Making characters that are unfair to play with your group

[Everest]

So, at some point I'm going to take a crack at making my first truly broken character in D&D: specifically, a gestalt druid//swordsage shadowpounce build, with some fighter levels for more crucial feats sooner.

But I don't know when I'll have a chance to use this character without overshadowing the rest of the players. I mean, on top of the devastating though one-trick-ponyish Pounce focus, this character still has the druid's spell list to use, and a brutal animal companion.

Have you ever really wanted to play a powerful character you were working on, but felt uncomfortable with the idea of playing it without significantly nerfing it?

If anyone has made a thread like this recently, I'll apologize and kindly ask that I be pointed in its direction, and then if this is locked, I won't be dismayed. I would check a few pages back, but I already did that a while ago (looking for a thread on druid//swordsage optimization, in fact), and I don't think I saw anything like this.

[WarKitty]

This, my friend, is what online games are for.

[Everest]

I suppose so, but even online, this is the only place I'd want to go where I could get away with using this build with a clear conscience (though knowing the experience other GitP regulars have, I'd probably still be overshadowed. :smalltongue:).

I've been in a few online games with friends from a different forum, but none of them have ever been exceptional at character-building. Or at least, they didn't try too hard at it. Though I only have a few months' experience with 3.5 myself

I have a gestalt campaign in real life at the moment as well, but since I'm also the DM, it would be highly inappropriate to overshadow the players. Especially when one of them is playing a monk//rogue . . .

I might join a group here at some point, but I need to get a feel for the games here first. I just made my account a few days ago, and my first posts today.

[Piggy Knowles]

Don't try to sneak your great build across. Make sure everyone is aware of what you're trying to do, and what you CAN do.

I once played an early-entry Master of Shrouds that was broken as all heck, but I sat down with my DM and group beforehand and told them what I was up to, and they were fine with it. In another campaign, with the same group of people, I played a barely optimized cleric archer (no Zen Archery, and no divine metamagic), and my DM and half the group were upset - all I'd told them was that I was putting together a "cleric", and they'd expected a healbot, not a buffing archer dealing the best ranged damage in the party.

So yeah. Talk to your group, and be prepared to scale back your beautiful beast if it seems like that is the best option. If that's the case, maybe see if anyone would be interested in running a couple of shorter adventures, where that level of optimization is OK. But whatever you do, be open and honest about it. Games can and will last years - the last thing you want is to be spending that much time with people that resent you.

[WarKitty]

Real question: What is it about these builds that appeal to you?

For me, a lot of the appeal is in optimizing builds, finding options, etc. So I set myself limits. Say the build must use x or can't use y. Then put together the best build you can within those guidelines.

[Everest]

Don't try to sneak your great build across. Make sure everyone is aware of what you're trying to do, and what you CAN do.

Oh, I wasn't, for a second, contemplating using this with any of the groups I'm already in, don't get me wrong. Even if I tell them what it can do, unless I strip it back (which wouldn't be fun), it would still be able to do what it was intended to do.

I think my best bet, if I want to play this character, is to eventually a join a play-by-post game here that's fairly high-op.

But, having accepted that, I made this thread more because I thought it might be interesting to see what experiences other people have had concerning their uber characters.



Real question: What is it about these builds that appeal to you?

Well, that's a slightly different question than I had asked, but it's more to-the-core, and in any case it'll add to the discussion, so thanks. :smallbiggrin: