Playing with a new GM is batman-esc character fair?

[RagnaroksChosen]

So, a friend of mine is thinking about running the sunless citadel module as his first ever GMing experience(mainly because hes played in it a few times and really enjoys then mod). I wanted to play a gnome Illusionist(kinda a save or suck wizard) as there one of my favorite style characters.

The question is does the playground think its fair to run that style of character with his newishness to gming?
Also any one have experiences with Batman's in there campaigns?

[monty]

If you want to have fun with an Illusionist but keep it simple, go into Shadowcraft Mage and play a blaster. A blaster using nothing but Silent Image heightened to various degrees.

[Draz74]

I was going to say, "Sure, it's fair. As long as you don't use Shadowcraft Mage or Incantrix or any of those things."

A vanilla wizard who hits foes with a variety of save-or-suck spells rather than blasting? Totally fair. Just be sure you have the spell descriptions at hand at all times, so you don't waste lots of time while the DM looks them up in the book.

[Swordguy]

If you have to ask, it's probably not.

Good rule of thumb.

[RagnaroksChosen]

swordguy: you bring up a good point there... ehh i tend to be overly cautious though. so it may not be that bad...

thanks though guys

[Ellisande]

Why don't you ask the soon-to-be GM? He'd know if he's comfortable with GM'ing it better than we will--and if he does agree, it'll give him a bit of warning about what to expect from the players.

[RagnaroksChosen]

Ellisande: I think he would say yes just to be nice,but ill ask him. thanks again

[SamTheCleric]

A "batman" wizard doesn't have to break the game... you're using utility and battlefield control... that isn't game breaking at all, its just incredibly useful.

[Talya]

The question is does the playground think its fair to run that style of character with his newishness to gming?
Also any one have experiences with Batman's in there campaigns?

Depends if he has a spine. Even if you don't know what you are doing yet, you can always notice someone starting to dominate gameplay, and start fudging rolls until you can figure out a way to rebalance things.

[Rutee]

How experienced a /player/ is he? People perhaps overthink GMing as a new experience, on some levels. An experienced player will have a pretty good handle on PC tactics and the like. Still, I'd default to no, just because Batman isn't generally fair anyway.

[Kyeudo]

How hard it is to GM for a Batman Wizard is based on how paranoid you play Batman. If you play the narcoleptic, "I always have Foresight cast," "I solo every encounter" wizard, then you'll be a pain in the rear. If you play a "I use good spells instead of blasting" debuff and battlefield control wizard, you'll be easy enough to handle and the rest of the party will love you.

[valadil]

I think you should draw up a character sheet and spell list, and show them to the GM. Tell him what each of your spells does and let him decide if the character is appropriate.

[Keld Denar]

Depends. If you take useful spells like Solid Fog, Slow, Haste, Web, and the like, you'll be fine. If you take Shivering Touch, Polymorph, Ray of Stupidity, and the like, you might just wake up to find that you are being murdered in your sleep....or you just won't wake up at all.

A GOD style wizard (See Treantmonk20's guide on CharOp) is incredibly useful in combat. You have tools that make sure the rest of your party takes on foes 1 at a time, significantly weakened, and packing powerful buffs. This grates a bit on the power curve, but at least the other players will have fun as well since even a poor little monk with Greater Mighty Wallop and Haste cast on him can have fun. Especially if you can drop him into full attack range with different movement spells. He won't have fun, however, if you end every encounter with a Quickened Benign Transposition + Lesser Rod Maximized Shivering Touch.

[Temp.]

Why wouldn't Batman be fair? Especially a save-or-suck Illusionist?

It is fair for your teammates; the LN's main point was that it's more effective to set up encounters so your party could win rather than defeating the enemies yourself. This means that even the poorly-built Samurai becomes useful while Hasted and fighting Slowed enemies.
It's not going to break the world; your DM will just choose tougher enemies if things get out of hand.
And "save or suck"-focused Illusionists are some of the mildest forms of Wizard. Most spells that fall into that category are single-target. This means you don't defeat whole encounter with a single spell; you make one enemy weaker. When spells like Black Tentacles, Slow and Glitterdust are your alternatives, this is not a particularly attractive tactic.

In short, your question baffles me.

[Counterpower]

I think, Temp, that with a DM that's newer to the profession, a Batman-style wizard has a lot more potential to break the game than, say, a blaster. Which is what inspired the question.

Still, though, if he's an experienced player, he should be fine. And as some others already suggested, it's probably a better idea to discuss this with the budding DM rather than with us. As long as you clear your character concept with him first (as should be done in any game) there shouldn't be a problem.

[RagnaroksChosen]

I guess another question I have is do you think the book keeping involved with save or suck style casting is hard on newer gms?

[Talya]

I guess another question I have is do you think the book keeping involved with save or suck style casting is hard on newer gms?

I don't follow. bookkeeping? There's technically a tiny bit less book-keeping when you stop using hit points as the primary factor with regard to defeating an opponent.

[Reel On, Love]

I don't follow. bookkeeping? There's technically a tiny bit less book-keeping when you stop using hit points as the primary factor with regard to defeating an opponent.

Tracking five Confused hobgoblins, some of whom are blind and others of whom are on a Grease spell, is an enormous pain in the ass.

[Frosty]

You want something that'll use illusion and still have an ok tool-set for battlefield control? Go Beguiler. Solid Fog, Grease, various Image spells, Scintillating Pattern, etc will allow you to do that while not being Batman. Also, you can't really mess a Beguiler up. They're kinda good out of the box, and since your spell list is almost 100% fixed, your DM won't be surprised.

[Emperor Tippy]

Yes, indeed it would be a public service. Get the DM used to batman now when he is still new so that he doesn't form misconceptions that will hinder everyone down the road.

Don't play an Incantatrix or the like, just generally follow TLN's guide and you should be fine.