#Route Optimisation

[milkdeliverysolutions]

Discover the key features of route optimisation in a milk delivery solution, including manual and auto route planning, live tracking, driver management, and more. Streamline your deliveries today. Book a Free Demo with Milk Delivery Solutions to enhance your business efficiency!

[ankishgupta13]

Route Planning & Parking Solution for Logistics enabled by Bosch L.OS India 

Digital Logistics Services for Route planning, Optimisation, and Securing Roadside Parking Spaces, Which Can Assist Your Fleet Manager and Drivers in Their Daily Operations

[blood-orange-juice]

Another day in this insane lab.

"N. expressed hope that we can reduce brain dynamics to Ising model." "We will then have to explain why does consciousness arise in the brain but not in ferromagnetics." "How do you know it doesn't?" "True, we can switch to animism, I DON'T MIND."

(note: you can't really do it because of the presence of higher order correlations in the brain, please don't try it. ferromagnetic materials don't show any signs of consciousness either)

[violant-apologia]

ughhhh having an incredible time with the new hearts' game update – don't really have anything to add that other people won't have already said, except:

if you haven't unlocked it yet, look forward to it. it's SO good.

[ivy-saurs]

i might go for a walk during my lunch break tomorrow to see if it helps me mentally

[justdeliveries]

Learn what is the role of route optimisation in logistics and what factors influence it the most through this blog. Read now.

[waterdeliverysolution]

Manage Your Deliveries with the Best Delivery Route Optimisation Software

Did you know that businesses using Delivery Route Optimisation Software can cut their fuel costs by up to 30% and increase delivery efficiency by as much as 25%? Efficient route planning is crucial for any delivery-based business, and the right software can make all the difference. In this guide, we’ll explore how to manage your deliveries effectively with the best Delivery Route Optimisation Software, ensuring your operations are smooth, cost-effective, and customer-focused.

Why Route Optimisation Matters?

Route optimisation is more than just finding the quickest path from A to B. It involves planning routes that minimise travel time, reduce fuel consumption, and improve overall delivery efficiency. Effective route optimisation can:

Reduce Operational Costs: By minimising fuel consumption and vehicle wear, you lower overall expenses.

Enhance Delivery Speed: Optimised routes ensure that deliveries are made promptly, increasing customer satisfaction.

Improve Resource Utilisation: Efficient planning helps in better use of your fleet and manpower.

Reduce Environmental Impact: Fewer miles driven means lower carbon emissions, contributing to a greener business model.

What is Delivery Route Optimisation Software?

Delivery Route Optimisation Software is a tool designed to automate and streamline the process of planning delivery routes. It helps businesses identify the most efficient routes based on various factors, including traffic conditions, delivery windows, and vehicle capacity. Key functionalities of such software include:

Automated Route Planning: Automatically generates optimal routes, saving time and reducing manual effort.

Real-Time Traffic Updates: Adjusts routes based on current traffic conditions to avoid delays.

Dynamic Re-Routing: Quickly recalculates routes in case of unexpected changes or disruptions.

Integration with Other Systems: Connects with your existing systems for seamless operation and data sharing.

Key Features to Look For

When selecting the best Delivery Route Optimisation Software, consider these key features:

Ease of Use: The software should be user-friendly, with an intuitive interface that simplifies route planning.

Customisation Options: Look for software that allows you to tailor routes based on your specific needs, such as delivery windows and vehicle types.

Scalability: Choose a solution that can grow with your business, handling increasing numbers of deliveries and routes.

Integration Capabilities: Ensure the software integrates well with other systems you use, like GPS, CRM, and fleet management tools.

How to Choose the Best Delivery Route Optimisation Software?

Selecting the right software involves evaluating your specific needs and comparing options. Here’s how to choose:

Assess Your Requirements: Identify the features that are crucial for your business, such as real-time updates or advanced analytics.

Compare Solutions: Look at different software options, comparing their features, pricing, and customer reviews.

Request Demos: Try out demos or free trials to get a feel for how the software works and whether it meets your needs.

Check for Support: Ensure the software provider offers reliable customer support and training resources.

Benefits of Using Delivery Route Optimisation Software

Using Delivery Route Optimisation Software offers several benefits:

Cost Savings: Reduces fuel and maintenance costs by optimising routes and vehicle usage.

Increased Efficiency: Speeds up deliveries and reduces the time spent on route planning.

Better Customer Service: Ensures timely deliveries and provides customers with accurate ETAs.

Enhanced Data Insights: Provides valuable insights into delivery performance and operational efficiency.

Tips for Maximising Your Software

To get the most out of your Delivery Route Optimisation Software, follow these tips:

Regularly Update Your Data: Keep your address and delivery information up-to-date to ensure accurate route planning.

Monitor Performance: Track key metrics and performance indicators to gauge the effectiveness of your routes.

Leverage Analytics: Use the software’s analytics features to identify trends and make data-driven decisions.

Train Your Team: Ensure your staff are well-trained in using the software to maximise its benefits.

Common Challenges and How to Overcome Them

Here are some common challenges with route optimisation and how to tackle them:

Data Accuracy Issues: Ensure your data is accurate and up-to-date to avoid routing errors. Regularly review and clean your data.

Integration Difficulties: If integrating with other systems is challenging, seek support from the software provider or consider custom integration solutions.

Adapting to Changes: Be prepared for unexpected changes, such as traffic disruptions or delivery cancellations, by using software with dynamic re-routing capabilities.

Read More: Route Management for Small Water Delivery Businesses

Conclusion

Managing deliveries with the best Delivery Route Optimisation Software can significantly enhance your operational efficiency, reduce costs, and improve customer satisfaction. By choosing the right software and leveraging its features, you can optimise your routes, streamline your processes, and drive your business forward. Embrace the power of delivery route optimisation to stay competitive and deliver exceptional service.

[logisticsoptimization]

Efficient Delivery Route Optimization for Streamlined Logistics

Delivery route optimization is the key to unlocking enhanced efficiency, cost savings, and customer satisfaction in your logistics operations. In today's fast-paced business world, where every minute and mile count, a well-optimized delivery route can make all the difference.

[talenlee]

3.5e: The Prestige Classes of the Complete Warrior

The Complete Warrior was a book of all time. All the Complete books had their virtues and their vices, but the Complete Warrior was one of the first attempts by the designers in the lifespan of 3.5 to try and introduce some juice to the least powerful part of the game that was also, fundamentally, the most vital and popular. People love their human fighters, they love swords and they love archery and they love doing the cool fantasy things that wizards don’t do.

The Complete Warrior was a book that brought with it tools for the non-spellcaster, and how good or bad a job it did of it notwithstanding, one of the things it brought was a host of prestige classes. A prestige class is something like a Paragon path, but more retrictive and harder to implement. You need to fulfill requirements to get into it, and then each one gives you powers or benefits at irregular intervals.

I thought it’d be fun to look at them.

And then I found there were 30 of them.

Be pretty silly to look at all 30 of them, right? Pretty silly to take all these dusty archaic game pieces and one-by-one them to a general audience and discuss their design limitations or the idea of class fantasy, right?

Have to be a bit of a goober for that?

Bear Warrior

A barbarian whose rage is so potent they turn into a bear.

The Bear Warrior is a great place to start the list. It is 100% perfectly fine; you give up late-game Barbarian perks, your skills aren’t quite the same, and in exchange you get to do something that is new and cool but builds on what you were already going to do. Anything you ask a Barbarian to do, a Bear Warrior can do probably do about as well, but, and this is important, the Bear Warrior gets to transform into a big fighting bear.

Class fantasy fulfilled, mechanically reasonable, and doesn’t demonstrate an ignorance of the game rules.

Bladesinger

An artful melee spellcaster who can cast spells while fighting.

3.5 D&D had a longstanding puzzle for optimisers about how to make a type of character we called a ‘gish’ – a fighting spellcaster that could cast high-level spells, and fight in combat. The idea was a novel one that still appeals to me, since the power to do either side is going to be consumed by the things you need to feed the other half. The Bladesinger is one of many, many prestige classes in this tradition, and it’s actually decent.

This fulfills the class fantasy of being an elf, with a sword, casting spells and fighting at the same time. The name ‘Bladesinger’ has some truly broken history (back in 2e it was amazing), and this version carries that name, doesn’t make unreasonable demands of you to get access to it and delivers on the theme.

I kind of think of the Bladesinger now as a sort of robust middle-of-the-road gish class. It will do everything you need, it won’t ask you to do anything weird to get it, and while there’s more powerful and more flexible versions, there’s nothing wrong about using it and you get to do something most other gishes don’t (cheat the action economy).

Cavalier

A mounted knight who is good at being a mounted knight.

Here’s where we begin one of the first real drive-into-a-ditch problems of the Complete Warrior. See, Paladins are appealing to people who want to fight in melee, and that means there are some prestige options here for improving Paladins. This one, the Cavalier, is really only good if you are a Paladin, because mounted combat without a Paladin’s special mount options involves transporting around a mundane animal with maybe thirty hit points that can be crisped by a fireball.

What you get out of this class when you jump into is, uh, being a good mounted combatant. Like Paladins mostly already are. I want to give this modest praise for specialising, but the problem is, the Paladin who doesn’t take this route eventually gets Holy Sword, which is really amazing for charging cavalry Paladins, and this class doesn’t get Holy Sword.

It can get Holy Sword through wands I guess?

Dark Hunter

A hunter, but roguey.

Hey, hang on, hold this for a second.

Darkwood Stalker

A rogue, but huntery.

Alright, back. The Darkwood Stalker and Dark Hunter are close to each other in both what they’re doing and how worthless they are. They are both melee combatants that want to be good at stealth and reward that stealth with combat options that make you better from stealth, using the time honoured tradition of Sneak Attack. Know what else gets Sneak Attack? The Rogue, and the Rogue is a standard class that doesn’t need prestige class requirements. It’s also really good. In fact if you want to, taking a Rogue and specialising to make it tougher and better at melee will yield a better version of both of these prestige classes than sticking them onto a Ranger or Fighter or whatever ever could.

Oh, and the Darkwood Stalker brings in race-specific combat abilities, which is uh, bad. It gets a death attack which is terrible since it requires three turns of anticipation, only targets orcs, and gives a save-or-die. It is an ability whose upside is probably not as good as three multi-turn attacks, and it’s your capstone ability for don’t bother.

Bonus: When you get it, wizards have already had access to a spell that can save-or-die any target, even if it’s not an orc, and they get it at level nine.

Dervish

A fleet-footed combat dancer who moves through a battlefield to a rhythm that makes them untouchably dangerous.

The Dervish is a really cool class fantasy, it lets you specialise in something most fighters want, and it presents you with an interesting puzzle to solve if you want to use it well. Basically, you can attack and move, and you can do more attacks and more moves, but you have to be able to move into a new square every time, and you can’t move back into the last square you were in.

To maximise your Dervishing you need to map through a combat and the result is both effective and satisfying. Amazing class, absolutely worth the effort to get into it, and it makes you good at either enormous targets with uncomplicated terrain around them (like giants and dragons) or really widely spread out weak targets. Thing is, there’s a lot more than just those two options, and it gives you room to screw up and get yourself put somewhere really dangerous if you’re reckless.

Shame about the slightly racialised name.

Drunken Master

You’ve seen that guy in a Jackie Chan movie? Yeah, like that!

Oh boy, speaking of racialised names.

The Drunken Master is a monk prestige class that gives the monk the ability to fight with improvised weapons. This is something that the monk could already do through narrative description (hitting people into things like benches, tables, and ladders) but don’t worry, the Drunken Master is here to let you do that exact thing, but not as well.

This class is fine, but it’s not better than the base class it comes from.

Exotic Weapon Master

Well you tell me I shouldn’t pick up three exotic weapon proficiencies, but what if I did, mom?

This class is a big pile of special options but isn’t worth it. Nothing it unlocks is as good as you can get from other prestige classes that are less demanding. Exotic weapons are, largely, not worth using, since they are weapons and therefore they are all balanced around not making longswords and two-handed swords redundant, and that means that the best you can do is the Jovar or Bastard Sword, which are the same thing but slightly better. All the other fancy cool looking weapons fall behind on the math, and in some cases by a lot.

Remember, the tonfa is a club and it’s an ‘exotic weapon’ in this system.

This is a bunch of feats that aren’t good enough, in a trenchcoat, and should have been a modal feat instead.

Eye of Gruumsh

Hating elves and depth perception is a personality.

Stick your eye out! Become an Eye of Gruumsh! Get the special powers of Being Good At Fighting, which you already were!

Look, sometimes something exists to be a flavour option and then the designer gives up on making it so there’s any reason to want that flavour. This is what sometimes gets called an NPC prestige class; something that only exists so NPCs can take it to make them more interesting or specific as a combat encounter for players. You have to play a bad heritage to get into this class, then you have to focus on a bad weapon, and then you have to impose a material penalty on yourself, and then with all that, you get a perk that’s not useful as a player.

Bonus, the class is racist. Its bonuses are focused on being better at fighting elves.

Frenzied Berserker

The fantasy of raging so hard you hit teammates with an actual payoff.

The first big flaring red light of ‘this is a problem’ class in the book, though not necessarily for reasons you might imagine. The Frenzied Berserker is an extremely strong melee combatant whose drawback is that other players who don’t respect what you do can get hurt.

This is a bummer.

For them.

This is a rare example of a prestige class that is, ostensibly, delivering on what it promises and what it delivers is worth waiting for. It’s for people who want to play an out-of-control rager who is a danger to themselves and others. Where it gets weird is that by ignoring death rules, it can do some odd things with a bucket of water if you’re the kind of DM who doesn’t hold the reigns tight enough to say ‘I know the rules say you can return to 0 hp by sticking your head in a bucket, Dave, but we both know you know that’s stupid.’

Gnome Giant-Slayer

How do we compensate gnomes for being awful at fighting the things they should want to fight all the time?

Structurally, it is weird that the Complete Warrior got this when the gnome handbook, Races of Stone could have used it more. Then again, saying anyone could use this is overstating it, because nobody needed it. This is a prestige class about making one specific type of small character better at fighting big things, which seems a skillset that should be generalised and not at all related to a specific heritage.

This is also something like the fourth prestige class so far that wants the feat Spring Attack. It’s almost like that’s the only thing fighters can do that the designers can point to as a desireable prerequisite.

Halfling Outrider

The triple union of horse girl, good boy, and hobbit superiority.

I’ve written about this one before! The Halfling Outrider is part of the Supermount design, which didn’t exist until after this book was made. It’s a perfectly good class without that, and it does something the Cavalier doesn’t do – in that it’s something you can get into from multiple points and provides a reason to do so.

Hulking Hurler

Want to throw things at people? Like, really big things?

Okay, deep breath.

The Hulking Hurler is one of the most broken things in this book, and I mean broken as in ‘rules don’t work this way normally.’ The Hulking Hurler gets the ability to throw objects as improvised weapons, which then deals damage based not on the object’s design, but rather based on the object’s weight, and that’s a stat that scales up.

A 400 pound object, when flung, deals 5d6 damage. If it’s sharp, like a stalactite or jagged rock, it’s doubled, meaning that you’re flinging 10d6 damage at level 7. For a Hulking Hurler to fling one of those you need a strength of around 23, and it goes up from here. There are magic items for improving your carrying capacity, and for storing large items. Thing is, this number here is where the normal table maxes out, and carrying capacity and object weight damage do not scale up in the same way. When your strength goes 10 times over the cap in the book (so if you can hit 39), your carrying capacity quadrouples, and the damage goes up by 1d6 per 200 pounds. You start needing to do algebra homework on your damage dealing.

This gets ridiculous combined with the War Hulk prestige class from the Miniatures Handbook, but it’s worth remembering that even without that combo, this is still introducing into one whole combat economy (hit points and strength mods) another unrelated one (weight capacity).

Hunter of the Dead

A holy warrior that casts spells and purges the undead. Paladin? No, shh.

Sometimes a prestige class has a clear conceptual flavour but not a good way to deliver on it. This, for example, should probably just be a Paladin variant.

Invisible Blade

A sneaky stealthy fighter who fights with two daggers.

There’s a body of classes that are about giving you an existing feature, but worse. In this case, the class gives you sneak attack, but only with daggers, and then a way to surrender that sneak attack for a worse effect. Cool idea, but piss-poor execution meaning it’s just not worth it to care. Giving up 1d6 sneak attack for 1 point damage over time effect means that you have to wait 3 rounds to, on average, catch up with just sneak attacking.

Also, the Invisible Blade can add its intelligence to its AC, but that bonus is capped by its class level.

Essentially, this class has some cool ideas (bleeding sneak attacks and nimble defenses) but made sure to make them suck in case people got too eager to play with them. After all, this is the fighter book, not a wizard book.

Justiciar

You’re a fucking cop.

The ability to deal nonlethal safely (kinda nice, maybe worth a feat with some other perk), and then improvements to tying people up mid-combat, presenting a unique form of control that trades turns of damage knocking someone out for a few turns of grappling them in the hopes they then won’t escape artist or strength their way out of your restraints.

It’s a gimmick.

It’s probably a gimmick for an NPC.

If you’re really into the idea of dealing nonlethal damage, unarmed combat has plenty of support. The sap isn’t terrible. Hell, know how else you can do nonlethal damage? With the Merciful Enchantment from the Dungeonmaster’s Guide, which lets you inflict nonlethal safely and freely. and you can just buy it with gold.

Crippling strike is cool, but it’s not worth the investment of this class. A point of stat damage is also, something you can put on a weapon enchantment.

Also you’re a cop.

Kensai

Spiritually attuned weapon masters who want to express a really cool element of their weapon.

It’s kind of embarrassing how mystical this one has to be to justify what it is.

The Kensai is good at their weapon. It’s not always a sword, but this is 3.5, if you care about weapons, you care about swords. The Kensai is overwhelmingly going to be about doing a good job with its sword. The Kensai can spend experience to improve their sword, customising it without ever having to hand it to a wizard, and, spent right, this can be useful to bust through economy barriers. Depends on how your DM wants to handle XP I suppose.

Anyway, the Kensai also gets some cool abilities like using a concentration check to improve their body or transfer perks to allies, or do cool things with their attacks. It’s a good system and it casts its shadow onto 4th edition’s encounter and daily combat powers, which of course, nobody before 4e knew anything about.

Knight of the Chalice

A holy warrior that casts spells and purges demons. Paladin? No, shh.

Sometimes a prestige class has a clear conceptual flavour but not a good way to deliver on – hey wait I said this already. But it’s true! It’s a more specialised Paladin that doesn’t pay out worth the effort.

Look, demon hunting Paladin wannabes. If you want to attack outsiders, if you want your powers to be better at hurting outsiders, don’t look at your shitty spellcasting. Get a weapon and cast Holy Sword on it.

Knight Protector

A knight, who tries to protect people.

This is largely just alright, but it is important that this class is trying out ideas for aggro management that would become important in 4e when they were put in place more structurally.

Master Thrower

A thrower who is good at it.

Absolute piss.

This is here to make throwing weapons good, because throwing weapons are good in fantasy fiction because throwing weapons looks cool in fantasy movies. But the game system is not set up for that, because throwing weapons aren’t one of the chosen good types of weapons to do, like a longsword.

If you want to attack things at range, a lot, with a cool weapon nobody’s noticing, play a cleric, get into archery, and make your weapon invisible. The class fantasy here is obvious, and the delivery is terrible, but don’t worry, the alternative is also bad.

Master of the Unseen Hand

The powerful urge to use telekinesis to smash people into walls like a big splatty hand.

Hello, wizard prestige class, what are you doing here?

Well I know what you’re doing here, you’re trying to make something wizardy that feels fighty. The Master of the Unseen Hand gets to use the Telekinesis power and use it like a weapon at range. That’s really cool, and lets you do things like pick people up and throw them out of combat so hard they leave their boots behind (as per the class fantasy art). The way it works is a bit wonky, so talk to your DM ahead of time about whether it works the way it states it works or the way it seems to want to work.

You can even do something cool with this one! You wanna know how? It involves your character taking on levels of Savage Progression as a ghost.

Want to be good at this prestige class? Just die!

Mindspy

A spy, for minds, because high concept is hard.

What the hell is this doing here.

The Mindspy is an inexplicable rogue class sitting in the fighter book because I guess we needed some good space filler, to go along with the Cavalier, Hunter of the Dead and Knight of the Chalice.

Nature’s Warrior

A dangerous form-shifting warrior that stalks the woods and uses the forms of animals to attack its foes.

A class for augmenting wildshape, one of the best and most broken abilities the Druid has access to. Druids advance their wildshape by levelling up as Druid, and doing so also brings with it all the Druidic spellcasting and the other class abilities they get, which is pretty good and cool, even if you don’t get more base attack bonus. You have to ask yourself if you’d rather iterate one attack or get the full monster attack pattern that a bear or smilodon gets.

Point is, if you can wildshape, you wanna stay in the best class in the game for wildshape.

Still, it’s potentially useful for a ranger that wildshapes.

Occult Slayer

Wizards hate him, because of this one weird trick.

Noticing that wizards were better than all melee combatants, some classes were designed like competing organisms in an ecosystem. This is a fighter who is meant to be better at fighting wizards, which would scare wizards a lot if they had to ever care about things that made saving throws when they could just impose a bunch of negative levels with a level 4 spell.

It’s very hard to compete with an apex predator because they’re apexes for a reason. What a fighter could do is tackle a wizard with a grapple, but that might not work more than once. You’d need to be really good at grappling.

Order of the Bow Initiate

A kind of archery monk.

One of many classes that imagines swapping multiple attacks for single bigger attack is good. Since it doesn’t use skirmish or sneak attack (which both can be multiplied), and its overall damage output is extra d8s instead of extra d8s+all bonuses, it’s only good for overwhelming enormous damage resistance, which doesn’t exist in 3.5.

Unless you’re trying to shoot your way through something with hardness.

Basically, this is the class for shooting a castle wall to death, and that would be cool as hell, but nobody wants to do that. It’s a perfectly reasonable tool for a bad job.

Purple Dragon Knight

A refugee from the world of Faerun, with the knights of Cormyr, whose lore is large and tedious.

Novelty here is that there’s the dawn of another 4e mechanic (a challenge). Otherwise it gets to live alongside the Cavalier, and the other Knights, just generic mish-mash of ‘kinda a Paladin, but not as good.’

Rage mage

You wouldn’t want me to cast spells when I’m angry.

Know what spellcasters love? Losing spellcaster levels.

What the Rage Mage does as a class fantasy is be able to rage and also to cast spells. This is a thing that is perfectly reasonable to want to do and a novelty as a class, but doing so involves splitting your focus to get into the class and then making your execution of that class role worse, because you’re giving up spellcaster levels to do it.

Terrible idea, back to the drawing board, fix all.

Ravager

Servants of a god of pain that get to be good at inflicting and sharing pain.

I suppose the best I can say about the Ravager is that it lives up to its class pitch. It’s just a class whose prestige ability is ‘do a bit more damage.’ It’s another class that doesn’t compare well to (say) sneak attack, which is a repeating theme in this book of how many of these prestige classes could be replaced by just multiclassing rogue a little.

These four level classes are really bad.

Reaping Mauler

A grappling specialist.

Oh hey, it’s that thing that the Occult Slayer wishes it could do. The Reaping Mauler is straightforward, focused, and good at what it wants to do. Weird name, considering it neither reaps nor mauls, but what are you going to call some kind of specialist at wrestling and grappling? There’s no good word for such a thing, right?

Ronin

Samurai have codes of conduct; what if they fail to live up to them?

A samurai prestige class, which is to say, let’s take a piss-bad class and give it a weak prestige class that doesn’t improve its biggest problems. It does follow neatly in the tradition of the samurai, which is worse than a fighter, by giving it a prestige class that’s worse than a blackguard and worse than just multiclassing rogue.

Weren’t we just talking about that?

Spellsword

A wizard, a sword, some armour.

Hey, remember that Gish discussion from all the way up in the Bs, with the Bladesinger? Yeah! This is another example of a gish, trying to fix the 3e prestige class of the same name. Sadly, the Spellsword kind of sucks compared to even its most mundane competition, the Eldritch Knight in the Dungeonmaster’s Guide.

The evolution of this class fantasy in 3.5 is fascinating. By the end of the game’s life there was a core class that did this – full base attack bonus, full spellcasting, in armour, from day 1, and what they used to balance that class was its access to spells. Seems like the obvious way to do it in hindsight.

Stonelord

Dwarf fighters that lean into the aesthetic of being all about stone and rock.

One of the failures of imagination in 3.5 was that when you had to ask how to expand the fighter, you just gave it spells, and those spells replaced being a fighter. The Stonelord surrenders the feats of a fighter in the name of having access to a bunch of spells, which is something you could do with multiclassing into any number of casters, or even just buying magical items. Hell, you could multiclass rogue again, get Use Magic Device and skirt all this nonsense.

Tattooed Monk

A monk who uses tattoos to enable a host of interesting powers.

The way the Monk interacts with iterative attacks created a problem for potential multiclasses; you really needed to hit your +3 attack every 4 levels, which started at 0; that meant that you’d go 0-1-2-3, then, 3-4-5-6. That meant that if, say, you jumped into a Monk prestige class at level 6 (when most people were jumping into prestige classes) you’d get your 0-1-2-3, 3-4-4-5. Because of the special way monk attacks iterate, being at +5 at level 8 means that you’re behind on your Flurry of Blows progress, which feels weird as a way to handle that.

Anyway, yeah, it’s a monk, with tattoos. Those tattoos are cool magical abilities. Personally, I’d handle tattoos as magical items, the way that the game eventually did, but y’know, sure. It’s not like a class that gives you a bunch of magical items effects is uncommon.

It’s not good, but oh well.

Thayan Knight

A Red Wizard’s personal bodyguard.

The coolest looking class in the book, this is blatantly an NPC class. It’s not worth taking as a player, but its abilities are really annoying to deal with when you’re fighting an enemy red wizard with one of these as a cohort. Should just be some monster abilities.

It’s a dumb design, and a waste of book space. It tells DMs that this is how complicated and fiddly monsters need to be and that slows DMs down and makes the process harder to manage.

War Chanter

A bard whose focus shifts from generalised spells to highly effective combat buffing.

The War Chanter is a rarity in that it’s a thing that pulls you away from a spellcaster class, into a melee class and makes the transition worth it. Now, the caster class it draws from is the bard, a class whose spellcasting is usually an afterthought (or at least, a mid-thought), but the War Chanter really lays out the red carpet for the alternative. You get the full base attack bonus, better hit dice, and immediately get a way to toughen up in combat. Also, the requirements are positively reasonable.

Essentially, this lets you play a bard who fights, and sings as they fight in a way that everyone who hears it appreciates it or fears it. You get better songs than default bards, and you get to benefit from it yourself, and you get to mix and match them together as you level. Hell, the final ability is incredible, letting you turn a gaggle of nobodies into characters who fight as fighters of your level, making them amazing for amplifying pets and cohorts as well!

Warshaper

A shapeshifter who practices ways to make their body warping more powerful.

What the fuck is the Nature’s Warrior doing in this book when the Warshaper is here.

The Warshaper is a short class, which breaks the trend for those in that it’s good. It improves your ability to shapeshift, but it lets you access that shapeshifting in a variety of ways. That means your wildshape forms are stronger but if you say, are a character with inherent Alter Self or some kind of Polymorph effect, that counts too.

Look, the Warshaper isn’t good enough to stop a Druid, I don’t think, but it’s still good enough for anyone else who shapeshifts to at least think about it.

Conclusion

This was stupid and fun. I shouldn’t try and do something comprehensive like this again.

… though there are other Complete books…

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[hybridcrows]

my friend gave me their genocide route save after optimising everything and I have never fought sans in my life ever. the only experience I have is with deltarune so that's where the inspiration for an au kicked in lol

[ankishgupta13]

Route Planning & Parking Solution for Logistics enabled by Bosch L.OS India

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[fluffyartbl0g]

Question: In the last SBS you can see Zeff next to Sanji and I was wondering if he or other cooks maybe joined the Strawhats?? Since the Katakuri and Pudding comic I just really like more people being part of the Strawhats!! (It would be really cute to see father and son bonding time (＾▽＾))

Ah... Unfortunately Red Leg Zeff has already had his due time on the Grand Line u - u Actually this is set maybe like a couple of days or a week after the crew time travelled.

The Strawhats planned out the general route for their speedrun so they could OPTIMISE their run obviously- so what happens is Luffy hitches a ride on the sea king all the way to Cocoyashi and meets up with Nami, and then the two of em beat up Arlong. Simultaneously, what's SUPPOSED to happen, is that Zoro tries to find a den den mushi he can use to call the Baratie and then STAYS PUT so Sanji can pick him up XD (I mean,,, Zoro getting lost is basically a run killer, better not risk moving around too much). Luckily the RNG is really good for this run so it just so happens that the place the Baratie lands at to restock for supplies is where ZORO is at!!!

Anyways, that's why Zeff is there, cause he's out shopping with the rest of em LOL.

[suomeen]

Things I Love About Finland #5 - Transport

Finland seems like a country for cars sometimes, it's hard to get around without one. However, it still feels like the people are always a priority. I can’t help but be surprised that every time you so much as approach an intersection, cars will stop to let you pass. A lot of people also ride bikes or scooters and normally, cars also let them pass. I have a morbid feeling I'm gonna get run over as soon as I step foot on my home roads again. Nobody gives a fuck.

The roads are safe, even though most roads in Finland are rural roads. it's dark and cold a lot and the roads often get very slippery. But they are well-maintained and the rules are strict. You are also expected to wear a reflective jacket or tape when you go out after dark, which is most of the time in winter.

The public transport is good. I love the buses here. They are always half-empty and after being squished in crowded buses for years, it's great. I also love the way that traffic is optimised. The routes and number of buses are constantly updated according to demand. My town is fairly small and buses are mostly for teens, elderly and immigrants. They used to only run until 6 PM, but this year it's been changed to 10.30. In the evening, only small cars run but it's enough to get the half a dozen people home. Buses don't just stop at bus stops though, you have to signal for them to stop if you wanna get on. And if you wanna get out, there are buttons everywhere you can press to let the driver know. It's a very chill experience. The view outside is always nice so a bus ride is actually kind of a treat.

[clouds-of-wings]

Bizarre Google blog announcement: they have a "Shipping Network Design API", and operators of container ships can use it to optimise their trade routes?! This feels like a very old-school Google project, by which I mean a group of engineers put it together as an interesting side project, a very small number of people will come to totally rely on it, and Google will shut it down without warning in a few years' time when those engineers have moved on.

-- from Tom Scott's newsletter

[real-fire-emblem-takes]

oh yeah that one take about recruitment in 3h just wanted to add on a gameplay note (this isnt discourse pls dont snipe my mum) recruitment is simultaneously discouraged, not accounted for properly in game balancing, and not punished outside of one instance. the game is surprisingly stingy on deployment slots relative to map size and enemy density, especially in the war phase. you're supposed to be encouraged to bring your default students, and any extra you picked up along the way, but the low slot count means you either pick one or two extras, or replace your in-house students with new ones (or faculty). this discourages you from picking too many of your favourites and building a custom team of mix-match units, due to your limitations in slots, and, when paired with the effort expended during the monastery segments to recruit them via training a weapon/mov rank or building support, which is a time-resource affair you're balancing, and finally, with how utterly terrible Hunting By Daybreak is (especially on Hard/Maddening) if you neglect too many default students and the versions of them you get aint up to snuff despite the auto level due to wank ranks and shit weapons (and your recruits dont show up on this map even tho they have dialogue for it) leading to the player not being encouraged to engage with the mechanic paradoxically, outside of Hunting By Daybreak (common Crimson Flower W: not having this map) both everything before and after, the game does nothing to punish you ditching your homeboys to hang with the cool kids, so if you just plan for this one map (or not play it by protecting Discourse Girl) you can just go on unpunished provided you either optimise your team decision OR abuse NG+ to bypass all the nonsense. the game makes it a hassle to do all the recruiting if you want to do a lot of it, but also puts up only one fat fisting of resistance before giving up. finally, the game doesn't account for you recruiting anyone out of house, leading to funny things like silver snow permanently kneecapping you by two deployment slots for story reasons and not just, letting you replace them with recruitments slots. its very noticeable when compared to other routes. (common Silver Snow L). the devs also didn't account for you doing this, but then, due to 3H's amorphous map and enemy design, it ends up not mattering as much, since your units could be anything and it'd work, but you do end up having access, most of the time, to some of the most cracked units in the game, and devs didn't really design their routes with that in mind. not really paying attention to the tools you would or wouldn't have.

and yet, quadruple paradoxically, as if to prove me wrong and smack my nipples, they encourage it anyway, by having paralogues in the war phase require out of house pair ups, like caspar and mercedes, or linhardt and leonie. but these are only for random side maps, and are the most specific as shit big brain combos, so you'd assume they had this in mind all along, but then it begs the question of why they made it so irritating to recruit people to begin with, but then also why they didn't plan out any other campaign missions, slots, or other unit design factors when it came to recruitments, or even bother hinting at these combos so you wouldn't get locked out of content instead of shooting in the dark or looking it up and arghghghghgh 3H's gameplay choices are a mess

basically, recruiting is a series of weird as fuck paradoxical design choices that just sort of todd howard their way into Just Working but damn if the experience isn't baffling to think about in its' execution and impact on the game's core mechanical design

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