Astralia123
2016-06-25, 03:17 AM
I'd like to share this story with you guys...as I experienced up and down and down and astonishment through the process.
It all started when one of my friend, who knows little real optimization, seeked help when he attended a heavily optimized campaign.
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Several weeks ago, one of my friend asked another, "Hey would you help me optimize my build? I attended a new campaign, lv 15 gestalt, all extensions available."
"What? What gestalt? 15th level?! You should ask Astralia123 he's the one who knows 3rd edition well."
"Okay...by the way it is a comic-styled campaign of superheros and we can use monster-characters with no LA. I feel sort of uncertain, other players all seem powerful..."
Hearing these, I, too, felt uncertain, as I knew too well how good he was. Last time when I ran a campaign for starters, he was the one who heartily believed that dragonfire adept was a cool and powerful class. He had been DMing Pathfinder ever after, and that wasn't quite a heavily optimized campaign, either.
"You know, a gestalt campaign is not good choice for a player of your level, as it is both extremely complicated and not easy to find a best solution. In such a game, experienced players quickly get like four times as powerful as in normal campaign, while newbies will just keep building characters around the power of an example NPC in the official books. Or even weaker than that."
Recalling all the unsuccessful campaigns I've seen and heard over the years, I tried to warn him of the potential risks. "You'd better begin with deciding what you want to be - striker, offender, supporter, just choose one and stick with it. Newbies often make the mistake to mix all these up, and in the end their characters are not good at anything. In another case, the character might be somewhat capable, but the player who makes it often doesn't have much idea what his character can do.
Actually I think you should begin reading the spell list of any of the caster classes. Right now. Read it through at least 3 times. I know you have not done it yet. And you should also make a list of suitable prestige classes as well."
I was talking it in the hard tone, in the expectation that he might just give it up (honestly that's a lot easier than actually read all those).
But he did not sound too abashed - or not as abashed as I expected.
"Aiee. (A word to express shock and worries. It actually sound more like "Eiee".) Then maybe I should just be a supporter, and just watch the other players show off?"
So I knew it, he would not just do what I said... But that was also a possible option, as a supporter build needs much less effort into careful optimizing to competent.
"Well that could be... You can try cleric, with hierophant PrC, and choose Divine Reach. Then you can heal and buff safely (relatively safely) behind your teammates. By the way what kind of supporter you meant to use?"
"Dragon Shaman?"
"..." I was speechless for a second.
While I further dug into my memories, trying to come up with a suitable combination of words to describe what I thought, he continued to talk to other people in the chatting room.
“Hey Barbarian buddy, have you got any idea? I can only come up with like a young Gold dragon multi-classing into Dragonfire Adept." (I was both astonished and unsurprised to hear this.)
"Don't be ridiculous, how can being a dragon be as rewarding as being a caster? Just choose on class from the Nine Swords and multi-class a spell-casting class. Seriously, Ruby Knight Vindicator is really powerful, especially his 9th level class ability, ..." The barbarian buddy, who almost always played a barbarian, instantaneously became interested and began to flood my friend with his optimization ideas.
"Uhhh okay let me have a look, I've not much idea on the Nine Swords..."
"But multi-classing into cleric is not bad idea, at least they have divine metamagic!"(Barbarian guy.)
"Well, most your advices are not quite suitable for newbies, but being a cleric is not so bad...You know a cleric serves more as a defense against negative conditions than a healer who heals damages in-combat."(From a third person.)
They continued discussing more optimization advices...few of which actually suits my friend's taste (I can read from his expressions) or his 3rd edition optimization level.
It is not hard to guess from the nick name, barbarian buddy is a player who is heavily fascinated in physical damage-based striker classes. But on the other hand, my friend's taste, let's say, often ends up in something weird...and far from being powerful. Dragonfire adept is one of the examples.
So I interrupted them.
"Seriously, even when people say a fighter is suitable for a newbie, it hardly applies to a highly-optimized game. A fighter or any physical damage based striker is a glass cannon, as they score high and stable damage output, and tend to be easily killed by any enemies' counter attacks.
And so are supporter clerics, they are positions with responsibility, and probably not suitable for a new player who wishes to try a lot new things like yourself."
No one was listening.
"You must try White Raven! It can grant your teammates actions!"
"I said I know little about that, and this campaign is modern-time comic-styled superheroes!"
Okay, whatever. I joined conversation again.
"Don't worry, I know that kind of campaigns, the DM is unlikely to ban something just because it doesn't seem to appear. But now you mention it, I've got the feeling you DM and the other players may not be THAT powerful. What are their characters like, and do I know them?"
"I don't know...I saw they were looking for players on a forum." It is not a forum for TRPG players; actually pretenders of d&d players are more often seen there.
"Who's the DM?"
He spelled the DM's id. I didn't recognize it. I shrugged to myself; it didn't have to mean anything, as I have been out of the circle for years.
"But I don't quite understand other players' characters. Like this."
I had a look...
Flaws: Murky-Eyed, Noncombatant, Weapon Bound, Arcane Parasite, Arcane Fatigue
Feat Slots: Flaws 5 (1,1,5,10,15) + level up 6 (1,3,6,9,12,15) + Erudite Bonus Feat 1 (5) =12
lv.1 Overchannel, Linked Power, Metapower(Synchronicity)
lv.3 Psicrystal Containment
lv.5 Bonus:Psionic Meditation, Wild Talent
lv.6 Word of Creation
lv.9 Extend Spell
lv.10 Metamorphic Transfer
lv.12 Persistent Spell
lv.15 Divine Metamagic: Persistent Spell, Midnight Augmentation
I was not exactly familiar with Psi-builds, but this was not difficult to decipher.
"Uhhh...I'm not that good with psionics, but this looks like a multi-classed psionics manifester and divine spellcaster? What's his class levels?"
"Here you go."
Firre 8 + Conjurer 1 + Sacre Exorcist 1 + Contemplative 1 + Dweomerkeeper 4
Divine Caster Level 18
6/7+1/7+1/7+1/6+1/5+1/4+1/3+1/2+1
Erudite 5 + Anarchic Initiate 10
Manifester Level 15
4/4/4/4/4/3/2/1
Again I was speechless for some seconds, seeking for appropriate words.
"Hmmm, well, okay, ummm, he seems competent. Not sure what he's gonna do with Word of Creation though. Whatever. How about the others?"
[I forgot what Firre was at this point, but knew it was an Outsider with higher caster level than its HD.]
"Well...let me see, he said he was going to use 'Beguiler5Rainbow Servant10/Truenamer 15'."
"Okay... so you don't need another supporter cleric anyway. Not familiar with Truenamer, but he can spontaneously cast any cleric spell."
"And there is another who's gonna play something related to outer-plane monsters."
"...And just go find sth dedicated with just one ability that can strengthen your teammates. That will be fine enough for you." I began to feel desperate, while he still doesn't seem to understand the condition.
"Then I play a bard? That's definitely dedicated."
"No! You don't understand. Now you are in grave danger. I've seen too much."
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To be continued after I have a nap...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As barbarian guy asked "What? Don't they have arcane casters?", I tried to catch his attention by serious talking.
"Let's be straightforward, you are now attending a campaign that has an optimization level far, far above yourself. All your party members can do ridiculous things unimaginable in a 'normal' game, like several hundreds damage in one punch, or immobilize the enemy with just one spell or anything. And if you just keep your current pace, you will only be able to cast things like a lame entangle condition. You think you can withstand that embarrassment?"
"Eieeee.."
"Or like this, 'It's my turn, a fortitude save.' 'DC?' '....Let me check, 18?'"
"Or would you prefer like this, 'My damage, 10d6 fire, reflex half' 'Saved. No surprise. And the monster has 15 fire resistance.'?"
Not giving him chances to talk back, I continued.
"Even if you could be dull enough to ignore that and stick to halfheartitedly useless actions like 5d6 damage, entangling or some DC 15 conditions during the fight, it could still be dangerous to be a useless person in the party.
"Now imagine you are the only one who could not evade an AOE attack and was knocked down.(Which is very likely to happen.)
Now your teammates are like, 'Should we revive him?' 'No good, he's no use anyway.' 'When the boss acts next time, he would be on the floor whatsoever, let's finish the battle first.' "
"Look, I'm trying to save you from such grave embarrassment and shame. So what do you say?"
As I visualized these grave embarrassments (it could kill a player...from a certain game), he finally seemed to show a little nervousness.
"Okay, now it seems this party has more supporters than necessary, maybe they would need a physical striker?"
"I don't know...Isn't a spellcaster quite capable of damage outputting? And they've got psionics as well. I heard someone's psion can outnumber you like it's nothing by multiply himself by 20 times."
"Psionics is not known for good sustainability. That whoever person would have depleted his psi points in one encounter. A capable fighter certainly helps in this party. Maybe they would appreciate an offensive debuffer, too. Or maybe they have not got counters against AMF yet? You could try an Initiate of Mystra. Anyway, whatever, the point is to do something your teammates cannot, so you are not completely useless after all."
It was when we proceeded to discussing more optimization advices on utilizing ToB resources (from barbarian guy) that my friend suddenly says "I know what the other player is! He's going psionics as well and Metamorphic Transfer into Leonal!"
I took several secs before recalling what a leonal is, and it was just that very moment that everything seemed to move smoothly into one perfect solution.
"So he's gonna be the physical striker, he would have pounce..."
"I say, actually the best part to be a young dragon is its +14 racial strength don't you think?"
"Enough of you, you'd be even better off if you spend those HDs on War Hulk! An outsider would be much better."
"Ohh. Then I play an Outsider?"
I ignored him.
"Listen, your best strategy to avoid this ultimate shame is to play a wizard, and live on buffing and strengthening your teammates. Like the cheap uncreative Incantatrix cooperative metamagic combo, you can just live on these supporting roles and forget offense and damage outputs.
And it will definitely be most beneficial! Your party will thank you if you can cover them with a Mind Blank all day, which requires no actual optimization! You can just stick to core spell list and that's enough."
"Actually I asked if I can play a Living Spell...The answer was no. What a pity. That could've been quite creative!"
"Ha! What use would creativeness be? A straightforward way would work much better!" (Barbarian guy. Sometimes I wonder if he actually roleplays a barbarian in real life.)
"What about bard then?"
"Forget about these nonsense! A bard only grants a +1 to +5 bonus, while a highly optimized party need nothing like this. And you are already denied of playing that (which I heartily approve). After all, what fun is it to play an Ooze? Enemies can easily move out of your reach, and you can't even run! You are just trying to make yourself an ignorable figure on the battlefield!"
I paused for a sec, and continued, with that perfect solution.
"If I were you, and that I just want to play it halfheartedly and avoid responsibility, I'd have made a wizard/spellsword, and shoot the spells with weapons."
"Huh? Doesn't an Arcane Archer shoot spells?"
"No, the Spellsword idea is that you change any of your spell into a single-targeted spell, even if it is AOE, self-centered or targeting yourself. This type of Channel Spell ability is the best of spell-channelling. Actually you can cast single-targeted solid fog, single-targeted AMF, single-targeted cloudkill, and anything! Of course if you wish you can be an Arcane Archer at the same time."
"Eieee, I'm thinking I can be an archer!"
"Are you listening? Well this ability is quite limited, you get it at 4th level and it's 3/day."
"Ohhh..."
"Is that powerful? I don't get it." (Barbarian guy)
"Of course it is powerful, and can be very dramatic. From its description, it applies to any spell, even those normally has no targets or targeting something else. What's more, this ability can be used with ranged attacks, as you can throw your melee weapon. The only reason we don't usually get it is that it usually cost 3 or more CLs. However, you are playing gestalt now, so it becomes affordable."
"Really?? Where to find these PrCs?"
"What? You mean Hexblade?"(Another guy. Hexblade and Spellsword has sort of similar translations.)
My audience's attentions got caught, and I continued without pause.
"Or you can actually become an Ordained Champion, it has the exactly same channel spell ability without use limitation. Yup, this price is acceptable if you don't expect to become the main caster. Hey, you can get this class, and be Incantatrix, then several levels into Arcane Archers and Archmages as well. You will become the most flexible caster (in spell-casting ways).
Nope, Hexblade is a rubbish base class. This Spellsword is a rubbish PrC with one interesting class feature. It would cause some interesting effects when applied to AMF, and this throwing tactics needs your DM's approval, but after all it is very very interesting and powerful."
"I guess it is not that useful, except the AMF usage. Most of the times Mastery of Shaping would do?" (Barbarian dude)
"No, the best part is, some area spells are nasty, but you need only to walk out of the area. However, if applied this way, it stays with you only until depletion or dispelled! Say, a Dimension Lock that stays with the boss for weeks."
"Ohhh now I get it, that's really nasty."(Barbarian dude)
I got quite excited at this point.
"And there's the fogs series. Solid fog that affects only one person cannot block vision, but it still prevents movements - needs DM ruling anyway. This can be applied to a lot various of spells and will cause many interesting results. Like a wonder box! I would've memorised a lot of nasty spells, and have my familiar cast limited wish to ensure I hit the enemy when necessary."
"How exciting...but what's your score for Arcane Archer? Aren't we allowed only one PrC under gestalt rule?"
"A truly rubbish PrC with a single interesting trick. No, different DMs have different rulings for gestalt, and it is usually taken that you can only choose to level up one PrC at any certain level, not both. Doesn't your Firre teammate combine many PrCs?"
"Ohh..."
"You may choose some more classes that alter spellcasting , like Spellguard of Silverymoon. Wait, you can use Ordained Champion to transfer ANY spell to your companion, so you don't really need to be Spellguard...Only that it *usually* costs much more."
"Hahaha you can heal your teammates by stabbing them with sword?!" (Another guy.)
"True, he can even buff a fighter with Tenser's Transformation, Shapechange or even Time Stop. That's ridiculously convenient, and even if you are not familiar with your spell-list, your teammates will surely find a lot of uses for you."
...
We continued discussing and eventually departed in a merrily atmosphere. It all seemed fine at that point of time, and I believed he could solve it on his own from then on.
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Not the end of story. But you can understand how enthusiastic I was at that time.
May come back and finish the speechless part in several days? I guess.
It all started when one of my friend, who knows little real optimization, seeked help when he attended a heavily optimized campaign.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Several weeks ago, one of my friend asked another, "Hey would you help me optimize my build? I attended a new campaign, lv 15 gestalt, all extensions available."
"What? What gestalt? 15th level?! You should ask Astralia123 he's the one who knows 3rd edition well."
"Okay...by the way it is a comic-styled campaign of superheros and we can use monster-characters with no LA. I feel sort of uncertain, other players all seem powerful..."
Hearing these, I, too, felt uncertain, as I knew too well how good he was. Last time when I ran a campaign for starters, he was the one who heartily believed that dragonfire adept was a cool and powerful class. He had been DMing Pathfinder ever after, and that wasn't quite a heavily optimized campaign, either.
"You know, a gestalt campaign is not good choice for a player of your level, as it is both extremely complicated and not easy to find a best solution. In such a game, experienced players quickly get like four times as powerful as in normal campaign, while newbies will just keep building characters around the power of an example NPC in the official books. Or even weaker than that."
Recalling all the unsuccessful campaigns I've seen and heard over the years, I tried to warn him of the potential risks. "You'd better begin with deciding what you want to be - striker, offender, supporter, just choose one and stick with it. Newbies often make the mistake to mix all these up, and in the end their characters are not good at anything. In another case, the character might be somewhat capable, but the player who makes it often doesn't have much idea what his character can do.
Actually I think you should begin reading the spell list of any of the caster classes. Right now. Read it through at least 3 times. I know you have not done it yet. And you should also make a list of suitable prestige classes as well."
I was talking it in the hard tone, in the expectation that he might just give it up (honestly that's a lot easier than actually read all those).
But he did not sound too abashed - or not as abashed as I expected.
"Aiee. (A word to express shock and worries. It actually sound more like "Eiee".) Then maybe I should just be a supporter, and just watch the other players show off?"
So I knew it, he would not just do what I said... But that was also a possible option, as a supporter build needs much less effort into careful optimizing to competent.
"Well that could be... You can try cleric, with hierophant PrC, and choose Divine Reach. Then you can heal and buff safely (relatively safely) behind your teammates. By the way what kind of supporter you meant to use?"
"Dragon Shaman?"
"..." I was speechless for a second.
While I further dug into my memories, trying to come up with a suitable combination of words to describe what I thought, he continued to talk to other people in the chatting room.
“Hey Barbarian buddy, have you got any idea? I can only come up with like a young Gold dragon multi-classing into Dragonfire Adept." (I was both astonished and unsurprised to hear this.)
"Don't be ridiculous, how can being a dragon be as rewarding as being a caster? Just choose on class from the Nine Swords and multi-class a spell-casting class. Seriously, Ruby Knight Vindicator is really powerful, especially his 9th level class ability, ..." The barbarian buddy, who almost always played a barbarian, instantaneously became interested and began to flood my friend with his optimization ideas.
"Uhhh okay let me have a look, I've not much idea on the Nine Swords..."
"But multi-classing into cleric is not bad idea, at least they have divine metamagic!"(Barbarian guy.)
"Well, most your advices are not quite suitable for newbies, but being a cleric is not so bad...You know a cleric serves more as a defense against negative conditions than a healer who heals damages in-combat."(From a third person.)
They continued discussing more optimization advices...few of which actually suits my friend's taste (I can read from his expressions) or his 3rd edition optimization level.
It is not hard to guess from the nick name, barbarian buddy is a player who is heavily fascinated in physical damage-based striker classes. But on the other hand, my friend's taste, let's say, often ends up in something weird...and far from being powerful. Dragonfire adept is one of the examples.
So I interrupted them.
"Seriously, even when people say a fighter is suitable for a newbie, it hardly applies to a highly-optimized game. A fighter or any physical damage based striker is a glass cannon, as they score high and stable damage output, and tend to be easily killed by any enemies' counter attacks.
And so are supporter clerics, they are positions with responsibility, and probably not suitable for a new player who wishes to try a lot new things like yourself."
No one was listening.
"You must try White Raven! It can grant your teammates actions!"
"I said I know little about that, and this campaign is modern-time comic-styled superheroes!"
Okay, whatever. I joined conversation again.
"Don't worry, I know that kind of campaigns, the DM is unlikely to ban something just because it doesn't seem to appear. But now you mention it, I've got the feeling you DM and the other players may not be THAT powerful. What are their characters like, and do I know them?"
"I don't know...I saw they were looking for players on a forum." It is not a forum for TRPG players; actually pretenders of d&d players are more often seen there.
"Who's the DM?"
He spelled the DM's id. I didn't recognize it. I shrugged to myself; it didn't have to mean anything, as I have been out of the circle for years.
"But I don't quite understand other players' characters. Like this."
I had a look...
Flaws: Murky-Eyed, Noncombatant, Weapon Bound, Arcane Parasite, Arcane Fatigue
Feat Slots: Flaws 5 (1,1,5,10,15) + level up 6 (1,3,6,9,12,15) + Erudite Bonus Feat 1 (5) =12
lv.1 Overchannel, Linked Power, Metapower(Synchronicity)
lv.3 Psicrystal Containment
lv.5 Bonus:Psionic Meditation, Wild Talent
lv.6 Word of Creation
lv.9 Extend Spell
lv.10 Metamorphic Transfer
lv.12 Persistent Spell
lv.15 Divine Metamagic: Persistent Spell, Midnight Augmentation
I was not exactly familiar with Psi-builds, but this was not difficult to decipher.
"Uhhh...I'm not that good with psionics, but this looks like a multi-classed psionics manifester and divine spellcaster? What's his class levels?"
"Here you go."
Firre 8 + Conjurer 1 + Sacre Exorcist 1 + Contemplative 1 + Dweomerkeeper 4
Divine Caster Level 18
6/7+1/7+1/7+1/6+1/5+1/4+1/3+1/2+1
Erudite 5 + Anarchic Initiate 10
Manifester Level 15
4/4/4/4/4/3/2/1
Again I was speechless for some seconds, seeking for appropriate words.
"Hmmm, well, okay, ummm, he seems competent. Not sure what he's gonna do with Word of Creation though. Whatever. How about the others?"
[I forgot what Firre was at this point, but knew it was an Outsider with higher caster level than its HD.]
"Well...let me see, he said he was going to use 'Beguiler5Rainbow Servant10/Truenamer 15'."
"Okay... so you don't need another supporter cleric anyway. Not familiar with Truenamer, but he can spontaneously cast any cleric spell."
"And there is another who's gonna play something related to outer-plane monsters."
"...And just go find sth dedicated with just one ability that can strengthen your teammates. That will be fine enough for you." I began to feel desperate, while he still doesn't seem to understand the condition.
"Then I play a bard? That's definitely dedicated."
"No! You don't understand. Now you are in grave danger. I've seen too much."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To be continued after I have a nap...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As barbarian guy asked "What? Don't they have arcane casters?", I tried to catch his attention by serious talking.
"Let's be straightforward, you are now attending a campaign that has an optimization level far, far above yourself. All your party members can do ridiculous things unimaginable in a 'normal' game, like several hundreds damage in one punch, or immobilize the enemy with just one spell or anything. And if you just keep your current pace, you will only be able to cast things like a lame entangle condition. You think you can withstand that embarrassment?"
"Eieeee.."
"Or like this, 'It's my turn, a fortitude save.' 'DC?' '....Let me check, 18?'"
"Or would you prefer like this, 'My damage, 10d6 fire, reflex half' 'Saved. No surprise. And the monster has 15 fire resistance.'?"
Not giving him chances to talk back, I continued.
"Even if you could be dull enough to ignore that and stick to halfheartitedly useless actions like 5d6 damage, entangling or some DC 15 conditions during the fight, it could still be dangerous to be a useless person in the party.
"Now imagine you are the only one who could not evade an AOE attack and was knocked down.(Which is very likely to happen.)
Now your teammates are like, 'Should we revive him?' 'No good, he's no use anyway.' 'When the boss acts next time, he would be on the floor whatsoever, let's finish the battle first.' "
"Look, I'm trying to save you from such grave embarrassment and shame. So what do you say?"
As I visualized these grave embarrassments (it could kill a player...from a certain game), he finally seemed to show a little nervousness.
"Okay, now it seems this party has more supporters than necessary, maybe they would need a physical striker?"
"I don't know...Isn't a spellcaster quite capable of damage outputting? And they've got psionics as well. I heard someone's psion can outnumber you like it's nothing by multiply himself by 20 times."
"Psionics is not known for good sustainability. That whoever person would have depleted his psi points in one encounter. A capable fighter certainly helps in this party. Maybe they would appreciate an offensive debuffer, too. Or maybe they have not got counters against AMF yet? You could try an Initiate of Mystra. Anyway, whatever, the point is to do something your teammates cannot, so you are not completely useless after all."
It was when we proceeded to discussing more optimization advices on utilizing ToB resources (from barbarian guy) that my friend suddenly says "I know what the other player is! He's going psionics as well and Metamorphic Transfer into Leonal!"
I took several secs before recalling what a leonal is, and it was just that very moment that everything seemed to move smoothly into one perfect solution.
"So he's gonna be the physical striker, he would have pounce..."
"I say, actually the best part to be a young dragon is its +14 racial strength don't you think?"
"Enough of you, you'd be even better off if you spend those HDs on War Hulk! An outsider would be much better."
"Ohh. Then I play an Outsider?"
I ignored him.
"Listen, your best strategy to avoid this ultimate shame is to play a wizard, and live on buffing and strengthening your teammates. Like the cheap uncreative Incantatrix cooperative metamagic combo, you can just live on these supporting roles and forget offense and damage outputs.
And it will definitely be most beneficial! Your party will thank you if you can cover them with a Mind Blank all day, which requires no actual optimization! You can just stick to core spell list and that's enough."
"Actually I asked if I can play a Living Spell...The answer was no. What a pity. That could've been quite creative!"
"Ha! What use would creativeness be? A straightforward way would work much better!" (Barbarian guy. Sometimes I wonder if he actually roleplays a barbarian in real life.)
"What about bard then?"
"Forget about these nonsense! A bard only grants a +1 to +5 bonus, while a highly optimized party need nothing like this. And you are already denied of playing that (which I heartily approve). After all, what fun is it to play an Ooze? Enemies can easily move out of your reach, and you can't even run! You are just trying to make yourself an ignorable figure on the battlefield!"
I paused for a sec, and continued, with that perfect solution.
"If I were you, and that I just want to play it halfheartedly and avoid responsibility, I'd have made a wizard/spellsword, and shoot the spells with weapons."
"Huh? Doesn't an Arcane Archer shoot spells?"
"No, the Spellsword idea is that you change any of your spell into a single-targeted spell, even if it is AOE, self-centered or targeting yourself. This type of Channel Spell ability is the best of spell-channelling. Actually you can cast single-targeted solid fog, single-targeted AMF, single-targeted cloudkill, and anything! Of course if you wish you can be an Arcane Archer at the same time."
"Eieee, I'm thinking I can be an archer!"
"Are you listening? Well this ability is quite limited, you get it at 4th level and it's 3/day."
"Ohhh..."
"Is that powerful? I don't get it." (Barbarian guy)
"Of course it is powerful, and can be very dramatic. From its description, it applies to any spell, even those normally has no targets or targeting something else. What's more, this ability can be used with ranged attacks, as you can throw your melee weapon. The only reason we don't usually get it is that it usually cost 3 or more CLs. However, you are playing gestalt now, so it becomes affordable."
"Really?? Where to find these PrCs?"
"What? You mean Hexblade?"(Another guy. Hexblade and Spellsword has sort of similar translations.)
My audience's attentions got caught, and I continued without pause.
"Or you can actually become an Ordained Champion, it has the exactly same channel spell ability without use limitation. Yup, this price is acceptable if you don't expect to become the main caster. Hey, you can get this class, and be Incantatrix, then several levels into Arcane Archers and Archmages as well. You will become the most flexible caster (in spell-casting ways).
Nope, Hexblade is a rubbish base class. This Spellsword is a rubbish PrC with one interesting class feature. It would cause some interesting effects when applied to AMF, and this throwing tactics needs your DM's approval, but after all it is very very interesting and powerful."
"I guess it is not that useful, except the AMF usage. Most of the times Mastery of Shaping would do?" (Barbarian dude)
"No, the best part is, some area spells are nasty, but you need only to walk out of the area. However, if applied this way, it stays with you only until depletion or dispelled! Say, a Dimension Lock that stays with the boss for weeks."
"Ohhh now I get it, that's really nasty."(Barbarian dude)
I got quite excited at this point.
"And there's the fogs series. Solid fog that affects only one person cannot block vision, but it still prevents movements - needs DM ruling anyway. This can be applied to a lot various of spells and will cause many interesting results. Like a wonder box! I would've memorised a lot of nasty spells, and have my familiar cast limited wish to ensure I hit the enemy when necessary."
"How exciting...but what's your score for Arcane Archer? Aren't we allowed only one PrC under gestalt rule?"
"A truly rubbish PrC with a single interesting trick. No, different DMs have different rulings for gestalt, and it is usually taken that you can only choose to level up one PrC at any certain level, not both. Doesn't your Firre teammate combine many PrCs?"
"Ohh..."
"You may choose some more classes that alter spellcasting , like Spellguard of Silverymoon. Wait, you can use Ordained Champion to transfer ANY spell to your companion, so you don't really need to be Spellguard...Only that it *usually* costs much more."
"Hahaha you can heal your teammates by stabbing them with sword?!" (Another guy.)
"True, he can even buff a fighter with Tenser's Transformation, Shapechange or even Time Stop. That's ridiculously convenient, and even if you are not familiar with your spell-list, your teammates will surely find a lot of uses for you."
...
We continued discussing and eventually departed in a merrily atmosphere. It all seemed fine at that point of time, and I believed he could solve it on his own from then on.
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Not the end of story. But you can understand how enthusiastic I was at that time.
May come back and finish the speechless part in several days? I guess.