Preventing or hampering concentration checks

[romanswinter]

Hi Guys,

Longtime GItP lurker, first time poster. I am hoping you can help. I have somewhat of a probably easy question, but for some reason I just cant seem to find some good info myself, so I am turning to the experts.

I am running a 3.5 campaign, and we have house rules that allow for called shots that can be pretty devastating. Well one of the players has basically found a way to abuse the system (but remains within the ruleset) and have been breaking my encounters regularly with these called shots. However, the system is completely dependent on concentration checks. He has put lots of ranks in concentration to help him beat these checks.

I am looking for ways that prevent characters from making concentration checks. So what kind of bard songs, spells, other methods can I use that either outright prevent the target from making concentration checks, or severely penalize their concentration checks?

Thanks for your help!

[DeltaEmil]

Getting damaged might impair a big penalty to the Concentration check. Ability damage and drain do hurt the Constitution modifier. Negative levels and other status effects can hinder Concentration checks.

Alternatively, do away with the called shot rule and let the player retrain the resources invested in Concentration.

[mattie_p]

Posting the exact text of your house rule would allow us to help you better.

That said, check this thread on nuking skill checks (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=193740).

[Belial_the_Leveler]

Sex. Few people can concentrate when getting "Treasure Type 0".



And if you think that won't come up, you haven't fought many succubae. :smalltongue:

[HurinTheCursed]

It depends on the rules you use, but even max concentration ranks may seem low to reliably pass checks by mid level damage values.

[Gnome Alone]

Player: Hm, I think I'll... make another called shot to the jugular vein.
<rolls> Wow, that should, like, sever its head, right? Anyway, it'll die, you need your jugular.
DM: :smallsigh:

[molten_dragon]

Hi Guys,

Longtime GItP lurker, first time poster. I am hoping you can help. I have somewhat of a probably easy question, but for some reason I just cant seem to find some good info myself, so I am turning to the experts.

I am running a 3.5 campaign, and we have house rules that allow for called shots that can be pretty devastating. Well one of the players has basically found a way to abuse the system (but remains within the ruleset) and have been breaking my encounters regularly with these called shots. However, the system is completely dependent on concentration checks. He has put lots of ranks in concentration to help him beat these checks.

I am looking for ways that prevent characters from making concentration checks. So what kind of bard songs, spells, other methods can I use that either outright prevent the target from making concentration checks, or severely penalize their concentration checks?

Thanks for your help!

Well, you can try to reduce his CON score for one through various means.

There are also several spells that apply penalties to all skill checks (bestow curse for example) that you could stack up.

I know of one spell, buzzing bee, that gives a fairly hefty (-10 IIRC) penalty to concentration checks specifically. The nice thing is that's even first level.

You could also have enemies ready actions to attack him when they see him concentrating, and then he'd have to make a concentration check at DC 10+ damage dealt to complete the action. It should be relatively easy to do enough damage that it would be nearly impossible for him to make the concentration checks that way.

You could also use continuous damage, which will require him to make concentration checks each round that he's affected by it, though those generally do less damage.

[FleshrakerAbuse]

It seems here that if he's breaking your game, the best thing to do is to tell him to restrain himself a bit so he doesn't steal spotlight from others. What class is he playing, what is the general level, and what are his common tricks?

A few changes to some more broken combos may help.

As for the concentration, you don't always want to be trying to hamper a player, because he needs to succeed too. However, this means you could use the concentration check annoyance when he makes a tactical mistake, or when he's outright abusing the rules. As said, buzzing bee is helpful, but there are other methods. Grapplers will outright annoy him, and remember that he has to make concentration checks for EACH thing that's currently harming him.

Grappling is a good method low-levels. Enemy spellcasters using things like entangle should also work, and knights (DMG2) or crusaders that are mounted should easily move to engage him to shut him down, dealing damage and not letting him 5-ft step away.

However, to shut down a caster low levels:

Stunning them (monks with stunning, or archers with stunning surge weapons)
Sending rogues with high sneak attack to ready an action to attack with his surprise round.
And the others above.

[romanswinter]

Thank you everyone for the suggestions! I got some good ideas here that I think will work.

The reason I cant just change the policy is tomorrow is our last game, so its the big final encounter and I really wanted to prevent them from breaking the encounter again without changing the rules at the last minute.

[Amnestic]

Possible option: Start adding Gibberlings (Monsters of Faerun) as mooks to your encounters. Their gibbering applies a -2 to Concentration checks to everyone who can hear them within 200' (no save), and at CR 1/3 each, you can have a few in combat meaning it's tough to get rid of their gibbering quickly an easily. As an added bonus, their standard tactic is to rush a foe and begin mass grappling him. "As Small creatures, up to eight Gibberlings can grapple a single Medium size creature."

Edit:

Thank you everyone for the suggestions! I got some good ideas here that I think will work.

The reason I cant just change the policy is tomorrow is our last game, so its the big final encounter and I really wanted to prevent them from breaking the encounter again without changing the rules at the last minute.

In which case a mass of Gibberlings might be just what the Dungeon Master ordered :smallwink: