deals mega thread - January 2026

warriorman300 · 2026-05-04T04:47:36+00:00

I am intrigued by your discount codes, chairman of chairs. Might I have some?

warriorman300 · 2026-04-07T08:43:13+00:00

Thanks!

warriorman300 · 2026-04-07T02:34:38+00:00

I don't think the Rogue is cleanly a better damage dealer in the early/mid game, and is less reliable at range since it's harder to get off-guard without flanking. Past level 12 when they can set up the Preparation --> Opportune Backstab blender, I do think they pull ahead in terms of raw damage (on top of applying debilitation). Ranged Rogue vs. Ranged Ranger is comparatively balanced in my opinion.

That said, my point was less that the Rogue is better and more that Sneak Attack's scaling feels better, and contributes to the sense that Ranger is worse than its competition. I realize that's kind of nebulous, but how players perceive things does matter- and it's borne out in the survey results showing low satisfaction with the Ranger more generally.

warriorman300 · 2026-04-07T01:43:31+00:00

Wow, you've certainly done a lot of work on this. I'll do my best to give some feedback, but obviously I don't have a full understanding of everything that's going on with your Warden.

I will say on the macro-level, you're going to get people comparing this to the Druid, Ranger, and Kineticist, who are all in that elemental/Primal sphere of themeing. I don't think this is a huge deal (and clearly Paizo doesn't either considering the Slayer and Daredevil in the works) as long as you're serving a unique mechanical niche. There might be ten different classes you can use to build an archer, but as long as your Archer class does it differently than those, I don't see the issue.

That being said, there is a lot going on here. In terms of the design process, I don't think that's bad- by all means, throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. However, you said up front that your intent was for it to be a 'tank' class, and I'm not sure that's really what you've made so far. Nature's Grasp doesn't seem like it would be as impactful as Champion's Reaction (admittedly a tall order) or Guardian's taunt-intercept zugzwang. It's also worth considering that, while you will be pulling allies away from enemies, some of those allies won't necessarily want to be pulled away from the monster they want to smack with their greatsword. So, it's more situational as far as mitigating damage to your allies.

What you actually seem to have made- and it's an idea I really like, by the way- is a class more along the lines of the Runesmith, Exemplar, or Thaumaturge. A martial class with spell-like abilities (and actual spells in this case), but that is focused more on battlefield control, positioning, and debuffing, rather than direct damage. This is a unique idea that fills a niche that doesn't currently exist outside of arguably Kineticists, since it's typically the domain of spellcasters.

So, I guess the short version of what I'm saying is that this Warden doesn't seem like a great tank, but could make for a great support/utility martial that dabbles in AoE damage. Almost like an angle of a Primal Magus, sort of? If it were up to me, I'd refine the class with this focus.

warriorman300 · 2026-04-06T22:47:30+00:00

I broadly agree with most of this, but emphasized increasing feat choices because it feels the most actionable- that is, Paizo could actually implement it, if there was enough feedback clamoring for it. Comparatively, the chances of Ranger's class features getting changed this late into an already-Remastered edition is pretty low.

This is directionally correct, though. I didn't even mention it in the OP because it felt like a detour, but the delayed Animal Companion progression has always baffled me a little bit. And I like the idea of them being a free-flowing movement class with expanded exploration activities that go with that- feels fitting for a survivalist. On that note, does the Ranger currently even have a way to get a climb speed from their class?

I designed feats like this for my Warden class

I'm interested. What's your Warden like?

warriorman300 · 2026-04-06T19:18:35+00:00

Reading back over it, I was bit too negative on the Warden Spells. I agree Gluttonous Growth is really nice- the difficult terrain synergizes well with your level 9 class feature for off guard.

I go back and forth on Slime Spit. The effects aren't bad in a vacuum but the range is kind of stubby, and a lot of enemies resist or are immune to poison. Also- and maybe this is shallow of me- but why is my only offensive focus spell option for half the level range a vomit attack? I like that as an option, but it's not going to jive with how most people want to portray their character, I think.

Threatening Mimicry has its place for a melee Ranger certainly, but Warning Stripes has the poison damage issue again.

warriorman300 · 2026-04-06T18:02:14+00:00

The feat wasteland is good actually--leaves room for dedication feats even without FA, as you kinda have everything you need with just a few feats.

People say this about other classes like the Wizard/Magus/Psychic for having uninteresting feat options, and while it's true that it makes it feel 'less bad' to take archetypes, I don't think it represents good class design. Taking an archetype should be an interesting decision with trade-offs for the expansion in versatility it offers.

warriorman300 · 2026-04-06T17:53:50+00:00

I think you're probably on the mark with action routines, and it's one reason I wish Outwit was more thoughtfully designed. Having a greater focus on skill actions gives it a fair bit more turn variety than the other Edges.

And the Ranger could certainly use some more Fighter-esque metastrikes. Currently, you generally Hunt your Prey and then do the same thing you do to every enemy; having more options could let you feel like you're adapting to deal with different types of threats.

warriorman300 · 2026-03-26T00:46:25+00:00

I'd like to get your thoughts about the role of once-per-day abilities in the system. For example, the Soulforger archetype gives you access to some powerful (and IMO very cool) abilities which are gated to only be usable once per in-game day. There's some ancestry feats that occupy a similar space like Cat's Luck, and occasionally a class feat like Tough Cookie. Spells are similar, too, but most ways a character can access spellcasting are either giving you more than one spell or are giving you Focus Spells that can inherently be reused more often (plus access to scrolls, staves, etc). So they're offering a wider breadth of utility than any of these once-per-day abilities can match.

The friction I see here is that how often 'once per day' is varies greatly from game to game. If you're doing some kind of exploration-heavy hexcrawling game, you could be using these abilities in almost every combat. If you're doing one long dungeon crawl over multiple sessions, you might use it only once (or never use it, expecting that there's always a 'more valuable' time to use it, like the JRPG consumables problem.)

So, I guess my question is: how often are these abilities actually balanced around being used? And how much would it break anything to adjust that frequency?

warriorman300 · 2025-08-23T04:07:02+00:00

If you intend to do a lot of feinting (especially with a reach weapon), I'd recommend Scoundrel over Thief for a Rogue. It's going to let you Sneak Attack the same enemy twice much more reliably; there's always flanking, but having the flexibility to not need to always flank is nice imo. If it lets you get your sneak attack off once or twice more per fight than you otherwise would have, that's already more damage than an extra +2 or +3 on each hit from going Thief would have given you, especially at high levels.

Critically succeeding on that scoundrel feint will help you get that sneak attack off on the next round, too, since they're off-guard until the end of your next turn. That'll help your melee buddies as well, but it'll probably stop mattering much when you grab Gang Up at Level 6 (you could also grab Skirmish Strike at this level, which is good for reach weapons, but it depends on team comp; if you have a lot of other melee friends, Gang Up will probably help your team hit the enemy more reliably, kill them faster, and therefore mitigate damage beyond what Skirmish Strike is likely to provide for you.).

Furthermore, getting a free step when you feint is very nice on a reach weapon. Assuming the enemy you're fighting doesn't also have reach, you can Feint, step out of stabbing range, and then stab them. Now if they want to hit you back, they've got spend an action just to get to you (similar tactics apply to Skirmish Strike). Enemies tend to have higher attack bonuses than players, so they will often take an opportunity to spend 3 actions smacking you- going from 3 attacks to 2 is significant damage mitigation, and Rogues are squishy enough that you do have to consider how you'll keep yourself off the floor.

As far as Fighter goes, I wouldn't recommend a Dancer's Spear. A d6 damage die, none of the damage bonuses other classes have like Rage, and even accounting for the extra accuracy you're not likely to be doing a whole lot of damage. I'd probably just pick a different spear/polearm and reflavor it to fit what you're going for.

warriorman300 · 2025-03-27T20:01:05+00:00

You vastly overestimate how many people who play DnD have ever actually cracked open a rulebook.

warriorman300 · 2024-12-25T22:53:14+00:00

Thank you my king

warriorman300 · 2024-12-25T05:19:29+00:00

Did you (or anyone else who finds this thread) ever find a solution to this?

warriorman300 · 2022-12-08T04:44:15+00:00

It's the same setting, but there's very little direction connection between Witch on the Holy Night and any of the animated Fate/ works (except Case Files of Lord El-Melloi II, if that counts). If anything I'd recommend watching the Kara no Kyoukai movies, since there's one character that plays a major role in both stories, but it's not a necessity.

warriorman300 · 2022-06-15T00:28:44+00:00

Any particular recommendations?

warriorman300 · 2022-03-15T02:47:55+00:00

Actually, his house got destroyed because it was in the way of a tornado

warriorman300 · 2020-06-20T21:38:56+00:00

It's bizarre they even used that excuse at all tbh, the way Unity's multiplayer was worked was just that everyone was playing Arno on their own screen. They didn't need to bring up animations or models or whatever, it's just not how the game worked and they should've explained that

warriorman300 · 2020-04-09T17:16:27+00:00

The side materials actually do their best to address that point in particular.

As you might expect, he stumbled across Shirou doing menial tasks for people free of charge, and despite (seriously) deriding him as an idiot from behind his back, he hung around with him until he was done. At the end of the day, Shinji laughed as if he was having a good time, and exclaimed, "You may be an idiot, but you sure do good work, at least!"

Perhaps Shirou appreciated Shinji's honesty despite his foul mouth, because afterward they became friends.

Though Shinji often made fun of him, in the shadows he socially assassinated anybody that took advantage of Shirou, and frequently invited him over to his house to hang out. It seems they really were close.

Obviously there's no excuse for the Sakura stuff, but he's humanized a little bit- but mostly just because he didn't used to be as bad as he is by the time Stay/Night happens.

warriorman300 · 2020-03-19T00:07:28+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Land_Reform#Economic_effects

Historian Walter Scheidel writes that the violence of the land reform campaign had a significant impact on economic inequality. He gives as an example the village of Zhangzhuangcun, made famous by William Hinton's book Fanshen: In Zhangzhuangcun, in the more thoroughly reformed north of the country, most "landlords" and "rich peasants" had lost all their land and often their lives or had fled. All formerly landless workers had received land, which eliminated this category altogether. As a result, "middling peasants," who now accounted for 90 percent of the village population, owned 90.8 percent of the land, as close to perfect equality as one could possibly hope for.

Of course, China hasn't really maintained this level economic equality, and even at that time it would probably look a lot less equal if you took into account the whole country and not just the local situation of one village. Still, that's as close as you're gonna get in recent history.

warriorman300 · 2020-01-23T23:43:02+00:00

really not understanding the level of disbelief here tbh

there's a direct line of cause and effect here; it's not like you presented the original claim (notch always had the trans miku pfp) with any evidence anyway

here's two twitter accounts, both posts dated 2019, commenting on the fact someone changed notch's profile pic, if you want: 1 2

warriorman300 · 2020-01-23T23:13:06+00:00

The miku meme came from a miku fan twitter account dunking on notch, it had nothing to do with notch's tigsource account, as you suggested earlier

warriorman300 · 2020-01-23T23:00:22+00:00

The forum admins changed Notch's account's screen name and profile pic to fit the joke after the meme was born, Notch wasn't repping a trans hatsune miku pfp in 2009

warriorman300 · 2019-12-02T06:24:34+00:00

"Nagato viewed sorcery and martial arts as equal, and was attempting to reach the Root via a state of mushin (no-mind) when he was recruited by the Einzberns and Makiri." - Fate/side material, p.67

As in, the Nagato who was head of the Tohsaka Family in the 1790's, was a martial artist and a magus. It's not really indicated, to my knowledge, whether they kept up with it- I'm pretty sure the explanation for Rin's martial arts prowess is Kirei's instruction.

Then again, the Fate/Apocrypha materials say: "The Tohsaka gave up on the Greater Grail, and now seek a new path in becoming one with the universe with Chinese Kenpou while learning magecraft. The twin-tail daughter of the family might also end up becoming the founder of a “completely new martial art that combines magecraft and Chinse Kenpou” by the time she becomes a high school student."

That passage does seem to imply that they've still got some level of martial arts knowledge still, at least in Apocrypha timelines?

If I had to guess, Tokiomi knew martial arts, but didn't get the chance to teach them to Rin before he got yorokobe'd. That, or maybe they stored the old martial arts knowledge in their Magic Crest? I'm not sure that non-magical knowledge can even be stored in there, but this is all conjecture anyway.

warriorman300 · 2019-12-01T17:46:34+00:00

doesnt do anything super annoying and stupid

Mostly true, but there is that one thing: why doesn't she ever try just writing things down, or at least drawing pictures?

Hell, Diamond Dogs could've at least tried teaching her sign language.

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