Show me how to cheese

[reverendkeith]

It's kinda wierd to admit it, but an upcoming D&D campaign will be the first time I've been a player in a D&D 3e/3.5e campaign, as compared to an on-again/off-again DM. When I run games, I never care about perfect point balance or optimisation because most of the game books or resources I use have done that for me (DMG NPCs, templates, stats in the Dungeon Mag, Jamis Buck's RPG Generators, etc.). Now that I am on the other side of the screen, I find myself surrounded by newer players who are determining their feats and other items to obtain special prestige classes when they eventually hit 8th level. This isn't exactly how I'm used to playing D&D... so I need to become schooled in how best to optimise my character.

Here is the scoop: I get to make a third level PC (who shouldn't be chaotic and/or evil), are in a typical fantasy genre campaign (no bronze age or gunpowder weapons), and all the players have access to a boatload of WotC and non-WotC D20 prestige classes, spells, items, and stuff. I rolled a 16, 15, 13, 11, 9 and an 8 for my stats. Class and race doesn't matter. I can play any type of character class or critter and have fun. I can play a Gnome Illusionist or a Half-Gelatinous Drow Elf Cleric to the God of Cheese following the Chiurgeon prestige class. So long as it isn't past third level, I've got the green light.

Ultimately, I just don't want to play the weakest character in the group... and I know this group is all about optimizing their PCs.

Any trips, tricks, books or websites that y'all can recommend so I can continue further along the dark side would be appreciated. Thanks!


__________________
Rev. Keith Johnson
[Cam#US2002023797]
keithalanjohnson@attbi.com
reverendkeith@hotmail.com

 

[Camarath]

Have you thought about an Anthropomorphic Baleen Whale (ECL 3)? If you were going for level 4 you could add Feral (LA +1) to it for some real fun.

 

[Camarath]

Oh and you might want to take a look at the Sultans of Smack thread just below this one.
http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=10188

 

[Altalazar]

I can understand not wanting to be the weakest character, but that isn't necessarily a problem if you like the character and have fun with it.

I played one campaign with probably the weakest character I ever made - almost the only thing he could do was climb and jump like a god, but in combat, the best he could usually do was throw poo. Yes, he was a "monkey" - well, one of those monkey-like race in Oriental Adventures. He was very smart, a rogue, and he liked to jump and climb over everything. Combat-wise, he could barely do anything, though he sneak attack was nasty.

But then in a sense, he wasn't totally weak, because what I did have him designed to do he did VERY well - between his natural skills and items he had a climb skill in the 30s and I think his jump was in the 40s or 50s. Something ridiculously high, i forget exactly how high. And this was with an 8th or 9th level character (if memory serves). So remember that "weak" all depends on the situation. Think "The Princess Bride" three challenges. My character, when it came to climbing and jumping left the rest of the group in the dust. In combat, however, he was a supporting role, at best.

Ironically, in the final combat where we were trapped in this place with some nasties, was where he was the most effective in combat - everyone was taken out, and it was down to just me and the buff fighter in the group. He was the only one who had a chance to take out the big bad guy, who really could only be hurt with this sword he had. They fought, grappled, and the bad guy managed to disarm him, and as fate would have it, the direction the sword ended up going was up, to be stuck fast into the high ceiling over the combat. Yes - for the very first time, his skills became critical, and the fighter was a round or so away from either killing the nasty or being killed.

My character was way on the other side of the room, behind a boulder or something - it was my action next - so I jumped all the way across the room, up to the ceiling, then "climbed" onto the ceiling, grabbing onto the blade to do so, pulling it out with my puny strength, and then jumping back, doing a flip through the air in doing so to toss the sword down to the fighter. In all, it was something that just wouldn't have been possible without his ridiculous jumping and climbing skills - and it would have been a beautiful thing, had not the fighter fumbled the catch and then gotten killed in the next round.

I managed to get away and hide, but I was trapped in there alone, with no way out. So that ended the campaign. I had a portable hole and a bag of holding, so to "escape" I entered the bag, then pulled in the portable hole, spilling the contents (including myself) into another plane to get out of the stone tomb complex I was in - so now I imagine this little monkey is wandering around the inner planes somewhere, jumping from cloud to cloud...

See, so you never know what will make a "weak" character useful - in this case, if things had gone differently, this super jump/climb combo would have made the difference in the toughest combat we had.

 

[Voadam]

It's kinda wierd to admit it, but an upcoming D&D campaign will be the first time I've been a player in a D&D 3e/3.5e campaign, as compared to an on-again/off-again DM. When I run games, I never care about perfect point balance or optimisation because most of the game books or resources I use have done that for me (DMG NPCs, templates, stats in the Dungeon Mag, Jamis Buck's RPG Generators, etc.). Now that I am on the other side of the screen, I find myself surrounded by newer players who are determining their feats and other items to obtain special prestige classes when they eventually hit 8th level. This isn't exactly how I'm used to playing D&D... so I need to become schooled in how best to optimise my character.

Here is the scoop: I get to make a third level PC (who shouldn't be chaotic and/or evil), are in a typical fantasy genre campaign (no bronze age or gunpowder weapons), and all the players have access to a boatload of WotC and non-WotC D20 prestige classes, spells, items, and stuff. I rolled a 16, 15, 13, 11, 9 and an 8 for my stats. Class and race doesn't matter. I can play any type of character class or critter and have fun. I can play a Gnome Illusionist or a Half-Gelatinous Drow Elf Cleric to the God of Cheese following the Chiurgeon prestige class. So long as it isn't past third level, I've got the green light.

Ultimately, I just don't want to play the weakest character in the group... and I know this group is all about optimizing their PCs.

Any trips, tricks, books or websites that y'all can recommend so I can continue further along the dark side would be appreciated. Thanks!


__________________
Rev. Keith Johnson
[Cam#US2002023797]
keithalanjohnson@attbi.com
reverendkeith@hotmail.com

What do you want to play? What niche? Tank, spellcaster, etc.? Straight core classes and races can be plenty powerful on their own.

Do you want a simple concept for your character or a wacky one?

Since this is your first time playing in a while I'd go with simple concept so that you can enjoy a straightforward playing experience instead of varying it with lots of wackiness.

I like playing straight characters with one odd thing about them, either race (inhuman race with nonsupernatural class such as dwarven fighter), or a supernatural class (my current character is a human eldritch knight).

I'd suggest either pick one prestige class to go for and design with that in mind, or stick to a straight class and use good feats and race combo to develop your extra non-item powers.

 

[Scion]

as was already said there are all sorts of different kinds of strength. Check out the sultans of smack thread for some interesting/fun ideas, but dont expect most of them to work in most campaigns. DM's that I've seen usually house rule out certain things, usually at the end of the session that said things happen Or you see a huge baddy start useing the same tricks.

All in all, what do you want to do? you said anything goes, but you would be better off at that point browsing through this site page by page and just look for whatever catches your eye. Perhaps become a community supporter and search for 'broken combo' and see what comes up. If you have a specific build or even a general, 'I want to be the best at xxxx there ever was' then people here will have a lot easier time helping you. In fact you will probably wind up with too many ideas to use Hence with the limit off and just having the stats to use pretty well makes the possibilities endless.

Hope that helps some

(oh yeah, I would check out savage species, grab a half-ogre/human, tack on feral, lots of levels in barbarian, grab roll with it (feat) at the earliest opportunity and as many times as possible. I've always wanted to play this build, it is just too funny..lol)

 

[MerakSpielman]

In all, it was something that just wouldn't have been possible without his ridiculous jumping and climbing skills - and it would have been a beautiful thing, had not the fighter fumbled the catch and then gotten killed in the next round.

Man, that is just classic. I laughed out loud when I read that. Finally your monkey - practically useless for ages - has just the combination of skills to save the day, and the big, buff fighter who's been important and usefull all this time screws it up.