Problem Player in Group... Me :(

[Felix]

Ok, here's the party lineup:

PC's
9th level Ranger... death at 30 feet.
10th level Paladin... death at 5 feet.
8th level Psion... uses Crisis of Breath a whole lot.
9th level Rogue... not so much a combat machine.
2nd Barbarian-3rd Ranger-5th Forsaker... Character concept = survive. [Me]

NPC's
two Xth level Arcane Archers.

And here is the problem.

I have focused on getting high saves and high hitpoints. All of my ability increases have gone into Constitution, and will continue to do so (I will have 8 more ability increases over the next 10 levels). I have 40' movement, more than anyone else. My AC is as good as the platemail wearing paladin, but I'm never flatfooted, and much of my armor is through the Forsaker natural armor stuff. I can't be brought down by poison (Fort save of +17), and spells have a hard time against me (SR 15, Ref +9, Will +11).

But! I don't deal much average damage, especially considering I have 18 STR and wield a greatsword: Average damage of 13, 16 when raging.

The Paladin, through Smite, Divine Might, Power Attack, and a (lesser) Holy Avenger can bring the house down on opponents, with a minimum of 30 damage in many cases.

The Ranger doesn't friggin miss with that bow of his. He routinely deals 24 damage at range in a round. Basically, he takes out mooks like nobody's business.

The Psion keeps people from breathing. He's not popular with the enemies who know what he's up to.

Long story short: this party is made up of a bunch of people who can dish a lot of punishment, but can't take it very well. I, on the other hand, can't dish it out (much), but can just keep on taking it till enemies get tired and fall over from hitting me.

The Result:
Bad guys attack. Ranger kills half of the mooks in the first three rounds while they close. Enemy wizards bring the smackdown on the ranger, and he falls. Bad guy heavies reach party and engage. Paladin takes out the trash. Second rank enemies focus firepower on him, and Paladin goes down. Psion has by this point choked two wizards to death. Remaining wizards make fun of his d4 hit die and the psion goes down. Rogue is able to stick one last person with a Sneak Attack, before she gets mobbed. Meanwhile, my PC has been doing steady, unimpressive damage to the bad guy attackers. I have not drawn their attention because I don't hew through thier lines, nor do I kill things in a single round. But near the end of the combat, I remain, and very few of the enemy remain. And I, because I was built for survival, am able to take them out.

I was chatting with my DM after the game yesterday, and he commented that I was on the way to becoming overpowering. That I was so successful in my build of a survivor that anything he threw at the party would either not scratch me, or would hurt me and kill the others. But he for the life of him could not see where the unbalancing came from. Ability scores are of a par between the players... I have no magical items, and rarely am able to power my DR through magic destruction... my hit points are nearly twice that of the next hardiest PC, but that is through CON and 7 levels of d12 hit dice.

So... has anyone had this kid of a conundrum before? I don't want to be unbalancing, but in the recent combats I am unhurt or everyone dies. What solution?

And for the DM, what might he throw at us that would hurt me and not the others? Be as nasty as you like... I've come up with a few suggestions myself for him.

 

[Glyfair]

To me, it seems not a problem with your character, but rather a combination of the other characters and the party tactics.

The party doesn't seem very defensively strong. The paladin is the only healer and their seems to be a lack of defensive spell casting. So, what does the party end up doing? Wading into combat where they can be ganged up on. This seems to be the major problem.

Another thing to look at is the DM. It's possible he's used to dealing with a more balanced group. Because of this, he could be running his villians as very tough and unforgiving tactically. Campaign-wise, this might be appropriate. However, when the party is lacking in so many areas, this is going to be deadly.

Perhaps its time for the party to have a discussion about dealing with the problem in character. Figure out what isn't working for the party and try to find ways around it. How are you going to counter those wizards? Can we find a way to bring the characters who were dropped back into the combat?

 

[BSF]

You have nearly twice as many HP as the next PC, of course you are difficult to take down. That's not a problem because you are at least there to try to stabilize all the lightweights.

Seriously though, your SR isn't that high and your saves are nice, but not too extreme. You can still suck up plenty of damage from spells. Of course, the problem is that nobody else can, right?

What will be a problem? Incorporeal undead. A shadow doing Str damage is just as much a threat to you as to everyone else. Well, except that you probably have better Str.

Hmm, I can't really find anything that makes you overpowerful. Everyone else has optimized themselves on the concept of a strong offense is the best defense. Without you, the DM would be able to play to that style without exploiting some of the glaring problems with that strategy.

The Psion could be using Improved Biofeedback, if he chose to take it. What about Displacement?

The Ranger can do 24 points (avg) a round and he is worried about shooting mooks? WTF? Leave the mooks to you, shoot the wizards. In the 3 rounds he killed mooks, he could have done 72 points (avg) of damage to spellflingers. Coupled with the Psion, There should not be any spellcasters left on the other side.

The bad guy heavies may be able to focus on the paladin, but they should do so only if there is a roge on the other side.

All in all, I would say that your group is not fighting very effectively for the characters that are in it. You need to re-think your tactics when fighting a large group. You need to identify the real threats and deal with them while offering mutual support. If it helps, think about it like this. You need to use your resources intelligently. One of your resources is the HP of each character in the group. Where can your character's resource be applied to help rectify the problem of everyone else being pounded on?

As for your DM, he might need to rethink his enemy choices as well as tactics to put a little more heat on your character too.

 

[Ricochet]

Why do you have 8 ability increases in the next levels, that doesn't make any sense?

Maybe if your character would block attacks against the Wizard/Psion/Rogue more often, your party would be even more impressive in combat. You know, engage the guys attacking your weaker friends, defending them with your bare chest and so forth.

 

[Hypersmurf]

All of my ability increases have gone into Constitution, and will continue to do so (I will have 8 more ability increases over the next 10 levels).

Actually, you're not putting any more of your Forsaker bonuses into Con.

Forsaker levels give inherent bonuses (not the same as the simple increase you get every four levels); inherent bonuses max out at +5 to any given ability.

So if you've put all five of your Forsaker bonuses into Con so far, you've already capped. You can put your CL 12, 16, and 20 bumps into Con, but not your Forsaker 6-10 bonuses.

Edit - this also means that your Con can't benefit from Wishes or a Manual of Bodily Health, both of which provide inherent bonuses as well.

-Hyp.

 

[Darkness]

Get some feats and/or PrCl levels that force the enemies to attack you even if they prefered to attack someone else.

I.e.... Maybe something like the Mountain Giant's Taunt ability, if you're familiar with Warcraft III; I'm pretty sure there are ways to do that in D&D. Or else get yourself some stuff that enables you to throw yourself into the path of an attack aimed at someone else (maybe your 40' speed can help here).

 

[Hypersmurf]

Um, so in any of these encounters where everyone else goes down and you're the only one left standing...

... you, who can't make use of any magic...

... have none of the opponents ever had any flight capability?

I'm assuming you're playing 3E, not 3.5? A flying creature with any DR will essentially be invulnerable to you, since a/ you can't fly and b/ your 'natural weapon' ability will apply to your bow but not your arrows, and you can't use magic arrows, so you can't beat the DR. You end up with two choices - stand and get whittled down gradually by ranged attacks, or abandon your unconscious comrades.

-Hyp.

 

[Piratecat]

In KidCthulhu's Scarred Lands campaign, I'm also playing a PC focused on survival. My psiwarrior dwarf has powers that make him hard to hit, hard to hurt. . . even if he isn't doing much damage. The problem is that this build turns out not to be as much fun as I suspected. It's fun to get hit, and it's fun to do lots of damage. I'll probably be angling him a little bit more towards combat effectiveness in future levels.

In combat, I've leveraged my survival by deliberately drawing the enemy's AoO so that my friends don't, and tossing myself into the middle of battle to try and draw attacks that would otherwise go to my friend. It's an exciting way to deal with the problem.

 

[TiQuinn]

Based on what you're saying, there are a whole lot of other potential problems besides your character "might" be unbalanced.

Look at it this way, the DM is complaining that your character is unbalanced because he can't finish a TPK.

It certainly sounds like he's throwing a bit too many creatures per encounter at you. It also seems like the party's tactics are pretty much in your face, pound them til they breathe no more. You probably need more defensive spells, movement-boosting spells, and possibly some surprise tactics. If your party does all of these things, then definitely start thinking if the DM is stacking the deck against your party a little too heavily.

 

[Zad]

An interesting situation. Here's my take, which boils down to two parts.

First, an old Champions DM of mine had a saying/rule/guideline for all players: everyone should have an offense, a defense, and a movement power. Character concept is great but you should cover those bases somehow, and he was right, doubly so in a supers setting. But it applies to D&D also - you neglect an area at your peril. You have focused mostly on defense, they on offense, so the disparity is overly emphasized.

Personally I feel there is nothing wrong with some focus - every character in a party should be the best (in the group) at something. It allows everyone to shine. But it is odd at times.

Second part: I find the levels of your group particularly interesting. Because whether you know it or not, you're doomed! Ok not really - they're doomed. Here's why:

Up til now, life has been fairly simple for your merry band - a failed save is a pain, but not fatal - the effects are usually not permanent. But you're heading into the mid/high levels now. Save-or-die spells become much more common and suddenly everyone realizes they better put some time/money/effort into their defenses. They start buying resistance items, taking save-related feats, boosting AC, and so on. It's not unusual in my experience to focus on offense early, but later you realize that when you get to the point where you can't kill things in a round, you damn well better tend to your defenses. That or you will end up with a lot of dead PCs.

Assuming that lesson sinks in, then over time, the polarities in your group will pull together. They will invest in defenses, (not to mention that there's only so much you can do to boost offense) and you will have gold/feats/etc to spend on offense.

But that still leaves you with a problem right now, and I see where the DM is coming from. One suggestion is this - the DM says to all players "We have a problem. I think it will go away in time, but I'd like everyone to help fix it in the short term. I'd like each of you to come up with one way to move your character back to the middle ground. Offensive characters - find something defensive, etc. You can re-select a feat, alter a prior magic item purchase, whatever, with my approval. You can take that feat back later on, but I need to pull everyone together a little right now to help my job balancing your encounters."

So maybe the ranger drops improved rapid shot and takes iron will, and then just takes improved rapid shot again at 12th, or whatever.


Another alternative that depends on how forward thinking the group is: you can just point them to some higher level story hours and say "unless you guys think about your hit points/saves/AC, you'll all be toasted by the first beholder that sees you."