Help for a Dungeon Master

[Adindra]

Hello, so i have a problem. A lack of insight on my part allowed a PC in my group to play a broken samurai class he found online (he didn't tell me he was using one he found online instead of one of the original two). So now i have to find a way to kill him without looking like i'm trying to, hes beyond talking to and there's no way i could just tell him his class is broken.

A few things to note about the player,
He routinely runs off alone or does slightly dumb things(my first idea was to use a bar wench assassin because i know he would fall for it)

the class he is playing allows him to sense motive on people to find out everything about them (level main attacks all that)

I've been at my wits end for awhile trying to kill this pc off without bieng obvious about it and any help at all you guys and gals could give me would be an enormous help and i would appreciate it greatly!

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

A pit trap with a Gelatinous Cube at the bottom. Anyone who falls in and lands on the cube is automatically engulfed as though they'd wandered into it. May be useful if he goes off by himself.

Make his Sense Motive ability only work during combat (i.e. when his opponent is in some kind of combat stance), and make it a standard action or more to make the check on just one opponent. Address specific overpowered abilities the class gets and tone them down slightly or limit their usefulness, rather than making him replace the character.

[Drachasor]

How is the guy beyond talking to? Seems to me there's something really wrong going on if you can't talk to him about such things. That's going to give you problems all down the line.

Are you going to arbitrarily make it so that his character can't get rezzed? Are you going to arbitrarily decide that he can't roll up the same class again? You're going to have to have this conversation with him sooner or later. Sit him down, tell him you screwed up by allowing that class, and figure out something you both are happy with.

If he refuses to talk, let him know what elements of the class aren't going to work anymore because they are OP.

[Adindra]

Thanks for the advice both of you. I've written up a list of what makes his character broken and im going to have a sit down talk with him about it the day before our next session. I'm hoping that i can work it out peacefully :smallsmile:

Thanks again for the advice

[Zylle]

If you post a link to the page online where he found his version of samurai, that might help too. :)

[Drachasor]

Thanks for the advice both of you. I've written up a list of what makes his character broken and im going to have a sit down talk with him about it the day before our next session. I'm hoping that i can work it out peacefully :smallsmile:

Thanks again for the advice

I would also offer to work out a way to "retcon" his character into something thematically similar if he wants. There are a number of ways to make a Samurai-like character (just don't get hung up on the name of the class). Personally, I'd recommend the Warblade from ToB, since I think those classes are awesome, but there are many, many other ways as well (if you happen to not like ToB).

[Haldir]

Intentionally trying to kill a PC is definitely not the route to take, unless you like to have a competitive game, which is always an interesting route to go...

[SowZ]

Tell him you didn't know that the class was homebrew and that you don't allow homebrews. If he throws a fit, tell him that you are the DM and if he keeps throwing a fit he needs to learn how to deal with it and stop playing until he does.

[Lither]

I wouldn't reccomend actively trying to kill the PC, but if it comes to that, then here are some ideas.

Throw a monster capable of targeting his weaknesses. If he has a low will save, throw casters, for example.

For the assassin idea, go with what Biffoniacus Furiou said and make his Sense Motive only work during combat, then make the assassin a disguised succubus. He sounds like the type that would fall for that.

Alternatively, issue an ultimatum: Change the character or go. Use that only if nothing else works. That has a habit of breeding very bad feelings.

[Keithicus]

I wouldn't try to solve this in-game. Even though I understand frustration from the players PoV (assuming he didn't intentionally mislead you into thinking it was a published samurai) I think that you need to make sure the player understands why you want him to change as opposed to just saying "I don't like your class". That should lessen the hard feelings as it wouldn't feel as much like you're targeting him.

Lastly, if a player is 'beyond talking to' I would consider not having them play in my group. You might want to do the same.

[Silva Stormrage]

Ya I personally suggest either subtly nerfing him (Adding a lot of creatures with Mirror Image so he can't hit, etc. Not sure what makes this samurai class op'ed). Also why is this player beyond talking to? I had a similar player in a campaign that I assume thought I was using to strong of creatures and tried to then cheese out all of his builds.

Are other players complaining at all? If so try to have them tell the player that his class is OP'ed

Also could you link the class? That would help in informing us what is op about the class and also how to kill it.

That said the easiest way to kill him is a trap. Go in a dungeon crawl and "Whoops" the group trigged a trap, well lets see who the trap targets with 2 scythes. Oh look it target the samurai... and they both crit... what are the odds of that.

[kabreras]

He tend to be a jerk with NPCs ?

You never know who is the guy you are insulting, it could be a high level wizard that dont really like this and wasnt suposed to die... but that wizard can still cast disintegrate !

[[CLASSIFIED]]

He tend to be a jerk with NPCs ?

You never know who is the guy you are insulting, it could be a high level wizard that dont really like this and wasnt suposed to die... but that wizard can still cast disintegrate !

Agreeing with this.

If he goes out alone a lot, then you could have something he does alone annoy a really high level caster who could send out a team of assassins or summoned minions or something.

Another idea for death by irritated wizard: Let the guy go to another town by himself and then have the wizard use the wightpocalypse variant of the locate city bomb, ending in 1 PC vs. a whole town of negative level-bestowing wights.

[Silva Stormrage]

;11589131']Agreeing with this.

If he goes out alone a lot, then you could have something he does alone annoy a really high level caster who could send out a team of assassins or summoned minions or something.

Another idea for death by irritated wizard: Let the guy go to another town by himself and then have the wizard use the wightpocalypse variant of the locate city bomb, ending in 1 PC vs. a whole town of negative level-bestowing wights.

You know, I am not very subtle myself. But I believe a wightpocalypse is about the LEAST subtle way of killing a player. Unless of course you could bluff the rest of the party into thinking the entire party was supposed to be there. Also if the player could fly then the entire thing would be a waste.

[Dark Kerman]

Another idea for death by irritated wizard: Let the guy go to another town by himself and then have the wizard use the wightpocalypse variant of the locate city bomb, ending in 1 PC vs. a whole town of negative level-bestowing wights.

Where did you find that..? Either you found that from somewhere I posted or I discovered that after someone else. XD

[Kyouhen]

You know, I am not very subtle myself. But I believe a wightpocalypse is about the LEAST subtle way of killing a player. Unless of course you could bluff the rest of the party into thinking the entire party was supposed to be there. Also if the player could fly then the entire thing would be a waste.

Might not be too hard depending on how far ahead the player goes. We have someone like that in our group, and he recently jumped down a pit to explore a lower level of the dungeon we're in. He's currently trapped down there and there's big signs all over the place warning him not to enter without the benefits of Death Ward and whatnot. So now he has to wait around while the rest of the party (including the cleric) attempt to find their way down there and it's a big freaking dungeon. He's currently playing a new character while he waits, but the point is he could have run into some really bad situations down there and been killed and nobody would question if the DM was trying to get him killed.