How do I challenge an overpowered character?

[Vorpalbob]

I am currently DMing a Star Wars RPG campaign in which one of the characters, a Wookiee soldier, deals a MINIMUM of 13 damage on a hit with a ryyk blade.

The characters are all 3rd level

The Selkath Noble, Human Scoundrel, and Ithorian Jedi are all about average.

The bonuses for the Wookiee's attacks are as follows

To Hit= +5 Str, +3 BAB = +8

Damage= 2d10, +10 Str (wielded in both hands), +1 (melee smash feat) = 3-31 damage range!

And thats without Power Attack.

I don't want to kill off or alter the character, but I want to make it so that melee combat isn't like childs play for him.

Any suggestions would be welcome!

[Mando Knight]

Ranged characters. Snipers. Tanks. Guys with repeating rifles. The Jedi can probably take a few of the hits, but a melee soldier has a harder time keeping his head in the game when he's been singled out by a squad of ranged troops.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Mobs of enemies are rough for a meleer. Enemies behind barriers, enemies outside his reach, and similar are your best bet.

[Foryn Gilnith]

That's overpowered? Since that's practically entirely in-core, I can't imagine that it's a level of power the designers didn't anticipate. It just happens to be specialized. Also, you forgot a +1 from heroic level in that damage. Let's look at a sample 3rd-level NPC soldier enemy. A gungan bounty hunter, say.

Feats: Point Blank Shot, Weapon Focus (rifles), Rapid Shot. Talents: Devastating Attack (rifles), Weapon Specialization (rifles). Equipment: Heavy blaster rifle, combat jumpsuit

HP: 30+2d10+3*2: 47
Attack: +3 BAB, +4 Dex, +1 WF, +1 PBS, -2 rapid shot: +7
Damage: 3d10+1d10 rapid shot+2 WS+1 level+1 PBS: average 26
Reflex: 10, +4 armor, +4 Dex, +2 race: 20

The wookiee probably has something like 16 Reflex (10, +3 Dex, +3 level). So bounty hunter does 26 damage average on a hit and hits the wookiee on a 9 or higher. 65% chance of a hit, 5% chance of a crit, so a standard action will take the wookiee down 19.5 HP on average; and probably knock him down the DT a bit.
Wookiee deals average of 23 damage, and hits on a 12 or higher. 40% chance of a hit, 5% chance of a crit, so a standard action will deal 11.5 damage, and .5 of a step down the CT. Wookiee will take 5 rounds to eliminate the bounty hunter, after accounting for bounty hunter's second wind. During that time the bounty hunter will have dealt 97 damage to the party; less if they're behind cover.

[Johel]

...a ryyk blade.

Just that : don't bring a knife in a gun fight.
Set the battle in an open area, without covers.

The players are smart, they surrender.
They don't ? Shot the Wookie.
They still don't ? Shot everybody.

If you want to give them a chance, something like a cargo ship, with narrow corridors, docking bays full of durasteel boxes and other covers is a battlefield where a melee fighter will be at his advantage...until a single stormtrooper drop thermal detonators before running away to his colleagues. Now, the covers impede movements, which means everybody WILL panic. :smallamused:

[Triaxx]

Me? I'd say send him up against droids with an electrical skin. He hits them, gets hit for one third his damage. Or enemies he's got to work to reach, anything that takes time. Enemies on a platform, or fliers if platforms won't work.

[mostlyharmful]

Diplomacy. Mwah-ha-ha-ha!!!

He's not overpowered just overspecialized, as has been said he's a sitting duck in ranged combat and if he's that focussed he's almost certainly also subpar with anything except melee combat and given this is set in a post technological singularity world that shouldn't be the be all end all of any campaign.

[Foryn Gilnith]

Me? I'd say send him up against droids with an electrical skin. He hits them, gets hit for one third his damage.

Eh, seems a bit DM-fiat-y.

Johel raised an interesting point. Don't bring a knife to a gunfight. SWSE combat is practically a gunfight - and like gunfights, lethality is expected. Jedi avert this somewhat through deflection, but generally lower-level characters (such as third-level) will get shot full of holes unless they make the holes first. You have to play smart, as my dark side party just learned. The Wookiee can carve the other guys up nasty if he gets in close, but like a real knife-fight he'll be taking his own wounds. And that's in the best-case scenario, when he can close to melee easily.

[Vorpalbob]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, and I have tried some of your ideas. My only problem is i dont want him to feel left out. eg: a battle on a big open plain with little cover will make him next to useless, but will be really boring for him. I suppose that can't be avoided.

note= campaign set in KOTOR

[mostlyharmful]

how about a boarding/repelling ship to ship combat. some of the party get to do piloting and some get to trade lazblasts and some get to crawl around the duct work and shiv some random pilots/guards or whatever.... this is about teamwork, let him have his neiche and let others have theirs.

[Vorpalbob]

Thank you, mostlyharmful. That is exactly what I was looking for!

Now, on to the encounter writing!

[Johel]

Speaking of boarding action :

Remember the scene in the Return of the Jedi, when Jabba wants to throw Han Solo and Anakin into the Sarlac ? They are on a large hovering barge.

Awesome scene : your players are on a cruising barge, traveling across [INSERT SOME PLANET WITH COOL LANDSCAPE] as part of a security detail for a personality who's attending this cruise as a social event where politic/business are discussed.

The barge is attacked by bounty hunters. Your players try to defend it. Problem : the attackers are on small, very mobile speeders.
Some of them jump on the barge, looking for "the target" (aka : the employer of the players), as they have to take her/him/it alive.
The others kept their distance and fire at the barge, as they've been instructed to left no witness and the crash alone will probably kill most of the crew.
The players can :

save their employer, hijack a speeder and get away. The rest of the crew will die and the "matter" that their employer had to discuss is ruined.
save the barge by taking out the speeders. This left their employer vulnerable and the bounty hunters will probably just blow the ship once they get their "target".
save themselves... not the best course of action.
save everyone. They must split : the wookie protect the employer while the rest take out the fliers.


Basically, the wookie get some real action in a yacht-like battlefield, crawling from one table to another to finally get a grip on his opponent.
During this time, the others are trying to get a clear shot at the speeders as they pass by.

[The Big Dice]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, and I have tried some of your ideas. My only problem is i dont want him to feel left out. eg: a battle on a big open plain with little cover will make him next to useless, but will be really boring for him. I suppose that can't be avoided.

note= campaign set in KOTOR

Put him up against a Sith. Doesn't have to be a PRC Sith, if they are't high enough level to be running into NPCs with those classes. Jedi + Block + Skill Focus (UTF) = anyone without a Sith Alchemical weapon or lightsaber's worst nightmare. Or use Force Disarm + Improved Disarm against him.

Or, if you prefer to use non Force users, don't forget the power of massed autofire. Enemies with jetpacks using them to keep out of range concentrating their autofire is something that anyone without a very good Deflectroll or Evasion is going to be wary of. And the fight doesn't have to be completely in the open to get good use out of that. Put areas of difficult terrain to slow down melee fighters, while the bounty hunters fly over it.

And if you really want to take him out, don't forget the Condition Track Killer builds.