3.5 Half-Ogre Hulking Hurler - Game Breaker?

[redzimmer]

One of my PCs, playing a half-ogre ranger has asked to become a Hulking Hurler Prestige class (Complete Warrior).

Has any other DM encountered this as a PC class? Is there much chance of abuse for this class's abilities? With the level adjustment my party is ECL 11 right now.

[Darwin]

If the player is up to any kind of shenanigans he will succeed. Hulking Hurler can easily be broken.

[Critical]

Don't provide him access to the moon and it should be fine.

[Eldariel]

The principal issue with Hulking Hurler is that it can deal damage based on carrying load and carrying load is very, very easy to scale. 10*10^15 d6 isn't hard, even. Better be wary of that class. It's one of the classes that can accidentally break itself.

[Keld Denar]

Most of the shananigans with Hulking Hurler involves being a Tauric creature (to become a quadraped) and then using PsyWar to increase your size. Since Half Ogre's have the Giant type, they are not valid targets for Enlarge Person, and baring some Polymorph or Giant Size castings, he won't get to the size where his carrying capacity will be rediculous. Yea, it'll be kinda high due to being large and having a racial bonus to Str, but its only 1 attack per round compared to any other type of fighter type character.

At that level of optimization, its just a neat gimmick, and shouldn't be unbalancing. I say allow it for the time being.

If you are really concerned, one thing you can do as the DM is to arbitrarily limit the damage he can deal simply by limiting the size and quantity of rocks he finds. Not all rocks are going to be EXACTLY at the top end of his medium load, many will be too big or smaller than the ideal weight. He won't be able to carry around more than 2 or so, so ammo will be a bit of a problem even if he does use stone carving skills to chissel out a perfectly sized stone. There are no rules about thrown stones breaking, but its prefectly acceptable to have a reuse limit on them, or shaving a die or 2 off of each one every time they are thown to represent the some of the mass of the stone fracturing off at impact. If a single rock is thrown more than 4-5 times, it loses enough mass to be effective and the player will have to seek out new rocks in the environment (subject to DM control).

I wouldn't flex this too hard, as it may inhibit player fun, but if it starts to become abusive, you can reign him in a bit like this. If it becomes a REAL problem, talk to the player outside of the game, tell him you were wrong in allowing it, and politely ask him to rebuild the offending levels. Offer him a shiney MINOR magic item to bribe him if hes reluctant.

[redzimmer]

Good advice. If he were a "true" giant I would not have allowed it at all.

[gallagher]

For the fun of it, let him throw a piano or safe at someone, and recreate a loony toons scene.