Gromnir

been down this road more than once. optimization is not needed, which is why @majestic and Gromnir disagree on arue builds and likely have very different end game parties. in fact, am not sure we ever genuine optimize. however, there are a handful o' exploits, items, abilities and whatnot which is so disproportionate effective you are likely to see builds which include such at higher difficulties. how many people doing unfair skip having a character with high wisdom and the community domain? you don't need a character in the party capable of casting mark of justice, but am suspecting most do. you don't need camellia or ember to do hexes, but... similar, Gromnir almost always has sosiel in our party and he is either taking one level o' thug ('cause as far back as we can recall, in pathfinder there were a running joke 'bout being able to fear lock asmodeus and similar entities with intimidation, y'know, 'cause da rulez,) or crossblood sorc to cast ice spells... neither o' which is gonna be considered optimal builds by most folks, but we breeze through the game on hard difficulties and am able to do all boss battles on unfair. an optimized enchanter capable o' taking advantage of the best joke exploit is not gonna be starting with a skald, but we had great success going that route. we like hand axes for dual wielding... 'cause. we never drop intelligence to seven with a human character. etc. optimization is so not necessary even on unfair, but there are exploits, items, schemes and abilities which is so effective in wotr, you is far more likely to see 'em in an unfair party than not. is also nothing which prevents a player from having seelah take oracle and scaled fist to end up with comical ac far surpassing a horse mount, but most people ain't gonna do that... and is probable a waste to try and focus on maximizing seelah ac 'cause a tank becomes less important as the game progresses and seelah's best potential party contributions ain't her tankiness anyway. also while it is true that with items, spells, and abilities from multiclassing and proper feat choices you may increase seelah's tankiness to impressive levels, she is nowhere near as effective as a leopard animal companion at low levels, and low level wotr on high difficulties is where wotr is the most challenging. HA! Good Fun!

the terrible reality is it isn't fair for a significant number o' players. wotr is not genuine balanced in any meaningful way as everything busted and broken from pnp were simple ported into owlcat's version o' the pathfinder rules (garbage no living gm would ever allow) plus the even more busted owlcat original mythic content were glomped on to make the situation more complex, creating even more outrageous avenues for exploitation. the game is not balanced, but it does seem to be designed with unfair as the starting point. unfair battles, not surprising, require a player to utilize numerous exploits to survive boss battles, and the most challenging encounters on unfair is either at the lowest levels (where the player has the fewest character development options) or ambushes which preclude prebuffing. have seen time and again when boardies complain 'bout the stat bloat of bosses and use unfair as the measure, but the players who know owlcat's version of pathfinder, and all the item and spell exploits, is maybe a bit challenged by unfair boss battles. check out the innumerable unfair boss fight battle videos available online if you are criminally bored. baphomet, deskari, inevitable darkness and near any boss you care to name may be dispatched within a couple rounds on unfair by players who do not even bother with min-maxing, just so long as they understand what stacks and what exploits exist. example: the spectral minotaur guardian you mention is a declawed **** cat for a party which includes a skald capable o' providing massive partywide ab bonuses as well as the bane of spirit ring. 'course why would a casual player know how op is bane of spirit or how to use skalds to roll stomp through melee? the game were designed for the people who wanna beat unfair, and the game is only a smidge o' a challenge for those people 'cause the game suffers from ridiculous effective exploits. additionally, wotr and kingmaker enjoy some kinda "hardcore" reputation and the fanbase actual defends the bassackwards scaling implemented in the pathfinder titles. if battles are too tough, then you just didn't bother to learn the nuances of the system and that is on you... says teh rehul fans. the problem is the challenges is scaled down from unfair. playful darkness and demon lords present the exact same challenges and have the same powers on unfair as core, but core reduces hp, saves and attribute scores. a player facing core playful darkness is therefore needing embrace many o' the same exploits as the player facing an unfair playful darkness. wotr unnecessarily punishes casual players. wotr difficulty scaling is not necessary, but the approach is undeniably simple to implement and as wotr fans actual defend the curious approach as a feature rather than a flaw, owlcat has zero motivation to change their approach. am not saying the game is devoid o' fun. given the number o' hours we have invested in the title, such a position would be bordering on the insane. nevertheless, the title has multiple serious narrative and mechanics flaws in addition to the fact the difficulty scaling is the result o' lazy design which unnecessarily punishes many owlcat customers. HA! Good Fun!

Gromnir's three unbreakables: thou shalt not engage in time travel other than mundane, linear and unidirectional. thou shalt not make bargains with your soul as consideration. thou shalt not accept boons granted by magical entities or items. admitted, have only had the opportunity to apply one o' the aforementioned, but our resolve is firm insofar as all three. ordinarily we try and hold to the unbreakables even in games. HA! Good Fun!

made french onion dip. the thing is, as we collected ingredients, we discovered we only had half of a good yellow onion due to a bad spot as well as a bunch o' red onions. figured the taste o' the reduced onion slurry wouldn't be much different with red onion as opposed to yellow, but did have concerns regarding the eventual color o' the dip. we will not be using red onion in the future to substitute when making french onion dip. the onions took on a bilious shade o' purple as 'posed to dark golden brown. is nothing wrong with the taste, but am suspecting when the mixture cools and we add mayo, sour cream, garlic powder and white pepper to finish, the hue o' the dip will be... disconcerting. oh well. live and learn. edit: ok, we didn't expect that outcome. once we added sour cream, mayo, garlic powder and white pepper, the fugly purple-yellow disappeared almost complete. looks fine. tastes great. will be better tomorrow. HA! Good Fun!

am mindful o' the fact that just 'cause a person is almost entire wrong, they could still have a point... might even be right. what we mean is that while the gen z women who shared the tiktok vid had bogus numbers leading to fundamental flawed conclusions, she were at least partly correct that recent college grads is facing new and difficult challenges. yeah, am so not getting the intransigence o' many gen z college grads to take jobs which they deem to be offering insulting remuneration. wtf is that about? even so, the aforementioned student loan issues coupled with housing costs which have outstripped inflation by a significant degree (just to name a couple o' the many problems faced by gen z) means that in spite o' the fact new grads is making more money in inflation adjusted dollars than did gen x or boomers, youngsters like the tiktok poster is having future prospects significant diminished from previous generations. am understanding the frustration o' gen z. yeah, immigrants to the US from india, taiwan and nigeria are no doubt baffled by the woe-is-me tales o' gen z. 'course gen x woe-is-me stories were equal confusing to russian and mexican immigrants. some things never change. when maga cultists, entitled gen z brats, or new england patriot fans spout off and is objective wrong 'bout facts it becomes ez to dismiss 'em. at such times we need remind self that while the gen z and maga folks is preternatural wrong, their frustration is real and the anger they feel is not gonna disappear 'cause they were fact checked. 'course on the obsidian message board we ain't genuine trying to achieve dialectic in most cases and we have zero empathy for patriots fans. we never claimed to be a saint. HA! Good Fun!

less funny but similar. were a tiktok video which went viral for five minutes earlier this year https://scoop.upworthy.com/college-student-explains-why-it-is-so-hard-for-young-graduates-to-find-jobs 'course gen x had to show up and be gen x. were dozens o' folks who actual lived during the 80s explaining that karen's reality take o' the 80s weren't... real. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d07/tables/dt07_381.asp adjusted for inflation starting income for college grads has actual increased since the 80s, and the suggestion entry-level bank tellers were making $36k per year in 1980 were derided by more than a few old people who chose to respond to the creator o' the tik tok. is not to say things were more difficult for college grads in the 80s. student debt, for example, were a far different beast when parachute pants was a thing than it is today. am also sympathetic to the painful realization for too many that their 2023 communications degree from csu chico is not gonna open many doors, much less $80k per year jobs. young people were sold a fantasy 'bout the benefits o' a college degree which were never complete true but is far less true today than were the case in the 80s. regardless, while the tiktok video itself were not particular interesting, we were genuine fascinated (not surprised) by how different gen x, millennials and gen z audiences responded to the vid. HA! Good Fun!

solution from +6 months previous to today: it is possible to rest at threshold. so, rest for the needed months at threshold. your crusade morale will drop for failure to take new forts, but w/o reentering the world map you won't suffer additional army attacks. functionally there is no penalty for low morale if you never leave threshold while advancing the calendar. HA! Good Fun!

as am getting older, am aware o' our advancing decrepitude, but 8ish pushups for a s'posed fit 69 year-old man is not particular impressive. is within presumptive average range and nowhere near newsworthy. https://steelsupplements.com/blogs/steel-blog/how-many-push-ups-should-you-be-able-to-do am also pretty sure rfk jr. has already had hip or knee replacement surgery... which is so utter beside the point when a s'posed Presidential candidate is promoting the theory that chemicals in our water is turning kids trans. for chrissakes, how is that kinda thing (and hardly a solitary example o' lunacy from rfk jr.) not an obvious disqualifier for voters? post covid US is a scary place. edit: after all the major SCOTUS rulings is known, we will offer thoughts: moore v. harper (elections), counterman v. colorado (first amendment), US v. TX (immigration/deportation), haaland v. brackeen (indigenous people adoptions), sackett v. epa (clean water), allen v. milligan (redistricting and race), students for fair admission v. harvard v unc (affirmative action), biden v. nebraska (student loans),creative llc v. elanis (gay wedding website/first amendment), groff v dejoy (employer duty to provide time off for sabbath). bold = waiting on decision. HA! Good Fun!

maybe he is like cable from the x-men, but instead o' suffering from a teachno organic virus, rfk jr. is bat crap crazy. RFK Jr.’s reign of error: Correcting the record about yet another false claim he just made https://scottlilienfeld.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/bowes2020.pdf In conclusion, our findings paint a multifaceted, albeit still hazy, portrait of the modal conspiracy-prone individual. A mixture of narcissism and undue intellectual certainty, on the one hand, conjoined with poor impulse control, angst, interpersonal alienation, and reduced inquisitiveness, on the other hand, may provide a personological recipe for a tendency to | BOWES et al. 13 impetuously latch on to spurious but confidently held causal narratives that account for one’s distress and resentment. To the persons fitting this portrait, positing a world populated by malevolent actors hatching secret plots may be comforting, as it may afford at least a partial explanation for their otherwise inexplicable negative emotions. From the standpoint of cognitive dissonance theory (Festinger, 1962), it may be psychologically easier to invoke an external attribution, in this case, a conspiratorial worldview, to account for one’s dissatisfaction than to posit an internal attribution. Such individuals may not see a compelling reason to double-check their intuitions because they are certain that they are correct. additives in the drinking water turning kids trans? wifi is melting your brain? the guy is a walking, talking cry for help but some have decided he is a reasonable political alternative? okie dokie. anywho, perhaps rfk jr. works out not to increase pushup count but to keep his demons from dragging him deeper into the abyss. you and Gromnir cannot see the infernal beasts which is forever howling in his ears and worming through his brain. we see a guy not able to manage ten pushups, but that is 'cause is impossible for us to perceive yog-sothoth pressing down on rfk jr. HA! Good Fun!

jeff beck were a big fan o' stevie wonder and writes superstition with stevie in mind, but beck were s'posed to release his version first. record label has different ideas and decides stevie wonder version is first. the rest is history. so, technical, stevie wonder's version is the cover. another song from a previous post, but the following might not be recognized... unless you listen to at least 2:10 ... one more from jamerson, 'cause it ain't possible to have too much jamerson HA! Good Fun!

'cause in our head, everything has a 1960s or 70s movie soundtrack accompaniment. HA! Good Fun!

am not gonna claim we heard the ghost o' james jamerson, but that were fun and there were groovy bass. edit: might as well add another cover edit 2: we can't tease jamerson w/o adding at least one song HA! Good Fun!

you already got the tyke pushing a lawnmower to earn his keep? am shocked and impressed. who knows, by this winter you may have free snow removal service for your driveway. kidding. even archie bunker probable waited until meathead's eyeballs reached lawnmower handle height. 'course back then as often as not the hardest part were getting those briggs and stratton mower engines to turn over. HA! Good Fun!

now you are sudden worried about russian nukes? rich. HA! Good Fun!

fun fact: the brady handgun violence prevention act of 1993 were the origin o' the requirement for purchasers o' firearms to truthful fill out form 4473. hunter's weapon purchase crime were not being truthful 'bout his drug addiction when filling out form 4473. again, the question he failed to answer truthful were 'bout drug addiction and not conviction o' a drug crime. from a practical perspective, prosecution for failure to disclose drug addiction is near impossible (edit: "near impossible" might be too strong, but extreme rare or ordinarily prohibitive would be appropriate. splitting hairs.) 'cause in most cases such evidence is gonna be protected by medical privacy laws. https://www.npr.org/2021/04/05/983385027/hunter-biden-says-his-family-never-gave-up-on-him so, hunter writes a book which provides the feds with the evidence they would never otherwise have to prosecute him. ... oh, and btw, joe biden were the chairman o' the senate judiciary committee back in 93/94 and while chuck shumer and bill clinton deserve most credit for the brady bill becoming law, biden stood literal just behind clinton when the President announced and signed the legislation. biden were instrumental in making the brady handgun violence prevention act of 1993 a law. people brought low by hubris and coincidence. somehow feels as if the situation were the plot to a dickens novel, albeit a bad dickens novel. aside: fox is always good for the alt-view. fox folks championing the cause o' kodak black? https://www.miaminewtimes.com/music/a-timeline-of-kodak-blacks-arrests-alleged-crimes-and-other-legal-troubles-11178496 minorities frequent do suffer from a two-tier justice system, but the weapon charge for kodak black were maybe not the best example o' a miscarriage o' justice by the feds. ignore for a moment his lengthy rap sheet and focus on only the fed related weapon charges for kodak black from 2019. "Kodak Black and three others were apprehended by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents while trying to cross into Canada from New York. He was found with a Glock 9mm pistol and marijuana and was taken to the Niagara County Jail. "He paid the $20,000 to $40,000 bond and then walked out of the jail with a fan of cash covering his face. "Then, less than a month later, he was arrested on weapons charges in Miami. Just before he was set to take the stage at the hip-hop music festival Rolling Loud, he was apprehended by U.S. marshals for state and federal firearms violations following what was described as an “extensive investigation.” "The federal charge arose from an instance in which the rapper allegedly lied about the status of his criminal cases when he filled out official paperwork for a gun purchase." TWO separate weapon related arrests in one month? kodak black deserved at least three years for being a criminal knucklehead. HA! Good Fun!

part ii o' the trump interview has fewer, oh my god, he is so going to prison moments. as such am suspecting it will disappoint, but there is more than a few excerpts which should become part o' the permanent lexicon o' essential trumpism. am wondering if that is how chinese history is gonna be taught in red states schools if trump is elected? (<-sarcasm) HA! Good Fun!

our money is on current suretors withdraw meaning george would needs find another source o' cash for bail or risk pre-trial incarceration. we got no special insights save the recognition the suretors has been working hard to keep their identities secret thus far. HA! Good Fun!

agree. from a post Gromnir on april fools, 2022 when @Darkpriest did same as key: hunter biden is relevant... again? why? is a serious question. for years now hunter has been a known train wreck. the reason why the laptop weren't a real story is not so much 'cause o' the russian disinformation angle but 'cause o' same reasons it weren't a story october 2020-- the fbi and bill barr had been in possession o' the "laptop from hell" since november 2019 and nothing came o' it. the worst laptop photos and emails from the laptop were already leaked a long time past and we discovered *gasp* that hunter biden has bad selfie discipline and had involved himself in all kinda get-rich-quick schemes with foreign business entities. thank goodness nobody were electing hunter. if joe biden had given hunter top security clearance and made him part o' the day-to-day operations o' the wh, then there would be a story, or at least you would think so. never happened. know what also never happened? the trump doj under barr never found anything on hunter other than possible tax evasion, for which hunter is still being investigated and should not be getting off the hook. you think the trump administration woulda' looked the other way if there were anything else? pre 2020 election some folks in the media were too quick to dismiss a story 'bout hunter biden as complete fake. the thing is, "fake" weren't the problem. the fail o' the story is same now as then 'cause the october surprise is still not particular relevant save for the recognition that hunter is a mess. am no more surprised by that revelations in 2022 than we were in 2020. and from three years past and is others who here didn't know hunter were a trainwreck? has anybody been claiming the tax and gun stuff were manufactured? and just as with the stoopid hunter painting sale, such issues were known to everybody so is not as if the info were blackmail material which could be used as leverage against joe biden. but already we got at least one poster trying to move the goal posts? is a half dozen times when Gromnir said exact same things, pointing out that unless there were some evidence o' a grand conspiracy linking the ukrainians or chinese to The Big Guy, which seemed increasing unlikely after bill barr and the trump admin couldn't find nothing, as well as multiple years o' silence from any relevant or reputable justice source since the laptop were first discovered, then the hunter story is no more significant today then it were when Gromnir mentioned in 2020 or 2021 or 2022. nevertheless, 'cause the result is indeed as insignificant as we prognosticated, such is proof o'... what exactly? so, for the people who is sudden outraged at the hunter story, show us the receipts. go back the past few years and reveal how you were always enraged 'bout tax evasion and an illegal weapon possession. show how when Gromnir brushed off the story as relative insignificant, you stood up for the rule of law and pointed out how vital to the national interest were the story o' hunter's tax evasion. funny, but this were only a story just so long as no charges were brought. one could say that hunter were getting away with something 'cause he were the son o' the President. is no longer possible to argue the two-tiered justice angle. hunter charges will be big news for conspiracy nutters and the breitbart fans, but in a few days they will go back to asking 'bout burisma and The Big Guy email precise 'cause this story were nothing... and exact the same nothing as in 2020, 2021, 2022. so it goes HA! Good Fun! ps as usual, the significant part o' the story is not being covered. hunter, according to his lawyers, is no longer the subject o' an ongoing criminal investigation. means hunter and the doj may be called before Congress to discuss... whatever. IF investigation is complete over, that is kinda bad news for the gop diehards who has been trying to prop up the zombie burisma issue for a few years. 'course is gonna be a circus when doj and hunter is subpoenaed by the weaponization committee *snort* to testify.

let's say you receive a subpoena from a grand jury requesting that you provide all examples of X from your residence at Y, and you is given a time limit o' Z days in which to comply. you are an old guy living in florida and 'tween golfing and your dj hobby, is just so little time to complete the search before Z days will have elapsed. out of the following, which response to the subpoena request seems to be the most ill-advised? 1) you are old, so you decide to take a nap and hope the problem goes away. 2) personal or through your attorneys, challenge the validity of the subpoena while simultaneous attempting to meet the Z days deadline. 3) request additional time from the court to complete your search while simultaneous attempting to meet the Z days deadline. 4) hide multiple examples of X from both the court and your own attorneys and then lie to the court certifying that every example o' X at Y has indeed been returned. *eye roll* is lawyers at every news outlet who is offering their expertise regarding the cases 'gainst trump, but a few o' the most significant aspects o' the cases do not require any legal training to puzzle out where trump blundered. aside, is not getting the attention deserved. is not a criminal trial, but it is likely to serve as a preview o' defenses made in a federal january 6 trial o' eastman... and his co-conspirators. HA! Good Fun!

finished watching the brett baier interview with trump. highlights for those interested trump really should take oj's advice and stop speaking about the case. for the constant evolving team trump, it were gonna be difficult to defend their client... yesterday. is more difficult today. HA! Good Fun!

in recognition of juneteenth. is still work to do. HA! Good Fun!

you are not alone re: indiana jones. our first post 'bout the lamplighters league we will observe the game is leaning hard into elements o' cthulhu mythology, so given the overall aesthetic o' lamplighters, perhaps add in hellboy as inspiration? HA! Good Fun!

ps the lamplighters league release is listed as october 3, 2023. pre-order is available via steam. HA! Good Fun!

https://www.facebook.com/socientifica/videos/carl-sagan-escuridão/684624558370639/ carl sagan narration were the best part o' the trailer, which is not a criticism. HA! Good Fun!

and HA! Good Fun!