I’m in the US navy. i’m 22. i played my first campaign in 5th grade. i keep my sanity on long underways by creating the most powerful lv20 v3.5 D&D character possible, based solely on the books (no variant rules a DM might dispute- just things in black-and-white). i use base stats of 17,16,16,15,14,14, which are good but not uber-powerful.
it’s not the single strongest character- its the most powerful combination of classes and feats, really. for example, adding Leadership to your toon will drastically increase the prowess of the player, or making your druid companion actually decent enough for you to take on more powerful bosses.
i’ve spent over 2 years perfecting this greatest combination of feats and classes possible at level 20. i’ve had break-throughs- MANY of them. i’ve discovered a spell far more powerful than WISH.
i can make a toon’s strength go all the way up to 53, using 17 as the base (about 8 points higher than a colossol red dragon).
Long story short, i’ve finally found the combination of feats/classes i need. it allows a single player (with more than a single character) to EASILY- i can’t stress that enough- EASILY beat a colossol red dragon, the toughest evil thing there is to fight (unless you find something with a higher CR from a different MM- it doesnt matter though).
by the way, the spell more powerful than WISH is MONSTROUS THRALL, only castable by a cleric with the domination domain. look it up in COMPLETE DIVINE. u can enslave ANY creature FOREVER- just cast BESTOW GREATER CURSE on THE TARRASQUE, for example, thereby making his will save +12, buff the hell out of the DC, and leave the Tarrasque only able to make the save by rolling 18+.
ALso, take VOW OF POVERTY whenever possible- massive increase to abilities, saves, melee, and especially AC. it lets a lv20 toon with a 17 in a base ability bring it up to 42 in some cases. here’s how:
half-orc base strength of 17, +2 for race=19
5 levels of dragon devotee+10 levels dragon disciple=str29
5points from leveling (4,8,12,etc)=34
+8 to one ability from vow of poverty=42.
from there you can raise it to 50+ by casting FIST OF STONE (+6str) and going into rage, resulting in str of 52. there are only a few GODS with higher strength. if i was greedy and gave him an 18 for his base score (which is entirely possible of course), he’d have an ungodly strength of 53.
but this combination of feats and classes DOESN’T result in the most powerful possible. if you want me to elaborate on what IS (as far as i’ve found), email me at
stanford@ffg53.navy.mil. you’ll become privvy to what i have been obsessing over for years- countless thousands of hours. ive lost sleep, havent studied for my advancement exam (which means i’ve missed out on countless hundreds of dollars for not advancing), and get berated by my peers for playing D&D.
ive always been secure in saying i’ve created “the most powerful D&D 3.5 character possible”, but then i have another breakthrough and make the previous ones pale in comparison. so this combination ive found may not be the strongest (but again, it will allow a player to EASILY, EASILY) defeat ANYTHING non-epic, and prolly quite a lot of epic monsters as well.
just inquire if you want to know the rest of the formula cuz i’ve written enough already!
if you think you have a more powerful combo, please post it.
Greg