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I am not a medical professional and what I have written is a personal essay, I am not advising the use of nor the stoppage of any medication or treatment. I am speaking only from my experience.
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If you have grown accustomed to using adderall to manage life, by way of integrating them into your routine to treat behaviors labeled ADHD, quitting it may be the hardest thing you ever do...so far.
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Quitting adderall while taking it feels impossible. It's like a butterfly telling a caterpillar what's coming next.
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When that medication stops showing up in your organism, you will be unsure if the rattling of washers and loose change off the walls of your skull are the medication's withdrawl or the latent untreated ADHD in your constitution. It's both. You can sort them both out. You have to train and focus harder than you ever have and the thing you have been using to focus is unavailable for its routine assistance.
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When someone quits adderall, the dopamine system is out of whack. Whatever adderall benefits were provided to you for taking adderall, they are not only taken away, they are reversed. If adderall gave you energy and focus, suppressed your appetite and provide wakefulness - upon their departure from your organism you will find yourself depleted and distracted, binge eating and sleepy.
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As soon as you are able to question if you are addicted, you are probably are getting there. It took me over 12 years to get there.
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A seed of doubt in the moment of the swallow. Something that always seemed passive, normal, healthy and good all the sudden was put under my introspective microscope. I kept taking it anyways. I figured I'd already gone this far, may as well carry on.
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What kind of relationship is this? A person and a pill?
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I liked the way the medicine made me feel and I liked who I was on it, but what does that do the person I am off of it?
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Do I need this?
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Then justifications come. Crafting explainationon adderall is a seamless process of reasoning construction. A scaffolding of logic that justifies action. A sharp, resolute mind.

\- I \*do\* have a neurological condition and this \*is\* medicine. \- I am really good at my job/school/hobbies. \- I am happier and I feel in control of my life. \- I am skinny. \- A doctor gave it to me, they are very knowledgable. \- I like it. \- It saves my life because when I stop, I have thoughts of ending my life. 

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Now. What I just described is a known side effect of the withdrawal. Once you find yourself on adderall island, the beach and the water are full of mosters, waves and storms. To navigate away from the shore is disorienting, and appears to hold in it fateful consequence. While there are enough resources on the island. It is safe. It is a codependant relationship. The challenge and unknown nature of leaving adderall island make the comfort it's resource that much more appealing.
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When you don't understand that these ideations are side effects like coughing is a sign of the flu, one may be prone to believing the withdrawal's voice is their own voice. The knowledge alone that this mental phenomenon is a part of the withdrawal is armor against it. Resist it and remember and while the intention is to stay alive and depart from this drug, resisting this, builds the mental fortitude needed to rebuild the attention span, and ability to focus, work and thrive - without amphetamines.
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You (proverbial) have made taking adderall an essential part of your productivity routine and character.
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You take amphetamines. That may not be what the bottle says on it... but you take amphetamines and they are very addictive. "Habit forming" and dependance are all variations on the same experience. In one way or another, it gets to the point where I need this drug in me to be myself. I am dependant on it to get work done. To get out of bed and participate in all of my life with this energy.
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So you are going to do something crazy. In defiance of science, you don't take ampheatmines. You struggle to crawl out of the beast's belly that swallowed you up. You accept that the path of your development in accordance with work, time, organization, etc. has been detoured and modified by a long term stimulant habit. You experience real life struggle and challenge. You come to terms with your limitations and work hard to stop trying to change yourself into what you think you should be changed into and you figure out where you fit.
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You learn to sail away from the island prepared to learn how to sail.

Did you know that professional mourners exist? This is probably the best place for me to start in order to explain exactly why I jumped in a grave when I was nineteen years old. In a lot of places you can pay people specifically to show up at someone's funeral if you're worried that not many people would be there otherwise. Sometimes church groups will do a similar thing as a volunteer basis and it isn't even only a thing for people who died without loved ones. Sometimes schools or organisations will send a contingent off to the funeral of a particularly noteworthy alumnus as a mark of respect.
The way our city did this was a bit different.
English doesn't have a word specifically for somebody who is given money to jump into an open grave. It makes perfect sense, it isn't something that people in those countries seem to do, but it does mean that I had to come up with the English term myself. Not even everywhere in our country has them - they're normal in our city and the closest towns and village but you barely have to drive an hour away and you won't find anybody who's ever been one. We're told not to talk to outsiders about it and when I questioned that I was told that since it's technically a fake suicide attempt, talking about it to people who don't understand it could cause them to think about such things.
This all made perfect sense to me. Our city took mental health very seriously so it was completely logical to me that other countries with a less honest approach to the human mind would struggle with a concept like grave jumpers. The fact that this explanation snuck in a bit of superiority over how enlightened we were compared to outsiders probably made it a lot easier to swallow too.
Because needless to say, that is definitely not the reason we were really encouraged to keep our mouths shut.
The story I was told was that grave jumping originated from a feud between two poets. One died and a mourner was so distraught over losing him that she jumped into his grave and they had to fight to remove her. Not to be outdone, the second poet paid off a woman to jump into his grave when the time came and not to leave until after the first handful of dirt touched her face. Other local celebrities caught wind of this and eventually the whole thing spiralled until today when a funeral without a grave jumper is less common than one with.
We all know it's pretend, of course, but there are still rules in place that allow us to pretend that any one of the grave jumpers could be leaping in motivated by grief rather than a sweet paycheck. Nobody's allowed to do it more than once a year since it'd be harder to pretend that the man jumping into Robert's grave is doing so because he wants to follow Robert into the afterlife when you just saw him jump in after Susan last week. Nobody leaves until night in order to both maintain the illusion that they could be dead and discourage competitiveness. A system of ventilated tunnels makes this far less uncomfortable than it would otherwise be.
"Are you going to Lilly's party next saturday?" Amy whispered.
The lecturer glared at us. In our defence, it was the last five minutes of the lecturer and nothing that would be on the exam. In her defense though, perhaps interupting the traditional end of lecturer message that we should watch out for one another and you never know what's going on in someone's head and runaway students are incredibly common wasn't the most respectful thing we could have done. I kept quiet until class was officially dismissed.
"No. Christopher is definitely going to be there."
Amy rolled her eyes.
"You can't avoid him forever. And honestly, you shouldn't be. Something about last term's exam stress and your new decision to actually go to the gym is definitely working for you. I mean it! You've got a total revenge body right now and you need to put it into a gorgeous and tastefully slutty dress and show that boy what a fool he was for ever thinking he could do better than you."
I laughed.
"I don't have a dress that's gorgeous or slutty that currently fits me. Guess that's another reason to give it a miss."
"Buy one. I'm serious, no more hiding away."
I shook my head.
"I don't actually have money for a dress right now." I said.
Amy looked surprised, though to her credit she hid it well. And her reaction was understandable. She'd been friends with me since the start of first term and she knew I lived in a nice place and ate nice food and all in all did not seem to have any money worries at all. What she did not realise was that all of those things were directly paid for by my mother and her suprisingly well paid job in local government. Getting her to give me money directly or pay for a dress she'd disapprove of was not going to happen.
"I saw a posting for a grave jump job on Friday," Amy offered, "I'm pretty sure they pay as soon as you're out. First timers are basically guaranteed the slot if they apply."
Only citizens over the age of eighteen are eligible to become grave jumpers and yet Amy and I were already an oddity in our year for not having done it yet. In my case I suppose it was because even though the way in which my mother took care of me definitely came with strings attached it meant I had never really been close to struggling to get any of the things I actually needed. In Amy's case her finances would absolutely have benefitted from the boost a grave jump would have given her but she had severe claustrophobia. The tunnels themselves aren't horribly small but you have to shimmy through a tighter chute to get to those and she couldn't force herself to even consider it.
I could consider it though. And although I understand that to people who don't live here jumping into a grave sounds too creepy to even briefly consider doing for any amount of money, I really can't stress enough how normal it was for all of us. My father's funeral had a grave jumper at it and as a seven year old child I watched a young woman leap down onto his coffin without finding it disturbing for a moment. It felt right, almost. I was grieving that the world would be so much worse without him and so it made sense for this stranger to act that way as well, even though I knew that it was all pretend. I was glad she was there.
"I'll do it then." I said, much to Amy's glee.
She was right that I hadn't been myself since the break up and the idea of making Christopher wish he hadn't left me was more delicious than it should have been. I sent the graveyard contact an email asking to be considered for the role and got a response back barely an hour later. I was told I had the job and there was an attached pdf with basic information about how much I would be paid (a decent amount, more as compensation if I accidently hurt myself as I jumped in or if my clothing required cleaning or replacement), how long it would take (no more than ten hours, basic food and facilities in the tunnel system, only leave when called back up) and of course the name of whose grave I would be jumping into. I made sure to clean an appropriately formal outfit before Friday and then all I had to do was wait.
​
Friday's funeral had decent attendance. As someone who had never starred in a school play that hadn't been mandatory, I suddenly felt slightly nervous. Not that decent acting ability was a strict requirement here. I didn't technically need to say a thing, though many did, and any level or absense of drama was seen as acceptable for a grave jumper. I suppose that perhaps since real grief can be loud or quiet it made sense that the rules were no different for people who were only pretending. I was able to stand at the front of the group because everyone knew why a total stranger would be here, really. And sure enough, when the priest got part way through one of the previously agreed upon acceptable verses to interupt with a jump I took a deep breath and went for it.
THUD
I'd put my hands out in front of me as I ran towards the grave but when I'd hit the coffin they'd slipped anyway and my face had hit the wood. I remember putting my fingers to my face and wondering if I'd have bruises to conceal for tomorrow's party before a voice above jolted me back into the moment. The priest was asking me to please leave the grave and for my part I was to absolutely not do that. I could wail in response or keep silent as I chose to but actually obeying him would have been a hilairious faux pas at this point.
The chute to the left of the coffin was easy to see from this angle and I headed towards it. They could probably see it from above if they were trying to but it was just one of a list of things we politely ignore. I crawled over to the chute and slid through it -- quickly regretting my decision to wear heels as they almost instantly fell off my feet. I couldn't easily turn back and get them so I accepted it and headed to the main tunnels barefoot.
The tunnels were darker than I'd imagined and barely tall enough for me to stand up straight. A folded table near where I'd come in had two bottles of water, some snack bars and a laminated print out of information that had already been covered in the pdf. Do not exit until the tunnel alert system tells you to. If you become lost in the tunnel system, follow the directions that the emergency lights are moving in. Remain quiet at all times.
I wasn't prepared for how boring it would be. There was no clock in the tunnels and I hadn't had the foresight to wear a watch but I don't think I even lasted an hour before deciding to wander just as something to do. The lights would lead me back at the end and the alert that would inform me that my shift was up would be played in the entire tunnel system. No part of the pdf or the printout had said that I needed to wait patiently near the table of depressing snacks and so I went for a walk.
I didn't go far, at first. I had no real sense of where I was going and even when I found the entrance to the larger, older tunnel I still nearly just went back to my sad little table. Heading back though I heard a noise, a dull and repeated thudding. Even though I don't believe in ghosts or zombies or anything of the such some part of my brain still told me that the man in the new grave I'd jumped in from was trying to escape his coffin. I wasn't going back that way, no chance. Eventually my shift would be over and a graveyard keeper would be up there waiting for me so I would wait for that moment to go back, a moment where I no longer needed to face the would be zombie alone.
I walked to the larger tunnel and even though the ground was muddier here it seemed worth it for the additional space and distance from the undead who was surely coming from the other direction. It seemed slightly warmer here as well and I stepped cautiously along the muddy floor until I got to a place where the emergency lighting had stopped. It was much warmer now, even though I doubted I had walked for that long. Much as I didn't want to head back to the noises I'd heard before I didn't really want to head into pure darkness either and so I turned to explore elsewhere when the air shifted.
As cooler air rushed against me I held my fingers out in the breeze curiously. The air current then reversed with more warmth to it and I still didn't realise what was happening until it happened again.
Because the next time that cooler air was pulled into the darkness behind me it was accompanied by a snort. Something in the darkness was sniffing me and I was frozen in a terror that I'd never experienced before in my life.
Then I heard movement and my feet finally remembered how to run.
I can run fast. My gym workouts often include some time on the treadmill and I would much rather do a proper run than spend some ungodly amount of time just powerwalking like some people do. In the tunnels though, with mud between my toes and the sound of something racing behind me, there I must have smashed every personal recond I'd ever made. Whatever was following me sounded like a full stampede of creatures at once. There were so many footsteps, not only on the floor but echoing from the tunnel's ceiling and walls as well. Every corner I took led to a crashing sound behind me but if these collisions hurt my pursuer then it recovered almost instantly every time.
I got to my tunnel and as I climbed the ladder to the chute I saw three long, vine like tongues whip around the corner behind me. I shoved my body into the chute and finally saw the source of the first noise I'd been afraid of.
In front of me was a lattice of metal bars that was clearly intended to come down and trap whoever was stationed in the tunnel. In my case however it was struggling to accomplish this task as one of the high heels that I'd left behind wass blocking its path. Instead the door simply came down to hit my now thoroughly beaten shoe, realised that it could not descend as far as it was supposed to and so rose to try again. It didn't occur to me right then that you only need to trap someone if you know you're putting them somewhere that they're going to want to escape. I had no thoughts at all as I shoved my arm under the gate and pulled myself through, a disgusting tongue just touching the sole of my right foot before I managed to crawl onto the coffin.
The gravekeeper is supposed to provide a ladder to get you out of the grave but of course I was escaping earlier than I was supposed to. I jumped and scrabbled up the dirt in front of me and then crawled away crying for several feet before finally lying on the ground.
"Rose?" a familiar voice asked.
Then the earth shook. I pulled myself up to a seated position and looked at the grave behind me. It's okay, it's too big for the chute, was all I could think, it can't escape. I stood and began to walk towards a confused Amy before a second tremor knocked me off my heels.
And then the ground itself tore open and I finally got to see what I was running from.
Its body was wormlike, in a way. Not segmented though nor smooth like an eel but rippling with muscle systems that I didn't understand. There were a lot of limbs of various sizes: main, thick legs which presumably bore most of the weight and thinner limbs with too many joints that I guess were for fine tuning and balance. It's head had no eyes but an incomplete circle of large nostrils around a mouth that was barely more narrow than the width of a coffin.
It seems I'd been right and the creature could not fit through the chute I'd escaped from. What it could do however was tear right through the tunnel wall and ground itself, leaving both the grave and several of those around it as a mess of soil and wood and corpse. Amy was just stood there shaking her head slowly from side to side and I wanted to run and to yell at her to run but I couldn't.
I still don't know exactly why Amy had come for me. We hadn't arranged to meet up after the grave jump and the friend who'd been studying with her beforehand doesn't remember her saying anything about it. Did she want to check I was okay because she'd recommended it? Had she just wanted company to walk to the other side of town with? Is there anything I could have done differently that would have made her stay away?
The creature head reared up taller than a house and yet part of its body was still underground. The taller it held itself the more my terror deepened and it was sniffing away the whole time.
Then it chose.
The creature shot forwards and grabbed Amy with its dripping tongues and forced her into her mouth as she screamed. The creature's mouth was too small for the angle that it was holding Amy but it pulled her in with such force that I heard the snapping of her spine and her limbs as she disappeared from view. I think that's when I threw up, with hindsight. I still didn't run until the creature slithered slowly back into the hole it had created, the strange limbs making a vague attempt to rebury the opening as it retreated.
I ran then. I ran all the way back to my mother's house and she answered the door to her shaking, bleeding daughter and with garbled panic I told her that something had burst out from a grave behind me.
The worst hadn't happened yet, you see. When I play this evening back, as I so often do, there's something that disturbs me more than the memories of running for my life or the sad and brutal death of my dear friend.
"Did anyone see it?" my mother asked me.
I couldn't answer, I just looked at her blankly.
"When you left, was anyone cleaning it up?" she asked with more insistence.
After a few seconds of waiting my mother gave up and left to make a phone call. I sat down on her sofa and tried to wipe some of the gore off my face with the palm of my equally disgusting hand. My hands and the soles of my feet were covered in cuts, there was a massive scrape on the front of my right calf and I had vomit covering the front of my dress. I don't think there was a part of me that wasn't coated in dirt and there was blood splattered across me that was not my own. My entire appearance was a laundry list of concerns and problems and yet my mother was in another room talking on the phone. It took me far too long to realise why.
"You... knew?" I asked her when she finally came back into the room.
"I didn't know you'd do this. I would have told you not to. If I knew that you were... to its tastes then I would never have allowed you to do this."
"But other people could end up..." I trailed off, understanding a little more.
The monster in the tunnels wasn't a risk of grave jumping, it was the entire point.
"Why?" I asked after some time and my mother laughed bitterly.
"You saw it. If we don't give that thing what it wants then it will rip the land apart looking for it. It doesn't go for everyone. Just the ones that are..."
"To its tastes." I finished for her.
So that's why most people came out of grave jumping just fine. Those that didn't come out fine just disappeared, some other motive and timeline given for where they'd most likely gone. Runaways. Abductions. Suicides in a river where no corpses have ever been found.
"Let's get you cleaned up." my mother finally offered.
I slept in my childhood bed that night, the physical exhaustion of what had happened finally catching up to me. But when I woke up the next day and stared at the dirt under my broken nails I realised that I couldn't live here. I couldn't spend every conversation I had wondering if the person I was talking to knew the truth of the grave jumpers or not. I had an aunt on my fathers side who lived in another country and I begged her to let me stay with her. My mother helped, as it turned out. Perhaps realising that there was no coming back from what I now knew she persuaded my aunt she should let me stay whilst I found something else and sent me away with a sizeable deposit in my bank account.
It's been fifteen years since I jumped into an open grave and since then I've figured out a few things. I realised that the logistics of the graveyard tunnels only ever really made sense to trap us whilst the moster sniffed out who he wanted. If the only goal was to pretend that the jumpers were in a grave forever then we could have just left through a secret exit elsewhere. Lingering in the tunnels until an alert told us to leave is a bizarre system even if the premise of grave jumping made perfect sense.
Likewise, I've pieced together why mental health was so stressed where I grew up. The focus was never how we could fix someone's mental health but how anyone we knew could be feeling terrible enough to want to run away or worse at any time. I understand that these messages were pushed by people like my mother so that when people did disappear then we would assume that we simply missed subtle signs that they were struggling and move on with our lives.
My mother framed the reason for me fleeing the country was a kind of mental breakdown. I suppose she was right, in a way. My aunt never questioned me on exactly what had happened and my mother paid both of us on a monthly basis until I found a job and moved out. We don't really talk. Occasionally she will send me an email and even more rarely I'll actually respond.
Which brings me to why I'm writing this. Across all of the years since the incident I've never felt the need to tell anyone what happened. I suppose I wanted to shut it away, but I can't do that anymore. Today I received a postcard from my mother. I don't know why she changed from her usual email but I suppose that she felt that this was a request that needed to be handwritten.
"Hi Rose,
It's been a while since we've caught up. It's been so hectic here. Remember the earhtquakes from when you were a teenager that caused such destruction in the graveyard? They've been getting worse and the council is very busy trying to figure out what to do. None of today's young people are as helpful as you were. They try but it just doesn't work out. If nobody manages to fix the problem soon then it will be incredibly dangerous for everyone, all we can do is hope that somebody does the right thing.
Hope you visit home soon xxx"
My mother's shock that I'd chosen to be a graveyard jumper had seemed genuine to me at the time. I had thoroughly believed that much though she believed that our monster needed sacrifices she still would have fed anyone else to it than me. Which leaves me to beleive that there's nobody left that's 'to its tastes' as she put it. If I go back to the tunnels then I'll die. But if I don't then I don't know what will happen. How much destruction can that thing cause? Not to mention, the jumpers go to more than one graveyard. Does that simply mean that the creature travels between them through its own, dark tunnels or are there a family of monsters lurking there? Even if I did choose to sacrifice myself, would that alone be enough?
Hope you visit home soon, she says.
If I choose to stay away, what will be unleashed?

WARNING: This guide is meant for advanced players and it contains generous spoilers of the game. I have tried obscuring them all, but I take no responsibility. You have been warned!
INDICATION: CTRL + F and search IMPORTANT!, it will take you to the essential parts of the guide. Mind the exclamation mark, it excludes unwanted results. A full read is still advised.

1. Build overview

A lot of the online discourse about Baldur's Gate 3 bards revolves around College of Swords and its blatant busted-ness. Swords Bard is the only class in the game that has both multiattack and full caster progression; and thanks to the game's rather generous approach to items, Swords doesn't need to choose between using their weapon(s) to deal impressive damage and casting unresistible crowd control.
However, swords bard are a rather expensive class to run, as their ideal itemization leeches from all three types of characters (martials, spellswords, and casters) and therefore cannot fit every team; and if you want that juicy Flourish-Smite-Cleave turn, you need to support and setup the situation in a way that could require more than one turn, which can sometimes result in clunky dynamics.
If you want to play a different type of bard and you also plan to assign important items to other characters in your party, this post is for you. This is a guide for the partially neglected (in BG3, at least), unassuming little brother of Swords Bard, College of Lore, and in particular the well known and also popular Lorelock build. Contrarily to Swords Bard, Lore is a support caster and it can assist your party in various ways, enhancing your damage dealers and containing enemies. The addition of a couple Warlock levels in the midgame provides this build a decent boost in damage, which is the only department it is lacking, and also synergizes with out overall gameplay.
By playing this build, you can expect:

• One of the best support casters in the game, with a lot of versatility and a vast arsenal of control;
• Decent damage, but mostly disruption and displacement, via Eldritch Blast, that will allow you to play around AOE spells by sending enemies back in them;
• The very powerful Cutting Words reaction, which boosts your action economy by negating damage;
• A character that is almost completely independent from items to perform its role;
• A build that fits any party composition as a support, even though I'm publishing this with a specific party composition in mind - the one I'm playing in my latest honor save. You will find this post referenced and linked to when I publish the next post.
• A SmuggleSmooth talker that can make your game way easier by improving your economy and ageny, able to steal everything you need and convince everybody of pretty much anything.

2. Leveling up, stat distribution and feats

2.1. Guidelines

The goal of this build is to reach an endgame configuration of 10 College of Lore Bard / 2 The Fiend Warlock. You will level up fairly linearly, stopping after Bard 6 to pick up the two Warlock levels, and then finish your adventure with four more levels in bard (see “2.3 Leveling Up”).
This build does not need Hag's Hair. As stated in the title, it is a support build and it works well because it doesn’t need too much investment in highly contested items. Give Hag’s Hair to your party’s carry.
Instead, the Devil Tongue can make decent use of the Awakened buff that you can get from the Zaith’isk machine at Crèche Y’llek at the end of act 1 (see “Illithid Powers”). Casters generally have little to no use of their bonus action anyway: being able to Bonus Action Black Hole and then cast a huge crowd control spell on top of enemies is going to win fights before they even start, while also freeing Bonus Actions for your damage dealers. However, do mind the fact that in order for this to be an effective tactic, you need to rise your Spell DC, and this will increase your item requirements in the lategame, possibly getting in the way of another spellcasting carry.
The best race for this archetype is Half Elf (Note: Shadowheart is one). This race has everything a support caster needs, but its most relevant feature is Civil Militia, which gives you the very important Shield proficiency, which will boost your survivability, especially in the early game. Subrace is not incredibly important, but I prefer Wood (+1.5 meters of extra movement speed). Worth noting, Humans (e.g. Gale) also have Civil Militia, and they are an alternative option.

2.2. Class Contribution

10 College of Lore Bard

• College of Lore is possibly the most versatile, resource-light full caster in the game. It has a good array of support tools in its spell list, and it doesn't depend on items to function well as a party member. It also provides an additional short rest per day to the party.
• On top of its already good spell selection, Bard has access to Magical Secrets, which is a feature that allows you to learn two spells of your choice from other classes' spell lists. While all bards get one instance of Magical Secrets at level 10, College of Lore gets a second instance earlier at level 6, ending up with four total custom spells!
• Cutting Words will usually be your Bardic Inspiration dump, complementing your Crowd Control abilities to further negate damage dealt to your party allies.
• Bards are skilled party faces and pickpocketers. You are the master of dialogues and you will be procuring desired items and consumables to your party, with a pretty safe way out if you get caught!

2 The Fiend Warlock

• Warlock is a Charisma caster as Bard is; therefore, the two classes complement each other fairly well.
• Warlock Spell Slots work uniquely, having only two spell casts that refresh on short rest. This complements really well Bard's Song of Rest feature, providing basically many free casts per day!
• Eldritch Blast is the main reason for the dip. This pretty good cantrip spell tries to fill the main hole of Lore Bard, its poor damage. At warlock level 2, you will be able to select two eldritch invocations that will improve your Eldritch Blast dramatically, making it hurt more, as well as being able to push and displace targets.
• The Fiend patron also gets access to Charisma-based Command, one of the best non-concentration crowd control spells in the game. You can use this spell to incapacitate multiple enemies per turn, while also holding concentration on another big spell, such as Hunger of Hadar.

2.3 Leveling Up and Feats

IMPORTANT!
Leveling up this character is fairly straightforward. Select Bard at level 1 and adjust to the following stat spread:

Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma
8	15+1	14	8	12	14+2
8	16	14	8	12	16

then adjust your proficiencies and your background: I recommend to take Charlatan and setting Sleight of Hand / Persuasion to the highest value possible: the rest is up to you.
At level 3 select the College of Lore subclass; at level 4 select an Ability Score Improvement for +2 Charisma.
At level 7 multiclass into The Fiend Warlock, and continue the dip by taking a second level in warlock at level 8. From this moment onward, you get two level 1 spells per short rest for free, so make sure you use those instead of your normal spell slots (e.g. with Healing Word).
From level 9 onwards you will go back to College of Lore Bard and finish leveling up as such, eventually landing your second issue of Magical Secrets when capping level 12.
At level 10, take the Dual Wielder feat: this will allow you to wield powerful combinations of lategame weapons in order to improve your spells.

3. Spell selection

3.1. Cantrips

I advise starting your playthrough with Vicious Mockery and Friends. Mockery isn't incredibly good, and especially I wouldn't cast it before you have 4 party members, but it still helps shutting down powerful enemies that are near your party carries. Use sparingly and remember that in the early game, firing a ranged weapons outdamages your cantrips. Friends is a powerhouse of a cantrip that can be used to force dialogues and obtain the results you want throughout the game. It's especially useful since you're very likely to be the party face: just remember to TP away after you have used it on somebody, because they will find out they have been enchanted, and they are generally not going to like it.
You can pick up Minor Illusion at level 4 if you don't have it. This cantrip is also very good, as it allows you to distract all the beings in the area, so you can setup a surprise or perform pickpocketing in peace.
Eldritch Blast is going to be your main action for the second part of the playthrough. Even though you won't be dealing massive amounts of damage with it, it still does pack a punch, especially after level 10, and it will help you disrupting enemies with pushback and reverberation). Take this at level 7.

3.2. Bard Spells

Level 1 spells
Healing Word is the most important level 1 spell, as it will allow you to perform your support role by buffing your carry with item synergies, as well as bringing downed party members back into combat.
Longstrider is part of your morning buff routine. It's just 3 feet of movement for free, as you can ritual cast this on every party member without expending a spell slot.
Sleep is a powerhouse crowd control for the first three levels of the game. Take it, and replace it later.
Dissonant Whispers can function as an occasional single target nuke + CC. Just like Sleep, this spell loses value very quickly, so it will get replaced later.
Level 2 spells
Cloud of Daggers is an absolute godsend of a spell. Casters are not very good early game - they tend to skyrocket after level 5, really. The way I see it, this is one of the few ways to cope, as it can deal tens and tens of damage if you play around it and place it in key choke points. Take this at level 3 and use it in key fights.
Heat Metal single handedly destroys armed boss fights (e.g. Anders, Dror) as it is useful even if they save the spell: another must pick.
Hold Person is a well known spell that has a lot of value, but it does so especially in the later parts of the playthrough, when you have the spell slots to upcast it consistently. However, since your itemization is not going to have a lot of spell DC, you will be better off investing your concentration slot in Hunger of Hadar.
Level 3 spells
Plant Growth is a fantastic non-concentration spell that you get at level 5 and makes terrain very hard to traverse. It comboes nicely with Hunger of Hadar, Sleet Storm and similar effects, allowing you to zone an unlimited number of enemies with almost comical effect.
Hypnotic Pattern and Glyph of Warding are similar to hold person, in the sense that your limited DC will make them OK spells. They are still strong and situationally useful, but you're generally better off with Hunger of Hadar. I prefer Glyph as it is a non-concentration spell.
Level 4 spells
With Dimension Door you trade one of your actions to greatly improve another character’s mobility. This can be used to rescue party members that are in trouble and take them to a secure spot, as well as an easy strategy for many fights , e.g. the Temple of Bhaal ambush or the Top of the Netherbrain fight (if you’re not cheesing with Invisibility anyway) .
Confusion is similar to Hypnotic Pattern, but I don't like the fact that affected enemies might get a turn. You could take Greater Invisibility to make sure your carry characters are protected in some fights, or to escape nasty situations.
Level 5 spells
Hold Monster is the improved version of Hold Person and, while it costs a level 5 spell slot, it allows you to hold non-humanoids such as Steel Watchers. In my opinion, this is a must pick in Act 3.

3.3. Magical Secrets

As a College of Lore Bard, you get two instances of Magical Secrets, one at level 6 and one at level 10. This feature's flexibility grants you two custom spells from a list of magic that normally bards don't have. Therefore, Lore Bard can "steal" four spells from other classes in total. Amazing! This is what allows Lore Bard to be a unique multipurpose caster, fitting your team depending on what you need. Let's see some of the options you have.
Level 6
Hunger of Hadar is the absolute first priority. This amazing plug and play spell works independently of your attack roll and spell DC, and just makes enemies' life so much more difficult by obscuring their vision, reducing their movement speed and preventing them from reaching to you. It also deals periodic damage, which puts their concentration on a strain. Couple this with Eldritch Blast, and you can do a pretty convincing Tome Lock impression. This is your zoner bread and butter and you should cast this spell in every important fight.
Mass Healing Word will be used in important fights to trigger buffs on your whole team (see Healing Word) as well as resuscitating multiple downed allies at once. If you don't like Mass Healing Word and you can spare the Fire Acuity Hat, Scorching Ray is definitely recommended, as it will turn your bard into an unstoppable CC machine.
Level 10
Counterspell is the best reaction tool in the game and it allows you to negate some nasty spellcasting, especially in the third act.
Pick anything you want for the fourth slot. I usually go with Conjure Elemental or Scorching Ray (for fire acuity).
Some popular picks i dislike are Haste and Spirit Guardians.First of all, the Haste spell is generally a poor version of Potion of Speed and it eats your concentration slot, but you can take it if you think you have enough CC in your party and you want to buff yourself or a carry. Spirit Guardians is a good spell for a Bardadin or another melee character, but you're going to be a backline caster, so I don't thiink it fits the build.

3.4. Warlock Progression

Warlock spells aren't incredibly important for this character, but I recommend taking Command and Hex at level 7. Command can be used to force enemies prone in AOE spells or to make them approach your carry, while Hex is a decent option in minor fights, if you don't want to spend your concentration slot on more important spells, it will significantly boost your Eldritch Blast output. Take Armor of Agathys at level 8 as there is nothing better: upcasted AoA still packs a punch and makes you a bit tankier, but I wouldn't write home about it as you're not an Abjuration Wizard.
Select Agonizing Blast and Repelling blast as your Eldritch Invocations at level 8, in order to improve your Eldrich Blast and make it a powerful disruptive tool to force enemies back into AOE spells (namely, Hunger of Hadar)

3.5. Proposed Setup

IMPORTANT!
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Class and Level	Get	Replace	Replace With
Bard 1	Healing Word, Longstrider, Dissonant Whispers, Sleep
Bard 2	Feather Fall
Lore Bard 3	Cloud of Daggers
Lore Bard 4	Heat Metal	Sleep	Hold Person
Lore Bard 5	Plant Growth	Dissonant Whispers	Enhance Ability
Lore Bard 6	Glyph of Warding
The Fiend 1	Command, Hex
The Fiend 2	Armor of Agathys
Lore Bard 7	Dimension Door
Lore Bard 8	Greater Invisibility
Lore Bard 9	Hold Moster
Lore Bard 10	Greater Restoration

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4. Gearing, itemization and consumables

As usual, when gearing up a support character, you need to take into account which items go to damage dealers in your save. I tried to cover a lot of items in this section, but there is only one I deem important for this build. Also, I will mention a generally good Lorelock build vs. the build i used for my party. So take the proposed setup with a grain of salt, and adjust according to your own playthrough.

4.1. Relevant Gear in Act I

Believe it or not, but as soon as you arrive in Emerald Grove you will have access to a lot of items that will be useful to you for a good part of the campaing. Get Hellrider's Pride from Zevlor by stealing them or doing work for him. These will make your Healing Word a decent defensive tool. Also equip the best bow you can find, as in the first few levels of the game, shooting an arrow is your best offensive option.
Around the grove you also find Gloves of Power (loot the goblins after the gate fight) Smuggler's Ring (in an area under a secluded part of the grove, where Karlach is. You need feather fall), and Silver Pendant (in a small rock hill in the route to Blighted Village). You won't wear these three items constantly, but they make your stealing game so much better (see 5.2.) so always keep these in your inventory as they make your playthrough very much smoother.
You can buy Whispering Promise in several places during act 1: it is commonly sold by Grat the Trader, Roah Moonglow in Shattered Sanctum, or by Volo in your camp. It s not clear to me if it's random or plot-dependent, but you'll have to dig a bit to find this one. This ring complements Hellrider's Pride very well and makes your Healing Word / Mass Healing Word a powerful bonus action buff which helps your team connect more attack rolls. While normally you would switch this up for a more powerful ring during act 2/3, in the particular setup i played this ring is Best in Slot because all other powerful options were taken by other party members.
You should play with a shield (the equipment piece) in act one and two, until you get Shield (the spell) via Magical Secrets. Absolute Warboard, found by gutting Priestess Gut, is a fine choice: otherwise, any common piece of wood or metal granting +2 armor will do.
In a good-aligned playthrough, Zevlor will also reward you with Wapira's Crown for helping the tiefling cause. You can keep this piece of headgear, at least until The Shadespell Circlet is available (if nobody else wants it, that is), which is sold by Omeluum in the Underdark, alongside your best in slot footwear Boots of Stormy Clamour (a highly contested item, that is). In the Underdark, also make sure you pick up Mage's Friend from the Arcane Tower. Keep it in your inventory and don't sell it, as it helps with Mirror of Loss checks.
Use The Spellsparkler or Melf's First Staff to enhance your spells. Melf's staff is more useful in the immediate, but the Spellsparkler will gain value later on when you get Eldritch Blast.
The Graceful Cloth, sold by lady Esther in the Mountain Pass, is the final utility item that you will pick up. You can wear it for now and you will replace it later, but keep it in your inventory forever, as it is the final piece of equipment that makes you a very proficient pickpocketer.
When visiting this area, if they aren't contested, get your best in slot Gloves of Belligerent Skies and Daredevil Gloves, which will now substitute Zevlor's. The Devil Tongue is also a pretty good carrier for The Blood of Lathander, which helps conducting the party through Act II Shadow Curse so if you want to drop your weapon in favour of this, you won't be hurt a lot.

4.2. Relevant Gear in Act II

First step: Last Light Inn, and particularly the Cellar, in which you can find Callous Glow Ring. This much appreciated ring will be a primary rider for your eldritch blasts. Evasive Shoes are also sold by Mattis in the Inn's main hall, if you convince Rolan to stay with the Tieflings in act 1: while you should generally want Boots of Stormy Clamour, i'm using these as a GGI (generally good item) substitute in my setup, as the former are taken by another character.
In Moonrise Tower you can get Spineshudder Amulet by killing the mimic which inhabits the second floor, and purchase Sentinel Shield by one of the most unfriendly vendors in the whole game, bugbear Lann Tarv, which can replace your current shield.
Get Potent Robe by accomplishing Alfira's mission of freeing the prisoners in Moonrise Towers. This will now overtake Graceful Cloth and boost your eldritch blast damage further.
Finally, in the Gauntlet of Shar you can find Coruscation Ring which helps immensely spreading revorb around.

4.3. Relevant Gear in Act III

In Lower City's central square you immediately find almost all the Act 3 items for this build: The Dead Shot, a bow which you can buy (or steal) at the Stormshore Armory, will enhance your Eldritch Blasts by making them 5% more likely to crit. Birthright can be bought or stolen at Sorcerous Sundries and will generally make you a better spellcaster; as an aside, I find this item is overvalued by beginner players, but that is neither here nor there as it's clearly the best in slot hat for this build.
By exploring Sorcerous Sundries you will also find the "secret" Ramazith Tower, in which you can find Markoheshkir, the best staff in the game. Now, normally a more damage-inclined caster would take this, but if you can get your hands on it, you will become a very potent spellcaster. I use this in my particular party, but realistically, if you can get your hands on any other decent lategame staff, like Woe or Staff of Spell Power, then that should do the trick.
Complete your build by finishing the Astarion Arc and slaying Cazador, who will drop the much-contested Rhapsody dagger. This is the only top tier item that I deem as a necessity for this build and every other substitute you can think of is just a way of coping with the loss, so make sure you get it.

4.4. Late game Best In Slot - Summary

IMPORTANT!
Generally you want to stick to the right column, which provides the Best in Slot setup. If you are being redirected here from my next post and you want to copy the setup, it's on the left column. It's a slightly less optimized setup, but it makes sense in my party's economy.

Slot	C4b's Party Setup	Best in Slot Setup
Head	Birthright	Birthright
Shoulders	Cloak of Displacement	Cloak of the Weave
Torso	Potent Robe	Potent Robe
Hands	Spellmight Gloves	Gloves of Belligerent Skies
Feet	Evasive Shoes	Boots of Stormy Clamour
Weapon 1	Markoheshkir	Any good staff (see 4.3)
Weapon 2	Rhapsody	Rhapsody
Ranged 1	The Dead Shot	The Dead Shot
Ranged 2
Neck	Spineshudder Amulet	Spineshudder Amulet
Finger 1	The Whispering Promise	Coruscation Ring
Finger 2	Callous Glow Ring	Callous Glow Ring

And always keep in inventory

Item	Purpose
Gloves of Power	Pickpocketing
Smuggler's Ring	Pickpocketing
The Graceful Cloth	Pickpocketing
Silver Pendant	Guidance if your party doesn't have it
Mage's Friend	Mirror of Loss Check
The Blood of Lathander	Overcoming the Shadow Curse in act II

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4.5. Consumables

Elixir of Vigilance, while not completely necessary, is a good consumable to have ready for an important day, as it makes sure you are on top of the initiative and being able to meaningfully setup your Area Control spells.

4.6. Illithid Powers

Aside from generally good Illithid Powers, such as Favourable Beginnings and Luck of the Far Realms, the big question with this build is if you want to take the Awakened Buff or not. As explained here, it is a very powerful option for Control Casters. The problem with making this choice as a Lore Bard is twofold

1. Your Spell DC is going to be rather good but not stellar and some enemies might resist your Black Hole. Therefore you may want to take Scorching Ray as Magical Secrets if you want to do this.
2. Being a character that wants to cast Healing Word from time to time, Awakened may clog your bonus action a bit.

Don't get me wrong, Awakened is insanely powerful, even on Lore Bard, but other Control Casters might be better at it.

5. Build Mechanics

5.1. In-Combat Gameplay

IMPORTANT!
During prologue (level 1) stay afar from enemies and fire arrows at them.
In early act I (levels 2-4) you want to start equipping a shield for extra protection: this, coupled with light armor will ensure some combat durability. Keep firing your ranged weapon, as it outdamages cantrips. Occasionally, in big fights, you may want to cast Cloud of Daggers for damage, Hold Person orSleep to turn the fight in your favor. You also get your Cutting Words dice: it’s advised to use them sparingly, in important and difficult fights, to make sure your party survives, especially in the first turn.
Also remember to use Healing Word on your damage carry, to buff them with Zevlor's gloves and/or Whispering Promise.
Between level 5 and level 6 you take off. Not only your Bardic Inspiration dice will improve, but it will also refresh on Short Rest too. You can also learn and prepare two powerful level 3 spells such as Plant Growth and Hypnotic Pattern. You will also pick up Hunger of Hadar from Magical Secrets. From this moment onward, your job is to

• locate the area with the maximum density of enemies and cast Hunger of Hadar onto them;
• use a bonus action to buff your carry with Healing Word.
• Get yourself secure and out of enemies range/behind a wall, where you can keep firing arrows or casting spells, such as Plant Growth, to further trap your targets
• Use Cutting Words to negate damage.

Between level 7 and level 8 you will add empowered Eldritch Blast to your toolkit: this is actually a pretty cool action dump, because it will give you a resourceless tool to use your actions after turn 1-2. You can use it to push back enemies into your nasty AOE combo.
I would like to add improvement to your gameplay in the later stages of the game, but actually this is basically it. Your bread and butter combo is Hadar+Reverberating Repelling Blast+Plant Growth + Healing Word + Cutting Words: you achieve this setup within act 2 and you can keep on doing this until the credits roll down the screen, while your carries happily destroy everything that survives. Importantly, remember you can use your warlock spell slots to cast level 1 spells (such as Healing Word), and they will be back on short rest. You slso have other good spells -and a lot of them- such as Heat Metal and Hold Monster, but those are to be used according to the situation rather than in the blind.

5.2. Out of Combat Gameplay

IMPORTANT!
In this section I will present all the ways in which a Lore Bard can contribute in a very meaningful way to your save's economy, by boosting your item and money input, as well as influencing your plot choices.
Morning Buffs and extra rest
Remember to cast Longstrider on your whole party each morning. It doesn't use a spell slot, because it's a ritual. Use your Song of Rest once per day to make sure your party can go on adventuring for longer!
Dialogues
The Devil Togue will naturally be a very skilled smooth talker, so you're pretty sure you are going to get things your way throughout most dialogues. So make sure this is the character you're piloting, especially when moving in an enclosed, non-wilderness location, such as the Grove, Last Light Inn or Lower City, because it will be your primary choice for dialogues. It is also very useful to play this character as TAV, so that dialogues default to them. Just remember a couple of things:

1. When presented different options. mouse over around them to see which one has the most bonuses attached to it;
2. You can always buff yourself with Guidance and Friends when rolling for a dialogue. Pay attention to Friends, as many NPCs will not take lightly the fact that they have been magically charmed by you. Get the result you want, then make sure you leave the area for a minute or two until their aggro cools down.

Pickpocketing

1. Have Expertise in Sleight of Hand via Bard;
2. Locate the target of your theft and equip Smuggler's Ring, Gloves of Power and Graceful Cloth;
3. If you don't have a Guidance caster in your party, equip Silver Pendant and cast guidance on yourself; otherwise have that character buff your Bard with Guidance;
4. Press Shift and see if there are corners of darkness near the target in which you can hide (C). If there are, hide. If there are not, the target is not pickpocketable unless you cast Invisibility on yourself (which will cancel guidance if you're the caster);
5. Activate turn based mode;
6. Approach the target unseen and click "pickpocket";
7. Select the item(s) you want and steal it; remember not to get too fancy with it and limit to what can be taken without too much risk (e.g. Elixirs are an easy target). If you fail, some merchants will aggro;
8. When you have the items you wanted, exit turn based mode and quickly TP away before they can realize it, or you will be questioned.

Refrain from casting spells such as Fog Cloud and Darkness, as since the most recent patch these are now considered hostile actions. Remember that NPCs drop their 2-3 most valuable items when they are killed, so if you plan to wipe out a certain place you can still get expensive items you didn't manage to steal because it was too risky.

6. Fitting this build in your party: variants

It is a bit silly to talk about Lore Bard caster variants, as the shell is so flexible that it can basically be almost anything you want. In this post I have talked about the classic Hadar Lorelock, but it might be worth spending a couple of words about some other popular Lore Bard builds, which are:

• Loreadin (6 Devotion Paladin / 6 Lore Bard, leveled up in this order)Credits to Jevin for making me discover this build , which is basically a multitasking support/reverb melee frontliner which also packs a decent punch.
• Lorecerer (6 Lore Bard / 6 Red Draconic Sorcerer)This is also a flexible support caster type, which also packs more punch than Lorelock thanks to Acuity Scorching Ray + AOE (Crowd Control or Damage) + Metamagic, but does so at the cost of being more spell slot hungry, which kinda fits a carry character more than a support.

7. FAQ

What is the point of a support build? Can't I just run four damage-oriented characters?
Yes, you can run four damage builds in your team. The point of a support build is to have a character that is functional with minimal item investment, so that it can empower your damage dealers with buffs and control, while also making you able funnel important items over three characters instead of four. A better item spread for three characters means to enhance those characters' overall performance.
​
Is the damage really "decent"?
The Devil Tongue's damage is okay. Depending on factors such as how many enemies are trapped into Hunger of Hadar and if you have Potion of Speed available, you could be dealing around 50-100 DPR, possibly more. While it is nothing to write home about, you can still kill one enemy per turn in the endgame, plus the value you get from Crowd Controlling enemies in this way and negating their action economy in a totally Spell DC-independent way is insane.
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When is the post showcasing the whole team coming?
Around next month if I hurry up.

8. Credits

Proofreading: Unimatrix

My brain won't shut up. It's a constant "cacophony of nonsense". The war, my homework, that one book, that one other book, a hundred completely different songs playing at once. What I was doing one, two, three, four years ago. Will I become deaf? Will I get cancer? Will I ever trully feel? I hate my dad. My dad is a human. I'm like my dad. I'm horrible. I tried being more open and just as I thought, whatever was inside my close doors stinks now. My friends must hate me. Ugly, annoying AND mean. Never with energy. I have to finish at least three different projects, but I would rather die. I guess we will all just die in the next like 30 years anyway. I wish I could kill myself. But I'm a coward. For everything. Selfish fuck. Selfish fuck. Disgusting, absolutely disgusting. Inside and outside. Nothing feels real. since covid, everything felt painful before. Screams, screams. I wish I could scream. My cat will die. Society rottens, rottens, rottens. I'm deeply rotten too. I wish i could not care, cause I don't care, but I can't afford to not care. I can't afford to anything. I will never bring anything positive to this world. This dystopia. I wish I visited that youth centre before it closed. When did it close anyway? Quarantine? I remeber seeing it open. Images of weird places I've been to. Middle school memories. High school memories. I need to read more. I should be working. I need to fins a job. I need to get my diploma. I need to get my license. I need to learn how to cook. i need money. I will never get it. I'm untalented. I should really kill myself. I wish i could rip off my skin. At least at my lowest I was comfortable. I tried to get out but the outside world is too noisy. too many things to do. i'm late. i'm late i'm always late. My skin feels wrong. I disgust myself. Help me, help me. Who is this even for? Am I really sick, or just a whiny fuck? Why can't I be perfect? I just wanted to be good. I just wanted to be smart. I just wanted to be pretty. Like they all say I am. But I know they lie. I'm a disgusting moster. I don't care that people are supposed to be burdens. I don't want to be human if that means imperfect. I just wish I was never born.

Not to demotivate anyone here for doing CCNA, but I'm going to share with you my story.
I started learning CCNA in 2022 Jan and got my CCNA cert in August 2022. Since then I have been applying for entry level jobs in Linkedin, Indeed and moster.com & so on and so forth.
Most of the companies where I applied sent me an email "Unfortunately we will not be moving forward with your application" .
Few companies interviewed me to test my knowledge in CCNA, and one of the companies asked me a technical question of how will I setup 20-40 computers on a single network and what equipments will be required.
My reply wasn't so assuring to the interviewer so he said "you don't have the experience nor the expertise etc etc" and straight away said how I got my CCNA.
One interviewer even said I should be working as a technician.
But I didn't give up, and till date I have been applying, so just so to let you know I shared my experience with y'all.

I'm trying to hook my 3rd 4090 to my Thermaltake Toughpower GF3 1650W.
(This isn't for gaming it's for deep learning, and obviously I can't run all three at full power, but that's not a problem because you lose like 5% when you massively reduce the power limit.)
The first two were simple because I could just use the atx 3.0 cables (12vhpwr) and corresponding ports on this best of a PSU. The last GPU can be installed using the included 4x pcie 8 pin to 12vhpwr connector and 4x of pcie-8 pin connectors. Everything works perfectly and runs my DL jobs quite well. But it's a huge mess. First of all, the PSU only comes with two cables that don't have the extender for an extra set of 8-pins. So I've got 2x (8 pin to 8 pin) and 2x(8 pin to 2x8 pin where one of the 8-pins is unused). Also, these cables are at least 65 cm. But the PSU is almost touching the third GPU. I really only need like 10cm or less. The extra cable mess is interfering with my fans.
I thought about getting a male 4x8pin to 12vhpwr from amazon, but those all feel super sketchy, and they're all like 65 cm long.
I can't find short PCIe power cables online. CableMod makes custom pcie power cables, but they're pretty expensive. I don't really want to pay 80 bucks for tiny PCIe power cables (though I guess I will if that's the best solution).
My other thought was a 4x8 pin (PSU side) to female 12vhpwr port, but those don't seem to exist.
Does nobody else have this problem? It seems like it would be a normal problem to have if you want to use an older PSU to hook up your new 4090, and you want to do it in a small case and keep everything tidy.
BTW, I know people hate the 4090's power cable standard. I didn't invent it, but if I want to make this moster I have to deal with it and assume the risk.

I know that some people really like listen but I absolutely hate it. In my opinion it's the third worst episode of series 8 only beaten by Into The Dalek, and Kill the moon (which in my opinion is the worst episode of dr who period).
The ambiguouity in the ending rather than feeling clever, feels jaring and unsatisfying. The conclusion of the episode has Clara go back to The Doctor and realize that the monsterwasn't real at all. First of this comes almost out of nowhere. The doctor passes out after seeing the creature and Clara pilots the tardis to somewhere, as far as I can tell she has no plan of where to go just takes psychic control and hopes for the best. We end up in an event from the doctors childhood we are just now learning about and have Clara comfort him.
Even if this event didn't feel like it came steraight out of left field it still wouldn't change the fact that the monsters not being real is inherently unsatifying. I've often heard this episode complared to midnight but that ambiguity in that episode is completely different. In midnight we learn nothing about thew freature but we still know it exists. The midnight creaure is terrifying because we have no way of predicting what it wants and what it can. In listen the monsters do not exist in the first. There is nothing to be scared of it was in your head. Midnight would not be better if was just a story the doctor made uo to entertain the passangers.
This form of writing is the first thing most eriters think of when they want to be clever and it's very much not. If the story isnot real than our investment in it was a waste of our time. It is oinherentlyt unsatisfying. If the monster is not real than the characters were never in danger. This type of ending can be used to great effect if this is the intended effect. It can evoke feeling of nihgilism and helplesness. It can convey insignificance in the world of the story.
If we take the alternative explanation that the creatures are real and Clara is just wrong or lying than the episode has no ending. Their is no resolution to the primary conflict. Again midnight has aresolution the charactrers escape at a cost. In listewn the character just decide it wasn't worth investing time in.
I'd also add the episode does a rather poor job conveying that the monsters exience is intended to gbe ambiguous. All the agree that the monster was not real. The ending is framed musically and compisitionally as though this is a conclusion. Most of the ambiguity comnes from seemingly unambigous signs the moster is real. We saw the monsters face, the tardis reacted as if it was in danger. There was something at the end of the universe. This is not ambiguity contradiction is not ambiguity. It does feel like the Moffat want's us to wonder if the creature exists decided the creatures do not exist midway through the episode.

So I got pretty good build I think. It's doing really good job clearing fully juiced t7 cementery, but i want to go step further and do t16 burial with altars etc. but I'm getting one shot pretty often when juice goes above like 6k plus i put couple altars on. I cannot run maps with "cannot leech", "mosters can steal charges" and any reflect mod because even if i have awakened elemental damage in 6l flicker gem, i dont have one in tempest shield and it probably got refelcted straight to me :(
I tried Ziz technique of estimated how tanky I am with putting for example shapers ball with 100% crit chance and estimate how hit before death and I think my build is pretty tanky.
What can be probable cause of this one hits in t16 burial? Can it be critical hits? How can I improve my defense for that case?
POB: https://pobb.in/z9On7zro5mGt

1) Fermion's S3 needs to increase his attack bar by 15% when he is attacked to make his provoke more relevant in his kit. Also the S2 should defense break before dealing damage instead of doing damage first so he can replace Carcano in Siege.
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2) Destiny's S3 should remove a beneficial effect before defense breaking and granting oblivion. That way she is a reliable damage dealer for oneshotting things like beast riders that are runed on will. Her base speed isn't good so it would be fair if she had an impactful skill for RTA.
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3) Kiara's S3 should grant at least 1 turn immunity because at this point the skill is underwhelming. Only a 2 turn attack buff and endure skill can easily be counteracted by stun, attack break and resetters.
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4) Jackson's S3 should increase the attack bar of allies by 15% instead of 10% because as of now the attack bar gain isn't good enough to take a turn significantly faster when his team is hit with things like Cheonpung's S3 or Charlotte's.
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5) Kovarci's S3 should be completely reworked because it is a really terrible skill. The 20% attack bar is insignificant because his base speed isn't good so he can't be used as a reliabe cleave setup. There are already mosters like Bastet, Praline and Megan that do his job just as well as him so Kovarci doesn't need a skill like that especially because the immunity is useless when all the enemies are defeated from the cleave. Using him as a turn 2 option is also not an impactful strategy because he doesn't heal or cleanse like Fran does. He needs either a rework or a speed buff instead of immunity along with 30% attack bar on the S3 to make up for the 100 base speed. Then he'd be like a flipped over Craig who has bad base speed but has a bit better S3 than Kovarci for Balance purposes.
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6) Devaraja's S3 should make him counterattack instead of reflecting 30% damage which is useless. Also there should be no RNG to get the duration of the Thunderer state increased because that makes him less reliable to use to do his job by crowd controlling and doing good damage as a bruiser.
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7) Xiana's S3 should apply a 2 turn brand instead of the silence so that there is higher damage output from the rider and her allies. Because as of now the silence doesn't suit the kit of an attack unit. In most scenarios Ren, who has a similar kit outperforms her and has 120 base speed.
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8) Nyx's S3 should decrease the chances of the allies being granted with harmful effects by 50% instead of 30% because as of now monsters like Bellenus and Asima still land harmful effects easily against Nyx's team which is absolutely shocking especially because he also has a 55% Resistance Leader Skill. Nyx as an LD5 needs to be more impactful on the battlefield and be more of a forceban.
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9) Maya's S3 should do more than just make her take damage from only the first hit. It should heal herself by 10% per hit that she took from the enemy. Also, to make her more versatile in terms of defending itself, her s4 should remove beneficial effects and attack break for 2 turns instead of provoking. Her s2 already provokes so it is a waste to also have a provoke on the s4.
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10) Elena's S3 is fine but she needs to awaken into speed because even though it is a really strong stripping skill against nem traps and triple revenge verdehiles, I think 111 base speed would be fair for her. She would be used a whole lot more and still be balanced for an LD5. On a side note she has the exact same name as the water High Elemental. She needs her name changed.
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11) Zeratu's S3 would be too broken if it had a defense break since he already puts attack buff on himself so I think making the S3 steal a beneficial effect instead of removing it would be a really good buff for Zeratu. That way he can steal other good beneficial effects like invincibility and speed buff.
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12) Sylvia's S3 is too underwhelming even for a LD5 with 4 nat4 counterparts because all it does is team up with one ally each turn. There is not a lot of damage output she can enforce that way so her S3 needs to make the ally Sylvia teams up with deal 50% more damage. Either that or make the ally that she teams up with have a 1 turn speed buff after attacking with her.
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13) Salah's S3 should have the blade disc attack a random enemy that isn't stunned instead of just a random enemy because if he is on violent, he can stun the same unit twice in a row which is a waste.
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14) Nicki's S3 should have an aoe 2 turn brand instead of the 2 turn heal block because the damage multiplier of the skill isnt good which ultimately makes her a worse Galleon. The heal block is useless because in most cases it gets cleansed away. Besides, there is no use in the heal block when her job is to cleave. The branding would really increase her damage output and make her less dependent on other units to def break and finish. You don't need the heal block. It's useless. The reason she is used here and there in RTA these days is because people hyped her up too much with g3 runes. Her s3 has been the exact same since it was first released and no one used her until recently. She needs to be a galleon that adds more damage to the table to make it easier for a cleave to defeat tanky teams.
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15) Oberon's S3 is not bad since it has a decent multiplier but it needs a little bit more to be a significant skill. When he defeats the enemy with the S3 Oberon should have 1 turn immunity aswell and not just the invincibility because he needs to be protected from being controlled aswell. And he only gains invincibility when the S3 defeats the enemy which doesn't happen often without attack buff so a small upgrade to the s3 would be good for him.
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16) Ariana's S3 is unbalanced because the cooltime of the skill is increased by 2 turns even when it is used on a living ally. The cooltime of thee skill should increase only if it was used on a dead ally, just like Betta's S2. Also, the ally revived should also be granted immunity and endure because the cooltime would be increased which is fair. Or at least revive the ally with at least 30% HP so it doesn't die straight away after being revived.
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These are my honest thoughts and everyone should agree.

I'm being asked many queries regarding MD PHARMACOLOGY, hence the summary
MD Pharmacology : carrier prospects
1)BA/BE studies (I don’t have any experience, I have heard one may get paid approx 1 lakh/pm:
Job Description (second hand information)
Actual studies in patients (including vitals/lab tests) and studying drug’s bioavailability/ Bioequivalence
2) Assistant professor (lecturer) (Starting Salary approx. 80k/pm)
Job Description
Academic: conducting practical, lectures and examination of UG students (very cool job, one can get lot of spare time)
3) Medical adviseMedico marketing job: Pharmaceutical companies like Emcure, sun, Johnson and Johnson etc : well paid job (on can expect starting package of 10/11 lakhs per annum and after few years of experience there is extraordinary hike and one can say sky is the limit)
Job description (in short)
•Scientific discussion with key opinion leaders (KOL) (big shot docs) regarding your company products portfolio
•Arranging/attending conferences, round table meetings , providing PPTs and other study materials to KOLs in context of ones portfolio drugs
•Training Medical representatives about your company products /drugs
•Writing compendium, product leaflets etc
•Searching for literatures regarding any off lable uses of your portfolio products and discussing the findings with KOLs (like one example GCSF can improve endometrial thickness in pts suffering from infertility

In short help compony to promote their Drugs/Products (but in scientific way).

Lots of travel involved (national/international) but one may enjoy four stafive star hotel stay, and many after parties (post conferences etc), Sort of hectic jobs
4) Pharmacovigilance: Medical Reviewer (also known as drug safety physician): life sciences companies like apcer, cognizant and many pharma companies have PV unit)
Average salary; if this is your first job, one can expect 8/9 lakhs per annum, but extremely good salary if you have previous experience (after 5/6 years one may expect 20 to 30 lakhs (it includes switching companies too)), stable, cool and desktop job, one can also opt for WFH (depends on company)
Job description (in short)
Most common :

 1) ICSR (individual case safety report): 

We get individual cases in form of source document in special software, which includes reported adverse events, our company drugs, med history, concomitant products etc. (anyone can send these adverse events forms doc, nurse, pharmacist, regulatory authority, consumept/pts relative, layman, literature, post marketing studies, clinical trial etc) and we have to review target no of cases in special software, where we need to assess if the reported adverse event is due to our company drug or due to any other pre-existing disease/concomitant medication/age related risk or any other risk factors) and assess causality and to write company comment. (need to follow timeline of different regularity authorities of different countries)

In short we deal with safety profile of drug

2)Aggregate report: As the name suggests it is aggregate of ICSR, for signal detection, risk benefit etc (I don’t have any experience)
usually after having some experience in ICSR one can opt for this, very good pay
Bottom line: One must prepare resume and upload it on these websites : mosters, linkedin, naukari.com, but preferably keep in touch with seniors and ask them to submit your resume in their company, internal reference has weightage

These are just my thoughts/notes that I jot down while watching. Feel free to kindly disagree ☺️ :
That mirror ball skull is amazing!!! Love NIECY NASH!!!
Jason: Contemporary - I loved him as always but somehow this didn't seem like his best work. Which is disappointing to me because Contemporary always seems like the best dance for the contestants to express themselves and really leave it all out on the ballroom floor.
Alyson: Paso - VERY GOOD!!!! I feel like it was such a big leap forward! She has been doing increasingly well, but this might have been her best yet. Yes, her walk down the steps was a little stompy and she kept jutting out her jaw which was a bit comical, but overall it was a good one! Also, I loved that Muse was the song choice! (OMG Jason in the back was hilarious 😂)
Xochitl: Contemporary - YES! Beautiful! That move where it was like she was "flying"?! OKAY CORE STRENGTH! Xochitl is such an incredible dancer and it's such joy to watch her. Not sure what happened to her, but she definitely powered through and props to her for that.
Harry: Argentine Tango - Finally we see SOME movement from him. But, my gawd, he cries about fans saying he's just letting Rylee dance around him but when it comes time for him to move, his movements are miniscule and stiff and awkward. Still, good to see him finally do more than just lift Rylee. (Jason is still stealing the show back there by just doing a dead stare and not blinking 🤣🤣)
Barry: Viennese Waltz - YES, BARRY!!! He totally kept in time, those arms were great, he matched Peta so well. At this point I feel like the judges are hard on him BECAUSE he is a contender.
Ariana: Argentine Tango - So good! For me, her best yet. If she had just put a smidge more power in her moves, it would have been perfect. (Loved seeing Dani and Pasha share a kiss 💋)
Lele: Paso - I agreed with CAI. I do think Lele had a lot of power and passion but I think maybe she was concerned about keeping in time so much, so maybe that's why she didn't follow through with the moves as much. Over all, good job. (Jason is killing me with that dead stare, but still raising up his arms 🤣🤣🤣)
Mauricio: Argentine Tango - Great job. The dance was classic and sharp. I feel like Mauricio is in the middle of the pack as far as skill goes, so that's good.
Charity: Jive - Awesome job. Just needed a bit more fierceness, a bit more power. Other than that, she was great. Totally kept up, didn't miss a beat, hit those steps!
The Moster-Thon was so cute and a fun way to add those extra points! I was bummed that Barry and Peta got eliminated first and so quickly, but it was still a good time!
Excited to see Barry and Peta come back next week! At this point it's just comical that Harry is still in the game. I feel like even the judges are like, "OK, just go with it." But that's just my opinion 🤷

Hi everyone! My usual posts here are more about theoretical design analysis, especially regarding The-Topic-Which-Must-Not-Be-Named, but this time I wanna try something different. I ran a short adventure with my usual playgroup to test both of the new classes: Animist and Exemplar. I thought it would be cool to share how that went and how the players felt about those two in actual play, so here it is!
This post is not an in-depth analysis of the classes. I intend to do that at a later time. Having the "field experience" to inform it first is very important, and that's what this one is about.
The Adventure
I decided to run this playtest for 8th-level characters, as I think the mid levels better represent how a class is supposed to feel like. It has also been stated by Paizo that this is a level they usually get little feedback about.
The PCs were a group of 5, between famed heroes and people who just happened to be oddly powerful for their circumstances. One night, they all had a shared dream of an angelic being clamoring for their help. The hammer of a demigod, Ur, which fell onto the earth ages ago on top of a mountain, was being corrupted by some sort of evil cult. That, in turn, corrupted the land around it and its inhabitants. She needed their help to cleanse and recover the hammer. As they accepted the mission, they were teleported together to the base of said mountain — the Mountain of Myths.
Convenient, perhaps, but this is a playtest after all. I only needed as much story as it took to justify their quest.
The adventure was more combat-focused, consisting of three encounters varying between Moderate and Severe. There were also a couple of places where the characters could get advantages with preparation and use of skills and utility magic. In some cases they did, in others not so much, but we'll get to that in a bit.
The Party
For some additional context, I'll give a short description of each character, and do the same for the players who piloted them and their backgrounds and likes.
Filomena is a Sprite Animist, who wanted to protect nature and the land from the corruption that was spreading. She's a Channeler, and built for a more classic caster-y feel, also taking some Leap-based feats (Powerful Leap) and items (Boots of Bounding) to take more advantage of Sustaining Dance. Her player has been playing PF2 for about three years, but has no TTRPG experience prior to that. She's a caster main for flavor reasons, and although blasting is her favorite part of casting, she has played all sorts of them by this point.
Han is a Human Exemplar, who accepted the quest mostly as a challenge to herself. She went the StDex route with a Noble Branch Longspear, Palisade Bangles and Scar of the Survivor. She also took Hurl at the Horizon and Fighter MC for Rebounding Toss. Her epithets were Mournful and Peerless Under Heaven. Han's player is somewhat new to PF2, but has played D&D and especially Vampire the Masquerade before. He also has a background in tactical videogames, and tends to enjoy making more well-rounded characters who can adapt to situations.
Kyavan is our other Human Exemplar, who found this adventure a convenient way to run away from a loan shark he got in trouble with. Not all heroes have noble goals, after all. He opted into medium armor with a general feat, so he could leave Dex a bit lower and put more points into Con and Wis. Kyavan had a Longsword Gleaming Blade, Victor's Wreath and Gaze as Sharp as Steel, with Radiant and Whose Cry is Thunder as his epithets. He specced into Duelist for things such as Duelist's Challenge and Dueling Parry. His player has been playing 2e for a while, and comes from 5e before that. He tends to play "strikers" or "DPS" in pretty much every game, TTRPG or otherwise.
Krod is an Orc Fighter, who just thought climbing up a mountain and beating cultists sounded fun. He wielded a Greataxe for unga bunga big damage, though also had feats like Swipe and Lunge for a little more versatility in his bunga, and specced into Charisma/Intimidation for debuffing. He served as an interesting foil to see how Exemplar compares in terms of damage and utility to the "top dog" as many would say. Krod's player is the most experienced with PF2 in the group, though he is a funny guy. He always play very simple characters who beat things up, but does so in a more tactical manner.
Aeris is a Human Air Sorceress, and the last member of the group. Like Han, she saw this as mostly a way to challenge herself, but worried a bit more about the whole corruption issue in a personal way. As an Elemental Sorceress, her main thing was blasting, though she did take a variety of spells anyway and that became very relevant across the adventure. She also took Rogue MC for You're Next and Dread Striker. Her player is the newest one to PF2, though he is someone we jokingly call "game genius", because he tends to learn these things very fast. I don't play with him long enough to know his exact preferences.
Character Creation
I'll skip Aeris and Krod for this part, since everyone knows how creating a Sorcerer and a Fighter is like.
The process of building the two Exemplars was great overall. Both players were going crazy about just how many cool options the class has. They also both came up with at least two or three different builds in little time and had trouble choosing between them. Han's player also commented that it was really interesting how the ikons and epithets lend themselves to building a story.
In terms of negatives on character building, both players pointed out to the same thing as the main issue: the ikons don't seem very well balanced with each other right now. Han originally wanted to take Eye-Catching Spot, as it fit her flavor better, but it seemed so bad compared to the other options (and simply a worse version of Palisade Bangles on a different slot) that she ended up switching it out.
The lack of an unarmed option, and the incredibly disproportionate amount of weapon feats compared to the other two types were also mentioned as issues. I know some of these have already been addressed by the devs. As one last thing, Kyavan's player felt like the lack of medium armor proficiency forced him to pick that proficiency up elsewhere, and that it was weird as a whole that the class doesn't have it. I definitely sympathize with that feeling.
As for Filomena, the process was considerably clunkier. Animist is also very cool, and she loved the Vessel Spells and how good the feats were compared to moster casters', but oh boy, is this class dense. Between the hybrid casting method and muddy subclasses without a clear direction, it took almost an hour of reading, re-reading and explaining just to stick in her mind how the base mechanics of the class work and how she should build to get what she wanted out of the character. And then she also had to choose multiple apparitions. After all that, she ended up going with Imposter in Hidden Places, Steward of Stone and Fire and Guardian of Groves and Gardens as her three default ones, with Steward as her main.
First Encounter
As our heroes woke up from their dream, brought together to the base of that odd mountain, they took a couple of minutes to talk to each other and figure things out. Of course, being a newly-formed RPG party, that ended in goofy bantering, with a highlight to Krod's extremely swaggy Clockwork Heels. Who doesn't love an Orc in wheeled shoes? But they did have a mission after all, and so the group moved on to the trail up the mountain.
It didn't take long before signs of the corruption started showing. Right on the entrance of the trail, two giants awaited — their eyes completely darkened and dripping with a black ooze. That wasn't a good sign. The party didn't have much time to think before they attacked, and so our first encounter began. A Frost Giant, and a corrputed, weakened version of a Cloud Giant, whose stats and abilities I brought down to level 8 using the monster creation guidelines. This totaled 100 XP - a Moderate encounter for a 5-person 8th level party.
Our heroes did not have a good start. The Frost Giant won initiative, and proceeded to critically hit Krod and Kyavan with his swipe attack, rolling an 18. I also rolled high on damage, and that took more than half their HP. Aeris lined up both giants for a 4th level Bolt, which did some damage to the Frost Giant, but the Cloud one, fittingly, rolled a nat 20 and critically succeeded. Kyavan used his Mirrored Spirit Strike, but rolled a 1 and a 2. Han tried to attack... another natural 1. And then the Cloud Giant critically hit her with a 19 on Wind Strike for almost 90% of her health. I couldn't make this shit up if I tried. This was probably the worst initial sequence I've ever ran to a group.
Luckily — if a little late — things started getting better. Han started the fight with Palisade Bangles up, which made the -8 unarmed attack from the giant miss her by 1. This stopped her from being knocked to zero. Krod repositioned and used Power Attack on the Frost Giant, finding out he wasn't very fond of the Flaming rune on his axe.
And then she came. An AC-130 bomber in Pixie form. Filomena activated Channeler's Stance and threw 2 Earth's Biles against the giant, which caused 2 instances of damage + persistent against his fire weakness. A round, some more brawling and a bunch of Sustaining Dances later (including one who tanked an AoO that probably would have downed Han), Krod and her had basically melted the level+1 giant while the others dealt with Cloudy. Not before he tried to reposition and successfully immobilized the Orc with his cold breath, but Lunge gave Krod just enough reach to finish him off.
Han was struggling to survive, and the 15 feet throw range on her spear helped her action economy a ton in this situation. She healed with Scar, which in turn dazzled the Cloud Giant. She managed to get one Strike in because of an earlier Demoralize from Krod, and that was pretty much the only one she hit. Better than poor Kyavan, who didn't even get that luxury, Victor's Wreath or not. I think his highest roll in the whole encounter was a 5, and even his utility like the +1 aura and the re-save against an effect, which he used on Krod to try and help him escape the ice, didn't manage to make a difference. Ouch.
Aeris missed an Elemental Toss, but switching to the Will spell Phantasmal Killer made a big difference, as the enemy failed and took a bunch of damage + increased her frightened condition to 2. With how much the Exemplars were goofing around thanks to poor rolls, the giant switched her attention to the casters. She attacked Aeris from a mile away with her Ranseur, and guess what? Natural 20. Another crit, an 18 on the dazzled check, and another party member with single digit HP. She also kicked Filomena a bunch with her agile attacks, but the sturdyness of Animist + dropping two Biles to Heal herself near the end helped her stay healthier than her peers.
From there, it was more Strikes and Earth's Bile + cantrips until the second foe eventually fell. In the end, no one went down, but the fight was a little demoralizing and way harder than it should. Of course, a combination of players rolling this poorly and the GM rolling this well is an anomaly. I think the players also struggled a bit with the size of the creatures + their huge reach, which made their usual "flank and spank" tactics a little harder to pull off. If anything, the fact that Han still managed to be useful and even clutch in some situations with such bad rolls attests to the power of Exemplar's utility.
Second Encounter
After some trouble with the giants, the group needed to recover. There's no need to go into detail here, but I will say that the out-of-combat healing ability of both Animist and Exemplar (if taking Garden/Scar) is absolutely crazy.
The journey continues. As the trail went on, the group started to noticed why the place is called Mountain of Myths. The normal laws of nature don't quite apply there. The mountain is a lot bigger than it seemed from afar, and there are many different biomes at different levels of it. They pushed through it all, though, until they heard a worrying sound. Voices. Distorted chanting...?
Still at a safe distance, they investigated, and found two humanoids: a hooded man in dark-red clothes, and a woman with snake hair and a bow. The man's face was not visible, but the Medusa also had those terrifying black eyes, and they said something about "finishing the ritual" while walking around the entrance of a cave. More bad news, but this time the party wouldn't let them be the first to attack.
Using the spells granted by her Imposter spirit, Filomena made herself and Han invisible with a 2nd and 3rd level slot, and the two put themselves in advantageous positions: Filomena took some higher ground, and Han successfully sneaked so that the mage cultist would be in her reach. The less stealthy party members stood a little further away and, with some Delay tech, Aeris started the fight with Revealing Light. Or as we like to call it, "The Flashbang".
The party also had a little surprise coming for them, though. As soon as the fight broken, two minotaurs came down from the upper level of the mountain. One of them blocked the passage of the group's non-invisible warriors, while the other tried to flank the Sorceress who stayed behind. Final setup: one Elite Medusa, two Elite Minotaurs, and a Demonologist. Technically a 100 XP Moderate encounter as well, but with three Elite creatures and disadvantageous terrain, it was realistically somewhere between Moderate and Severe.
The Demonologist passed the save against Aeris' spell, while the Medusa, despite her high Reflex, rolled very low and failed. Both dazzled, one for 2 rounds, the other for a minute. The Demonologist tried to Fireball Aeris, Kyavan and Krod, but they all rolled very well, and the mage end up taking more damage from invisible Han's Reactive Strike than he actually dealt with the spell. Now this was a much better start for our heroes.
Filomena used her higher ground to, once again, activate her stance and start blasting away with Earth's Bile. Targets were too spread out for the small AoE, so she decided to focus the Minotaur blocking the path, and it was very much worth it. A failure and a critical failure on the saves, and a good chunk of damage. Han saw this and decided to focus fire on the same foe, which resulted in him being almost dead after a Strike and the Strike, Breathe, Rend transcendence.
The Medusa shot Kyavan and hit him, but the second attack missed thanks to his wise decision to start with Gaze as Sharp as Steel as his active ikon. He failed the roll against poison, but re-rolled it into a success with a hero point. When it came to his turn, he sadly had to spend the whole thing Striding to where Han and Filomena were and Shifting Immanance, because his initial positioning was not very helpful. The Exemplar's lack of mobility proved to be a distinct downside in this situation. Krod, being the good Fighter he is, almost one-shot the other minotaur with a Power Attack crit, and only didn't kill him because the second attack missed, even with Furious Focus.
Round two, the party is doing very well and the bulldozing continues. Aeris kills one minotaur and damages the Demonologist with an Airball, and then uses You're Next to Demoralize as a reaction and finish the other minotaur with an Elemental Toss. They did do some damage to the party before dying, but it was almost negligible. Filomena continues her explosive rampage with an Earth's Bile into a 4th level Explosive Earth spell, finishing the Demonologist off. Han is very thankful for Aeris' previous "flashbang", as it turned the Medusa's critical hit with a deadly bow into a miss, with a roll of 2 on the flat check. She did, however, make Han slowed with her Petrifying Gaze. Krod Sudden Charged in to dish out some extra damage.
Kyavan arrives with a Mirrored Spirit Strike on the Medusa, and finally, thanks to all the gods, gets a nat 20 on the first attack. He did miss the second one, but that crit did about 70 damage between weapon damage, spirit damage and Whose Cry is Thunder. Han approached and missed all her attacks the previous turn, but simply positioning well proved to very important here. After some more kaboom damage from Filomena and a Phantasmal Killer from Aeris, Han left the Medusa half-dead with a Reactive Strike as she tried to reposition, and finished her off in her own turn with a basic Strike. Her original plans were more complex than that, but being slowed as an Exemplar really hurts.
This encounter was supposed to be harder than the first, but through better tactics, preparation, and dice that weren't absolutely atrocious, it ended up being much easier. I think the players also started "getting" the new classes a little better at this point.
With what seemed like the night coming — it was hard to tell in that eerie place — they went into the cave to rest, finishing the day.
Third Encounter
During their rest, Filomena thought about changing some of her apparitions, but ended up not doing so. In her words, swapping a whole list of spells for another whole list of spells mid-game felt like so much trouble, even compared to normal prepared casting, that it wasn't worth it. So that put aside, they continued onwards to finish their adventure.
As the group finally reached their destination, the view was quite bleak. A dark atmosphere, and the Hammer of Ur was spreading that black ooze through the cracks of the place it once landed. Standing next to it, a single humanoid creature with a grim mask and blood-red robes. The air around them smelled like death. The party knew what to do, but by now they had learned it wouldn't be so simple.
Filomena, with her absurdly high Perception modifier thanks to Medium's Awareness, tried to look for what else was wrong about that place. She rolled poorly and failed by one. But as the rest of the group tried to engage what seemed like their final foe, they quickly found that out anyway. Five shadowy undead creatures, consumed by or perhaps even made of that corrupted liquid, sprouted from the ground, and thus our final encounter began.
The vampire cultist boss was a custom-ish 10th level creature, built by applying the weak template to a Provincial Jiang-Shi, swapping their Reflex and Fortitude saves, then increasing their speed and HP a little but reducing their physical resistance and cutting on some immunities, spell slots and changing some spells. The shadow undead mooks were reflavored Withereds. Totaling 155 XP, this was a severe encounter for their group, within a tiny margin of error.
Kyavan went first, and started things off with a bang by sending an air slash imbued with lightning and thunder towards the vampire. That was the description of his Judgement From Clear Skies. The physical resistance reduced the base damage a little, but it was still a very good hit, and he then swapped to Victor's Wreath. Aeris Thunderstriked the boss, but they ended up passing the save and it was not very effective. The other three tried to start clearing some of the minions with basic Strikes and a Channeler's Stance + Fireball from Filomena, which damaged a lot of them but didn't quite finish them off yet.
On the vampire's turn, Synaptic Pulse was cast, with the whole party except for Filomena being in the area. This was the moment where Exemplar's early Master in Will made a huge difference: both Han and Kyavan rolled a success turned into a crit, and were unaffected. Aeris and Krod failed, getting stunned 2. The minions had really bad initiative and acted all together in the end, using their Surge ability and flanking to dish out some sneak attack damage. Kyavan only took one hit, but Han and Aeris each lost about a third of their health.
Kyavan striked some more and tried to use his Victor's Wreath transcendance to free Aeris from her stun, but she failed again, as the DC of 30 was very high. The sorceress had to spend her only action moving away from the enemies and out of flanking. Filomena, as expected, started her airstrike bombing by Sustaining Dance one Earth's Bile to reposition and casting two more, almost killing two of the minions. Han tried to use Rebounding Toss but failed the first attack, losing the action. She did hit a spear throw with her third action, though, almost killing another creature. Krod used his trustworthy Lunge to reach the boss and hit him for a decent chunk of damage.
This was the moment where the players regretted not focus firing. The cultist boss used a 3 action Harm, damaging all of them and healing almost every creature on the opposing team, since by this point everyone was bunched up. The withereds kept slashing, but their onslaught slowed down at this point because most of them had their Surge on cooldown.
Round 3 comes, and what was starting to look like a potential problem quickly swung again to the players' favor. Filomena chunked some of the mooks back with her Biles, and it was enough for Krog to kill two of them with a critically hit greataxe Swipe. He then moved to a better position to set up flanking for his buddies. Han killed another withered with some Strikes and Strike, Breathe, Rend, and Aeris damaged more of them and the boss with an Airball and Elemental Toss. Kyavan used Sever Four Butterfly Wings, which sounded cool on paper but wasn't super effective in practice, as with two hits followed by a miss it ended up splitting his damage and wasting actions more than helping. After everything, they managed to cut their enemies down from six to only two.
With their meat shields almost completely gone, the vampire started getting a little desperate. They went on to cast Repelling Blast, trying to damage the three melees of the group and push them away, with moderate success. Han, however, critically failed, and had already used all her hero points before. She was sent flying, knocked prone and had single digit HP left. The problem is, the remaining withered also had the exact same fate. I don't even remembered who finished that one off, but it was basically a non-threat at this point.
The nuisances were dealt with, and now it was time to focus on the main threat. Kyavan and Krod were flanking the boss, and chunked them significantly with a Power Attack and a Mirrored Spirit Strike (turning the damage into spirit was great to pierce the physical resistance here). Han had to simply get up, move and heal herself with Scar, but that by itself dazzled the boss with no saving throw, which frustrated any remaining plans I had of using melee attacks and Drain Qi. Filomena switched to single target blasts now, and if the dazzled and flanking weren't enough, Aeris threw a Reach + Slow on the vampire, who failed the save. This was the moment where I basically threw the towel.
From there, it was basically mopping up a boss that had been turned into barely a threat. They tried to use Vampiric Exsanguination and 2 action Harm in later turns to keep themselves "alive" as long as possible, but at this point it barely mattered. Kyavan went down, but Filomena put him back up with a 2 action Heal, and from there it was throwing everything they had at a meatbag until it eventually died. Funnily, the sprite got the last hit with Explosive Earth again.
Ending
With the hard part of their journey complete, the only thing left was to cleanse the hammer and retrieve it. Except... neither was exactly possible. The weapon was the size of a small building, and the corruption was already too entrenched in it. The celestial woman from the dream sent them a final message, grievingly telling them that the Hammer of Ur, the last remnant of her late son, had to be destroyed. She asked the casters in the group to mark it with her holy brand, allowing her to do the job herself.
As the group fled the mountain with divine help, an enourmous golden arrow came from the sky and crashed against the hammer, causing what could be described as a celestial nuke. That did stop the corruption, however, and as they floated back to the base of the mountain, they could see the plants and creatures of that land going back to normal. Quite a beautiful view.
With a bittersweet ending but a feeling of victory, our playtest was over.
Thoughts and Comments
In this last section, I'll gather and share comments and considerations my players had about the classes in the post-game. These aren't organized in any particular order:

• Everyone seemed to agree that the overall power of Exemplar's abilities seemed about right, at least if you pick the good options. Neither of the two Exemplars could quite compete with the Fighter in pure damage, but they did that well enough even with below-average rolls, and they had a good amount of utility for a fully martial class.
  
• Discussing the power level of Animist was a bit hard. Some players expressed that Earth's Bile + Sustaining Dance spam with Leap investment resulted in too much damage and mobility for a full caster to have without even spending slots. However, that seems to be an outlier build for the class, and we're not quite sure about how the others would fare.
  
• Filomena's player enjoyed the Animist overall, but felt like it was too complex to read, understand and actually use all it has to offer. The table overall agreed that they would feel the same if they were the ones playing the class. Swapping so much of your spell list at once is a bit impractical without a lot of setup (like printing cards of your apparitions, making multiple Foundry sheets or something similar).
  
• When asked about it in more detail, she said she would prefer if the class was, or at least had an option to be, more focused. Cuting on the versatility of crazy spellcasting methods, infinite signature spells and swapping half your spell list extremely fast to be better at a certain set of things depending on what apparition she wanted to focus.
  
• Filomena's player felt like spamming vessel spells was very effective, but not very fun. After casting one, she felt too pressured to keep the sustain going for the entire encounter unless something really bad happened. This ended in her actual slotted spells being a little underused. Sustaining Dance was quite overcentralizing on her build, but the action economy would have been super clunky without it.
  
• Both Exemplar players commented that the class felt good to play and flowed well until the moment you're stuck in an ikon that has a situational transcendence. Choosing between a dead action (Shift) and a virtually-dead action (using a transcendence that does nothing in the moment) isn't the best feeling. Having one of your three base ikons have a niche special action felt like a bit of a trap, and currently a lot of them do.
  
• Repeating some of what was said in the Character Creation part, both Exemplars felt like internal balance between options within the class is what needs the most work right now. A lot of focus is put on weapons as well, and all the rest seems a bit undersupported.
  
• Both Exemplars liked the idea of having optional focus spells, but did not like that those were pulled from Cleric Domains. They'd prefer if the class had its own martial-inclined focus spells, like a Monk.
  
• Both Exemplars felt like the class' action econony made it very hard to use skill actions, or any other actions that aren't the class' abilities.
  
• Kyavan's player restated his desire for medium armor as a base thing in the class, citing how some classic Exemplars like King Arthur used medium or even heavy armor, on top of mechanical concerns.
  
• Kyavan's player said the whole ikon shifting thing works, but both from a thematical and a character building standpoint, he'd like to have the option of building a simpler Exemplar who has a single ikon that's iconic to them (no pun intended) and focus on that only.
  
• Kyavan's player said Gaze as Sharp as Steel has a glaring issue right now. It doesn't give you Reactive Strike often enough that you feel comfortable skipping the feat, but if you do have the feat, the transcendence is completely useless.
  
• Han's player was particularly fond of Palisade Bangles, as giving all your allies an AC bonus that stacks with shields is rare, unique and feels particularly on-theme. The transcendance, however, only being able to pull a target towards you and with a Fortitude save, ended up being too situational. She only used it once, unsuccessfully.
  
• Han's player thought Peerless Under Heaven had an extremely cool flavor but was a little underpowered. Simply getting crit spec as a 7th level feature felt weak compared to Whose Cry is Thunder, and the active was too much of a risk for too little a reward.
  
• Han's player felt like Scar of the Survivor was considerably stronger than other body ikons.
  
• As a last note, to address narrative concerns I've seen some having: no one in our group felt like Exemplar was particularly inclined to causing "main character syndrome". Some players expressed the class doesn't even feel like it needs to be Rare.
  

Full Disclosure, I actually tried watching this show a few years back, when I was about 20 and in college, it seemed interesting but not so much that I had an urge to finish it right away, so I kept it on the back burner for a while and eventually forgot about it like a lot of TV shows one pushes back and think they'll get to it later (and then dont).
But now, almost 4.5 years later, I'm out of college and gruelingly on the hunt for jobs and struggling at mapping out my careelife and while I had some downtime, I decided to finish the shows I had abruptly left rather than start new ones and hence once again, I stumbled onto 'Man Seeking Woman', and this time, it was an instant connection.
Although I was sold on the surrealistic aspects of it from the pilot itself, the premise of the show didn't intrigue me when I initially started watching it, but now find myself in the same shoes as Josh (The title character played brilliantly by Jay Baruchel), I couldnt help but finish the whole thing and it has become a favourite of mine. The show differentiates itself from a plethora of shows with the same premise through its sharp and very creative use of surrealistic and absurd humour, everytime I think the writers wont top this particular gag or bit, they up the ante and deliver something that raises the bar.
Tanaka, the interdimensional Penis moster, Old Adolf Hitler, The destination wedding in Hell, Santa claus cheating on his wife and even Jesus H Christ, the show is brimming with such creative gags throughout and what made the show stand apart for me. As the awkward and lazy Josh stumbles from one creative personal hell to another, we as the viewers are taken on a unique journey.
Also, when I first watched it, I had no idea who Eric Andre was but now as someone who has watched the entirety of 'The Eric Andre Show' almost 3 or 4 times, I see the absolute brilliance behind casting him as Josh's best friend Mike Scaggs, I cant help but have a full grin every time he is on screen. Brit Lower (she's also in 'Severance' as Helly) plays the endearing older sister Liz gracefully, usually when a show does an episode that focuses just on one character other than the protagonist or even the ensemble, I normally find myself loosing interest, but the 2 episodes or so that mainly focused on Liz were an absolute treat.
I thoroughly enjoyed the full three-season run of the show, and it is a crime that it doesn't have a bigger fanfare and is so under-watched, I look forward to rewatching it soon. If you haven't checked it out yet, please do yourself a favor and do so.
Quick Side question: People Who've seen the show, what other shows can you recommend to someone feeling the withdrawal symptoms of Man Seeking Woman? (Patriot (Amazon Prime), Atlanta, Legion etc are some of my other favourites)

Is there any good representation of us? I know moster high gen 1, volume 2 did a decent job, but most if the time if someone in media has DID they are the villain of the story or they are "dangerous" I just want to find stuff were we aren't being villainized. It makes us feel like we need to hide, but I don't see why we couldn't just be allowed to exist out in the open, why should we have to hide? We are so tired of hiding, we have accepted that no matter who is in control we are still us, so why should we have to pretend to act like our host to get by?