Need Balancing Help

[Sziget Pengék]

So I have this party:

Elf Warblade 6, going Bloodclaw Master

Half-Elf Spirit Shaman 6 with free greater fey bloodline.

Jungle Halfling Guzheng(Ninja With Bard casting/Music)/Warblade 2, with free greater titan bloodline going Bloodstorm Blade and probably going to allow him to use bardic music during combat with his bitchin' Flute-Axe. (specializing in poisons and throwing axes)

Wild Elf Wujen(Fire Mastery) 6

and the balancing issue:

Blind Human Monk 4/Accidental Wererat 2(5)/Vow of poverty with a double cost(done in charity) ancestral relic applied to his body that is random rolled. Going Fist of the Forest and Warshaper

Funny enough I thought the VOP/Ancestral Relic thing was going to be broken, but thats not the case:

The party comes in contact with some wererat rogues in the forest, one bites at the monk and by some crazy fluke it hits with it(crit only XD) and the party didnt cure him in time so he's a were-rat now. I dont like to retcon things, and prefer to let the game go where it will for the most part, but with scent overcoming the blind and the secondary natural attacks and the stat boosts he has become absolutely disgustingly OP outside of smelly areas. He is leveling slowly and is going to spend the exp to buy off the level adjustment so its going to slow his roll a lot while the others catch up but I could use some help on coming up with encounters that would allow the players, especially the Guzheng, to shine.


So far foul smelling monsters/areas, windy places, and grapples are what I've got to balance it.

[Sziget Pengék]

Pertinent info: Fractional, average HP.

[jedipotter]

1.Scent/Blindness What kind of pentaly did the character have for being blind? Were you going for the full The character cannot see. He takes a -2 penalty to Armor Class, loses his Dexterity bonus to AC (if any), moves at half speed, and takes a -4 penalty on Search checks and on most Strength- and Dexterity-based skill checks. All checks and activities that rely on vision (such as reading and Spot checks) automatically fail. All opponents are considered to have total concealment (50% miss chance) to the blinded character Or something else?

Note that Scent does not let you automatiacly detect everything: The creature can detect opponents within 30 feet by sense of smell. If the opponent is upwind, the range increases to 60 feet; if downwind, it drops to 15 feet. Strong scents, such as smoke or rotting garbage, can be detected at twice the ranges noted above. Overpowering scents, such as skunk musk or troglodyte stench, can be detected at triple normal range.

When a creature detects a scent, the exact location of the source is not revealed—only its presence somewhere within range. The creature can take a move action to note the direction of the scent. Whenever the creature comes within 5 feet of the source, the creature pinpoints the source’s location.

Secondary Attacks So your letting him make a normal attack and a secondary attack? Note that the Flurry of Blows is special and can't be combines with multiple attacks. And any secondary attacks have pentiatlies.

[Piggy Knowles]

Yeah, worth reiterating: scent does not allow you to "see" creatures, even when it's not obscured by very smelly things or wind. You can pinpoint where a creature is, but it still has total concealment versus you. That means it has a 50% miss chance, and ignores your Dex bonus to AC. Giving scent to the blind is nice, certainly a step up from remaining blind, but it's not some overwhelming advantage if you're following the rules.

Other than that - scent has a fairly low range. Enemies that fight from more than 30' away are still functionally invisible in this instance.

[SowZ]

If the were rat is OP, it is almost certainly a case of the other players not playing well. If they were using their spells/abilities well, the were rat would be low in the pack.

[HunterOfJello]

If the were rat is OP, it is almost certainly a case of the other players not playing well. If they were using their spells/abilities well, the were rat would be low in the pack.

QFT

~~~~~


Look up rules for natural attacks and flurry of blows (seperately). They cannot be combined. Being blind, the monk can only pinpoint the location of a creature within 5 ft of him.

Are you using all of the Blind rules?

The character always has -2 to AC. He does not gain a bonus to AC from his dexterity. He moves at half the speed at all times. He also takes -4 to search and almost all Strength and Dexterity based skill checks. All opponents are considered to have concealment too, so he has a 50% miss chance even if he knows where an enemy is.

If you are using the natural attacks, flurry of blows, and blindness rules properly, then this character should be so far behind the others that it is just pathetic.

[Sziget Pengék]

The movement thing isnt counted in because hes been blind since birth and is used to it now.

The major issue is the HD/Saves/Stat increases and that the VOP is ECL based, so he has 9th level VOP right now which makes his bonuses, ac, saves, resiliency, and feat availability absurdly high.

The section on scent wasnt clear in the mm, is that from the rules compendium? This information will make him significantly less OP.

[Piggy Knowles]

Here is the full entry, from the SRD (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#scent):


Scent
This extraordinary ability lets a creature detect approaching enemies, sniff out hidden foes, and track by sense of smell.

A creature with the scent ability can detect opponents by sense of smell, generally within 30 feet. If the opponent is upwind, the range is 60 feet. If it is downwind, the range is 15 feet. Strong scents, such as smoke or rotting garbage, can be detected at twice the ranges noted above. Overpowering scents, such as skunk musk or troglodyte stench, can be detected at three times these ranges.

The creature detects another creature’s presence but not its specific location. Noting the direction of the scent is a move action. If it moves within 5 feet of the scent’s source, the creature can pinpoint that source.

A creature with the Track feat and the scent ability can follow tracks by smell, making a Wisdom check to find or follow a track. The typical DC for a fresh trail is 10. The DC increases or decreases depending on how strong the quarry’s odor is, the number of creatures, and the age of the trail. For each hour that the trail is cold, the DC increases by 2. The ability otherwise follows the rules for the Track feat. Creatures tracking by scent ignore the effects of surface conditions and poor visibility.

Creatures with the scent ability can identify familiar odors just as humans do familiar sights.

Water, particularly running water, ruins a trail for air-breathing creatures. Water-breathing creatures that have the scent ability, however, can use it in the water easily.

False, powerful odors can easily mask other scents. The presence of such an odor completely spoils the ability to properly detect or identify creatures, and the base Survival DC to track becomes 20 rather than 10.

...and here's total concealment:


Total Concealment
If you have line of effect to a target but not line of sight he is considered to have total concealment from you. You can’t attack an opponent that has total concealment, though you can attack into a square that you think he occupies. A successful attack into a square occupied by an enemy with total concealment has a 50% miss chance (instead of the normal 20% miss chance for an opponent with concealment).

You can’t execute an attack of opportunity against an opponent with total concealment, even if you know what square or squares the opponent occupies.

Pinpointing the position of a creature does not give you line of sight; blindsense, tremorsense and scent all can help you locate a hidden creature, but unless you have full blindsight, you still don't have line of sight to it and it will have total concealment versus you.

[Sziget Pengék]

Wow, thank you, not sure how I missed an entire paragraph. That clears up my problems entirely.

[SowZ]

The movement thing isnt counted in because hes been blind since birth and is used to it now.

The major issue is the HD/Saves/Stat increases and that the VOP is ECL based, so he has 9th level VOP right now which makes his bonuses, ac, saves, resiliency, and feat availability absurdly high.

The section on scent wasnt clear in the mm, is that from the rules compendium? This information will make him significantly less OP.

This is a self limiting problem. The other players will catch up to him in level, then they will surpass him. He gets a temporary power boost now, but it is balanced by the fact that the LA will become a real nerf later. Eventually, once he has bought off the LA, he will be back to baseline again.

[HunterOfJello]

The major issue is the HD/Saves/Stat increases and that the VOP is ECL based, so he has 9th level VOP right now which makes his bonuses, ac, saves, resiliency, and feat availability absurdly high.

VoP is based on Character Level not Effective Character Level. You gain no benefit from LA. Did you houserule that?

Also, are you sure you set up the lycanthrope template for wererat on the character properly? He would gain both +2 LA and 1 racial hit die from the dire rat form's 1 hit die.

That would make him Monk 4/Wererat RHD 1/LA +2 which is ECL 7. He should also therefore be leveling slower than everyone else and need to gain two more class levels before he can even start to attempt to do LA buyoff because racial hit dice do not count towards the total of 6 class levels he will need before being able to buy anything off.

Finally, while his RHD does not help towards buying things off sooner, it does count towards the exp cost that he will have to pay to buy everything off. So, once he's ECL 9 he will have to pay 8000 exp to decrease his +2 LA to +1 LA.