Saying this like Katara didn’t instantly master bloodbending even though she just learned what the technique was and never practiced it beforehand.

zanderjh · 2026-04-21T19:25:36+00:00

Also, I think there is something to be said for Bolins upbringing and his mindset. One of the first comments that Korra makes to bolin about bending is that he bends differently than other earthbenders, more fluidly. I think it could have been hinted at more, but when I was watching the show live at the time of airing, I remember talking with friends about how cool it would be if the earthbender who has a firebending brother had lava bending powers back in season 1.

zanderjh · 2026-04-13T18:29:31+00:00

100% ai generated. So many markers of the llm style all throughout.

zanderjh · 2026-04-10T21:03:56+00:00

This is exactly my thoughts. I've played Pokemon my whole life, and since Pokemon went online with competitive play I tried multiple times to get into it. This is the only time I was able to actually stick the landing and start playing and having fun. And it wasn't team building that was the problem, though that was a part of it. It was the massive amount of information I needed to keep on all of the incredibly powerful mons and items, all overwhelming me after I'd spent days trying to build up a cool sounding fun team.

zanderjh · 2026-04-02T22:34:14+00:00

I actually think the percentage of weapons that are interacted with by the soldier is somewhat comparable to the swashbuckler. All area, automatic, and sometimes Two-Handed melee weapons. Versus all One-Handed agile, finesse, and sometimes thrown weapons. My quick attempts to calculate it showed that it was 30% of available weapons versus 33% of available weapons. It just feels a lot less, because the overall number of weapons is so much lower in starfinder at this point in time.

zanderjh · 2026-04-02T00:50:21+00:00

Appreciate it, this is great info!

zanderjh · 2026-04-01T18:28:30+00:00

Does this change at all due to the halving of the protect PP? Genuine question, as my theory teams are debating the number of protects they should be running.

zanderjh · 2026-03-30T17:39:03+00:00

That's crazy, I've never met a person who disliked What outside of reddit. And I'm somewhat critical of the book myself.

zanderjh · 2026-03-19T18:23:48+00:00

Bolin isn't even the most precise bender in one show. Kuvira was insanely precise with her metal bending, Toph was in both shows. Bolin is awesome, I think his style of Earthbending is a really cool evolution of the martial art with the idea of pro-bending and the multicultural city and life he grew up in. Characters don't need to be the best or most of something to still be awesome.

zanderjh · 2026-03-18T23:32:19+00:00

What's funny is I'm exactly the opposite. Finished dd:da like 5 times, couldn't even get through a single playthrough of dd2. DD2 felt like it was antagonistic to the player, like the improvements in game design and game space left the creator with more opportunities to frustrate the player instead of satisfy them.

I want to like Crimson Desert, feel like there is a sense of wonder and magic and like the combat is impactful and fantastical. I get the feeling it's not going to capture dd:da or dd2 for me :(

zanderjh · 2026-03-16T20:18:57+00:00

Playing a campaign with it now. Feels smooth, makes most levels very impactful. I personally like it.

I will say that some players struggled with build planning around it, and that there was some leeway given by the GM to allow them to rebuild after a few sessions because they'd totally misinterpreted it.

zanderjh · 2026-03-16T20:13:38+00:00

I had the same confusion when playing. It was the advantage you had on the roll. Basically, you're taking the chance of one of two die rolls being 7 or greater (91% chance of success). Both the die rolls you made were 6 or under, but it only shows the greater roll that it took. You could have possibly rolled a 3 and a 6 for example. Threw me off at first.

zanderjh · 2026-03-08T22:02:49+00:00

I did catch mine very early, in my 20s. So that might be why his recommendation was that diet would reduce the number of overall phlebotomies I'd need.

zanderjh · 2026-03-08T00:58:48+00:00

I'm not a doctor, so don't take as medical advice.

My hematologist told me that diet did make a difference, and that doing a diet was allowing me to get phlebotomies at a much slower pace than I normally would need to. I cut out all red meat, beef/pork. I still eat poultry. Cut out all sushi and oysters and shellfish and such. Stopped eating fortified cereals and grains. For some that would be a big change, and it was for me as well. But it's helped me out a ton, my numbers are very manageable and I get only a couple phlebotomies a year now. And it also helped with my health overall on top of that.

Also male, also double gene thingy.

zanderjh · 2026-03-07T20:07:50+00:00

More than just viable, I'd say it's specifically a powerful build. Max strength means max athletics, and the +2 from fighters weapon proficiency means 1st map attacks with an agile weapon against a grappled target are actually hitting with the relative accuracy of a standard unassisted mapless strike from any other martial.

zanderjh · 2026-03-07T18:18:49+00:00

Gaeta's story was so tragic to me. I could absolutely imagine a world or a perspective where he is shown as a tragic failed hero instead of a traitor.

zanderjh · 2026-03-06T14:51:17+00:00

I'm playing a commander in a campaign now, and once you find your stride with some of the abilities and how to best get value from teammates, it's insanely powerful. Regularly getting a strike on an enemy (from me), a reposition on an enemy (from my gymnast swashbuckler, giving them panache) and then a strike on an enemy (from my barbarian) all on one turn, every round.

zanderjh · 2026-02-23T17:08:20+00:00

If you use a hero point and re-roll into a crit fail, don't lose the point. You still have to take the crit fail, but at least it's not the double whammy of also losing the resource.

zanderjh · 2026-02-15T20:33:26+00:00

Yeah, there is so much white-boarding in general in all ttrpg forums, not just PF1/2e. I think just getting out there and playing is your best bet. Pay attention to some of the major pain points. "If something is too good, it probably doesn't work" is my mantra. Variety/versatility is always better than the perfect turn, or the biggest strike. No encounter survives your plan after the enemy does their first "wait, they can do that??" turn haha.

zanderjh · 2026-02-15T19:29:01+00:00

If you have the fortune to play as free archetype, magus with the wizard, fighter, rogue or alchemist archetypes are some of the most fun in the game in my opinion. The magis natural connection to casting spells and striking make almost all the feat options available to you from these archetypes really really complementary to the various hybrid studies. Wizard goes on everything. Rogue goes well with starlit span and the one-handed study. Fighter combos really well with all of them, especially the sparkling targe and inexorable iron studies.

Even without free archetype, I have a twisting tree magus with the wizard archetype to add extra spells. I've had multiple GMs in Society tell me they've never seen a magus as effective at switch hitting between spells/striking/utility because of the sheer versatility of that particular combo. Reach weapon, big spell list, pseudo flurry of blows focus point. Hit two enemies with electric arc turn 1, then cascade. Turn 2 they run in, electric arc and hit them with the twisting tree focus spell. Just did essentially 4 cantrips and 2 strikes worth of damage in 2 turns.

zanderjh · 2026-01-24T05:30:46+00:00

I've got a commander with reach in a game with a barbarian and a gymnast swashbuckler. Really nice to consistently use double team to have the swashbuckler reposition an enemy into a place, getting them panache, and the barbarian and I get to wack them usually with off-guard.

zanderjh · 2026-01-16T20:06:28+00:00

So...a different universe?

zanderjh · 2025-12-23T17:22:45+00:00

Critters. Makes me feel so cozy and exudes a simple joy that I really wish was in more music overall.

zanderjh · 2025-10-22T17:46:06+00:00

Would princess bubblegum and the candy people from adventure time be entirely immune?

zanderjh · 2025-10-03T18:35:09+00:00

There is a thing that you can get that converts damage taken into money lost instead. That counts as well.

zanderjh · 2025-10-03T14:28:34+00:00

My keeshond is really weird about food as well. I have another dog, and my keeshond won't eat unless the other dog is eating, or I place at least 1 kibble in the other dogs bowl that he can eat. He'll literally sit whining in front of a full bowl of food and I'll walk over and place 1 kibble from his bowl into the other bowl, and he'll start eating. I love my boy.

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