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This thread got me thinking: how bad of a Player Character can be made? Many folks on these forums are used to optimizing a good character, but let's see what happens when we put that towards making a bad character.
A few baselines:
1) Create the character for 12th level.
2) Use 20pt buy for stats.
3) No NPC classes.
4) Paizo content only.
5) The character will have wealth for a 12th level PC, but does not need to have spent it on anything useful. Cursed items cannot be purchased or crafted.
6) No lingering effects/debuffs/stat damage.
7) Other than a general combat strategy (attack with 2 melee weapons, throw rocks, etc.), the character will be assumed to be played at least somewhat competently. The combat strategy must be theoretically capable of winning an encounter; they can't just stand in a corner and cast mending on a rock the whole fight.
8) Above all, the decisions for the character can be bad, but should not be outright and immediately harmful. They may attempt to poison a weapon without poison use, but they won't drink it.
Characters should be measured based on:
Offense (attacks and spell DCs)
Defense (AC, saves, HP, etc.)
Out-of-combat contribution (skills and utility spells)
Ideally, the character should be lacking in all 3.
Multiclass 12 non full BAB classes. There's not much you can do with first level casting 12 times at 12 level.
Oooh, or the guy who tries to duel wield greatswords without taking two weapon fighting!
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What I've got so far is this:
Kobold wizard3/sorcerer3/witch3/rogue1/monk1/master spy1
STR 4
DEX 15
CON 10
INT 10
WIS 21
CHA 10
1) Quicken Spell
1W) Scribe Scroll
3) Prone Shooter
S1) Eschew Materials
5) Widen Spell
7) Maximize Spell
9) Deceitful
11) Iron Will
1M) Scorpion Style
1M) Improved Unarmed Strike
1M) Stunning Fist
Bluff 7
Disguise 7
Perception 5
Sense Motive 5
Profession 1 each (architect, baker, barrister, basket weaver, beggar, clerk, farmer, gambler, librarian, midwife, miller, scribe)
broken medium-sized swordbreaker dagger
broken splint mail armor
broken tower shield
Attack: -24 (1d4-5, x2), sneak attack 2d6
AC: 16 (-17 ACP [-34 for skills], 90% ASF)
HP: 47 (average)
Fort: +5 / Ref: +10 / Will: +19
Spells: 9 0th from sorc/wiz, 4 0th from witch
He's got a good will save and not much else. He can only cast 0th level spells, and even those fail 90% of the time. He needs a 20 to hit, and only ever does 1 non-lethal damage, even on a crit. Sneak attack is the only source of actual damage. Due to his -34 armor check penalty to all dex and str skills, he isn't contributing much there either. His only decent skills are perception and sense motive, and those are frequently opposed checks vs. stealth and bluff.
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Multiclass 12 non full BAB classes. There's not much you can do with first level casting 12 times at 12 level.
That guy will have amazing saves though.
Here's a stab:
Mr. Incompetent
Human rogue(driver, trapsmith) 12 (chose fighter as favored class so no FCB)
S7 D8 C7 I17 W7 CH23
hp 33 (12d8-24)(took average)
AC 9 (ff 9, touch 9)
F +2 R +7 W +2
Dual wields 2 Small sais(nonproficient)
Attack 2 small sais -3/-7/-8(1d3-2)(+9 BAB, -2 Str, -2 size, -4 nonprof, -4/-8 TWF, one iterative)
Feats: pick any 6 metamagic feats(no prereqs!)
Skills: 12 various Profession skills each at +13 (but not any for driving vehicles)
Rogue talents: hold breath x6
Trapfinding, trap sense, and both uncanny dodges traded away for archetype abilities that he really can't use.
He does have Evasion and 6d6 sneak attack, for all the good that does him.
All money spent on expired ioun stones.
Edit: fixed error in hp.
STR: 7 DEX: 7 CON: 12 INT: 7 WIS: 17 CHA: 20
Wizard 2
Witch 2
Alchemist 2
Arcanist 2
occultist 1
magus 1
Sorcerer (sage) 2
Wears spint mail armor and fights dual wielding Small repeating heavy crossbows, 1 in each hand.
BAB +0
dex -2
Size difference -2
Shooting 1 handed -4
Dual wielding -6/-6
Armor check penalty -7
-21 to attack for 1d8 damage twice a round.
Make the rogue a phantom thief and take skill focus for all talents for your various professions.
This gets rid of sneak attack too for the rogue.
Wizard 12
Max Str and Cha; dump Wis, just to make sure Will saves aren't good.
Lost his Spellbook...
Feats: Combat Expertise, Alertness, etc
Skills: Only untrained skills
sorcerer 12 venerable elf
8-3/7-1/7-5/18+5+1+1+1/18+3/7+3
5/6/2/26/21/10
your skill points into performs
hp = 2+0*11 =2
AC = 8
dual whips
attack = 6-3-4 non-proficient -6/-10 TWF
-7/-11 for 1d3-3 non-lethal
You have cantrips as DC 10
You have 2 HP at lv12 and die at -2.
No. You always gain at least 1 hp per level.
You have 2 HP at lv12 and die at -2.
So it does, so it does. I wasn't aware of that.
Okay well HP is 13 and dies at -2.|
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Venerable age is a good idea, as is broken equipment. Not sure it's worth the AC gain to take a huge armor check penalty, as these characters are already fishing for 20s to hit.
Venerable is -6 to all three physical stats, not -3.
Venerable would get my rogue down to S1 D2 C1 I20 W10 Ch26
Change hp to 14(12d8-60)
AC goes down to 6
broken small sais are now -6/-10/-11(1d3-7)
F -1 R +4 W +4 for saves.
Pathetic saves and AC, basically no hp, needs 20s to hit any AC > 13. If he does hit, he does 1 nonlethal, crit or no, or an average of 16 with sneak attack. DPR is 0.15 nonlethal normally, or 2.415 if flanking. An average CR12 foe hits this guy on a 2 and likely kills him outright(dead at -1).
Kobold Cleric 12
str 3, Dex 20, Con 5, Int 21, Wis 7, Cha 7
Tower Shield, Splint Mail, using a medium size Iron Brush
All skills are spent on perform or profession skills
All feats on skill focus for those skills
Most of his wbl is spent on an alchemical dragon
What about a Draconic Sorcerer who dumps charisma and pumps up his strength as high as it will go so that he can eviscerate his enemies with his might dragon claws?
Venerable age is a good idea, as is broken equipment. Not sure it's worth the AC gain to take a huge armor check penalty, as these characters are already fishing for 20s to hit.
Venerable is -6 to all three physical stats, not -3.
Venerable would get my rogue down to S1 D2 C1 I20 W10 Ch26
Change hp to 14(12d8-60)
AC goes down to 6
broken small sais are now -6/-10/-11(1d3-7)
F -1 R +4 W +4 for saves.Pathetic saves and AC, basically no hp, needs 20s to hit any AC > 13. If he does hit, he does 1 nonlethal, crit or no, or an average of 16 with sneak attack. DPR is 0.15 nonlethal normally, or 2.415 if flanking. An average CR12 foe hits this guy on a 2 and likely kills him outright(dead at -1).
I still suggest going phantom thief as that gets rid of your sneak attack damage possibility.
What about a Draconic Sorcerer who dumps charisma and pumps up his strength as high as it will go so that he can eviscerate his enemies with his might dragon claws?
That would be far more useful than many of our characters. Still would probably be a bad choice, but not the worst.
A kineticist that dumped con and dex, and pumped everything int.
Also, I am going to say it maxed its burn out on stuff like jagged flesh.
Also, it took the negative energy blast while playing mummy's mask.
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Venerable age is a good idea, as is broken equipment. Not sure it's worth the AC gain to take a huge armor check penalty, as these characters are already fishing for 20s to hit.
The biggest use I see for broken armor is actually the huge penalties to skills, which could otherwise actually contribute something. Maybe just use a broken tower shield for this, as it's plenty disruptive on its own without any worn armor. Too bad there's not any easy way to get penalties to charisma-based skills, maybe just becoming mute somehow would be sufficient.
Also, I like that your rogue is largely worse than most 1st level characters.
What about a Draconic Sorcerer who dumps charisma and pumps up his strength as high as it will go so that he can eviscerate his enemies with his might dragon claws?That would be far more useful than many of our characters. Still would probably be a bad choice, but not the worst.
Did I mention that, due to dumping Charisma, he only can use his claws for one round per day and he refuses to use other weapons?
Does he also use a tower shield to make use of his massive strength?
still that'd be 1 round of what +12 or so to hit for 1d4+6 damage with 2 attempts, which is more Damage than the -3/-7/-11 for 1 is doing.
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Besides, once he runs out of "claw power" he will still need to do something to at least pretend he's participating, at least per the original parameters. He'll probably unarmed strike for lethal, which is still +8/+3 (1d3+6). I wouldn't want that in my adventuring party, but he'll be putting the other characters here to shame, what with his positive attack bonuses and damage numbers that go up on a crit.
Besides, once he runs out of "claw power" he will still need to do something to at least pretend he's participating, at least per the original parameters. He'll probably unarmed strike for lethal, which is still +8/+3 (1d3+6). I wouldn't want that in my adventuring party, but he'll be putting the other characters here to shame, what with his positive attack bonuses and damage numbers that go up on a crit.
True, he could probably beat a goblin. And if he critted...my god, he could even beat an orc!
What I've got so far is this:
Kobold wizard3/sorcerer3/witch3/rogue1/monk1/master spy1
** spoiler omitted **
** spoiler omitted **
** spoiler omitted **
** spoiler omitted **
** spoiler omitted **
He's got a good will save and not much else. He can only cast 0th level spells, and even those fail 90% of the time. He needs a 20 to hit, and only ever does 1 non-lethal damage, even on a crit. Sneak attack is the only source of actual damage. Due to his -34 armor check penalty to all dex and str skills, he isn't contributing much there either. His only decent skills are perception and sense motive, and those are frequently opposed checks vs. stealth and bluff.
Since the character is supposed to be played by a competent player, what is stopping him from removing his armor and throwing it away? I am not even sure he can carry the armor with his strength score of 4.
Still, an easy way to organically get a very bad character might be this:
1) Create a reasonable martial character with unexceptional stats.
2) Age him to the Venerable age category.
The character could reasonably brag about the great deeds he could do "when I was your age" but be rendered nearly helpless by his reduced physical stats.
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What I've got so far is this:
Kobold wizard3/sorcerer3/witch3/rogue1/monk1/master spy1
** spoiler omitted **
** spoiler omitted **
** spoiler omitted **
** spoiler omitted **
** spoiler omitted **
He's got a good will save and not much else. He can only cast 0th level spells, and even those fail 90% of the time. He needs a 20 to hit, and only ever does 1 non-lethal damage, even on a crit. Sneak attack is the only source of actual damage. Due to his -34 armor check penalty to all dex and str skills, he isn't contributing much there either. His only decent skills are perception and sense motive, and those are frequently opposed checks vs. stealth and bluff.
Since the character is supposed to be played by a competent player, what is stopping him from removing his armor and throwing it away? I am not even sure he can carry the armor with his strength score of 4.
Still, an easy way to organically get a very bad character might be this:
1) Create a reasonable martial character with unexceptional stats.
2) Age him to the Venerable age category.
The character could reasonably brag about the great deeds he could do "when I was your age" but be rendered nearly helpless by his reduced physical stats.
It's a bit of a weird line to set, but I'm basically going for "set a general combat strategy", which includes which weapons and armor you use, how you divide your attacks, etc. Many of these "dual wielding" characters would be better off just attacking with one weapon. Kinda like a thrown weapon user who would be better served two-handing a club.
Additionally, I didn't say "competent player", I said "played at least somewhat competently". This character would be under the control of someone who is nominally trying to participate in the game, but is just picking options at random and using them, to an absurdly low effect. If they were swimming they would attempt to make the checks, not just drown themselves because the character is stupid.
For reference, see the B1 skeletons, who are way more dangerous if they ditch their broken scimitars and just use claw attacks.
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Even without dual wielding my rogue is a -2/-7 (1d3-7) for attacks - that's still quite terrible. I suppose he could switch over to punching for +4/-1 (1d3-5 nonlethal), and provoke an AoO with each attack. Given his 6 AC and low hp, I'm not sure that's a good strategy.
Edit: I'm adding an another entry:
Magor the Unlucky
Venerable elf wizard 12
hp 18 (12d6-24)
AC 8
S1 D6 C7 I26 W10 Ch13
F +2 R +2 W +8
unarmed +1(1d3-5 nonlethal), provokes.
Magor has had his spellbook destroyed, so he can only prepare read magic. He prepares it in every spell slot.