Unbalanced Encounters

[KaasManiak]

I think you guys are right, i will put it to the test.

I'm going to focus more on the other players, and find out if the really can play a defender or not.

Let him run all over the battlefield sounds like fun.

Thanks guys

 

[Spatula]

I like to pay attention to anyone, and let anyone use their abilities.

From the sound of things, he's had plenty of attention already, and has had ample time to showcase his character's abilities. Giving him more is probably encouraging him. You've talked about it and he wasn't really willing to compromise. I wouldn't feel the need to bend to his desires under those circumstances, especially if they stand in opposition not just to you, but to the entire group.

The problem is they have to, otherwise the cleric would have had an 17/19 difference to fortitude compared to his. How the hell am i supposed to fix that in encounters?

Give the other players better armor / neck items.

Give the other players free defense feats (Imp. Defenses, Great Fort/Lightning Reflexes/etc., Epic Fort/Reflex/Will, Armor specialization, etc.) - and give him the feats too, I suppose, since there probably aren't any more defensive feats for him to take.

Give the monsters a penalty to hit when attacking anyone except the fighter.

 

[GameDoc]

Do you anticipate the player will react negatively to having his defenses penetrated by at least one of the monsters in an encounter? I know if I played a fighter who never got hit, I would find it kind of boring. I kind of expect minions to bounce off me most of the time, but for brutes to get a few licks in. But I'm not really a powergamer. Might he actually enjoy the challenge? I think it's fair to target him.

Don't forget to roleplay your monsters - they should make choices based on their instincts and intelligence. Throw in a brute to the group of monsters that's a few levels higher than indicated for the party level. Maybe it has a savage instinct that compels it to remain focused on it's target until it's dead - maybe it sees the fighter as the competing alpha male that needs to removed from it's enviroment.

Or give acontroller an ability to grant significant bonuses to an ally that will then engage the fighter in combat. It could be a very calculated move - the fighter is obvioulsy the toughest foe and we need to put our heavy hitter on him or he'll mow the rest of us down.

Either way, get a monster that only the fighter can go toe-to-toe with and that is strong enough to hit him a few times before it goes down. These monster can logically ignore the rest of the party.

These aren't rules-as-written, but the DM can always tweak the rules and tailor situations to match the party composition or playstyle.

 

[keterys]

I will say... his nads are probably as high as they are due to a rule oddity that you could close the loop on, if you wished.

The new improved defenses / fort / ref / will feats stack with the old Epic fort / ref / will feats, giving up to +8 to a NAD, which is almost assuredly not intended.

You can also throw around a lot of half damage on miss and autodamage stuff - auras and zones are particularly good for that.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

His defences are:
45/45/43/44
And he has +2 bonus to AC en FORT while not bloodied.
(like he ever is.)

Those are some high NADs. I think we need to see the math behind those, as those don't look quite right. Did he take Iron Will and those NAD-boosting Essentials feats?

 

[Nyronus]

... The Fighter has high defenses for his level, true, but he probably optimized the living hell out of them to get them there. Level+15 is about what you need to stay on par with monster attack vs AC, and Level+13 for nads, which means he's About 6 points over on AC, and 9 on some of his nads. Chances are he took all of the epic defense feats. I wouldn't deny him that or punish him for it. Your Wizard is the problem. He's nine points under where he should be. He has to be doing something seriously wrong. Does he have neck slot item? Is he wearing unenchanted cloth? Your fighter may be good, but the Wizard is just plain terrible.

 

[Ferghis]

Your fighter's job isn't to "stand and not die."

Your fighter's job is to make sure everyone else "stands and doesn't die," by being the one who takes the hits.

Try to kill the wizard. If you succeed, the fighter has failed.

I know that
You know that
He doesn't

He is a really defender

I see two problems. He chooses not to defend anyone but himself, so he's not really into teamwork, and he's invested all his resources into defense, so he's not really punishing anything for ignoring his mark.

If this is a problem for you and for the other players, I would just address these two points specifically and directly. If it's just a problem for you, you can just say that you're not having fun DMing his character, and maybe let someone else have a go at the hotseat. It's not a problem that you should fix in-game.

 

[mudlock]

The deeper problem (as your seeing) is that, if the defender is only defending HIMSELF, without protecting the squishier parts of the team or seriously threatening or restricting the activities of the bad guys, then his contribution is negative: by being there, he increases what the "appropriate" level of challenge is for the party, but doesn't help overcome them.

Now you can either: A) Have the monsters waste their attacks ineffectually against him (even though you've got no reason to do so) which will make the fights seem easier for them then it otherwise would be because you're not playing the monsters to their potential.

Or: B) You can freely (since he's got no way to stop you) choose to attack the rest of the party... and that will put them at a disadvantage because now your bad guys are up against a party of FOUR instead of FIVE; the effective challenge level just went up by one.

"A" rewards the defender's player for NOT being a team player.
"B" points out (rather rudely) the lack of teamwork coming from that player.

I assume your players are your friends, so proceed cautiously.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Yeah, I agree with most of the rest of the board I guess. Just ignore the brick. Literally just walk past him. If a monster finds itself in a situation where giving the fighter a try or catching it with an attack is better than nothing then do it, otherwise just take his sub-par OAs/CC and chew on juicier meat.

Sooner or later the wizard will wise up and do something about his defenses, and the fighter may wise up and retrain a feat or two and be both hittable and able to actually dish some out.

 

[malraux]

IMO, if you are playing a defender, having sky high defenses is pointless unless you also focus on making your mark mean something. The ideal is defenses that are tempting but still high and a really nasty punishing attack for anyone who ignores you.