I'd like some opinions on a few semi-odd concepts

[Revolving Door Alternate]

I am possibly joining a new group for a new campaign. Considering what kind of character to bring to the fiasco.

I have been informed that the group has some moderately newbie players and another that is not a power gaming optimizer. I don't want to show up with a kill monster that takes over and makes everyone already there look bad. I also don't want to not contribute sufficiently to seem useful.

I'm also told they have quite a bit of support, defensive, and healing capability. A bit low on offensive capability.

Oh and so far they have been fighting lots of outsiders or other creatures with energy resistance, spell immunities, and/or SR.

So I have a few initial ideas that I wanted to run by you folks. Would you be happy or disappointed to see these show up at your table? Either as a player or GM.

- Arcanist evoker with mostly sonic and force spells. Both spell penetration feats. Very few things are immune or resistant to sonic or force. So he would be able to damage almost anything, but those spells don't do huge amounts of damage. So he shouldn't be able to take over the spotlight.

- Fighter with just the bonus feats toward two-handed weapon combat. The standard feats would be dedicated to things like Eldritch Heritage and/or VMC to get some unusual capabilities.

- High dex weapon finesse unarmed brawler or monk for high chance to hit but not necessarily high damage.

- Other suggestions?

[Scott Wilhelm]

An Arcanist sounds fine. Arcane blasters are lovely.

Since your party has a lot of support and healing, I'd focus on a melee character's survivability. I'd use a shield and have a high AC. I'd get DR. I'd get Concealment. I'd get Fast Healing if I could.

But you want high offensive capability, but you don't want to outshine your allies. It's hard to have high survivability and high damage without outshining everyone else who doesn't.

[Wonderstell]

Really tough to say before you've gotten a chance to see them in action, especially since they seem to want offensive power. Damage output is usually the easiest way to steal the spotlight in a group of newbies, especially if martials are involved.

Revolving Door Alternate wrote:

- Arcanist evoker with mostly sonic and force spells. Both spell penetration feats. Very few things are immune or resistant to sonic or force. So he would be able to damage almost anything, but those spells don't do huge amounts of damage. So he shouldn't be able to take over the spotlight.

Ya know, if you get a Valet Familiar through the exploit and then the Choral Support teamwork feat, you could deal sonic dmg with any elemental blast spells. Depending on how optimized you make the Arcanist, the normal sonic/force spells may not be enough for this party.

[Oli Ironbar]

I think from your ideas that you prefer to play a powerful character, which if it makes the game enjoyable, you should do. So far as your see it conflicts with your group, (they sound like heavy role players) just put in all the flaws that a character like that would have and let that play into your decisions in combat.

If it’s smart to take down the caster first, ignore them if there is a martial insulting your honor. Or refuse to act aggressively in the first few rounds if it seems like the enemy is out matched and about to do themselves harm if they challenge you.

Playing with skilled players is one way to learn how to play the game, so maybe your character is predisposed to watching over an apprentice when they find one.

[I am Nemesis]

the kineticist- earth & fire are my favorites. blasts are ranged touch attacks. go with a metal or magma blast. i really like to role play the forming of the blast, for instance; Forming on my forearm is a roiling amalgamation of molten stone and fire, taking the form of a skreeching phoenix. It takes flight, streaking toward the huge black dragon, smashing through it's face, ripping and tearing with it's fiery beak and talons.

at that point i'm kinda putting my DM on the spot, so he picks up the challenge and goes into detail about the dragons retaliation. great fun to be had by all. even the melee guys get into it and become more verbose about their attacks.

my point is (but not the point of this thread) that you can role-play even in combat.

the kineticist is a good blaster that doesn't steal the spot-light because most of his attacks are against single targets and if you choose right can get a lot of utility use out of him.

[Toolbag]

I think I would look at what the non-"power gaming optimizer" is doing. Are they tripping? Grappling? Bull Rushing? Are they putting ranks in Bluff so they can Feint? Is there some way you could divert some of your characters abilities towards helping such things?

And by all means, follow Oli Ironbar's suggestion to play the character that you would find most enjoyable. Just consider what other things you might do to help the party as a whole that might be a challenge to your character at the same time.

[ShroudedInLight]

Fighter can do some fun things these days including:

Hook Fighter. - What a cool concept all neatly tucked into a feat without any of the hassle of the whole Whip feat chain.

Possessed Hand - With another feat on the chain you get to use two one handed weapons while TWFing and all kinds of cool bonuses that make you better at things other than fighting. Very cool.

And this is just scratching the surface of the really cool feats out there, along with some of the cool archetypes created like Gloomblade Fighter or Ankou's Shadow Slayer. Plus, with a focus on playing something fun rather than something munchkined to the max you can do silly things like the above feats or even something crazier like trying to dual wield greatswords without slowing down your group.

[Revolving Door Alternate]

Well, it looks like that group is a no-go. Sounds like it is just about to implode and breakup. I don't need another one of those.

Thanks for the suggestions anyhow. They might help sometime in the future.

[JDawg75]

Revolving Door Alternate wrote:

I am possibly joining a new group for a new campaign. Considering what kind of character to bring to the fiasco.

- Arcanist evoker with mostly sonic and force spells. Both spell penetration feats. Very few things are immune or resistant to sonic or force. So he would be able to damage almost anything, but those spells don't do huge amounts of damage. So he shouldn't be able to take over the spotlight.

- Fighter with just the bonus feats toward two-handed weapon combat. The standard feats would be dedicated to things like Eldritch Heritage and/or VMC to get some unusual capabilities.

- High dex weapon finesse unarmed brawler or monk for high chance to hit but not necessarily high damage.

- Other suggestions?

Honestly any of these three would be fine. You may want to see what everyone else is playing and be a gap-filler for the party.

J

[Omagi]

All would be welcome at my table.
A note about fighter, RP really makes the character in my experience.

Surprisingly one of my most notable characters of all time was a fighter that had one purpose in life... to seek out and fight strong opponents. The first words out of his mouth everytime(almost) he met someone knew was 'Are you strong?' And if they didnt respond 'no' he would challenge them to a duel.

He ultimately died a happy man, in combat, while trying to lead a zombie to a city to raise a zombie apocalypse so that he would have an endless horde of enemies to fight. Unfortunately he never got to finish constructing his dojo where he was going to train other people to 'be strong'.

---------------

Nevertheless, RP should probably be very strong for an experienced playing coming in to a group.

As far as additional character ideas, I'd recommend Cleric as they have RP built in to the character creation with gods and such as well as the fact that they are good (but not overwhelmingly) at basically anything they do. Kind of a yoda of classes. Great at all, Master of none.

An alternative would be a buff centralized character, most likely a wizard, and utilize spells like haste, enlarge person and other spells that will make your allies feel powerful. Every melee character loves when they get haste casted on them!!

[Cevah]

Revolving Door Alternate wrote:

Well, it looks like that group is a no-go. Sounds like it is just about to implode and breakup. I don't need another one of those.

Thanks for the suggestions anyhow. They might help sometime in the future.

Too bad about the group. For later readers, I have this:

Be a summoning bard (or other with inspiration). The inspiration helps everyone do more damage. No one minds that. Your summons can be used for more damage when needed, or skills if that is needed. They allow you to dial in the amount of damage team bard does.

/cevah

[JiaYou]

That's a super good point. We have a Mesmerist in my CoCT group and frankly a Bard with his stats would have been even more effective overall and especially in support of my Monster Tactician Inquisitor.