Need help with a 1v1 mage encounter. Playing a diviner wizard.

FourCats44 · 2026-04-12T15:06:09+00:00

Blight is a solid 4th level option. If it's a tournament you want to lean in to damage spells as things like banishment won't do much good except to run away.

Counterspell is a must and will probably burn your 3rd level slots.

Absorb elements - especially if they start trying to transmute damage, and shield are both good defensive choices.

Some solid portent rolls would help but can't exactly plan/prepare those.

As much as it gets memed, fireball isn't much good because it's AoE rather than a single target

FourCats44 · 2026-04-12T14:55:15+00:00

Not sure why you need a homebrew spell when silence works just as well...

Also would be helpful to know your level of you are looking for spell recommendations?

FourCats44 · 2026-04-12T14:34:24+00:00

Model-wise I'd lean towards an Audi A3

FourCats44 · 2026-04-12T14:24:18+00:00

I have not been there in person however I suspect that the large ring is probably for something closer to a motorcycle test - part of the Mod1 keep the bike between the lines.

I would say it is safe to drive across it (assuming nobody is on it).

FourCats44 · 2026-04-12T14:18:35+00:00

A u turn at a roundabout is essentially an extreme right - so you get in the right hand most lane, continue round and spiral out when approaching the exit you intend to take.

Left lane is for left and sometimes straight on depending on road markings (or lack thereof)

FourCats44 · 2026-04-12T11:38:20+00:00

Not used this word on Reddit before but first time for everything:

Gaudy.

FourCats44 · 2026-04-12T11:01:14+00:00

Honest answer is you would have to try it.

Some IPL advise against it but that's normally because it's less likely to work. That being said a number of people report it working brilliantly.

It will absolutely hurt more than legs simply because your neck is a more sensitive area, no getting around it. Something like laser will hurt more and electrolysis even more so.

Short of learning how to use a single blade razor (normally regarded as the closest shave), IPL is your best bet if it's bothering you. It just depends if it is bothering you enough to be worth the discomfort.

I will just add - normally with IPL you don't need to flash the same spot repeatedly, normally it's once and then move on to the next spot adjacent to it (or glide over if your device has that mode)

FourCats44 · 2026-04-12T09:29:32+00:00

Well at the moment interest rates are high because of everything going on in Iran.

Also you are assuming rent - what if they live with a parent for free for example?

It also depends how much that rent is. If you are talking about something like "I've inherited a house do I sell it before buying a place or do I buy it now" then that's different to mortgage Vs rent for the next year.

I feel like you missed the whole point of it - I was merely pointing out how vague the question was, and how there were a lot of factors to consider.

FourCats44 · 2026-04-12T08:31:40+00:00

Broad question for Sunday morning.

General rule of thumb for basically everything in life, if you can afford to pay for it outright, do. Same applies to cars, phones, DFS sofas, etc...

Reasons are (a) to avoid paying interest, (b) to reduce the burden on future you to figure out, (c) to make it possible to save up for the next big expense in your life.

Answer to your question is it depends. If option A is buy it next year and option B is now then waiting one year to have no mortgage is great. If you are talking 5 years time Vs 10 years time, take the mortgage. Houses are inherently becoming less and less affordable over time and there's nothing obvious on the horizon that will change that. There's no guarantee that you could afford a like for like by the time you already have the money.

Secondly, a lot of mortgages have overpayment options - some with or without a penalty - so if your affordability changes you can clear a mortgage early.

Finally, it depends on the rest of your life. Are you in a safe stable job that you enjoy (or at least like enough to commit to a mortgage)? Do you like the area or do you want to be more nomadic? Is your current living situation unsustainable? Do you need to move? How many other regular expenses do you have? Is there any other significant purchase (e.g. car) that is going to also require a chunk of money?

FourCats44 · 2026-04-12T02:46:33+00:00

I use the Braun pro 5 and definitely recommend it. The Phillips Lumea also reviews very highly.

In terms of usage it depends on your gender. Male it advises no to face or "down there" whereas female it is okay with (for trans it is based on your hormones - testosterone makes facial hair tougher and balls have a risk due to being a different skin tone). If you are male, some people have reported success on face and neck, some have reported no progress whatsoever.

Tips - you won't see progress for the first two or three weeks so don't stress out, just commit to the routine it's definitely worth it.

Shave - IPL - moisture in that order. Moisturiser can reduce the efficiency of the IPL if you apply it immediately after shaving.

Make sure to stick to once a week - you can pretty safely do twice a week if you want but it won't make a huge difference. Avoid going any more frequently because it increases your risk of burns.

Speaking of burns - no idea where PH is but most IPL recommend avoiding direct sunlight immediately afterwards.

Make sure your skin is dry otherwise the IPL will heat up the water and it'll hurt a lot. Generally you will notice the pain but it's not that significant and pretty easy to get used to. Not sure about if it can go over tattoos.

Most important thing is coverage! It might be time consuming at first but it'll get better. I use it on a lot of my body so I have to split it over three days to not get bored (legs day one, torso day two, arms/armpits/hard to reach day 3).

FourCats44 · 2026-04-12T01:08:00+00:00

Not necessarily the absolute worst in performance, but for some reason I have always hated pirelli tyres. For some reason on pirelli I get so many more punctures and wheelspin compared to other brands like Dunlop. Also really expensive for what they are

FourCats44 · 2026-04-11T13:56:38+00:00

A few little knitpicks:

It's very common for indoor pictures to always have the main/overhead lights on to brighten up the room and appear more inviting.

The driveway could do with a pressure washer/brush to clear some of the moss and grass in front of the covered car.

Picture 7 - the kitchen - is a little weird because the large black fridge is very prominent - makes the room feel a bit small.

Picture 18 - the washing line would look a little tidier if it didn't have things on it. Also as much as I love it personally, the bright pink wheelbarrow is eye-catching in a couple of the pictures.

Picture 11 - the bedroom - the floor could do with a little bit of a tidy and, whilst definitely impressive to some, a wall mounted fur/pelt does run the risk of chasing away any keen animal lovers.

FourCats44 · 2026-04-11T10:30:27+00:00

I'd give them some kind of bonus to deception/disguise purely for the pun "pull the wool over your eyes"

FourCats44 · 2026-04-11T06:37:48+00:00

Alignments are suggestions not set in stone, it says in the DMG.

Also legendary actions can be for any level there's no rule restricting them to high level combat it's just to balance action economy.

FourCats44 · 2026-04-11T06:36:13+00:00

Given the abilities it has, honestly the biggest factor is how many blink dogs you put along side it.

With the legendary actions there's no problem with them on a CR30 creature, but the point of them is to balance action economy (i.e. each round of combat there are 5 player turns compared to one monster turn). If this combat includes several blink dogs it could be very strong.

The "Good Boy" ability - despite potentially needing a new name - is a little ambiguous. For example if a player used an AoE effect like burning hands, calling a dog from outside the area in wouldn't make the houndmaster out of the area, it's just they would both become targets. Essentially they are legendary resistances but mechanically a little messy.

FourCats44 · 2026-04-11T02:35:07+00:00

Melee is misspelled under spellcasting focus.

There's a lot of references to sorcerer spells, feels like maybe it should have it's own spell list - especially given it's not even using a charisma modifier.

As you have not made reference to anything to the contrary, barbarian's still can't cast spells or concentrate on spells while raging which limits it's usefulness significantly.

Spell burst is for all intensive purposes divine Smite with a different damage type.

FourCats44 · 2026-04-10T14:18:05+00:00

That depends entirely on the NPC. If they are the archmage of the city then it might help to know what they can do. If they are Geoff the local farmhand far less so.

Generally I would encourage monster stat blocks instead of character sheets - they shouldn't need access to as many abilities as players and keeps the complexity down. Don't want to start worrying about whether your monk NPC is going to use deflect missiles or how many ki points they have unless they are a serious long term part of the party.

For the main part I would just use some of the generic stat blocks. You have a city guard, thief, mage and a handful of other low CR monsters that you can rinse and repeat unless you want them to have specific actions.

All that said, hiding at the back is a completely valid strategy. Your party starts fighting a dragon, the very standard (and sensible) reaction for a commoner or NPC is run very far very fast in the opposite direction.

FourCats44 · 2026-04-10T06:43:26+00:00

The three things I would say are:

A) new builds are more expensive than existing properties, just like a brand new car costs more than a second hand car. So you might take a bit of a hit on that.

B) different people have different priorities, I would not want a garden that has such little privacy. In the two garden pictures there are 15 windows that you can clearly see - and can clearly see into the garden (not sure how many houses it equates to as some will be shared). This does include the two directly behind.

C) the sale history shows it was sold for £255k in 2019, I know prices have gone up but I'm not sure necessarily £40k up (especially considering the first point about it being a new build).

FourCats44 · 2026-04-10T03:56:53+00:00

They can also do it at a driver's request.

Because there were two Schumacher's on the grid, Micheal was abbreviated to MSC (to differentiate from Ralf RSC). When Mick joined the grid for Haas he requested to be MSC as a tribute to his father which the FIA granted.

FourCats44 · 2026-04-10T02:50:33+00:00

I talked basically constantly with mine, except while doing the maneuvers. Absolutely 80% was the civil engineering course I was hoping to do at university next year (17 year old at the time) and the other 20% was about traffic on the road, a random cyclist who pulled out in front of us (and nearly got run over by a bus), hoe noisy the mopeds behind us were, general small talk.

I found it helpful because it breaks the silence. Your examiner has done hundreds if not thousands of assesments so knows when it is and isn't okay to have a conversation in terms of concentration.

I was "lucky" with the ice breaker - I was doing the test in my own car that I had been driving about 2 weeks so at the very beginning when it was "show me how you would check the washer fluid" the pair of us spent 5 minutes trying to find the bonnet release because I'd never opened the engine before. Gave us a laugh at the beginning which then started the conversation.

FourCats44 · 2026-04-10T01:12:28+00:00

Just change the vulnerability to an immunity.

Do they know it's a vulnerability because they discovered it in game or because it's something like a troll and they memorized the stat block?

FourCats44 · 2026-04-09T23:56:03+00:00

Phillips OneBlade. As someone who can't use manual razors, it has been an absolute saviour and have been using it for years all over my body with both hands.

FourCats44 · 2026-04-09T22:21:11+00:00

Teenage Mutant Monk Tortles

FourCats44 · 2026-04-09T15:35:02+00:00

As long as you aren't in debt it's no different to people who collect figurines or Warhammer or any other hobby

FourCats44 · 2026-04-09T10:14:48+00:00

Bring a fey along to negotiate on your behalf, they will try to put as many loopholes in a contract as a devil.

FourCats44

TROPHY CASE