Quite frankly: Some of the monsters here are just waaaaaay too strong.
Geist von Mitternacht's build is very simple: Level 15 Rogue, level 9 Assassin. I have Weapon Finesse, all that fun stuff. Two-weapon fighting, improved two-weapon fighting, so on and so forth.
At level 24 my base attack bonus is a 17. My attack rolls are, with twin +3 weapons, +27/+22/+17/+12 with my primary hand and +27/+22/+17 with my secondary hand. I attack 7 times at 13d6 sneak attack (8d6 from Rogue, 5d6 from Assassin.) Should be pretty impressive, right?
My saves are Fortitude +13, reflex +24, Will +10
My armor class with a 24 dexterity, full ranks in tumble, with +4 padded armor is a 34. 37 if I use Combat Expertise (Which I do with Deadly Defense.))
Decently geared, but by no means maxed out, my Hide and Move Silently, with Hide in Plain Sight, is a 48. Which should be pretty impressive, right? Not here.
By PnP standards having a 37 AC and a +27 attack roll would seem pretty impressive, right? But not here.
Some of the monsters here have attack rolls in the high 30s. Their armor classes are ranking in the mid 40s or 50s. They seem to have at least +40 spot and/or Listen checks. By my check a great number of monsters hit my armor class on a -5. The Lich has a Dominate Person spell with a DC of 29. That's a +14 Spellcasting Modifier...along with, I might add, at least a Caster Level 30 Mordenkainen's Disjunction which just completely annihilates any defenses you may have.
It's frustrating. Granted, with Geist, I tend to just mess around the FAI and tell corny jokes and have a good laugh. But that's because, quite honestly, I can't go anywhere without a group of power builders without just dying on the spot.
Frankly: It's frustrating. And not very welcoming. There's no fun to be had on a server where by taking one wrong turn you're just simply going to be eviscerated.
Now, granted, I understand that boss monsters are supposed to encourage large groups of players to get together to RP and adventure together. Which is great. But most of the time that I can really devote to the game is at 2 and 3 in the morning when, quite frankly, I kind of just want to be left alone to grind a bit. But grinding isn't really possible here when the only places with decent loot are ones that if you take one step into without being a ridiculously overpowered power-build you're going to get eaten in three seconds flat.
As I said, I just needed to vent out a little bit of frustration. The players here are great. The DMs are great. I've yet to meet any players or DMs here on Baldur's Gate that I didn't enjoy immensely. I quite thoroughly enjoy annoying the crap out of every one of you and, for the most part, you all take it like a good sport.
.....just had to get my frustrations off my chest. Thank you.
Well, I learned something new again.
