Quote from Alphaeus

Awesome man. I mean, that sounds fucking nuts. Also, Kotor itself is awesome. I’ve got a friend who plays it…might have to jump in a bit.

As to DnD, I’ve gotten into a couple things, and am quite happy. I’ve been doing well with my first non-gestalt char. Correction…I’ve not just been doing well, I’ve been 100% trolling the DM just by my existence. For this char, I went with the Unbodied race, which doesn’t get much love because of the LA +4 tacked onto it. Thing is, Unbodied get the absolute best stuff of being incorporeal without ANY of the downsides from Ghosts. And…in addition to all of their impressive powers, Unbodied come automatically with four effective manifester levels in Psion Telepath. So, we were doing a point-assign system, which works well. Since I have no strength stat, the DM allowed me to redistribute the base points (the basic 8 before point-buy) into my other five stats. Long story short, I’ve turned into a Charisma dump – at ECL 12 I have 50 Charisma.

Now…I’ve been able to stack abilities, skills, equipment, and play style to become the most insane manipulative bastard you ever saw…but one who can also kick ass. I have an incorporal touch attack that ignores all armor and whatnot. Seems week…except I got a ring that allows me to transfer my charisma to all touch attacks. That huge bonus from 50 char is now tagged onto my unstoppable attack. I also have maxxed diplomacy and intimidate, to the point that I pretty much can’t fail any check I’d normally encounter with those. Now…remember I’m a Psion Telepath (I chose that as my class as well…for obvious reasons since the racial manifester lvls stack according to the SRD). I’ve loaded myself with all those mind-warping powers suitable for a manipulative bastard. But wait, that’s not all. I can assume the form of any small, medium, or large creature. ANY creature of three different sizes. I have racial telepathy to 100ft, so conversing is rarely a problem (but I’ve also learned other languages via powers/skills). Now…I have a ring that allows me to manifest myself physically at will. Essentially, I can assume ANY form I please, then manifest physically as that form. I have the ultimate disguise. Like, even the DM has had to acknowledge that the disguise is pretty much fool proof (I have racial immunity to divination and similar abilities – they cannot reveal my true race). You get where THAT is going…my best achievement so far has been passing myself off (successfully) as a female fishnet-wearing kobold zombie to a Dark Lord. Well, that or convincing an orphaned prince and his entire council that I am actually his resurrected father, the king.

Now…you might ask about the ass kicking. Well, aside from the touch attack (where I have irked the DM by saying I go incorporeal and fly up to the fang dragon and poke it to death….which I successfully did), I have telekinesis. I have Telekinetic Force as a racial SU, which means it costs me no psion points and I get unlimited use. Besides that, however, I took Expanded Knowledge and learned Telekinetic Thrust…which allows me to fling things (or creatures) in combat. So far the best I’ve done is successfully hurl 1 ton+ boulders at oncoming ogres, as well as launching my friends at opponents. Tossing around my enemies themselves is also nice. Pretty much I can do well over 10d6 damage with these objects consistently (or a lot more if I juice it for things like the huge boulders), as well as possess the ability to use colossal+ (or larger) size weps, which is awesome.

Now, additionally, I have a psionic ability that appears to be a relatively weak 1st level power (I think it’s mind thrust or something of the like). Deals 1d10 damage. Simple…except I can augment it. In one battle, I jacked that bitch up to 50d6. IN THE MIND, which means no armor, no dodge…nothing except one will save that you will fail because my key ability (Charisma) is so high you cannot will save against any of my powers successfully.

And don’t forget I’m doing all that while being incorporeal, so you 90% of my enemies can’t do shit to me, and out of that 10% I have a high chance of still not being hit. Additionally, on TOP of incorporeal immunities I have racial immunities. And I get to fly everywhere…including through things. And I’m not a Ghost, so you can’t turn or dispel me like undead or magical creatures.

And I’m still ECL 12.

Everyone likes me in the game, though, and the DM is still cool with things because I’m kinda a two trick act (either I convice/intimidate/bluff the living daylights out of you, or I smash/mindblow/poke the living daylights out of you). So, the DM has made sure a lot of our quests and whatnot (the entire campaign is 3.5e, but based/heavily inspired by the Ravenloft horror setting from AD&D) involved things where my powers aren’t of much use (except throwing around my party members…that always seems to come in handy).

Yeah, I’m having fun. Also, I’ve started learning Pathfinder. I do agree, I like it a lot. TBH, I see learning 3.5e and Pathfinder as the perfect combination since they are mostly combatable with one another, so you can bring things across from one or the other if you see fit. 3.5e just has SOOOO much stuff that the variety is awesome, but I will say when you look at the overall bones (like the classes themselves), Pathfinder doesn’t need as much stuff because the root material itself is better. Once I learn pathfinder, I plan to take on 5e, since that is fairly popular and I know some people who want to do that with me. (And before you worry about me learning too much, just remember I’m a perfectionist who has OCD tendencies, so this ain’t nothin’ :P ).

Quote from Alphaeus

True, you're quite right. (Also, the DM isn't reigning me in...they legit have Chemo appointments and shut down the entire campaign). While my char was powerful, the truth is that I stat-dumped all my other stats, which would have made for very interesting game play (unwise, unintelligent, low reflex, but freakishly charismatic). That said, yes, I understand your point. This isn't a video game -- just like every RP, this is as much (if not moreso) about the story than the "game" side.

That said, since I DON'T have use for that, I've joined up (well, I got picked out of the applicants for) a pathfinder campaign. It's my first one, so this will be interesting. I chose one that is a low-magic setting (magic is real and common, but no pure-caster classes allowed) to make life easier. It's set in an alternate history late 1700s France, and we're locked inside a city that is beset by the Plague. I'm guessing it will turn out that it isn't actually the plague, considering the campaign is tagged as adventure and intrigue...but also as horror.

Since humans are the only races allowed, that's that. I've gone with Swashbuckler, and am doing the Mysterious Avenger archetype. It's 20 point buy (although he's doing 1-to-1 buy instead of the stilted buy), so stats are a bit on the low side. I've gone pure Dex and Charisma pretty much (I put wis, con, and int up to 12 just to get the +1 bonus).

I'm looking forward to doing this role because while it is optimized (Dex for rogue-like play with the class weapon finesse, and Char for all the swashbuckler's panache and deeds), it also has weaknesses I'll have to work around (like no str bonus). What's really cool is that for this archetype I have to have a "persona" that I assume and use, as well as playing heavily on the intrigue side. It's going to be my first non-caster/non-psionics char, and I'm looking forward to it. I'm going low on the ranged weps as well (I have a few thrown ones, but I don't want to use a bow...this dude is all about his whip and rapier), so this will be a cool challenge to play.