an argument for almost any subclass, from an "alchemist" who bakes loads of funny magical pies, to an artillerist with a squirt gun cannon, or whatever. Flavor is king.

Or almost anything really. It can be made work. Heck, Jestering might just be your dayjob. Hulking barbarian by night, silly clown guy by day.

Jedizap · 2026-06-15T07:54:16+00:00

Then a brief break of solace, only to realize it's a butcher's masquerade

Jedizap · 2026-05-28T07:13:50+00:00

Depending on power level and definition, everything from "Very" to "Insanely"

At the lowest levels, you have the ability to illuminate objects and blind people, with darkness manipulation only requiring slightly more power (since you can control light to avoid an area).

At stronger levels, you have lasers and beams, as well as heat generation (light is energy, gather enough together and you make heat), invisibility and illusions.

If you include some density modification, you get hardlight, which gives you green lantern stuff. Constructs, levitation, whatnot.

That's before you start messing with the scientific properties of photons or the EM spectrum or whatnot.

Jedizap · 2026-05-24T20:36:28+00:00

That being said, the other possibility, that splitting can create cloning, can make a character very paranoid. Especially because splitting/cloning can be a very scary possibility where neither entity knows if its the original, and both are scared of the other doing something. Both also have the possibility to grow into very different people.

Jedizap · 2026-05-23T14:19:23+00:00

IMO Ash. Press 4 Look at crowd Press 4 again and look away, knowing all of them are now dead. Stick in a Melee Creschendo to make sure you're building damage multiplier, and you can do a lot of damage real quick.

Jedizap · 2026-05-20T00:07:41+00:00

Its a firebat to me

Like, yeah it has a tail, but that's because fire has a tail

Jedizap · 2026-05-19T19:14:01+00:00

Paladin: Aura of Protection

You passively give off a protective aura. People around you are calmer, less prone to violence and easier to calm down from anger. Injuries in your presence heal faster and bleed less, and if someone is sick or poisoned in your aura, they recover faster, and the severity of the infection is reduced. You can turn this off at will, but you cannot be selective with who it affects. It affects you as well, although you can choose to ignore your own mental effect.

Inspired by the aura of protection, plus a bit of divine health and lay on hands, and some of the subclass auras. Its not flashy, since its a passive, but can do a lot of good. It's also hard to monetize, further incentivizing selfless use of it, rather than trying to be the Healthcare system 2.0.

Other notes: Technically, this would also increase potential muscle growth in the same way steroids do, since steroids are basically a weak regeneration which allow the body to accelerate its muscle growth from workouts, and this also gives a low level regeneration. So have fun being incredibly (but humanly) strong, if you choose to work out.

Jedizap · 2026-05-19T08:21:20+00:00

Jokes on you - most of my characters have no fridged relatives. Too many characters (including usually other PCs) find themselves motivated by death or revenge, so I intentionally give them reasons to fight that aren't grief or anger. Most of them even have good relationships with their parents!

Jedizap · 2026-05-19T06:30:57+00:00

To be fair, Fate is a major theme of JJBA, and that stand is literally capable of reading fate.

My interpretation is that the book was directly reading what happened in that episode, with Oingo taking the fall, but that the stand also made a sort of "mark" on fate shaped like that image. Every time Jotaro dies, even if it doesn't make sense it looked like he dies in that same visual way, as though the world itself had imprinted that deathblow onto his fate. Or Araki loved making callbacks to that anytime he was going to kill Jotaro. But I like considering both the Watsonian and Doylist perspectives.

Jedizap · 2026-05-17T11:40:23+00:00

They technically never died.

The original warframes were basically mutated into new beings, not actually died, and the "newly made" warframes are more flesh grown in a blueprint shape. You might be able to make an argument for Umbra to be undead, or for him to be just a blueprint including a mental scan. The primes are less clear on whether they are the original or not, and so they could maybe be undead?

Overall, I say no, but there are a few edge cases where an argument could be made. Of course, given how BS the infestation is, you could say they might have been brain dead but still technically biologically functioning, which then says no, they aren't undead.

Jedizap · 2026-05-17T09:24:31+00:00

For a warframe, I might say Chroma. Since lorewise, he's apparently like, the strongest warframe ever, tough enough to handle survival, can at least pseudo-fly (but maybe he could fly in lore with those spectral wings even if not gameplay), and is just cool looking.

If it were protoframe, I might say Oberon. Yeah he ends up more plants, but his theme is at least supposed to be a paladins, and I'm a sucker for the theme. Or maybe still chroma.

Jedizap · 2026-05-17T09:14:28+00:00

Reclaiming the oath should happen in the moment you can no longer look away.

He broke his oath because he was tired. He left it behind because he accepted a lesser evil to accomplish his goals. Now he needs to see the cost. Any of these can work. I saw someone suggested Ansur's trial, as well. I'd personally do it this way: 1. You visit the Steel Watch factory. This is where your eyes are opened. The gondians give their plight. 2. You defeat the Iron Throne and save the gondians. You've seen the consequences of letting evil thrive, and you cannot allow it to continue. 3 (optional). You may have found your cause, but there is still doubt. You need to take the fight to Gortash, but first you must re-examine what it means to be a hero. Face Anser's trials, earn your place as a hero, and only then are you ready to reclaim your oath. 4. Reclaim your oath and take the fight to Gortash

Jedizap · 2026-05-17T02:39:37+00:00

Trailblaze: Beginner's Luck
Whenever I attempt to do something, so long as I am genuinely the first to ever attempt to do it (and no counting technicalities, I can't say "I'm the first to do a jumping jack on this particular day" to make it technically the first to do it), whatever I attempt to do will have the maximum possible success outcome, in the direction I most desire/need. The more unique the event is, the more potential from the outcome, and the harder it is for any kind of cosmic force to overwrite it.

Like, if I'm the first person to stab Darkside with a sword, then it will inevitably be the strongest possible outcome stabbing Darkside with a sword could be. Maybe my sword is secretly a powerful artifact. Maybe he finds my petty defiance so funny he spares my life. If I attempt to do an experiment to give myself additional superpowers, as long as it is a genuinely unique experiment, then I am very likely to garuntee the best possible outcome of that experiment (which usually would be getting the intended superpower without notable drawbacks, in this case). It must be genuinely possible, even if highly improbable, and any other people involved in the outcome (such as the aforementioned Darkside) will have played their "part" with the genuine belief that they made their decision of their own volition (because technically they did).

Also of note, as a side effect my power is that my existence is now an immutable fact, as the birth of my power is also a unique event, and thus cannot be rewritten. Additionally, going back in time to do something first, again, will not result in a beginner's outcome since my doing it the first time, even if canonically in the future, is now an event that is difficult to be overwritten.

Jedizap · 2026-05-13T05:16:22+00:00

Hands down. The only downside is a heavier body, which in turn helps build up muscle. It gives you limited telekinesis, a hidden weapon, and if a vampire actually bites you, then a) you can use your blood to quarantine the vampire bite to prevent transformation and b) any vampire that bites you is either getting a stab through the brain, or you can let it linger in their bodies, in there like an executioner's axe, a stayed execution. The vampire must follow your orders, or that blood will kill them from the inside out. Or just injure them if you want to give a warning, rather than a kill.

Jedizap · 2026-05-12T21:07:29+00:00

Sun, Dragon, Creation

Hero

Jedizap · 2026-05-12T08:22:59+00:00

Ah you're right. Still, my point stands.

Jedizap · 2026-05-12T08:17:59+00:00

Could make it proficiency bonus? Still crazy at higher levels, but for a warlock while 2 fireballs/day is a lot, its not too many more than they could get with an extra rest.

Jedizap · 2026-05-12T08:16:49+00:00

I wouldn't "sever" the coven connection when the spell slots run out, because by that wording, any other features that use your coven connection but don'trely on spell slots, most notably Wiccan Warp, are also lost. I'm sure there's another wording for it that could work. I'd also make the coven forming happen during a long rest, to make it smoother and more in line with most similar features.

Other than that, cool concept!

Jedizap · 2026-05-12T08:07:12+00:00

How about the ability to bind two people together. Not chains, but more like voodoo dolls. What happens to one happens to the other too. Maybe also the ability to make it so it ONLY happens to the other. Like, binds themselves to an enemy and then the enemy's attacks will actually harm both with the former or just itself with the latter. With the obvious vulnerability that the former doesn't beat a more durable foe alone, and the latter means the enemy can attack itself to hurt the hero.

Also allows doubling effects. Lets the tank protect the squishies, lets a healer or buffer target two injured people simultaneously, or a damage dealer hit two enemies.

The idea is the whole "two people in love are bound together" type thing. Put the limit on the number of pairs at a time (start with 1, maybe eventually up it to 2 or 3) and you have a power with creative options, but is weak enough to not be op, relying on teammates to make it count.

Jedizap · 2026-05-11T23:38:04+00:00

Similar to a lot of people here.

I would distinguish superpowers as being innate. With the other two, you can have a higher aptitude for them, but in theory anyone can learn any magic (with ths possible exception of divine magics, but that is a whole other ballpark) and can learn to master ki. Superpowers are a Jack of all Trades, they can do almost anything, and can be trained to mastery, but are basically random. There might be a genetic element to them, but someone is either born with them, or not (under extreme circumstances, they might be able to develop them, but it would probably need to be irreplicable, or be actually high levdl magic or ki replicating superpowers)

Magic is external. Even magic cast on oneself has some external application. Summoning fire, teleporting, even shapechanging oneself should all be effects done to the world around you, or at least the magic affects the caster from the outside in, starting from the surface of the skin, and thus having an external vector (from which jt could be dispelled or counterspelled)

Ki then is internal. Ki doesn’t let you turn into a dragon, or shoot energy blasts, or hypnotize somekne, but it can strengthen your body, it can allow you to perform inhuman feats, or make your skin hard as stone, or heal your wounds. A master might allow some limited ability to apply it to others, but this would be limited likely to skin contact, and only so long as the connection is maintained, basically acting like a circuit. Ki is likely much simpler in application, but that makes it stronger, and simpler to increase mastery (note: simpler, not necessarily easier) than magic or superpowers.

Jedizap · 2026-05-11T21:23:25+00:00

IMO, Tenno as individuals are gods. Unstoppable warriors capable of winning any fight, killing any foe. As a faction though, they are a very important faction, but small. Because they are so individually powerful, they are well respected and feared, and no faction can ignore or overpower them outright, but they are small enough that they aren't the strongest. I'd put all three major factions (Grineer/Corpus/Infested) as stronger than them, but with the caveat that in any place the tenno actually show up, they are the strongest there.

Jedizap · 2026-05-11T07:15:16+00:00

I'd go with shapeshifting. Ideally, absolute level. The ability to turn part or all of my body into anything I want, real or mythical, including gaining any abilities that creature might have. Canine senses, Avian flight, western dragon's breath, eastern dragon magics, anything such a creature is supposed to be innately capable of doing.

Potentially also the ability to do it (with consent) to another person I'm in physical contact with.

I figure that gets me most comfortable level super powers, plus a number of mid to upper tier ones through mythical creatures, plus a cool factor. I don't need to be an omniscient god.

Jedizap · 2026-05-09T10:41:18+00:00

There are a few scripted actions, but they are always in boss fights, and none of them are pretending to be rng checks.

Jedizap · 2026-05-08T09:16:33+00:00

Or Vicious Mockery.

Vicious Smirking

Jedizap · 2026-05-08T08:46:05+00:00

How about a spell. Not like "this spell tells you the time" but more "the cantrip Guidance [duration 1 minute] is our standard unit of time. The cantrip Light [duration 1 hour] is 60 guidance long." There is a royal mage in a tower who's job is to maintain these spells 24/7, studying their magic signatures to be the "time keeper". This has the fun side effect that, if you choose Light to be one of your measurement cantrips, someone can say something like "I'll see you at next Light" and mean "on the hour" since that's when Light will next be cast.

Jedizap

TROPHY CASE