#powergaming

You have 7 levels of samurai fighter

You have 6 levels of fiend warlock

You have 3 levels of redemption paladin

You have 3 levels of fey wanderer ranger

You have found two books that bring your wisdom and charisma to 22 respectively

You have spent one feat on skill expert to get expertise in persuasion

Your fighting style is superior technique

Your maneuver is commanding presence

Your cousin, throckmorton, is a wild magic barbarian/wild magic sorcerer/divination wizard/peace cleric

Your other friends are a maxed out Spirits bard, any artificer that is level 7, and a circle of stars druid

You are confronted by a god, and are given 30 seconds to convince them you deserve to live

Your cousin throcky gives you guidance, emboldening bond, a portent of 20, the wild magic sorcerer d4 and the wild magic barbarian d3

Your spirits bard spends one of their inspiration to inspire you and burns one to get a story, rolling a 1

Your artificer promises to do their best, giving you flash of genius for your dialogue

The druid, begrudgingly, offers to assist you with a cosmic omen

You take a deep breath, channel divinity, use your manuever, and beseech your patron for aid

You then roll 1d3+4d4+2d6+1d10+2d12+5+6+20+30

Rolling max on every die, you get 126. It’s just not enough.

Luckily, you had your talisman on you, and because you failed, you roll one more d4.

valid!! as long as you’re not deriving your fun from degrading or making fun of others. everyone has a different playstyle and that’s okay. but if you try to shit on someone for how they like to play, shame on you.

i personally don’t like overly competitive attitudes (what some would call “powergaming”). I find them anxiety-inducing and discouraging. but that’s me, personally. I recognize that for many people, building competitive decks and crushing their opponents can be part of the fun - as long as the opponent is chill with that playstyle, too. 

someone isn’t “bad at Magic” (or any other game) or “less of a gamer” if they’re deciding to play casually, not spending so much money on cards, or taking things more slowly. they’re playing the game, too, just their way. it doesn’t make them less committed or a worse fan. again: if you respect them less as a player because of those things, shame on you.

https://geekandsundry.com/power-gaming-gm-player-and-gm-tips-for-rpging-on-hardcore-mode/

Sample Build: Barbarian.

Your average Barbarian

Barbarians are generally beatsticks, and rightfully so. They’re the meatheads of most parties, with Rage amplifying their already considerable strength and constitution. General Barbarian tactics boil down to “Grab lethal object with both hands, swing, and repeat”. Here’s a little sample of what your general 15 point buy Barbarian looks like at level 1.

Level 1. We’re a Barabarian, we want strength and constitution. Fuck dex, we have armor, D12 hit dice, and DR for that. We’re likely human, because a floating +2 to any stat, a bonus feat, and a bonus skill rank every level is delicious. Our +2 goes into strength, because cracking skulls is what we do. Our starting stat array looks a little something like this.

STATS

Strength: 18 Dexterity: 13 Constitution: 16

Intelligence: 7 Wisdom: 10 Charisma: 7

Intelligence and charisma have nothing to do with bashing in berks who rub us the wrong way, we dump them. If anyone implies you’re rude, inform them you have smashingly good manners, and beat them soundly. Even if we want to build for intimidation (based on charisma) we alter that to strength later with a feat.

FEATS

We get two feats, because we’re human. We take Power Attack (our bread and butter) and Weapon Focus (whatever weapon you like). Or you can grab bonus traits, there’s some nice ones for skills or save bonuses.

TRAITS

If permitted, we grab traits. Reactive (+2 to our initiative) is a staple. We also grab Indomitable Faith (+1 will save). We don’t want to be dominated and told to eat our friends. If you don’t worship a deity, tell your DM your faith is in your ability to smash.

SKILLS

We get 5 skill ranks (4 base, one from human, and you know damn well your favored class bonus is either going into bonus health or the Superstition rage power, for this sample, we’re assuming health). We stick our skill ranks into Acrobatics (for combat mobility) and Perception (important on every character). The other three are up to personal taste, so I’ll do Swim, Climb and Ride.

GEAR

We start with an average of 105 GP. We grab a barbarian kit (9 GP), hide armor (15 GP) and if our DM is nice and lets us buy gear from the Eastern setting, a nodachi (60 GP). If your DM tells you to stop being animu, buy a falchion instead (75 GP). From there purchase rope, 10 foot poles, caltrops, whistles, centipedes, or any other miscellaneous doodads your heart desires. Your three necessities (kit, armor, weapon) will run you 84 GP (Nodachi) or 99 GP (Falchion).

Basic Rundown

Your little level 1 murderhobo is now ready to go. Remember that your alignment can be anything non-lawful, so basically just do whatever. Neutral is safest from alignment magic though.

At level 1, you’re sitting on 10 rounds (1 minute) of Rage per day. Remember that you’re fatigued when you stop, and you can’t rage while fatigued, so don’t get caught moping around in the aftermath of your carnage.

Your standard solution to problems (smash) will look like this.

Nodachi + 6 (1d10 + 6)

Rage Nodachi + 8 (1d10 + 9)

PowerAttack Nodachi + 5 (1d10 + 9)

Rage PowerAttack Nodachi + 7 (1d10 + 12)

Yes. You hit like a very angry truck falling onto your poor foe from a mountain. Feels good man.

You have an AC of 15, but your health is 15 (prior to raging, and assuming your FCB went into the superstition bonus). When you rage your health will jump to 17, but your AC will drop to 13. This is because you’re level 1, and poor. Your AC will improve when you can afford medium armor. Or when you murder someone for theirs, whichever comes first.

Your saves are at Fortitude: 5 Reflex: 1 Will: 1. When you rage, Will becomes 3. Don’t get greased, color sprayed, dominated, etc.

This sample will be continued through levels 4, 7, 10 and 12 (the PFS level cap) in further posts.

This was actually a thing in 3.5 where players would go Duskblade13/EnlightenedFist7 to full-action attack with enervation channeled through each strike.

Pathfinder is the most recent system I’ve had the pleasure to GM, so we begin here. Pathfinder is very similar to D&D 3.5, with primary changes to the base classes being the general buff to martial based classes and a slight nerf to full casters. We’ll start with just the core classes, don’t want to overwhelm anyone who hasn’t been living in the system.

Tier 1: Here you have your full casters who retain full spell list access. Wizard, Druid, Cleric. These classes retain huge amounts of versatility from their spell lists, and can quite literally bend reality and planes to their will at higher levels. The primary difference between a a tier 1 and tier 2 caster is the number of spells they have acess to. With Wizards, Clerics and Druids retaining access to their full spell list, they have a much larger selection of magical shenanigans they can get up to than their spontaneous counterparts.

Tier 2: Full casters who lack the versatility of a full spell list. The Sorcerer is the only core tier 2 class. They might be charismagic and have an extra spell per day of each level over the Wizard, but they still can't hold up to the size of the Wizard's spell access.

Tier 3: Many of the gishes (martial casters) at least from later books. From the core classes, we only have the Bard. A 2/3 casting progression with some nifty abilities. As for Paladin and Ranger;

Tier 4: Sorry guys, you go here. A class that only cast up to 4th level spells, that can do one thing well (though others do it better). This tier has the aforementioned Paladin and Ranger, as well as the Barbarian.

Tier 5: Fighter and Monk. Sorry guys. Very little in terms of options, not even matching others in competence in their field of expertise. Note that with archetypes both of these can be bumped up to tier 4, but that's a discussion for another time.