4th-level Pre-Gen PCs for the Worldwide D&D Game Day

Always good to have some extra pre-gen characters around so grab the ones set up for the 4th-level Pre-Gen PCs for the Worldwide D&D Game Day here (scroll down to check them out individually).

After you've looked them over, is there anything you might have set up differently for your own game?

Mark CMG said:

After you've looked them over, is there anything you might have set up differently for your own game?

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3d6 in order.

str, int, wis, con, dex, cha

d6 hps

all weapons do d6 damage.

First off i would have switched the Paladin's wisdom and charisma. A 10 in charisma is no fun when you get all those bonuses for high charisma. Otherwise they look simple enough for introductory play.

waterdhavian said:

First off i would have switched the Paladin's wisdom and charisma. A 10 in charisma is no fun when you get all those bonuses for high charisma. Otherwise they look simple enough for introductory play.

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and what about the choice of dwarf for cleric? i mean a penalty in cha hurts the only one in the party able to have an effective turn undead ability.

wth?

Where to begin...

Human Paladin:
Scores: Str:16 Dex: 8, Con: 13, Int: 10, Wis 12, Cha: 14
heavy mace? Try a Longsword.
Max out ranks in Ridel, Sense Motive, Diplomacy
Replace Imp Init with Iron Will

Halfling Rogue:
Str:11 Dex:18 Con:10 Int:14 Wis:8 Cha:12
Max out ranks in Move Silently, Hide, Disable Device, Spot, Listen, Search, Open Lock, Tumble, Bluff, Use Magic Device
Point Blank shot rather than Dodge
Oh, calculate his reflex save correctly

Dwarf Cleric:
Str: 14 Dex: 8, Con: 14, Int: 10, Wis: 16, Cha: 11
Max out ranks in Know: Religion and Heal
Replace Lightning Reflexes for Improved Turning
Remove Animal Domain (not one of Moradin's domains anyway) and replace it with protection
Replace the Mw Chainshirt with Mw Scalemail

Elf Ranger:
Str:12 Dex:18 Con:11 Int:10 Wis:14 Cha: 8
Max out ranks in survival, move silently, spot, listen, hide, handle animal
Replace wfocus and dodge with point blank and precise shot

Human Fighter
Replace Dodge with Cleave

Elf Wizard
Str:8 Dex:15 Con:12 Int:16 Wis:12 Cha:10
Max Ranks in Spellcraft, Know: Arcana, Decipher Script, Concenctration, 1 rank in craft: alchemy
Replace Great Fort with Combat Casting

Oye! Some of there choices boggle the mind... Looks like a friday afternoon job at wotc.

Yup. A couple of the choices seem a bit off but I suppose they don't want absolutely everything to be optimized. All in all, I'm glad they are going with more standard PC types than last year.

I am just as curious to learn why someone would make the changes they see as necessary. So far the ones I have seen mentioned are cosmetic and personal more than anything. Maybe it is just me. I often times am flabbergasted by the "optimization" people find necessary in creating characters.

sjmiller said:

I am just as curious to learn why someone would make the changes they see as necessary. So far the ones I have seen mentioned are cosmetic and personal more than anything. Maybe it is just me. I often times am flabbergasted by the "optimization" people find necessary in creating characters.

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Ok, I'll bite.

The characters presented are horribly average. By horribly average, I mean not GOOD at what they are supposed to be doing. Some are down-right unplayable. To Whit.

Human Paladin: His Lay on Hands, and Divine Grace are not applicable with a cha of 10. Thats two staple paladin abilities nixed. His Turn Undead suffers, as does his smite. So by the end of the day, he can't use any of his class abilities effectively and is a poor fighter.

Halfling Rogue: Lets see. 25 point buy, +2 dex, and the best they come up with is a 14? All his best rogue skills are hamstringed by a poor dex and 1/2 max ranks (his sp are very scattered and I'm not sure they add up). So he effectively has the skills of maybe a 1st or 2nd level character.

Dwarven Cleric: ANIMAL IS NOT A MORADIN DOMAIN CHOICE. (If they hadn't said Moradin on the sheet, I would have thought it odd, but went with it). Also, why worry about a chain shirt when you are a dwarf? Find the heaviest armor and wear it, its not like your encumbered...

Elf Ranger: An archer who will constantly shoot his allies in the back the minute they get it melee? Next.

Elf Wizard: I found the least wrong with him. Still, if this was an ongoing PC, he'd never learn new spells with that poor spellcraft.

Human Fighter: Massive Frontline Tank who can't cleave? Well, I guess its a creative choice, but rarely do I see anyone who is a melee/str fighter who can't use an extra attack against weak foes.

So some of it is optimization. True. However, the PCs presented are poorly thought out and mostly not good at there niche. That leads to frustration, esp in new players. When your archer can't hit, he gets bored and begins looking at the Pokemon Cards.

All I did was use the PH2 quick gens and came out with characters better than these jokers. Unless the module is also horribly unoptimized, I can't see them making it through much of it.

Nice analysis. I tend to agree that optimization can, perhaps, go too far but by fourth level a PC should be at least pretty good at his primary pursuit. If he's not quite optimized because he has a secondary pursuit that needed some attention, that's good. But making choices that fly directly in the face of why a class or race was chosen in the first place really ought to be NPC territory.

I was taking a closer look at these characters and I think I spotted a semi-glaring error. Shouldn't the Ranger have more skill ranks?

According to the SRD (I play 3.0, so I have to rely on the SRD for this info) the Ranger gets (6 + INT Mod) x 4 skill points at 1st level and 6 + INT Mod for all other levels. Since the INT mod is 0, the Ranger here should have 24 points for 1st level, 6 for 2nd level, 6 for 3rd level, and 6 for 4th level. That should be 42 points, right? Adding up the ranks shown (doubling the cost for Intimidate, a non-class skill) I come up with 36 points. That means he's missing a whole level's worth of skills.

Did I miss something here, did I read it wrong, or did the Ranger get shafted?