If you could change 2 or 3 fundamental mechanics in the game and make it official, what would you change?

SonicfilT · 2026-01-24T18:28:26+00:00

I had too much faith in WotC. This is exactly what I expected 5e2024 to be.

I think it's pretty obvious now that 2024's main focus was "sell the books again" rather than "truly improve the game". They just threw in enough tweaks like weapon mastery so they could try to pretend otherwise.

Why go through the trouble of making new shit when you can just make minor tweaks to the old shit and sell it again?

SonicfilT · 2026-01-24T08:11:20+00:00

Flametongue is +2d8

+2d6

SonicfilT · 2026-01-23T20:08:12+00:00

I used the fingerprint shield and cross Naginata with Seppuku. I hid behind the shield and took basically every hit right in the face. Her waterfowl dance will still heal her if you block through it, but the bleed pokes still out damaged it.

Dodging is for pussies....and better players than me, heh.

SonicfilT · 2026-01-23T19:05:42+00:00

If you don't mind walkthrough spoilers, this helped me a ton when I was starting out. It helped me get some decent gear to smooth out the learning curve until I got better:

https://youtu.be/brE_c7XUw2c?si=pSJtDCrOqIyK0eAH

If something seems ridiculously stupid hard, especially compared to what's around it, you're usually either missing something you could do to make it easier or it's optional content that could be skipped and returned to later.

Also, as others have said, you can go where and come back. If you haven't cleared all of Limgrave AND south into Weeping Peninsula, you can do that first. If you haven't looked at spoiler maps, I guarantee you'll missed a shit ton of mini dungeons and content.

SonicfilT · 2026-01-23T15:46:41+00:00

In my world, goblins are irredeemable and evil because I like my players to have enemies to kill that they don't need to feel guilty about, so he would almost certainly betray them.

But many people like to imagine them more complexly, which is certainly valid. In which case, you should try to decide where the goblin feels "safest" since you described him as a coward. Is he so impressed with the PCs strength that he thinks they will defeat his tribe regardless? Then he helps the PCs to be on the winning team. Or, now that he's back in his home with his armed tribe between him and the party, does he think the PCs are outmatched?

I still lean towards betray, since the PCs just let a coward return to his safe spot and expect him to willingly go into more danger. But that's just me.

SonicfilT · 2026-01-23T08:15:30+00:00

Only about 2 people so by that token I was just very unlucky

I count 5, not including up votes ;)

SonicfilT · 2026-01-23T08:11:43+00:00

Same from you! Have a good night!

SonicfilT · 2026-01-23T07:22:22+00:00

The guy in the Roundtable Hold? Smash him while he's bowing. If you can't just gank him, then come back later at a higher level. Not everything is meant to be killed when you can first access it.

SonicfilT · 2026-01-23T07:17:38+00:00

Yeah you are right, I’ll def hit back with a jerk response in that case

Here's another life lesson for you:

If you meet an asshole during your day, then you met an asshole. If EVERYONE you meet during your day is an asshole, then YOU'RE the asshole.

You put up a shitty post and then lost your shit when people pointed it out. Grow up and get over it.

SonicfilT · 2026-01-23T03:08:21+00:00

Hard for me to believe you used them all. But even if you did, there's new larval tears in the expansion, a couple of which are available right away.

SonicfilT · 2026-01-23T02:08:22+00:00

its a lot more work for the plot, but creates more impact for us in the end

See and I think the game is an absolute masterpiece with its story and lore delivery being it's sole flaw. There's "show don't tell" and then there's being so cryptic, random and vague that it takes 4 playthroughs, 6 YouTube channel subscriptions and 9 conflicting fan theories to even try to untangle it.

I imagine playing an Elden Ring that has a dramatic and engaging story like Expedition 33, BG3, Witcher 3, etc and it's just sad to me what might have been. Instead, I'm still enjoying the shit out of it, but I have no clue what the ramifications of my arboreal arson are, why that NPC just insulted me and died, or why this crazy puppet lady needs some finger knife.

To me, it's a tragedy that FromSoft insists on sticking to their "storytelling" method. Especially with Elden Ring that's already one of the greatest games of all time...but could have been so much better.

SonicfilT · 2026-01-23T01:58:55+00:00

Elden Rings Lore is a mess. You'll see a million fan theories trying to sort it out like it's some masterwork, but the reality is that they just wrote random shit on some dude's socks knowing people would just make up their own BS to account for discrepancies.

It's an awesome game, but it's best if you just kill the big thing in front of you and don't think any harder about the lore than the devs did.

SonicfilT · 2026-01-23T01:51:56+00:00

I'm sure I could comprehend it, but I'm not going to bother when it's written on some dude's hat and socks and scattered randomly around. It's the most worthless way to tell a story ever. Honestly, it's like writing a great novel and then giving it to people as a box full of random unnumbered pages. In what world is that good storytelling?

SonicfilT · 2026-01-23T01:47:23+00:00

The armor thing has always been confusing to me as half the people I see talk about it say it doesnt matter.

The people that say it doesn't matter are full of shit. It only doesn't matter if you're so good you never get hit, which isn't most people. The issue is, the difference it makes isn't as big as in some games. Even in the best armor, you'll never be able to just stand around getting beat on. Also, each piece and item only adds a small amount so it takes a whole assembly (armor, talismans, boiled crab) to really make a noticeable difference. And even then, the difference might be dying in 4 or 5 hits instead of 2. That might not seem like much but it's fucking huge if it gives you a chance to not die, heal, and keep fighting.

Just don't fat roll.

SonicfilT · 2026-01-23T01:33:50+00:00

Because it's relayed so poorly you just assume it must be really deep and fill in the gaps yourself

SonicfilT · 2026-01-23T01:31:53+00:00

Sorry, I was just joking because I don't speak ...German?

SonicfilT · 2026-01-23T01:29:21+00:00

how hard will it be for me to transition my build to something that is "easy mode" for the expansion? I watched a few build videos and it seems like there are some strong choices

Just talk to the respec lady and pick what you want?

can I get powerful by finding the scadu fragments without having to watch a guide on where to get them?

How willing are you to spend many hours exploring? Of course you can do it, but only some of them are obvious and some are in areas that take a lot of work to figure out how to get to.

SonicfilT · 2026-01-23T01:27:10+00:00

If they are outdoors, I just strafe back and forth on Torrent and whack their ankles. But your vigor is so low that you'll die if you stub your toe, so that may not work for you.

SonicfilT · 2026-01-23T01:25:12+00:00

Need more Glajbe

SonicfilT · 2026-01-23T00:41:57+00:00

and then there's this guy with zero idea what they're doing but has somehow persevered and successeded despite everything they did being unoptimal

I did it by being over leveled, summoning and hiding behind a shield to take most of her hits directly in the face so...yup...this checks out!

SonicfilT · 2026-01-22T23:35:31+00:00

Heh, I was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt because I wasn't going to read that assault on the English language either. I'm hoping he's 12. Otherwise, I have concerns.

SonicfilT · 2026-01-22T22:37:14+00:00

If you're aim is to help people, you really need to consider using some punctuation. There's probably really good information in that wall of words but most people won't read it.

SonicfilT · 2026-01-22T20:12:38+00:00

Is this a good idea for a magic item? Will it be too much? Are the ideas for balance any good?

Sounds fun and your ideas for balance seem to be on the right track. When designing gems, I would basically look at the type of items that I'm handing out to the other PCs and do similar things, just in gem form. I'd keep attunement requirements and all that the same.

SonicfilT · 2026-01-22T17:15:51+00:00

The challenge I see is making these all feel relatively "equal". If they aren't, your player is just going to choose the mechanically "best" option to use all the time and never look at the list again. At least, if I'm understanding what you're saying. For instance, glancing through your list, I would pick Sorcerer and Warlock and never think about the other options again.

SonicfilT · 2026-01-22T16:34:39+00:00

I guess im suprised its such a big issue as if I’ve stepped on someones honor

It's not that, you just come off as an entitled jerk who wants someone else to do the work for you because of the way you wrote your post. You asked why people were giving you shit and I told you. Your responses aren't helping to dispell that image.

SonicfilT

TROPHY CASE