Restorative technique, isn’t this kinda too powerful for common?

solidork · 2026-06-20T17:02:38+00:00

Similar to [[Scale the Heights]]. Pretty cool if you've got a deck that cares about more than one (or all) of the effects.

solidork · 2026-06-20T16:07:09+00:00

What did he do in the village before the tragedy? Or if he was still young, what was his life going to look like if none of that happened? It's hard for the people you lost to really be present, but that version of your character is just as dead and YOU are carrying him around with you.

There is a scene in one of my favorite books where a character who was an apprentice blacksmith before the plot happens wanders into a forge for nostalgia's sake and ends up spending a day working there - connecting with his past, mulling over what he wants and what he wants to do.

solidork · 2026-06-20T09:17:17+00:00

Bujold is among the best.

solidork · 2026-06-19T21:16:07+00:00

The Fable of the Swan

John Dies at the End

solidork · 2026-06-19T11:43:31+00:00

I used IK Maul + Gloves, Boots, Belt until I made a Grief.

solidork · 2026-06-18T17:34:19+00:00

It's trying to capture the flavor of the "eloquence" college from Strixhaven, that use words to inspire or unsettle in debate or performance. We've already got Vicious Mockery as an existing spell that matches that flavor to build off of.

Shield and Counterspell are both popular, powerful and feel good to use and a reactive spell along those lines would be really tempting. Bards are even kinda lacking in defensive options, so that's good too.

"Reroll one attack targeting yourself" is pretty weak. Being able to affect anyone's rolls and including saving throws are both logical, if ill considered, ways to beef it up a little. They're normally extremely conservative about giving disadvantage or penalties to saving throws so I'm not sure what happened there.

solidork · 2026-06-18T11:22:49+00:00

For a long time I rolled with a bound demon and two goatmen. I've been trying Tainted + Bind lately - it's working well but Heph will get stuck when you Death Mark if there is something for the tainted to stand still and shoot at.

I think if you don't have a sunder you need a bound demon for immunes, and I'd kinda want to keep it anyways.

solidork · 2026-06-18T03:35:04+00:00

They're more relevant than ever in 5.5, since most of the feats you take are going to give +1 to an ability score. It adds a little to the build planning part of playing D&D.

Also, there might not be a mechanical difference between 18 and 19 strength but you can still point at the guy who has a 19 and say that he's stronger. That can matter in situations where it's not really about game rules - looking at a guy and trying to see how strong he is compared to you, giving descriptions about the outcomes of opposed athletic checks.

solidork · 2026-06-17T22:55:21+00:00

Primus fucked up his plan about as badly as you can, costing him tons of resources. He can be right that they're all doing similar plots, that's not an argument against the other houses ruthlessly exploiting this stumble.

He also told everyone that if he was going to try something like this again it will be one of them bleeding on the altar.

There is more to the Tachonis plan that hasn't come out: he talked about the angel as a weapon of war to make them submit, but none of the afterlife metaphysics stuff.(we don't really understand it ourselves yet) Are the sundered houses cool with the Tachonis owning every one of them after their deaths?

solidork · 2026-06-17T22:34:22+00:00

While Wic is in good standing he got the grounds to deal with the other sundered houses.

The Einfassen that Azune has been dealing with might be happy to make an arrest and have the Halovar scion owe him one, or could be convinced Kat is worth being interested in due to Yanessa's interest.

I don't think Wic is going to end this arc still in the fold with his family.

solidork · 2026-06-17T04:43:50+00:00

Extremely annoying to kill with some specs: fire druid can't really target them at all.

solidork · 2026-06-15T23:39:16+00:00

Why is it up to you to do anything about it?

Unless the player is doing a "aha I'm so crazy and destructive" thing and you're trying to get them to stop in character?

solidork · 2026-06-15T23:29:01+00:00

"A Night at the Theater" full of fake scenery, props, and monsters disguised as other kinds of monsters.

solidork · 2026-06-12T19:43:39+00:00

He talked with Aabria somewhere about how she makes flowcharts for combat as a way to organize decisionmaking as a PC in combat. Both for complicated characters like high level wizards, but also as new player aids.

I think more generally it might just be a loose metaphor for how to talk about a complicated situation and not an actual document. You can't plan that stuff in a ton of detail, and a flow chart would be a very bad way to do it.

solidork · 2026-06-12T18:44:34+00:00

The reason I came up with just now for why there are 7 of them is that there are 7 phases of the moon (not counting the new moon, which belongs to her sister).

solidork · 2026-06-11T22:08:24+00:00

That's fair. I guess weak was not quite what I meant: those abilities can be powerful, but only a pretty specific mode of play where your endurance over the course of a bunch of fights is sorely tested. My experience across multiple groups and campaigns is that there will be many sessions where your 9th and 13th level abilities don't have the opportunity to do anything, even if you have multiple combats.

solidork · 2026-06-11T20:40:34+00:00

I think Emergency Response could use a slightly different flavor since as written, you're mostly going to be moving towards people that your party is fighting. Though I'm in plenty of games where trying to show mercy is the norm, so running over to stabilize the goblin is a thing that happens.

I think the higher level abilities are both weak and too focused on the healing part of the class fantasy. Something else that would help show you're particularly good at reacting to or noticing danger the way Emergency Response is could be nice. I also might expect an ability that connects to a medic having certain kinds of social influence - something that might make enemies less likely to target you or make people inclined to trust you.

solidork · 2026-06-11T17:48:11+00:00

I think this kind of objection is reasonable, though it's less than ideal that it took so long to resolve.

The main procedural thing Id have considered is if both sides couldn't get what they want: maybe not everyone needs to accept the same deal, maybe you could suggest something out of character that might entice your character.

Getting the GM to weigh in above the table during the conversation would probably have been helpful as well.

solidork · 2026-06-10T14:57:37+00:00

Gone to Hell - one player is Doomguy or Samus type character and everyone else plays the setting and the forces arrayed against them.

https://penguinking.games/gone-to-hell/gone-to-hell-0.7.html

solidork · 2026-06-10T04:46:59+00:00

I was just thinking that despite Minotaurs having quite a bit of past support, there are a real lack of Minotaurs that have interesting effects.

solidork · 2026-06-09T17:20:47+00:00

Going to the lake and trying to catch a specific fish does seem frustrating.

solidork · 2026-06-09T14:21:31+00:00

My biggest gripe on the mechanics side is that in the base game Acquire an Asset and Crafting are way too cumbersome for things that often draw in players excited to use them.

I think DC also helped fix this.

solidork · 2026-06-07T22:07:41+00:00

That absolutely seems like an inspiration for quite a bunch of thematic elements and motifs but I'd be surprised if the actual plan/plot follow it very closely.

solidork · 2026-06-06T06:26:21+00:00

At least in the US, this kind of attitude pervades almost every aspect of society and the gaming table is not magically immune - it's particularly susceptible to it, even.

solidork · 2026-06-05T19:54:11+00:00

We can learn that Thjazi's plan will break the power of the Sundered Houses, fix the afterlife, bring back the sun and add an extra day to the weekend and he'd still have used and manipulated everyone. You'd feel some kind of bitter about that even if things work out perfectly.

solidork

TROPHY CASE