Every once and a while, you find the rare player who wants to break the mold and get a little weird with their character. What are some of your favorites, both those of your own design and those you've played alongside with?
For me, one of my favorites was this rogue build my best friend ran. Rather than run the typical nimble thief, he wanted to try his hand at a rogue who's a big brute who will rob you blind by clonking you on the head with his club. He was inspired by a particular character in TES IV: Oblivion, who was an assassin with no real subtlety. The build may not have played to the class's strengths, but it made for some truly fun moments in the campaign. For instance, his version of looting a safe was to just nick the darn thing and blow it open with explosives back at base. If we wanted to get into a room through a locked door, he'd just bust the lock with his warhammer and burst into the room. You may call that borderline fighter/barbarian play, but he added the needed deviousness to it that made it all work.
Traits: Reincarnated(+2 vs fear and death effects), Deathtouch(+2 vs mind affecting)
1 |Combat Expertise, Skill Focus(Bluff)
2 |Finesse Rogue
3 |Deceitful
4 |Combat Trick(Improved Feint)
5 |Skill Focus(UMD)
6 |Minor Magic(Prestidigitation)
7 |Arcane Strike
8 |Major Magic(Silent Image)
9 |Greater Feint
10|Skill Mastery(Bluff, UMD, Stealth, Disable Device, Acrobatics)
11|Iron Will
12|Opportunist
13|Combat Reflexes
14|Crippling Strike
15|Great Fortitude
16|Dispelling Attack
17|Quick Draw
18|Slippery Mind
19|Improved Great Fortitude
20|Defensive Roll
Mythic Feats: Weapon Finesse, Arcane Strike, Combat Expertise, Quickdraw, Deceitful
Mythic Path: Longevity, Impossible Speed, Fleet Warrior, Precision, Precision, Incredible Parry, Lesson Learned, Ever Ready, Limitless Range, Farwalker
1 |Toughness, Intimidating Prowess, Combat Reflexes
2 |Bravery, Power Attack
3 |Armor training, Cleave
4 |Great Cleave
5 |Weapon training(Blades, Heavy), Blind-Fight
6 |Bravery, Lunge
7 |Armor training, Iron Will
8 |Quick Draw
9 |Weapon training(Bows), Point-Blank Shot
10|Bravery, Rapid Shot
11|Armor training, Deadly Aim
12|Farshot
13|Weapon training(Spears), Leadership
14|Bravery, Mounted Combat
15|Armor training, Mounted Archery
16|Ride-By Attack
17|Weapon training(Close), Spirited Charge
18|Bravery, Trample
19|Armor mastery, Improved Iron Will
20|weapon mastery(GS), Improved Critical(GS)
Mythic Feats: Power Attack, Rapid Shot, Mounted Combat, Toughness, Deadly Aim
Mythic Path Abilities: Longevity, Impossible Speed, Fleet Warrior, Precision, Precision, Precision, Limitless Range, Crusader, Shatter Spells, Farwalker
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Is this an "or" thread or an "and" thread? I have a lot a really great unconventional characters...that aren't really unoptimized.
Characters like the Raven King, Hama, or Abikae.
To say nothing of Batman, Santa Clause, or the Marshmallow Man.
Or how about the tiny ratfolk who flies about on his own tumor steed?
I'm chock full of unconventional.
Is this an "or" thread or an "and" thread? I have a lot a really great unconventional characters...that aren't really unoptimized.
Characters like the Raven King, Hama, or Abikae.
To say nothing of Batman, Santa Clause, or the Marshmallow Man.
Or how about the tiny ratfolk who flies about on his own tumor steed?
I'm chock full of unconventional.
** spoiler omitted **
It was really just a way to get unconventional builds out there. Some players who are boring would call those unoptimized.
Also, holy s***, these are awesome! I especially love Hama. In a lot of ways, it reminds me of Carrie, had Carrie kept it on the DL and was more calculated. Good work, my friend.
i have a few unconventional and slightly suboptimal characters i played, but i don't have their sheets.
a Half-Nymph (Homebrew Race) Bard with Int Primary Cha Secondary whom dumped Strength to 5 and Con to 7 on a 25 point allotment. the fun thing with her, was she was a loligoth noble diplomat whom eventually became a doll like lich with amazing levels of preservation and a life dominant soul. so many houserules were used to keep her from sucking
a Sylph Air Elementalist Wizard with a Homebrewed Archetype that allowed her to scout and find traps at the cost of less knowledge skills and inability to scribe scrolls. her spellbook was a deck of cards, and she was outright adorable. she was a slum magician and a bit of a larcenous arcane burglar, she had created the perfect bag of holding with help. infinite capacity with no encumbrance, she had all sorts of roguish things going on. group didn't like that she didn't have real rogue levels.
a Reskinned Onispawn Barbarian. well, she was a beast totem invulnerable rager with the superstition line and a nodachi mechanically. but her fluff made her stand out. she was a General with a Sadistic Zen Calm, she played with her victims in a similar manner to that of a tiger, clawing and biting them a bit to make them bleed a little before she finished them off with a Nodachi. she was reskinned as a Demonic Nekomimi with oni levels of strength. she was like a mishmash of the Claymores with a hint of Sun-Tzu and a bit of a sadistic tigress with a bit of Gogo-Yubari thrown in for a splash. she was optimal, but unconventional in flavor. she was a cruel Minkai General, just don't mess with her on a New Moon, she was even worse.
Every once and a while, you find the rare player who wants to break the mold and get a little weird with their character. What are some of your favorites, both those of your own design and those you've played alongside with?
"Cleric is a party support character!"
But when you turn the buffs on yourself you make a very capable warrior. Give them a bow and you'll be raining death from afar.A self-buffing cleric is like a D&D4e fighter with AEDU powers in Pathfinder hahah.
"Wizards are frail and should stay out of melee"
Not if you're a GRAPPLEMANCER!
With the right familiars and shapeshifting forms, wizards can turn into horrible tentacled grapplemonsters that would make a tetari monk green with envy.
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Every once and a while, you find the rare player who wants to break the mold and get a little weird with their character. What are some of your favorites, both those of your own design and those you've played alongside with?"Cleric is a party support character!"
But when you turn the buffs on yourself you make a very capable warrior. Give them a bow and you'll be raining death from afar.A self-buffing cleric is like a D&D4e fighter with AEDU powers in Pathfinder hahah.
"Wizards are frail and should stay out of melee"
Not if you're a GRAPPLEMANCER!With the right familiars and shapeshifting forms, wizards can turn into horrible tentacled grapplemonsters that would make a tetari monk green with envy.
Digging the "Let's turn the casters into melee gods" motif you got going on here.
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I'm still working on converting this guy to Pathfinder, but back in 3.5 I played a "paladin" who was a straight-classed wizard. No PrCs, no dips, just Wizard 20 with an increasing progression of feats and standardized spells to help him fight evil and drive darkness away from the innocent.
I'll have to dig up the build sometime but it was fun as all hell. And the party never did manage to figure out if he was Sword of the Arcane Order or a wizard.
Dot.
I'm currently playing a construct-crafting magus. 3 (useful) feats that costed me a lot. I still like sending my clockwork spies flying around.
I have a lot a really great unconventional characters...that aren't really unoptimized.Where are the paladins, man? :)
Shisio Dafoe (in name only; possessed paladin levels in v3.5)
. for interest
I have a Body Bludgeon barbarian build waiting in the wings for the right kind of game. It's on my D&D bucket list.
Flutter. High charisma wild empathy focused druid.
School focus conj.
Augment summoning.
Vermin Hearted
Fast empathy (almost necessary)
Ooze whisperer
Greater wild empathy: plants.
I've seen somebody multiclass between Inquisitor, Monk, Fighter, and Ninja all on the same character.
It was surprisingly successful until about 8th level, and technically ended because the player left. I can't say for sure how far the character would have gotten otherwise.
I can't believe I forgot to mention Megama--er--Rockman.
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Hmmm strange unconventional characters with a twist of flavor...ones that I have adventured alongside:
How about a Dwarven Priest of Moradin who was cursed by a demi lich, and slowing converting into an undead abomination. He exhumed a thirty foot radius stinking cloud effect. Then on top of that at times tried to be stealthy with all that stench going on.
A drow barbarian who got brain scrambled by a mindflayer, and thought he was a jester, a mad jester. He would be telling jokes while he gleefully cackled away to incite his rage, then start hacking, and slashing.
A pixie fighter that confronted enemies by buzzing around their head getting them to slap their own ears.
Some of my own oddities:
A fighter who would ask the enemies to drop their weapons and surrender because they were obviously outnumbered. Half the time they laughed, and almost always attacked, then by using movement, and terrain, I had the enemies all beating each other up without a need of drawing a weapon. I defeated ten hill giants solo using this method of evasiveness.
A sorcerer whose mind became so fragmented by the horrors of a haunted house, she thought she was a bard. She even had gained a magical lute in the house. Her levels and experience values were also frozen. Due to the nature of her dementia her sorcerer levels could not advance, and the bard college would have nothing to do with her. The other party members were suppose to determine what had gone wrong with her, and get her cured. However they never bothered. They found her amusing with a swashbuckler bravado, and her bardic personae. She was also restricted to only being able to use her sorcerer spells that also were found on the bard list.
Monkdopus.
Monkdopus.
Okay, you can't say something as ridiculous as "Monkdopus" and not elaborate.
10str 14dex 14con 10int 10wis 18cha
(favored class bonus to health)
Skills(2+int+1race=3): Craft(alchemy),Perception,UMD
1|Additional talents(dangerously curious, Eyes and Ears of the City), Skill focus(UMD)
2|
3|Magical Aptitude
4|
5|Master Craftsman(alchemy)
6|
7|Craft Wondrous item
8|Skill focus(alchemy)
9|Master Alchemist
10|
11|Craft Arms and Armor
12|
13|Craft Construct
14|
15|Armor Proficiency, Light
16|Skill focus(perception)
17|Armor Proficiency, Medium
18|
19|Armor Proficiency, Heavy
20|
Strategy: Use craft alchemy to raise money and to make acid. Once you have enough resources go adventuring!
Use your share of the loot to buy more alchemical weapons until about level 4-5. Work in using wands with UMD once you can. By lvl 3 you have a +13 bonus or 70% chance to activate a wands. At mid levels you use magic crafting to outfit yourself and party with cheap magic items.
At 13 you retire from adventuring and use your alchemy to make more money while you craft your phylactery and turn into a lich. (be sure you can make the phylactery before dying of old age, also make a hat of disguise beforehand)
Now with your unlimited time make a golem army. (Note: once per decade go adventuring pretending to be a "bad touch" cleric to prevent the on set of demilichdom).
Now with your golem army concur the world!
By level 20 you can wear fullplate and pretend to be Sauron without the ring weakness.
NOTE: I love how commoners get perception as a class skill and fighters don't!
Monkdopus.Okay, you can't say something as ridiculous as "Monkdopus" and not elaborate.
I'll have to find the exact build, but basically it's a monk with just enough levels of Druid to turn into an octopus. Then you flurry with 8 natural attacks. Basically it's a completely legal, though utterly ridiculous build.
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Found it. Courtesy of Lord Malkov
Alternately, Monkthulu as suggested by BadBird
Half elf, human, half orc, whatever... just something with a str bonus. Level 12 (20 pt)
Druid 4, Monk (Master of many styles) 3, Barbarian 5
(seems weird, but follow me here. Take Monk first.)
Str: 22 (+2 race, +2 levels, +2 belt)
Dex: 14 (+2 belt)
Con: 16 (+2 belt)
Int: 10
Wis: 19 (+1 levels, +4 headband)
Cha: 8
Feats:
Monk:
1: Dragon Style, Imp. Unarmed Strike
2: Dragon Ferocity
3: Weapon Focus (Tentacle)
Druid
5: Feral Combat Training
7: Shaping Focus
Barbarian:
9: Monastic Legacy
11: Power Attack or extra rage
Gear:
+1 impact amulet of mighty fists
+2 ring of protection
+1 Brawling leather armor
+2 belt of physical perfection
+3 cloak of resistance
+4 headband of wisdom
+3 bracers of armor
Monk's Robes
everything else is butter.
Features:
Fast Movement +20 (barb and monk stack)
Rage
Rage Powers: Superstition +3, Reckless Abandon +2 to hit, -2 AC
Uncanny Dodge
Trap Sense +1
Improved Uncanny Dodge
AC Bonus +3/+4 wisdom
Unarmed Strike
Stunning Fist
Evasion
Maneuver Training
Still Mind
Spontaneous Casting
Nature Bond
Nature Sense
Wild Empathy
Woodland Stride
Trackless Step
Resist Nature's Lure
Wild Shape, as level 8 druid, 3/day
So here is the schtick... your form of choice is a Giant Lake Octopus... it still has a 20ft. land speed, so you can move around just fine.
With monastic legacy you count as a level 7 monk for unarmed strike damage, and with monks robes, you count as +5 more for total of level 12. So your unarmed strike damage is 2d6. When you shape, you are huge, so it becomes 4d6. With your impact amulet, it becomes 6d6.
You are also getting +3 ac from monk levels and +4 from wisdom, so that is bonus. The extra weirdness here is that brawling armor property still functions while you are shaped, but you are technically not wearing armor because it merges, so you get the best of both worlds.
So, the idea is this... the Octopus gets 8 tentacle attacks, but their damage is generally pretty low...since you are able to sub in monk damage, you can make it fairly high, and these are all at full bab.
DEFENSES:
HP: 104 (7d8+5d12+36 con, +5 FCB(barb))
Rage HP: 128
AC: 22 (10, +3 monk levels, +4 wisdom, +3 bracers, +6 natural armor, -2 size, -2 reckless, -2 rage, +2 ring)
Rage/Shape Saves: Fort: +20 Ref: +11 Will: +18
OFFENSES:
So wild shape bonuses: +6 str, -4 dex, +6 nat armor
Rage bonuses: +4 str, +4 con, -2 AC
Attack bonus is then: +21 (+9 BAB, +11 str, +1 amulet, +1 focus, +2 armor, +2 reckless abandon, -3 power attack, -2 size)
Damage for each tentacle is: 6d6+20 (+11 str, +2 armor, +1 amulet, +6 power attack)
Your bite is still only +19 since it doesn't benefit from FCT, and hits for 3d6+16
Your full attack looks like this:
Tentacles: +21/+21/+21/+21/+21/+21/+21/+21, 6d6+19
Bite: +19, 3d6+15
If everything hits, you can slap a target for a total of 51d6+176, That is 354.5 average damage if they all hit, with a maximum of 482. you can rage for 15 rounds, which should get you through a lot. Take extra rage at 13th and you will be up to 23 per day which should be more than enough.
Tentacles have 20 ft reach... so just sit back and Kung-fu octopus your way to victory
My favorite build was a Dex-based, Half-Orc, Tetori Monk named Grovus Armitage, known to his friends and victims as 'The Strangler.'
A closet sociopath with a heart of gold, or at least tarnished silver, Gorvus had a proclivity for letting his friends wander in first and then taking advantage of the inevitable confusion to follow them in quietly and apply a +1 garrote to the most important looking opponent on the field.
My fondest memory of him was when he let his friends spring an inevitable ambush set in a bandit camp as he snuck through the thick brush nearby. The encounter was supposed to be a bandit leader (rogue) with an advantageous set-up and his mooks. A custom trap when off and the rest of the party was dazzled and also essentially giving the bandit leader Hide In Plain Sight against them for reasons of DM-ery.
Grovus wandered out of the underbrush just after this happened and promptly spotted the strangely well-dressed bandit crouching behind a wagon. Figuring he was important, the Strangler snuck up behind him and looped his garrote over the unfortunate sod's throat and started dragging him off into the underbrush.
The rest of the PCs rallied and started picking off the bandits who were perplexed as to why their fearless leader had yet to start doing the same to the PCs. One eventually looked over to see what was happening but by then it was too late, the Strangler had their leader pinned and it was a race to see if the lack of oxygen would claim him or the gradual sawing motion of the garrote. Efforts were made to free the poor sap but the Strangler was very hard to hit.
My DM was remarkably frustrated by this turn of events.
Found it. Courtesy of Lord Malkov.
SO adding that to my character gallery when I have time. Did Malkov make it, or just help you find it?
Found it. Courtesy of Lord Malkov.SO adding that to my character gallery when I have time. Did Malkov make it, or just help you find it?
His was just the first build I found. URL here if you're interested.
Slingers. I adore the concept and style of slings and slingers. I have several slinger builds waiting in the wings. As soon as I'm not GMing a game, I'm going to have to actually play them.
My favorite build was a Dex-based, Half-Orc, Tetori Monk named Grovus Armitage, known to his friends and victims as 'The Strangler.'
A closet sociopath with a heart of gold, or at least tarnished silver, Gorvus had a proclivity for letting his friends wander in first and then taking advantage of the inevitable confusion to follow them in quietly and apply a +1 garrote to the most important looking opponent on the field.
My fondest memory of him was when he let his friends spring an inevitable ambush set in a bandit camp as he snuck through the thick brush nearby. The encounter was supposed to be a bandit leader (rogue) with an advantageous set-up and his mooks. A custom trap when off and the rest of the party was dazzled and also essentially giving the bandit leader Hide In Plain Sight against them for reasons of DM-ery.
Grovus wandered out of the underbrush just after this happened and promptly spotted the strangely well-dressed bandit crouching behind a wagon. Figuring he was important, the Strangler snuck up behind him and looped his garrote over the unfortunate sod's throat and started dragging him off into the underbrush.
The rest of the PCs rallied and started picking off the bandits who were perplexed as to why their fearless leader had yet to start doing the same to the PCs. One eventually looked over to see what was happening but by then it was too late, the Strangler had their leader pinned and it was a race to see if the lack of oxygen would claim him or the gradual sawing motion of the garrote. Efforts were made to free the poor sap but the Strangler was very hard to hit.
My DM was remarkably frustrated by this turn of events.
So essentially you made Agent 47? I can dig it. :D
I'm a big fan of blaster casters, especially sorcerers. Though I've gotta say my favorite bloodline is Stormborn as opposed to those Draconic/Orc cross blooded types. So I often find my damage output can be a bit lacking till about mid levels.
I also like throwing a couple crafting feats and boosting Spellcraft enough to get some nice toys. One of my favorite builds used a mix of Leadership and Cooperative Crafting in conjunction to found a factory that could spit out pretty much any wondrous item and magic arms/armor in a day's time.