But none of those also let you punch or kick people for decent damage, at least not by RAW
Just roll high for STR,
obviously.
Besides, melee combat is a waste of resources. You always gotta use a full-round action to do anything decent, when you can just cast spells and makes the peoples fall down in a standard.
Ok, I need to stop the tabletop ranting for a bit, now I'm just getting unreasonable and letting the optimization part of my playstyle override the style and aesthetic parts.
with the lab mates, it's mostly that there's one guy whose seemingly sole goal is to get out of lab asap, proper procedure and data be damned. so he just tries to bumrush through everything possible and starts splitting work up (not just "do this do this record this, cool. we'll convene in a bit" but like, "you do question 1, i'll do question 2"...). this wouldn't be so bad, except they just blindly copy stuff, at least they've done so in the two labs i've experienced so far. and i don't trust people on blind copying. i just don't. it's a bad plan, especially when the professor says "don't just blind copy work. if you're all making the same exact mistake and it's apparent you just copied stuff without checking, i won't give partial credit."
so, i have chuckle**** 1 trying to rush through everything asap. the other 3 going along with it and just doing stuff because they can, and then i'm trying to understand what the ****'s going on so i know what to do if this stuff pops up later. the other 3 guys are pretty cool, but when you try to help and just start blasting off stuff two questions past what i'm on, it's not helpful.
and the professor doesn't seem to understand that teaching and lecturing is more than just using tangentially related stories about **** you've done in life and "here's an equation. you can derive it this way. figure everything else out." he literally went through the second chapter, 2d motion, with maybe 20 minutes of actual lecture over the material, over two classes. i didn't even have a copy of the book until, like... tuesday? and it's an electronic one, which i'm really not used to using (just preference for physical books...). so i haven't been able to do any homework, which all seems to have just arbitrary due dates depending on how he feels that week.
like, i'm really tempted to just drop this class because i can already tell it's going to be stupidly stressful for no really good reason, but it's also the only class i have this semester and i don't want to fall behind another semester.
on the other hand, i don't want to bang my head against a wall for 2 months, find out i can't pull this out of my *** and then drop. or worse, try to make it all work out and then fail (or get a nontransferrable d : /).
I'm really sorry you're going through this, and I can relate. It's an
irritating choice to make because ideally you shouldn't be in a position like this in the first place.
So here's how I'd approach the situation. It's not a magic bullet for your dilemma, but maybe you can get something out of it.
Your lab mate who doesn't give a **** about actually learning something and just wants to "get through the class?" He's someone you'll likely have to deal with, unless you can somehow change up groups. Either way, maybe talk to the group and mention that you don't want to rush the questions and would prefer to discuss them through a bit more to gain understanding. I can't guarantee a positive response, but you're at least starting the conversation and making your own intentions clear. Cuz man, you're gonna end up in these kinds of situations a lot in both school and work and no one really knows the perfect mixture of magic to make teams of nerds work together perfectly. If you do, lemme know, we'll write a book
and never work another day in our lives.
Your Professor? How available is he outside of class? Talk to him in his office hours and hopefully that'll help your understanding. You're not going to be able to change his teaching style, but when it comes time for class reviews, definitely give him a few suggestions. You'd be surprised how many profs actually take those into consideration. In addition, when you
do go to meet him in his office, come prepared. Skim the section you're having issues with beforehand, try a few problems to better highlight where your issues are. Most profs tend to be better at explaining things in one on one sessions instead of during lecture to a class(which is a problem, but complaining about that won't help you pass your class unfortunately). If your prof is just as unhelpful in his office hours, then you've got a problem and I'm really sorry.
If you're able to put in this kind of effort into the class, then awesome. Don't drop it. If you can't, then it might be in your interest to do so, but it's sounding like you're not necessarily in a position where you'd want to drop classes. It's going to be hella stressful probably, but you gotta deal with it and believe yourself to be
capable of dealing with it. Just be on top of things when it comes to this class.
Does your university have counseling of any sort? They might be worth talking to as well. Either way, you'll come out of this ok, and I believe in you.
