Suggestions on balance

[KarmicCannon]

I am currently playing a fighter with 3 others in the group(Cleric, Wizard, Rogue). We are playing just Pathfinder CRB, and all of us are level 5 right now. The problem my DM is having is balancing encounters so that they will be fun/challenging for everyone.

From what I've seen the past few sessions our GM has been trying to counter my damage output with stronger creatures. While this creates a challenging fight for me, it leaves the 3 other players behind. The cleric generally ends up just healing/buffing me and the rogue and wizard try to attack or cast spells but rarely succeed due to the high DC to hit. Also because the monsters have become so strong if one of the other players with lower AC's/HD's actually gets attacked they usually will get knocked unconscious with 1-2 hits.

I feel as though when we were all level 1 this wasn't an issue, but as my fighter levels he just gets exponentially better in combat. I am wanting to try to give suggestions on balancing before I hit level 6 and then start to get 2 attacks per round instead of just 1.

I have tried doing research on these forums about balancing. From what I could find the general idea is that instead of having 1-2 super powered monsters that exhaust the group entirely... there should be several fights, throughout the session, of lower level "easy" monsters. One example I saw suggested something like:

2-4 CR -2 player level encounters
1-3 CR player level encounters
0-1 CR +2 player level encounters
1 CR +4 player level encounters

The only thing about this setup is the current problems would still exist when we got to the CR +4 encounter, and the lower CR encounters (assuming it is a group of lower levels) I could most likely just use Great Cleave and hit multiple targets each turn to deal with them quickly.

As it stands I seem to be the most unbalanced relative to the rest of the group. Currently with a 52 HP / 24 AC / 13 AB / 1d12 + 9

Any suggestions I can relay to my DM would be helpful! I am almost to the point that, even though I love the endurance and damage output of my fighter.. I might try to get my character killed off just so I can bring in something else more balanced to the other players.

p.s. Sorry this was so long!

[Unlighted]

He could add some variety to the range of attackers. It sounds like your fighter is built to be a melee powerhouse so the easiest way to limit how much damage he can dish out is to have enemies that can engage him outside of his comfort zone. Ranged attackers will still have trouble hitting him with regular attacks, but if they have some items like Alchemist Fire they'll be targeting your touch AC which bypasses a lot of your defenses.

I would advise him to avoid the single big threat approach and go with a group of average threats with one or two more dangerous foes mixed in. Your group will still be able to contribute to the fights by not requiring above average rolls just to hit something and your fighter won't hog the spotlight by being the only worthwhile threat to the enemy.

Fighters tend to be weak vs the following:
Casters- Will and Reflex saves are rather weak on a fighter if he doesn't take any steps to improve them.
Flyers- A big sword is only useful if you can introduce it to the face of the enemy. If the fighter devotes some feats to increasing his ranged potential this is less of a problem.
Touch Attacks/Effects- Once you ignore all that hard metal that usually protects a fighter from harm suddenly he's much more vulnerable. Nothing like a hungry shadow to make a fighter feel mortal again.

[Mysterious Stranger]

At early levels there is not much difference between the classes. Your stats matter more than your class for the first couple of levels. Around 4th level or so you start to see the differences in the classes become more apparent. Also not all classes are equal. The rogue is mechanically the weakest class so the power level between him and the fighter is only going to get worse. The cleric and the wizard are strong classes but there strength lies in other area not straight up combat.

Your GM’s mistake is thinking that he needs to balance things vs. the strongest member of the party instead of the average. Instead of challenging you on your strong points he should be playing of your weak points. As a fighter your weak spot is probably your will save so if he wants to challenge you add something with spell that target your will save. A hold person cast against you can easily take you out of the fight. That same spell is not going to be much trouble for the wizard or the cleric.

This will also give the other characters a chance to shine. By focusing on your strengths he is ignoring theirs. He needs to be looking at more than just AC, HP and damage for his encounters. Having more encounters that are not solved with combat will also help.

[BigDTBone]

What are your feats/stats/magic gear?, of the rogue?
What kind of spells does the wizard prepare?, the cleric?

The only player I am truly concerned about in this scenario is the rogue. He is trying to have combat effectiveness and not being able to. As a cleric buffing/support is a big role (not that they must do these things.)

It seems like the cleric should probably be buffing the rogue and flanking with him. At level 5 the wizard should be casting haste and then summoning buddies to flank with you and draw attacks. (Or the other way around so he can catch his summons in the haste.)

If you could give us a bit more specific info it may make more sense.