
Halvdan62 |
Here's the first one. Level 12 elf two weapon warrior.
Str 20 Hp 133
Dex 20 Ac 23 or 25 on full attack
Con 16 Fort:11
Int 14. Ref:9
Wis 16 Will:7
Cha 12
Feats: two weapon fighting, double slice, two weapon defense, combat reflexes, weapon focus, improved two weapon fighting, combat expertise, improved critical, critical focus, weapon specialization, greater two weapon fighting, greater weapon specialization, dodge
With two +2 symitars his full round attack bonus is +20/20/15/15/10/10 and his critical threat range is 15-20 and has a +5 to confirm with the trait anatomist. It deals 1D6+13 per swing. He can use combat expertise to get his ac to 30.

bfobar |
Best by your own standards, shadow. I want to see everyone's favorite build. They all have their strengths and weaknesses
Well crap. That basically amounts to, "who do I feel like playing today?"
I really liked my draconic tattoed sorcerer in the last game I played as a PC in that stalled out. I want to play it more. It was a well rounded blaster on offense and a wet paper bag on defense. Super fun.

andreww |
I recommend having a look at this table. Standard AC at level 12 is 27, many of those attacks are going to whiff. Monster special ability DC's are going to range from 15-21, you will fail against a lot of them. At CR12 that includes things like the Demonic Mohrgs CL18 Blasphemy which will paralyse you for 1d0 minutes, a Nightskitters Plane Shift which will send you somewhere you cannot survive or a spell casters dominate person. And those are equal CR encounters which you are expected to defeat fairly easily.
If you encounter something actually dangerous at a CR of APL+2 you are looking at an average AC29 and higher ability DC's. A quick flick through the bestiary gives some examples such as:
Formian Hive Queen: DC23 temporal stasis or mass suggestion
Nalfeshnee: DC22 will save nimbus or be dazed for 1d10 rounds
Demi Lich: DC24 wail of the banshee

Darth Grall |

Personally I think there is a "best" build for each class, fighting style and archetype out there.
I'm sure there is an optimized TWW, a best Zen Archer build, and so on for classes that are fairly specialized and DPR is the largest metric. Problem is there are tons of classes that are just too varied to have best builds, since the metric you'd compare against isn't apparent, IE wizards, druids and their ilk. Then it starts to get a whole lot more subjective.

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Personally, my favorite builds involve some form of spell casting (or psionics, though not often divine casting). The only class I've ever actually played without some form of spell casting is the Taskshaper from Rite Publishing, such a good and versatile class. So, for me, it is all about having versatility and tricks, backed up with enough power to pull them off.
That said, I don't go for extreme power builds (like armies of simulacra or the half-elf oracle that spontaneously knows all spells on the sorcerer/wizard list and the cleric list).

Halvdan62 |
Ok very nice, what do you think of a dwarf inquisitor. +17/12 to hit 1d8 +7 or 9 if I swing with both hands and I can apply great bane for another 4D6. Ac 27 but I can use judgements to boost ac to 31. His save are 12/7/13 but I can boost them all by +4. I have a wide variety of ways to build and boost the character with team feats and I have some spells.

andreww |
Ok very nice, what do you think of a dwarf inquisitor. +17/12 to hit 1d8 +7 or 9 if I swing with both hands and I can apply great bane for another 4D6. Ac 27 but I can use judgements to boost ac to 31. His save are 12/7/13 but I can boost them all by +4. I have a wide variety of ways to build and boost the character with team feats and I have some spells.
Greater Bane means you are level 12 Attacking at +17/12 for 1d8+9+4d6 is doing an average of 28 damage per swing. Average CR12 AC is 27. Ignoring crits you are doing around 26 damage per round. CR12 opponents have around 160hp. I suspect you will experience much frustration.

andreww |
Average HP for a level 12 monster is 160hp as per the Monster Creation table.
Bestiary examples include the 200hp purple worm, 162hp roper and 172hp adult green dragon.

Mydrrin |

Lol, played a game the other weekend. We are a group of seasoned veteran players, with fairly optimized characters. We downed some sort of ogre magi king at 3rd level without any magical gear. He took like 200 hit points of damage before he went down. Sometimes I think our GM just kind of goes, "Well you have wasted everything now, so now the end boss can go down."