I intend to run a "Tier 3" Playtest. Obviously, I disagree with JaronK about Dread Necro's and Beguilers, and since one of those results in Shadowcraft Mages, I'm going to use largely Uber's Tiers for this.
The party should be:
Shugenja/Ardent/Warblade/Factotum. By many accounts all of these should be about equal, and all but the Factotum have no access to the vast majority of "TO" material, so it should be fine.
I would like to continue this test at levels 5/10/15, and probably not more then that. At each level I will run the group through a WotC adventure module of that level, or at least part of one if the actual adventure spans several levels. I will also run them through a situation of my own design that might feature in a campaign of my own.
Criticism as regards anything is welcome, and will have no effect on you being chosen to play a class and/or me being a dick as DM.
The following positions require filling:
1) Factotum Player: JaronK?
2) Warblade Player: TheWordSlinger
3) Shugenja Player: emissary666
4) Ardent Player: Uber
5) Supervisor of DM: Tshern
For players, I would like the player of the class to believe that their class can contribute equally or close enough, to this party. So Uber can't play a Factotum, but JaronK can. Same rules for all classes. Point of Note: JaronK has super priority for Factotum if he chooses.
For the Supervisor DM, there is no question of my bias. I expect the Factotum to perform poorly. I would like someone to make sure that I am playing fair, so to speak. Plus, I enjoy running my DM material through someone. Additionally, I will be away from my books quite often, so if I need to check something, I might ask you to break out your copy of ToB or Dungeonscape.
Certainly a discussion of House Rules and "interpretations" is important. The following are my preliminary ones. If you believe something needs addressing or changing, let me know.
1) Polymorph and the Polymorph subschool are allowed.
2) Anyone claiming they can gain the spellcasting of another class for any reason, especially if that reason is polymorph will be immediately beaten to death over the internet.
3) If I as a DM feel at any time that your minions are a more appreciable threat then you yourself are, they will all turn against you as soon as there are no other enemies around. If they kill you oh well. Just keep that in mind before you pull out Diplomacy/Animate Dead/Binding.
4) You will have WBL and the treasure recovered from the encounters, you will not wish for anything or I will break you in half.
5) Assuming I am correct in saying that only the Factotum has access to the Planar Binding line of these characters, it is fully allowed, since Factotums lack the ability to bind demons of CR greater then themselves.
6) Leadership is banned.
7) Font of Inspiration for ungodly nova is a big no no. I don't care how many times you take it in the level 5 test, but you better not have more then 20 base IP at level 10 or 30 at 15.
8) These are tests of the classes in question, a certain amount of dipping is generally normal, but will be discouraged as much as possible. Factotum should be all Factotum, the Ardent should be either all Ardent, or Psionic casting PrCs (yes, slayer is fine). Warblade could dip around quite effectively, but I'm going to ask for full Warblade levels only. Shugenja can take any full caster PrC it qualifies for. Unless it qualifies for Shadowcraft Mage in which case it can't.
9) As per a (currently) 5-0 vote with one abstaining, Item Familiars are banned as well.
32 PB for stats, WBL. Anything else you need to know, just tell me.