Judging from the fact that this made world news, I have to admit it worked. A single post getting people angry about a fake cancer victim proved far more effective than any ad campaign I have ever seen for health awareness, and zero cost! I guess we only pay attention when we are outraged. Fair play, then.
Pavel Bure became a wizard?
Russia has been using low altitude approach and low altitude release with a quick pull up to lob the glide bombs in. The bombs have minimal range and accuracy, so Russia has just been throwing large bombs, and more recently, cluster bombs, to try their luck at hitting and damaging front line infantry positions. What they are doing works, is more effective than their artillery at killing Ukrainians, and has been going on for almost a year now with little to no reprisal from air defence. They aren’t going anywhere near 15km high, or forget Patriots, the Buks and S300s that Ukraine is comfortable keeping near enemy lines would hand them their asses.
From my understanding based on what I have read about the situation with the attacks on front line positions, they would need to move it further towards the enemy by about 10km past their lines to be able to pick up a plane flying just above the treetops to see it when it is within glide bomb launch range. I guess they could have given that a shot, but I am somewhat dubious.
They probably did the shooting down part, but something has changed. Russian pilots know how low they need to fly and how far away they need to be from the front to be able to launch 2000lb glide bombs at Ukrainian front line positions without being picked up by ground-based radar. And that has been stalling their offensive operations for a long while now. Ukraine didn’t extend their air defence by moving it forward. They must have done it by putting something in the air with a radar that can integrate with Western air defence systems. Being in the air instead of on the ground allows radar to see much further towards the horizon and suddenly the air defence can see into the dead area that starts about 30-40km behind enemy lines that the Russian planes have been operating in. This was one of the speculated roles of the F16s in Ukraine, and based on the reports of a sudden and precipitous drop in Russian glide bombing activity at the front due to their planes now being in missile range before they can attack, it wouldn’t surprise me if this is what has happened.
Well 5e is more or less a basic version of 3.5/d20 system, so there are lots of things that no longer make sense after you gut the rulebook. 3.5 had skill ranks. Clerics started with a bunch of ranks at 1st level and then would continue to buy ranks in religion every level, and would be much better at related knowledge checks than an unranked 18 Int wizard in no time. Knowledge skills relying on Int makes sense. Having a skill system that no longer takes into account character life choices and experiences, does not. I’d really like to see the solution to these problems be to add back rules rather than further dumb things down by making every class centred around a single stat. Despite its flaws, 3.5 had a lot that is sorely missed.