When a PC's too powerful

[Hawkings]

Recently I had a player rejoin my campaign, for various reasons he's been on again off again for years, his character's are usually jokes and also have a high death rate so when he came back I told him he could be whatever he wanted and didn't put much thought into it; obviously, that's never a good idea.

He wanted a two weapon fighter with a powerful ranged weapon, I expected some fighter or warblade like class, instead he stacked templates.

Now I'm dealing with a half-vampire half-iron golem who's immune to all magic that allows spell resistance, fast healing 1 after he's bloodied, natural armor and strength out the wazoo, not to mention his 25/+2 DR.

Oh and he took a couple levels of ranger to get either TWF or archery, I forget which at the moment.

I applaud the builds strength but the problem is anything I can throw at him that could remotely challenge him will utterly murder my other players who're all unoptimized.

I've looked all over for spells and items but can't find anything that will stop him without either outright killing him or the other party members, everything else is just a petty obstacle in his way.

If anyone knows how to get around the construct trait immunities and the perfect magic resistance besides brute force it'd be an unbelievable help to me. Otherwise I'm either near powerless or have to make him remake a character and that feels like a defeat, so either way isn't very appealing.

I did find the spell greater humanoid essence from races of eberron, which would remove the golem trait immunities, but it allows spell resistance, ARRG!

Sidenote: Party level is 9, Half-vampire template is in Libris Mortis Page 106, Half-golem template is in Monster Manual 2 Page: 209.

And yes I admit I've been a very stupid DM.

[Flickerdart]

PCs can't be half-golems, because the template doesn't have a listed Level Adjustment. You also can't make an Undead into a Half-Golem.

Also, the 3.5 update to the Half-Golem's Magic Immunity changes it to immunity only to spells that allow for spell resistance. He also doesn't get either the Magic Immunity or Construct Traits unless he fails the Will save, which turns him into a near-mindless drone.

Also, becoming such a golem costs 20,000 GP, 400XP and several powerful spells, which are resources that a 9th level character doesn't even come close to having.

So yes, you're going to have to tell him to reroll - because his character is illegal.

[Hawkings]

PCs can't be half-golems, because the template doesn't have a listed Level Adjustment. You also can't make an Undead into a Half-Golem.

Also, the 3.5 update to the Half-Golem's Magic Immunity changes it to immunity only to spells that allow for spell resistance. He also doesn't get either the Magic Immunity or Construct Traits unless he fails the Will save, which turns him into a near-mindless drone.

Also, becoming such a golem costs 20,000 GP, 400XP and several powerful spells, which are resources that a 9th level character doesn't even come close to having.

So yes, you're going to have to tell him to reroll - because his character is illegal.

Half-vampires aren't undead, other than that I thought a half-golem wouldn't get those traits unless they failed, but the books layout is so weird in that section it's hard to understand, thanks for correcting me on that.

About the cost to become a half-golem, in the game he is an exarch for a powerful dragon in the great game so it could explain the grafted limb RP wise, but the supposed benefits didn't seem to fit at all.

[Flickerdart]

The backstory is irrelevant - he's sitting on 22k of extra stuff, plus ignoring a bunch of rules. Of course he's going to be much more powerful than his buddies.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Could be worse... could've been a half black dragon War Troll. Pretty much immune to all damage ever, because he is immune to the one flavor of damage that bypasses his Regeneration ability.

And yea... half-golem is not allowed on a PC. Reroll. What he probably saw was the Challenge Rating increase, and mistook it for a Level Adjustment.

[ThiagoMartell]

As an alternative, give him warforged grafts. Looks like he only has a golem arm, right? Mighty Arms costs something like 1k, I think. He gets a slam attack and might add a battlefist for extra oomph. The concept is still there, he just loses the plusses.

[Libertad]

The thing that I'd recommend is to express your reservations, and that you misspoke when you said "play whatever you want."

Tell him that your character might be so powerful that he'll make the game too easy, and that upping the power level will be too difficult for the other PCs. Tell him that having everyone else on a level playing field would be best, preferably lower-powered (because it will be less work for you when creating challenges). Don't place the blame or problem on him, or try to passive-aggressively screw his character over with DM Fiat. Be upfront with your concerns and negotiate with him, preferably before the gaming session.

[Flickerdart]

The thing that I'd recommend is to express your reservations, and that you misspoke when you said "play whatever you want."

Tell him that your character might be so powerful that he'll make the game too easy, and that upping the power level will be too difficult for the other PCs. Tell him that having everyone else on a level playing field would be best, preferably lower-powered (because it will be less work for you when creating challenges). Don't place the blame or problem on him, or try to passive-aggressively screw his character over with DM Fiat. Be upfront with your concerns and negotiate with him, preferably before the gaming session.
But it is his fault. He made a character that doesn't follow the rules of the game.

[ThiagoMartell]

That you gave him permission to.

"Anything you want" is quite obviously "anything you want within the rules".

[Kelb_Panthera]

Tossing in one more vote of "sorry for the mixup, but you need to reroll." Half-golem isn't a playable template by default and it probably shouldn't be even if you're comfortable with assigning and adjusting LA on non-standard races. Even if it was, the cost of becoming one should count against WBL, and his WBL is too low to support that.

I'll second the suggestion of replacing the golem arm with a similar construct graft. For an explanation of all those things his spell immunity saved him from, if you need one, it was just dumb luck. He made all his saves and the effects were unusual versions with save: fort/ref/will negates. Too bad those versions have fallen into disuse.

[Pilo]

A rogue with UMD and a wand of orb of something (Complete arcane) can beat him quite easily without being a threat to other characters.
Or a Warmage, Sorcerer or Wizard.
A rust monster can do the trick too.

His Fast healing ability does not work anymore because of the Half-Golem template.

+3 magic weapons are not uncommon at level 9, making his DR useless.

[hoverfrog]

Have someone with construct or undead bane weapons target him. It won't hurt the other players but it will make a difference to the illegal build. Can half vampires be turned?

[darksolitaire]

It seems that just going trough his sheet with DM goggles on and removing all stuff with no basis on the rules will do the trick. Are you actually playing with 3.0 without updates?

[Killer Angel]

So yes, you're going to have to tell him to reroll - because his character is illegal.

I only hope this player is unaware of this, and that he merely lacks system's knowledge and he's staking templates that appear to be powerful.
'cause if the player knows that his build is effectively illegal, the DM will face further problems...

[Andreaz]

It seems that just going trough his sheet with DM goggles on and removing all stuff with no basis on the rules will do the trick. Are you actually playing with 3.0 without updates?More importantly, why is the illegal build using stuff from 3.0 and 3.5? Ranger 2 for weapon tricks is a 3.5 thing, while "dr X/+2" is a 3.0 thing.

Really, the whole thing is illegal, just throw it away.

[Kelb_Panthera]

More importantly, why is the illegal build using stuff from 3.0 and 3.5? Ranger 2 for weapon tricks is a 3.5 thing, while "dr X/+2" is a 3.0 thing.

Really, the whole thing is illegal, just throw it away.

3.0 material is officially legal in a 3.5 game unless it's been updated. MM2 has a 3.5 conversion manual floating around somewhere I think.

The only thing about the build that's outright illegal as far as I can tell is that half-golem doesn't have a listed level adjustment and as such isn't a PC legal race. -If- it was given a LA in the update (I doubt it) it'll be a steep one; +4 minimum, probably more. It's also got an associated gp cost that's way beyond the player's current WBL.

This ultimately looks like a case of both the DM and the player making one or more judgement/rules errors out of inexperience.