Min/Max Boards

Holy crap!  So, unlimited free potions of anything 3rd level and below? 
At 4th level it can even be from other class lists if you have access to it!

Somewhat odd thematically, but a Druid 7 with the Dreamed Secrets feat can make potions herbal concoctions of any Sor/Wiz spell.

Expect nerfs incoming, I would guess.

Militant is a strange feature for 19th level.  If you wanted to be using martial weapons, you probably picked up the proficiency much earlier.  And if not, you probably have some highly enchanted simple weapons / natural weapon enhancement that would be awkward to drop for new stuff that late in the game.

Mystery Encounter
"Mongo not know where choo-choo go. Mongo only pawn in game of life."

Ok, I think these examples have already been addressed, but I have to call out this one in particular - what the hell is this?

No seriously, how is this - in any way, shape, or form - a way of contributing to a mystery situation?  If it's meant as IC dialog - ok, you just said something confusing to someone ... congratulations?  If not, what is it even supposed to mean?  You're accusing the DM of railroading?  Or is the "choo-choo" part coincidental and you're just declaring your helplessness and asking the DM to feed you the answers? 

The other examples have some issues, but this one doesn't even make sense.

Link's statement was a Sorcerer with Arcane Preparation is a Prepared Spellcaster and per the RC a Prepared Spellcaster cannot cast anything that's not Prepared.

That rule seems broken on first principles.  What exactly do they consider a Sorcerer/Wizard/UM as being?  Because that person is obviously both a prepared caster and a spontaneous caster.

That's all moot to Versatile Spellcaster though, because what it requires is simple "ability to spontaneously cast spells", which doesn't even have to come from a class.

First off, I'm assuming that you mean "that the PCs have to fight/survive" - I see no problem with having the Tarrasque stomp past in the distance at L1, but having them stuck in a cave with it would usually be a dick move.

Even then, it depends on the monster.  Level 1 is so swingy and specific-character-dependent that I'd always eyeball rather than trusting CRs.  Like for example, I'd happily put them against this character (optimized for tavern brawling):

Dwarf Warrior 10 (CR 9)
Stats: 11/12/17/8/10/7 (standard array, ++ to Con)
Feats: Improved Unarmed Strike, Close Quarters Fighting, Great Fortitude, Poison Healer
Combat: 85 hp, AC 11, hits at +10 for 1d3 damage. 
Also can drink anyone under the table and heal himself by doing so.

But not this one, unless I wanted something extra deadly:

Bone Creature Xeph Warlock 1 (CR 1)
Feats: Mortalbane, Point Blank Shot, Psionic Shot (extra feats from taint/flaws)
Combat: 11 hp, AC 18+cover, hits at +4 (touch) for 5d6, from 250' away (Eldritch Spear)

Wasn't thinking about actually being a Runescarred Berserker, but rather an Artificer/Archivist snagging, say, Divine Power as a 3rd level spell.  Not that that particular example would really change things, but I figure if you're going to explore what's possible in E6 you might as well go whole-hog and not leave a bunch of loopholes.

There are better ways.  Patreon and the like are the micropayments that Scott McCloud has been talking about for decades.

Really?  Personally speaking, I'd rather have some ads on the SRD than have to pay a monthly fee to access it.

And yes, it would have to be for accessing it - it's the SRD for a system that came out 13 years ago, there isn't going to be much new content for people to sponsor.  I mean sure, there's "everyone can access it for free, people just voluntarily donate", but that relies on there being enough big patrons to cover it, and that's by no means a guarantee.

I should add - in this case, it isn't even about the cost, it's about being able to, in the middle of a game, without having my computer around, ask someone to look something up there and they easily can.  So even if it was $0.25 a month, I would rather have ads.

Every class can play rocket tag, in which case who wins is just initiative.  Tiers are trying to be about versatility and the ability to break the game outside of the easily achieved damage spam.

That's what T1-T4 is about, but at T4 you've already hit "one trick pony" status.  The difference between T4/T5/T6 is merely how well the class does its one trick.  And Gunslinger does its one trick very well, therefore T4.

Whether that's a useful measurement is up for argument.  It is at least fairly easy to measure, compared to something like "expected performance against both tactical and strategic challenges over the course of a campaign", so I can see the appeal.

That said, I would argue that as far as the significant majority of games are concerned, "having good enough numbers in social skills" gives as much or more versatility/screen time/plot changing ability than having weak (anything less than Bard, amount or versatility wise) spellcasting, which most tier lists I've seen don't take into account. 

I don't understand that one at all.  Bolt Ace is just Gunslinger but uses crossbows instead of guns.  From a quick read, it seems weaker than normal Gunslinger, since it has to spend Grit to do touch attacks.  Is this assuming some sort of spell-storing bolt antics?  Or is one of their deeds deceptively good?

Also, Gunslinger being below T4 to begin with is dumb.  By mid-level, Gunslinger reliably kills most things that aren't specifically made to counter them.  Far away?  Deeds for that.  Miss chance?  Deeds for that.  DR?  Feat for that.  High touch AC?  Good fucking luck, you're going against someone with full BAB + Dex primary + enhancement bonus; Monk, for example, is not nearly enough.

Even some of the specifically anti-gun spells/items are woefully insufficient - 3-4 more points of AC won't help when the Gunslinger would hit you on a -5.  And Bullet Magnets won't last a single round, even if you make them out of Adamantine.

So is the rating based on "with no items" or "not at all optimized" or something?  That doesn't seem very useful.


Edit: On further inspection, what is up with this whole list?  How is the Slayer's ability to "do a bunch of damage" and "be good at skills" a tier higher than the Rogue's ability to "do a bigger bunch of damage" and "be good at slightly more skills"?  Same deal with the Ninja. 

Also, not convinced Investigator is T3; yes, it has extracts, but I've never seen a build that was very impressive for it.  And Unchained Monk is not T6, come on; it may be a Monk but it can deal damage moderately well, enough to hang out with Fighter and Vanilla Brawler at least.  And some of the Monk archetypes reach T4.

Some LA is worth it.  Not a lot, but it certainly exists. 

For example the often-seen ones like Half-Minotaur, Mineral Warrior, Lloth-Touched, Feral, and White Dragonspawn.  Those are all in the +1 / +2 range, which makes it easier.

For higher LA, I think that Pixie and Ghost can be worth it for certain character types.  Not for a caster, but a Ghost Rogue works pretty well.

Black Ethergaunt is pretty nice.  Doesn't match up to the stronger casting PrCs like Incantrix, but it's a Wizard plus a bit more, which is plenty for most campaigns.

And of course, in Gestalt, LA is almost always worth it, assuming it only counts as one side.