Who here has played an Overpowered character?

[Zergrusheddie]

I've been reading over the "Campaign Smashers" and posts that are similar to it and have been both amused and impressed with what people were able to think of. However, it seems like a lot of these characters are situational. For example, the Hulking Hurler can throw a rock about 30 feet that does about 3000d6 damage or something ridiculous like that; but under what circumstances are you actually going to be able to lug around a 5 ton rock? Also, what happens after you throw your rock? Can you get Returning?...

So, here's my question:
Who here has actually played a character they was Overpowered and how did you manage to pull it off?

Best of luck
-Eddie

[Baron Malkar]

I have in fact played a overpowered character. It was a killer gnome who could cast miracle at fifth level. Though I mainly used it for practical jokes. It worked out rather well.


FYI the hulking hurler throws a 5ton mass of whatever they are standing on.

[mikej]

Most of the " Campaign Smashers " were theoritical challenges to see what can be pulled off with 3.5 rules. Like Pun-Pun none of them were really meant to be used.

Right now my fellow player is doing the Dweomekeeper Cleric build, I'm just playing a Incantatrix using the well known god/batman tactics. One day I would like to play a Planar Shepherd...one day T.T

[Tsotha-lanti]

I've DM'd several: every single druid my druid-crazy player plays. His animal companion is inevitably a better fighter than the party's fighters, and his spellcasting takes care of the rest.

They just smash encounters, though, not campaigns. Except the one that got to epic levels...

[BobVosh]

FYI the hulking hurler throws a 5ton mass of whatever they are standing on.

Or the even more fun choice of throwing a shrunk object that shrinks to 5tons. Expands to whatever that would expand to.

Most campaign smashers are not meant to be played.

However I feel that oneshots are fine with CSers. So I made a Tauric beastie for that very thing.

[Lord of the Helms]

I played a ludicrously strong multiclassed dwarf fighter-type in DSA once (obscenely good stats, especially his 17 strength in a setting where the maximum is 20, which on a check-roll is a critical fail anyway). None of the party came even close to him in combat ability, but it was balanced by selecting "bad luck" as a background trait, which the Game Master exploited masterfully.

[Ricky S]

Ranged elf cleric great bow mighty with rapid shot and plunging shot also had elf domain which gives point blank shot for free and storm domain for call lightning. One stormy session (lol) I did 3d10 (call lightning) + 2 d10 + 10 (+8 for str bonus and +2 for sharp quality arrows) and plunging shot +d6 damage so total damage was 5 d10 + 2d6+ 10 per round for 5 rounds. Killed all the opponents and completely baffled my fighter and wizard who were usually the powerhouse in other campaigns.
Feats
Great bow profficiency
Rapid shot
Plunging Shot
Zen Archery
Point Blank Shot* (free feat)
(use trait for free feat)
At fifth level I did on average 185 damage in 5 rounds.

[Arcane_Snowman]

Ranged elf cleric great bow mighty with rapid shot and plunging shot also had elf domain which gives point blank shot for free and storm domain for call lightning. One stormy session (lol) I did 3d10 (call lightning) + 2 d10 + 10 (+8 for str bonus and +2 for sharp quality arrows) and plunging shot +d6 damage so total damage was 5 d10 + 2d6+ 10 per round for 5 rounds. Killed all the opponents and completely baffled my fighter and wizard who were usually the powerhouse in other campaigns.
Feats
Great bow profficiency
Rapid shot
Plunging Shot
Zen Archery
Point Blank Shot* (free feat)
(use trait for free feat)
At fifth level I did on average 185 damage in 5 rounds.

To be fair, while it is certainly a grand amount of damage, I wouldn't actually call that a Campaign Smasher.

And no, I have not made a campaign smasher, yet. And I'm not really too interested in doing so either, I tend to be the people pleaser, going for whatever might be needed.

[Toliudar]

I once DM'ed a campaign and told players they could take a character to level 15, anything they wanted except psionics. One player jokingly asked if he could take 15 divine ranks.

So we decided to play with that - a god who was taking a holiday from being a god in order to be an adventurer. Essentially, he'd made a bet with himself as to how long he could keep from revealing his divine abilities. Played stupidly, it would definitely have obliterated the campaign, but the player set himself up well to be a support and low-key character in a fairly over-the-top group. Short-lived but fun!

[Kaiyanwang]

I hope one of my players try....

*BBEG Maniacal Laughter*

[kentma57]

I only play a high powered character in two situations:
1) The rest of my party is new to the game and I need to save them frequently.
2) The entire party is trying new potentially overpowered builds. Yes it is fun to watch three 3rd level characters win 15th level encounter.

[Eldariel]

I've had to carry my party sometimes and I always optimize my characters (ever since I acquired the know-how). That said, I haven't played anything from the TO side of things and only play more powerful characters than the rest of the party when the party makes it clear that they need someone to add to their overall power. At that point, I usually roll up a Druid and cover any party roles that need covering still.

[serok42]

Don't remember the exact build but I thought my

Abjurer / Master Specialist / War Weaver was pretty overpowered. The DM suggested I change her after the adventure was over.


1st round of combat pop my weave (as a free action I believe) and the whole party gets Bull's STR, Stoneskin, Shield, insert other touch range buffs... And then I throw an offensive spell. Of course I had to pre cast them all but they store for quite awhile and one (non mass) spell effects all party members.

She ended up dying in the tomb of horrors though (after I changed her)

Now I play an Archivist-10 / Lore Master-1

[Triaxx]

Pretty much always. My entire group. We simply jack up the encounters to compensate.

[Zen Monkey]

Second edition psionicist:
There was a power that allowed you to attempt to indefinitely switch bodies with someone if you could maintain numerous rounds of physical contact while attempting to use the power. The only draw back is that you had to make a Con check each day or permanently lose one point of Con in that body. However, you keep all your mental stats.
So... a sleeping blue dragon with Con higher than 19 means you can easily handle the long casting duration with a light touch and thus not waking it up, and so my character ends up with full psionic knowledge in the body of a dragon who can only fail his daily check on a critical failure, and still doesn't really suffer if he does.
The dragon was not happy to wake up in the body of an elderly human, and be on the receiving end of his own breath weapon. One dimensional, but broken.

[Molant]

I currently have a rogue/assassin at tenth level I used in my previous group. I always thought of it as a good character, but these guys kept thinking it was WAY too powerful. Just about every session, they'd do something incredibly stupid and I'd end up having to save them.

In order to try to "make things fair" the DM kept trying to kill me by sending bigger and stronger monsters which ignored the easy picking and went after the guy who could turn invisible (what's up with that?). Thankfully for me, the idiot never bothered sending anything immune to sneak attack or with a Will save attack.

I had an old DM visiting one session and when he heard that I was playing an assassin he said he hopes I never have to face off against a necro. With such a dismal will save, I'd be toast.

From what I've learned, the key to a strong character is to completely specialize in one area (in this case, surprise attacks) and then use roleplaying and preparation to bring these about. If you're not in your specialized area of expertise, don't even try. It's like playing a sports team that never plays the games they lose.

[Morandir Nailo]

I once played a Wizard/Master of Shrouds/Ur Priest/True Necromancer (using the 3.0 versions of MoS and TN from DotF and T&B respectively), which in itself isn't so bad (caster level in the mid 30s for Necro spells at lvl 20 was nice though), except the DM is a crazy powergamer whose rule is "I'll allow it if as long as you've got the book." To add to the fun, he ignores the restrictions on bonus stacking, i.e. you can wear +5 Full Plate and Bracers of Armor +8 and have a +23 AC as a result. Same goes for any other kind of bonus. And he lets Wizards cast spontaneously from their spellbooks, and Clerics from their entire frickin' list.

Add to this a friend who had scads of crazy-broken 3rd party material on his Gaming Shelf of Doom, and you've got one hell of a game. My favorite schtick was to abuse Haste-like effects (again, they all stacked) to cast 40+ spells in a round, all Metamagiced to hell because I had a feat that allowed me to use gems instead of spellslots and we had nigh-infinite wealth (from time-shifted plane abuse) - long story short, Magic Missiles that did 10,000 points of damage in a single round. My party one-shotted Moradin. Yes, it was silly. Yes, it was a blast. Then about level 30 or so, we started picking up Divine Ranks...

Mor

[Grail]

In an Arena game, I once played a guy who specialised in sundering. Not super over-powered, normally, but in that kind of setting he was harsh. And very, very rude.

(It was an Arena Campaign, where you had to earn money to buy equipment, and what was lost in battle was lost, so destroying equipment was very bad form).

[WalkingTarget]

In an Eberron game I played a Shifter Barbarian (and eventually Were-touched Master) focused on movement increases. Maybe not as overpowered as some options, but nobody moved around a battlefield like I did. It was fun.

The longest-running game I participated in was a Deadlands game where I played a Blessed monster hunter. A Blessed character with enough Gifts and a few handy Miracles (I preferred Jawbone of an Ass for some good old zombie head crackin') is a force to be reckoned with (granted, not as OP as a Harrowed Huckster or an optimally put together Shaman).

[Olo Demonsbane]

I once played a Wizard/Master of Shrouds/Ur Priest/True Necromancer (using the 3.0 versions of MoS and TN from DotF and T&B respectively), which in itself isn't so bad (caster level in the mid 30s for Necro spells at lvl 20 was nice though), except the DM is a crazy powergamer whose rule is "I'll allow it if as long as you've got the book." To add to the fun, he ignores the restrictions on bonus stacking, i.e. you can wear +5 Full Plate and Bracers of Armor +8 and have a +23 AC as a result. Same goes for any other kind of bonus. And he lets Wizards cast spontaneously from their spellbooks, and Clerics from their entire frickin' list.

Add to this a friend who had scads of crazy-broken 3rd party material on his Gaming Shelf of Doom, and you've got one hell of a game. My favorite schtick was to abuse Haste-like effects (again, they all stacked) to cast 40+ spells in a round, all Metamagiced to hell because I had a feat that allowed me to use gems instead of spellslots and we had nigh-infinite wealth (from time-shifted plane abuse) - long story short, Magic Missiles that did 10,000 points of damage in a single round. My party one-shotted Moradin. Yes, it was silly. Yes, it was a blast. Then about level 30 or so, we started picking up Divine Ranks...

Our campaign isn't that screwed up, but its pretty close. The DM has all of these simplified rules that lets a powergamer like myself destroy the enemies.

I was playing two 10th level characters, and there were two others in the party. I kept one shotting epic monsters. My characters could attack 8/6 times each turn, and my morningstar disentegrated (120d6) anyone evil who touched it...and my other character could cast 6 intensified cyclones per turn, at will. It was pretty awesome.

[kalt]

Ohh god I have. The problem really comes with the rest of the part not playing a optimized character so it creates a large power difference. I have been asked to switch characters twice in my Second Darkness campaign. The first was a druid the second was a conjuror going into malconvoker. I could handle the encounters close to solo and if the DM beefed them up the rest of the party had a funny way of getting thwumped. Now I'm a melee character.

[Yakk]

On the other end of the power spectrum, but still overpowered -- I built a Runequest Paladin-type character who had a 95% chance to block incoming attacks with his shield ... and had some magic that let him completely heal all wounds in a 'slot' with an action multiple times between prayers (for the rare attack that got through).

The result was a character who couldn't be hurt by anything that wouldn't instant-kill the rest of the party.

It sucked.

[Eldariel]

Pretty much always. My entire group. We simply jack up the encounters to compensate.

Then you can't really call it overpowered anymore; you can only be overpowered related to your allies or enemies.

[Nohwl]

i built a character that looked overpowered (compared to what im used to having other people play), but never had a chance to use it.

warforged dragonborn wizard 1/archivist 5/singer of concordance 3/sacred exorcist 1/ dweomerkeeper 10

edit: can anyone tell me if it would break a game?

[Atamasama]

I was playing in an original Ironclaw game (the anthropomorphic animal RPG) and had a Green and Purple Mage (that game's version of a psionicist) who was a cowardly fox, but the one time he stuck his neck out and tried to be heroic he was killed. So to compensate, I made a rhinocerous mercenary in plate mail with a heavy shield and huge mace. I didn't intend to make a super-powerful character, I just picked stuff that looked nice. He ended up being so powerful (due to broken combat rules apparently) that the GM had to send more and more powerful enemies until an encounter that killed off the rest of the group and left me unharmed. We stopped playing the game after that, and I felt bad because it was pretty fun until my stupid rhino broke everything.

I also have a story about a time I broke a campaign with a non-overpowered character. In an earlier game, we were playing Rifts in a campaign my friend based on some Clive Barker book (Weaveworld maybe?). In the campaign we were teenagers living in the modern world who entered a magical world through a magic carpet that was a doorway into the other world. You can reach under the carpet and roll it up to move it, but the top of the carpet functioned as a portal to the other world. At one point our group was chased by criminals in the real world who wanted to kill us and steal the carpet, so we ran to the carpet to escape into the other world. I was the last one to go, and didn't want the carpet stolen, so I reached under, grabbed a corner of the carpet, and pulled it with me when I jumped into it. The GM couldn't figure out what the consequences of that would be and gave up on the campaign.

[Alleine]

the Hulking Hurler can throw a rock about 30 feet that does about 3000d6 damage or something ridiculous like that; but under what circumstances are you actually going to be able to lug around a 5 ton rock? Also, what happens after you throw your rock? Can you get Returning?...

So, here's my question:
Who here has actually played a character they was Overpowered and how did you manage to pull it off?

First off, you lug around your Sphere of Doom in a portable hole. That's the best way because it doesn't encumber you at all. Second, if you read through the thread(I tried, but gave up because it was just too much overkill) they do start arguing about enchantments and weapons. Returning, seeking, etc. There's a weapon ability that I can't remember the name of, but it allows your weapon to essentially fold in on itself until its just a little cylinder that fits in your hand.

I actually played the Hulking Hurler. Unfortunately the campaign didn't last long because the DM got bored and never finished making the setting.
It was useful. Most of the time I just threw 'regular' rocks around that still did tons of damage. I helped build us a small boat by tearing out the trees we needed. And wrestled our Frenzied Berserker into submission before he could kill the entire party. He still killed most of them. because they stood too close to him.


When I do play characters that could be overpowered, I usually just tone it down so that the campaign isn't destroyed. It's just fun knowing you have the option.

[monty]

For example, the Hulking Hurler can throw a rock about 30 feet that does about 3000d6 damage or something ridiculous like that; but under what circumstances are you actually going to be able to lug around a 5 ton rock? Also, what happens after you throw your rock? Can you get Returning?...

You underestimate the Hurler. In its final incarnation, it throws something like 10^83 pounds. At that point, you don't care what happens to it, because you've already quite literally broken the universe.

Anyway, I'm playing a metamagic-abusing blaster wizard in an upcoming campaign. Blasting isn't quite as weak when you're putting out enough damage to one-shot things twice your CR.

[PurinaDragonCho]

I think the question is flawed - like asking "do you drive too fast?" Everyone thinks that people who drive more slowly than they do are a-holes and everybody who drives faster are idiots.

"My characters are optimized just right - if somebody doesn't optimize as much as I do, they're suboptimal - if they optimize more, they're munchkins."

I never play very optimized characters though. I like to multi-class too much. The closest I ever came to being overpowered was when we managed to get our hands on the deck of many things - which then put me several levels ahead of the rest of the party.

[Zergrusheddie]

Anyway, I'm playing a metamagic-abusing blaster wizard in an upcoming campaign. Blasting isn't quite as weak when you're putting out enough damage to one-shot things twice your CR.

Yep, one of our players in our group is doing that. Group is level 5 and he is throwing out 10d6 'Sonic'balls with a DC 23. We are using a very relaxed system that is a mix of Pathfinder and any source material you can find at "DM discretion."

I know it's not really overpowered, but considering the S&B Fighter thinks that Agile Shield Fighter and Bashing is extremely powerful, I see bad things happening in the future. Of course, throwing out Sonic Resistance/20 could just as easily stop him.

[monty]

Yep, one of our players in our group is doing that. Group is level 5 and he is throwing out 10d6 'Sonic'balls with a DC 23. We are using a very relaxed system that is a mix of Pathfinder and any source material you can find at "DM discretion."

I know it's not really overpowered, but considering the S&B Fighter thinks that Agile Shield Fighter and Bashing is extremely powerful, I see bad things happening in the future. Of course, throwing out Sonic Resistance/20 could just as easily stop him.

Yeah, I was thinking more in the thousands of damage (albeit not until slightly later), but whatever floats your boat.