What is the most powerful character you've ever built that actually saw gameplay?

[inertia709]

We always hear people go on about Planar Shepherds, Incantatrixes and DMM(persist)-abusing clerics, as well as theoretical builds like Pun-Pun, the Twice Betrayer and the d2 Swordsage, but it would be nice to hear about some builds that have actually seen action.

I'll start it off. I'm sure many if not most of you have seen worse, but here goes:

A while ago, a friend of mine (the DM) asked me to help him by building and playing an level 29 NPC in his 3.5 campaign. We'd been talking about the ongoings of and his plans for the campaign since before the players were even epic, and now they were level 29 and close to the end. Building epic characters takes a long time, let along optimizing them, and playing multiple epic characters can be a headache, so I figured it'd be nice to help. That, and I'd never played an epic character before (or even a level 11+ one for that matter) so I thought that it would be fun.

However, the DM made two mistakes:

1. He said to "pull no punches." I even ran some of the ideas I had by him, and why they could be very deadly, and he okayed them. This was the climax of the adventure, after all.

2. The NPC was a wizard.

I will point out too that despite the DM saying to "pull no punches," I did pull some punches by avoiding Incantarix and IoSV cheese, as well as certain spells (in particular gate, because a single Old Prismatic Dragon (58 HD, CR 48) would trounce them without breaking a sweat), but the gloves were definitely off.

I could bore you with all of the spells that I prepared, but instead I'll just focus on the main combo. He was a drow abjurer 14/master specialist 10/archmage 5. It was actually a pretty simple combination of the master specialist (http://dndtools.eu/classes/master-specialist/) abjurer major school esoteric, the archmage (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/prestigeClasses/archmage.htm) mastery of shaping high arcana, the chain spell and reach spell metamagic feats, as well as some metamagic cost reducers. The result? All of their drow enemies were surrounded by anti-magic fields on turn one of the combat, shaped so that the drow were not affected. Note that this combo of abilities and MM feats with cost reducers also works on prismatic sphere, which notably is unaffected by AM field.

Long story short, they were TPK'd but revived by an epic spell cast by an NPC ally (the DM saw the TPK coming so he gave them a second chance), and they managed to win in the end.

Anyway, that's my rant about my most OP character. What's yours? It doesn't have to be an epic level character, just OP for his/her level at some point when you played him/her.

[torrasque666]

I'm beginning to think my DM has no idea what he's doing.


I have a warforged juggernaut(he has more levels, but that was his defining class) and we, on our way to destroy Vol, had to travel through the realm of Vecna. Because she had somehow stolen some of his power, Vecna was helping us out. Our DM basically said, "He's a god. He can grant whatever you wish." and not Wish-limited.(as in, pretty much we could get whatever we wanted, on the understanding that it all goes away after we kill Vol. We got boosted to Level 21 from 15.) Long story short I went from a mere 35 strength(18 base, +3[at that point] levels, +10 from polymorphing into a Warforged Charger(unless I'm reading Polymorph wrong[Further note: I did]), and then plus 16 from augmented expansion item[oh sweet jesus I had calculated that wrong the whole time!]) to frigging 60. How? I'm not quite sure myself. All I know is I got boosted again to Colossal(some untyped sort of divine boon) for another +8 and then granted a Belt of Perfection(or something. +6 to all abilities) And those 7 levels?(I hadn't updated the character to 15 yet. He was only 14) War Hulk. For another 14 plus 2 from levels. By my current math he should have 77 strength alone. He dual wields Colossal+ Greatswords(Powerful Build granted from Clone Mask). AND due to a poor reading of Clone Mask the DM ruled that it copies everything from his original torso. So while normally it'd just be another attack, he gets another full set. So 4 Colossal+ Greatswords, and another 2 Mouthpick ones(Jaws of Death feat) AND 2 more Obedient Colossal+ Greatswords. 8 Swords, 3 attacks and 10d6 each. If this were a physical game I wouldn't have enough dice to throw. 24 d20s, and if all of them hit, another 240 d6s. Add in his +35 Strength on all but the two floating swords for(assuming all hit) another 630 damage.

I have broken roll20 full attacking with him.

And his Con? 14+10+12 from size + 6 from belt=42.....








DISCLAIMER: As I said at the beginning. I think we ended up playing a bit hard and loose with the rules here...Actually I know we did. I think at this point it resembles D&D in name only.

[Jeff the Green]

Probably one I'm playing now. A spellweaver, which is an aberration from MMII but for which I'm using a monster class, gestalted with a homebrewed factotum/artificer theurge (in my sig). He breaks the action economy in half with his ability to spellweave, casting a number of spells with levels summing up to his HD as a full-round action. And anything in his "spellbook" as a full-round action. Plus standard artificer WBLmancy, a 26 Intelligence to DCs and factotum abilities, and a few other things. It's only because I deliberately stuck to single-target debuffs when choosing my spells that I don't overshadow the freaking tarrasque another player's playing.

[Aegis013]

I had a DM who bit off more than he could chew, reassuring me despite my own protests that my character might be too powerful and I would be happy to tone it down if asked.

It was a Whispergnome Illusionist Wizard 5/Shadowcraft Mage 5. It was going into Incantatrix afterward, but the game ended at that level when I used a Scroll of Wish (WBL was not being followed, and due to my clever coordination of other party members' abilities we were waaaay above it, with almost no restrictions on magic items available) to transport an NPC to the Positive-Energy Plane to stop him from betraying us, and accidentally transported all of the macguffins with him. The DM didn't know what to do, so the campaign just ended.

I discovered later he was not the veteran DM he claimed, and while he was an excellent DM when it came to crafting a world and telling a story (seriously, it was a ton of fun), his system mastery was not up to figuring out how to get the BBEG to be able to retrieve the macguffins. I proposed a couple of easy solutions, but he didn't want to deal with it anymore.

[Lekgolo137]

Actually, I played a planar shepherd in a 18 level game, it was quite overpowered and the DM killed the character in the 3rd game. I had a bubble that granted me and my allies 12 turns for each of the enemy's and I had enervation at will, so even without the rest of the group I could cast 12 enervations per round and many other madness xD

[Face-Beard]

One of the most powerful, and fun characters I played in a "real" game [my DM micromanages everything in his game....class, race, feats, PrC's, spells...everything must appear on his "approved" list or it is not allowed] was my Rogue, "Achmed the Snake" [name taken from a book I read, personality based on Antonio Banderas' accent from the 13th warrior]. Achmed was a dirty fellow, to say the least, and fought with a single dagger for many levels [11 to be exact] before finally doubling-up [two-weapon fighting] at 12th; his final level before dying.......for the third time [the DM kept resurrecting him because he was funny]. I had no real intention of optimizing this character.....his power level just sort of evolved over time naturally [and because the DM ruled that Feint Mastery from the Invisible Blade would apply to every attack I made the round in which I used it].

Here was the build:

Rogue 5

Invisible Blade 5

Master Thrower [Sneaky Shot] 1

Assassin 1

Feats & Skill Tricks: Point Blank Shot, Weapon Focus [dagger], Precise Shot, Far Shot, Two-Weapon Fighting, Quick Draw, Acrobatic Backstab...

The Power of the Build lied in his ability to need no one to flank with to get sneak attack, and being able to deliver the sneak attack in a variety of ways: From a distance with Sneaky Shot, while Advancing with Acrobatic Backstab, and the clencher....every round with Feint Mastery....

By the End he had: +2 Keen Dagger, +1 Flaming Dagger, [10] Masterwork "throwing" daggers

Sadly, he is now deceased, having met his demise at the hands, claws rather, of a 16th level Mountain Orc Barbarian/Frenzied Berserker...

Fare thee Well....

[Lateral]

That would have to be the gestalt Unbodied Telepath//Master of the Unseen Hand I built for this monster campaign- it was, in addition to being essentially a full Psion, capable of killing pretty much anything by chucking eighteen greatswords at it. Of course, that campaign barely lasted for one fight, so if we don't count that my most powerful PC would have to be this druid I ran once. I actually took a variant that removes Wild Shape, and I was still able to solo a kraken at level 7.


Probably one I'm playing now. A spellweaver, which is an aberration from MMII but for which I'm using a monster class, gestalted with a homebrewed factotum/artificer theurge (in my sig). He breaks the action economy in half with his ability to spellweave, casting a number of spells with levels summing up to his HD as a full-round action. And anything in his "spellbook" as a full-round action. Plus standard artificer WBLmancy, a 26 Intelligence to DCs and factotum abilities, and a few other things. It's only because I deliberately stuck to single-target debuffs when choosing my spells that I don't overshadow the freaking tarrasque another player's playing.
And yet you all nearly die every other encounter. :smalltongue:
To be fair, it's because I'm a cheating bastard.

[Segev]

I joined a game as a 17th-level wizard with levels in Archmage. He was a friendly little halfling scholar type who rode a flying spellbook around and only got mean and devious once, with an epic BBEG that had destroyed the party's hometown after the party let her go because the Samurai thought it dishonorable to kill her after she surrendered but knew she'd kill us if we tried to keep her prisoner.

When the party found out what my halfling had done to her (long plan involving deception, simulacrum, and Trap the Soul as well as two Wishes), the samurai executed him for being "evil." (This took a certain amount of bullying of the DM into not allowing me to have my Contingencies up that day, for some reason, as well as use of quick draw to claim double-strike could use a rod of cancellation followed by a katana swing before I could react.)

Nevertheless, my mage died.

My replacement character had far more contingencies, and I had worked out with the DM ahead of time that there was no way he would not have them up. He was an epic level sorcerer (it took quite some time in-game before I could bring my replacement in), and was practically unkillable. He had a staff he'd crafted himself, using a highly-expensive book that could substitute for any spell knowledge in item crafting, and the epic feat Master Staff which let him expend his spell slots instead of the staff's charges. He had more versatility than most wizards.

He tended to hang out in the back and support with casual spellcasting and the powers of one or more minions (including a Formian Queen Simulacrum polymorphed into a brass dragon wyrmling he kept in a portable hole on the back of an invisible floating shield, and two simulacra of himself). But when fights went on too long or got too desperate, he'd do things like throw down a twinned sphere of ultimate destruction and a twinned quickened sphere of ultimate destruction for something like 160d6 of damage and 4 separate saves. Few fights lasted through that.

He also had incantatar levels which he used combined with Illumian sigils to Persist a lot of self-buffs, and was ready at to Celerity->Persistant Time Stop if the Samurai attacked him. He'd spend 24 hours dressing the samurai up like a christmas tree, laying magical traps everywhere, go rest up, teleport away, astral project back, and then stand just out of the Samurai's reach to watch as time resumed.

The samurai's player quit after realizing that he couldn't kill my new one.

[Chaosvii7]

In terms of versatility? I suppose that would also have been my most evil character - A Curst Tinker Gnome Soul Reaper. I didn't make crap for undead but I had such a high INT that my debuffs were everlasting. Had I gotten to see higher level play, I'd probably have made him a Horned Harbinger and then built an actual undead army. I had access to a Spelljammer so I could have both piloted it and manned it with my undead crew and probably could have caused some major damage with it.

The other candidate for most powerful character I've made was actually a Satyr Monk 2/Dragon Shaman X(at least 16 IIRC). That game actually saw epic levels as well, so I'd gotten pretty far along with it. I had convinced my DM to let me take a Force Dragon as my patron(but we didn't use the MIT homebrew for it, though now I wish we did because I'd rather have had Mage Armor at-will over Invisibility, but I can't complain.) At one point we'd gotten a one free Item deal and I instantly snatched up a Belt of Magnificence at the highest level I could. I traded out all of the useless auras for DFA invocations(We had a face and an okay damage dealer so I was the tank first and foremost.) Lastly, I got one of my horns sawed off and turned into a magic item that, when I used my breath weapon, it channeled it and made it benefit from a bunch of the powerful breath weapon augmentation spells(only cost me about 600,000 too. I was pretty shocked.) With a combination of ToB and Unarmed Strike feats I was turning on my auras, doing a Charging Leap Kick into battle for a pile of dice in damage, blowing the horn to summon Force Elementals and debuff enemies, and then I'd do draconic kung-fu while the rest of the party did the actual work.

The one thing I unfortunately never got to realize with that character was that I'd gotten a special Runestaff dedicated to Io that I could power with my invocations and, had I had the time to attune to it, I probably could have unlocked loads of power with. A shame that it was so item-dependant, but I still thoroughly enjoyed playing him.

[Person_Man]

I regularly play Tier 1-2 spellcaster builds in games. The trick is that I purposefully choose to focus on teamwork, defense, and utility, and almost never "I cast X spell and the encounter is over." I only pull out the crazy game breaking stuff in the rarest of occasions, when unintentional TPK is clearly imminent.

I also once played various King of Smack-ish builds in a real games when Psionics first came out. It got surprisingly boring very quickly.

[Ingus]

I read yours: whew!

Mine was a 13th level Wizard/Fatespinner. Not so impressing considering the build (I even go FS 5 and thus lost a level), but he had some good stuff.
A good staff, a couple of nasty wands and a short number of powerful scrolls.
Our DM was about to perform a TPK to trigger a "just a dream / deus ex machina" moment (we didn't know anything) and to do so he presented us (party level 13) an advanced customized/optimized Horned Devil (my guess: CR 18) plus four advanced customized/optimized bone devil.

After first round, there were 2 pcs standing (out of 6).
Then the Shapechange scroll came in.
Four rounds after, the poor Horned Devil was sliced to pieces and the last bone devil standing used a scroll-like thing to summon a Kluichiir (CR 25 demon), to which I resisted two more rounds, bringing him down to around 40 hp, prior to succumb to an unlucky saving throw.

[Ingus]

I regularly play Tier 1-2 spellcaster builds in games. The trick is that I purposefully choose to focus on teamwork, defense, and utility, and almost never "I cast X spell and the encounter is over." I only pull out the crazy game breaking stuff in the rarest of occasions, when unintentional TPK is clearly imminent.

I also once played various King of Smack-ish builds in a real games when Psionics first came out. It got surprisingly boring very quickly.

By the way, that was my intention prior of the increasing scale of mayem our DM throw at us :smallbiggrin:

[Aliek]

Do NPCs count, if you're DMing? :smallbiggrin: My PC experience is fairly limited, so it would have to be a DFI bard in a 7-man party. I'd risk saying half our team's total damage came from that :smallbiggrin:

[Jeff the Green]

And yet you all nearly die every other encounter. :smalltongue:
To be fair, it's because I'm a cheating bastard.

To be even more fair, the last one basically took me out of the encounter because of spell reflection and I virtually neutralized half of the current one with a 2nd-level spell.

[Captnq]

4th level Fire wizard.

I don't get to play much. I usually only DM. So that would be the highest level PC I've played.... ever. Thanks for bringing up a painful subject. Hey! Why not give me papercuts all over my face and sprinkle me with lemon juice! :smallsmile:

[XmonkTad]

Currently in a Gestalt game with an Archivist 8//Wizard 5/Singer of Concordance 2/Dweomerkeeper 1 (will keep advancing DK as I level). The rest of the party is med-op, and all but 2 are quite powerful too. I pull punches, and every time it looks like I'm going to do something to break the campaign a DMPC stops it.

The character is going insane due to a run in with some Ekolids at level 4 and a failed save, but so far is doing a good job of not hitting things with enervation. We'll see what happens when I get 5th levels.

[Kalmageddon]

A fairly straightfoward skillmonkey, Changeling Rogue with that Eberron prestige class for changelings spies, followed by Mindspy.
It was really fun to roleplay, basically useless in combat but outside of that it was the definitive spy, complemented by a lot of UMD, had a tool for every situation and could disguise himself perfectly.

[Irk]

I don't get to play all that much, but I had a debuff build that could create a series of effects that culminated in a -27 to an opponent's saves. I also had a DFI bard that was the source of the vast majority of the party's damage. It helped that it was a Goliath dual wielding large Longswords in Punishing Stance. I think the end fight was a modified Angel of Decay that dispensed diseases that incubated instantly. Despite taking damage to nearly every ability score on just the first turn, the Bard was able to remove a solid three quarters of the monster's health in a single attack. With max hitpoints per HD.

[Forrestfire]

The most powerful character I built was for a short-lived PbP (ended because of real-life issues on the part of the DM). The game had the stated goal of being as much cheese as you could (with a few rules about infinite loops, and allowances for dual-PrCing in gestalt), so I made an Artificer 17/Contemplative 1/Ur-Priest 2//Psion 5/Anarchic Initiate 8/Psionic Theurge 7.

It was all very silly. To give you an idea of what sort of silliness, here's an excerpt:
Outright Immunities:
- Fire, Sonic, Cold, Electricity, Acid
- Light
- Blindness
- Disease
- Poison (neutralized)
- Death spells
- Death effects
- Energy drain
- Negative energy effects
- Critical hits and sneak attack
- Flanking
- Flat-footed and surprise
- Mind-Affecting effects
- Divinations
- Thrown weapons and projectile ranged attacks (non-Epic attacks are reflected) [Zodar invulnerability makes enhancement bonuses disregarded, so may reflect Epic attacks]
- Metal weapons, including magic metal
- Unconsciousness
- Death by HP damage
- Daze, stun, fear, confusion
- Ranged touch attacks (including rays)
- 6th-Level or lower Arcane spells (are reflected as if SR succeeded)
- All magic and supernatural abilities (if the spell allows a save, can voluntarily be affected)
- Ability damage and drain
- Fatigue and exhaustion
- All attacks that aren't bludgeoning, disregards enhancement bonuses on such attacks
- Anything with a Fort save (unless harmless or affects objects)
- Nonlethal Damage
Most of the neat stuff came from having a lot of item price mitigation and Astral Seed shenanigans. Among other things, the character knew every psionic power and had 68 hit dice by the end of it (could have gone more but I didn't feel like it), full Sorcerer casting, a large pile of Epic feats (including Ignore Material Components), and a small army of herself (through Ability Rip on a protean scourge to grab Split). There might have been time travel involved, as well.

[icefractal]

Interesting question. There are several candidates, depending on the rule set:

3.5 + Third Party allowed - An undead Archivist/Dweomercheater, pretending to be a NG Cleric while delving into as much dark knowledge as he could remotely get his hands on. Archivist + 3rd party spells is bad enough already, and then Dweomercheater ... I call it that for a reason. Expensive components? What are those? And killing golems with Supernatural Spell.


3.5 - A Druid. Could turn into aberrations, and it turns out there's some really nasty ones out there. Plus summoning with lots of feats to buff it - nasty stuff, especially when Rashemi Elemental Summoning kicks in. And an animal companion with ridiculous AC, just to add insult to injury. Had some tricks that I never actually used because they would have been overkill, like Venomfire, and Fell Drain.

Honorable Mention: A killer-gnome with a 110% real illusory dragon companion. Probably had a crazy amount of potential, but that game only went a few sessions.


Pathfinder - A Psion, in Kingmaker. Just wanted to live the easy life, but ended up conquering several city states because it was easier than arguing with his grandfather. Psychic Reformation to know anything he needed, Mind Control to build an ever increasing horde of minions, and being an Elan meant he was damn hard to kill. Lots of gold and downtime meant that he was also loaded with bespoke items. Eventually, I got a way to store my minions in temporal stasis, which meant I could stick literally dozens of buffs on each one, making them just ridiculous.

Honorable Mention: A god. Well, actually it was a Wilder/Thrallherd who just thought he was a god, but hey, he did have a cult and mysterious powers (no psi/mag transparency in that game). The sheer amount you can boost past your ML if you try is amazing, and he probably would have surpassed the Kingmaker one if the campaign had lasted that long.

[Alent]

That would be my first druid ever, but in his second campaign.

You see, we had a campaign where our characters ascended to godhood because of their exploits. Our next campaign ended up being a two in one- We played as mortals on a new world for a while, then we got to remake our previous campaign's characters as the gods of a parallel plane.

Our "As gods" rerolls were left to our worst abominations, and mine ended up being a Level 27 Druid/bard/Heartfire Fanner/planar shepherd/fochlucan lyrist/Swordsage.

Some of it was based on a community misunderstanding in my group on how certain bard features worked, so it ended up being practically a Gestalt of an optimized DFI bard build and an optimized summoner druid build, with a splash of initiator maneuvers for odd stuff like the concealment stance and so on.

I didn't even know how to abuse it out of inexperience, so I usually just ended up spamming maximized Summon nature's ally for large numbers of DFI buffed storm giants, but at one point our Tier 5 gestalt realized the number of dice I was granting his full attack round. He did a pounce and let loose his ultimate dual wield haste/flurry of blows attack against a god and ended up rolling something like 550d6 between his own bonus dice, my DFI, and a few spells.

We switched to low fantasy gurps immediately after that attack.

[Elkad]

3.5? A 9th level goblin wizard, with less than half WBL.

2nd edition, I made it into the teens a few times.

1st edition.
25th level Magic-User with Psionics and the Gamma World dual-brain mutation, for rare 1st edition action-economy shenanigans.
Solar/Paladin21/Cleric14 -IIRC, he had something like -55AC (that would be AC65 in 3.5, except to-hit bonuses are rarer in AD&D), gobs of immunities, etc.
Both with world-breaking amounts of items, etc, and both played from 1st level.

In one particularly epic fight, the Paladin died at least a dozen times, and everyone in the rest of the party died at least once. We kept pulling out clutch saves to avoid the TPK. Last standing player. "I wish all my companions were alive" off a ring. Next character "I wish everyone was fully healed!".
It was Isle of the Apes, Gygax's last module, heavily altered to prevent us from ROFL-stomping it. Featuring Oonga (King Kong), backed by a horde of mid-level barbarians, a few dinosaurs, and a very high level druid. (1st edition Animal Growth doubled HD and damage, giving Oonga something like 70HD and 10-100 damage per hit. Claw-claw-bite, plus a 20-200 rend if both claws hit)

[Iwasforger03]

Once had a lvl 25 human were raven rogue10/assassin 10 epic assassin 5. I had a death attack DC of 82. It was a oneshot campaign.


AC 53, hp that didn't matter, i could get down to fine sized, etc.

[Story]

I haven't played many games, but the most powerful 3.5 character I've ever played was a level 12 Anima Mage using persistomancy, plus a bunch of op items like the infamous Hathran Mask of True Seeing (acquired at level 9 thanks to the campaign accidentally going over WBL).

I started the campaign out intending to play God Wizard and tone down the cheese to fit with the rest of the party, but it ended up with the rest of the party being a shameless minmaxer, so the two of us started optimizing more and more ridiculously as the campaign went on. By the end, we were one shotting fights intended to be challenging for a party 3 levels higher.

Sadly, the campaign ended one level before I could try out Zceryll.

[Talbot]

We played a 3.P game where the DM allowed the following things:

*8 total Gestalt levels by level 20

*ACF Chaining

*Unarmored AC bonus

*Leadership

*Gestalt levels counted towards Initiator Level as if they were regular levels

*A lot of extra feats lying around for birthdays and holidays

This… led to the creation of Ollie, my most powerful PC. Ollie began as a thought experiment before all those hookups were revealed, and even as a thought experiment I had to be talked into playing him. Ollie's classes, if memory served, looked roughly like this:

Scout 4/Ranger 8/Shaman 1/Monk 1/Crusader 1/Warblade 6/Master of Nine 5

Not necessarily in that order. Most of Ollie's power came from ACF chaining and feats, most of his utility from his classes. He could:

* Pounce, dealing about 500ish damage per round against anything that had the misfortune to be his favored enemy.
* Reroll any natural 1 on a save (Pride Domain) and pass just about any save on a 2 or better.
* Walk around with an AC in the high 40s without any work, but it got up to about 79 during one combat.
* Use the level 9 maneuvers of five or six different disciplines.
* Fly using Animal Devotion if he had to.
* Detect invisible enemies.
* Charge about 120 ft, and make a turn during it (skill trick).
* Hang out with his Cohort, named Chalmers, who was the ultimate party buff-o-mancer, created entirely because we had a PC who's will save was a 3 at level 13 and it kept being a problem for everyone. Chalmers was mostly Bard and Favored Soul, eventually Fohlucan Lyrist (picked up the other pre-reqs organically or by ACFing), and basically unkillable (Troll Blooded + resistances to both energy types + high saves + CHA based + Marshal + 2 levels of the Neutral Good Paladin variant).

On top of all that, between Chalmers (routinely giving out around +8-+12 to hit and damage by the end) and Knowledge Devotion, Ollie pretty much always hit, and always hard (Skirmish + KD + Chalmers + FE + ToB). Near the end of the campaign he loaded up on Mage Slayer feats and extra ways to ignore spells.

Now, for all that, Ollie wasn't really OP; everyone in the campaign was super powerful. But Ollie was the one who was both super powerful and basically impossible to hit/harm. You pretty much had to crit on him, then hope he couldn't beat your attack roll with the parrying maneuver from ToB.

Of course, OTOH, Ollie stunk till about level 6, was ok till about 11, started to get really good around 14, and became an unholy tornado of devastation around 16 or 17. But after that he never looked back.

[Jack_Simth]

We always hear people go on about Planar Shepherds, Incantatrixes and DMM(persist)-abusing clerics, as well as theoretical builds like Pun-Pun, the Twice Betrayer and the d2 Swordsage, but it would be nice to hear about some builds that have actually seen action.

That'd probably be a 20th level gestalt Sorcerer-20 (well, 4 levels of Sorcerer plus 16 levels of full-advancement PrC's), with the other side being a Hatchling Phaerimm Ghost with a bunch of Evolved Undead levels and some splashes for certain defensive abilities. The big key was Ice Assasins for free, of arbitrary creatures, which included a maximally advanced Solar, with a feat selection that granted a Supernatual Miracle at-will. Had one out, eight in storage, and a tenth off at a safehouse with some recovery instructions. Saw one encounter (a bunch of traps, which the minion blew through - Miracle(Summon Monster VIII) to charge through them, followed by Miracle(Disintegrate) over and over to destroy the traps... and another Summon Monster VIII to make sure it was clear after). Then the game ended due to a DM schedule change.

[Story]

Also, I'm surprised Tippy hasn't chimed in with his Living Planet build yet.

You should search the forums for it. It's a tale of wonder.

[Arbane]

Once had a lvl 25 human were raven rogue10/assassin 10 epic assassin 5. I had a death attack DC of 82. It was a oneshot campaign.

By which you mean you one-shotted everything in the campaign? :smallamused:

My most powerful character in D&D and similar would be a Pathfinder Witch 13. She mostly stuck to debuffs, cursing, and summoning, but was pretty fun. Sadly, the game ended before she could really start abusing her 7th level spells for fun and profit.

My most powerful character, period, would probably be from my one time playing Nobilis: The Power of Procrastination. You can do amazing things when you can put off _anything_ for as long as you like or force things to happen immediately.

[SiuiS]

Wizard.

Custom spells and items which function as holding patterns. I created my own system of followers who supplied spells for circle magic, by creating spell matrices which would hold spells in abeyance and supply them to the user. Would be able to unload multiple spells over multiple rounds to empower my own magic.

I mean, it didn't matter. I ended up going bard/sublime chord/ultimate magus and getting 20 racial hit dice, a divine rank, and an effective caster level of 265+, so it didn't matter in the long run.

Oh, there was also a, I dunno. This guy.

TWO FELL STROKES

Ravenous fleshvigor netherhound greater phantom incarnate construct ice beast half-Minotaur unseelie water Orc evolved swarmshifter undead legionary fire-souled nimble hunting deathknight; L(H) Undead (augmented giant, fire, cold)

Was the least fun I've had in D&D. Kinda ruined the whole experience for me because u didn't work for any of it.



Found Tippy's.

Probably Do'Keth, a Wizard who was moderately insane in the first place but then had to fight Atropus and Ragnorra and decided that being a "living" planet was a grand old idea.

So he went and bought seventeen Thought Bottles and got himself killed and Raised (with Raise Dead) until he was level 3 before using his Thought Bottles to regain his XP and become a Wizard 3/ Psion 7/ Cerebremancer 10. He then went and used Teleport Through Time to go back in time a thousand years and proceeded to cast Genesis two thousand times (for a radius of 360,000 feet, or about one fifty eighth of the radius of Earth). The entire demiplane was solid Obdurium.

Do'Keth then went and picked up an extra HD from Shapechanging into a Barghest and using its Feed ability three times.

Do'Keth then Wished up a very high level scroll of Animate Object to animate his giant sphere and then used Polymoprh Any Object to make it a human temporarily before using True Mind Switch to take its body and dismissing the PAO.

After that Do'Keth went and picked up Permanent Emanation: Planar Bubble so that he would forever benefit from the major positive dominate and subjective directional gravity traits of his demiplane. He also grabbed Permanent Emanation: Selective Antimagic Field and Permanent Emanation: Selective Temporal Repair (so that only he can use magic and time manipulation around his body).

Next Planet Do'Keth took himself back in time again so that his Major Positive Dominate trait would have time to build him up to pretty much infinite HP.

And then he Plane Shifted himself to the Prime Material Plane. As far as the rest of the world was concerned Do'Keth declared "I'm going to become a planet" and returned 6 seconds later as said planet.

The party then proceeded to troll the multiverse by doing little things like accelerating up to ramming speed and aiming at inhabited planets before teleporting to the other side right before impact.

The DM axed becoming an Aleax though.

[Kennisiou]

One time I was playing a one-shot where the purpose was to make the strongest level 20 character we could make by any interpretation of RAW without immortality tricks for a one-shot against a bunch of ridiculously strong epic-level threats. I ran a character that had triple nines on psionics, divine and arcane casting (abuse of practice manifester + misprint of Ardent rules, then got double nines in archivist and wizard via some abuses with flaws and feats and early entry for prestige classes). Build was really strong. Other people built really strong. We still got wiped partway through the game and wound up spending the rest of the session time just playing video games.

[unseenmage]

Gestalt Artificer/Cleric/Techsmith with infinite wealth, access to 3.0, 3.5, Dragon mags, Dungeon mags, web content, Pathfinder, and 3rd party materials.

Managed to use Spellclocks to make more mass in intelligent Constructs than the entire planet of Faerun in only two months via an exponential process that made more of itself.

Exponential, exponential Constructs. It was awesome. And all without spending more than 200,000 gp on any single item or spellcasting.

[heavyfuel]

I don't know if this counts or not, but a while ago I had an argument with one of the players in my current group that "no, monks aren't op". He insisted they were the most OP class in the game and the best mage-killers in the game because of Mage Slayer. So I bet him a twelve pack that no, they weren't.

He took me up on the bet, so I build the Twice Betrayer of Shar and had him PvP his Monk.

I got pretty drunk that night.

[jiriku]

I don't know if this counts or not, but a while ago I had an argument with one of the players in my current group that "no, monks aren't op". He insisted they were the most OP class in the game and the best mage-killers in the game because of Mage Slayer. So I bet him a twelve pack that no, they weren't.

He took me up on the bet, so I build the Twice Betrayer of Shar and had him PvP his Monk.

I got pretty drunk that night.

Well played, sir. Well played.

My most powerful was a 23rd-level conjurer/incantatrix/archmage. In our final battle against the BBEG epic necromancer who wanted to revive a dead god, I gated in the tarrasque, used prestidigitation to cover it in hot pink warpaint, and rode it into battle... just because I could. Long story short, one shaped antimagic field later, the lich was reduced to the tarrasque's new chew toy ("Who's a good boy? Yes, you're a good boy! Good doggy! Now go bury those bones!") and much fun was had by all.

[Kazyan]

Qualus Din Riviria ended up as...I think it was a Warlock 32/Chameleon 2/Mindbender 1//LST Barbarian 1/Warblade 34, not necessarily in that order. Yes, a level 35 gestalt. This was over roll20 as an experiment of sorts for the DM. I know the build doesn't actually count as powerful by GitP standards, because it's not a caster, but Epic Warlock feats are still pretty good.

The second-best part was interrupting the BBEG's wanton slaughter of a city, hovering and idly teleporting around while tanking a whole bunch of Maws of Chaos, then leaving to go get healz from the demilich in the party after my HP got too low. The best part was calling the BBEG a childish nickname with every confrontation.

[BWR]

In normal D&D - Higuma - werebear warshaper barbarian fighter war hulk, ECL 18.
We don't optimize nearly as much as seems to be the norm on this board.

Very alternate d20 systems - a classless/levelless D&D very alt.u. L5R/Japan setting. A couple of characters ended up with some abilities that would qualify as epic equivalents in normal D&D. But despite tons of hp, BAB, feats and skills, nothing as powerful as what you can easily acquire in D&D, and most of them were relegated to pseudo-NPC status fairly quickly - it's far more fun to play young and inexperienced characters and see how they progress than the older and powerful ones who can generally get away with whatever they want.

[GoodbyeSoberDay]

Probably an Archivist//Erudite 13 (not StP). I haven't played in Tippy-level games, or all that many high level games, but that character seriously abused the action economy with Linked Power and Synchronicity, and made himself incredibly difficult to target/kill with a long list of buffs and contingencies. He had loads of potential power, but mostly ended up using it to remove whatever counters the enemies had to his allies' high damage tricks (mostly dispelling buffs, which Psionic Dispel is great for).

I'm currently GMing a game with some pretty ridiculous NPCs, but I'm not sure that counts. Wizard/Incantatrix//Archivist gishes can get silly numbers though.

[Curmudgeon]

I joined a new game and the DM asked us to submit a list of the books we'd need for our character development. I planned on a Rogue (as usual) and submitted a list of about 18 books (which is actually fewer than I'd use nowadays). The DM was appalled at this, and automatically rejected the character as too powerful. He instituted an immediate house rule: every character was limited to the 3 core books, WotC online sources, and just one other book or Dragon issue.

My response was to create a straight Human Druid instead. My other book was Lost Empires of Faerûn, to pick up Greenbound Summoning. In case you're unaware, that feat adds the Greenbound template to all Summon Nature's Ally creatures. Greenbound alters those summoned into Plant creatures, picking up lots of bonuses and immunities plus Spell-like abilities. (If you acquire the Greenbound template for a character it's +8 Level Adjustment, but Greenbound Summoning isn't metamagic and doesn't require any higher spell slot.) That's a pretty strong boost to summoned creatures at low levels. The level 1 Druid can indirectly cast Wall of Thorns, a 5th-level spell, by using Summon Nature's Ally I with Greenbound Summoning. (Actually, that's almost always what will happen, because "It attacks your opponents to the best of its ability." and this 5th level spell effect is likely the best a Summon Nature's Ally I creature can do. Later, Speak with Plants allows other options.) And then repeat that for as many level 1 spells as the Druid can cast. Oh, and those Walls of Thorns stick around for 10 minutes even when the summoned critters go away after 1 round, because they're SLAs rather than spells.
When the spell that summoned a creature ends and the creature disappears, all the spells it has cast expire.

Almost everything else was from core content. Feats included:
1. Greenbound Summoning, Spell Focus (conjuration)
3. Augment Summoning
6. Natural Spell
9. Extend Spell
... (I forget the rest.)

I didn't have access to Wilding Clasps with my one non-core book choice, but by having an Ape companion (Kong :smallsmile:) I was able to shuck my magic gear, use Wild Shape, and have Kong put my belt, amulet, cloak ... back on me (magic garments resize as needed). The Ranger was able to talk with me while Wild Shaped using Speak with Animals, and that worked out fairly well. Starting from when I got him, Kong got the benefit of Share Spells with boosts such as Longstrider. Once I hit 9th level Kong also benefited from Animal Growth in battle (making him King Kong); so did the Ranger's companion.

Once we hit 13th level it was Autumn and I had acquired a Cloud Cloak (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fw/20050311a). Using Control Weather (with a Bead of Karma (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#strandofPrayerBeads) + Orange Ioun Stone (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#iounStones)) and its much greater effectiveness when cast by a Druid, I made continuous fog for 3 miles around me at all times; that meant normal vision, darkvision, blindsight, and life sense all ceased to be effective beyond 5' without the Cloud Cloak. Every Greenbound creature has tremorsense, and by using Speak with Plants I could order those creatures to within 5' of specific enemies, so my summoned, augmented, plantified critters remained effective while I flew around in the fog and cast spells. That pretty much ended the campaign right there; the DM admitted that continuous fog at CL 18 was too much of an obstacle for the enemies he'd planned on to reasonably overcome. He declared me the winner :smallbiggrin: for dominating the game from level 1 on, and said playing a Rogue using all the books I wanted in the next game would be just fine.

[Magesmiley]

While not my character, one of the players I DM for has a character that he's been playing intermittently in my games since the mid-eighties when we were in middle school. The character has been converted through several versions of the game over the years (BECMI, 2nd edition, 3, 3.5). It started at level 1 and currently sits at:

Wizard 14, Sorcerer 1, Dragon Disciple 7, Mindbender 10.

32nd level is pretty impressive when it has been played all the way through. We still dust the character off for a game every now and then (the last one was late last year).

[JW86]

My Level 22 Githzerai Spell-to-Power Erudite/Slayer/Warblade attempted to manifest Fusion on my Level 23 Orc Ubercharger Streetfighter Lion Spirit Totem Barbarian / Dungeoncrasher Fighter, but because the Orc was a Deity Rank 0 God of Magic he simply Wished it to work in his favour, permanently.

Thus was the Creation of the Deity Rank 1, Level 24, Barbarian/Fighter//StP Erudite/Slayer/Warblade...

He took 'Alter Size' as his Divine Salient Abilities. During one excepetionally epic battle, he manifest Simulacrum, then had himself and Simulacrums cast Greater Mirror Image, then used Alter Size to become 1,600 feet tall, and then started flying.

That's right... 36, 1,600 foot tall Orcs flying in formation.

One of his sword did Disintegration damage 40d6x2, which would enlarge with him, thus giving him the ability to basically cleave anything into pieces.. useful for cutting castles in two, carving massive trenches into the earth, etc.

The other sword was a Wrathful Healing Valorous one, so could often do over 1,000 damage on a charge.

He had Persisted Schism so would often charge into the middle of a group, knock the crap out of everyone, then Intellect Bomb or Ultrablast some goons for good measure.

[Bonzai]

Human Focused Specialist Conjurer3/Master Specialist 10/Thaumaturgist 3

He had nexus method so he could spontaneously cast summon monster, which granted him more flexibility. Then he had an artifact that acted as a ring of wizardry for all spell levels, so he could cast a crap ton of spells. So much so that he made great use of the Spell sequencer type spells. His usual tactic was to spell sequencer out evards, caustic mire, and a researched version of stone spikes, followed by a contingent summoning (also a researched spell as our DM was cool like that), followed by a heightened dimensional shuffle that plopped the enemies into the mess of spells I had just cast, and then let the party tee off on them.

However the most over the top thing about him was that the DM allowed him to learn circle magic. He then made Simulacrum, which ensured he could max out on spell levels each day. The DM ended the campaign at 16th level. If I had just one more level and access to 9th level spells, I would have broke the game. As a Master Specialist 10, I had free swift action Conjurations. With Circle magic I could max out my caster levels to insane levels, which would have been able to gate in pretty much anything in the epic level handbook.

His first round of combat could have been to cast gate, swift action boots of temporal acceleration, cast gate, swift action gate, cast gate, swift action gate, and triggering 2 contingent summons Elemental monoliths. So 5 gates, all calling in a Xixecal, each of which can in turn summon five old white dragons. You can destroy a country with that kind of power. I can see why the DM ended the campaign when he did. LOL.

[SiuiS]

I joined a new game and the DM asked us to submit a list of the books we'd need for our character development. I planned on a Rogue (as usual) and submitted a list of about 18 books (which is actually fewer than I'd use nowadays). The DM was appalled at this, and automatically rejected the character as too powerful. He instituted an immediate house rule: every character was limited to the 3 core books, WotC online sources, and just one other book or Dragon issue.

My other book was Lost Empires of Faerûn, to pick up Greenbound Summoning. In case you're unaware, that feat adds the Greenbound template to all Summon Nature's Ally creatures. Greenbound alters those summoned into Plant creatures, picking up lots of bonuses and immunities plus Spell-like abilities. (If you acquire the Greenbound template for a character it's +8 Level Adjustment, but Greenbound Summoning isn't metamagic and doesn't require any higher spell slot.) That's a pretty strong boost to summoned creatures at low levels. The level 1 Druid can indirectly cast Wall of Thorns, a 5th-level spell, by using Summon Nature's Ally I with Greenbound Summoning. (Actually, that's almost always what will happen, because "It attacks your opponents to the best of its ability." and this 5th level spell effect is likely the best a Summon Nature's Ally I creature can do. Later, Speak with Plants allows other options.) And then repeat that for as many level 1 spells as the Druid can cast. Oh, and those Walls of Thorns stick around for 10 minutes even when the summoned critters go away after 1 round, because they're SLAs rather than spells.

Almost everything else was from core content. Feats included:
1. Greenbound Summoning, Spell Focus (conjuration)
3. Augment Summoning
6. Natural Spell
9. Extend Spell
... (I forget the rest.)

I didn't have access to Wilding Clasps with my one non-core book choice, but by having an Ape companion (Kong :smallsmile:) I was able to shuck my magic gear, use Wild Shape, and have Kong put my belt, amulet, cloak ... back on me (magic garments resize as needed). The Ranger was able to talk with me while Wild Shaped using Speak with Animals, and that worked out fairly well. Starting from when I got him, Kong got the benefit of Share Spells with boosts such as Longstrider. Once I hit 9th level Kong also benefited from Animal Growth in battle (making him King Kong); so did the Ranger's companion.

Once we hit 13th level it was Autumn and I had acquired a Cloud Cloak (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fw/20050311a). Using Control Weather (with a Bead of Karma (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#strandofPrayerBeads) + Orange Ioun Stone (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#iounStones)) and its much greater effectiveness when cast by a Druid, I made continuous fog for 3 miles around me at all times; that meant normal vision, darkvision, blindsight, and life sense all ceased to be effective beyond 5' without the Cloud Cloak. Every Greenbound creature has tremorsense, and by using Speak with Plants I could order those creatures to within 5' of specific enemies, so my summoned, augmented, plantified critters remained effective while I flew around in the fog and cast spells. That pretty much ended the campaign right there; the DM admitted that continuous fog at CL 18 was too much of an obstacle for the enemies he'd planned on to reasonably overcome. He declared me the winner :smallbiggrin: for dominating the game from level 1 on, and said playing a Rogue using all the books I wanted in the next game would be just fine.

Right on! :smallsmile:


In normal D&D - Higuma - werebear warshaper barbarian fighter war hulk, ECL 18.
We don't optimize nearly as much as seems to be the norm on this board.

Well, now. Selection bias. This thread asks people about That One Time, that was really bad, and also appeals to those who want to brag. My preferred game style involves strictly melee, where having two weapon fighting, improved shield bash and two weapon defense is OP, or where playing a cat folk healer whose focus is on selling trained birds and not adventuring is considered a contribution.

But there's always That One Time. Y'know?

[*.*.*.*]

A persistomancy focused Wizard/Psion/Mind Mage//Archivist/Psychic theurge/Mystic theurge(for levels when spellcasting was lost on the mind mage side) who cast all spells spontaneously. The DM allowed PRCs and theurges at the same time. I solo'd Ragnorra at level 11 with no sweat at all.

[Jeff the Green]

Well, now. Selection bias. This thread asks people about That One Time, that was really bad, and also appeals to those who want to brag. My preferred game style involves strictly melee, where having two weapon fighting, improved shield bash and two weapon defense is OP, or where playing a cat folk healer whose focus is on selling trained birds and not adventuring is considered a contribution.

But there's always That One Time. Y'know?

Basically this. I'm probably on the higher-op end of things compared to most people here (I play mostly on PbP), but my other characters include a gestalt Cleric archer who gave up a lot of spells just to be based on Charisma rather than Wisdom and be exceptionally vulnerable to having her bow sundered, a Beguiler/Incarnum theurge (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?273832-3-5-PrC-I-shall-wear-midnight-Beguiler-Incarnum-theurge-(PEACH)&p=14803136#post14803136) in a campaign that's been largely undead so far, a cleric that was supposed to be a Ruby Knight Vindicator but ended up in a primary caster/Anima Mage roll that didn't use her good Strength at all and may not even make it into Anima Mage because I entered so late, and I'm working on a wizard who A) pretty much refuses to cast AoE spells because she's too cautious and B) has as a primary shtick getting into a bunch of race-restricted substitution levels/PrCs/feats, which makes for a bunch of interesting abilities but not powerful ones (cf. Halfling Whistler (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/prc/20061121a)).

[Karsh]

On the boards? Cindy.

Tabletop, I had a Trap Hunter ACF Ranger 2/Unarmed Swordsage 16 who TWFed and shadow bladed with enchanted gauntlets who was untouchable against group mooks. He fought off four dragonspawn minotaur barbarians single-handedly in two rounds by machine gunning them with boosts, had the mage slayer feat line, and had boosted his Jump mod to lay down DC 60+ Swooping Dragon stuns.

He was a mage hunter that was kept in stasis for when particularly powerful wizards went rogue. Would've been ineffective against Cindy, but for less optimized enemies, he was more than enough.

Also, Hydra Slaying Strike can break an encounter with single large enemies.

[Melcar]

My current character. Havent had many... actually only three since 2000, when I started playing. He is build from level 1 with no knowledge of optimization and is now running on a mix of 3.0 and 3.5... and alot of 3rd party stuff. a 46 year old human wizard, level 30.

Melcar Silverdragon

Male human Wizard 15/ Arcane Avatar 5/ Arch Mage 5/Wizard King 5: CR 30; Medium–size humanoid (human); HD 15d4 plus 5d4 plus 5d4 plus 5d6 plus 210; hp 321; Init + 9; spd 30 ft.; AC 30 (touch 22, flat-footed 25); Atk + 19/+14 melee (1d4+5/19-20, +4 silver dagger) or +19/+14 ranged touch (by spell); SQ Arcane Avatar abilities, Arch Mage High Arcana, Wizard King abilities, enhanced constitution, enhanced intelligence, SR 30; AL CG; SV Fort +23, Ref +21, Will +29, (+5 bonus vs. spells and spell-like effects); Str 12, Dex 21, Con 24, Int 43, Wis 23, Cha 9; Height 6 ft. 2 in.
Skills and Feats: Alchemy +21, Appraise +15, Balance +9, Bluff +0, Climb +8, Concentration +40, Decipher Script +17, Diplomacy -1, Disguise -1, Escape Artist +5, Forgery +17, Gather Information -1, Heal +17, Hide +5, Intimidate -1, Jump +7, Knowledge (Arcana) +52, Knowledge (Dungeoneering) +30, Knowledge (Elven Culture) +30, Knowledge (Geography) +30, Knowledge (History) +30, Knowledge (Imaskar) +30, Knowledge (Nature) +30, Knowledge (Netherill) +30, Knowledge (The Planes) +30, Knowledge (Religion) +30, Listen +22, Move Silently +5, Perform -1, Ride +8, Scry +25, Search +27, Sense Motive +6, Spellcraft +56, Spot +22, Swim +11, Use Rope +5, Wilderness Lore +10; Feats: Automatic Quicken x2, Practiced Spellcaster, Empower Spell, Eschew Materials, Great Intelligence, Greater Spell Penetration, Improved Initiative, Improved Meta-magic, Insightful Caster, Maximize Spell, Quicken Spell, Scribe scroll, Silent Spell, Skill Focus (Spellcraft), Spell Focus (evocation), Spell Focus (transmutation), Spell Penetration, Still Spell, Summon Familiar.
Special Qualities: Arcane Avatar abilities: Avatar of magic, augment magic, call spell, counter-magic, master of magic; Arch Mage High Arcana: Mastery of elements, mastery of shaping, spell power +1, spell power +2, spell power +3; Wizard King special abilities: Mastered spells, increased spell power, arcane resistance, fundamentals of magic, enhanced intelligence.

Spellfire (Su): Melcar has the ability to control spellfire, like that of the feat, Spellfire wielder.

Avatar of Magic (Ex): Melcar’s physical form is infused with magical power. Energy washes over him without harm or flows through him and his spells as he chooses. He has Spell resistance 15+ his charisma modifier. Melcar continues radiates magic, and can thusly be seen with detect magic spell or effect. He also sees magical auras with his regular vision. He has detect magic as his normal vision as a supernatural ability.

Augment Magic (Ex): Melcar cast all his spells still and silent as of the meta-magic feats of the same name. He does this without increasing their level.

Call spell (Ex): When preparing his spells for the day, Melcar may sacrifice any two spell slots of a given level to prepare any spell of the same level from his spell list. For example, if Melcar did not have the spell lightning bolt in his books he could choose to prepare it by using two of his level 3 spell slots.

Counter-Magic (Ex): When attempting to counter an opponent’s casting, Melcar need not use dispel magic or his enemies spell. Instead he attempts to choke off the flow of energy to his foe’s casting. Instead of casting a spell to counter his enemy he imposes his force of will on the magical patterns that surrounds him.

Master of Magic (Ex): Once per day, Melcar may enter a meditative state in which he melds his spirit with the magical energy and patterns that surround him. In this state, he command s absolute control over the arcane magic en his direct vicinity. He shunts magic away from his enemies while allowing it to flow to his body and mind.

Mastery of Elements (Ex): Melcar can cast any arcane spell he knows with the acid, cold, fire, electricity, or sonic designator to be cast as a different element. For example, a fireball may be cast to deal sonic damage instead of fire damage.

Mastery of Shaping (Ex): Melcar can alter area and effect spells that use the following categories: burst, cone, cylinder, emanation, or spread. The alteration consists of creating spaces within the spell’s area or effect that are not subject to the spell. The minimum dimension for these spaces is a 5-foot cube. For example, she could cast a fireball and leave a hole where her ally stands, preventing any fire damage. Furthermore, any shapeable (S) spells have a minimum dimension of 5 feet instead of 10 feet.

Spell Power +1 (Ex): Melcar receives +1 to the save DC of his spells. This effect stack with spell power 2 and 3

Spell Power +2 (Ex): Melcar receives +2 to the save DC of his spells. This effect stack with spell power 1 and 3.

Spell Power +3 (Ex): Melcar receives +3 to the save DC of his spells. This effect stack with spell power 1 and 2.

Mastered Spells (Ex): Melcar may cast Teleport without Error in place of other prepared spells at any time. In order to do this, the character merely casts the spell and then marks one prepared spell off his list. This ability works exactly like the spontaneous casting of a cleric.

Increased Spell Power (Ex): Melcar’s spells from the schools of Evocation and Transmutation has their save DC increased by two.

Arcane Resistance (Ex): Melcar has a +3 circumstance bonus to all saves against spells and spell-like abilities.

Fundamentals of Magic (Ex): Melcar has 8 levels of free meta-magic levels.

Enhanced Intelligence (Ex): Melcar has a +5 legendary bonus to his Intelligence and a +5 inherent bonus to his Intelligence.

Enhanced Constitution: Melcar has a +1 inherent bonus to his constitution.

Wizard Spells per Day: 5/11/10/10/10/9/9/8/8/8/8. Base DC 35 + spell level, 38 + spell level for Evocation and Transmutation spells. Caster level 30.

Signature Possessions: Robe of Am’mara*, Headband of Intellect +6, Gloves of Dexterity +6, Pearl of Wisdom +6, Belt of Constitution +6, Ring of Protection +5, Ring of Evasion, Bracers of Armor +8, Cloak of Resistance +5, Boots of Sprinting and Striding and The Twelve Talisman**


* Rope of Am’mara: (Artifact)

This black and dark red robe is of epic beauty. It is long with black runes magically drawn upon it. It gives the wearer the appearance of rulership. This great robe was given to Am’mara, as rulership of a Netherese city became hers. It grants the wearer the following abilities:
• Spell resistance 30
• Immunity to mind effecting spells.
• Ability to cast one extra spell per lvl. 1-9.
• DC of all spells increase +2
• +2 to all saving throws against spells and spell like abilities.

** The Twelve Talisman: (Artifact)

Silver +25 Sonic resistance
Adamantine +2 AC
Emerald Immunity to Poison

[draken50]

.... Level 3 human fighter....

I'm always the DM now.

[BWR]

Well, now. Selection bias. This thread asks people about That One Time, that was really bad, and also appeals to those who want to brag.
But there's always That One Time. Y'know?

Eh, I suppose. I'm just thinking of all the other threads with builds and suggestions that no one I know would allow.

[morkendi]

Venerable whisper gnome diviner/ shadowcraft mage/ archmage. Was most fun i had playing d&d. Current character is psy war uber charger. Took expand knowledge to get psychic reformation that i can use link power on. Link it to expansion so i can change feat set on the fly in second round if another build is needed.

[Pluto!]

Ask other players in my group, and they'd probably say the Knockback Warmind or the necromancer Shaman because they did big flashy things with lots of damage dice or giant versatile minions, but the character that probably warped the game the absolute most was probably the action economy-mauling War Weaver who just made the party unbeatable. At anything.

[Lateral]

To be even more fair, the last one basically took me out of the encounter because of spell reflection and I virtually neutralized half of the current one with a 2nd-level spell.
...Granted, all of the other encounters were with previous characters, but trust me, you haven't seen anything yet. The retriever was only there to take out Oberon and then die quickly, but I've got something special planned for your next real encounter.

[Azraile]

Would be an elder vampire who was changed as a kid but was like 900 years old. He could meld with the earth and due to the fact he was so small and so fast and due to some bonuses could drain blood quickly he could meld into the ground instantly.

Then at the start of the round take several free actions which he would use to leap out of the ground and tare someone's throat out and dring there blood and dive back into the ground before anyone had anytime to react.

He could move quite quickly too even underground so people couldn't hurt him and they couldn't get away

[Sir Chuckles]

Does it count if it's a well-known character in my group that becomes the BBGG and I'm the DM?

Because then you've got a Weretiger Rogue 4/Sorcerer 12/Swordsage 8/Jade Pheonix Mage 10.
Nothing impressive. My group can barely be considered mid-op on a good day.

[Azraile]

Mastered Spells (Ex): Melcar may cast Teleport without Error in place of other prepared spells at any time. In order to do this, the character merely casts the spell and then marks one prepared spell off his list. This ability works exactly like the spontaneous casting of a cleric.

suprized you didn't take wish for that lol

[Summerstorm]

Never got into an epic game and such.

Strongest/most maximized character i play is a Tiefling Factotum12 /Swordsage 2 i guess

Well things like this happened:

Our Cleric opens up a Door, sees three Dragonriders on large dragons and says: "Oh ****... help - Three dragons."
We roll initiative. (I have +12 Ini ... without improved or anything. I go first. I polymorph into a 11-Headed hydra, i shadow-jaunt into between all the enemies, Cunning Surge for another standard action and deliver 11 bites with sneak-attack, some boosted with +int to damage. (A lot of rolling was involved)

Maybe not optimized but enough so the DM implied me not doing that again "i should prefer other forms".

Overall we are playing several campaigns, alternating, so not much levelling going on. Most around Level 9-12 at the moment.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

We were creating characters at level 24 for some reason. It was an Illithid Savant that ate the brains of simulacrums of himself to be able to steal an unlimited number of racial abilities, class features, etc. (Spend one use of Acquire Class Feature to take Acquire Class Feature 3, gaining three uses of Acquire Class Feature). He had the two slam attacks of a Goristro which each count as two-handed weapons, Improved Rapidstrike, Kensai 10 Enchant Chosen Weapon and his fists had Speed, Valorous, and a bunch of other things, he had Leap Attack and Combat Brute with Pounce so he dealt ~500 damage per attack, he had Shadow Pounce, he had a dozen instances of the free-action Dimension Door of a Blink Dog so he could Shadow Pounce multiple times after charging and pouncing, Dire Tortoise's Lightning Strike so he always got a surprise round.... The only thing I wanted but didn't get was the Tarrasque's Regeneration ability, since that ability includes the clause that he can only be killed by a Wish. The first encounter we had, I killed everything in the surprise round.

[Curmudgeon]

Strongest/most maximized character i play is a Tiefling Factotum12 /Swordsage 2 i guess

Well things like this happened:

Our Cleric opens up a Door, sees three Dragonriders on large dragons and says: "Oh ****... help - Three dragons."
We roll initiative. (I have +12 Ini ... without improved or anything. I go first. I polymorph into a 11-Headed hydra
...
Maybe not optimized but enough so the DM implied me not doing that again "i should prefer other forms".
That wasn't a legal form for you to choose.
This spell functions like alter self, except that you change the willing subject into another form of living creature.
You assume the form of a creature of the same type as your normal form. The new form must be within one size category of your normal size.
Size/Type: Medium Outsider (Native)
Size/Type: Huge Magical Beast If you color outside the lines, it's no wonder the character appeared to be exceptionally strong.

[Azraile]

Enlarge Person

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Enlarge Person

"The new form must be within one size category of your normal size."

[SiuiS]

Ask other players in my group, and they'd probably say the Knockback Warmind or the necromancer Shaman because they did big flashy things with lots of damage dice or giant versatile minions, but the character that probably warped the game the absolute most was probably the action economy-mauling War Weaver who just made the party unbeatable. At anything.

Yeah. I've never pissed a DM off more than when I avoided running into fights to play with the setting. Businesses, friendships, crafting. Had him ready to throw mne out of the game at one point, but I pointed out that I never actually contributed to fights with my "broken magic"; several fights were spent stunlocked as a common tactic was to stagger summon mummies, and the entirety of the final battle was me hiding in a corner while the mele guys did their thing.

Nothing gives the impression of ruining a game like saying "here, let me enchant that for you..."

[prufock]

Deimos, the venerable Draconic Spellscale Sorcerer 5/Dread Witch 5/Nightmare Spinner 5/Mage of the Arcane Order 2-3.

Probably not as optimized as many in the playground would build, but man was it fun saying "BOO!" to people and watching them keel over. Even undead, constructs, and paladins.

[Dread_Head]

One time my friend decided to DM a level 20 one shot campaign where we just fight harder and harder monsters til we died. I asked any limits on what we can play and he said no so I rolled up a DMM persist Cleric with a DFI optimised Bard as a cohort and shredded the Tarrasque, a Great Wyrm Red Dragon and then several Adamantine and Mithral Golems before we got bored.

[Guizonde]

after being banned paladins and halflings, my dm called me one day and told me the team needed a healer. i chose a dwarven cleric of pelor that is now cleric 5/ rsop 2 (412xp from rsop 3, but who's counting?). i ran it against some simulations, and i accidentally built a clericzilla... good thing the character sees himself as a doctor first and foremost and not a world-destroyer extraordinaire, else i'd have gotten rocks thrown at me multiple times.

strongest thing i've ever done is banish a specter so hard it disappeared from the history books. it was named the "banhammer accident", and only the rogue saw it, despite the entire team surrounding me at the time.

Father Corbec Girderson is no pushover, and by far one of my favorite characters to play

[Hecuba]

Loredrake Steel dragon wyrmling/wizard/assorted prcs with La buyoff

[gc25774]

Jack B. Quick level 14.
She used Keened Mercurial Flaming Burst Weapons on Jack B. Quick.
Had Shadow Cloak/Shadow Sibling. Belt of Battle. The Works.
Tried to trip a mecha. Failed.
I DM alot.

[Sith_Happens]

[Snip]

PROTIP: Do not get between Curmudgeon and effective use of Sneak Attack. Ever.