4 Man Level 3 Party

[Fisticuffs]

So me and my friends have been having a hard time getting our schedules to click together to have a gaming night for D&D without having a different person not attending every other session. I was tasked with making a 3rd level party that would be used to kinda throw together one time sessions whenever we are all together and in the mood to play D&D. Keep this in mind, also THESE CHARACTERS CAN NEVER, NEVER LEVEL UP. I was wonder if people could help me with these characters, suggest items or better feats, give me their thoughts on the character builds. I'll go through each character/ character idea separately. I can use any official 3.5 book, no online material. I haven't really gone through MIC yet to find wondrous items yet but if anyone knows of any good ones from other sources it'd be appreciated.

Psychic Warrior 3 Neanderthal
Str: 19
Dex: 12
Con: 18
Int: 13
Wis: 14
Cha: 11

Items: +1 Great Club, +1 Breastplate

Feats: Hidden Talent(1st), Stand Still(1st PW Bonus), Improved Initiative(2nd PW Bonus), Power Attack(3rd)

Powers Known: Dimension Hop(Feat), Elfsight, Expansion, Precognition Defensive

Sword Sage 3 Whisper Gnome
Str: 13
Dex: 17
Con: 17
Int: 16
Wis: 17
Cha: 11

Items: +1 Greatsword, Masterwork Chainshirt,

Feats: Adaptive Style(1st), Extra Readied Maneuver(3rd)

Maneuvers Known: Burning Blade, Distracting Ember, Moment of Perfect Mind, Sapphire Nightmare Blade, Clinging Shadow Strike, Shadow Blade Technique, Stone Bones, Mountain Hammer



As for the other two I haven't really decided for sure what I want to do exactly:


For the first one I was thinking of having an Illumian(UurKrau) be level one in three different full caster classes(see bold text!). I was thinking Beguiler, Archivist, Warmage in that order taking Precocious Apprentice at 1st for Glitterdust. His ability score rolls are: 14, 18, 16, 14, 15, 13

For the last guy I was thinking Human Factotum 2/Cloistered Cleric 1 or just Factotum 3 with his feats: Font of Inspiration(it's not online material it's from Dungeonscape :smallwink:), Improved Initiative, Font of Insperation(don't tell nobody :smallwink:) His ability scores are: 13, 15, 16, 17, 15, 10

[gorfnab]

For the Swordsage, Weapon Finesse instead of Extra Readied Maneuver might be a better route. Go with a Shortsword instead. The extra damage from a Greatsword really isn't worth it if you can't hit anything. Besides the Psychic Warrior is a far better beatstick so you're better off using the Swordsage as a more tactical fighter. Also see if you can get flaws, that would open you up for more feats for the Swordsage (Shadow Blade and Two Weapon Fighting) and for the Psychic Warrior (drop Hidden Talent and then go with Combat Expertise, Improved Trip, and Knockdown: for powers drop Elfsight for Skate, Adrenaline Boost, or Burst). Another thing to look into is switching your Swordsage's Dex and Int scores around. Taking into account racial bonuses that would give you an 18 Dex and a 15 Int. If you're already talking about having a Factotum in the party than the extra skills points won't matter too much. Also with Weapon Finesse and Shadowblade you'll be decent in combat.

[Fisticuffs]

I forgot to mention, no flaws.

Well the whisper Gnome is swinging with a +6 and from what I've seen most of the CR 3 creatures in SRD have either AC of 15 or 16 with a 21 and 22 being the higher ups. I figure rolling a 9/10 to hit ain't so bad.

What about the other two builds? Or some cheap nonMiC magic items?

[Psyren]

Ugh, Elfsight. You're much better off with Vigor, Expansion or Bite of the Wolf instead. Use items to see.

[Lateral]

Drop Elfsight, and never look back. You'd definitely be better off with Vigor, Claws of the Beast, or Bite of the Wolf.

[ericgrau]

THESE CHARACTERS CAN NEVER, NEVER LEVEL UP
At level 3 the best feat is toughness, taken multiple times, no joke. Low level fragility is an issue.

[Fisticuffs]

At level 3 the best feat is toughness, taken multiple times, no joke. Low level fragility is an issue.
Or I could take Improved Toughness!

I don't see any reason to change out Elfsight, it's disguised as noncombat tech, he really doesn't need MORE different combat powers, he doesn't really have enough PP to manifest all his powers any way so it's really just filler.

[veven]

You could just go Wizard and Archivist for your last two. You cover the arcane and divine bases and since they both have spell books you can still learn new spells even though the characters will never actually level up.

[Fisticuffs]

You could just go Wizard and Archivist for your last two. You cover the arcane and divine bases and since they both have spell books you can still learn new spells even though the characters will never actually level up.

Maybe I should rephrase that, at the end of the session the characters lose everything they gained: loot, exp, bonuses, injuries, death, ect, ect.

[Morph Bark]

Maybe I should rephrase that, at the end of the session the characters lose everything they gained: loot, exp, bonuses, injuries, death, ect, ect.

Have them start with all level 0, 1 and 2 spells written down?

[ericgrau]

Or I could take Improved Toughness!

I don't see any reason to change out Elfsight, it's disguised as noncombat tech, he really doesn't need MORE different combat powers, he doesn't really have enough PP to manifest all his powers any way so it's really just filler.
Ya but you can only take improved toughness once. As it stands I think your builds have roughly 26 HP each. Less on the caster, 29 on the psychic warrior. A human could gain 9 HP and be head and shoulders above the rest.

Also at level 3 power attack is +6 damage, -3 AB. Assuming you have 7 AB and hit 13 out of 20 times against AC 15 and deal 12.5 damage before PA, that's effectively 12.5*65%=8.125 w/o and 18.5*50%=9.25 w/ PA. 1 damage. And high risk of overkill against low level baddies, possibly causing an overall decrease in damage. Expansion eats a turn and 2 AC and changes that to 17*65%=11.05 w/o and 23*50%=11.5 w/.

These are cool builds so I don't want to see you change the classes. But a barbarian with a greatsword would be doing 16 damage with am 80% chance of hitting, or 12.8 per round. 50% more damage before feats and more HP too. So go a little easy on the PCs for this one shot. Maybe drop CRs by 1. I mean I could say human barbarian or fighter with toughness, toughness and improved toughness FTW, but that'd be a lame build.

[Psyren]

Or I could take Improved Toughness!

I don't see any reason to change out Elfsight, it's disguised as noncombat tech, he really doesn't need MORE different combat powers, he doesn't really have enough PP to manifest all his powers any way so it's really just filler.

1) Elfsight is pointless. There are dozens of ways, both magical and mundane, to see better; if he really wants low-light vision that badly he should just craft an item for it.

2) Since he is stuck at level 3, BotW and CotB are two of the very few ways this guy can get multiple attacks.

3) At 3 minutes per manifestation, it lasts all the way through combat for a single power point.

4) BotW is particularly useful to have - it benefits from his strength bonus and does all three types of physical damage, (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#bite) letting him bypass lots of DR.

[Critical]

I'd up a level, like, to 5 and maybe a bit more, really, if you're planning one shots, I'm not sure if low level gaming is the way to go. If you're really that short on time, go with an easier system.