Whoa! Calm down kemosabe!
First off, being smart has nothing to do with which classes you take. In college, I couldn't pass statistics to save my life, even the second time around, but that doesn't mean that I'm dumb, just horrible at math.
Second, being
able to whoop someone's but and being justified in doing so are two different things. It's like that Spiderman saying ("With great power, comes great responcibility"). I've had players in past groups who've come mighty close to driving me stark raving mad (but fortunately my fiancee did that first
), but the right thing to do is just stop playing with them.
Sidenote:
[sblock]We had this one massive rules-lawyer back in 2e that always harped on everyone if they even thought about breaking/bending the rules even a little, but the little bugger insisted on playing an Elven Druid! (For ye young ones, that was a no-no in 2e)[/Sblock]
These guys sound like world class turds, and you probably should tell them to take thier 3rd party stuff and shove it where the sun don't shine. I personally think that much of the non-core WotC stuff is overpowered, and I only allow in the bits that I think suit the campaign (fortunately, I play in FR and Ravenloft, and I'll explain why I do in a spoiler at the bottom), so overpowered stuff isn't too much of a concern.
Worst case scenario, you end up losing the entire group of players. Honestly, it's not that bad (of course, you don't want to lose them as friends [or maybe you do, but still]), just don't play with them. I've had years where I just couldn't find anyone to game with, but such downtime is to be relished and celebrated, not mourned. Many people ask me how I got so good at being a DM. It definitely hasn't been through practice (since only 6 of my 12 years of playing were with a steady group). Fact is, I've read and re-read damn near every book put out since 1991, and I've taught plenty of folks how to play. You just have to take that downtime and spend it reading up on rules and writting adventurers. I've got one adventure that I run all my new Players through, which is a nifty little thing that takes about an hour, but it's got a dramatic chase (with the PCs fighting on top of hard-topped carriages) and a bandit camp (with lots of treasure, some prisoners, and a uppity bandit leader named Serpe [boy that girl could whoop some ass]). I'd never have come up with that game if I'd have been playing the whole time.
Anyway, I hope things get better....
[sblock]The reason I play FR and Ravenloft is farily simple. Both are very easy to balance. In the Forgotten Realms, almost nothing is too powerful because there's always some group that'd like to have that power too, and they're willing to kill you to get it. (Not saying I try to harrass my PCs all the time with powerful groups, but it's happened)
Case in point: One of my PCs wanted Spellfire. I said, "Sure, but just so you know, there are many groups interested in harnessing that power for themselves, so be careful who you use it around." The PC ended up bumping into someone she thought was a member of the Cult of the Dragon, and was terrified that they'd found her. She only used Spellfire in dire emergencies from then on (which actually made the ability a hell of a lot more fun for the both of us. I could tell I was threatening the party enough, and she got the thrill of blasting baddies with her forbidden power, which they rarely saw coming).
In Ravenloft, the whole point of the game is to be scared, and not much is scary when you're in epic levels. I've played games where all the PCs were Commoners fighting against the evils of the night with nothing more than farm tools and the proper piece of occult literature. It was a blast, and a welcome break from the high powered FR games we usually played. It's nice to see people who laugh at Great Wyrms cower at the sight of a congealed pool of blood
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
.[/sblock]
