Power Gaming

[Treebore]

Billd91,

I agree with what you are saying, but there are a lot of people in their 30's, 40's, 50's, etc... who are over the age of 18, but still have a long way to go to be adults. Unlike what most people seem to think, and they are often the over 18 but not an adult yet, 18 does not make someone an adult. Your behavior does.

Sorry to interject this, but adulthood/maturity is an issue in another thread I have been following, so it popped out at me in this thread too.

 

[griff_goodbeard]

Why not look for a different way to play? Have you heard of tried PbP (Play By Post) gaming? Its slow, anyone can play in about 4 games at once and not fill rushed, and it has some other issues but the games are more based upon story. (The slowness seems to reduce the number of power gamers.)

I agree whole heartedly with this. I had a similar situation to you with my tapletop game. There was (and still is, I play with them once a week) a lot of power gaming. After a while I was feeling a bit unfulfilled and wanted more emersive role-playing. Presto! PbP was the answer for me. I play in 4 D&D PbP games and one SW PbP and it's really helped stave my roleplay jones.

 

[Corsair]

It is technically a 1 handed weapon. So you can use a large bastard sword in 2 hands (-2 penalty to attack) for an average gain of 3 points of damage more per attack. Taking monkey grip, he moves up to HUGE bastard swords, gaining another average 4 damage for a -2 attack.

Net damage: Average 13.5, -4 attack

Of course, he could just use a greatsword two handed and power attack for 4.

Net damage: Average 15, -4 attack

Kinda looks silly afterwards, doesn't it? It's possible he's using a powerful build race instead of one of the two things I mentioned, in which case he has a slight advantage over the power attacker, but not much. And considering most of those races are +1 LA, he's probably losing a point of BAB to close the gap.


Summation: If these assumptions are correct, the DM is overreacting. This is hardly "power gaming", especially the "power" part.

 

[BlueBlackRed]

Try this, I do it all the time:

"No."

If that doesn't work, fight fire with fire and do the same thing back to them. I'm sure there are more than enough people who can educate you in the ways of tweaking a character until they are powerfully broken.

Or just have the party fight some dark fighter clerics. Hold Person is a wonderful way to exploit a fighter's biggest weakness.

And if that doesn't work, stop recruiting college guys unless you know for sure that they are not powergamers.

I despise powergamers as well.
I don't have fun when they are around.
And I know they wouldn't have fun in my games. In fact, I would guarantee it.

 

[TheYeti1775]

Probably the same feats I took with an Ogre Fighter.

Monkey Grip
Then just use an over-sized weapon.

Bagra the Ogre is a 6th Level Fighter. I had him specialize in Polearms.
He has a Huge Heavy Poleaxe +1 (It's in Dragon 321 or 322 along with a couple of his feats)
With this he does 2 attacks +13/+8 for 4d6+12 Crit 20 X3

Feats:
Power Attack
Weapon Focus (Heavy Poleaxe)
Exotic Weap Prof (Heavy Poleaxe)
Cleave
Shorten Grip (allows you to adjacent squares from same Dragon Mag)
Monkey Grip
Weapon Specialization

He also uses Medium ones as backup one-handed.
When in tight spaces he has to use those.
He is a brute, and I play him that way.

Wasn't even trying to power game him when I created him. But he has a steady power creep. But he is, and so is every other larger weapon wielding creature a slave to the space available to wield his weapon.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

The most likely explanation is Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Bastard Sword) + Monkey Grip + Huge Bastard Sword (3d8+Str+1/2). We'll assume Str 18 (since the wielder is an alleged power-gamer, though from the weapon he's using I doubt it).

2 feats, +3 to-hit, average damage 19.5, crit 19-20

A greatsword wielder, with no feats whatsoever, is doing:

+7 to-hit, average damage 13, crit 19-20

There are already times when our greatsword-armed friend will do more damage, such as AC 18 (15 + CR, a typical monster AC). Yet the "power gamer" has spent two feats. If he's a non-human barbarian, that's ALL his feats at 3rd level, and he can only do his thing STARTING at 3rd level.

Let's give two feats to the greatsword wielder to "even things out" - Weapon Focus and Power Attack.

+5 to-hit, average damage 19, crit 19-20.

Now the greatsword wielder, while using full power attack, is at all of .5 damage less per hit, and has 2 points more attack bonus even so. And unlike the "power gamer," he can choose not to use his full power attack and be at up to +8 to-hit, thus allowing him to deal more damage to higher-AC opponents.

 

[Digital M@]

And, I'd like to point out that the age of your group is probably not the reason for the problem. There are plenty of good college-gamers.

I agree, I have played several of them. The point was not the age, but my lack of ability to find other gamers.

 

[der_kluge]

Try this - start at 1st level, and instead of letting the players create their characters by themselves, work with them individually.

And instead of focusing on the mechanics, focus on the story.

Start out with something like
"who was your character as a child?"
"Are his parents still alive?"
"How did he come into having the powers that he does?"
"Who were your mentors or teachers?"
"Any living family members?"
"What are his long term goals?"
"Personality quirks?"

And then go from there. If adding something like a half-dragon template, or a "monkey-grip" feat comes up, challenge them to explain how they learned it, or acquired it. By and large, most people are not half-paragon templated, monkey-fisted uber munchkins. They are peasants struggling to survive.

 

[Digital M@]

This was the characters second choice because I lowered the starting level. I know there are dozens of ways to challenge the character but it always puts all of the other characters at greater risk.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

How does sundering his weapon hurt the other characters?

Or Sleeping him with a spell?

Sometimes, maybe most times, he'll be great in combat. But, once in a while, he'll fail a Will Save (Vampire Spawn, anyone?) or come against something that hurts his effectiveness (a Sundering opponent, a Tripping opponent, etc.).