baxus

2 hours ago, Werthead said:

But that can be adjusted through the acquisition of feats, weapon styles (monks and flurry swordsmen can get extra attacks at the cost of attack bonus per attack) and the use of magic (haste, obviously).

I've never tried Pathfinder (I assume that's what PF stands for ) but the argument of "and then 5 minutes later you are much more powerful and can do shit you couldn't have done earlier" can be made for this approach too. It can be used for anything that gives a character a new ability, be it an extra attack or a new spell or base attack/skill ranks/save/whatever increase, which is a whole point of developing your character. I mean, who would play a wizard if wizard was stuck with magic missiles and prestidigitation throughout his/her "career"?

On 4/8/2024 at 8:12 PM, Kalbear said:

The difference in power between levels 4 and 5 is pretty insane. It's also pretty insane from 3 to 4, but 4-5 is even moreso.

Specifically: 

- Virtually every martial character gets a second attack as part of their attack action.

- Everyone increases their proficiency bonus from +2 to +3, meaning everyone gets better at hitting things and casting spells and doing anything

- All major spellcasters get access to 3rd level spells, which are significantly above the powerlevel of 2nd level spells

So, your suggestion is to:

- Not give martial characters extra attacks, ever?

- Never increase proficiency bonus?

- Never give major spellcasters access to more powerful spells?

On 4/8/2024 at 10:34 PM, Kalbear said:

It's an increase from +2 to +3. That's a 50% increase in what it was before. Given the fundamental math that's a pretty big deal in terms of overall success rates. This is especially true when you expertise instead of just proficiency.

Another way to put it - for most characters the proficiency bonus is equivalent to getting a +2 stat increase. It's equivalent to getting a +1 weapon. And it is doing that for every single thing that they can competently do. 

 

If you only have a basic understanding of math, you might think that way. Still, it's just +1 on skill checks, attack rolls etc.  So, if you need to make a DC of 15, and you had +5 bonus until that point and gained additional +1 at level 5, you'd need a roll of 9 instead of 10. That's 60% chance of success compared to 55% of success until that point. Also, you seem to be forgetting that players are given more difficult opponents and tasks at higher levels, which is exactly meant to offset these bonuses and power-ups. As a 5th lvl character you are not likely to battle goblins that often, are you?

On 4/4/2024 at 9:32 PM, Werthead said:

They're also pretty artificial in how your character can suddenly do a ton more stuff better than five minutes earlier.

That depends on how you, your gaming party and your DM handle levelling up. If it happens in an instant you gain enough XP, then yes, it can feel weird in your adventure narrative. But there are other ways of doing it. The party may take shorter breaks between adventures where characters could train or study or do whatever is required to explain their new abilities. Your party's ranger could level up after taking the party through some dangerous mountain pass, which would explain the improvement in his Survival skill, your rogue could pick a type of lock he/she's never encountered before, your cleric could be taught some new ceremonies of his faith etc. The possibilities are endless, only if the party and the DM choose to put in some extra effort (and delay the gratification of levelling up for a short period of time).

On 4/4/2024 at 9:32 PM, Werthead said:

in 5E it's notable how major just one level advancement can be, and you can see that in BG3; Auntie Ethel is a very, very hard fight at 3rd Level but pretty straightforward at 5th

I have missed this major level advancements you talk about. My strongest 5e character reached 8th level so far, so it might be that I'm yet to experience this major bump with just one level improvement.

Btw, there's more than a one level advancement between levels 3 and 5  

Henderson felt Ajax in their current state are a better option than Saudi Pro League. That tells us pretty much everything we need to know.

Rich getting away with breaking the rules by spending money... such a novel idea. I wonder how no one thought of it before.

This would go directly against the whole "we're doing this to ensure clubs' sustainability" narrative that was the foundation of introducing FFP rules in the first place.

20 hours ago, Mentat said:

I'm not saying you couldn't, but succeeding at those skill checks wouldn't normally be all that impactful in the game unless the DM was leaning very heavily into it, and a 5th level wizard could probably do all those things better with a less intense character build investment (turn invisible to avoid being detected, charm a humanoid to "lend" them whatever was in their pockets, etc).

Sure, but invisibility doesn't mean you move silently, and there's limits to what you can ask from a charmed humanoid even if the humanoid in question fails their save. Also, how many invisibility or charm person can a 5th level wizard cast per day? 5th level rogue with carefully selected skills could try to hide and move silently dozens if not hundreds of times per day, and do it at +10 (8 ranks for 5th level +2 for some skill synergy) + Dex mod. (which is rarely below +3, at least).

That's not to say that casters are not powerful in their own right, but when we are talking about skills then rogue is THE character class.

20 hours ago, Mentat said:

If I remember my 3E correctly, you could interrupt a wizard by damaging them while they were casting a spell (thus, readying an action to attack the wizard as they were casting was a common strategy), but once the spell went off, it lasted for its duration. The limit of one spell that requires concentration at a time is pure 5E. In 3E, you could have a flying invisible wizard with stoneskin casting stinking clouds, or whatever.

Yes, you could interrupt a wizard (or any other caster) by damaging them while they were casting a spell, but they would be allowed a concentration skill check to see if they resist the interruption. If I remember correctly, DC was 10+damage dealt. Again, with skills being what they are in 3e, wizard would very quickly get to the point where they would be unlikely to fail that check.

I've had problems sticking to my routine over the winter. I've had some neck issues, then some other minor injuries that made it impossible for me to train. On top of that, my sleep was messed up. Even when I recovered from all that, I've changed my job and reestablishing the routine to include regular workouts became harder.

For a couple of weeks now I'm trying to get into it but I need to get up early in the morning to train before work, but I'm having difficulty with that. Hopefully, I'll get that sorted out soon.

Until then, my only physical activities remain walking my dog and playing floorball twice a week.

10 hours ago, Mentat said:

I agree Skills is one of 5e's problems. Skills suck. There is no Skill in the game that can't be outclassed by a low level spell, and that makes any class ability related to Skills (Expertise, Extra proficiencies...) suck too. There should be a rule that allowed characters who were great at Skills to produce Spell-like effects through sheer heroic competence by passing a high Difficulty Check.

Skills were horrible in 3e. So powered up. For example, I loved playing rogue maxed out skill ranks and skill synergies, quite a few skill checks would almost become a mere formality. Combine with high Dexterity and you can sneak around, pick pockets and do stuff like that without breaking a sweat. At level 5 you'd basically need to roll a 1 in order to risk failing a check.

That's exactly what I'm talking about. He wasn't the only one. He was drafted in the same year as Sabonis and came to the NBA in the same season as Vlade Divac. Both of them had better NBA careers than Petrovic (might be different if Petrovic played as long as they did, of course, but we can't know that) and Petrovic is still getting the credit.

EDIT:

Even if we only look at Croatian (and Yugoslav) players, I'd say Kukoc was better, and yet he's not getting anywhere near as much credit as Petrovic.

Not trying to take anything away from him. As I said, he was one of if not the best European player of his generation. And yes, he was only 28 years old when he died, and could've still improved a fair bit. But if you heard what people in the Balkans are saying about him you wouldn't recognise who they were talking about.

20 hours ago, DMC said:

Yeah this is probably true - his death caused a considerable inflation.

This was the case with Drazen Petrovic, a Yugoslav and later Croatian national team player, who played a couple of seasons in the NBA. Without a doubt, he was a great player of his generation, if not THE great player of his generation. He's won a lot of trophies and medals with both club and country (countries?), but after he died in a car accident his status became legendary. To hear people talk about him, it's as if he would've won an NBA ring and finals MVP every single season after that if he hadn't had that car accident.

On 3/24/2024 at 5:20 PM, Spockydog said:

Fasting during Ramadan just means they can't eat when the sun is in the sky. They're not exactly starving themselves. 

During Ramadan, drinking any liquids is also forbidden between sunrise and sunset, as is taking any medication or dietary supplements etc. If you still think that wouldn't affect world-class athlete's training and performance, then we'll just respectfully disagree and leave it at that.

On 3/25/2024 at 10:12 PM, The Big Stink said:

France doesnt have a team without Muslims.

France definitely has a team without Muslims. Not as good as the one with Muslims, obviously. But they'd still have a team if Muslim players decided to boycott the national team.

19 hours ago, The Big Stink said:

They should refuse to play and show their enemies what it do.

I doubt anyone would be able, even if they were willing, to force anyone to play for the national team. Every single player of every national team in the world can refuse to play. It would probably be good for the game in general, taking some power away from national FAs, UEFA etc. 

Btw, the fact you view FA as "enemies" is laughable. If players shared your view, they definitely should not play for their national teams.

7 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

Has anyone else seen this horseshit? I'm totally on the 'all religion is fucking stupid' side of things, but this is disgusting

https://time.com/6959545/france-football-federation-ramadan-fasting-rules-muslims-soccer/

To be honest, I don't think FFF is that out of order. Not eating and not drinking anything for majority of the day is bound to make a dent in the intensity of training and playing. If a player is not able to give 100% at every training session and especially during the game, then he should inform his coach and national federation that he will have to skip this match or two. It's international friendlies, so pretty much nothing is on the line if a few players are missing.

I bought some Free League's LotR RPG adapted for D&D 5E books. They've already arrived at my friend's in Vienna, now all that's left is to wait for him to get to Belgrade. It is a drag, but it's still better than having to deal with Serbian customs. If you think you know what Hell is, try explaining Kickstarter to Serbian customs officer and why you don't have a receipt as such for what you're getting in the mail.

On 3/11/2024 at 4:40 PM, Iskaral Pust said:

But now, as our son gets close to college applications, I wouldn’t recommend that he pursue a deep STEM program in college.  They’re just too narrow and limiting.

Based on the "sample" (made of my friends, family etc.), that may or may not be representative, I'd say that an average engineer is much better educated on the subjects of history, literature etc. than an average historian or language and literature major is on the subject of engineering. I'd say that's mostly because history, literature, art and so on are still considered "general education".

17 hours ago, Rhom said:

I can't agree with you here.  They are different sports.  Sanderson and GRRM play the same "sport."

Well, they do and they don't. Sure, they both write fantasy but they write very different kinds of fantasy.

13 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

Quantity will never ever be superior to quality.  Sanderson may have written… more… but what GRRM has written while lower in quantity is better in quality to anything Sanderson has written.

I think that you have a lower opinion of Sanderson and higher opinion of GRRM than they deserve.

While I do love ASoIaF as much as the next man, let's be honest and say that parts of it are a slog. Sure, Brienne's travels with Jaime through war torn country have their purpose in the overall story but they are a drag and no amount of praise GRRM may get for "quality of his prose" or whatever will make it any easier to read.

11 hours ago, DaveSumm said:

I also usually defend Sanderson at these junctures, purely because I held off on reading him for years because of comments like the previous ones and assumed he churned out any old garbage. But he really doesn’t, no he hasn’t written anything as good as aSoIaF at its best, far from it. But he’s written some excellent books, many far more focused and better paced than Feast and Dance. And he’s built a hell of a shared universe in the Cosmere.

Comparing authors to other authors is just dumb. If you read Stormlight Archives and expect it to be like ASoIaF, it will be crap. Guess what? If you read ASoIaF and expect it to be like Stormlight Archives, it will be crap, too. We're talking about two different worlds, two different stories, two different styles of writing etc. We can talk about personal preference, but that's a different story.

11 hours ago, DaveSumm said:

Ice and Fire is better, but it’s not “oh I reckon he takes 13 times longer to write one of these” better.

This metric is nonsense. How would you scale the duration of writing to quality of the book? Could an author say "I'll take a year longer but my book will be twice as good as it would be if I released it now"?

On 3/5/2024 at 9:48 PM, DaveSumm said:

Someone in the comments has listed all the books Sanderson has written since GRRM put out A Dance With Dragons and there’s THIRTY THREE BOOKS on that list. More words than GRRMs entire career apparently.

I don't see the point of this comparison, and I like both GRRM and Sanderson. They are completely different persons, completely different types of personalities, completely different types of authors etc. It's like comparing LeBron James and Tom Brady and saying "LeBron's plays as many games in one season as Brady plays in 5". I mean, it is correct, but it doesn't mean anything.

8 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Thanks @baxus I was starting to question my understanding of football.

Don't write that possibility off just yet.

On 3/7/2024 at 10:05 PM, A Horse Named Stranger said:

I really don't get the complaints about team selection.

Is this your first time meeting Liverpool supporters of this board?

I agree with you, team selection was quite reasonable. Konate played so VVD could have some rest, Darwin needed to get some minutes after missing a couple of games and the same goes for Salah and Szoboszlai. Liverpool doesn't have the luxury of having 2 world-class players at every position, so some compromises have to be made. It's far from certain but I'm fairly confident Liverpool can get a good result with the team Klopp has at his disposal at the minute. Gomez played at CB alongside VVD in a season where Liverpool dominated the Premier League the way very few teams have. No reason to worry about him getting back into that role if Klopp thinks Quansah is not ready to play against City.

The lack of interest for engineering in general population is not a USA thing, it's worldwide thing. I'm an electrical engineer who lives in Serbia and most of my friends I've known before going to the university have picked vocations outside of engineering. My gymnasium curriculum was focused on math and science and we were THE prime demographics for future engineers. Still, out of 43 of us "only" 7 ended up as engineers (2 of which got a PhD in engineering, though).

Obviously, my friends from college and work later on make my view of how many people go into engineering extremely biased.  

10 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

That City will tear you apart if you trade chances with them without taking yours

We'll cross that bridge when we get to it.  

17 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Sorry scousers, you are not gonna win the league this way.

You were saying?

My 5 year old daughter caught some stomach bug that's been going around and stayed at home this past week. When she heard that most of her kindergarten group caught the same and were missing kindergarten, she said: "Lucky that all my friends got sick so they don't have to spend the whole week without me in kindergarten."  

There's a "we may be subbing on teenagers in Cup final, but at least we're not bringing on Mudryk"* joke lying around here somewhere, let me know if you find it.

*Now watch him score a winner after I said that.

3 minutes ago, Rorshach said:

Looks very much like it's a design play, tbf.

No argument there, but I'm quite sure the design didn't include Endo being caught offside and a goal being disallowed.