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About a month ago or so, some people might remember that I mentioned doing a quality review for this site for seeing whether RPG is finally ready to graduate. Well, it went pretty swell, but we'd like to see how you feel about the results. As such, we'd like to have you try your own run at reviewing the question set. So we're going to steal Aarthi's review template here and spice it up a bit.

Meta sites often see people discussing specific questions that have been closed to determine whether or not they can (or should) be reopened, but it's rare that anyone looks at questions that are open and answered. Are they better than what the Internet has to offer? Are we making the Internet better?

Here's a rough guide:

  • Below, you'll find ten questions randomly selected from your site over the past 60 days.
  • For each question, search the internet for the question as if you were the asker!
  • If our answer(s) is good (complete, well-written, answers the question, useful, found in search results, etc) then vote it up!
  • If our answer(s) is bad (incomplete, poorly-written, off-topic, incorrect, unfindable, worthless, etc) then vote it down!
  • I've included my own commentary from my run of the review. These are in spoiler blocks. It's up to you whether you look at them post-fact just to see how your perspective compares, versus letting my views shift your opinion of the question.

Comment with anything you feel is worth noting, or to explain your voting choice. We have a rough guide to better/par/worse right here. If your result is par, make a choice to vote up or down.

Remember that our goal is to make the internet a better place. If you find yourself unable to decide how to vote, ask yourself: does this question and/or answer make the internet better? How you answer that question should determine your vote.

Talk to your fellow community members about how your site is doing and what you all can improve. Above all else, remember: this is a team effort!

Please note: this evaluation will close on April 9th, 2012! Get your answers in by then!

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    \$\begingroup\$ It is a terrible shame that nine out of ten questions are on D&D and one on LRP. I understand that the goal here is to mark questions but I have nothing to contribute to this since I do not play D&D/Pathfinder. Why are no other tags represented? \$\endgroup\$
    – Sardathrion - against SE abuse
    Commented Apr 3, 2012 at 7:32
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Sardathrion That's hopefully not a reflection of the site content as a whole; these were 10 randomly chosen questions from the last 30-40 days. \$\endgroup\$
    – Aarthi
    Commented Apr 3, 2012 at 13:59
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Sardathrion It was random luck, is all. It isn't a reflection - the previous review set had only 4 D&D questions. Just was bad luck on this one, I s'pose. \$\endgroup\$
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Commented Apr 3, 2012 at 14:27
  • \$\begingroup\$ @GraceNote: No problems. Thank you for the clarification. \$\endgroup\$
    – Sardathrion - against SE abuse
    Commented Apr 3, 2012 at 14:54

10 Answers 10

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Magus casting spells in close combat?

Good? Bad? GoodBad? Please vote in accordance to the guidelines explained above, and optionally leave a comment if you have something extra to say.

GRACE'S NOTE: Par - Answer is correct, as verified by other findable resources. Not much else to say.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Correct, more easily findable, and as always our answer is closer to the top. \$\endgroup\$
    – C. Ross
    Commented Apr 7, 2012 at 15:15
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How does the placement of Wall of Smoke work?

Good? Bad? Meh to the max? Please vote in accordance to the guidelines explained above, and optionally leave a comment if you have something extra to say.

GRACE'S NOTE: Par - This is easy enough information to find, but we're correct (at least, from my readings, it is accurate) and we have good findability. So, par.

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Which creatures don't speak Common?

Good? Bad? Abstain? Please vote in accordance to the guidelines above, and optionally leave a comment if you have something extra to say.

GRACE'S NOTE: Better - No list has been compiled, but then again, it hasn't been compiled elsewhere, either! So we actually have the steps to make one. And we show up on such searches as "List of 3.5e creatures that don't speak Common". Sounds like a score in my book.

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    \$\begingroup\$ This becomes hard to find if you replace "creature" with "monster" and drop speak and replace with "language"... that makes it hard to find in my books... "monster dnd common language" and "monster dnd "common tongue"" don't find it, and those would be my 1st choice searches \$\endgroup\$
    – Simon Withers
    Commented Apr 3, 2012 at 1:18
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Can I make multiple extra melee attacks with one crit?

Good? Bad? Has no gun? Please vote in accordance to the guidelines explained above, and optionally leave a comment if you have something extra to say.

GRACE'S NOTE: Better - Other places cover other aspects of Harmony Blade besides the extra attacks component. We actually turn up on a lot of odd searches, too. so we're discoverable even to people looking for other points, haha.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Searching for the three powers brings up our site, as does two, but with one you need to have something like 'trick' or barbarian, but I think that's reasonable. \$\endgroup\$
    – AncientSwordRage
    Commented Apr 2, 2012 at 19:55
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    \$\begingroup\$ Tempted to -1 because it doesn't appear for "crit-fishing" which is the technical area of what this question covers. But I dunno... \$\endgroup\$
    – Brian Ballsun-Stanton
    Commented Apr 2, 2012 at 20:22
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Brian From my perspective, that's a legitimate point to make - questions that manage to avoid a common or technical term for the subject matter in both the question and its answers are problematic. Having the right term at least somewhere is very helpful, so conversely, not showing up at all for the term can be pretty bad. \$\endgroup\$
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Commented Apr 2, 2012 at 20:25
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    \$\begingroup\$ @SimonWithers I think a bit of exposing this to us it so help us see what we do well, the point of that would be to do it better, I'd say getting crit-fishing into this question would probably be a good lesson to learn here... \$\endgroup\$
    – wax eagle
    Commented Apr 3, 2012 at 19:53
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A Ranger build that is close to Tier 3 classes

Good? Bad? Ninja kidnappings? Please vote in accordance to the guidelines explained above, and optionally leave a comment if you have something extra to say.

GRACE'S NOTE: Better - Nice guide lists while also including a sample build right here. Decent discoverability, too. It's that touch of compiling multiple items that makes it shine.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Abstain. Again. Not one of my best answers, but points to the appropriate handbooks. \$\endgroup\$
    – Brian Ballsun-Stanton
    Commented Apr 2, 2012 at 20:09
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    \$\begingroup\$ Similar to the swordsage, I think we can do better with charop questions - we have this tagged "optimization" and hit that well, we appear in the 6-20 range for charop, but nowhere if I try char-op \$\endgroup\$
    – Simon Withers
    Commented Apr 3, 2012 at 1:33
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Is master of the nine a solid prestige class for a swordsage?

Good? Bad? Beyond such concepts? Please vote in accordance to the guidelines explained above, and optionally leave a comment if you have something extra to say.

GRACE'S NOTE: Better - Our accumulation of the number of resources is our advantage once again, and this is a much easier discover point than the Ranger question.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Abstain: We're competing with the old d20 handbooks here. Holy noise is the brilliantgameologists/minmax (they're the same mirror, basically) noisy/not useful. But that's because the handbooks have badly bitrotted. We wouldn't fare so well with the 4e charop Boards. \$\endgroup\$
    – Brian Ballsun-Stanton
    Commented Apr 2, 2012 at 20:00
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    \$\begingroup\$ My first searches all included "char-op" or "char op" or "charop" in the terms, and didn't find us at all. As soon as I dropped that we appeared. Should we perhaps be tagging questions related to char op as such? \$\endgroup\$
    – Simon Withers
    Commented Apr 3, 2012 at 1:24
  • \$\begingroup\$ That's actually a ... really good suggestion. There's certainly a category of "character optimization" questions and it absolutely tends to a specific kind of answer like sys-req. I support this. \$\endgroup\$
    – Brian Ballsun-Stanton
    Commented Apr 5, 2012 at 12:43
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Vow of Poverty, overpowered or underpowered?

Good? Bad? Sentenced? Please vote in accordance to the guidelines explained above, and optionally leave a comment if you have something extra to say.

GRACE'S NOTE: Better - Brian's answer is much more comprehensive than the accepted answer, as it goes into depth on the reasons behind its relation to various classes. It summarizes several viewpoints to give a much more overreaching answer than what could be done by just an individual.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Abstain: I answered the question. But the it-depends seems to correspond well and for any kind of specificity beyond "vow of poverty" we show up. \$\endgroup\$
    – Brian Ballsun-Stanton
    Commented Apr 2, 2012 at 19:57
  • \$\begingroup\$ we hit on "dnd vow of poverty" and "dnd vow of poverty balance" but not "dnd vow of poverty broken" ... we certainly could do better here. \$\endgroup\$
    – Simon Withers
    Commented Apr 3, 2012 at 1:29
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How do I price a sword that absorbs other weapon's abilities?

Good? Bad? Dental plan? Please vote in accordance to the guidelines explained above, and optionally leave a comment if you have something extra to say.

GRACE'S NOTE: Par - It's a very, very specific scenario, which hurts discoverability. Past that, though, it's a magic-item standard pricing question, and the advice is spot on and equal to what you'd find in other guides when it comes to something like this item.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Abstain: But better, because we don't have the waffling on that a forum would provide. \$\endgroup\$
    – Brian Ballsun-Stanton
    Commented Apr 2, 2012 at 20:16
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How could you adapt the Vitality and Wound Points system from Unearthed Arcana to the 4th ed rules? (NOTE: This question was up for review prior to Brian posting an answer - keep this in mind for your judgment)

Good? Bad? Neutral? Please vote in accordance to the guidelines explained above, and optionally leave a comment if you have something extra to say.

GRACE'S NOTE: Worse - All we have is just a "you could..." partial suggestion. No justification for why one would use Healing Surges over the Constitution score, and it touches nothing else on the system and its execution. There is a lot of talk about methods out there with nothing solid, but this just is so sparse in coverage that it is embarrassing, to be honest.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Searchability is ok... maybe the bounty will help... \$\endgroup\$
    – Simon Withers
    Commented Apr 3, 2012 at 1:47
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    \$\begingroup\$ I Fixed it? ... kinda cheating though to address a Q like this because bounty and meta? \$\endgroup\$
    – Brian Ballsun-Stanton
    Commented Apr 3, 2012 at 2:12
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    \$\begingroup\$ Heisenberg is smiling right now \$\endgroup\$
    – Pat Ludwig
    Commented Apr 3, 2012 at 20:05
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    \$\begingroup\$ Second result for "vitality wound points 4e" which is good and it has a good answer... now :-) \$\endgroup\$
    – mxyzplk
    Commented Apr 4, 2012 at 1:52
-4
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How do I patch up my weapon?

Good? Bad? Unreal? Please vote in accordance to the guidelines above, and optionally leave a comment if you have something extra to say.

GRACE'S NOTE: Worse - We're low on the list, and tons of other resources are far more comprehensive about your options than what we speak of. Just poor in comparison to what we have, honestly.

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    \$\begingroup\$ -1 We have a stop-gap non-researched answer to the question. We don't hit the keywords that I'd search for. We don't have many answers. \$\endgroup\$
    – Brian Ballsun-Stanton
    Commented Apr 2, 2012 at 19:55
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    \$\begingroup\$ @BrianBallsun-Stanton Agreed. We're not a good LARP resource at this point. \$\endgroup\$
    – C. Ross
    Commented Apr 2, 2012 at 20:02
  • \$\begingroup\$ Doesn't come up with repair LARP sword, fix larp sword \$\endgroup\$
    – mxyzplk
    Commented Apr 4, 2012 at 1:50

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