Gromnir

don't forget the logo we had a bunch o' cavedog swag, and not 'cause we were such a fan o' total annihilation. HA! Good Fun! ps am still joking

you may have been built to be better than human, but you can't escape the fact you were designed by humans, which means your programming is inherently flawed. you were bound to slip up eventually. HA! Good Fun!

a couple decades past we had a friend who made surfboards. his business didn't last long, but his biz name were rabid dolphin inc. kinda a kewl logo and we may even still have a t-shirt with the image. as such, am gonna suggest "rabid __________." colorado specific? bison? beaver? elk? don't much matter, but am thinking you could come up with a groovy logo and we need a new t-shirt and/or hoodie. HA! Good Fun! ps am knowing shady is more into vampires and gothic, so am s'posing he could for zombie beaver instead o' rabid. would make for an equal interesting t-shirt or coffee mug logo. for us is all 'bout the logo. and yes, am fully aware our advice is not helpful.

kinda a weird quirk noticed: the bound of possibility, areelu's cloak, when fully restored ordinarily provides mythic specific enhancements. as such, switching to legend from ____________ results in most useful aspects o' the cloak being lost, and if you upgrade the cloak after becoming a legend, rerolling skill checks is an uninspired bonus at that point in the game, particular as the legend has so many levels and is less likely to fail a skill check than just 'bout anybody. however, we underlined "most" for a reason. the aeon's cloak doesn't boost or modify an aeon power. instead, the aeon version o' the cloak provides perma-haste to the wearer and his party in combat while forcing foes to make a save or be slowed. all party members also gain a +4 insight bonus to saves and skill checks. am suspecting the trickster version o' the cloak would also retain its benefits once making the switch to legend, but have not checked as we never bothered to play a trickster. our observation is hardly a reason to choose aeon or trickster before switching to legend, but the aeon cloak power in particular is a nice bonus for a legend character. also while am suspecting most folks still checking this thread already know the following, but jic, when we achieved mythic, we immediate went from level eighteen to thirty-five. HA! Good Fun!

our backyard (redwoods off to the left ain't even in the pic) is looking increasingly terrible and am having little motivation to do the work needed to improve the situation. spent most o' last summer fixing the front yard, but side and back remain eyesores which is only ok 'cause nobody sees our backyard save our infrequent guests. the foliage is overgrown so even the golfers need be right at our fence to see more than fragmented glimpses o' our yard. the dogs don't care how much o' a mess we got out back, so is nobody to guilt us into getting off our arse and working. maybe next week? HA! Good Fun! ps the odd shaped fuzzy blob mid-left is a dog. easy to mistake species as she is built more like a hyena... smallish hyena.

ah, so you are mere being self indulgent and hyperbolic with extreme and excessive? gotcha. again, lockdowns is potential reasonable two years in depending on the circumstances, while recognizing two years is not actual a relevant circumstance. depending on lethality and transmissibility o' variants, future lockdowns may be reasonable as they have been reasonable during the previous two years. unfortunate, we got the same folks claiming natural immunity is a solution or being over covid or whatever, so reasonable is not the true measure. two years and nothing learned yet. and selective quote/prune is not your best option. assuming nobody will bother to read the full explanation? HA! Good Fun!

sorry, but coming from the guy who initial insisted on using the "excessive lockdown" language, we find your complaint... amusing. regardless, how on earth does two years inherent make a lockdown more or less extreme? showing your biases. if the mitigation effort is likely to produce a decrease in infections and/or deaths and is reasonably tailored to the threat, then calling "extreme" is bordering on obtuse. again, needs be reasonably tailored, and we already observed how 'cause o' the selfishness you are curious advocating in addition to recognized US reluctance to engage in any mitigation efforts means lockdowns is current a non viable option. am not advocating lockdowns for omicron, so beat that drum if you wish to. regardless, if two years in there were sudden a variant more lethal than delta and as transmissible as omicron, then there would be a valid argument for initiating robust mitigation efforts, including lockdowns. is nothing 'bout your fatigue which makes n95s or social distancing more or less effective. your reluctance due to elapsed days also don't impact transmissibility or lethality o' a coronavirus. 'course part o' the problem is there is unlikely to be reliable instant data on transmissibility and lethality, so in the absence o' data, what is the reasonable course o' action, eh? converse, recognizing reasonable is not gonna necessarily be an option, 'cause many people is simple "over covid," what is the practical mitigation options? previous infection provides unreliable protection. math. "natural immunity," and previous infection has never been the solution. two years and counting. HA! Good Fun!

is not so much math as rationalization. again, omicron, the least lethal major variant thus far, killed hundreds of thousands of americans in a relative brief period o' time, 'cause no matter how you wanna describe omicron lethality, covid today has the capacity to kill the infirm and healthy. recognizing the heightened transmissibility o' variants such as omicron, the math means those clowns who purposefully became infected with omicron also spread the virus to multiple other people, who also spread the virus to multiple other people, and so on, resulting in the unnecessary and predictable deaths of those who do not benefit from ideal vaccine protection or are unable to take the vaccine. so, the math tells you is smarty to chose to become infected by a highly transmissible and potential lethal disease to acquire some indeterminate and unreliable additional boost to your future resistance to variants is worth the risk to self and multiple other people? gonna embrace selfish and ineffectual instead o' proven mitigation efforts which when utilized quick and near universal has proven extreme effective, unlike widespread "natural immunity" which has never worked (again, watch the video we offered)? ... two years and counting. HA! Good Fun!

more than two years o' folks being wrong and trying to reason their way to conclusions they is not gonna surrender no matter what is the evidence? sure, hundreds o' thousands o' americans died from omicron in spite o' reduced lethality, and yeah, unlike in the case o' the safe vaccines, the idjit who purposefully gets infected with covid is gonna infect others 'cause your so-called "natural immunity" is not acquired w/o you becoming infectious and statistical likely passing on covid to at least one other person , and in the case o' omicron, multiple people, who then spread to people with lupus, those taking prednisone, or old people with heart problems. also, previous infection is not the clear and meaningful descriptor you might imagine it to be. how much protection your previous infection provides is gonna be dependent on a whole host o' factors. etc. is gonna take another two years? how many more dead? HA! Good Fun!

is cute, but am gonna admit how the last time we were in a room full o' kindergarten kids, the thought which were resounding most powerful for us is that kindergarten teachers is not paid enough, and we don't know how much they is paid, but it cannot be enuff. HA! Good Fun!

some few individuals is gonna have legit natural immunity. however, one o' those neil degrasse tyson videos we linked has a for reals doctor (dr. paul offit) explaining why for covid, counting on natural immunity is a fool's errand. is 'bout ten minutes into the first video we linked. is worth re-watching the video as they do hit most o' the covid issues you hear repeated ad nauseum. if you ever hear somebody championing widespread natural immunity as a way to combat disease, you know they ain't having any real expertise. am also saddened by the people who somehow think transmissibility and lethality are complete separate issues. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/01/13/1072902744/ers-are-overwhelmed-as-omicron-continues-to-flood-them-with-patients *shrug* the thing is in the US we got too many people who won't follow the lockdowns or mitigation protocols, period. given how the experts were comparing transmissibility o' omicron to measles, a lockdown where only 2/3 o' the US population could be counted on to follow guidelines were gonna be o' limited efficacy. that said, social distancing does work and while in the US is not possible to get the folks who is "done with covid," followers o' Q or just about anybody who voted for trump to wear masks or social distance, we can protect our vulnerable populations by kinda inverting the model. maybe ain't fair, but if you got lupus or are taking prednisone or are old with a heart condition, there is ways to limit the exposure o' such people to the ignorant and selfish 1/3 who insist that covid ain't real or believe the real solution is to get everybody infected. HA! Good Fun!

*sigh* following all patches, shattered pillars are not as good as other monks. this hardly makes 'em non viable or even bad. the worst monk subclass is still gonna be relative strong in deadfire. is not hard to find recommended shattered pillars builds littering the interweb (and on this board) complete with video. knock your self out reviewing. the wizard sub classes are also offering benefits which rare outweigh the costs. doesn't make 'em traps. not as good is hardly = trap. *chuckle* gonna try and tell us you are serious suggesting a conjurer or shattered pillar is not viable on normal difficulties? people indulging hyperbole to make a point. *sigh* gotta recall we followed pillars and deadfire developments kinda close. can't count the times somebody asserted that __________ or ____________ were useless. so we played rogues when they were s'posed sucky. we played shamans when literal nobody had played. (and we mean "literal." obsidian game telemetry revealed how the number o' people who had played a shaman months after release were = 0.) we played contemplatives when they were the second least played class or multiclass. etc. we genuine played rather than indulging in theory crafting speculation. serious though, you cannot imagine how many times we has seen same "_______ are awful" declarations. oh, and as somebody who actual played multiple helwalker and a shattered pillars builds, saying they die at similar rates is meaningless. if you know what you are doing, neither is dying, 'cause deadfire monks are strong. helwalker however does require more micromanagement. HA! Good Fun!

am knowing there is a significant amount o' reflexive hate for nixon, particular with watergate, vietnam, and the thin veiled racism o' his campaigns. all deserved. that said, nixon pushed for uhc long before bernie sanders were anybody and he normalized relations with china, which likely did more to make the world a safer place than any other post ww2 presidential action. lesser known, he also championed the formation o' the epa. no one person deserves all or most credit for the improvement o' US lakes and rivers from the late 60s to today, but is arguable nobody deserves more credit for cleaning up the cuyahoga, lake erie or a thousand other equal terribad examples. nixon were bad, but doesn't mean everything he did were bad and is worth mentioning is nixon who deserves much credit for the fact you can fish the cuyahoga in cleveland or the monongahela in pittsburgh today and the catfish you fry up afterwards is plentiful and perfect safe for consumption. HA! Good Fun! ps 'course our real excuse for posting were to share the james earl jones narrated video.

didn't bother us much. am getting how with a long speech where you is trying for heartfelt, you don't wanna look like a politician... evoke comparisons to biden or putin. perhaps went too far trying to avoid a static shot? wasn't all that distracting for us personal, but am getting it. admitted our biggest problem with arnold is how he managed to get elected before the whole #metoo movement and has thus avoided much o' the taint which went with all the accusations. to his credit, mr. schwarzenegger apologized regarding his behaviours in general, even if he didn't admit to specific acts o' indiscretion. hardly makes him okie dokie in our book. HA! Good Fun!

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not wanting to make this a ukraine thing. am more surprised by how our opinion o' arnold has changed in recent years... or at least improved a bit. is a whole lotta reasons not to like arnold. given his treatment o' women, to a few curious political stances, the terminator did not have our support save on a few issues. even so, whether is covid, january 6 or present events, arnold has spoken up against wrongs, wrongs which in the past woulda' been universal derided by those in his party. from our pov, old arnold speaking truth to power, no longer body builder arnold or conan arnold, is looking better than ever... though am still not good with the sexual misconduct stuff. no free passes. HA! Good Fun!

well each runelords ap got you to level twenty, so is kinda an obvious hurdle to combine. no hurdle is insurmountable, but... extinction curse is 2e. the following observation is hardly definitive, but at least twice has the owlcat developers mentioned in streams that they were planning on doing another 1e ap. also, given how the least popular aspect o' kingmaker were kingdom building, the reasonable approach woulda' been to do something w/o a similar mechanic. similar, recognizing the considerable complaints 'bout wotr enigma and puzzles, you mighta' thought the dlc would eschew such. ... might be worth considering that owlcat developers is hopelessly contrarian. speaking o' contrarian, shattered pillar and conjurer, btw, is hardly "traps" in any meaningful sense. in deadfire a shattered pillar can be highly efficacious and it takes effort to build a non viable single class monk, regardless o' subclass. argue there is better monk or wizard options than shattered pillar or conjurer is not identifying a trap unless those subclasses serious undermine viability. am thinking people is knowing using such terms as "trap" in a non traditional sense. HA! Good Fun! ps kinda amusing, but while am personally likely to play helwaker or forbidden fist as a monk, shattered pillar is one o' our recommendations for folks wanting an ez kinda entry-level deadfire character which nevertheless feels powerful. shattered pillar requires less micromanagement than other monks, but particular on normal difficulty, you are gonna have zero difficulty generating wounds so you may spam abilities even with the 5.0 wounds cap.

is also far more people today than in 1918. more human fuel to exhaust also changes the timeline. "excessive lockdowns" is kinda loading it eh? reasonable mitigation efforts may indeed include lockdowns. and china is a bad example w/o comparing to places such as new zealand which had a much different experience with omicron, which am suspecting you is already aware. the chinese vaccine is poor v. omicron and the oldest portion o' at least the hong kong population, where omicron has been particular deadly, is having poor vaccination rates, but is intellectual dishonest to take omicron insular. compare entire pandemic makes more sense, no? overall trend for those who utilized lockdowns judicious and were embracing vaccines and mitigation efforts reveals vast different body counts overall. the thing is, lockdowns today is gonna be different than the past couple years. yeah, if transmissibility is extreme high and lethality is disproportionate low, then in a place such as the US where is functional impossible to get real widespread lockdowns anyways, such efforts is gonna be o' limited efficacy, which is why vaccines and n95s in indoor environments become more important. unfortunate, if you can't get vaccine rates much 'bove 2/3 o' the population and if southerners has declared they is over covid, then mitigation efforts kinda fail before they get started. am genuine wondering how many people have to die for a few individuals to change their mind 'bout covid. HA! Good Fun!

well, let's be honest-- as recent as this previous october, is unlikely that were what you were expecting... sweet summer child that you were. "if you think this is cold, count yourself lucky that you weren't here in the winter of _________." heard that line from locals? well, maybe next year is when you take up ice fishing. we got a bunch o' tip-ups and an auger in the garage we never bothered to get rid of but would slit our own wrists before ever again using as a means o' recreation. HA! Good Fun!

am knowing people hate history, but the spanish flu and the rocky road to recovery once years o' waves trailed off makes for useful reading in these times. anybody shocked by inflation didn't bother to follow the history o' post spanish flu economies. sadly, the mitigation efforts which were effective for combating the pandemic and its resulting economic pain in the early 20th, while chronicled and known, were nevertheless ignored or even derided by all too many 21st century pundits even as we near 1 million US dead and have so recent eclipsed 6 million worldwide covid deaths... which should all by itself reveal just how disproportionate poor the US has handled the pandemic. am s'posing a century, or even as little as a couple decades from today, when is another global pandemic, we will again stare blank at history, having learned nothing save that somehow democrats and/or republicans is to blame for it all... and that the government is using the situation as an excuse to take your guns and bibles. HA! Good Fun!

kp pretends not to have read the "why inversions" part of his link, but the point you make is the one he will similar keep ignoring. heck, he don't get the "why inversions" explains how d20 systems actual result in more complex math than the link offering 'cause d20, d6 and whatever probabilities (not to mention nonsensical armour and stacking maths) is comparatively far less intuitive. the math o' inversions may be confusing to kp, but he gets inverted 'cause the result is actual intuitive with benefits and boons being equivalent, which is the more intuitive result. obsidian didn't set out to make all pillars powhaz and abilities equal, but they did aim for and attain near universal viability. is a whole lotta builds threads for pillars which make it obvious one may still find the margins o' the math to achieve an edge in pillars and pillars ii. is a handful o' disproportionate powerful synergies in pillars which make those triple crown solo achievements possible. one may create a relative powerful pillars character if they know the math and understand the margins o' the rule system. however, you don't need to know the math or the rules to build a strong pillars character and you don't need to understand the math, 'cause if you build a character which in your imagination you envision will be effective, then is almost certain it will be effective in pillars and deadfire. but again, much o' the appeal o' pathfinder and owlcat's mythics is players patting themselves on the back for discovering the best options and avoiding the pitfalls o' d&d legacy systems with which they is comfortable and familiar. kingmaker and wotr players prefer an obtuse system which necessarily leads to stat bloat and increasing numbers o' builds being rendered ineffective. is impossible to fight literal decades o' familiarity and nostalgia and is not actual the job o' players to be reasonable. developers gotta sell folks what they want regardless o' what they is complaining. owlcat, adding their extra munchkiny mythics, archetypes, sooper weapon and stat bloat took accurate measure o' their fanbase. ... mythics popularity does kinda paint owlcat into a corner for future releases as no other 1e ap uses mythic. that said, it wouldn't be too difficult to bootstrap legacy of fire, return of the runelords, strange aeons or tyrant's grasp into mythic viability. converse, owlcat being inextricable tethered to the crusade system makes jade empire, skull and shackles and a couple other options likely successors. assuming owlcat remains viable post ukraine invasion, is difficult to guess which is the next ap choice. will be tough to make more munchkin than wotr, and fans no doubt want at least wotr powha, but so far the only limits we has seen mentioned by owlcat is that they don't want "too weird" (no iron gods,) they is sticking with 1e and as @Agiel observed, reign of winter is a non-starter for uniquely russian legal reasons. HA! Good Fun!

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https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1184370/view/3133948628978453388 "Aeon Gaze will no longer work on enemies with echolocation, thoughtsense and blindsight, because it is gaze" an odd nerf seeing as how most high level foes have at least one o' the aforementioned. will be curious to see if the all too predictable happens and if party members with blindsight or echolocation is prevented from benefiting from aeon's gaze. as it current stands, aeon party immunity to mind-affecting invalidates a few buffs, so we would be less than surprised if companion blindsight and echolocation undermined aeon's gaze buffs. HA! Good Fun!

you making another funny? stacking is a big exception, and insta-kills, and critical hits where the threat range doubles yielding vast different results from improved critical or keen is gonna confuse, and (etc.) but to describe a d20 system as "addition" is misguided or ignorant... is even worse 'cause we still got d4, d6, d8, d12 as well and you may check the probability curve for those dice if you want to be doing a search. comparative, virtual all math in pillars is percentile based with players receiving actual linear advantages for improvements or penalties and is not threshold based neither resulting in the need to chase ever more elusive dcs and ab numbers. action speed and recovery is a noteworthy pillars exception even though technical remains percentile based as is inextricably linked to animation speed. once again kp focuses on the exception to prove the rule, eh? and again, whether you understand the comparative simple math o' pillars or not, it don't much matter to the uninitiated as is relative few trap options, and unlike owlcat which is stuck with broken pathfinder, obsidian were able to correct balance problems as posed to magnifying issues with mythics... complete indifference to balance so clear led to the bloat you so often criticize. according to pillars 2 telemetry, literal nobody had played a shaman a couple months post deadfire release. 'course this inspired Gromnir to play a pillars ii shaman. even the options pillars players were purposeful avoiding ended up being not only viable but effective. sure, with multiclass it were technical possible to construct self a trap build, but it actual took effort to do so. regardless, don't get the relative simple pillars % math? no worries 'cause you could choose weapons and abilities based on what sounded kewl after reading ability and item descriptions and chances are you would end up with a highly effective build. we do understand the appeal o' owlcat's pathfinder. years o' familiarity with d&d legacy systems is tough to overcome. is a whole lotta nostalgia involved but is also far easier to stick with the old system you know rather than switch to something new even if is more rational and easier for beginners to learn, which is part o' the reason why the US still ain't switched to the metric system. also, part o' the appeal o' the d20/d&d stuff is the opportunity to craft a better build. the thing is, better is not possible unless there is worse. HA! Good Fun!

is unlikely to make you feel better, but even if you are a math savant, you could face considerable consternation. good math for levels up to eight will as often as not result in bad math as you progress. also, to avoid player generation and development pitfalls you need know pathfinder and owlcat quirks. example: erastil is not a popular pnp deity choice 'mongst powergamer 'cause the deity's domain powers and spells his clerics have access to is kinda meh. in fact, the wotr community domain's guarded hearth, which is a near no-brainer choice, is the domain power o' the pnp home subdomain o' community... a subdomain which is considered weaker than community 'cause the cleric o' erastil would be needing give up the unity domain power to avail themselves o' the home sub-domain... and is likely the previous example sounds like gibberish to anybody not over-invested in pathfinder. regardless, know math and know pathfinder ain't enough 'cause owlcat adds their own twist. is a whole lotta ways to play wotr and be effective and even powerful with difficulty set to core and even hard. unfortunate, is also way too many opportunities for a player to ruin a character or party by choosing wrong at level-up. owlcat's approach with stat bloat is rewarding a powergamer approach and punishing the casual gamer who don't know wotr and pathfinder minutiae. curious enough, is a considerable % o' owlcat fans who defend the developer's approach and sales do not appear to have suffered overmuch, so expecting a sea change is not a reasonable gamble. HA! Good Fun!