Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Endarire Apr 29, 2008 18:15:57	In a previous 3.5ish campaign, nearly all the players were new to tabletop D&D and I used my optimization knowledge to make these characters as I would make my characters. The characters I didn't make were much less effective overall, but still competent in their fields. Enemies, especially humanoids, in this campaign were mostly optimized. I also learned to be stricter in what I allowed in my games. (Always-on wraithstrike seemed like a much better idea in theory.) In a new campaign based on The Sunless Citadel and Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, most creatures are pitifully suboptimal. This time around, I won't care so much about optimizing 'trash mobs,' common foes that provide mostly minor challenges that do little to advance the plot. So far, I've optimized most the named foes in Sunless Citadel, like changing Sir Braford to a gatlin' trippin' Fighter2 from an ex-Paladin1. More subtley, I changed Belak's spell preps to include spider climb and flaming sphere and gave him an invisibility potion, thereby requiring the PCs to used ranged attacks to hit Belak's well-hidden self on the ceiling. (Side note: Does casting flaming sphere break invisibility? What about directing it onto a square with a foe?)
#2 anders_rasmussen Apr 30, 2008 10:04:58	I'm not quite sure I get what it is your asking, but I'll give it a go. For the low levels I try to optimize every NPC as much as I see fit. You know, changing some feats on the orcs, make some good stat-allocations on the charectercreated npc and so forth. But the few times I have run "higher" level games (8-12), its getting somewhat of a pain. So there I'm more turning to "standard" npc (one fighter type, one rouge type, one caster type) so I don't have to make so many. For my current campaign I'm hoping that these resources will help somewhat to make optimizing quicker: "optimal" builds for each level Low level tips/tricks (core only) Encounter (Villain/NPC/Monster/Trap) Resource Thread Compilation of Low Level builds That said: The question I think is really interesting is more: how do you optimize encounters? Do you use higher stat-lines? Higher ECL? CR? Fudging dices ? (its a bit of a religion if you like this or not) Using superior tactics? Using meta-gaming information to do tactics ? (or just always use the "smarter" NPCs) ... or something else. The key is really to keep challingeing PCs, even if they are optimized. There Anders
#3 Senevri Apr 30, 2008 10:22:18	Generally, ToB is an excellent resource. Giving a monster a single martial study is often enough to make them more exciting.
#4 eepop Apr 30, 2008 12:17:37	I usually start a few CRs above normal, add a gimmick to the fight (special terrain or additional monster abilities), then fudge only to compensate for changes in group size.
#5 clawhound Apr 30, 2008 13:10:28	I moderately optimize my general NPCs. The PC's have room to be better than them in many ways. However, they aren't pushovers either. They do their basic schtick well enough to be a threat. I have this philosophy: I want my players to have options. Once I force them to optimize, the options become quite restrictive. I would rather that my PC's play with different possibilities.