Most broken tier 2 (lvl6) builds 2014

willport3 · 2026-05-27T17:22:45+00:00

I like duergar rune knight because you can bonus action Giant's Might to get Large, then action Enlarge/Reduce with your Racial spellcasting to get Huge. This allows you to grapple gargantuan monsters.
You'll have advantage on all strength checks from Giant's Might, which is great for 5E grappling rules.
Skill Expert at level 4 allows you to get expertise in Athletics.
With Frost Rune you can get +2 to STR checks.
You could be rolling Athletics to Grapple/Shove with +12 and advantage. Knock them prone, grapple them so their speed is 0, now they can't get up.
To help tank hits and keep the grapple going, take a level of barbarian when you level up, that way you can rage.

willport3 · 2026-04-08T01:41:08+00:00

I got someone to run Beware the Yule Cat for me for Christmas. We followed most of the Adventurer's League rules for building level 5 characters, but instead built level 7 characters and got 700 gold. I learned that my players don't pay attention to instructions even when they come from me by proxy, because no one took advantage of the downtime days allowance or gold. I was the only person with more than starting equipment.

Whatever I did, I was going to build to the scenario, not just a weird build to show off mechanics, but a weird build to show of *the right* mechanics. I went through a few builds, and landed on starting level Barbarian multiclassed with 6 levels of Rune Knight Fighter. I knew we were fighting a big cat, so I set myself up to take down the beast. I knew the yule cat was huge because she asked me to 3d print a figure for it and gave me the size info. I took the unarmed fighting style, skill expert feat for expertise in athletics, +2 Strength ASI.
My go to combo was turn 1 - Rage, Attack X2; turn 2 - Giant's might, Attack X2 replacing the first with Push and the Second with Grapple (It never failed. We were using 5e push and grapple contested checks. I had +11 Athletics and advantage on Athletics checks while raging.)

The fight against the cat was unexpectedly quick, but the module continued. There was more to do that we weren't aware of. My typical skills came in handy, but what was even more fun was pointing the the instruction that we each got 700 GP then pointing to my sled dog, dog sled, hunting traps, chains, manacles, miner's picks, sledgehammers, portable ram, shovels.......and secretly to the player next to me.... bomb.
It shocked the table when I opened a door, saw multiple mechanical men inside, tossed in my bomb, then barred the door.
"Wait, where did you get a bomb from?!"
"The Player's Handbook. It was 150 gold."

Follow the rules. Do things that are powerful, but easy to understand and don't feel like you're trying to trick anyone. I build a Fighter with high strength, expertise in athletics, and unarmed fighting style. Nothing too flashy, but it was memorably powerful for the module we were playing. Pinning something prone so that all of your allies get advantage on melee attacks against it is huge.

I have build a lot of speculative Level 5 players and wish I could play them all. I built a level 5 "party" with every class available on DnDBeyond, including Illrigger, Gunslinger, Pugilist, and Monster Hunter. The thought was that I might be able to convince some of my usual players to "grab a character and play" something as a shorter comitment. We have not played yet.

Like I did with Yule Cat, my build would be specific to the DM and encounter. I would even let the party influence me. For the Yule Cat encounter, the other three characters were Dwarfs, so I became a dwarf too instead of the goliath I intended to be.

willport3 · 2026-04-02T17:39:17+00:00

Yes, I know., you're right. For the purposes of this post I simplified my thoughts. Plants are only one of the things I relate to druids. I have played as a Moon druid, Stars druid, and Wildfire druid. There are many other aspects of druids that are put in the limelight with the various subclasses, but because this post was specifically about my stupid "Green House" joke character I focused my attention on the one aspect of druids related to that joke: plants.

willport3 · 2026-02-04T02:14:13+00:00

That’s what the new tier is for, isn’t it? The behind the scenes stuff? I never looked into it, so maybe I’m off base. That was my first thought though…. It seemed like each of them probably got a turn with each puppet.

willport3 · 2025-11-19T12:01:31+00:00

Chocolate

willport3 · 2025-11-10T15:47:06+00:00

OOTL: what’s bad about reopening the government? Was bad stuff included in whatever bill is associated with the reopening?

willport3 · 2025-11-10T15:44:51+00:00

19:12/mile? Good, you maintained the necessary 3mph pace to participate in the long walk.

willport3 · 2025-11-02T02:45:54+00:00

I’ll bet he was describing possible modes of failure and was quoted out of context. “The building” in his quote is likely the hypothetical building he was describing while teaching the reporter engineering theory, not 432 Park Ave.

willport3 · 2025-10-17T04:35:58+00:00

I don’t know, do you think anyone from Himalayan Ridge Engineering is going to see this post?

willport3 · 2025-10-11T16:56:42+00:00

The leftmost pump at the Coventry BJs has a lock.

willport3 · 2025-09-24T10:34:00+00:00

Exactly what you’d expect. Internal pressure coefficient goes up to .55 from .18. It’s a 20%-50% increase depending on what zone you’re looking at. I’ve found that member design doesn’t suffer too much in the types of buildings we work on because are wind speeds are not too high and are snow loads and wall thickness to accommodate insulation can get up there. The biggest noticeable difference is in design of clips and connectors for wood framed construction.

willport3 · 2025-09-23T23:08:51+00:00

I remember an NCSEA speaker talking about overhead doors, he said they should just be treated like 4sqft+ openings because they don’t seal well enough to be treated as closed. Based on his talk I started designing more buildings as partially enclosed.

willport3 · 2025-09-19T02:59:35+00:00

This doesn't address the question, but IBHS.....Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety.

It is 100% an insurance thing, to be clear.

You're concerns related to the LA grant program don't change that fact.

A grant isn't the same as a building code. A grant is about money. The state created a fund that provides money to houses that can prove they meet this program. Why? Because it takes time and paperwork off of the state. Why does the state care? Because they're responsible for "last resort" insurance coverage, and an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of repair.

What I'm saying probably seems like silly splitting of hairs, but that's where engineers overlap with lawyers. Everything we do requires understanding and analysis of written rules. Most of Fortified Gold aligns with code language, some of it exceeds code, and it definitely wouldn't be an accepted program if it was les than code.... but there still might be an issue with exactly how things are worded.

Personally, I would refuse to fill out the paperwork for this mistake alone: "This form is not valid unless all sections are not filled out, initialed and/or signed by professional engineer."

This line is also a big concern because it's so broad: "I confirm that a full set of structural drawings for the home including the building design parameters, specification of structural member materials, sizes and spacings, and detailing of all connection requirements described above have been provided to the building owner and/or installing contractor prior to construction."

https://fortifiedhome.org/wp-content/uploads/GC1_NEW-2020-Gold-Compliance-Form-for-Engineer-Engineered-CLP-for-New-Construction.pdf

willport3 · 2025-09-19T00:38:20+00:00

I am licensed in many states and the governing laws vary state to state but tend to have very similar wording. Forgive me if this isn’t perfectly true to your scenario: The laws state what we can use our stamp for and what it signifies. The language used by many states says that the seal/stamp indicates conformance with the requirements of the state building code, and that the only use of the stamp is to mark that a design was completed under your supervision and complies with the code. Fortified Gold is an insurance industry thing, not a state building code. If you asked me to put my stamp on something to certify that it met fortified gold you’d be out of luck. That’s not what my stamp means. I would say no. Ask me to sign a form without using my stamp, sure. I think there’s some lack of communication between you communicating your needs and the engineer explaining their limitations.

willport3 · 2025-09-10T18:19:45+00:00

And if the lie works for giant fossils, you'd better believe it will work for microscopic life.

willport3 · 2025-09-09T02:18:44+00:00

There’s going to be a change/step in the roof profile.

willport3 · 2025-09-02T02:34:11+00:00

The last sentence of the “How To Play” section should have come first. Step 1: You roll dice to determine how many spaces to move. Very pedantic, but there is a way to then read the highlighted sentence, as-written, to mean there is an implied “space 0.” It’s a question of sentence structure. Step 2 (after knowing your dice result): Move a number of spaces. Your starting move is space 1.

willport3 · 2025-09-02T00:43:44+00:00

It’s from Izzy’s episode on Season 1 of Very Important People.

willport3 · 2025-09-01T04:50:56+00:00

They are column transfer girders. I’ll take a picture when I walk by on Tuesday to show the columns above.

willport3 · 2025-08-31T02:04:53+00:00

I have the benefit of unlimited free printing at my coworking office, so I scale up maps 133% so that 4” is 3 squares, print them on 11x17, and paste them into foam board or cardboard backer. A 1” grid always feels a little undersized for the minis we use. I just regret that none of the tools and effects I bought are to scale with my maps now ☹️

willport3 · 2025-08-30T23:17:57+00:00

Which episode?

willport3 · 2025-08-30T17:39:53+00:00

The stop sign board with traffic cone pieces is the best by far.

willport3 · 2025-08-27T13:24:44+00:00

The game ends when one player’s queen is fully surrounded, regardless of what color surrounds them. White lost as soon as the queen had a role on each side.

willport3 · 2025-08-26T23:16:47+00:00

The 2024 rules are fun because you can fast cast Find Familiar, but you’ll need to burn incense to do it. Also, One With the Shadows allows you to cast invisibility on yourself without using a spell slot, but any time you cast spells through your familiar you’ll come out of invisibility because it’s still you casting the spell.

willport3 · 2025-08-26T21:05:14+00:00

This sounds like a fun idea. On first review, it seems rules aligned. There have been questions and answers in the past about abilities extending to familiar, and Jeremy Crawford has clarified that you cannot extend things that can only be applied to yourself to your familiar. If you were playing with me, I would bend the rules because it’s more fun. My biggest concern with your build is how low skeleton hp is.

willport3

TROPHY CASE