Designated Critter's page

And if he rolls Bugbear, Gnoll or Orc ? - you just know its going to happen ! !

I think Bob's agreed to go with a more standard race, but honestly even that would be an improvement. Without his current character's large-to-huge size and additional +6 strength bonus, his damage is going to get a little more reasonable.

I think it’s important that you mitigate his influence without it feeling like you’re punishing him...

Spot on. Yeah, the player's a great guy and was in fact the best man at my wedding. He's aware of the balance issue too and jokingly apologized when he first brought the character to the table. So we don't have any problem communicating about this.

It's more a question of how to proceed. He and I both really like the suggestion above of reincarnation, so he can keep most of his build as well as his character's subplots (my game is very character-driven and plotheavy) while taking the edge off his crazy specialization. And it gives an in-game rationalization for it instead of a GM's nerf bat. In the meantime, he can rampage away.

Very minor thing but how does he get the 8d6 base weapon damage?

Being large and able to turn huge, i can only bring it up to 6d6 (4d6 huge greatsword, add lead blades and it becomes 6d6).

It's not his base damage, it's vital strike (4d6 huge + 4d6 vital strike).

Saw Bob for lunch and proposed the reincarnation idea for when his character inevitably dies of Glass Cannon Syndrome. He's totally up for it, so problem solved--thanks, Interwebz!

First to the OP. Most was your fault adding mythic and allowing him to build a race.

Yup. I think I've already owned up to that several times in this thread but happy to own it again. It's a situation I created through a rookie mistake, and I'm not looking to lay blame on my players (who are great) but simply find a solution for moving forward.

Inform he that you are not going to pull punches, and if that means the character is killed...so be it.

Yeah, he and I had that conversation after the last session. He's a great guy and understands. (And rocket tag is the perfect analogy for what he's brought to my game.)

For our next session I'm going to take a mix of these approaches, including more small stuff, ranged stuff, weird stuff, etc. but also some monsters that can genuinely stand up to (and return) his damage. When he inevitably dies in the next few sessions, there is a druid in the party who can cast reincarnation--bringing him back as a saner race of his choosing is a great idea. That even works well for his personal subplot, since there's a human woman that he loves but can't physically be together with (due to being a large rock creature).

Thanks again to everybody for the suggestions so far! This is my first time starting a thread here and it's been a huge help.

Hope this helps

Thanks Tark (and everybody), this is a huge help.

Everything you said is pretty much standard and not minmaxed so much as not intentionally gimping yourself... except for letting him homebrew his own race. That was just asking for trouble.

Yup, definitely a rookie mistake. The size and strength bonuses he got there are what sent this out of control.

I don't know the mythic rules all that well, please break the damage down because it seems high even for a raging greatsword type character.

I don't have the full character sheet in front of me, unfortunately. The short version is that he's a player-created race from ARG rules, and that's the book I probably shouldn't have let him open.

The damage comes from power attack, a keen greatsword +2, an incredibly high strength, Mythic Vital Strike, and he's Large, but spends most combats Huge through his spell-like ability and potions. (The number quoted here is for the Huge version of his character, though the Large version still does incredible damage.)

Perhaps a re-audit is called for, but the main point I'm concerned about is the way he unbalances the damage the party can dish out versus what they can take. I wouldn't mind his damage output if he had a constitution to match.

Having more fights of lots of little guys is a good idea, I think, as well as including more ranged combat.

I might be wrong, but I don't believe additional dice are ever multiplied on a successful critical hit.

Thanks, you're right. This is my mistake in writing here, not Bob's (whose sheet has been audited by a much more knowledgeable player than I). And thank you both for the suggestions as well.

I have a new player in my first campaign as a GM, a homebrew that's been running for about fifteen sessions. The rest of the party's versatile and interesting, but my new player "Bob" went with a specialized build that's giving me trouble.

At 9th level with one mythic tier, through some extreme min/maxing (audited as legit), Bob does an 8d6+54 greatsword vital strike at +19, with a crit range of 17-20 doing 16d6 + 108 (again, this is due to mythic). But despite being the party tank, he has fewer than 100 hit points and a so-so AC, which leaves me in a bind. Any enemies capable of surviving the damage of Bob plus other party members for more than two rounds can usually retaliate with enough damage to flat-out kill Bob in return. (Bob has Die Hard, so he's on his feet swinging till death.) Bob hits like he's level 15, but takes punches like he's level 7; as he put it, he could kill a duplicate of himself in one hit without even needing a critical.

I realize I can throw in some super-specialized enemies he can't hit, complicated environments, etc. (this is what I did for his first session). But in the long-term, is there a sensible way to arrange good fights for a party who can dish out massive damage but can't take it? Or should I just ask Bob to scrap this guy and design a more balanced PC? We're all good friends, so there won't be hard feelings around the table no matter the outcome.

My group always uses them too--it gives PCs a better chance to make that one save they just HAVE to make or avoid that critical botch in the middle of a fight.

We also use villain points, but we've had a more mixed experience with those. Sometimes they can avoid having PCs drop the BBEG with a single lucky spell in the surprise round, which is good, but it can be frustrating when your PC is counting on a save-or-suck effect operating normally. Both hero and villain points affect casters disproportionately, since in our game we almost always use them for saving throws and only rarely to avoid falling off a cliff, confirming a critical hit, etc.

Once when approaching a goblin leader, my 2nd-level wizard was gambling on his last spell of Charm Person due to goblins' poor will saves; the DM villain-pointed the saving throw, got lucky the second time, and battle broke out that resulted in a TPK! Fair play on his part, we were being a bit stupid. But this is the issue that villain points introduce.