Pathfinder 1E Help with a Power Gamer [Pathfinder]

[GM Dave]

Okay, I'm running a Pathfinder game and things have been going mostly well. We just had our 19th game session last night and we've been actively playing since Jan (started planning in Dec)..


The big problem that I have is that one of the players has taken their Summoner Class character with the Synthesist option.
Synthesist - Pathfinder_OGC


The character is level 4 and already has an AC of 27, DR 5/Magic, and Resistance Fire 5 (Could have more resistances).


None of this is due to my actions as I've provided no magical items to this character but is fully due to using the rules for the class and Eidolon evolutions. BTW the rest of the goup's AC ranges from 10 to 19.



Now, I informed the player tonight that if he has chosen to raise his AC to 27 then their could be problems and reprecussions for the rest of the group. I explained that to provide something that can challenge and hit his AC that the rest of the group will suffer more (a hit that would be 50/50 to hit his character will hit almost 100% against any other character).


Now, as a GM I can design many things that get around AC (AoE, poisonous gasses, Negative engergy, drain attacks, etc).. I can thus neutralize that advantage of having the high AC but then the player loses the quality that makes him 'special'. Yet, if I don't do things like this or radically increase the level of opposition then I'm basically allowing the player to 'win' and walk over any opposition force (only 20s hitting really takes out some of the danger of the game).


I've stated my thoughts but it is more going to end up 'hurting' the other players (which I said) if I follow though on making a reasonable challenge.


His response when I pointed out his AC was out of whack from the rest of the group was 'I had nothing else that I thought was worth spending my evolution points on.'


What should I do?

 

[Gilladian]

I would do two things:

1) nothing. Don't unbalance the game to "get" him. At least, not often. Pitch the battles the same way you always would. If he never gets hurt in melee, well, that's the way it goes. He must have other weaknesses that will naturally eventually come into play.

2) ask him what ELSE he would have spent the points on, that you and he would both consider "fair". See if you can create some house rules that would give him other options. Or ask HIM to write up some options. Then go over them with him and see what you both feel about them.

3) give the other PCs chances to find/make choices that will aid their characters in closing the power gap, if there really is one.

 

[Crothian]

I'd just flat out tell him the character is just not working for the campaign and he can either rework the character drastically or come up with a new character and ban the Summoner class.

 

[Stormonu]

Obviously, this player has put all his points into being a combat monster.

The big question is, what can he do besides combat? Throw a few non-combat curveballs his way, and he may consider shifting his evolutions away from combat-only evolutions. It's very hard to dominate the game in all areas; if he's toughed up on defense, he's probably weak in other areas of the game.

In the end, if you're having problems with him in combat, a few touch attacks ought to work against his AC. As should grappling. Area of Effect spells might also be something to consider - Resistance 5 is pretty minor when CR 4 NPC's will likely be throwing 5d6 attacks (or 7-8d6 for "tougher" opponents). Consider flying or ranged attacks, where he can't reach the target.

I wouldn't do these tactics in every combat, but mixing the combats up - especially 1 or 2 that happen to hurt him real bad because they hit on something he's deficient against - may get him out of the "one trick pony" mindset.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Nerf summoners. Or give every other PC magic items to boost their ACs up to 27. Then use higher CR monsters that can hit that AC.

I once played in a game where three PCs had ACs of 40 or higher, and one, the ogre barbarian, had an AC of 15 or so. The DM gave the barbarian a suit of mithril full-plate, which alleviated the problem a bit, though the high AC guys could still only be hit on a 20 by most monsters.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

Have you double checked the Synthesist player's work to make sure everything was calculated correctly? I've never played Pathfinder and I'm far from a power gamer but after messing with the Pathfinder OGC I could only make an AC of 22. And I could find damage reduction that is bypassed by an alignment but not a damage reduction that is bypassed by magic. Maybe everything has been done correctly but it's probably worthwhile to double check in case a mistake was made.

 

[jasper]

boot to head. Repeat until he falls in line. Replay booters as necessary.
Or you could check his work. Or research the rules to have monsters nerf him. Or if pathfinder does xp like 3E downgrade the challenge since he steam rolls over it. Or ask him to come down in power a little.

 

[Holy Bovine]

This seems to be a very common complaint about the Summoner/Synthesist/Eidolon combo. It is a very overpowered build and is only going to get worse. Personally I would be loathe to have the player dump the PC if he's had him since 1st level. About the only thing I would suggest is a little one-on-one discussion and find out if the player is actually going to enjoy this silly over powered thing he's created. Let him know you'll be forced to target him sometimes and that will likely mean PC deaths among the other party members.

 

[Mallus]

Step 1 : work with the player to give their character an exploitable weakness.

Step 2: periodically exploit the weakness.

Step 3: remember to honor their character concept. Which, in this case, means designing enough encounters that allow the player to feel nearly immune to harm, seeing as that's their chosen shtick.

Or, more succinctly: offer the player a compromise. If they don't accept, tell them to create a new character.

 

[Mark Chance]

Double check his maths versus the rules. Every single time I've seen a thread with someone complaining about summoners being overpowered, it turned out the summoner player wasn't doing the evolutions correctly.