3.5 Encounter building help

[Jarmen4u]

Hey gitp, as a sidebar to my current thread, I wanted to made this as I will be DMing the next couple games for my group.

As of right now, our main power house is a triple variant barbarian doing crazy damage and one-shotting everything. I want to counter this when I am running the group, but not just raising the AC on the monsters so high that nothing can hit them. Can I get some suggestions that may be anti-melee, but caster/touch attack friendly?

Thanks :smallbiggrin:

EDIT: for those who haven't read my other thread, we are currently in the early stages (level 2-4) and have a barbarian, cleric (me), beguiler, sorcerer, and a grappler monk.

[bjoern]

Attack his will save.
Glitter dust him.
Have the enemies fly. And shoot arrows at him, force him to throw stuff at them.
Mirror image.
Make the terrain rough so he can't charge.

[BilltheCynic]

Just to be mean, throw a rust monster or two at the party and watch as the mighty barbarian cowers in fear behind the castors. If he isn't smart enough to do this, he can kiss his armor and weapons goodbye!

If you really want to mess with him, throw some kobolds at him and make the kobolds fight smart. Kobolds can actually be a very nasty encounter, and just charging blindly at them is a good way to get yourself caught in a few dozen traps. If you need a bit of inspiration for a kobold encounter, check out Tucker's Kobolds (http://www.tuckerskobolds.com/) (but make sure you tone it down just a bit for your party :smallbiggrin:)

[Jarmen4u]

Just to be mean, throw a rust monster or two at the party and watch as the mighty barbarian cowers in fear behind the castors. If he isn't smart enough to do this, he can kiss his armor and weapons goodbye!

If you really want to mess with him, throw some kobolds at him and make the kobolds fight smart. Kobolds can actually be a very nasty encounter, and just charging blindly at them is a good way to get yourself caught in a few dozen traps. If you need a bit of inspiration for a kobold encounter, check out Tucker's Kobolds (http://www.tuckerskobolds.com/) (but make sure you tone it down just a bit for your party :smallbiggrin:)

Fair enough, but he is currently unarmed and without armor (obviously) at the moment, as he is using City Brawler as part of his variant. Among other things, he also has Lion Totem from Complete Champion, and one other thing I can't remember, something about Whirling Frenzy.

[GreatDane]

If you're looking to reduce the damage of / challenge an uber-barbarian, look at their multipliers. Most characters like that use a charge, a full attack, Power Attack, or something similar to increase their damage. If you're just looking to reduce their damage output, you can use encounter elements like rough terrain (charging), mobile/distant enemies (full attacks), or high AC (PA) to reduce their ability to pump out the numbers.

With that said, a character like that shouldn't be able to use their uber-combo every encounter, or even every day. It should be the standard to have to work around obstacles like the above before reaching max damage output.

If, for whatever reason, you're looking to directly counter the barbarian, the above posters' recommendations will serve you just fine, although it's never fun to have your character completely incapacitated. It might be relevant to attack the barbarian's hit point total. Most barbarians sacrifice AC for damage and hit points, but if they opt to wade into melee, let it be against a dozen creatures with low to-hit and high damage (thinking orcs and Power Attack off the top of my head). Focus the damage on the barbarian in combat!