A friend of mine is in a game I'm DMing. I've allowed homebrew, so now he's using complicated and weird classes to get an edge.
How can I solve this without killing and or banning his character and homebrew from the game?
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1Welcome to RPG.SE! Take the [tour] if you haven't already, and check out the [help] for more guidance. What, if anything, have you already tried in order to solve the problem? Also, have you simply allowed all homebrew with no restrictions, or only allowed it on a case-by-case basis? – V2Blast Apr 27 '19 at 04:04
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5It might help us answer the question if we knew some details about the homebrew. What about it is causing problems? And how are those problems ones that are reducing the fun for you or your players? – Gandalfmeansme Apr 27 '19 at 04:22
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i agree with gandalf that an actual copy of the home brew in question would produce more nuanced responses – Tristian Apr 27 '19 at 10:06
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I think the question is more "How do I decide which homebrew to allow without just allowing anything someone thinks looks cool" or "I let a player use a homebrew class that's too powerful, how do I tell them I need to change it without them feeling bad" than "how do I balance this homebrew". – Jack V. Apr 30 '19 at 08:19
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The easiest solution is simply not to allow homebrew anymore. Homebrew classes lack editorial and quality control and allowing your player to use any of them can get you arbitrarily broken characters. Tell your player their character is not the kind you wanted in the game, is adversely affecting the enjoyment and courteously ask them to create a new one or port the character to official classes.
A laborous alternative is to allow homebrew classes only after quality checks. Spotting broken combinations in advance requires a high degree of system expertise, so it is best to agree with the player that any homebrew character options can be changed retroactively if its features conflict with the expected gameplay.
kviiri
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Create specific counters.
Unless he is using something extremely broken his character will have some deficiencies. Is there a saving throw his character is bad with?
What are the edges the character has? Throw him up against challenges the character doesn't have an advantage for.
Allan Mills
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This is a sure fire way to sow enmity with your players and make them hate the game, in my experience. – Paul Apr 27 '19 at 13:02
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@Paul Not if done right. Things like making him do a save he is bad at, and the bad guys figuring out amongst themselves that he is bad at that particular action is completely plausible. Then you can use some enemies that counter him, maybe using the exact pretext that the bad guys figured hes the boss since hes so strong so the counters try to get him. Do this in combination with other enemies so he has to work with the party to defeat other enemies while some party members have his back. – Rares Dima Jun 25 '19 at 12:09
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@RaresDima that could increase the chances of every other player feeling left out. if you cater to just one player, then you might as well not include them in the group. this solution would split up the party into the person that's getting a personalized experience, and everyone watching from the sidelines. i've made this exact mistake with homebrew and countering when i ran my first campaign. this problem will be made worse if they attempt this solution in most cases, and i highly recommend they do not attempt this – Apr 07 '21 at 17:16
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@waterlemon Wrong. I have mentioned in my comment that this approach of targeting the power-gamer's weaknesses should be used in tandem with other monsters. The more powerful PC will, if guarded, do some major damage, but maybe 1-2 other players have to guard his back. Maybe make a symbiosis between 2-3 players where each is strong against a monster that counters someone else.
This just has to be done right.
– Rares Dima Apr 23 '21 at 09:48