Gromnir

the thing is, am suspecting if an author wrote a shadowrun story which focused on a school in the setting, following multiple students post matriculation, the institution in question would not be based on front range community college. HA! Good Fun!

we got no problem with egalitarian magic, accessible to the plebs, but am thinking the author o' the article doesn't know her audience. even in pnp a computer rpgs where it is reasonable to have magic be balanced with sword havers and other users o' mundane tools, is common to see players complain if magic is not special enuff. so what we get in fantasy lit is the traditional school o' magic, which appears to be based exeter or similar real world prep schools or colleges, but the protagonist is frequent a character straight outta a horatio alger tale. even if the protagonist is special and maybe even marked before birth by prophecy, she had to work twice as hard to get into the magic school and once there she is constant needing overcome the prejudices o' her classmates and even her teachers-- through moxie and perhaps a bit o' luck, she overcomes all odds and obstacles. *groan* am not happy with such fare, but is understandable how we get to such a place, 'cause is the audiences who want magic to be special. HA! Good Fun!

your approach doesn't work with bar exam questions. actual, your approach hurts your chances. bar exam graders get paid per question graded. quixotic, in-depth analysis is hurting your efforts to pass the bar exam. as an examinee, the goal is to make important points as clear and easy to spot for the grader as is possible. concise. to-the-point. 'course is worth noting that the passage rate for ca bar exam feb 2020 hit a horrific low o' ~28%, so ca responded by dropping the score needed to pass. serious. were a yearly trend o' worsening rates o' passage and ca finally gave up and made test passage easier. HA! Good Fun!

am disturbed by needing to admit we has seen this question come up many times. am not joking. there were a pathfinder query on their boards involving a lich shapechanged into a gorilla then mating with a gorilla and the fate o' the progeny. ... wtf is wrong with people? is some question as to polymorph as the baleful polymorph spell involves a fort save and undead is immune to spells involving fort saves. as such has been suggested that regardless o' save, polymorph may not be sufficient to alter the undead type. however, consensus we observed is shapechange achieves the desired result. am honest not sure what is the official word from paizo or whether or not the pathfinder developers provided a definitive answer. shape changed into a gorilla? can't have expected us to read any further, yes? HA! Good Fun!

image reminds us o' important advice for gd if he ever wants to fit in with the wisconsin locals: learn nuances o' and pretend to enjoy the perverse leisure activity known as ice fishing. is a special kinda stoopid required to ice fish for fun. HA! Good Fun!

brian tyler reported spent less than a full month working on the children of dune soundtrack and have heard portions o' his music from the miniseries used in subsequent video games, tv shows and even hollywood films. HA! Good Fun!

maybe watch the syfy dune miniseries, and children of dune miniseries? warnings: costumes in the syfy dune miniseries were curiously cheap and cheesy. if you haven't seen, am not able to accurate describe the level o' bad. alec newman were trying to act young in dune, which were a mistake. we thought newman were a horrible actor, but then we saw children of dune and realized he were at least competent. whether it were director's fault or actor's prerogative regarding how to portray the s'posed fifteen year-old and small for his age paul, the syfy dune version o' muad'dib were distracting at times. not as distracting as costumes, but close. william hurt phoned in his portrayal as duke leto. for any leto scene a cardboard cutout o' jürgen prochnow from dune (1984) coulda' been inserted into the film with some random male vo actor reading the duke's lines and woulda' been better than william hurt pretending to contribute to the project. as an aside, am not a fan o' dune messiah or children of dune books. understatement. nevertheless, the children of dune miniseries, other than the end which were terrible 'cause o' frank herbert and were no way to fix if remaining faithful to source material were a goal, was excellent and entertaining... and the costumes were much improved if hardly hollywood movie quality. HA! Good Fun!

ah, am recalling the salad days, back when gd didn't "worry much about the weather." that was like, two weeks ago, yes? you may wanna ignore the weather, but the weather won't ignore you. come late november or early december, no doubt gd will chivalrous offer to dig out his companion's driveway after overnight snow drops a couple feet o' nice wet and heavy accumulation. the first time you need do such, it may even seem fun. maybe consider an early christmas present... for her of course. south-west wisconsin has some beautiful hill country and even a few nice ski resorts. not exactly pittsburgh, but hills is hills. first time you hit black ice and you watch helpless as the back end o' your car/truck is sudden leading the way down a hill or 'round a turn won't worry gd none. ... and its only october, not even halloween. wait for valentine's day. might wanna suggest meeting halfway in the future. sedona is halfway 'tween tennessee and wisconsin, yes? just need fold the map exact right. HA! Good Fun!

am suspecting the new dune could be frustrating for folks who don't know dune. example: the genuine importance o' spice is never explained save for extreme brief and off-hand comments. doesn't matter to those o' us who has read dune and likely seen every previous movie and tv version, but the pivotal importance o' spice and arakis is kinda assumed to be understood by the audience. also, the movie end does suck 'cause while the directors attempt to make the event at the conclusion pivotal to paul's development, it nevertheless feels forced and kinda pointless. a few o' the performances were excellent. visually the movie were appealing. *shrug* at 2.5 hours long there were predictable pacing issues. overall we enjoyed the movie. HA! Good Fun!

by the same token, if a young and pregnant woman gets in a car accident 'cause she were speeding, how often does the da seek to prosecute her for manslaughter if she miscarries due to the resulting accident? take medication but not according to prescription is illegal. so a woman takes two vicodin post root canal instead o' one as directed. do you expect manslaughter prosecution if the expectant mother miscarries? is not a hard and obvious line, and if is being applied selective, then one needs question why some illegal behaviors resulting in loss o' pregnancy is prosecuted and others is not. HA! Good Fun!

can't make our self take camellia beyond act i and some limited act ii content, so our favoured strategy for playful darkness involves pillars of life, a sooper intimidator and prayer-- not the spell but actual prayer 'cause a couple bad rolls results in a needed reload. with the aforementioned prayer you may also get lucky on a couple mass heal scroll uses, but those is kinda an expensive option. is possible to build seelah and/or sosiel into achieving near overwhelming intimidator status. a player character or merc inquisitor or dirge bard is gonna be best options, but understandably not many folks feel comfortable creating a fromage-based intimidator for their main. regardless, pc or companion, need sacrifice one level to get thug, but is worth it to see playful darkness scamper away when it fails the spamable intimidation checks which is not subject to sr and is not actual a will save, which is part o' the reason why the bugged vavakia vandguards you will encounter later in the game is so devastating. and keep in mind the intimidation tactic works 'gainst every demon lord as well. recommendation: use moss pottage camp meal for the stack-with-everything skill boost 'cause every point counts. why pillars of life? no save. no sr. can cast 'em pre combat and may cast multiple iterations in the exact same location. am s'posing you may plan ahead and have sosiel prepare pillars scrolls and then have nenio cast 'em... and unless has been fixed, part o' the beauty o' intimidation resulting in fear is that unlike party members, each time playful runs through stacked pillars of life, he/she/it takes damage anew. might wanna check and see how many is purchasable from the cleric in drezen and possible at the temple of the good hunt. pillars not maximized or empowered do 10d8 damage... each. even if has been fixed and you don't get the repeat damage, play in tb means each time playful runs away and then returns, it gets at most a single attack. not a you-win button option, but is another workable approach which am having personal used core and hard and it has the advantage o' not depending on camellia. HA! Good Fun! ps just checked and arsinoe does not sell pillars of life scrolls, so unless you bring sosiel or have a priest main, you need craft scrolls to make this tactic work.

neil cavuto endorses vaccinations during a fox segment. the story is not why we link. please read the comments from fox regulars posting in response to the story. a significant % o' the US population has been inoculated 'gainst facts. the problem is not limited to covid neither. HA! Good Fun!

so, deflection? you were the guy posting per capita gdp. now is a matter o' neighboring countries and dystopian futures? and yes, china could, possible, in the future, if they overcome their self-made population nightmare, become more economic prosperous than... mexico. have no problem agreeing with that. doesn't change how myopic and oversimplified were your initial observation. @kanisatha were a bit more generous with your non analogous numbers than is Gromnir, but am admitted no longer generous with comrade silliness. HA! Good Fun! ps oh and preach to the choir maybe 'bout the poverty issues the US could/should be addressing and how many times has we needed point out that more than 1/3 o' the recipients o' national and state welfare programs is children. add mental and physical disabled and such numbers increase. those who complain 'bout handouts should be ashamed when faced with such numbers, but aren't. point out most adult welfare recipients get benefits less than six months? is a inconvenient fact. point out how many us military veterans is homeless and living on the streets? etc. 'course you, as is typical, look external when the most immediate, pressing and solvable concerns is domestic. fix mexico is a big problem. get homeless veterans with mental health issues and medical conditions the help they need? can fix the veteran problem if we chose to. don't fix is more than a national tragedy and embarrassment but hey, you can talk mexico if you think it salvages your gdp generalization. pps minors current represent 44% o' national welfare program assistance in the US, and the % would seem to be a bit higher for states, but each state does their own math gymnastics, so is tough to come up with a reliable number. closer to 1/2 than 1/3? say 1/3 for those who quibble, but +44% is safe bet.

compare the population of ireland, a small homgenous nation, to the bay area of the US... just the bay area of california. ~half. ireland is half. similarly, compare per capita gdp for bay area to the nations you wanna cherry pick. heck, do for silicon valley and situation is even more extreme. the US is a large and diverse nation. apples and oranges. heck, china has the advantage o' being homogenous and the chinese per capita gdp is similar to kazakhstan and neck-and-neck with mexico. mexico? serious? so... is another situation where comrade reads something somewhere and w/o benefit o' any kinda serious researches or studies, he blurts out a generality which predictable will not age well for him short-term or long term. HA! Good Fun!

if am having to make a guess, is 'cause empowered and maximized blade barriers is complete cheese. pathfinder has most o' the d&d force spells, but by different names. obvious can't call stuff "bigby's __________," in a pathfinder game. is a number o' additional force spells which entered pathfinder with the psychic classes. dunno. HA! Good Fun!

the problem is boss immunities, which ordinarily include any force effect such as magic missile and battering blast. why? 'cause. even so, one o' the advantages o' nenio over ember is her flexibility. those sooperpowered gallu demons which you encounter every dozen or so paces late in the game seem to be especial vulnerable to battering blast, and they is one o' the few demons with visible wings which is subject to prone as well. if you have built your nenio as a blaster, then battering blast is actual a good option to take out those particular demons. 'course that is an issue with wotr-- is many foes which have A vulnerability, but none o' that matters if you overwhelm 'em with damage. such a crude approach is universal effective and tends to feel inelegant and a bit mindless. curious, while many mid and late game mooks is immune to mind affecting spells and conditions, the demon lords and achievement bosses is mostly vulnerable to such, with the obvious obstacle o' near impossible will saves to be overcome. the thing is, there is ways to generate shaken and fear effects in the game which is not subject to an ordinary saving throw. pathfinder is weird, 'cause d&d was weird. just is. HA! Good Fun! ps one o' those late game crusade items which disappeared from inventory is now capable o' being researched and you may turn it into a robe which adds 4d6 fire damage to any fire damage spell you cast... 'cause there just weren't enough fire damage boosting items in the game.

nicolaus cage ruined the apache for us. we literal walked out o' the theatre after this scene. HA! Good Fun!

as noted earlier in the thread, greater shadow evocation is an alternative, but not available 'til late. technical, as is shadow, it is not sending anybody to hell. however, owlcat implementation is such that the spell is in all respects nothing more or less than heightened versions o' the laundry list o' evocation spells available. as an aside, is a whole lotta fantastic and potential op spells available in wotr. however, given the stat and hp bloat o' boss enemies, at some point you are gonna need to be able to do massive damage to foes and is advantageous if you are able to deliver the pain fast. from a pure damage standpoint, hellfire rays is the obvious choice to dish out hurt-- you need count on your casters to do damage or they is underwhelming during the most challenging combat encounters in the game. HA! Good Fun! ps fyi, sorcerer bloodlines which allow conversion of energy types is current not compatible with either of the shadow evocation spells. try and cast a greater shadow evocation hellfire ray as cold, electricity or whatever results in spellcast fail and a wasted spell attempt.

am suspecting few has read the description o' hellfire ray as they have ember spam the spell. HA! Good Fun!

... is this bruce? did you kidnap gd and hijack his account? HA! Good Fun!

if you really want metamagic, add levels o' arcane trickster and loremaster. 5 levels o' witch, one level o' vivisectionist, then go everything arcane trickster... finish off with loremaster for extra (cheaty or not) feats. nevertheless, am still not taking anything but heighten and perhaps empower even with such a build. if you keep ember as a witch, she just doesn't have superfluous feats. the owlcat folks gave her the right starting feats with point-blank and precise. obvious you are going with spell focus and greater spell focus and at least one o' the spell penetrations, likely both, yes? you took selective spell, correct? add heighten as a metamagic as well as weapon focus: ray and improved critical: ray. done. drop a feat somewhere and take elven immunities 'cause against bosses you need every bit o' spell penetration. is a whole lotta gear in the game which boosts spellcaster fire efficacy and catalogues, particular for spontaneous casters. we load up on such stuff and then blast away at everything. if you aren't playing at least core, then you likely don't need greater spell penetration and you can probable skip weapon focus in spite o' her blackened malus. the thing is, shrug off the occasional reflex check pass for chain lightning which she gets freebie with those bracers and maybe during a boss fight she misses a sr check, or two, which in the grand scheme if you is playing normal and has an angel doing storm o' justice won't matter or be noticed, but objective ember is less effective if she don't have boss level sr penetration and ab. rods is more than enough for meta needs. take heighten... perhaps empower. nothing else needed and each investment in meta requires abandonment o' something else. HA! Good Fun! ps but again, and am not just doing the bygone thing-- if ember is effective for you, then that is good enough. have pointed out previous how our whole build philosophy is based on making boss battles easier, 'cause am not seeing the point to being able to snooze through trash mobs only to be stymied during boss battles. our way is not right.

separate post 'cause is not related to the ember discussion but is instead related to shadow evocation spells. is not something most casual wotr players would be aware, but shadow spells are not shadow as implemented in wotr. a wotr shadow evocation spell is for all intents and purposes a heightened evocation spell. end of story. similarly, if you cast hellfire ray from greater shadow evocation it behaves in all respects as a hellfire ray, but heightened to level eight. there is no will save. there is no reduced damage. as such, powerful shadows mythic does nothing in wotr and if you have spell focus: illusion as a feat, it won't do diddly when you cast shadow evocation spells. you gotta take evocation related feats and mythic feats to boost your hellfire ray cast with greater shadow evocation, and you need ascendant element: fire if you want the shadow hellfire ray to do full damage to demons. also, if you are a conjuror, then you may even get the benefits of spells such as grease heightened to level 9 with all your conjuration feats modifying it by casting shades. shadow spells are a curious option. unfortunate, feyspeakers are no longer able to cast shadow evocation spells (inexplicably they have always been precluded from casting shadow conjuration spells) but this little quirk does offer a number of sorcerer builds, and a few other classes, a unique way to expand a spell repertoire and gain the benefits of heightened spells even if one does not have the heighten feat... although chances are you have heightened anyways, 'cause. HA! Good Fun!

if you are using ember as a blaster, then 'course the stuff you want to use with reflex is gonna be the spells you pump with metamagic. and your list o' genuine feat needs maybe different than ours, but it won't matter 'cause whatever is on the list is stuff you can't simple replace with metamagic rods. but again, if she is effective for you, then that is all that matters. HA! Good Fun!

this spring we told our remaining tenants that they could have until end may o' 2022 to find new accommodations, 'cause we would not be continuing leases. give a year after lease technical expires to find a new place were generous but possible a bit foolish in retrospect. 'course now am kinda sweating it. is a crap time to buy but a great time to sell, and typical those concerns don't matter much if you is selling and buying at same time as the situation tends to cancel itself out 'tween the loss on one end and the gain at the other. however, am not a buyer. if the bottom drops out o' the market am most assured not looking to do as we did in 2008-2011 and buy cheap. am sell side exclusive... and tell our self a huge loss would cut our capital gains is not as reassuring as you might believe. we weren't complete joking 'bout the smaug portfolio we mentioned earlier. am expecting things is gonna turn bad for sellers ( and just 'bout everybody else) very soon and am not expecting a quick rebound neither. am hopeful "very soon" stretches into six months and perhaps is delayed 'til after the midterm elections, but we need at least 'til june/july 2022. am serious not wanting to go back to work. wouldn't need actual do that even if our property became literal worthless, but if our ira also sudden tanked... have taken precautions, but... HA! Good Fun!

you mean other than the three feats beyond heighten which coulda' been replaced with stuff you genuine need and cannot replicate with rods? to bump up scorching ray? dunno. am not seeing the benefit from the numbers and the forced abandonment o' sorcerous reflex. can't say how much difference bolster makes 'cause have been avoiding since is busted and we don't use mods specific as it screws up our bug reporting. 'course if you feel like you are getting use from your ember build then you are. shadow evocation spells have sudden stopped being castable for a feyspeaker test merc we built. am knowing shadow evocation is broken, but not this broken. shadow evocation was working on a sorc we made earlier, so am not sure what the issue could be. HA! Good Fun! ps am genuine a bit perturbed with the feyspeaker thing. for our next wotr character we kinda decided to go azata, and we wanted to do something much different than our angel inquisitor... other than fact am @Guard Dog level o' appreciation for dogs, albeit am speaking o' wotr dogs. trip machines. we did leopard with our inquisitor, and the cats is fantastic tanks, but dogs is likely the superior option. so for the azata we wanted an animal companion caster build, and preferable a charisma caster. nature oracle, sylvan sorcerer or feyspeaker druid were the obvious choices. might be stuck with the sorc by default. were a distant third 'mongst ouroptions too.