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View Full Version : Helping a Stubborn PC [Eberron 3.5]



LichPrinceAlim
2010-02-18, 02:34 PM
I know, but this ISN'T me. My buddy wants to run a Soulknife/Fighter and be "Mr. Melee." However, he wants ME to design it (first campaign, and his parents gave him the psionics trio). He said he won't play if he's not a soulknife BC. I considered Warblade/Soulknife just to stave his agression, but then I had a weird epiphany:

Race: Chosen (Psychic Human from SoS)
Classes: Soulknife 5/Fighter5/Iaijutsu Master 10/
Feats: Skill Focus: Iaijutsu Focus, Weapon Focus Tree for both mindblade and for Bastard Sword, Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Bastard Sword

I think this could somehow help stave his rabid screeching

Starbuck_II
2010-02-18, 02:37 PM
I know, but this ISN'T me. My buddy wants to run a Soulknife/Fighter and be "Mr. Melee." However, he wants ME to design it (first campaign, and his parents gave him the psionics trio). He said he won't play if he's not a soulknife BC. I considered Warblade/Soulknife just to stave his agression, but then I had a weird epiphany:

Race: Chosen (Psychic Human from SoS)
Classes: Soulknife 5/Fighter5/Iaijutsu Master 10/
Feats: Skill Focus: Iaijutsu Focus, Weapon Focus Tree for both mindblade and for Bastard Sword, Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Bastard Sword

I think this could somehow help stave his rabid screeching

Needs more Bloodline (in UA from SRD).

Assuming no Bloodline:
Fighter 5: Why would anyone take an odd Fighter level?
Wouldn't Soulknife 6, Fighter 4 be smarter? That extra Soulknife level gives a concrete ability but not Fighter.

LichPrinceAlim
2010-02-18, 02:39 PM
Needs more Bloodline (in UA from SRD).

Assuming no Bloodline:
Fighter 5: Why would anyone take an odd Fighter level?
Wouldn't Soulknife 6, Fighter 4 be smarter? That extra Soulknife level gives a concrete ability but not Fighter.

1. DM banned Bloodline classes.

2. Then Fighter 4. I just wanted him to exit Soulknife AFTER the ability to shape it as a katana-esq blade

Mongoose87
2010-02-18, 02:44 PM
I recommend Soulknife 1/Wizard and PRCs19.

Starbuck_II
2010-02-18, 02:48 PM
Required Feats: Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Bastard Sword, Quick Draw, Improved Initiative
Reccommended: Skill Focus: Iaijutsu Focus

Does Weapon Focus: Mindblade count as Weapon Focus: Form it is in? Because then you don't need Weapon Focus: Katana for Prc.

LichPrinceAlim
2010-02-18, 02:55 PM
Soulknife's "quick draw mock" covers it for the Prereqs

and as for Weapon Focus, Mind Blade counts as Both a katana and as a Mind Blade (ie: its a "unique" bastard sword)

Wings of Peace
2010-02-18, 03:01 PM
Build him the character as a Psychic Warrior who uses Soulbound Weapon (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070214a) and just tell him it's a Soulknife.

LichPrinceAlim
2010-02-18, 03:03 PM
Build him the character as a Psychic Warrior who uses Soulbound Weapon (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070214a) and just tell him it's a Soulknife.

He said SPECIFICALLY against that ACF

Wings of Peace
2010-02-18, 03:05 PM
Can he shape his Mindblade into a Gnome Quickrazor at the least?

AslanCross
2010-02-18, 05:43 PM
Wow, he's pretty stubborn. Since you're in Eberron, you can suggest a Kalashtar Soulknife/Warblade/Atavist, since the Atavist and Kalashtar Soulknife substitution levels in Races of Eberron can make the Soulknife slightly more playable. If I'm not mistaken, Kalashtar Soulknife Lv 1 gives an alternative feature to Wild Talent as a bonus feat, because Kalashtar are naturally psionic and don't need it.

I'm AFB right now so I can't suggest any immediate builds, but really---Fighter 4 isn't really worth it if you're only going to get the Weapon Focus tree. Fighter 4 will get you 3 extra feats. Warblade 4 will stack with Soulknife for initiator level AND get more maneuvers.

Stick to Diamond Mind maneuvers for flavor. Those I suggest are:
-Moment of Perfect Mind: a must for any warblade who doesn't want to get charmed, dominated or otherwise Save-or-Sucked.
-Emerald Razor: Great at offsetting the BAB problem. (I also love renaming this maneuver to 'Will Knife'; cookie to those that get the reference.)
-Insightful Strike: For when the mind blade just isn't doing enough damage.

Supplement with the Tiger Claw maneuvers for the leaping.

JoshuaZ
2010-02-18, 06:34 PM
He said SPECIFICALLY against that ACF

Did he give a reason? His request seems oddly narrow.

AslanCross
2010-02-19, 03:01 AM
Ok, I have my Races of Eberron book with me.

I'd go with Kalashtar Soulknife 5/Warblade 5*/Atavist 10*.
*You can switch these; in fact I'd recommend that if the player wants to be more aggressive.

Kalashtar Soulknife 5: Take the 1st and 3rd racial substitution levels. Psychic strike is superfluous since you have martial maneuvers anyway. Purifying Strike might help a charmed or dominated ally. Soulknife 5 gets the Bastard Sword mind blade shape.

Warblade 5: Diamond Mind is your friend, but you can also benefit from Iron Heart.

Atavist only advances the Soulknife's Mind Blade bonus to attack and damage, so it's ok to sacrifice this for more Warblade levels. I would at least get up to Atavist 5, though, since you can get reach boost with Spiritual Focus.

If the campaign is quori-heavy, you could still go Warblade 8/Atavist 7.

Feats:
1 Soulblade Warrior (probably the bread and butter of any Kalashtar Soulknife)
1B Weapon Focus (Mind Blade)
3 Spiritual Force (psionic equivalent of the Divine Might feat: Cha to damage); either that or Psionic Weapon.
6 Speed of Thought

Most of your offense will come from your maneuvers, so you can focus on Psionic Feats. The Path of Shadows -> Dancing with Shadows tree isn't much use to a Soulknife, but you might want to look into it.

It's not a horribly optimal build, but it can still get things done.

LichPrinceAlim
2010-02-19, 12:16 PM
1. He doesn't want to "screw with psionics," plus the DM banned any class that "openly uses power points"

2. I thought more for a visual of the Ronin who IS his weapon. He'd be sitting @ the tavern when some punks decide to mug him. Next thing they know, the leader's head is the new main course on a silver plate.

JoshuaZ
2010-02-19, 12:28 PM
1. He doesn't want to "screw with psionics," plus the DM banned any class that "openly uses power points"

He banned that in an Eberron campaign? Why? :smallfrown:

Ok. I guess just soul knife would be fine. Would a psychic warrior who just buffed himself count as openly using powerpoints?

LichPrinceAlim
2010-02-19, 12:31 PM
He banned that in an Eberron campaign? Why? :smallfrown:

Ok. I guess just soul knife would be fine. Would a psychic warrior who just buffed himself count as openly using powerpoints?

The DM barely understands the system, and thus disallows it for PC usage. Trust me: if it wasn't for that noise, I'd be a Wilder/Metamind/Arch Psion!

and yes. basically, for now, psionics in the form of manifesting is banned.

Dusk Eclipse
2010-02-19, 12:34 PM
He banned that in an Eberron campaign? Why? :smallfrown:

Ok. I guess just soul knife would be fine. Would a psychic warrior who just buffed himself count as openly using powerpoints?

I'd say yes, considering all Psywar buffs NEED PP expenditure

Though I agree that banning psionics in an Eberron campaing is a ver WEIRD thing, I mean AFAIK Eberron and Darksun are the only campaing setting where Psionics is something common (well as common it can be in a magi-tech society like eberron as for Dark Sun, I am not familiar with it)

Sinfire Titan
2010-02-19, 12:39 PM
I'd say yes, considering all Psywar buffs NEED PP expenditure

Though I agree that banning psionics in an Eberron campaing is a ver WEIRD thing, I mean AFAIK Eberron and Darksun are the only campaing setting where Psionics is something common (well as common it can be in a magi-tech society like eberron as for Dark Sun, I am not familiar with it)

In Dark Sun, everyone and their Grandmother is Psionic. Everyone gets a free Wild Talent feat IIRC. You are right though, it makes no sense to ban Psionics in a campaign where an entire continent is devoted to Psionic creatures. And two planes of existence.


Talk to your DM, find out why they are banned.

LichPrinceAlim
2010-02-19, 12:42 PM
In Dark Sun, everyone and their Grandmother is Psionic. Everyone gets a free Wild Talent feat IIRC. You are right though, it makes no sense to ban Psionics in a campaign where an entire continent is devoted to Psionic creatures. And two planes of existence.


Talk to your DM, find out why they are banned.

He has two major reasonings:

1. He barely comprehends the Power Point system (he never plays RPG video games)

2. With what he gathered, he claims Psionics is easy to break and is overpowered and too complex for his players (one of which is his twelve-year old brother)

Flaming Nun
2010-02-19, 12:45 PM
As per the player, I say screw him. If he won't play if he can't play something the DM has banned, then he shouldn't play. That simple.

Granted, I'm jaded. One of the guys in my local group NEVER builds his own character - partially because we've switched to a homebrew GURPS system, but he's had literally years to learn how to do it, plus we made a self calculating excel character sheet: how hard can it possibly be?

The important part, however, is that kind of player is the kind of guy who forgets to take bonus languages at character creation, and then "Oops - I have to choose a language" as soon as you encounter a script that the party can't read.

LichPrinceAlim
2010-02-19, 12:52 PM
As per the player, I say screw him. If he won't play if he can't play something the DM has banned, then he shouldn't play. That simple.

Granted, I'm jaded. One of the guys in my local group NEVER builds his own character - partially because we've switched to a homebrew GURPS system, but he's had literally years to learn how to do it, plus we made a self calculating excel character sheet: how hard can it possibly be?

The important part, however, is that kind of player is the kind of guy who forgets to take bonus languages at character creation, and then "Oops - I have to choose a language" as soon as you encounter a script that the party can't read.

But we'd be short one set of hands. Trust me, my Dm's got a bad habit of putting us in TPK territory and letting us use our wits just to survive.

For instance: Last meeting (note, EVERYONE died, but not by his hand), we were in Hell facing a Half-Red dragon balor in a volcano. We all failed the checks to determine precisely what dragon he was. So I, the Ghoul Monk lept up on him like a spider monkey hopped up on Mt. Dew and kicked him into the mouth of the volcano. He survived, and I, in a last ditch move, punched the mountain as hard as i could. Needless to say, a Nat. 20 caused an eruption, killing the Balor and all of us along with him...

JoshuaZ
2010-02-19, 12:58 PM
He has two major reasonings:

1. He barely comprehends the Power Point system (he never plays RPG video games)

2. With what he gathered, he claims Psionics is easy to break and is overpowered and too complex for his players (one of which is his twelve-year old brother)

So he doesn't understand the system but is convinced that it is broken?

Grr. Power points are really simple and psionics are far more balanced than arcane magic.

The rules are simple: You get a certain number of points daily. You spend them to use powers. You can spend more on certain powers to make them better. You can't pay more power points than your manifesting level. There's nothing here more complicated than subtraction. If a 12 year old can't do subtraction there's a more serious problem here.

Flaming Nun
2010-02-19, 01:00 PM
Needless to say, a Nat. 20 caused an eruption, killing the Balor and all of us along with him...

Wait - so you are powerful enough to punch a mountain and make it explode...but not so much so as to avoid some lava raining on you?

Anxe
2010-02-19, 01:16 PM
The best build for a Soulknife is to go into Pyrokineticist. That's only if your DM lets the two ability sets stack though.

DragoonWraith
2010-02-19, 01:17 PM
A DM decided to make an off-the-cuff houseruling on the effects of a PC getting a nat-20 and made it kill the entire party?

Seriously?

JoshuaZ
2010-02-19, 01:28 PM
A DM decided to make an off-the-cuff houseruling on the effects of a PC getting a nat-20 and made it kill the entire party?

Seriously?

Yeah. I'm going echo being appalled at that. And why the heck should punching a volcano cause it to erupt? That doesn't even make sense. A natural 20 should be an unusually lucky hit. Even if someone really strong punches a volcano repeatedly, they aren't going to make it erupt. And certainly not 1 every 20 punches causing an eruption. And to then do something like that that would cause the party to die? I'm liking this DM less and less the more I heard about the person.

Sanguine
2010-02-19, 01:31 PM
Yeah. I'm going echo being appalled at that. And why the heck should punching a volcano cause it to erupt? That doesn't even make sense. A natural 20 should be an unusually lucky hit. Even if someone really strong punches a volcano repeatedly, they aren't going to make it erupt. And certainly not 1 every 20 punches causing an eruption. And to then do something like that that would cause the party to die? I'm liking this DM less and less the more I heard about the person.

Not to mention even if all of these decisions were logical(which they aren't) a Monk's Evasion should have saved his ass unless he had an abysmal reflex.

absolmorph
2010-02-19, 01:38 PM
But we'd be short one set of hands. Trust me, my Dm's got a bad habit of putting us in TPK territory and letting us use our wits just to survive.

For instance: Last meeting (note, EVERYONE died, but not by his hand), we were in Hell facing a Half-Red dragon balor in a volcano. We all failed the checks to determine precisely what dragon he was. So I, the Ghoul Monk lept up on him like a spider monkey hopped up on Mt. Dew and kicked him into the mouth of the volcano. He survived, and I, in a last ditch move, punched the mountain as hard as i could. Needless to say, a Nat. 20 caused an eruption, killing the Balor and all of us along with him...
That IS dying by his hand.
He made your Nat 20 SUPER EFFECTIVE to the point that it killed you all. How is that NOT all on him?

deuxhero
2010-02-19, 01:48 PM
Go psywarrior with the spiritual weapon mind's eye ACF.

Mongoose87
2010-02-19, 01:56 PM
Go psywarrior with the spiritual weapon mind's eye ACF.

Read the thread.

deuxhero
2010-02-19, 02:11 PM
The 3.0 soulknife prestige class!

Eldariel
2010-02-19, 02:29 PM
Frankly, yeah, seconding AslanCross's advice. Though if he wants to fit Iaijutsu Master in, Iaijutsu Master 5 gives him all the good stuff. Soulknife 5/Iaijutsu Master 5/Atavist 10 is a decent build. Though Warblade is nice too. Eh, really down to how he wants to roll it.

LichPrinceAlim
2010-02-19, 02:30 PM
About the whole Volcano Eruption TPK, half the party was already dead, and I was at 1 HP. My reflex save sucked exclusively because of my race (Ghoul). Here's the BS part: He claims "it was all a dream, so the TPK never happened, but the XP also is lost!" So I'm a Ghoul 5/Monk 3....WTF?!

LichPrinceAlim
2010-02-19, 02:32 PM
Frankly, yeah, seconding AslanCross's advice. Though if he wants to fit Iaijutsu Master in, Iaijutsu Master 5 gives him all the good stuff. Soulknife 5/Iaijutsu Master 5/Atavist 10 is a decent build. Though Warblade is nice too. Eh, really down to how he wants to roll it.

He doesn't get ToB (first campaign ever), so He thought Soulknife was easy. and I really like the SK5/IjM5/Atavist 10 idea.

Mongoose87
2010-02-19, 02:34 PM
About the whole Volcano Eruption TPK, half the party was already dead, and I was at 1 HP. My reflex save sucked exclusively because of my race (Ghoul). Here's the BS part: He claims "it was all a dream, so the TPK never happened, but the XP also is lost!" So I'm a Ghoul 5/Monk 3....WTF?!

I don't mean to be rude, or anything, but, frankly, your DM sucks.

LichPrinceAlim
2010-02-19, 02:36 PM
I don't mean to be rude, or anything, but, frankly, your DM sucks.

he's been a DM for a year. Before that, he was in a 40th level campaign as a Drow Demilich Sorcerer/Archmage/Assassin/Ultimate Magus

Sanguine
2010-02-19, 02:39 PM
he's been a DM for a year. Before that, he was in a 40th level campaign as a Drow Demilich Sorcerer/Archmage/Assassin/Ultimate Magus

But, but he doesn't prepare spells out of a spellbook how did he qualify for Ultimate Magus?

Edit:Also, what does that have to do with him sucking as a DM?

The Glyphstone
2010-02-19, 02:44 PM
he's been a DM for a year. Before that, he was in a 40th level campaign as a Drow Demilich Sorcerer/Archmage/Assassin/Ultimate Magus

You don't happen to be friends with a guy who frequents these boards under the name AirGuitarGod32, do you?

Unfortunately, I don't think we can do much more to help you. You have a whiny, uncooperative and demanding person who insists on using rules that the DM has banned. Behavior and attitudes expressed by the DM point him to be utterly unsuited for the job, both in closeminded and poorly thought rules and blatantly clumsy TPK railroading scenarios (A CR22+ enemy against a level 8 party? WTF?).

Your best bet to save your sanity is to just build him a Soulknife 20, or whatever level you'll start at. Don't optimize it at all, just let him suck, because all your work will go to waste when the DM pulls something stupid out of his butt again.

LichPrinceAlim
2010-02-19, 02:53 PM
You don't happen to be friends with a guy who frequents these boards under the name AirGuitarGod32, do you?

Unfortunately, I don't think we can do much more to help you. You have a whiny, uncooperative and demanding person who insists on using rules that the DM has banned. Behavior and attitudes expressed by the DM point him to be utterly unsuited for the job, both in closeminded and poorly thought rules and blatantly clumsy TPK railroading scenarios (A CR22+ enemy against a level 8 party? WTF?).

Your best bet to save your sanity is to just build him a Soulknife 20, or whatever level you'll start at. Don't optimize it at all, just let him suck, because all your work will go to waste when the DM pulls something stupid out of his butt again.

He moved away, so I got assigned to the group...Yay me...
Heared he got banned tho.

DM did that because one PC, an Elf Ranger ticked him off.

The Glyphstone
2010-02-19, 02:55 PM
Oh good, juvenile powertrips to punish the entire group for one person's actions. This situation gets even better and better.

LichPrinceAlim
2010-02-19, 02:57 PM
Oh good, juvenile powertrips to punish the entire group for one person's actions. This situation gets even better and better.

I told him if he ever did that again, he can find himself a new party. So he won't pull one of those again. At least until we're within 4 levels...

Kylarra
2010-02-19, 03:13 PM
he's been a DM for a year. Before that, he was in a 40th level campaign as a Drow Demilich Sorcerer/Archmage/Assassin/Ultimate Magus... wait? Are you AirGuitarGod32 or does he play with you? Cause that story sounds awfully familiar...

Ahhh, it all becomes clear now.

Mongoose87
2010-02-19, 03:41 PM
The 3.0 soulknife prestige class!

That actually looks awesome.

AslanCross
2010-02-19, 06:00 PM
About the whole Volcano Eruption TPK, half the party was already dead, and I was at 1 HP. My reflex save sucked exclusively because of my race (Ghoul). Here's the BS part: He claims "it was all a dream, so the TPK never happened, but the XP also is lost!" So I'm a Ghoul 5/Monk 3....WTF?!

I...I'm sorry to hear that. Your situation sounds like a real wallbanger. I hope things get better. Somehow. :smallsigh: Go with Eldariel's suggestion combining Iaijutsu master and Atavist.

I find it funny how your DM thinks Psionics is incomprehensible yet overpowered. Maybe people break it in his games because he doesn't know how it works. :P (The oft-forgotten Augmentation cap, for example.) But seriously, one doesn't have to play video games to understand how the PP system works.

If he gets an allowance and knows he can only spend a total of $X per day, and that different items cost different things, he should be able to figure it out. <_<

I do hope you find a different group that's actually decent.

SaintRidley
2010-02-19, 06:24 PM
I'm really at a loss as to how anyone mentally capable of playing D&D in any way can fail to understand the 3.5 Psionics system.

Draxar
2010-02-19, 06:28 PM
To be fair to the DM, in Eberron, two particular groups throw about Psionics a lot – Kalashtar and the Quori/Inspired. It exists outside of that, but that's the focus of it, and if the campaign isn't involving either, you can reasonably safely ignore Psionics.

And to be fair to the player, he's not asking for something the DM has banned. The DM doesn't want manifesting classes, classes that make active use of their power points. The soulknife doesn't – he makes use of the fact that he has power points to be able to generate a soulblade, and to be able to psionically focus, but they don't actually spend their power points.


I'm really at a loss as to how anyone mentally capable of playing D&D in any way can fail to understand the 3.5 Psionics system.

By not having read it. And by not wanting to read it and then in short order have to start adjudicating it in a game.

DragoonWraith
2010-02-19, 06:46 PM
... wait? Are you AirGuitarGod32 or does he play with you? Cause that story sounds awfully familiar...

Ahhh, it all becomes clear now.
What? What does that mean?

AslanCross
2010-02-19, 06:47 PM
That's true. The Eberron books do make repeated adaptation references regarding psionics: "If you are not using psionics, these are spell-like abilities instead."
There really is support for non-psionics Eberron campaigns, but the default assumption is that they are included.

I don't think this is the primary complaint against the DM, in any case. Even when I was a new DM, without claiming to be an awesome DM, I didn't blow my players up with a volcano because a guy punched it hard enough. (And somehow, the half-RED dragon BALOR--both of which are immune to fire---died in the lava, which deals fire damage. :smalleek: )

Caphi
2010-02-19, 07:03 PM
-Emerald Razor: Great at offsetting the BAB problem. (I also love renaming this maneuver to 'Will Knife'; cookie to those that get the reference.)

Too bad it doesn't actually get you a knife. Or turn you into someone voiced by Nobuyuki Hiyama.

Kylarra
2010-02-19, 07:47 PM
What? What does that mean?
I'm not sure where you're lost, so if you can point me in the right direction, I'll be able to clarify where needed.

DragoonWraith
2010-02-19, 07:51 PM
OK, I meant, what is the story behind AirGuitarGod32/why do people think he knows the OP?

And what about this situation does it make clear?

Kylarra
2010-02-19, 07:54 PM
OK, I meant, what is the story behind AirGuitarGod32/why do people think he knows the OP?

And what about this situation does it make clear?
The level 40 drow demilich/blah/blah/blah was a consistent reference by AGG32 and in this post (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=7922958&postcount=38) which was made as I was posting, he admits that it's the same DM.

DragoonWraith
2010-02-19, 07:58 PM
Oh, I didn't read that "him" as referring to AGG32, and I didn't know about the level 40 Drow/Demilich/blah/blah thing either. I guess I'm a newb.

AslanCross
2010-02-19, 08:01 PM
Too bad it doesn't actually get you a knife. Or turn you into someone voiced by Nobuyuki Hiyama.

Well, true. But you can still cut someone up!

Here's a cookie.
http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/strollerderby/2009/06/chocolate_chip_cookie.jpg

LichPrinceAlim
2010-02-22, 12:15 PM
The party actually didn't fall apart Friday (Note: I'm only availible at my school, which was kind enuff to not block GitP).

My monk got killed in a Drow Prison, and I was forced to rebuild, but I chose a Quorbred Grey Elf Transmuter 5/Blood Magus 3 with an eminent future as an Archmage (note: Blood Magi are treated as Blood Mages from Dragon Age: Origins)

The PC is simply a Samurai 1/Soulknife 5/Iaijutsu Master 2, using his Mindblade to be "Mr. Damage" ironically... Worst part is HE suggested Samurai for the build I proposed early Friday at school.

ArcanistSupreme
2010-02-22, 02:12 PM
I don't know if your Soulknife friend would be interested, but this is a pretty freaking sweet homebrew Soulknife PrC: Voidblade Eliminator (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=7594564&postcount=8)

AslanCross
2010-02-22, 04:34 PM
The party actually didn't fall apart Friday (Note: I'm only availible at my school, which was kind enuff to not block GitP).

My monk got killed in a Drow Prison, and I was forced to rebuild, but I chose a Quorbred Grey Elf Transmuter 5/Blood Magus 3 with an eminent future as an Archmage (note: Blood Magi are treated as Blood Mages from Dragon Age: Origins)

The PC is simply a Samurai 1/Soulknife 5/Iaijutsu Master 2, using his Mindblade to be "Mr. Damage" ironically... Worst part is HE suggested Samurai for the build I proposed early Friday at school.


Blood Magus is interesting, though I never liked its prerequisites. That and Tainted Scholar also has similar abilities at level 1, though your campaign has to be using the Taint mechanism.

...1 level in Samurai. For Daisho proficiency. Let me just go and facepalm myself so hard the shockwave will circle the earth three times.

Tyndmyr
2010-02-22, 06:01 PM
About the whole Volcano Eruption TPK, half the party was already dead, and I was at 1 HP. My reflex save sucked exclusively because of my race (Ghoul). Here's the BS part: He claims "it was all a dream, so the TPK never happened, but the XP also is lost!" So I'm a Ghoul 5/Monk 3....WTF?!

Yeah, your DM sucks. Horribly.

TPKs are unfortunate, but they should be rare, and when they do occur, they should result from the players attempting to do something difficult/stupid and legitimately failing. Particularily stupid. So, if your party decides that at level 1, they will blissfully strip naked, and dance in the city of their sworn enemies, attempting to mock and steal from passerbys, they deserve it.

Punching a volcano to bits is generally outside of what can be expected from a monk, and is pretty unsupported by actual rules. Allowing it via rule of cool, but killing your character for doing so just seems vindictive.

Also, half balors/half dragons are well outside the appropriate encounter range here unless a ridiculous amount of deleveling occured afterward. Which reminds me...half dragons? This wasn't still Eberron was it? Because if memory serves, the dragons don't take terribly kindly to such shenanigans there, and wouldn't mind, yknow, destroying an entire continent to make the point.

And the whole "it was just a dream" is a terrible recovery. Especially if it results in deleveling you more than raise dead would have.

Then you've got his assessment of a system he doesn't even understand as broken. I understand disallowing stuff you don't know, but broken? Hah. At least learn how something works before passing judgement on it(not that psionics is at all difficult to learn).

So in short, Id guess that this character will live or die mainly based on DM fiat, and thus, optimization shouldn't be bothered with unless you are going the route of "make the brokenest character possible to spite the DM'. In the latter case, don't bother with anything describable as "Mr Melee".