Noob DM needs additional help :) (adjusting difficulty)

[WolfOwl77]

Ok, here's the issue that I'm having. One character in my group is a dwarf fighter, he has a high ac and a lot of temp hp (15 I think is his max) but none of the other characters come close to that. So what I'm having difficulty with is creating a challenge for him that's not so overpowering to the rest of the group.

I have a climactic battle sequence I'm planning, and what I intend to do for that fight is sequester him from the rest of the party somehow, but I can't do that for every fight. I want to mix it up with some moderate fights, some challenging fights, and the occasional fight that makes the players wonder how they survived, but again this characters sheer tenacity makes that difficult without ripping the rest of the group to shreds.

Are there any tips, or monsters, that might help me with this conundrum?
Appreciation in advance guys

 

[Sunseeker]

Is he the tank? Is this 4e and is he marking enemies?

He sounds like a tank, and if that's the case, treat him like one. My assumption is the rest of the guys are strikers and support classes, so don't mob them. A fight doesn't have to be even with who's hitting who. 6 guys can pile on the tank, and one or two other guys can go after the other PCs.

 

[talarei07]

marking monsters keep the fighter occupied or less effective, attacks that target other defenses are also good in my group we have a fighter with a 21 or 22 ac but things targeting his ref hit almost automatically also things that attack at range especially if its a non ac attack can really hurt a fighter. and the as far as temp hit points they dont normally stack. if i remember correctly only thps gained from invigorating powers stack. so 15 seems to be on the high side

 

[WolfOwl77]

Yeah he's the tank, and he's marking enemies.

The thing I want to avoid though is nobody feeling threatened because all the mobs are on him, also this puts the focus of the fight all on him, and he's such a charismatic person to begin with I want to give the other players characters a chance to shine without interrupting the flow of the game too much.

If he's the only person I'm attacking then there's no "threat" to the rest of the group, eliminating any desire to use tactical movement and strategy.

Would it better suited to have one powerful monster attacking him while less powerful ones threatened the rest?

I think I just answered my own question.....

 

[WolfOwl77]

and the as far as temp hit points they dont normally stack. if i remember correctly only thps gained from invigorating powers stack. so 15 seems to be on the high side

He's using invigorating, and I don't think he's lying to me about his thps (he's more familiar with the game than I am) because he has come back and said he was doing things wrong before, eliminating certain advantages that he had. Maybe it's time to double check his math and see if he's just not reading it wrong.

 

[Gort]

You could cheekily fudge your damage rolls. Wince noticeably and go "Oof!" every time you roll damage against him. Then add 15 to the total.

I'm also a fan of, "He calls a bolt of pure darkness from the void. It slams into you, doing *character's bloodied value* damage!" as an opening move.

 

[MatthewJHanson]

I agree with a lot of what has been said: The tank will have higher AC and HP then the rest. One big monster on him is a good idea. Targeting other defenses works well.

I'll also add, that you can make good use of close and area powers, to target other PCs in addition to the fighter. And do not be afraid to have monsters attack somebody else even when they are marked. This can be fun for the fighter (he gets a free attack) and lets the weaker targets know that they are still in danger.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Burtes supported by a soldier on the tank supported by a controller.
Artillery pretected by brutes keeps the rest of the party occupied. The controller should make life intresting for the figher and anyone that moves in to flank the mob and the artillery should keep things hot for the rest.
Also if you want to make the others shine, wave afrer wave of minions.

 

[Mengu]

"Difficulty sharing" is a party dynamic. All the DM should have to do is increase encounter difficulty. Let the party handle how to deal with it. Increasing difficulty can be done in various ways, and the DM can allow these ways to be influenced by the strengths of the party.

Some groups have a super healer. Some groups have a super tank. Other groups have super DPR, or super lock down. Depending on the tool the party has, there are ways to adjust encounter difficulty to compensate.

Super Tank means someone to soak up attacks and damage. Increase enemy numbers. This will let the tank mark multiple people and keep them occupied, and if one gets away, the rest of the party is not going to be overwhelmed with a high damage creature that you had designed specifically for the tank.

Super Healer means you want some blasters to dish a bit of damage to everyone, and artillery or skirmishers who focus fire on the most damaged PC. This will mean the super healer can deal with the massive damage on the one target but your monsters will be whittling away on everyone else too, making his job more difficult, challenging everyone at the same time.

Super DPR means you need to add some extra control. Monsters who blind, immobilize, daze, dominate, are the striker's worst nightmare. That little bit of control delay will allow your monsters to get some damage going on the PC's before the PC's can react and blow the monsters to pieces. The delay makes the fight tense, but you know the PC's can make a come back by taking monsters down fast, especially if the control powers on the creatures are once per encounter or on a rare recharge.

Super lock down is probably the most difficult to deal with. You don't want to start throwing in monsters that ignore stun, daze, immobilize, etc. That just makes the PC's feel like they are useless. Again I think the answer is in increased numbers. The control can delay the enemy while the PC's can work on more manageable pieces of an encounter. If you wanted to make an encounter that showcases a Tombspider, instead use two Tombspiders, making lock down a lot more desirable while still challenging the party.

It's also worth noting, if you increase the difficulty, and the party can't handle it because while the tank has great survival he hasn't paid much attention to mark punishment, then perhaps it will be a lesson learned for the tank to spend his resources a bit more wisely, and next level he might revisit some of his build elements, do some retraining, and pick up a bit more control with his powers.

 

[OnlineDM]

Do you feel like this character is truly overpowered relative to the others, or is it just that this character has high AC and lots of temporary hit points? If this character is ALSO dealing out tons of damage, it sounds to me like you have one overpowered character. This is a problem for the campaign, in my opinion, if it's the case.

I blogged about this a couple of months ago. If this one player is a power gamer and the others aren't, that's where you run into trouble. If they're all power gamers or none of them are power gamers, that's fine. If this character is way above the power curve of the rest of the party, I think it might make sense to talk to the player one on one outside of the game to discuss the issue and to talk about possible solutions.

You don't want to have to nerf one player's character - that's a bad experience. If the player is very accommodating, maybe they will have some suggestions about how to equalize the power levels within the party. Perhaps there's something that can be done to ramp up the other characters to a similar power level.

Overall, it sounds like this character isn't necessarily above the curve, but they just have high AC and lots of hit points. That can be handled; the onus is just on you as the DM to still make it fun for everyone, and that should be doable by following some of the other suggestions above. If the character is just super-powered compared to his peers, though, I think you should try to address that as the underlying issue.