Hydra fights, Dark Sun dilemmas, Unearthed Arcana chaos—what could go wrong?
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Show Notes
In this episode, the RPGBOT.Podcast crew saddles up for an apocalyptic romp through Pathfinder Hydra encounters, the gritty survival world of Dark Sun, and the latest Unearthed Arcana subclasses.
We start by revisiting a Hydra battle that demanded every ounce of tactical brilliance (and a fair bit of screaming). From there, we dive deep into Dark Sun—where scarcity, moral dilemmas, and Mad Max vibes dominate play. The hosts then dig into new subclass content: the eco-warrior Circle of Preservation Druid, the crowd-pleasing Gladiator Fighter, the life-siphoning Defiled Sorcerer, and the fear-driven Sorcerer King.
Along the way, we tackle the eternal question of whether Strength is viable for Intimidation, explore multi-classing optimization, and share DM tips for balancing player knowledge with campaign secrets.
It’s a mix of theorycrafting, subclass reviews, and a healthy dose of comedy—because what’s Dark Sun without a laugh before the water runs out?
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Tyler Kamstra
Ash Ely
- Professional Game Master on StartPlaying.Games
- Join Ash’s West Marches-style PF2 Game
- Bluesky: GravenAshes
- YouTube: @ashravenmedia
Randall James
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- Read Melancon: A Grimoire Tale
Great discussion (I’m glad I could catch it before doing the UA survey)! I especially like the suggestions for altering Vindictive Rebuke, since those significantly increase the synergy among the Sorcerer-King Patron’s features. As for the Gladiator’s Athletic Flair (from Combat Theatrics), the 2024 rules say “a Grappled creature can use its action to make a Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check against the grapple’s escape DC, ending the condition on itself on a success”. So yeah, it helps ending grapples but not maintaining them, since the grapple DC is 8 plus your Strength modifier and Proficiency Bonus (so maybe the Combat Theatrics could give a bonus to that DC as well, though it might be too much since it’s not the main 3rd level feature). Anyway, thanks for the episode!