Need advice

malier · Post by **malier** » Mon Aug 29, 2011 9:11 am

Hello
I need some advice on handling a situation. I have taken over dming for a group and found the group to be unbalanced. The group is 5th level and one toon is way over powered in magic items--for instance--many many wands (fireball-lighting-magic missle) helmet of teleport etc. The game is 3.5. What I would like to do is strip the character of items to bring him back inline with the group. I have heard grumblings from other group members about the toon and it does wack game balance. Need suggestion on creatures that suck magic or any other way that could bring game balance back without out right killing the toon

Thanks!
malier

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Mon Aug 29, 2011 10:43 am

Most important bit first: have you talked about this to the player? As long as he doesn't realise he's unbalancing the group, he will feel cheated and slighted, leading to more problems. A good meter for wealth for characters is the "Wealth by level" table, which shows, on average, the value of the total gear a PC should have on each level. Check DMG p.135. Offering too few items is equally unbalancing.
If the wands are the problem, use the DM's sledgehammer: Sundering. Be mindful not to use it on "balanced" weapons the PCs worked for, as this will frustrate the melee/archers, which are the ones already being on the short end of the stick in D&D.
Rustmonsters might also help.

A less brute solution might be something like this: The wands can be used (and consumed in the process) to create/buy/planeshift the party's new base of operation. If you give them the option of expanding it, you've just added something conduitive of groupdynamic, and a central hub.

malier · Post by **malier** » Mon Aug 29, 2011 11:20 am

thnks GawainBS

I hadn't thought of using sunder, that might come in handy. I have not spoken to the person about it-I have just heard the grumblings of the others in the group. They feel like is toons is way to powerful-he always wins initiative-always does the most damage and has better items than everybody else. Now i realize that his toon is helping the group overall and that is why the group has put up with it until now. From my understanding his toon came into allot of money and he purchased the items. Which is fine-it is a high magic campaign-but a helmet of teleport is like 70+k, that's a chunk of gold, and the rest of the group has nothing like it. Looking at his toon sheet he has around 500k worth of magic WOW! I am torn between talking to him about it-which will upset him I believe or having the toon lose 1/2 of the items in a combat or something. I know I read about a creature out there that eats magic just couldn't remember the name of it. The toon does have a 1/2 fiend/human wizard enemy that I would like to involve.

Thanks for the help!!!

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Mon Aug 29, 2011 11:56 am

500 000 gold by lvl 5 is sick. How did that ever happen?

malier · Post by **malier** » Mon Aug 29, 2011 12:06 pm

GawainBS wrote:500 000 gold by lvl 5 is sick. How did that ever happen?

yeah I know-CRAZY! I don't know exactly-at first i thought he was trying to pull a fast one on the new DM, but he has had the items with the other DM. I know most of the guys and gals in the group for years and gamed with them before-and trust them--they actually thought he was stealing from party treasure! anyways I just want to kinda wipe the slate clean and start from scratch and watch this guy

Thylein · Post by **Thylein** » Tue Aug 30, 2011 6:17 am

I havn't played for quite some time but regarding overpowered items. You could have the group encounter a rust dragon waiting above the group in an ambush.... some drops of its rusting salvia should take care of the helmet. Or they fight an Elder Beholder.... he could disintegrate some stuff.

malier · Post by **malier** » Tue Aug 30, 2011 9:16 am

Hmm howabout

So the group is going to be traveling overland soon....Caravan protecting to a stronghold that they dont know has been taken over by ogres ( Durham's Folly )
anyway howabout the group comes across a couple of ogres fighting with a group of Sjtel's maybe 20 or so of them....ya know little fey people being beat on by the ogres....so they try to help the little people only to have them and the ogres turn on the group and the one group member who has the most magic gets the Sjtels really in a frenzy!

what ya think?

Sjtel (3.5e Creature) - D&D Wiki

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Tue Aug 30, 2011 9:32 am

Their ability only works on the wands, and very, very slowly at that, IF they manage to hit. The helmet isn't charged, so it's not even affected.

Thylein · Post by **Thylein** » Tue Aug 30, 2011 9:43 am

Yeah taking out enchanted gear like weapons or armor should be done by destroying the item. Although story wise you could make the group encounter an ancient gate (song gate or something like this) that needs to be recharged. The group could then opt to use some of the magical equipment to jumpstart the gateway.

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Tue Aug 30, 2011 11:17 am

I concur with a solution such as presented in the previous post. It will let the offending player feel less singled out.

malier · Post by **malier** » Tue Aug 30, 2011 12:27 pm

hmm

yeah gives me an idea--maybe a portal/gate that is at 1/2 power that has attracted the attention of said little folk and are feeding off of it. So the group has to battle the little people only to find out the portal still needs power.....hmmmm:mischief: