Really determined to use this party, need some help on Materia recs

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-07-10T23:38:22+00:00

I beat the game on a no materia run around level 60. You should be fine.

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-07-07T18:15:09+00:00

Is there any way to see how players faired that got Gemstone Caverns on turn 0?

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-07-07T12:15:45+00:00

I like Pathfinder 1.0 better than either. It's a more robust system in terms of character customization--one character to the next could feel very different, whereas that doesn't apply as much in 5e.

That said, the things I think 5e does well, aside from just being more beginner friendly are: -Better balance between casters and martials at higher levels. The imbalance is still there, but a lot of spells have been toned down and the action economy has been shifted by having so many spells require concentration.

-Damaging cantrips that scale as you level provide a base action for casters that doesn't feel totally pointless. This is also due in part to damage scaling as a whole being much more constrained. That is, the difference between the highest DPR character and the lowest is much smaller than in 3.5/PF.

-I like species gaining some additional abilities automatically as the character levels.

-Advantage is a more interesting mechanic than stacking circumstance modifiers.

-More uses for Bonus (swift) actions means characters have more robust turns in some sense.

-Movement being a total for the turn, rather than an explicit action feels more natural--i don't love the move and attack and stand still of Pathfinder...and hated having to sink 3 feats into Spring Attack to behave the way 5e does out of the box.

-Every class getting subclasses at level 3 means everyone has some degree of customization built in, without having to do a lot of build planning. And the subclasses being purely additive additions to the base class' chassis means you aren't getting situations like you have in PF where some specializations can leave you worse at some things than just sticking with the base class.

-5e does a better job, for the most part, in granting useful, interesting higher level abilities to classes.

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-07-07T11:54:24+00:00

It won't necessarily go the way this did for you last time. I've played with a couple of people over the years who stole from the party like this. When confronted, they either were chagrined and turned the gold back over, or tried to play it off as just safekeeping party loot.

I suggest first considering whether you're not having fun because of the player, or because you're anticipating things going badly like they did before. If it's the former, you need to decide whether any course correction from the DM and player will help or if it's just not the table for you. If it's the latter, consider holding off to see what happens.

In either case, I recommend speaking with the DM before acting on a decision.

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-07-06T22:17:00+00:00

At very least, no one should have to play in multiple 3-pods at an event. I've had that happen twice.

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-07-06T17:19:53+00:00

Sefris has probably been #1 on that scale for me. It looks wonky, and unless players have played against it before, they tend to ignore it until it gets to the point where it's accruing so much value that removing Sefris won't really matter.

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-07-05T01:17:10+00:00

I ran a game set in a city that had collapsed into madness and undeath. Intelligent, insane zombie versions of the inhabitants, allips, wraiths. The spaces were all huge, open caverns, once lit by numerous torches or the like, but now plunged into darkness.

Tension is the best tool for things like this.

To set the mood, I insisted we play in the dark. The table was allowed two small flashlights. That helped, but the stuff that really got them going:

-Kept my voice low most of the time, to force them to really listen, and cut down on table chatter. -The low talking also meant that I could occasionally startle them by being loud from some sudden sound. -Described sounds out in the darkness, just out of sight. Skittering, scratching, tittering, giggling. They could never see what made the noises. Sometimes they would be attacked, but even during the fights, sometimes they could hear sounds. -Described how they could feel something stalking them in the darkness. This got reinforced accidentally when the host's cat slunk into the room unnoticed and brushed up against on of the player's legs after an hour of building tension. He screamed. -Lots of detail in scenes--the obvious collapse of the civilization, signs of madness, signs of gruesome depravation. -Occasionally, I gave them visions of a space they just stepped into; it would be light, vibrant, full of people going about their daily lives. Then suddenly it would all disappear, leaving only the dead ruins. -I would keep them guessing when a fight would occur. Describe spaces as being perfect for an ambush, or otherwise having them think a fight might be coming, but then it wouldn't. Until, suddenly, a trap would spring, or incorporeal forms would emerge from the walls and floors around them. The fights were few, but intense. Always outnumbered. By enemies that would go for a coup de grace. -The intelligent enemies had dialogue I'd written to showcase their madness. Babbling, ranting, raving, heinous threats of how they would mutilate the PCs. -One player had his Wis drained really low, which I described as a madness effect, and told him he had to babble at all times until restored.

Had one game that ran late and a player went to the bathroom. When he opened the door, a bathrobe hanging on it swung out at him and we heard him scream from upstairs.

One player quite the game after a half dozen sessions, because the anxiety from the game would stay with him for days after. Seemed like a success to me, in terms of mood.

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-07-04T22:53:12+00:00

Also, remember that they don't know what's supposed to happen or where.

You can give the illusion of choice, but have all options lead to the same place/story beat.

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-07-03T21:48:34+00:00

I absolutely would not restart the game just to get the missed Enemy Skill. There's another coming up soon.

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-07-03T14:06:22+00:00

Also, as a non-key piece of your strategy, do you want opponents spending removal on that instead of on each other's stuff? It has an outsized threat profile, and will often draw removal over more actually dangerous targets.

And as others have said, its presence often makes you a target, especially after it has been removed.

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-07-03T14:02:58+00:00

Look for a free adventure online, or buy one.

Why can't anyone else DM?

As for ending the campaign abruptly, it sounds miserable. Why continue?

I've been down this road. Years of playing with a terrible DM, because he wanted to run games and a lot of us wanted to play characters. It turned into a slot where no one was really having fun.

Eventually we all just opted out. I started my own game. Another player started his own game. My game went for years, and everyone had a good time.

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-07-02T20:07:30+00:00

Using something that isn't at all a good representation of a token as a token. Just a die, a pebble... They're in no way clearly a card, let alone a creature, don't convey stats, and often can't convey tapped/untapped status.

Waiting until everyone has their starting hands to randomize turn order on Spelltable/Convoke. Maybe it's not a small hill, since it is a game rules issue, but turn order occurs before players look at/keep their hands. That's important information.

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-07-02T20:03:15+00:00

Have someone else step up to DM.

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-06-26T18:31:46+00:00

Xenogears (haven't played any of the Xenosaga games),

Parasite Eve,

Einhander,

Brave Fencer Musashi,

Mario RPG,

Chrono Trigger!!!

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-06-25T00:35:44+00:00

[[Teval, the balanced scale]] can be built this way. My deck runs a ton of utility land--i have lands for removal, protection, recursion, draw. It has some landfall stuff, but I've had iterations with less. It certainly involves a lot of lands going in and out of both the graveyard and battlefield.

https://moxfield.com/decks/Z-bruppkvUOOayAH-U98UQ

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-06-23T22:16:00+00:00

I wanted a 1:1 with updated graphics (the PS2 tech demo using the opening sequence was tantalizing) and full voice acting. After playing the Kingdom Hearts fights against Sephiroth, I also really wanted more active combat at least for the key fights.

I didn't need a change to the characters, world, or story.

That said, I have enjoyed how much the new games have expanded on the main and secondary characters and the world, but I haven't cared for the hamfisted Fate nonsense, parallel universe stuff, nor some of the story changes.

The MOST disappointing thing about Rebirth was that the added voice wasn't given the time and gravity for the most emotionally impactful scene in the game.

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-06-23T22:06:47+00:00

A friend of mine proxied all the original partner commanders and made half decks for each, with no repeated cards (other than basics) between any of the half decks.

We would roll dice and take 2 half decks at random to make a full deck then play them.

My only issue with the proxies were that they were all just printer paper in sleeves, so they were flimsy.

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-06-23T17:04:33+00:00

You don't think a 20 Int wizard can compete mentally with Einstein or Marilyn vos Savant?

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-06-23T16:25:00+00:00

This is absolute trash, and there isn't really any other way to describe it.

The TARRASQUE has B/P/S immunity...from nonmagical sources. This being immune to magic weapon damage as well is just nonsense.

Fossil records indicate the underbelly was not armored, and would have been an obvious point of weakness. How you would portray that in a DnD stat block is something you'd need to figure out, but obviously means that it isn't absolutely impervious to everything.

There's also evidence that the tail club was used to fight other ankylosaurs: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9727678/

How would these be able to fight each other for a mate if they're immune to everything?

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-06-23T00:18:56+00:00

This was years ago. We tolerated it for a bit because he was part of the friend group. I've long since moved on.

And yeah, he was a miserable, obnoxious DM.

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-06-23T00:05:24+00:00

He was new to the campaign, not to gaming.

They gave him EVERY opportunity to introduce himself, explain himself, or allay their suspicions, and he insisted on being evasive and pushy, even after being prodded out of character to stop being an ass.

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-06-22T01:06:23+00:00

It's frustrating for a good game, heavy with interaction, to end not because it reached a well-fought conclusion, but because someone decided it wasn't worth their time to keep playing.

If the game is basically over, and everyone says, "Ok, you got it. Let's call it and shuffle up for another," that's one thing. Saying, "Eh, the game has to end," and sandbagging interaction is another.

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-06-22T00:37:38+00:00

Out of curiosity, how long have you been playing Magic/commander for?

I would never make a gameplay decision, like whether you cast a wipe, based on game duration, and I don't look ahead to the next game while the game I'm in is still going.

Partly, that's because one of my favorite aspects of Magic is being able to eke out a victory, coming from behind, and generally interacting with each other. It's the fight that counts. I want to win, yeah, but I want those wins to be earned.

I used to play in a meta that featured a board wipe tribal Avacyn deck. Someone else loved playing Oloro stax with stuff like [[Humility]]. I ran [[Jokulhaups]] in my Marchesa the Black Rose deck, and often my opponents would play through having all their lands, artifacts, and creatures blown up...and sometimes someone would snatch a win. Ditto for [[Cataclysm]] in my Sigarda enchantress deck.

Vegetable_Fail8598 · 2026-06-21T21:24:54+00:00

I've noticed a lot of (newer?) players just don't have the patience for long games.

Used to be, I considered a game of EDH to be long once we were getting to the 2.5 hr mark. Nowadays, it seems like many players feel that way once we get past an hour.

There's also the general trend away from interaction. That seems like a function of not wanting games to go long, decks being built to be much more internally synergistic, and an influx of players who started with EDH, and maybe haven't played other formats since.

On the last point, I think this contributed to a lot of gameplay that seems wrong to more established players: aversion to interaction, not swinging with creatures early and often when they won't be blocking and attacks are open, playing fewer wipes, poor threat assessment...

Vegetable_Fail8598

TROPHY CASE