u/Jcorb

I'm sort of leaning some kind of Elf for my Bladesinger. I'm still trying to establish "who" the character is (the DM sent us lots of lore), the rules in their discord said we would be starting level 3, but I think they've been playing for a bit and I'm a latecomer, so it might be more like level 6 by now? Not 100% sure.

My thing is I love the idea of playing a caster with lots of versatile spells, but don't want to be stuck playing support again. It seemed like the Bladesinger would be a pretty decent melee character, albeit very squishy, but I figure it's good enough to let me conserve spell slots (which was always my biggest struggle when I tried playing a Bard previously).

I tried watching videos and doing research, but I can't quite gauge if I should be taking a level of Fighter for the extra... uh, saving throw or whatever (I haven't played a lot of casters before), plus the weapon masteries and fighting style?

Or would I be better off just sticking pure Wizard, so I can open up new spells that much sooner?

My kneejerk reaction is to "start" Fighter 1, and then basically stay Wizard the rest of the time. If I ever managed to hit Wizard 14 (unlikely, I think, but possible), I would probably take another level of Fighter for action surge. Or maybe even take a second level in Fighter after I get the Blidesinger's extra attack?

Like I said, this is pretty new territory for me, so I just want to make sure I'm not making any stupid choices here.

Bastila and Malek would probably also be cool, but Revan would be pretty dope. In the spirit of preserving the mystery of who Revan is, maybe the style options could flip between different genders/body types?

And presumably a vibroblade for the pickaxe, although it’s insane we don’t have actual lightsabers (or heck, even just “holo-sabers”, or something if you really wanna preserve the idea of lightsabers proper being crazy powerful).

I’m honestly curious where you guys stand; not trying to advocate one way or the other.

For my PERSONAL stance, I feel like it would be cool if you could purchase earlier season passes and start unlocking their rewards, but only after completing the CURRENT season’s rewards. Similarly, if you had indeed purchased a previous season’s battle pass, it would remain available to you, just requiring you complete the current pass.

But I also recognize that I don’t really have anything THAT rare from past seasons. I had Ragnarok from season 5 or 6 on my original account, and started playing my current one in chapter 2, so I have a lot of skins that are “rare” simply on account of being OLD, but about the only skin I have that might be conserved a “flex” is that I have Carnage, with his “Maximum Carnage” style. There aren’t many reasons I actually bothered to hit rank 100, although definitely quite a few I regret not having done so now.

For me, I’d love to have completed the Mandalorian’s beskar armor and unlocking baby yoda, and also Darth Vader is always going to be sick. But hey, what about you guys?

I can't believe I'm actually typing this...

I don't typically go out drinking, but for whatever reason I felt like going out on Saturday with some friends. We ended up at Spider Kelly's (I don't know Arlington super well, I'd never been there before), and we ended up getting split up. I still had a good enough time, although even after I stopped drinking, I still felt the alcohol continuing to work its magic.

I walked down the street a bit (couldn't have been very far), must have been sometime after midnightk, and I saw this Middle Eastern girl standing around. I actually don't remember if she walked up to me, or if I'd just casually asked if everything was alright, but we ended up talking for quite a while.

Honestly, I barely remember any specific details; I remember her saying something about her parents wanting to pick out a husband for her, I remember us smiling and laughing a lot. Weirdest thing is I actually barely even remember her face, other than she had the most gorgeous eyes I'd ever seen. And a really kind voice.

I feel like we were there like 30-45 min -- although I was feeling pretty toasted, so I'm a pretty unreliable narrator -- but it was chilly and I could tell she was cold. I was wearing a flanel and even I was cold, but I ended up feeling bad and giving her the flanel, since I still had a t-shirt underneath. I just remember us hugging, and then resting our foreheads against one another, and just standing there with her until her friends arrived. I don't even remember what they were driving, other than telling them to make sure she drank plenty of water.

For whatever reason, she has just stayed on my mind. Something about her just seemed genuinely lovely; I remember just feeling this overwhelming sense of calm and warmth with her, and it seemed like we were both sort of bummed when her friends actually arrived. If I weren't such a fucking idiot, I'd have asked for her number, or even have just confirmed her name (I have really bad hearing, and I get a little self conscious having to ask people their name multiple times; drinking did not improve things).

I feel like her name was something like Fatiya? I could be completely misremembering, though. I just remember being not far from Spider Kelly's, and the girl I was with, I'd loaned my red flanel shirt until her friends got there. I'm a bigger white/ginger guy, short hair and beard, someone teased me for looking like "the Brawny guy" earlier that night.

I can't possibly imagine this leading to anything, but I would genuinely love to see her again and get to know her over coffee, to see if we actually connected, or if we'd both just had a few too many drinks that night.

In any case; I haven't spent much time around Arlington before, but honestly a super nice area!! Way more lively than I realized, I may have to check the area out more! I'm down by Lorton, but open to any other good bar suggestions.

I've been playing super casually for a few years now. I used to prefer super simple melee characters, but because I got sort of forced into playing a Cleric this latest campaign, I've started to see the appeal of spells that let you tackle roleplaying scenarios in unconventional ways (ie. a town is on fire, trying to help put those out, things like that).

I'm thinking about trying to find an additional campaign to join online (I feel like D&D scratches an itch that video games just don't for me anymore), and I love thinking about character builds anyways, but I really want to think through what my next character should be?

• IMPORTANT NOTE: I have kind of a hard time managing multiple resources, or keeping track of what comes back on a Short rest vs. a Long rest. I can handle a little complexity, but probably not nearly as much as a lot of folks here, so generally the fewer different resources I need to juggle, I'll probably do a better job of handling.

I tried playing a Bard a few years ago; we started level 1 and only played a handful of sessions before the group fell apart. I remember generally feeling pretty useless, and I honestly don't love playing support, despite how frequently I seem to find myself doing just that. I remember running out of resources almost immediately, and just feeling pretty useless most of the time.

Wizards have always seemed super overwhelming to me, but part of me is wondering if I might have enough experience now that I ought to take a stab at it? I've never played or seen one in action, but the Bladesinger seems like it could be fun, giving me a decent(?) melee to fall back on if I blow through my spell slots too quickly. Or I remember there being some other Wizard subclass that did... something... that let them "hold" dice rolls and switch them out throughout the day? Or something like that?

I've also never played a Warlock or Sorcerer. The Sorc seems like it has a lot of room for creativity, but also feels maybe even a bit more advanced than the Wizard, in terms of needing to be pretty familiar with playing a caster already? And Warlocks, I really don't know much more than they typically spam Eldritch Blast.

Most of the time with my current group, we all seem to have the most fun when things are just getting super chaotic or people start suggesting absurd solutions to problems, so part of me feels like it might be fun to play some kind of gnoll or kobold or something, just kind of a "chaotic little gremlin". Although no issue sticking with the classics, either (funny, I actually don't think I've ever played an elf, either).

Anyways, just kinda interested what you guys would personally recommend checking out? Any fun build ideas that spring to mind?

I actually really dig Companions as a feature, but as someone with OCD, I really HATE the idea of being locked into a set appearance. Enough so it actually keeps me from getting companions I honestly might otherwise (the piñata llama in particular right now).

Really hope they’ll consider changing their approach. It would be a whole lot cooler, especially for the more unconventional color schemes.