#Breaking the Game

[drawingducktalesducks]

ducktales girls just wanna have fun 😈

[calextheneko]

So anyway... I enjoy Baldur's Gate, but as someone who is primarily a Pathfinder player who... is not a fan of 5e DnD, I find myself... At odds with the game at times when I feel like I should be able to do things I can't... And weirded out what the game considers big numbers. Like, I felt like it took every resource I had to break 30 AC on a character... And like I had to trick the game to get a character's strength stat up to 22.

Meanwhile, in the latest Pathfinder video game

Yeah.... Meet my Chaotic Neutral Trickster Barbarian and what I consider normal stats. My dump stat intelligence at 28.

And if you think this is hideous you should see the things I put together in actual pen and paper table top when I get to actually play. I'm normally a forever GM but every generation the stars eventually align and I get to be a player.

Anyway, I made a psychic in the Iron Gods adventure path. A catfolk named Tau. Psychics are basically a lot like wizards just instead of specialized school abilities they gain special abilities called Phrenic Amplifications. Anyway, that's not important the important takeaway is that Tau was a very VERY squishy caster.

His AC was 40. Or 46 when he decided to cast Form of the Alien Dragon. Yes, Form of the Alien Dragon, not normal dragon, because I can't be normal with anything. Also Form of the Alien Dragon is the only dragon transformation psychics can learn and even then they're limited on which ones they can turn into based on which ones fit the occult psionic power theme. Anyway, he routinely walked around in dragon form, but also invisible, but also with mirror image which somehow still works even when invisible, and mind blank on meaning that spells like see invisibility and true sight automatically fail on him so you have no way to force him to become visible.

But what was really fun, is the bizarre combination of feats and abilities he took to just do strange things. The party almost TPKed in the first dungeon. Until he used Charm Person on the Juju Zombie that was killing them. Now you may go, wait a second, undead are immune to all mind and compulsion effect. Yeah, Tau doesn't care. He had a spell called Will of the Dead that allowed all of mind affecting spells to work on undead as normal. This was taken to hilarious levels later when in book 3 we encountered a ghost who was supposed to be the arc villain and constantly sneak attack us with cloud kill by coming through the walls and leaving for the entire dungeon. Charmed him on his first appearance. And now that he was my best friend, agreed to get him to disable all his traps and get rid of all the monsters so he could give his new best buddy a tour of his lair.

Then I lured him into the basement where the rest of the party was all waiting with readied actions to bust out their best ghost killing abilities and just delete him from existence. And then after he was dead exercised his spirit from the tower so he couldn't come back and we're like. Wow, we have a fully stocked tower with robot guards programmed to see us as allies. Looks like we have a new home base!

Then later he charmed a hologram and pulled the exact same stunt. I'm going to be honest. Even I'm not 100% how that worked but the GM after reading through the rules several times eventually declared that sentient holograms per the rules had no natural protection against magical effects.

He also charmed a Plasma Ooze, kept it as a pet and made it his best friend and fed his enemies to it. Through another combination of feats I could now use mind effects on vermin and oozes. I also picked up a spell to dominate constructs. The only thing I couldn't charm or mind control by the end of the campaign were plant creatures. It was just... Kind of hilarious because... It's the GM is like.

"Wait, you made a psychic, a class that specializes in mind effect spells in a campaign about fighting robots which are immune to mind effects."

"Yeup."

"Well it's your choice."

If only he had known what was to come. Other highlights include a spell that lets me lift one enemy up with telekinetic power and throw them at another enemy. Mind Crush, I mean Mind Thrust, which dealt severe damage and left people with debilitating status effects even when they made their save. And Ego Whip, which gave them a -10 to Wisdom, Charisma, or Intelligence, Even if they made their save. Saving only made it temporary.

Oh you're a cleric, so you have a high will save and think you don't have to fear me. Well take a -10 to your wisdom stat. Your will save just went down by 5 as did the DC for all your spells. What now?

Then there was the time he trapped a dragon in a giant telekinetic hamster ball, pushed it over an edge into an endless voice and just caused the dragon to be deleted from existence.

... There's probably a reason I'm always a GM and never a player. XD

So anyway... The level of customization I get in Pathfinder and the ability to just pull these completely insane builds out that no one expects that are completely unique is why I love it so much. But anyway, as much as I prefer Pathfinder to 5e, I very rarely get to be a player, so kind of eat up table top video games to get my urges and crazy builds out. I have over 1000 hours of gametime in Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, and it's one of like only 4 games in existence I got every achievement for because you put that many hours in you eventually find and achieve everything. Though... Forgot the name of it... The secret boss in the Midnight Isles DLC. Screw that thing. That is the absolute worst achievement to get because it's entirely RNG on if you're going to get the items needed to unlock it or encounter the island types needed to unlock things and you could play for months nonstop and not get the first key needed after you get the pirate map and holy symbol because the right island/undertow effect never spawned. Or it did spawn but you finished a voyage so were forced to start with a new crew again and none of your casters were high enough levels to have the spell you need to activate the item that has a random chance on spawning on the correct item combination. Oh right you can get the right item combination and then the item you need to cast the right spell on might not even spawn. And you have to get three keys this way. Yeah, that was terrible and I totally cheated and force spawned the keys into my inventory because after several days of trying I was done.

Still, I'm having fun with Baldur's Gate 3... and what I've learned is that... 5e is... surprisingly fragile and easy to break. Aheh heh heh. Maybe I won't get a 62 AC anytime soon, but I have figured out how to build a tactical nuclear strike on Raphael's bedroom. That's my plan for how to beat him on my hard mode run. Sadly the plan will require the sacrifice of a party member to trigger cutscenes and activate the bomb but... bringing people back is only a level 3 spell or 200 gold so you know... Nuking the devil in his own home and ending a fight before it starts... I think I can spare a level 3 spell slot or 200 gold to make that happen.

Aheheheheheheheheheh.

If I have any explosives left over when I'm done I'm gonna go visit dear old Auntie Ethel next. I feel her lair would look better if the entire thing was on fire.

But hey, sometimes I build elaborate nukes... Sometimes I do things the simple way. Those poor idiot guards patrolling the docks while wearing heavy armor. One shove and then I just stand on the shore and watch then drown.

Good thing I'm pretty sure 5e did away with the alignment. Not that I'm evil. I swear I'm good aligned. Just... Chaotic good.

Very... Very... Very... Very... VERY chaotic. But still good.

Side note, just had a thought after posting this, since I am a forever GM, maybe I should post a weekly session recap on Tumblr of my games. That a thing people would be interested in reading?

[paliaglitchhunters]

What's this?! Alex broke into the hidden area on our plot! Come check out this latest glitch adventure!

[endermen-impasta]

Our Sky Adventures

((aka we broke the map within the first second))

((regular pictures))

((pictures of me breaking the map))

[[Side Note: My friend Feral ( @th3inb3tw33n ) joined me on my adventures and they are questioning how this happened]]

[averagepathologicenjoyer]

Can't wait to build up my Pathologic Classic Random Bullshit™ masterpost, I've been seeing what assets do and don't have collision and how they interact with the character, how easy it is to get on top of walls, inventory manipulation for actors, bins, and buildings (also did you know that all the npcs are referred to as actors in the game files?). It takes so long to figure this stuff out and is it useful? I mean a little depending on what you're doing, but honestly I just find it interesting

Also wanna see how many people are going to wonder why my game looks like its going through the colours of the rainbow in one day

[phantom-palace]

sitting here… mute as fuck..

[eastgaysian]

[cardo-de-comer]

low-poly, ps1-ish Batter

[skyberia]

workarounds to having a vampire as your partner in crime

[tariah23]

The manga industry, especially JUMP, needs to hurry up and do away with weekly scheduling for mangaka. There needs to better regulations put into place for their health and safety because this is pitiful. Two weeks - monthly updates should’ve already been the standard for the manga industry at this point. These money grabbers will only continue to put the lives of these artists at stake for the sake of capitalism unless some serious changes are implemented.

[owldart]

They figured he was an angsty TEEN not an angsty THIRD GRADER

[gingersnapped]

"Sam is probably my only friend in this town..." emergency sleepover time in the mountains after local small town emo and skater boy played too much solarion chronicles and lost track of time

[ohnonotthehorrors]

Can I... talk about the theory that winners help craft the next game?

Because, and I really can not say this enough, it puts So Much into perspective.

Everything starts out Normal. Three lives, simple, cut and dry, there hasn't been a winner yet. No one to help craft the game. (And there's something to be said about how simple it really was. Not even a real expectation of the world becoming pvp or combative. No idea of the war to come)

Then Grian wins. The green killer, the man who vowed his first life to the one whose life he took. The next game the boogie man is born. A mechanic that allows and, in fact, demands, a green kill. People can trade lives back and forth, currency and debt wrapped up in one. (can we still be friends? Said the red partner. A life time later and reds are hostile, alone. Maybe it's an answer: No. Not anymore)

Scott wins this time. He refuses to play the game. He will not kill his team, he will love and he will do so fiercely and with all of himself. The next game people are attached through to their very souls. Every bit of damage to one soul is done to its twin. There is no boogeyman. (There is no way for a widow to be left without their love)

Pearl wins and she wins a blood bath. Spent the game draped in red, only wolves for company. Sitting in her tower, shivering in ice, maybe she wanted it to end. To see where it would. Limited life rewards you for killing, limited life has a clock tick tick ticking down, you always no how long you have. A curse yes, but a blessing too.

Now It's Martyn's turn.

And what a turn it is.

Keep your secrets, says the disloyal man, keep them well. Everything hurts, everything Matters, says the man fracturing with every loss. (What if we could love each other without hurting? Says The Hand, who never wanted to be coated in blood)

More importantly, Martyn has always seen the watchers below the surface. Now, they're right here in front of him. Something that could almost... be rebelled against, no? Something that someone else could finally point to and say: hey, hey isn't that familiar?

[glassrooibos]

FABIAN DON’T DO THAT. THAT’S SCARY.

[ionomycin]

archfey warlock

[averagepathologicenjoyer]

I love seeing how devs decided to prevent the player from getting to certain areas and then going "no :)"

Turns out it is SUPER EASY to get behind the Abbatoir as you can either go via the spikes at the base of the Polyhedron or cramming yourself between the invisible wall and the Abbatoir and jumping over the barrier. The Abbatoir itself has one large flat cuboid hitbox that is high enough for the player to not be able to jump on top of normally, but once you're on it you can walk under the Abbatoir roof just fine without falling into the void below. There's nothing in there of course it isn't textured from the inside, though interestingly they decided to add collision to all four sides of each Termitary building even though there is one side that you would never be able to touch anyway because of the Abbatoir