What would you build in Pathfinder, if you in REAL LIFE had the superpower of good luck?

[Reksew_Trebla]

For mechanical “rules”, let’s say that whenever something happens with you involved, the situation is “rolled” twice at every interval of the situation, and the outcome of each interval that you’d prefer the most happens.

Just curious what people would build if they had unnaturally good luck backing them up.

[Sysryke]

First thought, all of the debuff or other caster builds dependent on the enemies failing saving throws.

I'd also be tempted to try my hand at a crit focused build. The dice have never loved me.

[avr]

Using that superpower in game seems cheaty, unless everyone else in your group has it too. I'd likely build a deliberately weak character if it was just me.

[Mysterious Stranger]

The obvious choice is going to be a save or die caster. Having to roll saves twice give you a lot better chance to pull of the die part. But I would probably go for something else.

What I would do is go for a core monk. Rolling twice and taking the better roll would allow flurry of blows to actually hit, instead of being flurry of misses. Since you are also rolling damage twice it would also improve the damage as well as the chance to hit. It would also work for defense because the monk’s opponents have to roll twice to hit him. With all good saves, high touch AC and evasion rolling twice is going to make the monk practically immune to magic. Add this to the increased efficiency that I pointed out earlier and it makes for a very interesting character.

This of course assumes that only I have this ability.

[Reksew_Trebla]

avr wrote:

Using that superpower in game seems cheaty, unless everyone else in your group has it too. I'd likely build a deliberately weak character if it was just me.

What if you were the GM then? Surely you’d want things to be fair, as that is part of the job description, so you could build encounters/NPCs that wouldn’t normally work, either because they are too strong, or too weak, but would otherwise be really cool to use. What kinds of encounters/NPCs would you make then?

[*Thelith]

I would ask to roll stats(I prefer this method already)
This would likely net 14+ in each stat.

With these stats playing a paladin would be fun, they basically need every stat to work. This would also prevent my good luck from ever being used for evil!

Then grab all of the 'luck' traits that allow you to 1/day force a reroll type bonuses, this would then force 4 rolls when you really needed a hit/miss/save etc. Maximizing my innate luck rolls.

Grab anything that allows a reroll of 1's to also maximize more innate luck.

Grab the feats that allow you to redirect attacks from your allies to yourself. This would essentially give my allies the benefits of my good luck.

With a high score in every ability acting as the face with lucky rolls would allow our group to bypass potential combat situations, again allowing the group to benefit from my own personal luck.

As far as this feeling 'cheaty'...?

There are already people who claim to always roll poorly and others who claim to always roll well, maybe this power already exists..but those people shouldn't be forced to make a weaker character because they are lucky...

[VRMH]

What I would build? An Illusionist.

[MrCharisma]

Rolling 1d20, average = 10.5
- Nat 20 = 20/400 (5%)
- Nat 1 = 20/400 (5%)

Rolling twice take the Highest, average = 13.825 (+3.325)
- Nat 20 = 39/400 (9.75%)
- Nat 1 = 1/400 (0.25%)

Rolling twice take the Lowest, average = 7.175 (-3.325)
- Nat 20 = 1/400 (0.25%)
- Nat 1 = 39/400 (9.75%)

So mechanicay you can play a character with lower stats. Your attacks will hit more often, your saves will succeed more often, your enemies' attacks and saves will fail more often. You'll also have this bonus on skill-checks, damage rolls, etc etc.

I'd probably do something like what avr and Mysterious Stranger have said and play something mechanically weak, since it'll balance out and become more playable when I play it.

You could play something like a Witch and double-down on this mechanic (I'd probably do this eventually to see what it's like) but I imagine it'd get boring. Misfortune would have an enemy effectively rolling 4 times and choosing the lowest roll.

Average roll on 4d20 pick the Highest = 16.4833375 (+5.9833375)
Chance of rolling a Nat-20 = 29,679/160,000 (18.549375%)
Chance of rolling a Nat-1 = 1/160,000 (0.000625%)

Average roll on 4d20 pick the Lowest = 4.5166625 (-5.9833375)
Chance of rolling a Nat-20 = 1/160,000 (0.000625%)
Chance of rolling a Nat-1 = 29,679/160,000 (18.549375%)

Actually that makes a Hexcrafter look pretty powerful - Fortune means your average roll is a crit with a Scimitar.

Or a Gunslinger with Improved Critical has ~35% chance to get a Crit - that's like a 14-20 crit range (though you have to get the roll-twice ability from somewhere: Maybe a dip into Shaman?)

In a 1-shot I think these could be fun, but in a long-term game having a huge disparity of power makes the game less enjoyable. I'd be more likely to play the mechanically weak options since they become more viable. Maybe an Old-Age barbarian, a Dwarven Sorcerer or a Strength-Based Core Rogue.

EDIT: I added some texture to (hopefully) make it easier to read and compare relevant numbers.