I was experimenting with this build and I found out that gift of the ever living ones does not benefit this build at all as none of your healing comes from dice rolls. Dark One's Blessing and Lay on Hands are based on your level and enervation and vampiric touch heal based on the damage dice rolled (Jeremy Crawford verified that). Also for 6th level Mental Prison is a must. It is the most accurate form of Swain's Nevermore. You cage a creature and if it moves outside of it's cage it takes 10d10 psychic damage. So you cast it on your enemy and next round you use your Grasp of Hadar to move him out of it and it's like Swain's E + passive proc.
So Gift of the Ever-Living one's works on all dice-based healing spells, regardless if you cast them or not. So if your party cleric hits you with a cure wounds you get the full amount. It also works with your Hit Die on your short rest. But good idea on the Mental Prison! I like that!
I agree with this, Swain is one of the wisest characters in League, he even extends his knowledge of making deals with demons. He is to be fear sine he is the wisest which at the same makes it hard to kill.
Thanks! Yeah one of my very good friends is a Soraka main and he’s been asking me for build her haha. Definitely on the roadmap! Especially with the new race from MOoT!
omg i'm so glad i stumbled upon this because i love dnd and swain sm T__T swain is legit one of the coolest characters imo, especially since it's been confirmed that he knows virtually everything due to hosting a demon. on that note, i wanted to clarify that swain is actually tethered to raum, the demon of secrets, instead of beatrice, who is actually his pet. i'm not sure how old swain worked with the whole "becoming a bird" thing, but admittedly beatrice has been pretty attached to swain's identity ever since; as an homage to old swain, riot decided to give current/new swain his pet raven beatrice back (amongst many). i'm not sure if anybody else has pointed this out, but i just wanted to as a big fan of swain! super great video though- i love this build sm. i love that it considers how swain was originally a soldier that then became ultra-busted due to his connection with raum (so your paladin into warlock multiclass path for him). it's super cool! amazing job on this build dude.
I would really like to see your take on Vladimir. He is probably my favorite champion right now and I have already tried to make a character out of him a while ago but it just felt too underwhelming.
Hmm that would be fun. A little homebrew would go a long way with him. Maybe something in Unearthed Arcana could assist us? I'll take a look! Thanks for watching!
@@DoransAndDragons Technically homebrew, but the players guide to Grim Hollow just wrapped up its Kickstarter campaign at the end of last year, and it has an actual subclass for hemomancy. Just figured I'd bring it up, because seeing your take on Vlad would be awesome. EDIT: Forgive necro
Hey I had to comment to say I love the videos, please keep em coming! They're very inspirational for my D&D homebrew Edit: Also, Ornn would be sick to see
Thanks for watching! Glad you’re enjoying it! I made Ornn a god of forge/fire in my homebrew campaign because he’s one of my favorite champs. Had a session where he intervened and sent his ram charging down a path of zombies flattening them!
Both of them are going to be very fun to do! Since Morde’s remake I’ve wanted to bring him in. Definitely a Death Domain Cleric and maybe an Oathbreaker Paladin? Sett is going to be a fun brawler to build haha
I’d really like to see some Morde too. The way I had done him was storm herald 3 for the aoe, paladin 2, undying warlock 15. Using plane shift attack to bring someone to your demiplane, then cast demiplane and fight them in your Demi plane.
Definitely like this build, but I really like the idea of Swain, being the vision of Noxus, getting the foresight spell as a 9th level mystic arcanum. I think as far as changes go to make that happen, I'd make constitution 14 from the start since I wouldn't plan on increasing it further (probably with the help of Tasha's race rules and point buy). I'd take blessed warrior fighting style instead of defense. Gives Swain some more cantrips/utility for a total of 7 cantrips once the warlock levels come in. Instead of armor of shadows I'd take investment of the chain master so the raven can actually do stuff. I'd also leave paladin at 3 levels and continue with Warlock, picking up the devil's sight invocation as the 7th one. For the final ASI, I'd take metamagic adept after maxing charisma previously, and pick quickened spell. Then take foresight at 17th level. With quickened spell you can pop necrotic shroud and then throw a hunger of hadar as a bonus action to force them to move through the difficult terrain there. Next turn, being able to see through with devil's sight, use arms of hadar (even with 30 ft you'll probably have enough movement to walk around and position yourself where you don't get damaged from your own spell, effectively replicates Swain being faster from his ulti since his enemies move slower in comparison). For me though, the best part of this build is foresight at the final level. Peak visionary of Noxus. 3 / 17 pal warlock
This is good, but there was a Unearthed Arcana about a Raven Queen Warlock, and probably it would fit a bit more, tho it wouldn't Adventurer's League legal
Doran's & Dragons no lol, I meant if I watched your video without being able to see your 30 subs I would’ve thought this would be like 80k or something
I actually went a different way with this build: Warlock 2/Wizard 7. Wizard might not be the right flavor, compared with Oath of Conquest Paladin, but it does grant some really good Battlemage synergy, which is helpful for Swain. Specifically, Arcane Ward combos extremely well with Armor of Agathys and Armor of Shadows. Essentially, you get hit, your Arcane Ward takes the brunt of the attack, and Agathys still reflects dmg back. Your Arcane Ward goes down at all, just cast Mage Armor at will with your invocation and it brings Arcane Ward back up; and if you ever lose your Agathys temp HP, just recast it with the increased number of spell slots you have access to. Gives Swain some good defense for being on the frontlines (I forego STR/armor with this build) and has him function as more of a battlemage than a spellsword (tanky caster rather than fighter with cantrips), and gives him a nice thornmail style "drain" effect.
Amazing video, just like the last one! Liked the Idea of Swain as a Paladin lol. Would you consider doing Zed or Akali next? Or maybe Shen? Actually I think the whole kinkou order is really intriguing!
Thanks! Yeah I would love to do them. Everyone and their mother is asking for Kled so I think he's gonna be next, but yeah I would love to do their order and Zed as well.
when it comes to alignment i would ether do true neutral or neutral evil, while yes swain dose conquest he dose it in a way where only 100s or 1,000 die instead of millions.
Very nice video i love it, but i have a questions, to start as a paladin and to use the extra attack whitc weapon is the most appropriated for swain desine ?
I homebrewed Ekko as an artificer subclass, but would be interested to see your non-homebrew take on it! Either way really digging this video. I've also homebrewed Sion as an enemy for a campaign xD
DemonAbyss10 in terms of having his after image/echo self sure...but thematically artificer suits him far better. Especially considering Ekko’s afterimage in LoL doesn’t actually attack, do damage, or anything outside of the W animation
@@DoransAndDragons Agreed. Artificer with some fighter levels for Echo Knight seems to be a good fit for him. Not sure of the level allocation. Just need the 3 levels of fighter for echo knight base ability, rest can be artificer probably.
Ironic is that Swain is actually Wiser than he is Intelligent as he is the Vision which is the might of Wisdom and for the Noxus (Also the Demon of Secrets is Raum not Beatrice), so he's wiser than he is melee weapons which he abandons for spell caster as Swain is a fullout caster. He never made a deal with the Demon of Secrets it offered a deal and Swain said no so he dominated the demon by strength of will alone so unlike other Warlocks Swain wouldn't need to appease his patron because his patron is his slave.
Point buy standard human, starting off 9+1, 13+1, 13+1, 13+1, 11+1, 15+1 for 9/14/14/4/12/16 Low Strength because he's a cripple, minimal Dexterity to get the most out of medium armor, I NEVER have less than a 14 in Constitution, 14 in Intelligence due to him being a strategist, similar to the 12 in Wisdom concluding with a 16 in Charisma Level 1 Fighter for medium armor, D10 hit die, martial weapons, fighting style, Constitution saving throws & because he IS a military man. Levels 2 to 19 go full Fiend Warlock. Made a deal with a demon, builds up health with his passive (Dark One's Blessing), deals area of effect blasts (Fireball, Scorching Ray & Eldritch Blast) & other abilities fitting to Swain Warlock ASIs will be Charisma +2 at Warlock 4 & 8, Constitution at Warlock 12 &16, finished with Tough at Warlock 19. Pact Boon is Pact of the Chain, choosing an Imp disguised as a raven. Invocations are Devil's Sight, Agonizing Blast, Investment of the Chain Master, Chains of Carceri, Voice of the Chain Master, Grasp of Hadar, Repelling Blast & Guift of the Ever Living Ones Passive: Building up Constitution, the Tough feat & Dark One's Blessing are perfect Q: Eldritch Blast & Scorching Ray W: Fireball E: Movement upgrades to Eldritch Blast, Hold Person & Hold Monster R: Investiture of Flame Between his Constitution, Tough, average HP & Dark One's Blessing you'll have a maximum 248 HP & constantly renews 25 of those points if you keep on killing creatures Being able to speak, see, hear & cast touch spells through your familiar regardless of distance makes Beatrice a VERY powerful asset in combat AND role-play. Fireball. No further details needed. Scaling Scorching Ray allows you to shoot blasts among as many as 6 targets for 24D6 damage (average 84 damage) which is nice not only in damage, but keeps it from being a save-or-suck or hit-or-miss ability with a single save/roll Investiture of Flame isn't the BEST spell on the Warlock list but it's the most fitting to his R & seems a lot more like an ultimate, as you can only use it once a day. Gift of the Ever Living Ones guarantees each of your hit dice will be restoring 12 of your 223 base HP, meaning that a single short rest will restore 120 HP as opposed to the average 85 (1D8+4) Devil's Sight is just as thematic as it is mechanical, but seeing as to how you're a base human it's all but a necessity Hold Person scaling to 4 targets AND hold monster at will (rather once per target) is GREAT crowd control & gives all of your attack rolls advantage Starting level 1 fighter gives you a tier of armor, a saving throw and a fighting style that would each require a feat to get all at the cost of a one level delay which I think is worth it. Get the defensive fighting Style & you're rocking an AC of 18 (plate armor level) with only 14 Dexterity while other Warlocks would have to max their Dexterity (not wise as it makes it too MAD) to 20 AND get magical +1 studded leather to get it that high. Having three 14, one 12 & a 20 gives you a good base for all of your skills in addition to your proficiency scaling.
@@DoransAndDragons by the way, there is a new RPG skinline that is coming out with skins for Taric, Twitch and Talon. Would be fun to do a vid on them (Taric would be a cleric I guess ? Twitch a Rogue and Talon a rogue too ?)
Definitely. Dreadstalker for Twitch maybe? And definitely Assassin for Talon. Taric would definitely be a Cleric. So many choices for domain though! This is gonna be so fun to build!
@@DoransAndDragons What dreadstalker? Taric would be cleric of life I'd say? With some level in fighter beacause he was a soldier before and it would represent his double attack?
Whoops! Dread Ambusher is a feature of the Gloomstalker which is what I was referring to haha. Sorry about that. That definitely sounds like Taric to me. 5 in fighter to get extra attack. I wonder what archetype he’d be.
Not to nitpick here, but the dnd beyond character sheet shows Swain wearing plate armor, but he would need a strength of 15 to do so But he only has a strength of 13!
I was experimenting with this build and I found out that gift of the ever living ones does not benefit this build at all as none of your healing comes from dice rolls. Dark One's Blessing and Lay on Hands are based on your level and enervation and vampiric touch heal based on the damage dice rolled (Jeremy Crawford verified that).
Also for 6th level Mental Prison is a must. It is the most accurate form of Swain's Nevermore. You cage a creature and if it moves outside of it's cage it takes 10d10 psychic damage. So you cast it on your enemy and next round you use your Grasp of Hadar to move him out of it and it's like Swain's E + passive proc.
So Gift of the Ever-Living one's works on all dice-based healing spells, regardless if you cast them or not. So if your party cleric hits you with a cure wounds you get the full amount. It also works with your Hit Die on your short rest. But good idea on the Mental Prison! I like that!
If swain has low wisdom... i dont know who has high wisdom.
Swain’s wisdom is definitely a victim of the Standard Array stat choices
@@DoransAndDragons maybe i'd switch with Dex.
@@sanguineaurora8765 exactly what i did. I won't use dex at all, so at least for him, It would be fitting to have 10 wis.
I agree with this, Swain is one of the wisest characters in League, he even extends his knowledge of making deals with demons. He is to be fear sine he is the wisest which at the same makes it hard to kill.
I would love to see an Irelia or Hecarim build, this is pretty cool.
Thanks! Yeah one of my very good friends is a Soraka main and he’s been asking me for build her haha. Definitely on the roadmap! Especially with the new race from MOoT!
omg i'm so glad i stumbled upon this because i love dnd and swain sm T__T swain is legit one of the coolest characters imo, especially since it's been confirmed that he knows virtually everything due to hosting a demon.
on that note, i wanted to clarify that swain is actually tethered to raum, the demon of secrets, instead of beatrice, who is actually his pet. i'm not sure how old swain worked with the whole "becoming a bird" thing, but admittedly beatrice has been pretty attached to swain's identity ever since; as an homage to old swain, riot decided to give current/new swain his pet raven beatrice back (amongst many). i'm not sure if anybody else has pointed this out, but i just wanted to as a big fan of swain! super great video though- i love this build sm. i love that it considers how swain was originally a soldier that then became ultra-busted due to his connection with raum (so your paladin into warlock multiclass path for him). it's super cool! amazing job on this build dude.
Ahhh, interesting. Good correction! Glad you like the build!
I would really like to see your take on Vladimir. He is probably my favorite champion right now and I have already tried to make a character out of him a while ago but it just felt too underwhelming.
Hmm that would be fun. A little homebrew would go a long way with him. Maybe something in Unearthed Arcana could assist us? I'll take a look! Thanks for watching!
@@DoransAndDragons Technically homebrew, but the players guide to Grim Hollow just wrapped up its Kickstarter campaign at the end of last year, and it has an actual subclass for hemomancy. Just figured I'd bring it up, because seeing your take on Vlad would be awesome.
EDIT: Forgive necro
Hey I had to comment to say I love the videos, please keep em coming! They're very inspirational for my D&D homebrew
Edit: Also, Ornn would be sick to see
Thanks for watching! Glad you’re enjoying it! I made Ornn a god of forge/fire in my homebrew campaign because he’s one of my favorite champs. Had a session where he intervened and sent his ram charging down a path of zombies flattening them!
loving this series, would be interested in seing riven or kindred.
Thanks! Glad you're enjoying it! I like both of them as well. Kindred would be especially fun with the symbiotic persona.
I’m waiting for Mordekaiser and Sett! Great
jobs!🤩
Both of them are going to be very fun to do! Since Morde’s remake I’ve wanted to bring him in. Definitely a Death Domain Cleric and maybe an Oathbreaker Paladin? Sett is going to be a fun brawler to build haha
I’d really like to see some Morde too. The way I had done him was storm herald 3 for the aoe, paladin 2, undying warlock 15. Using plane shift attack to bring someone to your demiplane, then cast demiplane and fight them in your Demi plane.
Hey if your looking for a sett build, check out my comment on his Ivern post
Definitely like this build, but I really like the idea of Swain, being the vision of Noxus, getting the foresight spell as a 9th level mystic arcanum. I think as far as changes go to make that happen, I'd make constitution 14 from the start since I wouldn't plan on increasing it further (probably with the help of Tasha's race rules and point buy). I'd take blessed warrior fighting style instead of defense. Gives Swain some more cantrips/utility for a total of 7 cantrips once the warlock levels come in. Instead of armor of shadows I'd take investment of the chain master so the raven can actually do stuff. I'd also leave paladin at 3 levels and continue with Warlock, picking up the devil's sight invocation as the 7th one.
For the final ASI, I'd take metamagic adept after maxing charisma previously, and pick quickened spell. Then take foresight at 17th level. With quickened spell you can pop necrotic shroud and then throw a hunger of hadar as a bonus action to force them to move through the difficult terrain there. Next turn, being able to see through with devil's sight, use arms of hadar (even with 30 ft you'll probably have enough movement to walk around and position yourself where you don't get damaged from your own spell, effectively replicates Swain being faster from his ulti since his enemies move slower in comparison). For me though, the best part of this build is foresight at the final level. Peak visionary of Noxus. 3 / 17 pal warlock
Fair enough
This is good, but there was a Unearthed Arcana about a Raven Queen Warlock, and probably it would fit a bit more, tho it wouldn't Adventurer's League legal
Yeah our rule about UA is that if it’s in DnD Beyond we’ll count it, unfortunately that wasn’t there so we skipped it. Glad you liked it!
Hey, loving the videos! I would love to see a Viktor build at some point. Great work so far!
Thanks so much for watching and enjoying! Viktor would be a fun artificer build for sure!
Crazy how I was lookin for this yesterday and it appears today
Great minds! Haha, thanks for watching!
Doran's & Dragons nice video quality btw if I couldn’t check your sub count id say you’d have a lot more, if this wasn’t such a niche channel
@@MrShadex Thanks for mentioning that! I didn't even realize my subscriber count was hidden!
Doran's & Dragons no lol, I meant if I watched your video without being able to see your 30 subs I would’ve thought this would be like 80k or something
Hahaha, well don’t I look silly. I appreciate the compliment. I thought I had done something wrong setting up the channel.
I actually went a different way with this build: Warlock 2/Wizard 7. Wizard might not be the right flavor, compared with Oath of Conquest Paladin, but it does grant some really good Battlemage synergy, which is helpful for Swain. Specifically, Arcane Ward combos extremely well with Armor of Agathys and Armor of Shadows. Essentially, you get hit, your Arcane Ward takes the brunt of the attack, and Agathys still reflects dmg back. Your Arcane Ward goes down at all, just cast Mage Armor at will with your invocation and it brings Arcane Ward back up; and if you ever lose your Agathys temp HP, just recast it with the increased number of spell slots you have access to. Gives Swain some good defense for being on the frontlines (I forego STR/armor with this build) and has him function as more of a battlemage than a spellsword (tanky caster rather than fighter with cantrips), and gives him a nice thornmail style "drain" effect.
Definitely a cool way to do it!
Amazing video, just like the last one! Liked the Idea of Swain as a Paladin lol. Would you consider doing Zed or Akali next? Or maybe Shen? Actually I think the whole kinkou order is really intriguing!
Thanks! Yeah I would love to do them. Everyone and their mother is asking for Kled so I think he's gonna be next, but yeah I would love to do their order and Zed as well.
when it comes to alignment i would ether do true neutral or neutral evil, while yes swain dose conquest he dose it in a way where only 100s or 1,000 die instead of millions.
Yeah it’s tricky. Alignment is kind of a bad system honestly and only works as a guideline to your character imo.
Great Video! I'd love to see a Sejuani or Kled build! Keep up the good work!
Kled has actually been asked about the most! I think he's going to be next. Thanks for watching!
Very nice video i love it, but i have a questions, to start as a paladin and to use the extra attack whitc weapon is the most appropriated for swain desine ?
We have Greatsword listed in the equipment section of the DnD Beyond build. I think a longsword would work just as well though flavor wise!
Ayyyy thank you my guy.
Thoughts on who we should make for our corona special?
@@DoransAndDragons Twitch I'd say!
I homebrewed Ekko as an artificer subclass, but would be interested to see your non-homebrew take on it! Either way really digging this video. I've also homebrewed Sion as an enemy for a campaign xD
Ooh very cool! Artificer fits perfectly with him. Thanks for watching! If you have them saved somewhere link it! I’d love to take a look.
Ekko would pe the poster child of the Echo Knight subclass from the Wildemont/critical role book.
DemonAbyss10 in terms of having his after image/echo self sure...but thematically artificer suits him far better. Especially considering Ekko’s afterimage in LoL doesn’t actually attack, do damage, or anything outside of the W animation
I’m in a similar boat, artificer first sure, but there’ll be some multiclassing.
@@DoransAndDragons Agreed. Artificer with some fighter levels for Echo Knight seems to be a good fit for him. Not sure of the level allocation. Just need the 3 levels of fighter for echo knight base ability, rest can be artificer probably.
thank your for your amazing content. any chance of you doing a zac build soon? no ua, please
Haha, Zac has been voted on by a few peeps. He’s going to be very hard lol. I’m glad you’re enjoying!!
13/7 Palock
Ironic is that Swain is actually Wiser than he is Intelligent as he is the Vision which is the might of Wisdom and for the Noxus (Also the Demon of Secrets is Raum not Beatrice), so he's wiser than he is melee weapons which he abandons for spell caster as Swain is a fullout caster. He never made a deal with the Demon of Secrets it offered a deal and Swain said no so he dominated the demon by strength of will alone so unlike other Warlocks Swain wouldn't need to appease his patron because his patron is his slave.
Love your Videos man :D i habe Bern looking for someone that dies this
Thanks for watching! Glad you're enjoying!
Point buy standard human, starting off 9+1, 13+1, 13+1, 13+1, 11+1, 15+1 for 9/14/14/4/12/16
Low Strength because he's a cripple, minimal Dexterity to get the most out of medium armor, I NEVER have less than a 14 in Constitution, 14 in Intelligence due to him being a strategist, similar to the 12 in Wisdom concluding with a 16 in Charisma
Level 1 Fighter for medium armor, D10 hit die, martial weapons, fighting style, Constitution saving throws & because he IS a military man.
Levels 2 to 19 go full Fiend Warlock. Made a deal with a demon, builds up health with his passive (Dark One's Blessing), deals area of effect blasts (Fireball, Scorching Ray & Eldritch Blast) & other abilities fitting to Swain
Warlock ASIs will be Charisma +2 at Warlock 4 & 8, Constitution at Warlock 12 &16, finished with Tough at Warlock 19.
Pact Boon is Pact of the Chain, choosing an Imp disguised as a raven.
Invocations are Devil's Sight, Agonizing Blast, Investment of the Chain Master, Chains of Carceri, Voice of the Chain Master, Grasp of Hadar, Repelling Blast & Guift of the Ever Living Ones
Passive: Building up Constitution, the Tough feat & Dark One's Blessing are perfect
Q: Eldritch Blast & Scorching Ray
W: Fireball
E: Movement upgrades to Eldritch Blast, Hold Person & Hold Monster
R: Investiture of Flame
Between his Constitution, Tough, average HP & Dark One's Blessing you'll have a maximum 248 HP & constantly renews 25 of those points if you keep on killing creatures
Being able to speak, see, hear & cast touch spells through your familiar regardless of distance makes Beatrice a VERY powerful asset in combat AND role-play.
Fireball. No further details needed.
Scaling Scorching Ray allows you to shoot blasts among as many as 6 targets for 24D6 damage (average 84 damage) which is nice not only in damage, but keeps it from being a save-or-suck or hit-or-miss ability with a single save/roll
Investiture of Flame isn't the BEST spell on the Warlock list but it's the most fitting to his R & seems a lot more like an ultimate, as you can only use it once a day.
Gift of the Ever Living Ones guarantees each of your hit dice will be restoring 12 of your 223 base HP, meaning that a single short rest will restore 120 HP as opposed to the average 85 (1D8+4)
Devil's Sight is just as thematic as it is mechanical, but seeing as to how you're a base human it's all but a necessity
Hold Person scaling to 4 targets AND hold monster at will (rather once per target) is GREAT crowd control & gives all of your attack rolls advantage
Starting level 1 fighter gives you a tier of armor, a saving throw and a fighting style that would each require a feat to get all at the cost of a one level delay which I think is worth it. Get the defensive fighting Style & you're rocking an AC of 18 (plate armor level) with only 14 Dexterity while other Warlocks would have to max their Dexterity (not wise as it makes it too MAD) to 20 AND get magical +1 studded leather to get it that high. Having three 14, one 12 & a 20 gives you a good base for all of your skills in addition to your proficiency scaling.
For your next champion. Are you looking for Magical or Physical ?
I think our next video is going to be Kled. You and a bunch of other people asked for him! Thanks for sticking with us through the series!
@@DoransAndDragons by the way, there is a new RPG skinline that is coming out with skins for Taric, Twitch and Talon. Would be fun to do a vid on them (Taric would be a cleric I guess ? Twitch a Rogue and Talon a rogue too ?)
Definitely. Dreadstalker for Twitch maybe? And definitely Assassin for Talon. Taric would definitely be a Cleric. So many choices for domain though! This is gonna be so fun to build!
@@DoransAndDragons What dreadstalker? Taric would be cleric of life I'd say? With some level in fighter beacause he was a soldier before and it would represent his double attack?
Whoops! Dread Ambusher is a feature of the Gloomstalker which is what I was referring to haha. Sorry about that. That definitely sounds like Taric to me. 5 in fighter to get extra attack. I wonder what archetype he’d be.
Not to nitpick here, but the dnd beyond character sheet shows Swain wearing plate armor, but he would need a strength of 15 to do so
But he only has a strength of 13!
Great catch! That is a mistake. Updated!
Why not Warlock Raven Queen , for me makes more sense then an infernal devil
We make all of our builds in DnD Beyond and that wasn't an available option for us. Also I think Beatrice is a demon so it still works.
Swain is literally a DnD Warlock
Absolutely is.
teemo please
I admire your dedication. It has been noted.
rod of ages :C