The Weird Penalty of Core Classes

[The_Gneech]

Check out the Wild Cohort feat from WotC. I love love love it, and it'll make the animal companion problem go away-as well as eliminating that pesky lack of advancement that comes with few ranger levels.

Ooooh! Nifty. That might make Scout a viable choice. Thanks! I'll show it to the DM.

-The Gneech

 

[Klaus]

Go Scout 5/Beastmaster 1/Thief-Acrobat 4 then go OotBI.

Beastmaster 1 gives you an effective Druid level of 4 for you main animal companion (which you'd have to be Ranger 8 to get). Throw in Nature Bond and you're looking at an effective Druid level of 7 (equivalent to Ranger 14). All for a single level and a feat. Plus it rids you of undesired Rogue stuff. All you need is 8 ranks in Handle Animal and (here's the tricky bit) Skill Focus (Handle Animal). But since you expressed an interest in the animal companion, it might work out for you.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Yep, Wilderness Rogue. Good stuff. Better Than Scout(tm) even. And higher level Rogue abilities would certainly still fit the archetype. Really well in fact, IMO.

 

[smootrk]

Could there not be a feat that allows the acrobatic skills you like to become class skills? There are other feats that allow such a transition, why not those, then the cost becomes 1 feat choice, and you stay Ranger most the way through your progression. Check with your DM if that is feasible. This coupled with a just a few Rogue (of the wilderness variety) should put you on track quickly.

 

[frankthedm]

The experience penalty rule exists to discourage exactly the min-maxing class dipping you're trying. This rule is working as designed, no problem here. Suck it up.

I agree 81%

 

[RisnDevil]

I am pretty sure there is a feat out there that allows you to pick any one skill and make it a class skill. Take that twice and stick with Ranger until the level you want. Very big waste of two feats, but then you do not have to worry about the Rogue level, the exp penalty, or being labelled a min/maxer. It has the drawback of having to wait to be a Theif-Acrobat though....

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

This is why Conan the RPG did favored class correctly: instead of a (massive - 20% XP?! ) penalty for mixing non-favored classes, it provided an incentive (bonus feat every 5 levels) to stay in the favored class.

Then why take levels in rogue at all? Right now, I see 3 classes on that character with yet another PrC being added later. The only reason being that the player wants certain abilities of the class.

Why would he take a class OTHER than wanting the abilities? What other possible reason could there be?

If the player really wanted to mold a concept, then why not take a single class and work out what abilities need to be swapped out to make it fit.

Because he wanted a RAW solution? Because he was curious if it was possible?

IMO, whenever I see a bunch of classes and PrCs, then I do think power-gamer. The player may want to play a particular concept, but the end result is still a suped-up PC.

Suped-up compared to what? Core ranger 20? Or core cleric (or pre-nerf druid, or, heck, even core wizard) 20? Because the build in question certainly isn't approaching any of those.

Anyway, if it bothers you to "see a bunch of classes and PrCs," stop looking at other peoples' character sheets. It's none of your business what is in the classes line - figure it out based on what the character does, because it tells you squat about who he is.

Cherry-picking classes, number of levels in each class etc and then complaining about taking an XP hit IS powergaming. The players wants his "mechanically interesting" character without having to pay for it.

Why should he have to pay for "interesting?"

You don't have to pay for "interesting" in HERO, GURPS, d20 Modern, SilCore, Grim Tales, Conan the RPG, True20, Mutants & Masterminds, or pretty much any other RPG that allows multiclassing or is a point-buy system.

But of course, "wanting to play anything other than the alleged archtypes included in the core rules IS powergaming" - no matter how questionable their archtypicality or how narrow that vision is.

 

[Benben]

Talk to your DM about this.

My house rule with favored classes is to get rid of the penalties and instead assign a bonus. For every 5 class levels in a race's favoured class the character gains a bonus feat. On my tables I've found that players continue to search out races that align with their racial stereotypes, but aren't afraid to follow off the beaten path options either.

 

[RisnDevil]

One question about the bonus instead of penalty rule: those five levels don't have to be consecutive, do they?

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

One question about the bonus instead of penalty rule: those five levels don't have to be consecutive, do they?

Not in Mongoose's Conan.

I'm (obviously ) not sure about peoples' houserules on the subject.