On To The End of Shadow of the Erdtree

 I'm flying off to New York in just a few days. And it just so happens that I have gotten to the final boss of Shadow of the Erdtree. Will I beat it before I leave?

Well, the reputation online is that the fight (which will remain undescribed until I put in a spoiler cut) is utterly brutal. I've seen some mentions of ways to help make it easier (such as using the big holy damage resistance trinket you can find in the Shaman Village) but I know that this is a FromSoft DLC final boss, and if the Orphan of Kos is any kind of precedent (the only such DLC final boss I've actually beaten, as I never got the DLC for Dark Souls and didn't even freaking try to take down Gael after feeling like I couldn't put a single scratch on Midir) this is going to be a tough one.

That being said, despite all the online protestations about difficulty, I've really found Shadow of the Erdtree to be supremely reasonable. There are some hard fights, for sure - my Darkmoon Greatsword build had a really hard time with the Death Knight in the Fog Rift catacomb, to the point where I kind of felt like I was dissociating while attempting again and again to take him down and genuinely felt like I was having a post-adrenaline-rush shakiness afterward (I don't think I played any more that day after that fight). But many of the expansion's headliner fights have gone down in one or two attempts for me - I think only Messmer took more than that, as I got him down on attempt number four, and then only Gaius and Metyr took me a second try (Gaius largely because I blundered into his boss arena without realizing I was entering one).

I mean, if you go into this expecting that you won't die at all, I wonder how you got through enough of Elden Ring to actually unlock the expansion in the first place.

That said, I also think that my experience has been atypical, apparently. I have a build that does giant chunks of damage in quick bursts, which seems to also help stagger monsters pretty easily, which always makes them easier to fight. Also, the health-regeneration of the Blasphemous Blade is really clutch - making the slow exploration of dungeons more manageable, and allowing you to get a pretty significant burst of healing when you use its Ash of War ability.

Spoilers Ahead

Starting to Scratch the Surface of Midra

 There are a lot of new stories in Shadow of the Erdtree, but also most of the elements of the expansion are related to things we've already explored to an extent in the base game. It's not necessarily that we're getting "explanations" per se, given the ambiguous style of FromSoft's storytelling, but we're getting new pieces that we can fit into our ever-expanding conspiracy board.

And maybe it's my stealth goth sensibilities, but the figure who has fascinated me the most of anything I've seen is Midra.

The Frenzied Flame in the base game is really weird. It's subtle, creeping in at the edges. While the presence of something like the Scarlet Rot can usually be traced back to Malenia (though I think the Lake of Rot pre-dates her - and I haven't yet done the Rot-related stuff in the Lands of Shadow) and you can generally be sure that lightning always seems to tie in some way to the Ancient Dragons (notice how none of the Drakes whose breath weapons you can get via dragon communion have a lightning breath?).

But the Frenzied Flame seems to just kind of pop up. We likely first encounter it in the village on the highest hill in the Weeping Penninsula - an interesting place given the way that the Frenzied Flame and grief, anguish, and despair seem to be tied to it.

There's a lot in Elden Ring that feels secretly like Cosmic Horror. George R. R. Martin is, of course, has elements of that genre in his dark fantasy opus, A Song of Ice and Fire (the Lord of Light, R'hollor, seems less like an Abrahamic god than some kind of Great Old One, likewise the Ironborn Drowned God, the latter of whom sounds a lot like Dagon or Cthulhu). While I think this cosmic horror element is really present in all of FromSoft's games, I'd say that Elden Ring is probably closer to it than Dark Souls (though obviously Bloodborne is straight-up cosmic horror, so it wins in that category).

I'll probably make a whole post about Metyr and the Fingers and the cosmic horror elements of that branch of the story, but here I want to touch on the way that the Frenzied Flame feels aberrant and weird in a world that already has its fair share of supernatural terrors.

Truth be told, I think that Cosmic Horror as a genre exists on a spectrum - its most famous (and possibly most problematic) author, H. P. Lovecraft, was strongly influenced by the works of Gothic Horror icon Edgar Allan Poe. And so, often a cosmic horror story will bring with it the trappings of gothic horror - the spooky woods, the abandoned manor house, aged and decrepit families and institutions. The only difference is that rather than simply normal people going mad, or monsters out of medieval-and-earlier folklore like vampires and werewolves, being the cause of the terror, instead we get strange and alien forces acting upon the world.

But at the other edge of that spectrum, Cosmic Horror is arguably more of a subgenre of science fiction. Indeed, if you read some of Lovecraft's stories, such as At the Mountains of Madness, they read far more like the precedent for 1950s alien-invasion sci-fi. As that subgenre matured, we eventually got things like the movie Alien or The Thing (itself based on a short story that shares some elements with At the Mountains of Madness).

So, addressing Metyr, I think that in some ways, she and her whole story fit a little more into the "bizarre sci-fi" side of cosmic horror. But Midra feels very much Gothic in its sensibilities.

We're still early in the life of Shadow of the Erdtree, with most people still making their way through their first run of it. One of the great joys of FromSoft games is the way that the internet community can synthesize the thousands of snippets of lore to get a more complete picture. That process is starting, but there's a very good chance that there will be more things to say months or years from now.

Still, I thought it would be interesting to try to sum up what we know about Midra.

I'm going to set aside my pet theories that only have some extremely circumstantial evidence. The "Midra is Marika's father" theory could be very cool if I find any more solid evidence to support it, but we're not going to do that right now.

Instead, let's look at the facts. And we're going to start at the end here:

Midra, more or less alone in his Manse, has a giant barbed sword jutting through his body. It's an injury that would clearly be completely fatal if not in the weirdly deathless world of Elden Ring. And he seems to be in agony.

Most of the foes we encounter in Midra's Manse are Inquisitors - a faction that belongs to the Hornsent culture, and is there to punish heresies and impurities. (As Leda, dubious source though she is, says of the Hornsent: "They were never saints.")

I even wonder if the Inquisitors' primary function was to root out any appearance of the Frenzied Flame. But much as it looks like the imprisonment of the Wandering Merchants below Leyndell on suspicion of being associated with the Frenzied Flame led to a concentration of Frenzy there and the presence of the Three Fingers (maybe?) it's possible that the hypervigilance of the Hornsent Inquisitors may have condemned the Abyssal Wood to become a hotbed of Frenzy.

We've talked about the weirdness of the Frenzied Flame. You know what's an interesting example of that? Other than Midra, I don't think there are any Frenzied Flame-associated bosses. Even Vyke, who uses the Frenzied Flame when he invades us in Liurnia, instead uses only Dragon Cult incantations and weapons when we actually find him trapped in the Evergaol in the Mountaintop of the Giants.

Off the top of my head, we find Frenzied Flame-associated monsters in that village in the Weeping Penninsula, in the village in northeastern Liurnia (with a big "Lord of Frenzied Flame" head being conjured at the top of that tower,) then among a few Leyndell soldiers as well as a big troll right outside of Volcano Manor, and then in the ruins in the southeastern part of the Consecrated Snowfield, and finally down in the depths beneath the Capital Shunning Grounds.

And now, the Abyssal Woods.

Given his massive mansion, which seems to largely serve as a library, Midra was presumably someone important. But it seems he must have pissed of the inquisition in some way, because the barbed sword embedded in his emaciated body matches the candletree weapons that the Inquisitors wield. The Abyssal Woods themselves are guarded by Inquisitor Jori, the final boss of the Darklight Catacombs.

So it seems like a fairly uncontroversial notion that his agonized state is the work of the Inquisitors.

But why? What did he do to draw their ire?

We find a torn diary page within the Manse that serves purely (as far as I can tell) to shed some light on the lore (and also give a hint at something you can do as a player). Getting to the Manse requires a number of stealth sections in which we have to creep past these figures I previously referred to as Winter Lanterns, but which I believe are called Aged Ones (thanks to this Reddit thread for synthesizing a lot of this stuff).

The note talks about how the writer touched "him" only once, after pushing "his" staff aside, but touched the "aging untouchable." This is, in part, a hint that you can parry the Aged Ones (something I have not yet even attempted to do) and, evidently, get a trinket called Aged One's Exultation, which works like the other Exultation trinkets, triggering when madness is procced.

Now, I wonder if this was a note written by Midra himself - and if this note may have even been the evidence used to condemn him.

See, the Hornsent culture has a different belief system from Marika's Golden Order. I don't want to say too much without evidence, but it seems that they have a greater tolerance for physical death in their world, so long as the spirit is able to continue on. We even see how with the Ancient Divine Beast up at the top of Belurat is, I think, a great celestial spirit inhabiting the lion-dancer costume (shared by two or three Hornsent) to animate it.

But the Frenzied Flame melts both bodies and spirits, and so was seen as anathema to their belief system.

Given how dangerous the Frenzied Flame is, I wouldn't be shocked if simply touching someone afflicted by it was grounds for persecution. Maybe this torn diary page was, in the eyes of the Inquisitors, a confession that justified their horrific punishment against Midra.

Of course, as we see, the Inquisitors in the Manse and nearby in the Abyssal Woods have all, themselves, become infected by the Frenzied Flame, which... you know, serves them right, but not great for the world in general.

Actually!

One of the challenges of the gameplay in the Abyssal Woods is that Torrent refuses to enter. If you try to call him while in the woods, you get a message that he refuses your call because he's too frightened. Torrent, who has ridden around dragons and Fire Giants and Erdtree Avatars.

But it makes sense: Torrent, like spirit ashes, is actually a spirit. And so, he never has anything to fear when facing down those relatively mundane threats. But the Frenzied Flame can melt away spirit, and thus poses a true threat to him.

I think it's also worth considering something about the two Frenzied Flame-associated NPCs we meet in the base game.

Shabriri and Hyetta are both new personalities inhabiting the bodies of dead people.

Shabriri seems to be fully cognizant of the power that he serves, but Hyetta at least appears pretty innocent when we encounter her in Liurnia (I'll confess that on my first playthrough I didn't even clock that she was in the same body as Irina).

From a certain point of view, both of these individuals are possessed by a celestial being - if Shabriri and Hyetta are sort of possessing spirits from beyond. (Maybe Daedicar is one as well?)

    Fun Jewish folklore sidenote: Shabriri is the name of a demon in Jewish folklore that causes blindness. Another evil spirit in Jewish lore is the Dybbuk, which is sometimes a ghost and sometimes a demon that possesses people. In D&D, dybbuks specifically possess corpses, meaning that both Shabriri and Hyetta might be something akin to a dybbuk.

One element of Midra's Manse I haven't yet developed a theory about are the several headless corpses arrayed out in front of it. Each corpse has a yellow crystal or spire emerging from the neck, so that from a distance you can easily mistake them as golden-beaked ravens.

Headlessness has, I think, two major meanings in Elden Ring. The likely more pertinent meaning is its association with the Lord of Frenzied Flame. If we get this ending in the base game, our head is replaced with the dark-centered corona of frenzied flame. But this also happens to Midra when we get into his boss fight proper - he pries the barbed sword from his body, taking his head off with it. What fills the place left by his head is that same "Visage of the Lord of Frenzied Flame."

There is another association, though, which is the many ghostly spirits who safeguard the Wandering Mausoleums. Again, I think this is less likely to directly relate to these bodies, but worth noting.

    Overall, here's what I think I can confidently state about Midra: He's clearly a man of some importance given his palatial manse. The Frenzied Flame is seen as particularly anathema to the Hornsent culture because of its capacity to melt not only flesh but spirit. The Hornsent are much more comfortable with the idea of death likely because they see a clear distinction between spirits (which can move from body to body) and the physical form, but the Frenzed Flame is worse than death, and must be contained at all costs.

Midra encountered the Aged Ones, and while he did not fully fall to their madness-inducing attack, he did touch them. To the powers that be in the Hornsent culture, this was enough to warrant extreme, torturous punishment, because Midra had become spiritually unclean.

They embedded a barbed sword into his body, but he did not die.

Nanaya, either a caretaker, relative, or his wife, was somehow an adherent or cultist of the Frenzied Flame, and encouraged Midra to endure his torment, perhaps aware that the longer he suffered, the more potent his chance to become the Lord of Frenzy.

Ultimately, Nanaya died, possibly killed by the Inquistors, but Midra did his best to stave off his descent/ascension. When we come along, we push him over the edge - he can't bear the torment any longer. The Frenzied Flame seems to grant a sense of relief to those who embrace it, even if it means their own destruction. Midra's pain leaves him, but so does his humanity and perhaps even his identity as an individual.

    Two things occur to me:

First is that, while the Nomadic Merchants beneath Leyndell are sealed away possibly because of accusations that they were touched by Frenzy (an accusation that isn't baseless, as I think many of the merchants will use such magic if attacked, though of course generalizing to an entire population is textbook bigotry) there isn't any specific task force within the Golden Order whose purpose is to root it out. To be honest, I think that the Frenzied Flame and the concept of Order might be two sides of the same coin - if Frenzy would ultimately result in the reunification of all things into a single undifferentiated mass, it actually fits in with the Golden Order's concept of Regression. On top of that, I could imagine that Marika, as someone who, before her apotheosis, seems to have suffered under the oppressive zealotry of the Hornsent culture, may view the Flame of Frenzy as a kind of "enemy of my enemy" force.

The second is something to consider regarding player agency in these games - oftentimes, it feels like we're forced into situations where we are fighting against figures we might not actually want to fight. Shadow of the Erdtree makes an argument that Miquella's goals and methods have lost any moral standing, and that he must be killed, but you might not totally agree - maybe you value peace and cooperation over free will. But in a certain way, you do have a choice: you can not pursue certain leads. One could argue that, while not in great shape thanks to Miquella's absence, the Haligtree is still a sanctuary for many of the Lands Between's dispossessed. Malenia isn't really bothering anyone at the base of the Haligtree, so why do we go kill her?

And maybe Midra could have continued to endure, in pain, yes, but not threatening the world with the Frenzied Flame. But we had to know, we had to prod and explore.

Backgrounds and Ability Bonuses

When Tasha's Cauldron of Everything was introduced, beyond the cool spells and awesome subclasses, I think no single feature got me more excited than the option to replace your Race's ability score bonuses.

The philosophical reason for this was understandable - if we're treating "Race" (now renamed as Species) in the same manner as we might treat people of different ethnicities in the real world, it starts to become really uncomfortable codifying in the game mechanics that, for example, Gnomes are just straight-up smarter than Dragonborn. Every reputable study on human intelligence has refuted racist claims that any one ethnic group has a higher capacity for intelligence than another. Humans are, ultimately, very similar to one another on a physiological, genetic level, and something as complex as intelligence - something that is the product of countless different factors - can't be directly linked to one's superficial appearance. Admittedly, the Species of a fantasy world aren't quite as closely linked as different types of human, the latter of whom all share a common ancestor. But as long as that's kind of the metaphor we're working with, it feels a lot better to say that there's no reason you can't have a brilliant Orc Wizard or a ripped Halfling Barbarian.

But honestly, the bigger reason I got excited for that was that final point: Racial ability score bonuses strongly incentivized you to pick certain races for certain classes - a Dragonborn, with bonuses to Strength and Charisma, by far mad the most sense as a Paladin. Tieflings, with bonuses to Charisma and Intelligence, were pushed strongly into playing Bards, Warlocks, and Sorcerers (and possibly Wizards with some extraneous decent charisma).

By making the choice free, a world of possibilities opened up. Generally speaking, I never want a character I build to have their primary ability modifier to be less than a +3. But using the Standard Array or Point Buy, the only way you can ever achieve that is if you get one of these bonuses to push a 14 or a 15 up to a 16. Tasha's allowed everyone to be able to achieve that.

2024's PHB is going to be altering where you get your ability score bonuses. If that were it, it would sort of be a meaningless change. The current way that you choose your bonuses is arguably not really even linked to your Race/Species anymore - it's just a choice you make at character creation (you could easily make a system where you simply get more points with point buy and can spend to get a score up to 16).

However, the change here is that your Background, not your species, will determine which ability scores you can boost.

On a thematic level, there's a certain logic to this: if you have the Entertainer background, you can see how that might require you to have developed your Charisma or your Dexterity (I can't recall what the third one it can boost is). Here, rather than implying that an average Orc is just inherently stronger than an average Elf, there's a reasonable assertion that someone who has spent their days as a Laborer hauling lumber and stones to construct buildings will have built up some muscle.

I've seen some critiques that this sort of replaces the racist bio-essentialism from the 2014 and earlier systems with classist social prejudices - "oh, you were a Farmer? Well you're not as smart as a Noble then." I think this one has more wiggle room - I think you could easily create a character who might have grown up on a farm, but in their pre-adventuring days studied at some institute of arcane learning to truly have a Sage background.

But the bigger issue is that it's the same problem we had before: We're going to have Fighters and Barbarians strongly incentivized to pick Soldier as a background, while a Sorcerer (even if they were some kind of magical artillery asset) might be pushed away from choosing that as their backstory.

And while it might be simple enough to just take that background for mechanical reasons and just flavor your character differently, the backgrounds will also come with your origin feat, so there will be some tension if none of the backgrounds that have the ability score boosts you want have the feat you want.

This is certainly a more flexible and forgiving system than the 2014 one, and I'll also remind readers here that you have lots of options with the background ability score bonuses - each has three affiliated abilities, and you can choose either to boost one by two and another by one, or to simply get a +1 to all three of them. Thus, given any three combination of abilities, there's a 50% chance that your primary ability score choice is among the options listed.

Still, I usually want to boost one of my other scores by a bit as well - if I'm playing a Rogue, I'll certainly want to start off with a Dexterity of 16 or higher, but I'd probably also want to have good Constitution (this goes for every class). If the background that makes the most sense boosts Dexterity, Intelligence, and Charisma, I might feel somewhat unenthused about boosting either of those mental stats when I could have been making myself tougher to take down.

The big caveat to this entire post, though, is that I believe there will be guidance in the Dungeon Master's Guide to create custom backgrounds. I hope that in digital character sheets like D&D Beyond, we'll get the option to check a box or something that lets us swap out the ability bonuses for our backgrounds. 

Ranger Deep Dive

 Rangers don't have, you know, the best reputation. While they're half-casters like Paladins, they don't have super-powerful abilities like Aura of Protection or Divine Smite (though as we've seen, the latter there is getting a pretty substantial nerf,) and as martial characters, often a Dexterity-based Fighter can out-damage them thanks to the Fighter's many attacks and other features.

Therefore, I think the Ranger really needs to carve out its own identity. Do the changes in 2024 allow them to do that?

In a sense, this is really the third version of the Ranger that we've gotten, after Tasha's Cauldron of Everything introduced a ton of new optional features for the class. Unlike the additional features most classes got, the Ranger ones fully replaced core base features.

To a certain extent, many of these changes have simply become the baseline features in the 2024 Ranger. For example, Deft Explorer, which replaced your Natural Explorer feature (aka Favored Terrain) has now fully replaced it as the base class feature. Deft Explorer, of course, had various additional benefits at various points to match the Natural Explorer Improvement features, but without a need to do so anymore, things like Roving have now been made into their own independent feature.

Favored Foe has also changed, now automatically giving the Ranger Hunter's Mark as well as giving you a number of free castings of the spell per long rest.

Hunter's Mark is now going to interact with some additional Ranger features, and at higher levels you'll no longer be able to lose concentration on the spell from taking damage.

    I will say that I'm skeptical about this. With the Ranger building some high-level features around Hunter's Mark and the Warlock (at least the GOO-lock) getting some high-level features built around Hex, the design is pushing players to continue casting these spells and using their concentration even when it would probably be better for them to start concentrating on something else. Granted, I think the intent is more to make these low-level spells a more attractive option at higher levels, but if these features don't prove strong enough to warrant using the spells, they become dead features.

Hunter's Mark also gets some additional bonuses, like increased damage (a rather pathetic level 20 capstone, to be honest) and, much more enticingly, advantage on attacks against the marked target.

Rangers are also going to get more instances of Expertise - they get one at level 1 with the Deft Explorer feature (as they did in Tasha's) but they'll get additional expertise choices at higher levels (I think they cap out at three). I think this is going to be a big part of giving the Ranger something to really set them apart - ideally, no class will be better at navigating and exploration.

Like Paladins, Rangers will now be getting spellcasting at 1st level, and while they will get access to all the Fighting Style feats, they'll also, like the Paladin, get the option to instead learn some cantrips (in the Ranger's case, from the Druid spell list) in case they really want to focus on spellcasting. (I will say that I think this could make sense for the Beast Master, given that the Beast's attack bonus is based on your spell attack modifier, so if you wanted to really just push Wisdom you could be casting Thorn Whip or Starry Wisp instead of shooting a bow).

Let's talk subclasses:

    The Beast Master is getting a lot of the features from Tasha's baked into the class, including using three scaling stat blocks for Beasts of the Air, Sea, and Land, rather than picking something out of the Monster Manual. You'll be able to command the beast with a bonus action, too, and presumably if it's like the Tasha's version, it will be relatively trivial to revive a fallen beast companion (solving "the Trinket problem").

I think most of the Tasha's-era changes will remain largely as they are, which I believe (though this is through very second-hand online discourse) more or less fixed the subclass back when that book came out.

    The Fey Wanderer is coming in from Tasha's, and as far as I can tell is not particularly different - it'll just be benefiting from the changes to the base class.

    The Gloomstalker from Xanathar's is also being added, but this time with some more serious revisions. The first-round burst of damage is being nerfed in exchange for a reusable ability to deal extra psychic damage and potentially frighten the targets you hit, but on any round of combat you choose.

Changing Dread Ambusher will invariably feel like a nerf - Gloomstalker was perhaps the most potent Nova feature in the game, especially if you multiclassed with Fighter to get Action Surge and thus double-dip on it. Unless you have many combat in a day, I suspect that even a limited uses of these psychic attacks will still occur more than your Dread Ambusher, but we'll see.

A few other things changed for the class, including the ability to at some point cause an AoE fear, which is potentially very potent.

    Finally, the Hunter has gotten some very nice changes - some of the less powerful options for their abilities have been removed, but the change I think everyone will really like is that you can swap out abilities like Colossus Slayer or Hordebreaker on a short or long rest - giving you the ability to really set yourself up for the kind of combat you're expecting (this of course being dependent on how much your DM telegraphs a fight).

Hunters also inherit something that feels akin to the Monster Slayer's abilities, where you can discover a monster's vulnerabilities, immunities, and resistances when you put your Hunter's Mark on them. I'm a big fan of giving players a way to discover these and prepare for a fight (I tried to hint to my party before they fought a Wasteland Dragon that she would be immune to Force damage, and I hoped the Artillerist would, for the first time in a 4+ year campaign, use the Shielding option for their eldritch cannons, but they instead just didn't use the cannons at all in the fight).

    Anyway, I don't know if all these changes are going to suddenly make the Ranger super-powerful. And I don't know if it will be enough to let them shed the sense of underpoweredness that they've had since 2014. More recent subclasses have, of course, boosted the Ranger's power, and I think they're trying to get the base subclass options in line with the newer ones (in part by making one of the newest ones into a base option) even while reigning in some of the excesses of a particularly overpowered subclass.

So! This leaves us with only a few classes left. I think they have yet to tackle the Cleric, the Monk, and the Sorcerer... and is that it?

Maybe It Was My Build?

 While I'm not done with Shadow of the Erdtree on my first character, I decided to take a couple others into the expansion to see if I might come across some fun armaments and playstyles that wouldn't require me to re-spec them.

I've been seeing a lot of complaints about the difficulty of the expansion, and have been wondering why there's such a response - I've killed many of the Remembrance bosses in a single attempt on the character I took in first, and have generally been pleasantly surprised that the expansion hasn't been Ringed City-level brutal.

But maybe it was my build.

Admittedly, I've only scratched the surface on these two. I took my Arcane/Faith character in and decided to try out a build involving the Beast Claw found on the random NPC in the woods south of the entrance to the Gravesite Plains (now that I have a better lay of the land, I suspect that the Church of Contrition if that's what it's called will be a first stop for most characters after getting the initial map fragment).

This character was built around Dracon Incantations, which are awesome when they can melt bosses, but they leave you profoundly exposed and drain basically all your FP in moments. So I actually wound up slapping on Radagon's Soreseal so that I could equip Rivers of Blood (which I had used on that character prior to respeccing for Elden Beast, so it was a +10) after multiple attempts trying to take that guy down.

I played around a bit on this, using the built-in skill and an Occult attunement, but I have to be honest - I feel like debuff-based builds must have been nerfed at some point.

The other character I took in was my primarily Intelligence-based character (actually my very first Elden Ring character). He uses lots of Sorceries but mainly focuses on the Darkmoon Greatsword, with its effective and efficient ranged cold blasts.

Overall I think he's decent, but perhaps not as powerful as my main guy (the self-healing from Blasphemous Blade, both its passive and Taker's Flame, cannot be overstated). Now that I know the quick and easy path up to Prospect Town and the Church of Benediction (and only just realized that the pit you drop into afterward is where you start the expansion) it will likely be an early stop on any character's visit to the land of shadows. I have found that the Blessed Blue Dew Talisman is a pretty strong choice for a spellcaster who has plenty of other combat options - I found that I basically always had the FP to activate the Darkmoon Greatsword's ability, and I could toss in a Loretta's Greatbow or a Rock Sling here and there if I didn't want to get anywhere near a foe (the bomb-lobbing Messmer Soldiers on the path to the first catacomb dungeon were no match for the range of Loretta's).

Anyway, Fog Rift Catacomb was pretty tough. While the dungeon itself felt difficult merely in your typical Soulsborne way - you needed to be quick to dodge, approach every corner with skepticism, and ration your flasks - I found the Death Knight boss at the end staggeringly difficult. I did eventually figure out it was easier to dodge his attacks by rolling into him, but unlike my jumpy melee guy who is happy to be right up next to the boss, this guy prefers a little distance - and medium distance might be where this guy is deadliest.

The worst part is that I had more than enough Runes to level up (something like 260k) and on one attempt he managed to kill me before I could grab them.

I think it only took me one or two tries the first time I went in there, but this took me, I'd guess, 6-8 tries, and the last attempt I was fully out of Crimson Tear flasks and just praying that I could get another one or two melee swings in (with an un-buffed sword - no time to buff it) before he killed me.

Now, maybe on future runs of this I'll put Fog Rift up there with Impaler's as one of those dungeons that you just hold off on until a little later. I think I only have three Scadutree blessings at this point.

One thing I am very curious about is where I can get some of the cool death magic sorceries that you see in the Land of Shadows - like the bouncing darts and the big missile that shoots several other missiles off of it.

I am planning to go see Count Ymir as soon as I can on this character so that I get plenty of Finger sorceries. One of the downsides of the way these games work is that you often can't get some of the coolest spells and weapons until late in the game. I'm wondering if there's a way to get to Ymir without beating Rellana, though at least in the most straightforward interpretation of the paths available to you, it seems she's required to get up there.

Wizard Deep Dive

 Given that the Wizard is already arguably the most powerful class in the game, with unparalleled magical versatility, any buffs the class would receive are naturally going to be somewhat minor.

The Wizard gets a couple new features, and there are some changes to various subclasses that are mostly pretty subtle (though Illusionists get a very cool new feature).

First off, Wizards get to pick one of a number of Intelligence-based skills and get expertise in it through the Scholar feature. Thus, Wizards will really be able to shine in some area of study that they've focused on. As of the UA, this is all of the Intelligence-based skills aside from Investigation, so, depending on the campaign or the type of DM you have, this could be useful or just largely fun flavor.

More powerful is Memorize Spell, which allows you to swap out one of your prepared spells on a short rest.

Finally, Wizards will also be able to swap out one of their cantrips on a long rest, similar to an optional feature from Tasha's.

Again, none of these are earth-shaking, but the Wizard was already in such a good place that I don't think they have anything to complain about - and they get even more spells to choose from with all the additions coming.

Like the Cleric, the Wizard is one of the two classes that actually sees fewer subclasses in this PHB than they got in the 2014 one, matching the other classes with four. I believe that the other subclasses - Conjuration, Transmutation, Enchantment, and Necromancy from 2014 should theoretically be usable with the 2024 Wizard, but the other four subclasses have gotten updates.

One change that is technically a bunch of subclass features but more or less feels like a class change is the way that various "Savant" features work. Rather than making it quicker and cheaper to copy spells of your school of magic, you now simply get a spell of that school at each level-up. I love this, because the bizarre thing about the old Savant spells was that it encouraged you not to take spells of your particular discipline when you leveled up, as you could more easily get those in-world. Now, your Diviner Wizard will naturally have a crapton of divination spells, which, you know, actually makes sense!

    Abjurers (renamed from School of Abjuration - this will be a pattern) get a few boosts. Your Arcane Ward will now inherit the damage resistances, vulnerabilities, and immunities of the target it's on, so if you're a Red Dragonborn fighting a bunch of fire elementals, you'll get a Ward that is going to last twice as long.

Additionally, you'll get Dispel Magic and Counterspell prepared for free, and as part of this feature, if you fail to dispel that magic or counter that spell, you won't have to expend the spell slot. Additionally, you can now cast Dispel Magic as a bonus action.

I will say, I'll be curious to see how Counterspell feels in a world with the Monsters of the Multiverse style of caster NPC design. I really liked how Flee, Mortals! created a bunch of multiattack options that still counted as spells of a certain level, so that even if the DM didn't have to track spell slots on the creature, PC spellcasters could still interact with the spells in various ways. I will also say that I hope that the new Counterspell design (causing a Constitution saving throw rather than the whole ability check thing) makes it through, as I think that will also make it much more appealing to a DM to have spellcasting bosses.

    Evokers are getting a slight shuffle to their features - their potent spellcasting feature, which allowed their saving throw cantrips to deal half damage on a successful save, has moved to level 3, and on top of that it will also apply to attack-roll cantrips. Thus, even if you miss with a Fire Bolt, you'll still be doing some damage to the target. An Evoker is always chipping away at the monsters' HP.

    Diviners are getting a few boosts, like being able to use the Third Eye feature as a bonus action rather than an action.

    Finally, Illusionists are getting the biggest boost, with a few brand-new features.

First off, you'll be able to ignore the verbal components on your Illusion spells. You still need somatic components, but this will let you create an illusion when a target has their back turned to you and be able to evade suspicion. Also, areas of magical silence won't be a problem for you casting these illusions.

Illusionists can also cast any illusion spell with a range of 10 feet a further 60 feet - so if you have a 10 foot spell, you can now cast it 70 feet away. (Great if you're hidden from some big nasty monster and want to make a distraction that won't just bring them right to you.)

You'll also get Phantasmal Creatures. This gives you Summon Beast and Summon Fey prepared for free, and gives you the option to change their school of magic to Illusion (so, extended range, no verbal component) without expending a spell slot once per day. The illusory version of these creatures does have half as much HP, but still pretty great - and you can always just cast them as normal.

I think this is a really cool feature, though I do think it won't necessarily scale well, given that the Summon spells really like being upcast (especially odd-leveled ones). I don't think this will be the case, but I'd like it if this also changed the summoned creature's damage type to psychic, which would get around some of the damage resistance issues that both of these conjurations usually deal with.

Illusory Self is also getting buffed - you now get to choose to use it after you know if an attack hit or missed you (so you'll never waste it) and you can also restore uses of the feature by burning 2nd level or higher spell slots. This means that as long as you've got lots of spell slots, you're basically unhittable. Naturally, I might save this feature and use Shield if I can, but this is a fantastic "get out of crit jail" card.

Illusory Reality is largely unchanged, but there's new guidance in the Rules Glossary to make sure that everyone's on the same page regarding how illusions work.

    So, again, not a ton of changes here, but this is also one of the classes least in need of changes. You're still going to be overall better off in most cases. I will say that for the subclasses left behind in the 2014 PHB, I'd certainly allow for a couple of alterations as a DM. I would carry forth the change to Savant features into all of the Magic-School subclasses, and I might do things like change School of Necromancy to use Summon Undead instead of Animate Dead (though we haven't seen what the new version of Animate Dead will look like, so maybe it'll be fine).

Beast Eyes, Snake Eyes, and the Dualities of the Demigods

 If you get the Lord of Frenzied Flame ending after using your own flame to burn the Erdtree rather than Melina's, there's a postscript after the Frenzied Flame begins to overtake the world. In this, Melina finds Torrent's whistle among the ashes and vows to take you down, opening her long-closed eye and revealing an eye of pale blue.

Given that this blue is almost identical to the blue of the Beast Eye, granted by Gurranq after you meet him the first time, I've generally started to believe a theory that these eyes are a pair, and that they originally belonged to the Gloam-Eyed Queen.

Spoilers Ahead

Druid Deep Dive

 The Druid in the 2024 PHB is going to see some rebalancing. To sum up the biggest takeaway: I think that non-Moon Druids are going to see the changes almost exclusively as buffs, while the Circle of the Moon is going to get some reasonable nerfs - but also some adjustments that are going to help them as well.

Wild Shape remains a staple feature for the class, even if non-Moon druids will primarily be using it for utility rather than combat. One nice change here is that you can still speak while Wild Shaped - Jeremy Crawford emphasized that a Druid who has shifted into a beast form isn't quite the same as just becoming an animal.

You'll still start with two uses, but you will now get additional uses as you level up - I believe a third use at level 6 and a fourth at level 17. However, you'll now only get a single use back on a short rest.

However, lest you worry about going through your forms too quickly, you'll also get a feature that allows you to trade spell slots for uses of Wild Shape. This appears to be limited only by how many spell slots you have to spend (and as of the most recent playtest, this is literally any spell slot, so Wild Shape as, effectively, a 1st level spell is not bad at all - indeed, if you multiclass with Warlock, you could spend Pact Slots on it).

Wild Shaping will also work differently - you no longer get a whole separate pool of hit points when you shift, and instead get temporary hit points. For the base druid, the THP will be equal to your Druid level, while Moon Druids will get more (as of playtest 8, three times your Druid level). These Temp Hit Points are pure gravy, because even if they're burned through, your Wild Shape will only end if you become incapacitated or the duration ends (and that duration is still a number of hours equal to half your druid level). So basically, while it won't be the insane boost to survival that it was, as long as you're still up, your Wild Shape form will be too.

Wild Companion from Tasha's will also now be a baseline feature in case you want a familiar.

Lastly, the Archdruid feature now only grants a free wild shape if you start a fight without a charge of it, rather than fully removing the limit on charges, which... you know, is probably fair. Archdruid also integrates the ribbon feature of Timeless Body, as well as letting you convert more uses of wildshape into spell slots. Notably, Beast Spells has also now gained the Archdruid's material component exemption two levels earlier.

Druids will also get a few new choices - with subclasses being moved from level 2 to 3, you'll get a new choice (similar to what Clerics get) at level 1, which is your Primal Order. Here, you can choose to potentially focus more on spellcasting by getting the Magician option, which lets you learn a bonus Druid cantrip (and there's a new ranged attack cantrip that does radiant damage and is star-themed and will probably be a go-to option) as well as being able to add your Wisdom modifier to Nature checks - finally solving the ironic problem that a Wizard without Nature proficiency might know more about the natural world than a Druid who does have it. Plus, if you have a positive Intelligence modifier, you still benefit from that as well, so it's sort of like demi-expertise. (Spoiler alert: Clerics will get a similar option regarding the Religion skill).

However, if you want to focus more on the militant, martial side of things, you can pick up Warden option instead. While the video only mentions "more armor" and martial weapons, the UA allowed a Warden to get Medium Armor - an option that I think is highly desirable for any character who ever wants to end their turn in melee with a foe (given that a modest dexterity investment gets you nearly on par with heavy armor wearers, while light armor is only really decent if you are pushing hard on Dexterity).

There's a later choice with the Elemental Fury feature - here you can choose between Primal Strikes, which adds a d8 of your choice of cold, fire, lightning, or thunder damage to your weapon attacks or with your Beast Form's attacks. This upgrades to 2d8 later on.

If you're really committed to spellcasting, though, you can instead pick potent spellcasting, letting you add your Wisdom modifier to your cantrips' damage, and later extending the range of any cantrip with a range of 10 feet or longer to 300 feet (I think Thorn Whip has a 10-foot range, so this could potentially be nuts).

Again, similar to Primal Order, Clerics will, if this is kept from the playtest, get a similar set of choices, mirroring the Druid in this way.

Ok, let's talk subclasses:

    The Moon Druid got the most changes, largely to reflect how Wild Shape has changed and to actually bring in some true lunar themes to the subclass. While the tankiness of having a full beast's set of HP on top of your own has obviously been nerfed, you'll also be taking fewer hits, because you now can replace the beast's AC with an amount equal to 13 plus your Wisdom modifier. At level 1, you can easily get a +3 to Wisdom, so you should be on par with someone in Scale Mail or Chain Mail (without a shield). If you focus on getting your Wisdom up (admittedly this might go slower given the attractiveness of the new feats) you should be able to keep pace with an unshielded plate-wearer, getting to an AC of 18 by the time your Wisdom is maxed out.

Moon Druids's new version of "your attacks count as magical" will now let you just change the damage to radiant - which will be great against vampires but I suppose could be a problem if facing radiant-resistant monsters (though such things are very rare). They also eventually get to add additional dice of radiant damage to their hits - on top of Primal Strike's extra dice (so you might be rolling three or four dice on a normal hit).

Moon Druids also now get a curated list of spells that they can cast while in Wild Shape, including a few new ones, but also Cure Wounds and Moonbeam. They also get a built-in bonus action teleport.

So, you know, they're going to be pretty good - assuming that the beast stat blocks they have available are going to be decent.

    Now, let's circle (pun only sort of intended) back to the Circle of the Land.

Land Druids are built to be the classic nature-spellcaster, kind of sharing "quintessential druid" with the Moon druid like the Thief and Assassin do with the Rogue. One of the biggest changes is that you now have the option to swap your associated land type every time you finish a long rest. The climates have been simplified to just Arid, Polar, Temperate, and Tropical, and you get a cantrip and one spell per spell level up to 5th with each one (there are some goodies, like Fireball for Arid and Misty Step for Temperate).

Land Druids also get a new way to expend Wild Shape charges (aside from just converting one of them into a spell slot) that lets you create a burst of flora in a 10-foot-radius sphere that will deal necrotic damage to foes and healing to allies, and it gets more powerful as you level up.

You still have Natural Recovery (similar to the Wizard's Arcane Recovery) but which now also includes the ability to cast one of your terrain-based spells for free once per long rest.

You'll also get a damage resistance associated with your current terrain type and immunity to the poisoned condition, and later you can also spend your wild shape charges to raise a little forest around you to provide allies with cover and with that damage resistance.

    The Circle of Stars from Tasha's appears to be largely unchanged, which is fine given that it was a pretty good subclass to start with. I will say that the new Starry Wisp cantrip fits perfectly here (60 foot range, attack roll, does 1d8 damage - scaling up by tier as usual - and makes the target glow and be unable to turn invisible).

    Druids are also one of the classes getting a brand-new subclass: the Circle of the Sea. The primary mechanical theme here is that you can expend Wild Shape charges (notice that all of them have an alternate use of Wild Shape? Almost feels like it could be called "Channel Nature"...) to create a kind of stormcloud around you, which can be used to, at the end of your turn, deal cold damage (in the UA it was thunder) and push foes away from you up to 15 feet.

Sea Druids also get a number of really good storm-themed spells like Thunderwave, Shatter, and Lightning Bolt, etc.

Your Wrath of the Sea (the storm ability) upgrades as you get to higher levels, increasing in size and also conferring certain benefits, like the ability to fly and resistance to cold, thunder, and lightning damage. Naturally, you'll also passively get a swim speed, and you automatically get Water Breathing prepared, and any Wild Shape form you take also get a swim speed.

Finally, you eventually get the option to put the Wrath of the Sea aura on an ally, and you can even have two up at a time if you spend two Wild Shapes to do so.

    For my money, the real proof in the pudding as to whether the Circle of the Moon druid is going to still feel powerful is all about what the beast stat blocks are like. Combing Primal Strikes with Lunar Strikes could be incredible if you have a beast with multiattack - currently, a Dire Wolf only has a single attack per turn, but a Black Bear (which is lower CR) will have two attacks. If the beasts you're turning into only get a single attack per attack action, then your (eventual) 2d8 and 1d10 bonuses to your damage will amount to 14.5 - just barely possibly making up for the lack of a second attack on a really basic martial character. But if we're talking two attacks and thus 29 on top of the, say 12 you'd normally get, plus some decent concentration spell to add into it, you might start doing decently.

However, I'll be honest: I think I'm drawn more to the other kinds of Druids purely on a thematic level. I could imagine Circle of the Sea being a ton of fun (especially when you can put your aura on your Barbarian and basically make a better Storm Herald). I also think a grizzled pirate druid could be freaking awesome, cackling in the middle of a deadly sea-storm. (I'd be tempted to revive my briefly-played Dwarf Tempest Cleric named Thunderin' Merrick Dafoe - a name I came up with even before The Lighthouse came out, but who had kind of Willem Dafoe's character's vibe.)

I think you could very reasonably classify the Wild Shape changes as a nerf, but nerfs are necessary to slow power creep. And this is one of those things that had sort of gotten out of hand.

And There's Midra, Scadutree Avatar, and Bayle as Well

 Again, I've been reading about complaints about the high difficult of the new DLC, and I think there are only two possible explanations: the first is that the build I'm on is just insanely powerful compared to others - I'm still using my Blasphemous Blade/Flame Art Gargoyle Greatsword dual-wield jumping Strength/Faith build, though occasionally trying out some of the newer weapons just to make sure I'm getting some variety (I think I'm tempted to take my sort of orphaned character in next, who has gotten to either Godfrey or even up to the final boss, but wound up going back to an old boring standby of the Fallingstar Great Jaw weapon, which is effective but a little dull - alternatively, I might grab my Arcane/Faith guy and possibly focus on status-ailment weapons).

The other possible explanation is that it's being considered hard by players who refuse to use the various tools that are there to make the game less insurmountable - namely Spirit Ashes and NPC summons. I consider these to be just as much a part of your build as, you know, upgrading your armaments or casting buff spells on yourself (and frankly, I'm even pretty lazy when it comes to using consumables).

Because while I have genuinely hundreds of hours of Elden Ring under my belt, I doubt that puts me in the top 20% of players. I can't imagine it's that hard if I'm not having that difficult a time with it.

Or maybe I'm just awesome. Who knows?

Anyway, I think I'm in a clean-up phase before pushing the story of Shadow of the Erdtree into its final chapter. Once again, we've got a big plant-growth to burn to let us progress (ironically, it seems this will take us to what is probably the first major dungeon of the expansion).

I wrote in the last post about how I had traversed the Abyssal Woods, where the vibes of Elden Ring (already quite dark on the dark fantasy spectrum) pitches headfirst into full-on Bloodborne cosmic horror. Notably, the monsters that I refer to as "Winter Lanterns" partially in reference to those most terrible nightmares in Bloodborne (and also because there are crafting materials that seem to be related to them called Winter Lantern Flies) actually look quite reminiscent of another classically creepy Bloodborne monster, the Garden of Eyes (those fly-people you find around Byrgenwerth).

Anyway, having arrived at Midra's Manse, I made my way through what I guess technically counts as a full legacy dungeon, though unless I'm missing some enormous swath of it, it's somewhat small - a little more akin to your medium dungeons in the vein of Caria Manor (actually, another way to distinguish them is by the number of bosses, but this would actually disqualify Belurat, Tower Settlement, which only has the one boss at the end (though I suspect the expansion's final boss will be found in the tower above it).

The Manse has the full haunted house vibe, with giant bookshelves and moldy old pages scattered everywhere, along with two important hidden passages (look for the big, unique paintings).

While from the previews I had assumed that the woman standing next to Midra in their portrait might have been a pre-deific Marika, it appears she's someone named Nanaya, and we find her body in the manse, where you can take a Frenzied Flame-associated torch.

Given that there's significant evidence to suggest that Marika was born here, though, and the similarities between Nanaya's appearance and hers, I'm almost tempted to consider some kind of familial connection. Marika's home village (if indeed that is what the Shaman Village is) isn't particularly close to here, but it would be pretty crazy if Midra and Nanaya were Marika's parents.

I don't have much evidence to suggest that - just a thought.

Anyway, Midra seems to be in some kind of agony, and can be heard screaming in pain occasionally while exploring the Manse. When we find him, he has this massive barbed, branched spike going through his entire body, including his head. This appears to be the kind of weapon that the Inquisitors use - a faction that appears affiliated with the Hornsent/Belurat culture. Jori, one of these inquisitors, is the gateway boss at the end of the Darklight Catacombs that guards the entrance to the Abyssal Woods.

Anyway, Midra begins as a relatively low-stakes NPC fight (he did tackle me and cause me some madness build-up, but he's a pushover in this form. And then he rips the barb out of his body, taking his head with it, and what replaces his head is the head of the Lord of Frenzied Flame.

I will be fascinated to see what lore people dig up surrounding Midra and Nanaya. Thankfully, wearing a bunch of Focus-based gear against Midra, I had a massive pool of Madness resistance, so I was able to take him down without ever having Madness proc on me.

Next, the Scadutree Avatar was sort of sitting there waiting for me at the back door of the Shadow Keep (a different back door than the one guarded by Gaius). This is basically a giant, thorny, evil sunflower that's about 20 feet tall. The arena here is enormous, but you can't mount Torrent, so you'll need to do a lot of running and dodging attacks from far away.

I suspect I had a big advantage here because my build does roughly half of its damage as fire, which tends to be very effective against plant-based foes (my pure faith pyromancer character should have a field day). What makes this fight hard is that the avatar is very mobile and has a lot of tricky-to-dodge attacks. The thorn-based ones will also proc Blood Loss (I did suffer that once). And you'll sometimes also have to dodge some holy-based spell attacks as well.

The real trick of the fight, though, is that you need to kill the thing three times. The first two times you kill it, you have a couple seconds of respite before it comes back. Still, not the most insane fight, and again I was able to take it down in one attempt.

Killing the Scadutree Avatar yields you not just a remembrance but also Miquella's Broken Rune. Mechanically, I believe this is used in the final boss fight to protect you against a particular instant-death attack, but it could also suggest that as we're approaching the Shadow Keep, Miquella is here, breaking that Great Rune.

We are starting to get a better sense of why Miquella is actually here, but also, considering what Ymir has to say, why it was never going to work: Miquella realizes that the sins his mother committed in becoming a god herself will always taint anything that comes of their divine projects (and here I think we have to wonder if this even applies to Ranni, who isn't technically Marika's daughter but instead is Radagon's, if that actually makes a difference). The whole "shedding everything" process Miquella is going through, from his flesh to his fate to his love to his feminine half to his Great Rune... one must wonder what is actually going to be left of him to become a deity in the end. Perhaps only his ambition? And is that such a good idea?

I think Elden Ring, and FromSoft's games in general, tend to follow Lin Chi's advice: "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him." Those who believe they have all the answers to spiritual truths are actually the most ignorant. Miquella seems to have all the answers, and that's a very appealing idea, but it's our duty as the game's protagonists to test that. (Again, I think that Ranni's choice to treat her millennium of godhood as a massive exploration into the deep mysteries of the cosmos seems more in line with the state of curiosity and contemplation that the game seems to prefer - though it's also opening the door to full-on cosmic horror, so don't think that any of these endings is truly the "good one.")

Lastly, we come to Bayle. Luckily, I thought to kill the various dragon bosses along Jagged Peak that I had previously just ridden past. Upon slaying the second Jagged Peak Drake (which is the one fighting the other drake) I heard Igon call out, and he implored me to summon him to fight Bayle.

This proved a little tricky, because you have to enter Bayle's arena and engage him in order to find the summon sign, similar to getting the Hornsent to show up in the Messmer fight. And while it's not far from the entrance, the ashy ground of the arena made it a little tough to spot, so I basically left my Mimi Tear to tank Bayle while I frantically looked for the sign.

Bayle was a contemporary and betrayer to Placidusax - he's the father of all the Drakes (the two-legged lesser dragons). His fight has some similarities to Placidusax, though he's less elusive, and his big "fly up and dive bomb you" attack seemed to come less frequently and be easier to dodge. While he grows wings halfway through the fight, he spends most of the fight pretty low to the ground, making it not too terrible to get some hit onto his head.

While he doesn't have a remembrance, there's an Ancient Dragon Communion site if you veer south from the path that takes you to the mountain, and Bayle's heart can unlock one of two Dragon Communion incantations.

There's also an NPC here who can give you some shockingly explicit and clear lore surrounding Bayle. Back when Placidusax was Elden Lord (presumably to some pre-Marika deity) it was Bayle who struck against him and destroyed the two missing heads you might have noticed when fighting Placidusax in Farum Azula. The Dragon Cult (later integrated by Godwyn into Marika's Golden Order in a kind of syncretic act to cement the end to the war with the dragons and gain their allegiance) basically encouraged the development of Dragon Communion in order to get humans to hunt down the Drakes in vengeance over this betrayal.

And I find that really interesting, because it explains one major thing: Ancient Dragons, when killed, do not drop Dragon Hearts. You would think they would, but apparently only Drakes' hearts are used for Communion, because the whole point is for you to kill them, and not the Ancient dragons.

    One of the things I've thought a bit about is the symbolism of circles. The Elden Ring is, of course, a set of interlocked circles (and other shapes). But there's a detail in particular on Ymir's crown, where a circular gap in the piece above its forehead is meant to symbolize the Greater Will, and the Night Blades who seem to serve Ymir and Metyr appear to be themed around the black void of space - as if the Greater Will is found within that endless darkness and potential of the void.

Likewise, Metyr's weird intertwined "tail fingers" (again Metyr is maybe the most alien-looking thing in the game) have an orb of cosmic darkness between them, which can also shine with brilliant light, as if from a star.

This imagery of a bright circle around a dark center can also be seen in Goldmask's Mending Rune, which would seem to keep the Gods in line along with the mortals (whether this just eliminates free will entirely or simply keeps Gods like Marika from screwing with the nature of the world is up to interpretation), and I almost wonder if his Great Rune is kind of like inviting the Greater Will itself to contain and safeguard the functionality of the Elden Ring.

It sounds as if the project was abandoned at some point, but Miquella's plan to somehow use the Eclipse to restore Godwyn's soul to him also has this "dark circle rimmed with light" imagery. Might this have been an attempt to directly petition the Greater Will to fix it? (Also, an eclipse happens when either the Earth blocks the light from the sun from hitting the moon, or when the moon blocks the light of the sun from hitting the Earth. We have plenty of associations with the Moon(s) in Elden Ring, but oddly few when it comes to the sun - such that for a while I thought the Lands Between literally didn't have a sun, and only had the glow of the Erdtree to generate light. Turns out there is a sun, but you can only see it in certain parts of the map, and it's just your classic little ball of light up in the sky).

But, finally, the other echo of this symbol I wanted to touch on was actually the face of the Lord of Frenzied Flame. Both when we fight Midra and if we get the Frenzied Flame ending of the base game, the head of whichever Lord of Frenzied FLame is represented by a churning circle of sickly yellow flame surrounding a dark center (actually not unlike a sunflower, which we know is also a big symbol in this game).

The Frenzied Flame has always felt like it's this sort of dark side of the sacred - that yellow fire is actually kind of the same color as holy energy, and while I don't think we've gotten anything more about the Three Fingers in this DLC (other than assuming that it's in some way related to Metyr) it seems weirdly fitting that the Frenzied Flame should have a messenger so similar to that of the Greater Will (even if the Two Fingers and Metyr maybe were'nt being entirely forthright with just how often they actually talk).

Another, extra-canonical instance of this kind of symbol is in Dark Souls' Darksign, but that might simply imply the studio's affinity for that shape.

    Oh! Another thing occurred to me while writing all of this.

Messmer basically played the role of scapegoat to Marika's genocidal campaign against the Hornsent culture. He and his soldiers did horrible things, but they're also kind of victims because they were forced to stay within these lands and were blamed for all of the atrocities while Marika denied responsibility for them.

Among their most horrific weapons are the Furnace Golems, who burned much of Belurat and were clearly used to kill massive numbers of Hornsent people. The golems bear a "Furnace Visage" that appears to be a sun with a face. The rays coming off of that sun are shaped like omen horns, and it's said to represent the Fell God, worshipped by the Fire Giants (and which clearly had a very ancient civilization that I'd guess is related to the forges we find in Realm of Shadow - the Fire Giants also probably built the Divine Towers).

Now, this sun-with-a-face symbol is remarkably similar to the one that adorns the armor of the Dung Eater - a crazed serial killer who cursed people with the "Seedbed Curse" to turn them into omens upon their rebirth.

It's reasonable enough to assume that the reason we see Dung Eater hanged in the opening cutscene for the game, and why we find him imprisoned in the Omen Shunning Grounds beneath Leyndell, is simply because of this criminality.

But that sun image makes me wonder if we now have a hint as to his motivations: I suspect Dung Eater was actually part of Messmer's army, and participated in the genocidal campaign against the Hornsent. He may have even been picked for such an assignment because of his capacity for unbridled cruelty and ruthlessness.

But I wonder if the horrors he was ordered to perform upon the Hornsent caused him to snap, and he decided that he needs to "balance the scales" by inflicting his curse upon the world.

The thing is, would the Hornsent see his efforts as an ultimate greater good - they do think the appearance of horns is a blessing, after all. Or would they see what he does as a perversion - a sacrilegious distortion of their faith?

    Point is, this game has such insanely rich, fascinating lore.

Messmer Has Some Company Now, Plus Ymir and The Creepiest Place So Far in the DLC

 Well, I blundered into one of the two Remembrance Bosses I took down today, and died, being unprepared to face down Gaius. However, I did go in somewhat ready for Metyr, Mother of Fingers, but I did manage to die once to each of these bosses.

Metyr is technically the first of three boss-like encounters that end the somewhat short quest chain for Count Ymir. Ymir appears to be some kind of Carian-type, occupying a cathedral that can only be reached by some careful platforming down through the Moorth Ruins (I actually got to said ruins a while ago but assumed I could only access the building at the bottom of its pit some other way - turns out that it's the route to get to a whole lot of out-of-the-way places, and you just have to trust that some of the rocks jutting out of the walls of the pit are horizontal enough to let you land on them).

K, let's go into spoiler mode:

Warlock Deep Dive

 The Warlock went through some radical shifts in the UA playtest, but arrived back at something familiar but greatly improved. Pact Magic remains, as do Eldritch Invocations and Mystic Arcanum, but the ways these function have been tweaked and iterated upon to make for a solidly improved Warlock. Furthermore, the two subclasses from the PHB that were really cool conceptually but underwhelming mechanically have both gotten extensive redesigns (the Archfey is basically a new subclass, and the Great Old One takes some of the 2014 concepts and makes them far, far more effective, along with adding some new features).

Like other classes who previously got their subclass at level 1 (or 2,) Warlocks are now going to delay that final pact commitment until level 3. From an RP perspective, I think you could play this in one of two ways: either the Warlock is on a journey searching for eldritch magic in the first levels, maybe encountering lesser otherworldly beings and bargaining for power with them before encountering their true patron, or you could simply flavor this as a period in which the Warlock has to prove themselves before the patron bestows their real power.

Because your subclass comes at level 3, you'll now instead get your first Eldritch Invocation option at level 1 (at least as of the playtest, the total EIs you get have gone up to either 9 or 10 from 8). Among these, though, are the Pact Boons, which have now simply become Invocations to take.

In the playtest, I think Pact of the Chain wasn't available at level 1, but you will be able to get each of the three Pact Boons from the PHB (no Talisman, though over on Treantmonk's Temple, he says that you should still be able to use that with backwards compatibility - I'll be curious to see how the guidance on that works).

Indeed, because these are now Invocations, you will actually be able to pick up multiple Pact Boons if you want.

Speaking of Pact Boons, Pact of the Chain now expands your Familiar options, so you should always be able to find a familiar to match your subclass. This can include a Slaad Tadpole for those GOO-locks, or a Skeleton (while the Undead patron isn't appearing in the PHB, I think it's one of the best and coolest subclasses for the class, and should work with backwards compatibility).

While not mentioned in the video, the Pact of the Blade in the most recent playtest also got a massive upgrade, integrating the bonus that pushes most Bladelocks into going Hexblade, because your Pact Weapon can now use Charisma for its attack and damage rolls. Between that and (as of the playtest) the ability to get Lightly Armored (which now also grants medium armor and shields) feat with your background, I think you could very easily put together a reasonably prepared melee warlock at level 1 without having to do anything too weird.

We don't have the details yet, but again Treantmonk's Temple's reaction video suggests that the rules have worked to incentivize Warlocks to stick with the class past level 2, rather than making it a couple-level-dip for multiclass builds. I have to say, having played a single-class Warlock that made it to level 14, I actually felt pretty capable even as-is, but I think one of the changes will be that Eldritch Blast's multiple attacks will scale with Warlock level rather than overall level.

However, while you're never going to pry my beloved Eldritch Blast away from me, a lot of Invocations that used to only affect it will now work on (I believe) all attack-based damage Warlock cantrips, so if you want to do a Repelling Blast and Agonizing Blast on your Chill Touch, you should be able to (curious to see where the radical redesign of that cantrip has landed).

Warlocks will also get, at level 2, a once-a-day option to quickly get their Pact slots back, which should make it easier to handle things when you get into a stickier situation than expected. This used to be, if memory serves, the level 20 feature, so getting this so much earlier will be very helpful.

One of the best improvements to the class overall is that Expanded Spell Lists are now Patron Spells, and like Domain Spells, Oath Spells, and Artificer Specialist spells, you now simply automatically get these in addition to the spells you choose. The lists have been shifted around a little, like for example the Great Old One automatically picking up Summon Aberration. This is huge, because it's an additional 10 spells for each subclass by level 9. (And here I'll assume that the guidance on using old subclasses will be to treat their expanded spell lists as patron spells).

Now, let's talk subclasses:

    The Archfey is basically a new subclass, and it's built around Misty Step. You now get a number of free casts of the spell equal to your Charisma modifier every day (and it's also part of your patron spell list). You then start to get various bonus effects on top of the spell, somewhat like the Eladrin's Fey Step abilities.

And to keep it going, at the highest levels, any time you cast an Enchantment or Illusion spell (of 1st or higher level) you can also get a free Misty Step along with it (which I think doesn't take your bonus action).

So Archfey Warlocks are going to be zipping around the battlefiled and causing utter chaos. Basically, they'll be one of the most mobile characters, and I actually think this makes them a great option for a Bladelock, as you'll be able to close in on your foes with ease or hop away to safety.

And I love that this feels very thematic - allowing you to be this evasive trickster who just cannot be pinned down.

    The Celestial, introduced in Xanathar's, is also making it to the core rulebook. As far as I can tell, the mechanics to this subclass are more tweaked than fully redesigned, and in all honestly it's not a character concept I've been particularly drawn toward (though given that Celestial is starting to be used for most Outer Planar beings that aren't Fiends, I think you could have something like being an agent of the Mercane, or maybe play in the morally complex Planescape setting. Honestly, having been playing a lot of Elden Ring lately, I think you could easily have some extremely weird and esoteric Celestials that could be fun and creepy in all the great Warlock ways).

    The Fiend has always been a pretty solid subclass for Warlocks, so again we're not seeing any really extensive redesign but instead a revision. One of the biggest boons to the subclass is that Dark One's Blessing no longer requires you to get the killing blow on the target - you only need to be near it. This will make it far more consistent and a really significant amount of hit point padding.

    Finally, the Great Old One, my old favorite, got a lot of big changes and tweaks to how it works. I wrote up a post summarizing Mark Hulmes' sneak peek at the subclass, so I won't go into as extensive detail here.

I'm really happy to see the Warlock getting all these improvements. It's one of my favorite classes on a conceptual level, and I really enjoyed playing one through Descent into Avernus.

This is also a class for whom some of the later-introduced subclasses I'd really like to play as well - I wonder whether we'll see future rules-expansion books revisiting the likes of the Genie or the Undead patron - something I'd be happy about (simply because I like those subclasses) but I also hope that they'll work to bring new concepts as well.

A Putrescent Knight and More Revelations About Miquella

 Prior to Shadow of the Erdtree, it really looked like Miquella was the best option to replace Marika as the deity of the new era. And as we enter the Land of Shadow, we meet a group of people drawn together, putting past differences aside to follow Miquella and, even if they don't feel they have the power to aid him in his ascension, they come to learn more about him and revere him.

And... well...

Spoilers Ahead

Rogue Deep Dive

 The Rogue is one of the most unique classes in D&D, as the only martial/physical damage dealer that doesn't get extra attack, but can deal massive bursts of damage, as well as having tons of capabilities outside of combat, with a strong emphasis on skills. As Jeremey Crawford says in the beginning of today's deep dive on the 2024 Rogue, the main goal was simply not to break what already worked.

Rogues will be getting the shiny new toy that is Weapon Mastery, as all non-Monk martial classes do. I think it's worth noting that the Vex mastery can be very good for Rogues - it causes you to gain advantage on the next attack you make against that target, meaning that a Rogue who hits with a Vex weapon could be setting themselves up for Sneak Attack turn after turn if they keep hitting. While other Masteries will certainly have their appeals for the Rogue, Vex feels particularly built for them.

The other really awesome new feature coming in for all Rogues is Cunning Strike. Gained at level 5 (and with additional options coming in at later levels, including from subclasses,) this allows the Rogue to essentially spend Sneak Attack dice as a resource on a hit. For example, if you landed a Sneak Attack on a target, you could forgo one of your d6s (of which you'd be getting 3 at level 5) to force the target to make a Dex save or be knocked prone. (The DC is determined by your Dexterity, so note that Arcane Tricksters will need to be aware of two separate DCs, one for your spells and another for your Cunning Strike).

What I think is really cool about this is that the Rogue remains endlessly renewable - while Arcane Tricksters and Soulknives will still have some diminishing resources to track, other Rogues will basically be fully capable as long as they've got their Hit Points all day long - the resource this feature spends is one that is generated in the moment with each sneak attack.

Steady Aim, an optional feature from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, will also be making it into the base Rogue, so you can forgo movement on your turn in order to give yourself advantage on an attack as a bonus action.

Essentially, it'll be rare that a Rogue doesn't get Sneak Attack on their turn, which is pretty good given that's the main way that they deal damage.

    The Assassin has gotten some love. The Assassinate feature is still only going to be relevant in the first round of combat, but given how Surprise has changed, you now simply get advantage on initiative rolls (to help you get the drop on people) and then gain the bonus damage (in the most recent playtest, rather than giving an auto-crit, you now dealt extra damage equal to your Rogue level, which is probably a nerf if you had gotten Sneak Attack, but of course, now you can also benefit from actually critting).

Assassins also got a buff to Infiltration Expert, which still includes some of the mimicry stuff, but also now allows you to use Steady Aim without sacrificing your movement speed. This is, honestly, a simply but potentially really powerful feature - again, Assassins are almost always going to get Sneak Attack. The feature was pitches as allowing you to fight John Wick-style.

Imposter, one of two old Assassin features that I always felt was kind of a "I'd let any character do that" features, has been fully replaced with Envenom Weapons. This interacts with the Poison Cunning Strike option, which, at the cost of 1d6 of Sneak Attack, forces the target to make a Con save or be poisoned for a minute (save ends at end of turn). Now, when the Assassin uses this, the target will take 2d6 poison damage if they fail their saving throw and that damage ignores resistance to poison damage.

So, you actually wind up doing more damage if the target fails its saving throw, but it's a gamble because if they succeed you've only lost that die from the Sneak Attack. Ignoring poison resistance is nice, but I worry that so many types of monsters are just fully immune to poison that this bonus might not actually come up that much.

Death Strike also now only requires you get a Sneak Attack off on the first round of combat - a necessary adjustment given that Surprised isn't a condition anymore, but also this is definitely a buff.

    The Arcane Trickster is largely unchanged - one of those "ain't broke, don't fix" situations. Like the Eldritch Knight, they will now be able to use a spell focus (though I really hope that we can have weapons that double as spell foci if that's the case! I'm tired of dropping my Battleaxe every time I want to cast Shield!) and, also like the EK, they no longer are subject to any spell school restrictions.

One changed feature is that Versatile Trickster now lets you trip a second target when you use the Trip option for Cunning Strike by having your Mage Hand trip them up.

    The Soulknife is getting a couple of changes to Psychic Blades to solve some perhaps unforeseen problems that the original had. You will now be able to make Opportunity Attacks with your Psychic Blades, which is fantastic (I'm curious to know if this will simply be "any time you would make a weapon attack" and thus working on a Battle Master's Commander's Strike, or if it will be solely with Opportunity Attacks).

The other great change is that the Psychic Blades will now come with the Vex property, so Soulknives will be able to benefit from the fun of Weapon Mastery. While they won't be able to pick and choose other options (I sort of wish they could pick one from a curated list of Rogue-appropriate masteries at the end of a long rest to apply to their blades) Vex is probably the one they'd most likely be going for, and because you can make a second Psychic Blades attack as a bonus action, Vex will be pretty good for setting up Sneak Attack if you didn't get it on the first hit.

    Thieves got a few feature reshuffles.

Fast Hands can now activate magic items as a bonus action - though I'll note that the later feature of "Use Magic Device" has been altered a little, so you won't be a Rogue going around with a Staff of the Magi (I guess ignoring class restrictions is now the exclusive domain of the Artificer).

Second-Story Work now simply gives you a Climb Speed (which it did already but for some reason didn't word it that way) and also lets you use your Dexterity score to determine jump distance - meaning you'll be quite good at hopping from rooftop to rooftop. Almost makes me sad that all Rogues don't get this feature (much as Monks will be able to Grapple and Shove using Dexterity).

Thieves will also gain a new Cunning Strike option, called Stealth Attack, which allows you to remain hidden if you hit a target while hiding from them. This has the potential to be very helpful, but you had better hope you hit when you're hiding from that Beholder, because if you miss the jig is up!

Use Magic Item has been pretty seriously redesigned: you can no longer ignore attunement restrictions, but you get a fourth attunement slot. Also, when you use a magic item that expends charges, you have a 1 in 6 chance to not spend any charges. Finally, you can get a little extra magic, as you'll be able to use Spell Scrolls of other classes. If the spell scroll is for a cantrip or 1st level spell, you can simply do it anyway, but if it's higher level, you need to make an Arcana check with a DC equal to 10 plus the spell's level. Notably, as this comes on at level 14, a Thief might consider getting at the very least proficiency in Arcana, as Reliable Talent will make any spell of 5th level or lower an automatic success even with a +0 to Intelligence.

    And there we have it! I think the Rogue is looking pretty good in the new PHB. Cunning Strikes seems very fun.

Messmer Down

 I suppose this is a spoiler, but those who are familiar with FromSoft's tendencies when making DLC should have seen it coming: Messmer, who dominates the marketing for Shadow of the Erdtree, is not its final boss.

And, it's the first Remembrance boss that took me more than one try. I've actually been pleasantly surprised that the DLC here is not ass-stompingly difficult. I've done some thorough exploration, leveling up a bit (not a ton, but maybe 6-7 levels) and gaining a lot of the Scadutree Blessings (I'm up to 11).

Spoilers Ahead:

Shadow of the Erdtree: The Vastest DLC Ever? (Not Counting World of Warcraft Expansions)

 The Lands of Shadow are enormous.

Now, to be fair, unfamiliarity makes a game's area feel bigger. While the Lands Between of Elden Ring's base game are unquestionably huge, playing through the game an eighth time will make it seem small simply because you know where things are - yeah, I know about those two Pumpkinheads in that one ruin early on in Caelid, or where to find Goldmask up in the Mountaintops of the Giants.

Spoilers Ahead

Barbarian Deep Dive

 So, again, for those of us who kept up with the Unearthed Arcana process, there aren't a ton of surprises here on these deep dives, but I think there are some points to touch on that bear consideration.

The Barbarian is, I think, a reasonably popular class. Every Critical Role campaign has had one, an honor I think might only be shared by the Cleric and (if you count multiclassing) Rogue - actually, there's another but I don't want to spoil it because the reveal was only available to the public as of last night. But at least to me, it has always had some issues that held it back compared to other tanky melee classes like the Paladin or Fighter (or Armorer Artificer).

However, the new version is going to address some of those issues in a way that I think will make me more interested in actually creating a Barbarian character (I actually have an aesthetic/backstory that could be very cool and very weird).

So let's knock out the big ones:

The first is a major change to Rage. Rage can now be extended by simply using your bonus action. This, frankly, is enormous. While Barbarians eventually get a feature that allows their Rage to continue even if they're not hitting things or getting hit by things, for most of a Barbarian's career (especially given that most campaigns don't go past level 10 or so - though I hope we'll see more high-level campaigns with the new rules) they can very easily lose their core class feature.

Furthermore, Rage (here I'm cribbing from the UA, but I think this remains true) now lasts 10 minutes, meaning that it can potentially last through multiple combats and might also remain relevant in the middle of exploration.

Rage is also going to be more useful outside of combat thanks to a redesigned Primal Knowledge. This will allow the Barbarian to elect to use Strength rather than the typical ability for several Barbarian skills, including Stealth, Intimidation, and others. In the UA, at least, this required the Barbarian to be raging, but we'll see how the final version works.

    I will note that in the 2014 rules at least, a DM can assign atypical ability scores to skills - I like the idea of a Charisma (Stealth) check to try not to be noticed by blending into a crowd rather than trying to go truly unseen (though I can also imagine simply using Deception or even Performance for that). I hope this doesn't imply that DMs won't be allowed to do that in the 2024 rules, but instead that Barbarians have a means to bypass DM approval to use what is likely their best stat on these checks.

I can't recall if it was confirmed here, but another huge change in the UA is that Barbarians will be able to get a Rage back on a short rest. There is a bit of a question here, of course: how often do we want Barbarians not to be Raging? So much of the class is built around Rage, but it's also a limited resource (unlike, say, Unarmored Defense, which is fully passive). It seems like the intent is that a Barbarian should be able to Rage in every combat over the course of a day,

Another welcome change is the replacement of Brutal Critical with Brutal Strikes. While Brutal Critical could be very fun when it actually went off (and in a pre-Weapon Mastery world was the only advantage that the Greataxe had over the Greatsword) the fact that it relied on an event that only had a 4% chance of happening meant that its impact was not nearly as felt as other mid-level boosts to melee characters like a Paladin's extra d8 of radiant damage or a Fighter's third attack.

Brutal Strikes allows you to use Reckless Attack to fuel extra damage and some bonus effects, but you forgo the advantage on your attack. In some ways, it's a little like Great Weapon Master. What I am still not 100% clear on is whether you forgo this on both of your attacks - by level 9, you'll have Extra Attack already, and this only works on your first attack. So, unless the language is cleaned up, as a DM I'd assume that you'll still get advantage on your second strike, but won't be able to gain the bonus damage and effects from Brutal Strike on it. Likewise, I'm waiting to get a clarification on whether you merely give up the advantage from Reckless Attack but might still get it from attacking a prone creature or attacking a foe with Faerie Fire on it, or if it is impossible to actually make your Brutal Strike with advantage.

I do worry that this might be a "feel bad" ability - paying the price for Reckless Attacks and then missing on your attack is going to suck. And giving up your advantage will make you more likely to miss. Still, I think this becomes an interesting tactical choice that will probably pay off more than Brutal Critical did.

Regarding subclasses:

The Totem Warrior has been renamed as the Wildheart, and has gotten some cool changes. First off, the animal spirit choices at each subclass level have been renamed to avoid confusion - there's only one "Bear" feature and it's at level 3. The problem was that some players assumed that they just picked one animal and had to take all of its features on each subclass level (not unlike the Storm Herald's different types of storm). That was never the case, but the choices presented had allowed for that confusion - now it won't be possible. More substantially, though, Wildhearts can actually swap out their animal spirit choices on a long rest. While I imagine the Bear's wide-ranging damage resistance will still be the default choice for most people, there might be times where you pick a different one.

The Berserker got a huge upgrade by fixing Frenzy. The feature no longer imposes Exhaustion - a brutally terrible hiccup in the otherwise mostly decent 2014 class design - and, as of the UA, rather than granting you a bonus action attack, will instead give you extra damage dice on the first hit you land on your turn (I believe it's d6s equal to your Rage bonus, which is pretty decent). Their Intimidating Presence feature is also now a bonus action, and can hit all creatures you choose within range. Furthermore, forcing a creature to make a saving throw will extend your Rage (though at this level you might have the feature that keeps it going anyway - can't recall).

The third subclass for the Barbarian in the PHB will be the Zealot. It looks like this is getting a bit of a redesign.

Finally, Barbarians are getting a brand-new subclass called Path of the World Tree, which honestly looks amazing, where you can manifest the branches and roots of the World Tree both to extend your reach and pull enemies (or allies) to you, but also to allow for some teleportation effects, getting you into the battle, potentially along with your friends. The World Tree Barbarian looks like it will be a very strong defender, and I think it even has longer reach than a Path of the Giant Barbarian, so I might have to play with that Bugbear Polearm Master build and use this subclass instead.

And that's our class preview for the week. I believe we start off on Monday with the Rogue, which should be enjoying its awesome new Cunning Strikes feature (if you don't know what it is, get ready - it's really cool).

...And I've Already Screwed Up an NPC Questline

 PSA: if you find a sleeping Pest creature out in the world in Shadow of the Erdtree, don't kill it. Evidently these guys an actually be friendly, and beyond that, killing them will cause Moore, the quiet, heavily-armored scavenger/vendor to invade you.

Sigh.

Shadow of the Erdtree is very impressive so far - it really feels like a vast new area of the game. It's also not as brutally difficult as I had worried - we're talking more Old Hunters here than Ringed City, and even then, maybe not quite as tough.

Case in point: I beat my first two Remembrance bosses without dying, killing each in a single attempt (with an NPC ally on each and my trusty Mimic Tear). My Scadutree Blessing is up to 5, I think, and my Revered Spirit Ash buff is at 4, so I imagine these might be very frustrating if you hadn't buffed up.

I've been trying to explore as much as I can before taking down any major bosses (I actually traversed Belurat Tower Settlement and the... er... the fortress that Rellana is in - can't recall the name - up until the boss room before facing either of them.

I'm sure I've missed a few things in each dungeon (Rellana, despite being a Remembrance boss, is in a dungeon I'd consider more of a "medium" dungeon akin to Castle Morne or Caria Manor) but the only thing that really stood out to me was that in Belurat there was a locked door down in the sewers that I couldn't get into.

For a while, I was using the Death Knight's Twinned Axes, which have a cool ash of war, but when I swapped back to my Blasphemous Blade/Gargoyle Greatsword jump-attack dual-wield combo, it just did so much more damage that I decided to go back to it until I can find a weapon that truly blows me away.

Anyway, I'm bummed that I messed up an NPC storyline, especially one who seemed pretty charming. Luckily I have a bunch of other characters to bring in here.

Scratching the Surface of the Land of Shadow

 Well, as I was watching the live episode of Critical Role tonight, I was only able to play the new Elden Ring expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree, for about an hour (I have roommates and can't hog the TV at all times).

So far, I've collected enough Scadutree Fragments to buff myself three times. I've faced one minor "dungeon" boss (not really a dungeon boss, more akin to those "ruin bosses" you often find in basements of ruins in the main game. I've gotten a single buff for my Summons and Torrent, and I've met two NPCs (not counting the one you find at Mohgwyn Palace who tells you how to enter the DLC).

I decided to take my Blasphemous Blade dual-wielding jump Strength/Faith build, on a character named Brunus of Ord, who was my first character to beat the game. I think at this stage every weapon I've found is actually wieldable by him, but most have been somewhat mundane physical damage weapons. The downside to this choice, of course, is that the Blasphemous Blade is so good, both dealing lots of damage and really helping with survival, that it will be hard to wean myself off of it and take a new weapon on.

I did get one of the Messmer Knight Greathammers, or whatever they're called, which is shockingly lighter than the Blasphemous Blade, and deals a mix of physical and holy damage - pretty good for my Str/Faith character. That said, it doesn't have a particularly interesting move set or innate ash of war.

I have gotten the Backhand Blades (the namesake of their own weapon category,) which are cool but feel like they're probably built more for a Dex build - they just have pretty low stat requirements.

The very first enemy I faced was a sort of masked omen assassin, and that was genuinely a close fight. However, it also seems to be something of a showcase enemy, and most of the foes I have faced have been pretty reasonable.

I did struggle a bit on the spirit knight found in a mausoleum, who has a rapid-fire crossbow and a heavy sword, taking three or four attempts before I could get him down (I swapped out my Claw Talisman for the one Iji sells that makes ash of war abilities cheaper and more or less spammed Taker's Flame). The knight dropped his sword and his cool armor, which is something of a sidegrade for me.

There's a ruined sort of gate town in the middle of a field that you'll find early on where I was able to climb to the top and get a talisman that increases damage done after dealing a critical hit.

Naturally, I haven't hit any major bosses yet or anything, and I'm very much in the opening stages of just trying to explore and get a sense of the lay of the land. There are a lot of places you can go, but I don't want to go too far lest I trigger some story event that makes me miss a quest.

Really, the biggest thing is that, after two years and... like 300 to 400 hours playing the base game, I've become so familiar with the layout of the Lands Between that I can map out the most efficient route between all of the mini dungeons, knowing where to find just about everything I need for a new character.

Here, though, it's all new. I thought I did a pretty thorough job searching the starting area (I think called the Gravesite Plains) but I'm sure I'll discover that there were actually several Sites of Grace, items, and mini-dungeons that I ran right past.

I'm eager to get father into it - while there's no way I can expect this to be a full Elden Ring II, I've also gotten the sense from reviews that this DLC is genuinely massive - like 40-50% the size of the base game. That suggests to me that this is going to be some real meaty stuff.