TheNerdQueen
2020-05-30, 09:25 AM
Hello everyone! Since I have made a guide on soft broken characters, and have played many myself, I thought I should make a guide on how to deal with broken characters!
Types of Broken Characters
Okay, so this is important. There are different types of broken characters. I'm not talking about soft and hard broken, though that is important. I'm talking about the players that play them. Not everyone breaks characters for the same reason. Everyone has heard, or even worse, played with those people who only care about the spotlight. Those annoyances that want to rush in combat, that want to overshadow everyone else. I'll call them the glory hounds. Although they are the most famous, glory hounds are not the only type of broken player (broken player means the person who plays a broken character). For example, there are people who see breaking characters as a puzzle, like me. For these people, making the characters themselves is fun, and is an exercise in skill and intelligence. These people aren't as hungry for the spotlight, and are usually more cooperative. Other people make broken characters because they don't like combat. For these people, characters that are really good at killing things make combat end quicker, allowing them to get to the parts they like better faster.
What does this mean?
This means that some of these players are more easily dealt with then others. For now, I shall separate these people into two categories: cooperative and uncooperative. Cooperative players are willing to work with the DM in order to fix some of the problems that their characters might cause, and try to fix them on their own. Uncooperative players don't do this, and instead will bask in their character's overpowered-ness.
Why does this matter?
Because this radically changes how you deal with them. Let's start with cooperative players. As counter intuitive as it seems, adding in more power might be a good idea. After all, cooperative does not mean that they are willing to abandon their character. Adding more power to the rest of the group, such as giving them magic items, may help to balance the power of the group so that the OP character doesn't always grab the spotlight. Beware of going too far in the other direction though. I'll give you an example. The most OP character I have ever made, and my favorite to play, is a seven to nine winged tiefling arcane trickster named Kiera. Now, this is one OP character. Non-concentration flight from level one, a familiar to give constant advantage, and an adorable appearance all add up to one creepy, yet effective character. She is so fun to roleplay. Now, she was also the most powerful of the group by far, as she is an excellent example of a soft broken character (I'll put a link to her character sheet if asked). Therefore, she was not an easy character to reign in. The second DM that I played this character with (with permission) was not very good with preparation and rules, but could weave up a good story. So, sometimes she didn't realize what she was doing. For example, one time she put in these crazy valuable things, sapphire dice and an ivory and jade chess set. Now, these things were worth a fortune, especially with the 4th level characters we were playing. Now, this might seem like a disaster waiting to happen, and I admit she could have planned this better. As I revealed my plan for the money, the buying of magic items, she personally asked me to not buy any OP magic items for myself. I am a cooperative player, so I agreed. By doing this, she inadvertently made it possible to balance out the power level of the group. Now, the adventure got cut short by COVID19, so we never saw the ramifications, but this is a good example. After all, DnD is all about having fun. It doesn't matter if the entire party is OP, as long as everyone is having fun. Note: this strategy works much better with hard broken characters then soft broken ones (please read my guide on that) because hard broken characters rely on stats. Soft broken ones don't. A soft broken character is broken because of the player's craftiness, not on the stats of their characters. It still helps, but the soft broken characters will probably still be a bit more powerful then the rest of the party because of this.
What if they are uncooperative?
Uncooperative broken players are a massive pain, just like any rogue that steals from other members of the party just because "I'm a rogue, its what I'm supposed to do" (Michael, stealing from the artificer will get you blown up one day, I swear it). Now, this is where you use the one true rule of broken characters: EVERY CHARACTER has a weakness. Yes, even that sorcerer with the 16 armor class. Yes, even that druid with the rodent army capable of blinding her enemies without being near them. Yes, even that sorcadin with the 23 armor class that can deal 100 damage in one round (at least, so I've heard). Every character, yes EVERY character has a weakness. The sorcerer against an archer with perfect aim, or against a tank in a small room will have serious trouble. The druid against a good AOE spell that gets rid of her animals just becomes a normal druid. The sorcadin against the spellcaster that has the height advantage, so that they can't hit him. It doesn't matter what the character is, every character has a weakness. Of course, a clever player will find a way to avoid these situations, but sometimes it can't be helped (for them at least). Although it might be cruel, exploiting a weak spot in a character or player is often effective. Conversely, every semi-well built character has a strength. Making an encounter where some of the other players in your party shine is also quite nice.
Still need help!
Here is an example problem: On PC is causing problems due to how OP they are. Let's call this player Bob, and his character Joe. First step: observe player behavior. Is this person trying to force everything onto their strong points, even if it is better to let someone else take control? If so, Bob might be a glory hound. Yaaay. Try to gauge how Bob would react to different solutions. Next, talk to him. Privately let him know that there is a problem. If he is willing to work with you on this, then he is cooperative, if not, he is uncooperative. After this, employ a strategy listed above, or a custom one. Every player is different.
Is there a problem?
This may be hard to believe, but sometimes OP characters aren't a huge problem. Let's talk flying races. First of all, if you can't handle flying, make sure that you won't be running any campaigns past 5th level. Next, any person that is playing a flying race will likely have a strength score of 8. Why? Simple, because flight is most useful on ranged attackers. Let me fully explain. A flying race means giving up certain things, like a feat, or special proficiencies. Take a look at the winged races. Right now, there are only two: the winged tiefling, and the aarakocra. I'm only counting races with permanat flight, so Aasimar are not included. Notice how none of them have an ability increase towards strength or constitution. The winged tiefling has either int and dex or cha and int. The Aarakocra has wis and dex. These are clearly meant for spellcasters and archers, the two main types of squishy characters. Characters with high strength scores are often melee fighters, as that is where strength based weapons are most effective. Flying won't do any good there. Now, why is this important? Because flying characters can't take other people with them. Essentially, they can't save the day by themselves. Use this to your advantage.
Another way to look at these characters is as more options. Sure, some problems and puzzles will be utterly ineffective against flying characters or the like, such as most problems involving deep pits, but these characters open up new puzzles and challenges. What if a flying character is blinded by something, and so another character has to direct them through an obstacle course? You didn't have that option before. What I'm saying is that not all OP characters are a bad thing, or a problem that has to be fixed. If you have any more suggestions or arguments, please list them in the comments!
Types of Broken Characters
Okay, so this is important. There are different types of broken characters. I'm not talking about soft and hard broken, though that is important. I'm talking about the players that play them. Not everyone breaks characters for the same reason. Everyone has heard, or even worse, played with those people who only care about the spotlight. Those annoyances that want to rush in combat, that want to overshadow everyone else. I'll call them the glory hounds. Although they are the most famous, glory hounds are not the only type of broken player (broken player means the person who plays a broken character). For example, there are people who see breaking characters as a puzzle, like me. For these people, making the characters themselves is fun, and is an exercise in skill and intelligence. These people aren't as hungry for the spotlight, and are usually more cooperative. Other people make broken characters because they don't like combat. For these people, characters that are really good at killing things make combat end quicker, allowing them to get to the parts they like better faster.
What does this mean?
This means that some of these players are more easily dealt with then others. For now, I shall separate these people into two categories: cooperative and uncooperative. Cooperative players are willing to work with the DM in order to fix some of the problems that their characters might cause, and try to fix them on their own. Uncooperative players don't do this, and instead will bask in their character's overpowered-ness.
Why does this matter?
Because this radically changes how you deal with them. Let's start with cooperative players. As counter intuitive as it seems, adding in more power might be a good idea. After all, cooperative does not mean that they are willing to abandon their character. Adding more power to the rest of the group, such as giving them magic items, may help to balance the power of the group so that the OP character doesn't always grab the spotlight. Beware of going too far in the other direction though. I'll give you an example. The most OP character I have ever made, and my favorite to play, is a seven to nine winged tiefling arcane trickster named Kiera. Now, this is one OP character. Non-concentration flight from level one, a familiar to give constant advantage, and an adorable appearance all add up to one creepy, yet effective character. She is so fun to roleplay. Now, she was also the most powerful of the group by far, as she is an excellent example of a soft broken character (I'll put a link to her character sheet if asked). Therefore, she was not an easy character to reign in. The second DM that I played this character with (with permission) was not very good with preparation and rules, but could weave up a good story. So, sometimes she didn't realize what she was doing. For example, one time she put in these crazy valuable things, sapphire dice and an ivory and jade chess set. Now, these things were worth a fortune, especially with the 4th level characters we were playing. Now, this might seem like a disaster waiting to happen, and I admit she could have planned this better. As I revealed my plan for the money, the buying of magic items, she personally asked me to not buy any OP magic items for myself. I am a cooperative player, so I agreed. By doing this, she inadvertently made it possible to balance out the power level of the group. Now, the adventure got cut short by COVID19, so we never saw the ramifications, but this is a good example. After all, DnD is all about having fun. It doesn't matter if the entire party is OP, as long as everyone is having fun. Note: this strategy works much better with hard broken characters then soft broken ones (please read my guide on that) because hard broken characters rely on stats. Soft broken ones don't. A soft broken character is broken because of the player's craftiness, not on the stats of their characters. It still helps, but the soft broken characters will probably still be a bit more powerful then the rest of the party because of this.
What if they are uncooperative?
Uncooperative broken players are a massive pain, just like any rogue that steals from other members of the party just because "I'm a rogue, its what I'm supposed to do" (Michael, stealing from the artificer will get you blown up one day, I swear it). Now, this is where you use the one true rule of broken characters: EVERY CHARACTER has a weakness. Yes, even that sorcerer with the 16 armor class. Yes, even that druid with the rodent army capable of blinding her enemies without being near them. Yes, even that sorcadin with the 23 armor class that can deal 100 damage in one round (at least, so I've heard). Every character, yes EVERY character has a weakness. The sorcerer against an archer with perfect aim, or against a tank in a small room will have serious trouble. The druid against a good AOE spell that gets rid of her animals just becomes a normal druid. The sorcadin against the spellcaster that has the height advantage, so that they can't hit him. It doesn't matter what the character is, every character has a weakness. Of course, a clever player will find a way to avoid these situations, but sometimes it can't be helped (for them at least). Although it might be cruel, exploiting a weak spot in a character or player is often effective. Conversely, every semi-well built character has a strength. Making an encounter where some of the other players in your party shine is also quite nice.
Still need help!
Here is an example problem: On PC is causing problems due to how OP they are. Let's call this player Bob, and his character Joe. First step: observe player behavior. Is this person trying to force everything onto their strong points, even if it is better to let someone else take control? If so, Bob might be a glory hound. Yaaay. Try to gauge how Bob would react to different solutions. Next, talk to him. Privately let him know that there is a problem. If he is willing to work with you on this, then he is cooperative, if not, he is uncooperative. After this, employ a strategy listed above, or a custom one. Every player is different.
Is there a problem?
This may be hard to believe, but sometimes OP characters aren't a huge problem. Let's talk flying races. First of all, if you can't handle flying, make sure that you won't be running any campaigns past 5th level. Next, any person that is playing a flying race will likely have a strength score of 8. Why? Simple, because flight is most useful on ranged attackers. Let me fully explain. A flying race means giving up certain things, like a feat, or special proficiencies. Take a look at the winged races. Right now, there are only two: the winged tiefling, and the aarakocra. I'm only counting races with permanat flight, so Aasimar are not included. Notice how none of them have an ability increase towards strength or constitution. The winged tiefling has either int and dex or cha and int. The Aarakocra has wis and dex. These are clearly meant for spellcasters and archers, the two main types of squishy characters. Characters with high strength scores are often melee fighters, as that is where strength based weapons are most effective. Flying won't do any good there. Now, why is this important? Because flying characters can't take other people with them. Essentially, they can't save the day by themselves. Use this to your advantage.
Another way to look at these characters is as more options. Sure, some problems and puzzles will be utterly ineffective against flying characters or the like, such as most problems involving deep pits, but these characters open up new puzzles and challenges. What if a flying character is blinded by something, and so another character has to direct them through an obstacle course? You didn't have that option before. What I'm saying is that not all OP characters are a bad thing, or a problem that has to be fixed. If you have any more suggestions or arguments, please list them in the comments!