D&D 5E Challenging a tanky one-trick pony PC


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Dross

Explorer
Big fan of having survivors informing their bosses of the PC tactics.

If the monsters are smart/organised* enough hit and run tactics. Stay just long enough to have the PC setup, then run away. Rinse repeat. If the PCs start charging, after a couple of scraps get a trap ready.

Harass to prevent rests.

* the monsters live in the world and should understand that spells have limited duration and number of slots (not what the limit is exactly). Or the boss does.
 

JiffyPopTart

Bree-Yark
Option 1 (The passive aggressive one)
Have 8 sessions in a row where the monsters just ignore the super character and beat the poop out of the rest of the party.

Let real life social pressure "fix the glitch" as they get tired of losing characters.

Option 2 (The good one)
Tell the player their character is ruining the game for the others by being too powerful and ask them to reign it in a bit. In my campaign I give the players a choice of feats or multiclassing but not both for any particular character because of previous overtuned character builds.
 

pukunui

Legend
@Sabathius42: Thanks. The trouble with option 1 is that spirit guardians has a big enough radius that he can get right up in the middle of things and his allies will be inside it, so the bad guys can’t get to them either without taking the damage.

The trouble with option 2 is that he’s not ruining it for the other players. They love it! It’s only me who finds it irritating.
 

JiffyPopTart

Bree-Yark
@Sabathius42: Thanks. The trouble with option 1 is that spirit guardians has a big enough radius that he can get right up in the middle of things and his allies will be inside it, so the bad guys can’t get to them either without taking the damage.

The trouble with option 2 is that he’s not ruining it for the other players. They love it! It’s only me who finds it irritating.
YOU are a player also. Everyone should be having fun. If you don't tell the group you are having an issue then you aren't giving them a chance to do the right thing.
 

pukunui

Legend
YOU are a player also. Everyone should be having fun. If you don't tell the group you are having an issue then you aren't giving them a chance to do the right thing.
It's OK. This thread has given me plenty of ideas. The player was absent for a few sessions, so I had Halaster teleport him away "to give the monsters a fighting chance". When the player returned, I said that his PC felt like he'd just been dreaming but that he'd been having a nightmare filled with floating diamond lozenge thingies and spider-like creatures. Now, anytime he uses his annoying tanky spirit guardians + Dodge combo, Halaster is going to have a Strixhaven mage hunter with the Mage Slayer feat show up to try and shake him out of his one trick poniness.

Currently, they're on a level that's a big, trap-filled obstacle course without many monsters to fight, but the main boss of the level is a death tyrant with a horde of zombies (seriously, there are like 40 of them, it's going to be a nightmare to manage at the table! I'll probably have to send them in in waves). He'll probably use his spirit guardians trick then, and so things will get more complicated when a mage hunter shows up too.

Elsewhere in the dungeon, Halaster has trapped a dwarf vampire in a coffin with a magic rune keeping him in there. The coffin's at the bottom of a pit. The first person to cross over the pit gets zapped with the rune (no save), which is a "death mark". The coffin then disintegrates and the vampire is free to hunt down the person with the death mark on them. Since the obstacle course is full of teleport traps designed to split the party, I'm hoping Mr One Trick Pony will end up triggering the vampire all by himself. :devilish:
 

Zardnaar

Legend
It's OK. This thread has given me plenty of ideas. The player was absent for a few sessions, so I had Halaster teleport him away "to give the monsters a fighting chance". When the player returned, I said that his PC felt like he'd just been dreaming but that he'd been having a nightmare filled with floating diamond lozenge thingies and spider-like creatures. Now, anytime he uses his annoying tanky spirit guardians + Dodge combo, Halaster is going to have a Strixhaven mage hunter with the Mage Slayer feat show up to try and shake him out of his one trick poniness.

Currently, they're on a level that's a big, trap-filled obstacle course without many monsters to fight, but the main boss of the level is a death tyrant with a horde of zombies (seriously, there are like 40 of them, it's going to be a nightmare to manage at the table! I'll probably have to send them in in waves). He'll probably use his spirit guardians trick then, and so things will get more complicated when a mage hunter shows up too.

Elsewhere in the dungeon, Halaster has trapped a dwarf vampire in a coffin with a magic rune keeping him in there. The coffin's at the bottom of a pit. The first person to cross over the pit gets zapped with the rune (no save), which is a "death mark". The coffin then disintegrates and the vampire is free to hunt down the person with the death mark on them. Since the obstacle course is full of teleport traps designed to split the party, I'm hoping Mr One Trick Pony will end up triggering the vampire all by himself. :devilish:

Magic counters magic and most classes use magic now.
 
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