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Thread: Straight-Up Power Gaming Party
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2012-11-17, 08:30 AM (ISO 8601)
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Straight-Up Power Gaming Party
If four of you were starting a new Lvl 1-20 campaign and wanted to power game the crap out of it, couldn't you just pick Artificer, Cleric, Druid, and Wizard (dual-classed into Sorceror then Ultimate Magus), and use your starting gold to hire half a dozen mercernaries to keep watch and handle melee?
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2012-11-17, 08:37 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2012
Re: Straight-Up Power Gaming Party
Our DM splits xp with everyone involved, even if those involved can't get xp, thus it takes forever to actually level. Not only that, but it waters down the game. At some point you can just have the dm just tell a story "You guys and your army defeat the other party and... *rolls dice* 3 of your hired mercs died." It would be about the same thing.
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2012-11-17, 08:40 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2008
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2012-11-17, 08:42 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2012
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2012-11-17, 08:52 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2010
Re: Straight-Up Power Gaming Party
Strictly speaking, a straight Batman wizard is better than an Ultimate Magus--which has to jump through a lot of hoops to get 9th level spells. If you are really bent on being on being an Ultimate Magus, then go Conjurer or Focused Conjurer/Beguiler/Ultimate Magus. That way you have only one casting attribute. Prohibit Illusion, Enchantment, and (if Focused) Necromancy on the Wizard side. The Beguiler spell list makes up for the Illusion and Enchantment loss but, at least IMHO, the Contingency spell is a lot more useful in the long run than the Necromancy school.
Mercs aren't cheap, especially for the long haul; did you see the prices?
But you wouldn't really need them. Cleric and Druid can, in a pinch, handle melee all by themselves--especially with a Batman wizard and an Artificer backing them up.
Of course, if you really want to power game, go gestalt.
Cleric//Paladin: the Ultimate Holy Warrior
Wizard//Archivist: The Ultimate Batman
Sorcerer//Favored Soul: The True Mystic Theurge
Druid//Ranger: Nature's Ultimate Defender
Artificer//Factotum: The Ultimate Skillmonkey
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2012-11-17, 09:29 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2011
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2012-11-17, 11:04 AM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2012
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Re: Straight-Up Power Gaming Party
I mean, the best thing to do if you DM gives penalties for extra combatants is have the druid not take an animal companion, the wizard should not have a familiar and you don't want any mercenaries or cohorts/companions. Any wandering "allies" can just be slain for their juicy xp insides.
Also, why no Psion?
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2012-11-17, 11:37 AM (ISO 8601)
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2012-11-17, 11:52 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2010
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- London, EU
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Re: Straight-Up Power Gaming Party
This is a common and spurious argument.
If there are more characters involved you can fight more enemies, thus the number of xp awarded increases. When this is shared out the individual characters get a smaller share of a larger pot.
What is actually happening, I suspect, is that the DM is running a slow progression campaign. This means that even if you had a lean and mean party, you would advance no faster.π = 4
Consider a 5' radius blast: this affects 4 squares which have a circumference of 40' — Actually it's worse than that.
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2012-11-17, 12:22 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2007
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Re: Straight-Up Power Gaming Party
I would try to keep things on combined primary stat, in general... Cloistered Cleric // Mystic, Wizard//Factotum, Archivist//Factotum, Druid//Swordsage, Artificer//Factotum. At least, I'm pretty sure those have roughly the same stat requirements (corrections appreciated).
You don't need to buy mercs. Just buy Mules, and get them trained with a custom set of tricks for combat. They are perfectly fine tanks.Last edited by Gavinfoxx; 2012-11-17 at 12:23 PM.
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2012-11-17, 08:34 PM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2010
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Re: Straight-Up Power Gaming Party
StP erudite is higher op than psion due to multiple unlimited PP tricks that are lower hanging fruit.
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2012-11-17, 08:50 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2011
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Re: Straight-Up Power Gaming Party
Last edited by Hiro Protagonest; 2012-11-17 at 08:51 PM.
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2012-11-18, 09:34 PM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2010
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Re: Straight-Up Power Gaming Party
Everyone just takes wild cohort at level one to snag a riding dog. They can retrain later once the sorcerer/malconvoker comes into his own.
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2012-11-18, 10:18 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jun 2011
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- Floating in the void
Re: Straight-Up Power Gaming Party
Yep. Get an StP Erudite, manifest metaconcert with your psicrystal to get all your powers known at will without worrying about unique powers/day. Then, when you run low on PP, manifest a persistent temporal acceleration, rest, re-buff, and jump back in.
Avatar of Furude Setsuna, by Telasi.Originally Posted by Akagi
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2012-11-18, 10:36 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jun 2012
Re: Straight-Up Power Gaming Party
I agree with Jade on this one... Partially. I would have personally gone Human StP Spell Focused Erudite3 / Specialist Wizard1 / Master Specialist1 / Cerebremancer10 / Archmage5
and just take up Practiced Manifester, Spell Mastery and Uncanny Forethought. Boom. I'm now an Arcanist now (See Netheril: Empire of Magic) with access to my entire spell list at all times with access to an adjustable spell list and the ability to spontaneously cast/manifest whatever the hell I, whenever the hell I want
... But that is just me...Larloch, The Shadow King (w/ Ioun Stones) avatar by Iron Penguin
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2012-11-19, 12:21 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Mar 2012
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2012-11-19, 10:00 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jun 2011
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- Floating in the void
Re: Straight-Up Power Gaming Party
There's a 3.0 version. And if it hasn't been updated...
Also it only costs 8 extra PP, which is equivalent to +4-5 spell levels.Avatar of Furude Setsuna, by Telasi.Originally Posted by Akagi
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2012-11-19, 10:11 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2010
Re: Straight-Up Power Gaming Party
There's always good ol' fashioned metamind abuse. If the OP is talking in the context of a party, then have one person be a metamind constantly having temporal reiteration affect the party, and another person dip into void disciple. Those feats that the void disciple can grant people temporarily? They'll never run out. Thanks to fission never running out due to temporal reititeration, there will be two people to split temporal reiteration duties as needed. So, as long as the party doesn't split up into a more than 3 parts, over a period of time the party will acquire and be able to use all non-ancestor feats, even ones they don't qualify for. Hello, epic spellcasting.
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2012-11-19, 10:38 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2007
Re: Straight-Up Power Gaming Party
I'm surprised nobody mentioned Incantatrix as the primary choice for Wizard PrC. For one, metamagic stacking works brilliantly on buffs. For two, Shape Spell metamagic is hilarious combined with the ability to tack in onto other people's spells or move around your own battlefield control spells.
As for the starting gold, give it all to the Artificer and let him multiply it's value.
If we are talking about high-end powergaming, then either the Druid goes for Planar Shephard or is replaced by a Psion for all the action economy and time shenanigans.In a war it doesn't matter who's right, only who's left.
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2012-11-19, 10:39 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Sep 2011
Re: Straight-Up Power Gaming Party
If I was asked to play a straight-up powergaming party, I would choose a Lurk, Soulborn, Hexblade and Healer. Because after a plethora of rehashing the standard classes and builds, wouldn't it be fun to troll the optimization-minded DM?
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2012-11-19, 02:00 PM (ISO 8601)
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2012-11-19, 02:13 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Straight-Up Power Gaming Party
Definitely crossed my mind, but who's to say whether Incantatrix Wizard is better or worse than Incantatrix Wu Jen (using the famous Team Solars trick to buff the rest of the party instead of having the Wizard spell list)?
Actually, more to the point, where is the cheesiness ceiling in this "power gaming" exercise? Judging by the tone of the OP, Pun-Pun obviously isn't allowed. But Incantatrix is still far too overpowered for many DMs. If Incantatrix is allowed, what else (even more powerful) is allowed? Dweomerkeeper? Cancer Mage (abuse)? Illithid Savant? Tainted Scholar? Or even ...
If we are talking about high-end powergaming, then either the Druid goes for Planar Shephard or is replaced by aPsionSpell-to-Power Erudite for all the action economy and time shenanigans.You can call me Draz.
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2012-11-19, 02:14 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Sep 2011
Re: Straight-Up Power Gaming Party
I tried to play a Monk once, but a masked man with a distinctive giggle that I couldn't quite place hit me with a rolling pin. I woke up in my bed with the names of all disciplines written on the sheets in my own blood. There were obscure sourcebooks in the freezer, with all but the Feats sections replaced by pictures of deceased family pets.
So yeah, no monks.
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2012-11-19, 02:17 PM (ISO 8601)
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2012-11-19, 02:20 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2005
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Re: Straight-Up Power Gaming Party
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2012-11-19, 02:23 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Straight-Up Power Gaming Party
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2012-11-19, 02:26 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jun 2011
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Re: Straight-Up Power Gaming Party
Avatar of Furude Setsuna, by Telasi.Originally Posted by Akagi
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2012-11-19, 02:56 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2007
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Re: Straight-Up Power Gaming Party
What this forum thinks of as 'powergaming' is pretty funny coming from BG and 337.
When I think of powergaming, i'm thinking of simultaneous solar gate attacks on multi-planet clone-farm hegemonies and repeated time-travel based DDOS attacks on people's pre-birth timelines, and characters that exist outside time and space, and 'losing' simply meaning that you have to create your OWN universe to play around in.
But apparently a party without a Fighter in it works just as well. :P
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2012-11-19, 03:21 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Straight-Up Power Gaming Party
There's a line between powergaming, and just plain abusing the rules.
And Terminator-style attacks? Existing outside of time and space? Losing meaning you have to create a new universe? I have never heard of these tricks, and the only way I can think of them being possible is epic-level spellcasting, or maybe super abuse of StP Erudite for the time stuff.Last edited by Hiro Protagonest; 2012-11-19 at 03:23 PM.
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2012-11-19, 03:26 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Feb 2007
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Re: Straight-Up Power Gaming Party
There are a number of ways to travel through time in 3.5 pre-epic. The easiest ways are all epic, though, of course.
There are also a number of ways to create your own universe, sealed from the rest of reality.
Also, if you want to tell stories about wizards that live in towers and have incompetent kobold minions and use fireballs, that's great and fine. Just don't call what other people have fun doing 'abusing' the rules. That implies all sorts of negative connotations that aren't actually occurring.