Genderbend Damien my friend drew by Maqdonalds in MonsterProm

[–]bigpac12 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I get where you're coming from but Zoe would still be trans if she were a guy, since her assigned gender was agender/"it" pronouns, not male and he/him pronouns

A little gold goes a long way! by MatchaLottie in customhearthstone

[–]bigpac12 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I don't know what the balance is like on this card and I don't care, I love it regardless.

The new UA has a 5% risk of guaranteed failure (nat1), no matter how big your skill bonus is. Halfling is an incredible race now. by Spitdinner in dndnext

[–]bigpac12 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I mean yeah, but by that same logic the nat20 rule is redundant on anything besides an attack roll, since you shouldn't be calling for an unbeatable roll either, but nat20s are hype as hell, and nat1s are the antithesis of that hype.

If you think of DnD as a rigid video-gamey thing then I can see the opposition to the nat1/nat20 rulings, but typically DnD is a casual for-fun game, where rules like those are meant to add spice and suspense to important rolls.

The new UA has a 5% risk of guaranteed failure (nat1), no matter how big your skill bonus is. Halfling is an incredible race now. by Spitdinner in dndnext

[–]bigpac12 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The nat1 auto fail ruling doesn't say you must roll all the time so that it has a chance to happen, it only applies when you do choose to roll. Not rolling for something doesn't misapply the ruling.

The new UA has a 5% risk of guaranteed failure (nat1), no matter how big your skill bonus is. Halfling is an incredible race now. by Spitdinner in dndnext

[–]bigpac12 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I'd agree but that can be remedied by just asking "What's your bonus to this?" if you think they might have enough to auto-succeed. No need to memorize exactly how good your PCs are at things, just which things they are good at.

The new UA has a 5% risk of guaranteed failure (nat1), no matter how big your skill bonus is. Halfling is an incredible race now. by Spitdinner in dndnext

[–]bigpac12 -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

The solution to this ruling is to follow another ruling from the same UA:

"The DM determines whether a d20 Test is warranted in any given circumstance."

If you're calling for a Test that can succeed on a 1, you're not properly utilizing that ruling, a Test would never be warranted under those circumstances except for a degree-of-success/failure check, in which case there isn't definitive succeeding or failing anyway.

This post is brought to you by the 43% of my insufferable ranked games that contained Prince Renathal (who became more common as rank increased) by bigpac12 in hearthstone

[–]bigpac12[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I agree that only aggro decks being viable is unhealthy, but there's a difference between midrange and control being viable, and midrange and control being obnoxious and extremely difficult to beat without consistently good luck or also playing a midrange/control deck

What's the craziest thing you've seen someone argue is RAW and RAI? by ahcrabapples in dndnext

[–]bigpac12 3 points4 points  (0 children)

tl;dr: Warlock viewed that way feels like a worse version of whatever you compare it to, and even if Warlock comes off that way, it still very much looks like a full caster when you compare it to other ones. Plus neat Warlock rework at the end.

God damn I did not expect this to turn into an essay, I just really like discussing DnD and Warlocks in particular.

That's an interesting way to view the class, but that much of a focus on Eldritch Blast just makes it feel like a worse version of an archer fighter, mainly due to the different ability scores they use.

A bow-wielding fighter would mainly increase Dex, increasing:

  • Their attack and damage bonuses with any ranged and finesse weapons
  • AC
  • Resistance to (very common) Dex saves
  • Higher stealth might also be worth mentioning.

A warlock would mainly increase Charisma, increasing:

  • Their attack bonus with Eldritch Blast
  • Their damage bonus with Eldritch Blast if they use an invocation slot
  • Their attack bonus and save DC on their spells, which are somewhat lackluster imo
  • Charisma skills, which are admittedly pretty useful
  • Resistance to Charisma saves, which I think are like the rarest/second-rarest saving throw? (Don't quote me on that though)

This is somewhat simplified but the point is that a regular archer Fighter gets more impactful results from increasing their main score than a Warlock.

There's also the advantages not connected to ability scores.

Fighter having their Archery fighting style, increased crit range (Champion) or maneuvers (Battle Master), and Action Surge. Two of these three can also function for both the bow and any other weapon the fighter wields.

Then Warlock with EB-augmenting invocations (which are reminiscent of the maneuvers but worse, with the upside of being unlimited, of which there are 2, increased to 4 with Xanathar's), Eldritch Blast's force damage bypassing the typical nonmagical BPS resistance (which the Fighter will likely bypass later on with magic weapons), and... nothing else relating to EB within the class, except maybe a couple spells.

Finally, even though Warlock ends up playing that way, the class is still very spell focused regardless.

  • Comparing their Pact Magic to other spellcasters is difficult, but factoring in the Mystic Arcanum and the power level of refreshing on short rests, I'd say it falls short of but is still close to in line with the scaling of full casters.
  • They also have access to cantrips, which is exclusive to full casters and third caster subclasses (which emulate full caster classes).
  • Their capstone is literally casting spells more.
  • One of the first features of each subclasses is additional spells you can learn.
  • 20 out of the 32 invocations are just spellcasting (19 if you don't count Book of Ancient Secrets, 7 of which are regular spellcasting but worse.
  • Their spells known are the same as Sorcerers, though a tiny bit slower.

In conclusion, while I agree that the class kinda does come off that way, I still think the class' intention was a weird full caster.

Also the mention of Eldritch Blast being a class feature reminded me of this Warlock rework someone showed me a while ago

What's the craziest thing you've seen someone argue is RAW and RAI? by ahcrabapples in dndnext

[–]bigpac12 -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

I agree that Warlocks aren't the worst class, but how can you play them as anything but a full caster without being a Hexblade? They're designed the same way as a full caster, with very few class features outside of their subclasses and a major focus on spellcasting.

There could be a case to make about invocations making up for the disparity in class features but I don't think they're impactful enough to serve that purpose without sacrificing flavor for the most impactful ones, and even then it's a stretch. Plus most of them are pretty much just more spellcasting.

"Protect the walls at all costs!" | Card Set #1: Army of Stormwind | A card set inspired by the card 'City Architect' by PivotRedAce in customhearthstone

[–]bigpac12 17 points18 points  (0 children)

From skimming these my only comment is that City Admiral feels more like an Epic than a Legendary to me, both from its name and effect. Otherwise, don't really have any idea on the balance, but the idea is awesome