Help! I think my character is broken...

[D&DNewbie]

Hi everyone!

I am brand new to this forum and I have been playing my first real campaign for a few months. I am having a blast and learning a lot about D&D 3.5, which is good, but that also means that I am now able to know that my character seems awfully overpowered.

My good friend is the DM. I trust him with all knowledge of D&D, and told him what I wanted in a character and he made me a great build. Because it is my first time with Roleplay, I wanted a "hulk smash" character... Really big, not very smart, just be a meat shield and deal lots of damage. My DM made me a Half-Ogre Goliath, with levels of Goliath Barbarian (1), Lion Totem Barbarian (1), Fighter (7 I've ranked that up over time) and he said I should take a level in Menacing Brute (1). I rolled ridiculously high when calculating ability scores... basically all 20's and a couple 19's and one 18 (My husband was very upset, because he rolled crap). So I know I'm already pretty powerful because of those rolls. Seems pretty standard.

Here's where it gets tricky. I started off the game with him giving me a Minotaur Greathammer as my primary weapon. Since then it has been made into a +3 huge sized Maiming, Shocking, Platinum Minotaur Greathammer of Impact. He recently updated my damage table, and in our last encounter we ran into some pretty big guys. I was in Mountain Rage and crit on a guy (who ended up having almost 300 hp). I looked at my damage table, rolled an obscene amount of dice, and wound up dealing 256 damage (3d8x4+1d6+3d10+111). From one hit. It feels great knowing my character can deal so much, but I feel bad because it sounds insane to me. I ended up just cleaving into every enemy on the board, not giving anyone a kill, and would up with a wall of bodies in front of my raging character. (I'm going to add here that I am stacked with crazy feats... Power Attack, Cleave, Great Cleave, Combat Reflexes, Never Outnumbered, Monkey Grip, Brutal Throw and Instantaneous Rage) And just for reference, my husband is a shadow assassin something or other, and he says if he rolls everything as max as possible and crits on a back-stab, he would still only do like 40 damage. Yikes.

I'm not complaining about my character, obviously he is awesome, but I feel bad because my crazy strong powerful character means that the encounters are way too tough for my squishy party members, so I get all the kills and I get all of the loot. Can anyone help me either try and dumb down my character, give me the courage to bring it up to my friend that I think he made me a broken character, or give me some advise to maybe build me a new fighter (this is probably not the best way to go... some of you have DM'd and this would change the whole plot and backstories)

One last thing... I am painfully new at trying to understand this stuff, so if you can make your replies somewhat easy for me to understand I'd really appreciate it. :smallsmile:

Thank you all!!!

[ericgrau]

Overpowered is all relative. Half-ogre, goliath, lion totem, greathammer and mountain rage are all stronger than normal. Here monkey grip is too, but only because of the other size boosters; normally it isn't. But it's not overpowered if your allies also take similar strong options. The solution is to give them more, take away the things mentioned in that list, or something similar to make everyone equal.

Your DM may have thought that he was merely assembling a strong character for you, and it might even be normal compared to other people he knows, but explain to him that it's not fair to the other players who didn't do such a good job.

[nedz]

What are the other characters in the party ?

Also, you are going to find this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18512) useful.

[Slipperychicken]

Before doing anything, talk to the DM so he knows you're going to try to nerf your character, so he can modify encounters appropriately. Also helps to know precisely what the issue is, and how others perceive it (they might not think it's a problem).

One idea for cutting damage output is to start sword-and-boarding (sword and shield), or just generally making it so you aren't two-handing for obscene benefit. If you have a bunch of power-attack related feats (shock trooper, leap attack, etc), you can try using those less, or just not Power Attacking as Mich.

[D&DNewbie]

Nedz: Thank you for that link, it is very useful :smallsmile:
We have a shadow assassin/fighter, a dual wielding half fire elemental girl, a gnome illusionist, a dwarf cleric, and a a domovoi caster of some kind who never shows up.

Thank you everyone for your advise, I will definitely talk to my DM before doing anything. I was just kind of stewing on this since last we played.

[Morbis Meh]

Gnome illusionist... this is the character that will break the game in half with but a single PrC: Shadowcraft Mage... realistically you doing damage is what a barbarian does you're not overpowered by any means (you're not an ubercharger) Your DM needs to implement more mooks into battles so your character can splat them with glee while the other's can do their own thing. Also throwing twist into battles help eg terrain, useable scenery, possible traps etc etc

[CaladanMoonblad]

I've been playing d20 since 2000, and the attribute point system is the fairest way to deal with attribute envy. Everyone starts with the same and spends as they please. I've run 15 point games, 20 point games, and 30 point games. As a GM, I also abide by the same rules as the PCs... my BBEGs will be equal to the heroes, the Lts may be 5 less than the heroes, and the mooks generally are 8-12 less than the heroes (I use a lot of mooks).

The character you describe D&DNewbie is indeed optimized beyond what my gaming group would allow (we play only core books and then players petition to include outside material). The Fighter in our group (my wife) similarly is the heavy damage dealer and often steals the show (especially against golems, which in our game world is common for Dwarven or Elven ruins). But I try to create encounters that allow different characters to really shine and no one is a show stealer.

Only you can be a judge of whether you want to continue playing your character. Perhaps you may want to try another character for a while?

[Icewraith]

The easy solution here is have the DM include large groups of low-hp enemies with which to block your path. This gives the other characters and the enemies some time to act while you cleave through the swarms of minions.

You're only overpowered compared to the rest of your group - any wizard with Forcecage can shut you down for the entire fight, for instance.

Actually, it's probably imperative your group steps their game up before you guys run into something that can dominate. Low-op groups can have real issues with tpks if even a fairly competent damage-dealer gets mind controlled.

If you're really looking to balance things out, delete everyone's stats and recreate them using point buy. Nobody will be outshone purely on stats alone, and your overall effectiveness will go down a bit. You have a "powerful build" for a melee character, but at the end of the day you're not a 1d2 crusader or an ubercharger, and you don't have access to the really game-breaking stuff like high level magic. It's up to the Dm to run more tactically interesting encounters so you can't just charge up to the bad guy and beat his brains out on round one.

Also, for the future: don't invest in more items that add to your damage. You clearly have enough of it. What you need now is as much survivability and versatility as possible. Granted, if you have too much wealth for your level you could also lose some of it, but here are some ideas in terms of what to spend future gold on that will make you more effective but not directly increase your base damage output.

Focus on shoring up your will save, try to get a better AC (AC doesn't mean a whole lot to a charging barbarian with shock trooper until you run into a few giants that are also using power attack, at which point a few extra points of ac can be the only thing stopping the giants from hitting you with three attacks each at full power attack bonus. It's lifesaving to stop those second and third iteratives from hitting), and track down a cold iron ring and bracers or gauntlets that bypass silver damage reduction (the item is from Magic Item Compendium).

Other things you could spend your wealth on include a hat of disguise, boots of spider climb or winged boots (there are also better methods of getting flight), glamered armor (incredibly useful depending on the campaign), and a belt of battle. You don't have to use the belt, but it's nice to have extra actions available if you need to save the party's bacon by killing something dead.

The only nerf I'd recommend at this juncture is the stat nerf and move to a point buy system. Have your DM work up more interesting encounters (never use solo monsters), go for a few sessions and see if things improve. I DMed for a barbarian in a very caster-heavy party, and I assure you that most of the stuff I listed here has worked in at least one campaign.

The biggest immediate killers of game balance when it comes to non-spellcasters are having too much wealth for your level and having a large disparity in stat distribution between players (and also between players and monsters). It's a lot of work for the DM to bring all the monsters up by six or eight points and recalculate all their stats, it's much easier in this instance to bring you guys down and normalize you than bump up every monster he throws at you.

[nedz]

Hmm, well the Illusionist and the Cleric should be dominating the game, even without PrCs. I guess they are newish players. The Assassin and Fire Elemental are probably the weaker members, on paper.

It's possible that the casters are just playing support roles, also both of those classes take a bit of getting your head around to make truly effective.

Also Player Ability > Build > Class

[Synovia]

The biggest immediate killers of game balance when it comes to non-spellcasters are having too much wealth for your level and having a large disparity in stat distribution between players (and also between players and monsters). It's a lot of work for the DM to bring all the monsters up by six or eight points and recalculate all their stats, it's much easier in this instance to bring you guys down and normalize you than bump up every monster he throws at you.

Right. She's got all 18-20s in stats. Thats an LA adjustment of probably +4 or +5 above the standard array. I'd bet the DM isn't calculating that in when setting encounters.

I'd bet that the OP isnt' getting hit with will saves either.

[Phelix-Mu]

Also Player Ability > Build > Class

Is there a thread for timeless wisdom? Cause this is a fine truism if ever I saw one.

[Burley]

I'll say this:

It's rough being a win button. In my previous group, I played a beguiler who, after a fashion, began "moving strategically" and "rethinking tactics" during fights, because she would just end fights. It wasn't as flashy as rolling a ton of dice, and most of the group never noticed until after my DM and I had our little talk.

"Am I a win button?"
"Eh... I will say that you're going to be going up against mindless creatures who don't rely on normal senses in the next few sessions."
"So, I should prep a new character?"
"I'll let you decide how big of a glory blaze she goes out in."
"Worth it."

And, then, I made a PC that rolls a handful of d6s, to be flashy and more in check with the party's damage output. But, when the party is all single target damage, and I'm slinging a Wand of Fireball, I figured out the problem during a fight with fire-resistant monsters: I was making PCs to fill gaps in the party, and the biggest party gap was effectiveness.

I suppose the moral of the story is this: You can't build and play everybody's characters. You do you. If it becomes an issue, then deal with it. If the party is high-five-ing after your turn, there's no problem. If the rogue/assassin is rolling his eyes as you roll your dice, maybe spend some extra thought helping him flank for sneak-attacks, or help guide the party toward encounters that others will excel in. Maybe if you've shown what you can do, help others show what they can do.

[Flickerdart]

The Mountain Rage ACF and the Spirit Lion Totem ACF are not separate classes, but two modifications to Barbarian.

[Uhtred]

I think maybe your DM may be holding back with your group. All the templates and multiclassing tells me that his campaign is flavor-based, and story-based, rather than fully combat-based, so while you may be dealing ridiculous amounts of damage all of that damage might just be a sidebar to what's really happening in the overall story arc. He may have just wanted to build you a simple, easy character that would survive combat at low-mid levels while you got the hang of it, so that when you hit your stride as both a PC and as a party he could finally let loose a little and have some fun with templates and PC classes and the wealth of entertainment in the monster manuals while still making sure you all were at least 65% likely to survive. And while 256 pouncing bludgeoning maiming damage might seem like a lot, all your DM needs to do is stat out a semi-decent Wizard/Artificer+minions and employ their spells/infusions/obscure racial abilities INTELLIGENTLY, which is rare for DMs with story-based campaigns, to show you and your party the meaning of pain. :)

Your character is only overpowered as long as your DM allows it to be. Could be there are interesting and challenging encounters down the road. If you do trust him in all matters D&D, then trust him to have situations set up down the line that will allow not just you, but everyone the chance to shine and take a little of the brunt of the Goristro attack. But he will never know unless you bring it up. Be courageous. He's there to give you and your friends a fun, challenging time. And unless he's a sick sadist who enjoys watching you all stumble and fail over and over it's his job to keep you entertained or he'll be short more than just a Domovoi caster in no time flat.

That being said if your DM frequents these forums, the element of surprise may have already been lost. ;P

[nedz]

Is there a thread for timeless wisdom? Cause this is a fine truism if ever I saw one.

Yes, I don't know who first coined this.


The Mountain Rage ACF and the Spirit Lion Totem ACF are not separate classes, but two modifications to Barbarian.

So Illegal Build — but it won't be making all that much difference.

Anyway 256 was a crit, so I'm guessing more like 80 normally.

The character is high melee damage, but probably wouldn't be quite so impressive against threats that you can't Hulk-Smash. It's quite common in some games for this character type to steal the show, if the opponents are only ever set up for this.

How much are the casters buffing and doing BC though ? These could actually be winning the fights, without the OP appreciating that.

[HalfQuart]

So I'm pretty confused by all this.

I'm guessing this is using the Half-Ogre template from Dragon 313, which I gather makes the Goliath actually large (+1 LA). So with the Goliath LA (+1?), that would be a total of +2 LA?

And I'm unclear about what level this character/party is. Based on the Goliath Barbarian racial substitution level (with the Spirit Lion Totem ACF) and 7 levels of Fighter, and +2 LA, that would be at least ~10?

Because it seems rather unusual to have a +3 Maiming, Shock, Platinum Minotaur Greathammer of Impact at that level. That's the equivalent of a +6 Platinum weapon, which would be around 79,000 gp. The appropriate wealth for a 10 ECL character is 49,000 gp. And you wouldn't really expect 1 item to be the entire wealth of a character, so you wouldn't expect to see that sort of item until significantly later.

Which I guess leads me to wonder if not only is the character build too strong compared to the rest of your party, but is the wealth disproportionally in your favor? Could just losing that particular item bring things back into a more reasonable power level?

[Gavinfoxx]

You can have more than one ACF on a Barbarian... as long as it doesn't, you know... contradict? You can't trade away the same thing twice?