AngusOReily

Time is a flat circle

Loved this premiere. The only cast member I knew ahead of time was Sue Perkins, but it's always great to come away with great feelings about the whole cast.

I did not expect Lucy to be the weird comedian. I figured it'd be Sam, especially after the "Pinocchioooooooo," but man, she really is out there this episode. If I'm betting, her and Julian fight for last place; Lucy due to just being a bit of a bowl full of nuts and Julian not giving a shit, both on the best ways.

Sam surprised me with the hair lateral thinking; though they didn't really need to cut their hair off, it worked out for them. That plus his performance in the live task makes me think he's going to do a great job of thinking his way to a great showing. He's my pick for finding the hidden task, if that's a real thing. He's also funny as hell.

Sue and Susan are also fantastic and should be a great team. I think Sue might have the edge in performance - she had a great idea with the duck task just didn't hustle enough. But any of the three contestants whose name starts with S winning wouldn't surprise me!

Puka Nacua looks like he might be the real deal. Getting peppered with targets and performing real well as a possession receiver. It'll be interesting to see what happens once Kupp comes back, but I doubt he fades away entirely.

While everyone else is giving a totally correct answer of "do what you want and what seems fun", for sake of completion I'll give an alternative. If you're looking for an optimal choice with respect to character power, there's one specific point of the game where multiclassing is not recommended: exactly at level 5. At level 5, each class gets a substantial power boost. Martial classes get extra attack and casters get access to third level spells. Generally, these jumps in power are greater than whatever you're getting from adding an additional class. Likewise, multiclassing at level 4 delays a feat/ability score increase, but this is a bit more manageable.

That said, this is pretty min-max-y. Yeah, being at Cleric 3 / Druid 2 would be weaker than level 5 in either class alone, it won't be non-functional. You'll still be able to play fine even if your build is slightly suboptimal. Even on tactician, as long as everyone in your party isn't crazy multiclasses, you'll be fine as the party can cover for any shortcomings on your behalf.

Lastly, you can always respect. At level 3 and want to dabble but still want to be built optimally at 5 or 4? Go for it, and then visit Withers when you level up for a quick respec. Bottom line, play how you want, experiment! You might temporarily miss out on a power jump, but it's not crippling and you can always readjust if you feel underpowered

This is venturing on spoiler territory, but there's not a ton to the quest in Act 3. A conversation, a boss fight, and a temporary ally. It is not a main quest by any means in act 3. In fact, you can probably conclude it by lying.

I disagree with your last point. Yeah, you convince him to not blow himself up, but for my Tav it amounted to "we'll find another way where you don't die." He does get pretty power hungry, but a few persuasion checks and he realizes he was backsliding and agrees with you to cut that shit out. He decides to get the crown for Mystra without seeking its power and she agrees to heal him.

There's redemption there, you just have to push him.

I had no issues with the last boss fight, but I had a Tavern Brawler monk on balanced. After one unfortunate tpk on the run up due to some knock back splash damage, I hasted my monk, dashed, and then jumped all the way to the top in one round. Both boss phases were done in two rounds as the monk action surged and flurried their way through health bars, with the temp member helping clean up with double aoe. The final phase was super underwhelming; it took more time to get in and positioned than to take out it's health. I was really underwhelmed! I'm avoiding monk on my tactician run, and installed a boss difficulty mod to see if I can get things to stand up in the face of my eventual and unavoidable min-maxing.

Lae'zel for sure. And probably dark Shadowheart? That's who i have been using for my evil durge run and they all seem to be on the same page.

You can probably still get Astarion. Lae"zel might be donezo depending on how many long rests you've taken. They're both gone for sure once you leave the underdark

Spare the hag and save Mayrina, then kill her later for a sweet legendary! It's all wins.

A +1 to hit isn't huge but when you're adding it to 3+ attacks a round on a blade pact warlock or to each EB beam with the robe in Act 2, it adds up.

There are definitely RP reasons not to spare her, but you can't discount a +1 as not being useful. It's a permanent boon that allows you to spend resources in other places. Maybe you don't buff to 20 and instead use it to raise a second stat to 18 easier (hair plus ASI to get 18, 18, 16). Or it leaves more room for feats. I know I'm just using min-max logic, but I can't turn down a bonus. That's also why Volo got to dig around in my skull on my first playthrough...

I have to disagree about a +1 being useless. It's a very early way in the game to get a bonus increase. If you dump 3 stats (say, strength, wisdom and int on a warlock, sorcerer or bard) you end up with 17, 16, and 15. You can take this +1 in your main stat and take and ASI at level 4 to get to 20. That will carry you through Act 2 until you get either main stat buffing gear or the buff from the Mirror.

As for the other odd stat, it's really easy to find a "half feat" to get this even too. Maybe something like Alert or Weapon Master to sound out your Dex, or Resilient in Con or Dex to grab proficiency in a strong saving throw you aren't proficient in yet.

Maybe it's just the minmaxer in me, but I'll never pass up the hair, even if I have to persuade Ethel to give me both. Without the hair, you can only get to 20 in your main stat at level 8, but without it you get that bonus at 4 and save room for feats. That makes it particularly useful for feat heavy builds, like GWM/PAM/Sentinel, who otherwise wouldn't get their main stat bonus above +3 until they get stat boosting gear in Act 2 (or more likely Act 3 in the House of Hope).

The best part about this build is you can build Dex-Wis with just a little Str in the late game. Dump Con, Int and Cha. You can get an amulet to set Con to 23, and chug potions of giant strength for fights you really want to nova. On a regular fight, dex and wis carries you (and maybe a +1 or +2 in Str for a little extra damage). But then you drink a lot to set your Str to 27 and just go nutty with the tavern brawler bonuses.