u/Cromar

I've seen the perfect build in my game. Though it's 2024, it should still work.

Get a Fighter with a Sharpshooter and Longbow (or Heavy Crossbow/Crossbow Mastery if you prefer) and find a way to stock up on Adamantine Arrows. That should be possible at 14; they're low end magic items. Get lots and lots of them. Do everything you can to maximize accuracy: +3 longbow if possible, archery fighting style, maximized dex.

Your arrows will score automatic criticals at 600 range. You need to add more dice to stack the crits, however, so find a way to get the Enlarge spell. Being an Eldritch Knight is one easy way, or getting Potions of Growth. Normally I'd say Hunter's Mark, but the airships are likely more than 90 feet away.

One perfect weapon for you would be a Wakened Dragon's Wrath Longbow (Very Rare tier) which is a +2 and adds 2d6 damage. You only lose 1 on the accuracy, but gain way more damage on those autocrits.

A sillier option would be a paladin with an adamantine maul (or whatever weapon you like, but a maul is funnier to me) and some way to teleport, like Dimension Door via Cape of the Mountebank. Teleport to the ship and smash the deck with your autocrit hammer, then dump your biggest spell slot into the divine smite. Best done as a Sorcadin for higher spell slots.

Mathematically, as you level, you will hit more often, as your +hit bonus outscales the typical enemy AC and Advantage gets more and more reliable. That makes Graze best at low levels.

Graze gets better against certain creature types that have extra high AC, like high level dragons or creatures with heavy armor + shields. Spellcasters with good armor and the Shield spell can be very hard to hit, and Graze + Mage Slayer gives you a guaranteed forced conc save and imposed disadvantage.

Not many classes use both 2 handed weapons and Masteries. Barbarians are usually Recklessing and thus making Graze obsolete. That leaves STRangers and Fighters. You can always take the golf bag approach and just whip out the glaive or greatsword against that rare high AC enemy and use something else as your primary. Fighters are better for that, naturally.

Downs appears to be an upstanding citizen

Don't sleep on Andy's fatherly influence

It's okay - as long as he can get us down field so we can get an easy 3 from our highly reliable kick-.... oh, no....

Downs to the chiefs

From your keyboard to the football gods' eyes

Dostoyevsky is long term, strategic thinking. Honor is always a better strategy over time.

Machiavelli is short term, tactical thinking. Take the money and run.

Machiavellian tactics also have substantial clashes with morality. Dostoyevsky's ethos aligns ethics and morality together.

One flaw with Beast barbarian is that the claw build doesn't replicate the wolverine effect the way you'd like because the claw isn't a light weapon and can't be dual wielded. It's not GWM compatible, either, which leaves you with claw + shield as the optimal option. Sadly.

Wolverine doesn't have a tail, but if he did, it's not a bad survival option. Wildhunt Shifter + Tail will save you a lot of hits. Biting is a kind of regeneration...sort of?

If you aren't as concerned with replicating Wolverine, I'd do claw + shield and Longtooth Shifter. Ask your DM if you can change the claw to piercing damage and use it with the Piercer feat. I have played a dual wielding wildheart/longtooth barbarian with and Piercer and it worked pretty well. If that's not available, that's ok.

The claw also isn't finesse so Defensive Duelist is out. Too bad, because it's a great feat. Shield Master doesn't use your bonus action anymore for the knockdown. Mage Slayer is always amazing. I would take one of those at 4, start multiclassing after 6, and do +2 Strength at the next feat.

Every time I think I understand intentional grounding, something like this happens. I give up.

https://youtu.be/ciqnOcdhI7w?si=6DT0MROKbcnIubKp&t=13

Yes, this is my build exactly. At low levels, I was a golf bag fighter who would use a pike to Push enemies in position and a halberd for Cleave. After 9th level, I switched to a single greataxe (partly for style points, partly for slightly more damage. OK it's entirely for style points).

GWM's bonus damage works with Cleave as long as it's on your turn. It doesn't work with off-turn Cleaves from opp attacks, however.

Don't forget that you can activate Green Flame Blade more than once a turn. There's nothing stopping you from using a cantrip on the Action Surge attack or a hasted action, if you have that up. A 13th level hasted Fighter can attack 7 times on the primary target and Cleave a secondary target, and launch 3 GFBs hitting both targets each time.

Neo's educated and can read well enough to sustain a career as a software developer. Even if he was never taught one iota of real history, he could hit the books a couple hours before Ted's test and learn what he needs to ace it.

Trinity meeting Ted is cracking me up. How demoralizing. You spend and risk your life trying to find this mythical savior and it's fucking Ted. Morpheus's faith wouldn't be shaken, though. "Trust me guys, he's the One." Ted air guitaring in the background

True! Tasha's Mind Whip definitely belongs on that list. I like it best for the upcasting and hitting multiple minions, especially melee minions that need their move speed to reach the PCs.

Since you aren't getting a ton of actual answers, I'll list some spell categories to consider bringing for your Concentration:

1. Summon spells. While the summon has to stay alive, if you can get the boss to waste action economy killing it, that's worth the expense. You can either get long distance damage summons (moderately helpful) or go for broke with something like a Putrid Undead that might be able to autoparalyze a red dragon, no save. Ray of Sickness can deliver a no-save Poison condition (only green dragons are immune EDIT: I mean, among dragons, green dragons are immune, but black/red/white/blue are not) to ensure the Paralyze.
2. Defensive buffs. Fizban's Platinum Shield is an overlooked niche defensive spell designed mainly for fighting chromatic dragons. Stoneskin if the boss is delivering punishing single target BPS. Intellect Fortress against mass psychic damage such as Mind Flayers, etc. Circle of Power is no longer restricted to Paladins and works great against mass spellcaster damage.
3. Low-cost shutdown spells like Tasha's Hideous Laughter that force LRs if the save fails.
4. Wall of Force for minions or to cut off part of the battlefield. I'm assuming the DM hasn't designed an encounter that can be instantly won by just pokeballing the boss.
5. At high levels, Maze is an incredible no-save CC to give the party a breather against a vicious boss.
6. Banishment to make minions go away.

Once your Concentration is up, you'll need something more effective than cantrips with future turns, such as:

1. Raulothim's Psychic Lance. This one absolutely ruins the boss's day and is a great way to burn LRs, even better than Tasha's, but with a higher cost. Still does damage on a successful save.
2. Command (not a Wizard spell) if you can get it. Ultra cheap, non-con way to force LRs.
3. Rime's Binding Ice against creatures with not so great Con saves. Nevermind against dragons or teleporters.
4. Syluné's Viper. This cheap overpowered spell can ruin anything that isn't poison immune. Your DM will most likely nerf this.
5. Synaptic Static. Damage and a great rider effect that most likely won't get LRd and will help protect your party.
6. Dispel Magic, if the boss or minions are throwing buffs or shit like Cloudkill around the arena.
7. Blindness/Deafness. Useless on dragons, but against other bosses especially spellcasters without great Con saves, this is a great non-con shutdown spell. Most important spells require the caster to see the target.
8. Chain Lightning, Disintegrate, or another dex-targeting blasting spell. Good to have something like this around. Not useful against a solo big boss, but great for blowing up the adds.

If you're looking for a package of mid-tier spells to always prepare for bosses, bring Summon Undead, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Wall of Force, Raulothim's Psychic Lance, Synaptic Static, Banishment, and Dispel Magic. You still need your staples: Shield, Silvery Barbs, Absorb Elements, Misty Step. Maybe Counterspell.

Now, depending on your level, you should still have room for several more niche spells based on the boss type you are facing. Ray of Sickness and/or Fizban's for the red dragon, Intellect Fortress for the Elder Brain, Circle of Power for the Lich and its necromancer minions, and so on.

As your DM about Syluné's Viper ahead of time (it's uncomfortable for the DM to be surprised by such an overpowered ability). If they allow it, great! Abuse it until no longer allowed.

Prepping for a the red dragon solo fight, I'll assume we don't have Maze or a Simulacrum running around. Rather than trying the autoparalyze option, I'd take Summon Aberration and Raulothim's Psychic Lance. Cast the summon at a 6th level and let it fly around and deal Psychic damage. If it pisses the dragon off enough to waste some attacks on it, great! If not, I'm throwing Psychic Lances every turn afterwards until we win. I've also got Chain Lightning just in case the minions do show up.

TL;DR: Pack a Concentration spell that either bypasses LRs or wastes them at low cost. Then, pack a non-con control spell at an affordable level and hammer the boss with it.

Nah none of that stuff is true. Ashley Judd doesn't re-kill the husband, and TLJ is a parole officer, not a prosecutor.

Double Jeopardy 2: The Final Jeopardy?

Double Jeopardy is a pretty fun/silly revenge thriller, if you don't take it seriously. My biggest problem is that they abandon the premise too quickly. The idea is that Ashley Judd is convicted of murdering her husband, only to learn while in prison that he faked his death. She gets out unrealistically fast and plots to track him down and kill him for real.

She's supposedly legally untouchable due to double jeopardy rules (which is nonsense but let's not worry about that part). What annoys me is that, in the process of escaping her parole officer, she commits like a hundred more crimes - including attempted murder of said parole officer. What's the point of constructing a plot where someone can legally get away with murder, but having them be prosecutable anyway? The script would have been more interesting if Tommy Lee Jones played a cop who was trying to find a legal way to stop her from killing her husband the second time, but couldn't, because he's a stickler for the law and she keeps perfectly obeying the law despite putting together a murder plot.

Then at the end, she confronts said husband and has the chance to kill him, but doesn't. Instead, she spares him and he gets himself killed in a stupid action climax. The rest of the movie is fun, though.

Agreed, it's my favorite in the whole series. Read it twice when it came out.

Do you mind writing up more (as much as you want) on your prison experience? Most of us are curious about that whole world, as we only get the ultra fake Hollywood version.

In Cradle, the three primary dragon antagonists are Sophara, Xorrus, and Seshethkunaaz (there are others here and there, but those are the three that last multiple books and are the Big Threat for about 1/3rd of the whole series).

In the epic final act of Wintersteel, the protagonists all make huge leaps that surpass the dragons, all of whom die with a whimper. Xorrus is even killed offscreen by a tertiary character.

"Mr Hill, how do you plan to treat the women in your life going forward?"

"I just gotta execute-"

Police sirens

Romeo "Where Art Thou Hands" Dobbs

The first ever double 0-16-1 teams in nfl history

100% came here to say this. I always look up what Kevin is announcing this week and unless it conflicts with something, I'm there. I know basketball is his "main" but I wish he'd do the super bowl.