Tabletop Gaming: Overpowered PCs and General Optimization Discussion

[Fappy]

Credit where credit is due: Got the idea for this thread from the "Overpowered" thread.

I found that I really love rolling up characters for tabletop games for some reason. Half of them I never actually get the play, but there is something oddly fun about scouring source books for options and ideas for character builds. Making overpowered builds is always fun but I tend to try to inject a bit of flavor and aim for general optimization over straight power. My game of choice is Pathfinder and I find that you can make an OP character from any of the available classes, even with stuff straight out of the Core Rulebook.

So I ask you my friends: have you ever made an incredibly overpowered character or been in a game with one. Describe the build, tell stories, etc.

 

[DoPo]

I don't think I have. I mean, I know how to make an OP spellcaster in D&D but I never did it 1. because I don't really play D&D too much, and 2. well, I have no moral or "fairness" reasons, so it's just down to not playing enough D&D.

However, I did make a barbarian once that owned the game. Well it was for a one shot game, so fighting was still powerful at that point. It didn't help that I went for all strength on him ending with 18 (it was point buy) and his backstory was that he was a very strong warrior but very dumb...so you know, pump combat, dump the rest kind of thing. It was fun while it lasted - the NPCs thrown at us were completely cleaved in half most of the time with his, erm masterwork +1 axe, is that a thing? Or just a +1 axe, I can't remember. But basically it was where most of his starting money went.

I did make a specialist wizard once, who had Evocation as banned school. But I totally didn't intend for him to be a walking god - he just specialised in Conjuration, so OOC (a bit minmax-y) I figured I didn't need two schools that can be used to blast stuff. IC he sort of had an accident with some demon summoning and decided that summoning was just so much better! Also, the summoned demon ran amok and killed all of his peers but it was just a sign of how much better summoning was.

Other than D&D, I play some World of Darkness but while CharOpping there isn't unheard of...or even hard, it just doesn't serve as much of a purpose. Sure, it's easy to make a vampire who punches through people and throws motorcycles or something but it's just so much more satisfying to play things from the shadows. It also doesn't help that there are always things that can take you down, so it doesn't exactly matter how powerful your character is.

 

[Wolfram23]

This is not the thread I expected in going in.

PC = player character. Got it!

*whistles inconspicuously and walks away*