Random Video Game Crap
- Thread starter Frank
- Start date
You know, I've read some complaints about the quality of the writing in Chained Echoes (that I happen to agree with) but, one, it's a non-native English speaker doing the work himself and two....I kinda don't want to play a well written JRPG? The appeal is they're kinda dumb and simple and always have been. The mistranslations and weirdness of the script are part of the charm to me?
I was checking out a sale on Steam. Last year, I had so many adult titles and today? It’s thinks I’m 10?!
It's a five-year old video but it popped up in my recommendations due to looking up some Witcher 3 stuff lately. It's cute.
figmentPez
Staff member
Smash Bros, but if the characters were their canon sizes:
GasBandit
Staff member
The new Idle Champions character for the winter event is Imoen from Baldur's Gate.
She's got some interesting abilities... kind of somewhere between Minsc (chooses a favored enemy) and Calliope (Casts stoneskin on the party to give temp bonus HP shield)
Also, is it just me, or did they Anime-up her portrait to extreme degrees?
She's got some interesting abilities... kind of somewhere between Minsc (chooses a favored enemy) and Calliope (Casts stoneskin on the party to give temp bonus HP shield)
Also, is it just me, or did they Anime-up her portrait to extreme degrees?
(Baldur's Gate 2 vs Idle Champions comparison)
Just for comparison, here's what I'm used to female characters looking like in this game
Celeste (Neverwinter on the left, IC on the right)
Nayeli - Warriors of Waterdeep vs IC
Calliope - character sheet art vs IC
Some others -
Cattie-Brie, Delina, Vlahnya, Aila, Jaheira, Jamilah, Penelope, Nerys
Maybe it's just me, but it seems to me that they had an established art style going (CHEEKBONES and almond-shaped eyes) and then when they introduced Imoen, they said "MAKE IT KAWAII"
Just for comparison, here's what I'm used to female characters looking like in this game
Celeste (Neverwinter on the left, IC on the right)
Nayeli - Warriors of Waterdeep vs IC
Calliope - character sheet art vs IC
Some others -
Cattie-Brie, Delina, Vlahnya, Aila, Jaheira, Jamilah, Penelope, Nerys
Maybe it's just me, but it seems to me that they had an established art style going (CHEEKBONES and almond-shaped eyes) and then when they introduced Imoen, they said "MAKE IT KAWAII"
GasBandit
Staff member
Compared to her actual game sprite, the portrait is fairly neutral even!
Yeah, they took dopey beginning-of-Baldur's-Gate-1 Imoen and dressed her up like BG2 Imoen and then put her through an anime filter.
For comparison reference, Celeste's in-game sprite looks like she's played by James Franco.
GasBandit
Staff member
Ironically, Celeste is the MOST healer-support character of the bunch, and she's got one of the least soft portrait faces of the bunch.
That said, Imoen technically is classified as healer-support, despite not actually healing anybody... and I am grateful to have a positional-based support class for bench slot 11... because that means MORE DAMAGE FOR WARDUKE
This is fuckin' great.
GasBandit
Staff member
Sooo I don't know how or why, but somehow in my formation, I've managed to get Imoen to match Warduke for effective (not base) DPS.
See? The raw math says Warduke should still be doing 99.999999% of the damage of my group - but somehow, Imoen is matching him shot for shot at approximately e168 damage.
My formation looks like this
The longer Warduke fights on a given round, the stronger he gets - but Imoen keeps pace. As he powers up, so does she - and she's also got useful support abilities like casting stoneskin every 8 attacks which helps keep Warduke up and tanking (which is important in the early part of a round this high, before Warduke has really ramped up and hit his stride, he has to tank way more guys than his overwhelm rating).
I have gone over her effects list with a fine toothed comb, and don't see any reason for this to be happening. Yes, the blessings from Torm disproportionately favor the middle rank, but if that's all it was, then Penelope and Evelyn should also be doing a lot more damage than they are.
I got no idea here. But I'm willing to abuse it for everything it's worth.
Also, I finally got enough favor with Torm to buy out the entire list of blessings without setting off the "you are spending too much Favor" alarm.
GasBandit
Staff member
It should count as both, IMO. It is, after all, a naturally occurring beast, even if it is big, intelligent, and dangerous.
In 5e they have an evil alignment and a breath weapon; they're not just bigger smarter wolves.
GasBandit
Staff member
I'm aware. But that still doesn't seem like that should put them in the Monstrosity category exclusively. If someone's favored enemy is beasts, for example, that should still apply to Winter Wolves. Especially since Winter Wolves are naturally occurring, and the definition of a Monstrosity is that it must be "unnatural." A product of a curse or magic gone awry, or something of the sort. It seems like some DM somewhere wanted to have their cake and eat it too, like Wolves that are cool but you don't get to do anything with them that normally you could do with a wolf, because despite the fact that it looks like a beast, acts like a beast, has natural origins like a beast... it's not one. So no, your druid can't be friends with it. And it's evil too! So nyeh, player!
It's also a problem that D&D has had for a long time about how categories are bins and not tags. IF you are X, you are not Y, because X and Y are two distinct things. Seems to me that most other systems, which use rules of "flags" so that something can be "beast" and "monstrosity," and things that affect those categories would affect something with the tag. It's one of the reasons why I've typically preferred other RPG systems other than strictly-interpreted D&D rules.
At least 5e doesn't still have dumb concepts like THAC0... so I guess things are improving over time.
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The go-to description for 5e says that Monstrosities are "frightening Creatures that are not Ordinary, not truly natural, and almost never benign" which definitely has two boxes checked and is at least ambiguous on what "truly natural" means. They also speak multiple languages and cooperate with other monsters, which I would say means that they don't really act like beasts, right? That said, I don't really have any objection to the idea that they could be both beasts and monstrosities beyond the fact that, like you said, D&D is designed and balanced around things being in single categories, and I don't really see why an idle game would be totally beholden to D&D's rules anyway.
Also, and not really related, but I would happily take back THAC0 and all of 2e's jank over playing in 5e, but neither of those are my preferred rules either.
Also, and not really related, but I would happily take back THAC0 and all of 2e's jank over playing in 5e, but neither of those are my preferred rules either.
GasBandit
Staff member
Especially given that the source material spans pretty much every edition, no logic apparent as to how they decide what to go with rules in any given single instance.
But yeah I'm mostly just trying to rules lawyer with a machine because I picked beasts as a favored enemy because I expected wolves on this particular adventure and then the winter wolves showed up and stayed for several rounds.
figmentPez
Staff member
Final Fantasy 7: Swear Jar
Wedge and Jessie should have paid at least 10 gil.
GasBandit
Staff member
Also, Asharra's "half and half" affinity bonus applies to Half-elf, Half-orc, and HALFLING (who are not actually a human hybrid) but not Tieflings. Tieflings are relegated to the "Potpourris" affinity bonus with the Aarakocra, Dragonborn, Firbolg, Lizardfolk, Minotaur, and Tortle. Which IMNSHO is where Halflings should have been instead of Tieflings.
