Newer DM needs help with budding power gamer

[On Puget Sound]

1. some encounters should be easy; it's ok.
2. have 3 or more encounters per day. If they can all use their dailies in every fight, it will be very hard to challenge them.
3. when you do want to challenge them a bit.... this party looks like a compact melee party. With two defenders and a short-range controller, and only one ranged striker, an occasional artillery duel will keep them humble. Putting the enemy archers/ casters in a place that requires Acrobatics (not Athletics) to reach, and giving them superior cover or concealment (i.e. firing from the darkness at the well-lit party) will give them fits, and targeting Reflex (dwarves, paladins and clerics all hate this) makes it even scarier.

4. After inflicting that on them, just when they think they get to rest, spring one more encounter - an easy one, maybe undead so their radiant attacks can feel special. You'll be amazed how worried they get when they have 0-1 healing surges left, even against wimpy skeletons.

 

[Ramius613]

Are they 1st-level?


For a session or two, one of my players had a Battlerager Vigor fighter as his PC. Ban! Is your player playing one? Ban it, fast!

I'm not sure if you've looked at the Battlerage Vigor lately, but they did errata it shortly after it came out, and now it is not nearly as powerful as it initially was.

 

[Pentius]

Thanks for all the great replies. Sorry I left out some details. The players just hit Level 3. I did let them make any changes they wanted after the second session to their characters. They were just get a feeling for the game flow, powers and mechanics so I thought the one free shot made sense. Going forward we'll stuck more to the rules around making changes.

I've traditionally allowed players to change their sheets a bit for the first few sessions as well, as they get a handle on things. It does make sense.

As for the problem at hand, I'd suggest turning up the heat a bit. Harder encounters, or more of them. More seems odd at first, but when the players have another fight ahead and one or more players is out or nearly out surges, and most if not all the daily powers are spent, that encounter gets them shaking in their boots. IME, power gaming in 4e doesn't get too out of hand, they won't break the world, they'll just be tougher in combat, which can be adjusted for easily enough.

 

[OnlineDM]

Here's my perspective: Balanced-power parties are ideal.

If you have a mixture of optimized and non-optimized PCs in the party, it can lead to problems. Either the encounters will be a reasonable challenge for the non-optimizers, but the optimizers will blow through it and steal the spotlight, or they'll be a reasonable challenge for the optimized PCs and the others will have to either cower or die.

If everyone gets optimized, then it will be on you as the DM to ratchet up the challenge a notch or two. You should always expect encounters that are below the PCs' level to be pretty easy, and if everyone is optimized then an encounter equal to the PCs' level will also be pretty easy.

To make things harder, I agree with the suggestion of tossing in an extra monster or two after the first or second round of combat.

Also, it sounds like you're running Reavers of Harkenwold - have fun! I enjoyed running that adventure for my group. Let me know if you have any questions about it.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I'm not sure if you've looked at the Battlerage Vigor lately, but they did errata it shortly after it came out, and now it is not nearly as powerful as it initially was.

We were using the post-errata version. The PC wasn't using Crushing Surge either, but did take the Dwarf Stone?Blood feat. It was still broken.