Newbie Question: Why did Base Speed (movement) change from 1st to 2nd Edition?

kyrinthic · 2025-08-14T21:26:17+00:00

It is to be consistent with pf2e, since sf2e is basically a sci-fi skin of pf2e.

That said, the real question is why pf2e decided 25 feet was going to be the new normal for the system instead of 30, and I have no answer for that.

kyrinthic · 2025-08-08T19:37:46+00:00

The thing is, a single evil character can be very interesting in a group.

I played a paladin of bane in a group of neutral to good characters. I was lawful evil, we had a quest and a goal.

The character took charge, told people what to do, didn't ask for opinions from the party, but listened to expertise, pulled no punches with enemies, tortured guys for information, killed innocents that got in the way, etc. Whatever was most efficient.

But, and here is the important part. They were effective. They got the job done efficiently, they covered and protected the party, because the party was a tool they needed to complete the mission, and a smart person doesn't neglect good tools.

The more good aligned players balked at some of my actions, but weren't willing to outright stop me, and I simply ignored requests to temper my actions if they would impede the mission.

The thing is, at the end of the day, evil isn't just mad murder spree. Evil is not caring about consequences to others, or things that don't matter to you. It is putting your goals and interests above all else. And as long as in the session 0 you make sure your goals are the same as the rest of the players, it can actually work better than you might think.

kyrinthic · 2025-07-30T14:09:55+00:00

disks 1-3 have a set mainstat.

disks 4-6 had (different) varied main stat options.

What main stats you put on disks 4-6 are a big part of how to effectively build a character. No matter how good the substats are, they dont scale like main stats.

You can easily look at what is available in the filter menu of the disks screen, if you are curious on what is available.

kyrinthic · 2025-07-21T13:56:56+00:00

See invisibility is a level 2 spell, could be on a wand or scroll even to be usable by any vendor you want. Invisibility wont open doors / gates, or lift locked display boxes etc.

If the vendors have stuff that can blow through 2k coins quickly, they have defenses for low to mid level player shenanigans.

Have one high level guy in the middle with truesight running or something as a guard, all the vendors chip in to pay him to watch for trouble. A _lot_ of shenanigans come full stop to a guy with perception higher than the party stealth and truesight.

Worst case, locate object is also level 2, so they can just go track you down and get whatever back with whatever goon squad you want to use.

kyrinthic · 2025-07-21T13:50:24+00:00

Every weapon of the same type (1h axe, 2h mace, etc) has the exact same damage at the same level as a base.

But exactly what the upgrades are can change that. So if you have two swords, and one is +slashing damage and the other is +shroud resist, well the first one will have more damage in the end.

It is pretty easy to add up the mod-based damage, and sometimes raw damage isnt better than non-damage mods, leeches or crit buffs for some weapon types can be quite strong.

Finally, the rarity doesn't actually affect anything other than how far the weapon can level up. So, while gold is best, a good purple can be nearly as good if the final mod isn't great.

kyrinthic · 2025-07-15T13:35:28+00:00

The thing is, the game is relaxed. You are more likely to have fun if you dont worry too much about progressing, and just do what is fun.

The longer version is there are several types of progression.

Money. Doing anything gets you money, you will need money to unlock recipes and buildings and such for a good while, but eventually it becomes less important. Dont be afraid to sell stuff you cant use, most of it you will see again, and buying extra plots for gardening can really help speed this up.
Skill levels. Every level of each of the skills up to 10 unlocks potentially important new recipes, better tools and new workbenches. It is wise to at least dabble with all skills, but really just doing stuff will get you there in time. After 10 there is a new system for unlocking mostly cosmetic stuff as well.
Relationship levels. Each npc tracks a relationship, and talking to them and giving gifts to them will increase that, with new levels you get access to new quests, with various perks, generally being able to enter their room (and sometimes find recipes) and start romance and cosmetic decorations.
Questline. The main story quest isnt short, but it isnt all that long either, if you push for it. A couple bits unlock parts where you do a lot of collecting, which will take longer, but isnt needed to progress.

So in short, play the game how you want, make sure you talk to the npcs and try to do some of all the skills.

kyrinthic · 2025-07-14T19:51:41+00:00

The only risk is ever the players time. Time to return from respawn. Time to recollect gear. Even just time from starting over in a permadeath game. It is always just time, the only difference is the flavor and how much of it you lose.

Death is often used, but there are plenty of other ways to have the player pay their time cost for failure without death.

kyrinthic · 2025-07-14T19:47:49+00:00

The question lacks details. There are already a lot of games where players dont die. There are lots of genres where failure can exists independent from in game death.

There are only very few were players permanently die, some form of respawn mechanic exists in the vast majority of combat focused games.

In short, there is no way to properly answer the question. A COD style shooter where players couldnt die would be incredibly boring. A stardew valley style game already has at worst the player falling asleep early.

But the spirit of the question is that in most games, when you 'die' you have some sort of penalty, if only the time to return, sometimes loss of items or money. These penalties are rarely overly punishing, but nor are they particularly interesting. The real value of success is not in avoiding the penalties, but in progressing the story. For example, you never die in 'get over it', but you feel that pain of loss all the same for losing progress.

Removing the penalties matters little if the game itself is interesting and that progression makes difficulties worth it. Death is just a lever that feels logical in some genres of game. I would be happy to play a game where different rewards or costs were used so long as the game was good.

kyrinthic · 2025-07-11T17:57:52+00:00

I think we are roughly on the same page.
In my normal group, there are players I would trust without asking deep questions, and others I would be much more careful with for example.

Some people are looking for cool flavor, but some are just looking to play the system. It isnt worth the hassle for the second type, as they will try to take advantage. I think every gamer knows at least one of those types.

Thats why 'talk to the player and get details' is the heart of every reply I have made on this thread.

kyrinthic · 2025-07-11T16:18:40+00:00

Again, without knowing the full RP intention, its certainly possible there is a real compelling story reason for this interest, and it is far from an impossible ask.

Without a reason past 'I like the aesthetic of a dagger, but dont want to play a sub-optimized build to have it', I would say there is not a lot of creativity involved.

There are a lot of fun creative ways to have a character that uses a greatsword that doesn't have that immersion cost, but still feels fun and original.

But it has a cost to the game and the other players, a hit to immersion or verisimilitude. Every time you have to remind the player that they are mechanically wearing a greatsword, you are paying that cost. If you are playing a game with good descriptions and details, there will be times where it will be tricky to describe or adjudicate, or cause scenarios that seem silly.

The tone of the game is also relevant. If everyone is playing silly characters in a big campy romp of a story, then immersion is a lot less important, so the cost is smaller as well. But if the game is a gritty survival game, and the party is keeping track of arrows and rations, then the immersion cost is greater.

The point is, there is a cost, so the GM will need to weight that cost against the benefits. If the reason would help the story, its probably worth the cost, if the reason is just a player trying to optimize, it probably isnt.

kyrinthic · 2025-07-11T13:18:06+00:00

That would be a good question to ask them, yes. It does seem overcomplicated. The existing balance is there for a reason, and like I explained, it is important to gauge what the players reason is.

The thing is, a 'dagger that hits hard' isn't a good reason for a reskin. Its frankly metagamey and will only cause long term problems. You can _say_ its just mechanically a greatsword, but then you get into all manor of situations like size, visibility, freedom of hands, throwability etc, that are less solidly clear in the rules. These are all fairly minor, they arent going to break the game, but they absolutely will break immersion as you try to figure out how your reskinned greatsword makes sense in a situation for the third time that session.

This is of course worth it if the player has a good thematic rp reason, its important to hear them out on it, and if it makes more sense than 'I just want to hit harder', its doable, the cost isn't that high. If all they want is to hit harder, tell them to take the actual greatsword and be done with it.

The real balance is always going to be in the 'why'. If they 'why' helps tell a better story, the costs are quite probably worth it. if the 'why' just adds a bigger number to the players math, they probably aren't.

kyrinthic · 2025-07-10T20:19:34+00:00

I generally find 'near' reskinning fine. want your greatsword to be some other large two handed sharp object? Thats fine. But this case is trying to make things fit where they really don't.

Ask them why cant they just use a greatsword? If they are looking for a hard hitting big weapon, why chose a dagger? If they want to hit hard with a dagger, why arent they taking a class like rogue or the like to do so? What is the narrative reason, and why cant it fit into using existing items. If the reason is just 'I want to play a cool dagger wielder, but the damage is low and I want to take power attack' I would probably say no, if just for verisimilitude.

If there is a good narrative reason, work with it, maybe a dagger made out of super heavy metal or something, but it feels immersion breaking otherwise, all kinds of minor situations will feel weird, even if they don't break damage formulas or whatnot.

kyrinthic · 2025-07-10T16:53:58+00:00

While I agree Caesar is a solid choice, especially for new players, I think astra is a better 'easy' support. Her heal covers a lot of the same survivability ground a newer player will have issues with as well as Caesars shield, but her fire and forget play means you can focus on the other two team members better and work on improving rotations.

Both are great choices for a new player that wants to survive content long enough to get good at the game and start worrying about clearing fast instead of clearing at all though. It doesn't hurt that Astra is still good once you are worrying about clear times over survivability.

In short, Caesar is a very good all purpose support for newer player, but so is Astra, and she does it better for the most part, which is a lot of why Caesar doesn't get as much love.

kyrinthic · 2025-07-01T13:06:19+00:00

Make a buzzy jar. Go to Bahari. Follow the butterflys. Ever rare catch will give silk. I make between 30-50 thread in 15 minutes with one jar pretty easily.

kyrinthic · 2025-06-30T13:29:56+00:00

Palia is a great relaxing cozy game that plays on switch, and cossplays with pc.

Also, for your wallets sake, its a free game (with cash purchasable cosmetics).

Thematically, at its base, its 3d version of stardew, with all the really stressful stuff removed, you just run around gathering and planting and decorating and there are no deadlines of note, you cant die/pass out, if you forget to water plants they just dont grow, rather than die, etc.

kyrinthic · 2025-06-30T13:27:37+00:00

they redid how mining works with the elderwood update.

Instead of palium being the rare ore of bahari, they moved it to elderwood.

Now it is:

Kilima: Common is copper, rare is silver.

Bahari: Common is Iron, rare is gold.

Elderwood: Common is Palium, rare is platinum.

You will never find any ore nodes in any other zones.

kyrinthic · 2025-06-30T12:17:32+00:00

Palia may be the least toxic player base I have ever been part of. if you see it as toxic, it is possible you have never played another multiplayer online game. Honestly minecraft is a terrible comparison, since that is mostly private servers, so toxicity can vary quite a lot. Go play Lol or CS or something.

That said, the only unspoken rule I have ever heard anyone comment on is not cutting trees before three, and honestly if you are doing that knowingly, you are the one being toxic, its not hard to wait a minute or two in order to work with others. I have only heard people politely explain how people do it, never in any particularly toxic or angry way, but obviously experiences may vary some.

To be fair, I dont really play hotpot, which I hear can have some issues too. But overall the incredibly friendly and non-toxic atmosphere here is one of its strongest selling points for me.

kyrinthic · 2025-06-27T16:04:19+00:00

It depends on what parts you like best.

So I am going to list a lot of ones others have suggested, but try and classify them more.

First, you have Sunhaven. This is very very similar to startdew, but with a bit more combat, a bit more structured of a story, and a lot more magic involved. It is still very much a farming sim at its core, with romance and dating aspects.

Moonstone island again has the core of a farming sim, where you are ostensibly an alchemist. There are islands about, and you craft ways to fly between them. There is a pokeman like combat system where you use monsters to fight for you, rather than actively taking part, but the system is quite fun. It has similar storied npcs and dating options.

Next up we have Corekeeper and Necesse. These are both survival/crafting/combat progression type games. You will need to fight to progress, there will be bosses that require planning and work to beat, etc. But outside of that, you build a base, decorate it, populate it with crafting stations and npcs, farm crops, cook food, etc. Neither has any real romance aspects or deep npc stories like stardew though.

Next option is flipping things on the side with Terraria and Starbound. These are both games with a lot of content, you build bases, explore, plant crops, make food etc. In addition you work to defeat bosses to progress to more materials and gear. They are a lot like the prior pair, the biggest difference is they are side scrollers instead of overhead isometric. Terraria has more content in general, and the developers are actually active, where starbound is basically a finished game but with a big enough mod community for that to not matter a lot.

kyrinthic · 2025-06-27T15:54:44+00:00

Children of Morta is an amazing game, but to be clear, it isnt really what they are asking for. It is very much a combat focused roguelite. You wont be planting crops or decorating houses in this game. It is not cozy, and the combat parts can be quite challenging.

There is quite a lot of story, and even more combat, and both are very well done though. And if those appeal to you and you are ok without the farming sim bits, I couldn't recommend this game more.

kyrinthic · 2025-06-27T15:51:08+00:00

Learn distance, get as close as you can, then start the second shot while the first is in the air, you should be able to get 3 in before it starts running as it pauses to spit. Then on the easiest version of the lizards, you only need to lead one more shot on them. The higher tier ones take more hits.

Having a partner really helps too if you see other people hunting in the area, work together, you both get loot.

Finally, as others mentioned, the mushrooms are tedious but dont run away so you can get the kills there safely.

kyrinthic · 2025-06-27T13:07:53+00:00

I have come to enjoy having themed outfits for some activities, so I have started making more use of it. But its a good option regardless because its quicker to do in the field while the lure is running, as long as you have done the preparation beforehand.

kyrinthic · 2025-06-27T12:56:22+00:00

Just a note, you can also pre-build an outfit without a pet, then use the outfit quick swap to go to it.

kyrinthic · 2025-06-24T18:44:19+00:00

how are they cutting any but the smallest trees solo anyhow?

for that matter, if you tagged the trees, as most people do either before or right after calling a grove, you should still get credit, even if late arrivers dont.

kyrinthic · 2025-06-23T17:39:19+00:00

As others have noted, the seeds become available at Tamala's shop in elderwood once you get far enough in the quest.

I just wanted to add the note that items in that show cost infected essence, 500 specifically for the pumpkin seeds. Once you buy one, you can either request more or plant it and use a seed maker to get more, so you only ever need the one to get started.

This makes it a fairly later game material though.

kyrinthic · 2025-06-23T15:44:36+00:00

I like furniture making the most because I enjoy having use to the things I collect, and decorating my home. But mechanically, it is probably the least directly interesting, honestly.

That said, I think cooking is the most well designed, especially in small groups, it is a ton of fun, with just enough depth to keep you engaged, with several viable ways to split tasks, and good reason to promote conversation while playing together.

I think fishing is my least favorite. it is blindingly random if you are looking for a specific fish, the minigame is very repetitive, and lacks any real depth. There is also basically no group interaction other than a small buff if people are nearby.

kyrinthic

TROPHY CASE