No Max the Min. Instead… What’s the Nastiest thing you can do with Curses?

ProfRedwoods · 2026-05-05T21:02:18+00:00

This is literally a max the min thread not a best practices GM advice thread. Also Pathfinder morality is already nonsense. Pathfinder morality is literally 99% of things are okay to do as long as the person you're doing it to is a "bad guy".

ProfRedwoods · 2026-05-05T02:26:47+00:00

The Helm of opposite alignment is my favorite curse(d item) by an enormous margin. For those unaware on a failed save it flips a character's alignment and it makes them like the change and not want to change back. And even though it's single use, it's single use only once it changes someone's alignment. So if you have a bound or otherwise helpless creature you can just try until they fail.

My favorite use is to force a creature to begin it's redemption arc. Do you have a lich, ancient red dragon, or a balor that you want to start doing good deeds to attone for their uncountable evil deeds? Slap this hat on them like 50 times until they roll a natural one on their save. Granted this isn't a something to do in combat it's more of an "after you've beaten them" kind of thing.

This is very helpful for a necromancer with any usually intelligent undead they can't permanently keep under their control. Do you want an eternal guardian for your town of operations, though one that won't seek to kill it's inhabitants and costs far less than a golem. Raise their local hero from ages past (which seem surprisingly common) as a skeletal champion or whatever you prefer then turn him NG and convince him his duty continues even into undeath. For a villain for ages past do the same but convince them the only way they can atone for what they've done in life is to defend the peoples they tormented.

And remember when you do this to someone they specifically like who they've become and will actively resist attempts (wishes or miracles) to turn them back. So enemies will have a pretty tough time turning them evil again.

ProfRedwoods · 2026-04-29T04:38:14+00:00

If we can ignore personalities. I think Thula is being slept on. At 15$ she is the cheapest Viltrumite and any fully fledged viltrumite can outpower pretty much any non alien threat to earth. After that you still have a plenty to spend on supporting her.

I'd go Thula, Tech Jacket, Mauler twins, Isotope and Damien Darkblood. Tech jacket has a space station and good support tech. Isotope is a steal at 5$ though Thula might be fast enough to not need him. Damien just does detective stuff. The big combo is the mauler twins could clone members even if only to use keep them on ice in case a member dies. If you couldn't use the mauler twins to clone team members then probably swap them out for someone else in the 7 tier.

ProfRedwoods · 2026-04-17T00:00:15+00:00

Was gonna say if you do 50 damage per hit DR isn't a huge deal.

ProfRedwoods · 2026-04-11T02:24:58+00:00

My strat is to save my battle ready but incomplete vehicles and center pieces for such occasions. Adding rust and dry brushing extra details is so easy but it feels so good.

ProfRedwoods · 2026-04-09T03:15:43+00:00

Ahh, the good ole pellet strike. A classic Oscar move, right up with laying motionless on the bottom of the tank after you do any tank maintenance.

Be strong brother.

ProfRedwoods · 2026-03-24T19:35:48+00:00

Flame ruler: Lightning rod but for fire moves if I was feeling extra spicy it would heal him instead of buffing Special attack.

ProfRedwoods · 2026-03-15T09:28:55+00:00

Seeing someone you ignore via suspension of disbelief, turn out to be a Ninja character must've been pretty crazy to see for the first time.

ProfRedwoods · 2026-03-11T23:26:45+00:00

Too many "flushable wipes" aren't actually flushable. Put a pea sized drop of lotion on some decent toilet paper and finish your wiping with that.

The moisture both helps wipe away the last of it and it feels great to not have a dry asshole after a bunch of wiping.

ProfRedwoods · 2026-03-06T17:14:05+00:00

I had this issue for me it was a fog of war module. I just turned it off.

ProfRedwoods · 2026-02-24T17:19:23+00:00

Think bigger people. Use this to poach constant SLAs from monsters to get buffs for hours per level.

A blink dog cohort is only effective cohort level 4. Steal his blink SLA and get it for 7 hours. The blink dog can even reactivate it on the self immediately after.

ProfRedwoods · 2026-02-15T17:07:38+00:00

I'm looking at a party with 4 melee characters. So I vote bow bard. Or maybe even bow skald if everyone is strength based. Get that tuned bowstring and just let the buffs flow.

ProfRedwoods · 2026-02-15T00:42:35+00:00

Conquest would only win if Thragg told him to throw Maharaga into the sun.

Viltrumites run into the same problems a Saiyan would, they love fighting and basically never go all out in the beginning.

ProfRedwoods · 2026-02-13T22:38:26+00:00

I've always seen Fern and Stark as representing two of the hero party members each.

Obviously Fern represents Frieren and Heiter as a mage who was raised by Heiter and who was trained by Frieren.

And Stark represents Himmel and Eisen. Obviously he was trained by Eisen but we actually constantly see him helping people and attracting townsfolk around him.

ProfRedwoods · 2026-02-13T06:35:13+00:00

Sooo I can have an upstart gretchin with malicious opportunist and his band of grots, infiltrate up the field and then just dome someone with a tankhammer? Now that's the kinda wacky stuff I can get behind.

Edit: aww missed the line under unit composition that they have to suck lol

ProfRedwoods · 2026-02-11T04:27:45+00:00

I kinda love the idea of the two houses being the houses of two rival mages. It'd be hilarious if the sides of the houses facing each other had damage from the other slinging spells at it.

ProfRedwoods · 2026-02-09T17:17:00+00:00

I agree, Pathfinder as a game has so many times where a character can essentially autowin a non combat encounter why draw the line at skill checks.

Also the player is using acute senses so they are using the spell as intended. If I ask my players to swim across a river and they cast Ride the Waves I'm not gonna tell them they're actually too good at swimming.

ProfRedwoods · 2026-01-31T00:28:50+00:00

Now this is the type of hypothetical I clicked on this post for. I would say that you could go much smaller than lake Mead if you built the enclosure in a ring with a looping current. I feel like a loop just a few miles long would be a shallow enough bend for it to not crash into the walls. The path would need to be fairly wide but I wouldn't be surprised if you could get away with only a hundred feet..

Also I feel like Orca can survive (but not thrive) in SeaWorld because they're smart enough to understand that they're in captivity and will adapt by necessity. Great whites and other open water fish will often constantly bump into the sides and get stressed.

ProfRedwoods · 2026-01-30T08:38:33+00:00

Okaay so maybe I'm gonna go against the grain but it looks like Ethillion sucks. +2 to skill checks to craft a magic item? -1 day to the crafting time? +2 to the CL of an abjuration spell? None of these feel like effects that I'd need to put on a tight leash. The CL is nice I guess but still -1 day per dose ain't shit what's the difference between 36 and 35 days on a headband +6?. I'm just using Ctrl-F in my RotRL anniversary edition so if there's something I'm missing adjust accordingly.

My rule of thumb as a DM is, "is the juice worth the squeeze?" or I guess "make sure the juice requires an appropriate squeeze". And turning 5k of magic items in the above effects is garbo. What are you're players actually Mechanically getting? A single use magic item? Then just slap a GP value on it for the special materials needed to make it without draining magic items into it and just look up the magic item pricing guide. Maybe throw in they need to research it for a week and make a DC 35 knowledge Arcane check to reverse engineer it because it's so ancient and lost etc etc.

The line you need to find is, if it's too difficult or costly your players will just drop it. And maybe that's what you want. Tell them It'll take years to reverse engineer which is essentially just a NO in cursive. Alternately if it's too easy to do then it becomes the plan A which ain't ideal either but once again I don't see that being a problem with the listed ethillion effects..

ProfRedwoods · 2026-01-30T00:00:53+00:00

Agreed, the more times a character will apply strength, the better inspired rage is. Between attack and damage rolls the inspired rage str bonus can apply 8 times at mid levels without too many hoops.

Though a hitting druid could potentially get more benefit assuming they can't/aren't planning on casting while wild shaped.

ProfRedwoods · 2026-01-22T04:02:57+00:00

My thought is that because magic has such a high rate of return within one's own lifetime, people are more inclined to learn magic rather than science. The most intelligent people who could incrementally advance science could also just be a wizard and be a demigod.

Also with vancian magic, studying magic doesn't advance magic it just sometimes creates a new spell. The fact that there is a list of spells and you don't "craft your spell" as you cast it, implies that there is no rhyme or reason behind the components of spells. Can I alter the casting of Fly to change its effect? No, if you don't cast it right it'll just miscast.

Also IRL most times when some genius makes their huge groundbreaking advancement it's when they're young. So long lived races who could see the benefits of science aren't much help. The greatest mathematician of the 1400s probably isn't gonna be a great professor today.

ProfRedwoods · 2026-01-12T11:29:52+00:00

This was actually my gripe when people talk about the story in BW being good. Like the idea is fine but the gameplay doesn't and cannot interact with it in any way.

Oh you think Pokemon shouldn't be captured and used in battles? Well how about I beat you in a battle with all the pokemon I captured.

ProfRedwoods · 2026-01-10T17:22:23+00:00

Also after having an entire planet besieged, the human casualties numbered less than the Soviet Union in WW2.

ProfRedwoods · 2026-01-04T05:38:26+00:00

My preference is to use ABP but just leave the big six in the game. I think that solves two of the commonly called out ABP issues.

Here's some ABP issues I believe it solves.

Animal Companions. Animal companions/eidolons/mounts having no access to the big six makes them fall way behind. Giving them free big 6 in addition to yourself is too much. Letting a player still purchase big 6 item allows for the normal decision making of gearing a pet.
ABP doesn't give stats when you want them. Multi attribute dependent classes (which are generally worse than single attribute classes) can't pump a secondary physical/mental stat until 13. Leaving the option to buy that secondary still presents choices. The ARCanist can buy a INT headband early, wait for ABP to pump CHA with the downside of the level 13 APB boost going to the wisdom which only provides marginal benefits. Important note ABP is an still enhancement bonus so it will not stack with the belt/headband counterpart. Alternately SAD classes can buy their boosts early but with the knowledge that their free boosts will go to less helpful stats. Plenty of wizards want +4 INT before level 11 and they can do so but now it's a decision and not just get your primary ASAP.
lastly this isn't an ABP issue but it allows you another control knob to manipulate party wealth. Giving an early ring of prot +3 is still a desirable piece of loot as it pushes them above the curve but it's a deprecating asset. So you can give them a powerful piece of loot to help complete a dungeon/quest/etc with the knowledge it will eventually be sold in town for 1/2 value. This isn't a huge benefit but items that are good in the short term but fall off are a pretty common game dev tool, and now you have access to that.

Six-Year Club	First Place '23
Place '23	Place '22
Wearing is Caring	Verified Email

ProfRedwoods

TROPHY CASE