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View Full Version : Optimization A tale of Dread(ful optimisation)



evangaline
2014-05-26, 06:07 AM
Greetings fellow playgrounders,

For your comprehension I will give some additional information, we have played 6 sessions. The players are 18, 18 and 19 years old with little expirience in D&D. The cleric had 10 str, and hardly ever uses spells. He does not buff himself either. They have reached level 3. The bard has 8 str and a stupidly high diplomacy bonus. The sorcerer has nearly died at least once every session. He has also got a stupidly hard to remeber name wich is Sylvanon Ashabella Dalanar, try remebering that.

I have for you a tale. To be specific, a tale about a sorcerer, a cleric and a bard. This may perhaps sound like a 'party with potential and power'. It is, in fact, not.

Let us start with the divine might, the grandest of tiers; my dear friend Zedduin the first, cleric of Alhonna. Allow me to discribe the spells my dear friend uses: None. He considers melee overpowered and will always use his masterwork sword, even though his arms are too weak to carry such inferior equipment (10str). Yes, with this vast array of divine powers at his disposal he prefers to use a glorified metal stick!

Second is our grandmaster of the arcane arts, the sorcerer 'sylvanon asha-something, dala-something'. He has devoted himself to using burning hands until his final moment. Keep in mind that this 'final moment' has come close many times, however he has divised a cunning strategy to prevent this. He has chosen to lead the charge! Indeed. He has even overcome his inner squishyness by taking toughness. And, to proove his dedication to the evocation school, he will never take any spell that does not belong to the evocation school.

Now it's time for the 'most capable' player, I introduce to you Baka the bard, slayer of goblins and proud possesor of the title 'Owner of a genuinly bad name'. He may sound like potent warrior, however you should not let his titles decieve you. This man is utterly, genuinly and completely worthless in combat. He does not have acces to the powers of the arcane, nor does he have acces to a divine force. This man has power over a whip. With his puny gnome arms he may have some trouble lifting this mighty leather weapon of mass destruction, but fear not! He will not use this grand leathery band of mass destruction to make you fall, no! He will just hit you in your face with it! This may seem like an unoptimized way of trying to slay goblins, indeed this is a slow way to slay these pests. However this problem has also been solved by this genius. He has used his full WBL for buying armies and he has rallied peasants to march at the goblins, earning titles, gold and a rod of wonder! By organising this massive slaugher he had also managed to turn this wonderful game of D&D into rome total war with magic, wich made the Omnisire sad.

The bard will DM from now on and I will play a warblade with 14 str while wielding combat pans to prevent myself from being overpowered. Source of the Warpan: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1901693996/combat-kitchenware

evangaline
2014-05-26, 06:08 AM
My apologies for the rant, It may be enjoyable to read about a low op game though. They... They are just too weak! They cant even beat appropriate encounter levels, nor the encounter levels wich were a level below them!

adriana
2014-05-26, 06:11 AM
Ok the sorcerer has to be a wow player with a name like that. Wow...:smallconfused:

Killer Angel
2014-05-26, 06:38 AM
. And, to proove his dedication to the evocation school, he will never take any spell that does not belong to the evocation school.


I hope at least he's a specialist... (edit: ah, he's a sorc, i was thinking to a wizard)

well, you can only hope that they'll learn better the system. If you play with them and show some good build, it could be feasible, after all. :smallwink:

evangaline
2014-05-26, 06:47 AM
I hope at least he's a specialist...

well, you can only hope that they'll learn better the system. If you play with them and show some good build, it could be feasible, after all. :smallwink:

You are of course right (he is no specialist though), and I do see a lot of improvement. The players are often very creative. When we started nobody knew anything about D&D, wich explains their less-then-optimal build choices.

We've also had lots of fun, especially with the sorcerer who is a great guy!

mealin
2014-05-26, 07:36 AM
Are they having fun? If so, who cares if their optimisation is non existant

Spore
2014-05-26, 08:15 AM
Are they having fun? If so, who cares if their optimisation is non existant

They won't have fun when they start dying repeatedly. That's the problem. Even if they play CR-1 or CR-2 there are monsters out that are bound to kill them.

Raimun
2014-05-26, 08:46 AM
Heh, there's nothing wrong with any of that if everyone is having fun.

However, if fun is compromised at the Xth TPK, you should advice them a bit. Give them a few (or many) basic tips. You know, stuff like: "You need STR to make it in melee... unless you have good DEX and take Weapon Finesse as a Feat." Perhaps you should dispense such tips way before the first TPK. :smalltongue:

Edit: Not to mention: "Use your spells! All kinds of them!" :smallbiggrin:

I've seen a few use-impaired builds in play that have struggled to contribute in combat. While many people don't actually care about "ultimate optimization power" or such garbage, no one likes to be completely useless. As a rule of thumb it's generally a bad sign if any random "Core-Full BAB-class with 16+ STR and decent CON" regularly outshines your character.