Frustrated by Party Composition

[Eccles]

I can't just change my villains and zap 'em with touch and will save based spells, as it would be unfair.

They tend to leave their enemies dead behind them, so no future villains will know their incredible tendancy to avoid explosions. (Which is a shame, as I'm about to take them into 'Spider Queen, and there's a few good Evocation specialists in there who are going to get a very nasty surprise!)

Anyway, it's ultimately their decision, and if the guy playing the paladin wants to drop his AC by about 15 points by not wearing the armour and shields, then that's his hard luck.

The other silly thing is that I'm going to have 3 monks (or dual-class monks). Which includes all 3 of the party's front line fighters. So nobody in the entire party wears armour apart from the rogue. And he's only prepared to wear light armour.

Madness!

(Oh well. They're going to get torn up fast by City of the Spider Queen, if their previous tactics have been anything to go by! Keep an eye on the Story Hour; we should get there in a month or two!)

 

[Darth Shoju]

meta-gaming

I also hate this type of metagaming. I remember once in my group one of the other players found the potion belt (from the FR setting book I think) and we all thought it allowed you to drink a potion as a free action! Needless to say, every character within the next few sessions ended up having one (including some NPCs). It was quite out of hand until someone double-checked the rule and pointed out it allowed you to retrieve a potion as a free action, not drink a potion as a free action.

I agree with the previous posts: just start hitting them with attacks that evasion won't help against. I've played characters with evasion before and, while it is definately handy, it isn't useful all the time.

 

[MarauderX]

Meta gaming?

I don't really mind it, as multiclassing usually just weakens the prime character class, if they have one. I like the PCs that don't try to max out everything so that they can get a special effect of a PrC 5 levels down the road. I like the players who talk about how they solved a riddle or came up with a cool solution, not what their characters are going to put their skill points in next level.

Let them do all they want, I as a DM will balance it out to exploit their weaknesses as well as let them use their cool abilities to best effect.

 

[Eccles]

Re: Meta gaming?

Let them do all they want, I as a DM will balance it out to exploit their weaknesses as well as let them use their cool abilities to best effect.

This is a wonderful point, but the evasion thing makes it difficult.

If, for instance, I threw a couple of fireball blasting mages at the party, 5 out of 6 of them would be entirely unscathed, and the alienist would be vapourised.

Similarly, if I had someone doing mental attacks, most of the party would be OK, but the multi-classed guy only has about a +4 Wis save.

My problem is increasingly that everyone's so *very* weak in one area that I can't effectively challenge the group as a whole without utterly annihilating one of them. Which is a real shame.

 

[Cloudgatherer]

Rings of evasion are popular in my Epic game. Seems to be a no-brainer there.

 

[Sejs]

So hit 'em with stuff that doesn't allow a ref save.


Like Ice Storm. Or if you wanna mess with 'em, an elementally substituted Ice Storm.. Like Fire Storm, or Acid Storm .. or my personal favourite, the sonic-substituted, slashing-instead of impact damage Torrent of Screaming Blades.

 

[the_mighty_agrippa]

Heh. You'd hate my party then.

The new Mnk1/Pal8 replaces a deceased horrible little tumbling Dwarf Bar2/Rog3/Ftr3 with the good old "battleaxe/dwarf/boots of speed" cliche.

Then I've got a Rog3/Ftr3/Ran1/Asn3 Who's talking about taking a level of cleric because, hey, he wasn't a messed up enough character already!

i'm more interested in how a paladin swaps campfire stories with the assassin.

 

[Enceladus]

My problem is increasingly that everyone's so *very* weak in one area that I can't effectively challenge the group as a whole without utterly annihilating one of them. Which is a real shame.

How many character deaths would it take to then learn to create a more balanced character? I say you try and find out.

 

[Nifft]

Eh, if everyone's specialized, let them use it to their advantage. They become well-known, and therefore hired to kill things that have reflex powers -- Evokers, Dragons, etc.

However, once they're well enough known to be hired for their specialty, any enemies will know enough to prepare countermeasures. It's all about information -- not specific special abilities.

-- Nifft

 

[Umbran]

Does anyone else have a group that seems to have an obsession like this?

Yeah. I mean, I've got a party that composed of 70% water. Not Water elementals, just water. I mean, where do they get off, all choosing to be carbon-based, terrestrial lifeforms anyway?