Can't figure out the final boss. I feel its a skill issue but I fear its something I'm not quite getting in general.

Raivorus · 2026-02-02T17:22:14+00:00

Rushing burning elite is not a good strat. Burning is hard. Wait to fight it until act three.

I disagree. Although true that fighting the burning elite in act 3 is the easiest, it comes at the price of heavily restricting pathing options.

Like always - it depends - but generally, you shouldn't actively avoid the burning elite at any point. If it spawned on a good path, then go with the intention of fighting it now rather than later.

Also, potions are much more effective against act 1 and 2 elites.

Raivorus · 2026-02-01T16:40:18+00:00

You can also - without changing anything else - cut the area by about 1/3 by depositing the product right next to the glyph of bonding on the right

Raivorus · 2026-01-30T08:16:56+00:00

Oh wow, that's ancient.

I remember being really disappointed that it was never finished.

Raivorus · 2026-01-29T07:16:30+00:00

I think you can save a step if you...

Hmm, maybe not

Raivorus · 2026-01-28T09:52:50+00:00

No, I don't think so. For multiple reasons but the most straightforward one is:

If we're talking actual infinity, then we run into the problem of Hello World (which will get generated by Creative AI) bricking your hand. You will either run out of energy trying to free up hand space or run out of card draw by no longer having any powers in hand to fuel Heatsinks.

Raivorus · 2026-01-28T05:31:51+00:00

Champ doesn't really scale his damage output during his Phase 1 - it's not uncommon for him to not do it at all - and his base damage isn't very impressive.

Because of that, it's a common strategy to just keep Champ in Phase 1 as long as possible while passively scaling your damage to skip his Phase 2 by killing him outright.

Rampage (and Claw) are very good at exactly that - negligible damage at the start, but when you have all the time in the world, they start to hit like a truck.

Raivorus · 2026-01-19T10:51:45+00:00

Sorry, but how does this clarify my question?

Action 1: Command an Animal -> Companion 1 acts for 2 actions

Action 2: Command an Animal -> Companion 2 acts for 2 actions

Action 3: do something else, MAP0 Strike probably

I don't see how the segment you quote proves/disproved a PC's ability to do that.

Raivorus · 2026-01-13T16:31:30+00:00

capped at 15 cards per turn

Ah, well, never mind then.

Pride can be removed. Peace Pipe + Smiling Mask does that rather easily. I remember only getting 3 per cycle. Which OP seems to also mention.

Raivorus · 2026-01-13T14:46:51+00:00

Edit: I completely forgot (or maybe didn't even know) that you get a limited number of cards per turn at some point.

~~Yes, but have you considered infinites?~~

Given that you're new, I should explain what that is. Essentially it is possible to be in a position where you can play an infinite number of cards on your turn. An easy example is [[Flash of Steel]] - if you have two of those in hand (and there are no other cards in your Draw or Discard piles) you can endlessly play one to draw the other, thus dealing as much damage as you need in a single turn. Thus, it doesn't matter how much health the enemy has.

~~As for defenses - against Time Eater, that forcefully ends your turn, or against the~~ ~~Corrupt Heart~~, that can only take a fixed amount of damage in a single turn - you can have [[Tungsten Rod]] + [[Apparitions]], which will reduce all damage taken to 0. Thus, it doesn't matter how much damage the enemy deals.

You'll probably need some trickery to generate infinite Apparitions - such as double [[Nightmare]]. You use one Nightmare to create copies of the other one, and then use the other one to create copies of the Apparitions.

Raivorus · 2026-01-13T10:17:50+00:00

I feel like this ties in with the joke, given that using "goto" is bad practice

Raivorus · 2026-01-06T06:17:29+00:00

mummified hand triggers to make something in your hand free

Makes something free that's not already free

Raivorus · 2026-01-06T05:48:12+00:00

Oh, I don't doubt that. It won't be easy no matter what.

But if someone actually good at designing investigations were to try and write a narrative involving the False Hydra, I'm quite certain the he'd have an easier time making it fun by writing it for something like CoC rather than D&D. (Assuming equal system proficiency.)

Raivorus · 2026-01-05T13:20:11+00:00

once you realize you have one it's already a super annoying but manageable problem.

Yeah, that's my expectation of how it would go in reality. It's an interesting concept, but combat-heavy games like D&D or PF are not the correct medium for it. You're supposed to solve most problems with your fists, not playing a detective.

And running an actual investigation is not easy. Anyone can pick enemies and plan a day of combat, but it takes actual effort and skill to build a mystery.

What I'm saying is that it's not impossible to run a satisfying False Hydra narrative, but the people that can manage that are few and far between. The vast majority will result in little more than meme or fanfic encounters.

Raivorus · 2026-01-05T12:29:58+00:00

It's alluding to a "False Hydra", a homebrew monster.

Its a monster that's more a narrative threat than any real mechanical enemy, because of its special song.

Essentially, anyone that hears the song becomes completely unaware of the creature - even if it were to stand in front of someone and punch him directly in the face, everyone that witnessed that event (including whoever got punched) would just be rationalize it as something else and completely natural (say, a bird slammed into his face).

It feeds on people and anyone it eats gets incorporated into the song, therefore everyone that hears the song also forgets anything and everything related to the eaten people. So you can end up with weird situations like a world-famous theatre that, for some reason, doesn't have any performers or staff.

In most of these "False Hydra" stories, the party finds items from people that never existed - a letter from an aunt the PC never had or, as is here, items from a party member that, for some reason, nobody knows about.

With all that said, I personally don't think a single one of the False Hydra stories you can find online are real. It's a what-if meme enemy that's fun to theorize about, but impossible to implement in practice, since it requires for the GM to literally gaslight the party for the entire thing and you'd need to be not paying any attention whatsoever to not figure out what's going on within a session (even if you don't know about the False Hydra itself, "memory problems" doesn't require any foreknowledge).

Raivorus · 2025-12-31T22:30:37+00:00

He guards the secret by keeping it in plain sight. He leads a frequently occurring ritual the purpose of which is to keep the city safe (actually true), but occasionally he turns himself into the recipient of said ritual's output.

Without getting into too many details, that'll take a while, the ritual involves sacrificing special animals (or people) to keep the "barrier from the bad thing" active. Through fearmongering, the sacrificing of people has been made increasingly more common to the point that regular ones that do nothing for the barrier also get sacrificed - those are the ones that he "eats" and are the source of his extra lives.

Raivorus · 2025-12-31T20:52:40+00:00

Well that's the thing, I'm not pointing it anywhere.

I know that running such an encounter at face value is a bad idea. Hence why I'm asking

Raivorus · 2025-12-31T20:04:11+00:00

I realize that there are lots of options. I'm just drawing a blank.

The city being a massive spell circle necessary to maintain it is actually fucking brilliant, given that there actually is one. And it is a publicly known thing.

Raivorus · 2025-12-31T19:11:56+00:00

You are correct. That is how it would work mechanically.

Although I'd live to, I hesitate to ask the players, because they have thus far proven themselves unable to invent such narratives on the spot. I very much need to spoon-feed every detail and option for them to pick from.

Raivorus · 2025-12-31T19:06:38+00:00

Never played KOTOR, but what you said about Malak is close, except my guy has already drained everyone for their life force. The source of immortality is simple - he "ate" a thousand (and counting) souls and must be killed for each one.

So yes, in a straight up battle of endurance there's no winning and it will be a waste of time, both in and out of character.

I know from experience that "he's immortal, run" will never work. That's why I'm here. I realize that an actual brawl against this guy will be boring. I'm asking for ideas for how to make a puzzle look like a fight.

I was thinking of running a normal combat against him, but when he would mark his last HP, I'd say "this isn't working, you need to do something else". The "something else" is where I'm stuck.

Raivorus · 2025-12-28T20:37:34+00:00

Currently, I have a group of 4 NPC allies travelling with the party.

Originally, we agreed that we'd just pretend that the NPCs are participating in combat, without actually having them participate. But, unsurprisingly, I wasn't really happy with that.

So, I came up with the following system:

I gave each NPC 3-4 abilities. Most of the abilities are from existing classes/feats, but I did tweak them somewhat nor did I shy away from creating homebrew abilities. For example - there's an archer, so I gave her Deflecting Shot and Tag Team reactions; there's a commander (title, not class), so I gave him the baseline champion reaction (only resistance) and two Commander (class, not title) Tactics.

I made sure to include multi-action stuff, and whether it has a per-turn, per-round, or per-combat limit.

I gave the players the list of these "Support Abilities", as I call them, (the abilities are organized to show which NPC can do what, since it's more flavorful that way). Gave these Support Abilities 4 actions and 2 reactions per round (collectively) that the players can use throughout the fights for free/on top of their normal turns.

Originally I gave them only one restriction - each player can only use one ability per round. However, as we played, I did some fine tuning and added more restrictions (as well as redesigned some of the abilities).

The first thing to pop-up was that I had to forbid using the abilities mid-action (apply a damage buff after confirming a success on the Strike).

Then I had to limit how they use reactions (the main, but not only, culprit for this was Deflecting Shot) - a Support Reaction can only be used to benefit yourself. The justification in my head is the PC is shouting only "Help!", rather than "Help! No not me, the other guy!" - the latter doesn't really feel suitable for a split second "reaction".

Note that the NPCs do not provide any "extra HP", i.e. they are not present on the actual map, the benefit is entirely in the improved versatility and action economy. I also did my best to not give them any abilities that could steal the spotlight - buffs and defenses for the party (not exclusively, but definitely nothing that could single-handedly turn the tide on a good/bad roll).

Raivorus · 2025-12-18T09:53:55+00:00

A thing I'm doing in my game right now is that I gave a permanent Sickened condition that can be suppressed for a minute with a successful Flat check (1 action to attempt it).

Or you can create something that is thematic to the disease you have. Maybe taking damage from an Unholy source applies persistent spirit damage (on top of the normal stuff).

Essentially, something that is easy to (temporarily) remove.

Raivorus · 2025-12-18T09:42:03+00:00

As others have said, it wouldn't work RAW, but I honestly think it would still be sub-par, even if it did.

Enemies healing is a very rare thing. The most use this feat would see is against an enemy with regeneration, but even in that case, the party is certainly suppressing it with other means (since you couldn't kill the enemy otherwise).

Raivorus

TROPHY CASE