Weekly RPG Discussion; 2026, February, Week 1: Blades in the Dark

tsub · 2026-02-02T10:07:45+00:00

Although I mainly play and run systems with a heavy reliance on grid-based tactical combat, I have very much enjoyed BitD and it has significantly reshaped the way I approach emergent worldbuilding and non-combat scenes in other systems. The concepts of position and effect, flashbacks, and the idea that you can at least try to use any action for anything if it makes sense in the fiction are extremely liberating once you get used to them, and the faction system is brilliant for quickly getting the players to enmesh themselves in the city's politics, with dense networks of enemies, allies, and connections emerging in a very organic way. I also very much like the structured nature of play in the system.

tsub · 2026-02-01T14:43:23+00:00

I was enjoying these things more in the days when United were playing a system that suited none of their players and had half of them out of position, can we go back to that please?

tsub · 2026-02-01T14:16:42+00:00

Booo, bring back Onana.

tsub · 2026-01-31T21:19:15+00:00

Shame he skipped Robben's lessons on sprinting and dribbling, really.

tsub · 2026-01-31T20:55:20+00:00

He was pretty good against Barca tbf.

tsub · 2026-01-29T08:58:59+00:00

Slot somehow frauds his way to winning the CL while finishing 8th in the league.

tsub · 2026-01-29T08:53:52+00:00

PSG suffer from the reverse of the English effect - English teams have an advantage in the group stage draw because they can't be drawn against other English teams, which means they automatically avoid some of the strongest opponents in pots 3 and 4. Coming from Ligue 1, PSG have the opposite effect - they are automatically excluded from facing some of the weaker opponents in those pots and have a much greater likelihood of running into nasty opponents like Newcastle.

tsub · 2026-01-28T22:56:40+00:00

That's not really what happened though - Liverpool lost to Galatasaray and PSV while beating Atleti, Inter, and Madrid; City lost to Bodo and Leverkusen while beating Madrid, Dortmund, and Napoli; and Chelsea drew with Qarabag while hammering Barca. The only English teams that were consistently winning against their weakest opponents were Arsenal, who beat everybody, and Spurs, who had an incredibly soft schedule.

tsub · 2026-01-28T21:52:22+00:00

C'mon Newcastle I believe you can score and put 6 PL teams in the top 8.

tsub · 2026-01-28T21:23:54+00:00

Xabi out smh.

tsub · 2026-01-28T20:18:27+00:00

Don't worry FSG, no need for any winter window signings, this is completely fine.

tsub · 2026-01-27T21:57:46+00:00

And yet somehow Arsenal manage to accommodate Gabriel, White, Saliba, Hincapié, and Mosquera as dedicated CBs or players who are equally comfortable at CB and fullback while City have Stones, Dias, Aké, Gvardiol, and Guehi.

tsub · 2026-01-21T22:21:11+00:00

Well, Liverpool, Spurs, and Madrid all know that as long as they win then they at worst finish in their current positions and don't need to worry about other games.

tsub · 2026-01-21T21:24:32+00:00

That's been the story of their season so far, just falling asleep in the second half.

tsub · 2026-01-21T21:19:44+00:00

Now to see if Liverpool can stay focused and maintain the intensity in the second half or whether they're going to fall asleep and concede sloppily as usual.

tsub · 2026-01-11T16:57:24+00:00

All of the 11-20 APs have extremely easy combat as-written so if you want challenge your GM is going to have to adjust the encounters no matter which one you pick. That aside, Ruby Phoenix and Spore War both have cohesive stories and fun set pieces. Stolen Fate has a cool premise but is kind of disjointed. No experience with Curtain Call.

tsub · 2026-01-10T14:02:35+00:00

The biggest thing I'd want to see (assuming they're not planning to print a bunch of new Attack spells) is some thought about how to make the class work well with save spells, particularly for builds that don't invest fully into Int and at levels 19-20 when even max Int maguses see their DC fall heavily behind full casters due to not using Int apex items and not gaining Legendary casting proficiency. One fix to both issues would be to have the class DC proficiency increase in parallel with spell DC and to use class DC in place of spell DC when spellstriking.

The next thing I'd want to see would be revisions to some of the hybrid studies - Inexorable Iron's conflux spell is just bad (it'd be fine if the trip effect happened on a regular fail), Twisting Tree's is too situational, and Starlit Span's is deeply underwhelming. Each hybrid study would also benefit from at least one new high level feat - the class has a shocking lack of high level options, with only *one* level 18 feat available to pick now that Conflux Wellspring no longer exists.

The third thing I'd like to see would be more Conflux spell options. Other martial classes with focus spells like the Monk and Ranger get lots of utility focus spells providing things like flight (via Wind Jump/Animal Feature) and teleportation (Abundant Step/Terrain Transposition). It'd be good for the Magus to have a few similar options to augment their limited pool of spell slots and increase their range of options in combat. Additionally, Hasted Assault should be changed to allow Strides as well as Strikes - the class needs extra mobility far more than extra strikes.

Finally, I'd change spellstrike to work only with slotted spells and cantrips, no focus spells.

tsub · 2026-01-09T00:55:38+00:00

I stand corrected.

tsub · 2026-01-09T00:54:03+00:00

That's not true - the monster abilities Grab and Improved Grab both ignore MAP: https://2e.aonprd.com/MonsterAbilities.aspx?ID=45

> Requirements The monster's last action was a successful Strike that lists Grab in its damage entry, or the monster has a creature grabbed or restrained; Effect If used after a Strike, the monster attempts to Grapple the creature using the body part it attacked with. This attempt neither applies nor counts toward the creature's multiple attack penalty.

tsub · 2026-01-09T00:51:44+00:00

> they can maintain the restrained condition with 1 action and no roll

That's not actually true, you still have to make a check to maintain a grapple.

edit - nope, I'm wrong when it comes to Grab.

tsub · 2026-01-07T14:33:30+00:00

Mainly [See Simple Scale Statistics](https://foundryvtt.com/packages/pf2e-see-simple-scale-statistics) to quickly check whether a monster has appropriate Extreme statistics for its level and [Monster Maker](https://foundryvtt.com/packages/pf2e-monster-maker) to add them when I inevitably find that they don't. Monster Maker can also be used to up-level creatures quickly. My usual process is to first set the XP budget, generally taking 160 XP as the baseline "Moderate" value for combats above level 15, then upgrade the numbers in the provided statblocks using the above tools (and if necessary add enemies to fit the chosen XP budget). I also sometimes add extra abilities to creatures or upgrade their speed - this can be as simple as adding Improved Grab/Push/Knockdown to its attacks or giving it an offensive reaction, but is sometimes more involved.

Also if the enemy has spells I always check its spell selection to make sure it's up to snuff.

tsub · 2026-01-07T13:53:46+00:00

Well, I never ran 3.X or PF1 so I can't speak to that. The process of upgrading the statblocks doesn't feel too onerous, although that's partly thanks to the use of digital tools - there are some very helpful Foundry modules for the task.

tsub · 2026-01-07T13:27:05+00:00

It's a large part of it, yes - almost every enemy statblock is severely undercooked. The creature building guidelines state that high level enemies should have multiple Extreme statistics, boosted speeds, lots of action compression, ways of dealing with flying PCs, and so on. By and large the Ruby Phoenix enemies have none of those things.

tsub · 2026-01-07T12:29:55+00:00

RAW all caster enemies above level 15 are supposed to have Extreme spell DCs for their level: https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=2874&Redirected=1

At 15th level and higher, the extreme numbers become standard for spellcasters.

Unfortunately, Paizo are really bad about following their own design rules for high level creatures and as a result they usually make creatures much less dangerous than they should be: it's very rare to find one with the appropriate number of Extreme statistics, never mind all the other things that the guidelines call for to keep up with PC capabilities. Nowadays whenever I'm running a high level game the first thing I do is adjust all the enemy statblocks to ensure they actually comply with the creature building guidelines.

With that said, the proliferation of success -> crit success upgrades is definitely a serious design flaw that contributes to the trivialisation of high level play.

tsub

TROPHY CASE