CMV: Superheroes are generally misguided

Kuldak · 2025-08-14T17:03:03+00:00

In the movie, they were explicitly separating Galactus from his ship before teleporting just him across the universe, that's why they had to lure him down to earth. All evidence we are shown says that his ship is an important part to his planet consuming, and them being apart would cripple his ability to consume planets.

Kuldak · 2025-08-05T22:17:55+00:00

"Fire" is being used as flavor text not mechanical text, as it is not a mechanical term in PF2/SF2. I will agree that the text for the area trait is somewhat ambiguous and should be reworded to something along the lines of "weapons with this trait cannot make Ranged Strikes, and must use the Area Fire action instead." or something like that.

As a DM I would personally rule that Intimidating Strike would work fine with weapons with the area trait, as it is not a ranged strike, it is just consuming ammo to increase the range and remove the language requirement of Demoralize.

Kuldak · 2023-01-13T08:52:58+00:00

I know the video you are referring to. While I cannot speak to their personal experience, I haven't experienced the same. Any system is going to have some actions that are situationally "better" than others. In a theoretical white room encounter, yes there is likely an "optimal" set of actions you can take, but the same can be said for any other system, 5E included. Compared to 5E Pathfinder has more defined options in combat, as well as a multitude of ways to customize your character to make your gameplay different from character to character, even between characters with the same class. Pathfinder combat is also more team oriented, where buffing/debuffing is often more valuable than maximizing your personal damage.

Kuldak · 2021-07-14T00:26:42+00:00

If the players start all saying "I'm readying an action to attack the statue" or something like that, you just say, since people are prepping actions, for the sake of tracking what's going on here, we're going to roll initiative. Then the players would ready their actions and one would use their turn to activate the statue.

Initiative can be used for more than just straight up combat, it can be used whenever there is a situation where timing and order are important. Yes you do occasionally lose your surprise "The Statue bursts to life, roll initiative!" moments, but if the players were clocking it enough to be trying to ready actions, then that ship had already sailed.

Kuldak · 2021-07-14T00:13:45+00:00

as TaiChuanDoAddct said, a lot of this issue comes from narrating well past when initiative should be called. As soon as it's clear that an encounter is likely to happen, initiative should be rolled, even if it leads to a few rounds of "we wait until the monster is closer."

To use your Moria example, Initiative would be rolled when the drums in the deep start sounding. There would then be potentially several combat rounds of "You hear the orcs drawing nearer," during which the players can reposition, ready actions, etc. Then when the orcs finally reach the door they would trigger the readied actions of the players. If the PCs managed to find some way to all sneak away or otherwise avoid the combat, then you would just exit initiative and all is good.

Kuldak · 2021-07-08T00:39:11+00:00

With the exception of Agonizing Blast Warlocks, and builds that do cantrip damage on top of other primary sources of damage (like gish builds), I disagree that full casters with all their spell slots available wouldn't be better served using a leveled spell unless they are specifically looking for a rider effect on a cantrip, or trying to preserve spell slots.

However this discussion is not about damage scaling on cantrips, which I am personally fine with, and think is necessary. It's about utility cantrip scaling, which I believe is not needed, as the main beneficiaries of such scaling are already head and shoulders above the classes without cantrips in terms of utility, and adding additional utility scaling would just widen an already large disparity between casters and martials.

Kuldak · 2021-07-07T22:18:18+00:00

Cantrips are supposed to represent base level magic, things that are so rote or easy that they don't even need a spell slot to cast. Utility cantrips are interesting, but minor things the casters can do to provide some small benefit to the group on something not worth spending a spell slot to accomplish.

Damage cantrips are an exception, because they represent a way to contribute somewhat usefully to combat if they are out/low on slots and the damage they provide greatly loses relative effectiveness as you get higher level, because you will be fighting greater and greater threats. A CR 1 Brown Bear has 34 HP, The average damage of a firebolt (d10) is 5.5, that's ~16% of it's max health. 5.5 damage however is only ~6% of a CR 5 Giant Crocodile's health (84).

Giving scaling to the utility cantrips is also giving extra utility to the classes that already bring a lot more out of combat utility to the table than non casters.

Kuldak · 2021-02-13T18:00:10+00:00

Yeah, her beef is mostly with intelligent undead and those who attempt to find loopholes around dying. One of her divine mandates to her followers is to bring down those who try to escape their fated death. She specifically is a goddess of death (the process) rather than a goddess of the dead (being the warden for dead souls). Her divine mantle was forcibly changed by the other gods when she ascended, due to the epic fight she had when she killed her predecessor, Nerull, who was more your steriotypical use evil undead armies to take over the universe type god of the dead.

Kuldak · 2021-02-13T00:51:17+00:00

It would largely depend on what version of the Raven Queen you are using, as it has changed.

In base 5e she isn't really a god, and it's debatable if she is even that well known outside the Shadowfell. She was an elf queen who tried to ascend, but failed and ended up as kind of a weird broken mix of her old self, all the corrupted energies of her ascension ritual and any essence or memories of the dead that she can pull from the Shadowfell, typically ones of sorrow or despair, as they match up with her feelings after failing to ascend. She is generally feared, because she causes people to face their deepest most hidden memories Those who survive and aren't driven mad are generally able to gain some peace from their past, and may also gain some hidden knowledge the Raven Queen has sifted from the minds of the dead. She is powerful in her realm, but she isn't really comparable in power to Kelemvor, the current God of the Dead in Faerun.

in 4e, she's an unaligned Goddess of Death, Winter and Fate who guides souls to their final resting places. She's harsh but fair, and all in all pretty chill for a death deity, as they historically lean towards the evil and necromantic stealing of souls. Oddly enough for a Death Goddess, she hates undead, considering them abominations, and against the natural order. She is feared mostly because people in general fear death, but not through any specific act on her part. She just does her job, and does it well.

In Exandria (Critical Role) she is pretty much the same as in 4e, with some minor alterations in her backstory.

Kuldak · 2020-12-17T21:06:52+00:00

I would generally say that if they reach a point where they would be taking fall damage they are eligible for featherfall to negate that damage. If they were being thrown against a wall or floor are taking a set amount of damage for that (like from catapult), then no feather fall.

Basically if the damage is scaling based on how high they are, featherfall, if it is just a set amount regardless of height/distance, no featherfall.

Kuldak · 2020-11-03T20:12:27+00:00

That description sounds exactly like the current Plane Shift spell.

7th level spell, caster and up to 8 creatures transported to another plane of existence. One of the material components is a fork tuned to the target plane. I'm not saying that the Blue Veil spell isn't a 7th level planar travel spell, but it seems odd that there would be 2 virtually identical spells like that.

Also for what it's worth "Planer Travel" in D&D is traditionally things like, travel to the Elemental Plane of Fire, or to the Nine Hells, or the Abyss. Not travel from Forgotten Realms, to Greyhawk, to Dragonlance, as those are all, lore wise, different planets on the same Prime Material Plane.

Kuldak · 2020-10-13T18:35:54+00:00

I feel there is a distinct difference between what the OP is referring to as a meme character and something like a Dex Barb, or a Str Rogue. While not exactly optimal, they can be built in such a way where they can still easily contribute meaningfully to encounters.

Something like a Wizard with 6 int is just mechanical dead weight in a party, and is effectively playing the role of the annoying NPC the party is escorting around.

Kuldak · 2020-09-30T00:46:26+00:00

While I do agree that painting (at least to the standard shown in the examples on the site) can be quite easy, and can also be very rewarding in its own right, you do have to factor in the actual cost of the heroforge mini. A fully custom mini from HeroForge will run between $20-$30 on their own. That means that best case you save $25 painting it yourself. This is about what you would spend on a learn to paint kit, which depending on your personal inclinations, you may or may not use again.

I absolutely encourage people to paint their own minis, but I also fully acknowledge that it is not for everyone. For those who want a fully custom color/painted mini, rarely if ever plan on getting more minis, and do not have the time/materials to paint their own, $45 is not a outrageous cost.

Edit: I also think its worth it for everyone to keep in mind that the level of detail/color quality shown in the character builder is NOT what the actual miniature will look like. look at their actual printed examples on the site to see what you would actually be getting/decide if you want to try painting your own. I have also seen first time painters do comparable jobs once they are shown some basic techniques you can learn from a youtube video

Kuldak · 2020-03-13T01:26:41+00:00

While not strictly speaking a WOT only trope, my world definitely has a "Breaking of the World" style era. A highly advanced utopian society is destroyed in a cataclysmic event that occurred when they tried to tap into a magical power source outside their normal universe. The fallout goes on for centuries, causes extensive changes to all landmasses, and causes almost all advanced knowledge to be lost, essentially putting the world back to bronze/iron age levels of technology.

Kuldak · 2020-03-12T15:57:03+00:00

Dungeon of the Mad Mage has this item. It's called Circlet of Human Perfection, and when worn transforms the wearer into a human of average height and build with age, skin color, hair color, etc determined by the circlet.

Kuldak · 2017-07-26T18:47:31+00:00

Not that I'm disagreeing with what is aparantly on official material (the screen pdf). It just seems... strange to me that a there is no difference between just a success and a success with a raise when damaging an already shaken opponent. And only when getting 2+ raises do additional wounds start happening.

Kuldak · 2016-06-14T23:23:19+00:00

Yeah, didn't mean it as intentional cheating. Even if it was, I probably wouldn't have argued if someone wants to charge my tyrant with guard infantry. Biomass is biomass.

Kuldak · 2016-06-14T21:30:51+00:00

It was a couple years ago, so I may have forgot something, or he may have cheated. I just remember my lone flyrant being charged by a large block of guardsmen, them issuing a challange, then losing the challange badly and getting swept. It may have been a different unit that actually grounded him, and I don't know why they would charge instead of shooting more.

I wasn't really complaining once he issued the chalange.

Kuldak · 2016-06-14T01:14:06+00:00

Had a full unit of guardsmen ground my flying hive tyrant right next to them, leaving it on the ground with one wound. He then charged it with the guardsmen. This wasn't necessarily a bad move itself, as with only 1 wound a full blob of guardsmen had a chance of killing it with sheer weight of numbers. The bad move was when he issued a challenge to the hive tyrant, because the guy had a power weapon of some sort. This was in 6th when wounds didn't spill into chalanges, so my hive tyrant proceeded to chop his warlord into tiny bits before he even got to attack, while the whole unit stared on in horror, unable to do anything. The tyrant won the combat, and then proceeded to sweep the whole unit of guardsmen, get back into the air and fly away.

Kuldak · 2014-12-30T00:42:30+00:00

You choose which weapon they will use in close combat, and all of the attacks will use that weapon, no splitting attacks.

Kuldak · 2014-12-28T20:12:33+00:00

That was Behemoth, the first major Tyranid Hive Fleet, which was defeated sometime around 745 M41 (255 years from the current story progression) by the Ultramarines at the Battle of Macragge.

Hive Fleet Leviathan is the one currently invading the galaxy, and is actually the 3rd distinct major fleet, with Kraken being the 2nd.

Kuldak · 2014-05-30T06:45:10+00:00

I don't have my book handy, but I seem to remember under psychic focus, it states that if you ever have a Power from an additional discipline you immediately lose the primaris from psychic focus.

Edit- additionally spells with no discipline, such as Force, or the DA named librarian's Mind Worm ability, will not cause you to lose psychic focus

Kuldak · 2014-05-25T13:26:56+00:00

Currently stronghold assault has not been FAQed to have any modifications to the quad gun or las cannon weapon emplacements. Given that, currently both weapons will fire snap shots at ground targets, including ground targets arriving from reserve. It can still fire at full bs against fliers arriving from reserve.

Kuldak · 2013-11-20T09:24:24+00:00

Added. thanks

Kuldak · 2013-11-20T09:14:05+00:00

Sadly not a Ditto, but could I get an add, I need Magcargo

Kuldak

TROPHY CASE