a 35 against gorgug 

I can’t believe the enemy in this season is a bunch of actual min-maxers

Her secret power is being a pathfinder character

Belt of Storm Giant's Strength making her STR score a 29 [+9] and one level of Rogue to get expertise in athletics meaning if she was level 10 doubles her proficiency bonus from +4 to +8 making her full athletics bonus +17. Brennan rolled an 18

“she got that dog in her” -Chedge

"It feels like someone's pulling your right arm off..." *Are you weakest, do you feel, at the elbow or the shoulder?*

say what you will about them being the antagonists, I’m just glad we’re getting some Kobold representation in Fantasy High

If they killed about 80,000 rats, without any other experience they're probably around level 15 assuming the rats are 10 experience each.

That 35 made them realise these power gamers are no joke, Ratgrinders are definitely Endgame boss fight

My favourite part is rizz holding on to gorgug so that when he eventually gets taken down, it counts as his

scariest thing is that she's gotta be using some kind of magic item, but there's no way they got anything from grinding rats so as well as xp leveling, the villain of this season might actually be Daddy's Money™️

I love that Riz wore a tie to tryouts

The greatest love story of our age

Coming from the finale, I choose to believe Mary Ann tackling Gorgug to the ground awoke something in him so he spends the rest of the year just vehemently denying liking her, lmao

The reason for her and her friends for being so strong feels like that one episode of South Park

"Is that Mango Soda?" ~Gorgug said calmly

That 35 was insane. Something is going on with that group.

I do wonder if the Rat Grinder's source of magic items will be plot relevant. On the one hand, it's absurd that they would find a belt of Fire/Cloud/Storm Giant's Strength out in the starter area, so it could be hinting that there's something nefarious going on. On the other hand, it could just be a commentary of high-level character gen where the DM is permissive with starting magical items.

Brennan mentioned that he looked at Final Fantasy games and the first enemies you usually fight, some spiders, some tree monsters and rats. So in perspective, those guys spent 2 years doing nothing else than running up and down in that forest, doing random encounters.

Looking at how lizards/reptiles move, the speech pattern that Brennan made for the character is absolutely perfect. If you were to imagine a lizzyrep speaking, that short burst of quick speech would be it.

Can't wait for the next 14-15 episodes of rat grinding!! THAT is what TTRPGs are about! TY Brennan!!!!

SHE’S GOT THAT DOG IN HER

According to Brennan, she didn’t hit a Nat20 for the 35 but was very close to. By that logic, she has a +16 to athletics… *at least…*

Riz getting passive aggressive and siding against Fabian and Gorgug absolutely made this scene for me lol

Honestly kind of relatable for a bunch of magical teenagers to get tackled at superhuman speed and strength, and immediately turn around and go "damn... she got that dog in her"

“Has she been enhanced by anything?” “Yeah she has” hits different now

I wonder if she represents the DnD character whose player just never interacts socially. They play like their going through the motions of an mmorpg.

I love Mary Ann so much they're iconic and adorable 😻

My jaw fuckin DROPPED at this moment

The only Ratgrinder I don't want to see death in the ground.

Mary Ann's attitude reminds me of my own lol I like to think that she's actually stoked but emotionally constipated like myself, but we'll see :P

Watching this after the penultimate episode and reading the theories really changes how moments like this read

When Brennan said 35 I full thought he was joking

iirc if the ratgrinders truly made it to 20th level for the purposes of brennan's bit, there's an 18th level barbarian feature where if you roll under your strength score you can just take your strength score instead of the roll

Not only are they power-levelers, but min-maxers too... well, barring whatever magical enhancements were happening

I GOTTA know what her deal is

Oh God, she’s a time-traveller from 3.5.

Not to be dramatic, but I'd die for Mary Ann. I also low key dig Kipperlilly Copperkettle - but that's just mostly because of how her name rolls off the tongue.

"Are you excited about that, or?" "mhm" "You are?" "mhm" "do you want to elaborate on anything..?" "no" *she really is just like me fr*

At least a +15 to athletics. So... Likely 30-28 Str for a +10-9, proficiency giving another 3-4 and maybe expertise?

Wanted this to be somewhere. I would love to see gorgug become a wild magic barbarian and harness being the greatest wizard of his time.

I love the little hints at what the Owlbears system is, probably a lot of option running with Fabian and buddy ball to Gorgug, like Lamar to Mark Andrews

Zac’s face when Brennan said 35 is 🤌

so far my thoughts are: like they said, the Rat Grinders are XP farmers and Principal Grix is a walking(or, i guess, rolling), talking metaphor for Rules As Written

Minimum +15 to their athletics roll, I would say higher because Brennan didn't say natural 20. Considering that they are UNLIKELY to be 17th level or higher, they have at most +5 proficiency bonus (Level 13+), doubled by expertise to +10, so they have a minimum +5 to strength, but I am going to say it's higher. Most likely: Either a belt OR potion of Giant's strength. I think it's a potion, which is one reason she wanted to leave ASAP since it only lasts an hour.

I'm gonna guess that there's something with time like someone messing with it because it is unlikely that something bad would happen to all of the bad kids at the same time.

I love her, she is great.

Mary Ann being a power-grinder as well as a filthy min-maxer is hilarious. It seems like this season is a DM therapy session for Brennan.

I will FOREVER remember this moment, i think gorgug is the same

So i tried to do the calculations on how she got a 35, that means her bonus is at least +16 and that is actually impossible to acheive with a pure barbarian, unless she somehow got expertise on athelitcs because the proficiency bonus at level 20 is +6 so that's pretty much the limit, and the highest her strengh can go naturally is 24 (at level 20 barbarians increase their strength and con by 4 and the previous limit was 20) and 24 is plus 7 so 6+7= so she must have some kind of item that gives a high bonus because I don't think brennan made her be the same level as arthur aguefort but also she's a rat grinder and they probably don't have legendary items and stuff Edit: she confirmed has skill expert so it doubles her proficiency bonus, so assuming her strength is 20 she could be any level from 13-16 and have an item that increases athletics by 1

I really hope she doesn’t end up being evil, but if she is, she can honestly kill the whole party and I won’t care. My new favorite character 😅

Everyday I work out so I will be able to roll a 35 strength

Maybe she uses belt of giant strength?

Did she use a potion of storm giant?

She's a grapple build...

I adore Maryanne. Autistic icon 🍓

I am so confused about the word ‘nonplussed’ ( I get the potential irony). Does it mean to be bewildered or unperturbed?

I can't believe Brennan would use the word nonplussed wrong. I thought he was better than that.

omg i love her what W kobold

she’s just like me fr fr

I can't decide if Brennan is using the word "nonplussed" correctly here. Like, she seems more stoic and unfazed than confused and bewildered. I know I'm being unreasonable here because so many use that word wrong but aaaargh it's like when people use "mortified" when they mean "horrified". Silly thing to be annoyed about.

Sadly I don't have drop out, so I currently can't see what's gonna happen, but I'm kinda shipping The Ball and Mary Ann. Like...could you imagine that the moment someone touches "Her Ball", she rages and kicks butt?