Tell me how you broke your favorite class. Any class from any system.

Started by Freeky, November 05, 2011, 08:16:55 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Freeky

I'll start with a one of mine, for Magus (Pathfinder, Ultimate Magic).

Requirements:  Bladebound archetype, Pool Strike arcana, shocking grasp or similar.
Minimum level: 5th Magus (by taking the Extra Arcana feat);  When this combo peaks:  10th Magus (with extra hilarity if you take a level of Rogue and Weapon Specialization somewhere along the line)
Abilities used:  Arcane Pool (burning an arcane pool point to charge the magic up), Black Blade Strike, Pool Strike, Spellstrike

Burn a point of arcane pool (swift action) to boost your weapon's enhancement bonus (at 10th, +3 is added and stacks with your weapon's natural enhancement bonus, which is +3).  Burn a point of you blade's arcane pool as a free action to do more damage (at tenth, +3).  Use your standard action to burn another arcane pool point to charge your Pool Strike, and take one last free action to attack, combining your Pool and Spellstrike abilities.  Don't forget you can do all this (except the actual attack) while moving.

Let's say I'm a Magus 10/Rogue 1.  My normal chance to hit is +13/8, I'm wielding a bastard sword, a Str of 16 (and wielding with two hands), have Weapon Spec, and I have a flank going. I missed with shocking grasp last round, too(or just waited for a better position), so that is still going.  On my round, I burn a black blade point and two arcane pool points and make a single attack. A hit!  I just did 1d10 + 1d6 sneak + 5d6 electrical + 4d6 Pool Strike + 12 damage.  CAN YOU DO THAT FIGHTER?  OR YOU, WIZARD?  I THINK FUCKING NOT.  SUCK MY DICK, YOU UNCOMPLICATED BASTARDS.  YOU'D HAVE TO TEAM UP TO TOP THE DAMAGE I'M DOING.  WHAT.  I would fucking either of those bastards in single combat.  
I exaggerate, of course.  I probably couldn't take out the fighter alone, if he min/maxed his feats for damage.  The wizard'd be dead, though, for sure.

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

I didn't understand the title of this thread, so I clicked on it. :lulz:

I now understand even less.

"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Freeky



Mesozoic Mister Nigel

"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Cainad (dec.)

Looking at it that way, I guess I don't so much break or min-max my characters so much as I just tend to play sneaky and use my abilities in weird ways that confound the DM. I think the best luck I had with this was playing a Transmutation specialist wizard, because I had about 3 different solutions to any given problem.

Or I just go for a blatantly powerful option (i.e., a druid who could shapeshift into a goddamned rhinoceros).

My friend Mark is better at mathemagically powering up his doodz. He made a cleric that could achieve a truly absurd amount of Strength bonuses.

Kai

You know how generally no one wants to play the healer?

I would fucking /break/ the healer. Tumbling, for one, so they could never get hit, high agility, and total specialization in healing spells to the point where fighting was out of the question. Well, except for combating the undead. Heh.

That is, if I ever played tabletop again.
If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water. --Loren Eisley, The Immense Journey

Her Royal Majesty's Chief of Insect Genitalia Dissection
Grand Visser of the Six Legged Class
Chanticleer of the Holometabola Clade Church, Diptera Parish

Scribbly

We've had a lot of fun breaking the Anima system, to the point where I've started doing it in silly ways for silly reasons. Sure, you can easily buff out your combat capabilities to the point where you can destroy any sane challenge... but what about THIS?!

The Professor (Level 5 Thief)

Strength 6 +5
Dexterity 10 +15
Constitution 6 +5
Agility 11 +20
Power 6 +5
Willpower 6 +5
Perception 8 +10
Intelligence 11 +20
Natural Learner, Intellectual (3)
Natural Learner, Athletic (3)
Enemies (Wissenschaft) (-2)
Feeble (-1)

Attack 110+15=125
Dodge  140+25+20=185

Animals 50+20=70
Appraisal 50+20=70
Herbal Lore 50+20=70
History 50+20+20+20=110
Medicine 50+20=70
Memorize 50+20+20=90
Navigation 50+20=70
Occult 50+20+20+30=120
Science 50+50+20+20+20=160

Notice 25+10+50=85
Search 25+10+50=85

Hide 25+50+10=85
Stealth 25+50+20+20=115
Trap Lore 25+15=40
Sleight of Hand 25+15=40
Theft 50+40+15+15+50=155
Lock Picking 40+15+15+50=120

Acrobatics 50+60+20+20+20=170
Athleticism 50+80+20=150
Climb 50+40+20=110
Jump 50+100+5=155
Swim 50+20+20=90
Ride 50+20=70

Martial Knowledge: 100
Use of Ki (40)
Inhumanity (30)
Presence Extrusion (10)
Aura Extension (10)
Use of Necessary Energy (10)


------

Those numbers probably don't mean much, so: For point of reference, the difficulties run:

40 - Easy
80 - Moderate
120 - Difficult
140 - Very difficult
180 - Absurd
240 - Almost Impossible
280 - Impossible
320 - Inhuman
440 - Zen

You roll 1d100 and on a 90+, roll again and add the numbers together. On a 1-3 you can botch and get less than your score.

However! This character will, on average, get at least a 'Difficult' result on any intelligence skill in the game. On Science and Occult, they will be running around with Absurd fairly trivially. This is on top of high enough acrobatics/athletics/jump/etc skills to be able to put themselves wherever they need to be in battle, combat abilities that are only slightly behind the curve for major fighty types (heavily weighted towards defence, which can be backed up by the aforementioned abilities) and stealth significant enough to be invisible to pretty much anyone who hasn't invested heavily in specifically countering stealth.

The Ki abilities also mean that it is capable of hurting anything in the game (lots of stuff needs Aura Extension to be hit).

Because of the way the combat system works, either it will be attacking from stealth (which grants an effective +90 to attack), or stacking positional modifiers to make up for its lower attack score... OR people will be trying to hit it from a bad position, and because of the defensive imbalance, the thief will get all of the positional bonuses, PLUS an additional bonus for defending themselves so well on a counterattack.

As well as being able to know pretty much everything there is to know about pretty much anything in the game. In DnD terms, this character would be a Thief with Bardic Knowledge and all knowledge skills as class skills along with an absurd tumble score and the ability to not-die probably better than your average Warrior.

What I particularly like is that as the character levels up, they get more and more skill points. Because of the merits, they get +10 to all knowledge skills and +10 to all acrobatic skills. Anima is a point buy system where you get 100 points every time you level up. Those advantages give the character (IIRC) 410 effective points every level up, and then you get to spend the extra 100 any way you like.

I'm really fond of this.  :D
I had an existential crisis and all I got was this stupid gender.

Freeky

Nicely done, DemoSquid.  I've never played the Anima system, but there's a game going on down at the game store that sounds like it's going well. :)

Also, Kai, I think it's because nobody has the patience for healers to come into their own and be awesome, and I include myself in that statement.  They are far from sucky, I just would rather play something stupidly complicated.

Scribbly

Quote from: Science me, babby on November 07, 2011, 04:07:57 PM
Nicely done, DemoSquid.  I've never played the Anima system, but there's a game going on down at the game store that sounds like it's going well. :)

Also, Kai, I think it's because nobody has the patience for healers to come into their own and be awesome, and I include myself in that statement.  They are far from sucky, I just would rather play something stupidly complicated.

Anima is a beautiful setting. Its system has a lot of flaws... but most of them come from the fact it is a Spanish RPG translated into English. Most of the flaws can also be summed up as: Just because you CAN, doesn't mean you SHOULD.

Of course, my group like to squeeze numbers until they cry, so the games I've run I've just had to up the ante as GM in turn. If you are looking for a strange but awesome fantasy-animesque setting, though, I'd highly recommend grabbing the Gaia: Beyond the Dreams supplement. It is an entire continent with a highly complex political situation (somewhat inspired by the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire). I don't think it is exaggerating to say that, in terms of cash-to-gaming-material, the Anima line has been my best purchase.

It is a Fantasy Flight Games production though. They did Dark Heresy as well. Very expensive, but very pretty and impressive games are their thing.
I had an existential crisis and all I got was this stupid gender.

Freeky

I might eventually check it out.  I've still got the gamer hots for PF right now, but I will definitely try it out at some point.

Scribbly

Here's another broken/funny character from my past.

Shadowrun 3rd! It is like Shadowrun 4th, but so much easier to break  :D I played a lot of this in my teens. You need all the supplements to really get the broken combos going.

So, street samurai.

Enhanced Articulation is a must. +1 die to all physical skills +1 to init. Init is GOD in Shadowrun 3rd. The person who goes first goes last more often than you'd like.

Muscle Augmentation: 4
Muscle Toner: 4
Trauma Damper
Cerebral Booster 2

Smartlink-2 Package
Induction Pad (hand the Smartlink-2 Package doesn't cover)
Fangs (Retractable)
Wired Reflexes 2
Cybereyes
+Low-Light Vision
+Eye Light Systems
+Range Finder
+Thermographic Vision
Cyberears
+Spatial Recognizer
+Select Sound Filter

In total, your combat pool should now be 12, and you should be rolling 3d6+14 on init.

With ambidexterity 6 and a pair of pistols, and 6 in pistols (all easy) you are now rolling a total of 13 dice on your first two attacks. With all of your gear negating most of the various penalties that you can be hit with, and a smartlink system, that should mean that every 2 dice you roll above 2 raises your base damage by a stage. Staging will start at M. It can go L>M>S>D. Every two above D is another level of D that needs to be soaked. If you don't soak below D (for 'deadly') guess what happens, sucker? Note that 'soaking' is exactly the same as hitting. You roll your body dice vs the power of the weapon (after armor, probably going to be around '5' for your victims), and every two successes takes it back down one level.

You can make two attacks per pistol per turn at no penalty at Ambidexterity 6. Four shots. First two will probably stage up to D+++, second two will stage up to a mere D+.

The fastest unaugmented human in the world will roll 1d6+9 for their init. You literally cannot fail to be faster than them. Which means the only people you have to worry about, are other people as twinked out as you, and riggers who are piloting vehicles.

Put some anti-tank ammunition in your pistols and go to town. If you don't mind your heart exploding, a cocktail of Jazz and Kamikaze will raise your Init to 5d6+15. At that point, you are moving faster than people who are moving as fast as their brains think in the system.

Oh, and if anyone actually manages to get close to you, make sure you've bought Pentjak Silat. The greatest martial art in the world to link to your cybernetic fangs. Because ripping out people's throats with your diamond teeth is an integral part of that ancient martial art, or so I am told.
I had an existential crisis and all I got was this stupid gender.

Icey

Monk from 3.5

Two-pronged.

1. I made my DM go into a permanent state of hate-shitting because I would always have my hands full (treasure, rocks, etc) and fight unhindered with my feet. Or one foot. Or just my head. All from the monk's "fight with any body part" special ability

2. When the monk's hands become treated as adamantine weapons for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction, I became able to dig holes through rock and steel with MY BARE GODDAMN HANDS.

Bebek Sincap Ratatosk

Favorite #1: A Spellscale (Races of the Dragons D&D 3.5) Warmage/Fighter who picked up the PRC Havoc Mage. I could blast someone with a fireball, and hit them with a sword (which I had set on fire the previous round) in a single round while wearing mithral chain armor.

Favorite #2: A halfling Scout/Rogue/Shadowdancer, sneak attack and skirmish attacks can stack... my attacks looked like rolls from Shadowrun.

- I don't see race. I just see cars going around in a circle.

"Back in my day, crazy meant something. Now everyone is crazy" - Charlie Manson

Telarus

Great stuff here.

I once let one of my Earthdawn players have the Mask of Oltion the Wizard.

He was playing Anass ("I am...!") a Windling (a pixie sized Namegiver with the temperament of a kender/halfling/brownie) Elementalist, who had Named the Flame Weapon spell onto his whip (+exploding d6 fire damage), then bargained with it as an elemental spirit to 'sleep' while coiled up if he fed it rare woods/tinder every once in a while.... so he was already pushing the limit of breaking his own Discipline (Class). I only let him have the Mask of Oltion for a little while (it's one of the legendary Treasures, with 'almost' a will of their own). He was ridiculous, and got a rank 5 thread tied to it by the time it 'wandered off' (in Earthdawn, you have to magically bind yourself to Treasure, and the more you build the connection the more powers you access).

Mask of Oltion
Oltion was a Wizard known for his intricate devices and peculiar
sense of humor. He created dozens of items, most of them utilitarian,
most not meant for use in combat. The Mask of Oltion is a
fine silken mask with eye and mouth slits. When affixed properly,
it covers a person's entire face. The mask is a deep royal blue, and
the eye and mouth slits are embroidered in pale blue.

The wearer must always think of the mask as the "Mask of Oltion,"
but never refer to it as the "Mask of Oltion." At the table, the player
must always use the exact phrase when telling the gamemaster that
his character is using the Mask of Oltion. If he fails to say "Mask of
Oltion," the item will not work. On the other hand, if the player's
character ever refers to the mask during in-game conversation or
explanation as the "Mask of Oltion," the mask freezes its magic
for a period of 24 hours.

Thread Rank One
Key Knowledge: The wearer must learn that the Name of the
mask is the Mask of Oltion.
Effect: The wearer gains a +1 bonus to his Recovery Tests.

Thread Rank Two
Effect: The mask will mimic the face of any character the wearer
can remember. The wearer gains a +2 bonus to any Charisma-based
Tests he makes when attempting to deceive others into believing
he is the person whose face he wears.

Thread Rank Three
Key Knowledge: The wearer must learn Oltion's race.
Effect: The wearer gains a +3 rank bonus to the Astral Sight
Talent while wearing the mask.

Thread Rank Four
Effect: The wearer adds +1 to his Spell and Social Defense.

Thread Rank Five
Key Knowledge: The wearer must learn the Name of the adventuring
group to which Oltion belonged.
Effect: For 5 Strain, the wearer can create a giant column of
flame
that erupts on top of a target up to 60 yards away. The wearer
makes a Spellcasting Test against the target's Spell Defense. The
wielder may use his Perception step to make the Spellcasting Test
if he does not know the Spellcasting talent. If the test succeeds, a
pillar of fire erupts from where the target is standing. The wearer
makes a Willpower+30 Test to determine how much damage is
inflicted. Physical Armor protects against this damage. (Oltion
built this last effect into the mask primarily because no one else
had figured out how to build such a big effect into a device with
so many other innocuous effects. He also apparently grew weary
of all those fighter-types asking, "When are you going to build
something useful?")
Telarus, KSC,
.__.  Keeper of the Contradictory Cephalopod, Zenarchist Swordsman,
(0o)  Tender to the Edible Zen Garden, Ratcheting Metallic Sex Doll of The End Times,
/||\   Episkopos of the Amorphous Dreams Cabal

Join the Doll Underground! Experience the Phantasmagorical Safari!