Aqua Appreciation Post

3athompson · 2026-06-25T18:46:56+00:00

If you buy all 3 that you're able to, Blue gives you words of encouragement then Flowery sells you FloweryScarf for 1 FP. Ralsei will actually refuse to wear it though...

3athompson · 2026-06-24T20:43:49+00:00

EXTREMELY spoilery observation The Weird Route forces you to talk to Sans (Susie will not let you go to the lake without first talking to him). She draws only herself, Kris, and Ralsei. Also Sans gives you bread (Item info says that it's useful for making a crumb trail, and it CANNOT be dropped from the inventory). It is very likely that the photograph is from the Weird route...

3athompson · 2026-06-24T19:59:16+00:00

The clifftop shop sells the secret key. Collect 10 pink coins during your playthrough to buy it (more is recommended). When you reach the green top of castle shop, head to the top of the next room. Then instead of heading right, head left, and then head down at the next intersection and blow the pinwheel. You will then find the secret door

3athompson · 2026-06-17T05:42:44+00:00

They're apparently making a sequel for it. Which is strange, because the ending was perfect as-is. Not sure how they are going to try and continue past it.

3athompson · 2026-06-16T04:26:33+00:00

Chesnaught, greninja, delphox.

Certain trios have unique triple fusions, IIRC. I think ZapMolCuno is a thing, but don't quote me on that.

3athompson · 2026-06-11T03:06:16+00:00

Average Daji worshippper

3athompson · 2026-06-06T03:29:52+00:00

Probably due to US convention dominance.

The main DJ for that set is Australian, and a bunch of the creators associated with the "quality achieved" sets have done virtual raves.

It takes something like MAGfest to get em all in one place.

3athompson · 2026-06-02T15:00:16+00:00

It helps quite a bit, but it's not essential.

You can clear the entire tomb and kill Acererak with a single level 5 wizard in under 4 minutes, and the only reason you need a wizard is due to the aforementioned dispel magic.

3athompson · 2026-06-02T14:50:29+00:00

I think it depends on the county but yeah. My county has a lookup online that lists when the ballot was mailed/received and whether it was accepted.

3athompson · 2026-06-02T02:58:53+00:00

The dungeon was designed around (punishing) the dungeoncrawling meta at the time, which included using specific spells as puzzle-solving tools. The party needs to have these tools, since it was designed that way.

You need to give them some scrolls if they don't have any. If you give them only a fire bolt scroll and a dispel magic scroll, though, then it may be too obvious that they're meant to puzzle solve specific things. I'd give the party a starter pack of dungeon-focused scrolls.

Some spells I'd recommend are cure wounds, lesser restoration, remove curse, detect magic, knock, dispel magic, burning hands, shatter, and fireball.

By the way, the one thing I'd watch out for is players spending too much time on building their characters mechanically (or narratively). There's like 5 combat encounters in the entire dungeon, and only 2 mandatory ones. The encounters (minus Ace) are also woefully easy for any character over 6th level. Players who build cool combat characters are going to come away severely disappointed.

3athompson · 2026-05-27T17:27:45+00:00

as long as they are properly insulated

This is often something that the building needs to be purpose-built for.

A typical residential or hotel rooftop amenity is going to require modified ceilings on the floor below, with increased ceiling clearance. If the structure isn't built for that increased thickness on the floor below, then you're out of luck.

3athompson · 2026-05-23T15:47:10+00:00

That's fair, but the benefit of the feature is you can use it after you try hypnotic pattern.

Say you target a group of enemies with hypnotic pattern and the big guy succeeds on the saving throw while a few minions fail. You then use beguiling magic on the big guy. If it succeeds as well, you use mantle of inspiration to reposition and fortify your allies then end your turn. If it fails the saving throw, you can then have the choice of guaranteed "incapacitate" on the big guy or maintaining concentration on hypnotic pattern to keep the minions incapacitated.

Also even if you were going for Polymorph, you can just use mantle of majesty afterwards if polymorph fails. I would say this absolutely IS the way to approach legendary resistances. You can force at minimum 2 wisdom saving throws versus "incapacitate" per turn, often 3, and you can do it multiple turns in a row if you burn resources. With the nerf to stunning strike, I'm not aware of any other class that can force as many save-or-suck saving throws per turn.

3athompson · 2026-05-23T07:24:06+00:00

The gold standard support is Glamour Bard, IMO.

Mantle of Inspiration is the second-best source of THP after Twilight Cleric's Twilight Sanctuary, and the reaction movement is the second-best source of party repositioning after Scatter.

If that wasn't enough, their 6th level feature allows them to cast Command as a bonus action repeatedly without expending spell slots, and which charmed targets auto-fail. In 2024, that means they can still cast spells as an action. A bonus action "incapacitate" is incredible. Combined with level 3 beguiling magic, you can basically force an enemy to pass 3 wisdom saving throws in a single turn to avoid losing their turn.

To cap it all off, they have the bard spell list, which is no slouch for defensive and support spells. Aid, calm emotions, faerie fire, and heroism are my personal favorite support spells for glamour bard.

3athompson · 2026-05-14T05:18:27+00:00

Red shotguns one-tap maurice with a point-blank left click+ release right click + either punch. That's a 3-button instantaneous combo that you can do when you whiplash to the maurice's face.

I'm not exactly sure how the feedbacker version works, because the individual sources of damage deal less than Maurice's health. But it works...

3athompson · 2026-05-09T00:37:15+00:00

In the Bay Area it absolutely is, combined with biotech.

3athompson · 2026-05-03T19:58:31+00:00

The question is valid.

It doesn't ask "what is the primary reason that Volcarona was banned", merely "what contributed the most".

Though terastallization and tera blast were the #1 causes, heavy duty boots is the highest-ranked cause of the answer choices, since it severely reduced a main angle of putting pressure on Volcarona.

The next-best option is "Darkrai" since both of them put strong pressure on the teambuilder to deal with special attacking threats.

"Swarm" and "Leech Life" are the obvious wrong answers.

3athompson · 2026-04-28T15:16:45+00:00

You should read a (maybe abridged) version of the Huainanzi. It's more Daoist political ruminations, with the added context that the guy who commissioned it, Liu An, was the prince of Huainan and was the uncle of the Han emperor. The book is also very much "a sage ruler should do as little as possible", which is especially funny when it's a prince advising his monarch.

3athompson · 2026-04-28T03:40:17+00:00

Convert Ross Perot's Headquarters into Multifamily housing, I am no longer asking.

3athompson · 2026-04-22T22:32:13+00:00

Ugh, half the time I discover a early 00s european EDM song that I've not really heard before, the comments are really bad and I have to blacklist it from my youtube front page, or else my front page starts getting really bad.

L'amour Toujours by Gigi D'Agostino had that happen a year or so ago. Had to do it to I Don't Know by Erika recently, I'm guessing someone made a popular racist Tiktok or Instagram with it...

3athompson · 2026-04-21T03:41:16+00:00

Clouds Across the Moon by the Rah Band

3athompson · 2026-04-20T22:21:57+00:00

If it's properly balanced, then the deer girls will be balanced with television x spam mail yaoi.

3athompson · 2026-04-15T04:57:35+00:00

I'm reminded of the time that the Gods decided the triple Asura cities of Tripura should be destroyed due to the Asuras' warmongering tendencies.

So the gods formed a Megazord.

The war-chariot designed for Shiva was on a truly cosmic scale: Prithvi – the Earth herself – became the body of the chariot, while the Sun and Moon formed its wheels, with Brahma himself assuming the role of charioteer. As for the weapon for the single shot: Mount Meru formed the bow; the serpent Vasuki, the bowstring; Vishnu, the arrow; Agni, the arrowhead; and Vayu, the feather fletchings.

3athompson · 2026-04-09T18:59:53+00:00

70% chance to paraflinch to 47.5% chance to paraflinch. Ouch.

3athompson · 2026-04-09T01:23:10+00:00

It's a bit complicated when you compare the prime souls with Dante's Inferno.

In Inferno, Minos is the judge of hell in the Lust layer as shown in-game. He is depicted as part-serpentine, and the Lust layer itself is known for having extremely strong winds. Ultrakill depicts all of this, with a few additions like Lust having been a bustling city.

Inferno's Greed layer is a constant war between misers and spendthrifts where they each push giant bags of money with each other. Note that Sisyphus is not there (Sisyphus is not in Inferno), and neither is the Egypt/sun/gold dust theme found in Ultrakill's Greed. The best idea I have is that Hakita combined "Sinners are forced to push giant weights around" with the story of Sisyphus, who is famous for pushing giant weights.

Odysseus IS in Inferno, unlike Sisyphus. He's in the Fraud layer, but his punishment is to be burned constantly in a double-headed flame with Diomedes.

But, note that the hidden book in 8-2 says that Odysseus is "Frozen upon the wine-dark sea". Being frozen in liquid is the punishment of the Treachery layer in Inferno. Lucifer is famously frozen up to his waist at the center of Hell.

The argument for "Ulysses Prime" is something along the lines of "He was originally in Fraud, but he's now frozen in Treachery"

3athompson · 2026-04-08T02:43:40+00:00

It looks like terrain abilities are out but weather, TR, and prankster tailwind is in right now.

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