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

[SwiftRoofusUnderbunk]

So I've been playing dnd for many years now but always as a player. I am now DM'ing my first campaign using an old turn-based RPG I used to play when I was little for the storyline. Everything is going well except combat. 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. So I have a mediocre Paladin and Cleric, then I have a super OP crossbow wielding rogue that can attack 3 times in one turn, has +13 to hit, and gets sneak attacks if he stands behind allies. If I balance the enemies for the rogue, the two other characters struggle to survive, and if I balance the enemies for the other two, the rogue just slices through them with zero effort.

I guess my question is how can I balance fights so that they are challenging and feel dangerous for all of my players when their power levels are so different? Also, how can I do so without so obviously seeming that I am trying to shut down my rogue.

I should mention I'm the kind of DM that wants my players to have fun and not the kind of DM that feels like I'm playing versus my players. I don't want my characters to die unless they make really bad decisions, but I'm struggling to give them a challenge without feeling like I'm deliberately targeting my rogue player.

 

[MostlyDm]

Well, the first thing to do is talk to the player.

You may want to crunch his numbers yourself to make sure everything was calculated correctly (what level are they? +13 to hit, without magic weapons, takes an extremely high level to pull off. Assuming he is multiclassed with fighter, which he must be to get 3 attack per round, he could get +5dex+2archery+6proficiency which means they would be approaching 20th level.)

Assuming he didn't stretch the rules somehow, which it sounds like he did, you can just talk to him about how you're finding it difficult to provide a fun challenge, and ask him for some help by toning down his character a bit.

If you expect that kind of conversation to go poorly I guess you can introduce monsters well suited to deal with him. He'll have weak points you can exploit. Everyone does.

Or, if he's not amenable to working with you to find a solution.. dump him. Life's too short to play with people who aren't cooperative and positive. Don't put up with disruptive players.

 

[MostlyDm]

My other post was all predicated on the assumption that the other players share your frustration, and don't want help optimizing their characters.

Because if they enjoy his overpowered damage dealing capabilities, and they don't feel overshadowed, then you don't actually have a problem.

 

[Rhenny]

If you don't want to curb the rogue, you can boost the Paladin and Cleric, making them feel special by allowing them to get omens or signs from their deities.

This could be a really great way to make them feel special (using roleplaying as a perk), but it can also take the form of special favors or bestowing special magic/items that help them serve.

Make sure you account for the power creep when you run encounters though, so you can challenge them once in a while.

 

[SwiftRoofusUnderbunk]

Hey! Thanks for the reply. I'm not a very experienced DM as I said. So looking over his character sheet I can tell you all my players are level 6. He is a 6th level rogue with Crossbow expert, uncanny dodge, skulker, sneak attack and light armor expert. His crossbow gives him +1 to hit. I'm not sure where everything else comes from and I can't find a specific rule for crossbow expert in my books.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

So I've been playing dnd for many years now but always as a player. I am now DM'ing my first campaign using an old turn-based RPG I used to play when I was little for the storyline. Everything is going well except combat. 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. So I have a mediocre Paladin and Cleric, then I have a super OP crossbow wielding rogue that can attack 3 times in one turn, has +13 to hit, and gets sneak attacks if he stands behind allies. If I balance the enemies for the rogue, the two other characters struggle to survive, and if I balance the enemies for the other two, the rogue just slices through them with zero effort.

I guess my question is how can I balance fights so that they are challenging and feel dangerous for all of my players when their power levels are so different? Also, how can I do so without so obviously seeming that I am trying to shut down my rogue.

I should mention I'm the kind of DM that wants my players to have fun and not the kind of DM that feels like I'm playing versus my players. I don't want my characters to die unless they make really bad decisions, but I'm struggling to give them a challenge without feeling like I'm deliberately targeting my rogue player.

Split the party. Set a scenario which is easier when the players tackle things in two different places simultaneously. E.g. they're trying to sneak past a demon army, but there's two pickets, either of which can send out the alert if the other gets mugged. If they tackle only one picket, they have to fight the whole army. If they take out both pickets at once, they only have to fight the pickets. But the pickets are a quarter mile away from each other.

So the OP rogue can take out one picket and the Paladin and Cleric can take out the other.

I play a lot with heterogenous party levels (e.g. one player might be running his 13th level Barbarian and the other is running his 5th level cleric), and I've noticed that the fact that I don't punish players per se for splitting the party is one thing that ensures that even "underpowered" PCs still have plenty of interesting stuff to do. There definitely are times when they need all the PCs, but I try to run a game where it's not necessary and not logical for everyone to always stay within 30' of each other at all times, because in my opinion (as DM) that leads to boring stories.

Edit: just checking, but you're aware that sneak attack only works once per turn, right? You mentioned that he attacks three times and "gets sneak attacks if he stands behind allies", but I just want to check that you meant "gets a sneak attack almost every round" and not "gets multiple sneak attacks each round."

 

[Valetudo]

Need more information. What level and how is this rogue getting three attacks at +13? Just letting you know that if you play 5th using rolled stats, feats, and magic items. It changes how the game plays and how you run it as a dm.

 

[Valetudo]

Hey! Thanks for the reply. I'm not a very experienced DM as I said. So looking over his character sheet I can tell you all my players are level 6. He is a 6th level rogue with Crossbow expert, uncanny dodge, skulker, sneak attack and light armor expert. His crossbow gives him +1 to hit. I'm not sure where everything else comes from and I can't find a specific rule for crossbow expert in my books.

Something is rotten in the house of denmark.

 

[Fanaelialae]

Yeah, something smells off about those numbers. I'd review his sheet to make sure he's not bending the rules. Maybe even post his build online for review.

That said, I agree with most of the advice in this thread.

Another option is to have the enemies focus on him. You need to be careful not to be adversarial in doing this (you don't want to come across like you're trying to kill his character), but he is the most dangerous thing on the field from the sound of it so it makes sense that enemies would try to go after him, and if he's the type of player who enjoys a challenge he'll probably welcome it.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Hey! Thanks for the reply. I'm not a very experienced DM as I said. So looking over his character sheet I can tell you all my players are level 6. He is a 6th level rogue with Crossbow expert, uncanny dodge, skulker, sneak attack and light armor expert. His crossbow gives him +1 to hit. I'm not sure where everything else comes from and I can't find a specific rule for crossbow expert in my books.

He's doing everything wrong then. A 6th level rogue with 20 Dex and a +1 crossbow would have +9 to attack, not +13. But if he's a light armor expert (I assume that's a custom feat you invented?) and a Skulker and a Crossbow Expert, he can't possibly have 20 Dex. At most he could have rolled a natural 18 on Dex and then be a variant human with feats at 1st and 4th level, which would let him have two of the three feats and a Dex of 19. So he could have Dex 19 and +8 to hit, not +13.

Crossbow Expert is in the section on feats, around page 165. It would let him make two attacks per round (one with his action and one with his bonus action). He shouldn't be making three attacks per round.