Hi,
I'm an medium experienced DM with focus on storytelling but plaqued by power gamers in the group (currently Level 8, DnD 3.5)
. Powergamers not by power character building but by "creative using of magic" in combat which i can not easily match due to lack of experience (or skill
).
You have some great questions, that show you have a very creative group. I try to reward creative thinking with experience points just like I award xp for overcoming encounters and not just for defeating them in combat. My suggestion to you is that you make a ruling based on what you believe is logical, tell the players as soon as the ruling is made what it is, and then be consistent in enforcing it for both PCs and NPCs.
Your players might not like the ruling, but as long as they are notified of it and you are consistent in enforcing it for EVERYONE, then they must either go along or get along
. As a DM, I see myself as the referee between the players and the monsters/NPCs, even though I am the one that has written the encounters, I try to be fair and not arbitrary or too much in favor of one side or the other.
Some players will hunt the internet, looking for cheesy or broken things in the game and try to convince you to allow them, you are the DM though, and it is your option to refuse. If the PCs figure out a "broken" tactic, in spite of your rulings or because of them, that they use all the time to kill monsters and NPCs, there is absolutely no reason your NPCs and monsters can't hear of this "new strategy" and use it against the players.
In Living Greyhawk, the war between blasphemy and holy word got pretty ridiculous for a while making clerics a nuclear bomb in an otherwise normal combat. Both the mod writers and the senior players eventually had to agree that they would not "abuse" these spells along with DSP and items that boosted casting level.
I prefer to remove the cheese whenever I find it in my games, I purposefully do not give it to the encounters and try to be preemptive in not letting PCs have any either, I just like my games without a bunch of rules lawyering and loopholes, my personal preference. If the players whine too much, I just ask them if they would like me to make the encounters as cheesy as I think their character is, which usually ends the discussion and we can get back to gaming and RPing.
Best of luck to you, and hopefully your players will respect that you are the DM and the moderator of the game and that what you say goes. If they do not, you really do not want that person as a gamer.
Athos
