I finished the game once, have 2 co-op games running with friends, and just started a modded playthrough where the whole party is Artificers. I highly recommend giving some of the mods a try once you’ve played through vanilla. They’re super easy to install and add so much fun an variety.

I feel this needs to be stated: the 3 year old definitely already had cavities.

The classic “detecting problems is what causes them” fallacy.

I’d disagree. I keep up with both MtG and YGO (MtG as a game I like and YGO as a horrified observer), and the two games are not even close to equivalent here.

In YGO’s one official format, the oft-quoted statistic is that games don’t usually last more than 3 turns - those 3 turns being half the length of how MtG usually measures turns - Starting Player, Non-Starting Player, Starting Player, game. The interaction relies on your opponent having the right disruptive tool to slow down your combo.

For MtG, the only formats that are really like that are Legacy and Vintage, formats that are generally incredibly expensive to play in paper and definitely not where new players are gonna start. Even Modern, the next oldest and thus powerful format, has games that typically last at absolute least 3 turns for each player (twice the YGO standard) and most of the time last much longer. Then Standard, where new players are expected to start, has so much less combo “I win the game now” potential specifically because it’s a bad feeling for new players and the creators don’t want the format to be that fast. I can’t find a great source on it, but winning a Standard game anytime before turn 5 is notable, and usually means your opponent didn’t do anything.

As someone who dipped their toe into Payday 2 and is beginning to swim in Payday 3, I’m not shocked. Payday 3 is missing a lot of quality of life features that Payday 2 has, and has a lot less content. Plus, Payday 2 has been around forever and Payday 3 is fundamentally different enough that a fair fraction of folks probably just won’t ever feel any need to switch.

That said, I think Payday 3 has a better skeleton that Payday 2, especially for new players like me, and I’m excited to see it grow (and become something more than the minimum shippable product) over time.

I will note, while I find my namesake’s story interesting, I do quibble on the benefits of bombardment by multiple-reentry thermonuclear warheads.

Yeah like, I can understand a hesitation around being directly involved in a war effort, but mate once you’ve opened your system up to the military you’re kinda already there.

The problem isn’t the power level, it’s that they’re adding a choice about which cantrip to use, and then at 5th level effectively taking away that choice by making Eldritch Blast the obviously best option.

If Agonizing Blast added your Cha mod to all your Warlock cantrips, it’d still have some marginal flexibility in cantrip choice, like if there’s a weakness to exploit or if your target is one on the like 5 creatures that resists or is immune to Force damage, but because you lock in your choice on level-up, it’s just a “choice” where you always choose Eldritch Blast.

Oh this is exactly one of the reasons my group is switching to PF2e. I got introduced to TTRPGs via 5e but there’s so much about it that irks me. The caster/martial gap, the “big 3” saves that you just have to take Resilient to make work at higher levels, that AC just doesn’t scale properly, balancing combats (especially at high levels), Rogue having a huge gap in subclass features, classes having dead levels, etc.

My group was a little trepidatious about Pathfinder 2e but Foundry automating a lot of the math has been super helpful. We’ll be starting a proper Spelljammer-inspired interplanar campaign once the remaster releases.

That setup only works if the Bludgeoning/Piercing/Slashing damage is non-magical - practically nothing resists magical B/P/S damage, to the point where I’d put in on the same tier as Force damage, if not higher.