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Maybe you botched building a character?
Maybe reality didn't match theory?
Maybe you built it TOO good?
I semi-retired my Zen Archer/Inquisitor because I built it to survive the worst S4&5 could throw at him. He was way too easy to twink out, so much so, that once I hit L10 it was too easy. I decided to semi-retire him, only pulling him out if absolutely necessary to help anyone else get to L12 for EoTT (or other Seeker play).
I have a L2 halfling agility-based tetori, which was more for theory crafting, that haven't touched in forever and probably will never get around to playing simply because I've played to the mid-teens with a grappler and it would be more of the same.
What character do you regret making and why?
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Zadack, the Gnome Oracle (Heavens, Seeker Archetype, Wasting Curse) 1/Sorcerer (Undead Bloodline) X. Made it to Oracle 1/Sorcerer 2 before I shelved him for almost 3 years now.
I didn't like how one-sided he was. Either he ended the battle, or he did very little. He was a barrel of fun to RP, as he was a very depressed and gross looking gnome (thanks to wasting curse). I just didn't like him enough in combat to keep him. Maybe I'll revisit him one day.
Venture-Lieutenant, Finland—Tampere
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I built a tengu ranger/rogue.
To elaborate, I went infiltrator ranger and scout/swordmaster rogue, not noticing that a) infiltrator rangers only get to choose one adaptation from their favored enemy's list, not swap them at will and b) swordmaster trances are a full-round action.
The idea was to use Tiger Trance and charge wearing Rhino Hide, hitting for stupid amounts of dice, but reality tapped me on the shoulder and pointed out that never ever will I be able to get in a charging full attack with 20 feet of speed after having to spend my first round of combat to get a trance up, because someone else will be in the way already. Also, since I was dual-wielding and Dex-based in an armor with really terrible max Dex, damage output got tanked, and AC was permanently stuck somewhere around 22, especially after the character died once.
To add insult to injury, ranger evasion also doesn't work in Rhino Hide, which is another thing I hadn't noticed.
Yeah, let's just say there are few ways I could have built that character worse.
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I have a 10th level Sorcerer who knows Dazing Spell, and has Magical Lineage on Magic Missile.
Straight up Dazing Magic Missile is a 3rd level spell.
Heightened Dazing Magic Missile is a 4th level spell. Daze for two rounds.
Toppling Heightened Dazing Magic Missile is a 5th level spell.
Nothing quite like not having to worry where your allies are and put the 3-5 most dangerous opponents on their backs and dazed for two rounds. It turns combats into trash pick up day.
He's also got the Staff of the Master, and can make three Dazing Walls of Fire/Dazing Fireballs/Dazing Shocking Images per scenario.
Like your Inquisitor/Zen Archer, this character tends to render combat encounters moot.
He has other tricks, but full progression casters are playing PFS on easy mode.
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I built a Dr. Who clone bard that I regret making. He's good on knowledge and diplomacy, but in combat, he's pretty boring. He just entangles things and gives bonuses to everyone else. By the time he got good enough with dazzling display, the shaken condition doesn't matter enough to be worth a full round action. At the level he's at now, the bad guys hit on a 5 instead of a 3 when he demoralizes. He's mostly GM credit, so I didn't realize how boring he would be to play until after he hit level 8.
Well, I wouldn't say I regret it, but I've had some that I could have easily done a better job with.
I had a sorc that had too much of the same thing. Exs: grease, pilfering hand, chain of perdition, verdant bloodline tanglevine, deep earth bloodline tremor (from eldritch heritage), etc...
I was going for a theme, but it overlapped way too much. I ended up almost never using most of them because one or the other was just slightly better. And I never needed so many in a day to use them up and still need the others.
I made an inquisitor that was the exact opposite. He tried to be so many things that he really isn't that good at any of them. Tried to be the heavily armored tank, still a significant melee weapon damage, monster knowledge, party face (conversion inquisition), and backup buffer. Even with the plate armor and 16 con, he doesn't really have the staying power to be all that good as a tank. Sword and board and other choices have made him not all that great as a frontline damage dealer. Even with the inquisitor bonus, he's only decent at monster knowledge and face.
He's not horrible at any of them, but he's definitely second string at any of them. When the table is really lopsided he can fill the role. Once we had no one for melee at all. Ok, he was tank-ish enough to survive for a short while if the casters and archers killed quickly. Another time we had no one with positive modifier for any social skill. yea with the conversion inquisition and a couple of ranks he was better than nothing.
Neither character was so awful that I can't still play them, but they would have been more fun to play if I'd done a better job on the build.
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2013 Top 16
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I had a level 3 paladin that I built as a sword-and-board tank, but I abandoned him because the playstyle was boring, and I liked skills too much. But I recently rebuilt his last level to start a 2-level dip into Kata Master/Master of Many Styles/Monk of the Sacred Mountain, so now he can parry and riposte with a morningstar, and can use Snake Style against those pesky touch attacks (and next level, Snake Fang for extra unarmed AoOs).
I also had a level 6 halfling Ninja 4/Lore Warden 2 focused on Bluff and Disguise, and using Improved Feint for sneak attacks. But even with that, he was laughably bad at combat. So I dropped 15 PP and 900 gp on retraining him into a Ninja 3/Mouser 3. He's a bit better at combat now, with more tricks up his sleeve than just feinting.
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I don't regret making him per se, but there are a lot of issue with my White-Haired Witch / Hexcrafter Magus that I've been discovering as I've leveled (as this was my second character created and then not played for a very long time due to how much he struggled at low levels).
First, I made him a Tiefling, not realizing that Tieflings as native outsiders cannot benefit from Enlarge Person.
Second, I wasn't aware that you could not Spell Combat with a natural weapon that is not associated with a "hand" (i.e., I cannot Spell Combat with White Hair), or use the magus ability to enhance their weapon. There is a Magus Arcana that fixes the Spell Combat issue, but it's from Blood of the Moon and not legal.
Third, I didn't notice that the Witch Patron spells get added to your list at even levels, so thought I had Divine Favor on my spell list but in fact did not; as a 5 CHA Tiefling, I wound up having to take Extra Traits to gain INT to UMD to round out rough edges.
Finally, it is very difficult for this character to combat demons and devils due to their huge list of energy resistances and immunities, and unlike a "Shocking Grasp" or Dervish Dancing Magus he can't really alter his damage type on the fly or effectively bypass damage reduction. If he does change his Frostbites to acid damage, then they no longer benefit from Rime Spell.
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Each and every character I've ever written up for an online game that never took place, or crashed and burned after the first few sessions. There is nothing lamer than investing character creation into someone that never gets to see the light of day. Give me a rotten rolled MAD class that I get to touch some dice with before a nonplayed bundle of unused stats.
I had a pile of DM credit that I was able to create at level 7, and I wanted him to use both braid of a hundred masters and an axe beak because he had those boons on them.
So I made what was on paper a really interesting build. A few levels of samurai and then into zen archer. Basically a horse archer except the horse bites with great swords. Not terribly optimal, but fun and flexible.
Problem is, he's just boring. There's no character there. Nothing about him is interesting to me. He's a cardboard cut out that does damage and I have no sense of him as a person which makes roleplay hard.
I have that problem anytime I make a character at medium to high level. at least until I've played him for a bit. Then I can usually develop a personality I like.
For PFS, I'm going to try to always play each character at least once at each level to avoid that.
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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During the early part of my PFS career, I was pretty indecisive and wasn't as good at guessing what I'd enjoy playing, so I had several iterations of making a character, playing him to level 2 or 3, and then abandoning him because he wasn't as fun to play or as effective as I'd hoped. I regret how many Tier 1-5's I permanently used up that way. :( I basically don't make new characters now unless I can build up a level or two of GM credit first. Core Campaign could help with that, though.
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I built a Dr. Who clone bard that I regret making. He's good on knowledge and diplomacy, but in combat, he's pretty boring. He just entangles things and gives bonuses to everyone else. By the time he got good enough with dazzling display, the shaken condition doesn't matter enough to be worth a full round action. At the level he's at now, the bad guys hit on a 5 instead of a 3 when he demoralizes. He's mostly GM credit, so I didn't realize how boring he would be to play until after he hit level 8.
OH GOD! MY FACE JUST MELTED.
An Investigator or Alchemist styled after Doctor Who for Iron Gods. Holy s***. I don't know what to do with myself now.
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One regret I have is a level 6 Cavalier with a griffon mount I made using GM credit from Dragons Demand and another modular. It sounded cool at the time. But in hindsight it was not the best call... But it was still a cool idea. I guess I could just put everything into the lance and use it as a 2 handed reach weapon in dungeons...
I think the real regret was just using the credit to make anything at all since I have other characters I enjoy more.
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Each and every character I've ever written up for an online game that never took place, or crashed and burned after the first few sessions. There is nothing lamer than investing character creation into someone that never gets to see the light of day.
I'm right there with you on that one. So many good concepts just lying in waste.
I harbor some lament about my -5, a human ninja. She's a dual-wielding wakazashi stealth expert sitting at the cusp of level 6. She's not terribly built by any means for a straight ninja build. I just feel in retrospect that going 4 levels of monk first would've probably been better because her will save is terrible. Not to mention getting that whole Wisdom for Ki instead of Charisma thing would've been way better. As of right now, she's terribly reliant upon fortunate positioning to be effective as well as ki points for her nifty ninja tricks. It'll be around 10th level before I find her back in a position of being enjoyable again. I'm just not sure I want to play through it.
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I regret nothing.
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Definitely my Gunslinger, but for a few reasons.
She was one of my first characters. I fell in love with the Holy Gun archetype for Paladin. Played her through 2nd level before a GM explained that she wasn't legal.
So I multiclassed her as Paladin (Divine Hunter)/Gunslinger (Musket Master) as advised by him, and he signed off on my Chronicle Sheet that that's what I decided to go with.
Multiclassing was painful. All my abilities were delayed, and she was terrible in combat. She always misfired, and my low Wisdom meant little grit. She didn't start being effective until level 7, and I was already playing my other characters more.
But then, I had the opposite effect in combats. With Rapid Shot, iterative attacks, and usually Haste, I'd straight up murder things. Or misfire, and do nothing. There was no middle ground. It was frustrating.
The only 2 skills she had were Diplomacy and Perception, because early on ppl told me that's all you needed in PFS. She had a vague Sarenrae redemption thing going on, but it never showed up in game.
Roleplay-wise I couldn't find a voice for her, which for those of you that've played with me you know that I voice my characters. Whether it's my booming Shoanti or my creepy Wayang, I need a voice to get into character.
She ended up being my dump for high-tier GM credit, and I played her maybe once after reaching 10th level.
When she hit 12 I played her in Siege of the Diamond City, just to get her 1xp and eliminate the temptation of using her for Eyes.
I used that gold and a bunch of Prestige to retrain away her Paladin levels into Fighter, and I shifted her alignment to NG. That was over a year ago.
Although, funnily enough, I am tempted to dust her off and play her through Wardens of the Reborn Forge. Since I retired her I've given her background a lot of thought, and actually made an NPC in a home game based off of her. I think I'd like one more chance to "redeem" her, which would be all the more appropriate, considering her deity.
Meh. We'll see.
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I regret building my arcanist 2/sorcerer 1, because she's really uninteresting to play. I started her as a Winter Witch, then switched to blaster arcanist after three scenarios, but I had forgotten the most important thing. While a character can be mechanically very strong (whether or not it is desirable is another debate), the most important part of a character is... its character. That character was based on a random idea about mechanics, but her personality is just bland and uninspiring. On a mechanical level, she's also uninteresting to play, because she's too efficient for her own good, and she makes things boring for the rest of the team when played at her full potential. That's just not something I enjoy doing, so I retired her.
Another character I don't really enjoy much is my archaeologist bard. While great on a roleplaying level, I just feel he isn't useful at all in combat. However he's only level 4 so far, so things may pick up eventully. I'll give him another chance whenever I can, but I'm just not too thrilled.
I'd also like to use the opportunity to talk about a "redeemed" character, one I hated playing who ended up being very enjoyable (after an archetype retraining and the season 6 free faction change). Those things happen too!
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A Wayang Cavalier with all the feats necessary to make sure his (medium) mount can always get a charge in.
Basically... his turn comes up, he lowers his lance, and something dies. Combats just aren't fun or challenging. He is decent to roleplay - but so are my other characters that are far less joy-killing.
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I don't regret making any of my PFS characters.
I enjoy playing them all, though I think my cleric will lose something when the domain power becomes ineffective at higher levels.
I do find it interesting how many 'regrets' come from OP characters in this thread. I even find it a little humorous that some posters have multiple characters falling into this. :)
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I have two I regret. Both because of role-play reasons, not build reasons.
Anik is a male half-orc paladin 1/sorcerer 5/dragon disciple 1. He's okay. I had fun playing him, mostly because of the folks that I played with. His build isn't bad. But he doesn't have much personality. So I retired him and built a new character, ground-up, with GM credit. Juniper Berrythwaite is his replacement. She is a female halfling paladin/sorcerer/dragon disciple. She has almost the same build (because the build wasn't the problem), but she also has a lot more personality.
Ezgael is a male tiefling fighter 1/wizard 5 working toward eldritch knight. (Not early entry, mind you.) Much like Anik above, I'm perfectly happy with Ezgael's build. He is pretty good in melee, and has a nice selection of toolbox spells. The save DC to his debuff spells are relatively high and he has completely saved some encounters. But he is just very boring to play. I have sort of replaced him with Princess Na'idrahezade bint al-Djinn, a female human (Qadiran) swashbuckler/sorcerer working toward eldritch knight. Again, she has much more personality than Ezgael and fills almost the same roll.
I'm pretty happy with all the rest of my characters though.
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Venture-Agent, Florida–Altamonte Springs
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Most of my "regrets or botches" were in level 1 so I managed to retrain at level 2.
Jormander - Morbidly obesse (ok was going for bloatmage) Aasimar, Necromancer, worshipper of Urgathoa. At level 2 I realized that (after 3 adventures) I was not a "pet class" person and my playstyle more fits as a blaster. So I retrained into an envoker and went for arcane trickster.
Killdur - my -2, at level 1 he was a cavalier, after 3 adventures down holes I realized that I didn't want to have a class that required me to get a mount down a hole (my first experience with a pet class in pfs). Heck I would rather not play a druid my favorite class for this reason. I retrained him into fighter 1 (lore warden)/rogue 1 (Scout) (and have been using the harsk reaper figurine ever since)
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I regret nothing.Come on, big guy. You can let it all out.
Even the least worthy of my characters is fantastic.
But fear not, I do not use my powers for good or evil. I use them for Awesome.
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My Gnome Ninja/Sorcer. Mostly because I went and took two levels of sorcerer because I dreamed of trying a poison build (Envenomed Bloodline). The second level of sorcerer gives almost literally nothing. I got some good fluff out of the character, but she doesn't do much in combat. I recently retrained that second sorcere level into Swashbuckler (Mouser), but I haven't played her like that yet, so I don't know whether she'll work better now.
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I don't totally regret these characters, but I definitely have some second thoughts on seeing how they turned out.
1. Rogue/Sorcerer/Arcane Trickster - She's an interesting character, and a lot of fun in social scenarios like Blackros Matrimony, but she's definitely behind the power curve and gets carried by other party members when serious fighting breaks out. She has died (and been raised) twice, which is more than all of my other characters combined. She kind of fell into the trap of being capable of doing a lot of things, but not really great at any one thing.
2. Sylph Monk - I wanted to make a monk who was good at jumping and acrobatics, and could do all the kung-fu movie special effects. Like the arcane trickster, he is fun, but not very powerful. Jumping around and looking cool is just not a universally useful skill in Pathfinder mods. It also doesn't help that the Crane Wing feats got changed just as he was getting high enough level to take them. I see how they could be overpowered on some characters, but I thought they might be a chance to boost my not overpowered character back to something like normalcy.
Venture-Captain, Alabama—Birmingham
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1) I have an Abadaran paladin/summoner even split with an awesome back story but mechanically terrible. Due to past sins he became bound to a demon. While it is summoned, he is fully in control of its actions except its speech, but while it is away it is randomly teleported to another city and wreaks havoc. The paladin dreams what horrors the demon is doing, and has become addicted to allnight to keep it under control and the cities safe. He was created with mostly gm credit, but I discovered he was horrible after playing him once at 6th level, so I'm stuck with him.
2) My dual-shield wielding Mwangi Ranger was built with all Thornkeep credit. He has plenty of cash, but not enough fame to buy the shields he needs to make Shield Mastery work. Also built on gm credit, but yet unplayed so this one is salvageable, but the crippled fame is hanging over whatever rebuild ideas come up.
3) Burnie McBurnerson, gm credit dump before I realized I didn't have to take credits if I didn't want to. If he ever hits 5, he will instantly retire having his entire history in slow progression, and I will still have a few wasted chronicles on him. He will retire as a (1 level each) Barbarian, Sun Wukong cleric, bard, evoker wizard, rogue, urban ranger, urban druid, fighter, witch, magus, haunted oracle, cavalier.
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I played an arcanist during playtest and have not rebuilt her to match released version. I don't really like how the arcanist turned out.
I have a half-orc cavalier who has been sitting on a shelf for over a year now. He just feels boring to play.
I also have a spiritualist from the occult playtest sitting on a shelf from Occult playtest. I just don't feel like I want to see those guys in PFS in general. They are too different of a beast imo.
Then there's those three blobbies (lvl 1, 2, 3) that have all sorts of boons available and I just don't seem to be able to get around utilizing them.
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One thing I've noticed is that the two characters that I've mentioned in my earlier post have been completely overhauled (except their race) at 3 xp. It seems that retraining at that point isn't really advisable for me. Anyone had the same experience?
Probably. I tend to build my characters out for 5-8 levels before playing them just to see how it looks on paper to help minimize feelings of regret later. Usually works for me.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Indiana—Martinsville
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I regret making my Tengu character (With a boon, no less) a Straight Monk. The running gag of dead chickens echoes in my ears, as the first time he died was on Murder on the Throaty Mermaid, a scenario that isn't that particularly deadly. I was on the deck as another was taking pot shots from the crow's nest (An irony that was not lost on our group) and the main "tank" was taking 10 rounds putting on his samurai armor below decks.
This was not, however, his only death. He has been cooked via fireball, swiped by a tentacle to have his feathers fall out and his skin became clear and jello like, which tanked his Con and then hit by a lightning bolt. This is one doomed bird.
He is level 11 now, and a bit more effective but the tally and hard ache is such that if he is killed now, I won't even bother to have him raised.
Monks are still not effective compared to other classes, and if you ever play one, get an archtype or two.
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Got two.
I retired my newest Seeker with a bit of joy. Getting effectively rid of the character is a relief. See, inquisitors are a powerful class, but they require so much buffing to kick butt that mine tended to have two maybe three fights in her per day. With enough buffing she was crazy hard to hit, had all sorts of defenses and aced knowledge, perception and face skills too, but I abhored tracking all the spells and the gloves of reconnaissance rounds she needed to spend in order to prebuff.
And her character was very weak to boot: Built for con games to aid newbies and do a bit of everything, nothing but her hate for second-guessing and backtalk ever became solified. Good riddance.
Second regret is my Wayang Grenadier. Xe's pretty pretty decent personalitywise, but the mechanics are boring. I just hit 3rd level and finally have Precise Shot so this may change.
Personally, I think the mutagen class feature is pretty terrible. When you've got the time to boil a new batch, everyone else either sits around in the dungeon corridor which works terribly for some personality types or are out there adventuring while you're missing out and when you don't, then your combat prowess is almost cut in half. It gets better with more levels and by level 6 you'll be able to clear most places with a single mutagen even if you take your time, but getting there takes time and/or gm exp.
An aquaintance wanted me to hop in on a campaign he and some friends were starting up. I rolled up a barbarian after asking what sort of character he needed. Once at the game and ready to play I had to wait for their favorite tv show to start and finish. Once we were to get started the GM changed a bunch of things about my character. Needlwss to say it was a dreadful 3 hours of play with a group that spent more time b*@$$ing and complaining aboit one thing or another.
It was so dreadful I had forgotten the characters name. He was my only regret.
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.....
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I don't really regret making any characters, since I chalk the worst of my mistakes up to learning the system. My biggest ones are:
1) Menel. She's dex rogue (now rouge 10/ranger 2). I've spent over 50 PP retraining classes, feats, etc. She's finally in a usable place but still...
2) Veja, my ifrit sorcerer, only had fire spells. When I realized this was a problem, I was on the first scenario of a new level that I had decided to slow track. It took me five more scenarios, but she's at a point where I can grab magic missile.
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I do find it interesting how many 'regrets' come from OP characters in this thread. I even find it a little humorous that some posters have multiple characters falling into this. :)
For me, my earlier characters weren't underpowered it's just that they were classes that always had to make choices. It could lead to a lot of lag in play, especially when other players would not stop suggesting "do this instead." For my cavalier I wanted one character who was simple. Set it and forget it. But during play I found it was just too simple. The power of stopping an enemy in one blow wasn't the real killer - wizards do that all the time. It was the sheer boredom of always charging past someone, every single round.
I play a Viking now who has even less skill points than the cavalier. Still hits like a truck. But his personality just worked out better for roleplaying and he's far more interesting in combat.
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My First PFS Character, Vadim, is not terribly min-maxed, and so as he hits level 10, he's a little outclassed. I've retrained to get his will save up, and invested in a spell-storing dagger, but when he was possessed, everyone else at the table was like 'thank god a GOOD character wasn't taken over!' Still, I love Vadim just the way he is, and accept his roguish flaws.
I have 2. A sunder based 1/2orc battle oracle/barb that just never had the RP come together.
And a Elf druid with the racial archetype to do all the plant stuff. sadly I played him to 6th and found that aside from having a treant companion, he REALLY sucked.
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Not exactly regrets, but not sure how to proceeds:
My 4th level Lore Warden fighter who wields a rapier. He currently uses a darkwood shield to keep his AC somewhat decent, but I was planning to go duelist after 6th level.
He's a finesse guy, trying to swashbuckle before there was a class for it. Decent at low-level disarms.
But here's just no way to keep damage up enough to stay relevant (outside maybe buying AC Origins for Fencing Grace) and his AC will almost always be a bit mediocre.
Then there's my straight outta Core rogue. Currently 3rd level, and he does just fine in combat at this point, especially when playing "down". But the math tells me higher levels will be a definite challenge. Debating some multiclassing to get a bit more out of him.