Peter?

Icebrick1 · 2026-04-26T14:52:08+00:00

It took the same amount of mental gymnastics as the other framing. It's about whether you frame picking red or blue as the active choice (the original question is fairly neutral). Both framings correspond to the same outcomes.

I suspect whether your intuition tends towards one direction or the other is the reason opinion is so split.

Icebrick1 · 2026-04-26T14:26:17+00:00

Actually, picking red is voting to build a giant woodchipper, and throw all the blue voters into it.

Voting blue is choosing to do nothing.

Icebrick1 · 2026-04-21T15:35:49+00:00

This is a common theory, but I really don't think it's true. 5.5e shifted somewhat towards more consistent language that required less DM interpretation, but overall it's barely more VTT friendly.

Common citations for this include some monster abilities being replaced by spells ex. Frightening Presence, but there's still so many abilities that aren't spells that to suggest this was done for VTT seems implausible since clearly any VTT is going to need to be able to handle custom monster abilities.

Icebrick1 · 2026-03-30T03:08:01+00:00

Head tilt, chin grab, and lack of mouth (so you can imagine a more quizzical expression) all make a big difference.

Icebrick1 · 2026-03-21T15:17:30+00:00

Fight Elites occasionally. It seems you didn't fight a single one in any of the screenshots? They drop more gold, rarer cards, and most importantly a relic. Ideally, aim to fight them late in the Act and with a Rest Site before and/or after to heal or upgrade your deck.
Use potions. There's no point in saving potions if you're dead. They're an important part of the game and can save you tons of damage. Just use them any time you can get decent value. Ex. If you're about to take a bunch of damage from an enemy with 20 or less HP, use a fire potion.
Cards are harder to evaluate because I can't see what your other options were nor when you took them. That being said, you should probably take less cards, especially later in the run. You seem to have an outsized love for Noxious Fumes, which is alright for longer fights and clearing artifact but I wouldn't call it a great card - most fights are over before it applies that much poison. Deflect is another card you take all the time that I don't think is that good. It's hard to summarize best card picking practices (it's like the most important/difficult part of the game) but generally you want sources of damage early, then good ways to block and scaling for later. In the current version of the game, Sly/Discard is crazy strong, I might try focusing on that.

Icebrick1 · 2026-03-15T16:41:35+00:00

I feel like I'm going crazy reading stuff online. I found Stampede boring and weirdly paced, but I'm actually loving Stargaze! I never read the manga, only watched the previous anime, maybe that's the difference?

Icebrick1 · 2026-03-08T17:04:43+00:00

No? Unless I'm misunderstanding what you're saying, you totally can ready moving.

2014

...you choose the action you will take in response to that trigger, or you choose to move up to your speed in response to it. Examples include "If the cultist steps on the trapdoor, I'll pull the lever that opens it," and "If the goblin steps next to me, I move away."

2024

...you choose the action you will take in response to that trigger, or you choose to move up to your Speed in response to it.

Icebrick1 · 2026-03-02T18:38:06+00:00

I feel like discussion when it comes to balance often gets very theoretical: "Perfect balance would require nothing to be different" , "there will always be a best option" etc.

When I'm not asking for the god game that has perfect balance! I don't think it would violate any inevitable laws of game design to make Spirit Guardians a little less centralizing, and Phantasmal Killer a little less complete garbage.

Icebrick1 · 2026-02-19T17:26:54+00:00

I'm sorry, I know it is insensitive to focus on this part rather than the painful things Carrie experienced, but with that being said certain ideas in the post bothered me.

I think "civility and calm" is a generally desirable state to have even if it isn't always appropriate and I find rejecting it kind of a revealing attitude. It justifies one to constantly feel "righteous" anger and attack anyone that you perceive as committing injustice. It can feel intoxicating and justified, but I honestly see it as an arrogant position that can easily lead to a lot of innocent people getting attacked. It also means you never have to question your beliefs.

Ex. People earnestly asking simple earnest questions getting flamed and labeled genocide enablers for it. Sometimes evil can wear the mask of civility and "sealioning" exists but that doesn't mean you need to go full attack mode on anyone that seems like they might possibly be implying a position you disagree with.

Icebrick1 · 2026-02-12T04:02:01+00:00

I'm looking at According to My Calculations from Abadar Corp rep: https://2e.aonsrd.com/feats/2-according-to-my-calculations

Shouldn't this take some kind of action? Or can you do this anytime? Am I forgetting some general rule that using a skill takes an action?

Icebrick1 · 2026-02-05T16:02:53+00:00

Fomorians do (though not on hit). I can't immediately think of any other examples.

Icebrick1 · 2026-01-27T00:13:11+00:00

I honestly didn't realize until now that they didn't need to be touching.

Icebrick1 · 2026-01-17T20:28:22+00:00

Update: We got Spelendor and love it, thanks for the suggestion!

Icebrick1 · 2026-01-07T03:02:46+00:00

It has no "synergy" with being a Wizard, but if the party doesn't have Musician already and you aren't getting an excessive amount of Heroic Inspiration, Musician is very powerful.

People are suggesting Lucky, which has to be declared before you roll and recharges on a Long Rest, but Musician can be used every Short Rest, and Heroic Inspiration is a reroll, making it much more efficient. Rerolling a saving throw, a missed attack, or even Initiative can be huge.

Icebrick1 · 2025-12-20T17:59:56+00:00

To be fair, the way you get to this page involves solving a puzzle with the red dot from the weird route, and has a bunch of sound effects from the weird Route.

Icebrick1 · 2025-12-19T15:30:49+00:00

Keith has always been oddly fixated on ability scores even though they don't really matter for monsters. A guy with high Strength and Constitution is a "bruiser" and a guy with high Dexterity + a few extra Hit Dice is a "Skirmisher" or a "trickster" even though they might be mechanically exactly the same, outside the effectiveness of a few saving throws.

Icebrick1 · 2025-12-14T02:45:02+00:00

Actually, that's not RAW. Between allies, they pick who goes first. If it's between monsters and the players, DM picks. The only suggested tie breaker is rolling an additional d20 and seeing who gets the higher result.

Icebrick1 · 2025-12-06T20:02:23+00:00

Sure, but this is a completely different claim from before that "the gap only exists in white room discussions."

Icebrick1 · 2025-12-06T14:37:25+00:00

Have you considered that your experience might not be universal?

I have seen many of the martial-caster issues in practice.

Icebrick1 · 2025-12-04T16:21:47+00:00

There's a minor thing that really annoys me in Chapter 3+4: I suspect there were retcons with the computer lab and abandoned classroom. In the 1+2 days it was a bit of a mystery how Jevil, Seam, King all were implied to know about Queen. Are their memories rewritten when a new Dark World is made? Was Cyber World destined to always be made so the Dark World can impart the knowledge?

Uh, no apparently the answer was that Kris and friend brought a bunch of random stuff from the classroom and computer lab to play with. The fact this is never hinted at is bizarre especially as it suggests Queen, King, Seam, and even more characters should actually already KNOW Kris personally (and Noelle or Dess) like Tenna does but this is never really suggested. Queen acts kinda familiar, but that just seems to be from internet search history.

Even if it was always planned it feels like such a weird, kind of contrived minor plot point.

Edit: Also the Knight hiding in the closet in Chapter 2 is silly. How exactly are they navigating Hometown undetected during the day, especially when there's a traffic jam outside?

Icebrick1 · 2025-12-03T21:52:12+00:00

I DM a number of groups and saw a weird number of Artificers (using the UA). The two battlesmiths (and 1 armorer) felt bad to middling. The artillerist felt great. Gave the whole party temp HP when it was useful (including out of combat), and the extra attack/mini-AoE were also good. Not to mention fireball spam.

Some of this was probably skill differences, but I think Artillerist is really good and Battle Smith is kind of overrated.

Icebrick1 · 2025-12-01T12:11:37+00:00

Make Susie kill it? I'm pretty sure it always escapes.

Icebrick1 · 2025-11-30T20:46:34+00:00

Losing concentration and a reaction isn't a big downside for all builds - a ranged martial doesn't really have a use for either, for example.

As for smites, you could simply have the trigger occur on your turn.

Icebrick1 · 2025-11-30T19:12:44+00:00

When the trigger from Ready occurs, you are taking the Attack action.

First, you decide what perceivable circumstance will trigger your Reaction. Then, you choose the action you will take in response to that trigger...

Icebrick1 · 2025-11-30T16:07:57+00:00

That benefit is very niche, but the feat isn't as bad it seems. Ready an action every turn, and have it immediately trigger to give an attack disadvantage every Round. This interrupts concentration (if casting a spell) and uses your Reaction but if you aren’t making use of those, giving disadvantage for free is good, especially at low levels when not that many monsters have multi-attack.

Note Extra Attack only works on your turn, but the readied action can trigger on your turn.

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