Help! Is my player cheating?

[Unwise]

Could you explain how this guys character works? I just sound as if he is basically playing two characters at once. Is he just getting double the move and standard actions of everybody else?

Do you think that his using a 3rd edition book in a 4th edition game was an honest mistake? Is it reasonable that he did not realise that none of the stats matched up to the standards and were written in a different format? Is it possible there was a miscommunication, or did he conceal the fact that the race is from another game entirely?

If I felt that a player had lied to me or at least taken advantage of my inexperience with a system, in order to make a character that is twice as good as a normal one, I would be fairly heavy handed in response.

 

[mentle]

Pretty much he is getting double move and actions. I don't feel his intent was malicious, I just think he liked the twins idea. he had also never played 4e, so he was basing his original design off of what he knew from 3.5

 

[S'mon]

If you really want to house-rule & allow this PC, you need to use the accepted 4e action economy system that is used for eg Rangers with Beast Companions. Basically his 'PC' only gets one standard, move & minor action total, he can move both twins with a single move action, but only one can attack per standard action, unless he is using the special racial encounter power which lets both attack at once. That needs to be no more powerful than a normal racial power, it should be about as powerful as a normal encounter power, so I would suggest it should be restricted to a basic attack by each twin.

All this should have been dealt with before the character entered play. Unless it's a solo game, all the other players with their one PC each are being badly screwed over, this guy has effectively been getting to play 2 PCs.

 

[Ryujin]

If you really want to house-rule & allow this PC, you need to use the accepted 4e action economy system that is used for eg Rangers with Beast Companions. Basically his 'PC' only gets one standard, move & minor action total, he can move both twins with a single move action, but only one can attack per standard action, unless he is using the special racial encounter power which lets both attack at once. That needs to be no more powerful than a normal racial power, it should be about as powerful as a normal encounter power, so I would suggest it should be restricted to a basic attack by each twin.

All this should have been dealt with before the character entered play. Unless it's a solo game, all the other players with their one PC each are being badly screwed over, this guy has effectively been getting to play 2 PCs.

Or you consider him to be playing two characters and divide experience accordingly, then give him only one share to advance his "character."

Or, as stated above, you have him make a legal character.

 

[mentle]

Lots of great ideas. Thanks

 

[On Puget Sound]

4e primal summons spells (eg Giant Toad) do break the action economy with their Instinctive Actions. Pretty badly. Especially with a toad and a crocodile in the same fight. At least they are dailies, so you can't do it forever.

Some arcane summons also have automatic actions, but they come with a penalty of some sort. "Also, you fall prone." And they are dailies too.

I concur - shared action pool, with perhaps an encounter racial power that allows a double attack, and maybe a daily modeled after one of the Sentinel druid or Beastmaster ranger dailies (these powers should replace, not add to, others on his power list).

 

[Umbran]

Here's something to note, from Dvati (4e Race) - D&D Wiki

"Both twins have the same number of hit points but if one gets hit, it detracts from both. "

Which, as I read it, means that the character has *one* pool of hit points - hits on either body do damage to that pool. Area of effect spells become very nasty, as he effectively takes double damage if both bodies are caught in the area. Similarly, while he can dish out twice as many attacks in a round, he can be targeted by twice as many as a normal character.

 

[SensoryThought]

It's not cheating if the DM allows it.

That said, it can be important to reevaluate PC power levels if one PC is significantly more powerful than the others AND it is interfering with their enjoyment. Talking to the player out of game in a way they are part of the solution has worked well for me.

I had that issue in my game where I gave a defender PC a magic item that gave him more damage output than the strikers. My own fault, but I still ended up having to fix it by moving the adventure temporarily to another plane where the item didn't function until I caught the other strikers up.

Personally I try to work within the character builder and DDI system as much as possible as balance is one thing 4e does fairly well.

 

[Obryn]

I think that my feel of cheating has come from his two turns per round. I've been allowing him to treat each body as a separate entity. So if I restrict him to using his actions on either/or character, out should retain the balance

Um yeah. Two turns per round is broken as all get-out.

I'll echo the folks who urge you to handle it out-of-game.

-O

 

[Istar]

I am a fairly new dm, and so perhaps I do not have the familiarity with all the classes and abilities available; but I feel pretty comfortable on base mechanics and knowledge.

With that being said, I believe that one of my newly joined players may be cheating. The reason I don't just call him out is that I think he might just be miscalculating damage. He has never played 4.0 and I have never really played anything else.

Is it feasible that the way he is calculating damage is simply misguided, or is cheating more the reality?

Any input is appreciated.

Is he opening his mouth ?