A Stat Bind..Help please

[Stormcrowe]

Been haunting the forum here for a few days just looking around and I found the perfect place to get some help with a problem thats been plauging me for a week or so.

Just recently started a new D&D 3.5 campaign and have run into a bit of a jam. When we first started it was just a couple of people so I wanted them to have better than average stats. A couple of weeks later a couple more joined in and again it was still a pretty small group so I never thought about them having the same better than average stats.

Well as of next week I will have 8 players and the new ones I dont want to punish by not letting them have the same better than average stats. But now i fear that Ive created myself a monster.

Any ideas to help keep my sanity and a little bit of play balance would be apreciated. I do plan on bumping a few encounters up in power but at 1-3rd lvl I cant over power things too much.

 

[Mistwell]

How bad are we talking? In other words, if you were to calculate the point-buy for these characters, what would it add up to on average.

 

[Al'Kelhar]

D&D is a game of swings and roundabouts. Give everyone the same points to buy their abilities, but because all the characters are now even more "super" than the D&D base assumption, cut down on the availability of permanent stat-boost items and increase the difficulty of encounters moderately (without necessarily increasing the experience reward). Things should balance out in the end.

Cheers, Al'Kelhar

 

[s-dub]

Just give most your monsters better than average stats as well and that should help keep things even without making it insane.

That being said, there's very little difference between a level 13 wizard with 20 int and 14 con and a level 13 wizard with 18 int and 12 con, so unless your PC's have great stats in every attribute they still have decent weaknesses.

 

[nittanytbone]

I'd second the call for decreasing the availability of stat boosting items. I'd just increase the cost of all such items by +25% or so depending on how out of control the ability scores are.

You can also give a LA of +1 "behind the scenes" to accomodate for the great stats. Think of the great stats as a template slapped onto regular 25 or 28 point buy characters. Don't tell your players you are reducing their XP (prevents heartburn) so long as things are balanced and everyone is having fun.

 

[Rhun]

You can also give a LA of +1 "behind the scenes" to accomodate for the great stats. Think of the great stats as a template slapped onto regular 25 or 28 point buy characters. Don't tell your players you are reducing their XP (prevents heartburn) so long as things are balanced and everyone is having fun.

I use this method (or LA +2 even) in my groups where the characters have above average stats, and it seems to work fine.

 

[Stormcrowe]

Thanks for your help and advice everyone. Had our first session with everyone tonight and everything turned out pretty good. Looks like just adding a lvl or class here and there to some of the baddies seems to work out well. We will see how things go as we continue.

It also helps that everyone seems to be a good RPer and not powergamers.

Again, thanks for the help!