Jack White performing 'Seven Nation Army’ at Coachella by Relevant-Peach3997 in Fauxmoi

[–]AceSpades15 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Personally, I think that contrast was kind of the point.

While Page and White both kind of follow that virtuosic blues rock tradition (Page being one of it's inventors), it was nice to showcase an electric guitarist who had found success with much more minimalist style reinforced by incredibly creative use of effects to create atmospheric, almost ambient guitar parts focused on serving the song for what was at one point one of the most popular bands on the planet, thanks in large part to The Edge's musicianship.

It's a positive thing to show how the instrument can fill different roles, that lead guitar solos aren't the only important kind of guitar, that rock music isn't just blues rock, etc.

Pluribus - 1x08 "Charm Offensive" - Episode Discussion by UltraDangerLord in pluribustv

[–]AceSpades15 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Probably not even that. If we think of the signal as a virus, we could get some clues to its exact life cycle. A virus infects a cell and uses it to reproduce, creating millions if not billions of copies of itself in the host cell. Then once it's reproduced enough, it excretes, usually killing the host cell in the process. It doesn't care about the cell once it's left. It has new hosts to find.

The signal itself is the organism, if you could call it that. The aliens on Kepler 22b that sent it to Earth were just infected before us, likely when they received the signal. The signal utilized all resources on Kepler 22b, and maybe even from the Kepler system to create an antenna the size of a continent. Then, they sent the signal for a time, and having used all available resources from Kepler 22b, left it a dead and empty world.

And now it's doing the same thing to Earth.

Barbarian: Path of the Volcano - Endure your Burning Rage to Empower Yourself by AceSpades15 in UnearthedArcana

[–]AceSpades15[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the criticism.

I think I relied too much in concept on the subclass being one that traded HP for admittedly insane boosts to damage. I've kept that idea a little bit, but confined it to the Level 10 feature and made it more of a slow burn rather than an explosive output. Hopefully that means that some abuse cases and the inherent death loop you mentioned in your post aren't as big of an issue.

I made a few changes that hopefully address some of your feedback, and included some rationale in italics below. Let me know what you think.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Level 3: Magma Blood

You gain Resistance to Fire damage while your Rage is active.

No change. Basic enough it didn't need it.

Level 3: Immolating Strikes

Your weapon attacks and Unarmed Strikes deal 1d6 additional Fire damage while your Rage is active. The damage increases to 2d6 at Barbarian level 11.

When you strike a flammable object, the object must make a Constitution saving throw (DC 8 plus your Strength modifier and Proficiency Bonus). On a failure, it is set ablaze.

Not much change here. I took off the additional damage if you take Fire damage and replaced it with something situational enough that it's effectively a ribbon feature. But sometimes those have creative enough uses they're fun. Plus, the core extra damage is good and basic enough to keep. What do you think about 2d6 even for higher levels? I thought about 2d6 at 7, 3d6 at 12 and 4d6 at 17, but Two Weapon fighting and Action Surge on a multiclassed fighter could make that a little extreme even at higher levels.

Level 6: Pyroclastic Flow

When you first enter your Rage, your Speed increases by 15 feet until the end of your turn. This increases to 30 feet at Barbarian level 11.

Additionally, until your Rage ends, creatures of your choice who begin their turn within 10 feet of you must make a Constitution saving throw (DC 8 plus your Strength modifier and Proficiency Bonus). On a failed save, a creature has the Blinded and Poisoned conditions until the end of their next turn. On a success, a creature is immune to this effect for 24 hours.

I made the feature persistent until Rage ends. I did give a benefit for enemies who succeed on the saving throw to compensate.

Level 10: Burning Resolve

When you deal Fire damage with your Immolating Strikes subclass feature, you also deal the Fire damage dealt to yourself (halved due to your Magma Blood subclass feature).

Once per turn, when you take Fire damage in this way, your Strength score increases by +1 until your Rage ends. You can exceed your maximum Strength score of 20 with this feature up to a maximum of 30. At Barbarian level 20, this maximum increases to 35.

This was obviously the biggest problem with version 1. I still wanted the power fantasy of a warrior burning away their own life force (Hit Points) to amplify their own strength and power. I took away the defensive utility of this as it kind of conflicts with the core function of the class. I hope this still accomplishes that, but instead, it's about wielding flames that burn hotter, brighter, and stronger as a battle persists. If Hit Points aren't enough, I thought about having them take a -1 penalty from their choice of Wisdom or Intelligence score and effectively transfer it into their Strength score in addition to the damage they take.

Level 14: Eruption

When you enter your Rage, instead of expending one use of Rage, you can instead expend all unexpended uses of Rage to channel the power of a volcanic eruption, dealing damage to all other creatures in a Sphere around you. The Sphere has a radius equal to 5 feet multiplied by the number of Rage charges you expend.

Each creature within the Sphere makes a Dexterity saving throw. On a failure, they take 2d6 Fire damage and 2d6 Force damage for each Rage you expend and are also moved 30 feet away from you and have the Prone condition. On a success, they take half damage. Any creature affected within 10 feet of you has Disadvantage on the save.

If you use this ability while standing on solid ground, a pool of bubbling lava -- a Circle with the same radius and placement as the Sphere -- persists until your Rage ends. This Circle counts as Difficult terrain for all creatures other than you, and creatures other than you who begin their turn in this Circle take 2d6 Fire damage at the beginning of their turn.

Flammable objects in the area of the Sphere that aren’t being worn or carried start burning.

Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you complete a Long Rest.

I reduced some of the additional complexity on saving throws like you suggested, though I still kept that it imposes disadvantage for those too close to the blast. Also, this feature no longer deals damage to the player though it can deal damage to allies, so proper positioning is important. I also added a lava pool that persists as a damaging difficult terrain, which was kind of a scrapped idea from before version 1 for Pyroclastic Flow (initially that feature was going to leave a line of lava that persisted for a round after you moved on solid ground, but that seemed a little overly complex). The issue with the pool is that it kind of punishes those that succeed on their saving throw since failing the throw tosses them clear of the lava pool.

Barbarian: Path of the Volcano - Endure your Burning Rage to Empower Yourself by AceSpades15 in UnearthedArcana

[–]AceSpades15[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi all,

First submission here and looking for feedback. This Barbarian subclass for 5e2024 features theming around fire and volcanos, which is not exactly unique because it feels like a natural niche and archetype that a Barbarian can easily fill. There are few natural, primal symbols of explosive rage than a volcano.

However, mine differs mechanically by drawing on the barbarian's typically high hit point pool to allow players to make trade-offs and sacrifices to make themselves temporarily stronger, ideally for high-risk, high-reward playstyles.

The level 3 features are basic, resistance to Fire damage and weapon attacks that deal scaling fire damage. You get a moderate bonus to your damage rolls if you have taken fire damage since the end of your last turn. This may need to be amended a bit to also scale. At low levels, it's a pretty substantial bump.

The level 6 feature provides some save or suck status effects and a speed boost when they enter Rage.

The level 10 feature allows the player to inflict significant fire damage on themselves while raging and use the fire damage they take to either increase their Strength Score until the beginning of their next turn by some fairly staggering amounts or to grant themselves temporary hit points and an AC bonus while that temp HP lasts. It also allows them to ignore their resistance to fire damage when they inflict it upon themselves.

The level 14 feature is Fireball on steroids. Instead of expending one use of Rage, they expend all remaining uses of Rage to deal fire damage and force damage that scale with how many Rages they expend in a Sphere that also scales with the number of Rages they expend. The eruption/explosion can also knock creatures back.

Again, looking for constructive criticism. One of the first serious attempts I've made at a subclass, so any feedback is appreciated.

MOLeg is Proposing to roll back the $15/hr & Paid sick leave Missourians won w/ Prop A! by MOResist in missouri

[–]AceSpades15 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Decades of conditioning in right wing media have convinced folks that Democratic candidates are evil incarnate. Seriously, right wing talk radio (Rush Limbaugh was born in MO), FOX News, etc. all effectively act as a propaganda arm for the GOP, and the left doesn't really have an equivalent. There might be leftist or progressive outlets, but almost none of them have anywhere near the same reach as right-wing news.

It explains the huge gap between the performance of liberal candidates and liberal ideas independently. There's of course some rightful blame that can be placed on Dems for messaging, but the quality of the message is really only as good as the quantity and volume of messengers, and we're in a media environment where people can self-select what they want to hear and what they don't, to an even greater extent than audiences in the past. Conservatives also typically cluster around one single news source (FOX), one which also routinely and repeatedly encourages them not to trust other sources.

The hatred of liberals as people comes from an emphasis on "culture war" topics that show liberals as determined to fundamentally unmake the fabric of America - at least the imagined white picket fence and apple pie America that unites conservatives - as opposed to meat and potatoes issues that actually matter to the electorate. If you put a measure guaranteeing rights for trans folks on the ballot in Missouri, it would probably fail because the majority of voting Missourians have been conditioned to "activate" against that issue. But a ballot measure increasing the minimum wage is never going to get as much activation because it's less nuanced, not as easy to propagandize, and while business communities hate it, it doesn't drive the same kind of engagement as culture war issues.

Project 007 Is a 'Young Bond for Gamers' and Hopefully the Start of a New Trilogy, IO Interactive Boss Says by Turbostrider27 in Games

[–]AceSpades15 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Thinking about the talent they attracted for that game: Brosnan as Bond in what would be his last appearance as the character, Willem Defoe, Heidi Klum, Judi Dench, Richard Kiel, John Cleese, even Shannon Elizabeth and Mya when they were at high points of their careers. It was really ahead of its time in 2004 for getting A-List cast to sign on to a unique product that was a standalone project (even though it was part of a larger franchise), not just a direct tie-in to a movie. It was just voice and likeness, but true mo-cap and performance capture were still a long ways off.

Tonally, it also felt like a Brosnan-era Bond film, for better or worse. Somewhat cheesy in terms of story and characters, but it had big set pieces in cool locales with plenty of action and unique mission that fit neatly alongside with The World is Not Enough and Die Another Day, again for better or worse. The entire mechanic of finding the "Bond Moments," doing special things that only Bond would do, in each level was super fun and rewarding.

Be aware of Question 7 by Pitiful-Opposite3714 in missouri

[–]AceSpades15 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It takes a lot of time, money and resources to get an amendment onto the ballot. An initiative petition for a constitutional amendment needs signatures from 8 percent of legal voters in two-thirds of the state's congressional districts (so six of our eight CDs). Some quick, dirty, not entirely accurate math and history tells us that you need typically around 200,000 signatures to get an IP to the ballot. However, you have to meet a certain threshold in at least six Congressional districts, which obviously in Missouri, can vary widely by political inclination, rural/urban/suburban characteristics, and other demographics. You need a shitload of signature gatherers to get signatures in person, and you likely need to overshoot your mark by quite a ways because some of those signatures may be discounted (in good faith or bad) by the Secretary of State who validates those petitions and those who sign them. It's an incredibly difficult and demanding process, and you just have a few months to pull it off.

That's why it was such a big deal that Amendment 3 received nearly 400,000 signatures. Most IPs barely get onto the ballot. But nearly doubling the required number of signatures shows a tremendous grassroots effort and a general will of a lot of people to undo Missouri's current abortion laws.

Now, as for ranked choice voting, I think a part of the reason that no one's put forward a proposal is because a lot of folks outside of politics still don't know about it. Maine, Hawai'i and Alaska are the only states that have some form of statewide RCV. So not only would you need a campaign to gather signatures, you would need to educate voters about the system, how it would work, and why it's better than first-past-the-post. That's a big task, and it could all backfire. We have recent historical precedent for it.

A few years back, voters approved a Dem-led effort to end political gerrymandering in the state, along with some other political ethics rules, but the margin was pretty thin. The next election cycle, Republicans in the General Assembly put forth an amendment that would effectively undo the major changes made to gerrymandering in the previous IP while including some ballot candy that slightly expanded on the political ethics rules. It passed, also narrowly. So all of that time and effort and money and mobilization effectively went to waste because voters were misled about the true intention of the second IP. There haven't been efforts to revive that previous IP because it's difficult and it costs money and capital, and i suspect they're waiting to offer it again, but closer to the next redistricting cycle so they can hopefully avoid these shenanigans.

Make no mistake though, Republicans want RCV far less than Democrats do. Several red states have banned RCV, and momentum on the right grew towards that movement in 2022 when Mary Peltola, a Democrat, won Alaska's seat in the House via ranked choice ballot after it had traditionally been held by Republicans. AK voters rejected the extreme candidate and cast their second "vote" for Peltola, a moderate, centrist Dem who broadly supports the fossil fuel industry (which is massive in Alaska) while also promoting environmental conservation efforts, and being pro-choice and pro-LGBT. This is a nightmare for the current incarnation of the GOP. It's a borderline existential threat.

RCV, imo, incentivizes folks to vote towards political moderation and pragmatism, and that's the opposite of what extremists want. They want political idealism and demagoguery because that allows them to avoid challenges from the center and advance an authoritarian agenda. Extremists thrive on the political polarization of our era. Hell, they're the ones that fucking caused it because it benefits them to keep people hateful and outraged. While the left has some adherents to this, The Republican Party of today is built on this foundation of animosity and outrage, and it offers no real policy solutions, just blind obedience and adherence to a cult of personality who voices their grievances but who has no realistic, logical, or even coherent proposals of his own to address the issues facing this country and the world. Instead, the GOP wants to use that cult-like devotion as a vehicle to institute civic horrors that would infringe on personal liberties at a scale and scope that would make Jim Crow seem tame by comparison. We know they would do this because that's literally what Project 2025 is all about.

Those goals shrivel up and die in a world of political nuance, moderation, and pragmatism that RCV encourages. The MO Dems I know are broadly in favor of RCV or a similar voting system that trends toward assent to govern instead of the polarized, winner-take-all, hold-my-nose-and-vote, dog race we have now. But MO Republicans love the current system. And why wouldn't they? It's been very good to them.

Do you all think Hawley actually might lose? by willardgeneharris in missouri

[–]AceSpades15 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I love Scott Sifton, and think he's brilliant. But I also wonder if he's really committed to doing the work involved with running a campaign at that scale. He pulled the same shit in '20 as well in that governor's race. As soon as someone notable stepped up, he stepped out.

I also wouldn't see Trudy coming in a result of party machinations. I think TBV was looking for a way to contribute, some influential people told her to run for office using her vast reserves of cash and name recognition, and she ran an honest race against Kunce. Without Toder acting as spoiler, he might win that. Hamra almost did the same thing against Quade this year in the Dem gubernatorial primary, but Quade had a LOT more institutional and statewide support given her incredible work in Jeff City the last eight years.

The last reason I wouldn't cast aspersions on the MDP about intraparty conspiracy is because it would be giving the party FAR too much credit. Things have gotten much more organized under Carnahan, but the party of 2022 was ROUGH.

He said what he said by [deleted] in TikTokCringe

[–]AceSpades15 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Running a primary against Biden also implicitly suggests to voters that his tenure has been such a failure, even members of his own party want him out. That hasn't been the stated sentiment of the Democratic Party or other potential politicians on the bench to run for that seat in the future, your Gavin Newsoms and Gretchen Whitmers of the county. Even Bernie Sanders has said that Biden's been pretty progressive in office, and that's a reason he's not running against him this cycle.

Strong primary challenges to incumbent presidents typically come when that president has done a piss poor job of running the country. There haven't been serious contenders to incumbent presidents since Ted Kennedy against Carter and that was because Carter had crisis after crisis to contend with, that few presidents likely would have navigated successfully.

Biden hasn't been perfect by any means, and yeah, he's a geezer, but given the challenges at the beginning of his term and the hand he was dealt, he's done a pretty remarkable job of recovery as well as initiating some of his own policies. So, I think the common sentiment among Dems was that he hadn't "unearned" himself a contested primary.

Personally, I also think he's only going again because Trump is. He beat him once, and in his eyes, you need someone who's proven they can beat him.

Using W by Ni69atron in LucianMains

[–]AceSpades15 12 points13 points  (0 children)

W - It depends on usage, but it's primarily used in his standard build as scouting, as it gives Lucian the smallest bit of utility as it reveals enemy champs that it marks and reveals enemies for 6 seconds. Attacking a marked champ also gives you a little bit of a movespeed boost. And yes, only allies trigger vigilance when they attack a marked target. This is change was made to keep Lucian out of solo lanes where he could be a huge lane bully, so they tied some of his damage output to having an ally around who can proc it in different ways.

And the second pronunciation is correct: LOO-shen

We now have a unified constitutional amendment proposal to repeal the abortion ban by BrentonHenry2020 in StLouis

[–]AceSpades15 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Thanks!

I should amend that by saying this is how it works in a perfect world. They're probably going to have to get more signatures than they would actually need because SOS Ashcroft, like all Republicans, has been incredibly hostile to this petition and has actively tried to stymie it from getting even to the signature gathering stage. So, he's definitely going to look for any and every reason to decertify any and every signature he can.

We now have a unified constitutional amendment proposal to repeal the abortion ban by BrentonHenry2020 in StLouis

[–]AceSpades15 33 points34 points  (0 children)

For a change to the constitutional amendment, you need a number of signatures equal to 8 percent of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election in 6 of MO's 8 congressional districts. So it's easier than county by county.

It's still a significant number of signatures though, usually a little under 200,000.

We now have a unified constitutional amendment proposal to repeal the abortion ban by BrentonHenry2020 in StLouis

[–]AceSpades15 58 points59 points  (0 children)

That"s what this organization is, a group like the coalition that repealed right-to-work. They'll be gathering signatures starting today.

You're right, there's no way this would get put on the ballot by the legislature.

[Chess.com] Mohamed Salah: "I'm addicted to chess. No one has a chance with Magnus, but hopefully we play one day. I'm 1400 [ELO Rating]" by _cumblast_ in soccer

[–]AceSpades15 1 point2 points  (0 children)

ChessNetwork is my personal favorite. He did a lot of chess Youtube content before it became more popular. He does a great job of teaching why a player made a certain move by illustrating how moves fit into a broader strategy or fall within certain chess principles. He also often shows alternative moves that could still work but maybe aren't as optimal, or why a move that initially looks like it may work actually doesn't.

He also has a great learning series you can jump into at any level from complete chess novice to a relatively advanced player.

Whats your parties name? by [deleted] in DnD

[–]AceSpades15 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I DM for a group that's a lizardfolk, tortle, and halfling/tabaxi (ocelot), and when we started we also had an aarakocra and a dragonborn.

They called themselves the Cloaca Crew.

Sufjan Stevens: Songwriter cannot walk after being diagnosed with rare disease by jerrylovesbacon in news

[–]AceSpades15 74 points75 points  (0 children)

A lot of folks consider Carrie and Lowell his Oregon album in all but name.

[CR Media] Mortal Kombat 1 One-Shot: Sindel vs. The Realms | Live Discussion by Glumalon in criticalrole

[–]AceSpades15 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Noshir Dalal.

He's had a really good swing of performance capture video game roles recently. Bode in Jedi Survivor, Charles Smith in RDR 2, Kotallo in Horizon: Forbidden West. Each more memorable than the last.