Has anything ever broken your game?

[Evilhalfling]

1/2 orc barbarain 18 str - in a 1st level game.

before he came the rest of the party was useful, basically the heavy armored (14 str) paladin stood up and tanked, while the rogues, monks, and even my gnome enchanter with a x-bow
slowly killed off the opposition. Our kobold Bard (meepo) was invaluable that extra +1 goes a long way at 1st level.

Then a pc died and the 1/2 orc arrived. Sigh. He could handle fights by himself - at least until he went down. If the DM ramped up the violence, the rest of us got smeared. It was a fun game of not- quite heros struggling against evil. But a perfectly leagle and expected power build nuked the game.

 

[VirgilCaine]

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

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.

That's your problem right there.

And Daze spells. Don't forget Daze Monster.

 

[Shade]

That's your problem right there.

Ahh...so we aren't playing the same game. In 3.0, enlarge was a whole different problem..it was near-useless.

And Daze spells. Don't forget Daze Monster.

Indeed!

 

[spider_minion]

There has been only one spell I've ever seen that came close to 'breaking' a game: Muddy Ground from Arcana Unearthed. It requires a creature to make a Balance check to move in the area. You know how many things normally have Balance checks? None, that's how many. So it became a Dex check for them to stand, and then move. Not such a problem for some creatures but most things that move on the ground are affected by it to an inordinate amount. When I do AU again, that spell won't be on any lists

Oh, Muddy Ground, I hate thee so! Its actually a bit worse than that . . . they have to make the balance check whenever they take any action. Once my players were fighting off a boneclaw and some zombies in a room. The undead were seriously laying the smackdown on the party, and then the party greenbond casts muddy ground. He picked out all the squares the monsters were on and some around them to be affected. So then whenever the bone claw tries to attack (I would like to point out that it doesn't even need to move its legs to do so) it falls over. And when it tries to get up, it falls over again. I eventually ruled that it could crawl out of the mud without having to make a balance check. Anyhow, after the spell this wicked undead monstrosity wasn't half as dangerous as one of the Three Stooges.

Another AE spell I really hate is Chains of Vengence. I'm really dumbfounded why, after removing all the annoying save-or-sink spells from the game, they'd leave this one it. For those not familiar with the spell, it causes flaming chains to wrap around Large or smaller creature and hold it helpess (Reflex to avoid). The creature takes 2d6 fire damage each round, and 2d6 more if it tries to escape (which requires a DC 25 Str check or a DC 30 escape artist check). The wizard who had it had save DCs off the charts, which oddly wasn't much of a problem unitl he took this spell. Its vitually impossible to escape from the chains (a Titan has roughly a 50/50 chance) and until the creature does, it can be coup-de-graced effortlessly. This basically removed all challange from the fights I had planned.

In Arcana Unearthed, Scream really got on my nerves. Its a second level spell, did something like 1d8 sonic damage, ~2 points of con damage, and stunned the target for a round (fortitude negates). Usually spells that do sonic damage blow, but this one was doubly nasty for its seconday effects. On of my players used it to cripple a 3.0 mind flayer that they were not ment to fight, or even survive . . . we were playing with a varient rule that spells that did energy damage could bypass spell resistance. Needless to say, that rule got changed.

Okay, that's enough from me. Rant mode: disengage.

 

[VirgilCaine]

Ahh...so we aren't playing the same game. In 3.0, enlarge was a whole different problem..it was near-useless.

You mean at 1st-3rd level? Yeah, pretty much.
Once you actually can give the maximum possible Strength bonus (at 4th level), it's prime for making potions of and giving them to the tank type character.

I'm sure it could be creatively used for making objects larger and heavier--like tables and such behind doors or blocking underground passages with rocks or...

 

[Jarrod]

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?

Mmmm psychosis... erm.

And sure there were. However, many of the enemies were melee types, and they got pureed before moving in to engage. We could have rewritten the entire thing, but that's kind of what "broken in this case" means - that either the broken thing or the "in this case" needs to be changed. We decided to redo the character instead of rewrite half the module.

 

[Diremede]

3.5. The moment I introduced it, our sorcerer became unplayable. The cleric and druid climbed exponentially in power such that no other classes are played.

I am somewhat suprised that you think the cleric got a boost in 3.5. The druid did get a well deserved upgrade to their spell list, but if you look at most of the common cleric buff spells they got powered down with shorter durations, and rightous might got a needed nerf to its function. It is agreed though that the cleric of the 3rd edition era is a mighter foe then before, but it was a much needed change from the typical field medic.

As for sorcerers, well they were a 1 trick pony in 3.0 and that trend continues in 3.5, though we have made changes to our sorcerer in our compaign

As for broken, well the most broken class I ever had enter my campaign was the Warlock from the 3.5 complete arcane book. In my opinion it is quite possibly the worst base class WoTC has ever published in a book. The Warlock is one class that is not allowed at my gaming table every again

 

[diaglo]

That's your problem right there.

And Daze spells. Don't forget Daze Monster.

and Confused.

you gotta have the total Led Zep reference package.

diaglo "dazed and confused for some time now" Ooi

 

[jmucchiello]

3.5. The moment I introduced it, our sorcerer became unplayable. The cleric and druid climbed exponentially in power such that no other classes are played.

Did you let the sorcerer rechoose her spells? Or did she end up with a few spells that no longer served her needs like they use to and she couldn't get rid of them?

 

[sniffles]

As for broken, well the most broken class I ever had enter my campaign was the Warlock from the 3.5 complete arcane book. In my opinion it is quite possibly the worst base class WoTC has ever published in a book. The Warlock is one class that is not allowed at my gaming table every again

Explain, please? We've got a warlock/ranger in a current campaign, and he's not at all "broken" IMHO. And that's with Midnight's Heroic Paths applied on top of everything else. He has the Beast path.