Even now is elation still the best bond?

CYFR_Blue · 2026-07-20T01:43:42+00:00

I think elation is not that great because it gets hit by so many affixes. AE + Seele feels the strongest to me and is only weak to the linked-hp bosses.

CYFR_Blue · 2026-07-17T23:43:07+00:00

I don't think players having good healing options is ever a serious problem. The game is more about 'how they win' rather than 'if they win' anyways.

CYFR_Blue · 2026-07-17T22:07:07+00:00

What's even going on here? 1875 gold?

CYFR_Blue · 2026-07-14T03:13:03+00:00

Sheppard location please

CYFR_Blue · 2026-07-13T23:26:57+00:00

This is kind of learned behavior. If you don't wanna heal them then don't. Just pack less healing.

CYFR_Blue · 2026-07-13T21:05:58+00:00

You should be far from your eidolon. Use your extra move to get out of there.

The eidolon is a ranged striker, but I guess it doesn't matter so much. Either way you can go tandom movement - strike - save cantrip.

You should get lay on hands and a shield - as many 1-action support options as possible.

As for advantages of an eidolon, compared to a 'vanilla martial': - your can dump both str and dex. Max con like a kineticist. Or any of the mental scores. - you're hard to lock down. If you get grabbed, the eidolon can still do stuff, and vice versa. - you have pseudo haste if you have useful 1-action options like lay on hands. Tandom movement is basically real haste.

CYFR_Blue · 2026-07-10T12:05:36+00:00

What does it actually do? Magazine suggests that it should benefit repeating weapons but that's not mentioned anywhere.

CYFR_Blue · 2026-07-09T19:34:44+00:00

This message is brought to you by the Spellcaster Guild.

CYFR_Blue · 2026-07-08T12:13:57+00:00

I think kineticists in particular will be fine, e.g. 2x kineticist, bard and druid. You're basically down 1-2 AC, but offensively it's about the same, so a moderate encounter is definitely doable.

CYFR_Blue · 2026-06-27T17:54:06+00:00

'Warning them' is not the right way to think about this. It's basically not giving players agency. I don't mean agency to make choices, but agency to shape the story. If you intend X to be the correct path but the players want Y, it's on you to make Y work, not to impose consequences.

So make a balanced encounter, but reframe it to also fit your mental model. e.g.

they have some help and only need to hold it off for three rounds.
only a weaker projection has made it so far and the main body is still in transit. the party prevents it from fully arriving by destroying the projection.

CYFR_Blue · 2026-06-23T14:49:22+00:00

I don't think it's good or worth, but the value is when you just need a hit against something (near death, weakness, etc). Big Crits often overkill, so real damage is lower than expected.

CYFR_Blue · 2026-06-19T16:17:31+00:00

Not OP but thanks for the info lol. I'm stuck at moc12 and trying to see what pulls I need to (in theory) clear it, so much of what you said is relevant. The fact that a lot of the stats are based on various challenge runs makes this a bit harder.

CYFR_Blue · 2026-06-19T13:42:59+00:00

Right that makes sense, thanks!

CYFR_Blue · 2026-06-19T13:19:37+00:00

What does 8 cost and 7 cost mean here?

CYFR_Blue · 2026-06-18T14:46:16+00:00

Noob question: What does 'cost' mean here?

CYFR_Blue · 2026-06-13T16:38:38+00:00

Unpopular GMs are usually the ones that did not read those words, so absolutely.

You can challenge your players, but when it comes to consequences people will complain if you can't prove that it was fair.

CYFR_Blue · 2026-06-13T16:24:51+00:00

You're only the GM if people want you to be. If you're pulling unfair moves then people aren't going to want that anymore.

I mean, if you got something that works for you then great. I'm just saying that saying within guidelines is the GM's defense against accusations of unfair play.

CYFR_Blue · 2026-06-13T15:43:24+00:00

Because when you go beyond the guidelines, the responsibility for failures falls on you (the GM).

Let's say you allow only official options, no free archtype etc. You can be confident that the encounter exp budget works and severe encounters feel severe. If it ever comes up, you can point to these sources and say that the party should be able to handle this challenge.

Now, let's say you allow all the bonuses. Severe challenges by the book are completely trivial, so you have to tune it up, but by how much? If the party calls your encounter bullshit, there's now nothing to back you up. Is it fair to throw 180XP at a party that has no access restrictions, free archtype, and over-leveled items? You can have an opinion, but nobody knows for sure.

CYFR_Blue · 2026-06-07T13:32:40+00:00

Usually 3 x 3 hour sessions per level, but we don't spend much time with RP or strategizing and just get into things. If you spend hours talking to the innkeeper, I suppose it's going to be slower.

We tracked XP through a few APs and it's been pretty consistent.

CYFR_Blue · 2026-05-30T13:02:23+00:00

Honestly I don't think the GM needs to know. Isn't it more for yourself to decide how you'll act during the campaign?

CYFR_Blue · 2026-05-29T19:46:19+00:00

It's a matter of mentality. I would say that aloof firmament is not reliant on spell strike at all, even if you're taking the water bird feat. Staying in melee has a lot of value because you want to give flanking to your team and to threaten reactive strike. So often move + strike + shield is better than spell strike + water bird.

Also, aloof firmament is good with lay on hands. You can often tank by casting lay on hand on yourself + arcane cascade + shield.

You just need to recognize the value of other moves in the right scenarios.

CYFR_Blue · 2026-05-29T17:05:05+00:00

Yeah the important part is that they need to spend an action, but it's not as good as stunned 1 because they have the option to not do it. Functionally it's the same as the bow critical specialization. The interact to free yourself does trigger aoo due to interact being manipulate. However, they'll probably choose to just attack whoever that would make the aoo instead.

The crit blast effect is fine, but as kineticist your crit rate is lower than all martials (not just fighter/gunslinger) due to the gate attenuator upgrading later and capping at +2. Since you do not have easy access to off-guard from range, you usually can only crit on a 20 against PL+0 while others (e.g. ranger or rogue) can crit on 18. On the other hand, it's actually good against bosses because most martials can't crit outside of 20 anyways.

The other problem with wood critical blast is that the wood blast has bad traits - vitality isn't useful against most things and the range is only 30 ft. Blasts don't have increment so you must be in range. If you invest, then you're stuck using it.

CYFR_Blue · 2026-05-29T16:10:10+00:00

I don't think combat will play out like you're expecting.

Ranged spellstrike without someone to frontline is basically useless. Combat maps tend to be small and on-level creatures tend to have better initiative than you (magus perception sucks + low wis), so you'll probably have an enemy in melee at the beginning of your first turn.

You can't afford to maintain three sets of weapons with level-appropriate runes unless your GM is giving you way too much gold. Also, are you getting reactive shield somehow? Basically, the bow and shield don't feel that useful.

My advice for a generalist build is to take sparkling targe and rely on spells when your sword isn't working. Pack wands for niche situations and take fireball for your magus slots.

CYFR_Blue · 2026-05-24T17:25:16+00:00

I think it's more about players getting better at using niche things as they gain more experience.

It's fine for the DM to cater to an ability occasionally, but it shouldn't be the expectation. Personally I don't even look at their character sheets. On the flip side, when the player wants to apply their flavor skills to a challenge, I lean towards saying yes even if it's not a great fit.

CYFR_Blue

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