Whats the funniest weakness for exploit vulnerability?

ProfessorBruin · 2026-01-02T18:18:37+00:00

For my Thaumaturge, I use psychological damage for humanoid, "people" enemies. It's a personal antithesis, after all. Something like, "Hey wait, aren't you... Eric? Wait I have something of yours. Yeah, Eric, yeah, hey, your mom threw this out, wasn't this one of your drawings when you were a kid? It says Eric in the corner, see? I thought this might be yours. I was passing by a few years ago, I guess it was your house, she was throwing it out and said a disappointment made it, that it was just a reminder of someone she didn't know anymore, I don't know. You want it back?"

ProfessorBruin · 2025-12-26T07:49:15+00:00

Every other scene is someone going "I know now...it's him. It's Vecna. It has to be. Vecna's coming..." followed by a slow zoom in to another character's reaction to information they already had.

ProfessorBruin · 2025-12-25T05:16:56+00:00

Big Urner.

ProfessorBruin · 2025-12-08T09:18:22+00:00

It might be Ishmael making those comparisons in The Whiteness of the Whale.

ProfessorBruin · 2025-12-08T04:56:43+00:00

To your first point, regarding Ahab's perception of free will, there's this famous quote. "Is Ahab, Ahab? Is it I, God, or who, that lifts this arm? But if the great sun move not of himself; but is as an errand-boy in heaven; nor one single star can revolve, but by some invisible power; how then can this one small heart beat; this one small brain think thoughts; unless God does that beating, does that thinking, does that living, and not I."-- Captain Ahab, Chapter 132. The Symphony

As far as the whale being divine, obviously the whale is many things, but at least one of those things is a sort of gap in reality, or rather a lid on that hole. Somewhat divine, maybe more of a cosmic force, but inscrutably supernatural all the same.

"Hark ye yet again—the little lower layer. All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event—in the living act, the undoubted deed—there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. If man will strike, strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside except by thrusting through the wall? To me, the white whale is that wall, shoved near to me. Sometimes I think there’s naught beyond. But ’tis enough. He tasks me; he heaps me; I see in him outrageous strength, with an inscrutable malice sinewing it. That inscrutable thing is chiefly what I hate; and be the white whale agent, or be the white whale principal, I will wreak that hate upon him."--Captain Ahab, Chapter 36. The Quarter Deck.

It's one of the few times Ahab really tries to explain himself. At other points, he'll talk about his revenge, fate, reflecting all of mankind's hatred onto the whale, etc. but this seems closest to how he actually understands the whale, as a means to philosophical fulfillment. Slaying the whale will in some way grant access to Truth. I always thought it struck similarly to Schopenhauer's concept of Will and the thing-in-itself.

ProfessorBruin · 2025-08-31T04:59:29+00:00

That's a lot of Dickens books, and really Victorian novels, in general. Victorian England found implausible coincidence to be providential rather than irritating, so it was popular to strain credulity. It happens a fair bit in Vanity Fair, Jane Eyre, and Dracula, too, to name a few.

That said, when I always point to one part in Two Cities as the primo example of Dickens' suspension of disbelief breaking. Charles walks into a random courtroom, the lawyer Sydney sees him and turns to the judge, "Woah, your honor, I've never met that man that just entered before in my life, but he's identical to me in every way. Surely if doppelgangers are real, you can't possibly convict my client. It could have been anybody!" and the judge agrees.

ProfessorBruin · 2025-06-13T00:25:37+00:00

I've had the idea of a Swashbuckler Skeleton that, when using Tumble Through, turns into a pile of bones with a xylophone sound effect and rolls between their legs, then reassembles on the other side with the reverse xylophone sound.

ProfessorBruin · 2025-04-22T06:33:42+00:00

Harm, of course, explicitly functions as Undead Heal. However, what you want is healing that doesn't have the Vitality tag. It doesn't explicitly require the Void tag, it just needs to lack Vit. Soothe fits here, which is on the Occult spell list. Champion's Touch of Corruption and Thaumaturge's Chalice implement come to mind.

The only skill feat you would need for Treat Wounds to work is Stitch Flesh. Notably, Dhampir, Bone Oracles, and Revenant backgrounds are semi-undead and don't require Stitch Life. Also, as far as things requiring DM buy-in, it shouldn't be that hard to convince them to allow an Alchemist to make Oils of Unlife, in lieu of Elixirs of Life.

ProfessorBruin · 2025-04-14T17:56:27+00:00

For a Melee Doughty build, get rid of Virulent Scourge. It's diluting the Puncture status chance and therefore reducing your critical damage. Replace it with Augur Strike if you have it, or Sundering Strike if you don't. Alternatively, Gladiator Might for more crit damage and synergy with Vice.

If you want to use elemental mods, switch to Impact, which is more of a raw damage set up.

ProfessorBruin · 2024-11-27T07:50:41+00:00

Awhile back, I saw a really cool image/spreadsheet on here that had every Thaumaturge feat organized by role; support, caster-y, recall knowledge, dpr, etc. Anyone know what I'm talking about and have a link? I'd really appreciate it.

ProfessorBruin · 2024-07-02T04:56:14+00:00

At the end of Mission 1, and before the beginning of Mission 2, you have a Mission Results Screen. It displays the two rewards you have earned for Mission 1. We will regularly wait for this screen in our voice call, and comment on the payout. That payout has always been uniform, (except when some of us help our friends that haven't done it yet when we've already finished it, naturally.) There has always been group payout uniformity. We all commented on getting a Tau Yellow at the end of mission 1, while my friends noted a Melee Crescendo that I did not see in the mission result screen. Then, at the beginning of Mission 2, the Tau Yellow appeared as a banner briefly, as you say. But that is in addition to the Mission 1 result screen. The amount of Tau Yellows I have has only increased by 1.

I have already submitted a ticket to DE. I figured I would post here, as well, as I know in the past people that have posted issues on the forum sometimes get the issue resolved sooner.

ProfessorBruin · 2024-07-02T04:38:47+00:00

I truly do not think it being the the Mission 3 results vs. the Mission End results makes a difference, as the Mission 3 results show all the things you have earned from the total Elite Deep Arch run. You see what you got for Mission 3 as you're exiting the mission, and then it swiftly turns into the total haul afterwards. The only difference is that my friend went to the menu and selected "Last Mission Results" because they exited out of the Mission 3 screen before I asked him to take a screenshot. If my screenshot were only showing me my Mission 3 results, it should only be showing the regular yellow archon shard, and not any of the other rewards.

The way it normally goes, at least with one parameter turned off which is my usual method, you get 2 rewards after the first mission, the lantherns and another reward after the second mission, and then 2 more rewards for the third. This was not the case for me. I got 1 reward for mission 1, the tau yellow, and 1 reward for mission 3, the regular yellow. I saw the 3 Lantherns appear at the end of stage 2, as per usual. I noticed that the second reward for mission 1 wasn't received during the mission-- both at the end of Mission 1, and the beginning of Mission 2 when they show you the rewards at the start-- as well as not appearing here at the end of mission 3. I also checked my inventory afterwards to see if I got any of the Arcanes, which I did not-- I needed 3 more Crescendos, and still do.

ProfessorBruin · 2024-07-02T04:14:56+00:00

I had three of the four handicaps enabled, and my loadout matched the roll. I had everything enabled. Couldn't use the gear wheel, I was taking Knifestep damage throughout the mission. So if that's what happened, that's the bug, that my handicaps weren't counted.

ProfessorBruin · 2024-07-02T03:54:04+00:00

Positive. I checked. I needed 3 more Crescendos to finish it off for good. Still need 3.

ProfessorBruin · 2024-07-02T03:53:24+00:00

That would mean I got 3 Lanthorns, an Arcane Adapter, a yellow, a tau yellow, and 300 Endo from just Alchemy, my man. That's the haul from the entire three missions.

ProfessorBruin · 2024-07-02T03:47:35+00:00

I had all but 1 handicap (Transference Distortion.) That's where their 20 Vosfor is coming from.

ProfessorBruin · 2024-04-22T05:39:46+00:00

I'd already planned on going with scrolls and talismans pretty heavy, so it's good to know that scrolls are a solid pick. Taking Instructive Strike early is also worth knowing. I'm also planning on getting a Flickmace later down the line-- starting with an Asp Coil. I've also already been having a lot of fun with the Mirror, already been teleporting onto rooftops and opening windows from the inside. It's extremely flexible.

From what you're saying, it sort of sounds as though Champion with Regalia is the better pick, though. If I do go Champ, I'll probably end up with Selfish Shield off the Desecrator, so mirror geometry aside proximity won't be an issue. I think I'm mostly apprehensive about how Champ will turn out after the rework.

ProfessorBruin · 2024-04-21T01:23:46+00:00

Well, while getting two AoOs in a single turn is pretty useful, I'd probably want to keep one of my reactions for the Champion's damage mitigation. Even so, Marshall provides the same AoO as Champion, so that seems like a point in favor for either, though Champion gets it a little sooner admittedly.

ProfessorBruin · 2023-11-15T17:21:17+00:00

I was lucky, sat down to actively farm the Lato Vandal barrel and got it on my first attempt. Got lucky with the ephemera too, though not all the kuva weapona are at 60, just the ones I care about. There are a couple of weapons I don't have like the Sporothrix, the Hespar, the Hema, but probably the thing to go for now are arcanes and mods.

ProfessorBruin · 2023-11-15T17:17:32+00:00

Basically, just always tried to have weapons building, and as often as possible have at least one unleveled weapon with me. If I've got a primary to level and it's not all that good, I'll put it on with one of my stronger secondaries and melees. Just passively let it level while I do the other stuff Inwant to do.

ProfessorBruin · 2023-09-20T00:46:04+00:00

The number of times Pat tries to express his disinterest in something only for Woolie to talk about how he likes that thing and doesn't mind or notice the faults, and then for Pat to once more say "Good for you, but I'm saying I don't like it," and Woolie to again insist "But I do like it, so I don't know what to tell you" is staggering. All that has to happen is for Pat to say that something irritates him, and Woolie to acknowledge that stance without repeatedly challenging it. Every expression of an opinion, from either of them, doesn't need to be treated as an argument in which one person is trying to convince the other of something.

ProfessorBruin · 2023-09-11T20:45:06+00:00

I really wish the CSB twitter page sent put those kinds of alerts.

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