My DM wants us to break the game.

[louist200]

This campaign we are supposedly playing in hardmode. He wants us to be as powerful as possible so we can we can get curb stomped. The rules are this.

1) Characters will be gestalt, with typical gestalt rules. Most races/characters are okay, except for any with level adjustment.

2) I would like for each player to come up with some background info for his character. I will be happy to assist, but this will be integral to the campaign play.

3) Campaign will be set in the Forgotten Realms.

4) I plan on trying several new things, some of which I will borrow from video games. To that end, I will maintain a log for each player to help keep up with experience, gold, items, etc. This has the potential to become a bookkeeping nightmare, but I want to try it.

5) All books are available.

6) New feats will be granted every character level; all prerequisites apply.

7) Ability increases will occur every two levels, rather than every four per the standard rules.

8) No psionics

9) Skill points will be as normal, except that the max ranks will be character level +20, rather than +4 as in the standard rules.

10) Each character may have two "traits" and one "flaw", as per the Unearthed Arcana.

11) You may take 2 prestiege classes in one level.

12) You make take the base classes from Unearthed Arcana (Spellcaster Warrior Expert)

13) You may take classes that dual progress like mystic theurge.

14) You can take both Spellcaster arcane and Spellcaster divine at the same time. (What I was thinking about)

Choose one of the following stat blocks:
18, 18, 18, 12, 8, 8
18, 18, 14, 14, 10, 8
18, 16, 16 14, 12, 10
16, 16, 16, 16, 14, 10

The reason I am thinking about going double spell caster is I can use any spell from any book a wizard druid or cleric could cast. Then after I get to mystic theurge take 1 level of ranger followed by a level of scout with favored enemy undead and there is a feat that will let me crit them. The same goes for constructs. Or perhaps there is something far more broken to do. I ask you, HAVE AT IT!

[FocusWolf413]

Here's my two cents:
Take wizard/druid. Arcane Hierophant/Planar shepherd. Go big or go home.

[dascarletm]

I would instead go Warblade and Wizard instead of dual spellcasters. If you look up threads on gestalt you'll see that you want one active and one passive class. I would use this build

Wizard 20 // Warblade 3/Factotum 8/Warblade 9
maybe sub some Jade Pheonix Mage after Factotum in which case I would progress Warblade 2/Factotum 8/ JPM 10. (I'm afb so I don't know if that is legal.)

This will give you the juicy extra actions from factotum, but you'll have the survivability of warblade at levels 1-2or3. I find that the early levels can be very swingy, so having a nice buffer of HP and martial output will be nice at these levels and Wizard spells will just be gravy.

EDIT: Oh! add abjurant champion on the wizard side, should be online by level 6 or so.

[Rebel7284]

9) Skill points will be as normal, except that the max ranks will be character level +20, rather than +4 as in the standard rules.


This is the broken part.
Dragonwraught Kobold can start taking GOOD epic feats very early. Classes like Sublime Chord can be entered much earlier.

You may want to find several ways of getting extra actions for multiple spells per turn early. My usual multispell gish involves Wizard/Spelldancer/Swiftblade // Factotum, but it can probably be improved on significantly with these rules.

[ComaVision]

Surprise everyone when you come in with Truenamer, should be easy with the adjusted max skill ranks.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Illumian (Krau sigil) Wizard 1/Mystic Theurge 3/Swiftblade 9/Ruby Knight Vindicator 7//Cloistered cleric 1/Monk 2/Crusader 1/Dweomerkeeper 10/Incantatrix 6

Full cleric and wizard casting, 19 base attack, extra swift actions, an extra standard action per round, persistomancy, supernatural spells, (Ex) miss chances. If you don't care for Cloak of Mysteries, fit in some circle magic with Halruaan Elder, Hathran or Red Wizard (but giving up additional schools of magic sucks).

The crusader and monk levels provide +2.5 base attack, to get +3 total with the +0.5 from one level wizard//cloistered cleric. Crusader grants the requirements for RKV, Mystic Theurge provides the relevant cleric casting for levels 2-4, monk is for the tasty Wis to AC and the feat prerequisites for Swiftblade.

[daremetoidareyo]

This is probably the only way to get divine pranksters killing joke paired with minbender's telepathy paired with some sort of non-detectable, always-on invisibility. You can enter divine prankster at level 2 with the right feat selection. People will be chuckling to themselves and dying by level 12, plus all that sweet divine casting. And probably bard abilities. Take art of fascination from OA, so that they are fascinated by your killing joke, which obviates the need for spoken language (therefor being heard) through telepathy. A forgiving DM might even let the feat -wanderer's diplomacy- allow your killing joke be effective against things that are mindblanked that you don't have the language for.

[Sayt]

Kinda tempted to say "Just play Pun-Pun", but Wizard//Warblade will probably do just as well, practicably. Consider playing a Dwarf Wizard and dipping into Runesmith, so you can give the "Armour Check Penalty" rules the big old middle finger.

[atemu1234]

Take Wizard // Druid into Incantatrix // Planar Shepherd.

[FocusWolf413]

Take Wizard // Druid into Incantatrix // Planar Shepherd.

That's just vile. I love it.

[AvatarVecna]

ECL
Class
Lvl
Class
Lvl
Bard
Wizard
Sublime Chord


1
Wizard
1
Warblade
1
-
1
-


2
Wizard
2
Warblade
2
-
2
-


3
Wizard
3
Warblade
3
-
3
-


4
Wizard
4
Warblade
4
-
4
-


5
Wizard
5
Warblade
5
-
5
-


6
Bard
1
Jade Phoenix Mage
1
1
6
-


7
Sublime Chord
1
Jade Phoenix Mage
2
2
7
1


8
Ultimate Magus
1
Jade Phoenix Mage
3
3
8
1


9
Ultimate Magus
2
Jade Phoenix Mage
4
4
9
2


10
Ultimate Magus
3
Jade Phoenix Mage
5
5
10
3


11
Ultimate Magus
4
Jade Phoenix Mage
6
5
11
4


12
Ultimate Magus
5
Jade Phoenix Mage
7
6
12
5


13
Ultimate Magus
6
Jade Phoenix Mage
8
7
13
6


14
Ultimate Magus
7
Jade Phoenix Mage
9
8
14
6


15
Ultimate Magus
8
Jade Phoenix Mage
10
9
15
7


16
Ultimate Magus
9
Warblade
6
9
16
8


17
Ultimate Magus
10
Warblade
7
9
17
9


18
Uncanny Trickster
1
Wizard
6
9
18
9


19
Uncanny Trickster
2
Warblade
8
9
19
10


20
Uncanny Trickster
3
Warblade
9
10
20
10



At 20th level, you're looking at casting as a Wizard 20/Bard 10/Sublime Chord 10 (all at CL 20); you also have an IL of 19, near-full Initiation Progression, and full BAB; you also have a semi-standard BardBlade set-up.

Altogether, you have tons of spells, maneuvers, lots of Int-SAD stuff, some Bardic Music, lots of skills, and some bonus metamagic feats/reduction. If you can't find something broken to do with this build, you should probably just take the easy route and go Wizard/Incantatrix//Druid/Planar Shepherd.

EDIT: Also, I got halfway through making a table for the Wizard 4/Ultimate Magus 10/Legacy Champion 6//Rogue 3 (Rilkan Racial ACF)/Druid 1/Cloistered Cleric 1/Ur-Priest 1/Beholder Mage 1/Fochlucan Lyrist 9/Legacy Champion 4 (a build that would have both quadruple 9ths and the action economy abuse to justify having that kind of casting), but realized that having LC on both sides of the gestalt at level 17-20 could prove problematic; still, I guess you could replace the 4 on Side B with War Weaver, Abjurant Champion, Incantatrix, or Archmage.

[Honest Tiefling]

Given that it appears that leadership/undead leadership isn't banned, do cohorts follow the same rules as the player characters, or...?

[Snowbluff]

OOOOOOOH!

Here's a hat trick. 2 levels of Arcane Archer. Arrow Split from the Ranger list. Imbue Arrow with 1d4+1 shots. Doubles with a splitting bow.

Take some neat spells like Hail of Stone (no SR and no Save). Imbue it onto your arrow. Add Fell Drain for each time it hits.

In addition, you can cast any area spell as a standard action this way, and project any area spell onto an enemy. Glyph of Warding, Fimbulwinter, and Antimagic Field (all Selective as to not effect you, possibly) say hi.

[AvatarVecna]

Dragonwrought Kobold Warblade 5/Bloodstorm Blade 4/Master Thrower 5/Warblade +6//Wizard 3/Master Specialist 2/Incantatrix 10/Archmage 5, optimizing Spot.

Feats: Great Cleave, Lightning Mace, Roundabout Kick, Snap Kick, Knowledge Devotion, Greater Two-Weapon Fighting, Slashing Flurry, Deadeye, Distant Shot (via dragonwrought trick); use Otyugh Hole+DCS to get as many feats as you need.

Necessary Thrown Weapon Tricks: Weak Spot, Palm Throw

Necessary Items: (4) +1 Keen Aptitude Kukri, Spot-boosting magic items (you should have a +70 or so just from ranks and items)

Necessary Maneuvers: Blood In The Water, Dancing Mongoose

20th lvl snapshot (assuming Dex 30): a full attack for you (while hasted) is +23/+23/+23/+23/+23/+23/+23/+23/+23/+23/+23/+23/+23/+23/+18/+18/+18/+18/+13/+13/+13/+13/+8/+8 to hit Touch AC, threatening a critical on 15-20, with range "sight", dealing 1d3+18 damage. Because of your aptitude weapons, you get an extra attack every time you threaten a critical, every time you confirm a critical, and every time you reduce a target to 0 HP; that last one has to be a melee attack when it happens, but just attack the ground to see if you get a critical threat/hit, for those extra attacks. Additionally, every time you confirm a critical hit, you gain a +1 cumulative (self-stacking) bonus to attack/damage when making attacks until your BitW stance ends. That's the mechanical effects of your full attack. Here's what it looks like.

A kobold looks over the world before him, his keen eyes locating everything nearby. Drawing four tiny kukris, his arms become a blur as everything he can see is reduced to dust by irresistible nature of his offense.

Oh yeah, and you're also a Wizard/Incantatrix/Archmage; I'm sure there's something broken you can do with that.

[Abithrios]

Surprise everyone when you come in with Truenamer, should be easy with the adjusted max skill ranks.

YES!!

You should still get an item familiar to double down on the insanity.

Option 1: Combine it with something that gets more than 4+ skill points. I am thinking factotum. Use the skill points to double max out truespeak as soon as possible. Use the extra feats to get font of inspiration more times. Starting at level 8, you can begin each fight by using each of your utterances. After you run headfirst into the law of sequence, you can spend the rest of the fight twiddling your thumbs or decorating yourself with sequins. If possible, use arcane dilettante to qualify for fiendbinder, which will replace factotum for future levels. This allows you to spend money to bind fiends, which you can then command to do your bidding by using your (extra) standard actions.

Option 2: First two levels, go for monk, which you use to PrC into Disciple of the Word at level 3. It allows you to do various things with truespeak checks, like dispel stuff, make reflex saves, etc. You will more or less always succeed ("Does a 67 beat your caster level check?"). After that, you can do whatever, such as taking levels of bereft or acolyte of the ego. I think there is some way of transferring some or all monk abilities to INT.
Yes, I did just recommend monk//truenamer in the post right after a ranged lightning mace//incantatrix build.
Option 3: Start with a level of something innocuous, such as warblade. At level 2, PrC out of whatever filler class you chose into Acolyte of the Ego, which you will qualify for to get some interesting self buffs. Chain that into another truespeak PrC, such as bereft, to make sure your enemies stay down.

Option 4: Something involving ruby knight vindicator for extra swift actions for your quickened utterences.

The "best" part is that you can take multiple truespeaking prestige classes without giving up even a single truenamer level!



Disclamer: I may not actually have your best interests in mind.

[Tvtyrant]

I would probably go Wizard X (divination banning illusions)/Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil//Beguiler/Incantatrix for all day veils, access to your banned school, completely SAD stats, crazy skill scores and metamagic power.

[Yahzi]

I vote... Wizard/Commoner. Because why not? :smallbiggrin:

[Crake]

I love it, all those rules, but still "No psionics"

Sounds gr8 m8.

[Arael666]

I get the trick here will not be to build the most powerfull character. But to produce something that will be powerfull enough to survive the environment you DM will create to go with those rules AND still be weak enough to not actually break the campaing.

Once you get to a certain level of power, all fights will be simply "I win" or TPK. Even if you get contingencies for your deaths, every single encounter will be a long exercise of TO crafting and your DM will have to tailor everything just to challenge the party. It gets exhausting and boring very quickly. If he's REALLY into TO crafting and has a lot of time at his disposal this might work out.

As you may have noticed, I speak from experience. I lasted 12 sessions, them being held every 15 days for 6 months. It was really starting to interfere with my RL.

That being said, it was a hell lotta fun while it lasted and the players still beg me to try that out again.

[Bonzai]

Unseelie Fey Human from Rashaman
1. Hexblade 6/blackguard 3/ hexblade 11
2. Favored Soul 20

Dark companion alternative class feature.

Pertinent feats: dreadful wrath, power Attack, cleave, improved sunder, brutal strike, bind vestige, improved bind vestige, netherese battle curse

Full BAB, decent melee, and will have a walk around persist debuff of -6 +cha, plus the ability to drop them by another -10 not counting spells. This build is the engine that allows the rest of the party to tee-off on whatever it faces.

Favored soul is there to provide full divine casting based on CHA. Plus you have +cha to saves, mettle, and other fun bonuses.

Fluff? Heretical worshipper of besheba, who strives to spread bad luck through the world.

[Andezzar]

Take Wizard // Druid into Incantatrix // Planar Shepherd.You will have to take care how you take the levels, because you can't have PrCs on both sides.

[atemu1234]

You will have to take care how you take the levels, because you can't have PrCs on both sides.


11) You may take 2 prestiege classes in one level.

Wot m8? /10char

[Madara]

Isn't the general rule of Gestalt to have passive//active?

Also, the starting level still appears to be 1. We should put more effort into his early survival, rather than the focus on late-game shenanigans. I'd suggest (given forgotten realms) pulling some twice-betrayer shenanigans.

[khadgar567]

if pathfinder is in get summoner ( regular non unchained one )20 and any melee class for second probably monk for survival and dont forget the unlimited succubus( insert any creature) works

1. Planar Bind a Mirror Mephit, which has Simulacrum 1/day as a spell-like ability.

2. Cut off one of its fingers.*

3. Use the finger to make a Simulacrum of it (with the actual spell).

4. Order the Mirror Mephit Simulacrum to make another Mirror Mephit Simulacrum, giving you two in total.

5. The next day, order both Mirror Mephit Simulacra to each make a Mirror Mephit Simulacrum, giving you four in total.

6. The next day, order all four Mirror Mephit Simulacra to each make a Mirror Mephit Simulacrum, giving you eight in total.

7. Repeat until you feel you have enough Mirror Mephit Simulacra.

8. Order them all to start making Succubus Simulacra instead and to keep doing so every day for the rest of eternity.

9. Occasionally take one of your Succubus Simulacra to somewhere on the Material Plane that the moon is full and cast Steal Life on it, thereby allowing you to stay young forever.

10. Enjoy your Unlimited Succubus Works for all eternity.

[Andezzar]

Wot m8? /10charWoops I missed that. Nevermind then.

[Da Beast]

7) Ability increases will occur every two levels, rather than every four per the standard rules.

Is there any rule about how many of these can go into one stat? I considered a house rule like this to give MAD classes some help but without a limit to how many can go into one stat it'll just make SAD full casters nuts. I ended going with +1 to two different stats every 4 levels to keep things simple.

[Honest Tiefling]

Is there any rule about how many of these can go into one stat? I considered a house rule like this to give MAD classes some help but without a limit to how many can go into one stat it'll just make SAD full casters nuts. I ended going with +1 to two different stats every 4 levels to keep things simple.

How did that work out for you? I'm personally contemplating the same thing.

[Emperor Tippy]

You want at least 11 levels of Factotum on one side for Cunning Surge and Cunning Breach. Without Psionics you want Cunning Breach to solve action economy issues and the additional three levels is well worth it for the ability to outright ignore Spell Resistance (which can be anywhere from "Nice" to "utterly broken").

I would finish off that half with two levels of Invisible Fist Decisive Strike Marital Monk, a level of Rogue, a level of Exemplar, three levels of Swashbuckler, and two levels of Swordsage.

The other half I would make Wizard 5/ full casting Wizard PrC's 15. The exact Wizard PrC's depend on your more specific character desires and the degree to which you are willing to "break the game". At the lower end, Incantatrix 10/ Archmage 5 is decently alright; in that case you would probably give up Enchantment (even though it stings).