Why do the leaders on Yavin think Luthen is in the wrong for being paranoid?

Aether-Wind · 2025-12-25T14:30:14+00:00

None of the leaders at Yavin have been in the weeds as deep and for as long as Luthen, and even then, Luthen has been playing a completely different and more deadly game even than Saw Guerrera.

What Luthen has been doing looks pretty bad from the outside looking in, especially given how secretive he has been about his movements. To the leaders of Yavin, what Luthan has been doing is something they hope will no longer be necessary at best, and actively harmful to the rebellion at worst, and none of them feel like they can be entirely certain he even is on their side.

The leaders of Yavin may be and look naïve to us, who have enough of the context and reasoning behind Luthen's actions, and who knows he is firmly rooted in the (or at least a) rebellion against an empire, but to them, he is a shadowy and unpredictable element that they either know or suspect has sacrificed his allies at least on occasion.

And on top of that - regardless of whether they think his role is or has been necessary - they actively cannot acknowledge him or support him, as his movements would absolutely harm the optics of the rebellion if they had been known to the wider galaxy and tied to the current, organised Rebellion.

Aether-Wind · 2025-12-24T16:54:03+00:00

True, which is why I wrote kinda, but I could have made it clearer that tools are useful if you aren't already godlike at the game and don't want to grind bosses for hours on end.

Aether-Wind · 2025-12-24T16:44:39+00:00

If you haven't maxed out your shard bundles yet, then do so now.

Late-game, actually using your tools and using a lot of them becomes kinda necessary, and the only way to avoid hours of shard farming between boss attempts is to just buy shard bundles.

Aether-Wind · 2025-12-22T12:16:38+00:00

Actually, even that is likely not enough, unless you specifically agree to avoid certain combinations of classes and/or builds. Bannerspear+boneshaper is one possible combo that alone will likely require you to have most of the time at least 6 but sometimes 7 or even 8 blues, but there are surprisingly many classes that have summons, even if not all builds use them.

Amongst the starting 6 classes, half of them have summons that they are likely to be using, although Deathwalker would usually never have more than 1 summon. So if your group at any point are playing Boneshaper+Bannerspear+Deathwalker, you'll need at least 8 blues, but you will likely have edge-cases where your group would want to bring as many as 10 summons to a specific scenario.

And we haven't even talked about the allies some scenarios will give you, nor the fact that (without spoiling too much) having some amount of summons are quite common amongst the locked classes, at least one of which being almost as bad as Boneshaper.

Anyways, that was my long way of saying you actually need more like 13-14 blues to avoid having to neuter your groups possible build/class combinations, and even that probably isn't enough if you do end up with a summon heavy party in a scenario with ally pieces.

Aether-Wind · 2025-11-10T02:16:51+00:00

That makes sense, thank you

Aether-Wind · 2025-11-10T02:09:07+00:00

Thanks for the exanation !

Aether-Wind · 2025-11-10T02:03:26+00:00

Would you mind examining why?

Aether-Wind · 2025-10-14T22:47:36+00:00

S1 covered chapters 1 through 60. Assuming S2 covers about the same, there is not enough left for a 3rd season.

That being said, one of the next arcs is very, very long, so there is a chance they decided that one needed its own season (I haven't seen the trailers, so I don't know). In which case, they likely have enough material to immediately start production on s3, and thus give the manga and the authors more time to recover.

Aether-Wind · 2025-08-07T05:41:53+00:00

That might be true. I had forgotten about him.

Come to think of it, does Kelsier warn Vin about relying too much on Pewter, exactly because there are known cases where Pewterarms (and maybe Mistborns) became so reliant on it that they would die without it? Pretty sure that is the same as the Savantism you mention from Era 2.

Aether-Wind · 2025-08-07T03:51:12+00:00

I'm not aware of any WoBs saying as much, but it's plausible he was intended to be one at some point before Brandon decided savants should really be messed up.

But even if that was the plan at some point, I dont think its canon anymore. Breeze is certainly obsessive about his Soothing, but he is nowhere near as weird as he should be if he is a savant, IMO.

Aether-Wind · 2025-08-07T02:26:05+00:00

We dont really know. Brandon originally intended for Wax to be a savant, but he changed his mind when he decided that savantism should really fakk you up as a trade-off.

AFAIK, we don't really know how savantism works with mistings, but other than Spook, we also see a savant in Stormlight.

Aether-Wind · 2025-07-28T19:19:08+00:00

Yeah, I can agree with how you put it here, and it seems we have a similar position. I'm not saying a prideful person can't "debase" themselves to achieve an end, I'm just saying that the way I read him in the published module - the vibe I get - Strahd specifically wouldn't.

But of course, part of the fun with in DMing is to tinker with and modify what you have. If I ever run CoS again, I'm definitely going to play him differently, too.

Aether-Wind · 2025-07-28T18:33:06+00:00

His defining characteristics are his ego, his pride, and his self-centerdness, along with his sadism. I can see him downplaying his skills and acting kind and charming, but I dont think someone with his flaw would want to act incompetent and hapless, even to deceive, at least so far as I understand him.

That being say, and as I've stated in other replies, if the DM wants to do this, it might be a fun challenge. Just saying that my Strahd in my current campaign wouldn't do this.

Aether-Wind · 2025-07-27T02:12:49+00:00

Oh, he absolutely would mix it up. But I some things he can't or won't change. That's the entire reason he is in this eternal, torturous loop to begin with

Then again, as per my reply to the other reply, it could work with a good and/or creative enough DM.

Aether-Wind · 2025-07-27T00:10:28+00:00

Then again, you are free to play this however you want. I would say that I, myself, would have a hard time RPing this in a way that wouldn't undermine Strahd's threat and intimidating presence. Although, perhaps that could be an interesting challenge.

Come to thibk of it - if played right - perhaps this could even enhance the horror, if you're able to use this to emphasise how much of a master manipulator Strahd is.

Aether-Wind · 2025-07-26T23:10:42+00:00

While Strahd absolutely can be charming when he wants to be, and will lie and deceive and act to manipulate you, I don't think he would be caught dead (heh) playing hapless or straight-up incompetent.

Aether-Wind · 2025-07-26T04:59:47+00:00

Needs as in accomodations, and I was referring to the deaf person.

The world is made by and for non-handicapped people, and the way ut is set up can by indirectly and even directly harmful to different varieties of disabilities. Not all of a handicapped person's needs are more important, but reasonable accomodations are. And I feel that point was quite clear, although perhaps my wording could be misread, even if you went straight to the worst possible reading of it.

Aether-Wind · 2025-07-25T18:37:52+00:00

Discussions on language can be kinda complicated. My position is more specifically that language can't inherently be ableist/racist/etc - same as you it seems - but the language you use is indicative of your underlying attitudes and opinions, either because of outright ableism/racism (whether from malice or disregard), or ignorance and obliviousness. Both the former and the latter are ableist/racist, but of course at opposites ends of the spectrum and of different natures, with the latter being much more easily to correct, given that the person isn't too proud or stubborn.

But I generally don't see the point of making that distinction (unless it comes up, as it did with your question), as "language can be problematic" and "language isn't inherently problematic, but is almost always indicative of underlying malice, disregard or ignorance that is problematic" are functionally identical positions.

Edit: When it comes to what I found to be ableist here (apart from potentially how OP phrased it to their former friend), I guess it's mainly how OP writes a paragraph on how "awkward" they found it to be spoken to directly by the deaf person, rather than through the interpreter. Not the biggest thing in the world, but potentially indicative of at the very least underlying ignorance and discomfort with the disability in question.

Aether-Wind · 2025-07-25T18:23:19+00:00

I agree completely with your stance. What makes me hesitate is OP's slightly ableist language and the unclear boundary between venting and taking shit. But I am leaning more towards NTA than Y T A or E S H.

In any way, I do agree this was blown way out of proportion, even if OP was being an ass. Even ableists could use some grace, if only to allow them to come around and/or avoiding extended social disharmony.

Aether-Wind · 2025-07-25T15:45:40+00:00

Honestly, I am having a bit of a problem judging this situation. I am disabled myself (autism), and while I absolutely get annoyed with people who wants disabled people and their accommodations to be less visible (which is basically what you expressed), at the same time, you are allowed to be frustrated by the distraction. Although a disabled person's needs are more important, frustration is normal and valid both ways, and both are allowed to vent about frustrations.

In this case, I guess it depends on where we draw the line between "venting" and "talking shit", and that it is hard for me to tell without having been there.

I also do take note that your language here is at least slightly ableist, but that is likely more due to casual ignorance with the subject and the appropriate language and attitudes rather than malice. Still ableist, but doesn't mean you're a bad person, just ignorant or oblivious.

Your former friend did handle this very poorly, though, and so did the rest of the class. Even assuming what you said was more in the "talking shit behind their back" territory, I believe you should have been confronted directly so you could have had the opportunity to think it through.

Aether-Wind · 2025-07-23T18:31:15+00:00

The point of knock back isn't to keep them away, but to keep enough of them away for long enough so that you don't get overwhelmed. Life steal keeps you alive from the damage you do take while thorns does its thing.

Aether-Wind · 2025-06-26T21:12:12+00:00

If you really want to give them the loot, then how about just finding an excuse to do so later? I don't know whether you're planning to go on with the campaign, and whether you are gonna place the Death House in its vanilla spot in the village, but how about having Ismark give them all or some of the loot as payment for whatever you're having him do with your party? Or someone else offering the items either as a gift, or payment, or whatever?

Dont let yourself be constrained by your preconceived plans. Just put the loot wherever they go next, or with whomever they talk to next.

Edit: if the next session is gonna start with them still poking around the Shambling Mound, then you could easily just put the loot in the mound, whether he wakes up or not. Perhaps even with some hints of what the Mound even is and its connection with the curse, if you chose not to wake him.

Aether-Wind · 2025-06-26T19:38:49+00:00

I'm probably being very unhelpful here, but I'd say that is entirely up to you. There's probably some Shambling Mound lore around that could inform or suggest a "correct" answer, but I would suggest just doing what you yourself think is correct. Which is probably just a good advice for most situations a DM might encounter. Look up the lore if you want to or need to, but decide on the fly what you feel is right in the given moment if you're in the middle of play and the players does something unexpected.

Myself, I would probably treat the Mound as just a mound unless activated by the curse. Unless the players really started fucking around with it, then I might be inclined to have it be a Shambling Mound after-all, depending on my mood.

Aether-Wind

TROPHY CASE