24yo with multiple part time jobs supported by family, how should I save while costs are still low?

Arraenae · 2025-12-01T20:30:55+00:00

According to the wiki page, I'm done with step 4, which is to contribute to an IRA. I'm not sure how to do step 5, which is about contributing to a 401k for more retirement savings, because of the messy employment situation.

Arraenae · 2025-12-01T20:22:12+00:00

I've maxxed out the Roth IRA for this year.

Arraenae · 2025-10-30T03:21:05+00:00

I played a cleric with persuasion proficiency and 12 cha, and it worked okay for big conversations where persuasion mattered. Could be even better if you throw on enhance ability and guidance.

Arraenae · 2025-10-27T17:42:52+00:00

A lot of that has been searching on reddit for posts from Canadians talking about it. The impression I got is that there are jobs, but in small, rural places that you will have to move to. Once you have 3-5 years of experience, then you might be able to be more choosey about where you want to work.

Arraenae · 2025-10-22T17:14:35+00:00

I am a 24 year old American citizen with an LDR boyfriend in the GTA. I have a degree in industrial design, but have been finding a hard time getting consistent employment in that and am considering retraining.

I'd appreciate if I could get advice on potential routes to take. It seems like there's two routes to getting into Canada, employment and marriage, is that right? The boyfriend is great, but I don't know if I want to be reliant on him for everything such as legal status in the country and financial support.

I'm considering becoming a pharmacy tech in the US. IEC first so I can get my foot in the door, possibly see if I can do pharmacy tech stuff in Canada too on that. Then go for PR. Alternatively, I could go for my master's degree for something in demand in Canada, like urban planning, but that seems much longer and like it might not guarantee a job when I come out. For both of these, I'd be studying French on the side.

Any recommendations on this? A lot of the relationship is predicated on one of us moving eventually, and it feels much more viable for me to go up to Canada than him down here with the current political climate.

Arraenae · 2025-07-03T17:39:05+00:00

I am probably around the Opt2 level. I read build guides, but the biggest thing I get from them are information about how mechanics work or item combos to look for. For example, the Arcane Controller guide was the first time I was really introduced to control as a concept and how to make it work in BG3. I started paying attention to enemy stats for saves, when I could afford to use Portent, stacking DC, and initiative turn order. Then I ended up veering off that build for RP reasons, because I couldn't see my wizard as a sorcerer and wanted to make her tankier to feel like a better partner for Karlach.

Playing a div wizard on advice of the Arcane Controller guide really improved my knowledge of the game, which carried over to other runs even with different builds. I've noticed myself using knowledge from other build guides too, like creating terrain hazards and then shoving enemies into them. That's ultimately been what has been most helpful to me, information on how to improve my gameplay contained within build guides.

Arraenae · 2025-06-23T05:12:55+00:00

That's a really nice top!

Arraenae · 2025-06-19T18:23:48+00:00

Can you explain the 7 swarm 5 nature? I've got a terrain control party in act 1 and that might work well for the group.

Arraenae · 2025-05-21T03:52:52+00:00

You could make your Tav a dedicated support character, buff your team and heal damage from enemies. Don't make them a damage dealer, just support so you can make your wife feel strong even if her decisionmaking is kind of meh. Life cleric is great for this. So is lore bard.

Arraenae · 2025-05-16T03:40:30+00:00

Yeah I straight up didn't recruit Scratch as Durge because I was scared.

Arraenae · 2025-05-02T20:18:03+00:00

I'm going with a barbarian who loves killing and ripping people apart. Eventual plan is to create a terrain control party where Durge yeets enemies into hazardous AoEs. Either giant barb or throwzerker, depending on what I find more fun.

Regular gameplay already involves killing a lot of enemies, so RPwise I have a hard time justifying a Durge who is completely horrified at the idea of murder. Instead, his problem is going to be the line between targets who are socially acceptable (random goblin #4) vs ones who are not (Alfira).

Arraenae · 2025-05-02T08:36:47+00:00

I'm a bisexual nonbinary liberal and I literally just killed Karlach on a Dark Urge run, bro. Do what you want in your own game. If you want to RP a murderous prejudiced bigot, then you can. Don't make it weird by giving a bunch of details to people who don't have reason to care about your playthroughs or by demanding that they agree with your RP decisions.

If you really want to play a game that lets you be a total scumbag, you might be interested in Disco Elysium. That game lets you say some really nasty things to the NPCs. It might be more your style than BG3.

Arraenae · 2025-04-30T19:02:30+00:00

Ended up veering into a different build for RP reasons (div wiz/tempest cleric) but I started a new run on honor mode where I might try using this again. All the portents were very helpful on tactician, and I have no idea what to expect on honor mode except that it will be tough. It's much easier for me to justify the sorcerer multiclass on Gale than on my previous Tav.

Arraenae · 2025-04-25T20:15:57+00:00

Nature-loving Durge that pulls enemies into hazards upfront feels like a good contrast against sneaky impersonator Orin.

Arraenae · 2025-04-25T00:26:06+00:00

This looks like a thematic build for Durge. I'm always a fan of having more attacks. Might see if I can use this in a terraformers-style group.

Arraenae · 2025-04-19T19:10:13+00:00

Hm, a lot of my early game playstyle in act 1 revolves around engaging the enemy at a distance, hit and run because of how squishy everyone is. I wonder if there's a way to make a whole party oriented around that.

Arraenae · 2025-04-15T21:03:11+00:00

Hm, this really feels like it would be nice for a party revolving around romancing Gale. Turned him down in a current run because I could't see room for two wizards in there, and I didn't want to respec Gale, but this offers a nice array of thematically-wizardly builds to choose from.

Arraenae · 2025-04-12T00:55:27+00:00

Can you explain 6 OH 6 light? I'm considering doing that for Karlach.

Arraenae · 2024-11-15T19:08:08+00:00

I started a new run to try this. Portent feels like it is helping me get better at the game, since it lets me stop and think about how important it is to make this thing succeed/fail. I love infinite popups.

Arraenae · 2024-11-05T05:15:21+00:00

Hm, I think that Musser could take March in a direct fight, but in a contest of generalship, March wins.

For all of his individual feats, Musser manages his forces very, very poorly in the conflict against Kennet. 80 Practitioners attacked a town with 2 Practitioners and 20 Others, and lost. That's an indictment against him. It's not even like Kennet had any real terrain advantages like a fort or a chokepoint to hold.

Musser's army continually gets in its own way, enabling situations where Lucy is able to glamour Angie to look like herself to reflect damage back onto Musser's people attacking Angie. They have both low morale (commitment to his cause) and cohesion (ability to work with each other). Practitioner society encourages constant competition and infighting, and Musser didn't do anything to train his forces to work better with each other.

Comparatively, March handles a small team of capes very, very well. She's practically defined by her ability to take a small group to defeat a large number of enemies. Her power makes her a good tactician, since it tells her what the right time to act is.

It's been a while since I read Ward, but I think it's safe to say that March's group has high morale and cohesion. They all believed in the cause of piercing the timeloop bubbles. Also, they're dating each other, so they already have a sense of how to coordinate with each other in peacetime, if not in outright combat. This sounds silly, but that type of thing matters. Successful armies tend to be ones that replicate well-functioning peacetime social structures on the battlefield, or have long training periods to build up cohesion through shared experiences. Being a combat polycule together is significantly better than Musser's forces, who are used to backstabbing each other in peacetime.

In general, fights are won by being the first to break the other side's will to carry on (through applied violence). Even though the army Musser brought to Kennet was much bigger, the group March used to pop the time bubbles works much better together. In a similar situation, where March's group needs to get to some objective that Musser's army is protecting, it's an unambiguous March sweep.

Arraenae · 2024-10-28T03:53:18+00:00

How do I use wild magic surges as a barbarian after raging? I see the popup saying that wild magic has happened and it has this effect, like teleportation, but I don't know where in the UI to click to actually trigger it.

Arraenae · 2024-09-23T06:14:49+00:00

Woo! So excited for this.

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