The Unoptimized party

[Evilhalfling]

My group after playing through CoSQ grew tired of optimized charaters -
and are now playing with the following:
Halfling Monk4/cleric 2
Human ranger 6 - wis 10, archery specialist with a Keen Falchion and non magic bow
grey elven thief5/ftr1/wizard1 : Con4, Int 22
Barabarian1/ranger1/Spirit Shaman 5
Mycoind Thief (2 hd plant) 4th rogue

and the most powerful PC
a 6th sorcerer/ 1st Force Missle mage. 18con, 42hp (teenaged player)

The struggle is to balance the one character designed for power with the motley assortment of others. It doesn't seem to bother the older players, as they do more of the planning, diplomacy, problem solving, etc while the sorcerer really is the combat punch of the group.

Does anyone else have experiance trying to manage such a missmatch?

 

[Mercule]

Does anyone else have experiance trying to manage such a missmatch?

We did RtToEE with:
Fighter/Rogue/Duelist
Rogue/Wiz1/Thief-Acrobat
Bard
Monk
Ranger

It was ugly and messy. We decided to go with a "themed" group set to Stealth. Pretty much unplayable when no PC has darkvision, but many/most of the monsters do. It took us over 50, 3.5 hour, sessions to get to the end of the Earth temple.

In retrospect, I'd love to try the module again, but with Gestalting the same characters so that we'd be able to theme, but still be functional. It'd probably look like this:

Fighter/Duelist:Rogue
Rogue/Thief-Acrobat:Wizard
Bard:Sorcerer
Monk:Cleric
Ranger:Barbarian

 

[radferth]

I would not think this particular mix would be a problem. The sorcerer is supposed to be the artillery. Sound like he's not a fragile as other artillery mages would be, but the tactics would be the same whether or not their was a power mismatch. I've seen a few parties where everyone was optimized and it was still designed for one character to do most of the damage while the rest kept the bad guys off him. If everyone is cool with it, then the intra-party imbalance is not a problem.

 

[Jdvn1]

Does anyone else have experiance trying to manage such a missmatch?

Yes, but in Final Fantasy 1.

As a GM, I'd consider the party to be an average of one level less; as a PC, I'd just try to have fun.

 

[Aust Diamondew]

Looks fine to me except for the con 4 elf. I really don't see how any of the other characters when properly played could be considered 'weak'. Maybe not optimal but certainly not 'weak'.

 

[Corsair]

Halfling Monk4/cleric 2
Human ranger 6 - wis 10, archery specialist with a Keen Falchion and non magic bow
grey elven thief5/ftr1/wizard1 : Con4, Int 22
Barabarian1/ranger1/Spirit Shaman 5
Mycoind Thief (2 hd plant) 4th rogue

and the most powerful PC
a 6th sorcerer/ 1st Force Missle mage. 18con, 42hp (teenaged player)

First of all, don't blame the sorcerer's player for everyone else making intentionally weaker characters. Not many people enjoy hamstringing themselves in the name of "role playing".

That being said, all of the characters in your party are perfectly servicable, with only a couple glaring issues:

Human Ranger - Probably would be best served looking for an archery themed prestige class should he wish to continue down that path. Otherwise there are plenty of other routes for a ranger to go should he not wish to cast spells. No problem here. The magic weapon is also no big deal, though it'd probably be better off in the barbarian's hands.

Elf - 4 con? FOUR? So he's getting at most 3 HP on those rogue (not thief. ROGUE.) HD. Wouldn't have been my personal choice, but like I said before, some people enjoy shooting themselves in the foot. This is the biggest obstacle to survival in your party, but other than that your elf friend would make quite a fine rogue with that high of an INT.

Barbarian - I haven't looked at the spirit shaman closely, but assuming it had 3/4 BAB and d8 HD, this guy will probably be pretty well off. Assuming 2 more levels of full BAB classes and he'll still get his 4th attack before epic. Good for him! Maybe a couple levels of Beastmaster to pick up a friendly animal companion as well as the BAB.

Pilfering Plantman - Probably likely to be upstaged a bit by the high Int elf, and not getting x4 skill points on the first rogue level hurts a lot more than you think, but over time it'd even out I a bit. Also a competent enough character.


All that being said, the reason the sorcerer stands out is because no one else in your party is very good at killing things. The closest thing you have to a tank is an archer with a magic sword, and a barbaric spirit shaman. You also have at least one rogue who is probably deathly afraid of combat, which should make the divide even more obvious. No one else in the party is TERRIBLE (except for that 4 con thing) but none of them look very good at combat.

 

[Evilhalfling]

The elf is a little better off than it may appear, he took improved toughness as his fighter feat
and rolled 9hp on his one good HD - so still fragile, but he can take one hit and not die instantly. He is frightened of combat and is deathly afraid of con posion.

I knew the plant was going to hurt, so it has Racial HD but no LA adjustment. His small size and darkvison (and ability to take a hit) make him a better scout than the elf, but he lacks the versitility of trapfinding, social and knowledge skills.

The monk, buffed with mage armor and barkskin is great defensivly, and frequently tumble flanks. He actually uses deflect arrows to block stray shots. (3.0 optional cover rule)

still I would say that the six of them may be equal to an iconic party of four. As long as nothing hits the glass jaws- shuting down the sorcerer or posioning the elf.