Do you ever worry your character is too powerful?

Do you ever worry your character is too powerful?

  • Yes, and I like it that way

    Votes: 9 5.2%
  • Yes, but it really isn't a big deal

    Votes: 38 22.1%
  • Yes, but I hinder myself to make it more equal

    Votes: 39 22.7%
  • No, but I might now

    Votes: 8 4.7%
  • No

    Votes: 60 34.9%
  • No, I worry I'm the weakest

    Votes: 18 10.5%

Maybe I am just a little egotistical, but if my character seems too powerful compared to the other PCs and we're the same level, it means one of two things: I did a good job mechanically on the character or the DM isn't playing the enemies to their full potential or the enemies aren't correctly done for the level of the PCs.
 

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I do not worry about being overpowered, but I will purposefully not make the hyperoptimal choice if another option will help a fellow player have fun with their sorry PC.
 

Actually, yes. I dislike it when one character is too powerful, as it takes the shine away from others.

If it's me playing a character I think hard about retiring it or changing it. There are problems though - D20 as it is, certain classes will suck at various or all levels. Fighters are problematic at high levels without a lot of magical gear and wizards are problematic at low levels without meat shields.

So, taking that in mind - as I 97% of the time GM anyway - I always try to have an encounter that lets each character shine. For instance -

Say we have a party of B, a Soldier/Pirate known as the most dangerous swordsman in the land, L, a Soldier/Borderer with a few more statistics in the mental statistics, and C a Soldier/Nomad with a checkered past. Well, more checkered than most. B, due to attribution of feats and statistics and assuming a fair fight is had will hands down most likely be able to kill L or C, or both together. Luckily, neither L or C like fair fights. But how do I avoid having B shine whenever combat is abroad? Story reasons. Sometimes B fighting wouldn't achieve anything, and L fighting would. Or some such.

For B, while head of a kingdom, only did it for the prestige and vengeance for various reasons. He doesn't much care for actually ruling. I organise for him duels, arenas, NPC's insulting him and the various claimants for his reputation. It leads into a number of stories that he is then interested in. He's only interested in enough silver to keep him alive and fighting. There's probably a sad end in front of him, killed by a younger man in the middle of nowhere for no purpose.

L likes being a general, after finding his true love. While a dangerous opponent (His reputation of iron grip is Beowulf worthy) I organise a number of rebellious factions he can unite, armies led by people he doesn't (Or does) like, and so on. B fighting his battles for him would be slaughter, but wouldn't achieve anything.

C likes riding the open plains, drifting until he finds what he's really looking for after killing the slave master that owned him. He finds civilised life boring and slows his reflexes - and he's no good at anything that doesn't involve killing anyway. He doesn't know what he looks for, but he tries to find it everywhere.
For C I organise a lot of exploration of ancient places, some mounted combat, promising women, promises of power and luxury never quite gained.



I never directly inhibit the power of the characters - I only make it so that each one shines at his chosen speciality. That way, munchkined power isn't so important.
 

I think it's often more a DM problem than a player problem. I played in a 14th level adventure with a cleric, and the DM totally and completely failed to understand what a cleric can do with wind walk and a two-handed adamantine morningstar. What I didn't blow through, I smashed, and after I smashed it, I blew through the hole. I ended up exploring nearly the entire complex by myself, not to mention the "on the way to the adventure" encounters that the party skipped right past.

Cheers
Nell.
 

I do worry that our entire group is over powered. Our DM really likes having characters with high ability scores, and very powerful items. Our PCs inevitably walk through encounters made for our "official" level. To me it feels like it leads the DM to ramp up more powerful encounters... leading to unpredictable PC death with remarkable frequency. For instance, a party of 5th-level PCs defeated a CR12 creature (an Astral Stalker) pretty easily, then ended up fighting a Famine Spirit (he did take away the vorbal bite though) We then get more powerful items, things get "easy" again, and the cycle continues...

At least that is how I feel about the whole situation...

Makes me yearn for the relative balance of Living Greyhawk...
 

I'll answer for most players in my game.

"Ha ha ha ha ha, hee hee hee hee."
A moment of giddy silence.
"Ho ho ho ho ho ho ho, Ha ha ha ha ha, hee hee hee hee, ha ha ha ha ha, hee hee hee hee, ha ha ha ha ha, hee hee hee hee, ha ha ha ha ha, hee hee hee hee, ha ha ha ha ha, hee hee hee hee, ha ha ha ha ha, hee hee hee hee, ha ha ha ha ha, hee hee hee hee."
*snort*
"'Do I worry about being too powerful?' Hee hee, that was good."
 


tetsujin28 said:
There's no option for "There's no such thing as too much power". Which is a vital omission.

look at the posts above yours

And it was left of because it is not vital. It is also wrong, but that isn't important right now
 

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