What Do You Do With A Problem Item?

[Vegepygmy]

Clearly the item must be altered or removed from the campaign...

First let me say that this situation is extremely rare in my experience; I have a considerable tolerance for what others might consider "broken" magic items. For example, in my current campaign, a 2nd-level character wound up with a cloak of resistance +5. While that is far above the "appropriate level" of power for the character, it hasn't had any negative impact on the game that I've noticed.

But accepting what you say as true, that the item must be altered or removed from the campaign (and that is certainly possible), my preferred method is to subtly remove it and replace it with something more appropriate. By "subtly" I mean making it seem as if I didn't deliberately make sure it got removed, even though that's exactly what I did. And I would make sure to replace it with something more appropriate (again, hopefully without the players ever realizing that's what I did) because it seems only fair to do so.

 

[Jimlock]

Never roll for random treasure. If it makes your players feel any better, act like you've rolled, but actually decide yourself what you're gonna give away.

An in-game solution is generally better than an off-game solution, even if it looks like an off-game one. The player should know to take the hint.

-Destroy it, steal it, make a quest out of it (so that the players loses it), do whatever it takes for an unbalanced game costs far more than a player's pride.

Remove it off-game, only if the player has become so powerful that there is no way to remove it otherwise!! (Even though i'm pretty sure that the worst DM in the world cannot come up to such a dead end!!

 

[airwalkrr]

Let me try and keep things in perspective here. Unless the players have stated quite clearly that they don't want any challenge in their games whatsoever, part of the DM's place at the table is to provide appropriate challenges. Sometimes DMs slip up and accidentally let an item slide into the game that they shouldn't have because it makes it difficult to challenge the players properly. Hindsight being 20/20, they would never have allowed it in the first place. But now the game risks becoming droll and boring because of the sheer presence of the item.

An excellent example is an item that is extremely powerful in the hands of only one character at the table for one reason or another. Any creature with a CR well over the party's level that goes toe-to-toe with that character plus the item gets obliterated. Meanwhile the rest of the PCs would have a hard time working against the monster with the rest of them combined. The monster might be a fair challenge for the one PC, but might slaughter another PC in one hit.

These situations do come up, and even if you didn't "roll" your loot it doesn't mean you can't make a terrible mistake when you pick the loot yourself (few DMs are so perfect). So again, let's try to keep perspective here. What do you do when such an item rears its ugly head but you've already let the proverbial cat out of the bag?

 

[Hassassin]

One possibility is to have the item be cursed. They probably used Identify, which doesn't reveal curses. You might even make a small side quest to "remove the curse" - in the process transforming the item to change it's effect, but improve its value. The players usually take any monetary increases as rewards.

Never roll for random treasure. If it makes your players feel any better, act like you've rolled, but actually decide yourself what you're gonna give away.

This doesn't solve the problem, since you can still accidentally choose something that works too well.

 

[R-Hero]

This happened to my group a few years ago. I was playing a Paladin/Anointed Knight. I added "Stunning Surge" to his ancestrial relic.

The Dungeon Masters Guide II had several quick action enhancements for weapons. Stunning Surge had made the save for the surge attempt a Reflex save and it was 1+1d4 rounds on the duration. (maybe just 1d4, its been a couple of years) Use per day was tied into Charisma, which the Pal/Knight had in spades.


We were playing Age of Worms competing for the Champions Belt in the gladitorial games. It was fun at first to see the DM roll his eyes when a surge would take out a key member or two.
When the Froghemouth failed its save and went down in one round, we decided that it was overpowered and nerfed it back to Fort save for one round. (Like a Stunning Fist attack)

I have been lucky that the games I have been involved in are mostly mature enough to police themselves.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

These situations do come up, and even if you didn't "roll" your loot it doesn't mean you can't make a terrible mistake when you pick the loot yourself (few DMs are so perfect). So again, let's try to keep perspective here. What do you do when such an item rears its ugly head but you've already let the proverbial cat out of the bag?

Again, it depends:

[EDIT: Voted "Other."]

What's the problem item?

Is it something which is overpowered now, but which will be in-line later (e.g., "Oops, I handed out a +3 sword too early!") ? In that case, suck it up. It'll be fine later on.

Is it something which is overpowered now, and will always be overpowered (e.g., "Oops, I handed out a re-usable nuke?")? Talk to the players about it - not necessarily to get their opinions on how to handle it, but to explain the "damage" it's doing to the campaign.

 

[lordxaviar]

I think most of what I had to say has been said.... i have never really used random tables, my rewards are usually more thought out (over thought out sometimes) but I have come across this happening, .... but to the answer never use the same method, but the easiest would be to have a increasing problem with the item come to light... if you need ideas have a look at the artifact list in the original DMG.

 

[airwalkrr]

I find it interesting that no one has picked retroactive continuity. I realize an EN World poll isn't the broadest survey of D&D players, but is it really that rare of a thing to do?

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

I find it interesting that no one has picked retroactive continuity. I realize an EN World poll isn't the broadest survey of D&D players, but is it really that rare of a thing to do?

As in, "Um, that +3 sword you've been lugging along has actually been a +1 orcbane sword the entire time. Cool? Cool,"?

That's a possible outcome of my approach.

 

[Dandu]

How do you solve a problem like an item?
How do you drive a derro out of his mind?
How do you find a word that means problematic?
A flibbertijibbet! A calamaradun! A bind!

Many a thing you know you'd like to try out,
Many a thing you ought to do.
But how do you make them stop
And listen to what you've got
How do you keep a soul stuck in Limbo?

Oh, how do you solve a problem like an item?
How do you hold a sunbeam in your hand?