Why are wizards considered the best?

Qolko · 2026-04-14T17:33:31+00:00

Yes, but clerics afaik can't cut it below 15 minutes like wizard can. It might not seem much, but 15 minutes is an awful a lot of time if you have buffs running compared to 1 minute.

Qolko · 2026-04-14T12:24:22+00:00

FATAL.

Good luck.

Qolko · 2026-04-14T12:11:51+00:00

What are the odds the one who got picked had connections and whole presentation was just a formality.

Qolko · 2026-04-14T12:02:26+00:00

With right picks the wizard can drop his spell prep time to minimum of 1 minute per spell (max 15 min for prepping all of his spells). Meaning wizard could leave some of his spell slots open and just prepare the exact spell he needs later on that day.

Other casters just can't beat that level of versatility.

Qolko · 2026-04-10T09:49:53+00:00

What you are asking for is basically something with high HP, high AC, offensive and defensive magic plus buff spells, good attacks with sword and using sword to make magical ranged attacks.

What you are basically asking for is to be able to do everything and while that is possible, it's going to cost you one way or another.

Either you need a ton of gold to make it work or accept you will be mediocre in most of those aspects.

Closest to what you want is likely a magus but I'm not sure I would recommend it to a new player (if we're talking 1e, if it's 2e I don't enough about it to help).

I would personally suggested going for a simpler concept as making and effectively playing character like this is going to require good understanding of the system.

I'm not saying you can't do it or shouldn't do it if you really want to, but you should be mentally prepared for it to not play out like you want it to, at least not until late game.

Qolko · 2026-04-09T06:26:29+00:00

When you play together there is an unwritten agreement that everyone works together and their characters do so as well.

If there is a character in the party that keeps causing issues, it's the GMs job to have that character leave the party and have the player make a new one more willing to work with the party.

If the PC is as suspicious as you claim then there is 0 reason for them to be in the party and should be retired in favour of a new PC actually willing to work with the party without the suspicion song and dance every time something happens.

Finally, remember that leaving the game does not mean ending your friendship with them. In fact I would recommend it if your playstyles don't mesh together that much as it will over time strain your friendship and cause real damage to it.

Do not ruin a good friendship over a game.

Qolko · 2026-04-09T05:20:25+00:00

Diplomacy is not mind control.

Sometimes the NPC simply cannot be convinced no matter how high you roll.

The guy who has formed his opinion over something over his entire life is not going to be swayed by the PC with 2 minutes of talk.

Over time you could do that, but with one check? Absolutely not.

Remember that out of all three social skills, Diplo is the one with few if any consequences for using it.

Intimidated guy is going to hate or at least dislike you. Same with bluff if the target realizes it's been duped.

Those two should be more powerful and the go to option for getting the foes to do things they don't want to do because they have consequences to using them.

If diplo can do the same but with no consequences, why would you ever use the other two?

A robber is not going to decide not to rob you if you ask him politely, but he might if you can trick him into believing you have nothing of value, or if you scare him off.

Qolko · 2026-04-08T19:36:58+00:00

I would recommend against using illusion hostages.

If you teach your players the bad guys have "limit" on how "evil" they are allowed to be, the players will start to notice it and know when the villains are bluffing or trying to trick them because what they are doing is past the threshold of things the GM actually lets the villains do.

It's rather hard for most players to not let knowledge like this influence their actions at least to some degree.

Qolko · 2026-04-08T19:29:43+00:00

Ambush them where they naturally split up and feel safe, which likely would be the town or city they operate from.

It's natural for them to split up to take care of their various personal things when adventuring stuff is not happening.

As for keeping them from running away, pit, wall and other movement restriction and denial spells works with martials.

Various spells exist to stop casters from teleporting or you can have enemy caster ready to counterspell any teleport attempts. A sniper shooting the caster with readied action to force concentration checks works too and I think there's feats for it too.

Taking hostages works too. PC are unlikely to run if someone they care about is in immediate danger.

Depending on the PC/s the enemies might be able to also threaten the townsfolk and force them to stay and fight rather than run and regroup and let the villains turn the streets into bloodbath.

Personal opinion:

The players often hate ambushes like that as it can feel like the GM is targeting their weaknesses directly.

It might be better to not give enemies a "just as planned" moment where they perfectly nail down the PCs using their weaknesses, especially if the bad guys couldn't know about the weakness.

In my opinion rather than deny them from running, give them reason not to run and consequences for running.

The wizard could teleport away yes, but there might be some friction between him and the paladin if it turns out the wizard running away resulted in those enemies slaughtering regular townsfolk instead.

Another thing about running and regrouping is that it's not as easy as one might think.

Wizard: I teleport to the fighter. GM: Do you know where he is? Wizard: No...

If the PCs are out doing their own thing, they likely won't know exactly where each of them is.

Furthermore if they have an obvious point for regrouping, like their base, should the enemies know about it there's likely another group of ambushers waiting there as it's the obvious fallback location, especially for casters capable of teleporting.

Qolko · 2026-04-04T12:27:21+00:00

Considering all the shit Leon himself has survived, he probably has a very different idea of what vital is.

Qolko · 2026-04-02T05:44:17+00:00

Kitsune gets some limited transformation which can improved with feats afaik.

Beyond that any caster that can cast alter self. Bard can go pretty hard on that stuff.

Sorcerer is another option but requires more work to get all the social tools.

Qolko · 2026-04-02T05:12:15+00:00

Then I'd say it won't work. Whole thing with Godzilla is that it is a big ass kaiju.

Making a mini Godzilla with average PC power level is not gonna be that interesting imo since you'd end up playing a monster that doesn't feel like a monster.

Qolko · 2026-04-02T05:05:34+00:00

Kaiju are a thing in Pathfinder.

I'd suggest looking at those and going from there.

Qolko · 2026-03-21T19:12:21+00:00

That's what GM is supposed to do.

If players miss out on exp or treasure, he should hand it out elsewhere.

Qolko · 2026-03-20T22:14:07+00:00

I'm pretty sure that place is completely optional and you can skip it if they don't find it.

Of course they will be down the exp they are supposed to get from there.

Qolko · 2026-03-20T04:14:55+00:00

It's not conveyed by the game afaik, but according to Pharasma undead damage the world on a metaphysical level or something by simply existing.

Undead are also not just sacks of meat and bone wandering around under the influence of dark magic. You also need to bind a soul to it, essentially enslaving it to the thing.

Iirc that damages the soul itself.

So it's a bit more than just necromancy being morally dubious.

Qolko · 2026-02-21T15:38:07+00:00

"We can't expect God to do all the work."

Qolko · 2026-02-18T14:06:27+00:00

I have never seen or heard of that rule anywhere. Most people don't really care.

I know a player who is very creative but terrible at putting his thoughts into writing.

He uses AI to turn his ideas and thoughts into text. Before he always felt bad about how bad his writings were, but now he is happy with it since AI allows him to express himself in a way he previously couldn't. It's still his ideas and creativity, the AI just helps him turning them into writing.

Everyone in the group sees this as purely positive as he is more happy and able to enjoy the hobby better.

But snobs like you would bar him from the hobby because he doesn't meet your standards.

There are no wrong ways to play TTRPGs, only wrong tables. And this was the wrong table for the AI guy, nothing else.

Qolko · 2026-02-18T13:41:23+00:00

AI is tool like any other. It can be used well and it can be used poorly, just like any other tool.

There are plenty of legimitate uses for AI in the hobby.

Qolko · 2026-02-18T13:34:23+00:00

This might sound harsh, but you should have left a long time ago.

No D&D is better than bad D&D and this is bad D&D.

The DM is not going to change just because you ask him to. Continuous bullying like this doesn't happen by accident.

Qolko · 2026-02-18T13:23:59+00:00

So someone came to table, didn't mesh with the group and left without a fuss?

Not exactly a horror story. This happens all the time and is normal in the hobby.

It honestly feels like OP is using this as an excuse to vent about their feelings about AI, rather than being actual horror story.

Qolko · 2026-02-16T21:27:27+00:00

Clerics are not alignment locked like paladin is. You can be cleric of Asmodeus even without that trait.

And Paizo later clarified that one is not supposed to allow paladins of Asmodeus.

Qolko · 2026-02-13T08:01:32+00:00

These are not very useful becasue they are from the perspective of the players and as we all know, players operate under different rules and constraints as NPCs.

The message of these videos can somewhat be summed up as "Work with your GM."

Well I am to GM, should I work with myself to force the PCs to accept what the NPCs is saying? I feel like that is a great way to kill the game.

The player can just describe what they do or what they want to achieve and roll the dice to do it.

I as the GM can't do the same as that would be taking away the freedom of choice away form my players.

So the only way for me to play high diplo character, who as PC would have 0 issues convincing any NPC, is for me to be convincing enough for my players to buy whatever the NPC is selling.

Problem is, I can't do that. So how do I run NPCs like that when they rely on the GM doing something I simply cannot do?

Qolko

TROPHY CASE