A little advice about one of our players...

[Jitters Caffeine]

Alright, I'm having an issue with one of my fellow players in our D&D campaign. Basically, he's making our game not fun. Every encounter boils down to him hurling a hail of daggers down on the enemies from the sky, doing something crazy like 30d6 damage to everything, and ending the fight with just a few rounds. He's turned the game into his own personal Anime with him as the wisecracking protagonist.

Now my question is this, what should my course of action be? I'm not the DM so I can't crush him with rocks, and I'm Lawful Good so I can't plot to secretly murder him. I would be fine if he would just let every one play, but sometimes whole encounters are over before the last person can even act.

So far, my plan is to ask our DM to instill a few rules and restrictions. Because we're all getting really frustrated and our DM is threatening to switch systems on us.

Has anyone who's faced a similar problem with a spotlight stealing powergamer that has some friendly advice?

Update:
Luckily, our friend has decided to change his race. But now he's decided to change his character to something incredible convoluted. Scout/Master Thrower/WarBlade/Bloodstorm Blade.

 

[JesterRaiin]

Has anyone who's faced a similar problem with a spotlight stealing powergamer that has some friendly advice?

The problem as old as Munchkinism itself.
Your instinct is right.
Talk to your DM, suggest some change - it's actually very easy to "scold" powergamer. By weakening him and making him dependable on the rest of group he'll restore balance.
It's very easy to do without using some restrictions. Poison in the food, sickness, enemy with spell/weapon capable of slowly draining forces, curse - there are plenty of ways to do so.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Sounds like your DM should have stepped in for some time. Still, talking things over is never a bad idea.

The easiest thing for him to do is to simply disallow whatever rules combo exploit the powergamer is using in his build. He's DM, so he has the final say on the rules and their interpretation. That might make the powergamer quit though.

My advice is to get the DM to create encounters that are hard to solve with a flurry of daggers. Perhaps encounters that can't be won through combat or that require a more creative solution than 'throw daggers till things die'. I can imagine a strong grappler can really ruin that powergamer's day.

 

[Jitters Caffeine]

Sounds like your DM should have stepped in for some time. Still, talking things over is never a bad idea.

The easiest thing for him to do is to simply disallow whatever rules combo exploit the powergamer is using in his build. He's DM, so he has the final say on the rules and their interpretation. That might make the powergamer quit though.

My advice is to get the DM to create encounters that are hard to solve with a flurry of daggers. Perhaps encounters that can't be won through combat or that require a more creative solution than 'throw daggers till things die'. I can imagine a strong grappler can really ruin that powergamer's day.

Unfortunately, our DM is a little too afraid to step on people's toes, and he thinks that rules kind of defeat the spirit of D&D. He's more passive aggressive in his schemes to dick us over, like he won't just tell the person to quit being a dick to everyone, but he would probably hit us with a "a rock falls and kills everyone" bullshit trap if he gets too frustrated.

And yes, a good strong grappler will RUIN this character, he's a Raptoran Scout/Master Thrower/Stormtalon or some bullshit, so he has poor Fortitude saves and an abysmal Will save.

 

[Spacewolf]

why dont you just go with rule one what the DM says goes i mean just say that nobodys having fun lightning bolt from the sky this guy or put him up against a mage designed to fuck him over with some sort of anti thrown weapon enchantment and something to exploit his save weaknesses.

 

[Revnak_v1legacy]

Bad will saves you say? Destroy him with all of the most broken psionic shit you can throw at him. Tell the DM you'd really like to fight some ithilids or whatever else that uses mind control powers which tickles your fancy. Shoot, even a Bard can use charm. Mind affecting powers are the way to go and they will royally piss this guy off when instead of tossing wisecracks and knives left and right he's busy running head first into a wall.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

If a player has managed to do this, you've got a shit DM. Seriously, what system are you guys using? This would never be possible with any system I've used, and if it was, I'd fuck up the player who did it.

 

[Ironman126]

Sounds like he thinks he's playing WuShu.

In any case, encourage the DM to be a mean SoB and punish him for making the game boring. It also sounds like the DM isn't doing a very good job, which could be the issue in and of itself.

 

[ms_sunlight]

Does anyone else in the group feel this frustrated? Perhaps if a couple of you talked to the DM you might make your point that this needs to be addressed. As far as the player is concerned, he won't think he's doing anything wrong - he's being allowed to get away with it and he's having fun - so don't be too heavy handed with him. As others have said, the DM can easily fix this through game balancing without actually having to give him a bollocking.

 

[Revnak_v1legacy]

If a player has managed to do this, you've got a shit DM. Seriously, what system are you guys using? This would never be possible with any system I've used, and if it was, I'd fuck up the player who did it.

He's playing dnd 3 or 3.5. Thing is though, the build the guy is using is actually pretty easy to counter. From what I remember, scout/master thrower should cost a small fortune in magic items and only has all the strategical flexibility of a zombie. It's just move, throw knives, repeat. Mess with either part and the guy should be dead in the water.

 

[Robert Ewing]

If you are lawful good, surely you should be doing things for the greater good.

 

[Jitters Caffeine]

why dont you just go with rule one what the DM says goes i mean just say that nobodys having fun lightning bolt from the sky this guy or put him up against a mage designed to fuck him over with some sort of anti thrown weapon enchantment and something to exploit his save weaknesses.

The only problem with hitting him with mages is that I'm built specifically to be a Tank/Mage-Killer. But hitting him with a net trap while he's flying with have him plummet to the ground helpless. That would be the most likely thing since we're going to be fighting TONS of Kobolds, and we all know they're sexually attracted to setting traps.

Bad will saves you say? Destroy him with all of the most broken psionic shit you can throw at him. Tell the DM you'd really like to fight some ithilids or whatever else that uses mind control powers which tickles your fancy. Shoot, even a Bard can use charm. Mind affecting powers are the way to go and they will royally piss this guy off when instead of tossing wisecracks and knives left and right he's busy running head first into a wall.

I actually like this idea. I was thinking this could be a real bee in his bonnet if we run into anything with Illusion spells or Mind Affecting abilities. This whole thing is a little bitter sweet since we NEED someone with a high damage out put, but his character is just making the game not fun.

 

[Ninjat_126]

If you are lawful good, surely you should be doing things for the greater good.

Kill him, and then say you got a message from [god] saying that he was removing all the fun from the game and needed to be put down.

Or just talk to the DM. If he's not going to step in, pull a Henderson and proceed to outmunchkin the munchkin.

 

[Jitters Caffeine]

If a player has managed to do this, you've got a shit DM. Seriously, what system are you guys using? This would never be possible with any system I've used, and if it was, I'd fuck up the player who did it.

He's playing dnd 3 or 3.5. Thing is though, the build the guy is using is actually pretty easy to counter. From what I remember, scout/master thrower should cost a small fortune in magic items and only has all the strategical flexibility of a zombie. It's just move, throw knives, repeat. Mess with either part and the guy should be dead in the water.

The only problem with limiting his mobility is that he's a Raptoran. He can fly, so he uses his ability to go vertical as the required movement distance for his damage boost. so as long as we're outside he can just go up and get his bonus. In theory at least.

 

[Jitters Caffeine]

Well you could try to be sure that he's doing all this legitimately. Perhaps he made a mistake in how the rules work. Might be legit, but if it isn't that would be the easiest solution to the whole mess so it seems worth checking out first.

If only... 3.5 D&D is like Gen 1 YuGiOh, it's practically the wild west. Unless I actually get the chance to tear it apart and look at every little phrasing for his class abilities, feats, and racial abilities, I'm pretty sure it's all legit.

 

[MintyNinja]

How about a scenario such as:

Chasing Kobolds through a tunnel, then net trap, then Ilithid (that just so happened to be leading this group of Kobolds). You and the other players save the day, do epic things, and generally treat him to his own show. If he doesn't get the point, hit him with something heavy. In the face.

 

[Jitters Caffeine]

How about a scenario such as:

Chasing Kobolds through a tunnel, then net trap, then Ilithid (that just so happened to be leading this group of Kobolds). You and the other players save the day, do epic things, and generally treat him to his own show. If he doesn't get the point, hit him with something heavy. In the face.

Heh, funny you should say that. I have Boulder Throwing