tcharleschapman's page

Dabbler, how would you approach an over-optimized build at your table? It is like one of those third-rail conversations that could end friendships. Pointing out that someone is so powerful that no one else gets to do anything is like saying their idea isn't a good one.

I do enjoy my optimization. It really got me into the game.

I used to just make characters for the heck of it all the time (making a party for fun now). I really started to notice a problem when every time I sat down to build a rogue they all turned out with two-weapon fighting and all their skill sets were the same. I then noticed all of my melee folks (fighters, barbarians, and paladins) all ended up with a falchion in their hands.

I finally broke the battle-optimization (a bard optimized for damage? really?) when I made a Bard-Archivist for the first time. 8 strength, 10 Dex and Con, 18 Int, 12 Wis, 14 Cha (or something close to that). It was a bard that had horrible social skills. I knew everything and won many a fight by just being there to know stuff. No versatile performance. No bonus damage. Just existing. Even the GM was happy I was there and thought the build was incredibly interesting.

I played with a summoner once that had Death from Above and pounce all go off in the first round of battle and he had five attacks, each with acid and electricity damage. A big day-ending fight was over before anyone else got to do anything.

Does anyone else get bothered by the push for optimization of characters? More and more I get tired of sitting down to a table of outrageous damage output where battles end ridiculously fast. Using feats to make a monster characters that immediately win the battle in the first round just is boring. It turns into the one optimized character getting all the fun each and every fight.

I've also run into the problem lately of bringing my characters to games that are not optimized for damage but are fun to play and everyone looking down on them.

-Mounted paladin gnome of erastil (why not be medium sized with a big weapon?)
-Combat Maneuver monk specializing in trip and grapple (Wait...you don't do damage?)
-Sea Reaver barbarian that, when raging, has a swim and climb speed (aquatic campaign) (why didn't you take all these ridiculous rage powers to cause a bunch of ridiculous damage?)

Society games are the worst. I witnessed one guy a few months ago convince someone not to use archetypes of the bard class until the person played a bunch of games with a base bard and learned how the class worked. Getting to level 5 in PFS is a 60 hour investment. The guy knew what he wanted his character to do and an archetype would have served that better and he didn't want to play every week. This awful advice came from a 5-star GM.

I'm not out to change the world with this, but man...powergaming can be pretty obnoxious. Who cares if that wizard didn't prepare "Create Pit"? If everyone built the same character all the time the game would die.

I am playing a PFS Gnome Shining Knight Paladin that just hit 5th level. I now have my holy mount! It comes with 3 feats. Now, I spend most of my time charging. Which feats would be good for my mount?