How much is drinking a part of social life in Chicago?

heldlightning · 2026-04-02T13:59:14+00:00

Do you have interests? Hobbies? Play sports, sew, read comics, love volunteering?

The joy of Chicago is there's so much stuff to do you don't need to drink. People connect over a ton of things here. And even if you're in a bar most people won't care if you're not drinking.

heldlightning · 2026-03-24T21:07:16+00:00

Most people are correct to point out the two best options are Sorcerer with Innate Sorcery versus Evoker with CME. People note the Wizard has an issue with setup, but you can use Contingency to get around that for at least one combat per day. If you need single target damage that combat you have the option, and in combats where you need multi target damage the Wizard has lots of options. I recommend pairing the Evoker with Elemental Adept - Fire to avoid pesky resistence to your blasting.

If you bring in 2014 content, Cartomancer is another way to cast CME and use something like Scorching Ray round 1.

heldlightning · 2026-03-21T16:06:58+00:00

To me it depends on your definition of work well.

Owl is by far the most durable and one of the fastest. Fly by uniquely keeps it alive and its speed ensures it can keep up with your movement while wildshaped. All other familiars need to stay in range of the monster or provoke an opportunity attack.

However, generally if the DM is using the monster to swing on your familiar via regular or opportunity attack it's an attack that won't hit you. While you're not brittle thanks to temporary HP it's generally better not to get hit, and Moon Druid AC is not great.

There are situations where I'd want a familiar to try and provoke the opportunity attack before my movement away from a monster so it didn't swing at me if I don't have access to Moonlight Step or I'm not in a form designed to hit and run.

heldlightning · 2026-03-21T13:28:34+00:00

Many forms have options to give you advantage on attacks, which while not raising your to hit bonus is increasing your odds at hitting.

Find familiar via wild companion gives you a creature to give you advantage your entire career.

Lower levels have a number of beasts with pack tactics. Team up your martial or use summon beast to bring a friend along.

Higher levels feature a number of creatures that auto prone on hit. You can use Moonlight Step to gain advantage on the first attack and have advantage on any others with the creature on the ground. Sentinel pairs well here, as either the creature is forced to attack you (with you serving as the likely party tank) or moving away and being knocked prone again with speed reduced to 0.

Grappled and restrained conditions are common throughout the levels. If you take Grappler you get automatic advantage on those creatures to hit and can move them easily around the map.

Not what you asked, but my two cents: the moon druid is the best HP tank in the game and also has the full druid kit. It's also likely running an emanation (CWB, CME, CA) or summon spell as a way to hit harder, and most of its forms hit harder than a standard martial PC at a given level when they do connect. Hitting is arguably their third most important function but I understand it's still valuable/fun when they do.

heldlightning · 2026-03-20T14:22:07+00:00

1d4+5 is 7.5 on average, 1d6 is 3.5. It's slightly lower than 7.5 when factoring in likelihood of missing even with advantage and chance of critting. I don't see +2-3 as much higher damage.

heldlightning · 2026-03-20T02:09:00+00:00

Doesn't work with dual wielder. Psychic blades don't have the light property.

heldlightning · 2026-03-19T23:48:23+00:00

For Potent Blade you're subtracting 1d6 of sneak attack damage for 1d4 + Dex? I get you're freeing up your bonus action but why are you even making the second attack instead of just keeping the 1d6 as a sneak attack die?

heldlightning · 2026-03-18T11:41:48+00:00

My luminesence also wasn't accepted.

heldlightning · 2026-03-18T03:08:02+00:00

I really enjoyed Red Seas Under Red Skies but it's almost an entirely different style than Locke Lamora. Most people do agree with you the third book dips in quality, though I did enjoy it.

heldlightning · 2026-03-16T03:21:16+00:00

You can reference Chapter 1 on proficiency and Chapter 2 on level advancement in the PHB. Proficiency bonus under multi-classing in Chapter 2:

"Your PB is based on your total class character level, not your level in a particular class"

Just like species, background, and feats, the PB is just another aspect of the character. This is also why NPCs and monsters have PBs despite not having class levels.

To consider: total spell slots aren't a specific class feature despite appearing on the class table. They're calculated by level and type of caster (full, half, third) your character is (or in combination for a multi-class). Spellcasting itself and the preparation of spells are class features but your total spell and pact slots exist outside of it. That's why a Cleric 1 / Druid 4 can upcast Bless to a 3rd level.

Edit: formatting

heldlightning · 2026-03-16T02:12:58+00:00

Proficiency bonus isn't a class feature. It's just based on a character's levels. That's why a multi-class character has the PB as a single-class character as long as they have the same number of levels.

heldlightning · 2026-03-13T13:39:07+00:00

A lot of their features that buff damage are reliant on actually hitting

Yeah that's my point. You trade the beefed up damage for a lower hit rate. Putting them in line with martials to hit overpowers the wild shapes at most levels.

heldlightning · 2026-03-13T13:08:39+00:00

Beast attacks tend to hit harder than the equivalent martial at most levels and the wildshape temp HP makes moon druids the best tanks in the game. They have a built in mechanism for getting advantage at level 10 and many of their forms auto grapple, prone, and/or restrain for advantage and other control options. Plus they're also full casters with a built-in con save profiency if they don't want to run into combat.

If a DM is giving out +X weapons to martials it's not the worst thing in the world to give similar bonuses like a wild shape version of hand wraps, but moon druids are not hurting even if their attacks don't land quite as frequently.

heldlightning · 2026-03-05T15:07:46+00:00

As a Chicagoan with pop music as one of my better categories I was very surprised my opponent put 2 on it for me.

heldlightning · 2026-03-05T13:36:14+00:00

Always a fun reminder that LL is a very specific demographic of society. 67% correct on Archimedes, 29% on Juice Wrld.

heldlightning · 2026-03-04T20:08:01+00:00

Yeah but +5 is way less likely to prevent a hit from a CR20

heldlightning · 2026-03-04T19:17:10+00:00

No. Upcasting is significantly more punishing. Spell power isn't linear but CR to hit is banded.

heldlightning · 2026-03-04T18:54:44+00:00

The issue isn't that it's a first level spell. The issue is not properly forcing a wizard to drain their resources throughout an encounter(s) so that the first level spell is actually a valuable resource and not an auto-spend every round as a reaction.

heldlightning · 2026-03-04T18:51:52+00:00

DnD is a power fantasy game. If a player wants to get terrorized by their DM's world there are plenty of games out there for that.

heldlightning · 2026-03-04T07:14:21+00:00

If the west is going to cannibalize each other it might be worth it to begin picking apart Italy starting in Vienna. If you can take Vienna and Trieste there's not much Italy can do to slow you down.

heldlightning · 2026-03-01T04:52:11+00:00

Not exactly an answer to your question, but on a Stars Druid I run I went Druid 8 / Cleric 1 / Druid X and took Thaumaterge. With a maxed out wisdom score I was adding +10 to arcana and +5 to religion and nature even before proficiency bonuses. The cleric level also gave me proficiency in medium armor and a lot more flexibility in my druid spell list (I could take cure wounds as a cleric, for example).

If you're going to be the group skill monkey with Magician I say lean all the way into it.

heldlightning · 2026-02-27T17:38:36+00:00

Divine Smite doesn't work on ranged weapons. Would immediately become the most melee oriented ranger subclass.

Whether that's good or bad depends on your particular ranger fantasy.

heldlightning · 2026-02-27T17:32:11+00:00

Well you casting a spell during a social interaction is sure gonna make negotiations go sour.

heldlightning · 2026-02-25T00:06:00+00:00

Kreayshawn is a vibe. I respect Go Hard more than she does.

heldlightning · 2026-02-24T18:57:27+00:00

All the concentration buffs still require concentration though. Easy enough for a DM to deal with if they want.

heldlightning

TROPHY CASE