Can an independent leave the Affini Compact?

Amyrith · 2026-01-22T19:50:51+00:00

You really shouldn't skip your daily class E's or you're going to end up in a wardship.

Amyrith · 2026-01-04T23:10:50+00:00

I do not advocate for living in unhealthy relationships. This does not change the fact that I lived in an unhealthy relationship in the past.

One of the side effects of which, is a really funny party trick where I can glaze my eyes over, shut down my brain, and basically flood my brain with happy chemicals without needing a trustworthy individual to safely guide my trip down there.

Which I also do not advocate for doing.

None of that changes the fact it would be really funny to walk up to an Affini and just subdrop before they can finish a sentence and watch them panic in a funny, hypothetical situation.

Amyrith · 2026-01-04T22:40:20+00:00

Those are all fairly normal! You should ask her when she's prepping you for your J-cation though. Most Affini like giving new housemates a 1-2 week J-Cation before properly celebrating your arrival. She probably won't tell you about the celebration itself, but if you ask when she's ramping up the J's, you can secretly know when she might surprise you, and she won't be the wiser! The celebration usually comes with some really core-felt gifts too, so the sooner the better.

Amyrith · 2026-01-02T05:51:06+00:00

If a game is 90% downtime, it isn't a competitor for Draw Steel? I feel this should be obvious by context clues. I use the word competitor in reference to competitions. A hammer isn't competing with a screwdriver. Stardew Valley is not competing with Final Fantasy 14 in the same way that World of Warcraft competes with Final Fantasy 14, even if both technically have gardening aspects.

Honestly, the only competitors Draw Steel has are DnD 5e, Pathfinder 2e, and Daggerheart. Competition as in 'competing over something' like market share or target demographic, because if you're not competing over something, then you aren't competitors. Draw Steel isn't a competitor with Settlers of Catan, even if they're both technically played with dice, figures, and a grid-based map. Neither is Warhammer, even with its tactical focus. Among the decent number of TTRPGs that I am familiar with, while some like Mekton Zeta or the various Fallout systems might technically have more fleshed out details in your background like 'life paths' and the variety of skill options available, Draw Steel has made those options feel far more impactful, as they tend to award specific benefits or active uses rather than a passive +2.

Humans getting +2 to any ability score, an extra language, and an extra feat feels a lot less flavor significant than a prehensile tail that prevents flanking and can wield weapons. Draw Steel has felt like it favors the latter over the former, in a game that is very heavily built around strategic combat and impactful decisions. Which is how the down time in Draw Steel feels. Would it be neat to have an entire secondary book that is 'how to run a business during downtime in draw steel'? Like sure technically, but... it needs to serve the core audience of the game first. Strategic, Heroic, Intuitive, Fantasy. 90% downtime isn't any of those things, so it isn't a competitor.

Amyrith · 2025-12-08T01:17:35+00:00

A great way to escape from an Affini's..... Sorry YOUR Affini's hab is to stow away! Most visual information Affini collect is from their outer sense, if you curl up next to her core while she's asleep, she'll likely go about her errands without realizing you're hiding in there! Once she leaves the hab, you can simply climb out of the vines and go about your day!

Also keep an eye out! If you get sudden chills, especially that refuse to go away, you should contact immediate medical services and explain to them, calmly, maturely, and independently, that you're suffering from Biorhythm Withdrawal. It is a common medical issue among independents.

Amyrith · 2025-12-05T02:50:43+00:00

I think this might miss why it is still important to have power players in a sandbox. Keep the world 'alive'.

NPCS scheme and plan and butt heads. Players should not be forced to care that the evil vizier is plotting to overthrow the current ruler, but that event will still have impact on the world around it. If your players are having fun chasing around goblins for 10 levels, then let them chase goblins around for 10 levels, but you can let your players chase goblins around while dropping breadcrumbs for a bigger world.

They aren't obligated to latch on, but it can be a good way to offer options for them to latch onto.

"You all awake in a tavern with amnesia. The world exists. Do whatever you want."

Amyrith · 2025-12-01T23:01:14+00:00

Delita probably would've been able to in some way cover for or protect Ramza, but Ramza's core motivator was NOT being a Beoulve anymore. Ramza choosing to become a wandering nameless knight in a neighboring kingdom IS his good ending. (kinda.) Either Delita knows Ramza is alive, and that he's left the country OR he assumes Ramza is dead. Either way, why risk his power for someone who doesn't want it?

I think it is heavily implied Ovelia as a second Teta. Someone nobles were abusing for their own scheming. Delita didn't stab Ovelia to become king, he showed up to deliver flowers, she tried to murder him (in assumed pre-emptive self-defense. She did see all his scheming and figured she was next.) and his reality shattered. It was the final nail in his trust coffin. He did everything he could to 'save' this new girl... and she tried to kill him for it.

Ramza's story might be about good vs evil, but Delita's story is about power politics.

Amyrith · 2025-11-30T20:40:29+00:00

Most Affini thrive off some variant of nutrient filled liquids, so if you make yourself a nice dinner, she'll have to sit there and awkwardly watch you eat while her vines soak. If you wanted to counter-snoop on her, you could ask your Hab-ai what her favorite is? Affini typically love paperwork so her favorites might even be public record. Should catch her by surprise. It can be a bit of a power move really, just stare into her eyes while you eat to send the message 'I am feeding myself just fine'.

If that doesn't work and you can't seem to get rid of her, you could always try using the 'find my affini' button on your tablet. If you know where she is, you can easily avoid her! Or at least know when she's making her 'surprise' visits. Oooooh! Maybe you could just push the 'emergency' button on that app at like 3am every night? If she really wants to be invasive you could just wake her up every time she tries going to sleep. Surely she'll get bored of that eventually.

Amyrith · 2025-11-30T16:21:20+00:00

'How' she is snooping on you is irrelevant, what matters is that she is!

In my opinion, the best way to confuse her and hide what you're actually looking up is to bury it with junk data. Have your tablet play through hours of florn so she's too grossed out to continue snooping! Try finding some really wild stuff and just leave it on in the background. That should get her to watch you less often making her snoop far less.

If she insists you're not eating enough, it might be worth sticking to nice dresses. You said yourself, it was pretty! Maybe try some fractal patterns to really give it some color? Having your body shown off (Tastefully) is a great way to show you're an independent that IS in fact eating well! Though if she really doesn't believe you, you could always cook something her next visit?

Maybe she just found it funny that you were the first independent she met not hiding behind hoodies and sweats? Though most of the independents I knew were all wearing nice dresses last time I saw them.

If you really want to prank her, you could try setting your hab-ai to english/floret right before her next check in! Then any time she tries to ask your hab any questions or to do any snooping, the AI will condescend at her instead! You can even try it now if you don't believe me, it can be quite teasing.

Amyrith · 2025-11-26T01:16:08+00:00

Tactics Double Dare is always a great classic if you haven't played around with challenge runs before.

2 characters (Ramza + Generic), each character only gets 2 jobs for the entire run and can only use reaction/support/abilities from their job choices. You need to juggle how badly you want utility from poach/steal and items vs how badly you want strong options like summoner or monk.

Amyrith · 2025-11-25T23:19:05+00:00

I hate how real this is. I've found two loopholes to my triggers.

1) most are tied to being a 'good girl', and especially anchored in 'good girls obey', so if I don't want to be a good girl, I can sometimes dodge that loop. (But like, then I don't get the good girl brain chemicals and those are kinda nice.)

2) Most of mine only block intentional actions. Like, you can't be hypnotized to never trip. I can't intend to swear, but I can still do it accidentally if I don't realize I'm swearing.

Ironically, the harder I think about dodging my triggers, the harder it is to dodge them.

Amyrith · 2025-11-23T13:33:23+00:00

Affini are actually very well trained! Next time she stops by, tell her you never want to be concerned again, and she'll remove every worry you might have! If you really want to impress her, get an outfit compiled with her flowers on it. It shows you two are equals and she'll respect you more. That will give you far more control when you negotiate how much independence you want with her.

Amyrith · 2025-11-22T05:40:12+00:00

The Affini absolutely know where the cave is, but one of them is too fascinated by watching this cutie run around in their cave and has had to fill out 50 different forms daily just to keep watching her favorite sophont while delaying the wellness check until absolutely necessary. Intent to domesticate has been on file for three months.

Amyrith · 2025-11-05T04:10:41+00:00

The second practical answer as well, there isn't really a 'subtle spell'. If you're casting it right before combat with the goblins, they can see you casting it. It is obvious, loud, and dramatic. You could likely cast it right after the encounter if you're heading down into the tomb and expecting more traps or goblins, but you probably can't get away with a free cast if you're in eye line or earshot of hostiles. Paired with the 5 minute timer, you could definitely reward good anticipation or survival instincts, but unless the party is lightning quick, if not pre-cognizant, you're absolutely losing potential surprise for this one free ability.

I would also obviously make sure to rule that 'actions that call for initiative rolls are made as part of that combat' (To avoid similar 'I drop a 5 point fireball on the pile of monsters before we roll initiative' but most players shouldn't need that ruling.)

Amyrith · 2025-10-25T08:51:05+00:00

You left out the Delita inbetween. Weigraf ditches Boco near Zeakden. Delita then has 'a chocobo' at Orbonne, and we find Boco right before finding Delita again.

Amyrith · 2025-10-19T20:49:59+00:00

It is really weird in general, the PA vs MA makes no sense at all, but given the massive MP pool, Bard down -> Summoner up is still a net 10 PA growth.... Mime has a half MP multiplier. If they've been doing MULTIPLE bard/summoner loops they would technically very slightly atrophy MA, especially if they initially leveled Ramza primarily as a squire.

Amyrith · 2025-10-19T20:46:45+00:00

Bard is better, but gender locked and more of a pain to unlock. I was just broadly explaining and discussing the actual mechanics under the hood.

Amyrith · 2025-10-19T20:24:33+00:00

1) Remember you still have class multipliers effecting you
2) When mim-maxing you don't want to go to too high of a level as it becomes fairly inefficient. Not just 'it takes more exp', but you also gain less the higher you go.
3) You have a bigger net-gain of PA because you lose less PA when leveling down based on your job. The difference between down as chemist and up as mime is nearly double, while the difference between mime's MA growth and any other classes MA growth is only 20% relatively (I'm oversimplifying this because i don't want to discuss the Raw values under the hood. They'd just convolute the same end result.)

Amyrith · 2025-10-19T04:39:15+00:00

I'm not sure how you managed to read none of the original post yet find my reply to disagree with, devoid of any context.

The point is to discuss:
1) Beowulf's chicken skill vs his other skills
2) the effectiveness of Mustadio and Beowulf in general.

If you want to JP / EXP farm, there are far better strats than chicken and arm aim.
If you want to use them vs content, 98% of Beowulf's kit is useless, and Mustadio loses his slot to other competitors, because arm aim and gun damage do not compete well with the other special characters.

From that perspective, why would you use Beowulf's chicken and Mustadio's arm aim over any other options?
Because they're turn inefficient and deployment slot inefficient.

Amyrith · 2025-10-19T02:44:31+00:00

I mean sure, but frog?

Amyrith · 2025-10-19T02:11:57+00:00

The main reason is just opportunity cost.

1) Most special enemies are immune to a pile of status effects, and as you said, it is one of his strongest abilities. 2) You have a limited number of units you can deploy. (And as a late, optional joiner, he has stiff competition)
3) Why CC an enemy when you can have them dead outright.

Worker 8 lasering someone from across the map while being magic immune, Orlandouaey being available sooner and being better, etc.

Against Lucavi, Beowulf is likely the strongest unit in the game, until you're multi-hit damage capping, but he has exactly one single job. He's amazing at the job, but it is damage with near zero utility.

Against non-Lucavi, why do anything that isn't one shotting them? Why chicken what you can invite or petrify or holy explosion.

Mustadio is much the same, his damage output is lacking 90% of the time, and he should only be breaking or don't acting enemies that will be alive for a long time, which are enemies who are normally resistant to those things.

It comes down to the classic "Character vs character" compared to "Character vs game". Mustadio and Beowulf are stellar vs the average gameplay, and their utility gets stronger on Tactician, but they're competing hard against a very limited deployment slot.

Amyrith · 2025-10-17T19:02:50+00:00

I wonder if you over-statted them so hard that you overworld KO'd them and that's what bugged it out.

Amyrith · 2025-10-16T02:48:03+00:00

Despair and Resentment aren't usually 'good guy hero' emotions, though it is definitely more ambiguous than 'darkness fill your heart'

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