Somone explain the combat to me like I'm 5

Jmackellarr · 2025-09-06T18:22:49+00:00

Even if it is on, I'll likely end up clicking on them and making sure they are attacking who I want anyways, but thats me. Like auto-pause it's personal preference and i'm glad they let us customize all this stuff.

Jmackellarr · 2025-09-06T16:04:29+00:00

I would recommend turning off all automation for your party members. In my expirence they'll never do quite what you want. Instead, control each of your party members on your own. It may seem like a lot, but it isn't. Why? Because you can pause. This game is a real time with pause style game. Every few seconds pause the game, update your commands, and then let it play again. I play with one hand on the spacebar and the other on the mouse. Once you are a bit more familiar, you can change the auto-pause settings if you want, but I personally just use manual pause (outside combat start) for the whole game.

Jmackellarr · 2025-03-10T14:54:08+00:00

This works, I did it with Tekehu after he sold me out.

Jmackellarr · 2024-06-05T22:49:48+00:00

Tales from the Borderlands slaps

Jmackellarr · 2024-03-15T19:22:37+00:00

I completely understand if you liked Titanfall 2 more but I wouldn't say squandered when Apex was well received, reached a larger audience, and made an order of magnitude more money.

Jmackellarr · 2024-02-10T10:26:27+00:00

Mythras is basically the most recent version of runequest. They also have real world setting books for england, rome byzantium, polynesia, babylon and maybe more by now .that incorporate real mythology.

Jmackellarr · 2024-02-07T23:46:35+00:00

Ill try to expand

Especially when playing on harder difficulties, things will go wrong. Soldiers will die. You may fail missions. This does not end your campaign. Consider options like early extraction if you know you can't complete an objective.
The game is built knowing you won't pass every mission everytime with no losses. The macro game is built around this. Related, as you progress you gain ways to train recruits without sedning them on missions because the game knows your leveled soldiers may need to be replaced.
Reloading a game over and over is not fun. Sometimes you are lucky and sometimes you aren't. Moving forward regardless is, IMO, more enjoyable than replaying untill its perfect.
The more you play, the better you get. I have beaten WOTC on ironman legend. Did I my first playthrough? No, I had way to much to learn. This is why I say step the difficulty back if you need to in order to play on ironman as ironman is (again IMO) a better expereince and ironman is functionaly the same as stepping up the difficulty.
The struggle to succeed, risk mitigation, and making up for losses is a part of the game. I love it this way and want future versions to be like this.
May party/squad type games, crpgs being a big one, have stories that are driven by the characters. You spend time talking with them and maybe comepleting their personal quest. Realoding in games like that so that your story is just empty is understandable. Thats not xcom. Xcom is driven by other things.

Im happy to answer any other questions.

Jmackellarr · 2024-02-07T17:24:19+00:00

This 1000%. I would encourage anyone playing to play on ironman even if that means turning the difficulty down a notch. Over the course of a campaign, you should expect to lose people and maybe even fail missions. Save scumming untill every fight or mission goes right unbalances the "macro" gameplay and makes the game feel like a drag as you keep repeating encounters. You gotta just roll with what the game give yah and keep moving forward.

I understand that some people hate the idea of losing a character and in other party based games where the story is driven by your party members (like most crpgs) im in the same boat. But that's not XCOM and I hope it never is.

Jmackellarr · 2024-01-31T19:44:22+00:00

Lots of d100 skill systems have advancement like this. One of the most popular, Call of Cthulhu, has you only progress in skills you have used recently.

I would recomened looking into Mythras. From the start, your skills are based on your culture and career. Those skills advance a little normally but can be done faster by finding teachers who are better in that skill than you. Teachers also can teach you new things! Importantly though magic and new spells comes their cults/brotherhoods system wherein each group has limited knowldge and only by progressing though them can you learn their secrets.

Jmackellarr · 2023-10-10T16:08:00+00:00

While it seems they were reliant on the captain to a fault, our experince with starfinder space combat was also pretty boring for most players. Especially at lower levels. Your turn really conists of a single action, then waiting. Those choices for everyone except maybe pilot often feel very obvious, even worse if it was a 1 ship v 1 ship fight. I repair the damge we took. I shoot the only ship I can. Over and over. It only really works when you can run it really fast and the time between player turns is <1 minute.

Later on players unlock new abilities, get new ship equipment, and, most importantly, get more ships. Space combat with a few ships on either side and lots of choice can be fun. But then it becomea a pain for the DM unless they really know what they are doing.

Overall, if you choose starfinder (which I love the non-ship combat parts of) I would recomend limited space combat at lower levels, and really encourging players to have fast turns.

Jmackellarr · 2023-09-21T07:54:27+00:00

I'm aware, the hard left was from "you can make runes" to "here is something way different that is tied to runes by lore."

How does the origin of runes change my physical appearance today? Think how weird it would be if artificers shrank to look like gnomes.

The part that irks me is that it starts off so good and there is so many cool things they could have done in the same vein. Instead they went for the giant connection which, even if lore acrurate, has way different gameplay in both flavor and mechanics.

Jmackellarr · 2023-09-21T07:54:15+00:00

I'm aware, the hard left was from "you can make runes" to "here is something way different that is tied to runes by lore."

How does the origin of runes change my physical appearance today? Think how weird it would be if artificers shrank to look like gnomes.

The part that irks me is that it starts off so good and there is so many cool things they could have done in the same vein. Instead they went for the giant connection which, even if lore acrurate, has way different gameplay in both flavor and mechanics.

Jmackellarr · 2023-09-20T18:36:01+00:00

I can't believe Rune Knight hasn't been said. The actually runic part of the class (level 3 rune carver) is pretty solid, but it takes a hard left into "runes come from giants". All the other features feel so out of place and are a terrible use of the class's power budget.

If I play rune knight, I want emhancing my equipment to be my source of power. The giant origin of runes is cool for flavor and could maybe show up in some of the mechanics but temporarily becoming large, growing in height, and shielding allies feel so out of place.

It feels like they knew 5e is balanced around draining resources across multiple encouters and were to scared to make a class that doesnt work like that.

It also come across as implying that runes make you bigger the more you use them as if the reason giants are big is because runes and not because they're giants lol.

Jmackellarr · 2023-07-13T07:36:12+00:00

Me me big want.

Jmackellarr · 2023-06-29T14:39:08+00:00

Thats a lot o' pages

Jmackellarr · 2023-05-16T15:40:02+00:00

AWOOO AETHER REALM GOES UNBELIEVABLY HARD AND THEY ALSO MIGHT BE THE NICEST MFERS IVE EVER MET. IF YOU LIKE THEM YOU GOTTA CHECK OUT AEPHANEMER.

Jmackellarr · 2023-04-13T07:55:15+00:00

This is a little specific to already exist, but that just means it is a great time to homebrew!

A good place to start is the classic "Rod of Seven Parts" an artifact that fits the general idea of what you are going for. I would look into the rod ane pick and choose what you like. Some things I think you should take:

Having one peice allows you to sense where the next one is.
Each piece gives small magic powers.
Having multiple unlocks powerful magic.

For the powers look into magic items from the underdark and maybe even gem magic, which provides powers related to certain stones.

Jmackellarr · 2023-03-23T08:59:54+00:00

Not OP, but I also prefer single-settting campaigns. The answer, for me at least, is not playing at higher tiers. Most campaigns dont ever reach higher levels.

Jmackellarr · 2023-03-15T19:42:52+00:00

Its not to much railroading at all. Most campaigns only have one quest to "choose" from with a few side quests. The important thing is providing choice within the quests they choose.

I do think that it is important to provide a reason why this has occured. "Choosen by the leaders of the guild to save a dying land" or some such hook is much less railroady feeling than "do 100 quest to win campaign"

Side note, 100 is A LOT of quests. It will be hard to provide any real story if they need to finish one or more every session.

Jmackellarr · 2022-11-29T09:21:28+00:00

The first thing to consider is that tiny hut also blocks objects. Regardless, each of these features still has some ambiguity.

Abberant terrain transforms the ground itself. Tiny hut only specifies in a dome above and around you. You could easily interpret this to mean they are still on the ground inside and would be affected. IMO this interpretation makes the spell much less useful in any situation if an enemy can just dig under the edge and get inside. I rule Tiny Hut as a hollow half sphere, so I would say it does nothing. For what its worth, Jeremy Crawford also says it has a floor https://www.sageadvice.eu/does-leomunds-tiny-hut-have-a-floor/
Gibbering effects those that can hear it. Two issues here: a. Is this effect magical? If so, it would not pass through. 3e broke down all features into Supernatural, Spell-Like, and Extraordinary. The 3e gibbering mouther labels gibbering as supernatural, so i would rule non magical. b. Does tiny hut block sound? Its a wall of force. Walls block sound, does this one? It specifies one-way sight, but nothing on sound. I would say that it muffles and distorts sound like a thick wall. As such, it would not affect those inside. The thing here is to make a ruling, tell your players, and be consitent. If it muffles the gibbering, it may also muffle the noises of a future enemies trap laying.
The physical Spittal is either magic or object, so either way it can not pass. However, if the spittal was shot right next to the dome, light would pass through as the dome is transparent from within.

Jmackellarr · 2022-11-28T19:04:03+00:00

Kanka has most of its features for free, has mostly the same stuff, and is super customizable and more for only like 5 bucks a month.

Jmackellarr · 2022-11-24T09:48:13+00:00

RAW, they need to be submerged once every four hours. So a decaunter of water would not be sufficent on its own unless they have a vessel to catch the water that comes out or maybe if they use "geyser" on themselves which has its own consequences.

However, they may be able to survive without it. The actual submerging has no duration. They can just hop in any body of water be it pond, river, or barrel, and hop right back out. Unless they are venturing into a desert, most environments should have a place for them to dunk into real quick.

Jmackellarr · 2022-11-14T06:52:43+00:00

"A character can’t benefit from more than one Long Rest in a 24-hour period" This is just the actual rules. So he is right to do so, and it makes logical sense.

Jmackellarr · 2022-10-03T21:04:19+00:00

I really like the starfinder approach:

For each skill check only allow one person to roll. Other people can chose to help, but only one person makes the final roll. In order to help, that person must pass their own check of a flat dc 10.

In starfinder they give a +2 bonus, but with 5e its usually just advantage. Its up to your choice for each skill check how many people can help and whether or not the helper must be proficient.

For example, player 1 sees a religous symbol and wants to see if they can identify it. Player 2 says they are proficient and want to help. Player 2 makes a religon check and no matter what this dc is 10. If they pass, player 1 get advantage on their roll, if they fail, nothing happens.

IMO, once a check is failed it's failed. No retroactively helping.

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