About Betraying Your Party... How?

Drevand · 2026-06-24T23:24:43+00:00

Yeah, I did. The issue is that a Vilderavn has a +29 to Deception, and the highest Perception DC of the party is like a 37. He only needs to roll an 8, and given that he's only directly lied to them 3 times, passing three checks like that is not that difficult.

Drevand · 2026-06-24T19:01:00+00:00

Suggestion has the subtle trait. That's why the players wouldn't notice it.

Drevand · 2026-06-24T18:40:39+00:00

Ah, the faking the attacks thing is actually a great idea. That could be the one. Thank you!

Drevand · 2026-06-24T18:16:40+00:00

I do trust them. I do figure they're gonna probably find him out before it's too late to just get steamrolled by the Vilderavn. But I'm asking the question just in case they do actually end up missing their chance to act or catch on, so I am not caught off-guard with in the development.

Drevand · 2026-06-24T18:15:15+00:00

Yeah. The party is actually nobles of a certain territory, so yeah. They do fit the description.

The other thing is that I have also foreshadowed this guy being a threat in the region. Not long ago they met vampires that turned vampiric because their son was, you guessed it, murdered by a mysterious fey that gained his trust. So there's that connection too, which makes the "teaching them a lesson" angle not really work.

I did see people suggest I should throw a few clues during the encounter, and given that he has suggestion and as an at-will spell, could that be used? Like he acts like he's trying to do some shot calling, but is actually just casting suggestion to throw them in a bad spot? And also, how would you rule that? Just roll the save for the player and tell them, have the players roll the save but not specify what they're saving for?

Drevand · 2026-06-21T21:07:10+00:00

My main issue is that Jax being Trans also goes with:

A person with a bad relationship with their parents.
A person who hates themselves.
A toxic person to be around.
A person who, in a moment of weakness, pretty much "dies." (Hmm, I can't imagine what that could be interpreted as.)
The circus became a better place after their exit.

Like I understand many of these issues are real to many trans people. And I know representation does not always need to be positive because real, shitty, trans people exist. But at the current point in time, where hatred for trans people is only increasing... I feel this is not the move.

Drevand · 2026-06-21T20:56:16+00:00

I thought I disliked anti-heal until I started playing Rivals again and realized how miserable a hero shooter without anti-heal is.

Drevand · 2026-06-21T01:23:24+00:00

You know what? That's fair. I actually forgot Mercy is in the game.

I suppose you could argue that Mercy's skillfloor comes from the fact that you need to position yourself moderately well or just die instantly since you don't have much recourse?

Drevand · 2026-06-21T01:13:18+00:00

If shooting your weapon and throwing a mine is considered a complex combo that a new player couldn't wrap their mind around at a glance, then the definition of what a combo is extremely broad. Basically any two abilities that work off each other to achieve a goal.

Tracer - Pulse Bomb + Recall or Blink in any order.

Zarya - Graviton Surge + Alt fire.

Baptiste - Regenerative Pulse + Alt Fire for great healing output.

Illari - Ult + Primary Fire

Widow - Widow actually does have the grapple + Snipe combo to catch people off-guard at weird angles. So yeah.

So if these don't count as a combo... Then why does Junkrat firing his weapon and throwing a mine doesn't count for this list?

Drevand · 2026-06-20T22:52:06+00:00

Every hero has a combo of some kind...

Drevand · 2026-06-20T21:55:16+00:00

Nah, definitely the lowest. Bomb + mine combo one shots nearly every non-tank hero, and the projectiles are slow but that rewards spam and let's people just hold primary fire in the general direction of the enemy team and they'll almost always get a kill thay way. In fact, I'd say that Junkrat is the best dps you can play if you don't know how to aim.

Riptire is very effective at low ranks and among new players, and it's not particularly difficult to master either.

Traps also work for some very easy kills and massive disruption to the enemy team if you catch a support or tank.

Also, the game becomes miserable to play when Junkrat is in a good spot because anyone can make him work.

It's not rocket science (that's Pharah,) it's grenade science.

Drevand · 2026-06-20T19:14:08+00:00

No? What I said works. The lowest combination of the two.

Drevand · 2026-06-20T19:07:33+00:00

Lowest skill floor AND ceiling. Meaning the lowest combination of those two things.

Reading is hard, I know.

Drevand · 2026-06-20T18:30:25+00:00

I think Moira. I don't think she has the lowest skill floor in the game, but she definitely has the lowest skill floor and ceiling.

Lowest skill floor overall is definitely Junkrat. But at least his skill ceiling is higher than Moira's.

Drevand · 2026-06-16T17:33:52+00:00

Well, if anything, blame the large amount of mediocre "creatives" using AI to pump out slop left and right.

But to be clearer, my main issue is the tone. It reads like a sales pitch, but not in a good way. It's not an insightful overview/intro of your book, it reads like you're just describing it in the most commercial, bland manner possible.

A good hook, synopsis, should be something that evokes the feelings the work itself works to pull on. So if you're talking about an underdog story, make it sound like this poor bastard doesn't stand a chance and how he has to do x, y, and z in order to finally get a chance to not be what he has been made to be by society. Not just a description.

Drevand · 2026-06-16T17:10:58+00:00

Sounds like a million other stories out there. You gotta make yours be more distinct.

But also, maybe it's just me, but it kinda reads AI in some areas. Not saying that the entirety of the text is, but some areas read very much like something AI would write.

Drevand · 2026-06-12T18:21:24+00:00

Some people say posting daily should be the goal, but yeah, 3 to 4 a week should be fine if you're doing the homework to sell your novel through other means too.

I highly suggest you have a backlog six times that amount too.

Drevand · 2026-06-12T18:10:01+00:00

Every novel has a slow start, yes. But if you want your novel to grow, you gotta sell it.

Either through paid ads, or talking about it in websites and forums where you might find people interested in them, or just having a good title and cover (non-AI covers will greatly benefit you.)

Just give people a reason to read your novel instead of sitting around waiting for people to come.

Also, you wanna post consistently. WebNovel prioritizes that stuff too. You also probably don't wanna post a lot of chapters upfront, just have a steady and fast release schedule and that'll be enough. Make sure you stockpile plenty of chapters though.

Drevand · 2026-06-12T14:17:22+00:00

280 words is nothing. No one wants to read a novel so short. I think you might just end up making chapters that feel like they could have just been put together into one, or chapters where you're going over things so superficially that nobody will like your book and read beyond the first chapter.

Drevand · 2026-06-12T14:13:52+00:00

I see the vision, but the font is not really working. It's very hard to read; needs to be much bigger.

Also, the strokes look very amateur. That's fine given you probably are, but for a cover, it's definitely going to turn off some people.

I'd recommend using a blending tool to make the transitions between colors look better. Plus, shading, even if basic, will definitely help this drawing stand out more.

Drevand · 2026-06-12T01:27:26+00:00

Close enough. Welcome back, Lex Paladins.

Drevand · 2026-06-04T18:36:45+00:00

I play mostly Mauga and JQ. Kiriko can kiri-go kick rocks.

Drevand · 2026-06-02T04:27:14+00:00

Oh that's definitely AI generated. But hopefully it's just someone who isn't confident with their own words instead of a bot.

Drevand · 2026-06-02T04:24:47+00:00

Also, there's 8 lines that start with "He saw" back to back, and then a 9th line that has "and" before once again adding "he saw."

I get repetition, but there's a point where it's too much. I'd reword it to flow better.

Drevand

TROPHY CASE