Problem character...

[SWAT]

Through the use of Four Color To Fantasy and some magic items, a player of mine has legally given his 8th level character about +45 in both Hide and Move Silently. He also has a speed of about 120. Add to this the extremely chaotic nature of the character.

Basically, I do not see how I can realistically prevent him from going wherever he wants without getting caught. He can also turn into a bird and has a good Disable Device (Open Lock), which makes such a task even harder. I could easily have dogs and such detect him with Scent, but he's already gone by then.

Thankfully, he couldn't kill something if his life depended on it.

Can anyone suggest in-game ways to make his character less of a pain? Thanks.

 

[MichaelH]

I doubt they are all legal. Could you list how his skills and speed are so high?

 

[Endur]

Can anyone suggest in-game ways to make his character less of a pain?

It depends what you mean. If his character is constantly stealing and annoying people, well, NPCs could deal with him through divination spells, web, entangle, Invisitble Stalkers, Archers, and so on.

If you mean, his character is a super-scout,well, what's the problem with that?

 

[Dirigible]

I doubt they are all legal. Could you list how his skills and speed are so high?

Four color to fantasy is a superhero system modification.

My advice #1: Switch to Mutants and Masterminds.

My advice #2: Giant metal cages and bars with no locks, that can only be opened with brute strength. A new nemesis: Horse-Knackerer, the Man of Living Glue! Invisible forcefields. Pit traps. Laser tripwires and gas. Cyborg enemies with Bullet Time augmentations - allowing them to react with mongoose-flexes to his high-speed actions.

My advice #3: Let him go where he wants and do what he wants. Run a few bank-heist adventures, Shadowrun-style B&E's etc. Let him get bored and back on track. After he's completed all these robberies... have your equivalent of SHIELD of AEGIS come a'knocking. With tasers.

 

[Talon5]

Through the use of Four Color To Fantasy and some magic items, a player of mine has legally given his 8th level character about +45 in both Hide and Move Silently. He also has a speed of about 120. Add to this the extremely chaotic nature of the character.

Basically, I do not see how I can realistically prevent him from going wherever he wants without getting caught. He can also turn into a bird and has a good Disable Device (Open Lock), which makes such a task even harder. I could easily have dogs and such detect him with Scent, but he's already gone by then.

Thankfully, he couldn't kill something if his life depended on it.

Can anyone suggest in-game ways to make his character less of a pain? Thanks.

Curious how but anyways- just a thought- does he sleep with these magic items on? Does he bath with them on? Someone is bound to know who he is and notice the cool magic items. Perhaps a thief of a few levels high could visit him in the night, take his gear and- well make a run for it. "See ya, and thanks for all the cool gear!"

 

[argo]

Is the _character_ a problem or is the _player_ a problem? Because the two are verry different things.

If the only issue is that the _character_ is the greatest burgular of his age then my advice is not to sweat it too much. It sounds like he has poured a significant ammount (if not all) of his character resources into this one trick and you should let him enjoy it. Instead of trying to think of ways to stop his sneaking focus on challenging his weakness. Try to put him in a situation where he can't rely on the other party members to aid him but he still has to fight to acomplish his goals.

Example: I am playing in an OA game right now where the party ninja is so good we took to calling him invsi-ninja. I estimate that his hide/move silent bonuses are somewhere in the 25-30 range at 7th level! Then came the day that some rival ninjas came calling and the player of invsi-ninja looks down at his poor, neglected spot/listen scores. He turns to the rest of the party with this forlorn look on his face and says "sorry guys. I'm a ninja, not a counter-ninja." We then proceded to get our rears handed to us. Two sessions later we are surrounded by some stone golems and he looks at his measly 40 hp and again says to us "sorry guys. I'm a ninja, I sneak around and kill things, one good hit and I'm toast."

The moral? Specalist characters are a lot of fun to play. Let them do that voodo that the do so well and then throw something at the party that they can't handle (but, hopefully, someone else can) to remind them that they aren't superman.

 

[Malk]

well for one thing, he didnt give himself anything, be clear on that, <i> you </i> gave him anything he has. Second of all if what that guy said is true, and this is a superhero thing...whats the problem? Last case scenario, be cheesey and destroy his magic items...everyone but him will probably be thankfull.

 

[Painfully]

Use a ring of infravision.

Or if you wanna be cheap and not let the party get that item, have a familiar give the BBEG infravision.

 

[ph34r]

*Disregard post, HTML doesn't like me...*

 

[Camarath]

Can anyone suggest in-game ways to make his character less of a pain? Thanks.

You could try to strictly enforce the rule that "You need cover or concealment in order to attempt a Hide check".