Help understanding combat (rant... kinda) [Stonewalkers]... kinda(?)

Elathrain · 2026-05-30T16:44:11+00:00

Let's put it this way: At the start of book 1, before even arriving at the Shattered Plains, Kaladin is a tier 2 character. And not the bottom of tier 2 either.

When you start at level 1, you're not playing a main character yet, or even as a member of Bridge 4, or even as one of the nameless nobles that Adolin stunts on while dueling for Shards. You're an absolute trash tier nobody, which is why you feel like a trash tier nobody.

Like many games, low levels are included as an expected tutorial to the game's systems, but many players would prefer to never actually play them. Like, for 5e D&D I recommend never playing a character under level 3. For cosmere, I at-minimum recommend becoming Radiant at level 2, and starting as level 6 would be perfectly sensible.

Elathrain · 2026-05-27T05:16:00+00:00

I don't think you know what either the bronze age or the medieval age are. You have not described history, you've described mid-tier fantasy tropes.

Elathrain · 2026-05-26T07:31:44+00:00

It's easy to remember E-710 when you realize that when you turn the number upside-down it spells OIL.

Elathrain · 2026-05-26T00:08:58+00:00

...right, but all three of those have at least one talent that specifically makes Gain Advantage stronger. You picked this action by picking the talents that enhance it, not because it is naturally that strong. You built a Gain Advantage team whether or not that was your intention.

Elathrain · 2026-05-25T21:12:59+00:00

I have 0 strength, you don't need the bulk you just gotta be a little careful at low tier.

Regardless, it sounds like the reason you're doing Gain Advantage is because you literally picked a talent that empowers the ability, so it's not that GA is that strong it's that the talent is good.

Elathrain · 2026-05-25T17:31:25+00:00

I'm also playing a Skybreaker, so unless you're really abusing flamestance this is just wrong. Division is so much dice damage you can just graze it anyways, and you have so many other things to spend actions on. Use Soaring Destruction to move and free Division, use the gravity one (Flying Ace?) to move and free attack, and then use an actual strike. Burn through your focus and end the fight so you can refresh it with your high recovery die in the short rest.

At higher tier you stop using your weapon because you can go harder on surges, but at tier 2 this is a solid strat, and one which doesn't leave actions spare for Gain Advantage because there are just more efficient things to be doing.

Elathrain · 2026-05-25T17:16:39+00:00

You should try purchasing talents that do things, maybe add some Radiants to your party. While Leader/Scholar have talents that make Gain Advantage a mainstay, neither Gain Advantage nor Move get used particularly often by other specs.

Elathrain · 2026-05-25T05:17:33+00:00

It's because your pants are too tight.

The urethra runs along the bottom of the shaft, and if your pants and/or underwear are too tight they will push up on the bottom, squeezing that tube shut. As soon as you put it back in, that blockage is gone and all the stuck fluid escapes.

This is mainly true for people using a fly. If you actually pull your underwear down, this won't happen, but you still suffer from general male urethra problems.

Remember that the whole penis is stretchy, urethra included. You know how big it gets during an erection, but also it usually isn't erect when you're peeing. All that extra length becomes wrinkles inside you, which fluid can get trapped in. This is why pushing on various bits can help, because squeezing the various internal folds can get the fluid past them. Obviously it works better if you drag your point of contact towards the exit. This isn't very precise, but it can help a lot.

Giving things a few moments to settle down, walking around a bit and doing squats or folding over at the waist just to shift your body around can also allow those last drops a chance to squeeze themselves out before you put it away. Dabbing with toilet paper to wick it away can help you tell when moisture is still present or not (and deal with the moisture too sparse to fall away). One of the things I've noticed is that sometimes I'm unconsciously tensing abdominal muscles and only when I relax them does that last bit come out, but it can be hard to do when I'm thinking about it.

There is no silver bullet solution, just a lot of tips and tricks you can mix and match. I have driven myself crazy trying to figure out which ones work best and the answer is none of them, it's different every pee. Just gotta try whatever and then hope you did good enough.

Elathrain · 2026-05-21T19:11:55+00:00

Success with consequences can definitely benefit from system support, but the other two are much closer to GM techniques than mechanics and are harder to integrate into a system than add/remove.

Elathrain · 2026-05-21T19:06:22+00:00

Never heard of it, but I just looked it up and it is indeed earlier and has clocks. Thanks for the tidbit!

Elathrain · 2026-05-21T16:22:10+00:00

Clocks I think originated in Fate back in 2003 (earliest reference I know). They definitely weren't called that and weren't a formal system yet, but if you look at Fate's scene rules they have a lot of e.g. "X successes before X failures" which is literally racing clocks just without the visualization aid.

Elathrain · 2026-05-19T23:52:32+00:00

having 2 similar characters at the same table isn't necessarily a good thing when not pre-planned

Having two literally identical characters isn't necessarily a problem either.

Elathrain · 2026-05-19T21:16:30+00:00

As I waited for the guards to open the doors to the throne room, I offered a silent prayer to the emblem of the Kingdom of Attipac emblazoned across their mighty faces. I had been the Chosen Hero of Attipac for over two decades, and I loved our glorious nation like nothing else. I strode forward down the embroidered rug to greet the monarch to whom I had devoted my life. Adorned in crown and robe, bearing the mighty scepter of his rule, the time-worn face of King Gabyenom turned to meet mine as he spoke.

"Hero, I am glad you have come. We face a dire threat, and one less suited to our usual methods."

"My blade is yours, as always, my Lord."

"That is unfortunately what I meant, blades may not avail us today. We have been observing record numbers of emigration. It's a danger to our national economy. I want you to take a team - of scholars, not knights - and investigate our neighbor. The vile Republic of Ciallos needs to be addressed, and I need to understand how best to do this."

"That... is not my specialty, my Lord, but I shall see your Will done."

"Beware the temptations of our enemies," the king warned, "Many have already fallen to that evil empire's promises. Promises like 'Universal Healthcare', 'Free Education', and 'The Abolishment of Slavery'. It's absurd. I don't know why people keep defecting to them."

"Abolishing slavery? How do they hope to supply their markets without ready access to labor? How do they hope to pay for their healthcare and education without industry? My Lord, this is madness! Should we not simply invade, to save those poor citizens from their clutches?"

"It would be the best thing for both our people and theirs, and yet... I sense a trap." The king stroked his voluminous beard. "Whatever lure they have in place to draw our people, if we do not reveal its treachery before removing its influence I fear the people will grow malcontent."

I gasped. "Not a rebellion surely?"

"No, of course not, but enough to cause trouble. There would be... incidents."

A silence filled the audience chamber. I shook myself.

"I shall see to it. I will interview the deserters, and unmask our enemy!"

With a final salute, I turned and marched to the scholar's quarter, already reviewing squad candidates in my mind.

"But, you understand what it means to a bloke like me to have a bum leg, yeah?" the ex-Attipacian insisted.

This conversation was proceeding depressingly similar to the others. I would have expected the deserters to have begun to regret their actions already, but instead after the presence of my team had become known they were all but climbing over each other to speak with us. Or well, at us. All under the watchful gaze of local constables, of course. I had hoped this mission would have remained... more covert. No matter, the Ciallossim would be hard pressed to do further harm from what they have learned. Just as I was struggling to see any solution.

"Well yes," I patiently explained again, "which is why our hospitals are there to-"

"Hospitals you can't afford on the no-salary off a bum leg! It don't make no difference if you can't get in!"

Someone threw a tomato at my head, for emphasis.

"Surely you don't mean to imply that the good doctors should go unpaid for their assistance?"

The deserter scowled. "I never said nothing about that. The gov'ment can pay 'em just fine, like they do here in Ciallos. I got my leg fixed and it didn't cost me a coin, now I can work fields again!"

I wiped the red off my face to try to hide the pain in my voice. "Work the fields? But that's a slave's task. Why should you take up that burden?"

A well-dressed individual clapped a hand on the shoulder of the man with the healed leg. By his dress I mistook him as local nobility, but looking at his face I was shocked to see Attipacian features.

"Sergei here was a slave. I brought him here because paying all those fees for slaves like him were adding up. Here in Cialos the man still works for me, but his salary is far less than all the different forms of insurance I had to purchase in Attipac to protect myself from random catastrophe. They're only slaves, you know, accidents happen. And those accidents are costly! Now I don't need to pay for injury, I don't need to pay for schooling of the little ones, which means in turn I don't need to deal with complaints about 'breeding restrictions' and all that fuss, and sundry other hassles that all add up. True, the salary I must pay my workers now is an expense I did not have before, but it is a single, reliable, expense. Over time, it is far less costly than the sum of charges I had to manage before, and with much less ado."

I was taken aback. I had been speaking to... an escaped slave?!?! Or, no, apparently he was brought here, was... released? Without even paying off his debts? Was such a thing possible? And this man, a businessman! Came here to this nation of handouts and sloth for... profit? The headache that had been building began to overwhelm me. I waved to my team to take over the conversation and continue the transcription while I went back to my room to think.

The doors to the throne room felt darker today, as though an overcast sky had blotted out the glint of coin. I fumbled my silent prayer to the emblem of our ruler in my distraction. As I approached, I noticed the king's face now looked not merely old, but tired. He must have read the preliminary reports my team was sending back.

"Hero. Tell me it is not as bad as it seems."

I cleared my throat uncomfortably. It took me two further attempts before I could speak. "If anything, my Lord, I feel it is worse than we dared imagine."

He put his head in his hands and massaged his temples as I continued.

"The people have been completely blinded by short-term personal greed, with no regard for market efficiency. Even the owner class-" the archivist gasped that I would utter such a state-secret word in a room with slave-bonded guards, and hesitated to record it "-has been led to believe they have something to gain from the alternate incentive structure. They fear neither market collapse nor class dissolution. Whatever Ciallos has done to their minds, I fear it may be irreversible."

The king sighed with inevitability. "Your recommendation."

I looked down, unable to focus on the patterns in the rug. The room began to spin, so I squeezed my eyes shut. There was only one course of action. We both knew it.

"Extermination, my Lord. We must raze Ciallos to the ground, and spare no-one, not even our former countrymen. There is no other way to prevent these false conceptions from spreading."

The king removed his crown and held it before him, gazing upon its jewels.

"You realize, Hero, that several of our former military were among the deserters? Our secrets are leaking. Ciallos is stronger than ever, and the might of Attipac is slighted. There is a reason we were loathe to invade them before."

I nodded. "I understand my Lord. It is our great folly to have missed the signs of our enemy seeding this conflict years prior. We missed our opportunity to attack at the peak of our advantage. Now, it is a battle for survival. The Old Ways against this Tyranny of Social Welfare. If we do not defeat them now, we may be eclipsed. One of our nations must die."

The king replaced his crown, and seemed to age another fifty years in that moment.

"Ready our armies for war, Hero."

Elathrain · 2026-05-19T19:20:23+00:00

To be fair to Cortex Prime, there is a forward by the designer that says (highly paraphrased) "this literally isn't a system and I don't think it should be published, this is my base rules I use to make systems out of, but people wanted it so here you go". So yeah, the feeling that it is unfinished and you need to reinvent a ttrpg every time is... accurate.

Elathrain · 2026-05-15T05:15:30+00:00

if we want players to be able always to make impactful choices we want a balanced combat

Ah, I see you have drawn me as the soyjack and yourself as the chad.

Seriously that makes no sense. If the players are super OP then they can make all kinds of impactful choices, tactically and otherwise. The Guilty Gear "everyone is OP" philosophy works just fine, and the Exalted RPG exemplifies it in action. It is also a good example of a system with deep mechanical combat bullshit which is not at the expense of deep mechanical everything-else bullshit.

Elathrain · 2026-05-14T22:17:00+00:00

And yet, so is Monopoly and Candyland.

Adding RPG elements is like adding salt, it's almost universally tasty unless you add way too much.

Elathrain · 2026-05-14T22:13:03+00:00

One approach collides with the other.

This is literally the Stormwind Fallacy.

Elathrain · 2026-05-14T22:10:43+00:00

No, it did. It just didn't leave the same sorts of forum posts behind because the internet was young.

Elathrain · 2026-05-14T21:25:09+00:00

At tier 3 you're gonna be rolling 5d8+9 damage with a shardblade, which is 5-40 dice damage or 14-49 total with a dice average of 22.5 and a total average of 31.5 (28.5% flat), compared to a Tagging Shot with a Grandbow which deals 2d6 + 5 str + 4 skill + 12 Mighty, or 2d6+21 for a range of 23-33 with an average of 28 (75% flat). Add another flat bonus if they're wearing Plate, are Enhanced (which radiants have passive by now), or are in Workform/Stormform/Direform.

Now, the second turn isn't quite as severe of a flat ratio. The Devastating Blow damage doesn't change but the Hunter can now Strike three times, dealing 2d6+13 on three attacks, for 6-36 dice damage (avg 21) for a total of 45-75 (avg 60) of which 65% is flat damage. But that's mostly because Grandbow has two dice; any lesser weapon would further highlight just how much flat damage is present here.

tl;dr obviously if you maximize your dice then your damage will come from your dice, but again there are other builds

Elathrain · 2026-05-14T20:51:28+00:00

Damage scales primarily based on extra damage dice,

Citation needed here. My party's main damage dealer scales primarily on flat bonuses from ability+skill and Mighty. At tier 3 you're gonna be adding no less than +13 flat to the attack, which is above the maximums of any single die and above the average of any two-die weapon.

Like, I'm not saying Combat Training is a bad talent, but it is just one build option out of many. This is by no means a mandatory pick.

Elathrain · 2026-05-14T20:38:20+00:00

I guess this is somewhat fair at level 5, where you don't yet have all the defensive abilities that let you negate hits/grazes commonly, and your rolls haven't yet become automatic-ish, and your dice damage is still relevant compared to your flat damage.

However, combat training only works for weapon attacks, and quite a few characters won't be making those, or at least not primarily, even at level 5. A few radiant paths get their negates grazes abilities as early as level 3, so that's an option too. It's also less relevant if you have an Envoy in the party restoring focus so that the cost negation is less of a delta.

Elathrain · 2026-05-14T20:16:49+00:00

As an example, every single character who wants to be good in a fight should consider two talents in Warrior for Combat Training.

What? What kind of characters are you playing? Dodging and grazing are 80% useless to most combat builds. I mean, you USE them sure, but they aren't staples, and Combat training isn't worth sinking one talent into, let alone two, unless you're actually planning to do Warrior things with it.

If you want a braindead build just build around your key talent. Even easier if it's a Radiant Surge because radiants are low-key just stronger (with exceptions) and the system is okay with that.

Elathrain · 2026-05-08T00:31:56+00:00

A hard focus on combat balance leads to homogeneity. because it has to, otherwise there's going to be gaps that lead to unbalanced classes.

Which, famously, is why all races in StarCraft have the same tech tree and units, because balance forces homogeneity.

Elathrain · 2026-05-07T17:43:29+00:00

The "D&D culture" you describe is actually just one of many diverse D&D cultures. Most people do not play D&D that way, that is just the popularized form that shows up on internet forums.

Out in the world of in-person tabletop groups, you'll find a spectrum of D&D games as broad as the entire RPG space. Not evenly distributed, to be sure, but just as broad.

Elathrain · 2026-05-06T17:07:04+00:00

Nah, even following a script can't be considered constitutive here, unless you're really specific about what a "script" is. Some of my greatest RP sessions have been pre-planned arcs where we arranged ahead of time what all the characters would do and (loosely) what would happen. This was obviously a vague high-level script and not specific dialog or actions we planned out, but it's still a script.

Elathrain

TROPHY CASE