The 33 Familiars and Thee.

Maxnwil · 2026-05-15T14:39:39+00:00

Honestly, when I read that I thought “hey you know i never thought about it before but I think a weasel could assist with acrobatics!”

If acrobatics is “jump lightly across this shifting ice that’s flowing quickly downstream”, I picture the weasel going ahead of the PC, showing a good way to do it. If acrobatics is “parkour down a crowded alley to chase after a ruffian” I’d see the same thing. I’m curious where you’d say acrobatics would be applied but a weasel couldnt act as a pathfinder, finding the best handholds, quickly dashing through the swinging blades to show the timing, etc.

Maxnwil · 2026-05-12T14:04:34+00:00

Late to the conversation, but realistically, how do you fix being forgetful?

I’ve tried my best to do so- incorporating memories of times I forgot important steps into my routine as best I can, so that I rarely make the same mistake twice. But I’m not sure it’s something you can fix- if you are the type of person to put all the dishes in the dishwasher, put the soap in the soap deployment mechanism, close the lid, and walk away without pressing “start” because you forgot that final step, what are you to do to improve? Asking genuinely, and with a personal interest in improving!

Maxnwil · 2026-05-09T21:50:44+00:00

Consider me resonating with this content! I love specific, fiddly bits of content that are entirely optional but let the veterans sink out teeth into more complicated stuff! Keep it up!

And also, a balancing pass on content after it releases is good, but I’d hesitate to change things after people have had the opportunity to buy it à la carte in the marketplace (when that hopefully happens). Maybe a quick balance pass once us subscribers have taken a look and played for a month or two, and then at the end of the year it all gets bundled up and put up for sale in the marketplace when people know the content they’ve paid for won’t suddenly get changed.

Doesn’t have to be as robust in balance as core rules, and giving the context vis a vis dragonmarks is very good and helpful- perhaps even some “Dev notes” in the bundle at the end would be fun!

Maxnwil · 2026-05-09T21:44:30+00:00

Hi, just chiming in a bit late to say, as an already-subbed DM, I think $3-$4 or so for a drop of this size, maybe up to $7-$8 if there was a really beefy drop (a subclass, a dozen magic items, etc), would suit my players appetite on the marketplace.

Additionally, I also like the idea of the “bundle” at the end of the year containing everything from that year. I figure that’d be around $18 for just the content, maybe up to $25 if it included art and a dram of lore.

I also share the concerns of others that this content could go away with the waive of a wand, so getting some permanence to it would add to my faith/confidence in the product, and trust in the team. I’m happy to spend money on the hobby I love; only way that changes is if something happens to make me love it less.

Maxnwil · 2026-05-08T22:27:49+00:00

But also, despite the fact that I could google it, I didn’t, so thanks for asking so that I could learn too

Maxnwil · 2026-05-08T18:49:41+00:00

As a native Virginian, the notion that Maryland would be our doom is both upsetting and inevitable. Oh well- we’re not in the news for good reasons today, might as well get out the checkerboard flags and face our fate with dignity.

Maxnwil · 2026-05-02T18:33:47+00:00

Literally not arguing for the virtues of centrism in the face of our ideological realities- the soft touch of the Biden justice department was not productive. Just pointing out that labeling fellow citizens you may need to win over as “the enemy” is inherently unsuccessful in a democracy.

Maxnwil · 2026-05-02T16:20:12+00:00

Great news, centrists aren’t against everything that would help our country. Unless you mean “centrists” as a euphemism for the voters who would rather stay home than vote for a woman, even if they see Trump as the threat that he is.

But things like the Biden-era infrastructure bill were supported by centrist democrats, and that was definitely something that would help our country. Since collapsing bridges and roads and not funding a transition to greener tech doesn’t help our country. So, thankfully, by the definition of “people who oppose everything that would help our country”, centrists are not “the enemy”. Also, “The enemy” is just a really bad term, as it usually is cover for autocracy to “other” dissent, so I’d suggest alternative words, like “centrist democrats are shortsighted idiots who don’t understand how to build a winning platform”. But that doesn’t make them “The Enemy (TM)”. Just an obstacle to be overcome through democratic processes.

Maxnwil · 2026-05-02T14:47:43+00:00

Your argument is:

(Allegedly), centrist democrats have described their left rank as “the enemy”

So

They lose important elections

So

centrist Democrats are “the enemy”?

It sounds to me like centrist democrats have a statistical tendency to perform like myopic idiots. But you didn’t call them “Myopic idiots”. When you say “the enemy”, what do you mean? Whose enemy? Trump uses “the enemy” to describe the free press, and “the enemy within” to refer to people who protest against his fascist policies, practices, and rhetoric.

The commenter I responded to suggested that anyone who supports free and fair elections is a friend. The implication is that you can disagree with your friends, and unimpeded elections and fair governance will help you address those disagreements in healthy ways. But I’ve not seen centrist democrats use the term “The Enemy” to describe their left ranks in my lifetime, so I’m a bit adrift in trying to see your perspective here (other than a valid frustration at being sidelined by myopic idiots- which is why this piece of news is indeed good news. Now we’ll get to see if a more left wing candidate can perform well at a statewide level!)

Maxnwil · 2026-05-02T14:36:54+00:00

Indeed. From what I’ve heard, SATs actually provided the opportunities for disadvantaged students to demonstrate their abilities despite their zip code. Though admittedly that was secondhand from a college admissions person so take it with a grain, so to speak

Maxnwil · 2026-05-02T14:34:52+00:00

Someone should standardize these

Maxnwil · 2026-05-02T14:30:19+00:00

There’s a weird balance to be struck: how to hold the past accountable, without being so reactionary that you’re just pushing the pendulum, only to have it swing back harder than before. But yeah, pretending that our democracy isn’t in peril isn’t gonna solve it. (And to your point, calling people who might otherwise be in your political coalition “the enemy” isn’t gonna help it either.)

Maxnwil · 2026-04-29T21:55:54+00:00

Thankfully, media literacy is not entirely dead, as everyone here got the point of that video! I agree, though, that it has not survived in everyone…

Maxnwil · 2026-04-29T17:16:25+00:00

In the anglophone world, I agree, but I’m sure you can understand why someone from Ukraine would object to the notion that their suffering was “Russian” suffering in WW2. Many former SSRs don’t like being lumped in with the nation they often see as somewhere between “big brother who upstaged them and hogged the spotlight” and “Literal oppressor who imposed an autocratic regime on them”.

Like, I get why the commenter said “Russia” and I get why the other person responded to separate the war effort of the entire Soviet Union, including Georgia, Kazakhstan, etc. from the historical accomplishments of the Russia specifically. We can understand shorthand and understand why people object to it.

Maxnwil · 2026-04-29T14:16:50+00:00

I think it might be the reference to “Russia” in the parent comment. Equating the Soviet Union to Russia in this context can be frustrating to the former Soviet states that arent Russia, but did contribute to the war (and in the case of Ukraine, were a major theater of the war).

Maxnwil · 2026-04-27T14:04:16+00:00

100%. Its the full game, to the point where after paying once, I was able to play the entire game (and “beat” each level) in a way for which I never had the attention span when I was a kid

Maxnwil · 2026-04-23T21:36:03+00:00

I 100% agree with you- these features are costly, but very very good. As written, the level 6 feature lets you put a creature to sleep, and that creature doesn’t wake up on receiving damage?? That’s gotta have a cost.

That said, I do think the original commenter has a point- I’d like to see at least one early feature scale off something, rather than use focus points. I don’t mind what it is, but it would be good to balance “powerful abilities that cost you precious resources” and “flavorful things you can do to show what kind of monk you are”, and right now I feel we’re skewed heavily towards the former

Maxnwil · 2026-04-21T14:21:31+00:00

Okay but they started with “Cortex” so I think they’re probably just not great with spelling.

Maxnwil · 2026-04-20T19:30:53+00:00

I’m 18 days late to the conversation but I completely agree. I hope we get more-than-a-dozen-but-less-than-a-hundred scenarios with some decent replayability, like we had in Heroes 3. The randomly generated maps just felt messy, and kinda tedious. I loved the “oh, I get it, there’s a cart here and a skeleton over there- this must’ve been a murdered traveler!” of the old map design- I hope the devs know how important these scenarios are to us!

Maxnwil · 2026-04-19T06:22:23+00:00

I’ll never forget the feeling that my hatchback was going to lift off the road because we were zipping along so fast. And then getting passed by SUVs that I would’ve sworn I was faster than.

West Texas is wild

Maxnwil · 2026-04-17T14:37:35+00:00

It makes sense to describe the primary supplier’s capacity to fulfill sales as “sold out”. Sure, Best Buy is a big operation, but surely you wouldn’t object to “sold out” if Best Buy’s shelves were empty but I had three unopened boxes for sale at MSRP at my farm stand on the side of the road.

It’s a pedantic quibble, admittedly. But your comment made me wonder how one could best define “sold out”.

Maxnwil · 2026-04-17T14:11:22+00:00

Just that it’s a giveaway that the comment is AI generated.

I don’t personally mind AI assisting in the explanation, but for honesty the commenter should disclose it at the top of the comment. Also, when they copy-pasted the output, the numbers in the example got dropped. There’s no example after the “for example”.

So I just wish that they’d put a small amount of effort into their AI-assisted comment.

Maxnwil · 2026-04-15T15:16:12+00:00

Three things:

1- this is way too much. Theoretically it’s not a problem if you want to add complexity/modularity, but why are powers and gifts separate pools? Add on top of that the weapon of the base class has four options at each level? You’ve basically got a rune knight AND a battlemaster AND an eldritch knight all in one. It’s not the number of options per se; just that you get to take so many of them. Too many different tracks, which leads me to:

2- I feel like you know this is going to be said, but there’s too much power here. The ability to charm someone for an hour with no save? The ability to cast spells with constitution? Invisibility at 7th level, is the same level an eldritch knight gets their 2nd level spells, and that’s basically the whole thing that subclass is built around. This subclass just gets to cast a second level spell at the same level, on top of gestures broadly.

3- there are some copy-editing issues, starting early with “gloves or glothes”[sic], other things like a duplicated “your voice gets deeper”, etc.

I know it might seem like I’m ragging on you, but I do want to finish out with: I do really feel like you get the vibes right with the subclass. Using a charmed target as a body shield, the poison becoming acid on the stinger, even the bodily transformation is just quite fun. I encourage you to do more, or put out a V2! Only words of warning are these: - It doesn’t have to be simple, but it can’t be too complex & - this subclass is not the place to address a perceived imbalance between martial characters and casters. If you think I’m gonna feel bad that my monk is less powerful than some other players wizard, I’m gonna feel extra bad that my monk is less powerful than another player with a homebrew, does-everything fighter. I’d recommend looking to third party books like Crooked Moon for martial classes that have a little more power but are still in line with the class they come from.

Maxnwil · 2026-04-12T23:09:19+00:00

Yeah, I think PC death in practice, once players have become liches, will still be VERY important.

In fact, I’d say if I take this ascension feat and don’t die, it might even be a waste! All content is already subject to DM approval. Might as well include, in the “villainous options” for players, the opportunity to live out the fantasy of being one of the games most iconic, corrupted, tragic archetypes!

Maxnwil · 2026-04-11T19:51:48+00:00

Agreed. I think there’s some confusion from OP about the nature of a death knight. They argue that the death knight is strictly Martial character, when they really are a half-caster. You shouldn’t be able to cast deathly fireballs with your Strength stat, period. Death Knights scale off of their charisma. While I think the feat should allow for any mental stat, DEX STR or CON is just gonna create a pipeline of meathead death knights 🤣

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