A Grand Premiere for Critical Role's Campaign Four

 My friend works at a place that runs afterschool D&D games for kids, and tonight I went there for a watch party as Critical Role launches its fourth major campaign.

This campaign is a huge shake-up. Matthew Mercer gets to take it a little easier as a player, while Dimension 20's (and DM of CR's Calamity prequel mini-campaign trilogy) Brennan Lee Mulligan steps behind the DM's screen. Along with Mercer, the core seven players, along with campaign 3 regular Robbie Daymond, are there, as well as new cast regulars Aabria Iyengar, Alex Ward, Luis Carazo, and newcomer Whitney Moore round out the rest of the cast.

For this premiere, every single player character gets a moment at the table. In its 4 hour, 12 minute runtime, the premiere blasts us with character introductions, as well as introducing the world itself.

I'm going to be spoiling basically the entire episode 1 here, but figured I'd give my assessments of the various characters (and my speculation on mechanics and other character choices).

So, a Spoiler Cut:

The Fellow Visitors to Silent Hill in SH2

 Silent Hill 2 is a game that has lingered with me since I beat it a couple weeks ago. I know that players of the original version have talked about it for over two decades now, and so there's a degree to which I know that my contributions to the discourse are kind of late. Even the remake is now about a year old, so I'm somewhat of a latecomer to it as well.

But I think there's a good reason why a story like this merited a remake, and one that has received broad acclaim.

There's a ton to discuss about the player character, James, and especially how the game's big act three reveal forces us to reassess him as a person. But I wanted to set that aside to look instead at two other characters who travel to Silent Hill around the same time as James, Angela and Eddie.

To discuss any of this will naturally involve spoilers, so here's a spoiler cut.

UA: Psion mk. II

 Well, after what feels like a very recent revision of the UA Arcane subclasses, we're getting yet another UA today with a second pass on the Psion class.

If published, this would be only the second non-PHB class (published by WotC) to appear in all of 5E, and the first to be made with the 2024 revisions already locked in.

I've given the class a once-over, and while I haven't compared it directly to the previous Psion UA, overall the class appears to be fairly similar to that incarnation: it's a squishy spellcaster that incorporates some of the Psionic Energy Dice from the Soulknife and Psi Warrior subclasses as a base feature. You get to ignore verbal and most material components on spells, and the spell kit is largely built around spells that are less traditional elemental effects and more blasting with force, psychic, and a little bit of necrotic damage and affecting the minds of foes.

This UA comes with three subclasses (down from the four in the previous one) and several spells, which are either revisions of spells found in Xanathar's and Tasha's or brand-new ones.

In this post, I'm going to look at the base class. I think we're going to just take this on its own terms rather than comparing it with the previous version. I'll cover the three subclasses (Metamorph, Psykinetic, and Telepath) as their own posts, and then do a separate post for the spells.

Psions will naturally draw comparisons with Sorcerers and Wizards, as they are unarmored d6 classes. Like Wizards, Psions use Intelligence as their spellcasting ability, and get Intelligence and Wisdom saving throw proficiencies if they're your level 1 class.

Level 1:

Psionic Power:

This feature gives you a number of psionic energy dice that scale up in both number and value as you level up. To start with, you have 4d6. At level 5, they become 6d8. At level 9, they're now 8d8. At level 11, they're 8d10, at level 13 they become 10d10, and finally at level 17 onward you have 12d12.

You can use these dice to fuel various class features. At baseline, you have two: Telekinetic Propel and Telepathic Connection. Some require you to expend dice. You regain one expended PED (Psionic Energy Die - not going to be typing that out over and over) on a short rest, and all of them on a long rest.

PED features that have a DC use your spell save DC.

Telekinetic Propel: As a bonus action, you can choose a large or smaller creature you can see within 30 feet. They make a Strength save and move 5 feet straight toward or away from you on a failure. Alternatively, you can roll a PED and the distance becomes 5 times the number rolled on the die. The die is only expended if they fail the save.

Telepathic Connection: You have telepathy out to a range of 30 feet. As a bonus action, you can roll a PED and increase the range of your telepathy by 10 feet times the number rolled. You can do this once for free per long rest, and then expend the die for any subsequent uses.

    I like the fact that there are free versions of each of these.

Spellcasting:

You have the Spellcasting feature, learning two Psion cantrips, and gaining another at levels 4 and 10. Psions are a "learned spells" caster, so you can only swap out a single prepared spell when you level up (or if your DM allows, of course).

Intelligence is your spellcasting ability.

Special for Psions, you have Psionic Spellcasting, which allows you to ignore the verbal and material components for your psion spells, except when the material component is either consumed or has a cost associated with it.

    In other words, no need for a spell focus. I will say that I wish you could also ignore somatic components, as I feel that's the usual benefit of psionics - that people have no way of knowing you're the one casting the spell unless there's some other obvious thing going on.

    The spell list is too extensive to list here - Psions are full casters, with up to 9th level spells. You aren't going to get a lot of the classic elemental damage spells like Fireball or Cone of Cold, so I feel like I really need to see these in action to get a sense of how their own spells compare.

Subtle Telekinesis:

You know the Mage Hand cantrip and can cast it without somatic components. You can also make the hand invisible.

    So, not very exciting if you wanted to play a Githyanki or Githzerai, but certainly a shenanigans-enabler.

Level 2:

Psionic Discipline:

Psions have a list of Psionic Disciplines that are fueled by your PEDs (yes, I realize that the plural acronym would also just be PED, shush). You learn two of your choice, and can replace one on level up. You also get new disciplines at levels 5, 10, 13, and 17.

You can only apply one discipline per turn unless otherwise noted. There are 11 total.

These are, I think, fairly core to the class, so I'll list all 11 here.

Biofeedback lets you expend PEDs up to your Int mod when you cast a Necromancy or Transmutation spell, and gain Temp HP equal to the total rolled plus your Int mod.

    Temp HP can be nice if you're getting attacked a lot, though in general, you'll want to stay out of the way.

Bolstering Precognition lets you expend a PED when you cast an Abjuration or Divination spell and choose a creature you can see within 60 feet and give them a bonus to their next d20 test equal to the amount rolled.

    This could potentially be a nice little support boost, but not terribly flashy.

Destructive Thoughts lets you expend up to your Int Mod of PEDs when you cast a Conjuration or Evocation spell that forces a creature to make a saving throw. The creature takes Psychic damage equal to the amount rolled plus your Int Mod, regardless of whether they make the save or not.

    I like this, getting some guaranteed damage, though as a note, there are limited options for low-level Conjuration and Evocation spells that call for saves.

Devilish Tongue lets you add your PED to the roll for an Influence action, and you expend the die only if you succeed.

    Eh, this feels kind of throwaway unless you're in a campaign where everyone's going to have to be able to talk their way through high-stakes situations.

Expanded Awareness lets you add your PED to the roll for a Search action, and you expend the die only if you succeed.

    Search is probably the most common ability check action, but I'm not really excited by this.

In Insinuation lets you expend a PED when you cast an Enchantment or Illusion spell that forces a creature to make a saving throw, subtracting half the number rolled (rounded up) from the creature's save.

    There's a lot of Enchantment and Illusion magic on the Psion list, and given that these are often "save for none" kind of effects, giving you a way to make it more likely that they fail their save is pretty attractive.

Inerrant Aim lets you expend a PED when you miss with an attack roll, adding the amount to the attack and only expending the die if you miss.

    If you're an attack-focused character (the Metamorph is kind of built for this) this could be really great - a 9th level Soulknife feature gained at level 2 and more flexible.

Observant Mind lets you add your PED to the roll for a Study action, and you expend the die only if you succeed.

    Like the other similar ones, this is pretty situational. As Study typically uses Intelligence skills, you'll often be better at these checks, but also, your party might rely on you to succeed on those checks more often.

Psionic Backlash lets you use a reaction when you're hit with an attack to roll a PED and reduce the damage you take by twice the rolled number plus twice your Intelligence modifier, and the attacker makes a Wis save, taking the amount the damage is reduced as Psychic damage on a failure.

    I like this: it's going to be pretty universally useful, even if we're going to try to avoid getting hit as much as we can. It's also a pretty beefy damage reduction.

Psionic Guards lets you expend a PED at the start of your turn. Until the end of your next turn, you have immunity to the Charmed and Frightened conditions, and advantage on Intelligence saving throws. This will end those conditions on you if you're already affected. You can also use this with another Discipline on the same turn.

    This will be absolutely clutch when you need it, but it's definitely situational.

Sharpened Mind lets you expend a PED at the start of your turn, and gain the following benefits for 1 minute or until you're incapacitated: Damage from your weapons, psion spells, and psion features ignore resistance to Psychic damage. Once per turn, if you deal psychic damage to one or more creatures, you can replace the number rolled on one of the damage dice with the number recorded when you rolled for this discipline. You can also use this with another Discipline on the same turn.

    This one is interesting: I don't think there's much in the way of psychic-resistant monsters (it's one of those damage types that I think immunity is more common for). Also, if you use this and roll like crap on your die, the secondary part might not be great. That said, if you roll well, it's potentially some nice damage every turn. I think it's maybe weird enough to make it a cool choice.

Level 3:

Here, you just choose your subclass and get 2nd level spells.

Level 4:

As with most classes, you get your first General feat, and get more at levels 8, 12, and 16 (with 19 giving you an Epic Boon).

Level 5:

Psionic Restoration:

You can meditate for 1 minute to regain all your expended PEDs. You can do this once per long rest.

    So, effectively, you can say that you've got twice as many PEDs per day, as 1 minute is a pretty reasonable time to gather them up. I really think the intent here is that you should be quite liberal with PEDs, which is good, because classes should feel comfortable expending their resources.

Level 7:

Psionic Surge:

After you roll one or more PEDs, you can expend a Hit Point Die and treat any roll on the PED of 1, 2, or 3 as a 4.

    So, this is interesting. Using your own hit dice is a way to spend your own vitality without directly taking damage or otherwise losing life. Now, how does this change your average roll? At this level, your PEDs are d8s. Now, on average that's a 4.5. The thing is, because we choose to use this after  we roll, we're only improving the roll of one of these dice, so "averages" aren't really the right way of looking at this feature. What it means is that, for a cost, you have a floor of 4 for any of these rolls. Considering a feature like Id Insinuation, this could be a pretty big deal - minus 4 to a save is the best you can get out of a spell like Bane. Given how opt-in this is, I think it's probably better than a lot of those "if you roll low, upgrade the result" features.

Level 18:

Yes, no unique core features from level 8 to 17, but remember that we're also going to be getting higher level spells and more Disicplines, along with subclass features.

Psionic Reserves:

When you roll initiative, you regain PEDs until you have 4 if you started with fewer.

    This is the best format for this kind of thing: no need to spend every last PED to get the benefit from this, but it means you'll have your core class thing in every fight (and honestly, with 4, there's a good chance you'll never really run out of these in combat).

Level 20:

Enkindled Life Force:

Once per turn, when you roll one or more PED for a psion feature, you can expend one or two of your Hit Point Dice. For each HPD expended, you can roll an additional PED without expending it and add those numbers rolled to the total.

    So, at this level, your PEDs are d12s, meaning that for the cost of a bit of short rest healing, you can add an average of 13 to any of these PED rolls (on top of the 6.5 on average you're getting anyway). Truly, I think this can make a massive impact - say you were attacking the Tarrasque with some Metamorph flesh weapon and use Inerrant Aim. If you rolled a natural 2, perhaps at this level you have a +11 to hit, so you're only at 13 for your attack roll, which is just over half of the thing's AC. You add your single d12, which would only turn that into a hit if you maxed out the roll. But with 3d12 now, that's adding an average of 19.5, meaning that there's honestly a very good chance you can hit the highest (base) AC monster in the game. (Hell, you'd also be likely to hit Sul Khatesh even if she uses the Shield spell, and she's notably not immune to psychic damage). Use this with Psionic Backlash, and you're talking about probably reducing an incoming attack's damage by 49.

Overall Thoughts:

    I think there are some cool ideas here. In terms of power, I don't know that it's going to necessarily live up to the Wizard and Sorcerer. The class will live or die based on its spell list, and I don't feel very good at evaluating the list we have. But I think that even if it is behind those two (and I could be wrong about that,) there's a lot of cool and thematic stuff here that could make the class a lot of fun to play.

I'd love for there to be some option - maybe a Psionic Discipline - that allows you to skip the Somatic components of spells. I'd highly recommend considering Silence, which is a Psion spell, as you can use it asymmetrically against enemy spellcasters.

I'll try to go over each of the subclasses in their own posts.

Draw Steel Class Deep Dive: The Tactician

 The Tactician is, ostensibly, the "basic," "mundane" class in Draw Steel. It is, on its surface, your Fighter, your Warrior, your person who uses weapons and armor without any fancy supernatural stuff aiding them.

In truth, though, Draw Steel's approach to this archetype is actually quite different: Furies call upon the might of the primordial chaos, Censors draw on the divine power of their gods. What do Tacticians fight with? Their allies.

If you want to play a true commander, a genuine leader, this is the class for you. While you can lean into your own martial prowess if you want, the class has many abilities that allow you to enable your allies, setting them up for success. Each class has a big splashy art page with the "iconic" character for each class, and the Tactician's Sir John of Tor is quoted there taunting the enemy commander for their failed strategies as he strides across a battlefield of falling War Dogs. There's very much a "I read your book!" from the movie Patton here.

Notably, every class in Draw Steel gets pretty larger-than-life at high levels. Furies become embodiments of primordial chaos and Shadows become literal shadow-monsters. Tacticians, I believe (and we'll see how this looks when we get to the late-level features) are the sole exception here, remaining just a brilliant mind coordinating and leading the party to victory. Notably, Ajax the Invincible, Draw Steel's toughest monster, is actually just a human tactician who happens to be very, very good at what he does.

Tactician abilities are a mix of classic martial strikes as well as lots of support abilities, including a few that effectively heal your allies by letting them spend recoveries.

Tacticians naturally get maximal Might and Reason characteristics, starting at 2 and getting to 5 at level 10.

Subclasses:

Tacticians, like most classes, get three subclasses.

Insurgents use underhanded tactics to keep allies safe and enemies dead.

Masterminds lean the most heavily into strategic fighting, viewing combat as an elaborate strategy game (which is kind of funny when you consider that that's kind of what Draw Steel is)

Vanguards lead from the front, inspiring allies as you face down threats directly.

Heroic Resource: Focus

Tacticians use Focus to fuel their abilities. As with all classes, when combat begins, you gain Focus equal to your victories, and then you gain 2 more at the start of each of your turns. Tacticians have an important feature called Mark, which we'll get into in a bit. When you or an ally damages a creature you've marked the first time each combat round, you gain 1 focus. Also, the first time in a round that any ally within 10 squares of you uses a heroic ability (meaning an ability they spend their heroic resource on) you gain 1 focus.

Core Features:

At level 1, each subclass gets a non-combat feature from your subclass, and a triggered action also from your sucblass.

Tacticians get a special feature called Field Arsenal, which allows you to equip two kits at once. You basically just take the best bonus in each category from each kit, but they don't stack with one another - if you were to take, say, Cloak and Dagger and Rapid Fire, the +1s to ranged damage from Cloak and Dagger would be overwritten by the +2s to ranged damage from Rapid Fire (not adding together to get +3s), but you'd still get the +1s to melee damage. It's thus advisable to take two very different kits to maximize the bonuses you receive.

Tacticians don't have any unique signature abilities, because you'll get both of your signature abilities from your kits instead.

Mark is a maneuver that is core to the Tactician. As a maneuver, you mark a creature within 10 squares of you until the end of the encounter, or until you're dying or you use the feature again (you can also willingly drop it, no action required). Also, if another Tactician marks your target, your mark ends. If a creature is reduced to 0 stamina, you can use a free triggered action to move the mark to another eligible target. Some other abilities allow you to mark additional targets.

While a creature is marked and within your line of effect, you and your allies get an edge on power rolls made against it, and when you or an ally deal rolled damage to them, you can spend 1 focus to grant one of the following benefits: the creature takes extra damage equal to twice your Reason, the creature dealing the damage can spend a recovery, the creature dealing the damage can shift squares up to your reason score, or if you damage the marked creature with a melee ability, the creature is taunted by you until the end of their next turn. (Only one choice can be used per trigger).

Also at level 1, you get Strike Now, a main action that allows an ally within 10 squares of you to use a signature ability as a free triggered action, and you can spend 5 focus to target two allies instead of one (this is the real "my weapons are my friends" ability).

You also get a 3-Focus and 5-Focus ability.

At level 2, you get a Perk and a feature from your subclass, as well as a 5-focus ability from your subclass.

At level 3, you get Out of Position. At the start of an encounter as a free triggered action, you can use your Mark ability against a creature you have line of effect to even if you're surprised. You can then slide them up to 3 squares, ignoring stability. You can't move them in a way that would deal damage to them or put them in some hazardous location that would leave them dying or suffering a condition.

Also at 3, you get a 7-Focus ability.

At 4, your Might and Reason go up to 3. You also now gain 2 Focus when you or an ally damages a marked target, up from 1.

Improved Field Arsenal gives you an edge when you make a signature ability from one of your equipped kits or make a free strike using a weapon from your kit.

You get another perk, and a skill of your choice.

At level 5 you get two features from your subclass, and also a 9-Focus ability.

At level 6, you get Master of Arms, which lets you negate a bane or reduce a double bane to a regular bane when you use a signature ability from your kits or a free strike using a weapon from one of your kits.

You also get a Perk from the exploration, interpersonal, or intrigue lists, as well as a 9-Focus ability from your subclass.

At 7, your characteristics all go up by 1, giving you 4s in Might and Reason. You also now gain 3 focus at the start of each turn.

Seize the Initiative allows your party to go first in any combat as long as you're not surprised. If the enemy has an ability that allows them to go first, you can roll as normal.

Also at 7 you get a skill of your choice and a subclass feature.

At level 8, you get a perk of your choice, another subclass feature, and an 11-focus ability.

At 9, you get Grandmaster of Arms, which perfects your signature abilities from your kits and free strikes using weapons from those kits: you always get a tier 3 result on their power rolls. You still roll just to see if you score a critical hit.

You also gain an 11-Focus ability from your subclass.

At 10, your Might and Intelligence increase to 5. You also gain a perk from the exploration, interpersonal, or intrigue lists, and a skill of your choice. You also now get 4 focus at the start of each turn, up from 3.

You now have your Epic Resource, called Command. You gain Command equal to your earned XP, and can spend Command as if it were Focus. When an ally uses an ability that deals rolled damage to a marked creature, you can spend 1 Command as a free triggered action to increase the power roll outcome by 1 tier. And if a marked creature makes an ability roll, you can spend 1 command as a free triggered action to reduce the result by one tier.

Warmaster says that whenever you or an ally make an ability roll against a target marked by you, the character making the roll gets to roll three d10s and choose which two to use. Also, when allies use a heroic ability that targets one of your marked targets, the cost of their ability is reduced by 2 (minimum cost of 1).

    So there you have it: nothing crazy and supernatural here, but you become an unparalleled warrior, and have quite a lot of features that will make your friends very happy. You can focus very much on ensuring that your hardest-hitting friends are able to hit even harder and more frequently. While strict hierarchical roles are kind of rare in a TTRPG party, I think that this is the class that lets you at least take on a leadership role when it all goes down.

Draw Steel Class Deep Dive: The Fury

 I'll be honest, while these posts are kind of fun to do (and a way for me to better familiarize myself with these classes,) the real core of Draw Steel's class design is in the various abilities you choose. But while the game doesn't have multiclassing, which one might imagine would really limit the kind of "builds" you can make, choosing your abilities plays a huge role in what kind of character you will actually be able to play. Two Shadows might share zero abilities, and so what you do in your turn-to-turn combat would look very different.

So, I'll concede that these deep dives might not be enough to give you the full picture for these classes. But it would also mean incredibly long posts to list every ability, and at a certain point it starts to feel like I'm just publishing their rulebook on my blog. The intent here, beyond just amusing myself (I genuinely don't know if anyone actually reads this - the last time I had a comment was back in like 2012 when someone vehemently disagreed with me over my discomfort with Protection Paladins in World of Warcraft using Haste, which at that point was considered a DPS stat, back when tanks had their own stats to chase).

Still, I think these universal class features (I think they officially distinguish between traits and features depending on whether they're useful for combat or non-combat stuff, but I won't) give you the general gist of the class, and might encourage readers to take a look at this game if these seem like interesting ideas.

With that preamble out of the way: The Fury. 5E veterans will surely equate the Fury with D&D's Barbarian, and interestingly enough, I actually think that the 2024 revisions for D&D actually make the Barbarian closer to what the Fury represents than they did before, being tied into primordial spiritual forces. In the case of the Fury, they are tied to Primordial Chaos.

In a lot of ways, I think the Null and the Fury represent equal and opposite forces. The Null is focused on counteracting magic and fighting with discipline and unity of mind and body, while the Fury is all about unleashing, unshackling.

Furies maximize both Might and Agility, starting with 2s in each, while they can array the other three characteristics as they see fit.

Subclasses:

Furies have, like most classes in the Heroes book, three subclasses. Two of these, I'd argue, are fairly straightforward, while the third, the Stormwight, is quite unusual.

Berserkers are, I think, the classic raging warrior, described as a living version of the forces that shape the world.

Reavers are no less ferocious, but lean into instinct and cunning, wielding your force in more underhanded and subversive ways.

Stormwights are unique: you don't pick a standard kit, but instead choose from a selection of Stormwight kits, which each tie you to a different elemental force and a different animal form. Stormwights can transform into a kind of were-creature based on their special kits - Bears, Ravens, Rats, or Wolves, and will typically fight while transformed either into humanoid-shaped hybrid form or a full transformation into these animal forms. As a note, Stormwights have special immunities to werewolves' infectiousness, because their source of power is very similar to that of the Draw Steel werewolf. (I think it would not be a stretch at all to play a Vuken Stormwight as a werewolf who has learned to control their lycanthropy).

As a note, much as Nulls will gain various passive effects as their Discipline grows in combat, each Fury subclass also has a similar table of effects gained as your Ferocity goes up.

Heroic Resource: Ferocity

As with all classes, when combat begins you gain Ferocity equal to your victories, and at the start of your turn you gain 1d3 Ferocity (surprising no one, this is a chaos-aligned class). Additionally, the first time you take damage each round you gain one Ferocity, and you also gain 1d3 Ferocity the first time in an encounter that you become winded or are dying (I assume this triggers on both, but each only once per combat). Naturally, Furies are expected to be on the front lines of a fight, and thus you're rewarded for pushing yourself.

Class Features:

At level 1, you get a few features from your subclasses (I've tended to skip these in previous deep dives, but I think I'll at least mention them broadly like this) that include some passives, the Growing Ferocity feature mentioned above, and a special triggered action.

Also at 1, you get Mighty Leaps, which ensures you can never get lower than a tier 2 outcome on any Might test made to jump. (You can always make a long jump a number of squares equal to your Might or Agility, your choice, minimum 1, and a high jump is 1 square, but to jump farther, you make a might or agility test. On a tier 2, you'll get one square higher and farther than that, and on a tier 3, two squares. So this means that at level 1, with a Might of 2, you're always jumping at least 3 squares as a long jump).

At level 2, other than the customary perk, you get some subclass features, including a passive bonus and a choice between two abilities from each subclass.

At level 3, you get some more passive subclass features and one 7-Ferocity ability of your choice.

At level 4, your Might and Agility both increase to 3. You also now gain 2 ferocity when you take damage the first time each round, and other various universal things.

Also at 4, you gain Primordial Attunement, gaining the ability to sense whether nearby creatures have immunity or weaknesses to acid, cold, fire, lightning, poison, or sonic damage, as well as any source of such damage types, like a fire, or perhaps a sparking electrical coil.

And also at 4, you get Primordial Strike. When you make a strike (a keyword that is included in most non-area-effect damaging abilities) you can spend 1 Ferocity to gain 1 Surge that must be used with that strike. The extra damage of the surge can be your choice of acid, cold, corruption, fire, lightning, poison, or sonic damage.

At level 5, you gain another passive feature based on your subclass, as well as a 9-Ferocity ability of your choice.

At level 6, you get a couple features.

Marauder of the Primordial Chaos allows you to sense elemental creatures or magic sources of elemental power (the examples given are a lava pool or a lake overlapping with Quintessence, the elemental plane) within 1 mile. You also gain the ability to speak with elemental creatures, and treat your Renown as 1 higher when negotiating with them. You also automatically frighten elementals with below-average Presence (based on your potencies) when they become aware of you in combat, save ends.

Primordial Portal, also at 6, allows you to touch a magic source of elemental power and create a portal to the plane of Quintessence as a main action, and teleport yourself and willing creatures within 10 squares of you onto a safe island in the plane. You can maintain a number of portals equal to your Might score.

    So, just to be clear, the "Barbarian" here has a planar transportation ability, which is freaking awesome. It's to one specific plane, but Directors should hopefully build adventures that give the party a reason to go there (even if not central to the campaign's plot, it's probably a good place to go for downtime project sources).

You also gain a perk and one choice of 9-Ferocity abilities from two offered by your subclass.

At level 7, all your characteristics go up by 1 (your Might and Agility should now each be 4).

You also get Elemental Form, which causes elemental motes attuned to your mood to float around you, and your skin change sin appearance to reflect an element of your choice. Beserkers and Reavers gain immunity to acid, cold, corruption, fire, lightning, poison, and sonic damage equal to their Might, while Stormwights have immunity to the damage associated with their stormwight kit equal to twice your Might.

You also now get 1d3+1 Ferocity at the start of each of your turns, up from 1d3. Also, your subclass' Growing Ferocity feature's next effect unlocks.

And you get an additional skill.

At 8th level, you get another Perk, and then you get a new feature from your subclass.

Additionally, you pick an 11-Ferocity ability to learn.

At level 9, you get Harbinger of the Primordial Chaos, which allows you to create a temporary source of elemental power as a respite activity. The source remains for 24 hours, and can be used with Primordial Portal to open the way to Quintessence.

Additionally, you get to pick an 11-Ferocity ability from choices determined by your subclass.

Finally, at level 10, your Might and Agility increase to 5, you get the last of your subclass Growing Ferocity features, you gain an additional perk, an additional skill, and you now gain 3, instead of 2 Ferocity when you take damage the first time each round.

Your also gain Chaos Incarnate, which doubles the immunities granted by Elemental Form for Reavers and Berserkers, and increases the immunity for Stormwights based on their kits from twice to now three times your Might score.

Additionally, when any elemental or other creature that deals acid, cold, corruption, fire, lightning, poison, or sonic damage becomes aware of you in combat, they become frightened of you if they have a Presence less than your Strong potency. Also, when you use Primordial Strike, you can now spend up to 3 Ferocity, gaining a surge for each ferocity spent to be used on that strike.

Finally, you get your Epic Resource, Primordial Power. When you gain XP, you also gain Primordial Power, which can then be spent as if it were Ferocity, except that you don't lose Primordial Power until you spend it. You can also spend Primordial Power as a free maneuver to end an effect on you for each point spent. You can also spend 3 Primordial Power to create a portal to Quintessence without needing a source of elemental power.

    As a note, the design of all of these classes is that with just one exception, every class is meant to become some kind of supernatural force on the battlefield by the time they hit max level. Furies, of course, become this embodiment of elemental rage. I find it interesting that Furies and Elementalists have a similar relationship that Nulls and Talents have, with the former representing magic of the elements and the latter representing psionics. We haven't touched on Conduits and Censors, but I think that there's a similar relationship there, as the pure caster and martial characters (respectively) representing divine magic.

The Red Squares in Silent HIll 2

 There's a moment that thrilled me when playing through Silent Hill 2, perhaps not sending a chill up my spine or causing me to exclaim in shock, but one that really got the juices flowing, got me thinking "wow, I did not expect that."

In Silent Hill 2 (no idea if this is true in the other games,) when you first begin, walking down a path from the rest stop where the game opens (and where we're introduced to James staring at himself in the mirror in a profoundly dingy public bathroom) we pass by an old well along a forest path. The forest seems ominous and spooky because it's a horror game, but if we were to look at Silent Hill as just an ordinary New England town, it's really not that bad: just a little nature path for people to walk along that goes by the lake. I grew up in New England - a suburb of Boston rather than a resort town in Maine, but I'm familiar with the vibes - and when I go visit home, my dad and I often take walks by a lake about half a mile from his house that is, admittedly, in a more densely residential part of town, but still not too dissimilar from Toluca Lake (I don't know if the developers realized that Toluca Lake is actually a neighborhood in Los Angeles, where I live now). There are nature trails that go through a little forested park/nature preserve in the middle of town (attached to a number of playgrounds where I used to play soccer and baseball) that very much match this little path.

Anyway, as you pass this well, you notice an ominous red glow emanating from it. It's truly the first genuinely unusual, off-putting thing you see in the game. Naturally, I went to investigate (as the developers were sure I would,) and discovered that the glowing red square in the well was, in fact, our first save point.

These red squares are the game's save points, and you'll encounter dozens if not a hundred of them over the course of the game. When you engage with them, you see a reflection of James staring with a kind of blank expression behind the UI for selecting which file to save your progress in.

That's fine, a bit weird, but sure.

Far later, after we finish our first "dungeon" in the Woodside and then Blue Creek apartments (apparently in the original game, there was just one apartment building and we don't actually go to the Otherworld until the hospital) and meet Maria, who leads us to the strip club, Heaven's Night, we pass through a motel, and the motel's save point is, unlike most of them (which are typically just on a wall somewhere) sitting on the trunk of a car parked in the lot there.

If we save the game there (and I was pretty diligent about saving my progress whenever possible,) Maria comments on it - asking why James has suddenly gone dead-eyed, staring blankly, as if in a fugue state.

I never actually ran into this is a problem, but apparently these save points don't actually pause the game. They, and your map, don't prevent monsters from attacking you. But given the start-stop action of a survival horror game, where fights are moments of sheer panic followed by a lot of stillness and quiet, I was never in a position to be attacked while saving - I'd be sure to clear any nearby monsters, and in nearly all cases, as I recall, save points tended to be in rooms or areas where you wouldn't be bothered by any monsters anyway.

Now, sure, Maria's commentary on this might have just been something a bit cheeky from the developers, a scripted moment. And maybe there's not that much of a need to read into them.

But what the hell are those red squares?

From all my lore-digging about the game online, comparing it with its 2001 original version, I don't think I've seen anything that actually explores what the red squares genuinely are. Red is a color we associate with Pyramid Head - he's first introduced to us surrounded by a red glow of light (which might fool us into thinking that there's a save point nearby) and of course, his rusted helmet and butcher's apron stained with blood have a natural association with that color. There's also the subtle nods to esoteric alchemy, with its duality of red and white (constant readers will know that Stephen King's Dark Tower series was a huge influence on me, and I remember as a teenager wondering why his order-versus-chaos forces were described as the White and the Red, but perhaps he was thinking of the same things). The Red King and the White Queen combine to form the Rebis, the completed ideal form of humanity, so Red being associated with masculinity would certainly fit with its association with Pyramid Head. Perhaps the squares are reflections of James?

At the end of the game (if memory serves, right before the dual-pyramid head fight,) you arrive at an array of nine of these save points - any of them will work to save your game. The most direct reading of why there are these nine is to just emphasize that you really should save because you're going into two pretty serious boss fights.

I didn't notice this when playing, but apparently when you save your game here, James actually doesn't look directly into the "camera," averting his gaze. The general interpretation here is that he can't actually bear to look at himself now that he knows what he did.

This array of nine is actually foreshadowed, though, far, far earlier in the game. In Woodside Apartments, the game's first "dungeon," (or half-dungeon if we consider Woodside and Blue Creek to be collectively a single dungeon) you'll find yourself trapped in a room where all the walls, ceilings, and floors (and windows) are painted black (weirdly reminding me of a black box theater) and there's a safe in the middle of the room, along with strange writing on all the surfaces in white paint. The puzzle here requires you to find the painted messages that only appear in the light of your flashlight (which you got fairly recently) to get the combination to the safe. But among the cryptic writing and symbols, on the door whose key is kept in the safe is an array of nine white squares. These look like they could be the outlines of window panels in the door, of course, but I do find it odd, especially because, if memory serves, the actual structure of the door doesn't have those nine panels.

On a certain level, of course, a game of this sort needs save points. While the game does auto-save, even doing so mid-boss fight (my fight against the final boss saw me dying I think at least once on each phase, maybe not the second one, and I'm honestly fairly grateful I didn't have to start over from the start every time,) the save points give you a little flexibility. Did you totally screw up some room with a few monsters in it and use up all your ammo and healing items? Well, you can always revert to an earlier save and try it again and do better. I didn't actually do this (maybe like once).

Still, it does make me really wonder about what, if anything, the game's creators were trying to say with these save points.

I know at least in early Resident Evil games, you saved at typewriters, with a kind of in-universe justification of being that saving was, effectively, writing the record of what you had done since your previous save as a journal - and in a weird way, almost saying that anything that you didn't save wasn't truly part of the story. Chris, Jill, Leon, Claire, etc., don't canonically get eaten by zombies no matter how many times you see it happen to you when you die in the game.

Plenty of games don't really bother with an in-universe justification for saving the game - the game as a narrative is a work of artifice, and just as James doesn't have a little set of numbers floating next to him whenever he downs a "Health Drink" or injects himself with a Syringe, we're allowed to just chalk it up to a willing suspension of disbelief.

And yet...

There is something so mysterious and intriguing about these weird little red squares. Why are some of them neatly aligned on vertical surfaces, but sometimes they're laid out haphazardly on a horizontal surface, as if they were a piece of paper tossed there? Why does Maria notice that James has gone nigh-catatonic when staring into the red square at the motel? Maria sees all the monsters that James sees, unlike the other characters (for reasons that are quite clear,) but does she not see these squares? She doesn't comment on them or ask what they are, but she does notice the effect they have on James.

Given his aversion to looking directly at them at the end of the game, are we to interpret these as mirrors? That seems the most likely - that saving is something like "self reflection," and in his delusional state through most of the game, James believes he has no difficulties looking at himself because he's a good guy, right? But when his dark truth, the memory that he's repressed, is exposed, now the shame of his own appearance is too much for him.

Alternatively, if we wanted to get even more meta: What if it's not a mirror, but a window? What if it's a window into that true otherworld - the one in which a stranger is holding a video game controller and guiding him through this ordeal. We've taken him on, helped him survive this journey, because we reasonably believed that he was a hero. But now, just as he does, we now know the dark thing that he did. Is it himself he cannot bear to look in the eye, or is it us?

The red squares are likely to remain a mystery. If they were treated more simply, we might be able to dismiss them as a video game contrivance, not truly part of the world itself. And I think the inconsistency of them - that the vast majority of them are perfectly aligned, their edges parallel to the walls and floors, while a small few are so haphazard - is just one of many details in the game that are just off-putting enough to register our human pattern-recognition alarms. We get a weird, uneasy feeling when things that are normally consistent are not so, and psychological horror in particular really thrives in this subtle undercurrent of discomfort. Perhaps that's all there is to it - just something weirdly off.

Or perhaps it's a little crack in the surface of the world that hints at the eldritch depths beyond.

Draw Steel Class Deep Dive: The Talent

 We might be getting through our "spellcasters" (though these guys don't strictly cast spells) quickly given that we're following up the Elementalist. But I do think this is a notable class to look at because it's the only one that (at least until they publish the Psion, which appeared in playtesting a few months ago) doesn't really have a strict D&D analogue, at least in WotC-published content (MCDM actually published their own 5E Talent, so that's your clear analogue).

The Talent is Draw Steel's full psionic class. While the Null uses a lot of psionic abilities, arguably actually using psionics just as much as Talents, the Talent is the more traditional "I fight with mental powers" class, and is another flavor of primarily ranged "caster" to go along with the Elementalist (the Conduit being the other, which is your divine spellcsater).

I realize one thing I've neglected to point out in my deep-dives is things like your max Stamina and number of recoveries you get from your class. Talents are among the "squishier" classes, with lower max Stamina and fewer recoveries. Ideally you'll be fighting from afar to avoid your foes' assaults.

Talents' primary characteristics are Reason and Presence, which both automatically scale up as you go to new echelons of play.

Like Elementalists, there are a lot of psionic traditions that could theoretically form the basis for a subclass in future releases, but there are only three presented in the core rules (unlike Elementalists, though, we get a number of abilities that belong to the traditions that don't get subclasses here).

Heroic Resource: Clarity (and Strain)

Talents have a unique relationship with their heroic resource in the form of Strain, which we'll get to in a moment. Like everyone, when combat begins, you gain an amount of Clarity equal to your Victories. At the start of each of your turns, you gain 1d3 Clarity (which subtly places this on the "chaos" side of the classes - interesting given that the other psionic class, the Null, is an Order class).

The first time in each combat round that a creature is force-moved, you'll gain one additional Clarity.

The big thing, though, is that you can spend Clarity you don't yet have. You can essentially go into Clarity debt equal to 1+ your Reason score (so -3 at level 1 and eventually -6). While you're in debt this way, at the end of each of your turns, you take 1 damage for each negative point of clarity, being your psychic nosebleed from pushing yourself beyond your limits. This can allow you to, right at the start of a fight, use an ability that would usually take you a turn or two to build up to, but with the following consequence:

While below 0 Clarity, you are strained, which will alter some of your abilities - often these create negative side effects, but on some abilities, Strain can actually enhance them as well. Both Clarity and Strain reset to 0 outside of combat.

Subclasses:

While there are eight psionic traditions, only three are presented as subclasses in the core rules. These are:

Chronopathy: giving you the ability to see across and manipulate time.

Telekinesis: giving you the power to physically manipulate objects and creatures.

Telepathy: giving you the power to read, communicate with, and manipulate the minds of others.

Core Features:

Mind Spike is a special ranged free strike (not unlike the Elementalist's Hurl Element) that does psychic damage and uses your Reason rather than Might or Agility. It does extra damage when you're strained, but you also take that extra damage.

Psionic Augmentation, similar to the one the Null gets, gives you one of several bonuses that can be swapped as a respite activity. Battle Augmentation increases your Stamina, increases your damage with weapon abilities, and lets you wear light armor and wield light weapons, as long as you don't already have a kit. Density Augmentation increases your stamina and grants some stability. Distance augmentation increases the range on your ranged psionic abilities. Force augmentation increases rolled damage from your damage-dealing psionic abilities, and Speed Augmentation increases your speed and the distance you can shift when disengaging.

Talent Wards are protective bonuses you can choose from, and can swap as a respite activity.

Entropy Ward reduces the speed of creatures that attack you and prevents them from taking triggered actions. Repulsive Ward lets you use a free triggered action when an adjacent creature damages you to push them. Steel Ward gives you some damage immunity after you take damage until the end of your next turn. And Vanishing Ward lets you become invisible after you take damage until the end of your next turn.

Talents also get Telepathic Speech, giving the the Mindspeech language and also lets you communicate (two-way) with creatures in your Mind Spike range if you share a language.

At level 3, all Talents get Scan. Once on each of your turns, you can search for hidden creatures as a free maneuver, and also, once you establish line of effect to a creature within distance of your Mind Spike, you always have line of effect to them (meaning that they could duck behind cover and you'd still be able to target them).

At level 4, you get Mind Projection, which lets you project your mind outside your body as a maneuver. Your mind is treated as a separate entity that can move through solid objects and automatically has concealment. Your psionic abilities originate from your mind, and both body and mind can take damage, which is deducted from your stamina. If you take damage, your mind returns to your body and this effect ends, or you can end it as a free maneuver.

Also at 4, Mind Recovery lets you spend a recovery while strained to regain 3 Clarity instead of restoring stamina, and also increases the clarity you get from creatures being force-moved.

Additionally at 4, you get Suspensor Field, which allows you to fly. While flying, your stability is reduced to 0 (and can't be increased). If you could already fly, you get a +2 bonus to fly speed instead. And if you are flying while strained, if you are force-moved, the effect is increased by 2 squares.

At level 6, you get Psi Boost, allowing you to spend varying amounts of Clarity to enhance any ability with the psionic keyword. You can apply as many of these boosts to a single ability as you want, but never the same boost multiple time on the same use of an ability. These can do things like increase the forced movement of an ability, expand the area of area-effect abilities, grant extended range, increase rolled damage, increase potencies, hit additional targets, or give you an edge on the power roll.

At level 7, you get Ancestral Memory, which allow you to replace some of your skills at the end of a respite with different ones from the interpersonal and lore skill groups until the next respite.

Also at 7, you get Cascading Strain, which lets you cause an enemy to take the damage you get from being strained as well.

And you also gain more Clarity at the start of your turns.

At level 9, you get Fortress of Perfect Thought, which gives you several benefits: You can breathe even when there is no breathable air. You get psychic immunity 10. Creatures can't read your thoughts unless you allow them to. You get to treat your Reason and Intuition as 2 higher for the purpose of resisting potencies, and you can't be taunted or frightened.

Finally, at level 10, you get a few features to cap things off:

Omnisensory increases the distance of your ranged abilities by 10 (doubling most of them). You also don't need line of effect to a creature capable of thought that you had previously had line of effect to.

Psion increases the Clarity you gain at the start of each turn again, and you can also simply choose not to take damage from being Strained, and you can also choose to use the Strained effect on your abilities even if you're not strained.

Vision is your epic resource. You gain an equal amount of Vision whenever you gain XP, and you can spend it as if it were Clarity. You can also spend Vision to use an additional psionic ability per turn (I assume this means you can effectively get another main action, maneuver, etc.) as long as you pay its entire cost in Vision. Abilities that don't cost any Clarity require 1 Vision to use this way. Like other epic resources, you only lose Vision when you spend it.