"Power gamer" hate?

[LudicSavant]

i play with one at my pf table, actually. the guy is... special to hang around with, to put it mildly, but he's friendly enough. when he rolls characters, he finds a concept, optimizes it to its fullest, and finally struggles to make sure the fluff is coherent so he's not called out for power-gaming. once his character is done, he moves on to fully optimize the group so that the group can have fun. he's kind of the unseen team support if you just look at the table without playing at the table. i say x, he takes it into account, and optimizes the other member to y so that we balance each other out. that said, once it becomes truly game-breaking (such as my secondary pf campaign), he goes whole hog and is currently playing a construct that breaks the sound barrier on a charge (and hits for a ludicrous amount of damage, like 6d12+40 or some such nonsense). in the main table, he's playing an oracle/witch multiclass and his build is coming online in the next few levels. so far, his weakness has been supported by the group. by level 10 iirc (i've seen his build. broken) he'll carry the table alone if we let him.

i don't mind it one bit. he's a team player first, a power gamer second, and a rules-lawyer third. he's gruff, brash, and uncouth but what he lacks in social graces he makes up in the fun we have at the table so long as we all sing from the same book. i guess you could call him the "this guy" of power-gaming.

Despite not expressing anger at the "powergamer" in this case, I think this is actually a good example of how a myth is made.

6d12+40 damage isn't necessarily all that much, especially for a charge, unless we're talking about low levels. But here it's just stated matter of factly to be "broken" and "ludicrous," without even any mention of level, as if 6d12+40 was an unconscionable number for any level. But monsters in the manual do damage in that range at lower mid-levels on a fairly regular basis.

What's clear is that 6d12+40 looks like a car that's driving faster than you. But I wouldn't be surprised if your optimizer friend isn't actually driving as fast as he can. And after all, you noted that he picks a concept and optimizes within the bounds of that concept, struggles to make sure the fluff is coherent, and helps empower other players at the table. That behavior isn't really consistent with the idea of someone trying to make themselves the strongest they can get away with and outshine everyone else.