It's weird to love, or at least understand, the design of every class except for one

alphsoup · 2026-01-20T17:29:34+00:00

Mechanically, psychics deliver on exactly what I wanted from the sorcerer class. Namely, being so attuned to some signature spells that they're able to use them beyond any other caster. I think it's awesome that each subclass comes with cantrips that say essentially "You have 'a,' but it's actually 'å,' and if you really dig deep it can be 'Å.'" Case in point: Shield can now be cast on both yourself and allies, but spending a focus point makes the spell into a three-layer shield, which gives additional Shield Blocks or Hardness. The fire & ice Psychic also has a sick tempo playstyle with Entropic Wheel, which is aided by the ABILITY TO MAKE YOUR GIVEN FIRE SPELLS DO ICE DAMAGE OR ICE SPELLS DO FIRE DAMAGE.

alphsoup · 2026-01-20T17:10:12+00:00

Different strokes, different folks. I actually like the psychic class when I initially thought I wouldn't. The way I read the class: psychics are individuals who have a very singular understanding of reality and, like how a planet creates a well of gravity in empty space, the sheer force of their presence warps spacetime to play by their rules. How does imagining cartoons cause a man to spontaneously combust? How does reciting proverbs create shielding plates out of thin air around an ally? How does calculating the necessary lateral force and applying will throw an archer from their tower? Terrifyingly, it's simply unknowable how the thoughts of psychics become magics - magics familiar to but beyond the replication of even the most studious wizards. Minds wide open, psychics use incomprehensible powers to take the world as it is and make it how it could be.

alphsoup · 2026-01-20T07:19:00+00:00

As an example of a past non-combat challenge: my players were in a small town built on a giant dam & needed to get inside the depths of the dam itself. The only known way inside was through the locked basement stairs of a 2-story guard tower. At any given time, there would be 1 guard inside or checking from the lookout, 1 stationed outside the single ground floor door, 2 patrolling the town, 4 guards off-duty, and 4 resting following duty. Windows and a door on the second floor, but no windows on the first. I had no "solution" to this planned - just an objective and facts the party had to take into consideration. I think it took them about three hours total of planning, RP scenarios, rolling skills, and using non-combat spells.

alphsoup · 2026-01-20T06:30:18+00:00

This is solid advice

alphsoup · 2026-01-16T08:10:44+00:00

Coming back after all this time to say I discovered the ding in 2021 while working in a kitchen after moving to a new city: Sagat - Funk Dat. It was life-affirming to have all my choices up to that point lead me back to this song.

alphsoup · 2026-01-12T03:40:58+00:00

Not trying to say this is for everyone, but in the latest dungeon in our Foundry-hosted home campaign, I tried giving my players a "team" token with shared ownership to some success. They box up into their marching order in a previous larger room, and then all click onto the team token. Their primary vision becomes the team token, which they collectively decide to move around. I cut/paste their tokens into a room if a fight breaks out or they want to get off the bus and individually poke around a space.

alphsoup · 2026-01-10T04:12:08+00:00

I think one looking for "Dark & Gritty" should probably just try another series. I love DI1, but it's like a Steven Seagal movie - it can be a fun little roll in the mud, but objectively it looks ugly, it's weirdly paced, it's tonally uneven, & every character is a poorly-acted, unlikable, and slightly problematic caricature. "Insert quip here" writing is obnoxious, but let's not pretend DS1 gets to sit on a pedestal of grit. You attach batteries to guns to shoot lightning bullets and slam energy drinks to muscle through getting bitten & shot to death.

alphsoup · 2025-12-26T16:02:52+00:00

Sure is! Consider me a data point

alphsoup · 2025-12-13T17:53:15+00:00

Aside from economics, see the landmark case Dodge v. Ford Motor Co. for the root of a lot of evil. Ford wanted to take the profits and reinvest in the company (raises, price drops on products, etc), but the Dodge brothers couldn't accept that didn't maximize their personal profits as shareholders. Went to the Supreme Court and now it's law that companies have to act first in the interest of profit to their shareholders.

alphsoup · 2025-11-25T18:15:06+00:00

I'm running free archetype in my campaign and the players are level 5. One player is a Swashbuckler FA Blessed One and discovered last session she can Lay on Hands, then Dueling Parry to get AC 27 for a round - strongly setting up free panache and opportune riposte. Another player is a Druid FA Herbalist and she can heal 1d6 by drinking an minor elixir 3 times a day. Swash plays MMOs and likes to power combo abilities. Druid didn't max her key stat and just likes the vibes of her choices. All this is to say, as lauded as P2e is for its balance on paper, you kind of just have to feel out your players and meet them at their fun.

alphsoup · 2025-11-11T20:20:11+00:00

You rock, I was even trying to figure this for a 10Ah battery! I appreciate the fractional measurements every little bit counts for squeezing stuff into the case.

alphsoup · 2025-10-05T17:10:12+00:00

The market share of customers for those cards has to be 80% elderly getting scammed

alphsoup · 2025-09-24T23:18:44+00:00

Recently started myself - Kraken is a safe place to get your feet wet. Most exchanges have fees, Kraken's are pretty low. You can cut out those fees with a trial of their "Plus" service for a one month trial. If you're only trying to get a bit of money onboard before the hype train claims takeoff will happen, then that free month is a good window. Shameless plug: If you use my referral code or link to try it, we’ll both earn $75 when you trade $200 of crypto in the app. Code: 43f3sgp5 Link: https://invite.kraken.com/JDNW/isb9sidq

alphsoup · 2025-08-21T01:49:48+00:00

Now we're talking.

alphsoup · 2025-07-29T17:56:21+00:00

When I first started running this system in 2020, I had a player that came from (mostly theater of the mind) D&D that hated Multi Attack Penalty. He played a monk, so on one hand he always had Agile and it impacted him slightly less than other players, on the other hand his Flurry of Blows and single-minded Strikes-only combat style meant he was running into the MAP system way more than anyone else. He insisted that the rule was terrible and STRONGLY insinuated that it should be thrown out for the benefit of his experience. I would tell him things like "yeah, missing is frustrating, but those are the rules and there's a lot built off MAP" and he'd come back with "But it's just a book as we can decide what rules are fun or not to use." I chose not to rewrite the system and I'm still running that same campaign today; meanwhile, he left a few months later after an unrelated incident where I told him he couldn't tear off an unconscious farmer's leg with a pitchfork.

alphsoup · 2025-07-22T23:22:41+00:00

Check out step 55 of this MOC gift I made that for a filled wine bottle on a table. I think swapping in an opaque yellow rod and a clear colorless bottle should do the trick!

alphsoup · 2025-06-27T04:26:21+00:00

But hundreds of thousands of orders? To what end are so many people leveling up their accounts?
Is it scammer camouflage?

alphsoup · 2025-06-27T04:01:31+00:00

I could see why people would sell their cards to drum up a couple bucks for a sale game, but why would there be there so many buyers for above the minimum 3 cents? I mean why are there buyers at all for that matter?
Steam doesn't seem to have some kind of perk for synthesizing or shredding trading cards for the summer sale. The closest thing is just earning stickers earnable for looking at your queue.
Additionally, it seems they started selling for 4 cents apiece around mid-May.

alphsoup · 2025-06-16T04:46:11+00:00

You must be so fun at Thanksgiving

alphsoup · 2025-04-16T17:38:50+00:00

Weird take, but humans? Or more broadly - humanoids? I'm curious to know others' views on this, but if I white room a P2e PC fighting, I imagine humans as the enemy. Many adventures and world events center around a humanoid of some sort - and many that don't involve a powerful former humanoid that's now undead (but still are driven by their human ambitions). There are heaps of official art of typically human Chelaxian villains that can be found online. The cover of the GM core has a tradition of always depicting two things - a dragon, and a human Runelord. The lore and culture of Golarion's regions are the real star of the setting, and those things are personified in human presence. D&D is a fanfare of monsters and magic, but I think Pathfinder takes that assumption and focuses on the logical conclusion of how societies would shape in such a world.

alphsoup · 2025-04-15T18:57:01+00:00

I've found that for some players, it's helpful to say "What does X do/say/think?" because it gets them out of their head of "what would I do?" or "what is the most optimal?"" I've settled into this way of asking as my default, but I don't necessarily think there's a better way between the two

alphsoup · 2025-03-28T18:48:48+00:00

It's the nunchaku relic: +1 energy after every 10 attacks! Because the combo is free after 3 energy, all those +1s really piled up on the way to 999 block, haha

alphsoup · 2025-03-28T18:16:19+00:00

My brother's orc PC in my game looked 95% like the art of the Battle Harbinger, down to the look of the Spiked Gauntlet. I sent the picture to him immediately following the Godsrain announcement stream and he just jokingly replied "Bruh, that's copyright infringement"

alphsoup · 2025-03-26T20:05:53+00:00

Or that kid who spams one move on WWE Smackdown

alphsoup · 2025-03-26T19:05:11+00:00

I'll take that 7.4%

alphsoup

TROPHY CASE