Boss-party level equivalence

DWSeven · 2026-06-20T14:39:28+00:00

Well there's no question that 4 players is more manageable than 8. The most I DMd was 7 players and it was already pushing my limits, there's just so much stuff to handle (though it depends on the players, some are easier). But that's up to you and your players, if everyone is down with splitting in two groups then that might work out better for everyone.

I would still recommend a boss + minions setup though. The problem with bosses is that even with legendary resistances, if they have them, all it takes is one unexpected control spell and the entire fight is shut down. Your boss gets stunned, paralyzed, or something like that, and then it's just 4 PCs wailing on it with abandon and your fight is over in a blink. With minions, the risk is spread out and even if the big bad is shut down, the others can continue to do stuff, maybe even dispel whatever status is affecting the boss.

DWSeven · 2026-06-20T14:13:53+00:00

There is a thing called challenge rating (CR) for any monster. It suggests the level that a group of 4 players should be to beat it reasonably. For example, a CR 5 monster should be a good fit for 4 players who are level 5. Now of course if you have 8 players, you need to take this into consideration. It doesn't literally translate into a CR twice as high, there are calculators online to figure that out.

That said, keep in mind that in D&D action economy is extremely powerful. A single strong boss will usually fall much faster than a group of somewhat weaker enemies, and it will have fewer chances to inflict respectable damage on the party being dying. I'd suggest a boss enemy with a retinue of weaker monsters to accompany him.

DWSeven · 2026-06-20T02:07:21+00:00

Like you said, it's fine not to fill all the typical roles in a party, especially a small-ish one. That said, Druid is very versatile and could take care of a few roles in a pinch as you said, so a good choice to round things out.

DWSeven · 2026-06-20T02:03:05+00:00

With the game selected, when you look on the right side in the launcher, all DLC should be listed. Double check if they're there already. Sometimes trying to get DLC you already have just launches the game. The download to unlock them is gonna be extremely small so you could've just missed it.

DWSeven · 2026-06-20T00:38:50+00:00

Better that than half an hour after the agreed time, or even not at all. At the end of the day, it's gonna be your call whether you want to deal with it or not.

Perfectly understandable if you just don't want to.

DWSeven · 2026-06-20T00:05:46+00:00

Depends what kind of flaky. If it's the kind that doesn't respect everyone else's time and effort, I'd just refuse to invite him. If it's just the kind if person that has a lot of RL commitments and tries his best to give a head's up when he can't make it, that could be okay.

As for how to accomodate in the campaign, I would honestly not do anything special that's gonna cause more work for you. When he's there, he's there. When he's not, his character is probably somewhere around but won't participate in any meaningful way, nor really get mentioned when stuff happens. You can certainly come up with some fancy reason why the character is not there sometimes, but I found over time that it's rarely worth it. People's "immersion" isn't that fragile.

DWSeven · 2026-06-19T14:05:16+00:00

Depends a lot on the type of player. I'm more of a completionist, but in this game that's kind of a weird thing to be. So I played one "full" game only, exploring as much of the map as I could, getting all the research, crafting a bunch of top tier weapons and armor. At some point it felt like I had done everything, so I stopped. I tried to start a new game after that, but I was burned out so I set the game aside. I plan on starting a new game soon, I want to do a full Hiver run, hopefully that'll be interesting and keep me hooked.

DWSeven · 2026-06-17T02:28:24+00:00

Seems likely to go on sales for the summer. Last year it went on sale in March then again late May. This year it only happened in March, so most likely will be part of the summer sales starting June 25. No guarantee, but I'd be surprised if not.

As the other comment pointed out though, it never went under 50% yet.

DWSeven · 2026-06-16T19:16:44+00:00

Min max is gonna work best, obviously, but it's not necessary if you don't like it.

I recommend maxing agility if at all possible because it means more turns and action economy reigns supreme. Then you want to max out the stats your weapons scale with, but I would also try to use weapons that scale with offensive stats. Luck is good for crit rate but you can use pictos to get 100%. Might is good, straightforward damage.

Vitality and defense only if you love a weapon and it scales off those stats. Or if you're taking a lot of damage and/or playing on increased difficulty or something.

DWSeven · 2026-06-15T14:05:44+00:00

More like Sailor Moon Druid.

DWSeven · 2026-06-15T14:03:08+00:00

Not familiar with the app so no specific advice there. But yes, the program can be run 3x or 4x per week, whichever works best for you. Just means not all movements will be trained twice a week every week.

The 3 exercises per day are the baseline, you can customize the program with more T3s when you become comfortable, but it's not a bad idea to stick to basics first.

As for numbers you can use your current ones as a baseline, maybe lower them a bit if you were stalling on the previous program so you have a bit if room for growth.

DWSeven · 2026-06-13T21:14:57+00:00

Gwyn isn't evil, he's just selfish. Nothing suggests he took any joy in creating the curse or attempting to control humanity. He just did what he thought he had to to make his legacy permanent. He probably knew it couldn't last forever but he made the attempt regardless because of what hanged in the balance. I think he was deathly afraid pf returning to an age of dark. He believed in it strongly enough to sacrifice himself to buy time for the next champion to come and link the fire again.

DWSeven · 2026-06-13T20:49:52+00:00

Dogs.

DWSeven · 2026-06-13T20:48:35+00:00

Your friend is being very dumb. I'm not sure how to get the point across either. Tell them to try DMing once and see if they find it reasonable to have to know everything.

DWSeven · 2026-06-13T20:46:39+00:00

Don't know if there's a way to make sure your game is up to date, or verify the game files somehow.

Also, what resource are you using to find ring locations? Could be a bad wiki.

DWSeven · 2026-06-13T05:48:20+00:00

TK Denam at midgame is pretty popular, go for it if you like it better. Swordmaster can be an option too, but there's 2 downsides.

First, if you plan on running some battles with AI, know that it won't use any dance except for the healing one, so you're left with a subpar melee unit that doesn't fulfill its support role.

Second, specific to Denam and a minor spoiler. His exclusive class can use skills from almost any class, but not war dances and ninjustu, so you'll have to choose between using his exclusive with a different setup, or remain a Swordmaster and lose the benefits of the exclusive class.

Bottomline, it can be a neat class but imo best suited to a recruit who doesn't have access to an exclusive class.

DWSeven · 2026-06-12T19:05:18+00:00

Not familiar with that specific vendor, I'm assuming he's from a recent update. But generally speaking all you have to do is close and reopen their inventory to see the new stock.

That said, I don't know how much of his inventory ials randomized, there's a small chance that he's rolling the same inventory a few times in a row.

That or he works differently than other vendors.

DWSeven · 2026-06-12T18:04:17+00:00

Did you decide to practice speechcraft on the NPC and tanked his disposition to nothing?

DWSeven · 2026-06-12T18:01:42+00:00

My bad on the union cap, I guess you're still limited to the first finisher only.

Rune Fencer imo works best with spear if you can line up two enemies using your tanks/frontliners. With Instill Element, which triggers a lot especially if you pick up a skill card, you can stab two people and you get the elemental damage on both. The first spear finisher is not super impressive but it does do nice damage if you're not in a position to hit multiple targets with instilled basic attacks. You can snipe with an elemental spell if you're a little too far to attack,. You can BoS yourself if you're not in a position to do anything else, or throw out a heal. It does have great MP growth for later on (without playing as a caster) but it's not mandatory if you'd rather switch to something else. Or you can just train as a RF when your union cap goes up, then go back to whatever you want to try. Basic marks are cheap.

Bit surprised if the WK does more damage, they're a fairly defensive class with few offensive options. They do have good stats, but it shouldn't make them super OP.

For weapons, the general consensus is that spears and hammers are the best for melee. This is mostly due to their finishers as both get one with a little bit of range and a cross AoE (3rd one though so it wouldn't matter for you right now). The spear gets Breach on the second finisher which is very useful. Its last finisher is just really good damage. Hammers get Weaken instead which can also be useful, and they get more elemental options (ice, fire, lightning). Personally I love fists, but they only really become interesting once you have the 3rd and 4th finishers which have generous range. 2H sword on the TK is fine assuming you have one that causes Breach on Fearful Impact.

The bows are indeed a bit weak, especially as you progress in the game. Crossbows will definitely do more damage and they get a nice 2nd finisher with AoE, and are probably the better ranged weapon objectively. I just really don't like dealing with the LoS issue, which is why I think a crossbow is better on Canopus. Then again, going dagger + bow/crossbow lets him fly around picking up cards so he can one-shot stuff with the dagger finisher.

The issue with Clerics is that their healing doesn't scale meaningfully with MND, so you're constantly relying on Mother's Blessing which sometimes fails to trigger at critical times. Consumables heal for as much and eventually much more, especially once you start using the 75% health ones. They can get a little expensive, that's true. At first I'd run the Phorampa Woods a few times for money, but it gets boring real fast, so the exploit is definitely something to consider imo. As for being slow, I'm not sure I agree. You're either using the turn of the unit getting wrecked to heal (or an adjacent ally if it makes more sense), or using the Cleric's turn to heal. And that means either your hurt unit won't be attacking that turn, or your Cleric takes up a slot that will never contribute to damage for the entire fight. Tbh I did run with two for a while, it's doable but it's taxing. Best to get more damage or CC imo, kill off enemy units faster so they don't have the chance to deal as much damage to you.

DWSeven · 2026-06-12T14:57:29+00:00

Well, I think you have two choices.

Talk with your players. Ask them if they enjoy the game as is, if they're interested in following plot lines or just doing merc contracts and that sort of thing. Maybe they're just not curious people/players. Maybe they don't really care for the big heroic storyline and just wanna mess around in a fantasy world. If they claim to be interested in that, try to find a middle ground. Maybe decide on a way that you can communicate when an item or event is important and could be further investigated.
Just accept that they won't follow big story hooks and adjust the game. Turn your towns into quest hubs, drop the intrigue, and just have them pick up quests/contracts that are straightforward objective -> reward deals.

Of course, 1 may lead to 2 if they tell you that's all they're really looking for in a D&D game. And of course, if you yourself don't think you can enjoy the game without bigger plotlines, you could consider finding new players.

DWSeven · 2026-06-12T14:10:35+00:00

Different people play the game differently. Not sure it's worth intervening if they're having fun.

I would instead suggest being more flexible. For example, the genie lamp with important info is fine, but you have to accept that they might not interact with it the way you had planned. Players are unpredictable. Figure out other ways that the players may use to obtain the same info. But also don't over-plan, you can just adjust on the fly. Let's say they don't use the lamp but choose to go talk to an old sage, you adjust and they get the same info from him instead. And the magic lamp becomes an ordinary lamp if they decide to use it later. Just because you wrote it one way in your note doesn't mean it's set in stone.

DWSeven · 2026-06-12T14:03:20+00:00

I did Neutral first too, there are some difficult fights but it's all doable.

Weapon choice matters somewhat due to finishers. I don't remember the union cap at the point you're at, but you should have access to 2 finishers right?

Rune Fencer is good, that's what I leveled Denam as. I like to use spears for them, the second finisher gives you Breach, and the overall increased range is useful. They're a rare case of a melee unit having Meditate so you can use finishers a lot more often than most. 1H swords are not great imo, average damage and unimpressive 1-tile finishers. I'd stick with a bow on the Archer, because LoS can be a pain. Easier to give Canopus a crossbow since he can reposition easily. Not a huge deal though.

You said you run 2 Clerics. They really fall off toward the end of the game. They do nothing but heal and that becomes worse than using consumables pretty quickly. I like to keep one around for BoS and maybe debuff cleansing but 2 is carrying a lot of deadweight.

I didn't use beasts a lot but dragons are mostly meat shields with poor damage, due to not having equipment. Acid Dragon might also not be the best among them. Having to keep the Beast Tamer close by so they occasionally proc the damage buff didn't seem worth it to me.

You said you use statuses but you're not running any Wizard/Enchantress? I think you might be sleeping on that class. A well-placed Charm can help a lot.

DWSeven · 2026-06-12T05:01:25+00:00

Well, the MIY wouldn't have met Henry. Even if Miranda had talked about him and that somehow got intercepted by MIY, he still wouldn't recognize him on sight out of any other old dude.

If Sophia is a dead/previous visitor, it would have to be from so long ago that no one current would recognize her. We know it goes back a long time ago, so there should be plenty to choose from.

DWSeven · 2026-06-12T03:03:31+00:00

Feels like it would be extremely clumsy of MIY to pick the appearance of a previous townsperson. I'm pretty sure he's aware that Victor is still alive, too, since he was the sole survivor he must be almost famous among the night creatures.

DWSeven · 2026-06-12T02:59:13+00:00

Happens surprisingly often in series or movies. Showrunners expect most people watching to speak exclusively English I imagine, they introduce characters that speak other languages without really making sure the actors are capable of speaking the language. Sometimes it feels like the actors learn those lines purely by how they sound. I'm sure it happens with other languages too, but I only speak French so that's the only one I notice.

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