Uh, no. I had no idea that the phone had issues. You are the kind of person I’m alluding to in the post.

They were the only option for a smaller phone for a long time as well, but sadly not available here… :(

I’ve been running custom ROMs since 2015, I am well aware.

So far this is the only thing I can actually find, so it might have to be what I go with if I insist on not getting a Pixel again. My last Samsung was a pain to flash, but I’ve heard that Odin is a thing of the past so hopefully it’ll be easier this time.

Listen, I didn’t remember to take my medication this morning because my phone didn’t remind me to do it. I have to schedule my entire life with reminders in order to function; manually backing up twice a year when I’ve never had to before is pretty freaking good. The storage medium isn’t the problem. I have plenty of disk space on my computer. I need an AUTOMATIC solution that doesn’t rely on my plugging in something, and that doesn’t rely on a cloud subscription. Preferably not on having a data connection at all, because I often don’t have one.

I don’t need official LineageOS support. I mentioned in the post that I was looking at phones without it. I’ve had one on a community LOS build before and I was happy enough with it.

SD cards have worked for me for over a decade. I don’t have any of the problems you mention.

I get that I’m going to come across as rude for these comments, but I really don’t think I’m asking for too much here. I’m asking for two basic features that I need for accessibility reasons, one of which used to be ubiquitous. I’m willing to pay a pretty high price for a phone, but I need it to last. I’ve thrown away too much money over the last three years on a revolving door of phones that failed again and again for reasons beyond my control. I’m at my wit’s end, here. I used to buy a 2-year-old flagship for half of its original MSRP, throw LOS on it, and have no issues for 4 years or so. Now I can barely find a phone that can run LOS, and it fails within the year. I’m tired. Every time I have to set up a new phone it’s a huge ordeal. I’m disabled. I don’t have the energy to do this every 6 months for the rest of my life.

LineageOS works just fine for me, thank you.

I do back up to my computer. But not every day, like I can with an SD card. I’ve never had an SD card fail on me, and having one has saved me when my Note 4 memory died. Having one makes it easier to transfer data between phones.

I’ve already given up removable batteries and headphone jacks. Why do I have to give up every single feature that used to be considered a basic necessity? Why should I spend so much money upfront for storage that I may not need, when I could easily expand it with an SD card if I need for much cheaper down the line?

I already tried a phone without an SD card slot and look where it got me. Installing the custom ROM was a pain. Transferring my data was a pain. The motherboard died with no warning, and now I’ve lost 2 months worth of data. I’m not doing this again.

I got it on eBay and I will be trying to get the warranty to cover it, but I don’t want this to happen again if they send another Pixel 5a. I already lost enough data from this.

Not interested in GrapheneOS.

They haven’t been sold in Canada for years, and when I went looking for them on eBay the prices were ridiculous, if they were available at all. Most of the time I look for a model, there simply aren’t any listings.

Source for it not being added.

It’s grey, not black. LineageOS has this option. Google removed it (of course) because now, after ten years of having it, all of a sudden they think that having white text on a black background causes “smearing” when you scroll, and they need to save users from this. Nevermind that some of us want the option.

This is basically what I’ve been doing. But every time I find something that seems like a decent option, it’s unavailable to purchase. I was interested in the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro despite them being a bit older until I couldn’t actually find one. I can find the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro and newer, and of course they aren’t supported. It’s just so frustrating.

And the Pixels don’t have an SD slot and seem to have bad problems with dying randomly based on discussion I saw on Reddit, so I’m not excited to try them again.

My old go-to was the Moto line, but they’re so expensive now for what you get. $450 + shipping + import fees, for a Moto G from two years ago? When I bought a brand new one on release day in 2015 for $200? I just can’t bring myself to do it, not when it only has 4GB of RAM. The Pixel 5a had 6GB and already had lag even running a very lean ROM.

Sadly Murena only sells two models in Canada, one of which is the Pixel 5.

I tried GrapheneOS. They don’t have a black theme, and they refuse to add it as an option. I immediately flashed LOS over it.

I usually right click the window in the app bar and choose the “stay on top” option. This issue only happens in Wayland, also. in X11 it stays on top as expected.

And don’t forget to pick up the two pairs of boots that make you immune to falling on ice for your frontliners! As an Ice Storm fan, I find these to be very important in my team.

I’ve outlined some of the pieces of equipment in my comment about my Ranger/Rogue build. I haven’t been able to verify if the sword and bow apply to all attacks, or just attacks with those weapons, however.

I have a few different ones going on, but so far I have to say that my favourite has been a Ranger 2 / Thief Rogue 10 build that has really come into its own thanks to items.

Ranger 2 for medium armor proficiency (not relevant until Act II), fighting style, and Hunter’s Mark.

Thief Rogue 10 for extra bonus action, sneak attack dice, evasion, uncanny dodge, and feats.

This turned into a crit fishing build, and so we must turn off automatic sneak attacks. Change it so the game asks every time, and then only apply it on a critical hit, or the last attack of the turn if no crits happened.

Notable equipment includes:

• Covert Cowl to increase crit chance
• Armor of Agility to get his AC to 22
• Knife of the Mountain King for increased crit chance and Advantage against targets in the dark
• The Dead Shot for increased crit chance (and its other effect works amazingly well with Sharpshooter)
• Surgeon’s Subjugation Amulet for an auto-paralyze on a crit
• And finally, for your second melee weapon, anything Light with Finesse will do but if you want to destroy spellcasters I highly recommend Sussur Dagger.
• Elixir of Viciousness for big battles, to increase crit chance.

The crux of this build is to have as many possible chances to hit/crit as possible, and to attempt to get an extra Sneak Attack each round thanks to your Reaction. I took the Mage Slayer feat to give myself an extra chance, but Sentinel will also do. I was just building specifically to fuck up Cazador.

With one of those two feats, if you are in melee you should be able to trigger a reaction attack each round. Now, these reaction attacks are programmed poorly, and you seem to get both a main-hand and an off-hand attack on them, doubling our chances to get a hit/crit. You also get Sneak Attack on this if you have an adjacent ally or Advantage on the attack.

Additionally, a hit with the Sussur Dagger silences the target for two rounds, making casters unable to do much of anything except bonk you with a stick.

With this build you should be critting on a 17, getting Sneak Attack twice per round and hopefully applying it on a critical hit, be extremely hard to hit (add Cloak of Displacement to make it even harder,) shut down mages from casting with ease, and just generally a menace.

Baldur’s Gate is a video game.

I found out the hard way that Sculpt Spells (evocation wizard feature) doesn’t work on cowering non-combatants…