Difficult Character and Player

[DrunkonDuty]

Hey Meridius.

Your hit point/hardness scheme seems ok at first glance. To be a little more certain of them I suggest the following:

Look at how much damage an average attacker can do. Compare that to the hardness/hit points of the various level spells. Work out how many shots it will take to break a hardened air structure. For instance: the 5th level version of the spell: 5 hardness/35 hp. Can be destroyed by 1 shot of 40 damage, 2 shots of 23 damage or even 35 shots of 6 damage. Given the sort of enemies your characters fight is this OK?

I'd still go without the suffocation effects, or maybe make them a little more realistic than the RAW. No one suffocates in 12 seconds (that's 2 rounds.) Unconsciousness takes about 3 minutes. That's 36 rounds or about 3-5 times as long as the average DND fight. Brain death for a human takes about 5 mins IIRC.

For permanent spells (ie: tied off weaves) I'd go with the above suggestion of making the spell effect weaker. Less hardness, fewer hit points. Or maybe it takes up a spell slot to maintain the tied off weave. May only need to use a 1st level slot per tied weave but when all 1st level slots are used she will have to move on to using 2nd level slots, etc.

But most of all I'd suggest having a good hard think about whether or not you want to keep this character. Still thinking that a chat with the player about a new character (or a re-mechanic-ing* of the current character) is the best option here.

cheers mate,
good luck with it. It does sound like you're bending over backwards here to make sure everyone has a good time. The best of luck with it.

*sorry about the made up word. I realise English is not your first language.

 

[Wepwawet]

You were allowing the creation of indestructible wall of air with a 0-level spell?!
That is waaay of the line.
Take other 0-level spells, some give +1 to one skill or one attack rool, -1 to attacks for 1 round, 1d3 damage.. (I don't play 3.x anymore, so I forgot the names)
Your hit-point/hardness solution is a good one, but still very powerful compared to other casters' spells
I'd put it this way: the hardness is the same as the level of the spell and hp could be something like 10 + 10 * level.

0-level --> 1ft radius --> 10 hp, hardness 0
1st-level --> 3 ft radius --> 20 hp, hardness 1
2nd-level --> 5 ft radius --> 30 hp, hardness 2
3rd-level --> 10 ft radius --> 40 hp, hardness 3
4th-level --> 15 ft radius --> 50 hp, hardness 4
5th-level --> 20 ft radius --> 60 hp, hardness 5

I also agree with everyone who says you should talk to her and redo her character.
Psion (or any psionic) would be perfect for her concept, I think.
Just look at the power Control Flames for inspiration on reworking her powers.
Complete list here: SRD - All Powers

 

[Meridius]

@DrunkonDuty
Heh, thanks for the concern, but understanding English generally isn't a problem, even with made-up words. Sometimes I just cannot seem to think up the word I'm looking for when explaining myself. Which usually results in more words to say the same

My characters face mainly large hordes of goblins and hobgoblins (which I've increased in level a bit to keep the challenge). However, one of my other players asked me to send in the big guys one at a time. That's the main problem with her harden air and false wall weaves (among others), they are a potential way of making such an encounter EXTREMELY easy. A creature that laughs in the face of fireballs and lightning bolts shouldn't be subdued by a single other spell in my humble opinion. Neither should it be stopped by a single wall of air.

But anyway, my average goblin deals about 1d6 damage, and the odd lucky goblin 1d6+1. The heavier guys are usually full fledged fighters, and deal up to 1d12+4. I do plan some REAL single monsters (dragon-level danger) in the near future.
I rarely fling fireballs or other heavy damage spells at them. They are only at the point of foiling the big bad evil guy's minor plans one time too often...
I basically want strong opponents (and heavy objects, like ships) to be able to easily smash the effect, while massed weaker opponents should feel the spell.

She hardly ever ties off weaves, but it's something I work on as well. I plan to introduce the changes by introducing a little side-story. Basically, she always insisted she is 'from another world' (the WoT world). Using that, I think I'm going to say the 'soul of this planet' does not like weaving in it's current form or is hurt by it and retaliates by attacking her mind. So she needs to weave more carefully, I also have a Great Wyrm Sage ready on their path, who may, next to his original purpose in the campaign also offer her some advice and may teach her to do the weaving in a more careful way. Which also might teach the character (not the player) some humility. I want her to FEEL alien.

Suffocation by the way is normally ruled by 2*con-score in rounds of holding breath, and after that a DC10 +1 for each subsequent round of constitution-check (or was it a fortitude save?)

I don't experience it as 'bending over backwards' by the way.

@Thornir Alekeg
That little accident with the ships sinking was bad judgement from my part. I later did it off with "that ship was in a very bad state of repair".

I might introduce something like a tie-off-weave-check. Which decides how long the weave will hold. But for now, there aren't many problems with tying off weaves to be honest.

@Wepwawet:
I based the hardness for 'false wall' on a stone wall, and the wall of air on a wooden wall. I could tone it down since it's air and a 'false' wall I'm talking about

@everyone:
Thank you for your concern. But I'm not going to throw her character out. I'm stubborn, and quite convinced I can make it work (may or may not be a bad habit ). I've let her on for quite a while ago now, and I don't feel like it's necessary, nor desirable, to eliminate the character completely.

I've managed pretty well until now, but I do feel I should do something about the near unlimited potential of a few unbalanced spells. I understand the spells as written are a bit broken, so as a DM I feel it's my job to fix it so that it is fun for all of us. She's quite engaged with her character, and that's something I can only encourage. Yes, I probably won't allow it ever again, but on this campaign I've allowed it, and I'll fix whatever is broken, since I should've thrown the character out ages ago if I would go with that solution, I chose not to. It's a great learning opportunity, and I like seeing her and others having fun. I just want to make dungeon- and encounter creation to be a bit more free and easy.

 

[Sandain]

Can she make an air elementalist/wu-jen?

Just make her air walls and weaves different flavour text of existing spells. This way you maintain balance, she gets her flavour/fluff, while you keep the game mechanically consistant.

Also, how long beforee another player gets fed up and makes a WoT character?

 

[Aran Thule]

As mentioned it does seem like the nearest match would be a Psion so that might be a good option if you wanted her to convert.
Another thing to consider is that there are lots of things out there that would not be so hampered by the wall.
Incorporal Undead, demons and devils with innate teleport, dimension door casters, even burrowing creatures as they can move through the ground.

I dont like the tie off of spells making them permanent.
Magic doesn't work like that in the d&d world so if she does do that then there should be a penalty, here are a few options you could think over.
xp penalty like permanency spell.
For each permanent spell running she gains a negative level, this would cover the strain of maintaining the effect.

 

[Janx]

if she is able to do things with her PC that it would take a much higher level wizard with higher level spells to achieve, then her PC is unbalanced.

It's that simple.

The signs of this are:
she is a one trick pony, using most the same spell everytime
her ability is so powerful, it thwarts nearly every encounter
you have to specifically plan to counter it
other players complain about it, as it makes her top gun in every scene

I don't know Wheel of Time. That's fluff.

What's not fluff is the class features you let into the game that are more powerful than the other classes. The solution is not to make more rules.

Replace her powers with D&D spells that fit her level, or dial down the strength.

Odds are good, she won't be happy with it, but she's the one who insisted on a PC that unbalances the fun for everyone else.