@Tiggerous Won't be offering an answer, since you have further clarified that a no answer isn't what you want. I was going to point you to a few ideas in XGtE before I saw that comment. As you have access to that, the suggestions are from pages 135 to 145 are useful but not what you asked for.

hey there @KorvinStarmast

@Shalvenay hey there, looking forward to tomorrow nite. Ready for rp?

Got any last minute changes/suggestions?

@KorvinStarmast definitely ready -- I think we'll be good :)

great! Off to play hearthstone with my son. See you tomorrow! :)

Hello, friends

Morning! (inb4 it's almost noon here too)

Morning

I'M xxxxxxx TIRED OF TRYING TO GET MY CLERIC'S SPELL LIST READY FOR KILLING THIS DRACOLICH, xxxx IF HE DIES, xxxx IF HE DOESN'T PROVE HE'S WORTH OF BEING EPIC, xxxx EVERYTHING I'M DONE

Anyone who actually likes building characters can do this xxxx on my behalf.

You know what's the worst part? Nobody cares. I cry and scream and I bang my fists on the table and nothing changes. Why do I even care?

I feel like there is some missing context here

Spent 4 afternoons and 3 evenings trying to get my spell list done. This is the encounter where I must prove that my Cleric is epic enough to gain level 21, or at least it's the first opportunity to do so.

And I'm not ready. Like, at all.

Peers say that if I waste this opportunity I might as well stop playing, because it won't came again soon.

...

you sound like you're in a game with shitty people

and I think you should stop playing because it sounds like it is doing you more harm than good

Why do everything assume that I'm in a game with shitty people just because you don't know how it works?

@Zachiel what game are you playing?

An online D&D game in the west marches style

@Zachiel what version

The game has a rule that, when your character has enough XP to be epic, they should play an epicization quest where they get the spotlight. Until they do, the can continue accruing XP, but they can't level up. Epicization quests and epic quests in general are harder than previous quests: one must be ready in order not to lose their character. I, for example, bought my first ring of nine lives and items to protect me against level loss

@DavidCoffron 3.5e

Still, DMs rotates and our current DM is one that likes to build epic stories. He knows how to build epic encounters and we believe that the fight will be hadr but fair. Some other DMs are more inexperiencede and might overkill, or they make even harder quests that I, having been playing for several years, should know how to tackle.

The problem is, I've never played a spellcaster before, I've faced level 9 threats at my best and then I have been a comprimary where other people carried the encounter (we faced a CR 28 dragon once, I provided buffs and healing for everyone but it was a level 15 fighter that actually killed it.)

So, my peers say that if I don't do this while this DM is in charge, it will be even harder until it's his turn again.

Uh, I wrote everything instead of everyone.

And I'd gain like 50% more gold per real-world day if I went to level 21, which would be useful for buying my dream equip.

My dream equip is basically one of everything XD

I assumed you're in a game with shitty people because they're apparently saying things to you like "hey, mess this up and you might as well stop playing, loser"

that is not the kind of behaviour that leads one to conclude it's a healthy gaming environment

@Zachiel I don't know that game very well (the only dnd I don't know). Sorry

everything is fine when everyone is happy but you sounded incredibly unhappy and moreover that nobody cares that you're unhappy

@Carcer (please avoid using profanity in chat)

so don't be surprised if people respond to that by going "hey that sounds awful"

sorry. Used to to other places. Will keep a lid on.

of course now it's just slightly too far gone for me to be able to edit, bleh

@Carcer ::waves magic wand:: It's gone now.

@Carcer it's more of a caring tone, in reality. Like "you should really do it, that's a big chance, and if you don't care about leveling up and just want to make RP scenes with other PCs, why are you even playing D&D of all games?"

I mean, I don't want people in the game know that I'm ready to royally mess this up, so I'm not talking about it with them. It's everyone else in the world that does not care. Which is legit, I guess?

hey there @ACuriousMind

@Shalvenay ahoi

how're things going?

@Zachiel Okay, I understand a bit better. Sorry for prejudging, but I think the tone definitely didn't come across very well in your first comments.

@ACuriousMind ow, hope you get better soon man

@Shalvenay Thanks :) It's not so terrible (doesn't hurt much) but walking is only on crutches currently :/

@Carcer yeah, I'm not the best communicator

@ACuriousMind ouch

@Zachiel I found this forum but I'm not sure how accurate it is.

@DavidCoffron It's good but for instance holy word does nothing to an enemy with more HD than the caster so it's useless. also, I guess all spellcasting builds assume I can quicken and maximize easily, while I can only do one on each given turn, provided I can get the right wand in my hands in a reasonable number of move actios (which I haven't calculated)

@Carcer damn. I wish I knew anydice that well. I find the syntax (especially the functions) to be extremely confusing

@DavidCoffron I spent quite a while mucking about with it a while ago trying to evaluate expected damage output for different weapons/trainings in Corporation, of all things

and the comp sci background helps

@Carcer usually I pick up new languages pretty easily but it's just weird.

Maybe I just need more practice with it

It is a kind of awkward language. It's great once you get the hang of what you can do with it, but it's not very powerful, and if you start trying to do stuff that's too complicated you quickly hit the "server gives up on executing this" threshold

@Carcer yeah I noticed that when I was fiddling with it a while ago (can't remember for what question)

@Rubiksmoose @NautArch @GreySage I had the golden opportunity to ask the tough questions and I blew it on these (all I could think of since they were more recent): twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/1030916821136814080?s=20

Wanted to get them in ASAP so I could try to catch him in the moment.

At least get him thinking on a few

Nevermind he just plugged his twitch show...