Limiting Stacked Buffs

[MeiRen]

We have an Artificer in my group, and he put a hideous number of buffs on the group Fighter (a Warforged):


Weapon +2
Weapon Bane Dragons (+2 more, +2d6 damage)
Weapon Wounding (1 con damage/hit)
Iron Construct (+4 str, -4 dex, DR 15/adamantine (note doesn't applies to spells or energy damage), half damage from fire and acid, electric damage slows you for 3 rounds, vulnerable to rusting spells)
+3 natural armor
+3 deflection to ac (doesn't stack with rings of protection)
96 damage buffer vs electricity
resist electricity 20
+3 resistance to saves (net +2, doesn't stack with your vest/cloak of resistance)
+1 morale to AC, saves
+5 morale to saves vs fear (net +4)
bless +1 morale to attack rolls

This is not desirable. Forget about the balance issues, its just too complicated. Its particularly problematic as some of the other players already struggle with the rules (they're great gamers, they just don't know D&D very well) and get confused.

I need to figure out some way to limit this using an optional rule. It needs to keep the number of buffs under control without nerfing the Artificer's fun. Any suggestions?

Note that game balance is really not a concern. The PCs are quite powerful and a little nerfing will not kill them.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[vectner]

I'm not sure what the spell duration is for all those, but that could be a limiting factor. If a spell only last 1rnd per level and they are cast out of combat they are going to poof very soon. 1 round is only 6 seconds, so if they are prepping before a fight, keep track of the rounds. Each spell cast is 1 round of action, you have 12 rounds worth of spells there, at least one of them is probably going to have expired by the time you cast the last one.

You could also easily house rule that there is a limit of say five persistent spells allowed to be in effect at a time. The magic becomes unstable after that point or something to that effect.

 

[Thanee]

Just put a hard limit of the number of "buffs" that can affect one target (including its equipment).

Bye
Thanee

 

[Corbert]

I agree with Vectner, the spell duration is a limiting factor and unless your PCs are 20th level the 1st buffs cast are going to end before combat even begins.

BTW, what level are your PCs?

Also, taking so long to cast buff spells might give the enemy a chance to overhear the spells being cast

 

[Herzog]

Now, this might not help at all, but I know for a fact that several of those buffs require very costly material components (like, 250 gp in diamond dust)

Require the artificer (or the group, for that matter) to buy and keep track of these. Then see what buffs are left.

Also, a lot of those buffs come from supplements. If you keep to the allowed artificer spells to the Eberron Campaign setting, a lot of your problems should disappear.

Finally, I have so far assumed these are buffs, not magical enhancements created by magical item creation. If these are magical items, what level is your group? If the magical items are appropriate for their level (I'm thinking lvl 10 or something) the problem lies not with the artificer or the warforged, but with the D&D system. There are a lot of different types of buffs, and if you have someone who knows how to handle them, you get into this situation.

So, how to fix this?
Try to create a different character sheet, one with each 'protection stat' explained in detail.
So, a different line for touch ac, full ac, helpless ac, flat-footed ac, saves, saves against sleep, saves against fear, etc.
Each line with columns listing full, alchemical, deflection, morale, etc.

Each cell in that table should contain the maximum protection for that situation, for that type.
So, the saving throw vs fear will have a +5 morale bonus.
Other saving throws will have a +1 morale bonus.

If you have different effects with different durations, you might reserve some space for that too.

One last thing: listing things like 'net +4' indicates to me that you have a problem with this too. (not an accusation, just something I think I recognize. correct me if I'm wrong) There is no such thing or concept as a 'net +4', it is just that only the highest bonus of a type applicable to the situation is used.
So, instead of listing '+5, net +4', think of it as '+5, lower bonusses of the same type ignored'. This might help.

Success!