3.5: The high-powered game

[ChaosDefender24]

Hey guys,



Well, I'm not sure whether I'm going to go through with this or not, but..
I offer to DM a game with level 5's. There's at least 2 guys participating, and maybe a girl (who isn't so familiar with the game, which is why I might tone it down a little).

One of the guys decides to play an anthropomorphic bat druid. The other guy decides to match him and play a glitterdust-tossing wizard. To make matters even more lulzy, the wizard gives the dr00d some of his money so that he can get a monk's belt.


How do I provide a challenge to these guys without steamrolling them altogether?? It gets so hard to judge.

[Flickerdart]

You talk to the guys and ask them to tone it down. If the girl is unfamiliar with the game and they're optimized Big 5ers, then she will feel useless and they will be bored.

[ericgrau]

Don't allow the druid to use gear while wildshaped. Say it doesn't fit or say it's just cheesy; either way don't allow it. That's why the wild shape errata says the gear melds into your new form and becomes de-activated while wildshaped, not so you can order up a bunch of gear specifically sized for dire tigers. I mean, who do you buy it from and what do you do when you switch to new forms? Where did they find even a regular monk's belt, when anything costing over 3k is supposed to take some effort to find?

Being blind doesn't put you out of a fight, though it hurts. You can make listen check against other's move silently checks to figure out what square they're in, or at least their general direction. After picking the right square you have a 50% miss chance. Add 20 to the listen DC to find the square, but the DCs are pretty low. -20 for vigorous moving like running or fighting, -5 if moving at normal speed (not half). DC 0 to hear spells (spoken words; DC 20 to find exact square). Or he can run away at half speed.

As for the girl, level 5 is still low enough where martial characters can still do well without much optimization. A barbarian would be especially easy to play. Or your could give her a sorceress where you pick the spells or help her pick. Give her a few solid spells similar to glitterdust. Higher level barbarians need proper gear selection, which a lot of veterans don't even know how to do right. See www.wizards.com => resources => 3.5 archives => tactics & tips for gear and other good martial tips. As long as you prevent the druid from trying to use gear in wildshape form and get the barbarian the right gear, the barbarian should stay ahead of him in combat ability. Encourage the wizard to learn spells like haste and later (when 3rd level isn't so high), greater magic weapon to help even more. On the druid side try barkskin. Stoneskin is good too but, again, not when it's their highest level slot.