3.5e I'm Overpowered

[Skuli]

Hey guys and galls ;)
I have a problem in my campaign.

We play "return to the temple of elemental evil" campaign, in a party made of four - fighter, cleric, sorcerer/wu jen, and me, Ranger from this (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Yt03QcVhjqqrl8hiBfhAywvBsMytjcMYBCuQUhQe2Q0/pub) link.

I take real pleasure in min/maxing my character, and characters of others as well, but there are few problems in our team.
First off, how our team looks like:
I know mechanics better than our DM, and during combats and such i don't scream stuff like "No, it should'nt be like that!" to my DM, but still, when he doesn't know something I'm the one that he looks :P
Cleric is completly new to roleplaying games, she is more LARP kind of gall, still, she enjoys playing even if she still doesn't know her way arround. I'm helping her as much i can, because, well, our DM screwed at this part, so I'm finding some good spells for her and some items for healing for the rest of party, so she could play and not be a healbot that occasionally hits something with her hammer, and it's going pretty well, but she needs time.

Fighter is... well, I think that even he doesn't know what he wan't to do in a party. He played his share of DnD, and he thinks that he knows a lot, but really he doesn't. He has Warrior 6/Monk 1, built up on AC with no dmg feats or even some means to do some dmg more than a standard TH Sword. It's ok i guess, he's trying to put focus on himself, so that I can flank guys. But, well, he doesn't do much more, and when I'm trying to tell him, that he could do better, he just yells at me, saying, that his aproach is better and I know squat.

Sorcerres/Wu Jen is the most annoying part. First, she had a Sorc that banged everything with her fireballs and magic missles, cause she was 2 lvl's higher that the rest. She had a Dragon Disciple PrC, that scaled her spellcasting as she would be a Sorc (DM mistake), so she had HP, strenght and spellcasting, and more items than all rest combined. I should add, that she's very dominant girlfriend of DM. And she didn't listen, when I told her, that she could do better with some other feat's and spells, because "she wanted only to roleplay". And wen't to blow 8 goblins with 1 fireball all laughting at me, that I sit all this hours on my char and killed only 6 in whole battle. But now, her Sorc is going to other party and she started to play with a Wu Jen (for those not familiar - it bassicly is a Wizzard with shorter spell list and some other restrictions, but with metamagic mechanics). Problem is, that she built her character on a 3rd edition version, even though there is a 3.5rd edition in CA, without any changes to class (less problematic) or spells (more problematic) and refuses to go for the 3.5rd version, because she have difficulties with english. She's playing her Wu Jen as she would play her Sorc, and now it turns out, that she can't blast herself off every situation, because she has only 2 fireballs, and most spells do only k8 dmg and some secondary effect's. So she isn't having fun anymore. And she started listen to my feat's and spells advice, but doesn't do anything with that knowledge, because she wanted to blast things down and I'm telling her to controll the battlefield instead, so she still sucks.
And I suck with her, but in the other way. Before, we had a mage who blasted everything, so I've maximized my char to not be far behind.

My ranger have 16 STR (+3) and 18 DEX (+4) and a wolf companion focused on tripping everything. I'm fighting with two weapons and walking into battle with Assasin Stance (Shadow Hand) that gives me 2d6 sneak atack. I'm having shadow blade feat (based on text over table rule, it ads DEX to dmg rolls, besides not instead of STR mod), and on start of my full atack routine, i use Cloak of Deception maneuver witch gives me greater invisiblity to the end of my round. I'm fighting with two +1 short swords, so my dmg output is d6+8(+3 STR, +4 DEX, +1 magic weapon) from main and d6+6(+1 STR, +4 DEX, +1 magic weapon) from offhhand. I've looked with my friend for some adjustments to this, but no rule says about halviing DEX from offhand, and my DM rulled, that it shouldn't, but at this point i think he would say anything that I would tell him... I don't get any battle equipment, because I'm too strong :P Instead I'm completing my utility belt. And I'm annoying my DM even more with things like shapesand or tree-tokens. I have high dmg output, but only 18 AC and 45 HP, so I'm kinda squishy, but I compensate with my utility belt, maneuvers and dmg.


But to the point:
We're all on 7-th lvl, and last night we encountered some ape magic beast with 4 arms, that was suposed to give us some real trouble. But I was first, and Magical Beast is my FE +4. I've used Cloak of Deception, giving me sneak atacks and rendering him flat-footed, then I've hit a crit with my first atack that alone took 40 hp, and with the remaining 3 atacks I've killed the monkey with something like 100 hp before anyone, including DM, was able to react. And Wu Jen is hitting everything for d8, warrior/monk for 2d8+4, and cleric for d8+1. Suddenly I feel stupid for turning that much dmg and don't know what to do. My party is stubborn for min/maxing them, not because they don't want to, but because they think they can do it better than me, or they are still learning, or both. My DM has a hard time wiith his girlfriend going over his head every single time, so he's focused on the story and monsters and gave me players to handle.
And I don't know anymore what to do. Should I start some other character, that isn't maxed that much, or should I just stop using half of my feats and maneuvers? But even if, I spend two times as much time min/maxing my char than we actually play, and half the fun of DnD i see in min/maxing. So if I dump this char and pick a new one, there won't be much time before I'll do some sort of weird dmg, and if I stop min/maxing all together, I'll stop having that much fun, just to give anyone else some chance.
Any advice?

[OldTrees1]

I find my Warrior characters' (Str based) DPS gets to high in my pursuit for being able to do interesting things (keyed off Str). As such I voluntarily accept a penalty to damage per attack.

There are 2 answers here:
1) Don't optimize for damage
2) Penalize your damage if it goes too much as a symptom of your optimizing

[Troacctid]

Is your Wu Jen casting nothing but cantrips and 1st level spells? Even a simple fireball spell should be hitting for 30-ish damage on average, and against multiple targets. And why the heck is your Warrior using an NPC class? Am I missing something? And I don't know why your Cleric is even bothering to make melee attacks if she's dealing crap damage like that--if she wants to deal damage without using spell slots, at least get her a reserve feat to make it scale and hit an AoE. If you're a 7th level character and the best you've got is 1d8+1 damage vs. AC, then you need to find something better to do with your standard actions.

The other members of your party are not dealing level-appropriate damage. The Cleric and Wu Jen are doing about as much damage as a 1st level character, and the Warrior is maybe doing a little better but not much.

[Inevitability]

Please tell me the 'warrior' is playing this (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/genericClasses.htm#warrior) warrior class, and not this (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/npcClasses/warrior.htm) one.

Furthermore; DM's girlfriend playing a higher level PC who gets cool stuff for free? Red flags all over the place here.

But anyway; the problem seems to be an escalated arms race combined with the other PC's inability to min-max. Now that the sorcerer is gone, however, you have no reason to play such an optimized character anymore. I'd withdraw the ranger and return with something focussed on buffing and debuffing (either a god wizard or a divine metamagic cleric). You seem to have a healer and two people focused on damage right now, so why not buff them and let them do the dirty work? That way, they feel like they're doing the cool stuff, while you can be content with knowing that without you they'd die in a heartbeat.

You'll still be optimized, but because you never actually finish monsters yourself and instead make others look cool, people won't complain about it.

[Drezius]

In brazilian portuguese Fighter was translated as Warrior. Maybe in her tongue too.

[Mrs Kat]

You could retcon your character to be a regular non ToB ranger, since that homebrew seems designed to keep ranger on-par with ToB classes and no-one else in your group is playing ToB. (And your T1 caster is a new player)

Just look on it as a challenge.

[Skuli]

Sorry, he's playing a Fighter, that guy with feat every 2nd lvl, missed translation :P

Cleric isn't the problem, yeah, she is getting to male on this point, but it's just a matter of time that I'll teach her how to use her spells, so I'm giving her time, max till 10th lvl, and she'll play aprropiate, she still have divine metamagic to take as a feat, and she wan'ts to go male and it's nothing bad, I can optimize her for that, just not at this point. She was a Healbot, but I'm taking it from her so she can get some fun. I ordered everyone to buy a wand of lesser vigor and a healing belt, so we don't have problem with HP anymore, and she can do her real job. Cleric as a healingbot is just a waste of cleric.

Fighter/Monk, well, he's not doing damage appropiate for his lvl, because DM doesn't know how to give us WBL appropiate to our characters, but we're kicking him for that, and it starts to work, but still, he doesn't want to be a BSF and goes for AC.

DM's girlfriend (yeah, there is a BIG red flag here and everyone sees it) was 2 lvls higher because she brought her character from other campaign that wen't to sleep for last 3 month's because somebody from the other team wen't abroad, and "she didn't had time to create a new character", so DM allowed her to play former char. But still, her WBL count was as of 2 lvl higher from herself. Not that that even mattered, cause she had thing like +1 swords, arrows of dragonkiling (or some other translation, but they did what it sounds), and some other useless stuff that she wanted to keep. Now, that she's playing Wu Jen, it's not that she doesn't use fireballs, but as a Sorc, she had up to 7 uses of it, and now, she prepared only 2, rest of her spells suck and she cast some kind of dagers, exploding rocks, don't know that spells to be honest. Point is, that she wan't to DPS and wizard is harder for that than sorc, hell, Wizard is generally harder for pure dmg, because he can't spam every single spell he knows and has to think what to do right now. We had 5 combat's and she was out of her spells at 3rd. The problem is, she doesn't listen to reason, "she want's to cast fireball on that last water thingy with 8 HP!".

And yeah, I could go for a "god" wizzard, but there won't be any real dmg dealer to buff then. I could debuff all the battlefield, but there won't be anyone to finish the job, especially, when cleric will start to do her job. Besides, I really doubt, that when now I'm doing that kind of mess with tier 3/4 character (Swordsage is actually the weakest class on tier 3, and this Ranger is based on it), the DM will let me play tier 1 or 2 character. Bassicly, I'm the tier 1 here right now. I'm opening locks, I'm trying (as much as i can :P ) to disarm traps, etc. I'm a party skillmonkey. And only lvl appropiate items that I have right now are those two +1 short swords for DR reasons, and still I'm off the top, rest is only utility and alchemical fire, and other granadelike stuff.
I supose I could wen't back to SRD ranger, but that would require some changing in my character... I don't really wan't to do that, but I'll think about it... Well, point is, it really suck that if I don't wan't to take all the fun of the game, i have to not have fun from the game. Because even with a regular ranger I'll came up with something to do that kind of damage. Well, maybe not THAT kind of damage, but still much more than my party or DM expects me to. And I could be easilly countered, but my DM is playing from the campign as is, and won't alter monsters for me. Because he doesn't know how i think...

Well, right now i came with an agreement with my team that I'll use my cloak of deception only when they yell "kill it!", and won't use my sneak atacks besides that point, but still I get much better with everything in battle and outside. But those penallities to attack aren't that bad idea, thanks!
Any other suggestions? Besides changing my party and/or DM? :P

[AvatarVecna]

I still would suggest going God!Wizard, but rather than focusing purely on BFC, mix some summoning in. Buffing your summons (and the Fighter) may not give quite the same DPR your Ranger had, but it should be good enough, especially if the cleric and/or wu jen throw their own buffs down. If you don't want to go down the rabbit hole that is perfect wizard optimization, just play an Easy Bake Wizard.

EDIT: Although I should probably mention that, if you don't think the game's quality is likely to improve, it might be better to find a new group. Alternatively, offer to DM a game for them, and show them what a DM who knows the rules well can do.

[Skuli]

Well, my DM just said, that I can make myself a wizzard god or druid god-like, but I don't think that he knows what he's doing... Oh well, i liked my ranger... And I've thrown an idea that I could be a DM, we'll see how it'll turn out.
Thanks guys ;) But if somebody has some other idea, I'm open :)

[Bronk]

Well, my DM just said, that I can make myself a wizzard god or druid god-like, but I don't think that he knows what he's doing... Oh well, i liked my ranger... And I've thrown an idea that I could be a DM, we'll see how it'll turn out.
Thanks guys ;) But if somebody has some other idea, I'm open :)

I think that if you make a wizard or a druid, you're just going to have even more trouble than you're having now. It sounds like the DM is in over his head a bit, especially if he's worried that you're overpowered yet sends a monster against you that you're specialized against. Plus it sounds like he's worried that his girlfriend isn't having enough fun... Maybe let her be the wizard? Maybe you're right, and you should try being the DM for a while, so they can play together.

That said... I agree that if that other guy is playing an NPC warrior class, he should pick a better one.

Also, have you taken into account your two weapon fighting penalties? You should still be getting -4 to hit TWF penalty for both weapons as a level 7 ranger...

[Skuli]

-2 weapon penality, because short sword is a light weapon, besides, it's only for the atack roll, and yeah, I did the math, I'm still having 11/11/6/6 on my atacks with weapon finesse and weapon focus(short sword).

He's not a NPC class, it was my misstranslation, he's a Fighter. Still, not a BSF type one, so he's dmg isn't that great.

Well, on the plus side, I won't make 80+ dmg in one turn. On the cons side, I'll do a bunch of other OP stuff, but maybe then I'll show other spellcasters how to play and piss my DM enough to go back to my ranger :P

[FocusWolf413]

Personally, I'd just tone down your character. Don't play it to its fullest ability. It's not hard to turn your power back on if you need to.

Also, your English is really good. English is my first language and I call the fighter a warrior all the time.

[Nifft]

As a GOD Wizard amongst mortals, they might not even know how effective you are.

If you lock down opponents, buff allies, and generally command the universe to make your side win -- but you don't actually deal much damage -- then people who are bad at optimization won't necessarily notice how incredibly effective you are.

[Skuli]

Thanks :) Well, i read a lot on the forums, most of books I use was never translated to polish, and, well, I learned english my whole life, just not grammar :D Still don't know how to say something explicit in present simple :P But that's a bit offtopic.

Well sure, it isn't a big trouble, but my DM is still pissed that I'm killing all the stuff, an he though it's a good idea that I'd played a god. Well, he's going for a treat ;) And he agreed that i should DM some campaign, but there is not much free time for yet another campaign, so we'll have to do something about that. And in the meantime, I'll just switch of my assasin stance and won't use cloak of deception, maybe switch to daggers and maybe dump STR from atacks for now, as a "penality". That should dump my dmg output a little... But still i have 4 atacks that are better alone than all the atacks of rest of my group, but hey, I'm the bad guy, not the DM... Problem is, I feel punishing myself, because DM can't handle me in a group, and don't know how to counter me, or even how to nerf me, so I have to do it myself... because "we are roleplaying it". And we aren't. Just the rest suck :P

Nifft, I know, that's why i proposed it to my DM ;) But I have a feeling that it won't look like "thank You for not doing 80+ dmg", but rather "now You make them do 40 dmg each You son of a..."

[Lvl 2 Expert]

If I read it correctly you want to be able to optimize and you want to not outshine the rest of the party that much, and those are the two things you want the most. (Also you've already tried to help the others with optimization, but they're not picking up on it.)

In that case I'd say yeah, retire the ranger. Then use some class that you can optimize, but who's not going to be stealing the spotlight that much. It could be a magic user focused on buffing, healing and/or preparing the battlefield, some sort of bard maybe? The other option is a class that has some cool features to play with but simply can't do that much damage, some flavor of monk perhaps? You could as a last resort pick up an NPC class, but those are not just weak, they're oversimplified and will leave less to optimize, meaning less fun for you.

The other other option is to stop optimizing completely and start focusing on roleplaying and having your dude be an awesome character, but if that's not your type of fun that's probably a bad idea.

[Nifft]

Thanks :) Well, i read a lot on the forums, most of books I use was never translated to polish, and, well, I learned english my whole life, just not grammar :D Still don't know how to say something explicit in present simple :P But that's a bit offtopic. As long as you indicate that you're foreign, people seem to be pretty nice.

Especially when you're obviously trying, and when you are doing a good job. :)

(But I still reserve the right to make fun of Americans who can't type English correctly...)


Nifft, I know, that's why i proposed it to my DM ;) But I have a feeling that it won't look like "thank You for not doing 80+ dmg", but rather "now You make them do 40 dmg each You son of a..." Heh.

But if you make his girlfriend do 40+ dmg, then SHE is on your side, and you already know he can't say "no" to her. :D

If you are a God Wizard, it's not you against the DM, it's you and the whole party against the DM.

[Zrak]

If you like optimization, but don't want to be overly effective, you could always optimize a really terrible class or ill-advised character build. The complete warrior samurai, swashbuckler, and even an actual NPC-class warrior are all unequivocally abysmal options that, if you really try, you can make surprisingly effective. Swashbuckler is probably the least terrible; CW Samurai prestiging into Knight of the Iron Glacier is obviously the coolest option, because you get to be a Samurai who rides around on a giant rhino, but it's probably not a good choice for Temple of Elemental Evil, since I recall a lot of places in the temple that aren't really conducive to giant rhino mounts; NPC warrior is the obviously show-offy choice, where even if you don't deal the most damage, the fact that you were even in the race is basically bragging rights.

[OldTrees1]

Nifft, I know, that's why i proposed it to my DM ;) But I have a feeling that it won't look like "thank You for not doing 80+ dmg", but rather "now You make them do 40 dmg each You son of a..."

Again, if your optimization-fu is that much greater than what the DM is expecting, you might want to focus on horizontal improvement rather than vertical improvement.

[Skuli]

If I read it correctly you want to be able to optimize and you want to not outshine the rest of the party that much, and those are the two things you want the most. (Also you've already tried to help the others with optimization, but they're not picking up on it.)

Yep, that's the deal I'm looking for. Cleric will pick up, but Fighter and Wu Jen not so much.


In that case I'd say yeah, retire the ranger. Then use some class that you can optimize, but who's not going to be stealing the spotlight that much. It could be a magic user focused on buffing, healing and/or preparing the battlefield, some sort of bard maybe? The other option is a class that has some cool features to play with but simply can't do that much damage, some flavor of monk perhaps? You could as a last resort pick up an NPC class, but those are not just weak, they're oversimplified and will leave less to optimize, meaning less fun for you.

I'm trying to come up with a god-like druid, Wizzards aren't really my kind of thing, but if I won't come up with something, I'll try wizz. And if that'll be too powerfull, then hey, there are always some tier 5/6 classes, though optimizing there is something like one-shot thing. "here, I can do it, now give me something that I can actually get fun of".


The other other option is to stop optimizing completely and start focusing on roleplaying and having your dude be an awesome character, but if that's not your type of fun that's probably a bad idea.

That would be the option if we wouldn't played a dungeoncrawling campaign, or if DM wouldn't pay attention to dice at all or something. I proposed to him that for me and Warrior, who also likes mechanics to actually aply, he rolls the dice normally, but for the galls, he adds point or 10 here and there. And he doesn't want to do that, because despite that he claims that they are "just roleplaying" he... ah, heck, I don't know why, just he won't.
And without a ranger there is still a gap for a guy who deals "tons of damage".


As long as you indicate that you're foreign, people seem to be pretty nice.

Especially when you're obviously trying, and when you are doing a good job. :)

(But I still reserve the right to make fun of Americans who can't type English correctly...)

And You have every right :P I make fun off my friend every time he's talking with some foreigner in english, his spelling is... well, yeah :P Thanks again ;)


Heh.

But if you make his girlfriend do 40+ dmg, then SHE is on your side, and you already know he can't say "no" to her. :D

If you are a God Wizard, it's not you against the DM, it's you and the whole party against the DM.

Yep, and even now, Fighter is telling me, that it's fine, as long as I leave him something to kill, and cleric doesn't give a damn really - only ones making a problem is DM and Wu Jen, and, really, do I have to say anything? But point is solid, that I make too much dmg compared to the rest of party, and I'm usefull every situation because of my utility belt and skillpoints, while they not so much.


NPC warrior is the obviously show-offy choice, where even if you don't deal the most damage, the fact that you were even in the race is basically bragging rights.
:D I laughed my ass of :D
Hmm, maybe You're right, but then, we don't have any skillmonkey and the DM is playing as it's basicaly required. Maybe some Ninja stuff... but that guy is getting sneak-like atack so... And yeah, Rhino isn't going to fit in the tiny chambers :P

There is always option of getting diffirent class every lvl just for nerfing, and I can just play some unstable character :P

Well, for now I'm going for god-like druid or god wizzard, and if that doesn't work, then I'm building a Commoner or whatever, or just stop playing and start to DM...


Again, if your optimization-fu is that much greater than what the DM is expecting, you might want to focus on horizontal improvement rather than vertical improvement.

what do You mean?

[OldTrees1]

what do You mean?
Vertical growth: Get better at existing options
Horizontal growth: Gain more options

Both your current Ranger, and a hypothetical God Wizard focus on Vertical optimization. The Ranger is focused on optimizing damage output while the God Wizard optimizes for the same via optimizing damage buffs.

Since your optimization-fu is so much greater than what your DM wants to deal with, any attempt at Vertical optimization would result in your character being OP. If you focus on Horizontal improvement instead there will be vertical growth as a side effect but it will be much less. You probably will still be OP but it will be a 2:1 ratio instead of the current 10:1 ratio.

You could even rebuild your Ranger with this in mind. Focus on having a bunch of combat versatility, being able to swap back and forth between several decent combat styles. This should cost you enough character creation resources that you end up at most twice as good as the Fighter/Monk. I would wager that you would fit in much better than a God Wizard.

[frost890]

Hey guys and galls ;)
I take real pleasure in min/maxing my character, and characters of others as well, but there are few problems in our team.


Don't! Just don't. Now what I mean is this. you are trying to change how people play. They are saying that what they do works for them. If they want to change something later after seeing what you do with your character that is one thing. They will ask if that is what they want. As for remaking your character, Why? You have stated that the dreaded DM's girlfriend mocks the ranger for not doing enough damage and when you pull off a lot of damage you want to tone it down for doing what you intended? If you are trying to power down the character because you are in a party that can not keep up and wants different feel. ok, but what you described is a combat oriented group.

They want damage output and it sounded like you wanted to show them your "POWER!!!" I may have missed it but has anyone actually approached you saying you are too strong for the group?

[Demidos]

I would actually counsel against the T5 or 6 -- since they are weak classes, it is difficult to make them anything other than 1-2 trick ponies, meaning that anything you can do well, you have to do so well that it makes up for having little to no ability in other areas. I would go with something more along the lines of a BFC/buffer sorcerer who can shut down opponents while your allies finish them.

[Bucky]

I've hit a crit with my first atack that alone took 40 hp, and with the remaining 3 atacks I've killed the monkey with something like 100 hp before anyone, including DM, was able to react. And Wu Jen is hitting everything for d8, warrior/monk for 2d8+4, and cleric for d8+1.


First off, you're comparing your crit full attacks to their standard action non-crits. You're out-damaging the warrior by only about a factor of 2.

Cleric can come close to your damage output temporarily by summoning, say, lions. So you might want to suggest she prepare a Summon Monster in one of her higher level slots for hard encounters, if you're worried about the party being too dependent on you for damage.

Fighter is somewhat fixable by the DM manipulating loot to give him a slightly over-level two handed weapon. Preferably a reach weapon, to give him some incentive to broaden his combat style.

Wu Jen, I don't know about; I'm not familiar with their spell list.

[Threadnaught]

Suggest the DM give you more enemies per encounter, give them all max HP and (some enemies) ways to specifically neutralize aspects of your character like flight, crit immunity or even having a different Type to your favoured enemies.
This should make combat more challenging for you and more engaging for the other players.

An alternate solution would be for your DM to keep a record of how the Campaign is so far, have every player hand in/stash away their character sheets and put the Campaign on hold for a while, while you take the reins as DM and trick them into optimizing by giving them encounters that are trivialized by certain optimization tricks. Be sure to reveal these by giving them a handful of charged/single use items along the way, but make sure that not all of it is strictly necessary for an easier campaign and that none is necessary for any encounter at all.

[Bronk]

-2 weapon penality, because short sword is a light weapon, besides, it's only for the atack roll, and yeah, I did the math, I'm still having 11/11/6/6 on my atacks with weapon finesse and weapon focus(short sword).

Well, on the plus side, I won't make 80+ dmg in one turn. On the cons side, I'll do a bunch of other OP stuff, but maybe then I'll show other spellcasters how to play and piss my DM enough to go back to my ranger :P

Well, if you want to keep the ranger, I'd suggest asking to retrain your tome of battle feats. You have at least two of them, right, one for the stance, and one for the maneuver? That would free up your character for some additional rangery options. Then I'd suggest that the DM throw a few things at you that aren't on your FE list - that's on him, since he knows what your FEs are - and multiple opponents as well.

If you want to change to a new class, I second the bard idea. Most of the time, optimizing a bard means buffing your fellow players. You could max out Inspire Courage, and use Dragonfire Inspiration as well. The Incantatrix will probably wise up and cast a decent set of spells eventually once she gets used to it...

[rrwoods]

Can you get the arcane caster to change to a battlefield control type character? I think that would make the party mix feel much more balanced, personally -- you aren't stepping on each others' toes, and in fact your abilities would complement each other rather than overlap.

[killem2]

Suddenly I feel stupid for turning that much dmg and don't know what to do.

Did anyone actually complain about this? If not, move on. I think you might be the only one in this story who seems to care. Nothing in your tale tells me that this is becoming problematic. Why on earth would you change anything?


Perfect mountain out of mole hill example.

[Platymus Pus]

tbh you aren't even that optimized.
Seems that even the basic fighter would outdo the party.
Two weapon fighting is horrible almost any other kind of ranger is better, bow, crossbow(this is better than you think if you get access to all of 3.5 feats),sword one and two handed.
If you're out pacing the party to that degree when you're using that the problem isn't you slightly optimizing, it's them doing the opposite of optimizing.
I don't think you can fix that if they don't want to.