Armored Armor
Footage of Fighter testing out his new combat style can be found here.
Now that that’s out of the way, why don’t we talk about OP builds and suspicious numbers? It’ll be a quick talk, because it’s a fairly straightforward point. All I really want to say is this: If something is too good to be true, it usually is.
That old truism came into stark relief recently when I encountered a player excited for a sorcerer build.
“What’s it do?” I asked.
“It’s invincible!” he replied. And with a wide grin he explained, “My dude has better AC than the Fighter at level 10!”
I was intrigued. But as he explained, I became increasingly distressed about the guy’s soon-to-be-burst bubble. He was rocking a 38 AC in PF1e, and it was all thanks to the magical equivalent of Fighter’s multiple armors. I could only lay a hand upon his shoulder, shake my head like a world-weary TV doctor, and give him the bad news.
“I’m sorry. We did everything we could. Your build died on the operating table.”
Nine times out of ten, when you think you’ve come across the next killer build, there’s some little rule that you forgot. In the case of my disappointed sorcerer buddy, it was the old “most bonuses of the same type do not stack” rule.
While there are certainly OP builds out there, do yourself a favor and verify that mess before you trot out your fancy new PC. Get a second opinion. Ask around on forums and with your resident min-maxer. Whether your AC is nuts, or you’re TKOing enemies with incorporeal attacks (I just reach in and crush the heart!), or you’re dropping wildshaped whale druids on the enemy for 1,000+ damage, chances are that something may be a little off. So do your due diligence and double-check. I’ll be the first to congratulate you if you do manage to pull off some advanced (and totally legal) rules-fu.
Question of the day then! Have you ever encountered a “too-good-to-be-true” build? What was it trying to do, and what was technically wrong about it? Sound off with your favorite “it works great if I get my GM to allow it” shenanigans down in the comments!
REQUEST A SKETCH! So you know how we’ve got a sketch feed on The Handbook of Heroes Patreon? By default it’s full of Laurel’s warm up sketches, illustrations not posted elsewhere, design concepts for current and new characters, and the occasional pin-up shot. But inspiration is hard sometimes. That’s why we love it when patrons come to us with requests. So hit us up on the other side of the Patreon wall and tell us what you want to see!
I’m always get a little sad when I see someone get excited about the Arcane Enlightenment hex combined with either the Spirit Talker feat or the Spirit Guide archetype. “This old guide says I get to cherry pick Wizard spells on a daily basis almost for free! Isn’t that awesome!?” “sob sob You tell him about the FAQ/errata. I don’t have the heart…”
Yea verily, the errata boss is a dick: https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/errata
The Errata gods giveth, and the Errata gods taketh away…
In Exalted 2.0, the original write-up for the Lunar Charm Claws of the Silver Moon listed their accuracy as the Lunar’s Dexterity. So being the evil little person I am, I built a Changing Moon Panther totem with the Legendary Dexterity Merit and a Dex of 6 in human form, 7 in Deadly Beastman. To this I added one dot of Martial Arts, a +3 Specialty in claws and a soak charm and called my combat section done. Filled the rest of my sheet with stealth and misdirection charms and proceeded to have fun running with my Solar “pack” serving as a substitute Night Caste.
Alas, this was made a far more reasonable +2 Accuracy in the Errata. But the look on our other resident Munchkin’s face when I said, “Mara swings a massive razor clawed hand at the Dragonblood’s head, the sheer speed of the blow causing the very air to sing. At the last moment, her claws shoot out to the length of small swords, seeking the monk’s flesh like hungry razors” and picked up 18 dice was priceless. “How much essence did that use?” He questioned. “Oh…none really. The Claws are Gift, so they commit with my Deadly Beastman. This is my normal attack roll.” Was not the response he expected.
The one I keep seeing is people who don’t understand the concept of “Base AC” in D&D 5E. I recently played with a barbarian/hexblade who thought that Unarmored Defense and Armor of Shadows gave her AC 20 at level 5.
The really sad part is that I bet they were super-excited that their build “finally came online.”
In my first 5e campaign, I made a fairly tanky Paladin/Warlock build (ironically, the character was a coward) and in the prototype phase calculated what my AC would be like with full plate armor. Then, in the early combats, I accidentally used that number (despite having cheaper armor), so I was telling the GM that I had an AC of 21 despite being level 2. I figured it out after that session, though, and it only saved me from one or two arrows, so it didn’t end up being a huge deal, but it was a little embarrassing. I think the main issue was that I was coming from Pathfinder, so 21 AC didn’t sound as high as 5e considers it to be.
Growing pains, man. That’s where so much of this stuff comes from. You get your hands on a new system, try your best, and make changes when you realize you screwed up. Happens to all of us.
Ah, yeah the old non-stacking AC-bonuses, that’s certainly one I have seen several times, both in the direct “no if you cast ablative armor from a wand the armor bonus doesn’t stack with your actual armor”, and in ways relating to how [Ability] to X doesn’t stack with [Ability] to X.
The one I was most sympathetic to there was that someone missed that getting a dodge bonus to AC equal to your charisma twice didn’t stack even through dodge bonuses stack (since they are the same source i.e. same reason they wouldn’t stack if you cast haste on someone twice).
The other big one I have noticed is related to encumbrance (a ruleset which is often ignored somewhat, most people don’t want to calculate each and every little thing you pick up).
But did you know that even a Bag of Holding II is heavy enough to put someone with STR 7 into a medium load even if they don’t wear anything else? Many a dex fighter has forgotten this.
Just had a mindchemist with the middle-aged stat adjustments show up in my game. STR 7 happens, and it’s supposed to be a challenge to overcome. My thought has always been that, if you’re going for the low-strength build, you’ll want to track your weights more carefully than the average STR 11 dude. Just part of the challenge, you know?
yeah, bags of holding really suck, not only for weak characters.
How does any character even carry a bag of holding?
With min. weight of 15lb it’s not something that can just be leisurely tied to the belt.
They are two feat by 4 feet in size according to their describtion, that’s not something you’d tie to your belt no matter their weight, it’d drag along the ground.
You either tie it to a walking stick like Douwe Dabbert, or less magical vagabonds, or throw it over your shoulder like Santa
And that’s why I never dump strength. Even for my dex based halfling and gnome characters, I boost the strength so it’s at a solid 10. That way I can carry most of my stuff without having to worry too much about it. And of course, I buy a Muleback Cords as soon as possible.
Although, I did have to have one of my dex based human characters buy a mule to carry her stuff that wasn’t armor or main weapon.
When I created my second D&D character, it was for a campaign in which most players were new to D&D, and the only people who had any experience were myself and the DM, if you can call I think 3-5 sessions of D&D “experience”. And since I was new, and playing 3.5, I didn’t really understand the roleplay, and all I knew was that bigger number is better than smaller number. So by level 7 I had power attack and a +33 to hit, and by level 14 my armour class was approaching the high 30’s-low 40’s. It took a while before my mastery of the rules graduated from “able to vaguely power game” to “able to legally power game and understand the rules”.
And then near the end of the campaign we took a brief break and decided to do a battle Royale, and so then I had the knowledge to 100% rules-legal turn myself and my familiar into invulnerable solars while also throwing around quickened maximised energy drains.
Careful. The Handbook has a thing or two to say about fool-proof defenses.
I get the feeling the Fighter is soon to suffer from a bunch of dragons attacking him with dex-save breath weapons while miraculously rolling an improbable amount of good ol’ auto-hit natural twenties.
That’s an awfully fancy way of saying “rocks fall.”
It isn’t “Rocks fall” territory because it actually happened, but I had my Dice take offense to a character declaring “my AC is so high, you can’t hit me.” I proceeded to hit him several times throughout the night with the only thing the monsters could hit him with, a natural 20. He even got criticalled twice in pathfinder because I followed a natural 20 with another natural 20. I was rolling attack rolls on the table in that game, because the party had requested a hardcore* game.
(* = Hardcore means that I will not pulling punches to save you and indeed can’t. I roll every d20 on the table so you can see it. In exchange, you have no plot armor because I cannot game the system in your favor. Non-hardcore games I roll behind my screen, and players tend to have a much higher survival rate because the enemy critical rate goes down a lot…)
I haven’t seen many accidentally impossible builds in 5e, which is probably due to simpler rules and no having all the different stacking bonuses of 3.5. Base AC is one of the only culprits for this, but fortunately people tend to notice that and I’ve never seen anyone actually bump into this problem with an actual character, just when theory crafting about “impossible to kill” builds.
Only once have I bumped into someone in 5e with a build that didn’t add up. A halfling paladin/sorcerer had rolled ridiculous on his stats and started the campaign off with a shield, studded leather and a 20 dex, and an AC that only went up once he got haste and magic items, saving throw bonuses of “i succeed” thanks to divine aura, effectively evasion thanks to shield master, and damage output through the roof thanks to quickened spells and lots of slots for smiting. His stats were so good, he even managed to put a 17 in intelligence, just because he had rolled so high.
However, there was a flaw. He had one one stat below 16, that being his 8 strength. This wouldn’t normally be a problem, he wielded a rapier and the party had an obsession with collecting bags of holding, but he was multiclass. And to multiclass out of paladin, you need a str of 13. It was truly ironic, the fact that his crazy over-powered, unkillable murder-everything-in-one-round was perfectly legal… if he had just dumped intelligence.
So we just ignored it. He didn’t act his 17 int anyway, and his difference between str and int didn’t influence anything mechanically, so we just made it a joke that he owed the universe some strength, along with that greater healing potion he drank three or four times because he kept forgetting to erase it from his sheet.
Yeah… We may have dispensed with the multiclassing requirements for my own Rogue / Paladin. In my defense, however, she wasn’t that good. 😛
A lot of DMs, myself included, will allow paladins and rangers to use their choice of Strength and Dexterity for multiclassing purposes, like fighters. There’s nothing intrinsically tied to Strength and Dexterity in those classes (unlike barbarian), and while many paladins favour heavy armour and big weapons, and many rangers favour light armour and archery, it’s nice to be able to encourage different approaches.
That was our thinking as well.
Since you mentioned (or rather, linked to) Pun-Pun, I’d be remiss if I didn’t show off Pathfinder’s equivalent, The Painter Wizard: https://reddit.com/r/powergamermunchkin/comments/al6vn6/_/
One level dip into lore Oracle will get you a +20 to an int based skill check (Focused Trance revelation), significantly accelerating your spellcraft progression. In addition to that, take Clever Wordplay (Bluff) so that you can combine it with the FT. Proceed to use your supernatural bullshitting skills to get yourself an audience with the king and then convince him to sponsor your little Demon Lord painting project (“Of course Your Highness, I will order the Nocticula simulacrum to obey you and only you as soon as it’s created wink wink“).
The only raw problem I see from that piece of theoretical optimization is that none of the Create Demiplane line of spells actually allow you to arbitrarily copy other planes and that neither gold nor diamonds are actually allowed by it.
As such the painter is going to use less raw dependent means to acquire the vast wealth needed for them to have more than the already impressive 3 wishes a day at level 5. (or possibly duplicate some spell with Wish, I don’t know them all of the top of my head).
I always thought that Painter Wizard would make a good antagonist. The PCs have to thwart him at the beginning of his career though, before he really gets going….
I always look at the people looking to min max and I ask them one simple thing. “Do you think the other four people will enjoy playing with your min maxed build?” The answer is almost always no, in which case they change it. that isn’t to say that I’m against them but they have a time and a place. Though I’m a pretty laid back GM, I won’t double check your shit if it looks like it isn’t breaking my game. My biggest problem is that I have players who are selective readers, they read what they like and ignore what they don’t like. When they break shit I come down on them hard.
That mess drives me crazy. “Dispel magic. It just ends the spell right?”
“You have to roll for it.”
“Bullshit! It’s dispel magic. It says what it does right in the name!”
ಠ_ಠ
To be fair a 30-something AC isn’t going to save you from everything you encounter at level 10. My monk can attest to that. Even with stacking rules it’s not hard to get into that range for a monk with enough money (WIS to AC, armour bonus, enhancement bonus to armour, natural armour bonus, enhancement bonus to natural armour, and then every item and feat you can find to give you a dodge bonus).
A friend was telling me last night that he built a mental-stats-only paladin in 5e – CHA to hit and damage thanks to starting in Hexblade and multiclassing paladin – and got disallowed because the multiclassing rules won’t let you take paladin without 13 strength. Seems a bit harsh to me; that probably wasn’t a particularly overpowered character and the multiclassing rules feel like they’re written as guidelines to make you more effective, not less.
That’s why I gave him the benefit of the doubt at first. Unfortunately, the build didn’t quite hit that “rules legal” mark.
A few weeks ago, I ran a PF1e one-shot where one of the players was playing an Arcanist who legitimately had around 30 AC at level 4. That was with all buffs active, mind you, but everything was calculated correctly.
Unfortunately for that player, I also had already designed the one-shot to be very Saving throw and swarm heavy, so I think there was like, one enemy who used attack rolls with any degree of frequency. It wasn’t intentional – the last fight in the one-shot was one I had come up with a long time ago and was excited to use. Sometimes I feel like I should put a disclaimer in my Session 0 documents – Never be too reliant on one defence.
Vectors of attack, man. The second you think your AC is untouchable you meet a gunslinger.
Or an Alchemist, Wizard, Mesmerist, Psychic, Witch, Calamity Caller Warpriest or Swarm Monger Druid. And that’s just PC classes. =P
I had a cleric who managed to get his AC into the 40s at about level 12. The build was legit with all buffs on.
I then proceeded to brag about being invincible.
I then received in the next fight a very bad crit and nearly died.
The party proceeded to have a good laugh at me tempting fate.
Similar story over in Exalted. A buddy of mine found a combo that basically said, “As long as you’re in combat you can’t die.”
He said the words, “I’m basically immortal.”
Then he met the crazy reality-warping monks of the setting that made him fight with his social skills. Moral of the story? There’s always a way to lose!
Bladed Brush and Slashing Grace for dex paladin of Shelyn.
Bladed Brush lets you treat a Glaive as a 1-handed finesseable piercing or slashing weapon and acts as if you’re not attacking with your off-hand for purposes of feats and class features (basically so you can be a glaive swashbuckler or duelist)
Slashing Grace lets you choose a 1-handed slashing weapon to get DEX in place of STR to damage, however it does not function because your off-hand specifically has to be empty, and it can’t be when holding the pseudo-one-handed-weapon in two hands.
Oof. Brings up memories of trying to make gun swashbucklers work. Never quite figured that one out.
You see, this is why my Edam the Invincible Swordsman build relies almost entirely upon Dodge bonuses! (Crane Style plus a bunch of other Fighting Defensively boosts.) I once had a similar AC-stacking build that was a Dark Tapestry Oracle with a level of Scaled Fist Monk. One of Dark Tapestry Revelations acts like Mage Armor (being an Armor bonus without being armor), but it increases in AC value as you level up. Combined with the CHA-to-AC of Scaled Fist, and put on a character who is basically all CHA and DEX, and suddenly that caster isn’t so squishy after all! (Constantly dodging things also fit with that character’s “ethereal, one-with-the-shadows” theme.)
Unfortunately, not all of my Oracle/Scaled Fist schemes worked out. Poor Lucian the Magical Lumberjack Moon Jedi was screwed by errata despite being a fun and not terribly broken Oracle/Monk/Paladin/Bloodrager build. Basically, he used a Lunar Oracle Revelation to use his CHA in place of DEX for purposes of AC and Reflex saves, but not skills or ranged attacks. In addition, Scaled Fist added his CHA to AC as a separate thing (as a normal Monk adds DEX and WIS, except Lucian had powers that set both of those values to his CHA). Apparently, errata has declared that you can never add an attribute to a stat more than once, even via two different methods, so that was out. Even though Lucian’s main appeal was in the justification for his combination of expert dodging and terrible DEX skills – he was a buff but clumsy lumberjack who found the legendary magic Moonblade, which grants him precognition (and returns to his hand when thrown), but only in direct danger, so he still tends to trip over stuff. I was able to recycle some of his build into the Nature Knight, who, using the power of anime, runs around really fast in light armor with a giant greatsword that he can throw at people while a healing factor takes care of most injuries. So Lucian isn’t totally forgotten.
Lastly, I eventually discovered that the GMPC I made for the Suicide Squad campaign, Carl the Edgelord Antipaladin, technically didn’t work as well as I thought. He followed the basic Oradin build of Life Oracle + Paladin, except he was an Antipaladin and could heal from negative energy. So far, so good. But I incorrectly assumed that Antipaladin’s Touch of Corruption works EXACTLY the same as Lay on Hands but in reverse, and this proved to be inaccurate. Though Touch of Corruption does heal undead, it does not explicitly grant the “heal self as a swift action” ability that Lay on Hands does, reducing the usefulness of the Oradin. In this case, I, being the GM, just declared that it still worked that way because the powers are so similar and it wasn’t going to break anything.
The advantages of being the GM right there.
“Gee I wish the rules let this work. Oh wait, I am the rules!”
I once came across what looked like a fun way to make a truly ridiculous ecclesitheurge cleric/monk multiclass by using the Necklace of Ki Serenity a tattooed holy symbol, but after some googling, general consensus was that your ki was only treated as a higher-level monk’s if you had it in the first place :< Still a reasonably fun build if only because of all the ways you can still pile on Wis, though.
I assume the the tattoo necklace of serenity is just the coexist logo.
That’s me with my Int dumped hex striking witch 1/ bloody knuckle rowdy 4 in PF1. Long story short I thought I could affect enemies with my Misfortune Hex so long as I hit them with my monk weapon (using Aesthetic Style to make my weapons into unarmed strikes) ignoring the saving throw to simply try and hit the enemy. Seemed balanced to me; I could still fail if I don’t land the hit, I need improved unarmed strike and the Hex class feature as feat taxes, and applying said Hex eats my swift action, so I can only apply it once per turn anyways. Thought it all would work out.
Remember how I said I dumped Int? Notice how I only have one level in witch? That meant my DC is roughly about a 10. I thought with Hex strike, I bypass the save and directly apply the Hex if I hit. That is not how Hex Strike works. All it simply does is decrease the action economy from a standard action to a conditional swift action. Which would be great… If I didn’t have a terrible save DC for Misfortune. Suddenly my awesome build has now become a very subpar bloodrager with questionable feat decisions and an ability that truly relies on the enemy being very weak willed and rolling badly to work. I was a blood ranger pretending to be a monk trying to use witch abilities. Fortunately my DM allowed me to remake the character after it was established how Hex Striking works, but that certainly blew the wind out from my sails.
I don’t know why my post was a reply. Sorry about that.
I have tried for years to find a Hex Strike build that actually works. Because it’s an awesome concept, but you need to keep up your Witch/similar levels to keep the DC worth something and your Monk/similar levels to make your punches hit (and also not get splatted like a d6 HD unarmored caster usually does when meleeing).
Sounds like you want to play a gestalt game.
Woof. Mad sympathy, man. I’ve always been more a “Johnny” than a “Spike” when it comes to making builds. I know your pain.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/timmy-johnny-and-spike-2002-03-08
First time my group played Exalted we were smashing Dragon-Blooded and Solar exalted everywhere, then our DM took a look at the rules. How i miss the times when he didn’t bothered himself with reading the rules with good illumination and with a calculator at hand 🙁
Once, while thinking of some posible combinations for that game, Godbound, i was thinking that my build was OP. Then i realize that was mainly because i was using lots of gifts, more than you normally get.
In any case i, for one, don’t really like OP build, or even a build on general. If i make a sorcerer i choose my spells more for what is more in-character than for which one does more damage, has more exploits and that. Having an OP build, legal or otherwise, can be fun, at least until you realize that killing everything without a scratch takes away the fun of the game 🙁
Exactly! I think we can all have fun keeping a reasonable level of–
Let’s not get too crazy here. O_O
Yeah, lets get too crazy here!!! Choose, fun or madness. Wait! They are one and the same. Lets burn characters build sheets on the altars of destruction:D
No offense to the people who use builds but i prefer to make things in a personal, or even artesanal, way. A build is another person pc optimization and choices and while that is not inherently wrong as i said i prefer things in a personal way 🙂
Also a build is an orderly path to make your pc optimized on a certain way, meanwhile i bask in chaos and anarchy 🙂
In a way though, I feel ‘non stacking bonuses’ are a pretty chump thing.
They basically invalidate the vast majority of little buff spells that you used to hand out.
I’m experimenting in my game with letting things that specifically CONSUME A RESOURCE stack with equipment benefits, but you can’t say, drink two potions of strength and get double strength. Trying to bring those buff drinks back.
Also, it’s kinda’ fun watching the whole table get alarmed when the BBEG pops a cork on a very EXPENSIVE looking bottle with a glowing solution in it. Because they know that if I’m allowing THEM to do something…
Beware potion overdose. That mess can be dangerous!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0Gx8hYi0hQ
I tend to frown upon munchkinry, so I have never tried to make a “Too good to be true build”. I have however shot down a few. It mostly comes down to the fact that nobody reads the rules for multiclassing in the PHB, instead assuming they know how it works.
No, your Paladin 1/Every fullcaster 1 build cannot cast all the spells from all of its’ classes.
Shouldn’t enough different armors eventually give you total cover?
I had an idea a while back for a psionicist who can’t be hurt because she’s embedded in a slab of concrete (and uses magic items for food, water, and air, and it’s just a show I should really just relax). It started out as a spoof of chainmail bikinis (and a reference to an obscure Monty Python skit about elections) but I think it applies here too.
I think you’d be interested in the Great and Powerful Turtle.
https://www.wildcardsworld.com/characters/the-turtle/
Tried to make a dragonborn barbarian in 5e with the racial feat that gives them an AC bonus. Then we figured out that multiple AC boosters in 5e don’t stack with each other (aside from that first shield).
Insert sad trombone noise.
Not a true power build as it is very one-dimensional, but I just made up a wild sould barbarian (5e) with an AC of 17, as well as the mandatory insane HP. I look forward to seeing how the dice play a factor in this guy’s downfall as the saves are still VERY subpar!
Funnily enough, I was musing on how to get enough AC to survive being tap-danced upon by a Tarrasque. This was 3.5 mechanics, incidentally, not 5e.
Bracers of Armor, Periapt of Wisdom, Gloves of Dexterity, Monk’s Belt, Ring of Protection, Barkskin, Haste, Shield (the spell), Dusty Rose Prism Ioun Stone, dual-wielded Defending swords, Dodge and Combat Reflexes feats, and fighting defensively…with good natural ability scores, that was about 66 AC or so. Taking duelist levels (for greater dodge bonuses) or polymorphing into a stone giant (for more natural armor while keeping some Dex) helped to bring it all the way up to 80 AC.
As for huge AC in 5th edition…a barbarian with a heavy focus on Dexterity and Constitution can get pretty high. Monks can do Wisdom+Dexterity, but they can’t use a shield so they don’t do quite as well…Fighters can take a fighting style that gives them +1 to AC, and can use armor that matches wisdom/constitution bonuses easily…
I did once make a Forge domain cleric (using Unearthed Arcana) with a decent focus on AC; between +1 chain mail, a shield, and in a pinch, a Shield of Faith spell, I think his AC could get up to 19-21 at 1st level?
Sure there is, its called HP, and the alchemist will outlive us all
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj5G9efFqU0
Well, it wasn’t actually an impossible build, but the last game I was in, one of my teammates was playing a half orc Inquisitor whose Intimidate skill was so high he accidentally created a religion. At level 16, he managed to roll something like a 60. I remember someone looked it up, and it would have theoretically been high enough to make Cthulhu pee himself a little.
Racial bonus + class skill + Inquisitor abilities + trait + skill focus + magic items. It was a good thing too, or else the Devil-nazis we were negotiating with would have gotten an advantageous trade deal.
I have a 5e Napping Necrolock build that I put together with the idea of exploiting Catnap, which allows you to take an hour long short rest in only 10 minutes, and use that to use the Warlock’s 3x short rest spell slots to cast animate dead repeatedly throughout a day,(only 2x/short rest, then the 3rd slot casts catnap) getting as many as 120 short rests in a single day. (including the extras time to actually cast the animate dead spell)
WHOOPS, Catnap has a claws, er clause that states you can only use it once per long rest. Now at 20th level, instead of 120 chances to cast 5th level animate dead twice per catnap, giving us over 2000 corpses to storm our foes with, we’re down to 3x5th level slots only 23 times (24 if you burn a 3rd level slot on catnap) a day for a measly 670ish corpses. I mean, sure, that’s more skellies/zombies than can fit in your telepathic communication range of a 60ft radius for giving orders to,(and FAR more than any sane DM would allow) but it COULD have been over Two THOUSAND.
https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/fclrrf/the_napping_necrolock_a_powerbuild_thought/ for anyone interested in the build details.
The worst OP builds are the ones rooted in ambiguity. I don’t necessarily mean “worst” in terms of table experience—in my experience, most players will accept “That’s ridiculous, the rules probably mean Y” as a good enough reason not to do X—but in terms of online discussion. Everyone thinks their interpretation of the rules is obviously RAW and everyone else is stupid for not seeing it that way.
What!? That obviously not what I was saying. I don’t see how a reasonable person could read the OP that way. 😛