Starting a new campaign

[TheOOB]

Well after several years, looks like I'm finally starting another Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 campaign, and since I've been out of the loop for so long, I was wondering if I could get a little help. There are going to be some players I'm not used to who from what I understand power game a good deal more than my normal group does, so I'm making sure to use house rules to ban a few of the more blatantly overpowerered (prestige)classes/spells/feats. So far I'm not allow alter self, polymorph, shapechange, any of the celerity spells, divine metamagic, and requiring druids to use the PHB II shapeshift varient.

Is there any other things that you all have experienced that tremendously unbalance the game or grind the game to a halt with excessive rules baggage?

[OracleofSilence]

remember the infinite power point Psion (earth power, torc of power preservation/bestow power)

there is the Inhathanatrix, a class that uses Acorn of Far travel and Hathran PrC to spontaneously cast wizard spells

honestly, there is so much broken crap that you qon't be able to avoid it all.:smallfrown:

I would suggest using RAI instead of RAW. just that common sense stuff. and remember, generally, faerun has more broken stuff then other homemade, or published settings.

[Yora]

Divine Metamagic apparently isn't that bad, as long as you don't allow the players to use nightsticks to power these abilities.

But I think trying to plug all holes before the more experienced optimizers can exploit them is rather futile. The mentioned spells should probably not be a problem if removed from the game, but if you consequently ban everything that could lead to trouble, things will get rather unplayable.
Rather explain to the players that you expect them to not dig out the really crazy guns and that since you're not completely sure how things will turn out, you'll reserve the right to retroactively decide that some tricks are just too powerful for the game you run. Getting them to shift down a gear will get much more satisfying results for everyone.
Just make sure that you're DM rulings don't seen completely arbitrary and made on a whim every time something turns out in an unexpected way.

[Ozreth]

Meh, just tell them not to be jerks and call the shots as you go. D&D players shouldn't be concerned with competition of characters amongst the group, its a co-operative game and if one character has something awesome that will end up helping the group nobody should complain.

From a DM perspective, just beef up monsters if you find the player mopping the floor.

Just set your worries aside and focus on running the game and have fun : )

[Pika...]

Dood, just sit down with the entire group and say that powergaming is not allowed or encouraged. That you feel it ruins the fun of the game, or that it will at least ruin your game.

Believe me, you will not be able to cover every possible method of powergaming out there. Every little dirty trick. Every single optimized build on the forums. Not gonna happen.

[Remmirath]

It's usually a lot more effective to just try to get your players to behave reasonably rather than banning everything that might be used to power game. For one thing, a lot of those things can be used entirely reasonably, and for another ... well, if somebody is determined to power game, they will probably find a way around bans.

In my opinion, going with Rules-as-Intended rather than Rules-as-Written is always a good idea. No, it's not intended that way in 3rd quite as much as it was in earlier editions, but D&D really does need a DM to be active with the rules interpretations and house rules for the best experience, and that includes things such as 'nope, sorry, that is not actually going to work :smallannoyed:'.
It'll also help you out here, because most of the most game-breaking things out there essentially require the DM to be rubber-stamping things for the sake of RAW.

My advice would be to talk to the whole group and try to address any specific questions they might have, while making it clear what you're mainly going for (everybody being at the same power level, nothing too drastic, whatever). Other than that, don't be afraid to beef up the monsters and/or make them fight smarter if you end up with a powerful group.

As to your specific list there, I think that banning celerity spells is generally a good idea. Polymorph/alter self/shapechange will probably be fine with maybe a house rule or two and some common sense, and Divine Metamagic mostly just needs the common sense.