Min/Max Boards

Hi guys
I don't have much experience as a DM and I'm having trouble with my current group
Basically, they have the tendency to attack enemies face-to-face even when they have the chance to observe them first. It's like they expect encounters to be balanced.
The thing is, they didn't use to play like this, so it's not a long time bad habit, they just picked it up.
This happened in the last two sessions.

Two sessions ago, they attacked and NPC that they knew was much too strong for them, but that made sense because they were mad angry at him and attempted an assassination plan - I had the NPC set them away with summons and walls, believing the summons would be enough to kill the attackers (so they could run away). That was not a problem.

Last session is when the real trouble happened. They had the chance to infiltrate a fortress-dungeon and spy on the enemy. As soon as they spotted an enemy, they faced him without a plan. This ruined the session completely, it was such a stupid plan that I was taken by surprise and ended up having the enemy flee for no apparent reason. The party then proceded exploring the dungeon like it was supposed to be easy. Had I sticked to what the dungeon was supposed to be, TPK would have happened.

It was definitely my mistake not to punish them, and I regret it. However, I come searching for advice.
The obvious punishment for this kind of behaviour is not nerfing the enemy and just let one or two of them die. But is there any other thing I can do in this kind of situations?

The party is a three-men composed of a glass cannon, a tank and an archer, all level 7 and not very optimized.
Rigth now they joined the army and are therefore expecting a quest pretty much on the line of "do this thing you have no backstory of", so I can have them face pretty much any kind of situation. Do you think a mission where they are commanded not to get spotted is enough, or should they meet a much stronger enemy once again?

This is for an upcoming short campaign with three players, but I'd also like to start a general topic about vow of nonviolence and party compositions.

So the short question is:
What would you guys build a Vow of Nonviolence character like?
And how would you compose a full VoN party? Let's say a standard 4 men party.

As for my specific party, rigth now it's
-Saint Bard (or other arcanist) Enchanter, may even go Vow of Peace and/or Vow of Poverty (the DM may be even willing to allow a poverty wizard his spellbook)
-A "Teleport-Other" guy who sets up traps and cages and tries to teleport enemies inside them. I don't know at what level this becomes possible, but the player says he already has a decent build
-A Grapple/Nonlethal unarmed monk-like character, maybe wildshaping ranger.

We're going for a theme-before-build approch, so it's not gonna be fully optimized, but with our DM balance is rarely an issue.

Hi guys, I'd like a couple quick tips on the next char I'm gonna play. Whatever comes to your mind.

Campaign is gonna go from level 7 to high levels, probably at least 15.

Four man party composed of:
-Not very experienced Anima Mage - this guy never spellcasted and never really read rules but is probably gonna base his build on guides.
-Unexperienced TWF rogue/swashbuckler - played once, wants to rogue, I will build for him but don't wanna give him anything strange. I'm probably gonna focus his build on reliability, get deep on TWF feats because I will buff him, but I don't think this char is gonna last 'till endgame
-Druid - used to play any kind of skillmonkey, wizard and a dmm cleric. He should be a pretty standard druid with some focus on evocations for sinergies with my buffs.

And then there's my bard.
On the brief, it's gonna be a savage bard 4/mythic exemplar 4/sorcerer 1/savage bard +1/seeker of the song 2/sublime chord 8 with dragonfire inspiration and words of creation.
Details on the "why"s of the levels:

Besides searching for random tips, I'm not quite sure on how to assign skill points.

I have +2 INT mod.
The point is I'd like to max Diplomacy, Bluff, Sense motive, Perform (sing), UMD, Perform (dunno), but I also need Knowledge (history) 3, Knowledge (arcana) 13, Listen (13), Profession (astrologer) 6, Spellcraft (6). Getting a single rank in many abilities to make use of Bardic Knack would be nice too.
So I have to sacrifice something.
Would you go with Nymph's Kiss for the extra skill point per level or Jack of All Trades to combo with Bardic Knack?
Also, what skill would you "sacrifice"? For one, I think I can do with a non-maxed UMD because I will get sorc/wizard spell list.


I'll let you know what spells and items I will pick. Not decided yet. (well, besides badge of valor and inspirational boost I mean)

So with feats being a variant rule over a +2 to an ability score or +1 to two ability scores, knowing how a feat compares to a plain ability score improvement will be very important when min/maxing. As time goes consensus on the meta will arise spontaneously, and magic items could be a part of this debate, but let's get ahead and try to evaluate.
I don't have too much free time right now, so I will write about just a few of them. Please add other feats to the discussion.
Also, some guides over at wotc forums have suggested feats already, here is the list:
http://community.wizards.com/forum/player-help/threads/4138726

First of all, keep in mind that I've had only one 5e session so I am strongly biased by 3.5 standards.


Alert:
Action economy, b****es! Bonus to initiative seems pretty high, but usefulness depends on how long combat tends to be. I'd say if combat usually lasts more than three or four rounds, this is not as good as it seems. Never being surprised seems situational if you are good at perception, good if you're not. Not giving advantage to attacks from hidden creatures... I think it really depends on how many monsters will use this tactic.
Has anyone played up to mid levels? Do you think this scales well? Do combats get longer at high levels?

Athlete:
Apart from the +1 to Strength or Dexterity, this seems a meh feat. Climbing doesn't happen often in combat, and prone is usually a player's tactic more than a monster's one (or is it?). Can we do combos with the running long jump after only 5 feet of movement?

Actor:
Lots of flavor, and that's that.

Charger:
Could be good if you don't rely on extra attack do deal decent damage. It's a trap if you can dash as a bonus action, as this feat specifically requires you to use your action. The bonus damage doesn't scale at all, so it's worthless at high levels. What about the pushing 10 feet instead of 5? Does this feat allows you to knock prone AND push 10 feet?

Crossbow expert:
Use extra attack with crossbow, can do the flavorful "shoot with an already loaded crossbow held in a single hand" thing as a bonus action.
The extra damage a crossbow has over a normal bow is not worth taking this feat. Magic items could make the bonus attack useful if you can use effects that you only want to fire once per combat, I guess.

That's it for me now, gotta go.

Hi!
I'm currently building a Tank for a new game to start the next week. For the main class I choose the Crusader, for obvious reason of ease to build an actcual tank.
Let's get specifical:

Rules for creating the character are:
Level 7, will play to no more than level 12, so no builds that become strong at later levels.
I already took Human for the race. I wouldn't change because of roleplaying reasons, but if I do, I don't want any non-core race (variants are allowed). Maybe Dragonborn Something might be better. I don't know if other templates are allowed.

GM ruled not to mix a lot of manuals togheter. So, apart from ToB and PHB I can use no more than 2 or 3 other sources. Magic Item Compendium is not included in this limitation.

No flaws or other alternate rules.

Sadly, no point buy. We will roll the dice on the first session. I was hoping for some advice on what to do with various arrangements of ability scores. Me and another player will however try to convince the GM to pick a method that allow us to know our ability scores before session 1. I will give you news on this.
28 point buy

Also, I don't know if I can ignore the rules on multiclass characters or not, but anyway, I don't want to multiclass into more than one other class.

Party members are: me, a Factotum, a Cleric and a Warlock. Factotum will go double caster, Cleric might go melee. As soon as I know more about it, I will tell you. Every other player is rethinking their role.

Concept of the build is, as the title says, a Lockdown Crusader. I must be able to get some kicks while protecting the rest of the party, and in order to do so, I'd like a way of getting Thicket of Blades at level 7 or earlier, or at level 8 at most as a usual full Crusader.

This is my first Lockdown character, so I'm not that expert. Actually, it's my second melee character (first was an übercharger).

Here's what I have built at the moment:

Note: this build is just a way of getting Ticket of Blades early, it may be changed entirely and I don't need to be an RKV. Also, I will read throughout the prestige classes of ToB to see what other early access to that stance I have there.

Human
Crusader 1 - Extra Granted Manouver; Combat Reflexes (Human Bonus)
Crusader 2
Crusader 3 - Stand Still
Crusader 3/Cleric 1 - Domains: Magic (for the domain power), Death (to swap the domain power for Death Devotion)
Crusader 3/Cleric 2
Crusader 3/Cleric 2/Ruby Knight Vindicator 1 - Free Feat
Crusader 3/Cleric 2/Ruby Knight Vindicator 2

That would allow me to get Thicket of Blades at Character Level 6 while losing only 1 Initiator Level, 1 BAB and getting access to cleric spellcasting and wizard magic item use while also boosting my saves.
Domains have to be chosen among Death, Magic and Law because worshipping Wee Jas is a prerequisite of RKV.

I was planning on using a Guisarme for reach and trip.
Manouvers and stances (apart from Thicket of Blades) have yet to be choosen.

However, this is not necessarily the build. I had not in mind to become an RKV. as the party already have a Cleric and a Factotum who will go Ur-Priest.
This build is just the first method that came to my mind to get early access to Thicket of Blades.

Suggestions on the free feat are more than welcome. I had in mind a few options, but I want to see what you say about it.


Alternate build that I had in mind (but have yet to work out properly) was something like multiclassing between Crusader and Warblade at specific level to get to know the best manouvers, maybe with some Prestige Class at some level as it would advance both Initiator Levels.

Any other build that includes mainly Crusader, no more than one other class, and prestige classes that advance Initiator Level is welcome. Even straight Crusader 7 if you can tell me why it's better than other choices.