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Number one rule of practical optimization is "Understand your GM and make them happy with your build choices."

I'm a big fan of using stat replacement, especially for Dex, to open up non-Dex focused options for builds. Also a big fan of giving save proficiencies in not-main stats for a more well-rounded save profile.

The Laserllama Magus can replace Dex to AC with Int to AC, but it can't stack them, so even with the Blade Dance bonus it doesn't get crazy. Ignoring magic items, it can get to Breastplate (15)+2 Int + 2 Shield +1 Fighting Style + 3 Blade Dance = 23 AC. Very solid, but nothing gamebreaking...

Socs and Greasers. Stay gold, Ponyboy.

A lot of people don't know that Art Modell tried to move the Browns to Nova Scotia, but Canada refused to take them (because it was the Browns). Baltimore was the the sadly accepted fallback choice. A lot of people also forget Bill Belichick was the prime minister of Canada for one day, before...

I recently has to make a 14th level replacement character; I was thinking about illusionist wizard but I realized Illusory Reality would simply be too painful to inflict on my DM. Mirage Arcana + Illusory Reality is just so broken, and that's not a term I generally use.

Everyone loves to mention the 32 year Stanley Cup drought, but no one ever mentions the 32 year World Series drought or the even-worse "Canada has never won a Super Bowl".

Forgotten Realms, Magic: the Gathering, Dragonlance, Ravenloft....in the end, it's all just Planescape to me. :)

Honestly, it depends on the PCs for me. If the PCs lean towards acting altruistically, I tend to draw my NPCs with brighter, sharper lines. Obviously good people in need of saving, obvious villains in need of smiting. If the PCs lean towards apathy or villainy, the world is in much more...

What does "counts as" even mean? Is there a formalized recognition process, or some place that actually tracks this? Is there a recognized arbiter? Or is this purely about determining some kind of colloquial meaning?

Exactly. It's not the GM's jobs to know what a PC can do; that's the job of the player. I would say it's best practice as a player to loop in your GM about abilities you have that are outside the norm or might require some GM adjudication when used. Don't introduce a weird ability to the GM...

In terms of creating an avatar persona, and then making decisions in the game based on my interpretation of how the created persona would choose? No, I don't do that in other games. I will sometimes make decisions based on objectives other than winning. Like "I want to keep the game...

Yep. As long as a PC has about 7 HP per level, AC in the 15-20 range, does about 10 damage per tier per action, and has a small suite of offensive/survival/utility functions either as passives or resource-limited "bumps", 5e runs pretty fine.

What would be nice is if people could treat their gaming preferences less like an identity and more like food preferences. For most people, just because Indian food (as an example) might be your favorite, doesn't mean you won't go out with your friends to have Italian food. I'm not saying you...

I mean, all the differences between those rulesets are at the level of the PC; not something that would impact how a GM would run encounters or change any resolution rules.

20+ years on Internet discussion tells me doing comparisons without the commonly used options simply doesn't happen, or at least doesn't move the needle. The fact that Monk might be balanced without SS/GWM in the equation is both true and irrelevant as a discussion topic.

Trying to control aggro in 5e, to somehow "tank" and absorb hits for the rest of the party, is definitely a fool's errand. (If you want to absorb damage for the party, play a twilight cleric.) Being extremely hard to hit and damage is not useless, though. Survivability is its own form of...

Considering there are virtually no aggro/control abilities available for any tanks in 5e, it's not a knock against the bladesinger to point out that they can't hold aggro. It's also possible for both of these things to be true: 1) The bladesinger would be stronger if they wizarded more and...

The specific "Roll 2 d20s simultaneously, and use the higher result" mechanic was an Avenger class feature in 4e. I can't say it was the first time that mechanic was ever used (it is a fairly simple mechanic that could pop up in a lot of places), but it's the first time I remember being used in...

Like a warlock? D&D "challenge" would absolutely work better if the warlock charge model was the standard.