I wonder if he’s using a mish mash of rules from previous versions of pathfinder or something then. When we roll a 20 we ‘roll to confirm’ which requires us beating the AC of the creature by an amount I believe (it’s not always clear what the AC is when this happens so what exactly we are aiming for is unclear).

But maybe this reflects more of a confusion about how the rules work than actual weakness of the system in that case. Thanks for the feedback.

I have to say, and maybe it’s my party/DM more than the system itself but I enjoy Pathfinder a LOT less. A few things that come to mind immediately:

The critical hit thing sucks, having to roll again and (in my experience basically never) confirm that you got a crit sucks ass, I’ve gotten like one crit in the entire campaign.

It still has hitler particles, my 5e DM had all kinds of interesting interactions and races weren’t inherently aligned any way, my pathfinder 2e guy has told me that my goblin is mistaken for believing that he’s good. We run into a bunch of people that are primitive/advanced good/evil etc. based on what they are, which I think he’s getting from the books and guides, not (just) from his head. But I’ll grant that this might be partially the DM being reactionary or something and not the system, I don’t really know it well enough to say authoritatively.

This might be a Kingmaker problem but the building/management end is fucked. We tried it for a bit but you can fail to do basic stuff and just not get anywhere no matter what you do, it got so bad that the DM stopped doing it and we just theatre of the mind-ed it because the idea of continuing to do it made everyone balk. There’s been similar weirdness with stuff like grappling and the like, it seems like things that I would know how to do in a straightforward way in 5e are like 17 extra steps in Pathfinder.

I feel like I can play Pathfinder badly, not because of tactical or strategic decisions I made poorly, but because of the type of person I play. 5e continues to distance itself from locking you into specific roles/archetypes by race. My experience with Pathfinder so far is that to play the game well I need to tailor what the character is to what bonuses that confers, so roleplaying choices directly cut against effectiveness. Which kinda sucks.

And I dunno, maybe a good DM could compensate for all of this and mine just won’t do that, but he clearly knows the system very well and it’s the fact that I want to make choices that the system disagrees with (good goblin) that’s running me into these difficulties.

If you haven’t played in a few years you might be surprised how much less automation is necessary. The in game manager is good with tasks and things are overall way more intuitive than pre-steam.

The Yankees might be able to make a lot of war materiel very fast but are any of their tanks as powerful as our panzers?

Doubledee feels euphoric remembering admiring a fun game played with comrades.

“It was inevitable.”

I can handle the week of Christmas, since I will be alone once the weekend passes.

NGL I’m a little intimidated by the siege changes, I’m generally really cautious and slow so it will force my hand but here we are I guess.

I would prefer a light aquifer but would only veto a heavy one, that’s a big pain. As far as climate and environment my only veto would be evil, I think that’s a big difficulty jump that might scare people off of playing.

I think 4x4 works fine, at least on my rig. We might be better off limiting migration if we notice performance problems.

I think we could name the fort thematically and the administration pursuant to that. I’m fine leaving that to you honestly.

I can be the doc, I think diagnostician is the most important so 4 there, 3 surgeon, and then 2 and 1 to the other medical skills (suturer and wound dressing I think?)

This seems like the perfect time to dictate terms to the Russians and propose a peace plan that gives them nothing and gives Ukraine everything it wants.

Also there’s enough food produced every year to feed everyone. Failure to do so is a failure of capitalism to rationally distribute it to meet human needs: Under capitalism there are populations that it is not profitable to feed adequately, and these people are often unable to even subsistence farm because they are economically chained to monoculture for the sake of profit. People who work on farms growing food for people in the west will suffer malnutrition and die because they can’t sell their agricultural produce for enough to buy food.

That’s fucking bleak. I hate it here.

People will believe a lot of things to keep from concluding that the system they benefit from is basically unfair.

I have a relative who sincerely told me he thinks guys standing by the stoplight asking for money are secretly middle class and make more money doing that than a full time job would pay.

(This is why it’s wrong to help them by giving them money)

No but I have these Limozeen tapes.

Welcome aboard.

Folks my bingo card of “America invading a country” is getting perilously full.

I think others have brought up the difficulty with anti fascism for kids conceptually, but I’ve got some ideas that I think lean in the right direction at least.

Dr. Seuss has some bangers. I’m specifically thinking of the Butter Battle Book (criticizes the death drive and arms race) and Yertle the Turtle (about how hierarchy is built on the suffering of others) but there’s a bunch of his stuff that’s pretty solid.

Obviously Ghibli movies are skeptical of militarism and authorities, I’d also add The Iron Giant, one of the only times Brad Bird used his libertarianism for good.

The Tiffany Aching series is a disc world series aimed at a younger audience that stars a bunch of anti monarchist little fellas, not explicitly anti fascist but Pratchett is a good and empathetic writer.

On a similar note, I’d say the Series Of Unfortunate Events books are, probably unintentionally, about how liberal institutions are not capable of dealing with someone willing to break rules and be violent. They’re a bit libbed up sometimes, kinda individualist I think but they’re well written and skeptical of authority and institutions.

Also nobody has mentioned music but my kid likes Pete Seeger and Willi Carlisle, a lot of old worker songs are earworms and kids like to dance and sing.

For little kids though, I think the rule of thumb is to get them quality media that has solidaristic themes and lessons about being a good neighbor and friend. You want to help them develop prosocial skills so that when they’re old enough to understand the struggle they can understand why you are on the side you have chosen to be on.

Had to work unfortunately. My partner informs me that our preschooler was freaked out by a house with clowns and called it quits early, recovered morale by eating candy. Guess we will avoid that house next year.

Long shot but does anyone here have a link to a piece about how US defense spending priorities reveal a contradiction between what the stated purpose of the military is (unlimited power projection, unchallenged hegemony) and it’s actual capabilities? It used the F35 program and shipbuilding fiascos as examples of inefficiencies that could be solved, but aren’t because they serve a purpose (the illusion that the most cutting edge equipment is always on the immediate horizon to justify spending more to keep up the illusion). I’ve tried searching for it but can’t find it anymore.

People unironically say shit like LLMs are intelligent and it bums me out so much. It makes me wonder what they think other people are and what they believe they’re doing when they have a conversation with someone.

Both, is my understanding.

Oh hey. I didn’t see this when you posted it but if you still want to geek out I’d be happy to talk about it. I only have one friend who has listened to it. Here or privately is fine to me.

Famously every authoritarian has lost their grip on power peacefully through demonstrations.

I dunno. I don’t love the America of the 90s that was impoverishing the entire Eastern Bloc and like, invading Iraq and stuff. Or the one that opened a torture prison in Cuba in the 00s, invaded Iraq again, and terrified people across the world with an unaccountable drone war through the Obama years (to say nothing of Libya and the militarization of police).

You loved that America? The drone war/war on terror one?