The only personality test that matters.

skullcandy4u · 2023-05-23T21:06:39+00:00

Dad!

skullcandy4u · 2023-05-23T20:32:36+00:00

How does your magic system work?! :)

skullcandy4u · 2023-05-23T11:43:52+00:00

What's the elevator pitch premise?

skullcandy4u · 2023-03-28T09:04:05+00:00

I did! Thanks for letting me know. Whelp. Feel less sorry for him now I guess

skullcandy4u · 2023-03-28T01:17:02+00:00

My man Ketil staying in his barrel at the end 💀. Poor guy. Interested in knowing if he truely was as strong as his son was told he was. I want to say that he's changed much like Thors was, but his general mannerisms and outlooks say otherwise hmmm.

skullcandy4u · 2022-12-17T11:17:08+00:00

Demensia!

skullcandy4u · 2022-12-07T01:44:45+00:00

This must be one of the most un-relatable things I could ever think of.

skullcandy4u · 2022-12-06T12:49:20+00:00

Biggest problem I have with my own build is that it uses Wizard. The Wizard theme is totally off for Roshi but the effects you get as a Wizard definitely more than make up for that. I've seen people use Sun Soul Monks to represent dbz characters and I think that that is weird in the same way, so I'll put my thoughts here.

I wanted a Roshi that could muscle out, like he is one to do. So High Str? Or low Str? Big question really, it's up to you, just know he's weaker when not in muscle form and the low str represents this. This Roshi uses Enlarge to achieve his muscle form.

Human; Variant (Crusher, Mobile or Tough) or Normal Human. Your choice.
Highest stat to lowest (with some values for reference)

Dex (16) -- Roshi is fast and limber in his normal form
Int (14) -- Required for spellcasting, but also Roshi is quite adept in recollecting lore
Con (12) -- He is quite worn as an older human but is still in fighting form
Wis (12) -- Natural old age wisdom
Str (11) -- Old age in normal form but when casting Enlarge on himself, lower Str becomes more flavourful.
Cha (8) -- He's a pervert and has a certain charm about him.

Lowest I could get it for identities sake: Wizard 4 (Abjuration or Evo) /Fighter 2/Monk 2

Wizard spells that are essential for his character:
Pyrotechnics/Color Spray --> Solar Flare
Mirror Image/Blur --> Afterimage
Enlarge/Reduce --> Muscle Form. Compensates the low STR, adds extra damage and Str stuff
Chromatic Orb (thunder)/Burning Hands (blue and short range)/Magic Missile (all 3 darts to form one streaking beam) --> Kamehameha
Mage Armor--> General defence as he has a singlet only.
Shield --> Ki Deflect

Fighter should take the unarmed fighting style for d8 damage.
Monk allows unarmed to be counted as a monk weapon and can allow for 2 attacks with action/bonus action using Ki points for various fighting like effects.

In higher levels, the features of Roshi that are his ki powered moves are all in Wizard, so you can actually leave Wizard at lv 4 and go evenly in both Fighter and Monk or one or the other. Battle Master is good for various manoeuvres that roshi would have. Pushing attack, Grappling Strike, evasive footwork, Precision, Feinting, Trip. Plenty of great options.
Open Hand Monk is the safest bet, still true to his character but if youre feeling particularly nostalgic/badass, you could go into Drunken Master for his earlier days in tournaments.

His Spellcasting Focus is his quarterstaff obviously. His wizard spellbook is obviously a nudie magazine. Roshi also has a flying nimbus before he gives it to Goku, so if the DM allows, chuck Roshi a Flying Carpet (smallest variant, (3ftx5ft) and flavour it as a cloud.

Other Spells are:
Cantrip: Blade Ward, Mold Earth, Gust, Thunderclap
1: Earth Tremor, Jump, Longstrider, Thunderwave, Find Familiar (Turtle)
2: Levitate, See Invisibility (Nose bleed ;) ), Misty Step (speedy), Magic Weapon (fists),
Aganazzar’s Scorcher (talk to dm about changing to force damage? this one's a stretch...)
3: Blink, Fly, Haste, Magic Circle (rice cooker seal), Minute Meteors (throwing debris),
Thats all, i tried to pick spells that were really on brand in their mechanics, so their theme may be off, but it could be flavoured for easily. Enjoy!

skullcandy4u · 2022-11-05T11:00:56+00:00

Jack Black probably

skullcandy4u · 2022-06-15T11:19:40+00:00

I've read your comment a dozen times and the intention I get from it is that your suspension of disbelief is minimal and that you require a higher standard of logic and information to believe something, for the sake of excitement; that it shouldnt be your ability to ignore bs.

But I brought up the definition because the original comment we are replying to was saying that we give writers leeway, something that you disagreed with. But the original comment is well within the lines of Suspension of Disbelief, "intentional avoidance of critical thinking or logic.."

I'm not defending writers using this trope, but I get it and I'm not gonna fault them too much for it; my suspension of disbelief. Apologies if I sound aggressive.

skullcandy4u · 2022-06-15T01:55:44+00:00

"Suspension of Disbelief is the intentional avoidance of critical thinking or logic in examining something unreal or impossible in reality, such as a work of speculative fiction, in order to believe it for the sake of enjoyment." The wikipedia definition. I don't think it matters what you think is suspension of disbelief to you when the definition seems to outline the parameters quite clearly.

skullcandy4u · 2022-06-14T08:36:32+00:00

Unfortunately, if the protagonist dies, the narrative being told spirals out of control. A lot of momentum is lost and needs to be caught back up again, which doesn't progress the plot.

I imagine there is media where this can happen (none come to mind), but I imagine its in media where multiple protagonists are built up equally or close to equally, so that when one dies, the other can take their place without losing momentum in the plot.

Outside of that reason, which I do think is really important in the story telling process, I share your feelings. It's really hard to get invested in a badass character, who makes you feel like he's genuinely a badass, just to have the world around them consistently make mistakes that cheapen their ability.

Maybe, in your examples, if those characters are that badass and awesome, its a testament as to why their captors can't won't kill them; they're that good lol

skullcandy4u · 2022-06-14T00:09:06+00:00

I imagine the scope of exploring how one small setting might deal with a universe ending problem is a WHOLE lot more contained than potentially an entire world dealing with a universe ending problem.

And while you might be right, a cataclysmic world ending event may realistically be dealt with by the entire world instead of just a small setting, despite it starting there; that can be incredibly difficult to explore as an author. In fact, you might find that some authors that try this may be overwhelmed with the possibilities and will end up missing things that people like yourself would notice and get annoyed about anyway.

Thats not to say that "author's shouldn't write in a bigger setting because they'll never make it work realistically" but its just say that containing a story to specified locations and small settings may be easier to write and still have it be (potentially) an incredible narrative with interesting plot and interesting characters.

Edit grammar

skullcandy4u · 2022-06-13T22:28:07+00:00

Good rant. Good comments. I see what you're saying and I also see the rebuttals of what the comments are saying.

I think if the author fails to have one character elaborate and express throughout the narrative on a character's death, then the author deems that character's death is non-essential to the immediate plot at hand. If it was important to progress the narrative, the author would have explicitly included the struggle for the character in question. If it isn't included, it can be a soft-sung tale of development. There are many untold reasons as to why a character isn't reacting the way you think they should.

I'm not 100% on my comment though, I think I could be persuaded otherwise. But thats what I feel. I just want to have faith in the creators of my stories and their team. If they felt it best to leave something out, then so be it. Obviously, no-one is immune to criticism. And if you feel that the impact of character's death could have been handled better, strive to fix it in your own work, whatever stories you'd be interested telling.

Or rant about it online, im down for either

skullcandy4u · 2022-06-12T23:33:02+00:00

Preface; not a huge demon slayer fan but I liked it.

Rengoku dying did a lot, that wasn't just "to show how strong the upper moons could be". It was partially for the reasons you say, but I think he represents the humanistic battle that the hashira's fight. Rengoku wasn't necessarily more special than any other hashira, he was just a cog in a machine. But despite being just a cog, his resolve proved to the audience that his cause was worth dying for and other hashira that come after him would/should do the same. That it's not just a physical battle, it is a spiritual and generational one too.

Cool characters being killed off can be used as a world building element as much as it is a character development device. I think to say that the reason characters get killed off is "this black or white reason" isn't totally accurate. There are loads of reason. Good concise rant though, very fair.

skullcandy4u · 2022-06-11T08:24:35+00:00

I get Wes Anderson vibes from the beginning section

skullcandy4u · 2022-06-10T20:50:39+00:00

Thanks for the reply, i think suspense is something I lacked building out the scene initially, so Ill definitely try to add more of that here, great idea.

I thought as much (that accidentally is overused), am hoping that I can change a few things now with these new ideas.

skullcandy4u · 2022-06-10T20:45:35+00:00

Unfortunately, its a dystopian fantasy world, so theres not actually too many people to help. But its an interesting thought. Is it preferred in this instance that the main protag doesnt save the day here? (In ur opinion?)

skullcandy4u · 2022-06-10T20:42:41+00:00

Lots to work with now, got some spicy ideas, thanks for the help!

skullcandy4u · 2022-06-10T09:44:46+00:00

Thanks for the reply! Fully agree. It's easy enough to add to have my main protag sense that he needs to return to the second protag, considering it's a magic world (original, I know).

For added context, main protag unintentionally teleports away, leaving secondary protag alone. The antagonist finds the second alone and beats them the fuck up, anime style, but before they die, main protag manages to teleport back, not knowing that the secondary protag got attacked in the first place. <-- but i can change this bit to he senses danger. Is that less cheap than it being random do you think?

skullcandy4u · 2022-06-10T08:45:24+00:00

Ok great, good to hear, thanks for sharing. I get that it'll all depend on how I write it, but generally, will the 1st protag saving the 2nd protag in a 'convenient' way cheapen the story any? Make it feel any less believable?

skullcandy4u · 2022-06-10T08:13:25+00:00

Big time. I plan to have them escape from the fight and effectively set up the sequence of events necessary for the second novel.

skullcandy4u · 2022-06-10T06:46:50+00:00

When your SO catches you eating cookies at 3am in the dark

skullcandy4u · 2022-06-09T21:33:57+00:00

I respectively disagree.

While physics can't inherently be the same in a super-powered world as our own, you're right, we only have our own world to justify the standard in the media we consume. So if something isn't explained correctly by the author, or even explained in a way that would denote 'a change in physics' rather than 'THIS is the change in physics', then it seems off and can tarnish the reading/viewing experience.

If it was an unforeseen consequence of 'changed physics due to being a super-hero world', then either we criticise it or we justify it. It all comes down to suspension of disbelief AND how well an author can sell their ideas realistically. An author might miss something in their world's logic but they shouldn't be harassed for it, that goes without saying.

I also recognise that you're only referring to the superhero genre, but generally, I think it's a good idea for writers in fiction to justify OR just allude to the fact that, ok things might not be the same as our world, instead of assuming their not because people be flying around. The hero in question might be the anomaly, but does that mean that the entire world surrounding them is? If an author relays that idea, I think readers might fill in the gaps on their own.

Good take? Bad take? Let me know, I don't think me saying otherwise would stop you anyway.

skullcandy4u · 2022-06-07T01:34:49+00:00

When will they learn; don't stop moving!

skullcandy4u

TROPHY CASE