Similar Playstyles
It was just a few comics ago when I realized that Brutus the Hedgehog and Sorcerer had never been in a comic together. Watching the fever light of mutual pyromania burning in their firebug eyes, it’s hard to believe they’d never walked through the wreckage of a burning kingdom to the psychedelic sounds of The Doors before. We’ll have to get Tarantino to direct the live action version.
Watching the two of them working as a team, it’s a pleasant change of pace to remember what the game is supposed to look like. We spend so much time worried about clashing playstyles. The combat monkey gets bored while the diva pontificates. Alignments clash. Combat tactics don’t play nice together. Or personalities clash in unproductive ways. It seems like the majority of the tales from the table you read online are horror stories and cautionary tales. It’s easy to forget the positive.
There’s this special alchemy that happens when you’re on the same wavelength as your gaming companions. Just for a moment, you drop into the same headspace as the boon companions of the game world. With little more than a glance and a nod, you charge into danger as one. In the comical moments, you pick up your buddy’s straight line and bandy it back and forth for half an hour (your GM’s groans are a sign that you’re succeeding). You special abilities synergize. You cut the chatter during the serious moments. Everyone has eyes on a single quest objective, and there’s no more squabbling about which sidequest deserves your attention.
So for today’s discussion, why don’t we focus on the positive? Sing the praises of your favorite adventuring companion! Tell us what your wingman did, how well you synergized, and when exactly you knew that “this is a person I want in all my games.” So give us your best stories of good brosmanship and life-long flanking partners down in the comments!
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My first campaign, D&D 5e starter set. I took the halfling rogue, he took the dwarven cleric. He used Command to make enemies drop prone (we ended up calling him Zod), I stabbed them with advantage for massive damage. It was a good time.
I hope you rounded out the party with a warlock. Gotta get somebody to send ’em to the Phantom Zone!
https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/general-discussion/115536-hurl-through-hell-help-doubt
Well, this was the starter set, the PHB hadn’t come out yet, so no ‘locks
I think Brutus could kick Sorcerer’s ass if he really wanted to. ;p
What will Witch say if she finds out about this friendship, I wonder?
Witch does not respond well to people touching her things.
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/no-quest-too-small
My entire party and my wizard. My wizard would rain arcane death and teleport people around the place, the blood hunter would freeze them with the curse of binding, the cavalier fired off opportunity attacks with Sentinel, the ranger and battle master delt with enemies at range, and the druid rained down fire, kept us all alive, and summoned things. Out of combat, the wizard and the druid clicked due to both having extreme social awkwardness (thought the wizard could fake it mostly) and being used to different social rules than the Material Plane (Feywild for druid, Far Realm for the wizard)
Yeah, our last campaign, we had three characters who just really came together nicely. Or at least, nicely for them… not so much anyone who got in their way.
Barbarian at the front dealing damage, Paladin at his side in support, and Ranger sniping from behind to prevent the front men from being overwhelmed. Credit to the rest of the party too, but those three were just devastating… GM had to boost the CR of a few of his future encounters after a few one-sided rounds of us vs “level-appropriate opposition”.
Ah, my best examples of PC synergy:
a) The wizard who used *grease* to deny foes their Dexterity bonus so that the rogue could snipe them for bonus damage.
b) The shugenja who used *spike stones* to slow the movement of giant monsters while the samurai rained death from a bow or stepped forward to slice and dice.
c) My own cleric (strength domain) who, in the final battle of their 1st adventure, asked his barbarian friend “You ready to do some *real* damage?” before casting *enlarge person* on the enraged half-orc so he could level a small house full of goblins.
This was back to my forst campaign for 5e we were playing curse of strahd. I was new to the system and picked an archfey warlock trickster type in the middle of undead filled barovia. This of course meant none of my spells really worked too well offensively. However we had the stereotypical angry paladin of vengeance so we had lovely games of buff the paladin and eat popcorn from the sidelines while launching eldritch blasts.
Ironic that the pyromaniac pair haven’t met since Sorc and Witch did have a fling or something.
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/wizard-vs-sorcerer
I think 2 of my players have that kind of relationship going on right now. They met when they both pursued a fence who had traded with some family heirlooms of theirs.
Poor NPC. They basically played “very bad cop” & “omg you´re a monster cop”.
And since that encounter where they *really* abused the poor dwarven fence NPC they seem to be inseparatable…
The city is in for a rough ride with these two I guess ^^
We’d already been bros for a couple years due to a game of Risk in senior year, but what cemented our eternal bro-relationship in ttrpgs was a moment in a cross-country road trip PF1E game. He was GM and I a PC, but I’d crafted a dwarf druid mushroom-farmer, growing fungi for sustenance and for sale in the mine.
My dwarf was unappealing af, and in his seemingly unkempt beard, he stored some of his favorite varieties of mushroom to snack on and to grow. When we went to a human guildhall to look for work, I offered the shrooms as snacks for the people there.
And then my gm started rolling fortitude saves vs poison and said “dwarves are resistant enough they’re not poisoned by these things, but humans are weaker”. At that moment I was turned into an illicit drug dealer, and my dwarf became even more invested in the setting.
Since then we’ve bounced off each other in great ways but almost always as GM/PC. Either way, he’s a true bro, and we try to interact with the other’s setting instead of just tuning out.
He’s also the gm for the “colored dragon” story which I’ve told here before.
Scene: Group of adventurers, battered and bloody, surrounded by the bodies of the orcs they had just finished battling. Hit points low, out of potions and no cleric or healer, discussion of retreating and trying again later ensues.
A new group of orcs rounds the corner down at the end of the corridor. Six players glance at each other and in unison they shout, “ORCS! FRESH MEAT!” and the character charge in unison down the corridor. Except for the giant and gnome who went to cut the orcs off down a side passage. DM didn’t even bother rolling, the orcs morale broke and the turned tail and fled.
The orcs ran into the giant and gnome (who were actually unhurt from the previous battle) and got squeezed between the two parts of the party. Didn’t take more than four rounds to wipe them out.
We all looked at each other with our adrenaline still pumping and broke out laughing. We ended up taking a dinner break so everyone could come down from the high and settle down enough to continue.
The gnome and giant had a great team dynamic going on during battles. Most foes couldn’t get to the giant because of her reach and the gnome (tin can in full magical plate armor) kept them from getting in under her reach or from behind.
Of course there were several places in the dungeon where she didn’t fit, so I got to spend a lot of time sitting out and guarding the rear.
So Sorcerer being a molotov throwing anarchist is canon? 🙂
Actually, I assume the Molotov is for Brutus, since he’s the one with the matches, and Sorcerer doesn’t really have much need for such things.
Alt text is pure gold.
No pure PLATINUM!
My buddy played a witch with slumber. I was playing an inquisitor and burned a feat for heavy pick proficiency.
Sure, The Doors… Orrrrr…. how about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4gRb5_AO6I
I predict Brutus attempting to ship Witch & Sorcerer together for the sake of prolonging/enabling his pyromania.
Nice alcohol and protein shake. A gram of protein has more than 9 kilocalories of energy, but you have to spend more than 5 kilocalories to burn it safely. Exploding ants use protein as a self-destruct defense mechanism.
Haber-Bosch process started requiring 60 tons of TNT energy to produce 1 ton of ammonia. Modern patented version takes 12 to 15 tons of TNT energy to produce 1 ton of ammonia. In government point of view, Haber process is a cheap way to make nitrogen munitions. In the people point of view, Haber process fertilizer are expensive.
Definitely feeling that way about my current PF2e table, both in and out of character.
In-character we have plenty of in-combat synergy, with our trip-heavy Fighter acting as the party tank, two healers in our Investigator and Cleric, and two strikers in my Magus and the Rogue. There’s also some fun narrative synergies and tensions–like my Magus and the Rogue both having secret heritages (Reflection and Changeling) and the Pharasmin Cleric very conditionally accepting the Skeleton Investigator (as he didn’t choose to be raised as undead and isn’t trying to prolong his unlife). Planescape is also a fun setting.
Out of character, we mesh well. We meet consistently, and multiple players were willing to tag in with one-shots of other systems on weeks the GM took breaks.
Honestly one of the best tables I’ve been at.