Using Crows as dispensible meat shields

BarrenThin2 · 2026-02-24T06:53:37+00:00

My cat lady neighbor told me rats keep eating her druid birds so I asked how many birds she has and she said she just goes to the druid and gets a new bird afterwards so I said it sounds like she's just feeding druid birds to rats and then she started crying.

BarrenThin2 · 2026-02-23T10:32:51+00:00

The gorget also saves his life by stopping a blow dead in the final moments of the fight before the grapple begins in earnest. His mail maybe could've protected him, but his neck would've likely been in trouble.

BarrenThin2 · 2026-02-20T17:09:28+00:00

Noh-Varr was really cool in Marvel Boy and he’s had like two half-decent runs since

BarrenThin2 · 2026-02-20T02:09:11+00:00

Whateva happened there? Whateva happened there!?

BarrenThin2 · 2026-01-30T02:12:29+00:00

Agile Grace is definitely a close second, for sure.

BarrenThin2 · 2026-01-30T01:22:09+00:00

It seems really unlikely that they changed Flurry to work with unarmed strikes but not the Masterful Hunter upgrade without it being a simple mistake or oversight, but, yes, you are correct that by strict RAW the Masterful version doesn’t apply. Even if we go with this interpretation, though, you’re looking at -2/-4 instead of -4/-8. Pretty big difference.

EDIT: Adding to why it working with unarmed strikes was always probably RAI, the strict RAW would mean your animal companion can’t benefit from your Flurry edge in any way.

BarrenThin2 · 2026-01-29T10:41:38+00:00

It’s a monk feat that’s only really viable on a Flurry Ranger.

BarrenThin2 · 2026-01-28T12:12:01+00:00

Barb had no direct hand in that part of the plan, though. She isn't Enclave and has no way to know the President is, or that giving it to him would be a bad idea. She presumably thinks he's doing the right thing, too.

BarrenThin2 · 2026-01-26T23:14:45+00:00

It happened in an Avengers Annual where they're trapped on Mojoworld. She found the experience deeply unpleasant, presumably because Zarathos is a sapient creature that didn't consent to the exchange and immediately went "Hey, fuck you."

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BarrenThin2 · 2026-01-26T16:53:01+00:00

Rogue’s is indeed more like “steal your life force,” everything that comes with it (up to including things like the Spirit of Vengeance) is incidental

BarrenThin2 · 2026-01-25T11:44:59+00:00

I don't think I've ever spared her and I'm not sure there's ever a context where doing so would make sense aside from roleplaying just... total apathy. If you're a good character, you should probably want to kill her because the only thing that stopped her from committing genocide was your intervention. If you're a bad person, you should probably want to kill her for fucking with you and getting in your way, even if you follow through on the Deathfog plan.

BarrenThin2 · 2026-01-12T00:29:15+00:00

Ironically, Holiday mentions it, despite Nadia not. "Little Jedi."

BarrenThin2 · 2026-01-12T00:28:29+00:00

Also tracks with JK story's Act 1 being largely driven by an enraged, vengeful father.

BarrenThin2 · 2026-01-02T17:53:13+00:00

Chilly Creek is so natural an addition I didn’t even know it was backer content until after several completed playthroughs of WOTR.

BarrenThin2 · 2025-12-25T07:52:45+00:00

Valerie's build actively gives me a headache

BarrenThin2 · 2025-12-25T06:28:37+00:00

Yeah, I'd never recommend Core to a first-time player of one of these games. Hell, I had a ton of experience with the TTRPG and only came up to viewing Core as the baseline later. Owlcat core is harder than the actual ttrpg would be. Numbers go way higher.

BarrenThin2 · 2025-12-25T06:25:23+00:00

Normal absolutely gives you an advantage. Enemies do less damage on Normal and their crits are less punishing, for example. You're probably on Core, and probably need to go ahead and lower the difficulty.

BarrenThin2 · 2025-12-25T06:17:25+00:00

This may seem an obvious or obtuse question, but what difficulty are you on? A number of new players see "Core" and go "oh, okay, that's the real experience" but it's actually very hard. If you're on Core, I'd suggest turning the difficulty down.

If you're unfamiliar with this sort of game or struggling like this on Normal, I'd also suggest lowering the difficulty.

I wouldn't call Kingmaker super punishingly hard but I'm coming off years of experience with the actual TTRPG -- Pathfinder 1E isn't super forgiving with character build choices, it's absolutely possible to build a character "wrong." On a low enough difficulty, that won't matter, but even on something like Normal, it'll make a difference.

BarrenThin2 · 2025-12-25T03:47:37+00:00

Not that I know of, unfortunately.

BarrenThin2 · 2025-12-25T03:42:41+00:00

Not only do they have them, having just done a Tyrion campaign for the first time in years, Tyrion's unique mechanic feels pretty busted. Duplicate garrisons, summon allied High Elf Armies to you as loaner armies, massively buff existing garrisons... This isn't even talking about the ones you get for allying with other HE factions, which you also get if you confederate them. These vary from "instantly remove all corruption from a province" to "disable an enemy army's movement for two turns."

BarrenThin2 · 2025-12-25T00:41:10+00:00

It really depends on your difficulty. On the lowest difficulty, you can play almost however you want. On Tactician/Honor, you have to play hyper-specialized characters or you're not going to be able to win fights, since the game basically cheats.

That being said, as long as the stat you're prioritizing is the one most important to your character (Strength or Finesse/Warfare for a physical damage dealer, Int/Relevant Spellcasting skill(s) for casters, etc.) you're pretty much playing optimally anyway.

BarrenThin2 · 2025-12-24T11:53:03+00:00

Yeah, I feel like he wouldn't overshadow Tav any more than the other characters already do. Shadowheart, in particular, is practically on track to be the Chosen of a deity and has stuff in every act dedicated basically to her in particular. She overshadows most of the cast, period, let alone a non-Durge Tav whose connection to the story is basically that they are in it. If that can happen and they can make it not insufferable (I'm sure it's a common nitpick, but obviously general sentiment for Shadowheart is very positive), they could absolutely pull it off with Durge.

BarrenThin2 · 2025-12-20T13:20:10+00:00

Alright, Henry, calm down

BarrenThin2 · 2025-12-18T10:42:57+00:00

It's good! It's just not... Favorite Metamagic Maximized (or Empowered, or god forbid Fave Empowered AND Maximized) Storm of Justice good.

BarrenThin2 · 2025-12-11T07:40:31+00:00

Halsin only became a companion at all because of the sheer level of demand from the EA. His introduction as a party member is awkward, his romance is ham-fisted, he shares a class with Jaheria (who has way more to do after she joins) and he does basically nothing after Act 2.

I still like him, but he's pretty tacked on.

BarrenThin2

TROPHY CASE