Ok, this is a bit of a silly idea, but has anyone made a dungeon meant for one character with no GM, so that different character builds can be compared? Would you use such a thing (at home or on the boards)?
Assuming there isn't one already, what kind of challenges would you want to incorporate so that a wide variety of characters could be fairly compared? Besides GP and XP, what else could you score a run on?
What character level would be most appropriate to test at? (I'm not sure, but I think most other character comparisons are around level 12.)
The idea makes me think of Most Extreme Elimination Challenge and Ninja Warrior. (You'd know what the challenges are likely to be ahead of time, but they're still a challenge.)
No. Characters are meant to be run in groups so the best character is normally the one that helps the group the most unless someone is just trying to find out which character has the best "solo" potential.
I would say bard or druid. They both have a good mix of spells, and combat power, and can handle some social encounters as well. The inquisitor might have to be included also.
I wouldn't do a dungeon though, and I might not tell them what they were up against. If they want to know they have to find out what the next challenge is just like they would in a game.
I would use combats( a variety), social encounter, traps, and other nonstandard combats.
I would not worry about XP either.
PS:Running it like a one man adventure is probably the best way to do it. Using an AP or Module might help, but some encounters might have to be changed so that action economy does not kill the player. As an example a fight against 4 monsters might have to be reduced to 1 or 2.
No. Characters are meant to be run in groups so the best character is normally the one that helps the group the most unless someone is just trying to find out which character has the best "solo" potential.
I don't think that's what the OP is asking for. I think he's asking for a kind of "shooting gallery" where you can go to test out how well a build might work on it's own merits.
Something like this might be pretty nice to try out a build you're not familiar with or even a new class, something to venture into really quickly and just roll dice around to see how often you're hitting, for how much, how often you're getting hit, or if you're a spell caster, how much damage your spells are doing and how often the enemies are making their saves or how often you're able to bypass a certain amount of SR.
Yes, classes work best when they've got other party members to support them, but it would still be nice to know if you're being supportive at all in the first place.
No. Characters are meant to be run in groups so the best character is normally the one that helps the group the most unless someone is just trying to find out which character has the best "solo" potential.I don't think that's what the OP is asking for. I think he's asking for a kind of "shooting gallery" where you can go to test out how well a build might work on it's own merits.
Something like this might be pretty nice to try out a build you're not familiar with or even a new class, something to venture into really quickly and just roll dice around to see how often you're hitting, for how much, how often you're getting hit, or if you're a spell caster, how much damage your spells are doing and how often the enemies are making their saves or how often you're able to bypass a certain amount of SR.
Yes, classes work best when they've got other party members to support them, but it would still be nice to know if you're being supportive at all in the first place.
That's a good description of what I'm talking about. It's supposed to be a "I've got a build I want to compare to my/someone else's other build." It'd probably be presented as a flowchart-ish dungeon with a variety of encounter types and a way of scoring yourself at the end.
It's not meant to compare directly to real play, just to say that a particular character can handle themselves in a variety of situations. (Though presented in a more entertaining manner than simply a checklist of situations.)
I wonder if you could save some time and just come up with a list of various challenges a character might encounter.
One tests against AC, DR, Saves, etc.
One tests skill(s), speed, encumbrance, creativity, sheer damage, healing, survivability, ranged combat, melee combat.
I don't know that you need to design a whole dungeon, just see how you do against various types of monsters/spells in the Beastiary(s) and against typical traps, poisons, etc. listed elsewhere.
That should give you a decent idea of where the character stands.
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I think it could work if all of the characters being compared were the same character type. (Ex: all melee) But when you bring in various other considerations - it's be too hard to judge.
But it wouldn't be too hard to test for melee.
Level 4 example:
Wave 1: 6 orc warriors charging you
Wave 2: Werewolf
Wave 3: Will o' Wisp
Wave 4: Owlbear
Etc (though a level 4 that can make it through all of those solo when no outside help/healing is a beast)
Edit: just realized this was a necro thread... I should have included zombies & ghouls :P