Level 13 analysis — The Omen Archive

May 16 2024

Welcome to level 13! We’re excited to be able to start providing level up analysis for Bell’s Hells, and hope this post will be the first of many. By necessity, these analyses will be stepping slightly more into the realm of conjecture and opinion than most of our work, so please keep that in mind.

Before we get started, there is one point of interest for this level up that applies to all the Hells, so we would like to touch on that first before we get into the character-by-character analysis. At level 13, all of the characters get a proficiency bonus bump up from +4 to +5. This will be particularly impactful for the characters sporting expertise—Chetney, Dorian, Fearne, Orym, and Imogen—whose doubled bonus will be going from +8 to +10 for those skills.

Ashton

Barbarian 13

HP: +10, total 132
ASI: None

Unsurprisingly, Ashton continues to barrel down the pure barbarian track at full speed. With no decision between an ASI or a Feat and no new path feature, level 13 is not a complicated one for Ashton. His main boon is that he now has a second brutal critical die, which, as a reminder, allows them to roll extra damage on critical hits.

Next level up, Ashton will be getting a new Path feature, which is extra fun since as a homebrew class, we have no idea what it might be—hopefully we’ll find out quickly!

Chetney

Blood Hunter 12/Rogue 1

HP: +5, total 108
ASI: +1 Wis

At level 12 in Blood Hunter, Chet has forgone an ASI in favor of the Fey Touched feat, increasing his Wisdom by one and gaining Misty Step and one other unknown 1st level divination or enchantment spell. Bane, Hex, and Bless are all on the table and have often been clutch for other party members, but may be redundant choices for that very reason. We like Compelled Duel for Chetney. It would allow Chetney to keep his quarry in melee range and protect the squishier members of the party, much the same way Orym has done with his Goading Attacks. Archivist Shadow would also love if he were to take Silvery Barbs, but they say that every time it’s an option.

The sneaky little gnome gets sneakier at level 13 as well, with the proficiency bonus increase at this level bringing his stealth up to a solid +12 with expertise. His second expertise skill, sleight of hand, is now up to +12 as well. With the added benefit of his +5 Gloves of Thievery, functionally Chetney now gets +17 on sleight of hand checks.

Dorian

Bard 13

HP: increase unknown, total 112
ASI: None

Welcome back to our humble bard! Despite knowing the least about Dorian’s build overall, since it has been quite a few levels since he was last on screen in Kymal at level 6, we do already know the 7th level spell he has taken, Forcecage. Had Astrid not Counterspelled it, she would have been trapped and unable to cast spells outside of the cage. While she could have attempted to Teleport out, she would have needed to succeed on a charisma save of 16 or else waste the spell slot entirely.

At level 13, Dorian’s Song of Rest die bumps up to a d10, giving a nice little boost to Short Rest healing that the party could very much use, since long rests have proven to be very hard to come by in recent episodes.

Dorian is one of the Hells that will see the strongest boost from the across-the-board proficiency bonus bump, as by level 10, Bards have four abilities with Expertise. We know that Dorian’s level 3 Expertise choices were performance and athletics, and because of his (failed) persuasion check on Opal in Episode 92, we know that he chose persuasion for one of his level 10 expertise abilities. This means that, barring any additional proficiencies gained via feat between levels 6 and 10, he now has expertise in one of his remaining proficient abilities: acrobatics, deception, or sleight of hand. While Imogen’s higher charisma score will likely make her still the face of the party in situations demanding persuasion, taking expertise in deception would actually make Dorian the better liar, with a +13 to her +10. Acrobatics and sleight of hand would however also both be fun boons, so they can’t be counted out as options, especially since while Fearne does have proficiency in sleight of hand, her midrange DEX means that despite her delight in thievery her bonus is only a +7, which Dorian would double with expertise. There’s something entertaining about the idea of Dorian being the second-best thief in the party when his first scene in the campaign featured him being incredibly stressed about Fearne’s pickpocketing.

Fearne

Druid 10/Rogue 3

HP: +4, total 83
ASI: None

After another foray into Rogue last level, Fearne is back on the Druid track, bringing her up to Druid 10/Rogue 3. That gains her an additional 5th level slot, and increases Mister’s HP to 55. The party-wide bump in expertise makes Fearne’s ability as living lie detector even more significant, with her insight now being a +15. And, although Imogen taking on expertise in persuasion last level means Fearne is no longer the most persuasive party member, she’s still no slouch, with her bonus now up to +13 with expertise.

The biggest new thing for Fearne is that she now has her 10th level Circle of Wildfire feature, Cauterizing Flames. Whenever a Small or larger creature dies within 30 feet of Fearne or Mister, it creates a small flame that Fearne can activate as a reaction when a creature enters its space, up to five times per long rest. The activated flame will do 2d10+5 damage or healing to the creature, whichever Fearne chooses. With the Hells down a cleric, having another avenue for healing that doesn’t require precious spell slots is quite useful, even if it requires a creature die under specific circumstances first. The Archivists would love to see her use this new feature in conjunction with the explode-and-drop-form aspect of her Titan form. A well-placed explosion of this kind could turn several low-level enemies into potential healing motes, or could effectively create a minefield around Fearne to deter other enemies from entering melee range.

Fresh Cut Grass

Cleric 13

HP: +7, total 113
ASI: None

Bell’s Hells are missing out on a lot with Fresh Cut Grass cut down, and not just because of his sunny disposition. Level 13 would have given FCG access to level 7 Cleric spells, including such hits as Planar Shift, Firestorm, Divine Word, Regenerate, Resurrect, and Temple of the Gods.

Temple of the Gods in particular would have been a boon to the party, as they have been in near constant motion and have neither a home base nor another moving headquarters to replace the Silver Sun. The ability to bunk down somewhere safe and protected from divination spells like Scrying might have let the Hells slow down and rest more often. We suspect that Sam might have chosen to make the temple oppose undead or fey at least once, just for the drama of making Laudna or Fearne roll to see if they could even enter the temple, but that bit of potential trolling will be put to rest with FCG. Rest in peace, little carebot.

Imogen

Sorcerer 13

HP: +7, total 83
ASI: None
Sorcery Points: +1, total 13

Imogen’s Skill Expert feat, chosen last level up, makes the party’s proficiency bonus uptick this level especially potent for her persuasion skill, bumping her up to a whopping +15. Her deception, another skill she relies on heavily, has now risen to +10 with proficiency.

Imogen also now has her first 7th level spell slot with a lot of interesting possibilities. The two most obvious choices from a utility perspective would be Teleport or Plane Shift, but given that the Staff of Dark Odyssey gives access to Teleport, less consistently accessible though it may be, Laura may have chosen otherwise. Our initial thought had been that she likely would pass on Plane Shift as well, since FCG would have had access to it on the cleric spell list. However, now that we know via the Episode 94 Cool Down that Laura has not yet picked her 7th level spell, Plane Shift may be back in the running. The Hells did pick up a Fey-attuned rod amongst Ludinus’ things in Molaesmyr, so Imogen taking on this spell would allow them more stable access to one of their strongest allies and safest havens in Nana Morri and Ligament Manor. She could also use it on unwilling creatures to dump them in a hostile landscape.

However, it is entirely possible that Imogen will go again for a heavy hitter damage spell, and there are some doozies here we’d like to discuss.

Crown of Stars is an interesting option. It would give Imogen some decent damage dealing via bonus actions, improving her action economy, and since it stays active for an hour, could continue to be effective over multiple encounters, something that would give it a much longer span of utility than most of the higher-damage 7th level spells. However, as Crown of Stars also sheds bright light, it would impede the party’s sneakiness while active, and sneakiness has often been their go-to approach. It also requires a straight attack roll for each mote, unlike most of the other damage spells available at 7th level, which instead require saves. A failed save generally means half damage, but a failed roll would have no effect. There is thus a risk with this spell that on a very unlucky day, it will do no damage at all.

Whirlwind, meanwhile, would fit Imogen’s storm aesthetic without modification, and would provide both decent AOE damage and battlefield control, as the whirlwind cylinder can be moved 30 feet along the ground as an action, sucking up Medium or smaller objects and forcing creatures to make DEX saves against damage and STR saves against being restrained. However, it also feels a bit like a stronger and more expensive Hungry Torrent, which she already has and can cast psionically. Finger of Death is a classic but seems less her style; we are more inclined to expect her to take a reskinned Fire Storm or Delayed Blast Fireball, both of which can be brutal AOE damage dealers. Of the two, Delayed Blast Fireball may be the better choice, simply because Fire Storm is available to Fearne as well, and Delayed Blast Fireball charges up by 1d6 per round as long as concentration is maintained. Sneaking it into an enemy formation before a battle even starts could turn difficult encounters into mere mop-ups.

However, there is also Power Word Pain, which might not do direct damage but provides some very, very significant debuffs. Reducing an enemy to 10 feet of movement plus giving them disadvantage on attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws other than CON saves is brutal, even if shaken off after a round. This spell would be particularly useful against high level casters, too, forcing them to succeed on a Constitution check—not usually a strong suit for casters—to even get a spell out, thereby potentially wasting slots. With the Weave Mind, Ludinus, and much of Ludinus’ forces being casters, this could be an absolute ace up the sleeve of a spell. We’re inclined to favor it or Plane Shift as the choice for Imogen, but we’ll have to wait and see if Laura agrees!

Laudna

Sorcerer 10/Warlock 3

HP: +8, total 117
ASI: None
Sorcery Points: +1, total 10

Laudna took an additional level in Sorcerer this go around, bringing her to Sorcerer 10/Warlock 3. She gets both a new cantrip and an additional 5th level spell. The spread of 5th level spells is quite interesting. Far Step would allow Laudna to get herself out of harm’s way without provoking attacks of opportunity, which could be very, very useful, particularly since her spell sniper build thrives on keeping distance from the field of battle—something that has been hard for her to do given how often the party ends up fighting in close quarters. Seeming, meanwhile, would be very helpful for the party’s stealthier endeavors, as currently only Fearne is able to alter her appearance, and Bell’s Hells are increasingly recognizable to their enemies. Hold Monster would allow Laudna to work in concert with the melee members of the party to decimate a single target and could potentially turn a deadly enemy into a comically quick kill. Dominate Person seems slightly less appealing knowing that Dorian is packing Geas, but remains very useful. Enervation would provide a nice little bit of leech-like self-healing, but has the same downside that plagues Witch Bolt, in that getting the full effect of the spell uses up the player’s action each turn to activate it again, limiting their other options—though this can be mitigated somewhat by Laudna’s ability to Quicken spells. Cloudkill, Immolation, Cone of Cold, and Insect plague are all available as high-damage spell options as well. We would favor Far Step or Hold Monster for Laudna, but Marisha may surprise us!

Additionally, a 10th level in Sorcery gives Laudna access to another Metamagic option, for which Marisha chose Empowered Spell. Since Marisha has shown a lot of understandable frustration over bad rolls over the course of the campaign, Empowered Spell is a nice choice for her. It will allow Laudna to spend a sorcery point to reroll up to five damage dice, allowing her to make sure her fireballs and eldritch blasts hit hard.

Despite playing coy during this level up about whether she will continue with sorcerer levels going forward, we’re inclined to agree with her level 12 commentary. Marisha stated then that she thinks that there’s nothing left for her in Warlock. That is a fair assessment, not because there’s actually nothing left in Warlock, but because it would take a few levels to get there. She would not get her next Otherworldly Patron Feature (the admittedly very rad Grave Touched feature) until Warlock level 6, and she would not get her fourth Invocation until Warlock level 5, meaning that she would face a few level-ups where all she’d get would be an (admittedly nice) ASI and access to a couple of level 3 warlock spells. As the party’s only magic user with Counterspell, and given how much she’s started relying on Fireball, the extra spell slots the Sorcerer track provides make more sense for her style of gameplay. She’s invested heavily enough in Sorcerer over Warlock so far that at this point it just might take too long to make additional Warlock levels worth it, particularly since she is now locked out of the Warlock 11 feature Mystic Arcanum.

Orym

Fighter 13

HP: +14, total 144
ASI: None

Much like Ashton, Orym’s pure fighter track makes this a very straightforward level up. The Tough feat continues to work nicely for Orym, bumping up his HP by an additional 2 points over the 12 he would have gotten without it, and he now has an additional use of Indomitable per long rest. As a reminder, Indominable allows Orym to reroll a saving throw that he failed.

Orym’s expertise in perception combined with his Observant Feat and his Sentinel Shield means that his passive perception is now at 33—rising even further above the previous player character with the highest passive perception, Vex, who capped out at 30. It’s wild to think about, but theoretically, if Orym chose to max out his wisdom via ASIs, by level 20 his passive perception could be 37, at which point we assume he will in fact be able to just read Matt’s notes.