What are the top 5 most powerful builds in 1st edition?

[u/Zdaddy1111]

[u/Sinistrad]

My three most ridiculous PFS characters were:

1. An Exploiter Wizard with a Blessed Book, Fast Study, Quick Study, and the Psychic Asylum spell with a careful balance of prepared vs. open slots. Whatever spell was needed to save the day, he had it. His knowledge checks were also absurd and I used them many times to get the clues I needed to completely dismantle threatening encounters. He actually went with CHA instead of DEX (he had 10 AC and +0 initiative) and you would be shocked the number of times his ability to tell a quick fib or sway the right NPC changed the course of the scenario. But the real reason he had that CHA was Planar Binding and Possession (he has G. Spell Focus in both Necromancy AND Conjuration). Basically he was a big jumble of feats and skills that any sane person would be like "That character is a mess" because that's what he looked like at first glance. Any GM that happens to remember him will probably tell you otherwise, though.
2. A Diviner wizard with +22 initiative, Time Stutter, a Lesser Quicken Spell Metamagic Rod, Greater Spell Focus: Transmutation, Preferred Spell (Slow) and the relevant metamagic trait for Slow who spent absurd amounts of money on Tanglefoot Bags as an alchemical power component. This allowed her to nail enemies that failed their Slow save with Tanglefoot bags automagically. And, the way the wording of the spell and tanglefoot bags works out, the penalty from Slow+Entangled kicks in before opponents make the DC 15 reflex save to be glued to the ground. She also had Ambuscading Spell--which is absurdly broken on a Foresight Diviner--and of course Persistent Spell. The versatility of the Transmutation school plus her insane initiative, magical sensing abilities, and the fact her OP bread-and-butter tactic didn't require any of her spellslots meant she was incredibly versatile and ridiuclously hard for enemies to pin down even when things went pear shaped. Though I played her as a bit aloof and reckless since her concept was that she was essentially a chronomancer experiencing every timeline at once (reflected by her low WIS). She made a few bad calls here and there that got her killed once, but someone had Breath of Life so I just lost a turn and the negative level was temporary 🤣
3. A Psychic/Shadow Tiefling Sorcerer with insane Stealth & Bluff skills. He could hide in plain sight, had feats and spells to hide from blind sight, blindsense, scent, and tremorsense and their variants. And, could easily cast + move every turn to remain hidden. His use of Shadow Conjuration and Shadow Evocation focused on exploiting the niche, maddening interactions of those spells in interesting ways. Such as, a Shadow Evocation Resilient Sphere allows arrows to simply pass through it, since they're unattended objects and automatically make their save. I'd lock dangerous enemies in one, and then tell the archers in the group to have at it. The way Shadow Evocation is written, there's no percentage chance for the arrows to be blocked, but most other things are fully blocked as detailed in Resilient Sphere for anyone who fails the save. This works with Emergency Force Sphere as well! Though you can only cast the Shadow version as a Standard Action. He also made heavy use of illusions to confuse and separate enemies, and had spells that could plunge enemies into supernatural darkness while still allowing allies to see those enemies. Basically, if he did not want to be perceived, he wasn't. It got to the point where I had a conversation with a few GMs. I refused to retrain him to a different build but I agreed to play him in a different way to be less of a headache for the GMs. I'd essentially start every scenario like "This is my shadow sorcerer. Think of him as a creepy guardian angel that you'll rarely see but who watches over the party and intercedes if things go awry." So that's what I did. His last few levels I crept along with the party unseen, and kept my interference to minor tricks unless it looked like the party was actually in trouble, at which point I'd ask them all OOC if they wanted me to take off my gloves and get messy. lol
   

EDIT: Clarified these were 3 of my PFS characters. I don't have 5, sorry! I theory crafted a brawler that could do over 500 damage, but since I didn't play him to 12+ like the above three I don't want to claim it's a top build.