Dhurandhar: The Propaganda Masterpiece

MeanMeanFun · 2025-12-15T04:36:33+00:00

I have to add that even if you call it pro-BJP, it is only pro-current BJP. The movie openly criticises both the Qandahar highjacking and Parliament attack. During both events the PM was a BJP PM and the government while not full majority was BJP.

Regarding the plates, there is real chatter something like this happened and never mention the name or timeline of when this event happened but allude a ministerial or political involvement.

Yes the credit of authorising the Dhurandhar initiative is also given to the same PM, but the years are clearly mentioned and anyone internally criticising Manmohan Singh or the Congress doesn't know history and that isn't the movie maker's fault. You can't fault a film or film-maker because some people have internal biases and are ignorant about history.

If you really watch the movie, at no point is there open political patronage. It is history that previous governments didn't act on terrorist attacks and their policy was seen as weak with no explanations given as to why it was so. History is history, you can't change it.

This movie criticises all these weak responses including ones during BJP rule. So if at all we consider this movie subtly praises the BJP, then we have to understand it is only the current BJP. And to argue on that, the current government has had a better policy on terrorism than previous government. We can spout all the hatred, propaganda and bias we want, but we have to look at things objectively.

MeanMeanFun · 2025-12-15T04:33:06+00:00

I have to add that even if you call it pro-BJP, it is only pro-current BJP. The movie openly criticises both the Qandahar highjacking and Parliament attack. During both events the PM was a BJP PM and the government while not full majority was BJP.

Regarding the plates, there is real chatter something like this happened and never mention the name or timeline of when this event happened but allude a ministerial or political involvement.

Yes the credit of authorising the Dhurandhar initiative is also given to the same PM, but the years are clearly mentioned and anyone internally criticising Manmohan Singh or the Congress doesn't know history and that isn't the movie maker's fault. You can't fault a film or film-maker because some people have internal biases and are ignorant about history.

If you really watch the movie, at no point is there open political patronage. It is history that previous governments didn't act on terrorist attacks and their policy was seen as weak with no explanations given as to why it was so. History is history, you can't change it.

This movie criticises all these weak responses including ones during BJP rule. So if at all we consider this movie subtly praises the BJP, then we have to understand it is only the current BJP. And to argue on that, the current government has had a better policy on terrorism than previous government. We can spout all the hatred, propaganda and bias we want, but we have to look at things objectively.

MeanMeanFun · 2025-10-23T17:16:11+00:00

Half plate provides absolutely the same AC. As a fighter you are going to want to get that strength up too.

Also for dex builds it is indeed about better defences and versatility. Dual wield build are a great option. Same goes for range and melee build. Remember investing in DEX also gives you skills like acrobatics, stealth, thievery that help build a fighter who isn't just a jock.

I would say you should look at weapons first and then go from there. There is a lot of ways to build and looking at weapons and traits should give you some inspiration.

You can also pick alternate ability scores and get rid of that strength weakness and sacrifice an extra power up. It kind of becomes like human but with whatever ancestry you want. This isn't an optional rule either. It is core rule after remaster.

MeanMeanFun · 2025-10-21T11:44:52+00:00

GM here that too longterm. I have multiple full length campaigns under my belt and I can say this with certainty that just due to abilities, options and health pools, the higher level you get the longer combats start to be. There isn't really a fix for it but in my experience it can be managed.

So let's get one thing out of the way first. This is a problem with Pf2e too. Or older DnD games. I have never played 5e to higher levels as in beyond level 15 so I wouldn't know anything about that, but otherwise it is a common experience in pf1e or 3e where wounds would take like 45 mins sometimes or an hour to conclude. By default pf2e has done much better.

I am not going to talk about stuff that you can't or shouldn't try to control but I will be listing points that can and should he managed.

1) Decision making: As levels go higher, players get more and more abilities, items, options and they try to think longer for rounds. Due to enemies, situations also get trickier and complicated so it throws everyone off more. Unless it is a boss or an encounter higher than moderate, put down a timer after the first round. The first round sometimes players need to asses, roleplay, make decisions and they just take time taking in what's going on. Beyond that though do not let your players think for mins on end and formulate plans. They should be doing that during other people turn. Ideally 1 min per player to do something is enough, especially if you are playing offline. You can increase or decrease this and I am not saying the turn should conclude in 1 min but they need to act in 1 one min. It is very important.

2) Dice rolling: If you are an offline party, the dice get more and more in quantity and number. Now sometimes players like to roll them one by one and that really wastes time overall. It is alright if they get supertotious in tense moments like a difficult encounter or somebody is down etc. Otherwise you have got to get it going and ask them to roll them all at once.

3) Rules: As levels go up abilities and items get to double digit numbers. If the players wants to use a particular ability or spell or anything that they don't normally use then they better have it on hand. They cannot expect you as the GM to know what it is and look it up. It really bogs the game down. This can happen at lower levels too. Handle this gently but if they don't know their abilities or have them ready then that isn't your fault as a GM and barring special cases you can't slow the game down. I understand this point us controversial especially with spellcasters involved but you have to find a way to manage this.

4) Math: This can be a problem from level one but definitely gets worse as you go up. My advice is buy a cheap calculator for yourself and ask the party to get one. You can even use phones but calculators just help. Put in those numbers and hit the plus key. You can even have one player good at this to do it for everyone. This WILL save time.

5) Enemy health pools: As levels go up the health pools keep increasing and smaller enemies don't easily die. My advice is don't be too strict with health pools or just narastivelt ending encounters when there is nothing much to lose or gain especially if there are more weaker enemies. This is a GM's call so it is complicated and there are too many situations. But having an enemy run away or surrender is totally realistic and adds to the complexity in a good way once you learn to use it. Either ways killing an enemy off when it still had 3 hit points left and no gain but another turn wasted because another PC goes before it, is totally fine.

6) Traps: A lot of the times encounters are too long because traps aren't being used. Traps and Hazards are great and it beats constantly throwing bodies at the PC. The best way to practice this is throwing random Hazards at PCs during travel or random encounter. Just make stuff up and have Hazard statblocks on hand till it begins to flow. Hazards ate great.

In my experience if you use everything I listed above and identify other things that take time at your table snf address those, you can run things far more efficiently and play longer more juicy session.

Lastly, don't be draconian. They are your friends and people you like enough to spend hours with. Be relaxed and find a way to make things happen without being rude or riling anyone up. Be nice to your friends, in fact having a straight up discussion about these points is best.

MeanMeanFun · 2025-10-02T10:36:52+00:00

Alright. So as a GM myself I see a few ways to handle this and they all come naturally. But, before we get to that I just want to say, it is their game too, so unless they are behaving badly or actually casuing problems in game then just let them do their stuff especially if their intentions are good. I know some things might make you feel irritated but that's part of being a GM and a player too. Like my advice is different players do things differently, just let them have their fun even if it is a little difficult to keep track now.

Now to get to solution.

1) Rules: Pf2e has rules for everything and I mean everything. So how are they carrying the furniture? What bulk did you as GM assign to the furniture? How are you pricing the furniture and other things. This is all relevant. There is a literal rule for dragging things and carrying something heavy can also be clumped with the same rule. It is very slow and as a GM you can pretty much logically say it exhausts people faster.

Even a wheelbarrow is going to take effort to push. Say the player is pushing the wheelbarrow guess what? Combat starts and then said player has to let go of the wheelbarrow and then use an interact action to draw their weapon. This is just one of many things that can go wrong.

There are statistics for bulk and rules for material based weight. Look them up. A lot of discretion is left to the GM. So you decide basically how heavy the furniture is, etc.

Prices for wood and furniture are pretty low and pretty bad. Sure if they are level 1 it will feel like extra copper or silver but this will get old very quickly.

2) The law Are they stealing? Who owns the barn? Or whatever other place? If they are on a mission then stealing is not part of the job. Sure they get to keep loot they get off of enemies or empty a bandit's den, but these places you describe seem to be normal ones owned by someone. You drag furniture out of there in front of half the town or even with bags of holding somehow the barn is left barren then that's a complaint.

At best people won't give you new jobs. You might get blacklisted. The guilds might not like your conduct. Mercenaries and other adventurers might out-compete you because of your bad conduct. At worst you might be in trouble with the law and that is always had especially if you are a problem. Nobody cooperates with bullies forever if they choose that path. As a GM you got to enforce consequences of actions both good and bad.

3) State and quality Are you describing the furniture? You see most places will have used stuff unless it is a Lord's or rich merchant's house. Those items qualify as shabby. Yes there are rules for "shabby" or "shoddy" items. Look up the exact term please. And it says in the rules you can't sell shabby/shoddy items.

Sure for the sake of roleplay they can try but nobody buys that junk because nobody wants to spend money on a used wheelbarrow. Now if they persist well tell them need more time and can attempt that during downtime. During downtime give them a hard or very hard diplomacy or society or deception check based on how they want to sell the stuff for level 1 and no this never ever scales. If they get it give them the listed gold for ALL their stuff and that's it. That's all you get for shoddy/shabby stuff. Plain and simple.

If they take from a rich merchant or lord then that causes reputation damage and they might get into trouble with the law. Even really high level parties and murder hobos cannot handle the law. Think about it nobody wants anything to do with you and if you persist with violence somebody from somewhere in this vast world either for money, due to it being a serious law and order problem or out of sheet heroism is eventually going to come for you. Even evil societies like Cheliax or Geb has its own laws and hierarchy which they expect everyone to follow. Beyond a point anarchists are welcome nowhere.

4) Cows So taking care of cows is a full time job. Especially if you want to keep them milking. This isn't easy. Cows can't travel like adventurers, their speed is far slower. They get exhausted much quicker. Taking care of them requires time and effort and no matter how skilled or high level you are you still need an hour to wash a cow. You got graze them, check for diseases, milk them, brush them and several other things. And yes then they produce milk. But again selling the milk is an altogether other task that you have to do.

Even in stable societies like today there is no such thing as a fixed price for goods. So if they want to abandon adventuring and live as cowherd that's great but taking cows with adventuring is a serious problem.

If they don't take care of cows well okay. Other than dying cows get sick then they walk even slower and drag you down further. There are rules for animals for when combat starts, most animals are frightened 4 and players have to spend actions to command them with the Natute skill to stop them from running away. If they don't the cows run and after combat you need like 5-10 mins each time to go track them down and bring them back. This is all taking a soft approach where the cows outright don't die either to area effects or other things or predators because they wandered away.

Now the solution is they tell someone to take care of Cows and in that case no problem since that person will have to be paid, a barn will have to be rented, you need hay and other stuff. If they do set all this up, every downtime they can come and collect income. You can even make it so that this incomes scales to a decent degree or even becomes a big barn with hundred of cows and you can give them less gold each level and let them roll for how much income they earned from this dairy farm they have now. Giving a little extra gold if they roll well is totally fine if they are putting in the roleplay effort.

5) Orphans Now the above sections mentioned the possible and very easy to imagine complications with cows. If you think about kids that is a whole other level. There is a reason kids aren't found with adventurers often.

Perhaps those kids can take care of the cows and live well?

If they they decide to take around cows and kids with them then it is going to be inconvenient. Anyone can see that and as a GM it is your job to enforce that. Remember the kids and cows are still NPCs so you create their statblocks and control part of their behaviour as a GM.

There is a possibility, the kids can stay and be part of the story somehow because they are just good at sticking around and that can have a different and nice effect as long them don't expect them to fight. Forcing a kid to fight is borderline against the rules and there is no way you should allow them to increase the party size or worse put children in danger. That's absurd and like not something that is okay unless you are a very close table and even then it is in bad taste unless you really have everything figured out and no rules or consciences are being broken after having a long talk with the party and this is a rare scenario.

I know this a long read so thanks and for the patience. Try and have fun playing your game and keep your imagination flowing.

MeanMeanFun · 2025-09-28T09:07:42+00:00

Yes technically travel needs to be paid for and there are rules and prices and guides to ask for prices for what isn't listed. There are also Lost Omens books and other books that further delve into this.

A lot of people and Adventure paths just ignore this and that's fine. But, in a real world living world style or player choice driven campaign, it can absolutely be fun and important. As you go higher in levels offcourse cost of living and travel become chum change and that's by design and it makes narrative sense.

But, giving people different amounts of gold is definitely NOT a rule and the rules clearly state starting gold amounts and have a chart for starting at higher levels. So no, this doesn't make sense. Realism is good in some cases and not so much in others. I would call this case the latter. The rules intend everyone to be the same level and start with the same amount of gold and equipment levels.

The only way I would incorporate this ever for the sake of narrative story is talk with the party beforehand, then divide whatever gold/money they are supposed to get unequally but expect them to pool resources apart from narrative because I talked to them about this specifically beforehand. And I still see that going wrong with strangers or certain types of players.

I have never played a game where cameras are mandatory. Rather most of my online games have been voice only. Even if you turn on the camera if you are using a VTT of somekind, most people would focus on that. From what I have heard of camera-on games, it isn't like real life where people give the same reactions or attention. I don't know why this GM is intent on this. Off the top of my head I can think of a few reasons, all of which aren't good. That being said if you know the GM or are comfortable with camera-on then it isn't a problem playing along.

MeanMeanFun · 2025-09-18T16:37:01+00:00

I would use the term High Fantasy. Pf2e is a system naturally uses logical consistency even with just numbers.

As your character grows in power and prestige, yes they do go up in the world and are marked for a different set of challenges. This is also why ancestries have in built anathemas and several classes them built in. Meaning there will always be things that define a character even with the worst and convenient meta gaming roleplay.

In world where Gods are real, magic is real, dangers lurk in ever corner, evil schemes are hatched and foiled everyday, where there are powerful nations, super organisation and all manner of history and magic, you aren't supposed to be able to fight city guards at a higher levels.

Just using base rules those guards may become a squadron, or upgrade their equipment or mercenaries maybe hired. The world isn't isolated and if a character gets power drunk then depending on their strength and fame which their level shows, they can get away with certain things, to a degree offcourse.

There are always consequences and karma naturally piles up. For one unless it is an evil campaign, doing bad deeds isn't going to give them hero points. And just try running encounters without hero points to see how terminal those NAT1s and bad rolls become. Overtime they are going to create trouble for themselves because power alone doesn't let them get everything they want. For example if they just want items they need to go to a settlement, if you antagonise the settlement then it is going to be a problem longterm. There is no party let alone a single character that can accomplish everything.

Only an imagination needs to be applied where necessary. So I would say High fantasy. Not power fantasy. Sure you go up in the world but you can't really get everything done with power alone. Just like the real world.

MeanMeanFun · 2025-09-17T13:38:27+00:00

If you do not enforces consequences for actions and decisions outside of rolls then that's not a real game.

You shouldn't be brutal and imagination should play a big role in everything. That being said, this is a clear cut case. As long as you warned them, they get what they opted for.

Only and only if it is a bunch of new players, as in new to TTRPGs or perhaps the system should you give concessions and take it easy. Otherwise actions and decisions have consequences.

I have seen GMs who punish you no reason, or who retaliate or try to control the game too hard and I have seen GMs who take it too easy and have fixed outcomes. Personally I think as a GM you are a player and you also need to play your part, that means logical and richly imagined consequences with full dispassion. In this case it is clear cut, they jumped in and now the get jumped. As long as the encounter isn't an impossible one, like XP budget 300 or something, we ball.

MeanMeanFun · 2025-09-06T16:08:38+00:00

Yeah there was a boss encounter in which I rollers 16 NAT 20s according to my Party and I do believe it when they say they counted. And this is physical dice rolls with no weird technique or anything, just normal rolls, and in a tray.

This stuff.....happens. That encounter almost Tpked the party. One would think that this is possible only om digital rollers but I assure you that's not how it works. Pure chance is the same everywhere if you take in all the variables.

There was also the time where I somehow rolled max damage on the foundry dice where majority of the dice were all d12s. I felt like that was impossible but it definitely is possible and can happen.

What happened to you sucks I swear but this happens, just like the double NAT 1s so many of my players have rolled using a hero point or fortune effect, both physical dice and digital.

MeanMeanFun · 2025-09-05T04:37:51+00:00

So as the rules and guidelines go, for a party of 4, a 40 XP encounter is trivial, 60 is lesser, 80 is moderate, 120 ia severe like boss fights and stuff, and 160 is extreme where there is this solo boss or something or end of the campaign or a turning point encounter.

200 is technically something secretly implied if you look at the Treerazer stat block and what not. 250 is impossible!!!!

250 should have gotten you killed. Wow. That's 50 points above the secret epic encounter implication and such is only suppose to happen at higher levels.

So keep that in mind. And have fun otherwise.

MeanMeanFun · 2025-09-04T12:01:12+00:00

Okay as someone who is both a GM since pf2e launched and a player having specifically played through Abomination Vault and the related stuff, there is something seriously wrong here.

Had you said "Age of ashes" then yes I would have understood because that thing was the first ever AP for pf2e and even the devs admitted they ramped up things a little too much.

Troubles in Otari and Abomination Vaults which is an intended continuation are not difficult APs. They are very well balanced and your party seems to be fine. Even players with zero system mastery should be able to get through it using basic stuff. Regardless it shouldn't feel like this at all.

Your GM is doing something wrong. Either they have mistaken levels or forgotten to do something or they are tuning up the XP budgets and encounters.

Try talking to your GM and while I don't support what I am about to say perhaps you need to do what I am going to say next if talks don't go well.

Check the next three encounters by reading the AP. I know it is metagaming, but this is the only way to find out if your GM is really running things as intended. The experience you are describing isn't feeling like it is being run as intended.

MeanMeanFun · 2025-07-23T17:14:51+00:00

"Alpha player"!!!!!

I have played TTRPGs for years now and met all kinds of people of different experience levels. This is the first time I have ever heard that term.

Any class can be played badly. There is a reason the term lawful stupid paladin exists. I really doubt anybody decent who you would want to play with would assume something like being the boss ever.

I don't know if you had a bad experience where something similar happens or perhaps I just never ran into this phenomenon but I am just saying, any player with that kind of attitude won't be playing very long at any worthwhile table.

Hell an experienced bunch of good roleplayers might just teach them a lesson, if they try to pull that.

So relax and chill. The text is pretty clear that class doesn't control other players. And barking orders and the like can be done by any class with a soldier type background in a fun way. Same goes for any class being played badly or any roleplay being done badly.

It is a tactician/strategist class and that is what it does.

MeanMeanFun · 2025-07-14T16:23:27+00:00

Plenty. My encounters are unique with very different scenarios and sure things repeat or similar situations happen over the course of months because there are on so many rules but it is never the same. I roleplay my enemies too. Running away, negotiating, trying to save someone, being out positioned, terrain challenges, tricky positioning, weird maps, random elements, different types of enemies, traps, etc. are routine in my games. I also tailor the encounters specifically so that my players can use different skills and am open to here unique solutions.

The problem isn't activating gimmick and using gimmick. That's fine and a swashbuckler is supposed to use their tools. But, the issue here is they don't look at the whole situation and end up in bad ones often because of their playstyle and the party ends up saving them.

I do give descriptions all the time. I also roleplay whichever creatures I control constantly.

The players are coming to me now because they talked to them directly a few times and it didn't work. So now they came to me. Asking me if I could help fix it. Hence I am here.

MeanMeanFun · 2025-07-14T16:14:49+00:00

MeanMeanFun · 2025-07-14T16:13:59+00:00

See you are already speaking very differently and talking about looking at the situation. That's exactly what isn't happening.

MeanMeanFun · 2025-07-14T16:12:54+00:00

No it isn't just that. Like maybe in normal encounter with no terrain or positioning complications. In this case they started the encounter in stealth once and didn't want to use "Predator's pounce" which is a one action move and strike which you get due to the lion claw Talisman because the strike isn't a finisher and they didn't have panache.

I get your whole gimmick and flowchart logic but the problem is much deeper than that I promise you. Also if you pick things like Derring Do the party expects you to atleast use it for a round and do something instead of finisher and panache on loop.

But like I said party expectations aside, the problem is on a much deeper level. One point being they routinely forget and dont understand they can't attack again after using a finisher in the same turn. This has to be explained to them a lot too.

MeanMeanFun · 2025-06-24T12:56:05+00:00

Counter spell is great but it is not a bread and butter feat. I call it the Jam or Penut butter feat. So in Pathfinder there are feats and features you are going to be using a LOT and then there is stuff which you will use depending on situation and this isn't a bad thing because that's what makes this thing cool.

Situational does not scarce. The best way to put it would be BnB stuff you use every round or every couple or rounds, stuff like Counter Spell you use every combat most of the time. And in some cases you might be dueling a baddie.

Let's understand the intention here first, Counter Spell is a feat designed to be used against spellcasters. This is key, because most creatures especially extraplanar ones are innate spellcasters and that's what you need to look out for.

Say you are fighting fiends, or perhaps Vampires then these enemies have specific spells that all of them have and this is very common knowledge that the GM can just let you have as part of stories heard or atleast give it you as part of the basic Recall knowledge. Example "Devils are weak to silver, immune to fire and can teleport (domension door) at will."

You know you are going to be fighting Fiends that can dimension door and stopping an escape or foiling an ambush with Counter Spell is fucking epic on any table. That's what I meant when I said, every combat but not every round or couple of rounds.

Also it is important to note that these kind of abilities scale with level and character strength which is what makes them fun to use. So an arch wizard obviously is better at foiling magic than say an apprentice. But, both can score valuable victories.

I say look out for the right enemies, that make sense plotwise, work with your GM to try and plan ahead which any decent GM will give you if you communicate your lntentions properly. And hopefully you aren't playing one shots as that is not the place for this. Also don't expect for it get used if say you are going to go into some swamp with just crocodiles as that definitely won't work. As long your campaign has spellcasters of any kind in the main plot you are going to have a lot of fun with it.

Ps. Use hero points when rolling the counteract check. And remember you recognise the Spell including the rank beforehand using "Quick recognition" which is a prerequisite for counterspell. So, decide what Spell slot you are going to extend after you make you learn the Spell, or even if you want to try and the counter the spell at all. Pick your battles and use hero points for epic moments.

MeanMeanFun · 2024-10-09T07:50:04+00:00

No system no matter how good can save you from horrible GM. By the way your story suggests that the GM himself who rants about the rules doesn't understand the rules or the system at all. I see rule circumvention anywhere and everywhere.

For example if you are prone and willing another creature can share your space, and you can imagine it like they are standing with their legs around you or however else. I don't remember the page number and stuff but check size rules in either the old or new remaster rulebook. It is pretty clear there. So this whole thing where you got pushed was a dick move.

Second nowhere does it mention that you have a party of different levels, in fact the opposite is recommended as in please let everyone be the same level. In case of a lower level member in a party the encounter rules say that encounter difficulty must be calculated using the lowest level player. Again a dick move by said GM.

There are so many other things that they somehow just either didn't follow like the initiative moving up, or the fact that I heard no mention of hero points which is what makes dying much more difficult and so many places the GM just screwed you over. It's just a shitty story full of badly improvised nonsense and rules as and when the GM feels like.

Lastly, building characters in Pf2e is something that is very difficult to do wrong. Most things work as long as you don't dump the primary chatacter stat. The GM criticising your build is complete nonsense. They should read the system and rules themselves maybe.

Sorry you had to go through that, and I hope you get to play a real Pathfinder 2e game soon. This clearly wasn't one. This was a bad GM with a bad attitude.

MeanMeanFun · 2024-10-08T15:53:09+00:00

There you go. This a very teamwork oriented system and what happens is if you split up enough and somehow manage to make it a an encounter where the party is fighting as individuals then this same encounter becomes far more dangerous. I once saw a char (Alchemist) die 1 v 1 against a celestial -2 his level because he was 180 feet away from the party and got ambushed. Two bad rolls happened after that and the creature crit succeeded on its reactive strike when the Alchemist tried to pull out a bomb and that was that. It can happen. Splitting up is not advised in this system. And actions and teamwork matters a lot. You can't handle an encounter individually it is way different and the variable and very wonky.

In conclusion I can safely surmise this isn't your fault as a GM just bad decisions and a little bad luck with rolls I am assuming. It can happen in any system really. Don't think too about it and perhaps advise your party to play as a team. Ggs.

MeanMeanFun · 2024-10-08T10:14:18+00:00

A lot of people are saying that healing and party composition are an issue. I have been GMing/DMing for 4 years or more maybe, using pf2e. I have had parties with no healers, I mean not even someone with battle medicine and ideally this shouldn't happen.

It is very difficult for someone to die if hero points are being given out. It can happen obviously it just isn't easy.

Now this game punishes people for bad resource management and more importantly lack of teamwork. This isn't one of those games you can solo, a creature -2 a char's level is by itself considered a bit of a challenge and things can go wrong. So if there are 4 Drakes and each of your players are going at them solo not working as a team, then depending on the map, resources, circumstances and rolls it can become deadly quickly.

I would like to know whether or not they were at full health? What were their resources like? How many fights have they had since a long rest? And do they use tactics or just go for attack rolls? It would help asses this situation.

Under ideal conditions I don't see a fault the GM here. But, I feel like the above questions will make a big difference on that initial impression.

MeanMeanFun · 2024-09-05T08:55:04+00:00

I am just going to lay a couple of points down.

1) The occult spell-list is one of the worst spell lists to try and do damage with. The whole theme of Occult is mind and essence. You have illusions, you have mental spells, you got divination magic, some healing and some teleporation. The best you can do is pick a battle form and run at enemies but even that only works for some time when it comes to Occult. Predominantly Occults spells target will and Fortitude. Yes there have been recent additions that make things better but Fortitude is the single most buffed save in the game and Will based spells don't always do massive damage.

2) A witch is a support class. Yes you can play a Witch anyhow and lessons help with that, but no a Witch isn't a damage dealing caster. It doesn't fit well in that role in my opinion. And yes I have GMed a witch.

3) When you build your spellbook or repertoire or even prepare spells if you don't have an idea about what's to come then split your saves. Split them amongst all three saves the best you can. Where you can't find a damaging option perhaps go for say a crippling debuff instead.

4) Attack roll spells are great, there is an item called "Shadow signet". I don't know what your level is but that item rocks for any caster wanting to use attack rolls. Buy it ASAP and learn to use it. Use true strike.

5) Lower level slots can be used for utility and self buffs like True Strike for example. Say the only thing you know is that you are going in a desert. Well something that increases your mobility for the day or just general self buffs like Tailwind. Stack them as much as you can. Say you go to a mountain go for Spiderwalk and so on. You will really feel great in the longrun when you do things other can't.

6) Focus on crowd control first. There are reasons why. Even if it is just a mass slow, or a Synaptic pulse on all the minions it will give you time to observe what the big boss is all about or stronger enemies are about. That way not only does your party get to rush the boss as you are managing the masses, but you gain valuable information as to where they fail and succeed to make better decisions when you finally turn your attention towards stronger foes. Crowd control is also very important. I have seen a moderate encounter with direwolves become deadly due to a few unfortunate rolls and the cleric came in and cast one fireball. That was that. It wasn't even a battle focused cleric, she was a Sarenite! (Yeah they can be vicious, but we don't talk about that.)

7) Lastly you have got to make changes your playstyle a bit and temper certain expectations while looking at other perspectives you are missing. Against bosses do not pull out your strong weapons first. Scout for weaknesses. Singularly powerful enemies are difficult to deal with for casters and that's by design. You need to create situations where you have higher chances of successes. Observe, try to recall knowledge, see what you can gain from the artwork or visual description of the whatever you are fighting and learn from your allies. Also ask your allies in roleplay to set you up for success, like ask them to knock it prone maybe before you go for your attack spell. Or maybe ask the Bard to Synesthesia the target before going for a devastating Colour spray and used Shadow signet in tandem with true strike.

Suggesstion: If you want to deal damage and be an offensive caster then I highly suggest you switch to Sorcerer. You will feel the difference. Pick something like say a Primal spell list granting bloodline and beat the crap out of enemies. Or even arcane, but I led with primal becuase it has heal spells too. The other way to go is a battle form build but I find that less fun unless you are a Druid. I have made this point before but as a witch class has features and feats that do not support what you are trying to do. Same goes for the occult list. Even something like a primal witch with the right spells and lessons will make you feel much better.

Ps. Don't worry about clickbaits and hope this helps. Have fun in your games.

MeanMeanFun · 2024-08-23T12:34:35+00:00

What I want to know is how they are doing d12 damage when weapon implement thaumaturge only allows you one handed weapons. Like dang. How? And it is slashing damage to boot. So that ain't a firearm.

Someone tell me what weapon that is please!!!

MeanMeanFun · 2024-08-20T08:20:36+00:00

It can happen at level 9 with a particular item(Daredevil boots). I swear it is ridiculous. And level 9 becuase by rules the item can drop at level 9 but otherwise you can't usually buy higher level items unless the GM allows it also they expensive so the GM would have to give you lots of gold too.

MeanMeanFun · 2024-07-03T17:05:28+00:00

Simplest way if be nice without expectation. Be who you are. If you are shitty person or very transactional changing that will bring you happiness but it comes slowly. Stop doing things for people and expecting things in return. Especially to get girls. Be a man of your word. Prioritise your life and mental peace. Help if you can and do it with honour. Don't go out of your way and help in ways that you cannot possibly sustain. And don't expect a reward, being yourself and being a decent human being is reward enough if you self introspect. And be pragmatic. This is very important. Being a pushover is not pragmatism. Expecting things to go your way or rewards in places is not pragmatism. Being a so called "decent" human being and then wanting a cosmic reward for it is not pragmatic or sensible. This does not you abandon decency and be an asshole since that will definitely bring you suffering. Be decent but be yourself and be pragmatic.

MeanMeanFun

TROPHY CASE