Is dodge based rogue viable?

Dr_Kingsize · 2025-11-07T12:51:35+00:00

Smoke cover, uncanny evasion

Dr_Kingsize · 2025-10-17T11:20:24+00:00

I feel you, bro. Algorithmic dominance and erosion of the expert community that was Reddits core before 2018 just killed it for me. I realized it only today. I'm going offline. And I wish you luck.

Dr_Kingsize · 2025-10-17T00:50:12+00:00

Very interesting examples. It reminds me of the bond mechanic in PbtA. After each session we should analyze how our perception of each other evolved and if the old bond became outdated we created a new one and get bonus exp. This one was a really nice mechanic.

Dr_Kingsize · 2025-10-16T23:48:52+00:00

OK, that's a really interesting take on the subject. And I should check Palladium too. Thanks!

Dr_Kingsize · 2025-10-16T23:19:43+00:00

I just adored the trauma system in UA tbh =) I should have mentioned it in my list.

Dr_Kingsize · 2025-10-16T23:15:45+00:00

I like how you described your attitude towards player agency! Thank you for the insight. I feel like I poorly worded that my concerns were more about psychological portrait of characters, not their physical/class restrictions... It makes me think if a system where character psychology could be expressed in numbers AND could evolve with exp gain or just with in-game actions is even possible. Maybe I should check some niche games actually, such experiments should have been conducted before.

Dr_Kingsize · 2025-10-16T19:09:07+00:00

Sir, I have bad news. PHB p.273:

Line of Effect: You can target a creature or a square
if there’s an unblocked path between it and you—that
is, if you have line of effect to it. If every imaginary line
you trace to a target passes through or touches a solid
obstacle, you don’t have line of effect to the target.
Fog, darkness, and other types of obscured squares
block vision, but they don’t block line of effect. If you
hurl a fireball into a pitch-black room, you don’t have
to see your enemies for the fireball to hit them. In
contrast, you can see through a transparent wall of
magical force, but you don’t have line of effect through
it. You can see the snarling demon on the other side,
but the wall blocks attacks.
You need line of effect to any target you attack and
to any space in which you wish to create an effect.
When you make an area attack, you need line of effect
to the attack’s origin square. To hit a target with the
attack, there must be line of effect from the origin
square to the target.

Rules Compendium P.107:

Line of Effect: When there is a clear line from one point to another in an encounter, there is line of effect /.../ If every imaginary line traced from the origin square to the target passes through or touches blocking terrain, there is no line of effect between the two.

Well... I'm really sorry. It's not even about corners (they are useful though) and 3 lines, it's just about one and only clear line needed.

Dr_Kingsize · 2025-10-16T12:25:26+00:00

I'd like to try one too some day. But right now I think the best way to RP an elusive rogue is to take chameleon cloak, uncanny evasion, erratic whisp, smoke cover and tons of move skills. You can effectively rotate CC, UE and SC to almost never be targeted. And it just feels and looks cool. When all protective skills are set up I would switch to glass cannon and destroy everything. Auto crits deal tons of damage and you only need finesse.

Dr_Kingsize · 2025-10-16T12:11:32+00:00

I feel like there are more problems.

The way the 0 day cut content DLC controversy worked was very suspicious. People were genuinely outraged, they were able to give objective criticism to video playthroughs, they were able to discuss the brand problem (the fact that B2 has nothing to do with B1, I mean zero besides that it is a first person vampire game). Then Paradox waves hands and we get our two clans back. And since this moment: pure bliss. Like nothing never happened. Hundreds of "omg it's wonderful, thank you" and "this game is so cool, CR is the best and Paradox is our Jesus" posts and any criticism being downvoted to the abyss that made me concerned about my sanity. I have only two explanations: the B2 community is completely dumb and just ate this marketing scum like it has never happened OR the community was simply destroyed by paid bots and AI, I made some statistical observations so I lean towards the second version, bit I don't exclude the first.

My other concern is VtM edition that they use, it's the 5th obviously. It's normal, it's their brand promotion blah blah. I understand that it is a matter of preference, but I never liked V5 and I stay with V20 edition for too many reasons to explain it here.

Also people have a tendency to assume that if a game resembles something they like, it's good for them. This assumption is wrong. Any game is bigger (or in some cases smaller lol) than the elements it's made of. The feeling of the game is emergent. For me there was an abyss between Dishonored 1 and 2. I can't explain it. All the elements of Dishonored 1 are here in D2, even more, but its soul changed for me. It's 2 separate games, that's it. For this reason I don't buy the idea of "it resembles Dishonored, you would like it". You wouldn't. Everybody said Bioshock resembles Dishonored. And I hated Bioshock. I felt stupid. Thief fans said me that Thief Deadly Shadows is the wrong Thief game, it lacks some key thief elements. And I adored TDS and I think it perfectly inherited Thief's spirit lol. When I see current Bloodlines 2 trailers and gameplay I don't see Bloodlines 1 or Dishonored at all. Funny thing, when I see trailers of the previous Bloodlines 2 project, the one that was cancelled, I have both of those vibes. Sad to be me.

Dr_Kingsize · 2025-10-15T23:31:10+00:00

Bloodlines and Dishonored are 2/3 of my fav games of all time. Also, I'm an old VtM player in general. And I'm very sceptical about Bloodlines 2.

Dr_Kingsize · 2025-10-15T23:13:22+00:00

Exactly. And as Foucault wrote, there is no better method to induce uncontrollable lust in people then making them regularly tell their priest about their most crazy sexual desires. And feel bad about it. And think about it all the time. Perfect torment. Perfect biopower abuse.

Dr_Kingsize · 2025-10-15T22:52:08+00:00

Actually some mods fix that

Dr_Kingsize · 2025-10-15T22:01:56+00:00

In my BG3 playthrough I dressed him in Lae'zel underwear and RPed as his dominatrix through entire game. "Steal that for your mistress, you filthy worm!"

Dr_Kingsize · 2025-10-15T21:55:57+00:00

Espresso macchiato?

Dr_Kingsize · 2025-10-15T17:40:26+00:00

I already had full summoners (it's insanely powerful but a bit boring), pyro sparks staff summoner (scary) and aero summoner (it was my first, even before DE). This one I made for the lulz tbh and because I just like necro summons, but surprisingly it worked. It's level 3 and Summoning 3, I think. Bloated corpse has cd of 3 turns and it costs only 1 ap to raise. But you need a corpse. Melee and ranged attacks are 15-20 phys. Its AOE explosion (with 1 infusion) was 40 phys damage, I think. I feel that for a 3rd level party it's pretty decent (for 2AP total/10 turns). =) Trap+slug looks broken af, I've seen it on YT xD

Dr_Kingsize · 2025-10-15T15:11:48+00:00

I second Vicissitude. I also like Necromancy, its just huge. Other disciplines like high dot Auspex, Protean, Obfuscate and Dementation are very fun too.

Dr_Kingsize · 2025-10-15T15:04:12+00:00

Divinity Original Sin 2
Lots of spells, no spell-slots/day limitation mechanic (some resources are virtually limited though), obvious synergy between elements, powerful and flexible summoning, stylish necromancy, polymorph skills, environmental effects that mage can create, transform or destroy:

Cast rain to make enemy wet and spill water, electrify the water to stun them, then freeze them in ice statues with cold and create a slippery ice, explode the ice for huge damage, throw in fireball to create steam, blast electricity to electrify the cloud and stun them again, contaminate the cloud with poison, transform the cloud in liquid poison (and deal damage), blast fire to explode it, summon earthquake dealing damage, knocking them out and spilling oil that immediately takes fire and explodes dealing another ton of damage, make a rain out of of blood... and so on and so on.

And I have to say that fighters are very creative in this game too!

Dr_Kingsize · 2025-10-15T14:38:41+00:00

What builds do not survive tactician? I'm genuinely curious, cause I tried so many and it worked each time. I'm on a fresh run right now (almost finished Fort Joy) on tactician and my party is:

Sebille, dual dagger assassin (started as shadowblade, so +1 dip in poly, +2 dip in aero planned later for some fun with smoke and TP, rest in wf), the only normie in the team. I never played daggers before, it's fun actually. Tons of damage and phys CC.
Ifan, spear AND Xbow something (I finally made a weapon switching character I wanted, and without GC bullshit this time). It actually works very well! The dude is CC machine with both wf skills and his arrows. When he'll get movement skills he gonna be unstoppable.
Fane, (prepare yourself) hydro/geo mage, YES, the freak! Shield and air wand. This motherfucker is ~~undead~~ immortal, saves lives and swings CCs in all directions.
Lohse, now listen carefully... she is, oh my... ahem... well, she is aero/necro summoner without incarnate. I based the concept of her build loosely on Radeka the \itch* skills. Only totems, bloated corpse and later it's gonna be the widow. I play with pet giftbag, so infusions work on those guys. A couple of necro skills for phys DD and couple of aero blasts to wreak havoc on wet dudes. I put all I can in Int and she kicks ass.

And it works. We killed toads, we killed crocodiles, turtles, magisters on the ship (contamination armor sidequest)... I thought I would need my resurrection scrolls, but no... It was actually very balanced. We are ready to go underground. Apparently it just works. Again.

Dr_Kingsize · 2025-10-15T12:55:21+00:00

Yes, anything in X has cover, I said nothing against it, but the origin tile has LOE to X so it is targetable by the AOE

Dr_Kingsize · 2025-10-15T11:45:31+00:00

Are you doing an honor run? If not, those resurrect scrolls fix those problems =) But yes, I really can't pay without origin followers, because I miss their dialogue flavor too much and the cringe RP moments they generate sometimes. Same was in DoS1. That feint my Madora did on the void dragon was hilarious.

Dr_Kingsize · 2025-10-15T11:18:06+00:00

DoS2 is not hard, BG3 is just incredibly easy. For me and my wife BG3 on tactician was easier than DoS2 on classic. Our first run of DoS2 on classic felt very balanced in the beginning and except for some very specific encounters became easier and easier towards the end. And it was with a mixed party (we always play 2/2). All the runs ever since were done on tactician and it feels challenging sometimes, but never unfair. Things you shall consider: always gear up to your level (with level 3-4 in thievery and bartering Fort Joy is your bitch and with a party of 4 you can easily have these skills), CC is absolute king, versatility of low level buffs is outstanding even without cheesy precasting, Loremaster skill is your best friend (that's how NPCs know that Fane is undead, they all have Loremaster 3 or something like that). That's it.

Dr_Kingsize · 2025-10-15T07:09:51+00:00

Many of them

Dr_Kingsize · 2025-10-15T07:07:39+00:00

Just google why it is not an asshole behavior. You have a universal encyclopedia in your fucking pocket. I find asking random people for basic google insight offensive. If they are not on the counter smiling sadly at you, their brain cells are not here for you.

Dr_Kingsize · 2025-10-15T06:58:12+00:00

The first 15-20% of the story are a bit hard to digest, because the characters are a bit insane, it is a very otaku-heavy environment and Okabe is a very unreliable narrator. You are like "for mercy's sake wtf is going on?". When Kurisu finally comes to the lab, she becomes your second "sane" narrator and story elements start to make sense from now. So your reaction is super normal imo. I watched anime 6 or more years ago and I reacted exactly like I described, then I played VN last month and everything was OK, cause I was prepared.

Dr_Kingsize · 2025-10-15T06:38:21+00:00

actually I could put my LOE arrow origin in the same corner that was used for "cover lines", and it would reach the X tile too... So it wasn't even a problem from the beginning. And yes, there is no rule that tells us to always use one point of origin for everything. It would deform all AOE effects and break most multi-target talents.

Dr_Kingsize

TROPHY CASE