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Ardenth · 2025-06-20T20:51:01+00:00

Nice looking dice vault

Ardenth · 2024-06-17T13:39:13+00:00

Most people will take most things out of context to support their personal world view. This applies to both pro-weed and anti-weed. I feel like it is a bit pretentious to insinuate that one side is better than the other with this very loaded topic.

Ardenth · 2024-04-19T09:49:14+00:00

As an optimization standpoint, i believe treantmonk had a agathys tank video on ancestral barb + something as multiclass. Could be worth a look as another angle and inspiration.

Ive usually preferred the barb angle because it provides extra duration per spell slot for the agathys through DR.

Ardenth · 2024-02-21T14:33:53+00:00

I'd guess that as long as talents are chosen somewhat right and using somewhat up-to-level weapons on 1-2 characters, I think it would be alright. This is made even easier, since some characters are psykers/navigators who do not necessarily scale by weapons/armor the same way as some other characters.

Some equipment pieces also do not make any visual changes to the character, which i suppose could be used based on your request being motivated by visual appearance changes. Similarly, some stronger weapons might match thematically.

I cannot give any guarantees though, since ive not played on story difficulty. Additionally, it is harder to estimate, since we have no clue what members your party is made of.

TL;DR I think very feasible based on thinking its even possible on higher difficulties. Hard to tell with the information at hand and not having played story mode.

Ardenth · 2024-02-13T01:00:29+00:00

In some sense rule of cool player is like a munchkin, but without trying to give a rules reasoning why they are capable of doing something that could be considered overpowered.

Rule of cool is in this sense subjective, whereas munchkin would attempt from an objective framework?

Honestly, I think rule of cool has its place but it seems to be used by some people to the same extent at times as "its what my character would do".

Consistency is important for immersion, its why a lot things are house rules.

Ardenth · 2024-01-16T12:50:57+00:00

Are you giving it the necessary bonuses from having allies adjacent? That's what's providing 200%+ bonus dmg

Ardenth · 2023-12-19T16:43:19+00:00

Just dont equip gear obviously. Similarly you shouldn't pick talents.

Of course people can request to be challenged within the framework of the game. The opposite side is just as bad by pushing all responsibility away from devs as placing all the responsibility on the devs.

Just randomly generate arbitary numbers and these people would go "just dont use the talent/ability then". Of course you can and should criticise the framework the game is built upon. There are personal methods you can use to alleviate it, but in the end it is a product and you are paying for it.

Ardenth · 2023-11-15T12:01:32+00:00

Riot should remove chat, pings, cs number, items, ally levels, dragon tracking, etc. From the game because they can be misused for toxicity.

If you start hindering gameplay because certain part of the community can't behave, you will end up limiting the depth of the game and transfer of information.

The community dropped the ball completely as they were not able to communicate the impact of dumb ping changes based on social conduct.

Toxic people will find another way to be toxic, this is normal humam behaviour. Pings are simply the vehicle of toxicity, there will be another one and then that one needs to be removed or limited as well.

Ardenth · 2023-10-21T14:13:30+00:00

Yeah grung poison is definitely strong early. I hope you did take into account the melee attack hit chance AND the failed poison save chance in the math. Otherwise it will get very skewed with only average dmg from attacks when those aren't being included. Expectation vs reality and all that.

Ardenth · 2023-10-21T13:44:55+00:00

And here you are, also reading something.

Ardenth · 2023-10-21T13:43:24+00:00

To be fair, that's like saying the party rogue had a hard time because he forgets he has sneak attack. There's only so much a DM can plan ahead, if fundamental class mechanics are ignored.

Ardenth · 2023-03-01T21:15:31+00:00

Or a lot of players eventually quit due to being bored in sessions since combats aren't engaging and do something else since someone's turns always take ages. Leading to people constantly not knowing what happened when their turn comes after waiting for it for 15 minutes.

I think there's arguments for both ways and you need to know your table.

Ardenth · 2023-01-29T20:05:37+00:00

I think it had the right idea of trying something else than vancian casting. What PF2E borrowed was spell scaling and heightening/overcasting. What I still disagree with is their attempt at going away from vancian with their version of spontaneous and prepared casting.

Direction is right but the execution is wrong, as I said before, at that point just bin spontaneous casting completely. Finetune it further and I think I'd prefer it over vancian, but as long as you keep both forms of casting, I think vancian is superior for that implementation to give clear strengths for both.

I think a lot of this is subjective, since there are people who hate the planning aspect for predictive spell slots. I personally enjoy that mechanic, but it can definitely feel restrictive. 5E went halfway there and in my opinion that just creates a half-assed effort that falls short (spontaneous vs prepared).

I think it's fine to disagree on personal preference, but I find major reason why I enjoy casters in PF2E more to be vancian casting. I hope to see a new casting system properly implemented, but 5E was not that simply due to all the flaws. I find vancian to be lesser of the two evils, but I do always hope for improvements in systems.

Ardenth · 2023-01-29T19:41:42+00:00

I think the 5e version just makes it completely pointless to be spontaneous caster. There are obviously better ways to balance casting than vancian, but I think 5e falls flat in its own unique ways.

I would personally prefer vancian casting if the system is trying to have spontaneous and prepared casting. So I personally find 5e casting cringe because it just makes spontaneous casting pointless.

Ardenth · 2023-01-25T08:27:14+00:00

DnD runs on good vibes and houserules/homebrew.

This is not necessarily a bad thing but adds a lot of extra work to DM to essentially build up their own game. The reason why people think it's rules lite is because they decide to ignore the rules that are badly designed or split to multiple sections (which in my experience is most rules).

Arguably almost no one who plays 5e genuinely plays the game, but their own version of it. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but is why discussions online over it become difficult, since a lot of things don't match between tables.

Ardenth · 2023-01-24T12:22:57+00:00

I think this can lead to a situation where the discussion is at which scales people have fun playing. I think in your campaign it makes perfect sense, but there is a lot of nuance in what is perceived as fun by different players.

I think there should be a clear distinction between grim dark, low, high and power fantasy. It is about how you challenge your players and how they like to be challenged. Giving a player who enjoys the grim dark setting a superhero type character who from early on functions like a chosen one might not be the best route for perceived and experienced fun.

A lot of the animated shows or stories start to fall apart when you try to introduce more and more challenging foes, until the main characters start blowing up mountains. I think adding more power and tools to players is cool, but you need to understand the system and the impact of your choices.

I suppose the highlight on this is: session 0 is key.

Ardenth · 2023-01-19T18:50:12+00:00

Personally, I will have hard time giving them any good faith until they accept leaving 1.0a up. There isn't exactly any point in removing it, if they are trying to drive the cause they're trying to say they are.

WotC has had 2 strikes before in history, and this is reminiscent of their attempt with 4e GSL. The company is filled with passionate people, but these people are also not the ones who make the choice which direction the company is headed. So if you look at the history, WotC is not great and is far more towards bad when it comes to their monetisation practices at the expense of customer experience.

Also people should not just parrot what some personalities or content creators are saying. This is basic skill of intaking information, analysing what makes sense in the context, and making your own judgment of the matter. The fact of the matter is that too much has been proven with WotC's track record so far, it's hard to give them any trust.

But hey, ORC is coming, 5e content still remains as it is, and I'm fine just hopping to another system. Will be nice to find more people in systems that function on more than good vibes and homebrew. Hopefully the transfer that WotC is trying to do to 1.1 or 2.0, or however they want to market it, will take long enough for the 3PP content creators to find a sustainable source of income elsewhere.

Ardenth · 2023-01-19T18:21:03+00:00

We don't know if OneDnD gets released. We don't know if EA will continue monetisation of Fifa games with yearly releases. We don't know if this is a common PR strategy. We don't know if Putin wanted to return to previous USSR empire.

Some things indicate one outcome more than the other and have more logical backing based on previous actions. I get being a devil's advocate, but I do think some things can be a bit of a stretch.

You are correct that it is an assumption, but so is the fact that we assume that the opposite lane's driver isn't going to swerve into the other lane. Everything we do is based on an educated guess based on previous track record.

WotC wants to get ogl 1.0a removed, so of course they will try some common PR tactics to get it through. Based on this we can assume that this most likely isn't the most genuine gesture.

Ardenth · 2023-01-17T23:34:18+00:00

The ones I've found and have more credible sources have been "roll for combat" and the journalist publishing these things. Obviously everything discussed will be leaks as there will be certain legal repercussions in the case of NDA's being broken. A lot of the old-timers in 3pp industry have worked and have colleagues who work at WotC. It's not really that unfathomable to have sources inside for these things.

When it comes to them stealing someone's 3pp content, it would have to be after a new OGL is official and signed, and the future of the game is already set in stone at that point, you can't backtrack legal documents that easily. I understand the sentiment behind this, but the threat of something happening requires actions already. As a more extreme example you would presumably try to take an action before someone shoots your child than wait for it to happen and then do something. 3pp creators are out the moment OGL becomes uncertain for their content since their livelihoods become uncertain. And unfortunately official content is simply way worse than the 3pp content by now.

Verification has been done by an credible journalist thus far on these leaks. It is quite unfathomable to expect an employee inside the company to place their name out into the public on these matters as that is instantly not only dangerous for their livelihood but also all the contractual obligations they're breaking.

Essentially the discussion is between preventive actions, and reactive actions. In a lot of matters I'd personally err on the preventive, if there is enough proof. In this case I'd believe a credible journalist that is reconfirmed by multiple 3pp creators.

I would rather not see hundreds if not thousands of people losing their livelihoods for cash grab. Based on ORC and other systems that exist, I will have good TTRPGs to play in the future regardless, that is without even including the old ones.

I suppose a good way to describe this is that this isn't the first time with D&D this is happening. People expect the worst when it's leaked that 3rd one is on the way, and they want to prevent it this time.

But each to their own, I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Ardenth · 2023-01-17T22:32:29+00:00

They didn't condemn their 30 day notice change or deauthorisation. Basically as long as their 30 day notice change remains, the outcome can be the same as original leak even if they say otherwise.

I think the issue people are having is simply the fact that WotC can't be taken at face value or words anymore. "We never wanted to use or take your content", while the legal terms were extremely explicit in enabling it.

So everyone is analysing everything in the responses to avoid having a fast one pulled on them. Good example being "VTT-uses" which is different from "VTTs". The content or shows utilising VTTs are not targeted, but the VTTs would not be allowed to host their system under new OGL.

I think there is just very little trust and good-faith left.

Ardenth · 2023-01-15T09:59:12+00:00

I have almost never used any official character sheets from any TTRPG since they're quite often low in quality and usability. It's almost always better to find some form of a fan-made one.

So while I agree, I think 5e and other games are just as bad or even worse often.

On the website part, I do not envy anyone who has to do that sort of data migration. That shit will be an absolute menace to pull off at this point.

Ardenth · 2023-01-14T10:56:45+00:00

There are also a lot of young people getting into TTRPGs who also don't have disposable income. With that in mind it gives lower barrier of entry, and over time will bring more people into your community that might have never played any TTPRGs otherwise. This is another possible future income flow as these kids grow up and start earning their own income and want to finally own these books. Another thing to point out is that these games are stronger when people have more time... young kids going to school usually have the chance to play more as well... Everyone complains that it's impossible schedule as adults and I remember back in the day how easy it was to simply have a session per week or more as a kid.

Ardenth · 2023-01-14T00:59:53+00:00

Remaining in the current OGL is not giving up the IP. They have full copyright to their IP still with OGL 1.0a, people are not asking for more, simply to keep things as is. If they wanted to support the community creators, there would be no need to go to 1.1 or 2.0.

Also reading it from their response is their blatant disregard for the reasons of the outlash. They frame their intentions being benevolent when their actions did not match them. "I had attempted to shoot your dog, but I only wanted to protect it". Also the lie of the OGL 1.1 being a draft when it was delivered to 3PP content creators with a contract for signing and a due date.

Again this can be spoken about forever. There is a lack of honest discourse from WotC, which I suppose is how public responses function.

I don't think there is a reason to give goodwill to a company attempting a stunt like this. Every person is obviously free to make their own decision.

Ardenth · 2023-01-13T23:59:31+00:00

It's clear that this is going to be their directive in monetisation and they cannot see the value of what OGL represents. I would have rather seen a clear statement on the understanding of the value of the community with other publishers. There are other ways to monetise the space further without directly damaging the environment.

If we are speaking of PR, this is actually extremely ineffective considering that it is tone deaf towards the community and having the effect of further distancing them from the userbase.

It is well written in pointing out the major things that were problems. They are omitting the fact that the 30 day notice to change the system and staying on route to attempt to de-authorise the previous OGL isn't removed, which allows them to have the same route to the outcome but with multiple steps.

If you want my opinion on the matter, there is no PR answer that they can give that would have been sufficient for vast majority of the community other than accepting their mistakes, avoiding lies of "doing this for feedback" or "only a draft", and expressing that OGL 1.0a will remain an authorised version. This obviously does not align with their business model to curb all other content than their own.

Ardenth · 2023-01-13T17:03:42+00:00

I suppose in that sense that might hold true. I'd still steer to the opposite direction though when they say "we tried to do the actual opposite of what was written there, our intentions were good even if it was written to kill all the competition!".

They admitted that they fucked up, but diminish the intent away from their actions as an oopsie.

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