Recent content by ECMO3

I don't think you understand that a biased sample does not by itself mean or indicate the results are skewed. A biased sample, by itself, provides no evidence at all that the results are skewed.

It depends on level and what sources are allowed. If we are looking at a 1-20 game and we allow 2014 feats then the answer for me is a character that ends play as a Dragonborn Monk 1/Fey Wanderer Ranger 13/Druid 1/Glamour Bard 5 with the Dragonfear feat and Shadow Touched with Wrathful Smite...

I don't think Rangers need new spells, what they need are more spell options. The problem would be solved if Rangers had access to the entire Bard and Wizard spell lists, in addition to the current Ranger spells.

This is not true in play. You act like this is deterministic and it is not. It is a random process. Comparing 1st level characters; when B swings his sword, the most common damage done is 0, that is the mode average. 0 is also the mode average for A. Against any AC over 10 zero damage is...

It is the example that was used in the post I replied to. That said compared to other metrics it is more straightforward mathematically (although still not particularly straightforward without a bunch of assumptions that are typically untrue in play).

If you played 100 different sessions with characters using those two arrays and 200 different players each playing a PC of their own design for a session with that arry: PC A would outperform PC B in a substantial number of those sessions and as a matter of fact if they knew the ability scores...

Sure and we have wide variances of opinion on the rules of the game. This further illustrates the point that being "dedicated" is not evidence of a bias in preference.

The chance is higher than that because not all of those combinations have an equal chance of occuring.

No they won't. Not in play they won't. They may be "balanced" on your character sheet when you are not playing the game; but when you start playing you can throw that out the window. No it won't. Not usually. Generally your abilities have little affect on overall game balance when...

Point Buy absolutely will not give results that are identical in play and usually won't give results that are even close in play. You have to remove dice from the game completely if you want to even approach balance just from a math perspective, and even if you did that you will still have...

Different perspectives is not the same as different preferences, nor does it imply they will have different preferences. If we know there are differences provide an example - dedicated players prefer A, while casual players prefer B. You some evidence to draw that inference and we have none...

Likewise if you have no idea how representative a sample is you should not assume that it is not representative either, yet that is exactly what people are doing here. Absence of a reason to confirm the quality of the survey is not the same as "plenty of reasons" to doubt it. Without any...

It is a huge AOE and does not hurt freindlies. It is rare that you don't have a lot of targets in it. Mechanically, I think it is hands down the best 3rd level AOE damage spell, substantially better than Fireball. The only downside is you don't get it until level 9 and have limited slots for...

How does Paladin 3 change that? Proficiency bonus? I would agree you have "all your eggs in one basket" thing going on, that helps and hurts and makes your damage a lot more "swingy". That has not bothered me that much in Cantrip builds (Green Flame Blade and Truestrike), what is a bigger...

The statement was "We have plenty of reason to believe that that sample is, at absolute bare minimum, very much non-representative" What are the specific reasons to believe this? The points you make above suggest the play testing is done by "dedicated" players. This is exactly what I said in...