Author Topic: Maxing the best 1st level bonuses  (Read 3756 times)

Offline RealMarkP

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Maxing the best 1st level bonuses
« on: December 30, 2012, 11:16:33 PM »
I'm playing in a campaign where the DM has come up with a point buy system. You're able to buy any special ability from any source at a cost of points. You don't need to progress in a class to get a specific special ability or bonus. I'm curious to know what kind of combinations can you guys come up with using only 1st level abilities from any base class and feats. Here is what the point cost breakdown looks like:

Feat: 10pts
Feat with Prereq: 10pt + (10 * each listed prereq)
1st level special ability: 20pt

For the purpose of this experiment, consider having 200pts to play with. What kind of build can up come up with for a theoretical 1st level character.

NOTE: The DM has ruled that going down a Sneak Attack progression disallows you to take a similar progression such as the Scout's Skirmish.

Offline Necrosnoop110

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Re: Maxing the best 1st level bonuses
« Reply #1 on: December 30, 2012, 11:49:58 PM »
What counts as a special ability? Are you strictly going by "special ability" or do you mean anything given as a class feature?

If it's any class feature then, this should be the foundation for any 200pt build:

Sorcerer/Wizard Spellcasting 20pts
Cleric Spellcasting 20pts
Psionic Manifesting 20pts
Cleric Turning 20pts

Offline RealMarkP

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Re: Maxing the best 1st level bonuses
« Reply #2 on: December 31, 2012, 12:18:59 AM »
What counts as a special ability? Are you strictly going by "special ability" or do you mean anything given as a class feature?

If it's any class feature then, this should be the foundation for any 200pt build:

Sorcerer/Wizard Spellcasting 20pts
Cleric Spellcasting 20pts
Psionic Manifesting 20pts
Cleric Turning 20pts
By special ability, I mean anything in the 'Special' column (ie. Barbarian's Rage 1/day, Illiteracy, Fast Movement. Each of those would be bought separately). As for spell casting, it is bought separately using a complex formula where you need to buy caster level separately from power points/spell points which is separate from known spells/powers. You can easily blow the 200pts on only a handful of spells. So, for the scope of this discussion, limit yourself to feats and the 'special' column from any class. You can assume you have access to powers or spells.

EDIT: To buy a Barbarian's 1st level:

Rage 1/day = 20pt.
Illiteracy = 20pt.
Fast Movement = 20pt.
Total = 60pt spent.
« Last Edit: December 31, 2012, 12:20:52 AM by RealMarkP »

Offline dipolartech

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Re: Maxing the best 1st level bonuses
« Reply #3 on: December 31, 2012, 12:23:51 AM »
Illiteracy should give you points....

Offline RealMarkP

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Re: Maxing the best 1st level bonuses
« Reply #4 on: December 31, 2012, 12:27:53 AM »
Illiteracy should give you points....
Haha, yes, hmm. But lets ignore that for the time being. It was just an example.

Offline TiaC

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Re: Maxing the best 1st level bonuses
« Reply #5 on: December 31, 2012, 01:03:27 AM »
I feel like there's a good base in Turn Undead, Rebuke Undead, and possibly Azurin Turning sub for a huge turning pool.

What about Maneuvers and invocations?

Also, do you actually need to have the prerequisites for feats or not?

Other abilities that are probably too good for their costs:
Binding
Animal Companion and its variants(Could you just buy a bunch of things with Share spells and really limited casting to abuse it with?)
Assume Psionic Mantles gets you two abilities even without manifesting
A Marshal's Aura would be nice


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Offline Endarire

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Re: Maxing the best 1st level bonuses
« Reply #6 on: December 31, 2012, 02:03:42 AM »
Must it be a first level special?  What about PrC/template/racial class 'special' stuff?

Offline Maat Mons

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Re: Maxing the best 1st level bonuses
« Reply #7 on: December 31, 2012, 02:25:21 AM »
You could get the “change shape” ability from that egoist variant.  That gives you the minor change shape ability of a changeling regardless of your race.  You could get the “AC bonus” ability from battle dancer.  That gives you cha to AC when you're unarmored.  You could gain the “minor aura” ability of marshal.  For the purposes of this paragraph, we'll say motivate charisma.  That gives you cha a second time to cha-based checks.  If you can work in good skills and some cha-based casting, you'd have a pretty good thing going. 

You could get the “rapid summoning” ability from that conjurer variant.  That lets you cast summon monster spells as a standard action, with the creature being able to take a standard action that round.  “Domains” isn't listed in the “special” column for cleric.  Does that mean it isn't available?  Mystic lists “domain” though, so you should be able to get one that way.  Anyway, the granted power of the summoner domain gives you +2 caster level for summoning spells.  That combination should make summoning effective even at 1st level. 

Abrupt jaunt remains nice. 

Offline RealMarkP

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Re: Maxing the best 1st level bonuses
« Reply #8 on: December 31, 2012, 02:43:02 PM »
What about Maneuvers and invocations?
Maneuvers yes, but the formula for it is as complex as for Spells so assume you can pick a handful. Invocations no.

Also, do you actually need to have the prerequisites for feats or not?
Yes. And the cost of a feat with prerequisites is higher as well making a deep feat tree expensive.

Must it be a first level special?  What about PrC/template/racial class 'special' stuff?
Well first level is easy and cheap. The formula for buying abilities within a class is: 10 + (10 * class level) + (10 * prerequisite). So that a first level in Enlightened Fist would be 10 + (10 * 1) + (10 * 3[feats]) + (10 * 3[skills]) + (10 * 1[arcane caster 3rd level]) = 90pts. A second level base class ability would be 10 + (10 * 2) = 30pt.

Templates No. Racial stuff is automatically applied on character creation (However, our DM's world only has Humans, which allows us a free feat anyway).


Offline muktidata

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Re: Maxing the best 1st level bonuses
« Reply #9 on: December 31, 2012, 04:00:14 PM »
Well, [Epic] feats should win here. But I will hold back. Assuming a +1 BAB ECL1 Character, here's an Ubercharger:

Trait: Aggressive
Trait: Quick
Level 1: Power Attack
Human: Battle Jump
Shaky: Wild Talent
Murky-Eyed: Up the Walls
20 Points: Lion Totem (Pounce)
20 Points: Whirling Frenzy
20 Points: Flurry of Blows
30 Points: Leap Attack
30 Points: Headlong Rush
10 Points: Leap of the Heavens*
10 Points: Law Devotion*
10 Points: Powerful Charge*
10 Points: Reckless Charge*
20 Points: Shillelagh Druid Spell**
20 Points: Enlarge Person Wizard Spell**

*Not sure if you have to spend extra points if you actually MEET the pre-reqs.
** Wild guess that this is enough points.

+13/+13/+13, (3d6+1d8+17)*2

That's your charge attack when you jump on someone using a Quarterstaff.
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Offline SorO_Lost

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Re: Maxing the best 1st level bonuses
« Reply #10 on: January 29, 2013, 12:18:39 PM »
Marshal Insanity :D
Each Minor Aura costs 10 points right?
And each Major is 20?
90 points = 3 Minors (saves) + 3 majors (attack/damage/ac)

Let's follow this road some more.
(click to show/hide)
Little more expensive but Wisdom to AC & Saves for 80 points.

And so on. Not unique by any means, just Human++ which would be a cool level 1 super-hero discovering his super power (sic smallville).

Offline skydragonknight

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Re: Maxing the best 1st level bonuses
« Reply #11 on: January 29, 2013, 01:02:19 PM »
Splurge on Manifester Level, Power Points/Day, Astral Construct and the Boost Construct feat. Since AC scales in power directly with ML (and PP to use it), it would be more cost efficient than virtually any strategy focused on casting. Inertial Armor and other 1st-level defensive powers with good augmentation scaling can be added as well for survivability.
Hmm.

Offline brujon

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Re: Maxing the best 1st level bonuses
« Reply #12 on: February 01, 2013, 11:42:32 AM »
Can you get the same ability multiple times if it's from different sources? Think about getting Animal Companion from Druid, and then from that Ranger variant that gets it 1st level, and then the Bard variant, and so on...

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Offline Cyclone Joker

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Re: Maxing the best 1st level bonuses
« Reply #13 on: February 02, 2013, 11:50:15 AM »
10(Wizard casting)+170(Caster level)+10=Wizard 9s at level 1. And a bonus feat to boot.

Or, if that doesn't work by itself, just take Extra Spell. Either way, Shapechange is the only spell that actually matters.

Offline SorO_Lost

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Re: Maxing the best 1st level bonuses
« Reply #14 on: February 02, 2013, 12:39:34 PM »
If you wanna go that route Illthid Savant is a Class you know...