Unbalanced Player Characters?

[Jürgen Hubert]

After moving to a new city, I found myself the DM of a brand new gaming group who are all enthusiastic about a new Forgotten Realms campaign. So far, so good - but they have also decided on some rather... unusal race/class combinations. My old group pretty much stuck to the Core Rules for their characters, so I'm not quite sure how to handle these. So I'd like to know from you if any of these characters have any pitfalls - if they are unbalanced, or if there is otherwise something I have to look out for as the DM.

We have the following characters (all first level at the moment):

- An Elan psychic warrior, who plans to advance as a psion until he can meet the prerequisites for the pyrokineticist prestige class.

- An Aasimar druid who plans to switch over to the shifter prestige class (from "Masters of the Wild") as soon as possible.

- An Air Genasi with the swashbuckler alternat core class from "Complete Warrior.

(I think I can handle the halfling cleric, the token sane character concept... )

So, any advice from those who have experiences with these classes?

 

[Crothian]

Becareful with the Shifter depending which rules of wildshape you are using. THere are so many creatures that it can turn into if you allow the player to use any from any monster book more then likey he'll be able to really handle anything.

 

[Voadam]

I would second the second look at Shifter. As is it allows constructs and undead which is just wierd. And it is a nightmare trying to anticipate all the options.

Talk with the player about what he expects his character to turn into, just the things he meets or does he already have templated troll ideas.

 

[Rackhir]

There are a number of tricks with Psionics that can cause major problems if permitted. The most common one seems to be the use of animal affinities (stat boosts) and a feat that allows you to make a roll against a stat to not use power points for them. I forget the exact details for the trick, but it's something like that. I would do some searching on psionics both here and on the WotC boards to get an idea of some of the problems that can crop up.

 

[JoeGKushner]

One thing you might want to look at is the level 0 rule. No race that is higher than an ECL of +0. Somewhat harsh, but...

I usually ask the players in a new campaign to stick with basic stuff until I get their campaign style down and then move on from there.

 

[Belen]

Ugh...I would not enjoy a game with all that weird mess.

One huge problem I encountered with psions were their summoning ability. They can make some awesome creatures and they count as constructs! You really need to watch out for that one.

Psion also tend to be far more versatile then even wizards. They can get spells not on their list by using research as well.

I am not a fan of the weird races mess. I see no reason why people cannot stick to core. Their is no reason to be Genasi this or half-whatits that.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

One thing you might want to look at is the level 0 rule. No race that is higher than an ECL of +0. Somewhat harsh, but...

I usually ask the players in a new campaign to stick with basic stuff until I get their campaign style down and then move on from there.

I've already told them I'm okay with that - they will just have to wait longer until they reach Level 2...

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Ugh...I would not enjoy a game with all that weird mess.

One huge problem I encountered with psions were their summoning ability. They can make some awesome creatures and they count as constructs! You really need to watch out for that one.

Psion also tend to be far more versatile then even wizards. They can get spells not on their list by using research as well.

Well, since the character will likely only have four levels of psion before he switches to pyrokineticist, I don't think it will be that much of a problem. Plus, we don't have a wizard who could get jealous...

I am not a fan of the weird races mess. I see no reason why people cannot stick to core. Their is no reason to be Genasi this or half-whatits that.

I can empathize with that sentiment. But they wanted to play these characters, so presumably they enjoy playing them. And one of my jobs as the DM is to make the players having fun playing their characters...

So I will have to figure something out. And I think I can pull it off.

 

[Spatula]

There are a number of tricks with Psionics that can cause major problems if permitted. The most common one seems to be the use of animal affinities (stat boosts) and a feat that allows you to make a roll against a stat to not use power points for them. I forget the exact details for the trick, but it's something like that.

That was the old 3.0 psionics. If the character is an Elan, then presumably they're using the 3.5 XPH, wherein that particular trick doesn't work (as the Trigger Power feat no longer exists).

 

[Darklone]

I had an old thread in the Rules section about the pyro... he's not too powerful but his ability for unlimited fire bolts may be pretty ugly depending on your campaign type.

The swashbuckler is ok. I'd even expect him to be a little bit sup-par. But he'll probably head for the Duelist class anyway. Nothing to fear here though, your run of the mill halforc barbarian will always be worse.

Aasimar druid... with a 3.0 prestige class... that's... powerful. I'd ask him to take some other class later. Druids are powerful enough as it is.