Comedy of Errors and a bit of a rant

[Greenfield]

Oh he is a "Randy". Do not wait. As a group, tell the player he is out of line with his builds and sources, compared to the group. Do this before the group plays in this adventure

Um, we've been in this campaign for four years now. This player has been with us for about four months, so it's a little late to plan anything "before the group plays in this adventure".

Randy, a player who brings in non-core, secondary, third party material, etc which unbalances the group's normal game play. Frequently forgets to mention major game changer items.

My normal rule is that I/we see the character sheet prior to play. And if it isn't on the sheet, it doesn't exist.

Our problem was a number of items listed under "equipment" that should have been listed as magic items. When we saw "bone ring", we thought it was some geegaw added for RP purposes. Didn't know it's from MIC, and effectively makes the PC immune to negative energy effects for three shots per day.

Magic Item Compendium, by the way, is not on our approved list, though some items have been accepted.

Then there's the old fall back, "I'm still equipping him, but here's what I have so far". We expect that he'll finish in good faith.

In play, we hear the phrase, "He has a wand in his hand" early and often. Whether it's a wand of Shield, Alter Self or Invisibility isn't made clear until he uses it. I won't flat out call him a cheater on that one, but it always seems to be the one he needs as the situation develops.

I'm keeping track of his wand charges, by the way. He has a nasty surprise in store about seven encounters from now, if he keeps using Shield as often as he has.

 

[jasper]

I should have said, talk with Randy before the group plays again. And before the game you need to get a list of all magic items, and clear character sheet which everyone can understand.
I too keep track of charged item usage. But it looks like "... nasty surprise in store about seven encounters ... " you planning on trying to punish him in game. The problem appears to be is Randy is not a good fit for your game group. He maybe great to hang out with but not at the D&D table.
I always told my players, I will make adjustments/corrections to stuff if something became a major problem. Ex down grading a magic item, or if person died by a major mistake the pc was just KOed for that time and group got a refund on what was spend.

 

[Greenfield]

To be clear, I'm not the DM at the moment, though the duty may rotate to me one more time before the campaign ends. (We're probably stopping before we go epic).

And I'm not planning to "punish" the player. I just expect that he's being conveniently forgetful when it comes to recording charges used, and that when the time comes he won't be prepared.

Seriously, if I wanted to be rid of the character all I'd have to do, as a player, is decide to throw some buffs to someone else instead of him at a key moment. (I'm running the party Bard, whose role is generally a support caster). It would just be a case of deciding that someone else needed the help more than he did.

In game, when someone really needs a rabbit pulled from a hat, that unexpected trick or creative solution, I'm the one people look to. So if I run out of rabbits at the wrong moment...

But whether it's playing in character or being the DM, picking on a particular character is bad form.

But sometimes it's delicious to think about...