Unbalanced Groups... reports please...

Rashak Mani · Apr 29, 2002

Do you have a campaign where you have too many of the same class ? A group full of fighter types and no mage ? Or 3 Mages on the same group ?

Then tell us if it was sucessful... what class was overrepresented ... why or why not ... advantages.. different tactics ... funny problems due to this group unbalanced makeup.

3rd Edition afterall does seem to make group equilibrium that much more important than previous editions...

Myself we had a 3 multiclass clerics in group of 4 ... appropriately called Brothers in Arms... even thou it was 2nd Ed. healing was no problem... we tended to use a lot of level boosting spells in order to make the top cleric able to cast higher level spells. In the morning the Barbarian like fighter always complained about his "colleagues" meditating all the time !!

The other group was all fighters + 1 Cleric (died early) + 1 Rogue + 1 Paladin !! Needless to say healing was a major problem and hassle. No mages for brains and Know Arcana !

Victim · Apr 29, 2002

For several months, our group had a wizard, a sorcerer, a cleric and a fighter. Boom!

Sodalis · Apr 29, 2002

for several months, we had a group with a powerful rogue/ftr (bow maniac and combat skills oriented) a sorc, ftr and barb. Very combat oriented, but hell to deal with outside of combat. thats because we do little Rping- DM flavor. I tried RPing once, and was dinged by the Dm- so just stop altogether- i swapped to cleric (i was the barb)

i think the only lop-sided group that can survive would be a group of all clerics. FP armor, good HP, saves, and spells.

Within the class, theer can be a lot of spread, a healer, a warpriest (with high con can have a lot of HP), a evoc man, and a necromancer. All the bases covered...

Thanee · Apr 29, 2002

Our current party is not really unbalanced, but there are a lot of characters with similar or even equal religious background.

LG Paladin of Heironeous
LG Cleric of Heironeous
LG Monk/Psion also from the church of Heironeous
NG Fighter/Templar of Kord
NG Sorcerer/Wizard/Loremaster
CG Rogue/Wizard/Arcane Trickster (that's me)

The church of Heironeous has become a central point in our campaign, due to the big focus in our party. Besides the religious focus, we have a great deal of combat capability in this group, also due to the really awesome magical weapons some of us aquired during the campaign.

We are taking turns DMing, and when I am the DM (the DM's character does not usually take part in the current adventure) the skill capabilities of the party drop considerably, which does produce a bigger inbalance then!

Bye
Thanee

Crothian · Apr 29, 2002

I love unbalanced parties. I had a group with a ranger, a barbarian, a fighter, a rogue, and a bard. I was a little devilish, I not only allowed, but encouraged people to use wisdom as a dump stat and also allowed them to lower it to increase another attribute of their choice. They got up to 6th level not having to face any will saves. That's when they got taken out but a single 6th level gnome wizard. He casts slow, eveyone failed and it just went down hill from there. The purpose was not to kill, but to humiliate. THe party was tough in melle combat. They took out things 3 or 4 crs higher then they should, if they went toe to toe against it. Of course, the healing was a big problem.

ErichDragon · Apr 30, 2002

My current group consists of fighter, fighter, druid, bard, ranger, rog/sorc. The noticeable lack of a cleric hasn't affected them that much yet. It is important to me, as DM, to scale the campaign to the characters. If there is no wizard in the group then I won't hinge adventures on arcane knowledge checks. If there were no druids or rangers then the wilderness would not be the setting for the majority of adventures. I also think character diversity takes away from character development. Let me explain: If an average Roleplayer is playing the only Ranger in the group he is more likely than not to simply derive his characters personality from his class. Druids are a perfect example of this stereotyping character personality.

The campaign that I had the most fun playing my character, and enjoying the other players playing their characters, was a Champions Western Hero campaign where every one of us was a gunslinger. We had to come up with detailed and unique ways to differentiate our characters, and as a result we had detailed and unique character personalities. I continually try to talk my players into creating a group of all human fighters, but they tend to love their stupid demi-humans and spellcasters.

jollyninja · Apr 30, 2002

ok, the makeup of my current group is a cavalier/paladin, a living blade (quintessential fighter), a tempest/paladin, and a deepwoods sniper. no magic, no really smart people with lots of knowledge skills, just pure 100% butt kicking goodness.

rarely does it come up that we need healing because frankly we tend to kill everything fairly quickly. the key to such a party is getting in good with the local temple and stocking up on healing potions and the like. our downfall actually has been traps. we miss a rogue more then we miss fireballs blazing through our enemies lines or healing.

Rowenstin · Apr 30, 2002

Groups with lots of warrior types tend to work very well. I DMed one with cleric, barbarian, fighter and ranger. The ranger was a good scout, the cleric dealed with magical threats (with break echantment, dispel magic and circles of protection, they don´t feared so much magical attacks) and all the warriors can dish out awesome amounts of damage when power attack really starts to weight. They never missed the mage or the rogue.

JohnClark · Apr 30, 2002

We're going to be starting a campaing next semester with a half/celstial paladin of torm who doesn't know he's half celestial, but is 67 and looks 20

, two twin psions, one with all telepathy and one with all telekenis, a wizard shadowvar with amnesia, and a sorcerer who's befriended him. It's gonna be alot of fun.

Roland Delacroix · Apr 30, 2002

I'm taking a break DMing and one of my players is running a game for a while. We are all playing different types of psions. Since i'm the savant i'll be the best melee guy we have. I'm looking forward too it and post our adventures later.