So, which classes are most insanely powerful and broken? My group just finished two campaigns that we were playing so we are considering what to do next. One suggestion is to play a group of totally broken characters. So, I'm gonna play arcane caster and I am looking for advice - what is absolute arcane munchkin?

So, which classes are most insanely powerful and broken? My group just finished two campaigns that we were playing so we are considering what to do next. One suggestion is to play a group of totally broken characters. So, I'm gonna play arcane caster and I am looking for advice - what is absolute arcane munchkin?

Any class can be broken. It mostly depends on how much time, and how many books you have access to, in order to make it happen. Right now the wizard is the easiest arcane class to break if you are willing to try. I would check the WoTC boards. There are a lot of broken builds still sitting on there, in the character optimization section, more specifically, theoretical CO*. Those are characters that were never really meant to be played. People just wanted to see how much breakage could occur.

*I don't remember if this is its own section or not.

the only broken build i know of is pun-pun. i never bothered reading the rest. as to prevent me from getting fuel to anger my DM.

So, which classes are most insanely powerful and broken? My group just finished two campaigns that we were playing so we are considering what to do next. One suggestion is to play a group of totally broken characters. So, I'm gonna play arcane caster and I am looking for advice - what is absolute arcane munchkin?

At the end of 2nd edition, we were pretty jaded, and played several 'monster' campaigns.

Party members at various times included;

An Ogre, a 1/2 Ogre Mage (using the Al-Qadim Ogrima stats as inspiration), a Wemic (fussy, named 'Lilac'), a Krynn Minotaur, a Gnomish Giant Space Werehamster, a Xixchil with additional glaive-limbs (11 attacks every 2 rounds, at 7th level), a Giff, a Thri-Kreen / Halfling duo (the halfling riding the thri-kreen) and a Centaur. We got out of that phase and were playing GURPS and Vampire before the Council of Wyrms setting hit, or else I'm sure we would have had an all-dragon party!

I found those games a total kick, and you might find it more fun to just play standard classes with a 'free' couple of LA worth of monster template (and just flat out ignoring racial HD).

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As for your standard 'broken' arcanist, a popular route to take is to play one based on exploiting the various polymorph spells, so that he's got +6 natural armor from alter self by 3rd level, and ends up turning into a Solar by the end of his career.

My favorite 3rd edition 'exploit' was to take as many feats or items that improve effective level for turning purposes (such as Improved Turning or a Phylactery of Turning), and crank out as many Domains that allow Rebuke / Commanding of critters. A Neutral Cleric of Obad-Hai can start with commanding undead (by channeling negative energy), Earth critters (Earth Domain) and Fire critters (Fire Domain), and pick up three extra Domains via Divine Disciple and Contemplating PrC levels, allowing him to Command Air critters (Air Domain), Water critters (Water Domain) and Plant critters (Plant Domain). With all of the items mentioned in the Guide to Turning on the CharOps forum, he could count as twelve levels higher for Command limitations, and have a *plethora* of elementals, genies, small dragons, etc. under his command. Plus a few skeletons, to carry the luggage. :) Since the 'build' only takes one Feat (Improved Turning), and a bunch of Domains and items, it's easy enough to spend your other feats on Persistant Spell and Divine Metamagic, allowing you to upset all sorts of applecarts, and use Nightsticks (Book of Vile Darkness) to get some free Turning attempts. With all the critters you can Command (calling them up with Planar Ally if you can't find them by other means), Leadership would be overkill. But hey, there's no kill like overkill, so go for it!

"Okay, on action one, my cohort sings his song to inspire everyone. [snip] Action seven, my Earth Elementals earth glide underneath the enemy and attack from behind. [snip] Action twelve, I whack my Shambling Mound with my Shocking Spear, so that he gains 1d4 Con. He's up to Con 32."

Another truly disgusting tactic, once you've got all those Turn / Rebuke attempts anyway, is to take Dragonfire Channeling, from Dragon Magic, so that you can expend T/R attempts to produce cones of dragonsfire. Fun stuff.

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Taking a Bard with Dragonfire Inspiration (also from Dragon Magic, each +1 to hit from inspiration instead becomes +1d6 fire damage to all allies unarmed or weapon damage), Song of the Heart (feat from Eberron Campaign Setting, +1 to pluses to inspiration), Inspirational Boost (spell from Spell Compendium, +1 to inspiration), a Badge of Valor (Magic Item Compendium, +1 to inspiration), etc. you can get a 3rd level Bard who can give his entire party +4d6 damage with their attacks instead of a +1 to hit by singing. He'll have to be a Dragonborn, Spellscale or Kobold to qualify for the Dragonfire Inspiration, and therefore not be able to get Song of the Heart right off (nor afford the Badge of Valor), but even starting with +2d6 at 1st level isn't bad for singing a little song.

And if nobody wants to play this guy? Cohort!

Twinky McMunchkin, of the Clan McMunchkin - "My cohort sings, we all get +4d6 damage with every hit."

DM - "Rocks fall, everybody dies!"

Although it is a divine casting class, if you play an Ur Priest, you are potentially slingling 9th level spells when your character is only about 15th level!!! If your GM has any sense however, he doesn't let that PrC see the light of day at his table.

Although it is a divine casting class, if you play an Ur Priest, you are potentially slingling 9th level spells when your character is only about 15th level!!! If your GM has any sense however, he doesn't let that PrC see the light of day at his table.

Don't forget Blighter. It's another class for lv5 ex-druids. Meteor Swarm is on their 9th level spell list. They also get their 9th level spells at 15th level.

Frenzied Berserker. Almost immune to death from level 10 for one combat, with some of the most disgusting damage in 3.5. Easy for a caster to take out, but only if he has prepared pretty specific spells.

Edit: And nightsticks aren't broken, they are retarded and any DM that allows them should be hung, drawn and quartered.

1: Play a wizard.
2: Do everything in your power to take both the Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil and Abjurant Champion prestige classes.
3: Make the race of your wizard Warforged (from the Eberron campaign setting) so you can heal yourself with the "Repair Construct" spells.
4: Profit!!!

1. Play a wizard
2. play a wizard in the Forgotten realms.
3. be a human wizard and take spellcasting prodigy.
+1 to spell Dc's
4. Second feat take able learner from races of destiny.
Cross class skills like search,appraise etc cost less.
5. Take the regional background from Halruua and get 2 free 2nd lvl scrolls.
6. take craft woundrous items and make a +5 book of int asap.

7. slaughter the world.

as an aside this isn't insanely powerful but it's still alot of fun.

I rolled a charecter and had already decided I wanted to play a druid.
I rolled for crap. My stats were 11,12,13,14,15,and 16. The rest of my group rolled about the same but for my standards this was crap stats.
I was loking all throught the MM and trying to find a race that would help out. I decided on a 4lvl hit for half celestial. I could care less about the SR,DR and all the resistances and spells they get so I talked my DM into allowing me to be 1/4 celestial. no wings no golden glow or anything out of the ordinary but my stats went up to normal. I only took a +2 lvl adjustment.

I now have a 17str,13 dex,19con,16 int,20wisdom and 16cha. Now thats a druid. I'm first level and have 12hp but I'm still holding my own against 3rd lvl bad guys and the rest of the party is so jealous. I am the partys melee combatant(well me and the gnome wizard, outta spells he charges with his staff.)and healer,and scout. the others hang back and fire arrows but with a -4to hit and were only 3rd level,no one has a base attack of +1 yet so unless we melee we miss alot. everybodies either multi-classed or taken lvl hits like me.

See if you can talk to your DM and become a 1/4 celestial you get +4 to Str,Con,Wis&Cha and a +2 to Dex and Int. Even if your a spellcatser it's worth it for stat bumps like taht. Then if he lets you use Unearthed Arcanna you can buy off the ECL's at 6th and 9th.
Thats how you make a overpowered charecter.

Most broken character I ever saw (I do not count pun-pun) using only WOTC materials is a cleric. Designed a 14th level one that had 20+ spells going 24-hours a day. Not something I would ever allow anyone to play....

Not casters, but there are a few good melee combos I had made up.

The Weapon Master from one of the 3.0 splatbooks, pretty sure it was Sword and Fist. Take one of the 2-handed weapons with a x4 crit multiplier. I statted it up with the scythe at the time, but I don't have those references in front of me. I just recall that with a 22 STR (not unreasonably by the time you got to that level), Improved Crit, a +1 Keen scythe (they stacked in 3.0) and the class abilities, you got a critical on a 17 or better and did a minimum of 85 points, ranging up to the low 120s. I don't recall the specifics, though.

The other one I built was a centaur monk. At first level, he was a 7th level character. Stats for a centaur were +8 Str, and +4 each for Dex and Con, and +2 Wis, all for the cost of -2 Int. On a full attack a Monk flurries for an extra attack. Centaur monk flurries for one extra attack and then two hoof attacks. Anyway, level by level, your movement remains about even (assuming identical base stats before racial mods), your AC is always higher, your HP start out lower but rapidly outpace the standard humanoid build. Your large size makes up for the humanoid's levels in unarmed strike progression, and your Str bonus makes up for the lower BAB. You can then take improved natural attack for unarmed (so can the humanoid) and for hooves, and Multiattack to bring that -5 for hooves down to -2. At 20th effective level, the human monk flurries for 5 attacks, the centaur gets 7, all for significantly more damage. You really only take a hit on skill points and the higher level monk powers.

Never got to play those characters, so I don't know if they're any fun. Weaponmaster was never revised for 3.5, and Pathfinder cleaned up a bunch of the problems with that Monk build. Centaurs no longer use large weapons (so presumably, their UA damage is for medium size), their stat bonuses are brought down a bit, and the PFSRD specifically says you CANNOT combine natural attacks with a flurry, whereas the WotC SRD specifically said you could.

Half-Dragon Shifter Barbarian/Fighter/Frenzied Berzerker with a keen falchion and some cleave feats. This is the only time a DM shook his head at me during character creation.

Most broken character I ever saw (I do not count pun-pun) using only WOTC materials is a cleric. Designed a 14th level one that had 20+ spells going 24-hours a day. Not something I would ever allow anyone to play....

We have a house rule which seems to have served our games well to prevent these kind of issues.

We go by the rule of three. No more then 3 positive spells on a creature at one time and no more then 3 negative spells on a creature at one time.

If you want more info on the rule of 3:

Alpha playtest Summoner.

At the end of 2nd edition, we were pretty jaded, and played several 'monster' campaigns.

Party members at various times included;
... a Krynn Minotaur...

I played a 2E Kyrnn Minotaur Red Wizard, why cast spells when you can punch for 1d20+STR. I never bothered to look at the 3.5E Dragonlance Campaign Setting to see if it was still that silly.

The 2E Kyrnn Minotaur Barbarian was kind of silly as well, throwing 3-4 daggers a round, like a 3.5E Monk with Shurikens... if the Monk has 20+ STR to start, lol.