Rotten pregenerated PC's at WotC

[FreeTheSlaves]

I was just nosing around the WotC site and checking out their virtual dungeon delve pregenerated characters and I saw this:

Human paladin 3: CR 3; Medium Humanoid (human); HD 3d10+9; hp 23; Init -1; Spd 20 ft.; AC 19 (-1 Dex, +8 masterwork full plate, +2 masterwork heavy steel shield), touch 9, flat-footed 19; Base Atk +3; Grp +3; Atk/Full Atk +4 melee (masterwork longsword 1d8, 19-20/x2); SA smite evil 1/day; SQ aura of courage, aura of good, detect evil, divine grace, divine health, lay on hands; AP 2; AL LG; SV Fort +7, Ref +2, Will +6; Str 10, Dex 9, Con 14, Int 6, Wis 16, Cha 15.
Languages: Common.
Skills: Climb +0 (-6 armor), Concentration +4, Hide -1 (-7 armor), Knowledge (nobility and royalty) +3, Listen +3, Move Silently -1 (-7 armor), Search -2, Sense Motive +9, Spot +3.
Feats: Action Boost, Run, Toughness.

I know that they are all balanced against each other and playable but... Yuck! This is awful!

Here is the link (http://www.geocities.com/wizo_dabus/vdd.html)

 

[EricNoah]

Apparently I don't have the eye that you do ... what is the problem with this character again?

(And on an unrelated note -- the WizOs are basically all volunteers, still, right? Thus the Geocities address?)

 

[DevoutlyApathetic]

He's a pretty inept paladin there. With a 10 strength and only toughness as a combat feat.

If a player showed up with that I'd say "You realize you might have problems with combat?" If they actually had a character concept in mind and were fine with the issues then all is well.

A pregenerated PC should be able to do it's 'job' somewhat effectively. (IMO of course.)

 

[EricNoah]

I guess I don't see average strength on a paladin to be a big deal. Not sure if this was point buy or whatever, but it looks like he had to have some low and average scores to make up for some of his high scores.

Where would you have put that 10?

And I agree, toughness isn't a great feat, but it probably makes the character less complicated to run.

(And to me the whole thing is a non-issue -- if I show up for a game w/pregenerated characters, I pick one and just go with it.)

 

[MavrickWeirdo]

He's a pretty inept paladin there. With a 10 strength and only toughness as a combat feat.

If a player showed up with that I'd say "You realize you might have problems with combat?" If they actually had a character concept in mind and were fine with the issues then all is well.

A pregenerated PC should be able to do it's 'job' somewhat effectively. (IMO of course.)

They did that on purpose. The Dungeon Delve those pregens are for is to playtest different action point rules, such as:

Emulate feat: You can spend one action point at the beginning of your round to gain the benefits of a feat for which your character meets the prerequisites but does not currently have. For example, the goblin fighter has a Dexterity of 15, so it meets the prerequisite for the Two-Weapon Fighting feat. You can spend an action point at the beginning of your round to reduce the penalties for the character to fight with two weapons at the same time.

Extra attack: You can spend one action point during a full attack action to gain an extra attack at your highest attack bonus. The attack can be either a melee or a ranged attack. For example, when the human monk takes a full attack action, it can either use flurry of blows for +1/+1 to hit, or make one attack with its longsword for +5 to hit. If you spend an action point the monk gains an additional attack, making its flurry of blows +1/+1/+1 to hit or +5/+5 with its longsword.

Improve feat: You can spend an action point as a free action to improve a feat your character already has. Some examples are below.

Blind-Fight: You can eliminate your character’s miss chance for a single attack.

Combat Expertise: You can double the bonus to AC granted by the feat, so taking a penalty of -1 on an attack roll gives your character a +2 dodge bonus to AC.

Dodge: You can increase the dodge bonus granted by the feat by +2, making it +3.

Improved Critical: You can double your critical range for one weapon (effectively tripling it, since it was doubled by the feat). This effect does not stack with any other effects that increase threat range (so it will not work in conjunction with the keen edge spell).

Improved Initiative: You can double the bonus for the feat, gaining a +8 bonus instead of +4.

Metamagic feats: You can spend an action point to apply a metamagic feat your character knows to a spell it is casting with no level increase and no casting time increase.

 

[EricNoah]

They did that on purpose. The Dungeon Delve those pregens are for is to playtest different action point rules, such as:

Interesting ....

 

[Corsair]

But full plate? With 10 strength? Is he moving at 15 yet?

 

[DevoutlyApathetic]

I guess I don't see average strength on a paladin to be a big deal. Not sure if this was point buy or whatever, but it looks like he had to have some low and average scores to make up for some of his high scores.

Where would you have put that 10?

That's a very good question. The 16 in wisdom is what caught my eye really.

And I agree, toughness isn't a great feat, but it probably makes the character less complicated to run.

(And to me the whole thing is a non-issue -- if I show up for a game w/pregenerated characters, I pick one and just go with it.)

I was more thinking along the lines of the other side of the DM screen. As a player...yea whatever's fine.

They did that on purpose. The Dungeon Delve those pregens are for is to playtest different action point rules, such as:

Those are interesting but I don't see how you this guy really gets to use them. The extra attack bit I guess.

 

[A'koss]

Can I spend an action point to get myself the hell outta there...

 

[Squire James]

About 20 points in a point-buy... pretty weak in nearly any campaign. The standard array is 25, if you want to compare it with something. He's apparently there to pad out the death stats for the Dungeon Delve. I personally fail to see how he made it to 3rd level.