Bad characters that are fun to play

[Silus]

So I've been thinking about my Pathfinder Society character, wondering where I went wrong with her build, when I realized that despite her highly questionable class choices, she was hella fun to play. So I'm wondering, anyone have a character that build-wise is just "bad" or at least "questionable" but as a character is stupid fun to play?

My character, Amalee Piks (Warning: Gushing about character ahead)
So I had no idea what to do with this character when I made her. My only thought was "Sweet! Dervish archetype!" and ran from there. She's currently level 5 (Dawnflower Dervish 2 (Bard)/Urban Barbarian 2/Unarmed Fighter 1) and far too squishy to rightfully be in the thick of combat (She's got only 40HP at the moment). However, despite her tiny health pool and inability to dish out damage with the big boys, she is frighteningly fun to play. Combat usually starts with "I Battle Dance and Rage", bumping my AC up by 2 (to 21), my To Hit by 4 (to a total of +12) and my damage up by 4 (to +8). Then comes the Attack Defensively bit which jacks my AC up to 24 with only a -2 to hit (thanks to Crane Style. Crane Wing comes next level for "lol nope" on first one attack per round when fighting defensively), and if I'm flanked, I get an additional +1 to AC and to Hit.

So best case scenario, she's flanked with +13 to hit, 25 AC, and dishing out 1d6+8 damage a turn.

The backstory kinda developed itself as I went. The end result is that when she was younger, her village was attacked by a warband of hobgoblins. Her parents were taken, giving her time to escape. She snuck into the encampment later that night to try and free them, only to witness their execution and devouring by the hobgoblins. Something in her snapped, causing her to set the whole encampment aflame while the warband slept. At present, she does not recall this happening, due to a trauma induced Dissociative identity disorder and amnesia. She's full of anger and rage, usually towards slavers, which is rather unusual for someone that claims to be a Varisian wanderer (nomadic people with heavy Romani influences). Also has a fascination with fire that at times rivals that of fire mages (she considers "kill it with fire" to be a good a strategy as any).

TL;DR: Half-Elf BardBarian that can't buff and is essentially a glorified Dex Fighter that benefits from getting flanked. Also mentally unstable and has a case of Dissociative identity disorder along with hints of pyromania.

[Yora]

My favorite character is a half-elf ranger/sorcerer. Started out as a barbarian/sorcerer on a dare that everything can be made playable, but ranger just has the more interesting skills.
Once I learned that 50/50 caster/noncasters are terrible in everything, making it 1:2 made a great character.

[Morithias]

The Merchant. For all the travelling D&D parties do, no one ever seems to want to run the trade routes in the process. It's a great role-playing opportunity and adds to the world at large.

The bad part is that it slows the party down greatly whenever you stop to barter with the guild and try to sell your stock, and the money you'll make from the trading route is NEVER comparable to the money you make as an adventurer.

(which makes no sense, if the orcs have over 2 thousand gold pieces, why are they raiding farmland for food, I'm pretty sure even an orc isn't so stupid, none of them would think "you know why don't we just BUY food" that way murder hobos aren't slaughtering us, our wives, and our children! Also if the trade routes make virtually no money, why are the caravans being attacked by bandits, and not every adventuring party that forgets to put up an alarm spell having their throats slit in the night and all their gear robbed)

Seriously find me an answer for that that doesn't boil down to "Players would complain and moan if a DM did that"

[PersonMan]

(which makes no sense, if the orcs have over 2 thousand gold pieces, why are they raiding farmland for food, I'm pretty sure even an orc isn't so stupid, none of them would think "you know why don't we just BUY food" that way murder hobos aren't slaughtering us, our wives, and our children! Also if the trade routes make virtually no money, why are the caravans being attacked by bandits, and not every adventuring party that forgets to put up an alarm spell having their throats slit in the night and all their gear robbed)

Seriously find me an answer for that that doesn't boil down to "Players would complain and moan if a DM did that"

Orcs with lots of gold: They raid the farmland for food because they both enjoy the fighting involved and have no agriculture of their own. They also can't buy the food. In most DnD settings, the average person is generally living like people did in the medieval period, which means they probably didn't have enough food to spare for a large tribe of people to buy from them.

Besides, nobody expects their entire warhost to be killed by a handful of people sent by farmers.

---

Adventurers are either too poor to be worth robbing or are strong enough to just kill most highwaymen. Honestly, it's a better idea to just hit caravans with a few low-level guards than to attack small camps of people who make their living killing things that can slaughter entire villages.

[Morithias]

Orcs with lots of gold: They raid the farmland for food because they both enjoy the fighting involved and have no agriculture of their own.

Okay that I might give you.


They also can't buy the food. In most DnD settings, the average person is generally living like people did in the medieval period, which means they probably didn't have enough food to spare for a large tribe of people to buy from them.

Bull Plop. According to the DMG, if any item is under the town's "GP Limit" it is available for sale. I'm pretty sure a few bushels of wheat won't break even a small villages GP limit given how cheap meals are in arms and equipment and player's handbook.


Besides, nobody expects their entire warhost to be killed by a handful of people sent by farmers.

Except that adventurers and tales about them are common knowledge, or does living in a D&D world leave you unable to learn from other people's mistakes, like you somehow HAVE to stick to stereotypes.

---


Adventurers are either too poor to be worth robbing or are strong enough to just kill most highwaymen. Honestly, it's a better idea to just hit caravans with a few low-level guards than to attack small camps of people who make their living killing things that can slaughter entire villages.

4 level 3 adventurers camp for the night with the standard DMG starting gold of 2700 gp each. They forget to put up an alarm spell and just put the fighter on watch since the wizard and cleric need to get their spells back. A group of 3 level 1 rogues and 1 level 1 wizard approach the party. The wizard casts a "Sleep" spell on the fighter and he fails his will save. The 3 rogues sneak into the camp and using sign language and mental training coup de grace the other 3 members in sync, then they murder the fighter and run off with a total gain of 10800 gp. 5400 gp if they sell at half price.

There, that is an ENTIRELY plausible situation and the only thing I actually made them fail was the fighter....failing a WILL SAVE. And as for the "Alarm spell" I cannot recall one time my party has actually put up an alarm spell...or put someone on watch period now that I think about it.

I'm just saying. If you want to start a trade route, you have to sink in over 100k in gold, and then you have make a DC 33 profession (merchant) check just to break even, not make a profit, BREAK EVEN. And if you beat that check by say 7 points? Want to know how much money you make?

350 gp. A MONTH. And you have to deal with TWO random events ranging from taxes to fire, to a monster attack.

I'm sorry, but with those numbers, adventurers should be living in constant paranoia, not the merchants. The average adventurer should be in a mental ward from fear of being murdered in his sleep by people after his gold rather than any evil cultist or something of that nature.

I'm just saying

5400 gp.

Versus 350 gp against someone who can make a DC 40 profession check.

I think the Merchant is a higher level.

Edit: I checked the DMG 2, the level for a Human Specialist with a +30 mod to their profession check? Level 11.

4 level 3 adventurers will get you 5400 gp.

One level 11 guy will get you 350 gp.

You would literally have to rob the merchant of 16 months (rounded up) worth of profit with him taking 10 on each roll, for you to make more money than killing the adventurers.

[ghost_warlock]

Not necessarily mechanically bad, but my current Encounters character is a heavy flail-wielding nudist bugbear barbarian. Trained skills are Acrobatics, Athletics, and Endurance. He loves doing cartwheels, letting everything just flap in the breeze. :smallbiggrin: I played the same character in an earlier season of Encounters and the entire time he donned exactly two pieces of clothing - a magic belt and a dwarven robe that came to his waist. His name is Crapface.

[Arbane]

OI'm just saying. If you want to start a trade route, you have to sink in over 100k in gold, and then you have make a DC 33 profession (merchant) check just to break even, not make a profit, BREAK EVEN. And if you beat that check by say 7 points? Want to know how much money you make? (SNIP)


D&D's economics found to be unrealistic, film at 11.

[Morithias]

D&D's economics found to be unrealistic, film at 11.

I notice how you didn't have a rebuttal to what I said.

I love how no one can give me an answer to this.

Seriously why do the bandits attack the merchants and not the adventurers, this isn't rocket science. 10800 gp versus 350 gp. One sleep spell!

[Urpriest]

I notice how you didn't have a rebuttal to what I said.

I love how no one can give me an answer to this.

The Merchant has almost the same gear as the adventurers, though. NPC gear is determined by CR, so at most an equal level merchant and adventurer will differ by a level's worth of possessions. And while adventurers' gear is mostly tied up in equipment which can only be sold at half price, merchants' will mostly be in terms of trade goods, which can be sold for full price. Even if the merchant is only making 350gp a month, his goods are by necessity worth much more than that.

Four level 3 adventurers gets you 10,000gp (remember, they're NPCs, you only get to kill the PCs once so you can't really make a living off it), which since almost all of it is equipment gets you 5,000gp. One level 3 merchant gets you 2,500gp that will almost all sell for full. You then need 2,500gp to make up the difference, which you get if the merchants travel in pairs, or if the merchant has twelve first level warrior guards or NPC-classed passengers.

[Morithias]

Four level 3 adventurers gets you 10,000gp (remember, they're NPCs, you only get to kill the PCs once so you can't really make a living off it), which since almost all of it is equipment gets you 5,000gp. One level 3 merchant gets you 2,500gp that will almost all sell for full. You then need 2,500gp to make up the difference, which you get if the merchants travel in pairs, or if the merchant has twelve first level warrior guards or NPC-classed passengers.

Ah but remember that the base costs for a shipping business is -25, with -4 for high risk and -4 for high resource. With a 50 gp mod that means monthly costs come to a mere 1650 gp.

And no offence, but I'm pretty sure a number of that is taxes and wages not necessarily merchandise.

And no you cannot claim that that number is too low because you know what happens if you don't make your profit check for that month? You have to pay off your debts! That means your average expenses for a shipping co? 1650 gp a month, not counting specialists or increased wages or taxes from Random events.

So even if the guy is using slave labor, and is smuggling so he doesn't pay taxes? 1650 gp of merchandise from each caravan, and THAT is assuming that you are looting him when he has his entire shipment for that MONTH all at once.

Give me a second to check the DM's NPC value table.

Edit: Ah here we are, Table 4-23 page 127.

The value of a 3rd level NPC's gear? 2500 gp.

So even if you remove the "PC" part from the equation? You've only dropped from 10800 gp, to 10000 gp. Or 5000 versus the merchant's 1650.

Keep in mind the risk factor too. Level 11 plus any employees or guards (and I think in the DMG2, high resource business have like 20 employees), versus 4 level 3 guys 2 or 3 who are asleep.

[endoperez]

I notice how you didn't have a rebuttal to what I said.

I love how no one can give me an answer to this.

Did you hear what happened to the last group (http://youtu.be/YPXPOJ0yaFk) that tried to rob this lone merchant?

Remember, this is D&D-land, not the real world. Some weird laws apply in there. Just like people know that there are adventurers about, people tell each other stories about merchants, the weird and dangerous things they keep in their carts.

I mean, a group of heroes goes robbing a merchant, and there's fires... Clairvoyant city guards... A thunderstorm of such power in the middle of the night that the constant lightning perfectly illuminates the would-be thieves, while the thunder keeps their spellcasters from casting... The merchant turning out to be Elminster's brother... The merchant's girlfriend turning out to be a demigod of some sort...

Yeah.

[Morithias]

I mean, a group of heroes goes robbing a merchant, and there's fires... Clairvoyant city guards... A thunderstorm of such power in the middle of the night that the constant lightning perfectly illuminates the would-be thieves, while the thunder keeps their spellcasters from casting... The merchant turning out to be Elminster's brother... The merchant's girlfriend turning out to be a demigod of some sort...

Yeah.

That sad part is that that isn't farfetched. The Merchant Prince prestiege class, AND the shipping business both come from the book "Power of Faerun".

[Arbane]

Did you hear what happened to the last group (http://youtu.be/YPXPOJ0yaFk) that tried to rob this lone merchant?

And that's a series with GOOD Fantasy Economics! :smallbiggrin:

There's a reason that 'you're all guards for the same caravan' is right up there with 'you all meet in an inn' as a Standard Game Opener.

Anyway, back on topic. Fun Bad Characters, anyone?

One guy in my Pathfinder group's got one: A crazy Elf Magus/Alchemist. (Not terribly optimized.) He's got a sword that talks to him, an unhealthy obsession with blood, a 'pet' troll-head he carries around and has conversations with, and delusions of restarting a local dead empire. He constantly does ridiculously risky things (going off on his own, falling for strange women, snorting mushroom spores...) but he's survived so far, I suspect at least in part because he keeps the GM amused.

[Morithias]

And that's a series with GOOD Fantasy Economics! :smallbiggrin:

Anyway, back on topic. Fun Bad Characters, anyone?


I see we can all agree on one thing, Spice and Wolf is AWESOME.

Anyways I am sorry for derailing the train, when a thought pops into my head I tend not to be able to let go of it. I am a fiery debater as you can tell from my warnings.

Fun bad...fun bad....OH I know.

The Chaotic Evil guy who is never going to betray the party, no matter how much sense it makes.

This is likely going to happen with "Sensou no Hime" or "Senhime" the elvish war princess. Chaotic evil and aiding the heroes against the bad guy, why? Cause she enjoys kicking the stuffing out of people! Would she ever betray them? Nah...she's chaotic evil cause of her extreme blood knight personality, she knows there's a different between "War" and "Murder" (Please, oh please for the love of Waukeen don't turn this into a debate).

[The Curt Jester]

I had fun with a half orc rogue/assassin with maximized strength and minimized dexterity and intelligence. He couldn't sneak around or anything, but he was devastating when he could get a flank attack on an enemy. He worked well in a team with a half orc wizard with minimized intelligence and maximized strength (the staff was a killer!). Bad party, sure, but a lot of fun.

[hex0]

In early 3.0, one of the first games I played, Level 1 Fighter Half Gold Dragon Dwarf in a party of level 4 adventures. Actually a decent combo but I had hardly any HP. I think I took toughness, actually.

We were in a absurd maze fighting minotaurs and oozes and the like. Since charging was out of the option, I mostly stood in the back and intimidated people and used aid-another. Rust monster ate my greatsword, took a greataxe from a dead minotaur. Met the BBEG, some cleric and his flunkies in the center of the maze. Gave a long speech. Torched them with my breathweapon. So epic...

Also played a Halfling Bard 3/Ranger 3, for some reason. I think we all played weird combos. Like Dwarf Sorcerer, etc. The Gnome thief in the party rolled a 20 and stole a pile of gold off a table without being caught, lots of cool stuff going on. I got captured and thrown out of a wagon in the middle of nowhere. The other players were saying I was screwed and then I countered "Screw you guys, I have Endurance!". I ran for miles, burst into the fortess and killed the guys that captured me, who were shocked that I made it back so fast.

[Dusk Eclipse]

So I've been thinking about my Pathfinder Society character, wondering where I went wrong with her build, when I realized that despite her highly questionable class choices, she was hella fun to play. So I'm wondering, anyone have a character that build-wise is just "bad" or at least "questionable" but as a character is stupid fun to play?

My character, Amalee Piks (Warning: Gushing about character ahead)
So I had no idea what to do with this character when I made her. My only thought was "Sweet! Dervish archetype!" and ran from there. She's currently level 5 (Dawnflower Dervish 2 (Bard)/Urban Barbarian 2/Unarmed Fighter 1) and far too squishy to rightfully be in the thick of combat (She's got only 40HP at the moment). However, despite her tiny health pool and inability to dish out damage with the big boys, she is frighteningly fun to play. Combat usually starts with "I Battle Dance and Rage", bumping my AC up by 2 (to 21), my To Hit by 4 (to a total of +12) and my damage up by 4 (to +8). Then comes the Attack Defensively bit which jacks my AC up to 24 with only a -2 to hit (thanks to Crane Style. Crane Wing comes next level for "lol nope" on first one attack per round when fighting defensively), and if I'm flanked, I get an additional +1 to AC and to Hit.

So best case scenario, she's flanked with +13 to hit, 25 AC, and dishing out 1d6+8 damage a turn.

The backstory kinda developed itself as I went. The end result is that when she was younger, her village was attacked by a warband of hobgoblins. Her parents were taken, giving her time to escape. She snuck into the encampment later that night to try and free them, only to witness their execution and devouring by the hobgoblins. Something in her snapped, causing her to set the whole encampment aflame while the warband slept. At present, she does not recall this happening, due to a trauma induced Dissociative identity disorder and amnesia. She's full of anger and rage, usually towards slavers, which is rather unusual for someone that claims to be a Varisian wanderer (nomadic people with heavy Romani influences). Also has a fascination with fire that at times rivals that of fire mages (she considers "kill it with fire" to be a good a strategy as any).

TL;DR: Half-Elf BardBarian that can't buff and is essentially a glorified Dex Fighter that benefits from getting flanked. Also mentally unstable and has a case of Dissociative identity disorder along with hints of pyromania.

I don't see how your bardbarian is a bad build, sure you aren't bending the game in half with your unlimited arcane powah!; but you can work effectively at the role you chose to (which from my understanding is secondary melee damage dealer/tank). To me that is the perfect definition of optimization, choosing how you build based on a theme/mechanic/etc and making sure that everything is working for that.

By the way I love the backstory and her personality, she does sound as an extremely fun character.

[Silus]

I don't see how your bardbarian is a bad build, sure you aren't bending the game in half with your unlimited arcane powah!; but you can work effectively at the role you chose to (which from my understanding is secondary melee damage dealer/tank). To me that is the perfect definition of optimization, choosing how you build based on a theme/mechanic/etc and making sure that everything is working for that.

By the way I love the backstory and her personality, she does sound as an extremely fun character.

Well you need to keep in mind that it's a Pathfinder Society character, so leveling usually ends around 8-12 and money is almost always tight.

Also, seriously had no idea how I was gonna build her. The "tanky Dex Bard" thing came around after she took a 30-something Greataxe crit during a surprise round, dropping her instantly.

Also, need to remember to pick more Alchemist Fires and set money aside for those slick Boots of Speed.

12,000G

As a free action, the wearer can click her heels together, letting her act as though affected by a haste spell for up to 10 rounds each day. The haste effect's duration need not be consecutive rounds.

Hehehhehehe

[Jeff the Green]

Right now I'm playing a gestalt dryad cleric/holt warden/livewood daughter (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=253755)//Crafty hunter Ape totem barbarian/fighter/ranger/swordsage/warblade/witch hunter. (The first thing my DM said was "Jeff, I don't think you have enough classes.")

She's an archer and because she's mostly Charisma SAD without a way to get Charisma to damage, doesn't do a bunch. Still, she has a climb speed and girallon's blessing, which means her main tactic is "climb something, plink away at them."

She's also irrepressibly cheerful (with a wisdom of 6) and twice as old as anyone else in the party. She also worked with Aaren d'Cannith to create the first warforged, was a Cryan war hero, and an ecoterrorist. She retired to a life of luxury and debauchery in Sharn after a few years of adventuring, but came out of retirement to save the world from an ancient doomsday device.

Oh, and a bunch of crazy people decided she was an avatar of Arawai, the goddess of nature and farming. That really annoyed her, since they kept following her to ancient ruins, where she'd have to save them. So she appointed her best friend, a warforged artificer poet she helped create, to be her high priest (over his objections) and command them to stay at home and garden or something.

Edit: Oh, and she worships herself; Charm and Plant domains, natch.

[Slylizard]

I once played a dex-based half-orc barbarian/rogue... he was slightly insane and was fully convinced that he was actually a halfling thief (hence the rogue levels).

Mechanically it was a complete bust, RP-wise it was great fun!

[nedz]

The Merchant. For all the travelling D&D parties do, no one ever seems to want to run the trade routes in the process. It's a great role-playing opportunity and adds to the world at large.

The bad part is that it slows the party down greatly whenever you stop to barter with the guild and try to sell your stock, and the money you'll make from the trading route is NEVER comparable to the money you make as an adventurer.

(which makes no sense, if the orcs have over 2 thousand gold pieces, why are they raiding farmland for food, I'm pretty sure even an orc isn't so stupid, none of them would think "you know why don't we just BUY food" that way murder hobos aren't slaughtering us, our wives, and our children! Also if the trade routes make virtually no money, why are the caravans being attacked by bandits, and not every adventuring party that forgets to put up an alarm spell having their throats slit in the night and all their gear robbed)

Seriously find me an answer for that that doesn't boil down to "Players would complain and moan if a DM did that"

Meta reasons
The game is heroic-fantasy and not Pounds and Pennies.
Most players find fighting monsters to be fun; accountancy, not so much.

IC reasons
You rob a merchants caravan for his capital, not his income.
The Orc tribes gold is the tribes wyrd. It is meant to be in like shiny things and fur, not cash. It is also their capital, not spending money.
Caravans are easy to spot and predictable to track.
Adventurers are unpredictable and vary more in power.
Caravans also carry more food. This includes the horses.

Stay on Target
Some of the best characters I've had have had a 6 somewhere on their sheet.

Like the cleric with 18 Wis and 6 Int - that was hard to get my head around.
How do I make wise decisions based on very flawed reasoning ?
(This was a long time ago, these days I'd just stick rigidly to whatever the temple's dogma was; which would be not so much fun)

Like the Dwarf with 6 4 Cha - so much fun with Diplomacy
We had a mis-understanding with some wood elf types, three of whom died. At the peace talks I was asked to make a Diplomacy roll.
I played the result out by singing "Three-Nil" repeatedly, like a football chant. :smallbiggrin: So much more fun than a diplomancer.

[endoperez]

In some Battletech-inspired homebrew in an anime setting, I played a viking.

By anime setting, I mean that katanas were good, the leader was a shogun, there was a secret ninja assassin clan, and the best warriors were the ones who had learned to channel their KI so they would start glowing and hit a guy and the guy flies 50 meters backwards and hits a wall and explodes.

There was also a viking-land and a crapsack Europe-land.
All the vikings who don't die in battle become cursed ghouls for infinity. The vikings who die gloriously get to Valhalla. So the vikings just raid everyone and fight everyone and sometimes each other.
The Europe-land is constantly under the plague, the inquisition, and was probably inspired by Monthy Python.

Any way, I came into this game not realizing it's an anime game. So I made a viking warrior who uses a sword, or an axe, with a shield, or perhaps dual-wielding.

Then I started playing and realized that specializing in one skill is THE most important thing in the game.
Then I found out that learning that KI channeling stuff is maybe even better for a melee guy.
Then I was already so much behind the other guys built by the actual homebrewers that if I got hit once in a friendly duel, using all the best equipment I got by abusing the broken crafting skills, I was so close to death that we had to check the math half a dozen times before we found a way to shave a few HPs off.

But the system they used was so easy to break that even when I was bad compared to them, it got silly in other ways...

I maxed my agility and shield, which caused some hilarious "can't hit this" effects. I could run a few hundred meters in five seconds. In their system, charge bonus damage scaled with the distance you had moved... I could shield bash through a cave wall and stuff.

Any way, the thing why he's fun? The crazy luck and situations and story.

He left the viking-land because he lost his front teeth in a bar brawl, and wanted to find a master who could teach him the secret art of... making false teeth.

He ended up facing an ancient evil dragon-god at level 1. And level 4. And level 6 (or equivalents), being the only one to come away alive in all cases.

He ended up with a set of false teeth made from dragon's teeth, and the stories of things he went through sound ridiculous even though he never did the hard stuff himself.

Charging and one-hitting (actually kill-stealing) a dragon...
Facing a few dragonic gods and, by luck, surviving...
Falling off of a sky-bridge and surviving with -9 hp (equivalent) thanks to last session's level-up and feat choices...

[DigoDragon]

Years back I played a fighter in a D&D 2e group of all wizards (and one cleric/mage dual class). My character grew up in an oppresive nation ruled by evil sorcerers and if you didn't know magic, you were regulated to slave status. My character escaped and took up the profession of bodyguard for merchants until the party hired him on.

Sure they had all the fancy spells and cute familiars, kill-stealing everything in combat, but I had the funniest one-liners, the highest CHA in the group which made the NPCs like me best, and whenever the DM pulled out that book by "Grimtooth", the spellcasters knew to get behind me because I was the coconut shell to their meaty goodness. :smallbiggrin:
It was like being the Han Solo in a group of Luke skywalkers.


Bonus fun: Being the only fighter meant I always got the good weapons/armor in the treasure finds.

[RayGallade]

Let's see, my favorite "bad" character? Well, he happened to be a Warforged Ranger. A 4E Warforged ranged combat Ranger. What made him "bad"?
Well, perhaps it had something to do with my weapon choice. You see, most players will pick bows or crossbows, or even slings for their weapons. Me? I chose daggers, throwing axes, and throwing hammers. Lots of them. Using Quick Draw was necessary for him to even survive. He also had a low Intelligence that I role-played, so that was entertaining too. So he was the sort of guy who just loved to do the least intelligent things, like press random buttons. I think my favorite thing I ever did with him was when we were sneaking into an evil noble's home, he went up to a door and peeked in. The guards asked him, "Who goes there?" Being who he was, he asked the party what to do. They told him to just ready his weapons and prepare to fight. So, he called through the door, "Just ready your weapons and prepare to fight." I miss playing this guy.

[endoperez]

So, he called through the door, "Just ready your weapons and prepare to fight." I miss playing this guy.

:smallbiggrin: Fantastic!

[Alabenson]

One of my all-time favorite mechanically inferior characters was an insane Hexblade/Pyrokineticist.

I played him as a bizare cross between Deadpool and the Joker, and burned down every wooden structure I had a battle in :smallbiggrin:.

[Deepbluediver]

For the longest campaign I was ever in, I played a plain basic, PHB Monk. Luckily optimization was fairly low all around and we only had one other tanky-melee'r so I contributed fairly well in combat.

The fun part though, was his alignment and personality. I was lawful good, and rather than be the paladin-stick-up-the-arse version I played the "so sickeningly sweet it makes your teeth hurt" version. I chose not to deal lethal damage to pretty much everything, I refused to believe anyone would lie to me (purposefully forgoing Sense Motive checks), comitted the entire group to helping out any NPC who appeared even mildly inconvienenced, and then turned down or donated large chunks of our treasure to local orphanages and soup kitchens.

The rest of the part was True Nuetral, Chaotic Good, Chaotic Nuetral, and Chaotic-greedy, so my actions frequently had them (and their characters) gritting their teeth in frustration (the DM has expressly forbid PvP). But they couldn't do anything about it without taking a hard-dive off the deep end of the alignment pool and ticking off every DMNPC within range.



The Merchant. *Snip of long screed railing against the D&D gold-standard*
D&D's economics found to be unrealistic, film at 11.
ROFLMAO

The WBL table and amount of treasure monsters supposedly carry around with them are, IMO, completely frelling borked. There is no good way to explain it. The closest I can get is: The party is the ONLY group of PC's or even magic users that exists in the entire world, and every monster is part dragon so they have a compulsive need to hoard gold coins.

What my DM's usually did was that most encounters provided a few dozen to a few-hundred gold and silver coins (depending on the level) to keep us able to afford potions and basic supplies, and treasure was usually handed out in the form of loot that was appropriate (i.e. not random) once per story arc. If we wanted something specific, we had to find an NPC capable of making it, who usually wanted us to do them a favor in exchange.
Also, because adventurers are the only people who can make good use of most of the loot, and the NPC's aren't brain-dead morons, then will never buy everything we want to sell them for more than a few thousand gold.
For example, no one in the elvish town actually needs twenty suits of slightly-used orc armor, so we ended up trading them to the blacksmith as scrap for some free repairs and a bundle of arrows.

[hex0]

Also, I played a custom race and class once as well. Based on Quina from FFIX. I was a Qu Tribe Blue Mage (Con based spontaneous caster that could steal enemies spells and learn them). I had a 6 Charisma and Wisdom, and around 10 Intelligence. I wasn't a straight rip-off of Quina and played it very unique.

Basically I had no knowledge of anything other than magic and cooking (Which I had a +4 racial bonus and skill focus in, btw). I also had Spell Thematics, and all of my spells were food based. Fireballs were flaming pumpkins (or pots of chili), magic missle was pastries, etc. All my spells names were food based as well or based on my broken speech. Summon monster was "comey here!", for example.

With low Cha. and Wis. I was completely akward and oblivious to what was going on all day. Being from the swap I found anything mathematical, mechanical, or foreign to being bizarre and confusing.

The best moment is when someone tied a rope around me and pulled me into a moat and I just didn't understand what was going on or what would happen. It was hilarious for all as I weighed about 400 pounds and ended up splashing acid up when I fell that splashed the guy. (I had resistance)

I was also prone to find food based solutions to combat as well. When attacked by invisible foes I threw a bag of flour in the general vicinity.

It was challenging to play a powerful mage with such weak mental scores (which also meant my skills, social interaction, and will saves were none), but it was probably my favorite character.

[Hiro Protagonest]

I am a fiery debater as you can tell from my warnings.

...Only you and the mods can see your warnings.

And I don't like focusing on the merchants in D&D. Why? Because that would involve D&D economics, and then you realize how they fall apart when you poke them.

[Morithias]

...Only you and the mods can see your warnings.

And I don't like focusing on the merchants in D&D. Why? Because that would involve D&D economics, and then you realize how they fall apart when you poke them.

Oh I was under the impression anyone could see those. My bad.

[Marlowe]

I once dumped a party of adventurers from a relatively "normal" D&D world with D&D economics in a no-magic low-power world with a more relatistic medieval flavour. That was also riddled with undead and assorted horrors. It was frustrating as hell for everyone. In a typical small medieval village, you can't even get a vial of holy water because who in such a place would have FIVE POUNDS OF SILVER lying around to grind to powder?

My current campaign I'm just taking the view that it only looks like a late-medieval-early rennaissance world, and that in reality it works more like the modern day, with expensive toys everywhere.

[nedz]

D&D economics: its the diamonds which get me.
Their value is based upon their rarity, and yet they keep being used up in various spells. Over time the size of a 5,000 g.p. diamond must shrink as they become ever rarer.

[Deepbluediver]

D&D economics: its the diamonds which get me.
Their value is based upon their rarity, and yet they keep being used up in various spells. Over time the size of a 5,000 g.p. diamond must shrink as they become ever rarer.

With the various transmutation spells, I'm surprised there is anything which remains rare long enough to actually become a standard monetary unit.
More evidence for the "the party is the only people who actually consume resources, ever" theory I suppose.


Also, what counts as a "bad" character? Because I know some people have tons of fun playing evil types, and when your only motivation is "do whatever I want" you can get away with a less powerful build. "The princess is being held hostage by a red dragon? Eff that! I'm gonna go terrorize the local villagers again."

[Dimers]

Sherry Tanqueray, a character focused entirely on plant magic and booze. She had a little potted ivy as a familiar; it'd walk around on tendrils with her. Her special power was always having a bottle on her. Didn't get to play her long, because that DM turned out to be very combat-focused, but it was fun to zoom through the non-combat situations with solutions based on intermingled alcohol and herbamancy.

[Dr Bwaa]

Oh, my most-played character in my longest-running campaign is both terrible and a blast to play. I will put asterisks by anything really objectively terrible. Behold! Fighter* 10*/Devoted Defender(*?) 5 (DD from Sword & Fist). He is the team's tank*, focused on defending the sorceress, but he has No Method of Flight* at level 15! He has Weapon Focus* (longsword), Weapon Specialization* (longsword), and Greater Weapon Focus* (longsword)! He has Alertness*!

And he is so much fun. Seriously. Someone I threaten attacked another party member within five feet of me? Why don't I try a low-DC Reflex save to knock that attack out of the way. What's that, someone I don't threaten attacked an ally? Oh, I'll just swap places with my buddy here and receive the attack instead. I'll just keep on using the Total Defense action on my turns and stay near the sorceress. Bring it on, world!

[BootStrapTommy]

In a GURPS campaign I played a muted with premonition. The GM told me what was about to happen, but I couldn't say a damn thing to my my mates about it.

But hell fun to play. It was one of the best campaigns I've been a part of. Character was fun as hell.

[Hiro Protagonest]

In a GURPS campaign I played a muted with premonition. The GM told me what was about to happen, but I couldn't say a damn thing to my my mates about it.

Were you literate? Could you draw? If all else failed, couldn't you just pantomime it?

[BootStrapTommy]

Were you literate? Could you draw? If all else failed, couldn't you just pantomime it?

It's hard to pantomime or write a warning if you only have 60 seconds or so to warn them.

[Glimbur]

D&D economics: its the diamonds which get me.
Their value is based upon their rarity, and yet they keep being used up in various spells. Over time the size of a 5,000 g.p. diamond must shrink as they become ever rarer.

Just take a jaunt to the Plane of Earth. It's infinite and has a non-zero diamond density, so you should have enough. Of course, it's hard to plane-shift unless you have a stable natural portal, which unless you can move its outlet on the Plane of Earth means you could run out of ready diamonds.

Or don't think so hard about it. That's the best advice on D&D economics.

[Pokonic]

Just take a jaunt to the Plane of Earth. It's infinite and has a non-zero diamond density, so you should have enough. Of course, it's hard to plane-shift unless you have a stable natural portal, which unless you can move its outlet on the Plane of Earth means you could run out of ready diamonds.

Or don't think so hard about it. That's the best advice on D&D economics.

A town in one of my DND games actualy had a giant portal to the Plane Of Earth above it. As in, rocks the size of cars would smash into the ground/houses/people and split open, leaving tons of expensive crap when it shatters. Hence, the only reason to live there.


As for bad/fun things to play, I once played a human who grew up to belive that humans are all evil monsters. Because he grew up in Ebberan's demon-infested areas, and was a member of a LG orcish tribe who took in the little foundling from a CE human demon worshiper clan and grew up fighting them. The Orcs never had the heart to tell him.:smallbiggrin:

Note that he had a huge modifer to trusting any sort of human charecter, which was mostly every single NPC the party came across in the five kingdoms. Still was the most fun barbaran I ever played.

[Kornaki]

My favorite character was a S.W.A.T. gnome fighter. Eversmoking bottle through the window, wait thirty seconds and slide a dozen blast disks under the door. Wind fan to gust of wind the torches, then go goggles of night. Beads of force for capture scenarios. His primary weapon was a repeating crossbow, with a sleep poison tipped hand crossbow taped to his ankle.

One time the enemy was a bunch of criminals who were robbing a bank and had holed up inside with hostages... we sent a ring gate in with the pizzas we gave them during negotiations, then threw a ton of dust of disappearance through after they opened the box, turning the robbers and the hostages invisible so they couldn't kill the hostages while we entered the building.

I basically spent the whole campaign combat rolling into rooms and shouting "smokestick out!" when I wasn't

[Hylas]

It's hard to pantomime or write a warning if you only have 60 seconds or so to warn them.

Even worse when you're trying to pantomime "if we stay here any longer, not paying attention to our surroundings, we'll all be doomed!"

[Lycar]

And I don't like focusing on the merchants in D&D. Why? Because that would involve D&D economics, and then you realize how they fall apart when you poke them.

If you have to poke them you are just not staring hard enough. :smalltongue:

That is really the bane of D&D: Money = Power.

Everybody loves a shiny magic item but making them required kind takes the wonder and enjoyment out of it. :smallfrown:


Anyway, back on topic: Now one in a game I had a guy who fancied himself a sort of 'martial artist'. Except instead of being an unarmed fighter, he sought to make his swordplay as artistic as he could possibly manage. His weapon of choice being the bastard sword (because he could alternatively use it one or two-handed with a buckler**).

Class-wise he started out as a Thug (because skills, especially Perform (Weapon Drill)) and then added a level of Cleric* and some more Thug and went into Human Paragon (to make Perform a class skill) and Exotic Weapon Master.

As for feats he went for Improved Disarm and Trip (which he could do with his b-sword because of Ex. Wpn. Master) but also Sacred Vitality. Because he really, really has an aversion to undead.

So the bottom line is that this guy wants to be able to do... stuff... with his sword. Of course his BAB is not as high as it could be but that is because his fighting style is a bit too showy to be perfectly efficient.

Of course he would not limit himself to just one weapon and also carried a trio of flails around. Why? Because when you fight a Vrock and fail your trip check you just drop what you are holding and draw the next flail, keeping your sword ready in your off-hand, that's why! :smallbiggrin:

One day he inherited a suit of full plate from an unlucky Paladin who had fallen prey to shadows. The first thing besides refitting it for him was to paint Finder Wyvernspur's coat of arms on the breastplate and have armour spikes added. Why? Because you can't be a Chaotic warrior and not have armour spikes! :smallbiggrin:

*Story-wise he (and the other PCs) were part of a militia squad that got sent out to investigate why a remote mining town had 'gone dark'. It involved zombies. It really, really taught him to pray. And as it were, the only god he could really think of to pray to was Finder Wyvernspur.

That it also gave him Heavy Armour Proficiency was just bonus really.

**Yes, he could have done it with a longsword too. If you would ask him he would probably tell you something along the lines of 'a bastard sword for a badass bastard'.

[ThiagoMartell]

Any character that is fun can't really be bad, right?
I tend to think that having fun is more important than being effective in combat.

I remember that once I played a mortal in a Vampire the Masquerade game. Fun times.

[Knaight]

Any character that is fun can't really be bad, right?
I tend to think that having fun is more important than being effective in combat.
Exactly this. The only reason bad characters are bad is that they are unfun, and the power connection only comes in inasmuch as high variation within intragroup power and between characters and the setting causes problems that detract from the fun.

As for fun characters who aren't powerful - I'm currently playing a pilot in a space opera game, who isn't particularly impressive. However, the character is fun, as is interacting with the role of the pilot within the genre through a character that utterly defies it; instead of a young hotshot pilot the character is old, cautious, and only increasing in both of those, with the second spiking a bit every time he goes to the funeral of yet another young hotshot who got in over their head.

[nedz]

Just take a jaunt to the Plane of Earth. It's infinite and has a non-zero diamond density, so you should have enough. Of course, it's hard to plane-shift unless you have a stable natural portal, which unless you can move its outlet on the Plane of Earth means you could run out of ready diamonds.

Or don't think so hard about it. That's the best advice on D&D economics.

In which case the diamonds become larger.

There are several spells which specify materials in terms of GP value, which implies that they are sensitive to market forces and thus vulnerable to attempts to corner the market. Interesting plot hook perhaps?

[Knaight]

There are several spells which specify materials in terms of GP value, which implies that they are sensitive to market forces and thus vulnerable to attempts to corner the market. Interesting plot hook perhaps?
More than an interesting plot hook, it could be an interesting tactic. Say a cult needs a really expensive diamond to ressurect a former leader - under a market forces influence, they could make several attacks on diamond warehouses and such, artificially driving down demand, driving up supply to some extent (as it is clear that prices will be increasing there is an incentive to buy now) and as such making their diamond valuable enough for their use. Then there's the possibility for traveling so as to increase the potency of regents relative to local markets.

[SleepyShadow]

I don't get to play much. My players just unchain me from the cellar wall when they want me to run the game.

That said, I have always enjoyed playing Ryu, the blue half-dragon bard. In simple terms he is a combination of Antonio Banderas and Eric Clapton.

[Eurus]

Gosh I miss playing my imp paladin. A tiny sized melee fighter who doesn't wield Killer Gnome-style tricks isn't exactly optimal by any stretch of the imagination, but come on. Imp paladin. I made him as functional as I could, given that limitation (it used the Pathfinder paladin with access to 3.5 splats, thankfully), so it wasn't too bad.

[Zubrowka74]

Since AD&D 2e I've had a recurring unoptimized character I often used in tabletop and computer RPG : Tarragon, the Half-Elf Druid / Fighter. Yeah, I know. Sort of a tree-hugging brute. I was the default DM in my group so for a long time I seldom played PC.

Another character was an mute elven thief that I played as a team with my best friend's dwarf, a blind... crossbow fighter! I guided him with a rope attached to his waist and we had a tug-code by which I indicated where the targets were. Totally ineffective but so much fun. The dwarf was loud and vulgar, my character was mute.

[Deathkeeper]

Lexington, my Lizardfolk Summoner. He was so incredibly paranoid about everything that I once told my party not to pick up a set of gems because they might be cursed...of course, this, as expected, backfired when we found a blatantly magic door, probably to another dimension, and our Paladin thought it was a perfectly good idea ignore my for once reasonable advice to not go into it, even after it tried to pull in my eidolon.

[mistformsquirrl]

Heh, a LOT of my characters would fall under this.

One of my favorites was Elwynn, a Battle Sorceress. Gave up some spells for more BAB, a bigger hit die and the ability to wear and cast in light armor. I also deliberately chose Con as her weak stat* - which is generally not the best idea.

The thing is, I turned that weak constitution score into an interesting roleplaying element.

I also planned for her to be something of a blaster-gish.

Her backstory -

Elwynn is a former Verian battlemage, recently retired after an encounter with an exceptionally dangerous wraith. The wraith slew several of her squad members before attacking her directly - Elwynn attempting to hold the creature off while the survivors retreated. Before she could cast her first spell the creature trapped her left arm in it's spectral grip - rapidly withering it from a healthy limb to so much skin and bone. The taint then began to spread through the rest of her body.

Likely she'd have wound up dead or worse had her surviving squadmates not returned with a cleric when they did. The priest was able to drive the wraith away with his divine power, but even repeated castings of Restoration could not heal the damage the creature had done wholly. Elwynn's left arm was restored enough to be mobile, but it was far too frail to hold an object - especially a shield; a blow against which would likely shatter the arm beneath. She'd been saved, but left drastically weakened.

Her superiors decided that upon her return, the best choice was an honorable discharge, as they felt her injuries would impair her too greatly to be any further use in combat. Elwynn's protestations to the opposite were ignored.

Not at all ready to settle down, Elwynn seeks a purpose now that her military career is over. Adventuring, though not something she's ever taken a particularly fond view of before, is beginning to look like her only resort. For now she lives off of her rather generous pension while seeking an opportunity.

Contrary to what some may think, Elwynn is not at all interested in pursuing the wraith that injured her. Quite the opposite in fact; she's strongly considering any adventuring contracts she signs to include a specific "No Undead " policy.

So yeah, while she was far from optimized, I had a lot of fun with her. Her personality was interesting, and it was fun to be able to do a little melee combat here and there. I was aiming to take her into Spellsword or Eldritch Knight if I remember correctly, though it's been a long time so I don't remember entirely.

*We'd rolled stats, so I had a 9 that needed to go somewhere.

[Jeff the Green]

Any character that is fun can't really be bad, right?
I tend to think that having fun is more important than being effective in combat.

It depends on how you define "bad." Characters, IMO, have two purposes. The first and most important is to be fun to play. The second is to fulfill a role in the party. One can certainly be good at the first and bad at the second (or vice versa), and you can legitimately call such a character bad.