Player's build is to strong?

One of my players has presented the following beast to me for a replacement to his (now deceased) cloistered cleric.

Human
Avenger (Variant) Druid 1/Bard 4/Divine Oracle 2/ Ur-Priest 2/ Dragonslayer 1/ Sublime Chord 2/Foluchorian Lyricist 8
He has feats listed such as arcane strike, snow flake wardance, and divine might.

I was really suprised, he has never came up with anything like this before. I suspect he had help creating it. I want to know if it is legal. I don't have complete divine or complete adventurer here with me (he is borrowing them) so I can't check. I'll have the books back by Saturday (but we are planned to play Sunday).

This doesn't present an immediate problem - he is starting at third level. I'm just worried about the power level of a character with (potentially) a 16 base attack bonus (we use fractional bab rules), 9th level arcane and divine spells.

Would you allow this character in your game?

I have a problem with a player planning out his character to such a degree before the game starts. I would also not allo Ur Prist and things like Divine Oracle mix as they are really close to opposites in concepts. It just looks too much like min maxing to me, and I really dislike min maxing.

DarkJester said:

Would you allow this character in your game?

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Nope.

For one, I generally disallow the Ur-Priest PrC for PCs.
And I also disallow purely mechanical builds.

While I don't mind powerful characters, a character should also make some sense at least.

Bye
Thanee

Five prestige classes, only one of which he has more than 2 levels in? Many DMs I know would consider that cheese by itself and launch the offender into space.

Besides, the character, as written there, would be illegal, since I don't see how it () has the Evasion ability to become a Foluchorian Lyrist?

Bye
Thanee

A good general rule is to limit PCs to a total of three classes (including Prestige Classes).

Exceptions can be made, if the background concept calls for it (DM decision).

Bye
Thanee

DarkJester said:

One of my players has presented the following beast to me for a replacement to his (now deceased) cloistered cleric.

Human
Avenger (Variant) Druid 1/Bard 4/Divine Oracle 2/ Ur-Priest 2/ Dragonslayer 1/ Sublime Chord 2/Foluchorian Lyricist 8
He has feats listed such as arcane strike, snow flake wardance, and divine might.

I was really suprised, he has never came up with anything like this before. I suspect he had help creating it. I want to know if it is legal. I don't have complete divine or complete adventurer here with me (he is borrowing them) so I can't check. I'll have the books back by Saturday (but we are planned to play Sunday).

Click to expand...

It is an illegal build. Foluchorian Lyricist requires the Evasion ability. Divine Oracle does not grant Evasion. It grants an ability that is like Evasion, but isn't.

It most definitely is min-maxing, at least in some form. I'm not really put off by the multiple prestiege classes - we tend to use prestige classes in a similiar way to feats. They represent your abilities but do not necesarily mean you fit the flavor text of said prestiege class. Exceptions being those classes which require membership.

I'm not sure what to do about it in this case.

This player has never produced a character like this. I usually ask my players to give me a bare bones idea of where they want to take their characters so I can have a clue what they are looking for; this is, of course, modified by events in the game.

His characters have tended to be on the weaker side of things rather than stronger. I'm not sure where this came from...like I said before I'm almost certain he didn't come up with this by himself. I'm sure if I tell him no he won't complain, but I actually wouldn't mind seeing this guy take a more active role in the game. He is a great addition to the game and adds lot of fun.

I guess what I really wonder is do you think a character like this would be overpowering alongside reasonably experienced (player-wise) group of adventurers?
The rest of the group consists of a
Swashbuckler/Fighter headed for duelist,
Mounted Combat Paladin/Fighter headed for cavalier,
Sorcerer headed for incantatrix
Druid who likes to summon.


Thinking as I post here...
I see him as struggling through the low levels and coming to a peak power very late in the game. That alone is almost enough for me to allow the character - we've only had 1 game reach such levels. He seems to be focusing on melee in a build which has a majority of d6ish hitdice, and will have to spread his stats around (36 pt buy) to cover all his bases....

Hmm...

IcyCool said:

It is an illegal build. Foluchorian Lyricist requires the Evasion ability. Divine Oracle does not grant Evasion. It grants an ability that is like Evasion, but isn't.

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Ah, that makes this all easy to hand wave away.

I still wonder, would it really be that terrible to allow something like this? <scratches head>

DarkJester said:

I still wonder, would it really be that terrible to allow something like this? <scratches head>

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I'd allow something like that, but the player would be on the top of my hitlist.