Actual Play Legacy of the Crystal Shard--D&D Encounters S16 S2

A Drow, Frog, and Gnome walk across a rooftop....Legacy of the Crystal Shard--D&D Encounters S16 S2

My second week DM'ing went a lot more smoothly--there were only 5 players on the night before Thanksgiving, which made it a lot easier. 

I had prepared for 12 at the table again, so I did not necessarily have the minute roll play details that I may have wanted, but I did have the cinimatic battle scenes set up--bar fight, street fight, etc.--and they went fairly smoothly.

Thor was playing his Death Cleric.

Brandon is still playing his dwarf but will likely be changing to a mage for net session.

Jack was there playing a Gnome Rogue named Ratatouille--some of his best RP ever happened this week when he released the barbarian prisoner. Jeff was new & played the NPC.

Eric was there sans Sarah, who was at her moms birthday--Eric's Druid the Druid is fantastic.

Scott is playing Scar who is basically Drizzt.

The module has a ton of background stuff, which I will likely never use--I plan to develop my own themes for this season, but likely not formalize them until week three.

 The Pathfinder Crit & Fumble decks are bringing a lot of joy to the table.

I used a mix match of custom drawn map & WotC Maps for the various encounters tonight.

Jack was on fire with Three Crits--likely an all time session high for him!

Minmaxing in D&D Next

I have a player at my table who is playing a death cleric. He is using a scythe as a polearm which we have agreed is doing a d10. He has some class feature that allows him to do an extra d8 three times a day for the entire combat. When he hits a target he is able to make a second swift attack. Finally, he has some kind of polearm feat that gives him threatening reach.

So while my other players are doing like a d6 per round this guy is often doing 2d10+2d8+2 which just seems completely broken.

My first question is am I missing something--I am fairly new to D&D Next and some of this character optimization may not be legal--can anyone validate that what this player is doing is actually possible RAW?

My second question is, does D&D Next support 'system mastery' in the same was a 3.0? Do 'advanced' players have significantly more powerful PC's simply because of rule mastery? 

I remember in 3.0 building encounters to just shut down certain PC's & prevent them from doing their 'tricks', I did not find I had to do that as much in 4.0 and I am curious if we are returning to those types of encounters?

Here is video of Thor's PC in action

Shannon Error Magic style

Problem
I often have unspent mana during my untap step. Since I started playing UG I am seeing more of this. Some of it may be acceptable because I am holding mana back for counter spells which I do not need to use, but I am concerned that my mana ramp is not aligning with my deck and/or my draws.

Error Definition

The Shannon Error  is based on one of the Great Lewis & Clark explorers, who thought he had fallen behind, when in fact he had gotten ahead, of his team. So he rushed to catch up, which only compounded his problem by moving him further away from the rest of the expedition and further from much needed supplies.

From Shannon's experience, we can deduce the Shannon Error: the pursuit of a goal with great effort, the attainment of which is through less effort, not more; or, trying to catch up when you are already ahead.

Example

My current concern is that I find myself often not spending all of my mana each turn. This happens in two ways--I create I have found that this happens to me a lot in magic. New to the game, I find myself drawn to large Timmy creatures that have clearly defined rolls on the battlefield.

Thus, I am a big fan of any thing that encourages Mana acceleration so that I can get these guys out as soon as possible.

Solution

Actual Play Legacy of the Crystal Shard--D&D Encounters S16 S1