Sounds like the real problem was not your strategy but the fact that this weapon was very much not scaling with you powerlevel and really unbalanced.

I am somehow very happy that you actually mentioned that you’ve never played DnD. The honesty just feels very refreshing somehow.

While that is correct, it’s not like your allies are indestructible cover, so I’d say it’s fair. But I don’t really have to tell you I guess.

So when he realised that your last build would have been more balanced then the current one, he just decided to do what he could have done from the start by adding more enemies?

What template was he using before?

I meant consistently as in “has no chance of failure”. Wish is already powerful enough and is likely intended as the “brute force solution” anyway.

I think the only capstones really worth it are from Cleric, Paladin and maybe Barbarian or Artificer. Fighter is cool, but also a bit lackluster.

This rule has been in the book ever since the PHB first released. If this was something you didn’t use, you either missed it or played a different edition.

I think people overestimate what hiding can do for you. Hiding does not immediately shield you from harm. You can’t hide if there’s nothing to hide behind. If an enemy walks around your cover, even the best stealth roll in the whole world won’t keep you hidden.

How did the DM react to your new strategy?

This as well. Because while a more diverse set of abilities would be cool, if you make it too diverse, everyone suddenly becomes a jack of all trades, master of many and that feels boring.

Very much this. It even feels very “rogueish” to employ that strategy and it’s far from broken, so I don’t see why you would ban it.

Get’s transported to a time where all Sphinxes have died.

Did the DM just not like Rogues or were they new to DnD?

I’d say it gets you the exhaustion, but as long as you do not actively mess up the wording the spell will work, since it’s specifically said that the spell can be used to do that so it should be able to do so consistently.

Not in my presence at least. I’m moreso mocking the meme format, as people keep using it whenever someone brings up that their build only works with thing x. I’ve seen it with free feats, smites, 1 level dips, specific feats, magic items, …

Some of those takes were reasonable. Some were not. And while the format was made to criticise overreliance on one thing, I feel like it’s sometimes used too easily. Relying on an abilities is not bad in itself. Some builds only work because of abilities. And while it’s fair to bring up that it’s a bit one dimensional, that doesn’t invalidate the build.

Pretty much, yes. I also think it’s not necessary for characters not to become better in all abilities even as the game goes on, but I generally like that characters typically continue to have weaknesses as they level up. Th unfortunate part is that those weaknesses are a lot less punishing for some classes then for other.

Yes. And RAI means „rules as intended“. The technical interpretation of those words seems very much unintended.

Oh shoot you’re right. Guess you only need to get to level 17 then, but that’s barely a challenge, right?

Yes. That’s the point. But you don’t need rule of cool for this. You just need to use at least a single braincell to apply RAI.

Definetly. Though some role-players might find it annoying that it creates the impression that your character just eventually becomes decent at everything.

Ouch. That kind of word picking should be illegal.