u/SillyKenku

There's an old rpg trick me and my friends use which we call 'making a two headed snake'. The basic idea is you double a foes hp and give it two turns per round of combat. There's often a few other minor rules we apply for it based on the system but it's pretty simple.

Basically it's as if you have two of the same monster on the field challenge rating wise but they're combined into the one body. It's a fun way to make a dynamic foe that I feel like has been around for years.

We call it a two headed snake' because of an article that explained the idea very well done years back used a snake monster as it's example. But I've seen the trick called a dozen things over the years; hell I've seen it used as part of official rules such as fabula ultimas elites!

So I'm curious assuming your table knows of/ uses this truck what is you call it? Is there even a consistent name people use for this?

Edit:AS others have pointed out the two headed snake idea was come https://theangrygm.com/elemental-boogaloo/ in 2015. I had seen the method before then but he did a good job explaining it, codifying it, and spreading the idea. But I had forgotten name of the blog since then (It has been a decade~). Called it Paragon monsters at the time?

Now I've been playing TTRPGS for decades and very few systems handled this well. Now I am NOT talking about players stabbing each other back! But agreed upon fights and challenges just to be clear. Or situations where there's rival party that uses PC stats to make them feel more 'like' a rival party etc.

PCs are designed to work as a unit, monsters are often built in a different way, and making characters fight characters often is a bit of a big dumb mess. Fun for a lark, but often best avoided for anything serious.

That said my players often want to have little friendly spars, or face off against each other at the end of some cinematic tournament, or similar things.

Was curious how well they worked in draw-steel and if I should consider making any of these things a scenario for the adventure I plan to run.

Planning to run this system later in the year; got the steam version; quite curious how it'll turn out. Feels like a much less jank version of 4E off hand~

Right you've all likely seen this https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/comments/1uwok1n/aon_our_paizo_partnership_has_ended/ if not feel free to look there first. And please read AoNs entire response too~

I'll keep my OWN opinions on this to private discords with friends rather then the public BUT please also keep in mind the following:

https://bsky.app/profile/legalizegoblins.bsky.social/post/3mqngiwpfvk2v

The people answering the emails/etc respond to this are normal human beings who likely had no part of this choice. While I disagree with Avi in terms of 'not sending mass emails' (as lets face its our main way to make our voice to be heard) it is important to remember the people on the other end are; you know; people.

Let your voice be known sure but be CIVIL and be UNDERSTANDING in your responses. Paizo is struggling now, understaffed, and already had to let people go.

While I disagree with this choice for my own reasons try to give folks the benefit of the doubt and not start screaming at strangers huh?

Edits:

I will say this thread is NOT started to debate the ethics involved in their choice!

If it's a good idea, bad idea, or justify why or why not they did it when it comes to AoN. There are other threads for that! It's simply a suggestion to treat the people on the other end like human beings and be Civil.

Lastly I'm probably not going to respond in mass to people talking here. This was me giving a suggestion, not me coming here for a debate, again, there are other threads for that.

The Bluesky link was posted to remind you that Avi/Maya are real people primarily.

Obviously you should spoiler the hell out of what you post here for other people on the site, Thinking about running this for a group; how'd the over all vibes turn out? What are our heroes typically doing? Other general thoughts, stuff you liked stuff you didn't. How were the villains? Or general styles of play, combat ETC.

It hasn't been out long so I imagine a lot of people haven't FINISHED it yet but yeah. Curious.

Friend is hoping to get a smaller-group game with only a couple of players playing multiple PCs each (something not uncommon in our groups. You GM enough and multi-tasking PCs is easy peasy).

Was wondering if this would be a good fit. Quite important as they're volunteering to pay 1/2 the Price of the foundry module for whatever I run. They were interested in this and Triumph of the Tusk.. and I feel like I want to save tusk for a larger group.

Right. I'm going to be running strength of thousands in about 2~ or so months on foundry VTT. Grabbed the first two PDFS. loaded them up into the PDF modules.. and... one doesn't work at all for SOT and the other doesn't load in half the content (the map images being the big one).

I'm on V14 of Foundry presently.. is there a PF2 PDF converter that works properly presently? something that's been updated? I HAD heard someone abandoned the old one they had been working on for years (seeing as most PF2 content is just officially on Foundry now).

Obviously the real answer is 'something mundane so if you're caught you can pretend to be a civilian' but in the case that you specifically wanted clothing to make you LESS likely to be seen. Without constantly having to swap it out less you have to carry too much extra junk, or waste spell-slots.

I have read Shinobi did exactly this; looking like peasants 99% of the time, and occasionally switching to something blue when sneaking at night where being seen period was a loss state. As despite our thinking of 'night sky=black' it actually has a bluish tint, particularly in the days before constant light pollution.

But.. does this logic still apply in a big city? If someone is skulking around Absalom somewhere they don't belong what would be the clothing colour of choice? Or would earthly tones that match the stone, and wood of the buildings make more sense? Or neither?

The reason I ask is I recently got art of my Psychic OC Ksenia. But she still needs a cannon general purpose 'outfit'. The character was devised as being part of the local guard/police force as an operative of sorts. While lawful as fuck she became an adventurer after revealing some corruption in their ranks. This got her 'promoted' for catching the wrong doers..... into useless positions that got her out of the WAY. Not being a fool, she realized this was a punishment NOT a promotion and was quick to 'retire from service'.

As she started out as a Urban stealth expert I feel like her default sneaking suit should fit that tone, with spells, and disguise kits for alternatives when they have time to plan, and resources to waste.

Right a friend of mine hasn't played DS2 and we were thinking of doing seemless co-op for it. I have played thruogh DS2 two times before; once with a Divine build that used with a Heide spear (My original solo playthrough) and a Quality build using the bandits axe and upgrading to the red-iron-twin-blade the minute I got it. (Being a Co-op playhthrough with ANOTHER friend before seemless co-op was a thing

Figured I'd try something new this time naturally. Any fun styles of play I could try? I'm not overly concerned with being the MOST OP THING OVER or -remotely- concerned with PVP. Weapons with interesting move sets, creative ways to use spell-casting builds etcu

As it says on the tin. Always loved the setting and the idea of being a team of reploids kicking butt, doing investigations, and having cool fighting robot powers sounds fun!

Offhand I would like something with a reasonable amount of mechanical debt so everyone's reploid feels unique, and preferably something with a map/grid. Given how important movement is in those old side scrollers it'd feel weird to do it all TOM and have movement not matter much.

Any thoughts?

Right I'm going to be involved in a Mystara campaign in two weeks and am looking for some inspiration for armour styles that might suit the Ierendi; Mystaras equivalent to the islands. I've toyed with Polynesian themed characters in the past; but they were always lightly armoured DEX based types which not surprisingly Polynesians had plenty of! Fantasy or other wise. Even brought this up on another reddit for those OCs and found plenty of good things for them.

This one though? Front-line-tank. Likely with cool stylized wooden/sharktooth weapon for bashing. So a heavier armour style is much needed. Googled some; got some results; though half them are AI. Not sure what to go with. The character in question is a water Genasi; so surviving underwater with chunky armour isn't going to be a big deal for them.

My usual Thursday night game is off next week due to players being busy with cons and work etc. so I was going to run a shadowdark one shot in it's place. I have a few players lined up for it who already have 3rd LVL PC's (from running scarlet citadel and cult of the red hand. Much fun!)

do folks know of any good adventures for 3rd LVL PC's that'd suit this?