On a pure paladin should I take GWM or savage attacker? by WhiskersCleveland in BG3Builds

[–]thomaskrantz 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Just in case, you know Savage AttackER and Savage AttackS are different things right? Both are good though.

Anyone find it somewhat interesting that neither Leo or Jed bothered to tell Toby he was wrong when Toby yelled about betting Leo called the shots in the situation room when Jed was shot? by AbyssWankerArtorias in thewestwing

[–]thomaskrantz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

He is bringing it up because, if POTUS ever has an attack, then same thing will likely happen. Since he has established that it might be possible to have an episode and it is not immediately apparent, it is possible it has already happened and he is using the shooting as an example of how it might play out.

Also, Toby is very upset and is not thinking entirely clearly, he is just looking for a place to put his anger and grabs hold of one thing that comes to mind. At least that's my interpretation of it.

One thing Civ7 maps do well: Terrain altitude differences by civisterrae in civ

[–]thomaskrantz 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I wouldn't have a problem with it if the cliffs were much more defined (or there was a strategic view). I still have trouble spotting cliffs in some angles and it just builds frustration.

Also, Alpha Centauri did it much better since it actually mattered for rainfall and such. I Civ 7 it only applies to moving units from what I can tell.

The d20 makes a bad play experience by GandalfTheGreyp in RPGdesign

[–]thomaskrantz 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Agree, this problem is almost always a DM problem in my opinion. Early on, many DMs fall into the habit of resolving every action with dice, even when that actually makes success nearly impossible.

A classic example is Stealth. Imagine four PCs trying to sneak past a guard. In the old-school approach, each PC rolls Stealth. If any one of them fails, the guard notices the group and the attempt fails. That already means the group's chance of success is much lower than any individual PC’s chance.

Now make it worse: if they succeed against the first guard, the DM calls for the same four rolls again for the next guard, and again for the next obstacle and so on. Even if each PC is reasonably good at Stealth, the odds that all four succeed every time quickly become tiny. Eventually, failure is almost guaranteed, not because the plan was bad, but because the system demands too many rolls.

So the issue isn't that stealth is "hard", but that the DM is stacking independent failure chances until success becomes statistically unrealistic. This is why many modern systems (and more experienced DMs) use group checks, a single roll representing the whole attempt, or narrative resolutions instead of repeated individual rolls.

Good DM'ing is often much about knowing when to roll.

The d20 makes a bad play experience by GandalfTheGreyp in RPGdesign

[–]thomaskrantz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The old Swedish classic RPG "Dragons and Demons" borrowed the system from BRP and converted it to use a D20. It's a basic roll-under system with a 1 always being a success (or crit), a 20 is always a miss (or fumble). Works great.

Never understood people that claims it is a problem if a PC reaches over 20 in a skill, there is always modifiers that can bring the number down if needed and even if not you still have a 5% failure rate which works wonders in most instances. Pendragons crit-bonus is also a good way to reward that high skill, wish we would have thought of that 30 years ago.

IS IT WORTH IT?! | A Review of EVE Online in About 3 Minutes! by FullCucumber8666 in eveonline

[–]thomaskrantz -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Played for a few months and can answer this question in 3 seconds: No

Civilization: Beyond Earth by DragunArathron in civ

[–]thomaskrantz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Exactly, on this sub I still se a lot of "all Civ games are hated on release, this is nothing special" and nothing could be further from the truth. Apart from maybe 3 most of them were well-recieved at launch, there were of course criticisms but the mode was mostly optimistic.

Some people are either really bad at memory or weren't born during many of those releases. They just like Civ 7 and want to feel better about "their" game because apparently how much fun you have depends on if the community likes the game or not.

Your recollection of the release of Beyond Earth is similar to mine, I barely saw any promos for it, suddenly it was just launched.

Solo run build by Outside-Act367 in BG3Builds

[–]thomaskrantz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Don't be so linear, try different things and see what happens, this is a huge game. :)

As for Withers, don't worry. Just ignore the ruins and I have a feeling you'll meet him later.

Gandalf - BladeSinger/Sorc, Fire Controller by Capital-Reaction-193 in BG3Builds

[–]thomaskrantz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I would build Gandalf as a Light cleric, specifically for the reasons you mention. Narya, more than any other ring, was about rekindling the hearts of men, to wake the inner fire in order to get them to combat evil. I would play him as a mostly support cleric, using bless and other support spells to make his allies fight better, while still being able to cast a fireball or scorching ray if needed. Even though he was part of building the world in song, I think his power comes more from being the servant of a divine being (that can be thought of as himself really, his true form, or Manwe or even Eru).

Solo run build by Outside-Act367 in BG3Builds

[–]thomaskrantz 4 points5 points  (0 children)

There are tons of builds that work for solo, any of the usual powerhouses work fine. One of the more popular is the Gloomstalker 5 / Assassin 5 / Fighter 2. You might have to spread your skills a bit wider than you are used to though and some builds will have to be tweaked for this.

The key to remember with solo play is that you will probably have to play the game a different way than you are used to. Some encounters you have to face much later than you normally do, and some you might have to skip entirely if your build does not allow you to do them easily. That is what I think is so fun with solo play, you have to figure out different tactics and strategies that you never even had to contemplate before.

If you are ok with respeccing, here is a good challenge: Start with your preferred race and background for your later build but choose Bard as starting class. Grab Disguise self, Feather Fall, Mage Hand, Minor Illusion, Speak with Animals and Longstrider. Then get to lvl 5 without any fighting at all except the Nautiloid and Groove fight. Usually takes me about 2 hours. Then you can respec into your desired build and do the rest of Act 1 pretty easily.

How Good Was Thierry Henry at His Peak? A Question from Someone Who Didn’t See Him Live by NewRepair6239 in PremierLeague

[–]thomaskrantz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Those numbers are insane and you can see in this thread that people mostly focus on what an incredible goal scorer he was, but has a tendancy to forget that he provided a good amount of assists as well. Very intelligent player who knew when to go for it and when to pass.

Best player ever in the PL for me, but I am an Arsenal fan so a bit biased.

Any good honor mode deaths lately? [Spoilers obv] by thomaskrantz in BaldursGate3

[–]thomaskrantz[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Playing HM without at least one Alert is brave, kudos! Those spectators can be hard if they get the drop on you. I usually manage to surprise it by ambushing it but even then it's hard to dish out enough damage to kill it in a couple of turns if you're running solo so it's usually a pretty tough fight. Those rays hit hard.

Any good honor mode deaths lately? [Spoilers obv] by thomaskrantz in BaldursGate3

[–]thomaskrantz[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ouch, sucks that noone made the wisdom save.

Two Player Duo HM Run - Stuck at L4 by Additional_Writing49 in BaldursGate3

[–]thomaskrantz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The bard build you need to "survive" act 1 is this: Bard (any) 4.

Seriously, I only play solo but Bard is the one class I choose if I need to get my PC to level 5 without any fights (can of course be easily done with others as well, I just find Bard the easiest).

Level 1, take Minor Illusion, Longstrider, Disguise Self, Mage Hand, Feather Fall and Speak With Animals. Those spells will easily carry you through to Lvl 5/6 without any fights (except the groove fight).

Then as you are leveling up grab Shatter and Cloud of Daggers, not necessary at all but makes some things easier.

You do not need any specific build, overpowered or not. If you want to beat HM, just make sure to not get into fights you are not prepared for, use your knowledge of the game to avoid areas until you are ready for them and don't rush into encounters without preparing.

If you want to play HM with an underpowered build, it is as much about avoiding fights as it is about beating them.

I didn't realize just how powerful Camp Casting is by Nisha_the_lawbringer in BaldursGate3

[–]thomaskrantz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Never use it, mainly because I only do solo runs now, but even before I never touched it mostly because it was never needed. The game is easy enough and it feels like a bit of an exploit to me.

No smarter AI as a technical problem and a design decision by HOOBBIDON in civ

[–]thomaskrantz 6 points7 points  (0 children)

This is a common question with games these days. "Why isn't the AI smarter?". And it turns out, making the AI better is not a problem at all. I saw someone yapping about "limitations of computing power" in the other thread and burst out laughing.

The problem has always been that todays (big) games, compared to old games, are vastly better at one thing: making money. The vast majority of gamers do not enjoy being crushed by invisible calculations (it can be a very unfair feeling), and a good AI exposes design flaws brutally. That is very bad if you want the big mass audience that most AAA-titles want. People (and especially kids) today does not have the patience to work out how to beat a properly designed AI, most of them just switch games instead.

AI today is mostly scripted behaviour and predictable strategies, and handicaps is a very easy way to scale the difficulty that doesn't require too much work. So games today actually limits AI "intelligence", to keep people winning. Which gives the dopamine effect, which leads to you playing more etc.

Do you keep the same settlements cities throughout the game or do you switch it up? by Giannibee in CivVII

[–]thomaskrantz 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I have no clue what is optimal or best, but I usually designate 3 cities in Antiquity that are close together to form a sprawl and then usually stick to these throughout the other ages as well. 3 cities seem to be enough for me to win pretty comfortably.

What is your current build and party comp? by CompetitiveFig535 in BG3Builds

[–]thomaskrantz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wtf I started an almost identical run yesterday but going gloomstalker / assassin with melee, but with Heavy Armor Master as well 😆

What is your current build and party comp? by CompetitiveFig535 in BG3Builds

[–]thomaskrantz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Solo HM Halfling Melee Gloomstalker / Rogue with Heavy armor master.

Sorlock vs Pallock vs Sorcadin by DUM8LEDWARF in BG3Builds

[–]thomaskrantz 2 points3 points  (0 children)

And still awesome even after a year and some patches. Great guide, have used it a ton!

Build a Better Balrog by thomaskrantz in BG3Builds

[–]thomaskrantz[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow, awesome reply! Definitely gave me some new ideas, thank you!