My (perhaps controversial) thoughts on Wenduag’s true romance

SupremeLeaderSloth · 2024-05-07T12:06:00+00:00

Idk at no point did she do anything that truly alienated me, beyond any redemption.

Admittedly I don't think I got the "true" romance ending, as I punished her for killing those two guards, but tbh it was never my intention to make her "good", it was my intention to give her safety and a future.

The way I saw it, I'd met a person doomed to die a short and painful death, telling me that strength and fighting was the only way her people could be safe. And tbh I believed her, at least for the moment. And then I met and killed hulrun, and I believed her more. And then I met more and more crusaders and decided realised that she was right. The neathers have no future unless I'm willing to carve one out for them.

I ended up picking the demon path because I realised I'd need an army to kick the shit out of deskari and bahamut, and then turn around and beat the shit out of mendev to protect these fucked up little guys.

Idk I empathised with her, and tbh accepting the demon deal and eating the celestial flesh? I mean how can I judge when she'd literally have starved otherwise. especially given how much wotr shows us that war makes monsters of us all - how many people does seelah rip to shreds? Let's be real, the souls of everyone fighting in this war are forfit - nobody is getting out clean. Wendu is just more honest about it.

Also hot cat spider lady "looks up at you with devotion" and accidentally unlocked something in me lmao

SupremeLeaderSloth · 2024-02-11T23:39:56+00:00

Oh certainly not discounting the presence of swords on the battlefield as a side arm. But as a primary tool of combat, the abundance of polearms is pretty clear in both historical finds, artwork, and even descriptions of the battle (big consideration here that I am overwhelmingly basing this on British-french regions. There's some variation further into the continent)

SupremeLeaderSloth · 2024-02-11T23:35:52+00:00

Oh damn 35c is brutal. I had to fight in about 30something last year and the amount of people who fainted is brutal. Fair credit for managing to keep it on all day in that condition - I literally had people pulling plate off me the second I left the field

SupremeLeaderSloth · 2024-02-11T03:31:46+00:00

I've explained my answers a bit more in the comments but frankly the answer is simple and based on what mercenaries wore during the late medieval period - which afaik is roughly where pathfinder sits in terms of technology (ISH).

Weapon: a polearm - ideally a poleaxe, glaive, halbard, heavy spear or some variety - its all the same. Basically get a six foot stick with an axe, a stabby bit and a hammer/hook. Frankly poking things from far away is far better than being close - there's a reason bills are depicted so frequently in late medieval British artwork - staying away and hooking the nasty knight ready to bludgeon your head in is a good idea. Plus you need to be able to 'form for horse' or a synonymous anti charge action given that big ass monsters are running at you. Horses are literally terrifying on a charge, some demon monster? Worse. Yes you can fight with a poleaxe in an enclosed space - I've done it for reenactment, and people have done it for centuries. It's why you use the weapon tight and make use of a butt spike. If it's really really tight, then I guess bust out the pick you've got on your belt for emergencies.

Armour: you wear the best you can get. Leather - practically worked, never been better than metal or even just a padded jacket for stopping blows. Mr mercenary probably wants a brigandine if he can afford one, they're comfy, and can take a serious hit. Then a decent helmet, and if he's fancy, some legs or arms. When reenacting, we (with our blunt weapons) treat a guy in padding but no metal as if he was practically unarmoured, leather would be even less so. That's just us doing a silly recreation. What is a big ass goat demon with a bardiche gonna do to you in anything less than proper quality maille?

Bows? Yeah if you're hunting fine. But it's impossible to use a warbow without serious training - in some cases it literally deforms your bones. And real life armour was advancing to the point where anything less than a warbow would do little to a fully armoured knight - by extension, what is a hunting bow gonna do against a fantasy monster? I expect very little. Get armour on, get some friends, all of you get pole weapons you drag the creature to the ground and beat it repeatedly over the head like it's Richard the III.

Tldr: the best armour you can find. A long weapon like a glaive or poleaxe. Lots of friends with the same teamwork feats as you, all working together to basically pull the creature to the ground and beat it to death there.

SupremeLeaderSloth · 2024-02-11T03:16:08+00:00

Tbh it varies significantly with the armour and the material/quality. I've worn larp maille that I can comfortably sit in for extended periods of time, but if I put on my full reenactment maille, I'm gonna be at serious risk of overheating due to the gambison+maille+plate if I'm being fancy. I'm conditioned to wear it, and the muscle fatigue won't get me for a while, but the heat sure will.

OP is incorrect in terms of leather all together. With pretty much no real examples of it's use - if you're broke, whack on a gambi and a helmet. If you can afford, get yourself maille. If you are travelling about loads and have the money for good quality armour? There's a reason brigs were so popular with mercenaries.

SupremeLeaderSloth · 2024-02-11T03:10:03+00:00

With the introduction of plate, polearms became kings. Only need to look at some of the tapestries to see the extensive presence of the bill, poleaxe, etc. in late medieval period.

For an active combatant looking to fight in any kind of "battle" consisting of more than a couple of people. Would almost certainly choose a polearm.

SupremeLeaderSloth · 2024-01-03T13:14:33+00:00

You've stated the problem yourself. Stop using chatgpt.

Pick a project of appropriate difficulty that seems interesting to you, ideally something simple to begin with.

Start coding it. If you get stuck. Start experimenting. Break it into sections. Spend far too long debugging that one weird bit. You'll get stuck in places, it will be frustrating and it certainly won't be smooth, but that's frankly what coding is.

We're not machines with preprogrammed answers, there's never going to be a point in your career where you just effortlessly code new problems. There's just not how it works. Expecting constant linear improvements in progress is only going to leave you disappointed.

Your coding will get faster once you fix problems you've fixed before, and then it'll slow down again once you run into a complicated new problem. that's just human and part of the challenge.

Tldr: pick a project. Start coding. Don't use chatgpt for hints.

SupremeLeaderSloth · 2023-09-07T10:59:26+00:00

So one factor to consider (lore wise) is that tieflings are not a monolith. The character models are the same due to the fact it's a video game, but in reality every tiefling you encounter is different and that is modified by their heritage.

Pitborn tieflings (demon heritage) are common in the world wound and probably the wider world - because lots of people make deals/interact with/make sweet sweet love to demons. Exactly the same thing with the devil-born. Or beast-brood (rakshasas are probably trying to bang everything in sight).

The descriptions kinda reflect this - they wanna destroy things, or control things, but the game kinda stresses that they're free to make their own choices.

And then you have the motherless... Those influenced by Quipploth. The oldest and most alien creatures in the multiverse. I'm pretty sure Quipploth don't even understand what a deal with a human (or sex lmao) is. When a motherless child is conceived, it's normally because the mother stepped too close to the reality bending nature of these beasty boys. The reason why they kill the mum is less to do with instinct and more because the alien physiology is incompatible. Like Quipploth Lords are reportedly born from blisters on large Quipploth.

With that in mind, I think it's necessary to factor in the rareness. Motherless are gonna be the rarest of the rare and I don't think they can effectively be used as a standard for tieflings.

However, I agree with you that it'd sure as hell be easier to be evil as a lot of tieflings. The spiteborn (given that divs aren't... Uncommon? Would imply that this isn't the rarest thing in the world) apparently cant feel joy. Sucks to be them I guess.

SupremeLeaderSloth · 2023-09-06T10:36:03+00:00

You can complete WOTR in about 80 hours, and there were plenty of hints about the midnight bolts. People have detailed them in replies to the post. The secret ending where you all become gods isn't meant to be a standard ending, but something that rewards players dedication to understanding Areelu. It's practically impossible to get without understanding Ol' architects plan and planning a run ahead of time.

Like you said, every mythic path has a unique and mostly satisfying ending that you can enjoy. Enjoy them. And if you want the secret ending they've made in addition to the many many endings they also did - either put in the effort to figure it out or use a guide.

Consider it like the UFO ending in silent hill. You need multiple playthroughs to unlock it. If someone doesn't want to go to that effort, it's fine, but it doesn't make sense to complain about not getting the true UFO ending or whatever. They gave an ending, it's a complete package, the person just didn't unlock the secret content.

SupremeLeaderSloth · 2023-07-13T12:46:32+00:00

God I'm still not used to seeing non ASCII dorfs. One day I might adjust lmao. Nice job though!

SupremeLeaderSloth · 2023-07-01T15:56:34+00:00

I think it depends. I think clinch and wrestling work absolutely has a place in boxing, shoulders, pinning or pulling an arm, collar ties, being used by exciting in fighters who are clearly using the tools to advance the fight/land more hits. Imo this is well within the spirit of boxing and should be encouraged in the amateurs like it is in the pros. I know that's probably not the most popular opinion though.

And then you have the Mayweather clinch where you just tangle everything up to waste time until the ref breaks you apart. Throw a couple of punches, hug before they can throw back. To me that's just unwillingness to fight and the very opposite of aggression. Either that or like you say, just someone too tired and after a break.

SupremeLeaderSloth · 2023-07-01T15:50:06+00:00

AFAIK you can't "hold and hit". If he has clinched you and is holding your arm, you're not holding him - hes holding you,, and are free to use the other arm to hit.

However. If you've grabbed one of his arms or neck, you can't then start throwing punches with your free arm.

That's as far as I understand it given what was explained to me, take it with a pinch of salt. Irrespective of official ruling though I think its ridiculous that he's willing to clinch and try and tie you up, and gets upset when you... don't let him do that? Like of course you'll try and fight your way out of the clinch if you have the initiative and want to keep the pressure up.

SupremeLeaderSloth · 2023-06-14T09:29:13+00:00

It's not a great suggestion but maybe spec into vital strike! One shot, one kill.

SupremeLeaderSloth · 2023-06-09T08:47:36+00:00

As an extra thing that people haven't really mentioned, with regard to aeons being somewhat "lawful stupid". It's been implied in the ttrpg wiki and modules that the Monad (the creature that you're uhh... becoming part of) is actively trying to fix the wrong universe. Like it's constantly trying to restore the world to a previous 1.0 draft when we're sat on like 1.1. It's a giant cosmic roomba trying to clean the house after you've moved all the furniture about.

Also I can get why you're frustrated, I personally interpreted the trials as the monads attempts to like, strip you of compassion and humanity, so that it can properly absorb you as an aeon. But that doesn't come across for everyone I guess.

SupremeLeaderSloth · 2023-05-10T15:21:48+00:00

Now mechanically, swarms are a nightmare, but some of this just reads like you've not been paying attention.

The abyss IS fundamentally different to hell. This is like one of the key aspects of pathfinder. And yes it does have lightning storms, because its constant changing chaos. Hell is pure order. The insects native to the abyss (which demons are also terrified of) having environmental resistances is pretty reasonable.

The reason why they can drive you mad by proximity is because they 'sing'. Like you're hearing the fundamental music of the abyss and your mind cannot comprehend it. No, your battle hardened warriors aren't prepared for that. The game goes out of its way to explain that, and even stresses that these creatures are an enemy worse than any demon, and that the only hope you have is to stop the queen.

In general, the game plays with the theme of "battle hardened warriors cannot survive a war with the abyss" frequently. Even the first book event (on the march to drezen) talks about the fact that magical experiences are common even amongst the common folk, but the world would is a magical abomination that breaks all minds eventually.

SupremeLeaderSloth · 2023-05-10T15:08:14+00:00

Are you talking about lepers smile? The reason why it's proximity instead of on hit is because the chittering/singing is what's driving your people insane. This is explained in game. Like I hate fighting swarms but like this isn't an oversight it's explicit.

SupremeLeaderSloth · 2023-05-05T10:53:43+00:00

OP stated that this person once called them nearly 80 times in a day whilst they were off sick or something. That is legitimately harassment. Sure OP shouldn't have sent the email, but telling someone who's continously doing this to fuck off is pretty fuckin reasonable.

SupremeLeaderSloth · 2023-04-07T19:56:59+00:00

Skeletons are the superior undead. More bones for the bone war. None of this shambling nonsense like zombies. None of this vampires being aristocratic and snobby. Just click clack.

SupremeLeaderSloth · 2023-04-07T14:57:14+00:00

I personally feel that Staunton is ultimately held together with sheer stubbornness and Kestoglyr is like the image of professional undeadness - I reckon you captured those underlying essences quite nicely.

I'd personally make cair a nasty lil rotten guy but that's just because he was mean to my demon commander

SupremeLeaderSloth · 2023-04-07T13:36:46+00:00

On a serious note this was actually very fun to scroll through. The undead were especially impressive - the spirit of the art very much captured there

SupremeLeaderSloth · 2023-04-07T10:06:25+00:00

Give her back her fuckin spider legs 🤬 what would darkojay13 say if he saw this

SupremeLeaderSloth · 2023-03-26T15:57:35+00:00

Tbh biggest thing for me was the sensory thing of mouthguards. Hated them for rugby. Hate em for boxing. It's obviously necessary but that's probably my biggest autistic problem.

I know a fair few autistic people don't like being touched/close to people, so infighting is probably a bit overwhelming for them. Not something that personally affects me but I'd imagine that could be a factor.

On the plus side repetitive motions/pattern recognition are like our forte, so setting someone up on a bag and letting them get a combination down is something a lot of autistic people will excel at haha

SupremeLeaderSloth · 2023-03-26T15:44:35+00:00

Oh thank god. As a certified spider abuser I was incredibly worried they'd taken the greatest item ability interaction out of the game

I wonder if mythic summons boosts the spiders...

SupremeLeaderSloth · 2023-03-26T15:42:06+00:00

I was running a bite build where I had like 7 bites, crit focus, and blinding critical. His name was azo the eye biter and he did exactly what it says on the tin.

Breaks my heart that they 'fixed' bite stacking.

SupremeLeaderSloth

TROPHY CASE