D&D 5E A Mess of OP Characters (magic items, rest mechanics, etc.)

[Retreater]

Let me give you the run-down of the situation, and maybe we can figure out some kind of a solution.

TL;DR - My group consists of 7 players, are fully loaded with powerful magic items, and face only 1-2 encounters per day. All of these elements are against the design intent for 5e.

• We have 7 players because there are three families involved. I can't "uninvite" people to pare down the group - as these are all friends.
• The players are mostly between ages 13-19. They enjoy showing off their power. And they're pretty much murder hobos.
• We played through OAR: Isle of Dread, which handed out gold and magic items Willy-Nilly. (Because, you know, there's absolutely no guidance for this in 5e.)
• Wanting to cash in their gold and buy magic items, we used the Level Up "Trials and Treasure" book for prices. (Because, you know, there's absolutely no guidance for this in 5e.)
• So now there are characters running around with very potent magic items (a Wand of Reverse Gravity - for example), which can basically one-shot an encounter.
• And the way the adventure is set-up (Necropolis by Frog God Games/Necromancer), there's no way to conceivably do a half dozen or so adventures a day (a barren wasteland, small towns, etc.)

I don't even mind that they're OP. However, I'm now getting complaints from players that they don't do anything. The caster comes in and wipes out any encounter in a single turn. People barely get an attack roll. "It's a waste of time to even roll Initiative.")

They are 6th level, easily stomping through an adventure for 6-8 9th level characters. Even without the magic items, I honestly don't think they'd be having much difficulty. And it's not like it has to be hardcore mode - I just don't want them getting bored, which is something they're telling me.

What can be done? I'm assuming that Necropolis won't take much time - we're past the midpoint of the book's adventure content after three sessions. I'd rather not add big house rules midway through an adventure. Maybe it's best to think about what should be done next?

I'm just at a loss here and want to give these kids the best time I can.

 

[J-H]

1. Check the Rules. Make sure your casters aren't mis-reading spells to have them do more than they can do, double-casting leveled spells on their turn ("Sorcerer is OP, double-casting Fireball"). Be sure to force Concentration checks and not forget about them.

2. You are beyond the design scope of the adventure in terms of resources available to the party - not just with magic items, but also with action economy (7 actions/rd instead of 4) and options. You need to re-write the adventure, and/or pick something higher level next time.
-Use terrain (cover, distance, difficult terrain between ranged enemies and the party, DARKNESS and light - you can't cast most spells at targets you can't see)
-Spread enemies out so they aren't in Fireball formation
-Have enemies arrive in waves
-Give enemies more HP, more attacks, and options, etc. The 5 headed hydra is now a 9-headed cryohydra with 30' line breaths that each do 3d6 damage, Con save half.
-Prevent them from resting un-interrupted. It doesn't have to be an attack...it can just be mud, swarms of mosquitos, and loud noises in the night.

 

[Oofta]

There are several options I can think of off the top of my head in no particular order

1. Use the alternate rest rules, a short rest is overnight and a long rest is a week or whatever variation works. Others just require a safe haven to get a long rest.
2. Take away some, if not all, of their toys. They get robbed blind, they get captured and stripped of items and must escape, a magic-eater variant of a rust monsters comes along.
3. Ignore the CR guidelines and just throw more things at them until they are challenged.
4. Make custom versions of monsters to make them more difficult. You can add HP (I sometimes max out HP) but I'm more likely to give monsters a bonus to hit and increase damage. Consider giving some of the enemies legendary resistance. Play around with what works for you and switch it up.
5. Related to the last point, most intelligent creatures (and many unintelligent ones) have ranged attacks, or at least ways to affect PCs that fly or tend to hide in the back.
6. Throw monsters in waves. Some of those waves can be lower level, some can be illusions.
7. Have monsters attack from multiple directions.
8. Throw lurker monsters that don't make their existence known at first. There are some, like gargoyles, that are pretty much impossible to detect ahead of time.
9. Split the party, even if it's just temporary. Have the floor collapse, a cave-in, a door that auto-closes.
10. Have opponents with counterspell - this honestly isn't my favorite tactic because I think counterspell is boring, but a list without it would be incomplete.
11. Consider rebooting with the lessons you've learned.
12. Talk to the group and get ideas from them since they know it's an issue.

Running a large group is tough, you're going to have to play around a bit to balance things out. For wealth I start with a general guideline someone made long ago. The magic item limits seem about right to me but the GP amounts given at higher levels are far too high for me unless we're doing significant OOC expenditures like castles or funding a revolution.

 

[Mallus]

I think you can fix a lot by redesigning the encounters. More opponents, more opponent actions, etc. Consider giving bigger bads lair or legendary actions, even if they're technically not big or bad enough to get them. This is going to make combats more complicated and slower. Slower is probably unavoidable if you're trying to challenge a group of seven.

I'd focus on more elaborate set-piece encounters and stop using smaller attrition encounters. Attrition battles still take time, and often end before all the PCs in a large group get a turn.

 

[payn]

Too many players. You need to break the group into two and get another GM. That will help immensely with the folks not getting to do anything issue. Also, it will make GM creating challenges easier for the smaller groups too. I know you dont want to hear that, but its my best advice.

 

[mamba]

We played through OAR: Isle of Dread, which handed out gold and magic items Willy-Nilly. (Because, you know, there's absolutely no guidance for this in 5e.)

At first I thought you were joking for the adventure not following those rules, but your next item makes me think you meant it... see Xanathar's Awarding Magic Items

Wanting to cash in their gold and buy magic items, we used the Level Up "Trials and Treasure" book for prices. (Because, you know, there's absolutely no guidance for this in 5e.)

DMG, the Magic Item Rarity table also has price ranges

And the way the adventure is set-up (Necropolis by Frog God Games/Necromancer), there's no way to conceivably do a half dozen or so adventures a day (a barren wasteland, small towns, etc.)

Don't know the adventure (apart from reading the description), but I expected the majority of it to be in, well, a tomb / pyramid. So do you not manage to get that many encounters in then? Worst case, make them bigger encounters (higher CR, more monsters) rather than more. I also thought there would be traps etc., The description sounded like it was meant to be challenging, so I am surprised it is such a cakewalk.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Looks like them being OP has nothing to do with it as the caster obviates everything -- which is exactly the design intent for 5e.

 

[mamba]

You are beyond the design scope of the adventure in terms of resources available to the party - not just with magic items, but also with action economy (7 actions/rd instead of 4) and options. You need to re-write the adventure, and/or pick something higher level next time.

is he ? "Necropolis is designed for a party of 6–8 seasoned characters starting between 7th and 9th level and will challenge even the most experienced players."

Given the level range I assume we are talking about this one

Necropolis 2021

“I will say his name just this once and only whisper it. The name of this evil one is . . . Rahotep." So says the priest of Thoth, beseeching your aid. Something has awakened within the ancient Necropolis in the Harh-Ahu-Ra Hills. Have you the courage to venture there and rid the land at last of...

www.froggodgames.com

 

[mamba]

Looks like them being OP has nothing to do with it as the caster obviates everything -- which is exactly the design intent for 5e.

This seems to be your bias showing, the adventure is designed for 5e and a group that size, or at a minimum should be given its description

 

[dave2008]

So @Retreater as I have mentioned several times before: if you want fewer encounters then those encounters need to hit harder. Solving this problem mostly solves the problem of people not having things to do. I see two easy options off the top of my head:

1. You can of course reconfigure the encounters to do this. 7 lvl 6 PCs should be able to take on two encounters in the 14-20,000 XP range per day (note this is more than deadly, 8,400, but in line with daily XP budgets). I would see how that works before adjusting encounters for your tricked-out group. Then just add or reduce XP as needed.
2. Use the LevelUp "elite" monster template to make some the monsters tougher. Essentially one elite is equal to two regular monsters (and award 2x XP). To create an elite quickly, double its hit points and give some variation of one traits below
3. You can also replace lower CR monsters with higher CR ones to the same effect as #2 So if the adventure calls for a solo Young Red Dragon (5,900 XP), actually a solo Adult Red Dragon (18,000 XP) is more appropriate.

If you go with option two or three you can achieve option #1 depending on how many monsters you upgrade.

Sample Elite Traits:
Elite Recovery. At the end of each of its turns, the monster ends one negative effect currently affecting it. It can do so as long as it has at least 1 hit point, even while unconscious or incapacitated .

Bloodied Recovery. When the monster is first reduced to half its hit points, the monster ends all negative effects currently affecting it. It can do so as long as it has at least 1 hit point, even while unconscious or incapacitated .