In university we had c++ and python courses alongside each other, and I currently get paid to write python. I honestly believe my knowledge of c++ (and of course the rest of the courses which went deeper into cpu architectures and data structures and whatnot) makes me a better python programmer, because of the deeper understanding of what goes on under the hood.
Are you in the US? Move to a country which actually respects bikes (and weed) like the Netherlands and it might tbh. Disclaimer: I’m not from there but I am from a nearby European country, and I know there’s always a shortage of bike mechanics, enough so that the courses get subsidised.
Yeah but those are different niches. The people that already played 3/3.5 didn’t feel like 4e was for them (and in a way, it wasn’t), so they moved on to pathfinder etc. Some newer players got into dnd with 4e but it alienated the older minmaxer types that liked 3(.5)e. (I have not done any research and this is all gut feeling and 2nd hand accounts by the way). In 5e they struck the right balance to get a kind of 3.5e “light”, that can attract new players as well as satisfy older players, though of course you can’t ever satisfy everyone.
You’re right of course that mirror image and invisibility are super strong spells that don’t benefit from a higher save DC, but the pattern series of spells (of which I consider colour spray the single target version) are still super good.
In the end, don’t forget that “fun” is different for everyone, and with experience you might find yourself wanting to challenge yourself with “suboptimal” choices because it’s more fun to play your first gnome paladin than the tenth halfling rogue.
Oh yeah definitely, game systems are rarely a good implementation outside of the combat. Many DnD games are definitely good (I’ve played neverwinter nights series, baldur’s gate series, dungeons and dragons online), but the real charm in DnD is playing with your friends and having a good time (as well as hyperoptimising your character at the same time, if you like that) (honestly I believe that’s one of the realisations WotC made with 3.5e that led them to make 4e, and subsequently 5e, a lot simpler: making it easier to get your friends into it was more important than having myriads of options for breaking the game)
So for reference:
Spell focus gives +1 to save DC for the chosen school, in this case illusion. Looking at the spells listed under illusion school and filtering on those useful in combat we have:
And that’s just at first sight a couple good ones.
Sure, you won’t be throwing around +1 save dc fireballs with this (except shadow evocation gives you heightened fireballs, at the cost of an extra will save), but CC is often more useful than direct damage. Especially out of combat (depends on what you mean with “roleplaying aside”), there’s lots of good options: hiding behind a silent image is a cheap mass invisibility spell, or distracting guards with ghost sound for sneaky infiltration.
Good luck!
I have the opposite experience, went to London a while ago and kept noticing most people keep left instead of right like I’m used to.