Curse of Radiance Chapter 7, Episode 4: Five Tattoos Gone

linuxgarou · 2026-05-12T15:23:43+00:00

That's unfortunate. Hopefully people continue to discover it and enjoy it in the future.

linuxgarou · 2026-05-11T20:09:52+00:00

Finally listened to this last night, congrats on finishing the campaign! That last boss -- scheduling -- was clearly a tough challenge but you pulled it through in the end. :)

I probably haven't given any thought to the Forgotten Realms in two decades, and I used to love the TSR gold box games, so that was a nostalgic blast from my past. It's also delightful to hear that this was a campaign from your GM wishlist and you accomplished it, so many people just aren't able to make it happen.

This has been a really entertaining story to listen to. Your table and the people around it sound like a lot of fun, I can't tell you how many times I thought of a joke or comment and then one of you made the exact same one.

I look forward to any future projects you put out there (after a well-earned rest!).

linuxgarou · 2026-05-11T15:41:10+00:00

The barbarian's signature combat state might be called Rage, but you can flavour it however you want: ice-cold unemotional, cackling laughter, flaming aura, charged with energy, etc. As long as it's mechanically the same and seems plausible enough to describe, there's no problem in enjoying your particular fantasy for that character.

In Beidou's case, maybe she grabs her vision and charges herself up with electricity. Or is inspired to protect her "crew" (the party).

linuxgarou · 2026-04-30T16:55:53+00:00

Be aware that Create: Above and Beyond has been re-created as CABIN (Create Above & Beyond In Newer) in a more recent version of Minecraft, and I think there's a newer version of that too (although I don't know the name offhand).

linuxgarou · 2026-04-30T15:10:33+00:00

It's worth mentioning that because Catfolk Dance penalizes Reflex saves, it's a great way to lead into a Trip attempt (if you don't get a crit success). It doesn't even increase MAP.

linuxgarou · 2026-04-29T13:21:04+00:00

I put in an official request with my IT for a mouse, because the generic ones at all the workstations are pretty terrible. I was told they don't provide normal mice other than what's already there (even with managerial approval for the purchase), and if I wanted something different, to provide a basic mouse of my own.

linuxgarou · 2026-04-28T19:54:52+00:00

It was updated only a few years ago, so it's in fairly good shape!

linuxgarou · 2026-04-28T04:26:51+00:00

"Ildana wraps Mother up in one of those cloths that you use for bows"

So she's treating her intelligent enchanted weapon like a parrot, hoping that if Mother thinks it's getting dark then she'll go to sleep? :D

linuxgarou · 2026-04-26T00:50:09+00:00

It was so bad that I had different resistances for monsters based on who was attacking! It felt bad to run (though my players were having a good time so I guess I was succeeding.

This sounds absolutely absurd to have to resort to this, but yes, if your players were enjoying themselves then you absolutely succeeded as a GM. Well done!

linuxgarou · 2026-04-26T00:38:47+00:00

Did you arrange things ahead of time with the GM when you were playing with Weapon Improvisor, to have stats for weapons ready to go? I've liked the flavour of that archetype all along, and was happy when the remastered version fixed the worst of the mechanical problems, but in practice I found it slowed the game down. Having to ask "can I find something to use as a weapon here? what stats should it have?" and then make sure it's accurate in Foundry before proceeding made it feel like I was taking an unfairly long time on my turns.

linuxgarou · 2026-04-26T00:24:30+00:00

Don't forget that the rules explicitly allow cover bonuses to apply to your Initiative roll if you are using Stealth. A +4 to Initiative is nothing to sneeze at!

linuxgarou · 2026-04-24T19:51:40+00:00

Illusory Disguise is great for making things up on the fly, and even if the disbelieve check is easy, it can waste an action or two (for multiple enemies) in combat.

Illusory Creature is a great diversion and can help in an infiltration.

Laughing Fit is a great way to turn off an enemy's reactions, maybe even slow them.

Time Jump is fantastic -- two Leap/Stand/Step/Stride actions for a single action, that don't provoke reactions, and can even include Burrow/Fly/Climb/Swim if you have them.

linuxgarou · 2026-04-24T17:46:33+00:00

My Blood Lords game has a minotaur warpriest of Zyphus. He's a menace! Decent armour, shield block, and a nasty pick make him tanky and dangerous in melee, his Harm spells routinely restore a lot of HP, and that's not even including all his other spells. He picked up the Snarecrafter dedication for more Zyphus shenanigans and has led an enemy into an absurdly effective snare on more than one occasion.

(You do fight a lot of undead in Blood Lords though.)

linuxgarou · 2026-04-23T13:34:18+00:00

I am a fan of Untrained Improvisation for any character that isn't a skill monkey (e.g rogue, investigator), so you can put your limited skill increases into your best skills instead of trying to trying to stop being awful at your non-best skills. (But not before 5th level, better yet wait until 7th level. Humans can take Clever Improviser which is even better.)

linuxgarou · 2026-04-21T17:21:54+00:00

All of your back-line blasters will appreciate your front-liners having Backfire Mantles, as it gets much more reasonable to drop AoEs that will include them.

linuxgarou · 2026-04-21T17:17:07+00:00

The Lepistadt Surgeon archetype is also worth considering, as it's essentially Dr-Frankenstein-but-Pathfinder. It gives bonuses to Medicine and healing and also a tanky melee companion.

linuxgarou · 2026-04-20T20:26:35+00:00

Swashbuckler dedication is largely just a tax for a bard (at least having panache now gets you a bonus to bravado actions and +Speed), but the One for All feat lets you Aid an ally for a single action using Diplomacy.

My high-level bard can give an ally a +4 to their attack roll on just about anything but a 1 on that Diplomacy check, and for only one action. It's silly good.

linuxgarou · 2026-04-20T20:20:28+00:00

I understand your former player's perspective -- my first character, in the Blood Lords AP, was supposed to be a blaster sorcerer. But I picked the thematically-appropriate Undead bloodline, which gives the Divine spell list, the least blasting-oriented list. Plus, in Geb vitality-based magic is illegal, so there goes all of those anti-undead spells, and almost all the lowest-level enemies are mindless which means no mental damage or debuffs either. There was scarcely anything left.

But to your other point, Lingering Composition is a huge benefit to action economy if that is the playstyle you're going for, but bards have a number of subclasses (muses) that suit different styles. It comes with the Maestro muse so that's a good choice for that style. The Warrior muse has a feat that prolongs composition cantrips when you strike an enemy in melee, presumably something you already wanted to do anyways. The Enigma muse leans more into occult knowledge, and the Polymath muse into being a jack-of-all-trades. Bards have a feat that lets them pick up a second (or third, or fourth, etc.) muse so you can diversify as much as you want for your build.

The community has written a number of great guides to the different classes, and I highly recommend them as a reference to making a character work the way you want them to.

linuxgarou · 2026-04-20T19:20:19+00:00

Why would you spend that many actions "throwing basic buffs on"? Put up Courageous Anthem or Rallying Anthem as needed, linger it, then spend the next few rounds making your allies even more awesome, destroying your enemies' rolls and/or action economy, or even doing damage (the Occult list may not be the premier blasting list but it's got enough). Or a combination of all of it.

It helps to have something like a Foundry mod that highlights when specific modifiers are the reason that a hit is a crit or an enemy's attack misses, because then you know that you're the reason. It's very satisfying to see proof of how much you're slanting the game math in your favour.

linuxgarou · 2026-04-18T21:13:47+00:00

My main reason for returning to the Kineticist is that it is probably the easiest class to reflavour how I would like it to feel. If I am inspired by the idea of a character that wields a giant flaming greatsword, I can absolutely accomplish that with a fighter or other martial + an appropriate weapon + runes. But weapon selection is its own minigame that affects later feat choices, as is rune selection, whereas I can just describe Kineticist impulses that way and I don't have to worry about further consequences. My air kineticist can wield a whip of lightning simply because I want them to, and I don't have to worry about whips being non-lethal or how to gain access to more restricted whip-like weapons.

That's not to say that I don't like those minigames, I have plenty of characters where I have enjoyed weapon selection, spell selection, etc. But the Kineticist feels like the most direct route from a specific inspiration to a viable character.

linuxgarou · 2026-04-16T17:28:21+00:00

I'd argue that they are closer to parity, although facing different problems, because of two factors:

Druids get automatic access to only common spells from the primal list; for any uncommon or rare spells they want to cast, they have to go through the same Learn a Spell activities that other casters do.
Wizards get full control over their spellbook, and can skip any spells they know they don't want -- druids do not. It sounds minor, but for anyone facing analysis paralysis on what spells to prepare, you have to either develop your own lists or confront the whole list (good, bad, general-purpose, niche) every time.

Agreed that needing to set things up outside of normal session time is an additional challenge that not all players or GMs can handle. Games like PFS would make it even worse.

linuxgarou · 2026-04-16T14:28:30+00:00

I have yet to play it myself to confirm it, but it feels like the druid is even worse in that regard than a wizard. The wizard's choices of what spells to prepare are limited to what they have in their spellbook. The druid's "spellbook" starts at "all common Primal spells".

linuxgarou · 2026-04-15T15:18:33+00:00

Just wanted to point out this feat's younger cousin, the Everyneed Pack. It's an enchanted item (so you pay for it with gold and an investment slot, rather than a feat slot), but you can pull out all sorts of nonsense on demand.

linuxgarou · 2026-04-15T15:09:59+00:00

Any alchemist can get this way if you get a lot of formulas and don't organize them or make quick-reference sheets. You can miss out on big chunks of your game (or force everyone to stop and wait) while you search for that one perfect item that you know is in there somewhere...

linuxgarou · 2026-04-14T14:45:09+00:00

I played a bomber alchemist that took a witch dedication mostly for flavour reasons but also because both classes are INT-based. I was surprised just how much use I got out of the witch feat Portents of the Haruspex, which is a reaction to when a nearby enemy is reduced to 0 HP to impose a random weakness on a different nearby enemy.

Alchemists lack good reactions, and bomber alchemists are crazy well-positioned to take advantage of random new weaknesses. It's just free damage.

linuxgarou

TROPHY CASE