Dungeon Crawler Party Optimization

[PlzBreakMyCampaign]

I was thinking about Rappan Athuk um, twice, and I actually bothered to think up what I would place as an optimal character group to appease the classic grognard types that seem to have made the module. Specifically we would be not only excluding TO ("cheat codes") but also playing under a balanced 3e rule set. If you need specifics, you can check my sig.

But you don't need to. It's basically everything you've ever thought of in a DM-neutral list that approximates how D&D is actually played (monks are proficient with their own strikes, all books are allowed but t1 casters have partitioned lists, etc). Specifically if recommending a high tier solution ("wizard/incantrix for team persistent spell!"), you might want to check the sign. If recommending a lower-CO targeted solution ("trap steamrolling via rogue1/bar bx/...."), you're probably fine. We are after the best party for a dungeon crawl, not a vecna-blooded private demiplane fullcaster who would never set foot in one.

Game Difficulty:

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Easy Mode
Play the pathfailure version and then allowing the players to build along these easy guidlines. For example, stealth would allow a 2+int skill point wis or cha caster to now cover both hide & move silently as a massive boost to skill allocation. The module is "played straight" so that opponents have no DCFS'd feats or boosted stats and rolls are in the open so they will eventually roll a 1.

Normal Mode
Some pathfinder backporting helps the monsters but not the PCs. Monsters have their single stealth value for both the hide & move silent, but PCs have to spend 2 skill points if they want both. Monsters have reworked feats so they aren't retarded (toughness -> something else and either roll normally or take 10 for the lazy DM.

Hard Mode
Play the module like it were any piece of crap printed adventure with the kind of boosts opponents need: double monster listed numbers (AC, saves, HP, speed, SR, etc), they always roll a non-auto succeeding maximum on any die roll. Suspiciously large numbers of monsters have mindblank, true sight, FoM, and death ward persistent-swapped on them.

My initial thoughts on a 4 or 5 man party:

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1) A dps/assassin that slips in an out. Whether its incorporeality + power word pain or a borrow speed+x ray vision+death strike, the ability to deliver death without using the standard "walk into next room" technique seemed appealing.

2) A mega-tank. It could be a psion with temporary HP + shared pain or it could be something a bit more out of the box. The ability to make a mess so that the DPS seems the less accessible damage target seems like a good thing.

3) A support healer. Perhaps its a dread necro and the party all heals from positive energy. Or its a magic-mantled psychic theurge with a relic spamming revivify and pre-emptive heals.

4) A utility radar a la mind-sight + blindsense would work. Or the usual greater invis + truesight + summoning would be good.

If a 5th wheel is needed a diplomancer would be hilarious, as would any cohort-ish build like a crafter with constructs doing the work in a bag of holding.

Some things I thought of that wouldn't work:

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A standard straight wizard or even theurge can't completely fill all the standard caster roles without wasting 2 extra party members on the same goal (due to the partitioned caster lists of PHB/SpC/other). Having a party of 75% utility would not be good.

A standard thrallherd or psionic dominate build. This actually would work in the "normal" or "easy" mode, but not hard mode without some serious optimization (fate maker, cough cough)

An awful lot of "just use this one broken spell" builds (spell matrix, delay death, fusion, etc) due to the fixed 3e stipulation.

What kind of party would you build under common-sense restraints to win an overly hard dungeon module?

[awaken_D_M_golem]

It's not often that I think about the Divine Mind
but when I do ... 

It could do Easy or Normal mode :
3) ... mass Healer with 1 of 2 auras + a party constructed around it
5a) ... 5th wheel, all by itself
5b) ... Diplomancer-lite with 1 mantle
4) ... The Planes aura most powerful interpretation
does the utility radar, for Outsider specific campaigns.
Let's say 12th level to do them all.

Could do Hard mode with Recharge and Thrallherd and more than 1 broken power.
Now we just need to find the phrenic Guinea pig to do it.
 

[PlzBreakMyCampaign]

Recharge and Thrallherd and more than 1 broken power.

A) All recharge setups are fixed (to my knowledge)

B) Thrallherd is based off leadership (which is fixed)

C) All broken powers are fixed (to my knowledge).

People are still welcome to look inside the character building homebrew/fixes in my sig to see if I missed anything

[awaken_D_M_golem]

... (spoiler) the fixed 3e stipulation ... [/spoiler]

Ah, missed that first go round.


Wilder with Vigor, is too many hitpoints to not qualify as a tank.
Throw in Craft Universal at level 3, to bank up even more.
It gets quite ridiculous to have a Dorje of 30*50=1500 hit points.

[PlzBreakMyCampaign]

Wilder with Vigor, is too many hitpoints to not qualify as a tank.
Throw in Craft Universal at level 3, to bank up even more.
It gets quite ridiculous to have a Dorje of 30*50=1500 hit points.

SRD items that package any spell you want (like djores or scrolls) are not allowed. Otherwise it becomes a thread about partially charged wands on monks. It's really the only solution to a rather large gap in the community. People think that either it shouldn't "count" as D&D because that stuff too costly so just be a caster or those who think it's from refilling WBL freebies and every monk take cross-class UMD.

My take is just don't go there: it's the 2nd most necessary arbitrary ban you'll ever be glad you did. It fixes 90% of PvP silliness out there on various boards. (The primary arbitrary ban is no 9th level spells, which fixes 90% of TO.)

[SorO_Lost]

DDO has scaling difficulties too.
They also scale by party size (confirmed to max at 4, 5th & 6th man do not result in changes).
And they scale by party composition but hardly any information is known.