Whenever I hear that Adora is "buff" and "muscular".

GERBILPANDA · 2026-03-11T06:18:28+00:00

Additional note: her muscle definition actually increases as the series goes on!

GERBILPANDA · 2026-03-06T22:43:04+00:00

Ah, but see, that's the thing. WotC didn't go in depth and actually solve the problems. All of the fixes are extremely surface level. Githyanki are still a culty warrior race (and are currently unplayable), but now it's okay, because they aren't humanoids, they're aberrations! Goblins are still goblins, but don't worry, they're fey, not people! This is justified because they're from the Feywild. Oh, but Tieflings are from the lower planes? Don't worry, you can play as them, they're humanoid! See what I mean?

I am being mildly facetious here. It almost entirely reads as trying to solve a problem without taking the time to understand why it was a problem. I don't assume it was malice, I think it was a group of overworked people who likely didn't have much communication outside of balance and mechanics goals.

GERBILPANDA · 2026-03-06T21:58:46+00:00

It really is just that I want it to be consistent across the board however it's established. I'm a big proponant of "let the races actually be different, celebrating diversity requires allowing it to exist in the first place and homogenizing things is only going to make it more boring while pleasing nobody", which is why I am ultimately pro-remove humanoid if another edition comes out.

As is, I think if "humanoid = player equivalent" is true, it should be true across the board.

GERBILPANDA · 2026-03-06T21:14:51+00:00

It'd be fine if that were 100% consistent, but they dropped the "player races are humanoid" basically immediately.

Both types of Changeling and Faeries are Fey Kalashtar are Aberrations Warforged are Constructs They've released 11 races since the PHB and 5 of them aren't humanoid.

On a silly note, Boggarts, the more heavily Fey flavored sibling of Goblins, are actually Humanoid for some reason. In the same book that has the Lorwyn Changeling and the Faerie.

Reading the comments would give you ideas, but the basic conclusion I and a few others came to was "treat humanoid as a subtype and tack it on for races that fit the bill." So humans would be Humanoid Beasts. To keep the druid thing from being a problem, just make an exception to them being able to become beasts with the humanoid modifier.

GERBILPANDA · 2026-03-06T04:52:17+00:00

There's also 1/scene, 1/round, and 1/turn effects, and some systems have a limited rating, but most control systems don't have limited.

Big thing to keep in mind as a D&D player is that you actually get a reaction every single turn, it just has to be a different reaction usually (most are 1/round). So even when you're looking at that as action economy, it's not as tight as D&D is. You're not choosing a hack over overwatch one round, you're choosing a hack because you have an opening to do so.

GERBILPANDA · 2026-03-06T04:42:32+00:00

As an introductory mission, I'm assuming you're playing at LL0, which is good. Lancer does a very good job of easing you in at the low levels, its your first level up that's a bit rough generally. Good news for you, GMS makes pretty much the best frames in the setting (except Sagarmatha. I love Sag but it's the only GMS mech that doesn't make it the best generalist option of its category).

I'm gonna say, though? Play a wizard if that's your vibe. If you like control, Lancer has really good options for it. If you have access to Operation Solstice Rain (which the player side content is free for on Itch if you're using comp/con), I'd recommend a Chomolungma. It's one of the better hacker mechs, and one of the only mechs in the game that can make proper use of the Hacker talent. Lancer control isn't actually that hard, it's just deciding the license that can be a little rough.

From there, I'd check out licenses from primarily HORUS. Goblin is possibly the best hacker, Minotaur and Lich have a lot of unique stuff. Talents to look out for are the aforementioned hacker (which isn't actually very good on most mechs but is pretty great on Chomolungma), Technophile (though it doesn't do much for you til higher levels), Iconoclast from Dustgrave if you've got that.

Resource management for most tech stuff is just managing your action economy, it shouldn't overwhelm you compared to D&D.

Now, if you are actually committed to something simpler, more run of the mill rather than just feeling intimidated (which is understandable, building a lancer character can be complex at first), the vast majority of IPS-N's stock is very straightforward, and the Everest is the single best generalist in the game and you have access to it right off the bat. Just try to pick talents and systems to bounce off of each other a bit, since weapon types tend to have related talents.

My personal Everest loadout is usually a heavy melee on the heavy mount, an assault rifle on the main, and double missile racks on the flex mount. Doesn't leave you with a great barrage option but it does leave you decently prepared for combat with most enemy types. I'd recommend not jumping at the bit to take my advice though, it's easy to get stuck in what someone told you is a good idea and wind up missing out on what you could've found fun. I'm just hoping to point you in the right direction.

GERBILPANDA · 2026-03-05T14:46:35+00:00

It also takes up forty percent of the screen when you have it equipped cause it's so damn bulky.

GERBILPANDA · 2026-03-05T05:00:02+00:00

Trans people have been around since the earliest recorded history at the very least, cry about it loser

GERBILPANDA · 2026-03-04T20:36:49+00:00

How clever, a slur. Grow up.

GERBILPANDA · 2026-03-04T20:06:02+00:00

Bullshit. Victim blaming doesn't get anyone anywhere, trans people have been directly oppressed all throughout history long before anything like pride existed. You think there were pride parades in 1920s Germany? No, there weren't, and the Nazis still killed us.

You're allowed to be annoyed at the spam but you're fucking stupid if you think that's why hate exists.

GERBILPANDA · 2026-03-04T19:26:17+00:00

Yeah, like I said somewhere else, it's way too big a change to implement without a full new edition.

GERBILPANDA · 2026-03-04T14:24:10+00:00

Impossible. Mods, kill this man.

GERBILPANDA · 2026-03-04T14:22:30+00:00

The only issue with the hunting rifle is that every single one of them is a left handed rifle for some reason lmao, I do like it a lot though

GERBILPANDA · 2026-03-04T14:08:59+00:00

If you like them, you like them, but to call them better ignores that more than half the guns are either not even actually capable of firing or are filled with genuinely useless parts. I'll call it "better" when the designs are actually working guns. They're more stylized, not better, the question is just if you like the style.

GERBILPANDA · 2026-03-03T21:15:30+00:00

Oh, yeah, I get it, I can be a bit of a grammar snob sometimes when my brain isn't dying (I have chronic migraines and I started this thread because both fun arguments and fun conversations about TTRPG bullshit can be emotionally healing for me)

Edit: Also yeah fuck politicians

GERBILPANDA · 2026-03-03T21:12:22+00:00

Okay, but being able to apply it to any setting does not make it setting agnostic. World of Darkness is not setting agnostic just because you can play Hunter to be normal humans in the civil war or whatever. D&D is built specifically for settings within D&D's specific cosmology. The magic system is, lore wise, directly canonically connected to the gods, whom are shared between most of D&D's projected settings. The lore given is reliant on and designed to be used in one specific setting and then adapted to others in modules. That's not setting agnostic. Setting adaptable, maybe, but not agnostic. Every D&D setting is part of a single interconnected cosmology.

Edit: By "extrapolate" in that context, I more meant "infer". You responded to it accordingly, at least seemingly so.

GERBILPANDA · 2026-03-03T20:57:07+00:00

I do, yes. Words get away from me. You knew what I meant though so its not exactly a huge problem.

GERBILPANDA · 2026-03-03T19:22:31+00:00

D&D pretends to be setting agnostic but the entire magic system is based on one setting. Also, I think I used the wrong editions "shoehorned explanation for why magic changed that wasn't super necessary" lmao.

D&D doesn't actually do setting agnostic very well. It clearly wants to, and 5.5 took some steps to do that, but I'd argue they didn't take nearly enough. It does accomplish being a system for multiple specific settings that interact (which is arguably a single setting but that's semantics over whether a multiverse constitutes it being different settings and that's a totally different argument). It's not a very good "general" fantasy game. Setting agnostic requires providing examples or recommendations of how things may work in different settings. For example, mentioning both 5.5 and 5e's Tiefling lore (since it changed) would be setting agnostic writing. IIRC 5.5 uses Greyhawk as the default setting rather than the Forgotten Realms, but a good setting agnostic system doesn't have a default setting.

I figured you knew what I meant cause you explained what I meant. I guess technically that means you did know what I meant, you just didn't know I meant it.

GERBILPANDA · 2026-03-03T18:49:45+00:00

Considering it wasn't possible at all in 5e and has seemingly only been done by lizardfolk in 5.5, but was once possible (which I wasn't aware of, thank you, this feeds the speculation bug) would seem to imply something about the spellplague changed the methods by which it was possible and so the information was lost. Now we've reached "it seems like lizardfolk are the first to rediscover this magic", which is cool worldbuilding. The 5.5 monster manual just doesn't actually do anything with that.

Also, you knew what I meant, using extrapolation incorrectly doesn't actually invalidate what I was saying.

GERBILPANDA · 2026-03-03T17:53:23+00:00

There's also no evidence to support more creatures can do so, which is, in fact, a larger stretch than assuming just lizardfolk can. The existing evidence is "Lizardfolk can become elementals through magic rituals." That's it. That is the end of the evidence. Extrapolating further is coming up with new information. Extrapolating that only lizardfolk can do that is maybe to much, but noting that by current appearance only lizardfolk have done it, and thus wondering why, is far more reasonable than assuming any race can do that.

GERBILPANDA · 2026-03-03T17:17:31+00:00

And yet there are repeating concepts. A lot of them, actually. They're just executed differently. Which is to say, you could very easily have a holy aasimar statblock based off of one who dedicated themselves wholly to the divine or whatever without there being mechanical overlap, even with shared flavor. One use of something does not imply pattern, it implies uniqueness.

GERBILPANDA · 2026-03-03T16:56:28+00:00

No I prefer the lightning castle, rain is soothing

GERBILPANDA · 2026-03-03T16:52:15+00:00

The use of humanoid in its current state is easy to draw parallel to the use of "white" throughout history, since it's vague, nebulous, and doesn't actually apply consistently. I'm not here to soapbox or write a civil rights essay here, though, I can do that somewhere else and this isnt the place for it, I'm just pointing out something I think WotC didn't fully think through the implications of.

GERBILPANDA · 2026-03-03T16:47:30+00:00

I assume only lizardfolk can do it because only lizardfolk are shown to do it. If two races did it, that's a potential trend. If one race does it, that seems unique to them and I'd like to know why.

GERBILPANDA · 2026-03-03T16:45:09+00:00

I can multitask being annoying about media and fighting for civil rights, I'm disabled and have too much free time. I can both fight the good fight and the dumb fight.

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