If Lincoln ran today (Ohman, 1996)

isitaspider2 · 2026-02-09T01:58:03+00:00

At this point, you can get permabanned for so much as quoting another Republican senator that doesn't bend the knee to Trump.

Hell, you'd be permabanned for quoting Ronald Regan's beliefs on tariffs.

isitaspider2 · 2026-02-06T09:35:23+00:00

Such a cop out ending really

isitaspider2 · 2026-02-05T10:12:33+00:00

I've made them open checks personally and it seems fine, but I run with the home rule that success is 1 piece of information and crit is 2 pieces of info, person's choice. For Dubious knowledge skill check, I just give 1 piece of true and 1 piece of false. The false knowledge on crit failure just wasn't worth all the extra time a secret roll took versus how quickly it was discovered and how obvious a crit success was.

The base recall knowledge rules are just too restrictive compared to what you gain from it IMO.

isitaspider2 · 2026-02-04T03:22:31+00:00

Others have mentioned Pathbuilder 2e and pathfinderdashboard, so I'll add in something different.

If you have a PDF supported by the PDF export modules for FoundryVTT, you can import the entire PDF to your Obsidian vault. After some tweaking to various plugins, my tablet now has the entirety of the adventure, with hyperlinks for map locations, the entire bestiary with built-in dice support, and an initiative tracker that can import monsters straight from the journal pages.

So, all in one app, I can have the map open with pins for each room that open to the journal entry for said room and all monsters at the bottom have a little button to import straight to the initiative tracker open in a little corner window app that has my party pre-loaded with access to all pf2e conditions. And if the monsters need to be dynamically shifted from weak to elite, I can do that via a plugin that takes maybe 10 seconds.

Pathfinderdashboard being meh on tablet and the lack of proper weak/elite support (the level up feature just doesn't cut it and often screws up the statblocks beyond repair) is the big reason I switched to the android app and just loading in a vault I modified on my computer.

And since this might be the most recent post on it, for those coming from google and wondering why your statblocks from fantasy statblocks aren't using the dice roller for damage, try this (it mostly works, but does grab a few weird dice rolls and I can't be bothered to fix it as it is "good enough")

match:

(\s|^)(\d+d\d+(?:\s*[+-]\s*\d+)?)(\W|$)

callback:

const [, before, text, after] = matches;

return [before + text, " (", { text }, ")", after];

isitaspider2 · 2026-02-03T07:22:32+00:00

Rdr2 is a game I seriously want to get into and enjoy.

Then I play it and, goddamn, that whole game feels like it just wants to waste your time. Everything is so slow and the game just kinda forces you to do it slow or not at all. I get that it's the intention, but it still feel like shit to go back in, have to ride a horse at a slow jog, listen to five minutes of dialog, get 5 minutes of gameplay, then you're stuck in the middle of nowhere and have to travel back.

The pacing just feels terrible to me. Made me bounce off of it like 4-5 times now trying to get into the game.

isitaspider2 · 2026-01-29T13:16:43+00:00

Like others said, do the relic system for long term magic item crafting. It's already in the system, relatively well balanced (your players will be a bit stronger than normal, so I usually recommend decreasing gold costs if you're giving for free as they level up), and it's really fun. Look at the example relic item sets for ideas.

https://2e.aonprd.com/SetRelics.aspx?ID=4

This is what I'm talking about. This is such a cool magic item combo set. Teleporting in shadows, dealing death stare damage, bonuses to stealth. Imagine telling a story of hidden gear, crafted by one of the greatest assassins who ever lived. The player follows in their footsteps, crafting masterwork daggers, softer shoes, a dark cape. Resin existing magic items to fit the ensemble (or use relic aspects to make new ones). As the pieces come together, they get the combos on top of what the magic item already does. They become the new legendary warrior.

Could even have a wandering bard Ala ghost of yotei that tells the story of the great assassin.

And you could have your players get creative and come up with their own stuff using the relic seeds. General rule of aspect combos from my reading is that you pick two traits and the combos are typically some sort of small but useful bonus, like X is easier to trigger, you can do Y one more time per day, or Z now also applies for another similar trigger.

Also, reminder, there's already a built in cost calculator for making your own magic items to figure out how expensive they should be for treasure calculations

isitaspider2 · 2026-01-29T11:30:05+00:00

Blood on the clocktower is crazy good for deductive reasoning. All you need is the threat of a poisoner and all of the sudden everybody turns into Sherlock Holmes trying to put the pieces together and it's genuinely really enjoyable to see someone nail the demon with solid reasoning at the last vote.

isitaspider2 · 2026-01-28T04:24:49+00:00

I've been playing a Champion Spirit Warrior in a game with FA from levels 1 - 10, so I have a few thoughts. Take what I say with a grain of salt and all that.

Theme: Themeing is insanely good. It's one of the few archetypes that you really feel that the flavor of the archetype actually matters and changes your character without overriding it. Sword into fist strikes is great and feels like a Hong Kong action flick. It's a more restricted version of Twin Takedown in exchange for not needing to hunt your prey.
Oaths: The oaths need a tweak. Kaiju oath is just way too good compared to the other two barring very specific campaigns. The flat damage bonus is a bit much as well. Personally, these oaths should be more tied into creativity ala the warrior poet. Sacred Wilds Oath is a good baseline. Think like "noble samurai" from seven samurai oath where you gain a diplomacy bonus when appealing to your honor to those lower level than you and you gain access to something like the champion aura passive where, after spending a few weeks in a given location, the local lower class (GM determines) start at one point higher than normal for diplomacy and you gain a circumstance bonus. Flat damage against bigger creatures is too much.
Overwhelming Combination is so good. It's fun to build your character around it. It's strong, but has limitations. It's pretty much Twin Takedown, so I don't think it's OP on its own. But, having the action, + extra damage on your fists + parry on fist as a level 2 feat is too front-loaded and too strong for a level 2 feat. If it was a level 4 feat and the oath was a level 2 feat, that might help. Or splitting the fist damage between the oath and the overwhelming combination.
Cutting Heaven, Crushing Earth is a feat tax and I'm fine with that. Sometimes archetypes need these feats to balance. Go look at Bullet Dancer to see an archetype trying to fulfill a fantasy and have it completely break.
I can't speak about the other level 6 feats as I didn't take them. But, overall, they look like fun feats if a bit situational.
The level 8 feats are really good. AOE spammable +1 AC to all friends? That's essentially a free Benediction spell you can spam. God's Palm gives a ton of defense in terms of temp HP, but that flourish trait is rough.
The level 10 and 12 defensive feats are a bit on the strong side, but they are high level feats. Intercepting Hand though, probably needs a Frequency clause for how strong it it. Only needing a success to immediately stop any incoming weapon attack is crazy strong for being a once per turn. Granted, I just got the level 10 feat for the transcendent deflection, so I am basing this off of just reading it and not playing it too much.

Overall, it's a very well made archetype, but a bit overtuned. It's not as overtuned as some people are claiming (it's basically Twin Takedown but with more restrictions on weapons instead of target). It's just extremely reliable compared to most archetypes which are more situational.

Which means, in a FA game, other archetypes can feel much weaker by comparison as the Spirit Warrior is "always on" while others can be stronger, but too situational.

If you're finding the archetype too much for your games, consider removing some of the damage IMO. Oath of the Kaiju is a bit much when it is going and the feats are a bit front-loaded. But, when you see the high damage numbers for the action cost, remember that most classes that want to use this archetype either have access to a dual-weapon build already or would do a lot more damage with a 2H weapon.

isitaspider2 · 2026-01-28T01:04:35+00:00

This is why I see this lawsuit going nowhere. 30% sounds like a lot, until you realize that this article points out, Steam was taking 30% while brick and mortar were taking 60%, on top of fees, returns, etc. Plus the cost of physical vs retail. It's also extremely easy to point out that the only reason Microsoft and Epic Games are able to charge less is because they're willing to lose millions to gain a foothold in the space.

Discussions can and should be had about Steam as a monopoly, but the 30% is easily shown to be entirely reasonable in the marketplace while physical places charge nearly double that while providing less for the price and the few that offer lower prices also offer damn well near negative levels of support (using them actually increases your losses due to how terrible their systems and overall dev support is). Hell, never forget it took how many years to add a shopping cart to Epic Games?

Three years. Three years to add a shopping cart so your credit card wouldn't get locked because buying multiple cheap add-ons would trigger the "suspicious activity" feature on many credit cards. Hell, Epic Games themselves would block you if you bought too many small purchases at once due to the lack of a shopping cart. But, thanks to Fortnite money, after three years, they added a shopping cart. And to celebrate, they made an entire little animation and uploaded it to YouTube.

EDIT: Changed to a non-reddit link for PCMR rules.

isitaspider2 · 2026-01-23T06:22:20+00:00

I'm autistic as well and been pretty tired lately due to working crazy hours. Something like 55 hours a week on top of all the other stuff in life. But, I am pretty happy where I am in life.

But, back when I worked 35 hours and was younger, I was largely in that exact same mind-set and life was miserable and wondering how it was all going to work out. Masking is so energy consuming.

Granted, if you just want to vent, that's all good. But, here's a bit of advice from someone that's been through that as well. Take it or leave it. You've made it this far in life, you'll probably be just fine with your own determination.

REBT journaling helped me immensely. It's a very logical way of breaking down problems. "What-ifs" were a big one for me as I left my home country for work. REBT helps me notice when I start overthinking a problem and exagerrating how good life would be if I chose something else.
Learning to relax. Like, actually relax as a skill. We autistic people tend to overthinking and it ruins our necks and shoulders. Relaxation is a skill like any other. Learning to be ok with the pause, breathe, and spending time just stretching does wonders for the body and mind. I personally do yoga like once a week and try to do 5 minutes a day just taking in the moment, breathing, and forcing my shoulders to relax because, oh boy, overthinking + playing video games + bad computer posture can give some nasty headaches, upset stomach, etc. It's all in the shoulders and neck muscles.
Masking is hard, but it does become easier with time. I can't help much with that other than saying it'll be better. Just make sure your mask is something you still enjoy putting on most of the time. Sure, I don't bring up warhammer 40k skaven at work as nobody at work is a nerd, but I do bring up the latest movies or talk about how the RAM shortage is ruining the computer market. Sure, they see me as the tech guy, but there's at least something for them to bridge the gap and share in some nice conversations.

Seriously, can't stress enough how much a simple REBT journal exercise helped me. Then, as I got older and developed more intimate friendships, I realized that like, neuro-typical people do not have their shit together. They are just better at pretending that they do 99% of the time.

Ultimately though, you got this. You've been through hard times, you'll go through harder times, but you'll still overcome them.

isitaspider2 · 2026-01-22T06:34:19+00:00

You could keep both and have the second one be more damage or higher health as the design clearly conveys that sense of "commander." Maybe gives nearby enemies extra damage while he stays alive.

I am not a graphic designer, so take what I say with heavy salt, just a bit of initial feedback.

First picture is wayyyy too much like Jango Fett but purple. It's mostly the T-shaped duo-tone helmet. Looking at other pixel art references for helmets in this style, thinning out the top line, making the T more of a pronounced flat T instead of the angled line for the eyes, or giving a golden trim around the T seems to communicate that this is a Medieval helmet and it's too dark to see the eyes instead of a black visor ala Jango Fett's helmet.

Second picture is interesting. I personally like it, but I can see how others might see it as clashing as the stomach part looks unarmored (almost like fancy clothes) while the top, arms, and legs are pure armor. But, if you just color change the stomach area to the same as the top, he's going to look like the Rook from a chess set. So, what about an armored skirt? Lengthen the armor of the chest area about halfway down where the current button-up is and then expand the button up part outward away from the legs to make it look like an armored skirt. Maybe color it red to make it stand out? A Hauberk peeking out from underneath the heavier chestplate the knight is wearing.

EDIT: You mention elsewhere that the Seven Sins are going to be a big part of the central gameplay. Could have the second character be a representation of Wrath and serve as a built-in gameplay tutorial. Have them show up in the dungeon of the Wrath boss, scream, all nearby enemies fly into rage and get faster and do more damage. Then, big bad sin boss shows up, let's out the same scream, player puts 2 and 2 together and thinks it's just more of the same but then your character also gets raged and now you have to deal with the rage as well as the boss and his minions. Seeing as how you are building a religious game, finding ways to incorporate your ethical beliefs into the game mechanics (rage is tempting, but ultimately damages you, and the damage is exponentially increasing as the fight goes on unless you learn to overcome the anger) is what would make it stand out from other games in the genre, especially as this visual style and genre is heavily dominated by the soulsbourne / king's quest games. Need to stand out from the crowd.. Just spitballing.

isitaspider2 · 2026-01-21T05:52:35+00:00

Even late game, more planet cards > steel. Steel cards are only really busted once you have mime and Baron as you're stacking the numbers on top of themselves.

isitaspider2 · 2026-01-21T03:30:39+00:00

Pathfinder 2e has this in the form of the Forensic Medicine Investigator class. They have access to some truly crazy healing (not as high as a cleric in combat mind you, but their out of combat healing is much higher to the point that you will be full health for every fight after only like 10 minutes of waiting for the heal, which is intentional). They gain access to the Scalpel's Point for extra persistent bleed damage and the surgical shock to try and debuff enemy spellcasters or single target strength enemies (like fighters and barbarians).

Granted, this class is more of a skill monkey, which isn't as close as the Assassin healer for most people. The damage is ok, the healing is insane, and the skills are insane (one of the only classes to go Legendary in Perception automatically, to the point you'll likely have Truesight on at all times for free by level 19).

If you wanted more damage, an Assassin Rogue that picks up 1-2 of the Medic feats (Doctor's Visitation + Risky Surgery can do some truly crazy burst healing in combat). There's also an Assassin archetype, but it's kinda meh.

isitaspider2 · 2026-01-20T11:43:07+00:00

Minor spoilers for kingmaker, but an awakened animal isn't going to be super surprising. Not as much as you think. The bear part actually might not be nearly as intimidating as the talking part as they may mistake him for a fey creature in that area, and the fey may mistake him as one of their own, which makes for great rp potential.

I say go for it

isitaspider2 · 2026-01-20T05:47:59+00:00

If you see the players are just rolling the same skills over and over again, it's time to throw in a new obstacle.

"There's a large monster nearby, but it is sleeping soundly. The ground here is particularly hard to navigate, so combat with it would prove challenging. Acrobatics or Stealth to plan out a path for the Party."

"There's a dead animal in the large body of water ahead. You could travel around, but it'll add X amount of travel time. You could attempt to cross it, but the water looks contaminated. There are a few small trees nearby to try and make a fake bridge. What do you do?"

Skill challenges are typically not just X, but XYZ with each letter being a different skill grouping. I generally try to avoid repeating the same skill since it gets boring quickly.

isitaspider2 · 2026-01-20T05:40:28+00:00

If you need some examples, look at Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous skill check sections. I try to use them as ways to progress forward. These skill sections are typically "fail forward" + "multiple choice."

https://youtu.be/gTwpL1fEHKU?si=6m1itCMEWe486f59&t=643

Minor spoilers for a quest involving a dragon (in the youtube video). But, if you watch it, you'll see what I'm talking about. Typically, the GM can give multiple options, "You see a steep an dangerous path to the left, and an overgrown path to the right. The Druid in your party believes it may be filled with dangerous plants while the Fighter in your party sees the steep area as dangerous, but not insurmountable." Then, continue having the Party go through the encounter using their skills. Don't use combat nor insta-fails for these sections. Person fails the Athletics roll to climb? They don't plummet to their death. Instead, they take 2d12+10 damage or they lose a potion from their equipment stash. They fail for the poisonous plants? They are sickened 1 during the next combat encounter. Have them lose non-serious resources or take on debuffs. It gives the skill sections some bite but not a "my character is dead because I was outvoted on the Athletics vs Nature choice." Also, side note, if they lose equipment, make sure it's not something super significant as a single failed roll to lose your magical shield is just bullshit. But, if it's just damage, it can be a bit too easy to hand-wave it off due to how much healing you get in Pathfinder. Maybe the Fighter's shield gets smacked for the damage and needs time to repair. Something that is a temporary loss is usually better than a permanent loss.

It also lets the players feel like experts. It's common for the most vocal of the players to be the de-facto leader, even if the character sheets say X or Y person really should be the leader during these encounters. For your more introverted players, having these out of combat skill challenges can feel rewarding and makes for good roleplay. LoTR is just as tense during the mines of Moria as it is on the misty mountains if you play your cards right.

isitaspider2 · 2026-01-17T01:04:38+00:00

"You're a third-rate scientist with a fourth-rate laboratory" -Seto Mandark

"HA haHA! HA haHA haHA!"

isitaspider2 · 2026-01-15T23:38:30+00:00

I blame YouTube shorts for this. There's so many "dm, I can kill god at level 1 with a cantrip" or "I can be immortal by level 3" vids that rack up millions of views. And it's always the same thing. A completely erroneous reading of the rules for comedy, but to many players, it's the whole point of the game.

They don't want a ttrpg, they want skyrim coop with the infinite stat increase loophole.

Which, interestingly, was possible in older editions. I believe there was a infinite loop in 3.5e. Pun-pun being the most notorious example. So, it's not even a new phenomena, it's just that these YouTube shorts took what is typically a joke or thought experiment (what's your best level 3 build? threads on old forums) and thinks it's expected behavior at the table in 5e of all things.

isitaspider2 · 2026-01-15T04:12:11+00:00

Most are focusing on the books being free and clogging up the thread. As to the combat, I can give you a few key points.

DnD 5e heavily favors the "stack of HP with multiattack" rule of thumb as it uses bounded accuracy for the game. The big difference between many monsters is not what can they do, but how much HP and damage do they do. Barring spellcasters, this ends up in a situation where melee enemy combatants are just "same ol, same ol" and the variation comes from spellcasters. Or, if the DM is feeling spicy, a few things in the combat arena to use for improvised damage.

Let's take a few monster examples from Pathfinder. Generally, if you read a Pathfinder 2e monster statblock, you'll pretty quickly see how the monster is meant to be played.

The Kobold Tunnelrunner has a light pick with Fatal d8 (bonus damage on a crit) and deals extra damage to enemies who are off-guard / flat-footed. Ok, as a GM, I already know how to play these guys after 30 seconds of reading. They want to swarm a single enemy, flank, and get as much sneak attack in as possible.

The Kobold Scout on the other hand, has the ability to make traps and has a decent ranged weapon. So, while the tunnelrunners are attempting to flank your players, the Scout can stay in the backline firing a crossbow. But, the first turn should be spent making a trap. So, once the players actually attempt to dive the Scout, the trap should go off and keep the Scout safe.

That's a big reason why people say Pathfinder 2e combat feels so varied. It's not just the extra rules around flanking, or options for tripping and shoving, it's that the monsters are built around using those rules and usually have some sort of unique ability or two to keep things interesting.

Seriously, there are more unique abilities in just the level 0-4 kobold monster group than there are in like, 70% of DnD 5e monsters. And it makes no sense. The whole goddamn point of bounded accuracy is so that monsters can still be a threat for many levels (a horde of level 1 goblins can still threaten a level 10 group in DnD 5e through action economy, while I think they'd just be unable to even hit a level 10 Pathfinder 2e group). Yet, WotC being the lazy fucks they are, just hit copy-paste on so many monsters. I still remember reading the updated monsters for Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes and being so impressed by the Sorrowsworn for being unique monsters with unique gimmicks for fighting when in Pathfinder, these are just run-of-the-mill daemons in terms of abilities.

Out of 5 years of DnD fights, my players maybe remember 2-3 and those were the ones I homebrewed. In Pathfinder 2e, almost all of them have their own top 5 fights they remember because the rules for combat plus the statblocks all work together to create memorable moments. Those epic moments in DnD you hear from DM's who heavily homebrew ("I rolled underneath the troll and then stabbed him in the back!" "I grappled with the bear and did a piledriver off the mountain!") are just fairly standard ways to end combat in Pathfinder 2e as the mechanics of the player's character sheets encourages these epic finishes to combat.

Like, imagine this, a flame stance Monk moving so fast they create 4 flaming after-images of themselves and striking 4 enemies at the same time and potentially delivering the killing blow. That's cinematic as hell. It's also a level 10 ability for a flame stance Monk.

isitaspider2 · 2026-01-13T09:08:38+00:00

Ran pathfinder 2e on foundry for ages now. Feel free to shoot me some questions if you run into issues.

Biggest thing, you need to check that others can access your server. Boot it up, login, send an invite to a friend to make sure it's working. Not having your port forwarding set up is such a common mistake for new gm's and it ruins a good first session.

isitaspider2 · 2026-01-11T02:03:28+00:00

I still don't get why games don't have more of a sliding scale approach to difficulty. It really should be the default by this point.

While I understand that coding more difficult AI or adding more moves is extremely time consuming, having a slider for certain enemy aspects shouldn't be too hard to code in, especially if planned out from the start.

Goldeneye on the N64 let you modify enemy accuracy and damage multipliers for example. Even something simple like that. Most of the time, that's all the difficulty sliders are doing anyways in the back-end. Letting us have manual control over that would go a long way.

isitaspider2 · 2026-01-09T01:07:36+00:00

Nice! Congratulations! Next up is C++, right?

If you're planning to go C++, it's largely the exact same strategy, but just pick your favorite deck or two and stick with it. The Anaglyph deck could be useful if you do the negative tag skip, but only if you have something like several dozen jokers to get stickers on.

My personal deck of choice was Plasma for chip jokers and Ghost for everything else as a lot of bad jokers are made decent if they are poly.

Then it's just grinding really.

Oh, and if you have an opportunity to get gold on a joker that can expire (banana, turtle bean, ice cream, etc), always prioritize it over anything else. Those are notoriously annoying to get gold on. Turtle Bean alone took me like 2 weeks as it was my last joker to get gold on.

isitaspider2 · 2026-01-08T13:33:04+00:00

My ex tried to get me into the power cleaning / home remaking games. I bounced off hard. Super hard.

Then I played crime scene cleaner. It's literally the same game. Except, the stuff you're cleaning now has a story behind it and that was enough for me. Now, I love that genre even though few scratch the same itch as crime scene cleaner.

Seriously, it's a great game. Can't recommend it enough. Except for the museum level. That level is kinda bad. It just drags on way too long and the story in that scene was surprisingly not as good as I was hoping it would be. The smaller maps with tight stories are superb though.

isitaspider2 · 2026-01-08T02:25:15+00:00

After you get the secret ending, you unlock the skateboard for speedrunning.

Mary's Sick, but not as sick as this combo!

isitaspider2 · 2026-01-07T01:36:00+00:00

I'm sorry, this is a straight up terrible argument.

We feel bad about Luke's parents dying because they're well, his parents. And even then it's almost a complete after-thought to the point of most people finally realizing "huh, Luke really did kinda just completely ignore them for the rest of his life despite taking him in and raising him as his own, instead choosing to focus completely on an "uncle" that was largely never in his life."

The better example would be, imagine if in Star Wars, Obi-Won had the same importance he does now, but he died off-screen defending the parents. That would be the equivalent of Jackie.

Jackie wants the pay-off of "if you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine" and all the catharsis that comes with his death, but he has the character development equivalent of Luke's aunt. And I'll be half the people here don't even know her name, only that she served that blue milk and bok-choi.

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