what to do if you gave too much power?

[Li Shenron]

not talking about money, but lets say that you as a dm gave too much power, like a vorpal flaming dancer sword....of defense

how to get rid of it?

i dont like things like "the thief stole it" or "the rust monster ate it" (sure, its fun to watch, but..)


so, any other sugestions?

Did you give it to one player, to some-but-not-all of them, or to everyone?

 

[rossik]

Did you give it to one player, to some-but-not-all of them, or to everyone?

actually, i havent, but i ahve did this about 7 or 8 years ago, to one player.
then we all got super-duper-ultra-mega weapons, and soon the game was preaty lame

i just remembered this a few days ago, and i still wonder about the best solution

 

[Ilium]

Often times these things sort themselves out. When I first started running 3.5 I gave a couple of the PCs items that were too good for their level (started at 6th). I was just stingy for a few levels and everything worked out. In the meantime they kicked a little more butt than they otherwise would have, but that's fine.

But if it's a real issue, I agree with Shilsen. Talk it out and maybe let the player come up with a suitably dramatic way for the item to be lost/broken/reduced in power. This could even develop into a quest of some kind to restore the item.

So maybe it gets Disjoined. BUT! There's an obscure way to restore the item's power if you just <insert quest goal here>. BUT! when all is said and done, the item is only partially restored in power. Or even becomes a legacy-type item so it becomes gradually more powerful as the character levels, eventually getting back to its old self when he's an appropriate level.

 

[T. Foster]

Tell the players out-of-game that you screwed up by letting that powerful an item into play and think it's ruining the game so you're going to get rid of it. Sound out from the players whether they'd prefer to have the item disappear by pure fiat (at the beginning of the next session it's as if it was never there) or in-game (something unavoidable happens in-play that leaves the item destroyed, de-powered, stolen or taken away (and non-recoverable)). It's probably a good idea to offer the player who's losing the item something as consolation, unless he was being a really abusive jerk about it, in which case he probably deserves to suffer a bit.

If any of the players complain too loudly about any of this, offer to let them take over DMing if they think they can do it so much better...

 

[Oryan77]

I've found it's easier to just deal with it until you can kill the PC ...or capture them and take his stuff.

Have an encounter that's extremely challenging but be willing to capture them instead of killing them. If they stay to die rather than be captured alive, so be it. Focus on capturing/killing that one player. If you capture him, then it worked out for you and he doesn't have to lose his PC.

I'm sure this sounds awful, but DMs make mistakes and most players are going to throw a fit if you straight up explain that you'd like to fix that mistake. If you target the item and try to destroy or steal it, the players will react even worse.

If you just put them in a situation where no one can tell that your main focus is that item, and they lose it due to that situation, they are less likely to accuse you of purposely taking away that item.

But if you take something like this away from a player on purpose, be sure to reward him with an item he'd also appreciate owning. Just tone down the power level on the new item

 

[pawsplay]

Just go with it. You must admit, a vorpal flaming dancing sword of defense does sound kind of awesome. The PCs will quickly level to catch up with their gear, and you're good. In the meantime, you can add interest without punishing the player by having enemies use dispel magic to occasionally suppress it, or using golems (unless it's an adamantine sword.... it's not an adamantine sword, right?)

 

[Lord Zardoz]

As you may have noticed, your options are either to suck it up and destroy the item in game, and deal with the consequences, or to deal with it out of game.

Dealing with it in game is pretty easy. You can use all sorts of things to take an item out of play. Disintegrate, Spheres of Annihilation, Rod of Cancellation, and Mordenkainens Disjunction can all 'solve' the problem.

Your other option is to take the sword you have provided, and "Bless it with Suck". Letting the item be revealed as cursed in some form will probably motivate the player to get rid of it. There are a number of ways to do this.

- The sword is intelligent, and has an Ego that the player cannot overcome.
- The sword inflicts very, very harsh penalties under certain circumstances that you invent to suit your convenience.
- The sword attracts certain very nasty monsters that have perfect regeneration if they are within 100 feet of the sword.
- The sword houses a powerful demon who will be freed after you reach X amount of kills. Make X medium low-ish to reach, lets say 18 more kills to reach 10 000 or some such thing. Let the player know, and then he gets to calculate the risk of releaseing the demon.

If you do this correctly, you can convince the players that this was your plan all along.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[S'mon]

I'd probably just let the PC keep the sword - after all he can only kill 1 NPC at a time with it, and I've got millions of them...

I find travel, flying, transport storage and other noncombat items more problematic.

 

[rossik]

- The sword houses a powerful demon who will be freed after you reach X amount of kills. Make X medium low-ish to reach, lets say 18 more kills to reach 10 000 or some such thing. Let the player know, and then he gets to calculate the risk of releaseing the demon.

wow, nice one!


thanks all for the advice!

 

[Mishihari Lord]

I was going to say the same thing as Lord Zardoz. You can always claim that "this is how it was all along- you just finally triggered it."

Every once in a while, when the player uses it, tell them to make a will save. Whether it's a success or failure, don't tell them anything. A while after the first save when they're in town they start hearing of random bizarre murders.

It's an artifact of the god of kobolds. The next time it's commanded to dance against a kobold enemy, as soon it's released it floats to the nearest kobold. With a look of wonder on his face, the kobold transforms into a 10' tall mighty sorcerer/fighter kobold, whups on the part for a few rounds, then teleports himself and his companions away.

It's a relic of a major evil religion. Once they hear of it, they'll stop at nothing to recover it.