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.
I didn't understand the title of this thread, so I clicked on it. :lulz:
I now understand even less.
Nigel, I love you. :lulz:
Awwwww :thanks:
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.
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.
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
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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?")
:lulz:
semi-related, but one thing I always wondered...
What is your opinion on allowing Molotov Cocktails in D&D? My DM has been pretty good about it, to the point where my wizard can soak rope in alcohol, set it on fire, and use my rope magic to fire-whip mine enemies for bonus burning damage. But I don't think this is supposed to happen.
I'm a bit of a D&D noob though, so maybe not.
Anyway, carry on.
Quote from: trix on November 08, 2011, 04:41:11 PM
semi-related, but one thing I always wondered...
What is your opinion on allowing Molotov Cocktails in D&D? My DM has been pretty good about it, to the point where my wizard can soak rope in alcohol, set it on fire, and use my rope magic to fire-whip mine enemies for bonus burning damage. But I don't think this is supposed to happen.
I'm a bit of a D&D noob though, so maybe not.
Anyway, carry on.
Flask of Oil as a splash weapon already exists as does Alchemists Fire so I see no problem adapting those... and setting a whip on fire should work as well, though my DM would likely make you hit yourself if you rolled a 1... maybe even risk hitting yourself if you missed by more than X.
Not "broken", but had a lot of fun playing a D&D 3.5 conjurer with the "Craft Wand" feat.
You make a wand, it's got 50 charges... a few levels later, you've only used up like 15 charges tops, and the monsters you can summon with that wand are useless. Which means you should try to involve them in EVERY POSSIBLE RP SCENE.
I summoned Lemures, which are level 1 devils.
(http://images.wikia.com/forgottenrealms/images/e/e0/3.5e_lemure.jpg)
Wretched little things! I'd always have them tucking the other PCs into bed, packing up our gear, setting the dinner table, all sorts of obnoxious things. The other PCs were grossed out by the wretched and miserable lemures, which only gave me license to use them WHENEVER I COULD.
In 4e, it's harder to make a broken character -- to really mess with the DM, you have to build a broken TEAM. Everybody's specialties compliment each other in a way that's hard to counter.
I had a half orc barbarian who used a greatspear (a reach weapon) and specialized in two things: Charging, and knocking people prone. Knocking a guy prone when he's still a square away is nasty... if he doesn't have a ranged attack, his next turn will consist of standing up and moving.
We had a shaman and a mage who both chose powers that make the enemies take extra damage when they fall prone within the spell's area. So the mage would lay down an acid mire, then I'd rush into it and trip the guy every time he stood up. He's taking damage from my attack, AND the wizard's attack, AND if the fighter is in the right position, the monster can't get out of the mire. Lot of fun! Made our DM snap his pencils on a few occasions.
There are a lot of things you can do in 4e to make charging worth it. Barbarians have certain attacks that work when they charge. You can get an item that allow you to charge without provoking opportunity attacks. You can get a helmet which adds another d6 to charge attacks. You can get boots which let you take a 5-foot step after you charge, which, if you have a reach weapon, can puts you in position to charge again.
One barbarian ability allows you to, once per combat, make a charge immediately after reducing a monster to 0 HP. So I'd charge at a shitty minion who will die in one hit, then use that death to springboard to the back of the board and lock down the enemy spellcaster. I'd knock him down, then spend an action point to enter a rage. At level 7, with some lucky rolling, I once did a record breaking 107 damage in one round.
OFUK :lulz:
Damn, Cram.
:lulz: :lulz:
Vampire: The Masquerade
Nosferatu (Old World of Darkness)
9th Gen
Max Socials at 13
Animalism 5
Obfuscate 5
Presence 2
Enchanting Voice (+2 Social traits)
Torn Sap Gloves Fetish (Spirit of Intimidation +2 Intimidation social traits)
Animal Ken 5
Combo Discipline: Animal Magnetism (allows you to add your levels of animalism to a social challenge)
Combo discipline: Mortal Terror (allows you to engage in a social challenge vs willpower, if you win you 'Dread Gaze' your opponents Beast and send them into frenzy)
So I can challenge someone to a Social Challenge at 22 traits vs their Willpower, retest Animal Ken to send them into a Fear Frenzy with me as the object of their fear. Generally this is done with four or five of my Nos Enforcers obfuscated around the target, ready to attack as soon as the poor sod loses it.
Not to mention a Nosferatu that can bid 22 traits in any Social challenge (with the Awe retest)... it makes the Toreador and Ventrue cry themselves to sleep every morning
Quote from: Bebek Sincap Ratatosk on November 09, 2011, 09:28:22 AM
Vampire: The Masquerade
Nosferatu (Old World of Darkness)
9th Gen
Max Socials at 13
Animalism 5
Obfuscate 5
Presence 2
Enchanting Voice (+2 Social traits)
Torn Sap Gloves Fetish (Spirit of Intimidation +2 Intimidation social traits)
Animal Ken 5
Combo Discipline: Animal Magnetism (allows you to add your levels of animalism to a social challenge)
Combo discipline: Mortal Terror (allows you to engage in a social challenge vs willpower, if you win you 'Dread Gaze' your opponents Beast and send them into frenzy)
So I can challenge someone to a Social Challenge at 22 traits vs their Willpower, retest Animal Ken to send them into a Fear Frenzy with me as the object of their fear. Generally this is done with four or five of my Nos Enforcers obfuscated around the target, ready to attack as soon as the poor sod loses it.
Not to mention a Nosferatu that can bid 22 traits in any Social challenge (with the Awe retest)... it makes the Toreador and Ventrue cry themselves to sleep every morning
The game I played in, no one was allowed to have higher than a 3rd gen character, and writing up a new one meant 1st gen.
Also, I hated how you had to rock-paper-scissors in place of dice-rolling for the LARP.
I played Vampire three times. All three times I played a Malkavian. I am no longer allowed to play Vampire.
Apparently it is bad form to use the Auspex power Telepathy in order to torture people by making them listen to the Captain Scarlet themetune which only they can here, and impersonate the Mysterons with a torch and a sheet of cardboard.
All you need for this is Auspex... 4, if memory serves.
(I don't think Captain Scarlet made it to the states, so here is the awesome http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV6m9NlsOJ4)
:lulz:
Quote from: Demolition_Squid on November 14, 2011, 09:50:32 PM
I am no longer allowed to play Vampire.
The punch the guy running the game in the balls repeatedly, for being a fucking sissy.
Quote from: Demolition_Squid on November 14, 2011, 09:50:32 PM
I played Vampire three times. All three times I played a Malkavian. I am no longer allowed to play Vampire.
Apparently it is bad form to use the Auspex power Telepathy in order to torture people by making them listen to the Captain Scarlet themetune which only they can here, and impersonate the Mysterons with a torch and a sheet of cardboard.
All you need for this is Auspex... 4, if memory serves.
(I don't think Captain Scarlet made it to the states, so here is the awesome http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV6m9NlsOJ4)
My Malkavian managed to creep out the entire table. :lulz: She was turned at the age of five. Carried around a doll of the Count. (You know, this guy: (http://images1.fanpop.com/images/photos/2300000/The-Count-sesame-street-2360089-75-75.jpg))
"I wouldn't do anything BAD... It was the Count!"
"The Count doesn't LIKE it when you say mean things to me..."
"The Count doesn't LIKE you..." (The next sunset, the recipient of that particular line had vanished, and was never seen again...)
played trolled a vampire larp at the Origins Convention once...
We were a party of three. Everybody's making characters at the same power level, so if you specialize instead of spreading yourself out, you can rule at doing one thing. Then the trick is to have a coterie which can make up for your flaws.
I put all my eggs in the mental basket and could beat any other player at any mental test.
My buddy put all his eggs in the social basket.
The third guy was a brute and specialized in overpowering people in close quarter physical combat.
The game took place at the origins "rave". (which was a sad and weird place to be)
The three of us walked around the rave looking for people to screw with. If any vampire players gave us attitude, we hit them with the "Holy Trinity":
Which consists of tricking them into making eye contact, trancing them into submission, then commanding them to walk with us to the parking lot, where the bruiser would shank them and leave their body in a dumpster.
YOU LOSE VAMPIRE!!
Eventually the game broke into a 10-person gunfight, at which point I yawned and went to bed.
I've always been a fan of Steve Jackson games and started on GURPS. Mostly because it was possible for me to say, "Hey Mom & Dad, this game's not like that satanic old Dungeons & Dragons! Look I can do anything from caveman to space ranger. I don't even think there's magic at all if you don't want it." It worked! :p
This meant that I frequently had to be the ST, but I was ok with that. I Love telling stories!
One NPC I created for In Nomine (http://www.sjgames.com/innomine/) was the Demon of the Horrible Truth.
The brokenness was not in the stats, they were just strong enough to be a challenge for the players if they tried to kill him outright.
The brokenness was in the concept.
Demons and angels have types in the game. The relevent ones here are the Seraph and Balseraph.
A Seraph has the ability to not only tell when it hears a lie of any sort, but depending on it's dice roll and specialty may well "just know" what the truth actually is. If they lie they develop a negative vibration in themselves that does bad stuff over time and can lead to a fall, so they tend not to.
A Balseraph is a fallen Seraph and has the ability to lie and convince others of it as long as the inconsistency is never discovered and the Balseraph plays the part. Getting caught does bad things just like a Seraph lying. They do this by making a new version of the universe in themselves and would never consider themselves liars at all. Then they bring others into the lie with appropriate dice rolls.
Each type of celestial entity has differing versions of such innate powers and drawbacks. They ALSO tend to get other abilities depending on the Archangel or Demon prince that they work for. I gave the book away years ago and don't remember the demon prince's name, but the character was in service to the prince that concerned itself with hell's intelligence services. I think it was Kronos, Demon Prince of Fate. He allows Balseraphs that work for him to have the powers and drawbacks of any one class of angel.
I chose Seraph for this guy because although it prevents him from telling falsehoods it does allow him to KNOW THE TRUTH AND CONVINCE YOU OF IT. He could also still give suggestions using the Balseraph power, but they had to be subjectively stated. This made him effectively the worst thing that ever happened to most mortals. It also incidentally made him one of the few trustworthy demons in all of hell, but that's not really a good thing in his case.
DHT: "Hey there! :) You know she's cheating on you right? I mean you Know it! I know you do. People will think you're a cowardly little pussy if you don't do something about it. You don't want that do you? Of course you don't! They're on your bed right now. They'll probably be there for hours. She doesn't respect you. Walkart has shotguns and slugs on sale right now, you can afford it. I know you're at work now, but you can leave and nobody will care. You feel kind of ill right now anyway, don't you? While you're feeling so ill and pathetic you could stop a Walkart and get what you need to solve two of you problems! People respect problem solvers. You know what you have to do to be respected again."
The rest is all plot related, but you never know what little push will bring on a terrible Fate. God I miss gaming!
Moral: If somebody walks into a Walkart and buys Pepto and a cheap 12 gague shit's about to get heavy.
Quote from: Demolition_Squid on November 14, 2011, 09:50:32 PM
I played Vampire three times. All three times I played a Malkavian. I am no longer allowed to play Vampire.
Apparently it is bad form to use the Auspex power Telepathy in order to torture people by making them listen to the Captain Scarlet themetune which only they can here, and impersonate the Mysterons with a torch and a sheet of cardboard.
All you need for this is Auspex... 4, if memory serves.
(I don't think Captain Scarlet made it to the states, so here is the awesome http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV6m9NlsOJ4)
FUCKING AWESOME!!!!!!!
AND NOW IT IS STUCK IN MY HEAD AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :argh!: :argh!: :argh!: :argh!:
The Assassin class in DA:O came pre-broken. By level 20 you could:
Outright avoid 20% of all attacks
With the right weapons, have a 50%+ chance of a critical hit and do 50%+ extra damage on crit hits
Have three different types of stunning attack
Do automatic critical hits on stunned targets
Do automatic critical hits on flanked targets
Be able to go into stealth in the middle of combat
Dexterity and cunning are the two most important skills for the rogue class...once they're high enough, you can basically ignore armour protecting your enemies. But you can also add your cunning score to your damage caused, allowing you to essentially use a long dagger to do the same kind of damage as a broadsword, but with better ability to bypass protection.
Have a special ability which causes a particular enemy to take 20% additional damage from any source for 60 seconds.
Do more damage per second than a beserker armed with the most powerful two handed weapon in the game...with standard daggers for your level (dragonbone tier).
And despite all of the above...rogues draw 20% less threat in comparison to a mage or warrior. Meaning enemies are going to concentrate on everyone else, right up to the point you stick a blade through the back of their skull.
Quote from: Science me, babby on November 09, 2011, 09:29:39 PM
Quote from: Bebek Sincap Ratatosk on November 09, 2011, 09:28:22 AM
Vampire: The Masquerade
Nosferatu (Old World of Darkness)
9th Gen
Max Socials at 13
Animalism 5
Obfuscate 5
Presence 2
Enchanting Voice (+2 Social traits)
Torn Sap Gloves Fetish (Spirit of Intimidation +2 Intimidation social traits)
Animal Ken 5
Combo Discipline: Animal Magnetism (allows you to add your levels of animalism to a social challenge)
Combo discipline: Mortal Terror (allows you to engage in a social challenge vs willpower, if you win you 'Dread Gaze' your opponents Beast and send them into frenzy)
So I can challenge someone to a Social Challenge at 22 traits vs their Willpower, retest Animal Ken to send them into a Fear Frenzy with me as the object of their fear. Generally this is done with four or five of my Nos Enforcers obfuscated around the target, ready to attack as soon as the poor sod loses it.
Not to mention a Nosferatu that can bid 22 traits in any Social challenge (with the Awe retest)... it makes the Toreador and Ventrue cry themselves to sleep every morning
The game I played in, no one was allowed to have higher than a 3rd gen character, and writing up a new one meant 1st gen.
Also, I hated how you had to rock-paper-scissors in place of dice-rolling for the LARP.
Err, 13th Gen? 1st Gen would be Caine's Children, 2nd and 3rd would be the rest of the Antediluvians. IN Vampire the rating is reversed from most RPG's the Higher your gen, the further away from Caine, the less powerful ;-).
My Nos started at 10th Gen which is considered average for most vampires embraced in the 20th century. At some point though I hunted down my sire who was terrorizing the city and killed him in the manner he taught me. I diablerized his punk ass and jumped to 9th Gen. Fortunately, my grandsire was an elder with elder power obfuscate so he hid the proof until the lines in my aura disappeared.
In New World of Darkness they've replaced the RPS with a dice roll (or cards depending on the game).
Quote from: Demolition_Squid on November 14, 2011, 09:50:32 PM
I played Vampire three times. All three times I played a Malkavian. I am no longer allowed to play Vampire.
Apparently it is bad form to use the Auspex power Telepathy in order to torture people by making them listen to the Captain Scarlet themetune which only they can here, and impersonate the Mysterons with a torch and a sheet of cardboard.
All you need for this is Auspex... 4, if memory serves.
(I don't think Captain Scarlet made it to the states, so here is the awesome http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV6m9NlsOJ4)
Malkavians like that tend to get killed quickly in most of the troupe and org games I've played in. The Camarilla almost wiped the whole clan out in the Dark Ages because their 'crazy' was just too much of a liability, and that excuse gets used to whack the Malks that consider "insane" to equal zany ;-)
My current favorite Malk is based loosely off of the character Simon Moon from the Illuminatus Trilogy. He was a manipulative guy that 'joined' the hippie movement in the 60's because he realized that he could manipulate them easily and get laid a lot. Eventually he became obsessed with the Illuminati and went to Bavaria. There he found an old castle, which was home to several geniuses. These people taught him all about the 'Illuminati' and then inducted him with a Black Mass.
In reality, there was only one person in the castle... an old Malkavian. The Malk played all of the different geniuses and convinced Simon that they were the secret head of the Illuminati. The Black Mass ended with Simon getting embraced. Simon has two majorderangements, first he has Sanguine Animism which means he hears the voices of his prey after feeding; second he has the delusion that he is a member of the Illuminati and "The Camarila" is just a fake organization that fronts for the Illuminati.
He's tricked out as a seer which means he does two things in game. First, he uses his seer abilities and Eyes of Chaos to get useful info from the ST's about what to expect for the evening. That gets turned into beat poetry and sold to the Prince, Seneschal or Keeper. Second he hosts games (cards, chess etc) and then uses Dementation to determine the Nature of his opponents. When I stopped playing him, I had a Nature list of all of the major power players in the city. Any time I wanted anything from them, I used their nature against them and got what I wanted :D
Quote from: Bebek Sincap Ratatosk on November 16, 2011, 01:06:36 PM
Quote from: Science me, babby on November 09, 2011, 09:29:39 PM
Quote from: Bebek Sincap Ratatosk on November 09, 2011, 09:28:22 AM
Vampire: The Masquerade
Nosferatu (Old World of Darkness)
9th Gen
Max Socials at 13
Animalism 5
Obfuscate 5
Presence 2
Enchanting Voice (+2 Social traits)
Torn Sap Gloves Fetish (Spirit of Intimidation +2 Intimidation social traits)
Animal Ken 5
Combo Discipline: Animal Magnetism (allows you to add your levels of animalism to a social challenge)
Combo discipline: Mortal Terror (allows you to engage in a social challenge vs willpower, if you win you 'Dread Gaze' your opponents Beast and send them into frenzy)
So I can challenge someone to a Social Challenge at 22 traits vs their Willpower, retest Animal Ken to send them into a Fear Frenzy with me as the object of their fear. Generally this is done with four or five of my Nos Enforcers obfuscated around the target, ready to attack as soon as the poor sod loses it.
Not to mention a Nosferatu that can bid 22 traits in any Social challenge (with the Awe retest)... it makes the Toreador and Ventrue cry themselves to sleep every morning
The game I played in, no one was allowed to have higher than a 3rd gen character, and writing up a new one meant 1st gen.
Also, I hated how you had to rock-paper-scissors in place of dice-rolling for the LARP.
Err, 13th Gen? 1st Gen would be Caine's Children, 2nd and 3rd would be the rest of the Antediluvians. IN Vampire the rating is reversed from most RPG's the Higher your gen, the further away from Caine, the less powerful ;-).
My Nos started at 10th Gen which is considered average for most vampires embraced in the 20th century. At some point though I hunted down my sire who was terrorizing the city and killed him in the manner he taught me. I diablerized his punk ass and jumped to 9th Gen. Fortunately, my grandsire was an elder with elder power obfuscate so he hid the proof until the lines in my aura disappeared.
In New World of Darkness they've replaced the RPS with a dice roll (or cards depending on the game).
Quote from: Demolition_Squid on November 14, 2011, 09:50:32 PM
I played Vampire three times. All three times I played a Malkavian. I am no longer allowed to play Vampire.
Apparently it is bad form to use the Auspex power Telepathy in order to torture people by making them listen to the Captain Scarlet themetune which only they can here, and impersonate the Mysterons with a torch and a sheet of cardboard.
All you need for this is Auspex... 4, if memory serves.
(I don't think Captain Scarlet made it to the states, so here is the awesome http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV6m9NlsOJ4)
Malkavians like that tend to get killed quickly in most of the troupe and org games I've played in. The Camarilla almost wiped the whole clan out in the Dark Ages because their 'crazy' was just too much of a liability, and that excuse gets used to whack the Malks that consider "insane" to equal zany ;-)
My current favorite Malk is based loosely off of the character Simon Moon from the Illuminatus Trilogy. He was a manipulative guy that 'joined' the hippie movement in the 60's because he realized that he could manipulate them easily and get laid a lot. Eventually he became obsessed with the Illuminati and went to Bavaria. There he found an old castle, which was home to several geniuses. These people taught him all about the 'Illuminati' and then inducted him with a Black Mass.
In reality, there was only one person in the castle... an old Malkavian. The Malk played all of the different geniuses and convinced Simon that they were the secret head of the Illuminati. The Black Mass ended with Simon getting embraced. Simon has two majorderangements, first he has Sanguine Animism which means he hears the voices of his prey after feeding; second he has the delusion that he is a member of the Illuminati and "The Camarila" is just a fake organization that fronts for the Illuminati.
He's tricked out as a seer which means he does two things in game. First, he uses his seer abilities and Eyes of Chaos to get useful info from the ST's about what to expect for the evening. That gets turned into beat poetry and sold to the Prince, Seneschal or Keeper. Second he hosts games (cards, chess etc) and then uses Dementation to determine the Nature of his opponents. When I stopped playing him, I had a Nature list of all of the major power players in the city. Any time I wanted anything from them, I used their nature against them and got what I wanted :D
WE KNOW THAT YOU CAN HEAR US EARTH MAN
YOU ATTEMPTED TO DESTROY OUR VESSEL ON EARTH
NOW YOU WILL PAY DEARLY
(http://www.cafedelbar.org.uk/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/mysterons.jpg)
The biggest issue I've seen with people RP'ing Malks is that they miss Malkavian 'madness' is generally something more along the lines of Hannibal Lecter. Malkov, their founder was the childe of Caine that came close to tearing away the veil of reality.
TGRR, for example might make a good Malkavian ;-)
Quote from: Bebek Sincap Ratatosk on November 16, 2011, 01:46:41 PM
The biggest issue I've seen with people RP'ing Malks is that they miss Malkavian 'madness' is generally something more along the lines of Hannibal Lecter. Malkov, their founder was the childe of Caine that came close to tearing away the veil of reality.
TGRR, for example might make a good Malkavian ;-)
I understand what the game was going for in concept.
What you get is superheroes in leather with katanas and Mysterons.
I do not see a problem with this.
Quote from: Demolition_Squid on November 16, 2011, 01:52:37 PM
Quote from: Bebek Sincap Ratatosk on November 16, 2011, 01:46:41 PM
The biggest issue I've seen with people RP'ing Malks is that they miss Malkavian 'madness' is generally something more along the lines of Hannibal Lecter. Malkov, their founder was the childe of Caine that came close to tearing away the veil of reality.
TGRR, for example might make a good Malkavian ;-)
I understand what the game was going for in concept.
What you get is superheroes in leather with katanas and Mysterons.
I do not see a problem with this.
Heh, well that lies with the ST. If the ST wants to run that sort of game, bully for them ;-)
When I ST a Vampire game, its all about the dark personal horror :D
My friend Clayton worked for White Wolf when they were working on the Adventure! system (I think he was on the design team, but don't remember for sure) and hooked a group of us up with playtest copies. We never actually got around to playing the game, but we did make up characters. I decided that I wanted to play a Spirit type super-hero and through creative use of of the rules (mostly merits and flaws) managed to create a character who was, for all intents and purposes, a ghost. When Clayton heard about the character, he asked me for a copy to show the design team because they thought they'd written the game in way that would make it almost impossible to create supernatural characters.
Quote from: Cain on November 16, 2011, 08:08:10 AM
The Assassin class in DA:O came pre-broken. By level 20 you could:
Outright avoid 20% of all attacks
With the right weapons, have a 50%+ chance of a critical hit and do 50%+ extra damage on crit hits
Have three different types of stunning attack
Do automatic critical hits on stunned targets
Do automatic critical hits on flanked targets
Be able to go into stealth in the middle of combat
Dexterity and cunning are the two most important skills for the rogue class...once they're high enough, you can basically ignore armour protecting your enemies. But you can also add your cunning score to your damage caused, allowing you to essentially use a long dagger to do the same kind of damage as a broadsword, but with better ability to bypass protection.
Have a special ability which causes a particular enemy to take 20% additional damage from any source for 60 seconds.
Do more damage per second than a beserker armed with the most powerful two handed weapon in the game...with standard daggers for your level (dragonbone tier).
And despite all of the above...rogues draw 20% less threat in comparison to a mage or warrior. Meaning enemies are going to concentrate on everyone else, right up to the point you stick a blade through the back of their skull.
Damn. :lulz:
Quote from: kingyak on November 16, 2011, 08:17:55 PM
My friend Clayton worked for White Wolf when they were working on the Adventure! system (I think he was on the design team, but don't remember for sure) and hooked a group of us up with playtest copies. We never actually got around to playing the game, but we did make up characters. I decided that I wanted to play a Spirit type super-hero and through creative use of of the rules (mostly merits and flaws) managed to create a character who was, for all intents and purposes, a ghost. When Clayton heard about the character, he asked me for a copy to show the design team because they thought they'd written the game in way that would make it almost impossible to create supernatural characters.
*snerk*
I have yet to see a White Wolf system that doesn't have holes big enough to drive a truck through ;-)
Quote from: Bebek Sincap Ratatosk on November 16, 2011, 10:24:29 PM
Quote from: kingyak on November 16, 2011, 08:17:55 PM
My friend Clayton worked for White Wolf when they were working on the Adventure! system (I think he was on the design team, but don't remember for sure) and hooked a group of us up with playtest copies. We never actually got around to playing the game, but we did make up characters. I decided that I wanted to play a Spirit type super-hero and through creative use of of the rules (mostly merits and flaws) managed to create a character who was, for all intents and purposes, a ghost. When Clayton heard about the character, he asked me for a copy to show the design team because they thought they'd written the game in way that would make it almost impossible to create supernatural characters.
*snerk*
I have yet to see a White Wolf system that doesn't have holes big enough to drive a truck through ;-)
In this case, it wasn't really a broken system so much as me using the open-ended aspects of the system in ways that weren't intended. I don't remember all the details, but some of my ghost powers came from a "secret base" type advantage that could be mobile and that (IIRC) you could use to improve healing. It was meant to cover something like a zeppelin with a sick bay, but for my character I interpreted it as an extradimensional pocket universe kind o thing. This is a fairly common problem I've seen, where game designers try to use the rules to restrict the tone of the game rather than just explaining that certain types of characters/stories/whatever don't really fit the intended play style.
Experimenting with Dragon Age II...I don't know if I broke any individual class, but I've definitely broken the game system.
Playing on Nightmare mode, I can have a party that can rip apart pretty much any enemy in under a minute - including notorious bosses such as the Deep Roads Dragon and the Act 2 Varterral.
The basic point, I've discovered is this: fuck vulnerability and survivability, it's all about maxmising damage output within the shortest space in time. Ironically, this means parties which initially look weak, such as a Mage Hawke along with Anders, Merrill and Varric (three mages and an archery-based rogue, for non-players) can actually pretty much decimate any enemy.
One of the key things is to abuse the hell out of cross class combos. An upgraded Winter's Grasp, followed by Punishing Lance can kill pretty much any elite-ranked opponent outright - especially if you throw in a Hex of Torment on top of that. The other is, using the Force Mage specialization, use crowd control spells, most notably gravitic ring and pull of the abyss, to put the enemy where you want them, and then drop AoE spells on them without worrying about friendly fire on pary members. Done correctly, this combination can decimate enemy ranks before they even get within striking range, negating the need for a character to "tank" at all.
The other combination I've found that works well is playing a Rogue, having the above two mages and Aveline as tank. By making your rogue a dual wielder and specializing in assassin and duelist, you can overcome the initially low damage output of a rogue to become a class that kills quicker and harder than anything else. The mages in particular set up cross-class combos by making enemies brittle - a rogue with maxed out cunning, the assassin specialization, the Mark of Death ability (upgraded, of course) and the Assassination skill can then put down almost anything in minimum time. Even the most difficult bosses, such as the aforementioned Deep Roads Dragon, or Hybris, will lose about 30-50% of their health in a single attack. On Nightmare mode. Aveline can stagger enemies in a number of ways, setting them up for Explosive Strike (the cheap man's Assassination, though still deadly if combined with an upgraded Hex of Torment or the Mark of Death). From there on in, mage buffs such as haste, valiant aura and elemental weapons make up the difference. Even basic attacks for the assassin, after about level 12 or so, should be resulting in almost automatic critical hits, so these skills push you over, pump up your attack speed to insane levels and ensure that you're able to put the hurt on the enemy as much as possible.
The only problem with the above builds is the very low margin of error they represent - especially for the rogue, which is why a tank is necessary for that build in particular. At least if you play a mage, you can have a good reason to bump up your willpower and your constitution - for a rogue, pretty much every point needs to go into dexterity and cunning to be successful. But the best defense is a good offense is especially true here, and, more often than not, concentrating on killing as many of the enemy, as fast and as hard as possible, results in victory. That at least one of the support mages is more healer-orientated, while the other can take on a more offensive role, certainly does help in this regard.
Best of all, both of these builds are especially adept at killing enemy assassins - the most annoying of all game enemy types. The Assassin build in particular makes an excellent assassin-hunter because, with just a single skill, the moment you see them stealth, you can do the same - which means they will invariably target Aveline, who can take it, or Dog, if you're especially lucky. Once they leave stealth, they're then open to being stabbed in the back themselves. In fact, stealth is pretty much the only defensive skill a rogue needs - if they're getting pounded on too hard, they can go into that and recover for a bit before striking out again. For mages, their large choice in AoE attacks can generally knock an assassin out of stealth before they can make it into striking range - and then it's just a case of using Winter's Grasp, a Glyph of Paralysis or Petrify to keep them in place while you beat the shit out of them. That two of those set the assassin up for a cross class combo and so an almost certain insta-death is just a bonus.
You can also pretty much automate your party using the tactics options to do most of the above automatically, allowing you free reign to use your character to respond to the particulars of the situation. Anders, for some reason, is utterly pants and will almost invariably wander into the middle of an AoE attack, or try duelling an assassin with his staff, but that aside, it seems to work very well.
"Utterly pants." :lulz:
That sounds like a kick ass game, what platform is it on?
Xbox, PC and PS3.
And yeah, I have a love-hate relationship with Anders, as many fans of the games do. He was introduced in an expansion pack for the first game, and he had a great voice, was well-acted, and was very funny. In the setting, mages are highly distrusted, and are locked up in towers by religious zealots for their own safety, and the safety of the population of large. Anders had escaped seven times, and the only reason he hadn't been executed for it was that he was considered a lovable scamp by all involved.
In terms of gameplay, his tactics for that game were much better thought out, as he was primarily in a support-healing role, with limited AoE and offensive properties, depending on exact build, but tactics for the first game were a lot easier, as there were no cross-class combos and characters did not have special skills available to only them. All he had to do was hang around at the back, hitting group and individual heal, and occasionally boiling the blood of enemies inside their veins, and he did it very well.
In the second game, he's a moody, unshaven, somewhat sullen apostate mage, living in a sewer and plotting revenge against the order of religious zealots local to the area. His change in character is somewhat justified, but the original Anders was such a loveable scamp, so it is disappointing to see.
In terms of gameplay, you have a lot more fights where hanging out at the back isn't an option, because a second wave will hit you from there. Also, healing spells and in particular group heal have been nerfed to the point that it's almost pointless using them outside anything except a boss fight (this is why focusing on damage output is a superior method).
Anders still suits a support role better, but because of the way healing has terrible cool-down times (and you cannot, unlike in the original game, craft thousands of healing potions by utterly abusing the game system), you have to give him a more combat orientated role.
Now, in theory, a mage should attempt to stay out of close combat, even with the much improved combat mechanics for mages in the second game. Their armour is always going to be the weakest, and they cannot afford to put points into cunning to give them a greater defense bonus.
A mage who has a specialist spell which allows him to increase his damage output but, in return, does 50% extra damage to him and makes him immune to conventional healing, should definitely try to avoid combat.
So, naturally, Anders, with all of the above, just waltzes into the middle of fights and stands there, like a noob.
Also, if you play on nightmare mode, your own party's AoE attacks can harm you, if you get caught up in them. Anders in particular likes to walk in front of enemies targeted by Punishing Lance - a very powerful archery based attack that basically puts an arrow through several enemies in a line. He may also occasionally wander into an Apocalyptic Firestorm or, when surrounded, unleash a fireball directly under his feet.
I put this down to him being suicidal, which makes sense when you know his backstory.
On the other hand, Aveline and Dog have fantastic tactics, and tank like champions. Throw them into a fight, and everyone will focus on the big, scary lady with a sword (and the dog), while the two mages decimate them from a distance and you position yourself to attack from behind. This is especially useful when you consider you get critical chance bonuses for attack from behind (which already add to the rogue's incredible odds of a critical hit) and that rogues can pick up a talent that gives them a 120% damage bonus against enemies attacking other targets for a single point, with no further investment in the skill tree needed.
Here are a couple of videos detailing The Method: Dual-Wield Assassin in a couple of trash fights (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4yX9kc9FhQ)
Taking down the Sundermount Dragon in 30 seconds (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQlaNie6CUw).
One-minute kill on the Deep Roads Dragon (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqRQkhgcT_Q&).
And here are a few Force/Blood Mage vids:
Roughing up some Templars (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlSeXeb__sc).
The Glass Cannon Party in the Deep Roads (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aLhx9spFuE).
Qunari aint so tough (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhiknLvmQmY).
Taht's awesome. :D
It's really fun to play, combat wise, as you can no doubt see.
Yeah it does. If I get my hands on moneys, I am totally getting the whole thing.
Budget for about roughly double the cost of the game itself. You'll want to purchase The Exiled Prince, Legacy, the Black Emporium and Mark of the Assassin DLCs, at the very least. That gets you a new character and three new quests, Dog, a bunch of new items and two major side-quests. You may also want to consider the collected item-pack DLCs, though I don't consider those to be necessary.
Jebus.
DLCs are where the money is at, yo. You can almost always get back equal to the cost of the game in downloadable content alone, which is a considerable amount. You might be able to buy a Platinum or Ultimate Edition or something that comes with all of those pre-loaded....Amazon is your best bet.
I'll have to be on the look out for such things. :) Thanks, Cain.
Also, if you like this, you may want to pick up the prequel, as your choices in that can affect quests in the second game. And you'll understand more of the backstory, and the strange character cameos that make no sense.
Quote from: Demolition_Squid on November 16, 2011, 01:52:37 PM
Quote from: Bebek Sincap Ratatosk on November 16, 2011, 01:46:41 PM
The biggest issue I've seen with people RP'ing Malks is that they miss Malkavian 'madness' is generally something more along the lines of Hannibal Lecter. Malkov, their founder was the childe of Caine that came close to tearing away the veil of reality.
TGRR, for example might make a good Malkavian ;-)
I understand what the game was going for in concept.
What you get is superheroes in leather with katanas and Mysterons.
I do not see a problem with this.
I had a lot of fun playing an Alex Jones/Bill Cooper paranoid Malk, who railed against the Camarilla Globalists and praised the Patriot Anarchs. He could tell the future by "the Revelation of the Method", i.e. finding secret codes in Newspapers and Fashion magazines placed there by
THEM.
Every time the psych professor made a suspicious-sounding statement, I asked her if the experiment that generated that conclusion had been replicated.
Quote from: The Freeky of SCIENCE! on November 05, 2011, 08:16:55 AM
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.
Wiz 11 throws normal fireball for 11d6 from 800 ft away in a single round, then passes the turn, allowing all his gaming buddies to have fun without watching you make sure you have the right numbers of pool points actions remaining. I don't really see what you're getting at?