well, if he's taking 3 rounds to buff then he's definitely going to have some advantages. There is also more ways to fight then just going for his AC. Theres touch attacks, will saves (which the other party members will find easier) and grappling. I wouldn't be too concerned with them dominating encounters early, though if they are having TOO easy of a time you can add in a couple extra baddies or improve them a bit with the fast rules in the back of the bestiary. Give them a bit of boost (+4 to ac and CMD, +2 to all rolls including damage rolls and ability DCs and an extra 2hp per die)
you could try making fights where they don't necessarily have time to buff with ambushes, but you want to be careful not to overdo it. Intelligent enemies WILL go after casters if possible though, a few fights of the casters realizing they need to protect themselves first instead of buffing the fighter, or a few fights of failing spell DCs (concentration checks are difficult at lower levels) might discourage the practice.
That being said you don't want to punish them for using good tactics or going into battle prepared, just make sure your npcs are also fighting intelligently :)
Make sure the -2 penalty for an inappropriate sized weapon is being applied. His weapon is still the wrong size, even if using enlarge person.
How do you as a GM feel about the character concept?
Do you like the character?
Is the mechanical disparity with the other players your only concern?
I think if you answered these questions, it might help us better advise you. I know it would help me..
Swarms are a really good equalizer against melee types. Use them, as the spellcasters in the group are so much more effective against them, they have to focus on the swarm as opposed to buffing the big guy. And mix up your enemies. The swarm could have been summoned by an evil wizard who sent out his dire bear pets ahead to fight the party while he summons other critters and his guard captain mounts the ballista on top of the tower. Make your players overcome many different problems in one encounter, and more characters will have their moments to shine.
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But before you start designing encounters just to beat him down (making things even) -- Talk To Him!
Let him know how overpowered he has become and that to make things fair for everyone the two of you have to work together to find a reasonable solution.
It's probably going to be as easy as him getting rid of his too large of a weapon and getting one an appropriate size. But, whatever, talk to him.
But I don't recommend treating the situation as some kind of penalty against him -- he didn't do anything wrong. Sometimes it just happens.
If one PC ends up being a little too weak or a little too strong the Player and DM have to resolve it together to make it balanced, fair.
Just for the record. With the current rules, he can't use that weapon. So it has to be a Medium Greatsword apropriate to his size.
I fail to see the problem. The character designed to smash stuff doth smash stuff. A Barbarian3/Wizard1 can't do a whole lot other than smash stuff. Barbarians are supposed to have a ton of HP and deal copious amounts of damage. That's their job.
Meanwhile, the other folks in the group? They have vast and powerful abilities that aren't centered on damage per hit or hit point totals. The Summoner has a small army on speed dial (which ultimately means she can bring a lot more hit points to the fight than the dwarf), and they all have their utility belts full of their own, considerably more powerful spells.
Also, mind that the glory shot doesn't mean you're doing the most. If the Sorcerer casts Grease and keeps three orcs off the dwarf's flank, that's a big deal, even though she's not directly killing something. Ultimately, magic isn't very efficient for more direct entry into the murder industry, unless you have summoning or something to get in there indirectly. If you're comparing a big sword to Magic Missile? Of course the sword's going to look good in comparison. Magic Missile just isn't very efficient.
Just help the other party members figure out how best to bring their considerable powers to bear; they should be more than able to stand next to this dwarf with little trouble.
Also, how is this dwarf wielding a large greatsword? Because a medium dwarf can't wield a large greatsword at all by default. It'd take Monkey Grip (in which case, his AB suffers a lot; and do note that lucky dice don't invalidate his eating a lot of AB penalties) or Strongarm Bracers or something.
I'm just not really seeing much evidence that he's even significantly more powerful than the others in the party, unless he's getting that large greatsword without penalties or costs (which would be against the rules).
At low levels it's going to be hard for casters to out-damage a melee build. Maybe instead of working at having the one character be less effective, we could help the other PCs to make more of an impact on combats.
Sorcerer
Round1: Cast summon monster II
Round2: Cast Flaming sphere + summoned monster Full attacks and provides flanking
Round3: Attack w/flaming sphere + summoned monster attacks + cast something else
Summoner
Round1: Cast summon monster II, Large Eidolon charges+full attacks (pounce evolution)
Round2: Cast Haste, Eidolon + summoned monster attack w/flanking
Oracle?
Haven't tried this class yet
Well it seems that the problem is that this character is too effective compared to his companions. But mind that it's only in melee when buffed.
Where are all these resources coming from? Is the group pooling on this character? If they do then it's just very effective teamwork. If not, how do they feel about the situation?
Otherwise, if that player is using his own spells to buff up, how can he pull it off for every combat?
1st level wizards have one 1st level slot, plus bonus spells and possibly the extra arcane bond casting. What's his int mod? That would be 3 spells per day unless he has a 20 INT(cantrips aside).
Enlarge + Mage Armor + Shield = After the first real combat he should be out of mojo.
Is he using wands or scrolls? If he is, does he adhere to WBL? Why aren't the other players using some as well?
I must also ask; could it be that the other players are not playing their classes to their full potential and thus seem weak in comparison?
They're all casters. They should have more and higher level spells. The druid has wild shape, possibly an AC, and the summoner has his eidolon to back them up in melee.
Are they focused on dealing HP damage too? Why? What about battlefield control or buff/debuffing? Save or Die spells?
Just some ideas really.
It's true mate, I fail to see the problem. Except for the fact he is using a weapon he couldn't possibly wield there is nothing wrong with it. Your math is a little off actually.
If his Strength Enlarged is 20, when he rages he goes to 24 that's a +7 bonus so his damage should read 3d6+13 with Power attack. That's quite a lot, sure, but that's what he is supposed to do anyhow.
As stated, he cannot use the greatsword as written.
aside from that, he's spending 3 rounds buffing, and casts 3 1st level spells doing so. He cannot do that at first level without his scrolls,which is expensive over time, or without him being a specialist.
In any case waiting three rounds for him to do anything can be hazardous to his health.
If you need to make challenges for the group, you could start negating his advantages. Small spaces mean that he can't do squat. a fight on a 5 foot wide staircase for instance, or on a 5 foot wide balcony.
Have villains retreat though a small door.
Overrun him. throw a swarm at him, or a lot of small creatures. He won't be pulling out components/scrolls and casting while he has to whittle away at his flankers for a few rounds.
or try the pathfinder spell: burning disarm. I love this and have a lot of fun ruining melee classes with it. On the same note, 4th level wizards can toss out invisibility, web, heck..shatter would take care of the sword handilly enough. Otherwise reduce person and grease also slow your behemoth down.
To be fair though, he is a melee guy, and should be allowed to dominate a battlefield. Hurl a similiar large creature at him and get it grappling if you need to slow him down a bit. Or with his horrid AC (+4 shield, +4 Mage armour, -2 rage, -1 siz + whatever dex ends up as) isn't far from 15, 4 second level barbarians could wage serious threatage against him in his enlarged state, if only for a round or two.
Lastly...his spells will run out. after one minute the shield and the enlarge person are gone. after an hour the mage armour is gone.
In short. he has a good tactic for a single fight. You can slow him down by making his size work against him, or deplete resources in smaller skirmishes. an equal leveled opponent theoretically should be able to take him with appropriate gear, tactics and statline.
Batts
Yeah, Large Greatsword is not legal as per the rules, however you could get by with a large Bastard Sword (which would give you a 2d8 base damage at medium size and 3d8 when enlarged). This is what the description of Amiri seems to use although Paizo never seems to stat her up as that.
Honestly I don't have that many problems with this build. Against certain type of foes this character will definitely rock for a while (1 minute per level) but it's a limited use tactic.
There are obviously several problems with this tactic, against high AC foes the character is going to whiff an increased number of times (-1 to hit from size, -2 from oversized weapon) which negates a good amount of the high strength + rage for the character. It also means that he can't power attack nearly as much.
Another problem is that even as a barbarian he's somewhat slow (20 speed + 10 fast movement) as he's a dwarf. This means that in theory opponents could play keep away.
Large Characters can also be problematic in dungeon settings as corners and squeezing rules can mean that the dwarf cannot pursue effectively.
Finally the character is definitely going to be lagging behind as he goes forward. He's never going to be a good wizard (and Barbarian/Wizard means he's suffering MAD like crazy) and enlarge person + huge weapon beat stick routine is crazy powerful early on but loses utility latter on as the pure casters get multiple SOS or SoD spells.
In the short term use lots of mooks doing 20+ damage isn't as big of a deal if most creatures have 10-12 HP. The dwarf is just doing overkill. Ranged opponents are also useful.
I just have to agree with the majority here. It seems like maybe the other players just are not living up to their own potential.
Yeah, as long as you get the math stuff fixed and size situation fixed, it is what it is. He shouldn't be punished for his concept.
I agree with W E Ray here. Everyone needs to get on the same page.
To everyone who says there is no problem, I disagree. The GM obviously feels there is a problem or he would not have asked for help. To tell him to just suck it up will likely burn him out and/or turn him off to running. To tell all the other players to 'step up', forcing them to change their playing style to match one other player seems a bit…selfish.
I repeat, talk to the player(s). Get everyone on the same page as far as expectations and creative agendas. No one is 'wrong', you just need to find a compromise that makes everyone happy including the GM.
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The problem isn't the character's tactics, it's not the character, it's the DM's choice of encounters. It's a solid build, but way too one dimensional and ripe for exploitation.
What he is doing doesn't work for most fights.
As mentioned, he can't use the large greatsword, so that's less damage.
Also as mentioned, doing this takes three rounds, and only lasts for a minute. Don't give him time to buff up, or draw out the fight with hit and run tactics.
Also as mentioned, he can't do this more than once per day if he's using spell slots, or twice a day even with wands and scrolls to power him up. Have two slightly above level fights with dangerous melee, to tempt him into blowing his powers, then one more big fight - push him and he'll fall apart.
Also as mentioned, he has absolutely nothing to do agaisnt ranged characters. This also applies to mobile characters - throw a melee group with spring attack at him, and have a bard or wizard along to cast expeditious retreat on on them before the fight. After all, if he can buff outside of combat, so can they.
Final note: He might be using the Monkey Grip feat as a way of wielding this weapon. It's a 3.5 feat, and not all that good, but really popular among players who think "damage = all" (he probably also thinks "hit points = all" for defense, right?). If that's the case, his attack has to be something around +5, instead of the +10 a more balanced warrior would have. I'd suggest throwing a single 5th level Dwarven Fighter at him, in full plate and with a tower shield. Stick this guy on the middle (neither bottom nor top) of a straight flight of stairs, and put a pair of 2nd level archers on top shooting at the party. Watch his one attack per round miss on a 19 and enjoy.
To everyone who says there is no problem, I disagree. The GM obviously feels there is a problem or he would not have asked for help. To tell him to just suck it up will likely burn him out and/or turn him off to running. To tell all the other players to 'step up', forcing them to change their playing style to match one other player seems a bit…selfish.
Problems in personal perceptions and actual in game problems are not the same. A low leve barbarian should out damage an oracle, druid and sorceror. Not sure about the summoner, I guess it depends on how the eidolon is built (though they dont hit their stride untill later levels).
These other characters fill other roles. A barbarian3/wizard 1 should enlarge and hit things hard. Its what he's supposed to do. It would be like saying the rogue is problematic because he can disable traps but the other party memebers cant.
Hey guys.... thank you for all the hints.
You were right. he is using a Langsword. Greatsword was wrong.
And he is using wands to buff himself.I never wanted to punish my player. I just have to deal with the situation, that some of my first encounteres were quite short because of the Barbarian/wizard.
Two hits and the owlsbear was gone....Melee monsters with CR4 have fewer HP and a lower damage output than this single charakter.
We play "Red Hand of Doom". It feels like I have to changes most encounters. A am thankful for each good idea to do this.
Every other battle or so, or every 3 battles, add a monster or two to every encounter, and have the rumor go around that he is the leader of the group and must be killed so that more flock to him - I played Red Hand of Doom and I recall some of the encounters were pretty weak. ;-)