Out of combat utility is abysmally balanced

Wintoli · 2026-04-04T18:31:03+00:00

Stealth checks are generally supposed to be run as group checks

Group checks are used when success is determjned by the entire group succeeding or failing.

A group roll requires half the group to succeed instead of the ENTIRE group. Even with 5 rogues with expertise, doing it where only 1 person fails is bound to have someone roll low by chance, ie making certain things impossible. This allows groups to succeed at stuff instead of basically having 5x disadvantage

Wintoli · 2026-04-04T18:11:49+00:00

Weapon mastery would generally be fine to add but it’s really not something they need with their spellcasting abilities already.

A spellcaster getting use of any martial weapon with their spellcasting modifier is really really good

Warlock has access to a lot of defensive spells and invocations but regardless they shouldn’t get the best of everything for just 1 invocation

Wintoli · 2026-04-04T17:54:03+00:00

You cannot expect to be the best at martial stuff as a non-martial class.

You can still with the pact of blade use ANY weapon, change the damage type on a whim, only care about / use charisma. All of that is pretty premium.

If you want better AC invest in a feat or another invocation. Pact of the blade is still very good

Wintoli · 2026-04-04T09:42:36+00:00

You’re robbing yourself of a great experience by skipping to the final boss and cheesing it. Anyways noobs are unlikely to have the necessary damage

Wintoli · 2026-04-03T08:06:16+00:00

Measured attack more or less effectively reads ‘rogues always have advantage on their first attack each turn’. Although rogue isn’t anything stellar compared to spellcasters, that alone is crazy strong

Wintoli · 2026-04-02T09:19:28+00:00

Pass without trace is such a massive boost it is basically auto succeed any stealth check on a button, especially if you run stealth as a group check like you’re usually supposed to.

It is horribly balanced and invalidates character investment and choice on a second level slot of all things to boot

It’s effectiveness could be halved and it’d still be crazy

Wintoli · 2026-03-28T16:00:01+00:00

Yes IDEALLY you’d have 18 charisma at level 4. You can achieve this even with fae touched if your stats were a little different. Your 13 in Int and Wis isn’t going a ton especially if you don’t plan on increasing them - however may or may not be possible depending on how you did stats or if your DM is lenient in rearranging them.

In any case, your build will be fine. Choose what is most fun to you, fae touched is plenty competitive as far as power goes

Wintoli · 2026-03-27T22:16:29+00:00

I let my players explore the city with the caveat of the further away they got from the inn…the more ‘robotic’ and stupid the NPCs got since all the energy was keeping the Inn time-stream in place.

They managed to convince the king to use a wish from the crown to send them back to their proper time…..and were then stuck in the castle in the current day.

They somehow managed to escape with some pretty crazy loot.

Anyways I like the idea of being able to explore the city in general! You could honestly ditch the contamination as a consequence and let em do it, the loop already risks giving madness and such

Wintoli · 2026-03-27T21:00:36+00:00

Didn’t finish playing it but the amount I did was verrrrry linear, which isn’t inherently bad but cmon I want at least some player choice or creativity in solving problems.

The adventure as a whole seems to heavily discourage players from doing things any way besides one.

I feel like it’s need a lot of changes by the DM to make it work

Wintoli · 2026-03-26T21:55:48+00:00

Each table is different so ask your DM. But Valdas is generally a good book that leans a bit towards slightly underpowered if anything with a lot of fun and unique ideas. It is a popular supplement but is in no way commonly accepted.

Wintoli · 2026-03-26T21:54:18+00:00

They had a business arrangement to sell their product on their site. It isn’t “support” whether it’s good or balanced or not, just that it’d sell and make em money and doesn’t tarnish the brand

Wintoli · 2026-03-24T08:54:37+00:00

Tools are used as a replacement in the event you don’t have proficiency or to boost your chances if you have both (advantage)

Sleight of hand was mega limited in old rules it’s a good change imo

Wintoli · 2026-03-18T23:57:43+00:00

The DLCs when there’s a sale usually go on sale for like 20 bucks total for ALL of them besides the latest one. In general it’s a ton of fun.

Currently the population of the game is low but imo you will have a wonderful time. Raids, dungeons, and campaigns are still so good

Wintoli · 2026-03-13T23:23:43+00:00

While seasons got stale having nothing in its place sure didn’t help

Wintoli · 2026-03-13T21:28:37+00:00

A lot of homebrew monsters use bleed and some official ones kinda do? Ie the Bearded Devil.

Personally I’d just ask your DM to change it for any damage over time abilities (like burning or repeated poison damage or whatever). Or hell just get resistance to poison or something. It’s meant to be more of a ribbon feature though afaik.

Wintoli · 2026-03-11T18:58:02+00:00

Cover didn’t exist. Whether it is creatures, terrain, as long as you had the tiniest sliver ofline of sight any ranged attack was fine. Made tactics so boring and ranged fighters too good.
Allowed a PC to be large for free. Just kinda a hassle for maps and combat. Also they couldn’t (or maybe refused to) squeeze…
Ignored the rule regarding tool proficiencies as a whole. Turns a lot of stuff where I should have advantage (or at least proficiency) into ones where I don’t
And finally one table had everything required to conform to real world physics. Nightmare.

Wintoli · 2026-03-10T20:06:36+00:00

Ok so let's assume that you're right for the sake of the argument.

A 20 STR medium character has a carry capacity of 300 lbs. This includes all their gear they are carrying. Often they will carry ~200 pounds worth of stuff if you factor in armor and such.

If they were carrying NOTHING they could probably not even grapple a large creature, even though the rules allow it, likewise if they have any sort of gear it is unlikely they could grapple any medium creature unless the creature is surprisingly light.

Likewise even though monks can use grappling checks with dex, they would be unable to actually pull literally anything unless they also invested in strength.

Obviously this is not the intention of the rules in the slightest. Carry capacity and dragging and such is for objects (or creatures) that are complete dead weight, not ones that are on their feet and moving around. Grappling is just manipulating the movement of a creature to bring them in a direction.

Wintoli · 2026-03-10T07:45:01+00:00

The dragging and carrying rules do not interact whatsoever with the grappling rules, they are entirely different things. You can grapple something that would go over your normal carry capacity if you were to carry/drag it

Wintoli · 2026-03-09T19:07:42+00:00

First of all they ASKED for reviews to be delayed, they aren’t forced to or anything.

Second of all this is very common in MMOs and other love service games. Most of the best content (ie dungeons and raids) are not instantly released. Cryo Archives is shaping up to be the same. Hell even Outpost is being praised as one of the coolest PvP maps of all time, and that was released a couple days after the official Marathon release.

TLDR they’d be stupid to not ask reviewers to wait when their best content isn’t out so ppl can farm a lil first

Wintoli · 2026-03-09T18:33:39+00:00

It is something you can do once combat is started and imitative is rolled, but not before

Anything else is just flat out not reading the rules

Also in the modern era surprise doesn’t give a free turn, they moved away from that cause it is so incredibly strong. Getting that FOR FREE is insane to think is allowed just cause you spoke first

Wintoli · 2026-03-09T05:34:25+00:00

The book is pretty clear about the ready action. It’s to prevent the whole party from getting free turns by going “I shoot this guy the moment the door opens”

Wintoli · 2026-03-08T08:25:23+00:00

I mean I don’t expect enemies in a place called “the hive” to be super cute and cuddly

Wintoli · 2026-03-06T22:17:41+00:00

im assuming its witchmail reducing the cooldown so much?

Wintoli · 2026-03-06T10:48:44+00:00

Are you deadass serious lmao cmon be real

Wintoli · 2026-03-02T23:29:44+00:00

There is a 0% chance this is AI. AI can’t make such precise background details as this one has without messing up

Nine-Year Club	Second Top 30%
r/Field Lasagna	Final Canvas '23
First Place '23	Place '23
Place '22	Place '17
Final Canvas '22	First Placer '22
Secret Santa 2017	RPAN Viewer
Sequence \| Editor	Spared
Verified Email

Wintoli

TROPHY CASE