PatGib's page

Seriously, why are there ever these martial-castor discussions? My rogue has already stolen all the party's equipment, hocked it for shinies, told everyone a band of magic-thieves took it, assassinated anyone who questioned me about what happened on my watch, disguised it as a series of unfortunate accidents, bought a place in the countryside, stole the princess, pitted rival kingdoms into wars of attrition, started my own seat of power, posed as a god to begin my own religion, and retired to a life as a simple orphanage-owner to groom the next generation of rogues to be raised as down-on-their-luck, never-knew-their-parents, lynchpin-of-important-prophecy, reluctant, plucky, out-for-himself-but-actually-has-a-heart-of-gold anti-hero.

Gosh, forget theories, lets talk about what really happens.

Epic...simply epic. You should write a book. Poetry, that was... I think the biggest problem is people forget its a Role Playing Game, not an MMO. The experience is being a character, with quirks and flaws. Weaknesses and strengths. Some people make the contention that everyone should be magic and own their own fighter for giggles. I hate this mentality. I hate powergamers, munchkins and DPS statistics. Play a character, meet the challenges. Watch a spell fail on SR, see the fighter frustrated by DR. Lets get back to role playing.

Scenario 1
Caster: My magic cannot affect this vile beast.
Fighter: That's fine, my sword shall end his torment.

Scenario 2
Fighter: My weapon cannot penetrate the beast's hide.
Caster: Take cover, my magic shall vanquish this abomination.

Is it too much to ask to have tropes? To play a character and not be the one tool for every situation superstar? That's what makes it challenging. This is why I like that my players would rather take what "sounds" cool, rather than what is effective, even if it means I have to weaken monsters and find ways to revive dead parties. My players have fun. That's what is most important.

But fighters have shiny stuff...

Teamwork is what the designers had in mind (even back in the 3.0 days). Any individual character can do cool stuff and be a shining single example of power. What's more significant in my opinion is making the TEAM feel powerful.

I am the guy who plays the druid who wildshapes into a form that the mounted specialized fighter can ride. I am the wizard who greases the bad uglies and then levitates the invisible rogue so that she can rain sneak attacks from above. I am the warrior who steps specializes in trip and repositions so the rogue can get good hits. I AM THE TEAM PLAYER.

We rarely have a death when I play. Strategy and teamwork are my focus. No I don't ever do the most damage, but I save the day often. Which is better...fighter or wizard. Ask a powergamer of either, they will have the answer. Give me any class and someone who understands advantages, and we will seem nigh indestructible.

And best of all, its rare that anyone complains about being useless or underrated. I love this game. Pathfinder 4ever.

Worst Player- We have a good friend who's gamed with us since the beginning. Great guy who actually role plays his character. The problem is its always the same character regardless of genre or game. He always one of two goals. 1)create a big robot or 2) become a big robot. We have always have a bet on how many sessions will take place before he creates a "Big Gay Robot". He loves to power game and sees ROBOTS as the elite. Other than that, he's not a bad guy. You can always count on him to damage things, however strategy is right out the window.

Worst DM- Had a module runner. The guy would NOT vary from the module. It was okay the first few times, but once we realized our characters were not allowed to do anything that wasn't "in black and white ink". It started to be less fun. Once we realized we may have missed a key piece of equipment on a dead NPC and tried to back track. It went something like this.

Player 1: Hey, I bet the old man might have the key to the basement.
Me: Yeah, lets go grab it. (out of character) Hey we are gonna go back to the lobby.
DM: Alright you enter the next room after prying the door open. The ruckus has alerted the residents of the room.
Me: No dude, back the way we came, not the next room, BACK.
Player one: Yeah, back so we can get the key and see if there's a map of the plaza.
DM: The angry residents appear to be changing infront of your eyes.
Me: Not if I have left the area...to get the key.
DM: Roll iniative, the werewolves are attacking.
Me: WTF?

Once we realized that how things went. We would purposely try to derail games. I once played a Psychic warrior with the feat that allows you to run on walls. I would always run to the second story, (or third if I could make it.) Then let down a rope and move from there. We all had mechanisms to make him flip through the book.

Also he had this really REALLY annoying habit of fudging roles. Not like, I do. When I DM, I tend to have new players so I soften the blows on them. No he would always look us in the eye, and never look down at the dice. "Natural twenty." Every GD time. Really. Makes it hard to overcome adversity. We had fun anyway.

I tend to play character that act as controllers. Especially as NPC's. I play with a lot of newbies and people who could care less about rules and so they build a character on what looks cool. This is fine for the first few levels, but after that I have to nerf monsters or they die. So I have a habit of creating awesome NPC's. Never casters though. I don't like to outshine, but my optimized NPC usually keeps them alive without ever inflicting damage.

I would check out Tetori archetype (Ultimate Combat) or maneuver monk. If you don't like the spiritual "MONK" check out the martial artist. They are easily controllers without dishing out damage unless they desire (OR NEED) to. Tetori is great cause it can grapple against Freedom of Movement and even incorporal. Granted that's at extremely high levels, but its still there.

As a Player, I tend to optimize my and work with teams. Trip something let barbarian mess it up. I used to sunder alot, but they party got upset when I sundered a +5 Vorpal Longsword. I told them that's why wizards learn Make Whole and Mending...

How do I become a "registered playtester?" I am just curious, as I run a lot of Pathfinder, and it quickly becoming my favorite system. I run a few games, but this will give me (and my groups) an excuse for multi-level one shot games.