## What are the most problematic aspects of the Archivist sub class for the Artificer (UA) [on hold]

So, the Artificer class has finally been released, and I found it curious that the Archivist from the UA Artificer (revised) had been cut. Obviously play test content is always subject to change, but I was wondering what aspects of this subclass were problematic.

Are there some features which are considerably over/underpowered?

Is there any reading material available relating to the design decisions for this class?

## Is GAP NP-hard with at most two balls per bins?

The generalized assignment problem (GAP) [1] is given by:

• Instance: A pair $$(B,S)$$ where $$B$$ is a set of $$m$$ bins (knapsacks) and $$S$$ is a set of $$n$$ items. Each bin $$j∈B$$ has a capacity $$c(j)$$, and for each item $$i$$ and bin $$j$$, we are given a size $$s(i, j)$$ and a profit $$p(i, j)$$.

• Objective: Find a subset $$U ⊆ S$$ that has a feasible packing in $$B$$ and maximizes the profit of the packing.

In [1], the authors proved that GAP is NP-hard even when:

• $$p(i,j) = 1$$ for all items $$i$$ and bins $$j$$.
• $$s(i,j)=1$$ or $$s(i,j)=1+δ$$ for all items $$i$$ and bins $$j$$.
• $$c(j)=3$$ for all bins $$j$$.

Analyzing this instance, I can see that GAP is NP-hard when $$p(i,j)=1$$ for all items $$i$$ and bins $$j$$ and each bin can pack at most three balls. This observation raises the following question for me.

My question: Is GAP NP-hard when $$p(i,j) = 1$$ for all items $$i$$ and bins $$j$$ and each bin can pack at most two balls?

[1] A Polynomial Time Approximation Scheme for the Multiple Knapsack Problem

## What is the most challenging 4E adventure/module material?

I’m am planning on running a 4E campaign for a fully optimized group of five players. I would strongly prefer to use officially published material and tweak where needed. These players love to be challenged, however much the rules will allow.

Here is what I have so far…

I’m not sure what to run for levels 1-4. I believe it would have to come from these options…

• D&D Encounters
• Dungeon Magazine
• Normal adventure/module during it’s regular life cycle
• Adventure/module at the end of its cycle that includes D&D next (it might be one of these as usually later stuff tends to amp it up a bit more, not sure though)

One of the players has a friend, who isn’t part of the group, that kept his all of his Lair Assault material. So we have…

• Forge of the Dawn Titan (5th level)
• Attack of the Tyrantclaw (6th level)
• Temple of the Sky God (7th level)
• Kill the Wizard (8th level)
• Spiderkiller (9th level)
• Talon of Umberlee (8th level)
• Into the Pit of Madness (10th level)

It’s my understanding that these are supposed to be the most challenging. They are willing to not level on some, if need be, in order to play them all. Are the Lair Assault’s a worthy challenge?

I’m thinking Tomb of Horrors for levels 10-22. I believe it says you can go with a group two levels lower than the standard requirement. Thoughts?

From 23-30. I’ve got nothing. Any suggestions?

I’m looking for a answer that has experience in optimized builds and with what would be considered the most challenging (i.e. hardest for the PC’s to overcome) official material. If I have to tweak a bit, that’s okay.

## What is the most efficient algorithm to compute polynomial coefficients from its roots?

Given $$n$$ roots, $$x_1, x_2, \dotsc, x_n$$, the corresponding monic polynomial is $$y = (x-x_1)(x-x_2)\dotsm(x-x_n) = \prod_{i}^n (x – x_i)$$. To get the coefficients (i.e. $$y = \sum_{i}^n a_i x^i$$), a straightforward expansion requires $$O(n^2)$$ steps.

Alternatively, if $$x_1, x_2, \dotsc, x_n$$ are distinct with each other. The problem is equivalent to polynomial interpolation with $$n$$ points: $$(x_1, 0), (x_2, 0), \dotsc, (x_n, 0)$$. The fast polynomial interpolation algorithm can be run in $$O(n\log^2(n))$$ time.

I want to ask whether there is any more efficient algorithm better than $$O(n^2)$$? Even if there are duplicated values among $$\{x_i\}$$? If it helps, we can assume that the polynomial is over some prime finite field, i.e. $$x_i \in \mathbf{F}_q$$.

## How to make the most out of wands?

As far as I know wands seem to work like this.

Wand of Magic Missile made by anybody who can with the Craft Wands feat, the bare minimum of a caster level of 5 and an Int of 13 would function much like this…

The wand fires a single Magic Missile towards it intended target.

With that, how would one get wands with spells like Magic Missile, that get multiple missiles/rays at higher levels function that way.

EX: Wiz of Lv 9 casts Magic Missile firing 5 missiles at the intended target.

How could I get that kind of effect with a wand?

Does it mean using more than one charge?

If so is that another Use Magi Device check per charge use?

## What is the most damage that can be done in a single melee attack?

So, I was attempting to theory-craft a character that could deliver a massive amount of damage in a single melee attack. I know that there are builds to deliver a massive amount of damage in a single round that can most definitely out-damage this one, but I was specifically looking for a single melee attack.

So, my idea was a Half-Orc Paladin/Hexblade Warlock/Sorcerer multiclass. Using a combination of Divine Smite, the Warlock’s Eldritch Smite Invocation, a +3 magic weapon, the Half-Orc’s Savage Attack feature, Absorb Elements, and Hex, with max damage and crits, I got a lot of damage (I don’t have the exact math’s, I lost the paper I was doing my calculations on). I think it was over 100.

However, I’m sure that this is nowhere near as high as it can possibly be. So what is the greatest maximum amount of damage you can do with a single melee attack?

Anything from books published by Wizards is allowed, whether it be race, class, magic items, etc, as long as you make it a single melee attack. This includes 20th level characters and epic boons. UA should not be considered.

## What is the most conventional/best place to add actions for items inside datatable?

Like actions I would say “delete”, “edit”, “details” and many more maybe. How display that on a desktop application. Some possibilites that I already used could be :

• Add to the top before the header and display when one item is selected
• Inside the row at the beginning or at the end
• With a three dot icon after the first cell like with can see in Sharepoint
• In the top of the row when you are over with the mouse
• Other ?

My feedback is as follow…

• For the first one, it’s good to set batch action (things you do to a group of things) or to the table as the whole. But sometimes you see actions for the selected item too. Could be good when you have a lot’s like 5 to 10 actions. And it’s a good idea because you have space and on your datatable you have just DATA and nothing else more. But for a user it’s not always easy to understand the link between actions on the top ouside datatable and the selected item.

• For the second one, I like it because you directly understand that these actions are for the item. But if you put at the end and your table have several columns or if your sceen is small you must always scroll and you didn’t see them directly. If you put at the beginning it could takes a lot’s of space and the most important thing (data) are pushed to the bottom and maybe ouside the visible part of the page

• With the third you can group it and gain some space. Your button will be always visible and it will not takes too much space. But the user didn’t see actions directly and for all actions he want to do he must do one more click to open menu then find on the menu what he want then click again. It will takes more time to activate an action than the other solutions.

• Last one… I m not a big fan it cover data and you think that there is like a glitch on screen.

To resume for me there is no good solution or standards with material design and it is kind of shame…

If you have any article/feedback who speak arround this problem… Please send me !

## Are SAT problems with at most two false clauses NP-complete?

Is the problem of deciding whether a SAT instance, where at most two clauses are false (that is, any given variable assignment will either lead to all clauses being true, all but one, or all but two), is satisfiable solvable in polynomial time?

This is a follow-up from my previous question. The problem presented in that question (at most one false clause) was solvable in polynomial time, because we could take advantage of the fact that the set of truth assignments that make a clause false is disjoint to that of any other clause. With two or more clauses, the sets that make a clause false can overlap with each other. Does this mean that problems with at most two (or more) false clauses (when I say “or more,” I do not mean that the number can change with the problem size. A problem with five clauses where at most five are false is a trivial version of regular SAT, but what about a problem of a few million clauses where are most five can be false?) are NP-complete, or are all versions of SAT where you limit the number of false clauses solvable in polynomial time?

## Why do most smartphones have the charging slot at the bottom?

Most of the modern smartphones have the charging slot at the bottom. Purely from a UX point of view, wouldn’t it make more sense to have it at the top instead? I understand in some cases, it wouldn’t (e.g. charging docks or car holders), but in the majority of the cases, I think it would.