Unbalanced Encounters

[KaasManiak]

Hello,

I've got a problem balancing encounters for my DnD group.

First of all let me introduce you to my group:
(all players are lvl 24)

Player 1:
HUGE powerplayer.
Playes a fighter.
His defences aren't lower then 44.
("Playing a defender is all about defences, so i don't put my feats etc in non-combat encounters, all i have to do is stand and not die")

Player 2+3+4:
Regular players, but they had to improve their defences to compare with player 1.
Defences around 40+

Player 5:
Plays a wizzard, his defences are around 30/35.


As you can see the defences between player 1 and 2 are not very alike.

The encounters i've presented them haven't been very challenging. In my mind i have to think of the wizzard, which i will hit at 90% of the time, and the fighter which i will hit 10% of the time, and will resist 50+% of my damage.


Does anyone have any idea how i can balance the encounters, without having to kill the wizzard but still make my players sweat?

Greetings,

KaasManiak

 

[mudlock]

Your fighter's job isn't to "stand and not die."

Your fighter's job is to make sure everyone else "stands and doesn't die," by being the one who takes the hits.

Try to kill the wizard. If you succeed, the fighter has failed.

 

[keterys]

Is the fighter actually giving you compelling reasons to actually pay attention to him? A lot of overly defensive defenders really don't have impressive marks... especially at that level, when a lot of monsters can just teleport away from a fighter and take a -2 to hit and move on.

 

[Spatula]

If the wizard has given his defenses such a low priority, and hasn't learned any spells to escape harm, then I don't think that you're under any obligation to reward that. Let the dice fall where they may. The player will adapt, or the wizard will spend a lot of time on the ground.

Also, the defender being un-hittable just means the monsters shouldn't try to hit him, once they learn that. If the fighter has really thrown everything into defense, then his Combat Challenge attack shouldn't be too much of a deterrent.

I would also be sure to use epic monsters from MM3 or later monster books, or that you've updated to use the new damage ranges. Earlier paragon/epic monsters are said to not be a serious threat to PCs, because the monsters' damage is so low.

 

[KaasManiak]

It's not the problem that he stands in the way of me hitting other players.

The problem is that i can't hit him, without hitting the other player(s) all the time.

I can ignore him, and focus on the other players, but he likes to stand in the picture.

I like to pay attention to anyone, and let anyone use their abilities.

But i just can't hit him or do damage.

I asked him to lower his defences, and all he did was lower his fortitude by 2.

He doesn't care that the other players have to adjust their chars to his.
"They don't have to improve their defences."

The problem is they have to, otherwise the cleric would have had an 17/19 difference to fortitude compared to his. How the hell am i supposed to fix that in encounters?

Talking to him doesn't work, we have tried that already..... A LOT

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I ran into the exact same problem in a lower-level game. The gap between AC and NADs are usually too high.

What are the fighter's AC and NAD scores compared to the group? I'm betting his Ref and Will defenses are pretty low.

In addition to making new monsters, I've often given monster attacks vs AC a slightly different name and/or flavor, reduced the attack bonus by 2 points, and made it target Fort, Ref or Will. For instance, if a brute has an attack that hits an opponent's AC and pushes the opponent 2 squares and knocks it prone, that could easily be re-flavored as an attack vs Fort instead. A monster that can grapple an opponent with a vs-AC attack could instead target Reflex (since getting out of the way is important, whereas heavy armor won't save you from being grabbed). Said monsters would equally challenge the fighter as other PCs.

Naturally you'd still have attacks vs AC, and the fighter can still try to mark opponents into bouncing their attacks off him (that's his job), but anything that targets Ref or Will could hamper or stun-lock him, then move on against the rest of the PCs.

 

[KaasManiak]

Your fighter's job isn't to "stand and not die."

Your fighter's job is to make sure everyone else "stands and doesn't die," by being the one who takes the hits.

Try to kill the wizard. If you succeed, the fighter has failed.

I know that
You know that
He doesn't

He is a really defender

 

[S'mon]

I think you're way overthinking this. It's not your responsibility to hit PC A (Fighter) or miss PC B (Wizard). Just use 24th level monsters with their +29 attack bonus, naturally they hit the wizard a lot, if they can target him, and miss the Fighter a lot. That's fine, that's how the PCs are designed. Of course you can also use some higher level monsters, a 27th level Balor will attack at +32 and hit the Fighter on a 12 or so - indicating to me that his AC is not particularly outrageous, BTW.

 

[KaasManiak]

His defences are:
45/45/43/44
And he has +2 bonus to AC en FORT while not bloodied.
(like he ever is.)

 

[Havrik Stoneskimmer]

I would not ask the player to lower his defenses. If he built the character by the rules, then he should be able to play it.

Do your players pick magic items, or do you? You could give your other PCs some armor or neckwear to boost their defenses while ignoring the fighter for a little while.

His Will defense is probably pretty low. Try some monsters that target that.

But mostly, listen to the other comments here that remind you that he is a defender, and his primary job is to keep the rest of the party alive. Have the monsters ignore him and go after the wizard and make the fighter run over to get next to the wizard and draw those attacks to him instead.