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The funny thing is that Baccarat chemin-de-fer has almost nothing to do with player skill. It's a very fair game for a player in a casino -- getting very close to 50/50 -- but it's an extremely simple game, and deviating from the basic strategy would indicate a deficiency of some sort. The...

There are several problems with it. (1) The likelihood of four players having hands that good in the same hand is virtually nonexistent. (2) The idea that Le Chiffre would effectively risk everything with the third-best hand is fairly unlikely. If it were just Bond in the hand, it would be...

It wasn't terrible. For "terrible," checked out "The Cincinnati Kid," which is inexplicably considered a classic poker movie. Talk about destroying suspension of disbelief (for any knowledgeable poker player). (There is one way to reconcile the ending of "TCK" with real poker, but it doesn't...

28mm represents approximately 1.8 meters (height of a tall man, about 6'3"). 1800mm / 28mm equals about 1/64th scale. What it is exactly, in modelers' terms, I don't know, sorry. In practice, as long as you're somewhere close to 1/64th scale, your model will work fine.

Interesting. What, as you see it, is the percentile break-point for when someone ceases to be human? If John Smith is the best human in the world at math, by your definition John Smith stops being human, and Jane Johnson then becomes the best human in the world at math. At which point Jane...

Um, actually it doesn't. Note that it says "extraordinary or superhuman." Do you understand that "or" indicates that it's a choice, not an equivalent? Batman is "extraordinary." Batman is not "superhuman." Batman is a superhero, because he is extraordinary in many respects. He is not a...

Sure. That gives the rogue a +12. Fighter 6, Str 16, Dex 14 (it would be fair if the fighter gained a stat bump, too, but let's ignore that), so a CMD of 21. To tumble at full speed away from this fighter, I have to roll a natural 19 or 20. And this ignores any magic items that apply to CMD...

Just FYI, the feats required to use weapons of legacy were actually given to the bearer free. The complaint against weapons of legacy were that the sacrifices (e.g., loss of hit points, penalties to saves) were too much. (I disagree, but I'm solidly in the minority.)

Are you aware of what you're doing here? Batman is not extrahuman or superhuman. Batman is a superhero. "Superhuman" and "superhero" are not the same thing. If you and others continue to use the words as synonyms, of course you're going to continue to misunderstand.

Are you missing where I keep saying "level appropriate"? At 5th level, my chances against level-appropriate enemies -- mooks and "real" bad guys -- will be approximately the same. Too low, because of the +10. And of course it's a change from 3.5, because 3.5 used static DCs. Pathfinder uses...

Good advice, and since I truly don't hate WotC (at this point, since they publish literally nothing I want to buy, I've progressed beyond feeling abandoned to feeling indifferent), advice that I'll take.

Except that many people did. But they were just "lucky," right? I don't call people apologists for disagreeing with me. I call people apologists when they have demonstrated a pattern of offering excuses and defenses to the extent that they appear to be incapable of admitting anything negative...

Yes, we are under the obligation to research back several years and prove to your satisfaction -- cough, cough -- that the reasons we believed the decisions to be bad were actually the reasons the decisions proved to be bad. At which point you'll say, "There's no way to prove that, because only...

In other words, nobody can possibly have been correct, only lucky. And, of course, WotC couldn't possibly have been incorrect (even with their vastly superior access to information useful in making the decision), only unlucky. Genius!

I think what you describe here is the reason level-based systems have always been so popular when compared to less granular systems even when the rate of advancement is the same. The punctuated nature of level-advancement hits the Skinner pigeon in us.

If that's the intention, it fails. (Again, because of the +10.) 60% to succeed against mooks isn't "showing off," it's "a serious risk of being clobbered by a mook." And 30% against level-appropriate bad guys (which is what it would be at +5 instead of the 5% it is at +10) isn't showing off...

You seem to have decided that it is unfair to judge decisions as "bad" or "incompetent" based upon how those decisions have played out. That's certainly your right, but it seems very silly to me. (And more than a little apologist.) And, no, "indifference" can lead to "indifferent" decisions...

For what it's worth, I don't think WotC is evil or bad or stinky or poo-poo heads. But I do think that the decisions that are being made are either "indifferent" or "incompetent" (which comes to the same thing from different directions). I have no idea how much influence Hasbro chooses to...

In my case, my Dex is 17. At 2nd level, I have +8 to Acrobatics. The bad guy was Fighter 3, Str 16, Dex 14 for a CMD of 18. Moving at half-speed, I need to roll a 10 (55%). Moving at full speed, I must roll a natural 20 (5%). (Both numbers assume no difficult terrain or other bad guys...

As far as I can tell, they do. They can't do what Superman can do, but they can do what Batman can do. They can't fly or use telekinesis or spontaneously generate electricity. But they can fight awesomely. Which is, of course, the point. Depending on what specific feats you have in mind, a...