Saira's guide to soft broken characters

[TheNerdQueen]

In my gaming group, I am known for making the most broken characters out of everyone, and making my DMs very annoyed (or amused). I have decided to share my secret of success.
I know what you are thinking: What is the purpose of this guide? I can find a million other guides on how to break characters. My Sorcadin of awesome just instakilled a boss with his sword in one attack? Isn't this character broken enough? What else do I need to know? That's true my unknown reader. That is a very impressive character. However, I am not talking about mechanics here. In my mind, there are two types of breaking: Hard broken, the abuse of game mechanics and game rules, and Soft broken, the use of common sense or clever tactics to work outside of the rules. Put it simply, a Hard Broken character relies on the rules of the game, while Soft Broken characters rely on the player themselves. For example, one of my favorite characters I have ever created is Kiera, seven year old tiefling rogue. That's right, seven years old. Why would I purposefully make myself a child? Why, to act adorable of course! My character would act like a cute child in order to let other people's guard down, and then show herself to be an experienced killer, and rather creepy. "You're not cooperating. My dad told me that people who don't cooperate are bad people. Do you know what I do to bad people? I cut off their fingers.". Creepy right? This was utterly broken, as it allowed me to do things that I otherwise couldn't do. But nowhere in the rules does it say that this is an option. However, it is very effective. This is not an example of mechanical braking, rather this is soft broken at work.

So how does one do it? Simple. Versatility equals power. That's it, well that and one other thing. The more options you have, the better you can adapt to a situation outside of "hit it until it stops moving." This is why bards are considered overpowered, even though they can't attack like a sorcerer or heal like a cleric. Bards have some of the most versatile spell lists in the game. This is also why minor illusion in considered the most powerful cantrip. Minor illusion deals no damage, gives no hit points or bonuses. So why is it powerful? Because it can manipulate other's psyches. Creating distractions, giving one an awesome voice in order to convince the populace you are a god, torturing a character by playing creepy music in a 5ft cube around its head for hours on end in order to get them
to give information about the doomsday cult, you know, the normal stuff. Minor illusion is considered so powerful because it is soft broken. Soft broken already exists, and many people subconsciously know about it, but it has never been given a real name.

However, versatility is only one half of the equation. Versatility equals power, but you have to realize where that power is in order to use it. For example, one time I saw an evaluation of the Alchemy Jug, claiming that it was useless unless you were in a survival campaign. However, I immediately realized the potential of a matter creating jar. For example, you could shove the spigot down a creatures throat and pour water into it until it burst. You could create a bunch of wine and distill it in order to get the lethal wood alcohol. Or you could make some beer and have a fun party. Whatever you like! Gruesome, yes. Effective, also yes. If you have ever had experience with this sort of thing, or any other advice, add it to the thread please. Thanks!

[Evaar]

There are threads on Shape Water as a cantrip so I won't fully get into it, but it's hard to imagine many things more "soft broken" than a cantrip that allows you to create solid or liquid objects in whatever shape you want, opaque or transparent, as long as they aren't larger than a 5 foot cube and you have enough water.

One time I used it to create a small ice marble, when I then cast Light on, and rolled it underneath a door to allow the party to look into a dark warehouse.

Another time we faced a static Darkness spell completely blocking a tunnel and I created an inverted opaque bowl of water and slid it around in the darkness to find the originating object and block the effect.

Another time we lacked manacles for a prisoner but I was able to free their wrists with ice manacles with the DM's permission (technically it can't freeze water a creature is inside or inflict the restrained condition, but the intent was clearly to limit the combat applications of the spell and the context made sense so the DM allowed it).

Soft broken things are the most rewarding things to use. You get to feel clever, like you solved something with your creativity, rather than just having applied the numbers efficiently. Don't get me wrong - that's fun, too.

[Expected]

I agree. It is very satisfying to break combat with an OP character within the boundaries of RAW/RAI. Otherwise it feels cheap. That seven-year-old must have gone through a lot to have that level of mature thinking and twisted perception on morality.

[MaxWilson]

*snip* For example, one of my favorite characters I have ever created is Kiera, seven year old tiefling rogue. *snip*

Spoiler: Orca

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Sethra, is that you?

[TheNerdQueen]

I agree. It is very satisfying to break combat with an OP character within the boundaries of RAW/RAI. Otherwise it feels cheap. That seven-year-old must have gone through a lot to have that level of mature thinking and twisted perception on morality.

She was CN. She used to be a leader of a thieves guild after her adoptive father passed away, and the powerful people decided that she should be leader because they thought that she could be easily manipulated. She wasn't, and was an effective leader. However, she had no political tact, and was ousted about a year and a half after coming into power. She isn't evil, but she isn't good either.

[Phhase]

Versatility equals power, but you have to realize where that power is in order to use it. For example, one time I saw an evaluation of the Alchemy Jug, claiming that it was useless unless you were in a survival campaign. However, I immediately realized the potential of a matter creating jar. For example, you could shove the spigot down a creatures throat and pour water into it until it burst. You could create a bunch of wine and distill it in order to get the lethal wood alcohol. Or you could make some beer and have a fun party. Whatever you like! Gruesome, yes. Effective, also yes. If you have ever had experience with this sort of thing, or any other advice, add it to the thread please. Thanks!

So what you're saying...is that the truest game-breaking is a state of mind rather than any one mechanic.

Jokes aside, it's SUPER refreshing to find someone who plays the game with, like, exactly the same eyes I do. Over in another thread, I was theorycrafting ways to effectively use the Shadows from the Mystic class, involving a Bag of Holding with a small Hallow spell cast on the inside rim so that I can put the bodies in the bag, that turn into more Shadows, that cannot then escape unless the bag is inverted...you get the idea. Bags of Holding in general are just so damn flexible.

See also my post on Wallhack Warlock, which leverages the odd properties of the new Fighter UA, and is the source of my sig quote.

Forging convoluted and dastardly schemes and plans out of the simplest materials, and perhaps a dash of magic, is a rush like no other. Sounds like we'd get along either very well, or very poorly, and that either one would lead to a damn good time had by all .

There are threads on Shape Water as a cantrip so I won't fully get into it

Ohhhhhhhhh boy, this is my moment. Just like Prestidigitation is considered, in essence, to be Least Wish, Shape Water is basically Lesser Fabricate. In the campaign I'm playing in, which is very lax on homebrew, my character is constantly leaking saltwater for warlock backstory reasons. It's not a torrent or anything, barely a drip, but since I have a canister, I can slowly fill it...

Uses put to so far:

-Creating a bed of nasty icicles where I knew an enemy would be summoned in.

-Creating a suffocating bubble of water around the head of an opponent I'm grappling (It says you can't freeze it if a creature is inside-nothing about this).

-Poured water into a footprint, then froze it to create an imprint. Later led some townsfolk through a muddy patch and compared the foot to the prints.

-Accidentally summoning a Hamatula (Which would have killed everyone, long story), and subsequently making a bunch of runes out of ice (campaign thing), tossing them down in a ring around the demon to un-summon it.

-Creating big icicles to drop on others while hang-gliding (longer story).

-Following many hours apart from the rest of a party...

Spoiler: (Longest story)

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turning what was once a barn into Icecrown Citadel sorry I mean a fortified ice prison with the following features: A child-killing rogue, hung upside-down from a rafter by ice, just like Luke in the Wampa cave, huge, dangerous icicles all along the rafters and roof, extra armor for the building's walls, spikes everywhere, Big nasty icicles underneath the rogue in the case he is unwise enough to get free (with a pit and more spikes beneath that, what's goin' on, Mold Earth?), a moat with punji sticks (feat. Mold Earth again) covered by thin, opaque ice, and several ice statues, one holding the Necronomicon (campaign item, very cursed) as schmuck bait.

That was a fun session...

In other miscellaneous news, Mold Earth is amazing purely for the fact that it gives you a burrow speed of 5ft, not even considering other applications. For example, I'm not certain about this one, but what if you cast Mold Earth on the ground beneath your feet while running, to move it forward? Could you increase your travel pace? It reminds me very much of the causeways in the Codex Alera series, if that means anything to anyone.

But I think the dumbest scheme I ever made work (Ymmv on whether it should've, but hey) was summoning a Tea Elemental (Just a colored Water Elemental) using an elemental gem, and then having it grapple a lich. Since the lich was of the dried-up corpse variety rather than the skeleton variety, I was able to re-hydrate the lich by integrating the elemental into it, which I then used to force the lich to drop their staff (Would've used it to break their neck but we ran out of time...).

I very much look forward to reading other mad schemes.

[Keravath]

The most "soft broken" item in the game then is Nolzur's Marvelous Pigments. With a little imagination these will solve almost any non-combat challenge out there. Anything you need is a quick drawing away including passages, holes, spy holes, tunnels, pit traps, water, food, any mundane item.

"Each pot of paint is sufficient to cover 1,000 square feet of a surface, which lets you create inanimate objects or terrain features-such as a door, a pit, flowers, trees, cells, rooms, or weapons- that are up to 10,000 cubic feet. It takes 10 minutes to cover 100 square feet. When you complete the painting, the object or terrain feature depicted becomes a real, nonmagical object. Thus, painting a door on a wall creates an actual door that can be opened to whatever is beyond. Painting a pit on a floor creates a real pit, and its depth counts against the total area of objects you create. Nothing created by the pigments can have a value greater than 25 gp."

An alchemy jug is nothing compared to the pigments ...

[Phhase]

The most "soft broken" item in the game then is Nolzur's Marvelous Pigments. With a little imagination these will solve almost any non-combat challenge out there. Anything you need is a quick drawing away including passages, holes, spy holes, tunnels, pit traps, water, food, any mundane item.

"Each pot of paint is sufficient to cover 1,000 square feet of a surface, which lets you create inanimate objects or terrain features-such as a door, a pit, flowers, trees, cells, rooms, or weapons- that are up to 10,000 cubic feet. It takes 10 minutes to cover 100 square feet. When you complete the painting, the object or terrain feature depicted becomes a real, nonmagical object. Thus, painting a door on a wall creates an actual door that can be opened to whatever is beyond. Painting a pit on a floor creates a real pit, and its depth counts against the total area of objects you create. Nothing created by the pigments can have a value greater than 25 gp."

An alchemy jug is nothing compared to the pigments ...

Mmmmm, yes, I forgot about those. I may have to start carrying some. Any weapon, rope, chains, cover, etc. on demand? Yes please.

[8wGremlin]

Shape water, and Mold earth are phenomenal spells in the right hands.

Prestidigitation, can create illusions of items in your palm, which can be used to help identify a person you've seen

Minor illusion can be used to display a birds eye view of the terrain due to having your familiar fly over it and you using your eyes to see. and then projecting that image with minor illusion.

Silent image of walls, or of a silhouette of the queen kissing the silhouette of the duke on the window upstairs that the king was watching...

[Slayn82]

Opened an important letter once to read the contents, cutting around the wax seal. Then used mending to make it whole again.

You can also create hidden pockets on objects with mending. Good to hide thieves tools.

[MaxWilson]

Speaking of "soft broken," to use the OP's terminology, has anyone noticed that House Vadalis (Eberron) gets to use Animal Friendship and Speak With Animals on monstrosities (under Int 4) as well as beasts?

What this means is that anything which looks vaguely like an animal is probably fair game, even the stuff that gets classified as monstrosities (apparently for balance reasons). You can make friends with a Bulette, a Roc, a Purple Worm, a Cockatrice, a Rust Monster, a Darkmantle, a Piercer, a Young Remorhaz (but not an adult), a Froghemoth, or a Tarrasque. If it looks like a dumb-but-tough animal, you can probably talk to it, which means you can probably persuade it of something interesting, like "there's lots of yummy food over that way."

[MagneticKitty]

I think druids are also pretty solid contenders for this. Wildshape alone has a million uses. Escaping binds by turning small, turning into a skunk, being a small race thrown into the air and landing on your enemy as an elephant, turning into an insect as a replacement to regular invisibility, turning into a skunk, built in water breathing and swim speed, being able to turn into a mount, skunk form, flying your small friends around, being a really scary animal, jumping off a cliff and turning into a goldfish... nevermind that last one