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If they’re wasting character resources and letting go better feats, they’re not very good optimizers. Min-Maxers will try to get the highest bonus and leave the biggest weaknesses wide open. Oftentimes that is less than optimal. These builds don’t score high on my optimizer scale…

Of course optimisers like puppies! It’s the best way to get chicks! Obviously you have to be selective about your puppy for maximum cuteness and chick-magnetism. And depending on who you’re after, you may want to look into hypoallergenic breeds… As for ice cream, well, there’s a great debate...

I don’t know to what extent this is true, but I always felt that Warhammer had a more European feel, both in the themes and geography of its setting, and in the way it was meant to be played. My experience with European players is almost exclusively from France, but it was clear that their play...

Transcendant Order for me. There’s a time for action and a time for inaction, but there is no idleness. Also, I may have had the hots for Rhys…

The underlaying setting of Blades in the Dark is pretty bleak as well. The sun has vanished. The seas are ink-black but transparent, letting star-like lights shine through, and filled with gargantuan creatures. The soul of the departed no longer go to an afterlife and keep haunting the land...

I remember finding that Wraith: The Oblivion was depressingly bleak. I haven’t read anything about it in years though

But players out to break things and ruin everybody’s fun are not just optimizers; they’re jerks who use optimisation to ruin everybody’s fun. They’re are many ways of being disruptive around the table; this is but one of them. As in all things, accidental jerkiness happens, and perhaps they’re...

I mostly agree with you, with the caveat that between “minor optimisation” and “optimisation before concept” there is a large number of people who optimize “majorly” on wholesome character concepts. I know many (and me among them) that take great pleasure in optimizing concepts that are not...

Whoa there buddy. You’re laying it on pretty thick here.

I know the question wasn’t for me, but from what I’ve seen, nobody is asked to optimize more. Their friends will give them advice instead, often unsolicited, but not always unwelcome. And if the person says ‘no thanks’ and the others keep pushing for optimisation and are being jerks about it...

For sure. We had a few characters optimized for team playing, or for optimizing the party by basing concept on missing roles and skill sets, etc.

This. I’m a big advocate of optimisation = efficiency in achieving X, where X does not have to be MOAR POWA! Still, even for someone choosing route B for the scenic experience, there are probably many ways to optimise the vehicle for comfort vs gas consumption, meals/sleep stops vs travel time...

And wasn’t the iconic character for the cleric class a dwarf in 3e? [edit] nope, it wasn’t. My mistake

Definitely, at least in my definition of optimization. It doesn’t have to be dishonest or against the spirit of the game, but choosing your flaws in order to gain the maximum efficiency of your “build” is part of optimization.

Ohhh, homebrewed subclasses! We haven’t seen that in a while! A+ for flavour. Deadmen Tell no Tales: it may be balanced, or not, but it’s unoriginal. Go back to the drawing board and make a new not-sneak-attack feature. Then stacking won’t be an issue. Weapon Finesse: What, no witty ability...

I like optimisation. I’d call myself an optimiser, and so are most of my friends in my group. We don’t use it pejoratively, but there might be a language barrier there (we play in French). Step 1 sometimes starts from a (perceived) synergy between two abilities, or some game mechanics we find...

And yet, it advertises itself more medieval and renaissance-like in its aesthetics than Victorian, or Napoleonian, or Frontier Western, or even Age of Sail Caribbean. Or at least, it used to. Even in the old, almost psychedelic Erol Otus period with laser guns and crashed spaceships, characters...

Exactly! I said that tongue-in-cheek because it’s often an item of contention when it comes to what the D&D paradigm should (or shouldn’t) be. But some people prefer when their D&D adheres to an anachronistic but mostly medieval/renaissence-inspired aesthetics, and there’s nothing wrong with...

Well, at least they’re not using guns…

I think armor-as-hit-points works best in systems where characters have relatively few hit points and do not gain any substantial amount over time. In D&D it would be difficult to adjust armors that are not overpowered at low levels and irrelevant at higher levels, especially if hits are automatic.