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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?
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.
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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Jaya Ballard, Task Mage: "Of course you should fight fire with fire. You should fight everything with fire."
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?
Who needs mercenaries? With a Cleric, Druid and animal companion you've already got 3 tanks. Not to mention summoned creatures.
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.
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.
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.
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π = 4
Consider a 5' radius blast: this affects 4 squares which have a circumference of 40' — Actually it's worse than that.
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
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 : 11-17-2012 at 12:23 PM.
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?
Mercenaries? Sacrificing wizard levels to get into some dual-progression PrC? Who needs that?
Because I'm still barely familiar with psionics, and I don't see Psions mentioned as a power class as often as the other four.
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Originally Posted by Fouredged Sword
StP erudite is higher op than psion due to multiple unlimited PP tricks that are lower hanging fruit.
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.
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Originally Posted by Mephit
Don't worry, I like my characters the way I like my coffee: Strong, but with no cheese in it.
"I'm prepared for anything! Unless one continues to fight without succumbing to the pain of defeat, it is impossible to achieve victory!"
-Hanyuu
Mercenaries? Sacrificing wizard levels to get into some dual-progression PrC? Who needs that?
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
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.
Eh, how are you persisting temporal acceleration..? IIRC there isn't a persist metapsionic feat.
Eh, how are you persisting temporal acceleration..? IIRC there isn't a persist metapsionic feat.
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.
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.
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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?
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?
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.
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 ...
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If we are talking about high-end powergaming, then either the Druid goes for Planar Shephard or is replaced by a PsionSpell-to-Power Erudite for all the action economy and time shenanigans.
... this monstrosity?
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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.
If he wanted useless classes, he would have chosen Truenamer. Even Monks are paragons of effectiveness in relative comparison.
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Originally Posted by GungHo, on Battletech
The Atlas is also goofy but it has that whole "Stay Puft Marshmallow Man" menacing smile thing going for it. The guy who drew that one up was obviously taken to the Nutcracker when he was a child... and he was screaming in terror the entire time.
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Originally Posted by Enterti, Cogidubnus
Glyphstone, out of all the playground I think you scare me the most...
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.
Your standards for high-end powergaming are staggeringly low.
If he wanted useless classes, he would have chosen Truenamer. Even Monks are paragons of effectiveness in relative comparison.
Actually, truenamer isn't that hard to optimize. The problem is it runs off of a skill check. Which means that it's either completely ineffective, or extremely so.
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Avatar of Furude Setsuna, by Telasi.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mephit
Don't worry, I like my characters the way I like my coffee: Strong, but with no cheese in it.
"I'm prepared for anything! Unless one continues to fight without succumbing to the pain of defeat, it is impossible to achieve victory!"
-Hanyuu
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
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
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.
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.
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