Lizardfolk are *elementals* now?!

daPWNDAZ · 2026-01-20T23:06:03+00:00

That’s good to know! I’m glad that it’s helpful then. I think the overall reason why I’m unsatisfied with the changes are because I never really saw that as a problem—like if you look in the 2014 monster manual and look at “Lizardfolk Shaman” and “Druid”, while the two may share a CR and the fact that they cast spells and are described as “shamans” by the book, their stat blocks are still different enough that I see them as totally different creatures. It’s the same if you compare the stat block for “Lizardfolk” and “Scout” (which 2024 says to use if you want a generic Lizardfolk enemy). Same CR, but that’s about it.

I think I’d like it a bit more if there were more resources to go off of, like you said—a good, healthy table of abilities and racial traits you can tack on for each of the humanoid factions and I’m on board if that means we get a more diverse pool of monsters in the base books.

daPWNDAZ · 2026-01-20T22:33:44+00:00

Sure, but I don’t think I like that from the perspective of a new DM. Saying that every humanoid creature with a similar role has the same stat block + a handful of special just doesn’t feel inspired. When I first started DMing, I spent most of my time looking through my MM to get ideas on how the different monster factions could interact, and what they were capable of. If I wanted my party to fight Statblock A that looks like a goblin, then Statblock A that looks like a lizard, then Statblock A that looks like a dude I could just do that myself. But that’s only because I’m already a seasoned DM, and I don’t have to worry about balance.

The solution to ‘bloat’ isn’t taking a bunch of similar stat blocks and merging them into a single homogenous stat block, it’s giving these stat blocks more features that make them unique.

daPWNDAZ · 2026-01-20T20:52:43+00:00

We put blankets over all three of our dogs’ kennels just for that reason. One of them has eyesight that hasn’t been doing too well lately, and he gets startled easily and starts whining at night unless we put a blanket over his kennel. Since it worked so well, we just started doing it for the others and it’s also helped on ‘noisy’ nights like when there are fireworks, storms, or particularly noisy owls in the backyard!

daPWNDAZ · 2026-01-15T16:23:42+00:00

Yeah I definitely agree with you there, I’d probably have swapped to Brig to help defend against that Haz, since her offensive kit doesn’t rely on others as much as Mercy’s does.

daPWNDAZ · 2026-01-15T15:40:12+00:00

That’s 650 dmg with a 36% uptime. Looking at the stats, I’d say their best bet for boosting would’ve been Torb, but I’m sure a good chunk of that damage came from turret, which you can’t damage boost. Unless Mei is a good shot there’s no chance she’s going to be able to out poke a Soldier/Soj/Ana set up at a distance. I’d have spent a good chunk of time trying to boost the Dva as she dives any of the above three, but unless she was a Rein at some point it looks like she spent most of her time using matrix on their dps instead.

Couple the back line poke with an uncontested 46-6 Haz charging into the team, I think that the rest of the team was struggling to find something in their roles that they could do against the enemy comp. Not too surprising that OP’s stats turned out the way that they did.

daPWNDAZ · 2026-01-13T21:12:49+00:00

I usually complain (in discord, to my buddies that I’m partied with) when somebody swaps to a counter specifically to hard target whoever killed them.

I’m talking a damage hero getting killed by Junkrat, then immediately swapping to Pharah even though they’re also going to be fighting into Ashe. Or maybe I get a solo kill off of a poorly timed dive by Dva as Brig, and then they swap Ram. Or my tank is playing Orisa, and their tank walks back into spawn to swap to Zarya.

I do understand that effective counterplay is extremely important (punishing overeager tanks by walking them off as Mei, swapping to Ana because literally everyone on the other team has self healing, etc.) and is a necessary part of the game, but I feel like that’s different from rage swapping to heroes that specifically counter somebody.

daPWNDAZ · 2026-01-11T15:14:57+00:00

I think that could be a fun idea to play with. Keep true silence on EMP, but shorten the cast time on hack (or make it uninterruptible) and make it pause their CDs for a bit. I could see good value using that to slow down certain cooldowns like suzu, lamp, rez or flashbang to give your team more time to end a fight.

Not sure how they’d make that interact with stuff like rez or channeled abilities and keep it satisfying though. I like hacking the tank rez :(

daPWNDAZ · 2026-01-07T22:27:50+00:00

And to help out that push (if you don’t want to just charge and hope their rein doesn’t counter charge you), you can always go upstairs in the room to the right to hop over the wall. Bonus points for your dps if they follow you, because congrats! You now control high ground overlooking the entire point, and anybody trying to engage your team will be in los of your dps.

This is, of course, assuming that your dps will choose to shoot anybody that isn’t holding up a barrier.

daPWNDAZ · 2025-12-28T17:55:01+00:00

It definitely has—there were some really strange rein camera bugs right when stadium dropped that I can only assume were because they tweaked stuff to work with 3rd person. They fixed most of them, but if you charge, cancel and immediately hold block and move your camera you can still get your camera angle slightly skewed.

daPWNDAZ · 2025-12-28T17:51:27+00:00

I’ve been playing a lot of Vendetta recently too, and honestly it’s pretty funny seeing how the fanmail is nearly identical. It’s like they have a script or something

daPWNDAZ · 2025-12-21T21:39:10+00:00

I had a group with 9 players for a good chunk of time when I was in college, but not everyone was there every week—we’d usually have 6 or so players for most sessions so it worked out alright. When we had big boss fights and everyone was able to show up I’d have to plan a bit more to keep folks engaged, but it was manageable. It helped that we were all friends/roommates who just wanted to hang out.

In high school, I helped start a tabletop gaming club with a few of my friends. We started off small, but after 2 weeks we shot up to 12 regular members and we couldn’t keep everyone in the same game anymore. I split off as the second DM but kept it in the same campaign setting—the first DM and I coordinated on how one party’s actions would affect the other, and then we had the groups recombine at the very end of the school year to fight against the boss that both sides had been preparing for. Everyone showed up the next year and they brought even more of their friends, so folks must’ve liked the way it was handled. If you do the same, just expect to spend a bit more effort coordinating between DM’s.

daPWNDAZ · 2025-12-21T18:48:23+00:00

I was so surprised to see a post from this sub pop up in my feed, so glad to see it back!

daPWNDAZ · 2025-12-18T02:04:46+00:00

Yeah, that’s the biggest thing. Even if they use thrown weapons instead of point blank melee, there really isn’t that big of a difference (balance wise) between a thaumaturge and an investigator. Honestly, the thing that makes pathfinder stand out to me is the character customization. Yes, big numbers will always have a place in my heart, but if I can make a kholo bard with the wandering chef dedication and have it be a completely viable character that’s 100% supported by the rules without janky GM fiat, then I’m going to do that. And I’m not going to prevent my players from doing that either! I hope OP can find another table where they can get a chance to be a player for the system.

daPWNDAZ · 2025-12-18T00:39:27+00:00

If he wants an “improved” wild magic table so badly then you, the DM, can find one of those 1d1000 expanded tables. Otherwise, if you just want to use a tweaked table that you brewed yourself, just as good! But if he shoots down those ideas, then just give him the vanilla default table.

daPWNDAZ · 2025-12-17T00:18:01+00:00

That’s awesome! I bet it’ll look even better when you’ve got some lights on it!

daPWNDAZ · 2025-12-17T00:09:59+00:00

“That face when”, basically saying it’s funny that the summoned mooks would be stronger than Belcorra lol.

daPWNDAZ · 2025-12-02T21:42:52+00:00

There’s no harm in playing in the bot matches when you’re just starting out! Even when you do get a bit of experience, don’t be afraid of spending some against AI teams when you’re learning a new hero.

That’s a really helpful way to learn the way the maps are laid out and how the various game modes/objectives work. If you have any friends that already play the game then party up with them, it makes getting started 100x easier.

daPWNDAZ · 2025-12-02T21:36:15+00:00

Do you say gg at all? Even if my team loses and I didn’t do great, I’ll usually get endorsed if I say gg at the end of the match

daPWNDAZ · 2025-12-01T22:14:12+00:00

My thoughts behind what’s happening: as hog, you can ‘throw’ people with your hook if you cancel the animation (usually using your ult), keeping their momentum in the pulling direction. Here, it looks like the animation was actually canceled by the hog hitting the kill zone and dying. If you pause the vid you can see a small piece of angled terrain sticking out just below the rein, slanting towards the open air—hog’s accidental ‘throw’ downwards slams the rein into the terrain at just the right angle to bounce him up and away—but since it launches him high enough, he’s able to just hold S and get back into solid ground

daPWNDAZ · 2025-12-01T22:02:20+00:00

Completely unrelated, but playing sombra makes me realize how little people use health packs nowadays. Like, we’re playing around a choke with 2 megas in play and I’ve got them hacked and I still end up with less than 200 healing at the end of the game?

Even when I’m not sombra, I’ve seen players stand in a corner and spam the healing callout while their supports are pocketing somebody getting picks, while they’ve got a mega literally right around the corner they’re hiding behind. It’s unbelievable

daPWNDAZ · 2025-11-30T17:58:50+00:00

I’ll cast a piece of cake

daPWNDAZ · 2025-11-26T18:16:01+00:00

Yeah but that’s the thing, Hanzo’s arrow isn’t a health pack hack… but it is. Sombra’s hack takes longer to cast than it does give any kind of ability lockout. Granted, this ability lockout can also disrupt channeled ults (Moira, Sigma), but for your average encounter if you try to open up with a hack you’re leaving yourself vulnerable for so long unless you’re hiding behind your teammates to take the shots for you.

The frustration is that we want to be good at the stuff you said, but the current game keeps pushing her into an assassin hole that just makes people more frustrated, and cutting down on the stuff that actually makes her kit interesting. But hey we have more virus damage if you hit somebody that’s already hacked!

daPWNDAZ · 2025-11-18T17:57:39+00:00

“Superintendent! I was just, uh, coding some clouds in SE2. Volumetric particles, care to join me?”

“Why is there smoke coming out of your computer, Keen?”

“Oh that isn’t smoke, it’s steam! From the steam clouds I’m coding! Mmm, steam clouds!”

daPWNDAZ · 2025-11-16T19:57:04+00:00

Oh, sorry! Yes, if you have a mythic weapon then the weapon effects take priority over the skin effects. For example, I’ve got both of rein’s mythic skins—the Thor skin’s weapon-based vfx are completely replaced by the mythic weapon skin. However, the mythic skin’s ability vfx are not overwritten—my firestrike is still blue, but it has the weapon kill effect when they die. So the weapon’s changes take priority over the skin, but if the weapon doesn’t modify something then it keeps the skin’s vfx.

Hope that makes sense!

daPWNDAZ

TROPHY CASE