u/NoLongerAKobold

My gm has offered to update our characters to the 2024 rules, and I decided to hold off till I reached level 6 and got to do my builds main thing before doing so.

Well im level 6 now, and I cant decide.

My current build is a mark of healing halfling. With the winterbloom student background. 1 level of order cleric, rest in clockwork sorcerer.

This is a campaign where we were encouraged to minmax and reflavor so I went a little nuts with it. I wanted to play an interesting support chatacter who was tactical and good for large map complex boss fights. (Since this group is mostly one huge boss fight per adventuring day. ).

The main gimmick i was going for was getting to do extra things every turn. Make every heal into an extra attack. While also being able to do the cool buff spells of a sorcerer.

The race is not important, flavor wise she is a fire elemental trapped in an iron maiden. Halfling is just mechanical.

The other members of the party are a satyr open hand monk who updated. A warforged blade singer who updated. And a fire genesi bloodhunter who did not.

Would you suggest updating to the 2024 rules? If so, any build suggestions?

Cleric is the class I most often reach for in ttrpgs, but I haven't actually had a chance to see the new version of the cleric in action since the 2024 rules update.

How is the cleric doing? Is it fun? Strong? How does it compare to the previous rules version? Are their any particular playstyles that are working particularly well, or are working less well then you would expect? How do you feel this version of the class plays?

I am curious, if you were in a situation where your group needed a fighter style character but you wanted to play a full caster, what kind of build would you go for?

More specific version. Level 1 to 20 campaign, the other party members are a life cleric, a Thief rogue, and an evocation wizard. You want to make a character that fits well with the group, doesn't overlap too much with party role, and is fun. As well as being a full caster. What are you playing?

edit: that party is just an example, also curious for other scariest where you'd usually assume a fighter or a barbarian as the 4th member

I am curious, if you were in a situation where your group needed a fighter style character but you wanted to play a full caster, what kind of build would you go for?

More specific version. Level 1 to 20 campaign, the other party memebrs are a life cleric, a Thief rogue, and an evocation wizard. You want to make a character that fits well with the group, doesn't overlap too much with party role, and is fun. As well as being a full caster. What are you playing?

edit: that party is just an example, also curious for other scariest where youd usually assume a fighter or a barbarian as the 4th member

I never know how much to reveal in a blurb, do you have any advice?

For my first book, I just straight up didn't write a blurb, and instead wrote fake comedy reviews by the characters talking about how much they hated being in it. That strategy worked once, and on a comedy, but I'm writing a gothic book right now and I realized I have no idea how much I should even say when it comes time to write the blurb.

Like the current story I am writing:

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its a story about grief set in a gothic castle in 1840's Austria. The protagonist is a teenage noblewoman who has been lashing out at everyone because she can't handle her mother's death, or the fact that her father is sick and might die soon. During a failed seance, her attendant, who she was abusive to, dies.

She is then forced by her father to take on the old attendant's younger sister as her new attendant. The protagonist has to come to terms with how horrible she has been, and overcome her anti protestant prejudice, as the two bond over the grief of the old attendants death. Especially once the new attendant falls ill, and it seems like she has only months to live.

The two of them become convinced that their is nothing after death, and that god is either non existent or cruel. But become cheery when it seems that the old attendant has returned as a ghost, and is haunting the new attendant. Protagonist is happy for her attendant, but also upset that her own mother will send her no sign, goes to increasing lengths to contact her, to no effect.

Turns out the old attendant isn't a ghost, but actually vampire, and her feeding is the reason the sister is sick. Protagonist has to confront her, has a moment of doubt on whether it would be better to let the vampire turn her father and the new attendant into vampires, since an existence as unholy abominations might be better then non existence, but eventually overcomes this feeling and kills her. She vows to the shriveling vampire to treat the new attendant as her new sister. Sequel hook where she realizes her mother's grave is empty, and her father is doing some mad experiment thing.

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Bit of an over summary, but you get me. You also see my problem, the ghost and the vampire are both twists. But are also core elements of the story. So I feel like I can't leave them out, because the people who would like this book are probably people who LIKE ghosts and vampires. But also if I leave it in, that ruins the twist, all attempts at magic fail for the first half of the book, the supernatural being real is, in itself, a twist.

Or like, the first chapter is actually from the perspective of the attendant, who dies at the end of that chapter. I like the shock a reader would feel switching from a sympathetic protagonist to the girl who abused her, and then slowly figuring out why she was like that... But that twist isn't going to work if the back of the book straight up says the attendant dies and the noblewoman is the protagonist.

Idk I might be over thinking this. What are your strategies? How much do you reveal in a blurb? What makes a blurb tantalizing vs just not giving enough? Also, if you know the gothic audience well, do you have any advice on what would make a blurb appealing to that kind of audience?

This is a truly terrible idea I am aware, but I love the idea of just playing a talking bird, a crow or sparrow or something, who has been awakened as a pc. But I don't want to do what a lot of the awakened animal art does and let them use their wings as hands. I want to just play like, a normal talking bird in a bird body. Can't hold a staff or a weapon or anything a bird couldn't actually hold.

What class or build would make that the LEAST bad idea. I would rather avoid reflavoring things to just not be held.

Investigation and mystery are the focus of many ttrpgs, and how those rules work can vary a TON. I am curious, what are your favorite investigations systems in ttrpgs? What do you like about them, and what do you think they bring to a game that other systems don't?

I heard a lot of hype for the Curseborne ttrpg before it came out, but havent had a chance to see many folks talking about their exoeriances with it since then. If you have had a chance to play or run it, what do you think? How did the game go? What are your thoughts on the system?