Gromnir

am quoting both @majestic & @InsaneCommander 'cause the observations is curious related. why is owlcat so enamored with puzzle content which does not resonate with fans? check for wotr feedback regarding the title's puzzle content and enigma specific. maybe ain't universal, but the consensus opinion is owlcat does puzzle content poor. so 'course with each new release, puzzles become more integral and ubiquitous. wait, what? at the same time, much o' owlcat design does indeed look to be laser-focused on giving their fans what they perceive the fans want. the mythic paths is munchkiny and the writing is if not parody then is embracing the cringey end o' the spectrum, presumable 'cause owlcat is pandering to their audience. almost no effort is taken by owlcat to balance pathfinder. the mythics, which is owlcat creations, go a step beyond pathfinder's already exploit riddled ruleset in making sooper builds possible. owlcat knows their fanbase and they is quite happy to create cringey and busted content if it nevertheless satisfies the base. as for ashes, am admitted unsure what were the fanbase reaction to the newish gameplay elements incorporated into the dlc. if the fans didn't like enough, then maybe ashes style is doomed. then again, maybe owlcat is as invested in ashes improvements as they is with their puzzles. fan approval o' ashes 1 and 2 may be irrelevant if owlcat believes in themselves. HA! Good Fun!

through the ashes advanced on rails, but it offered the most unique and intriguing gameplay elements o' any owlcat dlc offering thus far... and in our opinion it were arguable more impressive from a design pov than the main campaigns o' the two released pathfinder games. example: is one map where we fought almost not at all as we would lure one set o' enemies into combat with otherwise difficult monster encounters, at which point the baddies would murder each other as 'posed to Gromnir. a few o' the non-combat solutions were scripted and skill-based, but as with the cubes v undead scenario we just mentioned, other gameplay solutions were less obvious. design o' ashes were at times frustrating and even stoopid, but it were also creative and offered a glimpse o' future possibilities for a owlcat pathfinder crpg. the lowest pathfinder levels is often frustrating, with a single goblin/kobold/skeleton spear attack critical capable o' killing your wizard or sorc with a single strike. also, the difficulty o' ashes were a bit more noticeable than the main campaign. combine low-level inherent lethal + increased difficulty and ashes were bordering on less than fun when we played on hard and am gonna highly recommend playing no higher than core for anybody who ain't experimented with it thus far. positive: a second ashes dlc means am gonna be less likely stuck in a level range where even on core we feel horses and leopards is quasi-essential additions to a party am genuine looking forward to through the ashes 2nd installment. HA! Good Fun!

before the nerf, aivu caster level were = dragon level. as such her greater dispel were capable o' debuffing demon lords with with such efficacy people complained. dc were something like 60. breath weapon were also nerfed, but the greater dispel were what we thought were genuine game breaking. she also made an op healer in spite o' not having mass heal; had us alter sosiel to damage/evocation. 'course now she gets barding. ... gotta admit she were broken strong as a caster pre nerf. HA! Good Fun!

"if Men were angels, no government would be necessary. if angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. in framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and the next place, oblige it to control itself." -- James Madison, federalist papers 51 james missed something important. so long as political systems is managed or designed by humans, they is gonna have fails. recognizing people is flawed, to then have decisions made by humans or a construct designed by humans is gonna result in fails. plato's philosopher king is kinda swell, but if you got a system with power centralized in a single person, then is inevitable persons who wish for power and is less altruistic than plato envisions is gonna manage to become king at some point in near or distant future... and then what? *shrug* the whole point o' us Constitutional representative democracy (or whatever) is to put systemic limits on power. unfortunate, the current office o' the President is so not what were designed in 1787. there is wisdom in the US Constitution rejection o' athenian democracy, but were also foolishness as many o' the limits on the Presidency were based on the notion the chief executive would be selected by an actual electoral college, resulting in a kinda philosopher king for an office which didn't have much power in 1787. contrary to founder expectations and ordinary notions o' human self interest, Congress voluntarily abdicated power to the Chief Executive by drips and drabs over the intervening decades, and the President who were so not chosen by democratic process became the one national office every american citizens casts a vote to elect. point is the plan for american "democracy" looked much different in 1787 and regardless, you gotta assume people is gonna be people, eventual mucking up even the best ideas. the founders, in their wisdom, did indeed assume the people were the fundamental flaw in their design, but they foolish believed they had accounted for stoopidity and greed. fools. if a system is designed by people to govern people, it is already broken. just is. need accept that fact and recognize that inherent flawed and broken is nevertheless better than state of nature... but am thing this is the point where Gromnir and @Gorthfundamental diverge. in the absence o' a system, greedy, cruel and the multitude o' ordinary frightened people will band together for protection or power and even in the unlikely event their collective motives is benign, perhaps the next people controlling the group will be less altruistic. as an aside, clarence thomas granting a stay for lindsey graham were not a complete shock and is not some kinda indication lindsey is gonna weasel out o' testifying. however, it does indicate there is likely no unanimous SCOTUS opinion on the issue. we should know more by the end o' the week. HA! Good Fun!

you kinda sound like lindsey buckingham complaining 'bout eddie van halen while he were simultaneous recognizing eddie's "virtuosos" talent. can probable find the quote somewheres with a simple search o' both artist names. kinda reminds us o' another great artist moment, albeit a bit different. ms. raitt, a fantastic guitarist in her own right, were s'posed terrified she would f' it up at the grammy awards. no guitar from bonnie in the linked, but were a memorable performance. HA! Good Fun!

given just how much stranger things is influenced by and indulging overt homage o' 80s horror films, we would suspect we were stuck in the upside down if the duffer brother's tv show didn't qualify as horror. is one o' those consciously multi-genre shows which arguably is trying to do too much with too many characters; perhaps would have been less messy in subsequent seasons if it had benefited from more focus as 'posed to chasing elusive gestalt. regardless, horror is clear and unambiguous an intentional element. spoiler from season ... three? wait, no. is now four, yes? the seasons is all kinda merging together for us post season one. HA! Good Fun! ps am gonna admit there is ambiguous multi-genre media which has us equivocating in regards to horror label. super 8 is an example... and is another messy jj abrams nonsensical ride which we nevertheless didn't hate complete. (kinda makes us feel unclean to need admit we enjoy anything jj abrams, but is actual a couple jj vehicles we found entertaining in spite o' brain freeze levels o' stoopid.) super 8 is another 80s love letter (yes, technical is set 1979) which is embracing horror elements. even the movie the kids is making when the train wreck occurs is a zombie flick, but does it have enough horror to validate a horror label? maybe not for Gromnir, but why should our threshold be the measure? am not thinking the label matters much in the long run as we have pointed out numerous times how such labels in literature, movies and tv is artificial and kinda pointless save as an advertising tool, but if you wanna argue super 8 is enough horror to be horror, am thinking you got more room for debate than stranger things.

azata, unlike most mythic paths, avoids punishing you with incongruous alignment choices. is few head scratcher moments with azata. is a whole lotta whimsy moments with azata. am thinking azata is the mythic least likely to frustrate player expectations. however, is not much payoff for the azata mythic path from a storytelling pov. the elysium option has humorous and charming moments, but if you are expecting more than good conquers all, then you will be disappointed. people like aivu, but if you are expecting more than the cookie schtick and aforementioned whimsy, you will be left wanting and aivu is a fair representation o' azata in general. am actual ok with azata 'cause a few o' the other paths we find genuine frustrating, but am not gonna try and convince anybody that owlcat did a fantastic job with the writing. given our expectations and experience with other mythics, not frustrating were enough. HA! Good Fun!

your experience matches ours we finished the act iii available midnight isles dlc material w/o any major additional hiccups, though the undertows is behaving a bit wonky. downside is am planning on doing the midnight fane next and then picking up the act iv accessible dlc areas. unfortunately, our plan were to dispatch playful darkness with stacked pillars o' life as well as beating the critter into submission with finnean. two problems: 1) the dlc merchant no longer offers pillars of life scrolls; and 2) finnean is no longer a brilliant energy weapon in act iii. ... considering we don't use creeping doom, our playful darkness approach is kinda fubar. the Gromnir plan took a direct hit from skynet (owlcat). HA! Good Fun! ps to be fair, up until the release o' the new dlc, our pillars o' life options were limited to answering the following question: how many pillars will sosiel cast? as such, the only thing that changed insofar as our playful darkness approach compared to previous runs is finnean now being presumable unbugged, 'cause it were always a bit curious that the final upgrade for finnean in act v were a downgrade... which am not gonna complete spoil. nevertheless, we were looking forward to both sosiel and nenio casting 'bout ten pillars o' life pre combat via scrolls and that aspect o' the new plan is toast.

our most recent act iv run is six months in the rear-view mirror, so take with a grain o' salt, but our gristoff (sp?) took up residence in the bad luck tavern post slave market apocalypse. am guessing he knew how to get a room where he wouldn't be the target o' murder while sleeping in the establishment. should be a dialogue option to learn his secret, but owlcat didn't think to add anything o' the sort. HA! Good Fun! ps the chaplain dlc scroll & potions merchant no longer sells 99 pillars of life scrolls, at least not in act iii. doesn't sell any pillars of life scrolls following one o' the more recent patches. as such, no playful darkness cheese via the purchased scroll route.

on the positive side, the isle nine boss did make an appearance post patch and it spawns w/o needing to replay the entire area. https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1184370/view/3389547565066423854 "Shake It Off team feat now works correctly. It has a proper radius of effect now, and will be displayed in the battle log;" another respec? we had removed the teamwork feat from numerous party members as it were functional useless. HA! Good Fun!

the who value charter includes: The values of the WHO workforce furthermore reflect the principles of human rights, universality and equity established in WHO’s Constitution as well as the ethical standards of the Organization. Our decisions are fair, transparent and timely We practice the advice we give to the world We engage with everyone honestly and in good faith We hold ourselves and others accountable for words and actions etc. am recognizing the charter is aspirational, but if you make such claims, eventual somebody is gonna read and then question who behaviors which don't match their guiding principles. is fair to question inconsistencies. would be refreshing honest if who admitted their ultimate and overriding goal is to save lives; while they wanna try and do their job the right way, those who is dying unnecessarily and in agony is gonna be the victims o' who integrity if the health org does not periodic cave to the political ambitions o' the world's movers and shakers. if self-interested nations playing politics wanna sacrifice bodies in an effort to defend their ignominy or alternative to perceptive achieve a mythical moral high ground, who nevertheless needs make hard choices 'bout how best to help those ordinary citizens o' the world who need help. then again, maybe the who folks is as dirty as the ioc, fifa and the boy scouts-- on the take simultaneous from multiple competing bad actors. such split loyalties necessarily leads to mixed messaging. in the absence o' hard proof, am gonna assume who is not as corrupt as fifa. HA! Good Fun!

gonna admit, we didn't see it coming. HA! Good Fun!

the pandemic changed things a bit. in the spring o' 2020 trump announced a halt to who funding, which were not complete unjustified given the who position on china, but recognizing the circumstances, the US as the primary who contributor sudden halting funding during a pandemic were nevertheless monumental foolish. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/who-funds-world-health-organization-un-coronavirus-pandemic-covid-trump/ gives you an idea what the numbers looked like before the pandemic, so... btw, we never expected china to be a huge contributor, but a large number o' pre covid global pandemic nightmares cooked up by epidemiologists involved influenza outbreaks originating in southern china, 'cause that is the origin point o' a significant number o' previous influenza threats and the influenza strains typical is starting with birds before making the leap to humans... humans in china. cultural biases against frozen meat and the prevalence o' highly unsanitary practices in chinese markets meant that all those big brain folks were looking at china as the next likely epicenter for pandemic. who refusal to cross china is probable less 'bout funding than it is concern for their mission. cut off access to china would be devastating to current and future efforts to deal with the spread o' infectious diseases. HA! Good Fun!

given the ease with which modders addressed the issue, am suspecting the reason for not changing is less a mater o' capacity than it is o' desire. if we assume that from owlcat pov the feature is working as designed, and recognizing the existence o' a mod which "fixes" the issue for those who do not like owlcat implementation, it is possible the developer is seeing no need to alter the status quo. is hardly as if this would be the only curious owlcat design choice based more on a preternatural capacity to be obdurate than any other explanation. is why we keep getting more puzzle content, yes? HA! Good Fun!

to be fair, @majestic's fever dream image o' shady were o' a meth dealer who "looked like" hawk. reminds us gordon from sesame street. 'course "gordon" from sesame street would never be a pimp. HA! Good Fun!

am kinda leaning in this direction as we don't see any signs o' self mockery or camp from owlcat. cartoony cringe as 'posed to subtle parody... which effective has us at the same place. regardless, if wotr purchasers is ok with the current situation, we don't see any motivation for owlcat change. that said, 40k is kinda an ideal property for the cringe+ approach. HA! Good Fun!

1) d&d legacy alignment is idiotic and anachronistic. ... really ain't much more need be said. alignment exists as a limit on role-play and it inhibits decent storytelling-- camellia being a useful example. as to making all wotr alignment dialogue choices axis specific, such would at least cure the nonsense wherein a paladin choosing "good" choices reflexive in wotr, absent a single chaos option, nevertheless falls from grace. however, as a practical matter, without serious increasing current dialogue option numbers, am suspecting a few alignments would be receiving very little attention... which just goes to show how idiotic is the alignment mechanic as any character with an alignment restriction is already needing game the alignment mechanic as 'posed to necessarily playing the character they envisioned when they started wotr. regardless, without additional writing investment, one need accept a few alignments would benefit from relative paltry coverage. an alternative would be to create significant additional trash (alignment) dialogues. huzzah. am personal fine with seeing a relative insignificant number o' dialogues for a few characters, but for some inexplicable reason players complain if their chosen whatever isn't identified in a crpg, even if the identification is managed with preternatural clumsiness. why would you want more bad dialogue options is baffling to us, but try and deny it wouldn't be a thing where some helpful person literal counted every alignment dialogue in the game to reveal how a few players were getting shortchanged. that said, this is kinda a dead horse, even for wotr. referencing an earlier post from november 2021 and no doubt ignoring multiple other such posts from the beta period mentioning how ordinary busted is wotr's application o' tired arsed d&d alignment. regardless, the real solution is exorcising alignment from d&d legacy systems such as pathfinder, which ain't near as difficult as you might believe as we have done so more than once in pnp. obvious ain't gonna happen in a pathfinder game, but am disappointed every time a pnp game developer updates their d20 based system to a new edition w/o dumping alignment. lost opportunity. HA! Good Fun!

see, that is where am conflicted. owlcat efforts to pander to their audience is so extreme it feels like parody. is owlcat perhaps indulging a bit o' mockery o' their fans? it is possible the developers is doing their best and their best results in cartoony extremes. the thing is, as you note, a significant portion o' the wotr groupthink is encouraging owlcat to continue with the over-the-top antics. we will observe how if there is a setting which already embraces owlcat penchant for accidental or intentional parody level excess it is warhammer 40k. perhaps too many fans o' 40k fail to recognize the over-the-top and tongue-in-cheek qualities o' the grimdark setting, but that just makes the situation more amusing. HA! Good Fun!

keeping in mind owlcat must work w/i framework o' an existing paizo pathfinder adventure path and maintain some kinda paizo approval, am tending to agree with this observation. am having pointed out how the female romance options is, at first glance, designed to mock and ridicule those who like crpg romance. the fact owlcat romance fans aren't in on the joke and seem largely happy with owlcat's efforts makes the efforts at parody more amusing. arguable all o' the mythic paths is indulging in mockery o' the player's choice. aivu's saccharine nature and cookie silliness, along with the complete haphazard approach to teh freedom integral to the azata path, looks to be tongue-in-cheek fodder. as such, how can we not take the comical depiction as commentary on the stoopid indulged by those embracing goodness untempered by practicality? azata is over-the-top cartoony. people understandable are repulsed by a few o' the lawful=a-hole choices in the game, but am thinking is easier to overlook or indulge the owlcat mockery o' do-gooder's who seem to thinks if we all held hands and danced in a meadow under the moonlight, all the world's problems would disappear as if by magic. ... the thing is, there is nothing particular clever 'bout owlcat writing, so is tough to give the developer credit for a perverse level o' subtlety wherein they manage to constant mock their fan's desires and choices w/o the vast majority o' fans recognizing or caring that they is the victim o' a tens of hours long prank. converse, is quite possible owlcat is as much victims o' their own efforts as is the rest o' us. in an effort to make sure players get it, perhaps owlcat consciously abandoned any pretense o' subtle and so we end up with exaggeration which feels like parody? is not that owlcat is indulging parody, but rather that their efforts is intentional blunt and crude to a comic degree, which is ordinarily what results in parody, yes? HA! Good Fun!

take it for what it is worth, but we noticed the following reddit post/exchange: HA! Good Fun!

sounds as if you got a new weekend (sunday through saturday kinda weekend) breakfast staple. HA! Good Fun!

no xp gain for us, but we do get the Banner Over The Citadel completion message. am positive on the xp 'cause one such save is from immediate before the start o' act ii, after gaining mythic powha. we went through the whole becoming lord commander bit and xp did not increase in spite have having received the banner over the citadel completion message. we had a save immediate following galfrey's speech as well, so were ez to compare xp. downside means while it ain't showing in the quest log, one suspects we wouldn't gain or be able to complete the quest in act ii. could be a serious game breaker in drezen... or maybe not. who knows with owlcat. hopeful a few bugs would be addressed sooner rather than later, we instead did an unfair inevitable excess run. our clever girl velociraptor coulda' solo killed inevitable darkness as she had the blind fight feat (so no concealment misses) and a 30 charisma at the time which helped lead to an ab o' 111. scroll o' trnasformation and a few other personal buffs were useful. didn't even have visions of madness active or touch of good from sosiel. had the raptor attack after seelah got off her mark of justice, so she technical did not do all damage, but it were a near thing as seelah got horrible unlucky with the concealment misses as we only had true seeing on her and forgot to do echolocation in spite o' fact she had more than enough umd to read the appropriate scroll. couple o' crits and bonus damage from spells such as sun marked meant the dino damage output were overwhelming. if we had a skald merc in the party (we did sans mercs,) the damage woulda' been even more extreme. court poet could push the raptor charisma to 36, which gets her 3 more ab. vanilla skald provides a bunch o' extra natural attacks plus lethal accuracy. 'course if owlcat ever fixes the unlimited smites bug for divine hunter... HA! Good Fun!

could do a baron munchausen thing and see if anybody catches on. "people ask me why i work at __________, but i believe the answer is obvious: i love a challenge. my doctoral thesis was just sold to a major hollywood studio and the finishing time for my 67th marathon was within 30 seconds of the world record, but working for _________ is what gets me out of bed in the morning. after climbing everest for the third time..." HA! Good Fun!

so what? before their stunt was anybody unaware o' their issue? overreliance on fossil fuels? serious? they brought attention to a 'cause 'bout which almost everybody is already knowing w/o doing anything to shift opinions. pointless. narcissistic. dumb. garnering attention for a cause near everybody is already aware does not look to be useful. "henry, did you see this story with the kids and that sunflower painting?" "nope" "well, i know it sounds crazy, but it looks like producing and using fossil fuels is not only unsustainable but there are all sorts of health and environmental problems linked to fossil fuel use." "huh." ... a conversation held nowhere by nobody 'cause whatever is your position on fossil fuels, chances are you already got one. serious though, what is wrong with people these days wherein getting attention is an end in and of itself as 'posed to a means to bring 'bout change? however, the soup can kids didn't hurt nobody and the damage they caused were negligible. perhaps the next collection o' wannabee world changers learns and improves on the scheme. HA! Good Fun!

that does not surprise us in the least. with such an observation we would assume most folks were trying to make a joke, but the years has taught us better. predict a double-down. security/law enforcement shows up and they find two young women each of whom were on there knees with their left hand glued to the wall behind 'em, presumably spouting off 'bout oil and injustice. am not sure what sorta threat the young vandals coulda' possible presented given the circumstances, but 'course the natural reaction is to give the youths a teeth rattling jolt o' electricity. *insert eye-roll emoticon here* 'cause make victims outta the dopes would be the obvious way to handle the situation? am suspecting the vandals changed no hearts or minds regarding fossil fuels, so from our pov their efforts were little more than self-indulgent narcissism. were yet another display o' the look at me mentality o' today's youth where instead o' doing the hard work to bring 'bout change, they instead went with a slap-dash effort garnered at generating a viral story which will no doubt be forgotten by next week. lazy. the kids with their soup is fails, but maybe the next group has a useful plan. as long as they ain't hurting anybody, am applauding their verve if not their sense. HA! Good Fun!