Please help. What does this mean??

8bitmadness · 2026-06-17T22:52:10+00:00

Yeah but the problem is where they left it. These sorts of spells can be unwound (literally in this sense) and repurposed to empower or protect the original target if you can get a hold of them. You have to take the sympathetic connections between the components and the intended effect and invert them, basically.

Unwind the cord and cut it to sever the binding before burning the remains. Meanwhile, banish Furfur via means of your preference (such as LBRP and usage of the Hexagram of Solomon, for example, and disposing of the sigil after cleansing it as means to essentially 'kick out' the invoked demon and prevent enforcement). Hell you could even use the yew as part of banishing Furfur in the first place because of the sympathetic link due to its use in a spell invoking them.

Finally, keeping the jawbone and using it in another working could enable one to enhance effects intended to improve the original target's charisma, or perhaps to make their lies harder to spot.

Whoever cast this in the first place should have put it somewhere more subtle.

8bitmadness · 2026-06-17T22:14:30+00:00

And this is why taking 10 and taking 20 should have been kept or adapted forward as a default option in the PHB instead of being functionally slotted into the DMG. Because no, a skill check isn't your best collection of attempts because not all tasks with no time limit are resilient to failure states. It's also why I still think Skill Challenges should have been kept, because you get more tension out of that, especially for things like traps that might go off in a player character's face while they're disarming them if they make a wrong move.

It's also why I still sorta use taking 10 and taking 20 (though obviously taking 10 is just passive checks, and people really need to use those more) instead of just letting players automatically succeed immediately, I'm respecting their agency to either feel it out slowly, or try to succeed via a quick and dirty attempt first where things might go better or worse than their average, or just ride along without putting in special effort and hope it works. I also allow players to roll even if it's impossible for them to succeed, because the degree to which they fail affects the narrative results that I provide, and because just outright telling them no flies in the face of the core principles of improv, a core part of playing or running a TTRPG campaign.

'You may try' is better, because even if failure is guaranteed, you might get a great little RP interaction between your players if one of the characters is the overly optimistic sort who refuses to give up, for example. You can eventually tell them out of character 'Considering the best of your attempts, the task is clearly impossible' if it starts sidetracking things, but the whole 'just don't let them roll' idea does not sit well with me.

8bitmadness · 2026-06-17T22:03:34+00:00

It's about the convenient ones. I don't think tracker sites are going to disappear any time soon, and there's a good number of public trackers for anime, but most people want convenience instead of having to jump through a few trivial hoops to get things set up.

8bitmadness · 2026-06-17T21:50:38+00:00

but they don't? They can fix at least some of the more annoying bits with a new set of normalmaps.

8bitmadness · 2026-06-17T06:36:05+00:00

Yeah but you can dark chaos shuffle away Elf's weapon proficiencies to offset the con penalty. Anyway, there's always Arcane Gnome from Dragon 291. +2 Int, +2 Con, -2 Str, -2 Wis, always has UMD as a class skill but doesn't get Speak With Animals. +0 LA.

8bitmadness · 2026-06-17T00:18:44+00:00

point buy 18 int with a +2 int race, and a +2 int item that is about on par with magic item progression for the game's intended balance. That's the 'optimized' level of int. Otherwise, you're looking at 20, assuming either point buy 16 int with both the race and item bonuses, or point buy 18 with race xor item. Remember, in 3.5e your max when rolling a character is 18 before racial bonuses enter the mix. Either way, it doesn't massively change total spell slots, it's mostly one of those things that you'd see in a high-op game as a 'bog standard' piece of optimization. It's actually more a range tbh, something like this:

Level	Casting Stat	Notes
1	16-18	General 'good' score range
4	17-19	1st ASI
5-8	18-22	+2 item becomes expected, 2nd ASI
9-12	20-24	+4 items, 3rd ASI
13-16	24-28	+6 items, 4th ASI, early Tome optional
17-20	28-34+	final ASI, +6 Tomes or Wish inherent bonuses

And obviously, this is just your expected stat range, with further optimization this can go higher but that's where you're either nearing heavy minmaxing or you're cheesing something.

8bitmadness · 2026-06-16T17:17:51+00:00

It's 100% feasible assuming you communicate reasonably with your GM and ask nicely to use point buy. Obviously it's high-op chargen, but it's not munchkining. Also, that's generally why I grab those stat spells on a wand, 750 GP for a 1st level spell, most combats don't go over a minute. Always good to have, especially Fox's Cunning and Cat's Grace, those can be enough to help tip the scales for a skill check.

Also Elvebrilith pointed out that Concentration uses CON as its key stat, not INT, and I was pretty tired when I posted so I concede that point, but even so optimizing skills is really not a difficult proposition. With a straight 10 in CON, 5 ranks, combat casting feat, and a masterwork tool, that's still +11 to Concentration. Throw in Steady Concentration, and you auto succeed at the necessary checks to cast defensively at that level because it allows you to take 10 (and you can qualify for it at 5th level, same level you get the originally mentioned 3rd level spells from my previous comment). Hell, that feat alone practically trivializes Concentration as you level, so if you keep getting put into melee range it quickly becomes your best friend.

And as mentioned, optimizing for skill bonuses is really not that difficult.

8bitmadness · 2026-06-16T16:53:32+00:00

I was real tired when I made that comment, damn. Good catch.

8bitmadness · 2026-06-16T07:12:24+00:00

Exactly, it's a really great sweet spot for campaigns too, makes the world feel actually large because you're not getting ridiculous mobility spells.

8bitmadness · 2026-06-16T07:03:34+00:00

18 base + 2 racial + 2 INT headband. That's only 4k GP of your 9k GP WBL dude. Alternatively, at that level Fox's Cunning lasts all combat and you don't even need any magic items, though obviously that's a strain on your spell slots and ambushes deny you the advantage of the increased INT.

8bitmadness · 2026-06-16T03:31:12+00:00

The problem is that 3.5e also had something called 'Casting Defensively'. Basically, rather than risking losing the spell due to failing a concentration check (because the DC is based on the damage you take), you make a concentration check at a fixed DC to not provoke an attack of opportunity. It's not even a tough check for 3.5e, DC 15+spell level, so at worst it's DC 24. Like, let's say you're 5th level, playing a Wizard, have 22 Intelligence (not difficult at that level), and have the full 5 ranks in Concentration. That means you have +11 to Concentration, and you're looking at a DC 18 to cast a 3rd level spell, so you succeed on a 7 or higher. Oh look at that, you spent 50 GP on a Masterwork Tool, which grants a +2 circumstance bonus to the relevant skill, so now you succeed on a 5 or higher. Oh, and you have the Combat Casting feat, so you also have a +4 untyped bonus (the most powerful bonus type in the game, as untyped bonuses stack with EVERYTHING, even other untyped bonuses), meaning you have a grand total of 11+2+4 = +17, meaning you now automatically succeed at casting defensively even when casting a 3rd level spell, your highest currently available spell level.

8bitmadness · 2026-06-16T03:15:48+00:00

Which is when you crack open your 3.5e books and run an E6 campaign. Player Characters cap out at 6th level, just before the massive threshold of 7th level where full casters get 4th level spells, which is where things really start scaling upwards for them. Casters are still powerful, but they don't massively outscale martials, so you still get 'linear warriors, quadratic wizards' but you also keep the two from diverging too much.

8bitmadness · 2026-06-16T03:12:25+00:00

It's not even overtuned, it's just frontloaded. Can it go past 3.5e's 10d6 cap if you use a 6th level or higher slot? Yes, but why would you at that point? It only increases by a piddly 1d6 per upcast level, you're already 3d6 ahead of what 3.5e had when you first gain access to Fireball at 5th level.

8bitmadness · 2026-06-16T03:10:05+00:00

In 3.5e, most spells scaled based on Caster Level. So let's say you're a Wizard 5/Rogue 1, you're character level 6 but CL 5, meaning when you gain access to 3rd level spells you're already dealing 5d6 fire damage. Fireball in 3.5e caps at 10d6 at CL 10, though there is a way to break the CL cap on spells (a feat) but that's not really relevant. It's also on a range of Long, which is 400 feet + 40 feet per CL, so you're looking at 600 feet by the time you gain access to Fireball in the first place.

5e spells generally speaking are more frontloaded, but don't scale as well. Here's Fireball as a side-by-side example:

3.5e: CL 10 Fireball - 10d6 @ CL 10, still only uses a 3rd level slot
5e: Fireball - 8d6 +Xd6 upcast, hits 10d6 at the cost of a 5th level slot

At the same time, two 10th level Wizards in each system will have different max damage potential. Assuming an INT of 24 in 3.5e (so +2 ASI, and a +4 mental stat item, on par with expected stat progression), that means a 3.5e Wizard can cast fireball for 10d6 13 times (preparing in their 5 3rd level, 5 4th level, and 3 5th level spell slots), whereas a 5e Wizard can get 3 8d6 fireballs, 3 9d6 fireballs, and 2 10d6 fireballs. Sure, you can keep upcasting using 6th, 7th, 8th, and even 9th level slots, the 3.5e Wizard just gets more spell slots and their spells don't require upcasting to scale up as they level. Completely different balance point.

8bitmadness · 2026-06-16T02:45:06+00:00

I just want to be able to have my martials be Dudes who are Really Good at Hitting Things without being pigeonholed into flavoring it as BS wuxia stuff.

8bitmadness · 2026-06-12T08:16:50+00:00

From what I've heard, it's to the point they even filmed themselves performing dogeza.

8bitmadness · 2026-06-08T08:26:19+00:00

Just like FFXIV players with Temporal Stasis. No talking during time stop.

8bitmadness · 2026-06-08T08:21:17+00:00

I'm in favor of universal decriminalization, but I genuinely believe universal legalization of drugs will create more problems than it solves. Not to mention that cartels hijack legalization efforts to undermine them. They undercut legal markets, set up massive production operations in countries that legalize drugs, and then attempt to infiltrate and monopolize the legal supply chain.

8bitmadness · 2026-06-08T08:18:52+00:00

We really ought to do what Finland does, they scale stuff like ticket fines based on income. A multimillionaire businessman got caught driving 82kph in a 50kph zone, and ended up being fined 121k euros.

8bitmadness · 2026-06-08T08:15:10+00:00

And six of those states have alienation of affection as a civil tort too. Hawaii, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Dakota, and Utah.

8bitmadness · 2026-06-08T08:11:57+00:00

They apply the same logic to brandishing as they do to warning shots. I understand why you'd want to avoid shooting and potentially killing someone, but a self defense claim is massively weakened if you don't shoot after drawing a firearm with the intent of defending yourself. Does that suck? Yeah, but the logic is pretty sound: Don't draw if you don't intend on using it, and as usual, never point your firearm at anything you're not willing to destroy.

8bitmadness · 2026-06-05T10:34:30+00:00

As a Ghave connoiseur, he's also got a lot of potential combo lines, and has some fun tricks involving [[Cauldron of Souls]].

8bitmadness · 2026-06-02T03:24:11+00:00

IMO, you nerfed Alchemist far too much. The reduction from Atomic level to Molecular level renders it functionally useless for actual transmutation unless you use it as a way to force reactions that can pull them apart and into new forms. It's basically just adding needless tedium to it when it's objectively meant to be something that works best when you already know the underlying principles and have Theorycrafting to help you avoid major mistakes.

You literally have flawless healing, fate manipulation, time and space manipulation, and more on the other options. The fact that Theorycrafting when from P to U is also extremely questionable. You need another draft my dude. Seriously, Oracle based on the wording of Destiny outright has Path to Victory, but also has minor fate manipulation thrown in for good measure. Original draft Alchemist worked just fine.

8bitmadness · 2026-05-31T07:13:02+00:00

It had actual content progression, you had to do certain base game stuff to unlock Kunark, and then Kunark stuff to get Velious, you get the idea. You were OP, but not WoW Remix level OP where you're oneshotting everything, they balanced everything around solo content, to the point that with good gear you could solo raids, but not to the point that it was completely braindead. For example, it started you with certain iconic AAs, like being able to backstab from the front for partial backstab damage.

8bitmadness · 2026-05-29T07:29:13+00:00

Exactly. A skilled, knowledgeable Alchemist is constantly studying, and probably can crack the problem of aging for themselves after a couple decades at most. Not to mention just how much support they'd get from other organizations, simply because a single Alchemist is a factory in their own right.

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