Do you power game from 1st level?

[Evilhalfling]

Do people really optomize characters that they have played from a low level? or is this mostly a starting at high level tendency?
IMC the of all the Characters that started at well.. 3rd only one was optimized while we played, the player had his decisions on feats/spells/multiclasses worked out and followed it with few changes. The others seemed to grow and evolve more organically. Now this same group starts at 11th and 4 of 5 are tweaky...
so for people who like powergaming, is it done during the game, or mostly before ?

 

[diaglo]

like life gaming has to be open...

so it is harder to powergame at 1st if the challenges change over the course of the campaign.


if you have a one-idea only PC and you only do the same thing. it is easy.

it is easier to powergame with a higher level build tho. cuz you didn't have to go thru any other decisions or hardships to alter your choices.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

In my campaign I have two players (well, really only one. He also powergames his wife's character for her, planning out what she needs to optimize) who powergame from the start. Most of my other players evolve more over time, or they have developed a backstory that gives them a goal that may involve a Prestige Class and they focus the character's growth to achieve that PrC.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

To be a really effective power gamer, it helps to plan from level 1. I didn't (and still usually don't) when I'm starting a low level. Now one of those characters is 11th (would be about 14th but he died three times) and he's not nearly as effective in combat as other 11th level fighter-types. But I prefer his "organic" growth as opposed to some plotted-out max-the-power build.

For characters who start at a higher level, well, it's almost hard not to power game at least a little (at least for me). I still try to make everything make sense, but I might give a character Dodge-Mobility-Spring Attack when starting at a higher level, but something else when starting at lower levels since it takes so long to get to a third feat in a chain (unless you're a fighter).

I certainly try to maximize the character with whatever I roll, but I'm not a true power-gamer. Why else would I put my 18 in CHA for my dwarven monk?!

My friends who power-game usually plan it before the game starts. We're making characters, and they decide, I'm going to be an archer. We all know what that means: a few levels of ranger or fighter, and then a level or two or each bow-related prestige class (Order of the Bow Initiate, Deepwoods Sniper, etc.).

One friend had a Living Greyhawk character--fighter/barbarian dwarf. When then 3.5 conversion came around, he decided to build a power-gamed archer. Now, even he's a bit embarassed about the amount of damage he can do. Originally, he took Toughness almost every time he had a feat. The new character didn't even take it once, because he needed all those archery feats. It's really not even the same character, except in name.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

like life gaming has to be open...

so it is harder to powergame at 1st if the challenges change over the course of the campaign.


if you have a one-idea only PC and you only do the same thing. it is easy.

it is easier to powergame with a higher level build tho. cuz you didn't have to go thru any other decisions or hardships to alter your choices.

Exactly. What you pick at third level is very different if you played several sessions to get there....versus when it's just a stop on the way to the 10th-level character you're going to start with.

 

[Dagger75]

For my new PC, I have decided to powergame. I made a 1st level Warforged Barbarian. I have already planned out his the next 7 levels. He will soon be a spring attacking robot of death (I hope).

I have also done the organic leveling thing. My cleric was getting bow feats. Thats how the character progressed. He was pretty cool.

I have a friend that makes a character and plans all the way to 20th level and another that just goes with the flow of the game. Both characters where equally effective in my opinion. Leveling was faster for the guy who planned though.

 

[Li Shenron]

I have only seen people powergaming from level 1.

It wouldn't be inappropriate to say they were powerplaying before level 1 because often all the important character choices are planned beforehand. This is powergamer type 1 who reasons in terms of 20th level characters even if you start from 1st (and will push the DM for more xp because he thinks his PC "starts to shine" only at level 17th).

Powergamer type 2 is the one who reasons like the current one is his character's last level before death, and he must get the max out NOW, and don't plan too much into the future.

 

[Bladesong]

In our group of 6 players: one "powergames" from 1st level every time, and three of them sometimes at start but mostly around 5th or 6th level is when they take a serious look at it, one always flows as the story flows, and one is just generic the whole way.

Personally, I leave the "powergaming" to the 12 year olds. The story is what matters. If I wanted "powergaming" I would play a video game.

 

[Mr. Kaze]

Having played with a guy and DM'd for another guy whose running mantra was "just wait a few levels -- I'll be soooooo cool!" while all they did was suck away 20-25% of the XP, I never make a plan for sticking to. If my character isn't contributing and useful at every level, then the character needs to go commit ritual seppuku.

::Kaze (drives his characters to be useful wherever they are, which usually results in them not being powergamed over the long term quite so much...)

 

[tec-9-7]

I think it's more difficult to powergame from level 1 than to simply make up an optimized X level character. Real game-life has a tendency to interefer w/ the best laid plans of mice and men. Of course there are a few people who will rigidly plan levels 1-XX and stick to it, but IME when you play a character from the start, you become more sensitive to weaknesses/particulars of the campaign in the way you allocate stat bumps/feats/skills/classes.