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I've seen quite a few after running games for awhile, but the one that stands out the most was the Barbarian that on a standard stat spread (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8)
Human Barbarian ST 10 DX 8 CN 12 IT 13 WS 14 CH 17
and yet still wanted to do a lot of damage and was shocked creatures where able to kill him in a few hits. He wanted a High Charisma because he wanted to be 'good-looking' despite me saying many times over, Charisma was natural charm, not appearance.
and he didn't take -ANY- Social skills, not even Intimidate.
He was also the one with the highest charisma in the group, so he ended up through a few sessions became the group face, until he could get the group to let him die in battle and make a new character
Lvl5 halfling ranger, Str13, Dex16, Con16, Int7, Wis16, Cha9.
Weapon Finesse, Skill Focus ×2, Far Shot
One of my houserules allows you to take Skill Focus to get +5 to one skill, +3 to two or +2 to four. She took the feat twice to get +3 to Survival, Use Magic Device, Knowledge (nature) and Knowledge (geography).
One rank in Survival, one rank in Use Magic Device.
Declined to pick out a second favored enemy and discarded around 60% of their starting wealth.
It wasn't in actual play, just a proposed Kinetic Knight build here on the boards. The person wanted help optimizing their build which was an old aged grandma with a racial penalty to constitution.
So in short. They had a -5 penalty to their primary attribute and absolutely destroyed their point buy trying to make it work.
The painter wizard. Guaranteed to force the game to devolve into a series of arguments about game mechanics.
Wow, that barbarian sounds pretty freaking awful! Thanks for reminding me that there are worse examples out there than the chronically useless builds that one or two of our local PFS regulars have become known for.
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I've seen some pretty terrible ones in pfs.
I remember this one guy who played a multiclassed cleric/bard/sorcerer, whose main shtick was having tons of consumables. He'd be throwing out DC11 offensive spells from a 1st level wand in a 5-9 scenario. At least he contributed a small amount with a +1 bard song and some crappy channels.
The worst I ever saw was this one guy who had a bloodrager with similar stats to that barbarian you mentioned. When we asked why he had an 18 charisma, he said because he was playing a spellcaster and wanted a good caster stat. We were playing a 6-7 scenario and got into a nasty fight with these weird constructs. Our wizard cast a pit spell, one of them fell in and bounced right back out. The bloodrager ran between the constructs, got dropped by opportunity attacks, fell into the wizard's pit, and died, without even taking a single action from the enemies.
Bard 1/rogue 1/wizard x, who was using acid splash with 1d6 sneak attack as a primary attack strategy well past level 10. Didn't use other means to increase sneak attack, didn't use other means to increase rounds/day or effective level of bardic performance, and never used most of his spells. Was an elf, so could have carried and used a bow; never did.
The rest of the group was strong enough that we got by fine, and he had fun, which I suppose is what really counts, but man, it hurt.
D&D 3.5, someone rolled lucky on stats and decided that freed them from having to make sensible choices. A fighter who somehow had no combat-useful feats, 13 Str and 12 Dex (everything else 15-18), who was useless at everything.
It might actually have been my own character.
For Kingmaker when we rolled our stats we rolled:
- 5d6, discard the lowest 2 dice.
- Roll 7 sets and discard the lowest set.
I ended up with a ~55 point buy, and I was slightly below average. Also it was a 6 person party.
(EDIT: I did try to warn the GM how ridiculous this would get.)
I decided since our party was gonna be super OP I'd go with somee fun flavourful choices. I went Evangelist Cleric, 1 level into Unchained Monk, then into the Evangelist prestige class. For feats I went all out on buffing, Deific Obedience and Divine Fighting technique (Iomedae, so more buffing).
To be honest this was totally viable - we were stomping through encounters anyway. Then 3 of our party left us and it was just me and 2 invulnerable Paladins. The GM had to up the difficulty of every encounter so much in order to pose even a slight threat to them that my poor Cleric didn't stand a chance. She didn't die, but she went unconscious so often I literally lost count (that became a big part of her character, she was covered in scars and believed herself to be immortal since she kept being woken by an Aasimar Paladin).
The build wasn't objectively "bad" (as a support character she had buffs for days), but my "feats only for flavour" character didn't mesh with the "build the most powerful character possible" mindset of the other players ... especially since they were both Paladins.
TLDR: Try to fit your group =P
It was a mesmermist built by a min-maxer for my first attempt at playing Curse of the Crimson Throne. He (the player) min-maxed to a ridiculous extent by pushing into old age, tanking strength, and then pushing his INT up as high as possible. To make it even better, he literally ran away from every fight we had leaving three PCs to face most encounters. I was so happy when he fell into a pile of STR-draining spiders, but then we saved him from death. I left the game soon after.
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There was a kid in Pathfinder Society who brought a Wizard, but he didn't know anything about playing, so he asked some rando in the gaming store to pick his spells for him, and that guy picked spells to teach the young wizard a lesson. His most powerful was his Hand of the Mage, and the result was a TPK.
That guy sounds like a jerk.
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...that guy picked spells to teach the young wizard a lesson...That guy sounds like a jerk.
Jeeze, yeah. What lesson did he want to teach the kid, exactly? That the gates are being kept? 'Cause...they are, obviously.
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heh. I remember a Min-max'er, created a Halfling Paladin.
Str 6 Dex 14 Con 12 Int 10 Wis 13 Cha 18
they wanted a lucky Paladin, now you'd think they might go Ranged combat with these stats.... nope, Long Sword and Shield Holy Warrior of Iomedae.
Sadly he forgot all his gear has weight.... But he was indeed pretty lucky via all his saving throws
My table members are pretty good at building characters, our worst still makes characters that function, though not always in their intended role. The worst I've seen are mismatches of character personality and mechanical ability. Brave heroes with low will saves and things like that. The character just looks like a jerk, but can still function.
I've seen some decently well built characters gutted by DMs who planned encounters around making them impotent. But I don't think insufficiently DM proofed characters are poorly built.
A 5e Rogue that stole from the party. Perfectly viable Rogue character build... just a b@st@rd player in control of it.
I really, REALLY wasn't too sure about a severely multiclassed Panache build that involved six levels in three totally different classes, BEFORE settling into Magus. A level of Swashbuckler, a level of Ranger, four levels of cMonk, and he ended up with six levels of Magus before I retired him. I didn't know anything about Panache and didn't really trust it. I didn't think that he would survive without armor. And I was worried that starting Magus so late would be a waste. I was wrong on all accounts. He was awesome and went the last three levels of his career without taking a single point of damage (that's why I retired him).
Honestly, most of the players I have encountered build pretty decent characters. Even when purposefully creating a silly/fun character, they usually are still useful... I can't do math without taking off my shoes, but I can Inspire Courage, sort of thing.
I knew a player had a bizarre aversion to playing any class that wasn’t in 3.5, and refused to accept advice from anyone else at the table about character choices, or suggested abilities.
He played a dwarf sorcerer/monk trip based build that had negative STR and CHA, so did almost no damage had no non-combat skills, and despite a supposedly great AC kept getting hit. Then again, the character did manage to get two other PCs killed through stupid tactical choices, so I suppose that’s an achievement of sorts.
I GM a game for my younger brothers (26, 23, 20, and 15). First time playing for half of them, so I offered to help anyone with character building if they'd like; no one took the offer. One of them decided to play a middle-aged elf wizard with dumped Con (4), so he gains an average of 1hp per level. Still technically alive at level 3, but has gone unconscious several times, and enemies are scaling in damage much faster than he scales in hp, so he'll be killed by a single hit one of these days. I'm considering it a learning experience.
I saw a good aligned cleric with Cure Spells prepared in Pathfinder. A lot of them.
This is my favorite so far. Don't have to have terrible stats or multi-classing to have a terrible build.
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any form of a stealth archer (ie Sniper) is the worst build in TTRPGs. It's fine for Skyrim (or if everyone wants to be a sniper/ninja/Batman), but in a group game, you've taken a target off the battlefield, which will eventually get someone else ganked in your place.
It's a favorite troupe, but it only ends in tears in my experience
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My Druid/monk spent a lot of time in elemental form with the chameleon Kobold rogue on his shoulder as a stealthed gun turret. Worked very effectively as Kamishah was a brick house of HP and saves.
TOZ this is a thread for bad builds, not awesome ones.
any form of a stealth archer (ie Sniper) is the worst build in TTRPGs. It's fine for Skyrim (or if everyone wants to be a sniper/ninja/Batman), but in a group game, you've taken a target off the battlefield, which will eventually get someone else ganked in your place.
It's a favorite troupe, but it only ends in tears in my experience
I think this is a problem with stealth in general - either everyone has it or it's useless. Even when you go scouting it's usually:
"We'll leave you slow tanky guys here and go scout"
*rolls nat-1 on stealth*
"Man I wish we had someone to tank in this fight".
I think "taking a target off the battlefield" is ok as long as the others know you're doing that ans plan accordingly. I'm playing a Bloodrager as the only front-liner for Iron Gods and it's worked pretty well (though I'm REALLY regretting not going Arcane Bloodline).
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any form of a stealth archer (ie Sniper) is the worst build in TTRPGs. It's fine for Skyrim (or if everyone wants to be a sniper/ninja/Batman), but in a group game, you've taken a target off the battlefield, which will eventually get someone else ganked in your place.
It's a favorite troupe, but it only ends in tears in my experience
I think this is a problem with stealth in general - either everyone has it or it's useless. Even when you go scouting it's usually:
"We'll leave you slow tanky guys here and go scout"
*rolls nat-1 on stealth*
"Man I wish we had someone to tank in this fight".
I think "taking a target off the battlefield" is ok as long as the others know you're doing that ans plan accordingly. I'm playing a Bloodrager as the only front-liner for Iron Gods and it's worked pretty well (though I'm REALLY regretting not going Arcane Bloodline).
Yeah that'd be and example of a bad build if they made a scout that can be seen and doesn't have any way of dealing if they are. Scouting works quite well in pathfinder, most tables I've played at have had one.
"I'll be the frontline fighter so no one else should concentrate on that" and then half the time finds an excuse for not been on the frontline. :-(
Sounds awkwardly familiar. There was a fighter with 20ish AC (at level 2) who avoided multiple encounters ("in LARP we would do that") or hid behind a tree while his fragile party members battled for their life ("in LARP we would do that"). When I think of pathetic cowardness in RPGs, this mental image of a broad fighter cowering behind a thin tree pops up. Always.
The build seemed ok (difficult to say when you don't see much combat action from the player, eh?), but the player was a boasting and domineering jerk. I would have preferred someone agreeable with a really bad character build.
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Anyone in any game that played a Frenzied Berserker or anything like it.
It could work as a good opening attack, or lead the rest of the foes into an ambush. Just pretty situational.
tactics and ambushes are one thing, I'm talking tries to stay in stealth, extreme range or invisible the entire combat, every combat so as to not be a target. And since they are trying to stay hidden by some method, normally that cuts down on their full-attacks, meaning they aren't doing the damage of a typical ranged character (depending on system of course). While its a great choice personally, for a team, again it typically means someone is picking up all the extra baddies and even the best tank builds will wither under 2-4 additional opponents every combat.
Anyone in any game that played a Frenzied Berserker or anything like it.
Yeah, I played one in a 3.5 campaign based on the old Fighting Fantasy gamebooks. Grak Many Slayer started off as a half-ogre barbarian and was Skullcrusher Ogre (Barb 6 / FrenBez 10) when the campaign ended.
I've got a fellow who cannot for the life of him build a decent character, he made an investigator (Questioner Archetype, but with a houserule that gives them no arcane spell failure chance in light armor) with...I think it was 12, 14, 14, 18, 12, 12
His first feat was weapon finesse to bump his attack rolls from +1 to +2, he was using a dagger or a hand crossbow at that point. His second was Two Weapon Fighting and he tried to TWF with a Quarterstaff (I ended up house ruling both ends of a double weapon as light weapons to give him even the slightest chance). We hit level 6 and he is relying on Summon Monster 1 and Soundburst to try and function in combat. Not to mention, still wearing Leather Armor at this point (+2) so he's this fragile useless pseudo-bard that basically only has his skills to fall back on.
At this point I give him a magical quarterstaff that literally is just a Dark Elementalist's Fire Kinetic Blast at will, house rule investigator's Studied Combat to work with ranged weapons automatically, and he still manages to constantly make poor decisions mid-battle. Stuff like: not using his massive knowledge checks to find out about the enemies he faces, Using basic invisibility in the middle of a combat that will last AT LEAST 10 rounds because of a ritual the PC's need to protect, and still pulling out his bloody masterwork crossbow when I've given him a stick that does 4d6+2 (we're level 7) and works with Studied Combat/Studied Strike. He's only moderately effective because I've changed like 8 different rules and gave him a whole different class's best feature on a stick.
Everyone else in the campaign? Doing fine.
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Anyone in any game that played a Frenzied Berserker or anything like it.
yes, it was a TPK to 'friendly fire'
I've got a fellow who cannot for the life of him build a decent character, he made an investigator (Questioner Archetype, but with a houserule that gives them no arcane spell failure chance in light armor) with...I think it was 12, 14, 14, 18, 12, 12
His first feat was weapon finesse to bump his attack rolls from +1 to +2, he was using a dagger or a hand crossbow at that point. His second was Two Weapon Fighting and he tried to TWF with a Quarterstaff (I ended up house ruling both ends of a double weapon as light weapons to give him even the slightest chance). We hit level 6 and he is relying on Summon Monster 1 and Soundburst to try and function in combat. Not to mention, still wearing Leather Armor at this point (+2) so he's this fragile useless pseudo-bard that basically only has his skills to fall back on.
At this point I give him a magical quarterstaff that literally is just a Dark Elementalist's Fire Kinetic Blast at will, house rule investigator's Studied Combat to work with ranged weapons automatically, and he still manages to constantly make poor decisions mid-battle. Stuff like: not using his massive knowledge checks to find out about the enemies he faces, Using basic invisibility in the middle of a combat that will last AT LEAST 10 rounds because of a ritual the PC's need to protect, and still pulling out his bloody masterwork crossbow when I've given him a stick that does 4d6+2 (we're level 7) and works with Studied Combat/Studied Strike. He's only moderately effective because I've changed like 8 different rules and gave him a whole different class's best feature on a stick.
Everyone else in the campaign? Doing fine.
O.o sounds very similar to a current player I have that believes multiclassing into pretty-near-everything will make him better. He openly stats he wants to be a power gamer. O.o
So far, this has not worked well for them
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Anyone in any game that played a Frenzied Berserker or anything like it.Yeah, I played one in a 3.5 campaign based on the old Fighting Fantasy gamebooks. Grak Many Slayer started off as a half-ogre barbarian and was Skullcrusher Ogre (Barb 6 / FrenBez 10) when the campaign ended.
Ah the 3e frenzied berserker. I remember one of my players made one back in the day. He killed another pc, so that player comes in with a new character, a druid. The next fight, the druid made sure to stay out of reach of the berserker. So The berserker kills the last enemy, takes a five foot step and cleaves the druids animal companion, takes a 5 foot step and supreme cleaves the druid, and kills his character again.
I only ever had one frenzied berserker player. The party collectively told him he was a liability and fired him. He tagged along anyway and died to a beholder's eye beams while the party was still working on a strategy. He was pretty sure that he would still be alive after failing the finger of death save, but frenzied berserker doesn't help with that type of thing. He also thought the party would have him resurrected, but I don't think he realized how much of a problem he'd been for them. I believe they did bring him back, but he jumped into a volcano while raging and I didn't really know how to deal with that.
That's more a player than a build problem. Sort of like the build reveals failures of the player by highlighting their problems.
I've also had problems with the stealth archer thing. It works fine if they are willing to use their attacks to fill the defensive hole they leave, and to move to the field if they need more bodies, but this is another build that shows a players short comings. A stealth archer who will open fire from a wide angle and kite the enemies out of formation is a good unit. However, builds that help you play selfishly tend to show off selfish play.
Yeah, I know, it's what your character would do.
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I think the worst stealth build for a rogue, was mostly just someone who didn't put his best stat into Dexterity, and since it was a level one starting game, didn't take a feat to enhance there stealth. (If I remember correctly they took Iron Will also think for a race they picked Dwarf) I do remember there stealth bonus was a Total of +5
When we first tried v3.0, a 1e veteran decided on a half-elf sorcerer/cleric, on the basis that multiclassing had been good in 1e. Even with a couple of custom feats to make it half-viable (eg -10% spell failure to allow leather armour), it worked about as well as expected.