Experienced Player

[Scorene]

Background:
I have been doing DND for three years now, and for basically that whole time my friend, we will call him Henry, has been the DM for our campaigns which include two others. He got all of the books first and was actually the first one that had had them until earlier this summer, so he has had the knowledge with him. I finally got my set of books (5e by the way, forgot to mention earlier) around the time we decided that it was someone else's turn to start DMing, and since I know the material second only to Henry, I took the job.

Problem:
Now by no means has my big campaign been that inadequate, but it has been somewhat of a challenge to DM Henry because of his vast knowledge of 5e DND. He is excellent at min/maxing his character, a wizard lvl 5 cleric lvl 1, and he benefits from almost every oppurtunity he gets. Another problem is that he finds ways out of every situation without much effort whether it's combat or something like a puzzle. I realize that I can control stuff, but I don't want to be an ubercontrolling DM just so that he can't do everything so well, because that can take the fun out of it for him. Lastly, being the wizard that he is, he is easily outshining his rogue partner and can do a lot without him. This is because he is better at playing his character.


Question:
How can I make this a more challenging campaign for Henry and still keep it enjoyable? Also, how can I try to bring the rogue some more importance than he has as of right now?

[RazorChain]

Advice to Henry and Joe

Similarly, in an understandable desire to master the play of a
game, participants sometimes confuse themselves with their game
personas. They think that having an extremely powerful character
makes them more skilled or powerful themselves, and thus more
adept at the game. However, this is not the case. Players who
confuse the general welfare of the game with their self-interest
(whether they do this innocently or purposely) seek to participate
as elephants in a game of ants. The obvious image conveyed
therefrom is not one of expertise, let alone mastery. Knowing the
game system and what it offers to participants through its choice
of player-character approaches to problems is crucial to good
play.

-Gary Gygax, Roleplaying Mastery-


At some point though these players might discover that power in roleplaying games doesn't mean squat and difference in power doesn't mean anything. Few players though will reach that maturity as to realize that you don't need to compete with your fellow players or that powerful character isn't more interesting than a less powerful character. Joe doesn't need power to dominate the campaign, he just needs creativity and opportunity and you can help him with one of those. Throw him a plot that revolves around BMX Bandit and not Angel Summoner

[Kane0]

I'm assuming there is a relation to this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?536737-My-friend-doesn-t-like-my-character-being-good)thread.

If it's a system mastery thing, throw in different challenges:
Draw ideas that aren't straight from the book so the player(s) can't use their superior knowledge to best you.
Vary the adventuring workday to stretch the wizard's resources, rogues don't care how much they have to do in a day as long as they have HP remaining.
Encourage the players to find their own niches and support the other rather than just trying to do it all themselves. For example if the rogue has expertise in persuade the wizard can probably use Enhance Ability or Guidance instead of Charm Person.
Provide unique benefits and challenges. For example magic items that the wizard can't really make use of, or temporarily relieve the the wizard of his spellbook forcing him to use the same prepped spells for a few days.

But also sit down with the wizard guy and explain that your having trouble keeping up. If he can hold back a bit then it gives you room to breathe and the rogue a chance to get some more experience in.

[Tinkerer]

Yeah the wizard 5 cleric 1 kinda makes me wonder. If it is that same one then the rogue appears to be a large portion of the problem by not acting as a rogue. In which case I would encourage a remake on the rogues side. A two person party isn't really ideal for a rogue (well it is but only for certain types of campaigns). Bear in mind that ANY class can be a thief without needing to be a rogue. So far among my old D&D characters I have 6 thieves of which only 2 were rogues (I also have 2 other rogues who weren't thieves).

5th edition, particularly at 6th level, shouldn't be that unbalanced. It sounds a lot more like it's the imbalance between two different levels of player rather than two levels of character.

First off I'd be strict with DM Henry. Don't allow him things such as (if it is the same as the other thread) re-selecting a feat upon multi-classing. A card laid is a card played. If he's curious about why you're being stricter simply explain that you hold him to a higher standard. Make sure that the rogue knows what he's capable of. And, once again if this is the same as the other thread, make sure that their goals align with each other. In that thread the wizard is pursuing lichdom and the rogue is wanting wealth. Make the obstacles in the path of lichdom solvable by great deals of money. So the wizard is going to be hurting for things like items now in exchange for greater power later.

And to a certain extent... the rogue (if they stay a rogue) is going to need to accept that they need to get better or stay ineffectual.