Gromnir

am recalling a few years ago we were seeing a job posting in oregon... or washington. am always getting the hippy states confused. listing were for psychiatrist applicants for state hospital(s). mongst preferred skills were the traditional multilingual aspect, but with one odd addition: klingon. 'ccording to an article we read in the months after seeing the job posing, a not insignificant number o' mental distressed patients communicated in klingon, and only in klingon. am not certain why, but we felt unexpected pity for rachel dolezal. not sympathy, but pity. so utter pathetic.

it would be so easy for jj to be a director whose movies we looked forward to. unfortunate, somewhere along the way jj learned how audiences, most audiences, will ignore details as long as they is distracted by spectacle. such a realization has him cutting corners in every film. internal coherence is not a priority for jj. events and situations do not need make any kinda... sense. am s'posing we could catalog all such instances o' jj nonsense, but would be tedious. is well documented enough to be a given at this point, no? ... have jj do movie 1 o' a trilogy is annoying for Gromnir, but is potential two movies to clean up at least some o' the mess he inevitable creates. have jj do movie 3 in a trilogy is a guarantee we will be disappointed. easy prediction: walk out o' theatre after a jj episode 9 will leave us thoroughly exhausted as an approximate two hour beating with the wtf club is a soul crushing experience. HA! Good Fun!

am not recalling making a suggestion regarding a change to poe wands or rods. sure, am thinking such implements is kinda silly, but from a game mechanics pov, they have use. poe rods and wands are alternatives to the otherwise obvious limited nature o' ranged weapon damage types: piercing. wands, scepters and rods (and as far as we know, a scepter is an ornamental rod) fulfill a practical game purpose and in spite o' the harry potter quality o' such implements, we see no reason to do otherwise than leave 'em as is. SOS staves. no mention o' the other implements. is more than enough pew-pew in the game and all possible damage types is already covered. no point to add staves. and yes, is a staff and not scarface's little friend. warning: a smidge sweary in all the lotr books, am not recalling gandalf doing pew-pew. the old wizard's staff produced light, but were not necessarily a function o' the staff. in fact, any overt magic gandalf used in all the books combined were extreme limited, and all less-than-subtle magics were at least potential attributable to his ring as 'posed to the wizard or his staff. not d&d. not lotr. not traditional for those claiming tradition. folks want scarface and not gandalf? fine. they already got the pew-pew with three other implements. SOS. HA! Good Fun!

thread is backwards. poe staves is pretty much like traditional d&d staves, no? can be used as a quarterstaff, but may have additional per-encounter or per-rest powhaz. rpg grognards would much recognize the poe staff. poe rods and wands is what is different from traditional rpg game roots. wands and rods get the pew-pew treatment. a d&d rod, depending on construction, were sometimes usable as a mace or club. as far as we recall, were never a ranged energy-based weapon with unlimited uses. whatever ranged capacity a d&d rod had were per-day or per-charge limited. wands were similar save there were almost never a weapon feature for wands... save for the dreaded wand o' force which inexplicably found its way into the possession o' many a wannabee d&d jedi. personal, the dragon age staves with endless pew-pew is what Gromnir finds wacky. too much harry potter in our rpg. so, make Gromnir the charter member o' SOS. save our staves. don't want no more harry potter silliness. keep staves as useful and traditional mundane weaponry but with the capacity to kick out the periodic (denotative use) fireball or lightning bolt for mages and druids n' such. ... perhaps add an in-game book which explains the failed attempt to add pew-pew to staves? repeated strikes 'gainst ground while walking or 'gainst other weapons and combatants resulted in inevitable explosive results. whatever powers rods and wands were found to be dangerous when added to a staff and so the experiment were abandoned after the inventor o' the pew-pew staff, and his apprentices, were all reduced to a state o' quasi-recognizable carbonized cadavers after short-term use o' their wonder staves resulted in brilliant immolation. only remaining pew-pew staves is pure decorative or ornamental. for funsies the developers could create a pew-pew staff to be discovered in a deadfire scientist or collector's possession, along with copy o' the aforementioned book o' the failed nature o' such. first attempted use o' the staff results in a fireball centered 'pon the user, and the destruction o' the staff. HA! Good Fun!

we would have assumed appearance change regardless but am not recalling specific mention of class change. do you have a source? HA! Good fun!

this were confirmed? haven't been 'round much o' late, but am recalling how not long ago the fixed attributes o' a transferred character from poe to deadfire were a query rather than a given. would transfer work as does respec or could a player change class or race or background? just curious. HA! Good Fun!

I almost wish he'd make a "fake" account and actually post on here as just some random theorycrafter, heh. am confident this happened, though not recent. there were a couple instances following poe release when a curiously knowledgeable poster with no posting history offered insights 'bout game features/classes which were not being enthusiastic embraced by the community. turn o' phrase and stylistic peculiarities made josh the likely sub-rosa Defender o' the Faith. HA! Good Fun!

am not certain who you are replying to, but we personal noted how we played and enjoyed our barbarian. however, our enjoyment o' our barbarian character(s) does not blind us to the flaws. we sure as heck didn't ask for obsidian to exorcise the barbarian from deadfire. heck, we don't even want genius barbarians to become implausible in deadfire. have noted multiple times how the problem, as we see it, is carnage. barbarian's carnage is a class defining ability which is heavily dependent on might and intellect, and intellect has curious value thresholds which make it far more likely for a knowledgeable player to choose to play their barbarian as a genius. is particular unfortunate as a player new to poe, and even many veteran players, will be unaware o' the intellect thresholds. put 16 into intellect? what a waste. am not asking for the barbarian to be removed or even for genius barbarians to be hamstrung. nevertheless we see how carnage, as a class defining ability, tends to diminish the functional customization potential of the barbarian. the carnage problem is glaring and irrefutable, but nevertheless we got players defending the flaw and developers using the "genius barbarian" as an example o' poe's customization flexibility. from our pov is a bizarro universe issue. doesn't make sense. HA! Good Fun!

anecdotal is never particular persuasive. is kinda traditional hereabouts to use singular examples and individual past experience as some kinda proof. is the math which reveals how intelligence at particular levels o' investment dramatic increase carnage efficacy. even boeroer notes "sweet spots" for intelligence investment. 1.5 m radius from the target is the base carnage aoe radius. intelligence and other equipment may expand (or reduce) the radius. a 7 intelligence, unmodified, results in a minus 18% to the base aoe radius. sure, with certain high level equipment and in unique encounters wherein smaller-than-human sized adversaries seem to functional stack, a meager intellect will provided impressive carnage results, but is no way to ignore the math. 1.5m. but yeah, we wouldn't doubt there is somebody who completed a triple-crown solo run with a basement intellect barbarian wielding noting but an unenhanced butter knife and wearing durance's robes. HA! Good Fun! Again, it's the difference between "optimal" and "viable". A 7 int is *viable*--almost any stat arrangement is, actually. kinda missing the point. you can play a viable and gimped barbarian, particular as this is a game wherein you play a party o' characters. have one relative underpowered character (even if only underpowered compared to alternative barbarian builds) in a party-based game is always viable. no biggie. am also one o' the most consistent voices on these boards speaking 'bout how poe is less attribute driven than most crpgs. https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/84838-optimal-starting-stats-and-late-game-signifficance-for-wizard/?p=1782213 https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/84616-paladin-30-build-what-would-be-different-now-to-previous-builds/?p=1778990 https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/80561-where-does-a-intellect-paladin-fit-in-the-party/?p=1709701 https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/77293-weapon-choice-for-a-priest/?p=1656958 etc. however, the barbarian has certain intellect thresholds (anachronistic) 'cause of carnage. reaching higher thresholds produce a clear superior barbarian, which is exact why we got so many players with genius barbarians in poe. the barbarian only shines when facing mobs, which is already an inherent limitation. not all poe encounters (even pod encounters) result in mob combat. as such it makes sense to maximize a barbarian's efficacy 'gainst those mobs. unfortunately, one cannot use typical poe approach to viability o' stats for the barbarian precise 'cause o' carnage. one point of intellect increase is not equivalent to one point o' increase o' other attributes... excepting might, and worse, every point o' intellect increase is not equal to every other point o' intellect increase. the viability argument is swell and all but it is ignoring reality. josh has noted how balance is always important in a single player crpg. not need have all builds or classes (or whatever) be equal in power. however, if one build or class (or whatever) is disproportionate superior, then the viability argument collapses 'cause on average, most folks will not self-gimp to play the viable but demonstrably underpowered build. the intelligent barbarian problem stems from the obvious design flaw which some folks seem to wanna refuse to ignore: carnage is a class defining ability. 'cause barbarian efficacy is inextricable linked to a single ability, and the ability in question is an instantaneous aoe effect, intelligence will be disproportionate important and will exhibit thresholds. the ubiquitous intelligent barbarian is precisely why the poe developers wanted to avoid class defining abilities. "You can say all that (threshold, low INT gimps) about every AoE ability in the game." *chuckle* such an observation is true... but barbarian is a class with a singular defining aoe ability. "And it needs a LOT of additional INT to reach the next line. So, either make a barb with a LOT of INT or leave it a mediocre levels. It's of not much use to put 1 or two points more INT if you can't reach the next row of enemies with it." preaching to the choir. have already addressed this point multiple times. you don't seem to realize how you is agreeing with Gromnir 'bout the problem. folks enjoy playing their barbarian characters, so is gonna be a tendency to defend. is ok to like the barbarian. we had fun playing our poe barbarians. however, to like our barbarian doesn't mean we need ignore the problems or flaws. carnage is a class defining ability. once folks make such an admission, the problem which is tending to lead to genius barbarians becomes clear and indefensible. HA! Good Fun!

anecdotal is never particular persuasive. is kinda traditional hereabouts to use singular examples and individual past experience as some kinda proof. is the math which reveals how intelligence at particular levels o' investment dramatic increase carnage efficacy. even boeroer notes "sweet spots" for intelligence investment. 1.5 m radius from the target is the base carnage aoe radius. intelligence and other equipment may expand (or reduce) the radius. a 7 intelligence, unmodified, results in a minus 18% to the base aoe radius. sure, with certain high level equipment and in unique encounters wherein smaller-than-human sized adversaries seem to functional stack, a meager intellect will provided impressive carnage results, but is no way to ignore the math. 1.5m. but yeah, we wouldn't doubt there is somebody who completed a triple-crown solo run with a basement intellect barbarian wielding noting but an unenhanced butter knife and wearing durance's robes. HA! Good Fun!

sure it is gimpage. also, to make the parallel to ad&d more excruciating, there is indeed thresholds of use for inflating intelligence. with an 18 intelligence, you is gonna be hitting with carnage approx. three-deep v. human-sized opponents. (aside: is made more effective when using a reach weapon as the aoe is centered on the target and not the barbarian.) just as it didn't much matter if your ad&d fighter strength were 'tween 8 and 15, there is indeed significant leaps in carnage efficacy at particular intelligence levels... which makes the situation worse and not better. every 1 point o' intelligence boost for a barbarian is not giving you equal payoff which is hardly in keeping with what were intended for poe characters. again, 'cause carnage is so integral, one need look specific at how intelligence affects carnage to determine how intelligence most benefits a barbarian. is all wrong. is bass ackwards. is anachronistic. HA! Good Fun!

... need for repetition. what a barbarian is, or should be, is 'posed to be defined by the player and not by tolkien or robert e. howard or the developers or anybody posting on this board. a primary goal for character customization were flexibility. the individual player, bounded only by their imagination, would define a given class. play your barbarian smart or stoopid shouldn't matter. should be able to play your barbarian 'stead of josh's or Gromnir's or the genesis poster's barbarian. given the goals 'o poe, arguing 'bout what a barbarian is or can be is silliness. again, the problem is the class defining nature of carnage and not the viability o' an intelligent barbarian. HA! Good Fun!

the problem ain't intelligent barbarians. the problem is carnage. there weren't s'posed to be class defining abilities in poe. nevertheless, carnage is indeed a class defining ability, and the best way to squeeze the most juice outta of carnage is to boost intelligence. the problem is barbarians being defined by carnage. as an aside, am always annoyed when the developers (josh) use the "intelligent barbarian" as an example o' poe character creation flexibility. in point o' fact, the intelligent barbarian is one o' the few examples o' a poe customization fails. just as it were wasteful to purposeful build a weak ad&d fighter, it is foolish to build a stoopid poe barbarian. developers deserve a smack in the face with a less than fresh trout every time they use the "intelligent barbarian" to promote the breadth o' poe character customization. HA! Good Fun!

fixed HA! Good Fun!

ps use the pirates for the difficulty levels could be made more fun by including pirate flags. have the corresponding flag appear somewhere on ui and the character record sheet. maybe throw in a smidge o' pirate lore in the difficulty description... 'cause josh loves that kinda thing. admittedly, it might make more sense to use more famous pirates than some of the individuals we chose. HA! Good Fun!

suggested difficulty tiers planchet: given your minimal tactical combat training, you nevertheless enjoy a good story and perhaps a bottle of wine. d'artagnan: just because you are inexperienced hardly means you will shy away from a fight or twenty. porthos: you are a seasoned warrior, but such experience has taught you that you shouldn't have to fight or work harder than necessary. aramis: as a skilled tactician and strategist, you have learned to win battles before they even begin. athos: fate has conspired to throw every conceivable calamity into your path, but the road behind you is littered with the bodies of gods and monsters. you have lost the capacity to be surprised or frightened. pirate alternative with a similar progression william dampier: richard worley: thomas tew: edward teach: ching shih: HA! Good Fun!

first couple weeks in october are always busy for a con law guy, but the nor cal fires have been a serious headache for us. had a couple properties in danger o' becoming cinders. am gonna be spending the next month getting everything back in order. ... am actual kinda disappointed the fires didn't make it to calistoga 'cause we cleaned out our property in that town... removed everything but the kitchen sink. almost removed the kitchen sink as it were big copper monstrosity. HA! Good Fun!

Seconded. am in favor o' such, but keep in mind the discussions never start as they end. this most recent resurrection o' the goth vampire princess were started 'cause o' the suggestion o' edér being a nonsensical rogue as compared to ydwin. spun out of control from that point with folks wanting to discuss their personal favorite ydwin gripes or compliments, no matter how tangential to the initial debate. she could be the obsidian board's own demonic interloper. have never checked, but perhaps is a bettlejuice or pazuzu summoning ritual involved. once her name is uttered/written three times in a given thread, the gates o' hell spring wide and Legion lurches forth to spread malice and misery and woe. thus may doom be 'pon the head o' the fools who invoke her damned presence. in other words, am supporting the proposal o' making she-who-shall-not-be-named verboten in this thread, but am dubious o' prospects for success. HA! Good Fun!

... we didn't respond earlier, but what the heck. random guy shaves half his head and paints the remaining hair a bright magenta. he then strips naked and paints his entire body a rather gaudy chartreuse. the colorful fellow grabs an old 80s style boom box and throws in an iggy pop tape and set volume to ten as he does the mime-trapped-in-a-box routine on a subway platform at 5:00pm. "why are you all staring at me?" he cries to the gathered crowd. "what is wrong with you and your miserable lives?" as noted elsewhere, this same question has been raised by the genesis poster numerous times. the announced release date is spring 2018, yes? seeing as how we ain't even started the beta (am assuming late November or early December, but is only a guess based on poe schedule) am not certain why any reasonable person would expect or require an update to the original announced release date at this time. nevertheless, keep fighting the good fight. in the future we will avert our eyes when we see the colorful mime leaning or mime juggling. HA! Good Fun!

well, at least a half dozen times now Gromnir has stated how is too little from the blurb to find anything worthy o' like or dislike 'bout ydwin's character... save for the fact we has noted the absence o' an animancer companion were an oversight given how underdeveloped were poe animancy. so... the character art for ydwin so far has been out-of-place. is jarring. we don't necessarily dislike anime-inspired, but such stuff in poe is inconsistent. in a game such as wow, a human with realistic proportions and authentic weaponry would look ridiculous even if such a character were the only character in the entire history o' the game exhibiting a sense o' practicality. 'course there is also folks who so enjoy the anime look it does not bother them in the least when a nier:automata character shows up in deadfire. keep trying to tell folks there is no anime influences at work in the ydwin art ignores the Fact o' many people seeing an anime influence. is not actual debatable as to whether many people see ydwin as an anime pastiche. maybe you don't see the complaints as justified, but the ship has sailed on whether or not ydwin manages to evoke considerable anime comparisons... in a game which largely avoids other such examples. is not a mere handful o' folks seeing anime influence neither. 'course again, the thing which annoys us most is the folks defending ydwin by means o' realism or similar such nonsense. defend 'cause you think the aesthetic is kewl is unassailable, but the folks arguing history o' eyewear n' such make us groan. unnecessary and makes the defender appear ludicrous. HA! Good Fun!

am guessing we don't fit the mold. lawrence taylor broke our heart as a young player. have never forgiven ray lewis, though we can applaud how he seeming turned his life around. same goes for michael vick. roethlisberger is a d-bag... period. jack lambert is friends with our father and so we always rooted for the steelers, but 'cause o' ben... heck, we stopped watching baseball complete after the strike season in the 94-95 season(s). am kinda reversed on this issue. baseball players who win the roberto clemente award or football guys who take home the walter payton award are the players we tend to most admire. the excellent football players who beat their wives or get busted at strip clubs at 1:30 am for firearm crimes is not gaining a free pass from us. HA! Good Fun!

Yes it is. What I was suggesting is that the Watcher Lead whats left. His class is irrelevant since hes a Watcher so need for him to a Cipher to lead it. But Ya maybe it is a stretch. if it makes you feel better, dunyrd row is the secret police for the erls of the dyrwood. the dyrwood has a population o' ~2million. am knowing the dyrwood gestapo's headquarters in defiance bay were purged, but am not honest recalling any kind of nationwide extermination o' operatives being referenced in poe, but am not as much o' a lore expert as some other folks posting. one suspects the erls will be quite motivated to rebuild their internal spy network. 'course as a secret police organization, dunryd row is specific directed at internal spying so your actions in the deadfire is a bit remote... and unless you sacrificed aloth in poe, am guessing the erls would be more than a little suspicious o' your own connections to the leaden key. converse, the erls will no doubt wanna know what the leaden key is up to following the calamity o' defiance bay. *shrug* a writer can make just 'bout anything work if they have the imagination and the inclination. even so, the dyrwood, we suspect, will largely be rearview mirror fodder. poe events, person and places will continue to be important as the franchise grows, but our initial thinking is deadfire specific organizations and factions would make more sense for this kinda feature. HA! Good Fun!

am in favor o' a generalist priest option for reasons stated elsewhere. am less concerned 'bout the paladins as they appear relative balanced and already effective have an additional subclass option beyond what is available for most classes. from a lore standpoint, one suspects it would take a bit o' effort (though not prohibitive so) to make the dyrwood spy service/secret police relevant in a deadfire setting. no doubt there will be more obvious relevant organizations and factions w/i the deadfire to explore. HA! Good Fun! ps josh responds to posts and queries via something awful, twitter, tumblr, and various other locations not in anyway specific affiliated to obsidian entertainment. you are aiming at the dartboard when you should be throwing at the wall.

you used ONE cited source from a list, and the source you used were specific for rampage shootings as 'posed to mass shootings? you do realize the definitions ain't the same, yes? takes some work to figure out which rampage shootings qualify as mass shootings and it don't appear you did so. can't imagine why the numbers don't align exact. yes, very honest. you also left off two whole years which included the unfortunate incidents in france. at the very least such an oversight is a major blunder. at worst it is intentional dishonest. wanna find the guy with busted math, then look in a mirror. as to #'s concerns, am agreeing the moscow shooting being added is perplexing. clear mistake/error. as to the definition o' mass shooting, to choose a definition which is constant throughout the entire period of the study makes sense, no? there is no single and uniform definition for mass shootings, but am not having much complaint with using a constant. the fbi definition for mass murder, and their stats for such, were based on a 4 fatality basement, and was the same for many decades. most stats kept for mass shootings were based 'pon a 4 fatality minimum. majority of the study is including time when 4 fatality were the norm, so... the exclusion o' "struggles over sovereignty" would seem to benefit eu calculations far more than the US, unless you went off the rails as did zor and attempted to include global isis attacks as being struggles over sovereignty for the purpose o' the definition. in spite o' what you may have seen on tv, am not able to recall much in the way of gang-related mass shooting incidents in the last few years here in the US, but am honest ignorant 'bout such numbers. if the study were covering the 1970s and 80s, then gang-related mass shootings would probable be a significant topic of debate. then again, with all the european terrorist incidents during the 70s and 80s, am not certain what would happen to a comparative analysis of mass shootings and/or mass killings. us gang-related crime and murder is an enormous problem, and gun-related homicides by gang members killing gang members likely accounts for a disturbing % of all us firearm homicides, but the mass shooting is a unique kinda gun issue which occupies the imaginations and nightmares of the masses. and again, we clarified many times now how inspite o' the highlighted headline, the actual comparison were europe as a whole, while the specific eu v. us were clarified thus: "The average fatality rate for the 28 EU countries is 0.114 with a 95% confidence Interval of -.0244 to .253. The US rate is 0.089 is lower than the EU rate, but they are again not statistically significantly different." sure, the average rate is inherent flawed as we noted many times, but zor were quite happy to use such earlier. if you are somehow seeing 75% higher death rate based on the cprc site numbers, am admitted baffled as at best we see near identical death rates for eu and us over the same period... though again, if mass killings, including bombings and truck massacres, were included in the study, the numbers would undoubted shift a bit. increased gun controls don't necessarily reduce mass killing as the past few years in europe no doubt illustrate. 'course if you are doing as zor and using the single linked rampage shooter site as your only source, then am understanding the confusion. HA! Good Fun!

had a girlfriend just as we were finishing up at boalt who liked to party a bit... which were kinda odd actually. not much partying at boalt. anyways, there were some kinda drinking game involving party o' five which were popular with some o' the Cal women at the time. drink every time somebody cried during a party of five episode. am recalling there were too much drinking and so rules changed-- reduced to only when neve campbell cried. am not certain if we could see much reduction o' drinking from our pov. HA! Good Fun!