race & feat combos that destroy my campaigns melee combat.

[Tom Cashel]

Bah!

1) He destroys weapons with one swing! I mean absolutely destroys them! +2,3 4 whatever-GONE! I FEEL THAT MAGICALS NEED MORE PROTECTION THAN RAW ALLOW. To take a enemies weapon, sheild, thats +3 or more & worth 50,000 or more that took a month for the mage to enchant and to let a meathead llike this to break it with one swing? I mean c'mon already!

Doesn't the sundering weapon need to be of equal enchantment as the sundered weapon? I didn't think a +2 sword could even touch a +3 or +4 weapon/shield.

From the SRD:

Hardness and Hit Points: An attacker cannot damage a magic weapon that has an enhancement bonus unless his own weapon has at least as high an enhancement bonus as the weapon or shield struck. Each +1 of enhancement bonus also adds 1 to the weapon’s or shield’s hardness and hit points.

There's your extra protection.

ARE SMART PLAYERS BROKEN?

Apparently not.

do I diss-allow the stone child race? diss-allow the above combo of feats? Should I cheat and modify dungeons to better combat the party? (I have been) tELL THE PARTY THEY GOT TO DUMB IT DOWN A BIT? OR JUST BEEF THE HELL OUT OF DUNGEONS/ENCOUNTERS?

Of course not.

You start throwing Will saves at him. Lots and lots of Will saves. They don't call 'em Fighter's Bane for nothing.

 

[Crothian]

Well he chose 18 str and 18 con and the stone child race gave him +8 to str and+8 con so its by RAW would you suggest I not allow this race? Or tell him the race gives him less of a bonus? That was part of my initial question.

Thorncrest

I think he was saying don't let your players start with two 18's, what method of determining attributes do you use?

 

[jgbrowning]

Want to keep races that rely on strength under control? Use incorporeal creatures such as shadows. I have a player that is playing a goliath in my World's Largest Dungeon campaign. One attack by six shadows and he went from a 20 Str down to a 5 Str. Play your monsters smart and the bonuses he has won't really matter so much.

Even better than STR drain is CHA drain.

joe b.

 

[JoeGKushner]

In and of themselves, none of these things is a particular problem. As with many d20 things, it's because of the combination of things.

1st thing to do is ask the player to get rid of the Two-Handed Power Strike. It's powerful but not the end all be all (unless you have a massive massive massive strength bonus.)

2nd thing is to get rid of the magic item that effects his strength. he's already strong enough. Give 'em to the rogue.

If you find him using Sunder a lot, pit the group against more creatures and fewer characters. I wouldn't worry about him sundering stuff though as realistically, that's magic items that should be part of their loot that he's destroying no?

Characters like this are powerful fighters overall. Put them up against one main enemy and he'll cut through them like butter. Put them up against many smaller ones and he loses some of his potency, but not all of it. It's best to mix it up a bit.

Since the group is on 13th level, what are some of the creatures you find yourself using? If nothing else, always remember that what's good for the goose...

 

[Gomez]

Well if he is sundering weapons and shields right and left that is just less treasure for the party don't you think?

 

[Sir ThornCrest]

Yah I know what you mean, I did have undead involved but as I mentioned the wizard and the cleric buff this guy up. That being just another part of this problem.

Thorncrest

Want to keep races that rely on strength under control? Use incorporeal creatures such as shadows. I have a player that is playing a goliath in my World's Largest Dungeon campaign. One attack by six shadows and he went from a 20 Str down to a 5 Str. Play your monsters smart and the bonuses he has won't really matter so much.

 

[Vurt]

Sounds a little ripe for a RBDM to throw in some spellcasters that target this character's Will save. I don't know if Dominate Person will work on a Stone Child, but even something so simple as a timely Confusion spell, or a Hold Monster should go a long way towards evening the odds.

If he doesn't have Great Cleave, you might want to consider throwing lots (and I do mean LOTS) of little mooks at the party. Your player will be happy because he's killing things left right and center, but all those attacks against him mean that he's going to be taking it as well, as well as giving the rest of the characters something to do.

Cheers,
Vurt

 

[Tom Cashel]

If I remember correctly, that race has some kind of restrictions based on proximity to stone and earth. Check up on it.

I really don't think you should start taking away abilities, destroying magic items, and disallowing classes you already allowed.

But if this player has "solved" your style of encounters, then you need to change your style. Lots of good suggestions for that here.

Also, read up on what they're doing to make sure it's by the book (see my comment on sundering magic weapons above).

And it's worth repeating: Will saves are the Fighter's Bane. The first time a mind flayer uses Dominate to cause "Chewie" to start hacking his comrades for 75 pts. of whup-a$$ per round, I'll bet he donates the gauntlets to a weaker companion.

 

[Rystil Arden]

I don't think we need to remind Thorncrest to use Will Saves, considering that he told us that fighters without 3x base starting gold automatically die against level 12 will saves or something similar in his 200,000 gold thread. I think he is more interested in his melee combat, hence the thread title

 

[thompgc]

IIRC the StoneChild is LA +4 and has 2HD (outsider)
Thus the character would only be a 6lvl fighter to be ECL 12
Of course outsider HD are great so this likely doesn't change much. Lose 1 fighter bonus feat and gain lots of 30 skill points and better saves. Also loses a few hitpoints (d8 vs d10)