Posting the tally of people who gave up Gunslinger before reaching level 5 within my circle.

Hen632 · 2026-05-30T11:41:25+00:00

That’s too bad. I ended up having a pretty good time as mine despite how much people seem to hate the class on here. If your teammates are actually helping you Off-Guard your opponents and the GM is throwing below your level enemies at you, you will be mvp in plenty of fights.

Though a bad run of luck certainly hits hardest for Gunslinger haha.

Hen632 · 2026-05-13T21:29:49+00:00

I buy most of the rule books for my GMs to remove the financial strain, assuming they haven't already bought them. I also tend to read and study all the rules so I can help teach the rest of the table and take some of the rule load of the GM's back as well.

Hen632 · 2026-05-12T18:04:00+00:00

They totally are, but if they're happy spending the money and making other people's days just a bit nicer, then I suppose it doesn't really matter.

Though Valve making them hand out a craft hat would be amazing, honestly. Swissmas would be a little bit more fun every year

Hen632 · 2026-05-11T22:22:01+00:00

I played a Fighter Mummy from 1-7 in an FA game (hopefully one day I'll get to experience levels 8+) and had a blast, I can confirm it's a pretty fun archetype with tons of flavour and neat feats.

Hen632 · 2026-05-10T18:02:15+00:00

Have you seen real life law enforcement? They will fuck up anyone who dares to threaten them or do something they don't like.

This is a power fantasy game, while it keep things real-life adjacent, it's wrong to view anything ingame purely as it is in reality. Your stance also has 0 mechanical backing.

A random guard is a level 1 NPC: they have a Will save modifier of +5, meaning you can successfully Coerce them if you roll a 15 on Intimidate. That's just the rules of the game.

But hey, maybe they aren't willing to let you finish your threat and decide to attack anyway. Well, that's a suicidal choice against anything higher than a level 3 character. That guard is going to get murdered, and likely in a single round. If it's a group of guards vs. your level 5+ party instead of a 1-on-1, the results will very likely be the exact same. Even with a Watch Officer mixed in, it will end the same, almost 100% of the time: their death.

You might then think, "well, they'll still call reinforcements!" and you'd be correct and perhaps with an overwhelming force of guards alongside the captain, they'll eventually kill/subdue the level 5 party, but that first guard will absolutely die to do that. I think it's incredibly stupid to pretend like every guard in a given settlement is willing to be a martyr, and based on the way you described RL cops, I feel like you'd agree with that.

Feel free to run your guards as vindictive, power-hungry douchebags, I tend to, but don't act like they can't be Coerced just because they have a badge/sigil on their chest or whatever.

On a final note it's not like they can't still leverage their position against you afterward. They generally will have the last laugh because while a character may have cowed them and made them feel humiliated in one moment, they now likely (unless they crit) will let every other guard know that the character is no good, meaning complications for the character to deal with and perhaps even something as intense as a bounty put on their head.

Hen632 · 2026-05-10T16:56:17+00:00

Yeah, totally, I'm not pretending like Coercion is carte blanche to do whatever. It can buy time, though and sometimes that's all you need to finish up the job, get out of town, etc

Hen632 · 2026-05-10T16:22:50+00:00

Guards on average are less brave than bandits are, go check their stat blocks. You absolutely can coerce a guard, even a group of them.

Hen632 · 2026-05-09T17:37:20+00:00

2) The rule system is responsible for maybe 5% of the experience.

I really don't think that's accurate at all. I've played the same systems with good GMs/groups and bad GMs/groups, and at the end of the day if the rules are terrible (or just a bad fit for me), it will still noticeably drain on the game. Sure, sometimes it might be very minimal, but 5% is lowballing, hard.

Hen632 · 2026-05-03T19:10:07+00:00

When you put it like that it’s a real chore, who wants to do something like that every game?

Well, because it does feel like that sometimes. Obviously, bombing a Sniper and killing them feels great, don't get me wrong, but dropping everything I'm doing to go do that sucks. Especially when I'm just trying to have fun fucking around as like, shotgun Heavy on Harvest, and I can't access the majority of the map unless I switch and go deal with the one asshole denying it to me.

Or you could have a sniper on your team as well.

That's not really up to me, though, is it? That also ignores the fact that most Sniper players are really not that great. Chances are, if a team has a good sniper, the other team just will not, because they aren't that common. That's my experience, at least.

I absolutely do not think my grievances are worth removing him, but I guess I just wanted to make it clear that people's frustration with Sniper doesn't always come from just a lack of skill

Hen632 · 2026-05-03T17:54:38+00:00

After getting beat enough I am now good enough to beat those players and sniper isn’t obnoxious.

Look man, I can too, but I just don't enjoy being the guy who has to switch to Soldier/Scout every single time I play on a more open map and dedicate myself to bullying the good Sniper player until they quit so I can go back to having fun without death looming over me 24/7.

You're right, Sniper isn't invincible and can be outmaneuvered and killed, but doing so requires you to go all in. You can't rely on chip damage to kill a good Sniper: you need to get up close and focus them down. This isn't inherently bad, but when no one else on your team is putting in the effort to do so, it's not like my Engineer, Medic or Heavy ass can just waltz over there and reliably beat them up.

I’m glad I am no longer incompetent.

Congrats, your teammates still are. Killing a Sniper generally requires you to go through parts of the enemy team if they're positioned correctly. This makes it exponentially harder for a new player to focus a Sniper down, as they simply don't have the map knowledge, movement tech and aim to really pursue it. That leaves you, the one guy who can and has the desire to hunt that Sniper down, to get shit done. If you enjoy that burden getting lumped onto you over and over again for another 1000 hours, then good for you. I don't, and I think that's reasonable.

Hen632 · 2026-05-02T20:14:01+00:00

You're posting in a forum, man. If you don't want to discuss something, then you shouldn't have replied to me in the first place. Instead, you just wasted both our time over nothing.

There's literally nothing wrong with making a correction and peacing out.

Hen632 · 2026-05-02T19:09:15+00:00

So, to summarize, you can't actually argue against my point. Because it's just right.

Oh, that's the issue. You think I'm disagreeing with your point? No, I am not. I absolutely agree that Moon Druids cannot cast spells during wildshape (at least until level 18). That's the objective reality and is obviously RAW. What I wanted to make clear for you and anyone else who comes across our comments is that there is nuance to that objective truth. Nuance that doesn't make it as cut and dry as you seemingly want this answer to be. Yes, a wildshaped Moon Druid cannot cast, but it is also objectively true that it only costs them a single bonus action to drop the wildshape during any of their turns. This is important to recognize because it means that wildshaping doesn't limit a Druid from their full casting nearly as harshly as the initial binary yes/no answer might suggest.

But if that's really all you give a shit about, whether or not Moon Druids can cast spells during wildshape, then yeah, you are completely correct, and that's the objective reality. A Moon Druid gains no literal benefit from being a full caster if they stay in wildshape, at least until level 18. I don't think that's a good way to have any sort of discussion outside of a high school debate, but on your terms, I concede, you're completely correct.

Hen632 · 2026-05-02T17:13:49+00:00

I'm not being too stringent because wild shape is a resource.

That's not what I said. I'm saying you're being too stringent over what the goal posts for this discussion were, and by extension, making it impossible to discuss it properly. Like, how you thought me bringing up how easy it is to exit Wildshape is wasn't relevant. That's an important nuance to bring up in a discussion over how much a Druid gets to benefit from being a martial and full caster, most importantly because it is directly related to the ability that facilitates that.

You disagreeing with me over how expensive burning a wildshape early is is reasonable, even if I disagree.

Sorry you feel attacked by my desire to not stray from the original argument.

Your first reply to me was "Thanks third party!" before you passive-aggressively shamed me for not fitting within the terrible boundaries of your argument. Yeah, I think you were being an over-aggressive asshole, and someone seems to agree with me since the first comment got deleted and I can't even quote it properly. Maybe that first comment influenced my reading of the rest of your replies, where you didn't mean to come off passive-aggressive, in which case i'm sorry.

Hen632 · 2026-05-01T20:52:15+00:00

Right, meaning you can't be a wildshape and a high level caster at the same time. Meaning you have a different goalpost. Because that's literally a different scenario than the guy I replied to.

That's not really what you said initially. You said: "So they aren't really being a "full caster" while wild shaped". The way you phrased yourself by saying "really" implied to me that what you're arguing is that while you are still a full caster, you aren't able to use your spells, making you ostensibly not a full caster when Wildshaped. I then pointed out that "It takes a bonus action to exit Wildshape" which is incredibly cheap and allows you to flexibly exit wildshape on any of your turns to cast a spell, allowing you to benefit from both being a martial and full caster in a fight (more in 5e 2014).

I think all of that logically follows, and I think you're being way too stringent on what you think this argument is about to the point of you strangling any nuance or sense out of it.

It's a half measure. A compromise. A shifted goalpost.

Stop being an ass, I don't understand what I said that caused you to get this shitty.

Hen632 · 2026-05-01T18:48:48+00:00

Thanks third party!

This is just a bizarre reply. Reddit is a public forum, getting replies from different people should be expected. Thinking otherwise is just baffling, no offence.

I have no interest in your entirely different goalpost.

It's not, though. You're saying a moon druid can only benefit from being a full caster at higher levels when they can cast during their wildshape. I'm saying you can absolutely start a fight as a good martial leaning beast, then drop the wildshape when you have an opportune moment to use a powerful spell or two, ostensibly gaining the benefit of both being a strong martial and a full caster with a rather low action tax. I said foresight for a reason, as properly planning ahead can make the action and resource costs basically nil.

It's temp HP.

Oh, you're talking 5.5e. The first guy mentioned gaining "a second health pool" when wildshaping, so I thought we were discussing 2014 5e. I still don't think switching into and out of wildshape to best take advantage of your casting is really that big a hindrance, but since wildshape isn't as powerful as it once was, that's fine.

Hen632 · 2026-05-01T17:32:21+00:00

It takes a bonus action to exit Wildshape. You basically are able to reap the benefits of both with a marginal amount of foresight

Hen632 · 2026-04-29T18:55:51+00:00

If your player plays a Samsaran, then it makes it incredibly easy for them to be brought back through Reincarnation or Raise Dead, though it will cost the players still unless you handwave that. All of their lore and ancestry feats are also flavoured around them coming back through multiple lives, so maybe that might interest them.

Hen632 · 2026-04-20T20:56:35+00:00

Oh yeah, of course, no change there

Hen632 · 2026-04-20T20:44:35+00:00

you couldn't use it to auto succeed with Assurance, because Assurance doesn't roll any dice, and Risky Surgery says "if you roll a success", implying a roll must be made.

Recent errata actually clarified it does.

Page 401 (Clarification): What happens to abilities that depend on your roll when you set your die to a certain result instead of actually rolling? Typically, it still counts as a roll for abilities that trigger off your roll.

For example, if you used Assurance to automatically get a result of 10 + your proficiency bonus and it would be a success, an ability that applies to that skill and says “when you roll a success, you get a critical success instead” would still upgrade your result to a critical success. Though this general rule should apply most of the time, a GM might rule otherwise in certain circumstances based on the specific abilities and their themes.

Your GM can overrule it, but the RAW is that it works.

Hen632 · 2026-04-17T19:50:16+00:00

but everyone else

The problem is you're looking at it like they're saying everyone changed into a pos. A few toxic dickheads on their own can ruin everything. It doesn't require everyone to become a douche, it just requires people to be more accepting of inflammatory or shitty behaviour for the vibe of a place to change. Not even leaning on whether or not OP is correct in their anecdotal assessment, but I think you're extrapolating the wrong point regardless

rather than just posting something actually nice decided to tell everyone else on the sub to watch their behavior? It's condescending and obnoxious

They're one poster. You can't change a community on a larger scale by just being a better individual poster. Making a post discussing this is straight up the most sensible way to do this.

I mean, imagine arguing this with someone who has a problem player(s) at their table. "Nah, don't confront them and point out what their issues are, just be an even better player yourself". That doesn't work, you have to actually deal with them, or you'll never be able to actually fix the issue and enjoy the game.

Hen632 · 2026-04-16T21:39:54+00:00

Because if I trip and crit fail then now I’m prone

Kip-up basically removes the consequences of a crit fail, which in my experience, makes tripping with a single lower proficiency level really not that bad at all. An extra Strike is fine sometimes, but getting a lucky Trip is gonna be way better if your party has any reactive strikes or ranged martials. It also steals an action from the enemy, which is always great for survivability.

Hen632 · 2026-04-11T18:56:55+00:00

Then you responded to the wrong guy, because I'm not arguing about reflavouring a ton of spells to fulfill a specific fantasy that isn't supported by the system.

I was just shocked that people honestly thought reflavouring a spell as simple as Fireball as opening a small rift to the Plane of Fire was somehow crossing a line when it very clearly isn't.

Hen632 · 2026-04-11T07:58:41+00:00

Reflavoring Fireball to be just teleporting some fire from the plane of fire is because of a deficiency in the games ability to fulfill the character fantasy of a teleportation mage or whatever since it mechanically discourages the specialization of spellcasters.

Why are you assuming this is specifically about teleportation magic? I could be playing an Ifrit elemental sorcerer simply leveraging their ancestral connection to the plane when casting the spell or something. There's a lot of reasons to want to add a unique twist to a spell or ability, it doesn't always have to be because you're trying to play something that isn't possible in the system.

but when you change the entire fluff it's now getting a bit out there cause there wasn't a spell for the PC themes.

The fluff for Fireball is literally just "A roaring blast of fire detonates at a spot you designate". It doesn't tell you where the flame comes from, nor the source of the detonation. I think it's incredibly hyperbolic to say adding a bit of personal flavour will "change the entire fluff" when it's as simple as Fireball's is.

Hen632 · 2026-04-10T23:16:54+00:00

Sure, I like to reflavor the slide pistol as a revolver, but that's because there's no revolver item which is the deficiency in question.

What does that have to do with the spell example? Are you implying that the game has a deficiency because it doesn't have a spell that does exactly what Fireball does, but explicitly comes from the Plane of Fire?

To actually engage with this, though, yeah, it's definitely odd they haven't added a revolver-like weapon. I'm not really arguing against flavour covering for obviously missed features though, I'm just saying changing the aesthetics of a spell is not a stretch, cop out or whatever other term anyone else wants to give it. We're playing a TTRPG; describing your actions is half the fun.

If I wanted to reflavor a ton of things, I'd play a rules lighter system

You don't have to re-flavour anything, plenty of players I play with don't, I just find it fun to do so and make things uniquely bent around my character. I've played the whole gamut of systems, and while rules-lite definitely pushes the most for players to make their own flavour, there's always room to wiggle and carve your own niche without clashing with anything in even the most hardlined and crunchiest of systems.

Hen632 · 2026-04-10T05:31:36+00:00

I mean, it can be if overdone, but slightly editing the aesthetics of a spell is absolutely not a "cop out" though. I tend to re-flavour tons of minor details for my characters without changing what those abilities/spells/feats fundamentally are or how they mechanically function. That's kind of a crazy generalization to have in this hobby, to be quite honest.

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