race & feat combos that destroy my campaigns melee combat.

[Rystil Arden]

A pixie character exchanges its 1 HD of fey for its first class level, so a 1st-level pixie sorcerer...

You made another mistake. Pixies have 1 HD, so it should be replaced with your first class level, as per the rules for 1 HD characters. While this wouldn't be a problem for, say, a 1 HD outsider, fey levels are really quite atrocious, so you got shafted on that one for not following the rules correctly. I have a character with a pixie cohort in my game, which is why I have all these pixie rules handy.

 

[Rawhide]

I consider 2-handed power attack rules in 3.5 to be broken. At mid to high levels, it is simply to easy to plow through things. especially if you;re hitting a stationary object, characters can just smash thrugh stone walls or even adamantine in mere minutes.

I limit the damage bonus to 2-handed PA to 1.5x, just like Str bonses work with 2-handed weapons. You PA for 4 with a 2 handed weapon, you get +6 damage. That helps.

 

[painandgreed]

You made another mistake. Pixies have 1 HD, so it should be replaced with your first class level, as per the rules for 1 HD characters. While this wouldn't be a problem for, say, a 1 HD outsider, fey levels are really quite atrocious, so you got shafted on that one for not following the rules correctly. I have a character with a pixie cohort in my game, which is why I have all these pixie rules handy.

Not according to the Dec issue of the White Dw..., er, I mean Dragon. Page 102 in Sage Advice:

Q: "How many Hit Dice does my 1st level pixie rogue have?"...
A: "...Thus, your pixie would have 2 Hit Dice: one from his race and one from his class level."

 

[Kae'Yoss]

We roll our stats he had a 1 18 which he put to str 1 16 which put to con

I think that's one of the bigger problems here: rolling for ability scores may result in a character with really sick ability scores....

This kids is why we roll the stats IN ORDER in my campaign after declaring race and starting class.

Declare Race, Declare Class, Roll the stats. This is one of the most balanceing elements of the game.

I wouldn't call it balanced.

What if your 4th roll is an 8? Too bad you chose wizard, your character is now officially useless. You chose fighter beforehand? Aaw, that sucks, you rolled Str 10, Dex 10, Int 10, so you can forget most feats out there.

 

[Endur]

His character sounds fine

His character sounds fine, assuming its a 6th level fighter Stone child as a 12th level character. (i.e. 6th level fighter, 2 outsider hit dice, +4 LA).

If his character is really level 14, i.e. 8th level fighter, than make him drop two levels.

12th level fighters should use two-handed powerattack to sunder and otherwise destroy enemies.

Its what they do best.

But its hard to sunder a Dragon's claw or other natural weapons.

 

[Rystil Arden]

Not according to the Dec issue of the White Dw..., er, I mean Dragon. Page 102 in Sage Advice:

Q: "How many Hit Dice does my 1st level pixie rogue have?"...
A: "...Thus, your pixie would have 2 Hit Dice: one from his race and one from his class level."

Well then Dragon magazine is wrong. I gave you a direct quote from the Monster Manual under "Pixie Characters." It is also general practise to swap out the racial hit dice for a class level if there is only one. Come on, does your elf wizard have a level in humanoid?

 

[Schmoe]

marilith have dr20/+2

I was just quoting what I remember he has as far as feats.

we havent encountered a +3 weapon yet so we havent had that come up I was just using that as a "I cant believe the damage this guy does statement"

but it is nice to know that you nead a = of magic to sunder I was still playing it just gave the weapons a bonus to hardness and hitpionts.

I gave the merilith 2 +2 b-swords of wounding, a repeating cross bow of speed w/6 dc17 piosonous bolts -1d6str, a +2 spiked buckler, and 2 +1 long swords and 1 flaming spear +1
so she was tough but not enough.

Thorncrest

As Ankh-Morhpork Guard (did I spell that right?) pointed out, you are using a 3.0 Marilith here. 3.5 damage reduction is significantly different, and Mariliths have DR 10/Good and Cold Iron. That's 10 less damage per swing. In addition, Mariliths have base AC of 29, should always have up Unholy Aura (AC 33), and have Combat Expertise with BAB to spare to increase that AC. You're Stone Child should have been hitting less than 50% on the first swing. Oh yeah, a 3.5 Marilith has over 200 HP and can easily do > 100 HP of damage in a full attack, plus has Improved Grab and a grapple bonus of +29.

Anyway, aside from the various rules discrepancies that others have pointed out, your problem seems to be "How do I handle a fighter who deals out tons of damage and can take a lot of punishment?" I think that I can talk about this with a little bit of experience, as I have a 1/2-demon fighter4 /barbarian6 in my campaign specialized in the fullblade, and he wields a +2 keen fullblade. His strength is 30 when raging, his AC is 25, he has boots of speed so is always hasted, and he is seriously a combat monster. Despite all this, he rarely outshines the rest of the group. For reference, I have another 14th level divine warrior (homebrew PrC) in the group who has 170 HP (!). Then there's the Bard1/Paladin12 riding a griffon who goes around Spirited Charging and Smiting with Divine Might. He's dealt over 90 HP of damage on a single charge in consecutive rounds. These warriors are the core of the muscle in the group, and each has strengths and weaknesses, and from one battle to the next a different one will have his day in the sun. But that's true of the other characters, too. In one of your posts, you mention a battle with 10 frenzied berserkers where a Force Wall saved the party. Without the wizard, your Stone Child would have just been so much meat, so maybe you need to make sure to point out the contributions the other characters make.

I had similar concerns to yours when the half-fiend joined my group, but I had to put it in perspective. The role of the fighters is to dish out damage. The role of the fighters is to kill things. Other characters help make the fighters' job easier, and they can kill things too, but it's not their primary role. For the party to succeed, the fighters have to be good at their job. At the same time, the other characters have to be good at their jobs. Let me give you an example from my most recent session:

The party was in a large ice cave, confronted with an invisible sorceress (lvl 12) flinging Freezing Spheres, about 5 Frost Giants with various fiendish grafts, a couple of Frost Giant Zombies, 6 Winter Wolves, and a maximally advanced Winter Wolf (the Den Mother). The paladin had been unable to bring his griffin into the cavern, so he was relegated to meat shield duty. The divine warrior was out of commision as he had been barred from entry by some unholy force. The half-fiend dished out some damage, but Frost Giants have HP to spare, and they can dish it out in return, so he was quickly on the defensive. If the Bard hadn't been able to confuse the Winter Wolf Den Mother, and the sorcerer and druid hadn't lobbed repeated fireballs and flame strikes, the three combat brutes in my party would have been creamed. The battle was EL 16 and I have 7 PC's of level 13-14 plus NPC support, so they should be fighting battles of EL 15 or so on average, so this encounter wasn't designed to be particularly overpowering. But it was challenging, because there were multiple foes, the foes' tactics were varied, and they could match each of the party's strengths with strength of their own.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that you shouldn't be too quick to overreact. There's a good chance that the character is just effective in his role.

Not that anyone cares, but next time we play I get to pit my group against a Gelugon, a Hamatula, two Hellish Rippers (from Hellstone Deep), and two Corrupted Frost Giant Skeletons with Fiendish grafts. Now that should be a challenging battle.

 

[Ravensblood]

Simplify the problem

Hi guys, Ive been reading this thread and the whole time, all I could think about is simplify the problem. If your overly concerned with him sundering all your NPC's magic weapons, just cast dispel magic on his sword. Magic is shut off for awhile, can't break any magic items. It's that Simple. Heck, a fighter class could be charmed or dominated and sent against his fellows. Then see what happens.

He's a tank right. The DM in our current campaign where my character plays a bit of a tank, (more like heavy cavalry actually) had us attacked by groups of giant rats. He enhanced them with better attacks and hitpoints, which gave me plenty to swing at. In the mean time, invisible rogues moved in to sneak attack with the flanking bonus. Unless he has whirlwind attack, he's not gonna take them all down. You can also use improved invisibility too so they stay unseen.

Divide and conquor. Your enemies should scry on you to learn your weaknesses and tailor their attacks accordingly. In the same IK campaign mentioned above, the DM used something from the monsternomicon. Basically their outsider rogues that jump out of a characters shadow, sneak attack, and then next round slink away. Very frustrating after awhile. They have a certain level of DR as well. Worst of all, they can hide in the shadows for awhile and regenerate. Repeat this process a few rounds and ta-da. Have them jump out and attack for a couple of rounds then go away. In the mean time, the spell casters will use up their buff spells, and then you wait 'till they end. Repeat attack, and continue to wear then down, and harry them like this for awhile. That's when you through the BBEG at them in concert with the shadow rogues. I'm not trying to be mean or anything, just sometimes good tactics for intelligent enemies make a big difference.

 

[megamania]

TO HUMBLE THE STONECHILD-
Anything Will Save based
Range attack him
Displacer abilities (50% miss can be frustrating)

TO HUMBLE THE PARTY WITH A STONE CHILD-

 

[megamania]

TO HUMBLE THE STONECHILD-
Anything Will Save based
Range attack him
Displacer abilities (50% miss can be frustrating)

TO HUMBLE THE PARTY WITH A STONE CHILD-
Possess his stony butt- Turn the parties strength against them- literally. This makes players rethink having all their eggs in one basket.

"I bull strength him" says the cleric
"I give him resistance" says the mage
"Will Save" says the DM
"Uh-oh" is said by all
DM- "The stone child, now powered up, turns around, an evil and pained look crosses his face. He raises his sword and moves in to attack- you!"