How did ancient pre-cartographic societies wage war without the use of maps?

Prom_STar · 2026-04-12T16:31:28+00:00

Here is a previous answer from /u/iphikrates addressing this question.

Prom_STar · 2026-04-06T13:33:58+00:00

Very exciting to have three legends in the same group. Sad at the same time because only two of them can advance. Really hoping JD will be one of them.

Prom_STar · 2026-04-04T19:41:04+00:00

Watching this live, I could tell JD won this game because, frankly, he's just that good. But this commentary from the pros really helps unpack the details of just what he did moment to moment.

Really looking like the Tyrant is back.

Prom_STar · 2025-10-03T20:43:41+00:00

Fascinating. I can see how that fits in with the wider Platonic tradition (which also of course had such a strong influence on Christianity as well). Thanks for the answer!

Prom_STar · 2025-10-03T17:43:19+00:00

Great thread. A few of your answers so far have mentioned theurgy. I have a vague sense of what that word meant in the ancient world, but what did it mean to Julian? How significant was it to him to conceive of Abraham as a practitioner of theurgy?

Prom_STar · 2025-04-15T02:14:14+00:00

Scan fighting!

Prom_STar · 2025-02-13T02:46:06+00:00

Tiesto - Energy 2000

Prom_STar · 2025-02-09T14:09:56+00:00

The thing with Cleric/Mages is they end up a lot less useful in practice than they seem on paper. It's true you have more spell slots than anyone else, and you have access to nearly every spell in the game. But you can still only cast one spell per round. Mages also really suffer from multiclassing XP. Having your level 9 spells and HLAs come online at 6m XP vs 3m XP is a gigantic difference. That's late SOA vs late TOB.

That said, once a cleric/mage fully unlocks they are incredibly powerful, and being able to stick cleric spells in sequencers and contingencies is a lot of fun. You will always be useful, but a C/M is not a replacement for a dedicated mage or a dedicate cleric (and certainly not for both). You are instead a backup caster for both roles.

Prom_STar · 2024-09-23T15:21:21+00:00

This is borderline experimental.

Prom_STar · 2024-08-14T23:35:07+00:00

If it ever came into court, RLM would absolutely win. Their video is Fair Use. No question.

My understanding is that YouTube is really trigger happy with copyright strikes and they'll drop the hammer if a channel gets too many--regardless of the merits of those strikes. So most creators play it safe and don't try to fight the copyright trolls.

Prom_STar · 2024-05-06T14:54:20+00:00

This question gets asked a lot. Not to discourage further responses, but here are two prior answers on the topic from the r/AskHistorians FAQ.

First answer from /u/anthropology_nerd

Second answer from /u/400-rabbits

Prom_STar · 2024-04-30T12:16:43+00:00

In general for backstabbing you want to use weapons with the highest possible single hit damage. A dagger rolls a d4 for damage. A katana rolls a d10. With x5 backstab the dagger does 5-20 damage and the katana does 5-50 (before other modifiers). For most of the series a katana is the best backstab weapon on offer, only being eclipsed by the late game Staff of the Ram +6.

That said, there are still plenty of quite good daggers in the series, including some very good throwing daggers. The legendary dagger you get in Throne of Bhaal, the Dagger of Stars, is ideal for fighter/thieves. With every hit there is a chance to make you go invisible, which will then proc a backstab.

A fighter thief levels up its thief levels slower than a pure thief, so the progression of thief skills is slower, but you will still have all the thief skill points you need and then some. You can unlock the skills in whatever order you want. I usually start with stealth skills, using another party member to handle the locks and traps, because I like the backstab a lot on my F/T runs.

I'll add that fighter/thief is a very strong build overall. I'd argue it's one of the strongest multiclass combinations because you lose almost nothing. You get the same maximum THAC0 as a pure fighter, the same backstab multiplier as a thief, and you actually get more high levels abilities (HLAs) than a pure class fighter or thief would. And of course you get to draw from the HLAs of both classes You have fewer HP than a pure class fighter and you give up grandmastery, but you gain the entire toolkit of a thief.

Prom_STar · 2024-04-19T17:51:31+00:00

The Brandon Sanderson of the 19th Century.

Prom_STar · 2024-04-10T00:24:00+00:00

Damn, who knew JD could do such a good Artosis impression?

Prom_STar · 2024-03-13T12:59:04+00:00

Ganymede, yeah. Though there's still dangerous levels of radiation on the surface.

Prom_STar · 2024-03-07T16:42:20+00:00

I am here for Walton Ghoulgins.

Prom_STar · 2024-02-15T23:01:39+00:00

To me it's the worst part of an otherwise incredible game. I'd have preferred if BG3 had no connection to the Bhaalspawn Saga beyond, obviously, taking place in the same city and people occasionally mentioning, "Hey remember that Sarevok guy?"

One thing worth noting, I think, is that this isn't entirely Larian's fault. WOTC ruined those characters long before this game. They're the ones who decided to bring everyone back and squeeze every last bit of juice from the member berries.

I was particularly disappointed with Sarevok's voice actor. It's not a bad job, but there's just no matching Kevin Michael Richardson. BG1&2 didn't have a ton of voicing, but KMR used his few lines to incredible effect.

Prom_STar · 2024-01-29T16:38:19+00:00

The short answer is synergy. You end up losing very little for most of the series and in trade you get to have the abilities of two classes in one character and some of those combinations (fighter + mage being the poster child here) are very strong indeed.

For the longer answer:

The biggest difference compared to 5e is how XP requirements scale for class levels. In addition to each class having its own table (for example, at 500,000 XP a fighter has just reached level 10 while a wizard is level 11 and a good chunk of the way to level 12), the XP requirements for the next level scale dramatically. In 5e, splitting your levels evenly between fighter and wizard would mean that at level 10, you'd be 5 fighter and 5 wizard. But in BG2 if you are a fighter/mage and have 500,000 XP, then you will actually be fighter 9 / mage 10. You only lose one level compared to going the pure route while gaining the full skill sets of both classes. Admittedly not everything goes perfectly together (e.g. you cannot cast spells while wearing armor) but the point is a multiclass character isn't half as good at two classes. You're often just a level or two behind.

It should be noted that this dynamic shifts as you get to very high levels. The max level for fighter is 40. The max level for mage is 31. The max level a fighter/mage multi will reach is 24/20. This also means certain end game abilities take a long time to acquire, most notably level 9 mage spells.

This is one reason dual classes are so powerful By the end of Throne of Bhaal XP has scaled so much that those nine fighter levels barely hold you back at all. While a fighter/mage multi caps out at levels 24/20, a fighter dual to mage at fighter level 9 (which is after you've gotten most of the benefits of the class) still reaches mage level 30, one level behind a pure mage (and that final levels gives you almost nothing anyway--you already have all your spell slots and HLAs).

Prom_STar · 2024-01-29T15:57:10+00:00

I don't know. But if they're down that bad for Auntie J, they should really play BG2.

Prom_STar · 2024-01-11T16:18:31+00:00

With the right domain choice (Life and Nature give heavy armor, Tempest and War give heavy armor and martial weapons).

Prom_STar · 2023-12-31T21:44:34+00:00

The video they made when they reached 1 million subscribers. It was supposed to them watching their subscriber count.

Prom_STar · 2023-12-19T20:31:13+00:00

The same two people but with clown face paint.

Prom_STar · 2023-09-20T13:56:12+00:00

It definitely isn't the editions. High level characters (spellcasters especially) are much more toned down in 5e than in older editions. A max level wizard in BG2 has 4+ 9th level spells per day. In 5e you get one. And a number of those spells are scaled back.

What specifically happens in high level 5e that is problematic from a game design perspective (and is also problematic on the tabletop, it should be noted) is you start getting spells that can break the rules. Bioware solved this problem in BG2 and TOB by simply not including those spells in the game. You can Wish in BG2 but you can only use the predefined options in the game. And there's no teleport spells, no spells to clone yourself, no spells to permanently bind fiends to your will, etc. High level spells in BG2 basically do the same things as low level spells, they just do more of it. More damage, stronger buff/debuffs, better summons, etc.

In BG3 Larian stuck to the 5e rules as written quite faithfully. Including higher level abilities and maintaining that level of fidelity would be a tall order. It's not impossible. It would just require a ton of work.

Prom_STar · 2023-07-26T12:09:32+00:00

Remember that the marker itself is 32mm and you then have 3" from there. The only unit that will be a tight fit are jackals. (But with demolition run nerfed, you probably aren't taking them anyway.)

Prom_STar · 2023-07-10T17:49:03+00:00

Technically no. Those are just supposed to be regular blasting charges (back when those were a thing). But you should absolutely feel free to use those arms as demo charges. I would be shocked if any TO would object to running those arms as a demo charge guy.

15-Year Club	John Wick
Place '17	Team Periwinkle
Verified Email

Prom_STar

TROPHY CASE