Do you ever worry your character is too powerful?

[Crothian]

Simple Question this time around, do you ever warry that your character is too powerful? That can be too powerful for the DM to handle, or too powerful compaired to the other players characters.

I'm with a groiup of mostly new guys back to the hobby after some time off. None of use min max or anything like that. Yet, my fighter still seems to dominate combat. Everyone is having fun, though one guy has been getting frustrating with his dice. I'm not sure he ever rolled higher then an 8 on the d20 last night. And it wasn't like he did n't keep trying. So, I found a prestige class that really fits him and I need to do some heavy multi classing to gain it. So, I'm thinking of purposely taking some weaker classes so I don't dominate as much.

 

[Rystil Arden]

I've worried about it before, but I don't act to remedy the worry mechanically. Instead, I try to just play my character into the background more to let others shine.

 

[Rystil Arden]

Oh, there's a poll to this now. First vote then I guess

 

[Lasher Dragon]

Well, considering my Wiz 5/Pale Master 9 plans on overthrowing the god of death to take her place, there is no such thing as "too powerful".

 

[The Shaman]

The only time I'm concerned about my character is when the GM gives me stuff which my character hasn't earned - extra feats, extra skill points, etc. over those normally allowed by class and level. That's when I start wondering if I'm going to have as much fun as I would under a GM who plays it 'straight.'

I like to work for my bling-bling, a'ight?

 

[Kelleris]

The only time I'm concerned about my character is when the GM gives me stuff which my character hasn't earned - extra feats, extra skill points, etc. over those normally allowed by class and level. That's when I start wondering if I'm going to have as much fun as I would under a GM who plays it 'straight.'

I like to work for my bling-bling, a'ight?

Hmm... I consider occasional feats and skill ranks to be fair rewards, and just count them as a kind of treasure myself.

To answer your question, I don't usually feel that way. I'm feeling pathetically inept in an epic PbP on these boards, though. I once had a berserker battle sorcerer (Loopmotten Scheppen the Third - ah, how I miss him) that I was tempted to tone down because he was ripping equal-CR opponents in half in one round with fair consistency. But then I decided that having a negative AC half the time was punishment enough.

Other than those cases, I'm fairly good at making characters that are good but not too good, so I voted "no" in the poll.

 

[Victim]

Not really. If my character could be too good, it's a small thing to change tactics to reduce effectiveness. For example, my high level wizard, when the game started, would start small with spell attacks and work her way up. Even if the damage wasn't that great, I'd use spells with a daze, stun, or nasuea element to keep enemies under control. Then everyone gets a chance to help in the fight, I keep good spells for emergencies, and my character doesn't reveal her true power. You could do the same thing with your fighter by using Power Attack ineffectively, or by starting off battles fighting defensively.

One thing that's more of issue isn't when you have 1 really good character, but when you have 2. Then it's not just a matter of self imposing some restrictions in most fights, since doing so is pointless if the other doesn't. For example, my plan for holding back kind of went out the window once our paladin figured out how to use Spirited Charge for several hundred point smite attacks. In our current game, between some back luck and poor builds, our paladin doesn't fight as well as our monk and MA and doesn't really save any more than us.

 

[Brain]

I sometimes worry, but then I ask the DM if he agrees or not. I'm very up-front with my character's abilities and don't try to hide things.

Overall, it's not a big deal.

 

[Kanegrundar]

Nope not at all. The only thing I worry about is that everyone is having a good time.

Kane

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Where's the "there is no such thing as 'too powerful'"