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Try occasionally making a character that doesn't have to be maxed out at something?character can be perfectly viable without being maxed out.

Here we go again, when has he said he MAXED out anything? Optimizing is a scale just because you take an optimized option does not make you Pun Pun.

A Barbarian with a high Str taking a Greatsword is Optimizing his Barbarian to some degree. If he takes Power Attack and Cleave as his first two feats (Human bonus feat) he is an optimized Barbarian. Would you say that level of optimizing is breaking the game? Some would, with that he can clear combats in a few turns that was designed for the whole party to take down.

A Witch taking Improved Familiar or something similar is not overly Optimizing. It is an improvement for sure, but not breaking the world.

In short taking optimized options does not make you a Min/Maxer or Maxed out.

Small piece of directly constructive advice based on my observations and experiences as a GM. Optimizing focused players with strong game mastery (which it sounds like you are) tend to make characters that disturb GMs and other players for three reasons:

- extremely efficient and synergistic character design. Very strong and solid builds with few weakness, are versatile, and very very good at doing the things they are good at.

- Super stack all their feats, traits, and most especially stats towards doing the Things They are Good At.

- Tend to be extremely efficient at actions each turn, never wasting a round or doing things that are less than The Best Action Each Round.

All of these things are to be admired. However, unless you are sitting at a group of like-minded and similarly skilled players, and most importantly GM, this tends to upset people. That sounds like what is happening with your GM.

Here is my advice...unstack your feats, stats, etc and make them more moderate, with a mix of non-optimized feats you can still enjoy playing with s other aspects of your character. The game mastery players in my games can have all 10s and 12s, be underequipped, and are still going to shine because their build ability and action efficiency are very strong.

I don't agree with that advice. Telling someone to basically throw away a character design or build to make the GM happy is BS.

The OP has specifically stated that the other players are decked out with magic gear and weapons and he has none. He has stated the GM has made him reroll saves even when he rolled a success first. Autoing his character with Odd/Even rolls. And you really think this is about him taking something like Weapon Focus over Toughness? Or that he might have a 16 in a stat rather then a 10?

EDIT: The argument that it is a compliment is complete BS as well. Saying that the DM is only giving out gear to other players because he is to OP is BS on a level I am not sure all the Cows on this planet can keep up with.

He is playing a Witch, which is powerful yes but that is the class, saying he should get 0 loot and have to dump all his feats into useless Fluff Feats and drop his stats to 10 point buy is BS

RDM42 wrote:

Examples of the 'special perks?'?

He gave the channeling cleric a set of rings that he can pass out to party members. If they are wearing them, his channel acts as if it were selective. Yes, this one benefits everyone - so this is perhaps a minor one. This would be an INCREDIBLY expensive set of items though, and this was at level 3.

He has awared the tank character with magic armor, weapon, ring(s).

I have NO magic items, and not enough gold to buy the ones I want/need. All the loot value has been wrapped up in what he awards.

He allows people extra reflex saves and d20 rolls of all sorts to avoid danger or perform special attacks that deal extra damage or have extra effects, while he makes me REROLL saves or makes me roll additional saves to avoid dangers. He makes me call "evens/odds" all the time to determine whether or not my character does something that I never declared he did... I can't recall everything, but the idea is that this is a chronic issue.

Yeah consider my advice about the thick book and the side of his head. This is pretty bad (if true)

Just a Guess wrote:

I have had similar experiences to the OP. And most of my PCs would be laughed at by the optimizers here on the boards.

Most of the time it is not so much during the game but when handing in characters before play. Mine get nerfed while others get allowed things that are not RAW. It reached a point where I contemplated sending my pc to one of the other players so he can hand in both his pc and mine without telling which is his and which is mine to have my PC treated more fairly.

One of the reasons is: I know what my PCs can do and am often too honest about it while other players just lie to the GM pretending their PC was weak.

Another point is that I see fluff as mutable but one of my GMs sees it as more fixed than rules. He'd rather allow another player special rules than me to play something contrary to the fluff. An example is: I wanted to play a Halfling thundercaller bard but was not allowed because thundercaller is a shoanti archetype and thus only shoanti may take it.

YES - he does this too!

All my characters are within the rules of the game. I do not bend or push ANY. Yet, he has given special treatment to others by giving them unique items, allowing them to perform "special" maneuvers, etc. I drives me bonkers.

Yeah if it is as bad as that then you need to quit the group. If he is giving out special perks to everyone else and punishing you. He is being passive aggressive and is trying to make you want to quit. You can quit and call him a dick or make him the dick. Make a character that is a downright copy of a other players former character, down to copying the sheet if they still have it. Let that player know of course and when the GM starts complaining about it just give that player a look like 'See?' it will spread through the group of players that yeah he is indeed singling you out and if you are using someone elses character that is NOT optimized then it shows it even more.

Or you know.. take a nice thick hardback version and slap the s&%~ out of him with it till he learns his lesson lol.