How to play as Megaman?

[gorilla-turtle]

I've been told about a gestalt game on the forum that a player wants me to join, with a slightly odd theme to it:


The game setting, rather than any of the D&D fantasyverses, is actual real life, in today's time and age.
We are playing as ourselves in real life; however, due to the plot, we have been transformed into a fictional character of our choosing, gaining powers (though possibly not power level) similar to theirs.
The laws of physics may or may not triumph over various spell abilities or mechanical effects. Launching fireballs or acid blasts regularly could have unintended side effects on the environment around us.
There are both people who have not been powered up by the plot, and those who have.
The accessability of magic items and the available time for crafting more of them is sketchy at best from first look, given an obvious potental lack of magic mart.


The game is apparently low to mid op tops. Characters so far include a Bard//Cleric (The Medic from Team Fortress 2), a Monk//Wizard (the Librarian from Discworld), a Crusader//Psychic Warrior (Bili Morguhn from Horseclans), and a Monk//Warlock (Kid Goku from Dragon Ball).

They actually just finished defeating the Yellow Devil and a Sniper Joe, so the person who told me about the game recommended that I play as Megaman himself. He also recommends Dragonfire Adept with a casting class on the side, the former for blasting and the later for the special weapons.

I'm halfway tempted to experiment with Binder, potentially ask if Artificer could somehow still be on the table, and wonder what my other options might be. Any suggestions from the forum? Just looking for general ideas at this point, though successes people have already had would be cool to hear about.

One note for ideas is that the build needs to be playable at 1st level.

[Vanitas]

D&D does not look like the best system for this. I would advise suggesting that the DM uses FATE or Anima Prime for it. Both have free versions, both are easy to learn and both fit the concept.

[RFLS]

It's pretty simple:


Select Warforged as your race.
Select Warlock as one side of your gestalt.
Select Warmage or Sorcerer as the other side.
Pew pew!



D&D does not look like the best system for this. I would advise suggesting that the DM uses FATE or Anima Prime for it. Both have free versions, both are easy to learn and both fit the concept.

While I'm inclined to agree with you, I have to point out that the game has already started. Switching systems is a pain, especially when it's not what everyone signed up for or would play.

[Annos]

IMO Warlock is the best for what you wan't. At will blasts of powerful arcane magic (plasma) that can be changed and altered or "Upgraded" :smallwink:
*swordsaged*

[Wharrrrrrgarbl]

Why not a Warlock? Shoots lasers, can tweak said lasers into a variety of weird subweapons, has some basic sensors built in, develops some damage resistance, and, with Fiendish Resilience, gets an E-tank.

Then, take the Green Star Adept Prestige class to really be a robot.

[gorilla-turtle]

D&D does not look like the best system for this. I would advise suggesting that the DM uses FATE or Anima Prime for it. Both have free versions, both are easy to learn and both fit the concept.


While I'm inclined to agree with you, I have to point out that the game has already started. Switching systems is a pain, especially when it's not what everyone signed up for or would play.

What he said.


It's pretty simple:


Select Warforged as your race.
Select Warlock as one side of your gestalt.
Select Warmage or Sorcerer as the other side.
Pew pew!



IMO Warlock is the best for what you wan't. At will blasts of powerful arcane magic (plasma) that can be changed and altered or "Upgraded" :smallwink:
*swordsaged*


Why not a Warlock? Shoots lasers, can tweak said lasers into a variety of weird subweapons, has some basic sensors built in, develops some damage resistance, and, with Fiendish Resilience, gets an E-tank.

Warforged was a given, however... the Goku player is actually my brother, and I kinda wanna see if I can figure out a way to out blast him, so I don't want to mimic his blasting class, since at the best I'd end up tying him in that regard.

[RFLS]

Warforged was a given, however... the Goku player is actually my brother, and I kinda wanna see if I can figure out a way to out blast him, so I don't want to mimic his blasting class, since at the best I'd end up tying him in that regard.

I would advise against this. Arms races rarely, if ever, end well.

[gorilla-turtle]

I would advise against this. Arms races rarely, if ever, end well.

I'll mull it over, but at the very least I don't want to feel too much like his copy.

[Kioras]

Incarnate Mailman perhaps?

That is to say, a blasting sorceror with changable elements via metamagic and mix in incarnate meldshaping for versatilit, changing your load out daily.

[Vanitas]

I would advise against this. Arms races rarely, if ever, end well.

Very much this.

You could consider a Binder//Ardent 7/Full BAB 3/Slayer 10 build.
Binder gets several abilities to swap between (your 'weapons'), while Ardent with Practiced Manifester provided blasting while increasing your BAB bonus.
Meldshaping also fits the theme and tends to mesh well with psionics.

[Thrawn183]

I'll mull it over, but at the very least I don't want to feel too much like his copy.

I'd go with a wand using artificer. You can even use it to do the equivalent of charged shots.

[Vanitas]

I'd go with a wand using artificer. You can even use it to do the equivalent of charged shots.

I bet you still can't defeat Airman, though.

[HaikenEdge]

Maybe a Warforged Artificer with a Wand Sheathe?

[Zolkabro]

As a player in the game, I'm just going to put it out there that if you and INo start competing for firepower, then my peace-loving monkey will smack you both senseless and make you sit in the naughty corner.

Clear?

[INoKnowNames]

As a player in the game, I'm just going to put it out there that if you and INo start competing for firepower, then my peace-loving monkey will smack you both senseless and make you sit in the naughty corner.

Clear?

Oh don't tease him, Zolkapiechan. After all, a little friendly competition helps breed creativity in some people, and I'm sure we can be civilized. Isn't that right, WolvieDanteDeadpool? :smallamused:

[gorilla-turtle]

Incarnate Mailman perhaps?

That is to say, a blasting sorceror with changable elements via metamagic and mix in incarnate meldshaping for versatilit, changing your load out daily.

I'm still trying to do the math on how such stacked metamagic even functions, but it's not an idea I've ruled out.

Never heard of the Incarnate, though.


Very much this.


As a player in the game, I'm just going to put it out there that if you and INo start competing for firepower, then my peace-loving monkey will smack you both senseless and make you sit in the naughty corner.

Clear?

It's different when the person you're competing with is only a few yards from you. Disputes can be solved far easier out of character, and the personal nature of the relationship keeps either side from getting actually hostile. We've played games for a good 15 years together at this point: dice rolling probably won't be the straw that shatters the family.


Oh don't tease him, Zolkapiechan. After all, a little friendly competition helps breed creativity in some people, and I'm sure we can be civilized. Isn't that right, WolvieDanteDeadpool? :smallamused:

Certainly. Though further cracks like that will get teeth removed, ZeroMayCry.


You could consider a Binder//Ardent 7/Full BAB 3/Slayer 10 build.
Binder gets several abilities to swap between (your 'weapons'), while Ardent with Practiced Manifester provided blasting while increasing your BAB bonus.
Meldshaping also fits the theme and tends to mesh well with psionics.

I know all day blasting is a bit weaker than spell/point based blasting, but does the Binder have access to any sort of constant use projectile? I'd be afraid of having my limited source ability be my main gun, and my reliable set of skills be my limited power ups seems odd.


I'd go with a wand using artificer. You can even use it to do the equivalent of charged shots.


Maybe a Warforged Artificer with a Wand Sheathe?

I'm not actually sure how much time we'd have to making more wands. I'm gonna shy away from Artificing since the game is starting at level 1.


I bet you still can't defeat Airman, though.

That is actually one thing worth noting: one player did take advantage of the Yellow Devil's weakness to electricity to slay it early, so other weaknesses media characters might have can be capitalized on.

[SoraWolf7]

Someone did post a full MegaMan X build, including a RUSH equivalent, so all you'd really have to do is use that build and adjust as needed to match the classic Megaman.

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=16246615&postcount=28

[gorilla-turtle]

Someone did post a full MegaMan X build, including a RUSH equivalent, so all you'd really have to do is use that build and adjust as needed to match the classic Megaman.

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=16246615&postcount=28

Wow. The potential downside of -not- being able to itemcraft are -COMPLETELY- ofset by what could happen if I could. I'll need to ask whoever the Dm is on whether or not just basic wand-age might be accessable, because that could even get me Rush. That's pretty baller.

Warforged Artificer.... I'm really hating that he thought of it first, but I'm starting to slide a bit toward // Dragonfire Adept as a blaster on the otherside. Though maybe Psion, since then at late levels, I could fuse with Rush for the Super Armor. Would just need to find a good PP Recharge trick to be able to always blast at all times with no exceptions.

[Zolkabro]

I love warforged, it would be awesome to have one in the game. And if you're an artificer you can make us all sweet items. I say go for that.

Also, I've PMed you the linkies.

[cakellene]

What about an arcane caster and use reserve feats for the arm blasts?

[Thrawn183]

Wow. The potential downside of -not- being able to itemcraft are -COMPLETELY- ofset by what could happen if I could. I'll need to ask whoever the Dm is on whether or not just basic wand-age might be accessable, because that could even get me Rush. That's pretty baller.

Warforged Artificer.... I'm really hating that he thought of it first, but I'm starting to slide a bit toward // Dragonfire Adept as a blaster on the otherside. Though maybe Psion, since then at late levels, I could fuse with Rush for the Super Armor. Would just need to find a good PP Recharge trick to be able to always blast at all times with no exceptions.

If you put some effort into it, you can sort of get around a lot of the difficulty of crafting. (Crafting while everyone's asleep, and I think a homonculous can craft for you?)

[lytokk]

I've been trying to put together a Megaman build that doesn't use artificer or warlock for the past few weeks, and I keep coming up dry. Don't want to use warlock since it has that alignment restriction (either chaotic or evil) that most people ignore, but for whatever reason I just can't bring myself to do. Don't want to use artificer because I'm certain after a few uses even I would just stop having fun anymore leaving the rest of the party in the dust.

Been trying duskblade, and that one worked out reasonable, with the wand sheath. Ran into the problem of there just not being a lot of good options for wands in the duskblade spell list, and for some reason I can't fathom, caster classes don't actually get UMD as a skill, and can't use wands that have spells outside of their casting list. It did have 1 spell that I felt could work, channeled pyroburst. Unfortunately, wands of it would be something like 29,000 each.

That all brought me to warmage. A lot of the ranged spells that would really work well for a Megaman build, a little bit of armor, unfortunately, a lower hit die than I wanted. But, thats the class I'm working with now.

Also, a thought was to use with Wild Cohort feat to pick up a riding dog as a companion.

Use these ideas in any way you see fit. Most of them have been little dead ends for me but someone else might be able to work them out better.

[DMVerdandi]

The thing about megaman is he needs a proper X-buster. An infinite shot ranged attack, which does damage very well. He also needs the ability to somehow obtain or copy the abilities of enemies.

This could honestly be done with the standard Factotum build. Play a warforged (This time give it a human face. Flavor it as a reploid. Hate the way warforged look... bleh.)

Now what you need to do is give him the invisible needle reserve feat. It is 1d4 per spell level. This can be seen as X/rock gaining upgrades to his system.
Instead of giving him font of inspiration every level, instead just give him a ton of reserve feats.
This way he can do mostly anything but isn't in a high tier.

Of course, you could make him a tier 1/2 class, and still rely on reserve feats to make it happen.

A warforged artificer could work, but since they cannot actually use reserve feats, that use of invisible needle goes right out the window, and that is really the linchpin in making a good megaman, giving him a power that lets him duplicate the X-buster.

All his other powers can be duplicated by spell slots, charges, or power points.

An eldritch theurge could work well though.

[Tvtyrant]

Blasty Psion (or Wilder)//Totemist. Psionic blasting is pretty good and if you do not Overchannel constantly won't run out of points quickly. Totemist represents the variety of powers Megaman can switch between, in this case it grants mostly melee abilities. Switch out Totemist for Incarnate for more skills and variety but less power.

Warforged is probably a given.

Another option would be to go soulknife/soulbow as one side for infinite arrows that gain wisdom to hit and damage (Zen Archery) and using the Bane property on the arrows can actually do decent damage. The flipside is you want to have full BaB and yet still have some sort of magical ability on the side. You could ride the Duskblade train but almost all of your powers would be melee ones. I like Warblade personally, as it gets a number of abilities that work well with your bow (double full attack on Time Stands Still) and grants you good HP and BaB.

[Phelix-Mu]

In before Tippy suggest Illithid Savant.:smallwink:

Honestly, though, if you could finagle the illithid bit (lol...good luck finessing that with the DM), Megaman's defining trait from my memory was that he got the weapons that his defeated foes had wielded. That immediately says Illithid Savant in my mind.

On a more practical level, let's go with something like...Warforged Soulknife/Soulbow//xx/soldier of light. You get missiles of coolness, can spam like a champ, you get some energon companions for additional tactical blasting, you get fast healing, positive energy burst, apropos "Light" theme, divine grace, etc. Maybe lacking a bit in the magic department...and anti-undead isn't terribly Megaman-ish. Still, energons!

[otakumick]

greater doppelganger would fit better than illithid savant I think. Gains the robot masters powers, but loses them later(has to collect a new set every time lol)

[AstralFire]

Warforged Psion//Wilder/Anarchic Initiate basically doesn't run out of PP unless you're trying to go the most nova that a nova has ever novaed.

[Rijan_Sai]

(Only a little late with this one...)

I bet you still can't defeat Airman, though.

Qual's Feather Token: Tree (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=16460985&postcount=72)? :smalltongue:

Honestly though, isn't there a Druid spell somewhere that give you a shield of leaves? I thought I remembered one, but the image I was remembering was from Complete Champion, the image for Air Devotion...

[gorilla-turtle]

I love warforged, it would be awesome to have one in the game. And if you're an artificer you can make us all sweet items. I say go for that.

Megaman making items for others... I always assumed it was an internal process, or that he'd present data from the rogue robot masters to his creator for construction of the new weapons, but I'm game.


Also, I've PMed you the linkies.

Thank you.


What about an arcane caster and use reserve feats for the arm blasts?

The issue, again, is that the game is starting at level 1. Access to reserve feats is barred until at least level 3, if not 6, depending on feat slot and the level that spells become accessable for a class.

It definitely wasn't made clear this game was starting at 1st level.


If you put some effort into it, you can sort of get around a lot of the difficulty of crafting. (Crafting while everyone's asleep, and I think a homonculous can craft for you?)

At the very least, 8 hours while the rest are sleep seems reasonable. Spellcasters need rest to refresh spells, MegaArtificer needs rest to recharge his special weapon system.


I've been trying to put together a Megaman build that doesn't use artificer or warlock for the past few weeks, and I keep coming up dry. Don't want to use warlock since it has that alignment restriction (either chaotic or evil) that most people ignore, but for whatever reason I just can't bring myself to do. Don't want to use artificer because I'm certain after a few uses even I would just stop having fun anymore leaving the rest of the party in the dust.

Alignment restsrictions are too much of a straight jacket in most cases anyway. And I'm not too worried about the rest of the party not being good enough; quite the opposite, knowing my family alone.


Been trying duskblade, and that one worked out reasonable, with the wand sheath. Ran into the problem of there just not being a lot of good options for wands in the duskblade spell list, and for some reason I can't fathom, caster classes don't actually get UMD as a skill, and can't use wands that have spells outside of their casting list. It did have 1 spell that I felt could work, channeled pyroburst. Unfortunately, wands of it would be something like 29,000 each.

That all brought me to warmage. A lot of the ranged spells that would really work well for a Megaman build, a little bit of armor, unfortunately, a lower hit die than I wanted. But, thats the class I'm working with now.

Duskblade is more for a ready-made Gish anyway than a blaster type, right? Warmage would work: Megaman might take more hits than Mario, but I don't actually see him being more resiliant than him in the new Smash Brothers.


Also, a thought was to use with Wild Cohort feat to pick up a riding dog as a companion.

Hm... maybe Obtain Familiar to acquire Beat as well...


Use these ideas in any way you see fit. Most of them have been little dead ends for me but someone else might be able to work them out better.

Thank you for them.


The thing about megaman is he needs a proper X-buster. An infinite shot ranged attack, which does damage very well. He also needs the ability to somehow obtain or copy the abilities of enemies.

This could honestly be done with the standard Factotum build. Play a warforged (This time give it a human face. Flavor it as a reploid. Hate the way warforged look... bleh.)

Now what you need to do is give him the invisible needle reserve feat. It is 1d4 per spell level. This can be seen as X/rock gaining upgrades to his system.
Instead of giving him font of inspiration every level, instead just give him a ton of reserve feats.
This way he can do mostly anything but isn't in a high tier.

Of course, you could make him a tier 1/2 class, and still rely on reserve feats to make it happen.

A warforged artificer could work, but since they cannot actually use reserve feats, that use of invisible needle goes right out the window, and that is really the linchpin in making a good megaman, giving him a power that lets him duplicate the X-buster.

All his other powers can be duplicated by spell slots, charges, or power points.

An eldritch theurge could work well though.

It's a gestalt game, so we've got a bit more resources available than normal. And Tiers are largely irrelevant (at least high tiers are) if you have the right players: Tiers 1-4 can play along if those in the top tier don't try to break/abuse the system, while still leaving room for those near the bottom to have more freedom.


Another option would be to go soulknife/soulbow as one side for infinite arrows that gain wisdom to hit and damage (Zen Archery) and using the Bane property on the arrows can actually do decent damage. The flipside is you want to have full BaB and yet still have some sort of magical ability on the side. You could ride the Duskblade train but almost all of your powers would be melee ones. I like Warblade personally, as it gets a number of abilities that work well with your bow (double full attack on Time Stands Still) and grants you good HP and BaB.

On one hand, this build doesn't work at low levels, since this Megaman would be bereft of ranged weapons, and would be more melee focused until the prestige class.

On the other hand, this could be a decent build for Zero, which would be just as entertaining, if not more so.


In before Tippy suggest Illithid Savant.:smallwink:

Honestly, though, if you could finagle the illithid bit (lol...good luck finessing that with the DM), Megaman's defining trait from my memory was that he got the weapons that his defeated foes had wielded. That immediately says Illithid Savant in my mind.

I'm having trouble wraping my head around Megaman eating Brains, let alone the complete and utter cheese of that class. Is that man always so crazy? I'm only a month old to this forum and have already heard tales of ElderGod Tippy...


On a more practical level, let's go with something like...Warforged Soulknife/Soulbow//xx/soldier of light. You get missiles of coolness, can spam like a champ, you get some energon companions for additional tactical blasting, you get fast healing, positive energy burst, apropos "Light" theme, divine grace, etc. Maybe lacking a bit in the magic department...and anti-undead isn't terribly Megaman-ish. Still, energons!

Cool, but, again, the suggestions need to be playable at 1st...


greater doppelganger would fit better than illithid savant I think. Gains the robot masters powers, but loses them later(has to collect a new set every time lol)

Never heard of that class...


Warforged Psion//Wilder/Anarchic Initiate basically doesn't run out of PP unless you're trying to go the most nova that a nova has ever novaed.

Random question: Wouldn't it be better to pick one casting stat, rather than try to keep up both?


(Only a little late with this one...)


Qual's Feather Token: Tree (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=16460985&postcount=72)? :smalltongue:

Honestly though, isn't there a Druid spell somewhere that give you a shield of leaves? I thought I remembered one, but the image I was remembering was from Complete Champion, the image for Air Devotion...

You'd think Airman would push -us- into our own tokens rather than the other way around....

[danzibr]

I would advise against this. Arms races rarely, if ever, end well.
lol... arms race. Cuz it's Megaman.

Blasty Psion (or Wilder)//Totemist. Psionic blasting is pretty good and if you do not Overchannel constantly won't run out of points quickly. Totemist represents the variety of powers Megaman can switch between, in this case it grants mostly melee abilities. Switch out Totemist for Incarnate for more skills and variety but less power.

Warforged is probably a given.

Another option would be to go soulknife/soulbow as one side for infinite arrows that gain wisdom to hit and damage (Zen Archery) and using the Bane property on the arrows can actually do decent damage. The flipside is you want to have full BaB and yet still have some sort of magical ability on the side. You could ride the Duskblade train but almost all of your powers would be melee ones. I like Warblade personally, as it gets a number of abilities that work well with your bow (double full attack on Time Stands Still) and grants you good HP and BaB.
As much as I love Totemist, I feel it doesn't fit at all. And I love Totemist.

[otakumick]

greater doppelganger is from monsters of faerun, and it wasn't so much a suggestion as a counter to illithid savant. With Gestalt I would probably go Warlock//Artificer... Warlock for the standard buster and Wandificer for the robot master weapons. And of course go with Warforged...

[Suddo]

In before Tippy suggest Illithid Savant.:smallwink:

Honestly, though, if you could finagle the illithid bit (lol...good luck finessing that with the DM), Megaman's defining trait from my memory was that he got the weapons that his defeated foes had wielded. That immediately says Illithid Savant in my mind.

In all honesty this is the coolest idea I've seen towards being megaman.

[Icewraith]

This is more of a Zero flavor thing, but a level of warblade would let you double-jump every other round if necessary using sudden leap. Also if you're starting at high enough level you could just go bloodstorm blade and get your spammable ranged attack that way.

You could be using the Mega-Arm from the megaman 5 gameboy game (I don't know if they used that anywhere else in the series).

Then spellcaster or psion on the other side for special weapons.

Hang on, starting level one is definitely an issue with that idea.

Alternatively you could make a killer gnome and use silent image to mimic the attack that whatever boss you're fighting would most fear. Flavor's all wrong but the weapon effects are right by definition.

Edit: For me, double-jump and air dashing were the biggest game changers in the X series. To really get wall climbing right finangle a way to get spider climb (there are a bunch of ways).

Double Edit: Come to think of it, jumping and non-teleporting movement is such a huge deal in Mega Man... there's a Tiger Claw stance for that, or the old "Leap of the Heavens" or some other way to get a gigantic jump check. Tumble for sliding/dashing?

[AstralFire]

Random question: Wouldn't it be better to pick one casting stat, rather than try to keep up both?

Yes.

This is not an issue.

Wild Surge can be used with any psionic manifesting class. Psion has superior powers known. Use Wild Surge with your Psion manifesting. The power points share a joint pool.

What to do with your Wilder Powers? Save them for minor out-of-combat utility things rather than worrying about pumping your Cha, or things that don't much care about your save. Crystal Shard makes for an effective simple duplicate of Mega Man's buster when reflavored and doesn't care about what your Cha Score is, so take that as a Wilder.

Psion//Wilder/Anarchic Initiate is one of the most incredibly effective and simple gestalts possible - with no real effort.

Replacing Wilder/AI or Psion with Erudite allows you to better replicate Mega Man's ability to steal powers, albeit only from other psionic enemies (which makes sense.)

[Jack_Simth]

Hmm... Warforged (Cloistered) Cleric//Warlock?

Spells for the charged stuff, warlock blasts for the at-will stuff. Construct (living, but still) from level 1. You're not item-dependant (Cleric buffs), can make your own items if materials are available (Cleric and Warlock both), and have a decent number of nifties. Warlock is non attribute dependant (a little on Charisma, but that just sets save DCs and the bonus from Dark One's Own Luck, and you can easily avoid picking those particular invocations readily enough).

Pick up a few item crafting feats, and maybe a reserve feat or two, and you're set.

[Ragnorrok]

Go warforged. Get a wand sheath with a wand that shoots some form of ball attack or maybe magic missile so then you can just hold out your hand and fire the shots. And if your going with Megaman X I recommend mindblade so you can have the buster as well in a sense.

[danzibr]

Go warforged. Get a wand sheath with a wand that shoots some form of ball attack or maybe magic missile so then you can just hold out your hand and fire the shots. And if your going with Megaman X I recommend mindblade so you can have the buster as well in a sense.
PF Soulknife for sure.

I think it's X6 that he has a sword?

[Yael]

What are all those tips for?

You need to jump and shot, dude~~

[IAmTehDave]

PF Soulknife for sure.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/classes/soulknife

Take the Gifted and Soulbolt archetypes for PF soulknife. Starts ranged at level 1, still gets the nifty PF soulknife blade skills etc.
See if you can get your DM to allow Focused Offense to apply to your ranged attacks while focused. You get some special attacks with the Gifted manifesting.
If you don't take Gifted blade, you get Psychic Strike - take a move action to charge your blast, and attack with it.

For the other side, Swordsage. Don't necessarily need to use strikes, but other maneuvers could be taken as special abilities/attacks you've learned from enemies?

[Eldaran]

I agree with the Soulbolt Soulknife, it's Pathfinder but there's nothing in there that doesn't work in 3.5. Also, be sure to take Psionic Shot so that when you're regaining focus you're charging up your Buster.