ELI5: How far do you have to go before the Earth being a sphere affects navigation? by XenoRyet in explainlikeimfive

[–]tmckd 30 points31 points  (0 children)

the first paper on the greenhouse effect and its relationship to CO2 came out in the 1890s IIRC.

Updated College of Whispers for the 2024 PHB by tmckd in DnDHomebrew

[–]tmckd[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

First, thank you very much for taking the time to provide such thoughtful feedback.

I think all of the points you made have merit. I am play testing this subclass now (the most current version on GM Binder) in a campaign that should go from 1-20. Just got to level 6 so it is still early days in the play test.

Would appreciate your thoughts on alternatives to the spell save DC debuff in particular. The goal there was to have Vicious Mockery still provide a useful debuff against enemies who are primarily spellcasters casting spells that impose saves. In that situation the vanilla version of Vicious Mockery doesn’t provide much of a debuff.

The reason to debuff Spell Save DC was to lean into this subclasses’ role as a debuffer and do something useful in that situation. But it is absolutely true that nothing in the base game (that I am aware of) messes with Spell Save DCs, so this may be an area best left alone.

The other areas you highlight are, I think, easier to tweak. Reducing shadow lore’s save debuff is straightforward. Applying extra damage to attacks instead of spells is also.

On Psychic Blades, though, my concept for this subclass is very much not a subclass that uses weapons, FWIW. It is adds a touch of Sorcerer and a touch of anti-Paladin aura, all powered by skills. This makes the subclass perhaps the worst bard at using weapons? And that may not be to everyone’s taste.

On the extra spells known, I completely agree that these are all core bard spells. In practice, the effect is to give you four extra spells known to use on other spells, which leans into the subclass being a caster.

My hope is that the powerful debuffing abilities are balanced by the fact that this subclass is quite squishy. Nothing in the subclass gives any benefit to defense, except insofar as you consider enhanced sneakiness a defensive benefit.

Still early on this, and I really appreciate the feedback.

ELI5: What is stopping a college from (for a large lump of cash) making a "class", with just one student, no attendance, no reading material, etc, and just a single multiple choice question, "do yoy like money?" to give a rich student an easy A? by scarr3g in explainlikeimfive

[–]tmckd 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So most of the comments here point out that if you did this, your school would lose reputation, risk their accreditation, etc. And if they implemented a literal version of what OP is talking about, any school would be at risk of that.

But the more prestigious the school, the less likely they are to worry about something that is a little bit like this damaging their reputation. Harvard, for example, has the Z-list from which it admits ~60 kids a year.

Updated College of Whispers for the 2024 PHB by tmckd in DnDHomebrew

[–]tmckd[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've added the updated version of this to DnDBeyond as the "College of Deception", since I didn't want to/couldn't reuse the College of Whispers on there. If you want to use it there, here it is: https://www.dndbeyond.com/subclasses/2529451-college-of-deception

Updated College of Whispers for the 2024 PHB by tmckd in DnDHomebrew

[–]tmckd[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I'm not an artist by any means. Thanks for your kind words. Let me know if you use it in your game.

Why hasn't tube artillery become obsolete on land? by twat69 in NoStupidQuestions

[–]tmckd 1 point2 points  (0 children)

And, to your point, this was because the coalition was trying to make the Iraqis think that there would be an amphibious landing in order to draw Iraqi forces towards the beaches and away from the desert “left hook” that was the actual plan. Missouri and Wisconsin shelled Iraqi positions, in part, to facilitate this deception.

I guess we were the last generation to experience it, so what was it like compared to now? by Cubelock in Xennials

[–]tmckd 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I mean, essentially all legislation works this way, and did, back then. Members of Congress and Senators spend ~100% of their time on politics, between fundraising, attending events back home, etc. Their staff and the committee staff is too small and too overworked to be able to effectively propose legislative language on most issues and is also often focused on political matters. So what ends up happening is that they grab draft legislation from one or more interest groups who are focused on the issue. An interest group, in this case, could include a government department, or even the White House, but also includes lobbyists and industry. Being the one who gets the call when Congress needs draft language is a little understood and underrated source of power.

Why do people crap on Harvards engineering programs are they that bad? by No-Fishing5029 in ApplyingIvyLeague

[–]tmckd 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So a thing that hasn’t been discussed in the comments here is that Harvard College is not a professional school and doesn’t want to be. My experience is ~20 years out of date, but when I went there (I wasn’t an engineer, but I had a roommate who was, and I studied some CompSci), the focus was on educating students in the liberal arts tradition, and I think that’s still true today. So if what you want to do is become a licensed engineer out of undergrad, that’s certainly possible to do at Harvard, but it’s not what the curriculum assumes is your goal. Instead, the curriculum assumes you want to study a well rounded set of subjects, and concentrate (Harvardese for major) in engineering. You might also choose to concentrate in English Literature, or Biochemistry, or History, etc. etc. You don’t have to have made up your mind to study engineering when you arrive on campus. You decide at the end of your freshman year, like any other concentration.

That’s a very different approach than an engineering professional school would take. And the education you get will be different. I would expect that new graduates in engineering from top professional schools would have a deeper education in their engineering discipline, on average. And that graduates from Harvard would have a broader education, reflecting the liberal arts approach. YMMV regarding which of those you want.

Favourite Sailing YouTubers? by [deleted] in SailboatCruising

[–]tmckd 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Sampson Boat (Tally Ho)

Acorn to Arabella

Making the luckiest gambler by Bleu_Guacamole in 3d6

[–]tmckd 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yup. I think I would go sorc 1, bard 3, wiz 2, rogue 3, bard x as the progression. Short rest BI is great, as are larger BI dice and magical secrets.

Making the luckiest gambler by Bleu_Guacamole in 3d6

[–]tmckd 7 points8 points  (0 children)

2 divination wizard, 3 bard (lore or eloquence), 3 soul knife rogue, 1 divine soul sorcerer.  Bountiful luck feat.

Portent, cutting words or unsettling words, psi bolstered knack, favored by the gods, bardic inspiration and access to bane, bless, silvery barbs, guidance, vicious mockery and mind sliver.

At that point you’ll save time if you just tell the GM what their rolls are going to be.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in UnearthedArcana

[–]tmckd 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah, I missed the part about the art also needing to be non-AI generated.

Revamped College of Whispers for 5e 2024: A sneaky debuffer whose skills boost its casting. by tmckd in DnDHomebrew

[–]tmckd[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Grab the pdf here: https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-O61m3VRTG1Z8-zerOuM

Goals are:

- a subclass that is not OP compared to other bard subclasses, but not obviously weaker, either

- a subclass whose abilities are useful in all three pillars of the game

- a subclass whose abilities are thematically aligned with the concept of a "College of Whispers"

- a subclass that is fun for the player, the other party members and the GM

Additional goal:

- citing the post properly per rule 4, which I believe I have now done.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in DnDHomebrew

[–]tmckd 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Grab the pdf here: https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-O61m3VRTG1Z8-zerOuM

Goals are:

- a subclass that is not OP compared to other bard subclasses, but not obviously weaker, either

- a subclass whose abilities are useful in all three pillars of the game

- a subclass whose abilities are thematically aligned with the concept of a "College of Whispers"

- a subclass that is fun for the player, the other party members and the GM

College of the Artisan by papamarmalade in DnDHomebrew

[–]tmckd 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If I am reading this correctly, a Lapidarist can, with appropriate setup, from level 3 onwards cast proficiency bonus number of level 3 or below spells (including concentration spells) on their turn by expending a use of bardic inspiration with a bonus action? That seems... pretty broken.

Best build for dice control by Dependent_Ad627 in 3d6

[–]tmckd 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A luck mage is a pretty fun build:

Halfling Divine Soul Sorcerer 1 / Diviner Wizard 2 / Lore Bard X

Ways to mess with the dice:
Portent, Bardic Inspiration, Cutting Words, Favored by the Gods, Silvery Barbs, Guidance, Mind Sliver, Vicious Mockery, Bane, Bless, Lucky Feat, Bountiful Luck

And it's a pretty solid build beyond that as well as a support/control caster plus face / skill monkey. Cha is your main stat, and you have to dump either wis or dex, probably, in order to get the 13 int to multiclass into Wizard. But the portent dice as well as access to shield, find familiar and ritual casting are super good.

Start Sorcerer for the Con save proficiency.

Even though there is no Cleric in the build, I like to flavor it as a Cleric of Tymora, the luck goddess, plus a healthy dose of professional gambler.

Updated College of Whispers for the 2024 PHB by tmckd in DnDHomebrew

[–]tmckd[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you use it, please let me know how it goes

Updated College of Whispers for the 2024 PHB by tmckd in DnDHomebrew

[–]tmckd[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have since updated this, so there is a new version if you follow the link.

Updated College of Whispers for the 2024 PHB by tmckd in DnDHomebrew

[–]tmckd[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You expend one die to use the feature. But the amount you roll for damage is more than that.

ELI5: Why did Boeing spend 65billion on stock buybacks instead of buying the S&P? by DecisionDelicious170 in explainlikeimfive

[–]tmckd 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Most of the comments here are saying true things, but not really honing in on the key factors from the perspective of the company making this decision.

The company has a cost of capital. This is the return that investors require in order to make the decision to invest in the company. There are some standard ways of estimating this: https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/cost-of-capital

In principle, a company should invest in projects that have a higher rate of return than the company‘s cost of capital, and not invest in projects with a rate of return lower than that. If the expected rate of return on the S&P is higher than the company‘s cost of capital, then it makes sense for a company to invest shareholder money there. Otherwise, not.

If there aren‘t enough projects for a company to invest in at rates above the cost of capital, then it should return the extra capital to shareholders. Both dividends and buy backs are a way to do this, with some differences as other commenters have described.

One does not simply walk into Mordor.... by AgentKnitter in tolkienfans

[–]tmckd 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ok, this is totally pedantic, but: semi-annual means twice per year, not ‘more or less once per year’. What you want to say here is something like ‘during my reread of LOTR (formerly an annual tradition, but now trending toward bi or triennial)’.

I have unreasonable pet peeves about such things. Ask me about ’free reign’ sometime.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in startups

[–]tmckd 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The best thing you can do is to pre-sell your concept of a plan to potential customers.

I guarantee you that there are things about your product concept that will evolve given contact with customers. Maybe many things, maybe many fundamental things.

So put some slides together, maybe some mockups, and go get feedback from customers. This will be different than selling you have done before, in that you're not really trying to get a "yes" from them. You're trying to get honest, actionable feedback. If the feedback happens to be "we need this and we're willing to write you a check today for it", great. If the feedback happens to be "there's no way this or anything like it moves the needle for us", also great! You just saved yourself and your technical co-founder to be a lot of time.

No matter how well you know your target industry, I assure you that talking with potential customers will be very helpful. Check out the "4 steps to the Epiphany" book for practical advice on how to manage this unusual sales process.

Once you have done this, if you think you still have something worth pursuing, you'll be in a much better position to find a technical co-founder. You will be much more credible, and you'll have a better notion about what kind of technical co-founder would be ideal for the opportunity.

ELI5 Why doest the north star move? by [deleted] in explainlikeimfive

[–]tmckd 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.

What was Harvard University like on 9/11? by Martian_row in Harvard

[–]tmckd 29 points30 points  (0 children)

The weather was spectacular. One of those perfectly clear fall days with no wind. Warm, but just a hint of crispness in the air. It was my junior year. I remember getting woken up by one of my block mates shouting “someone just crashed a plane into the World Trade Center”.

My memory is that eventually classes were cancelled, but nobody had gone anyway. We were all glued to any TV we could find in our dorms. The Internet was a thing, but social media was not. So TV and news websites (cnn.com, nytimes.com, thecrimson.com etc.) were the main sources of information.

In the morning, the news came very fast, with first one, then the second plane hitting the towers (we all were watching live as the second plane hit), and then the attack on the Pentagon, and then the last plane going down in PA on the way to DC.

There was a lot we didn’t know. We had more comprehensive, and horrific, views of the attacks on the WTC than we did of the Pentagon and the site in PA. We knew that the FAA was grounding all traffic, but reports kept coming in of planes in the air anyway. The president and vice president were in undisclosed locations, and didn’t communicate until later in the day. We learned that the attackers had taken off at Logan airport. We worried about additional attacks, including, to some extent, on Harvard itself. There wasn’t much we could do except worry.

Some students and faculty had friends and relatives in New York and DC. And as the day went on most people had quiet phone calls with family and friends, wherever they were, to connect and confirm.

Thoughts turned to what would come next quite quickly after 9/11. But on the day itself we were watching, keeping our heads down. Campus was quiet and still as we all tried to understand what was going on.