94 posts
Latest Posts by bungeonsandbagons - Page 3
THINKING ABOUT the merging of sailors and ship that takes place in the act of sailing & how the ship becomes more and more human and the sailors become more and more mechanism until at some point it perfectly evens out & their bodies are enmeshed to the point there’s one great seamless living Body with many parts. thinking about how if it’s a warship the wood of the ship is absorbing the blood and sweat and tears of the sailors and the sailors are likewise absorbing elements of the ship. thinking about how they’ve both got ribs
standing on the deck of a ship while all the dead men's eyes look down on you from the rigging. just sailing things
Looking for a random cause of death for a character? Click here.
Looking for a random city? Click here.
Looking for a random city that people have actually heard of? Click here.
Need a random surname for a character? Click here. (They also give prevalence by race, which is very helpful.)
Helpful writing tips for my friends.
Ley Strider By WillOBrien
Check out Tabletop Gaming Resources for more art, tips, and tools for your game!
Hello! I'd like to share with you a character work game! I call it "Six Secrets" and honestly it's a work in progress but I'm sharing it anyway
List six secrets that your character has.
1 is an open secret
2 is a secret the people close to your character know
3 is a secret that your character wouldn't really care about getting out
4 is a secret exactly one person knows anything about
5 is a secret no one knows about but they sort of want to come out/to tell someone
6 is a secret no one knows and they desperately don't want anyone to know about.
You can also decide who knows and how
The secrets don't have to have anything to do with your actual plot! The secrets can have super low or super high stakes! It doesn't matter! But you will absolutely have a better idea of your character's intentions and state of mind, and you may wind up coming up with some new plot points/obstacles to play with
If your plot feels flat, STUDY it! Your story might be lacking...
Stakes - What would happen if the protagonist failed? Would it really be such a bad thing if it happened?
Thematic relevance - Do the events of the story speak to a greater emotional or moral message? Is the conflict resolved in a way that befits the theme?
Urgency - How much time does the protagonist have to complete their goal? Are there multiple factors complicating the situation?
Drive - What motivates the protagonist? Are they an active player in the story, or are they repeatedly getting pushed around by external forces? Could you swap them out for a different character with no impact on the plot? On the flip side, do the other characters have sensible motivations of their own?
Yield - Is there foreshadowing? Do the protagonist's choices have unforeseen consequences down the road? Do they use knowledge or clues from the beginning, to help them in the end? Do they learn things about the other characters that weren't immediately obvious?
Avatar/dollmakers
Here’s a list of various avatar creators/dollmakers/Picrews for writers who don’t draw, can’t afford to commission an artist, or who are just lazy, or procrastinating, or don’t have time, or … really, anyone. Sorry for taking so long to post it, I forgot this was in my drafts <3
I’ve split them into sources (aka which website they’re from) and I’ll write a short description for each that describes the artstyle, whether the characters you can make are gendered in a specific way, how varied the skintone options are, whether or not there’s a specific genre or clothing style expressed, like fantasy or sci fi etc, and how much of the character you can see (headshot, bust, half-body, fullbody etc), and how many body types are available.
I should also mention that there are hundreds, probably thousands of these things, so if you don’t like my selection, feel free to go to these websites I’ve linked and see for yourself! Unfortunately the death of Flash has impacted a lot of dollmakers so not everything that seems cute in thumbnails will work.
Putting under a cut in case of link rot or potential future updates.
Keep reading
COLLEGE OF THE OCEAN’S CALL — heard y’all liked sea shanties… in all seriousness, this is the first official homebrew i’ve put out in a long time and it’s probably going to be a divisive one because of that 14th level 😂. like i said in my author’s note, i’m not super interested in debating the mechanics on this post. instead, i’m more interested in the flavor of an ocean themed bard that takes on aspects of the supporting their crew with a strong voice and hearty songs, with the entrancing powers of a deep sea siren.
A bard subclass designed for a pirate world, though this subclass could be very strong anywhere. With its own version of eldritch blast, the College of the Sea has just as good of a defense as an offense.
Like my work? You can support me on patreon here or buy the pdfs pwyw on kofi!
Edit: ^^ Gave it some changes thanks to homebrew-a-la-traumaverse‘s advice, hope y’all like it!
My DnD headcanon is that 5e Dragonborns actually work in a similar way to TES Kahjiits.
Depending on the temperature their egg was kept in before hatching, they can be one of four things:
A standard PHB Dragonborn.
An elf-like humanoid, with minor details like colored scales near their eyes or sharp fangs.
A medium-sized, wingless, dragon.
A tiny lizard.
All of this involves no actual change to the official rules, your Dragonborn just looks weird, that's it.
Art by KJKallo. If it ever becomes possible to play as a skeleton, I think they should be flimsy, tireless, and reliable: a sentinel that keeps watch for the party but can often get bonked down in combat. Here's a crack at it - with an entire lore section based off a wint tweet lmao
Tableskills: The Proactive DM Voice
One of the most fundamental lesions I learned over the course of becoming a great DM was that it was my job to push the story forward, not my players. When I was younger I was terrified of taking any agency upon myself for fear of railroading my group, thinking that my job was merely to read out prepared text and design a playground for my players to explore as they saw fit. Needless to say, no matter how much planning i did or how big I made my campaign world it never made my party any more energized, instead bleeding out their attention until they became listless and the group/campaign dissolved.
Once I made the change to DM driven play, things changed almost instantly. My once distracted players became excited collaborators, looking to steer the runaway engine that was my narrative. Where as before they were directionless, having infinite shallow options, they were now focused on the road ahead of them, trying to dodge upcoming hurdles while reacting to the unexpected ones.
This change took some getting used to, but became most evident in how I narrated my games, cutting down on extraneous calls for rolls, chaining together scenes until a big finale at the end of the session, using my infinite power as narrator to push receptive players into interesting situations that progressed both the story and their character arc. Over time I began to think of these changes and a bunch of others as “proactive DM voice”, a skill that I think players and dungeonmaters alike could benefit from learning.
Lets look at an example, lifted from one of the very first modules I ever ran: The party stands at the edge of a tremendously large fissure, and has to lower themselves a hundred or more feet down to a ledge where they’ll be ambushed by direrats. You could run this in a rules literal sense: reading out the prepared text then waiting for the party to come up with a solution, likely dallying as they ask questions. Have them make athletics checks to descend the ropes, risk the possibility of one of them dying before the adventure ever begins. Then you do it two or three more times as they leapfrog down the side of the canyon, wasting what was perhaps half an hour of session time before you even got to any of the fun stuff.
Or you could get proactive about it:
Securing your ropes as best you can, you belay over the side of the fissure, descending down in a measured, careful pace aiming for the most stable looking outcrop of rock, still a hundred or so feet above the canyon’s base. A few minutes and about two thirds of the way through your decent [least athletic PC] looks like they’re struggling, their hands are coated in sweat and they can feel unfamiliar muscles burning in complaint. I need [PC] to make me an athletics check
Rather than waiting for the players and the dice to make a story for me, I took the extra step in my prep time to think of something interesting that might happen while they’re venturing through this section of the map. I specifically designed things so that happenstance wouldn’t kill off one of my heroes, but they might end up damaged and in a perilous situation should the fates not favour them that particular moment.
Likewise, this planning has let me prepare a number of different angles that I could use to prepare the next scene: with an injured player ambushed by multiple rats while their allies dangle a few rounds away or with the party saving their friend and descending together, too much of a threat for the rats to tackle all at once, leading them to stalk the party through future encounters.
This is already getting a bit long, but for those interested in more ways you can adopt a proactive DM voice, I’ll give more examples under the cut
Keep reading
Jason Isaacs as Colonel William Tavington in “The Patriot”
My latest Terrible* DnD Campaign idea:
Scaling Hard "Nuzlocke" Mode.
We're gonna take the entire XP mechanic and through it out the fucking window.
Everyone starts at level one, but they make a backup character at the next level. They play that first character at level one until shit gets too hard and they die. No rezzes. Next available opportunity, bring in the backup level two character. Player makes a new backup, at level three.
So on, so forth.
The only way to level up is to die. The core goals/challenges are:
be the lowest level character to make it to the end of the campaign
get to explore a whole lot more classes and characters than you would normally
conversely, deal with the gritty reality of how dangerous this life of adventure is as so many of your party keeps falling
meta-wise, built in scaling system for less skilled players: die a lot? wind up stronger and stronger more quickly to balance it out
something something Ship Of Theseus adventurers guild?
1 2 3 4
Image source This was the first subclass I ever made and I'm stilllll tinkering with the thing - it's, fittingly, stuck in a time loop of rewrites.
Have a great week!
The Pirate’s Grotto Battle Map (32x44)
You’ve entered the Pirate’s Grotto, a 32x44 sea cave occupied by a wrecked ship, its pirate crew, and their treasures. Make a Stealth roll…
→ The Pirate’s Grotto Battle Map
Keep reading
It's all just
head turn
dialogue
leans forward
dialogue
eyes narrow
dialogue
So i wanna do homebrew content but i fundamentally don't understand how to hand make a character sheet??? Like how do i make it w/o using dnd beyond???
So I figure i’ll use this opportunity to explain character making/character sheets in general.This will be more in depth than you need but i’ll call it a resource and add it to my blog in a link.
Buckle up guys this is going to be a LONG one we’ll call this
DUNGEONS AND KOBOLDS’S LONG GUIDE TO MAKING CHARACTER SHEETS
1. Character Sheet
First step is getting the character sheet itself. Below is a link to where you can download them on Wizards of the Coast’s website:
https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/character_sheets
This should download a file – the sheet that people use most often is called CharacterSheet_3Pgs_Complete.pdf
It’s well laid out and easily editable on your computer.
2. Class/Race/Background Combination
Second, choose your class/race/background combination. It’s also important to understand a basic idea of where these appear/what they effect
Race: Ability Scores, Skills, Proficiencies, Features & Traits
Background: Skills, Proficiencies, Features & Traits, Equipment
Class: Basically everything but Ability Scores – although it does determine how you’ll want to arrange your Scores.
3. Ability Scores
Ability Scores are on the far left hand side of the sheet. These determine your base Strength, Dexterity, etc. bonuses (ie. What you add to your rolls).
There are 3 basic ways of determining these scores: rolling, point buy, and standard array.
https://thekindgm.wordpress.com/2017/12/16/determining-ability-scores/
Above is a link to a post that explains these better than I could which I refer to often. (consult your DM as to which way you are using for your campaign)
For every 2 points your Ability Score goes up/down by, your bonus will go/down by 1. Ie. A Strength of 10 will give me 0 or no bonus a 12 +1, a 14 +2, etc. Whereas an 8 will give me -1, a 6 -2.
Arrange these scores as you wish – a good rule of thumb is you want your primary attacking ability to be your highest (normally the Quick Build section of your class will have good suggestions on how to arrange these statistics). I’ll go through what each of these scores effects in my explanation which should give you some options on how to arrange them.
To these base scores you’ve figured out, you then add the bonuses given to you by your Race.
For example, if I have a 14 Dexterity (+2) but I’m playing a Kobold (which has an increase of 2 for Dexterity as one of its traits) my Dexterity is then brought up to 16 (+3)
4. Proficiency Bonus/Saving Throws
Proficiency bonus has a separate column in the levelling table of your class. At level 1 it is generally +2. This means that if you are proficient in a Saving Throw, Skill, Attack, or Tool you add your Proficiency Bonus and the bonus from your associated Ability Score to the Roll.
For example, if my Kobold is a barbarian, they have proficiency in Strength and Constitution Saving Throws. This means if my Kobold has a Strength of 14 (+2) and I am rolling a Saving Throw, I add another +2 to the roll (bringing it up to a total of +4). On the left hand side of the Saving Throws (and skills) there are little circles, fill in the circles of the Saving Throws you are proficient in to remind yourself why you have that score (but write next to them what you’ll actually be adding, ie. +4 Strength Saving Throw for my Kobold).
5. Skills
This sheet actually makes skills relatively easy to fill out. Again fill in the circles of the skills you are proficient in (these can come from your class, race, and background so be sure to check all three). On the right hand side of each skill is the associated Ability – if you are not proficient you write down your base Ability Score bonus. If you are proficient be sure to add the +2 (at first level)
6. Other Proficiencies
In Other Proficiencies and Languages write down the languages, tools, weapons, and armour you are proficient in – this is more to remind yourself of what you can and can’t easily use.
7. Armour
https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Armor#content
Here is a link to all of the armour scores you’ll need. Generally, armour is a base score (say 11 for leather armour) plus your Dexterity (just the base Ability Score bonus). Some armour gives you just a base score that you don’t add anything to. Some will have a strength requirement for you to be able to use it. The link divides the amour into light, medium and heavy amour – whether or not you can use them is determined by your proficiencies (found in your other proficiencies section)
If you’re wielding a shield you add another 2 to your armour score.
Unlike weapons your generally can’t use armour that you are not proficient in.
8. Initiative
Unless you have a Feat or a special class based bonus your Initiative is your Dexterity Ability Score Bonus
9. Weapon Attacks
https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Weapons#content
This link again divides the weapon up neatly into the proficiencies (simple and martial weapons).
There are 2 main scores to worry about with weapon attacks – Dexterity and Strength.
Dexterity based weapons are Ranged or Finesse weapons. Strength is everything else. Your attack bonus will be either your Strength or Dexterity Score (depending on the weapon) plus your proficiency bonus (although you can use weapons you are not proficient in, you just lose this bonus).
Your damage is the listed damage (see link above) plus either your Strength or Dexterity (again depending on the associated score).
(I’m not going to go into dual wielding here but feel free to ask if interested)
10. Equipment
Equipment will be listed in class and background – all you have to do is write it down in this section.
11. Gold
Gold normally appears in your background and class, but have a chat to your DM to see if they have a preference for staring gold.
12. Features/Traits
In the Features/Traits column you write down basically the things you can do (though people will use this column differently).
This includes things such as Darkvision, the ability you gain from your background and general abilities granted by your class (that are not spells or attacks). For instance a Cleric’s Channel Divinity might be written in this column.
13. Spell Casting Ability
Your spell casting ability will be listed in your class – either Charisma, Intelligence or Wisdom.
14. Spell Save DC
Your Spell Save DC will be your Spell Casting Ability Score’s bonus + your proficiency + 8. Ie. If my kobold is now a bard with a Charisma of 18 (+4) and is 1st level their Spell Save DC will be 4+2+8 for a total of 14.
15. Spell Attack Bonus
Your spell attack bonus is your Spell Casting Ability Score’s bonus + your proficiency – for my previously mentioned kobold this would be 4+2 for a total of +6
16. Choosing Spells
There are 2 main ways classes determine what spells you have. The first method is, you choose new spells as you level up and those are the only spells you have (for example a Bard uses this method). The number of spells you have for classes such as this will be determined by the Spells Known column in your levelling up table. The second method is preparing spells. This means you can potentially cast any of the spells for your class, but each morning you choose certain ones for the day. The number of spells you can prepare will most likely be your Spell Casting Ability Score Bonus + your level (unless you’re a paladin).
17. The Other Stuff (alignment/personality)
The other stuff you can write or not write as your wish – this stuff is more for RP. Personally I will write my alignment and that is it – but you can plan as much or as little as you want!
As usual feel free to ask for any clarifications/more information.
Hope this was helpful! (sorry of the length)
nate | he/him
this is a little tag guide so i know what i'm doing
Catch All
#the thundering isles - campaign i'm planning for friends
#general
#materials
Inspo
#character inspo
#class inspo
World Building
#character building
#cities
#monsters
#events
A woman demonstrating use of a guandao, also formally known as a yanyuedao (偃月刀; reclining moon blade).
Figuring out your OC's 'voice' and physicality/characterization
I often struggle with creating distinct characters, so I came up with some questions about your OCs that I haven't seen in any other lists.
I recommend answering these for each character once you've already spent some time with them on the page.
What irks other people about the way they converse?
What kind of conversations do they usually have?
Are they a good listener?
How do they react to confrontation?
How do they react to being corrected?
How do they correct others?
Do they tend to speak in long sentences, short & clipped sentences, or somewhere in between?
How likely are they to heed social cues when talking to others?
How likely are they to use body language rather than words to express discomfort and other emotions?
Do they care more about getting their way, or more about how others feel?
What's their favourite skill?
What niche thing are they competent at?
What trait immediately draws them to other people?
What trait immediately repels them?
Even if they haven't met (or even if they're not even in the same universe!), what would your other OCs' first impression of them be?
What makes them angry?
What makes them sad?
What makes them happy?
What's their posture like?
How do they want others to see them?
How do they move through a room?
Do they prefer being barefoot, and if not, what kind of footwear do they usually like best?
What kind of climate do they prefer?
What would make them distrust somebody?
What would they consider the greatest betrayal?
Fantasy Names Bank
These are just regular human-ish girl and boy names but a bunch of them could be unisex. The lists came pre-alphabetized and girl-boy sorted from my old writing blog so that’s how they got copy/pasted here. There are about 50 names for each.
Also, I didn’t even come up with all of these. I got some from other places that I can’t remember, doctored some from names I read in book, and had my friends and family help with others (back when I was neck deep in a high fantasy world-building extravaganza)
Tell me if you use one so I can feel like 17 year-old me didn’t waste my time (I totally did) and also have new stories to follow!
Keep reading
Game-Changing Sites for Writers
A recent search for a specific type of site to help me build new characters led me down a rabbit hole. Normally, that would make me much less productive, but I have found a treasure trove of websites for writers.
Bring Characters/Places to Life
There are a few different places you can use to create a picture of something entirely new. I love this site for making character pictures as references, instead of stock photos or whatever pops up on Google Images.
thispersondoesnotexist: every time you reload the page, this site generates a headshot of someone who doesn't exist. This is great if you're thinking about a character's personality or age and don't have specifics for their facial features yet.
Night Cafe: this is an AI art generator that takes your text prompt and generates an image for it. I tried it for various scenery, like "forest" or "cottage." It takes a minute for your requested photo to load, but no more than maybe five for the program to finish the picture.
Art Breeder: this website has endless images of people, places, and general things. Users can blend photos to create something new and curious visitors can browse/download those images without creating an account. (But if you do want to make an account to create your own, it's free!)
Find Random Places on Earth
You might prefer to set a story in a real-life environment so you can reference that place's weather, seasons, small-town vibe, or whatever you like. If that's the case, try:
MapCrunch: the homepage generates a new location each day and gives the location/GPS info in the top left of the screen. To see more images from previous days, hit "Gallery" in the top left.
Atlas Obscura: hover over or tap the "Places" tab, then hit "Random Place." A new page will load with a randomly generated location on the planet, provide a Google Maps link, and tell you a little bit about the place.
Random World Cities: this site makes randomly selected lists of global cities. Six appear for each search, although you'll have to look them up to find more information about each place. You can also use the site to have it select countries, US cities or US states too.
Vary Your Wording
Thesauruses are great, but these websites have some pretty cool perspectives on finding just the right words for stories.
Describing Words: tell this website which word you want to stop repeating and it will give you tons of alternative words that mean the same thing. It typically has way more options than other sites I use.
Reverse Dictionary: type what you need a word for in Reverse Dictionary's search box and it will give you tons of words that closely match what you want. It also lists the words in order of relevancy, starting with a word that most accurately describes what you typed. (There's also an option to get definitions for search results!)
Tip of My Tongue: this website is phenomenal. It lets you search for that word you can't quite place by a letter in it, the definition, what it sounds like, or even its scrambled letters. A long list of potential options will appear on the right side of the screen for every search.
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Hope this helps when you need a hand during next writing session 💛
Here is a free pdf of the players handbook
Here is a free pdf of xanathars guide to everything
Here is a free pdf to monsters manual
Here is a free pdf to tashas cauldron of everything
Here is a free pdf to dungeon master’s guide
Here is a free pdf to volo’s guide to monsters
Here is a free pdf of mordenkainen’s tomb of foes
For all your dnd purposes
I've had a campaign idea for a while where the party chases after a monster/demon that's taken the appearance of a giant fox and they have to hunt it down or trap it, I'm unsure of how to run it as of now, but any ideas are appreciated!
Monster Hunt: The Smoke-Tailed Fox
“Listen, the magistrates are already at eachother’s throats as how to classify this mess.... Is it grave robbing if the victim wasn’t buried yet? Is it attempted regicide if she was already dead? All I know is that the court’s willing to pay extra to see this over and done with as soon as possible”
-Roderik Tull, Bounty Officer.
Adventure Hooks:
The Funeral procession of the recently departed queen was attacked while on its way to the royal sepulcher for last rites and entombment. While not even the most desperate bandits would attempt this daring feat, the honor guard present were unprepared to deal with the appearance of a tremendous white fox that emerged from the forest to strike their caravan with lightning-quick speed. Throwing the defenders aside, the fox beast sundered the wagon carrying the queen’s body and savagely mauled the body with one of its claws. Witnesses report seeing the fox “drinking” an unearthly light from the royal remains before taking off once again into the woods. Everyone is pretty sure this is a bad omen, but few can agree exactly what it portends.
Burial rights within the kingdom involve the priests invoking various rituals in order to “sign” which deity has taken up the departed soul, usually this is a chance for the gods to speak, and provide veiled commentary on the life of the lost, but upon the attempted buriel of the queen, it appears as if none of the gods have claimed her. People have begun to whisper that the Fox-beast stole their monarch’s soul, which again.. can’t mean anything good for the fate of the kingdom.
Hunters going after the fox have reported that the woods it fled into have become a haze choked labrynth, with even the most well trod paths suddenly becoming winding meandering things that don’t lead you to their customary exits. A trapper fears for her partner who’s been lost out there for a few days, caught out in the woods when the Fox decided to lay down it’s curse.. or whatever type of spell it’s woven over the landscape.
Setup: Though Psychopomps come in many forms, they are all spirits preoccupied with shepherding mortal souls to the afterlife, ensuring that they do not tarry on among the living become ghosts. While some peruse this task with a solemn determination, and others with a warmhearted cheer, these entities help to maintain the balance of the cosmos, and ensure that the shades of the departed do not overwhelm their descendants.
What happens then, when a Psychopomp abandons their duty? This is what happened to Ruvo, a vulpine steward of the dead who was sent to watch over the ailing health of the queen. Taking the form of a simple grey fox or unremarkable house servent, Ruvo watched over the queen as she spent her last remaining months tending to her gardens, never tarrying to far from her side lest her frail old body finally give out. Newly appointed to this grim task, and not yet assigned to watch over the soul of one yet to perish, Ruvo developed a fondness for the resilient monarch, which over time grew to a protective attachment as he cared for the woman who he was eventually supposed to escort off the mortal coil.
The fox-spirit has made off with the queen’s soul, emotionally paralyzed at the thought of his “ friend” leaving him and perhaps fading away forever. Now perused by hunters, royal guard, and agents of whatever death deity he shirked in the queen’s favor, Ruvo has hidden the two of them away in an isolated spot in the forest, shrouding the surroundings in magic and hoping the whole mess will blow over if he just stays hiding long enough.
Art 1
Art 2
plot feeling a little empty in the middle? here’s some food for thought.
actions have consequences. things that your characters do inevitably can affect other people around them. what might they have done in the past that could come back and serve as an obstacle? or, maybe, what could they do now that could possibly raise the stakes just a little bit more?
subplots! be mindful of the subplots you’re adding - but sometimes it might be a good idea to include one if your plot is feeling a little bit empty. not only can it tie back into the overarching struggle, but it could also serve as a way to explore one of your characters or points further.
character exploration. get to know your characters a little bit better! let your readers find out something new. connecting and understanding the people within your story is important if you want your readers to grow attached to them.
world exploration. similar to the previous point, with the addition of creating a greater sense of familiarity of the circumstances that your story is taking place in. remember that nobody else knows the world of your wip as well as you do - illustrate it even further so everyone else can grasp it even better.
let your characters bond! maybe there’s a lull in the plot. if your characters have the chance to take a breather and get to know the people around them, let them! it might help flesh out or even realistically advance their relationships with each other.
Art by Tiffany "arty" Boother This month, truth compels me to write four subclasses. Every single one of them are completely new, and I'm polishing up the final one as we speak. This first subclass, the Spelleater (gmbinder doc here) takes a theme that is notoriously hard to execute (good at beating up wizards) and does as much as it can to actualise that idea: its benefits still completely deck most spellcasters, but they also work reasonably well against pretty much any foe there is. Antimagic Vigor is essentially the opposite of a barbarian rage (or rune knight's hill rune), and gives you a combat's worth of survival and ultra high saving throws vs magic. Spell Drain is my favorite part of it. You cause a bunch of creatures to succeed on a save against a spell being cast - but the spell can be from either friend or foe! Now you can work in tandem with other spellcasters to shape your allies' spells safely round the party, Or, you can just completely screw a lich over. Either way, you get to absorb the magic into your sword, and then unleash it the next time you attack. It's a really nice feature that makes them fantastic against spellcasters while still being handy elsewhere!