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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ashrym" data-source="post: 9654129" data-attributes="member: 6750235">I was working on point by point rebuttals, but it became lengthy so I'll just point to a few things.Your math isn't wrong but how you're applying it is flawed.  There's an inherent conflict between applying the law of large numbers and ignoring those same large numbers outside of the very limited number of uses of tactical mind from second wind.  It's not practical in play and the swing of both dice makes that chance erratic in the 2 times the fighter can use it before taking a short rest.  In practical play, on the other hand, it's very easy for a player to use skills with expertise dozens of times in a hour if that player wishes.The ability to take an action that triggers the use of a skill the player has chosen in which to become an expert is within the agency of the player.  If I take expertise in stealth I'm going to try and use that skill as often as possible, which is why I took it.  If I take expertise in persuasion I'm going to try and use that skill as often as possible, which is why I took it.  If I take... etc.15 DC is the most common DC and good to bench against, and players playing to their chosen skills with that player agency having +3 ability score bonus and +2 proficiency bonus against that DC is 10% lower than the same bonus with expertise, which is in turn 17% lower than the fighter using the tactical mind bonus.  Tactical mind is only a 7% better bonus over expertise than expertise is over proficiency at those levels under those assumptions even when we do accept those averages.Bards, ranger, and rogues not only have expertise but also an extra skill proficiency or two over the fighter to apply. Tactical mind is a great bonus.  There is no disagreement here.  But when you talk about limited resources it is the limited resource.  A person cannot claim spell slots are a limited resource and ignore that second wind is a more limited resource, and a person also cannot compare the number of uses of second wind to spell slots as if they are equal either.I never claimed rangers were the best.  I did claim that they have spell support.  An example of this in play is the jump spell.  This is a good spell at those levels.  One jump spell over three rounds is one spell slot used three times when the fighter in that range can use tactical mind on an athletics check twice and still not keep up, and then be out of uses while jump is maintained.Tactical mind only applies to a single roll.  It does change a failure to a success when it works but still isn't guaranteed to work, and it still will only apply to a single roll, and will still be very limited in the number of uses.  Cantrips and rituals don't use resource, and spell slots apply to more than single rolls.The problem with enhance ability is that it's a second level spell slot for advantage when the help action can create advantage without resources anyway.  The benefit of enhance ability is that it also applies to many rolls and doesn't require someone giving up their action for that advantage, and it can be applied to checks where the help action might not be able to.  No matter how a person looks at it, an hour of advantage is more then the two uses of tactical mind.Bards at those levels have the extra skill, expertise, and jack of all trades without the resource use.  They also have the spells that may or may not include applicable cantrips or rituals that don't have that resource use, and they have access to spells that leverage multiple actions instead of single actions for more efficient resource use.In addition to that, bards might not use bardic inspiration on themselves but they do give it to the person with the best bonus and that's better than the fighter using tactical mind on themselves with a poor base bonus.Fighters have a good bonus on a very limited number of uses, but bards have the strongest overall set of abilities at these levels.Moving into tier two the increased bardic inspiration die and font of inspiration becomes a better resource than tactical mind regardless of the bard's other skill benefits or spell support.Reliable talent doesn't increase the ceiling of the rolls, no, but bounded accuracy already does that so it's moot.  There's no need for bigger rolls to increase the chance of success. Using the same assumptions when reliable talent comes online the fighter using tactical mind has a 90% chance on those 15 DC checks but a rogue with expertise has 100% chance on 20 DC checks.  +4 ability score +6 proficiency with a minimum of 10 on the d20 if much better than a d10 bonus, +4 ability score bonus, and +3 proficiency check on those 20 DC checks that gives a 68% chance to succeed.  That's the power of eliminating low d20 rolls.Of course, I know better than to trust those averages given the sample size, and you should too.  ;-)note: percentages are rounded</blockquote>

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