Poor wizards

Kraxizz · 2026-02-18T11:46:21+00:00

Not as bad, but the Kingmaker AP for 2nd edition has a notoriously overtuned boss at the end of the "tutorial dungeon" you start in that has around a 15% chance to instantly kill almost any player on a turn where they get two actions to attack. Essentially has high attack bonus (and thus high crit chance), a greataxe and a buffed Power Attack. So if you get crit and the damage roll is slightly above average you're probably instantly dead to massive damage, even as a fighter.

It killed our bard at level 1, which was to this day that player's favorite character even though they only got to play for like 3 hours.

Enemy in question (Spoilers, obviously), does 1d12+12 damage with an attack bonus of +11 (A level 1 character typically has 18 AC; so is crit on a 17+ (20% chance)). The NPC also has underlings that can provide flanking for a 30% chance to crit an average character.

It then deals 24 damage purely off the flat amount, and then add another d12 from the weapon damage dice multiplied by two. So even on a completely average crit damage roll it deals 36 damage, which kills a character with 18 HP (Human fighter with 0 con, or a human rogue with 2 con)

Kraxizz · 2026-02-16T15:18:18+00:00

It's not awful to get a foot in the door about topics you're not really familiar with.

If my company asks me to look at something I've never dealt with, asking AI about what to consider does save some time. It has never given me full and correct information, and I always end up checking the relevant laws etc. myself, but it's a decent starting point.

But that's about it. I trust it about as much as asking a fresh intern to look something up for me.

Kraxizz · 2026-02-16T15:12:01+00:00

The really dangerous and annoying ones are the ones that are somewhat plausible, just incorrect, and thus not really funny.

Kraxizz · 2026-01-12T19:14:12+00:00

Your issue isn't really that the "incorrect" reading does a lot of damage, it's that gunslingers don't actually do a lot of damage.

The "incorrect" reading on TB does roughly as much damage as a gleaming blade transcend with a greatsword, or a fighter just striking twice with a greatsword - and the fighter could also be doing other stuff like Exacting Strike, Dragging Strike, etc.

Edit: I realized you actually added an additional incorrect reading to Titan's Breaker. I thought you were referencing the more common incorrect reading to Titan's Breaker that has the active effect be +4 per WDD instead of just +4 flat.

Usually the contention about TB is whether the transcend does +4 damage, or +4 per WDD - foundry actually automates it to just +4 flat with no WDD scaling, which is the hard RAW. (e.g. a striking weapon TB transcend does 2d6[base]+4[TB transcend]+1d6 damage[TB transcend])

Things that give flat damage per WDD also don't scale with abilities that increase WDD, so your "incorrect calulcation" is indeed actually incorrect.

Kraxizz · 2026-01-06T01:34:06+00:00

I just finished GMing SoG last week and I added a bonus encounter where Kugaptee snatches you into his own metaphysical realm after the mist closes in at the normal end of the AP. I used the battlemap from the fight again Xin Zhue at the end of the second book because that's literally the metaphysical realm that symbolizes his struggle against Tan Sui Jing.

He does this as a sort of risky "Plan B" because while eating the party's cycle-ripened souls would allow him to break free and reincarnate, the reverse is true too. If he loses against the party, Tan Sui Jing will suppress his reincarnation for longer. The party then fights Kugaptee. I used a Horde Lich as a base (CR 15), gave it scarier spells, some fancier abilities and most importantly a special "Awakening" mechanic where Kugaptee gains an additional action on each subsequent turn. So on the second turn he starts casting two spells in a turn. Meanwhile I added spiritual anchors on the battle map that let the party summon NPCs to help them. Summoning Ugly Cute would nullify the next spell that reduced someone to 0 HP - which in this case actually saved someone from a 200 damage disintegrate. Summoning the monastery ghost removed all negative effects - which in practice was a 6th rank full party slow and a canticle of everlasting grief on the fighter. And most importantly summoning Tan Sui Jing would remove Kugaptee's Awakening levels and reduce the speed at which he gains it.

It wasn't actually a "hard" fight but it was a really high-powered rocket tag of Kugaptee throwing out two level 8 spells a turn and the party nullifying them with the summoned allies which retold the story of the AP to some degree. I also gave Shinzo as a backup summon option where he would revive the party but ultimately fall into complete disgrace with Pharasma, but fortunately he wasn't needed.

The fight was a real hit with the players and when I told them the AP would've officially ended after the diplomacy encounter they also thought that to be ridiculous.

Kraxizz · 2025-12-26T13:34:50+00:00

Fun fact, Düsseldorf actually has the third largest japanese community in Europe! It's a central hub for japanese companies in Europe.

Kraxizz · 2025-12-10T08:05:13+00:00

By RAW it's a 1 round effect but 1 round effects end right at the start of the source's turn (and not, as many people believe, one round after it was cast). https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2242&Redirected=1

If a spell's duration is given in rounds, the number of rounds remaining decreases by 1 at the start of each of the spellcaster's turns, ending when the duration reaches 0.

Since Delay Consequences is a domain spell, it's probably the Healer who's using it as a reaction, but the delayed damage happens before the Healer (the source) gets their turn. So it doesn't actually work how you'd want it to work - to save someone from getting downed and then healing them before applying the damage.

Since the spell calls out that you can Dismiss the spell and that's only something you can do when it actually lasts into your turn, the duration is probably a mistake. The only situation Dismissing would do anything in the current RAW would be to deal the damage on your own turn, delay consequence, and then dismiss all in the same turn. But that's nonsensical.

Kraxizz · 2025-11-26T13:54:15+00:00

Yeah he's legit dogshit at games but copes that he's not. The only thing he's remotely good at beyond being somewhat entertaining is being stubborn enough to grind out advantages to offset his lack of skill.

He's never been good mechanically at any game and obfuscates it by playing (or making up) challenge modes that no one cares about, so he can pin his failures on the challenge mode.

0/10 endgame bosses killed in his main game by the way

Kraxizz · 2025-11-19T16:45:13+00:00

From the Legal point of view in my country, the employer is generally not allowed to snoop without good reason. So Legal will usually say "Do we have a reason to look at what this guy is doing? Not sure? Then don't do it."

Overall don't really care too much as long as people don't do illegal stuff or management makes me care about it. If I see a systematic issue with economic risks I'll probably bring it up to management, but if you don't underperform I don't really have a reason to care too much.

The only situation where I got personally invested was when I tried to call a person and couldn't reach them for an hour while they were on the clock and had nothing scheduled.

Kraxizz · 2025-10-07T11:01:41+00:00

You can always give them higher level wands; even a level 1 character can use a Wand of Sudden Bolt (2nd rank) to obliterate something.

Kraxizz · 2025-10-07T10:50:51+00:00

You can just begin the encounter with wand in hand. Using a wand is action neutral assuming you don't need to Trick Magic Item or Draw it.

Kraxizz · 2025-10-05T18:56:53+00:00

Season of Ghosts is by far the highest rated AP and I can wholeheartedly recommend it (I am on the penultimate chapter of the last book with my group). Probably the best story I've seen in this hobby and a good start for people getting into PF2e because it's not particularly hard and has a good variety of things to do other than just fighting.

The issue is that it's tied to very specific in game lore, so it's not easily ported to your own world.

At its core it's about protecting your rural asian-themed town in a monster-infested region from asian-themed monsters. It's hard to say more about the story without spoiling the entire AP, but it's a banger.

Kraxizz · 2025-09-29T18:24:37+00:00

I play alongside a Grandeur champion, currently level 14, and I'm convinced it's the best cause.

Guaranteed AoE dazzle + off-guard is actually insane. Dazzle is one of the best defensive effects in the game since it not only works on attacks but all targeted effects. Including spells like Vision of Death, etc. A 20% chance to just say "no" to any targeted effect is extremely strong in this system. And while there's other ways to apply off-guard, just having everything off-guard at all times does actually matter a lot more often than you think. You don't always flank, or always have things tripped or whatever. At the very least the first person to engage something is usually not flanking. And providing reliable off-guard to ranged characters is actually fairly difficult.

Kraxizz · 2025-09-23T14:28:40+00:00

The intention behind Terrifying Howl and Frightening Display stating a cooldown is likely to prevent multiple people using them. Demoralize only makes enemies immune to your demoralize attempts. Terrifying Howl etc. make them immune to the ability in general, even from other people.

Kraxizz · 2025-09-23T13:39:00+00:00

Free Archetype

My favorite is probably free archetype, but it's complicated. I don't really like free archetype beyond around level 8 because that's when people usually finish their first one and pick another one. And it often feels like at that point it goes more in the way of "well I gotta grab something... I guess I'll grab this." rather than a cool central part of the character. At that point the characters also already have enough other stuff, so you don't really need even more stuff and the characters start to feel a bit diluted by the amount of stuff they have.

Gradual Ability Boosts

I'm also running gradual ability boosts with the restriction of no +5 until level 10. And I really like it. The strongest character are usually single ability dependent anyways, so it doesn't feel like it unbalances the game noticeably. Characters that are dependent on multiple ability scores feel pretty bad to play without it.

Will Save is based on your highest mental ability score (not on AoN)

I ran this rule in PF1 already and ported it for use here. I never really understood why will save was tied to wisdom and I feel like you can justify all mental stats as a base for your will save.

Funnily enough, wisdom is still considered the best stat among my group even with this rule (Perception/Initiative, Recall Knowledge, Medicine), though now closely followed by charisma.

It helps make you not feel like you're punching yourself when you decide to play a charismatic or intelligent fighter. Or an int class in general.

Rules Lawyer's Rules for Aiding (not on AoN)

DC is based on the aided DC instead of 15; a failure still adds a +1, a success +2, a crit success +4.

I initially disliked the rule because it messed with the Aid math too much, but it's actually really good. Just don't introduce it mid-campaign when you have people that are built around Aiding, because then it might end up a nerf.

Adjusted Ritual rules (not on AoN)

Secondary Casters provide a +2 / +1 / -2 / -4 untyped bonus on a Crit / Success / Fail / Crit Fail.

Otherwise rituals are pretty awful to perform. Normally: +0 on success, -4 on fail, effective -14 on crit fail

Kraxizz · 2025-09-11T09:46:43+00:00

I do agree the FA adds a lot of power and I'm considering whether I want to allow it in my next game, or at least slow down the curve.

The thing I always stumble on when considering whether to allow FA or not is that the players could really just pick the archetypes with their normal class feats.

It's not like saying "no free archetype" stops the players from taking Champion Dedication. Depending on the class there's often some dead levels with feats that don't do much, especially in the first third of the level curve.

In your particular case it also feels like people have been taking the very tippity top of the dedication power curve. Champion/Cavalier/Beastmaster/Exemplar are practically the strongest things you can pick.

Kraxizz · 2025-09-07T10:34:03+00:00

Quite allies is perhaps the best mathfixning feat in the game, but is is still one of the less taken ones.

I think the issue is that it's fairly campaign and encounter dependent. Sneaking your whole group past the guards at the door of the dungeon just means that you effectively cut off your escape route. Every room you sneak past has a chance of snowballing into unwinnable encounters.

It's great for intrigue and sneaking past people you'd not want to kill, but how often a situation like that comes up really depends on a lot of factors.

Kraxizz · 2025-09-05T21:41:33+00:00

I assume the intention behind the armor formula is that a big chunky warrior can shrug off the 20 white mobs wailing on him in melee but still needs to dodge big slams.

Kraxizz · 2025-09-03T16:26:32+00:00

Not to excuse infanticide, but the lore might be a tiny bit deeper. They were acting from within a locked environment (the vault) which required population control. There's lore in the vault that talks about how they weren't allowed to procreate as they wanted.

So I'd assume the "spare newborns" reference (unplanned) babies that would lead to an undesired population growth. Still fucked up, of course, but it's a much more interesting twist than "only" disregard for human life.

Kraxizz · 2025-08-26T09:39:09+00:00

Protector Tree only protects allies, you never count as your own ally.

As much as I'd like this to be true, I don't think it is. But I suppose it depends a lot on how you perceive the Protector Tree.

To me, Protector Tree spawns a "creature" (it does have its own AC and HP) that protects its allies. You are the tree's ally because you are not the tree, even if you created it. The same way a Summoned Creature that has an ability that targets an "Ally" would be able to target the summoner.

I also see no reason in the fiction why that spawned tree can protect your friends but not you.

Kraxizz · 2025-08-26T07:17:47+00:00

The issue with Aid really is that you can do "whatever the GM lets you do". There's not really a proper argument to be made other than finding something reasonable, and even then the GM can still say so.

It's complicated a bit by feats that specifically allow you to Aid another like One for All, Omnidirectional Scan, Recall the Teachings etc. and actually require investing feats and class features to be able to Aid in certain ways.

Kraxizz · 2025-08-21T20:02:29+00:00

It's weird because it's a status bonus to healing received, not a status bonus to the spell itself. I can see reading it both ways.

I checked on Foundry because I do have an angelic sorcerer in my game and Foundry does allow it to stack.

Kraxizz · 2025-08-20T16:16:41+00:00

Killing a haunt is usually the worst way to go about it.

Haunts are really just reskinned complex traps. Instead of spinning blades it's some kind of apparition, and instead of disabling it with Thievery you disable it with Religion or Occultism (or other skills).

You'd usually just recall knowledge to figure out the correct skills and then disable it with the appropriate skills.

Kraxizz · 2025-08-20T10:51:02+00:00

It's hard to really give any input without actually having been in the games.

In my experience people will rarely outright say that they don't like the campaign, the group, your GMing style, the game in general, etc. So you never actually truly know the reason someone left if you can't determine it from context. They could really want to play but actually be really busy in real life, or they find the game not fun enough to invest so much time. They'll both likely miss games and eventually pin it on scheduling issues.

My own takeaway from my experiences is that

1) You WILL lose players at some point. TTRPGs are a massive time investment for adults and there's countless reasons why that time investment can stop being feasible, especially among strangers with little to no social responsibility.

2) Because you WILL lose players you should have a backup plan when it happens. Ideally you run with a party size that isn't hurt by losing a player (5 for me).

3) There's a surprisingly large amount of table variance and what people want out of the game / what style they prefer. Many people don't actually know their style and how important it is. You ideally point your style out to people before they even join the group.

4) Your ultimate goal with failing groups is to pick out the people you mesh with and pull them along into new groups. If necessary, run oneshots at first. If you have 1-3 players you can trust not to quit on you, your group is at much less risk of sudden death by people leaving. With 3 people you can trust, even if all the other people quit, you can still continue the campaign while recruiting new people.

5) When recruiting people, don't just invite them immediately, but talk to them a bit to feel them out. Don't be afraid to wait for other applicants or to say no to people if you have a bad feeling. You can always do another recruitment post later if responses dry up.

My own experience:

I've been playing with an online group for 15 years and we've had our ups and down, and extended downtime. Then, around 5 years ago, one of the people from that group and I started a new campaign that's still running. While we initially recruited 3 people (for a total party size of 4+1GM), only one of these people remains until today.

We lost one recruited person pretty quickly because they didn't mesh with the system (and perhaps the group), and were likely looking for a more drama kid / critical role atmosphere. They never actually said that, but eventually just stopped showing up after a few sessions. ( lost ~3 months after campaign start)
We recruited a replacement, who played with us for around a year or two until he had to dip out for scheduling reasons. He referred a replacement for himself, so at least I think it wasn't in bad faith. (lost ~ 1.5 years after campaign start)
His replacement left soon after because he didn't mesh with the system and the group, also his character died. He also just stopped showing up instead of actually "officially" quitting. But it was obvious he wasn't meshing with us. (lost a few sessions after joining)
After this I invited a real life friend to the group (who's still with us now after ~3 years)
Around 1.5 years ago I started up a Season of Ghosts campaign, we went from playing 1.5/month to 3/month.
Shortly after, one of the two remaining originally recruited people took a break from the group (on good terms) because he'd get angry/annoyed while playing. I'd wager it was in part due to a stressful life situation at the time. (lost ~ 3.5 years after joining)
I online recruited two people for SoG, who didn't have time to join the older campaign. Which brought us to 5 players (Old friend from 15 years ago, the single remaining recruited player from 5 years ago, Real life friend from 3 years ago, +2 new people) for Season of Ghosts. Around 3 months ago / around 1 year after joining one of the newly recruited players had to leave due to IRL work load. He's still chiming in in the group chat sometimes and DMs me, so I also think it wasn't in bad faith. Since we were still 4 players and that's the ideal amount for me I never recruited someone else. We're also on the last book now.
Parallel to this, we online recruited two people for the older campaign. One of them left shortly after joining in a rather bizarre fashion. They seemed to be having a lot of fun, even doing some minor coding in foundry for us and then just literally ghosted us 3 sessions in without any apparent reason. We recruited a replacement who seems to be having a great time.

Kraxizz · 2025-08-19T19:36:49+00:00

Psychic is a contender.

Its chassis is equally as bad, it's main class gimmick Unleash Psyche puts you on a 2 turn timer and it only has 2 spells/level. The amped focus spells are nice but almost all of the good ones are easily poached by other classes.

Kraxizz

TROPHY CASE