Absolutely Ridiculous DnD Duel needed

[zorba1994]

Okay, so I'm planning on making a humorous short-film series about a dysfunctional DnD group. Part of it is going to involve a DM who is hell bent on killing the party so that they start a new campaign (all of his notes say "TPK"). However, one player is an über-optimizing munchkin, and I want to have an epic-borderline ludicrous part where it's basically the DM throwing everything he can at this player while staying within the rules, and the player keeping up with him.

The thing is, I want it to be within 3.5 rules for at least the beginning of the so called "duel", and I don't know nearly enough about broken 3.5 builds to do so.

So, help?

[NeoSeraphi]

Help us help you. Tell us the ECL of the starting party, please.

[zorba1994]

Help us help you. Tell us the ECL of the starting party, please.

Anything. I guess, let's just go with a level 20 party. Other than that, you can pull out all of the stops.

[NeoSeraphi]

Anything. I guess, let's just go with a level 20 party. Other than that, you can pull out all of the stops.

Sounds good. How about a Half-Ogre 2/Barbarian 2/Fighter 4/Frenzied Berserker 10/Fighter 2?

Get the Lion Spirit Barbarian variant from CC, so that's Pounce at 1st level, end up with +18 BAB, and +6 Str /Large Size from Half-Ogre

Equipment would be a +6 Belt of Giant's Strength, a +5 Manual of Exercise or whatever, and a +5 Valorous Vicious Berserker Greataxe

Full round would be Rage, Frenzy, then charge, assuming 18 Str from the beginning, that's 18+4 Levels +6 Item +5 Tome +6 Racial is 39 Str, so a +14 bonus on Str, and +2 enhancement bonus to the attack and damage while raging from Berserker, so a +7 Greataxe, and then +10 bonus to Str from Frenzy and +4 bonus to Str from Rage is 53 so a +21 bonus to Str, and +2 from charging is +41 to hit?

So Superior Power Attack it down to a +30/+30/+25/+20/+15, and deal 8d6+144 damage per attack. Throw in Leap Attack to go even wilder.

This is only assuming the following feats: Power Attack, Instantaneous Rage, Cleave, and Destructive Rage. He has plenty more besides those to use to his advantage. If you get Shock Trooper you can Power Attack all the way down to -18 while losing no to hit and adding an extra +56 to damage (I originally subtracted 11, so if you subtracted an extra 7, that would be 28 extra damage from Superior Power Attack, and then doubled by the Valorous enhancement to 56)

[BobVosh]

Hah, if it is anything you can throw THAT DAMN CRAB at them with the party at level 1. Almost a for sure TPK. (TDC is CR 3 so it will be "very challenging")

Found here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fw/20040221a

Doh, missed that it is a duel. I recommend a beholder mage then.
Human wizard X, Behold mage 10, use the double polymorph trick. It is technically legal.

[zorba1994]

Sounds good. How about a Half-Ogre 2/Barbarian 2/Fighter 4/Frenzied Berserker 10/Fighter 2?

Get the Lion Spirit Barbarian variant from CC, so that's Pounce at 1st level, end up with +18 BAB, and +6 Str /Large Size from Half-Ogre

Equipment would be a +6 Belt of Giant's Strength, a +5 Manual of Exercise or whatever, and a +5 Valorous Vicious Berserker Greataxe

Full round would be Rage, Frenzy, then charge, assuming 18 Str from the beginning, that's 18+4 Levels +6 Item +5 Tome +6 Racial is 39 Str, so a +14 bonus on Str, and +2 enhancement bonus to the attack and damage while raging from Berserker, so a +7 Greataxe, and then +10 bonus to Str from Frenzy and +4 bonus to Str from Rage is 53 so a +21 bonus to Str, and +2 from charging is +41 to hit?

So Superior Power Attack it down to a +30/+30/+25/+20/+15, and deal 8d6+144 damage per attack. Throw in Leap Attack to go even wilder.

This is only assuming the following feats: Power Attack, Instantaneous Rage, Cleave, and Destructive Rage. He has plenty more besides those to use to his advantage. If you get Shock Trooper you can Power Attack all the way down to -18 while losing no to hit and adding an extra +56 to damage (I originally subtracted 11, so if you subtracted an extra 7, that would be 28 extra damage from Superior Power Attack, and then doubled by the Valorous enhancement to 56)

That's good. I may end up using that.

However, what I was thinking of was more along the lines of defensive bonuses or spells that whisk the character away from certain death.

[Honest Tiefling]

Why not a Pun-pun? I assume this is animated, so being a kobold is not an issue.

Through you could have several munchkins fight each other, leading the previously killer DM with grandiose plans to whimper in the corner. Unless you have the entire script written up.

[Ozreth]

Be sure to use the locate city bomb :p
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=138285

[zorba1994]

Why not a Pun-pun? I assume this is animated, so being a kobold is not an issue.

Through you could have several munchkins fight each other, leading the previously killer DM with grandiose plans to whimper in the corner. Unless you have the entire script written up.

Actually, it's live action, except I'm filming the players. So kobolds are still good.

[Elvenoutrider]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXET1kvEOAY

Seemed appropriate

[Douglas]

Sounds good. How about a Half-Ogre 2/Barbarian 2/Fighter 4/Frenzied Berserker 10/Fighter 2?

Get the Lion Spirit Barbarian variant from CC, so that's Pounce at 1st level, end up with +18 BAB, and +6 Str /Large Size from Half-Ogre

Equipment would be a +6 Belt of Giant's Strength, a +5 Manual of Exercise or whatever, and a +5 Valorous Vicious Berserker Greataxe

Full round would be Rage, Frenzy, then charge, assuming 18 Str from the beginning, that's 18+4 Levels +6 Item +5 Tome +6 Racial is 39 Str, so a +14 bonus on Str, and +2 enhancement bonus to the attack and damage while raging from Berserker, so a +7 Greataxe, and then +10 bonus to Str from Frenzy and +4 bonus to Str from Rage is 53 so a +21 bonus to Str, and +2 from charging is +41 to hit?

So Superior Power Attack it down to a +30/+30/+25/+20/+15, and deal 8d6+144 damage per attack. Throw in Leap Attack to go even wilder.

This is only assuming the following feats: Power Attack, Instantaneous Rage, Cleave, and Destructive Rage. He has plenty more besides those to use to his advantage. If you get Shock Trooper you can Power Attack all the way down to -18 while losing no to hit and adding an extra +56 to damage (I originally subtracted 11, so if you subtracted an extra 7, that would be 28 extra damage from Superior Power Attack, and then doubled by the Valorous enhancement to 56)
That's a decent one-trick pony, but to do a good job of this without it being very boring and repetitive to watch the PC needs to be very much not a one-trick pony. Unless the goal is to make the DM seem like an idiot and bore the viewer, he needs to be able to handle pretty damn near anything, and a plain uber-charger like that is trivial to kill for an intentional character-killing DM.

The build goal here should not be "overpowered killing machine", but rather "invincible juggernaut with no weaknesses whatsoever".

Imagine it as the DM repeatedly pulling out ever more contrived dangers, each one intentionally designed to defeat or ignore every previously revealed defense of the PC, and each time the player reveals some new immunity, defense, contingency plan, etc. that allows him to survive anyway. Being able to strike back and obliterate the threat is secondary to this.

[Tiki Snakes]

Wizard. Pretty much Wizard.

[Tael]

1: The player needs to be a caster. This just won't work at all if he isn't.
2: Defenses are paramount, so I suggest a base of Incatatrix or Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil as a base if you decide on a wizard, or a DMM Dweomerkeeper for cleric.
3: Illithid Savant is a nice way to have the player getting more powerful as the story progresses, instead of just being Uber powerful from the get-go with something like Tainted Scholar (might be a good idea if the player only reveals his true power when necessary, NI casting stat = NI save DCs and spells per day)
4: Any way you do it, the player must have planned a ridiculous number of contingencies, and every time the DM is about the kill the player, he says "well that activates my 17th contingency, teleporting me away!"
5: I suggest you don't actually go crazy TO stuff, as very few people will understand whats going on. A really powerful but not indestructible build will be Wizard/Iot7FV/Illithid Slayer with a lot of contingencies. It has really good defenses, and when it eats the brain of anything it meets, it gains it's powers. I suggest having a few spells or combos not being used (Delay Death+Beastland Ferocity, Summon Mirror Mephit/Hordes of Simulacrums or Planar Bindings)
6: Remember that a good story is far more important than mechanical accuracy!

[zorba1994]

Imagine it as the DM repeatedly pulling out ever more contrived dangers, each one intentionally designed to defeat or ignore every previously revealed defense of the PC, and each time the player reveals some new immunity, defense, contingency plan, etc. that allows him to survive anyway. Being able to strike back and obliterate the threat is secondary to this.

This is exactly what I want. However, I've already written up a draft with the other one in place, and its not too bad.

[Urpriest]

Look up the Twice-Betrayer of Shar. I believe that the thread that contained it also issued a challenge to defeat it. There are some amusing discussions on there of possible fights. Among them I'd recommend reading the Incanthalruuahydranova plan. You could have the DM shout at the end "INCANTHALRUUAHYDRANOVAA??!!"

[zorba1994]

Look up the Twice-Betrayer of Shar. I believe that the thread that contained it also issued a challenge to defeat it. There are some amusing discussions on there of possible fights. Among them I'd recommend reading the Incanthalruuahydranova plan. You could have the DM shout at the end "INCANTHALRUUAHYDRANOVAA??!!"

This sounds good, but I can't find it. Link please?

[Requiem_Jeer]

Some cleric build that abuses DMM persist and ocular spell to make the following spells persistant on himself

Delay Death

This gives you immunity to death by hit points

Throw in:
Masochism persisted, cast because he's an evil cleric
This quickly becomes ludicrous offense AND defense

Also:
Extraordinary spell aim to make himself immune to an antimagic field he casts on himself. He is now immune to magic except the kind he casts on himself. Persist the antimagic field.

He has diehard. This allows him to act when he's still at negative hit points
Freedom of movement (persist) is a must

He must have some method of free healing, even if it is a little slow. I suggest a combination of the healing reserve feat and a persisted greater vigor. This means he can torture himself early in the day for masochism boosts.

This is mostly off the top of my head, it'll be damn hard for him to die with a selection like that. He just needs wings/boots of flying and a few castings of energy immunity and he's set. Just give him a sufficiently munchkiny way to get plenty of attacks (might I recommend a hydra shapechange form? It's a trickery domain spell I believe.) Make sure he has jack of all trades so he can totally blitz pass any skill challenge, although just investing a rank in all the trained only skills works too, there is a divine spell or two that allows you to do knowledge skills untrained.

Follow these steps and your dude will be sufficiently invulnerable that only a really creative DM will be able to bypass it. And seeing as how your primarily trying to avoid making the DM look like an idiot, this will suffice.

[Arbane]

Don't neglect to just give the player a few ridiculously lucky saving-throws that leave the DM yelling "WHY WON'T YOU JUST DIE?!?!?!"

This isn't a simulation, it's a drama, after all.

[Urpriest]

This sounds good, but I can't find it. Link please?

Link (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19871166/New_Build_and_Challenge:_The_Twice-Betrayer_of_Shar)

Post 22 on page 3 is where the Incanthalruuahydranova build starts being discussed.

[Radar]

Also:
Extraordinary spell aim to make himself immune to an antimagic field he casts on himself. He is now immune to magic except the kind he casts on himself. Persist the antimagic field.
This doesn't work as advertised - use Cheater of Mystra scheme instead (part of Twice Betrayer of Shar (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19871166/New_Build_and_Challenge:_The_Twice-Betrayer_of_Shar) build).
Other candidates:
1. The Killer Gnome (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=142441) (one of later, more cheese builds). It allows you to throw Miracles from as high as 7th level slots and do other crazy stuff. With specific tweaking, you should be able to chug out Miracles from 4th level slots, which enables Arcane Fusion loop: Hightened Silent Image mimics Miracle, which duplicates Arcane Fusion in which you put Hightened Silent Image as the 4th level spell, which will mimic another Miracle - you get infinite ammount of 1st level spells to use, which with the same tweaking will allow you to toss 6th level Evocation or Conjuration spells.

2. Regular paranoid Incantatrix Wizard - tons of Persisted buffs, crafted Contingecies, Celerity, private demiplane + Astral Projection, Clones, Simulacra etc. Uncanny Forethought is a great addition here as well (let's you cast spells directly from your spellbook instead of the memorized ones).

3. Psion (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=10262.0) with infinite Power Points and heavy action economy abuse. Save Game trick and otehr time shenanigans make him extremly difficult to put down.

4. Properly build Artificer might be able to emulate the most powerful tricks as well.

edit: If you go with the Psion option, then take Forced Dream as one of the powers. This AFAIK is the basis of a build, that had about 50% chance of beating Pun-Pun after he comes to full power. Would make a nice final battle, if the desperate DM throws a very special kobold at the party and the Psion just cuts him out of time (travels back in time to the point, when Pun-Pun was powerless and kills him then).

[erikun]

Tainted Scholar/Incantatrix? Taint casting can get you a ridiculously high number of spell slots (spell slots and DC are based on Taint values, and Taint has no upper limit) and heavy Incantatrix cheese can net you heavy metamagic reduction, possibly to the point of free quickened spells or Frost Flash Fell Drain Twin Linked Magic Missile to grant yourself 20dX healing, or 20-some negative levels on one target.

Does a Nercopolitan White Dragonspawn Dragonwrought Loredrake Kobold Sorcerer/Tainted Scholar/Incantatrix sound like enough cheese to start?

[Tael]

Now that I think about it, you probably shouldn't even tell the viewers anything about the player's build. Once you completely understand how something works, there is no mystery, and it won't be as funny as everyone will try and analyze it. If you do go with a defined build that everyone can see, go for something that isn't clearly defined by what it is.
Example: If everyone knows that the player is using the Twice-Betrayer of Shar build, no matter what happens, the viewers that read CharOp will constantly analyze every move that the player makes, and will chastise the video for not being realistic when the player or DM fails to do something.

A Psion with Psychic Reformation could do this, constantly restructuring his build, yet only having X number of spells at any one time, preventing viewer from saying "But didn't he just cast Y?". An Illithid Savant could similarly reveal that he actually had also eaten X monster - negating the DM's clever trap!

[Notreallyhere77]

Pit the PCs against more dragons than should logically exist in the area, and give the dragons class levels, magic weapons and armor, and summoned minions. Make sure the roof gets blown off at some point so that there's more room for the assailants, whose numbers grow each round.

[The_Ebolanator]

Here's a thought, what if the munchkin took the leadership feat and had himself an "attack dog" of sorts as his cohort.
His cohort should utilize the frenzied berserker build discussed earlier but on top of that make it a warforged juggernaut. This allows the lackey to deal out damage like a beast while befitting from the butt-ton of immunities constructs get. At this point the only thing that can take down his thug is direct damage . . . conveniently solved by the fact that eventually frenzied berserkers become immune to direct HP damage so long as they frenzy. At this point one could potentially just bind the brute or ship him off to some plane of what-the-deuce, so the munchkin himself (who should be an uber-caster as suggested earlier) can just cast dimensional anchor and freedom of movement on his pawn and now munchkin has his invincible juggernaut as his beckoning while simultaneously annoying the ever living almonds out of the DM.
Also this would allow for the DM in the film to have one of those "Why did I allow you to have a cohort again?" moments, as munchkining in general thrives on DMs overlooking minute details, even if they plan TPKs.
Just food for thought, bro.

[Seerow]

Putting in a vote for the Killer Gnome or Cheater of Mystra.

[Douglas]

How about you post some ideas for the things the DM tries to kill him with, and then we can build something to beat them. In the story the powergamer has his character already built before the DM decides what to throw at him, but that doesn't mean writing it has to follow the same process.

[zorba1994]

Well, I was thinking of using the Twice-Betrayer of Shar suggested here, so I'll post the enemies I'd plan on using against it: a fiendwurm (or two), and possibly red dragons with class levels.

[DragonOfUndeath]

Psion, using Infinite PP/Psychic Reformation to always keep the audience guessing.

[Mando Knight]

What about that too-much-bear build? (Something like Werebear Bear totem Barbarian/Bear Warrior/Something else to add more bear?) Not particularly overpowered (compared to spellcasters, anyway), but hilariously overbearboard.

[DragonOfUndeath]

What about that too-much-bear build? Not particularly overpowered (compared to spellcasters, anyway), but hilariously overbearboard.

Max Charisma, take Lost traditions to swap manifesting from Int to Cha to make it work.
No limits to the level of Followers so pump it till you get a Follower of high enough level the build off.
This guy probably has a stack of books beside him bigger than the table and a stack of character sheets next to him representing each of his followers that he can summon to him as a Free Action

Any idea on how to get the Free Action bit? Or just go with a Slotless Item of At-Will Time Stop with a Contingency to activate when he is attacked and doesn't say "I allow that."

[Kaun]

I think KotDT did something like this in one comic.

If i remember rightly it was Sara going up against Weird Pete behind the shield.

I will see if i can dig it up.