Not exactly a munchkin..

[Arrgh! Mark!]

I'd like some help dealing with a particular PC. Or player.

Now, I'm not dealing with this in a sheer RP sense. He's nothing more than a 4th level fighter with a greatsword. I do use the armour as DR rules, which works well enough. He does have rather good armor (Which I contrive off him as much as possible.)

But he has obscene luck.


For some reason, he can't seem to die, or even be hurt. He rolled rather well on statistics (Having overall a +13 on modifiers - immense, I know. I even reduced his statistics by 4 points to put him even vaguely in the range of the other characters.)

I'm fairly sure he doesn't cheat. I have seen him pull of fluky stuff repeatedly, and he does roll low. I also sit right next to him at the table to check that.

But to challenge him I had to throw twice as many orcs at him as I did the other PC's AND the equal-level leader with a rather nasty combination of trips and sunders.

It's not that I have bad rolls per se. I'm fairly over the place, and I don't like to cheat unless it's dire. I have no compunctions about putting PC's on minus hitpoints on a normal fight, for instance.


How can I possibly defeat luck? Another player has decided to play a different archetype from a fighter, as this lucky fellow steals the show in this area. Another character doesn't want to change her character, but as a Defender (Sub-optimal for the current climate), she feels rather useless next to him.


My issue isn't really that he's so fluky powerful because of luck. It's that two other (melee) characters feel useless next to him. One has already changed characters, but the other remains. In her main situations (Urban fights) he'll be next to useless and she'll kick arse. Her skills are strong but nothing that can easily save the day by itself - when he's fully kitted out with weapons and armor he's unstoppable.

Any clues as to how to fix this conundrum?

 

[Fieari]

Does he use the same dice all the time? I know that not all the dice -I- have are perfectly "fair" dice, in that they, on average, roll certain numbers more than others. I didn't buy them that way, but cheap dice can get you funky results sometimes...

 

[Arrgh! Mark!]

we all have our funky dice. I have a 'killer' dice that I only use on boss battles, for instance. It's BLOOD RED! well, more just pastel red.

But I do see what you mean. Asking him to use different dice seems a bit odd, though.

 

[Dirigible]

Build a machine that bends the laws of chance to your whim.

Don't use it to win the lattery, though. That'd be dishonest.

One of my players seems to have remarkable, consistant luck with dice. For critical battles (or rather, critical single rolls within critical battles) I sometimes have him roll for me. Perhaps, similarly, you could use this palyers luck to your advantage? make him roll the attack dice for things attacking him?

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

I offer my advice, since you asked:

Remember that you and him are not antagonists. You're both just playing in a game together. (It sounds obvious, but I've seen so many DMs who regarded their players as antagonists ... it never ceased to surprise me with each new case.)

Create situations where luck won't help, and where party specialization (the other characters are different classes) makes all the difference.
I can only speak in 2E terms, not being familiar enough with 3E, but here are some examples that come to mind:

1. A wraith threatens the party. If it touches the fighter, he loses a level permanently! Obviously, then, the fighter would want to shoot arrows at the wraith, right? But the wraith is immune to normal weapons, and all the fighter has is normal arrows!
The cleric comes to the rescue, turning the wraith.

2. A treasure chest sits before the fighter. If he tries to smash it open, he may ruin precious magic inside, and the noise will attract other monsters. If he tries to open the lock himself, any traps on the lock will automatically detonate and affect him, since he has no specialized skill in opening locks, detecting traps, or disarming traps.
The party thief comes to the rescue, finding and removing the trap, and picking the lock, thus opening the chest.

3. A large group of carrion crawlers is approaching the party. Although they are small and weak creatures, they have many attacks each round, and each attack can paralyze a foe. Thus, each party member is facing upwards of 10 attacks per round, every round, in melee, against this horde of carrion crawlers.
The party can fire arrows at the carrion crawlers, but there are so many of them and they are advancing so quickly that the party cannot shoot them all in time.
The party mage comes to the rescue, throwing a Fireball and detonating it over the whole mass of carrion crawlers, killing them all.

The game as I remember it was specifically made to be such that no one character had the skills to survive. He or she had to rely on other characters for survival. The specialized talents needed for survival could never be obtained by one character alone (or, at least, adequately obtained.)

Now, you will not have players upset because they feel they have no part in the game, unappreciated and unneeded. And luck won't figure into it, for luck doesn't apply in any of the above situations.

Edena_of_Neith

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

He's unstoppable if fully kitted out with armor and weapons??

I can't think of a more terribly vulnerable person than someone in full armor, weapons or not.

A person in full armor cannot move silently. He will be noticed by all enemies, all the time.
A person in full armor cannot move quickly. He will be overtaken by any pursuers.
A person in full armor cannot adequately see. He is vulnerable to attacks from above (like nets and oil), below (nets, traps, oil, monsters), behind (backstabbing), and even from the sides.
A person in full armor, is subject to any spell that affects armor in the worst sort of way. The old Heat Metal spell would kill someone in plate armor: he would fry before he could take it off. And that's just a low level clerical spell / druidical spell.
A person in full armor, will drown if pushed into water or mud of any depth.
A person in full armor, is in real trouble if his armor is damaged in combat. Then, he must fight while his damaged armor hinders him, which may or may not be completely impossible.
A person in full armor, cannot cast Arcane Spells typically (or, with difficulty now, in 3E.)

Back in my day, fighters got around these problems by finding and wearing magical armor, for at that time magical armor was weightless, caused no encumberance, and tended to be very difficult to damage. Elven chain was most desired because you could cast spells in it.
But that assumes your fighter finds magical armor. What if he does not?

And any character, even a truly strong character, can be overborne and toppled to the ground if enough people pile up on him. If he is wearing and carrying 100 pounds of armor and equipment, that makes it all the easier for grappling/overbearing opponents to beat his strength and bring him down.

Finally, armor is pretty useless against area effect spells, or spells like Hold Person (especially the old 2nd edition Hold Person) or spells like Magic Missile.

 

[Kurotowa]

Is this really about the dice, or is this about a character who's totally is his element?

From the sound of it he's a high stat fighter with heavy armor and a greatsword. Probably uses Power Attack and Cleave a lot. At low levels, against mobs of enemies, this is what he is the best in the world at. Saying he somehow does the best is like saying a cleric with Extra Turning is somehow always the star player in an all-undead adventure.

If you want the defender to get a chance to show off, you already said that she's sub-optimal in the current situation and would rock in an urban enviornment. Sounds to me like you need to either route the adventure through a city more often or tell her player that the character isn't the best for this campaign.

 

[LostSoul]

If you really think he is rolling too well, have him roll someone else's die.

Then keep track of all his rolls over a couple of sessions.

If he's averaging high rolls on a neutral die... eh, I don't see that there's anything you can do. Have him play a wizard?

Or accept that you're playing with a guy who can bend the rules of physics to his whim, and don't upset him.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Is this really about the dice, or is this about a character who's totally is his element?

That's what popped into my head. It might be luck, or it might be his rock to your scissors.

Vary the encounters. Don't hose the player, but don't always play to his strengths. He's good in a stand up fight, but mobile ranged attackers, wizards/sorcerers using touch attacks, flying monsters, grapples, poisons, traps, and stealth are all bad for him. And others. Figure out what the other PCs are really good at, and throw that at the party about as often as you put in what plays to the fighter's strengths.

 

[billd91]

There's simply no mechanical balancing of luck the keeps the game fair. If his dice are reasonably fair and he is just getting lucky, don't single him out for trouble. That's not fair to the player who isn't doing anything wrong.

What you should do is find a way to balance screen time for the other PCs. As Edena said, find ways to have the strengths of the other PCs come to the fore. The game should be an ensemble show, not a star vehicle for any single player.
Now, that would be fair.