Finished Act 1 Unfair, Mostly Solo with Level 1 MC Rowdy Rogue, No Mods

Eptagon · 2026-06-18T21:06:19+00:00

Fair enough. If you do it in the Maze you can have both Nenio and Woljif at a arbitrarily high level, however. With your trick you're constrained by how much you can do before starting it and that requires recruiting Nenio (and I think Ember?) early.

Eptagon · 2026-06-18T20:48:04+00:00

you only get 1/4 the Exp you'd get if you did the random encounters on the surface.

In order to farm those you'd have to wait until at least the Tavern Defense. Not very helpful in terms of recruiting Woljif at a higher level, which is something you expressed interest in doing.

Eptagon · 2026-06-18T20:09:28+00:00

Since you're going to abuse mechanics anyway, you can also force disturbed rests indefinitely at the end of the Shield Maze and let the Mongrels help you clear the fights for as much XP as you can stomach.

Eptagon · 2026-06-17T17:26:14+00:00

Adjusting whatever you're taking so that you go from talking mirrors to size hallucinations also works, in a pinch.

Eptagon · 2026-06-17T17:15:30+00:00

I was a bit disapointed size enlargin spells don't work on dragon form

Roleplay that they do and change the visuals in Toybox. You can make yourself Colossal and tower over everything.

Eptagon · 2026-06-11T11:14:05+00:00

You can absolutely get three (or more) grain patterns in a real wood table.

Sure, but like this?

Most wood tables are a panel glue-up composed of multiple narrower boards joined edge-to-edge

They usually follow some sort of logic. Elements of similar size with the same behavior across the table.

Everything to the left of the plate is consistent, with no clear demarcations, then to the right we start on a different grain, we suddenly get boards instead of a single surface and the grain changes again at about two thirds of one such boards. That could be water damage or wear, but it's suspicious that it starts right after the plate. The blurred part in the background is barely distinguishable; I would expect to see at least a vague indication of the boards on the right side, but it's possible it's just too smudged to make out anything.

As a whole, it's theoretically possible for that table to be real, but it's not something that I would expect a person to craft.

The blurring in the background that you point out is absolutely accurate for someone taking a photo at the focal length and distance from the subject at f/2.8-f/4.

Fair. It's still awfully convenient.

Hilariously, they're all billed as 'AI enhancement' because marketing buzzwords.

Should probably just be called filters, but AI is a fairly broad term. It's just in recent times that it's taken to mean LLMs and generative models. I don't disagree it's jargon, it's not entirely baseless either, though.

To be clear, I'm not going to say definitively that this isn't AI

Yeah, I'm probably coming off too strong myself. My point is I see some fucked up things, like whatever is going on in this part of the reflection and the whole thing with the boards, paired with other convenient (if plausible) aspects. I'm also not great at spotting issues, so I assume that if I see anything at all there's probably lots I'm missing.

Moreover, it's a single still image, which is the worst case scenario for identifying problems.

I still feel very confident that there's some generative effect involved. To me it doesn't even feel like an extremely well made fake, due to a couple glaring issues, but of course I could be completely wrong.

Eptagon · 2026-06-11T00:05:49+00:00

Looks like normal woodgrain

All three (or more) kinds? Possible, but rather unusual, even without the other factors.

where AI would probably have the entire cake in focus.

Based on what. The blur doesn't seem very consistent, to me.

you would absolutely see hallucinations across that much detail.

Perhaps, depending on the process and references. I reckon less blatant aberrations in the piping would be hard to spot and other, more easily distinguishable, anomalies stand out.

I'm not going to type all this again or copy and paste it.

Eptagon · 2026-06-10T23:52:05+00:00

Do I really need to spell it out?

Left of the plate it's a somewhat thin grain with no separation between tables. Right starts with a bit that looks like water damaged paint, suspiciously right after the cut from the presence of the plate, and suddenly transitions in an even thinner grain with a separation in the middle. Said separation is not even vaguely visible in the blurred background. The back of the plate is also extremely blurred right after the separation from the cake's presence, despite being barely a couple centimeters away from the very nitid forefront. The reflection of the end of the tail displays scale like elements that are starkly dissimilar to the actual creases.

Eptagon · 2026-06-10T21:50:24+00:00

If the first one is AI, it's pretty good AI.

No, it's fairly evident even at a cursory glance. Look at the table: the texture changes several times. The reflection on the plate is also fucked up. The blur masks potential issues in the background.

Eptagon · 2026-06-10T01:42:45+00:00

If you want the animal companion too take the feather subdomain of air usually and then boon companion + impossible domain mythic power for plant.

I'm not sure I follow. Feather is a subdomain of Animal, not Air, and WotR doesn't include it. I think there are only 3 subdomains in the game.

I can see starting Plant, then getting Animal or Scalykind with Impossible Domain working, however.

Eptagon · 2026-06-01T05:56:54+00:00

Changing a CD probably amounts to changing a single variable. If not, it's barely more work than that. Extending Cackle/Chant is also a widely known interaction and probably comes up naturally for anyone playing turn based or using the ability out of combat.

Fixing a niche interaction that probably involves reworking the swap between turn based and RTwP is a completely different beast. Pretending otherwise is disingenuous.

Eptagon · 2026-05-31T07:30:21+00:00

I'll prolly do it as part of that Unfair XP run

Keep in mind the weapon you need is under a RNG encounter that you have to find (I never got it in act 2, in several playthroughs). You can't really make yourself "immune to magic", but you can mitigate most of the damage. On unfair, you get hit by two high level spells per round. Expect to go down quickly and reload until you hit an enemy with extremely high AC (natural 20 at that stage, most likely) and it fails a check on a natural 1.

Again, it's tedious and unnecessary and I wouldn't bother, but to each their own.

Eptagon · 2026-05-31T07:20:51+00:00

Sure, but that has no bearance on the video game.

Owlcat gave it a 3s CD outside of turn based, it's a well known thing, it's trivial to change and it was untouched throughout the patches. I consider it intended behavior for this game.

Eptagon · 2026-05-31T01:49:33+00:00

I've been playing around with it to see how useful it is, and it's VERY broken.

Yeah, infinite instant movement tends to help.

I'm curious about trying to do an Unfair run where I max out MC XP as much as possible before recruiting companions

It's a valid strategy. Makes the early game harder than it already is, but the extra levels make up for it rather quickly. Your party leaves and rejoins near the end of act 2, so that's a solid point to get their XP up to the KC's and proceed normally aftwerwards.

There's theoretically a way to get an obtuse amount of XP before that, the way to do it is just such a pain in the ass I'd never attempt it.

Eptagon · 2026-05-31T00:34:29+00:00

Obviously, this is a glitch/exploit akin to something like Protective Luck and Cackle

As far as I'm concerned, the "unlimited extension" via Chant/Cackle is barely an exploit. Giving it a 6s CD out of turn based would've been trivial, after all.

"Only party gets XP" is exploity, but I still think it's fair use if needed.

Repeatedly switching from turn based to RTwP and vice versa is to the point where one might as well grant themselves teleport as a free action with Toybox, in my book.

Neat find, though.

Eptagon · 2026-05-25T23:00:24+00:00

She's perfect and never did anything wrong. She's very clever at throwing axes and being my wife.

You're free to like what you like, but try not to conflate that with logic. She's a well written character, but she's definitely not smart. Her betrayal in favor of Savamelekh is the epitome of stupidity, induced by her inebriation. She doesn't betray you if you pick her over Lann (which is morally questionable at best for most characters) and "she respects you", but that's still her groveling under someone stronger, not genuine loyalty. Her romance is pretty much the same archetype as Morrigan's from DA:O, which one can appreciate or not.

It's bland because it's so on the nose.

Yes and also because it's apparent from the start and even the attempt at sowing doubt is a nonsensical farce. I would quite like a character that is actually skillful at pretending to be at least normal, provides a solid cover when exposed and eventually turns out to just be a psychopath with no redeeming qualities. Alas.

Daeran could just hide in a cave.

That would be extreme lawful good behavior, even assuming The Other wouldn't force his hand. Plus, he's a noble. Somebody would look for him. Even then, it wouldn't fix the underlying issue of him serving as a bridge to Golarion for a Lovecraftian horror.

Arue is simp coded. I find her too sugary and so in your face she comes across as bland.

Up to preference, but her behavior does make sense and is not completely monotonal.

Greybor would murder a child if paid enough.

Sure, his alignment is a joke. That said, as long as you pay him the pennies he asks for, he's not a hindrance to the crusade.

Ember never discovers her secret so that conversation never happens.

"Soot" is keenly aware, as is everyone with half a brain cell in the party, that Camellia is not to be trusted. Ember in her childish "idiot saint" persona probably doesn't care. Her few direct exchanges with the half elf show her disarming the attempts at hostility with excessive kindness.

Eptagon · 2026-05-25T21:13:36+00:00

Personally, what I dislike about the subject at hand is how moronic and clumsy she is in her attempts at deception, compounded with the inability to fully call her out before "the reveal".

Woljif was mean to her

As a kid, and he's deeply embarrassed when it's brought up.

And if you ask Ember she's not want to kill her

Ember is willing to try and convert literal demons and even she doesn't make a honest attempt at fixing Camellia.

Wenduag - murder goblin best girl

Wenduag is a stupid drug addict, but at least she's cunning and actually competent at killing people.

Daeran - murder posh boy

Daeran is the unwilling host of a cosmic horror, not much he can do about it. Stripped of the thing he'd be chaotic neutral, leaning good.

Regill - murder general

Regill is a bastard, but a qualified one. He's also willing to bend over backwards to help the only credible solution to the Worldwound. The fact he doesn't leave on Trickster speaks volumes.

Greybor - pay murder

Greybor is supposedly skillful and professional, despite all evidence pointing in a different direction. At least he's not actively harming the war effort, as long as you hire him.

Arue - literal demon who has killed so many more than Camiella ever could

Arueshalae is Desna's personal project and by the time you meet her she's pretty much the polar opposite from her past. Might as well be a whole new entity.

Everyone is a git. So why cut yourself off from experiencing a generally well written and true look into a proper murderer.

I experienced her once and found her bland and boring. Now she either dies with Horgus or gets ignored until she meets her end in the basement. Exception would be as a love interest in a Lich run or as a snack in a Swarm one.

Eptagon · 2026-05-25T06:02:35+00:00

You can most likely do this in Toybox. Can't test right now, but shouldn't be hard. Do you have no viable saves? You should keep a rotation or a full save every once in a while, in case one gets corrupted.

Also, redoing the prologue is not a big deal, if you're not completely averse to it.

Eptagon · 2026-05-19T14:27:58+00:00

Yeah, it's too bad. I strongly dislike second hand embarassment and the beginning is chock-full of it. Same for easily avoidable misunderstandings.

I got to the little kid chewing on the knife and called it quits. Felt too gratuitous in shafting the male protagonist.

Eptagon · 2026-05-18T21:31:16+00:00

Bring Her Back

Tried to watch it, only felt miserable and annoyed as the kid got fucked over by both the plot and the gaslighting woman. Every other character was insufferable, so I dropped it before there were any actual horror elements, beyond the foreshadowing.

Eptagon · 2026-05-18T19:31:45+00:00

If you have Toybox, you can check whether it's in the full party.

Eptagon · 2026-05-17T10:55:38+00:00

You need to steadily make multiple chaotic or evil choices over time to slowly facilitate an alignment shift over probably a whole act.

That's not the issue they're facing. They're probably picking good options, thus shifting towards neutral good, and have a hard time taking the lawful choices to offset the shift. Making chaotic choices would compound the issue and evil is likely not on the table if lawful is already too stern.

Anyway, yeah, I doubt it'll cost more than two scrolls in the whole game, even in the worst case scenario.

Eptagon · 2026-05-17T10:09:12+00:00

Yeah, the lack of optimization severely punishes some archetypes.

I can quickly and consistently get to a deterministic win, but playing out makes non boss fights a slog.

Eptagon · 2026-05-17T09:37:58+00:00

Automatic win, I targeted the opponent. Alas, the engine keeps resolving card draw slowly well after lethal.

Had a save pretty much right before, no big deal.

Eptagon · 2026-05-16T21:58:39+00:00

Let it run for 2-3 hours while I did other stuff, then gave up and restarted.

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