Has anything ever broken your game?

[The_Universe]

Homebrew action points broke my game. I had to seriously nerf them. I'd like to blame it on the players, but I made them *very* easy to abuse. It's not a mistake I'll make again.

 

[Psionicist]

The 3.0 Potion of Glibness (+30 bluff) broke a few combats before we decided to not use them. The player simply told the enemies to kill each other in an assortment of highly unbelievable ways, and they did.

 

[Kanegrundar]

I can't say that I've ran into anything in 3.5 that broke my game. Heck, even in 3.0 with Haste, I would be hard pressed to say that it broke the game. It made my job as a DM harder, but I actually enjoyed the challenge.

Kane

 

[HellHound]

Even with a +30 to bluff checks, I can't see managing to take a creature from "Hostile" to "Helpful" towards you at the same time as changing him from "Helpful" to "Hostile" for his companions.

Hmmm... that really is only two Bluff checks with a DC of 50.

Perhaps I could be convinced. But you'd need to make a Diplomacy check with a DC of 25 (from unfriendly to friendly).

 

[VirgilCaine]

[*]Enlarge person. This is brutal at low levels when used by warrior-types with a level of sorcerer. And it bugs me to no end that only enlarge person exists, not enlarge monster to level the playing field. In my next campaign, I'll probably replace the spell with the expansion power from the XPH.

Who says there isn't an enlarge monster spell? WotC? Not every spell has to be in the PHB. And besides, it's ENLARGE now NOT "enlarge person"--it works on objects too.

Arms & Armor 3.0 had a weapon enhancement that stunned the opponent for 1 round if the weapon scored a crit.

We saw it in play on a keen scimitar in hands of someone with improved critical.

We were dealing with major NPCs being stunned after 40% of attacks against them. With 3.0 haste, the guy would move in and then full attack, looking for crits.

It was ugly. Ruined a good adventure, honestly. So we had to scrap the enhancement, and I was VERY glad to see Imp Crit & Keen not stacking in 3.5, along with the haste nerf.

Oh yeah, that's the fault of Haste, Keen and Imp. Crit and not the enhancement.

Archers, Chasms, spiked pits (make a spell that creates them, maybe balance vs. Evard's?), archers, flying enemies, Will saves, Reflex saves, lots of archers, areas of caltrops (another spell)...small spaces...

He was referring to it in the context of a pre-built module that, apparently, didn't contain those things...

A module had NO enemies with Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Cause Fear, Scare, Fear, Tasha's Laughter, Glitterdust? No rogues with UMD? No bards, no clerics, no single-shot items? No flying enemies at all? No traps that injure the DB and set off his psychosis?

 

[schporto]

Broke. Well I got 2 candidates...
1. A spell found in Divine Pocket Grimoire (from Green Ronin I think). Four Fold Forging. Gah. spell was simple make a little replica of the weapon. Cast spell and it does 4 times the damage on a hit. Just have to hit once. Cast it on a +5 imp crit weapon, wielded by a barbarian who took whatever that feat was that improved their crit range. Those all stacked critical on a 15 or 16, so all damage basically multiplied by 8. Very very ugly. If the wizard went first, horrid wilting. The barbarian swiped. The rest delayed....
2. Another combo thing. Vorpal blade. Yeah I know I like them too. But, a critical kills was just tough. Especially when it ended the campaign. Expected the dragon of a big fight to last 2-3 sessions to kill, probably some of the part dying. 20. 20. Dead. Of course those vorpals came in from a gated in solar. Well, 2 actually. Which was part of the problem...
-cpd

 

[Pants]

Oh yeah, that's the fault of Haste, Keen and Imp. Crit and not the enhancement.

Actually, it'd be more a problem of everything combining together to create something broken.

Here's another thing that didn't break the game but was particularly annoying:
I had an old Elven Ftr/Wizard who had a suit of mithral breastplate of speed +1. Yes, the speed enhancement from Defenders of the Faith which was pretty much a constant Haste spell. I felt bad for having it so I asked the DM if I should change it over to a constant 3.5 Haste. He happily agreed.

 

[Psionicist]

Even with a +30 to bluff checks, I can't see managing to take a creature from "Hostile" to "Helpful" towards you at the same time as changing him from "Helpful" to "Hostile" for his companions.

Hmmm... that really is only two Bluff checks with a DC of 50.

Perhaps I could be convinced. But you'd need to make a Diplomacy check with a DC of 25 (from unfriendly to friendly).

Probably wouldn't work normally, but if you already have a +25 because of ranks and stats it's doable with an open-minded DM and some careful wording. You are right you probably cannot do this "by the rules" though.

 

[Shade]

Who says there isn't an enlarge monster spell? WotC? Not every spell has to be in the PHB. And besides, it's ENLARGE now NOT "enlarge person"--it works on objects too.

Huh? Where'd you find that? Here's the spell I find in the SRD and my 3.5 PHB:

Enlarge Person
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target: One humanoid creature

And yes, I can create an enlarge monster spell if I so desire. I was just pointing out that I was irritated that WOTC didn't create one, since they went to the trouble to make charm, dominate, and hold spells for both person and monster.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

Multiple archer prestige classes broke mine. Order of the bow initiate + Deepwood sniper + ring of blinking +rapid shot = about 200 points of damage a round. Polymorph other also screwd it up. Had a tiefling wizard running around with an ac in the 60s.