D&D 5E How to balance combat when 2 characters are average and one is extremely overpowered?

Leatherhead · Feb 11, 2017

SwiftRoofusUnderbunk said:
Here is his Character sheet. Let me know if there is anything you can't read and I'll try and translate it for you.

I am assuming you rolled for stats? At least, I hope you did.

Firstly: Don't let him apply expertise on his attack rolls or armor. 5e has very tight math for attacking, and such a thing will totally break it.

Secondly: Crossbow Expert only lets you make a single bonus action attack with a hand crossbow if you are using a one-handed weapon (which can also be the same hand-crossbow, it's annoying and complicated). However, this "Eagle Crossbow" Looks to be a +1 Heavy Crossbow, which is a heavy two-handed weapon.
There are a slew of problems with this:

He can't use the bonus action to attack.
I am assuming he is dual wielding to get three attacks, which is flat out impossible with ranged weapons of any kind, even throwing daggers.
A Halfing can't even hold a Heavy Crossbow without suffering from Disadvantage when attacking. Unless he isn't a halfling, which means he can't hide behind players due to not having the Halfling racial power that allows for that. Not even the Skulker feat can make up for it.

Thirdly, make sure he is suffering the penalties for hitting targets who are behind cover. His teammates count as cover against his ranged attacks if he is shooting into melee. This is a +2 to +5 bonus on the targets AC, and it's a huge thorn in the side of ranged combat.

Fourthly, clean up the rest of the math, [MENTION=55946]Sqn Cdr Flashheart[/MENTION] has a good list of things up there.

FormerlyHemlock · Feb 11, 2017

Also, Rogues aren't proficient with heavy crossbows, so he'd be attacking at only +6 (Dex + magic bonus), not even +9 (Dex + magic bonus + proficiency).

SwiftRoofusUnderbunk · Feb 11, 2017

Yeah I figured out pretty much all that was wrong with his character. It was simply neither of us having a complete grasp of the rules. After looking through this forum and my books I think I have successfully balanced his character a bit more. I appreciate all the replies and explanations!

mach1.9pants · Feb 11, 2017

Great, it's very easy to miss pluses and minuses here and there. And the 'use of hands' economy ( free hands, swapping hands, swapping weapons) and stealth rules cause a lot of debate and confusion. Just take it slow when you create PCs and when you level up

Rhenny · Feb 11, 2017

Armor class seems off. If he wears Leather armor he should have an AC of 16...Studded Leather AC of 17. Not sure how he boosted up to 21.

Lanliss · Feb 11, 2017

Rhenny said:
Armor class seems off. If he wears Leather armor he should have an AC of 16...Studded Leather AC of 17. Not sure how he boosted up to 21.

OP already clarified, the rogue was using his Expertise in Armor and attacks.

ProphetSword · Feb 11, 2017

SwiftRoofusUnderbunk said:
Yeah I figured out pretty much all that was wrong with his character. It was simply neither of us having a complete grasp of the rules. After looking through this forum and my books I think I have successfully balanced his character a bit more. I appreciate all the replies and explanations!

Just want to point out that if you have any more questions, feel free to ask. I know I'm more than happy to help new DMs get a grasp on the rules, and I'm sure others feel the same. Completely different questions might require a new thread, though. But, don't let that stop you.

Rhenny · Feb 11, 2017

Lanliss said:
OP already clarified, the rogue was using his Expertise in Armor and attacks.

Oh...missed that..sorry.

CapnZapp · Feb 11, 2017

Leatherhead said:
Secondly: Crossbow Expert only lets you make a single bonus action attack with a hand crossbow if you are using a one-handed weapon (which can also be the same hand-crossbow, it's annoying and complicated).

The easiest way is to say "it must be the same hand crossbow".

If you try to piece together the various rules on hand use, ammunition, and crossbows yeah - it can be confusing.

But if it helps there is a way to make it clear and simple - only ever use a single hand crossbow with the Crossbow Expert feat. It really is the only use case that truly works. (Which I'm the first to lament)

GX.Sigma · Feb 11, 2017

SwiftRoofusUnderbunk said:
I have 2 of my players that built their own characters from scratch and are around the same power level, then I had one player look up "How to break rogue in 5e" and just built his character so it would be the most OP.

As I once told a power-hungry player, "If you try to break the game, the game will break. I don't want to play a broken game."