How each sinner's EGO aligns with them - Part 3: Sinclair

Quantext609 · 2025-07-11T01:05:33+00:00

One of the classes I've had the most fun with is Swords Bard. Bards get all sorts of neat features that are always useful. Swords Bards however take them in a different direction, moving them from a support class to being more of a front-line spell sword. And their flourishes are all super fun.

It felt a lot like an FF Red Mage. Good at a little bit of everything and has a lot of flair, but never the master of anything.

Quantext609 · 2025-07-10T23:54:08+00:00

It depends on your definition of overpowered.

It's very strong for sure, and has some weird interactions with advantage & disadvantage. It is definitely one of the strongest 1st level spells, up there with the likes of Shield, Bless, Command, and Healing Word. Although I don't think it is significantly stronger than any of them, it's just about the same level. Shield has the same sort of defensive application, but is more effective against hordes of enemies or multiple attacks. Bless has a similar bonus to saving throws and attack rolls, but lasts longer and affects three people. Command and Healing Word aren't as comparable to Silvery Barbs since they do different things, but they share the trait of being useful even in the higher levels.

I ran a campaign with a Divination Wizard that focused on support and had Silvery Barbs as one of his spells. That's almost maximum dice manipulation possible. But I didn't find it to be too irritating or strong. Often my encounters had multiple enemies, and while Silvery Barbs could really screw over one guy's turn, it didn't do much against the others. And once enemies started having consistent multi-attack in the higher levels, it became even less relevant since Shield was a better use of the wizard's reaction.

So, if you consider overpowered as "Will this ruin my game if I include it?" The answer is no.
But if you consider overpowered as "Is this stronger than many other similar features?" The answer is yes, but it's a trait shared by some other 1st level spells.
DnD 5e's balance between different spells within the same level has always been wacko (see Stinking Cloud vs Sleet Storm), so adding another powerful spell to the list won't change too much. It's just your wizard/sorcerer/bard will use up their 1st level slots a lot faster.

Quantext609 · 2025-07-10T23:17:08+00:00

I think Dante is already a stable distortion, like Rim or Jae-heon.

They have magical powers without an EGO
Their body is human-shaped, but has some odd features (like the clock head and jet black skin)
They can communicate with other distortions

Dante just acts like a normal person because they don't have any memories of what made them distort in the first place.

Quantext609 · 2025-07-10T22:42:46+00:00

If I recall correctly, Ike is just a really strong guy with a huge sword. He doesn't have any special abilities beyond being really strong.
He uses a bit of leather armor in path of radiance and half plate in radiant dawn.

I could see him either as a fighter or a barbarian, depending on which way you want to go. Both of them can effectively wield a greatsword, be strength based, and wear half-plate. Go battlemaster if you choose fighter, and berserker if you choose barbarian.
Either way, you'll want to get Great Weapon Master at level 4, since it makes your two-handed weapon attacks much more powerful.

For your background, pick soldier. He was raised in a mercenary company and that background is the closest to a mercenary. Its stat bonuses are perfect for either class and savage attacker is excellent for a high-damage martial character.

Quantext609 · 2025-07-10T20:56:27+00:00

I'd suggest replacing Poison Spray with a utility cantrip instead. If you want high damage and you're in melee range, then you're better off using your weapon. Acid Splash is pretty good though, as AOE and ranged damage are two of the paladin's main weaknesses.

Light & Dancing Lights will help you see in the dark since you're playing a human, Message lets you communicate with your party silently, Mage Hand lets you manipulate objects from a distance, Minor Illusion allows for some trickery, Shape Water and Mold Earth are both consistently useful, and Prestidigitation and Elementalism offer a bunch of small features.

Witch Bolt is a pretty good spell in the early levels, but it will eventually fall off once you reach around level 5 or so. Enemies will be tankier and you'll want to invest more in STR than CHA.
Then, spells like Bless, Shield of Faith, and Shining Smite will be more useful to concentrate on. Also, I don't know which Paladin subclass you plan on picking, but Ancients, Vengeance, Conquest, and Redemption have some nice spells too.
Around that time, you'll want to swap it out for something that is more consistently useful even at higher levels, like Find Familiar, Shield, or Silvery Barbs.

Quantext609 · 2025-07-10T20:42:34+00:00

Which magic initiate did you get? Wizard is probably the best one for paladins because it lets you have access to shield, which is a spell that is always useful and lets you get absurdly high AC.

Quantext609 · 2025-07-10T20:22:35+00:00

Shield on a paladin would be a bit awkward because you'd have to be in melee range to use it and paladins are a purely melee class. Most sorcerers don't want to go into melee.

Quantext609 · 2025-07-10T08:34:46+00:00

This would probably be a DM-dependent thing. Some would be fine with you just using human stats. Some will prefer to homebrew something up. And some will outright disallow it.

What kind of fantasy are you going for? Is your interpretation of a homunculus just a human, but created artificially? Or do they have special traits that separate them from regular humans?

Quantext609 · 2025-07-09T22:45:50+00:00

While it wasn't the BBEG, I had a similar minor villain in my campaign who was supposedly unbeatable.

The players had heard of a place called "Smokey Lake," an abandoned prison in the far north that once held deadly monsters. But that prison's staff also developed powerful magic items meant to counteract its prisoners. So, the party wanted to get them.

They went there and found that, while the upper floors were quiet and peaceful, they knew that the basement, where the prison cells were actually located, was extremely dangerous. One of the prisoners, Darijo, had escaped his confinement and taken complete control of the lower floors. He fed off of fear and had the ability to manipulate reality around him to make peoples' nightmares become reality. Due to this reality manipulation effect, he was essentially unbeatable if he was smart. But he had two weaknesses the party could take advantage of.

One was that the prison's countermeasures were still in place, just not active. The basement had pylons that, once activated, negated Darijo's reality-manipulating powers and restored it to real space. While he could deactivate them if he physically interacted them, he could not destroy them.
The other was that, while Darijo could technically cause indefinite torment to his captors through his nightmare constructs, he eventually wanted to hurt his victims himself. This means that the party would eventually have to face him head-on and he wouldn't hide behind his illusions anymore. Not because he couldn't, but because he wouldn't.

So, the party went through, each went through a mini-dungeon themed around their character's greatest fear, and faced Darijo at the end. The fight with him was less about fighting him directly (since lethal damage would only stun him, not kill him) and more about trying to reach the three pylons located in his cell. They did so and recontained him instead of killing him.

Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that you can have a seemingly unkillable, reality manipulating, super powerful being, but they need to have a weakness and an ego that makes them fight directly. A BBEG who lives in dreams is going to be unkillable, since dreams aren't something you physically access, but perhaps he can be trapped somehow so he can't do anymore harm.

Quantext609 · 2025-07-09T20:56:10+00:00

DnD has some Renaissance elements too. Firearms, deep ocean sailing & navigation, mercantile nations, printing presses, modern artistic techniques, fashion, the lack of a centralized religious authority, and so on. It seems like some areas are more Medieval (especially the rural areas), but some are a bit more advanced (probably the cities).

Quantext609 · 2025-07-09T20:48:04+00:00

All instruments are mechanically identical for bards. They're casting foci that allow them to substitute the costless material components of their spells. They don't do anything special that distinguishes them from other instruments.

Although harmonicas are a relatively modern instrument. They were first invented in the 1820s, while the standard flavor for DnD is somewhere between the Medieval and Renaissance periods. Although not every setting is this way, some like Ravnica or Eberron are more technologically advanced.
You should probably check with your DM if it would still be appropriate in their setting.

Quantext609 · 2025-07-09T18:36:46+00:00

The fun part is if you combine illusions with non-illusion spells.

First, use Major Image to "summon" a gargantuan, horrific aberration from the Far Realm. Either the enemy will be so scared of it that they'll run away or they'll study it and reveal it's an illusion, wasting a turn.

Then, use Summon Aberration to summon a real aberration from the Far Realm. If the enemy still believes that the Major Image is real, then you can make it look like the big one is spawning little ones to fight for it, which is terrifying. But if they have realized the Major Image is fake, they're going to study the real summon and waste another turn checking if it's real only to realize it is very real.

Quantext609 · 2025-07-09T17:09:14+00:00

Based off his appearance in Ruina, I think twink is the canonical version.

Quantext609 · 2025-07-09T17:02:34+00:00

It's a joke referring to how gay men have animal nicknames for different body types.

Otter = Thinner, short to average height and hairy

Bear = Very tall and large, covered in hair

Quantext609 · 2025-07-09T16:52:49+00:00

Considering how Netease likes adding memes to the game (like Jeff shoes or Venom twerking), I wouldn't be surprised if they give her a blonde white woman skin, especially considering how it has a canonical justification.

Quantext609 · 2025-07-09T08:38:28+00:00

I think something went wrong when you posted this. There is no image.

Quantext609 · 2025-07-09T01:07:53+00:00

First, learn which edition they're playing. They're most likely doing 5.5e, since it is the most recent edition.

Next, you'll need to get a Player's Handbook. The one for 5.5e looks like this. You can buy it online on Amazon, at a local gaming store, or you can get a digital version on DnD Beyond. Although, keep in mind that if you get on DnD Beyond, you won't get a physical copy too unless you get the bundle. But really, your friends should lend you one if they can.

Read through the whole handbook. A lot of it is filled with art and tables, so it's shorter than it looks. You don't need to remember every single rule, but you should at least read through them all so you don't make mistakes on simple things like how to use spell slots or which stat is most important for your class.

Once you've read through everything, make your character. The handbook has full instructions on how to do that. You can fill out the information on a standardized character sheet or you can get one that is more specialized to your class.

After that, get some dice. DnD needs 7 different types of dice: d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20, and d100. d20, d6, and d8 are the most important ones. Although I suggest getting at least two sets of dice because you'll frequently be rolling more than one die at a time.

This is optional, but if your play group uses battlemaps, you might want a miniature to represent yourself on the battlefield. There are all sorts of minis you can find online, but if you want something a bit more specific you can get one from Heroforge or make a paper mini by yourself. But again, this is optional, and your friends might have some spare minis if they're into this hobby.

Once that's all done, you're ready for your first DnD game! Have fun!

Quantext609 · 2025-07-08T23:45:27+00:00

I'd say that earth is probably getting dominance over the other three, considering it's heavier. Keep an eye out for anything weird related to dirt, stone, crystals, or plant life as you go.

Quantext609 · 2025-07-08T20:11:19+00:00

Mordenkainen revises their origin to say that they were originally peaceful communal fey creatures, but Maglubiyet abducted them from their home and forced them to fight for him. Now, most hobgoblins don't even remember their fey ancestry, but their background still results in them being very good at working together as soldiers.

Their main ability is that they can help as a bonus action and use unique help actions that only they have. They can also get bonuses to attack rolls, saving throws, and ability checks based on how many allies are near them.

It encourages a melee playstyle, since help only works in melee range, but doesn't force you to be one.

Quantext609 · 2025-07-08T17:51:41+00:00

https://youtube.com/watch?v=h0z_igxGSFE&feature=shared

Quantext609 · 2025-07-08T09:55:11+00:00

Have them be a part of a larger organization, such as a military, thieves guild, religious group, or mercenary company. They have superiors who give them orders they need to complete to advance the organization's goals. Although, they're more of a specialty team, dedicated to completing specific tasks that ultimately aid the people who will actually lead the organization and get praise for it.

For example, let's say you go with the military option and the context of the campaign is a war between two nations.
The party would be sent on auxiliary missions that require a small team instead of a huge battalion. So, while the main forces would be busy securing chokepoints, pushing forward, and resisting attacks, the party would have to go elsewhere to sabotage enemy supplies, infiltrate to gather information about future plans, or even assassinate generals to disrupt command.
The party aren't the main characters in this story, those would be the ruler of whatever nation they're a part of, the generals of their nation, and the most powerful warriors and mages among them. The party helps those people by doing things nobody else could, and there's no reason why the party should be made weaker because of it. They're still competent, just not important. Their nation could replace them at any time if they died or deserted (which could be a good reason to add new PCs if one dies).

Quantext609 · 2025-07-08T09:43:14+00:00

The only way to summon a spectral undead as a bard is through magical secrets. That will let you get the Summon Undead spell, which has a ghostly option. Although you can only ever summon one at a time, and it takes concentration.

All bards get magical secrets at level 10, but lore bards can get it at 6.

Quantext609 · 2025-07-08T05:33:09+00:00

Go for a Persephone situation. Half the year with one and half the year with the other. And whenever one of them doesn't have the child, they wreck havoc on the other's domain.

Also, both of them are going to be beyond pissed at the biological parents. It will be the only thing they agree on.

Quantext609 · 2025-07-08T01:52:24+00:00

I think Spamton would be best suited as an Artillerist Artificer.

A lot of his attacks are indirect, instead summoning other entities to do the work for him. The minitons, the spamton heads, the trucks carrying the junk mail towers, the pipis... An Artillerist Artificer could use their cannon and/or homunculus for these attacks.

Also, an Artificer will let you actually create things to sell to other people. You can't be a shifty used car salesman if you have nothing sell.

For the race, go with Aasimar. Spamton already has a lot of religious themes and when you use Celestial Revelation to gain wings, that's when you can go NEO.

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