Gromnir

am ordinary quick to jump on the bandwagon to criticize owlcat, but some o' the pain you feel is self inflicted, and another portion is the result o' pretending pathfinder pnp and owlcat pathfinder crpg is analogous. only being level six in leper's scar is requiring you to skip over considerable content, which is a perfect ok approach, but is also your choice. if a battle is seeming serious tough but you ain't level'd as much as possible and you skipped over content which likely provides useful power boosting loot, then you do have options to improve your odds, no? also, we wish folks would quit with the pnp level/power comparisons. in pnp the game is balanced for four person parties and not six, so throw out some o' the level math, yes? heck, if you got animal companions the wotr maths is even more broken as you may be mounted on horses capable o' traversing ladders. with reload plus adventurer gear shops aplenty, is no reason to be without scrolls and potions which is gonna serious buff your party, advantages magnified by your perfect clairvoyance which allows you to see all foe buffs and abilities. reload means even if you die once or twice, you may redo knowing exact how the battle is gonna unfold. ignore the numbers. HA! Good Fun!

am knowing many posters have an allergic reaction to any fox story or link, but this one is worth your couple minutes of time. https://www.foxnews.com/video/6331366651112 "ok, i knew this was a bad idea." HA! Good Fun!

could be a misunderstanding, but there is three separate treasure of the midnight isles quests/chains before a final boss encounter. tracking, chase and prey is our recollection o' quest titles. what you reference is likely your second run o' the prey chain o' islands, but if not... HA! Good Fun!

am only a midling fan o' star talk as topics is dumbed down a bit too much, but we always check to see who is the guest 'cause frequent there is win. case in point, am rare turning down a chance to hear michio kaku though you are gonna get better quantum computing feedback than from this video. even so, is always worth a looksee and so we do. we also regular check out berkeley lectures series lunch poems series is worth the time but am admitting we only got an average ear for poetry. in addition to the oppenheimer lectures, we ordinary catch the nimitz speakers. two others: the linus pauling memorial lecture series and for something a bit different edit: in the unlikely event @Amentep @ShadySands or other trek fans have an urge to watch the leonard susskind video, am offering a word o' caution 'cause the stanford professor tangential points out how a few o' the scifi theories which is cornerstones o' trek lore are unsupportable based on current understandings o' quantum mechanics and general relativity. HA! Good Fun!

aside, if you watch the vid in the linked thread where josh speaks about poe health/stamina you might be confused by the wound binding and field triage talents... though is doubtful many recall such board kerfuffles at this point. field triage in particular were almost useless beyond extreme early game. the poe goal o' no bad builds and no trash talents, spells or weapons were a smidge undermined by the existence o' release version field triage and wound binding. 'course is worth recollecting those talents were only added extreme late in development and 'cause so many backers howled 'bout the absence o' health recovery outside o' rest. obsidian threw players a bone and doing so resulted in a couple poe talents which were arguable trash and is doubtful many chose voluntarily. however, am gonna observe how field triage received a serious boost post release, restoring a % o' health as 'posed to a flat 50, which made it so kana were no longer stuck with a useless talent. even so, improving field triage were most assured functional running counter to the thematic rationale for no health heals for poe. for developers, health/stamina fixes were a damned if you do and damned if you don't conundrum which resulted in a thorough unsatisfactory solution which made few happy. cautionary tale. HA! Good Fun!

rare agree with kp, but this observation is valid. pathfinder, and owlcat's particular take on pathfinder, has so much utter trash spells, feats and even classes that it is easy to see why players unfamiliar with pathfinder would/could become frustrated. how many times has people in this thread alone been cautioned that their announced weapon or feat choice were objective bad? more than a couple. nevertheless, when the owlcat boards were still relative active the groupthink reflexive and beyond reason defended the existence o' trash as a feature o' wotr. unlike poe, wotr were not balanced into sterility, or somesuch. as for health/stamina... we personal don't get most complaints other than the fact it were different, but sometimes different is enough to make it unpalatable. so, no, stamina/health were not added just to create a more complex alternative to d&d health... and you not need read very far in the linked thread to see the developers were genuine dismayed that people were confused by stamina/health. were multiple thematic reasons for health/stamina as well as a stated goal to eliminate the perceived need for a healbot in the party. however, it don't matter what were the goals o' the developers if such didn't work with players. for Gromnir, health/stamina didn't go far enough as we were o' the opinion magic casting shoulda' also had a stamina cost which would prevented constitution from being ignored by casters and woulda' helped balance the relative op status o' priests in the original game. converse, most folks just never embraced the notion that health were not ordinarily addressed by magic and mundane rest were the only way to replenish that derived attribute... too different from other crpgs even if it weren't genuine complex. regardless, few were the purchasers o' poe who were happy or even satisfied with health/stamina, so am thinking it is fair to call it a fail even if the reasons it were a fail were different from individual and regardless o' the fact obsidian were not implementing just to punish players with unnecessary complexity. HA! Good Fun!

'bout five days past we made a big batch o' our ez insta pot carnitas as well as a significant portion o' texas red chill. is no more snow peas from the local farm and we just didn't have a hankering for more corn at the moment, so instead we bought a fair amount o' broccoli and spinach from a sooper market figuring we could make a bunch a salads and perhaps steam the broccoli as needed. we also have quarts o' a variety o' frozen soup which could be defrosted at need. given the temperatures this past week (the high today will be 110F and will maybe get down into mid 70s overnight,) we didn't wanna do any cooking other than microwave. nevertheless, am having gone to the fridge a half dozen times today as if expecting something new to appear 'cause we don't want anything we got and we can't bring our self to cook. tired o' salads. everything we wanna do with the remaining carnitas involves additional cooking. the chili mysterious disappeared. gremlins. musta been gremlins who ate enough chili to feed a battalion. etc. we do have an impressive stack o' homemade watermelon popsicles in our freezer. to make we combined, pureed and froze watermelon, lime juice as well as a bit o' sugar and mint 'cause the early season watermelon were kinda meh. as such am functional doing an experiment to see if am able to survive on popsicles for the next two days. ... anybody recall the miniseries, the pacific? HA! Good Fun!

irony? we don't take personal, but you making the accusation is indeed trying to shift away from discussion o' game issues to personal. bad form mate. wanna discuss how wotr or kingmaker, games which is so generic they could be set in greyhawk or forgotten realms with only minor adjustments, is somehow counter examples to the sterility o' eora and its take on zelazny's lord of light + animancy? am admitted baffled by the suggestion d&d/pathfinder repetitive prebuffing ritual, which may literal be eliminated via mods, is also evidence o' poe sterility. kinda bass ackwards, no? how 'bout explaining just what makes eora "towards" low fantasy or low magic? am not sure if there is an objective measure for what makes a magic item interesting, but we will discuss such and the aforementioned all day, even if you don't like when we call out obvious misstatements or obfuscation. however, if all you wanna do is bemoan what a meanie is Gromnir, then... HA! Good Fun!

so why wrap up in vague sterility and swiss watch observations? "towards" low fantasy? *chuckle* serious? is not gonna emasculate you to admit the real issue is the powha gulf... though if this is your roundabout way o' doing so, then good enough. HA! Good Fun!

people will twist selves in knots to avoid saying, i hate how my character feels less powerful. many gamers sneer at the munchkin label, so is understandable folks will go to comical lengths to not admit they want moar powhaz. example: poe is hardly low magic. robert e. howard's conan setting? sure. martin's game o' thrones? yup. poe is low magic compared to d&d forgotten realms, but no reasonable person is gonna list eora as low magic. and how many readers o' the hour of the dragon would ever describe the setting as sterile due to lack o' magic and groovy-kewl items? few? any? funny part is, compared to bg, iwd, and ps:t, the 1007 in poe were having more developed histories and more unique powers, in addition to a crafting system which meant you wouldn't need ditch a nifty item after a few levels 'cause it were no longer powerful enough to be worth equipping. poe were more dynamic by far insofar as magic gear compared to the ie games referenced in the kickstarter... which am gonna repeat again were only bg, iwd and ps:t. speaking o' dynamic, note how those qualities you see as positives in favor o' poe, features meant to exorcise mindless ritual and stoopid rng reloads, is reimagined by sarex as examples o' sterility... which makes perfect sense if you change definition o' sterile to mean that your character feels less powerful. can't prebuff making self immune to near any potential effect as well as raising hit chance/accuracy to levels is impossible to miss. can't reroll a few timez to get the ideal result from a dialogue or skill check. etc. suggestion: reread "sterile" as a condemnation o' the relative poe character weakness compared to expectations one has when playing d&d or pathfinder titles. however, keep in mind we ain't saying there is anything wrong with players wanting to indulge their power fantasies through a crpg avatar. the most broken aspect o' wotr is the mythics, but am hardly surprised when we read or view online critiques o' wotr which opine that the mythics were the best part o' wotr, after all, the mythics make your knight commander a unique ÜBERMENSCH. wotr, ps:t and bg went all-in on making the protagonist unique and powerful... although edwin had serious advantages no bg mage could replicate, which predictable led to complaints. in poe and deadfire, the watcher were unlikely to be noticeable superior (heroic) compared to companions and a few o' the companions could be objective better at certain roles than could a watcher. example: pallegina had arguable the best paladin powha for those wishing to do damage. we read more than one post on the poe/deadfire boards which observed the existence o' pallegina made players not wanna play a paladin. regardless, without prebuffing and various degenerative gameplay exploits, poe characters arguable felt less powerful, particular as the system were new and often opaque which meant poe players didn't realize just how strongk they could be. didn't matter though 'cause for a poe protagonist it were only possible to have a couple buffs on a party and frequent a good outcome against a powerful opponent were reliable grazes... feel weak were the problem. obsidian never claimed poe would be an idealized bg 2.5 or bg3, but such were what many expected. am suspecting for many the "can't quite articulate," dissatisfaction with poe is largely tied to an aspect few would ever wish to admit: player powha... and is nothing wrong with that, but few will admit. instead we get complaints o' sterility and swiss watches. HA! Good Fun!

as we noted earlier in the thread, "most" situations is gonna use party scores to check for skill checks. that ain't always the case. is a few outliers. so spin the wheel to predict which checks is personal v. party. HA! Good Fun!

playful darkness is not immune to fear effects. however, playful darkness does have greater heroism active at the start o' battle. you need to dispel the critter's greater heroism if you wanna intimidate playful darkness. in pnp pathfinder there is actual disagreement as to whether immunity to magical fear effects should provide a defense to intimidation. am suspecting owlcat initial took the "bravery" approach to pathfinder intimidation for wotr, which explains why the wotr vavakia vanguards were functional world beaters in the early release o' the game with only mindless undead and paladins seeming able to resist their intimidation efforts. likewise, playful darkness was not resistant to intimidation for near a year after the initial release o' wotr. unsolicited advice: if you wanna go the intimidation route, which remains highly effective, be sure to look for greater heroism and the like when fighting bosses. being able to see all opponent buffs is a HUGE player advantage in the crpg version o' wotr. HA! Good Fun!

*chuckle* am pretty certain the first video o' a solo kill o' the adra dragon via path o' the damned were a rogue, so... the problem insofar as s'posed weak poe classes were with a new system people failed to understand that a poe rogue were so not like rogues from d&d or pathfinder. greatest initial outrage during the beta for poe were related to the fighter, which just kinda stood in the middle o' combat and soaked up damage. everybody knows fighters do damage in combat. the poe paladin were having little in common with a bg2 paladin being more o' a support class. most crpgs has weak arcane spellcasters at low levels who then become world beaters mid-to-late game, but that weren't the case for poe as wizards started out middling powerful and kinda stayed at middle of the pack; effective but not overwhelming. if you wanted to play a poe barbarian, your most important attribute were intelligence? what? that can't be right. that doesn't feel right. etc. one o' the obvious mistakes the poe developers made were only obvious after the fact: class nomenclature created false expectations. make a game which is meant to appeal to ie fans, then create poe classes with the same names as ie classes which have attributes and roles extreme different from ie norms ain't gonna work for many fans. also, while poe2 addressed the feedback issue, poe combats were frenetic, confusing and often unsatisfactory. spell effects tended to be overwhelming particular when stacked so it were difficult to see what were happening during fights, and even if you had the game literal pause after every player or enemy action, it were difficult to decipher why a specific combat action were a success or a fail. were a party wipe the result o' rng or were it bad tactics/strategy? poe were a new system and so combat transparency shoulda' been a premium concern for developers. wasn't. note to developers: do not make your audience feel stoopid or impotent. also, as a new ip with no voluminous print history to draw 'pon, the developers were gonna necessarily be offering... less. each monster in poe were new. oh sure, poe ogres were kinda like d&d ogres (but not. we got serious slobberknockered by the ogre druid in the endless paths third level... took more than one try to get past that battle,) but it weren't as if obsidian could just port d20 stats for ogres into their new system. everything in poe were needed having start from scratch. not surprising, the diversity o' spells and monsters and everything else were a bit limited compared to bg2 or even iwd. predictable, poe felt smaller than d&d games o' similar duration. etc. however, sarex complaints is exact what were the problem for obsidian, 'cause while am sure his issues is heartfelt, they is so utter vague and ambiguous there is nothing actionable for the developer. so sarex wanted poe to be more septic and less like rolex and more like... timex? what? as feedback the developers rare got anything more than sarex kinda complaints, or stuff such as we see from kp and shady. which is not a criticism o' sarex, kp or shady. fans don't need articulate exact why they prefer chocolate to vanilla. the non specific complaints o' poe is real and represent obsidian fails to satisfy their customers. even so, not swiss watch and "i can't quite articulate," criticisms is difficult to address. 'course for deadfire the developers did exact opposite o' what the funding response suggested were a likely outcome for deadfire. the fig campaign brought in buckets o' money, but there were far fewer people contributing money for deadfire than were the case o' poe. for deadfire the developers doubled-down on distancing from d20, seeming to choose an appeal to those people who already liked poe as 'posed to trying to grow the hardcore base they had built. fig funding results shoulda' been a huge warning sign for the developers but instead they spent far more money creating a game with necessarily more narrow appeal. doomed from the start. poe was most certain not bg 2.5 or bg3. that were the game's biggest shortcoming. poe did combat different and classes different and it awarded xp different, which mighta' been ok, but fans not only believed they had been sold an ie game "spiritual successor," but the game had all the trappings and even the visuals o' the ie games while it felt to many as if the developers were unabashed crushing player expectations. there were no holy avenger or crom feyr in poe. min/max didn't have anywhere near the same payoff in poe as d&d or pathfinder, so subjective good builds didn't look much different from mediocre builds. there were a couple overpowered abilities and spells in poe, but the obsidian developers kept nerfing such stuff. the nerve. a not d20 approach were fine given the hardcore fanbase obsidian had cultivated, but they needed to tailor their expectations to the reality that as they got further from an idealized bg2 successor, their purchasers would shrink. fig funding showed there were plenty o' interest in obsidian's new ip, but management clear overestimated their capacity to grow purchasers by doubling down on what seemed to cheese off kp, shady, sarex and so many others. is worth noting there is very few o' the hardcore poe fans, people who to this day continue to post on this board, contributing to this thread. obsidan curious didn't realize how with poe they had successful created a hardcore crpg fanbase which nevertheless had little overlap with people who wanted to play games such as kingmaker. obsidian spent far too much on deadfire. HA! Good Fun!

one of the gods eventual answers that exact question. so you only need wait a few dozen hours to get get your answer. however, keep in mind wotr ain't dostoyevsky. if you are expecting a good explanation, you will be disappointed. owlcat takes the anime approach and feeds you a plate full o' implausible exposition and then just kinda moves forward as quick as possible hopeful you won't dwell on the inadequacy o' their contrived explanation. an observation from captain obvious: wotr is an EPIC adventure in which mortals is the driving force in a conflict between vast and enigmatic cosmic forces. the main goal is to make the players feel important and powerful and not to reveal heretofore hidden or unrealized truths about the human condition. hoonding's character is vital and the answer you seek need only confirm that necessity. HA! Good Fun!

we got an early edition o' charlie and the chocolate factory tucked away in our attic. the oompa loompas were original written as african pygmies who worked as slaves in the factory and were "paid" for their services in coca beans. is not as if the book were written in the 1700s, so is hardly a surprise roald dahl took some heat from groups such as the naacp, although it were the movie production which sparked most criticism. the 71 movie oompa loompas were orange o' skin and green o' hair 'cause o' the aforementioned outrage. to his credit, roald dahl did change the oompa loompas in subsequent editions o' his novel recognizing that his original depiction were, at best, cultural insensitive. early 1970s wokeism? not a bad thing. just imagine how cringey the hugh grant scene from the trailer would be if it were an african pygmy under the glass jar. next to mr. bean, willy wonka is 'bout the most english character evar and to have yet another american actor take on the role is curious... albeit no less odd than juaquin phoenix playing napolean in an almost entirely english production o' a movie 'bout the famous french general and emperor. yet another willy wonka movie elicits from us the following predictable reaction: however, while am not at all interested in wonka, we will observe timothée chalamet is an excellent actor. am looking forward to future timothée chalamet performances. am just not interested in a willie wonka prequel movie. HA! Good Fun!

there has been a few changes with the azata mythic boss since release. original his ac were in the 40s. people understandably complained 'bout what a pushover he were in spite o' his massive levels. yeah, every round he would do a mass summons and unleash fire spells which did irresistible divine damage, but with the comical low ac the battle were kinda a joke. am pretty sure that initial ac were a bug 'cause after a few patches he were buffed a bit. maybe owlcat overcompensated? HA! Good Fun!

and HA! Good Fun!

the other day we complete blanked on gene hackman's name. we could name a large percentage o' his films and we recalled his usmc service and his brief time at the university o' illinois. we 'mebered how mr. hackman's mother were canadian and that the last film he did before he quit acting were welcome to mooseport. etc. just couldn't recall his name. we referred to our memory fail a "senior moment." a house guest responded by observing how our blanking on gene hackman were no big deal, but that if we started leaving our keys in the fridge we should begin to worry. HA! Good Fun!

is not 'bout the burden of the ordinance. if you have ever worked the kinda job where such rules is applied, you know there is often a tension 'tween workers and management regarding perceived laziness. from management pov, a ten minute break becomes fifteen or twenty in practice and a half hour lunch break is forty-five minutes in reality. every concession owners and management makes, workers find ways to exploit, or so goes the narrative... and is not complete untrue neither. is a perception that workers is always the exploited and owners is money grubbing capitalists, but truth is that american small business is predictable more likely failing or barely surviving. running a small construction or landscape maintenance company in the economy o' the last couple decades is probable gonna involve many sleepless nights and worries over money. a couple ten minute breaks during the increasing brutal summers in much o' the US is likely insufficient and am expecting most employers is gonna have those big ten-gallon yellow igloo water jugs available so workers may hydrate as needed instead o' just twice a day + lunch. only a couple water breaks during the day for roofers on +100 degree days in arizona, california and west texas would result in mass heat stroke issues. however, am thinking the existence o' the ordinance in question suggests more than one employer in austin were not being reasonable. you get ordinances like the one in austin 'cause more than one employer is routine doing unreasonable. HA! Good Fun!

in more than a few red states in danger o' going purple or blue in the near future, the us v. them polarization has resulted in banal differences regarding policy being transformed into perceived existential crisis. IF the localities is houston or austin, then the unstated problem being addressed is not so much some kinda generalized push for deregulation but rather a need to hold the line against the tyranny of the libs. it's not about railroad safety, mandatory breaks for construction workers or even mask ordinances during a global pandemic. texas is protecting its liberty loving citizenry from what comes next, 'cause if you don't stop local governments and their democratic elected representatives from passing common sense ordinances to keep people from dropping from heat stroke or heat exhaustion, tomorrow those same cities and municipalities will be trying to come and take your bibles or your guns. they will create reeducation facilities for adults who do not comply with their authoritarianism and school curriculum will be perverted to indoctrinate youth so that the battle for tomorrow will already be won. etc. malcador sees big state government imposing an unreasonable restriction on localities who wish to prevent their non union workers from being harmed and requiring otherwise unnecessary and expensive medical and emergency service attention. is unlikely the original ordinance were passed in a vacuum, so one is left to wonder how many austin employers were taking the oliver twist approach to employee safety and welfare such that the city felt the need to pass such a common sense rule, yes? even so, the inevitable sacrifice o' a few construction workers is a small price to pay in the texan war on tyranny. HA! Good Fun!

but he does start with a summons. the sciroccos and other stuff technical happen after the summons and may be interrupted in rtwp. am knowing most folks seem to think this battle is easier in tb, but is possible to utter emasculate him in rtwp. have done the battle multiple times for azata and aeon routes and thus far he always started with summons and chances are he don't get any other action if you rush him with a strong melee party. your own summons can be problematic as well as they lead to a potential charlie fox making it less likely your melee will reach and potential interrupt your opponent. sometimes less clutter is an advantage, or at least if you have a strong melee party. this battle is so not like playful darkness who is a melee engine o' destruction. summon a wall o' summons is less beneficial. you got a ranged and caster heavy party which as already noted is not ideal for this battle. the boss in question has a relative unimpressive ac and cmd. if you surround him with melee combatants who all have outflank and most of whom have ever ready, he should go down quick enough. if you are going court poet am understanding why your party is mostly casters + seelah, but there is nothing wrong with switching things up for this battle. for example, regill has high dex and with levels o' sacred huntsmaster you may stick him on a velociraptor or some other critter. aside, we did try and do the battle via an old azata save and we got a bug in spite o' no mods-- the boss in question has 3hp. he has 64 ac on core and with all buffs he gots a functional ac o' 72 on unfair, both o' which is zero challenge for our level 19 party, but he nevertheless has only 3hp and his caster level is presumable set at 1, so is kinda a pointless encounter in our game at the moment. will check an earlier azata save later to see if that is also bugged. weird. edit: fixed the bug did again on unfair and core and the battle is clear skewed in favor o' a party which is able to deal weapon damage asap. our party were lann (zenn archer/divine hunter with a velociraptor,) regill (got 12 levels o' sacred huntsmaster and a velociraptor,) ember as a fire spammer, sosiel with 1 level o' crossblood sorc to exploit ice spells (no madness domain, rides a boar) seelah with 1 level of sohei, and the main is a skald/crossblood sorc (18/1). no protective luck or fortune exploits. regill with his bane boosted gnome hook hammer and lann's velociraptor were co-mvps although the guarded hearth + mark of justice + skald bonuses were functional what were the winning formula and we would need to serious rethink our approach with a caster party. raptors has been nerfed considerable but a celestial raptor nevertheless provides significant damage potential for boss battles. ember died each time we did the fight on unfair but survived on core. boss ac on unfair with all buffs is actual 91 but that were not a genuine problem. additional late edit: if our game saves weren't so temporal remote, we definite would include ulbrig in a party to take on the particular boss in question. greyboar dishes out serious pain, but his precision damage is wasted in this battle and he is so slow, relative speaking. trever is not complete terrible, but he is also slow. we do not use camellia, but for most non ranged builds she is crit driven, although if you give her the metal curse her usefulness increases significant. arueshalae is ranged but her instant enemy + hunter's bond is gonna power up your entire party so she is a good choice in our opinion. even so, am thinking ulbrig and regill is obvious choices. HA! Good Fun!

is a tv theme which always comes to mind first when we think o' henry mancini. and lion in winter is our favorite christmas movie, so... 'cause it reminded us o' Gromnir family christmas. HA! Good Fun!

HA! Good Fun!

from one of our favorite soundtracks also, we realized how with every passing year, on her majesty's secret service moves up on our list o' favorite bond themes. were always top ten but somehow in spite o' more films, it is now a perennial top three. HA! Good Fun!

HA! Good Fun!