Lastly, most people don't want to be a Jack-of-all-Trades, decent at everything but excellent at nothing. In a pen-and-paper, people who just have combat roles may sit and get glassy-eyed if there isn't multiple combats every play session.
That's literally the design intent behind the bard. When there was the survey, people complained that the bard wasn't jack-of-all-trades enough. The demand for a workable blade warlock spawned the Hexblade subclass, and likely the wizard's Bladesinger subclass; the desire for a wizard generalist also spawned the most recent Xanthier's class. One of the most popular cleric subclasses is the Tempest Domain, which combines swordplay, offensive magic, healing magic and a bit of scouting all together.
Ugh, I tried several different ways to make a Bladelock. Every build just didn't look the way I wanted and made me unhappy. Made one up for an alt in The Tomb of Horrors, but never saw play. Hexblade does what I wanted. Will probably be the next character I roll up.
Bards do a very good job of being a Jack-of-all-Trades. They get a Feature that's named just that! In my current party, we have an Arcane Trickster with Reliable Talent and she is working towards JoaT. For some reason, she thinks they'll stack....still, a good synergy. Our party has also suggested that if we have a TPW, we all just come back as Bards to "get the band back together again".
Nobody in my group has ever experienced an interest in a Tempest domain Cleric. I tried to get our current Cleric to switch to a Forge domain...he likes War too much.
Sometimes a group of players has a guy that wants to dominate every aspect of the game, always wants to be participating...to the point other players don't get their share of the limelight. In a large group, this can mean 7 people sitting around doing nothing while said player monopolizes play time.
You can't please everyone all the time, but if you try to please one player all the time....
I have made prior posts that I'd be happy with magic items that didn't up my damage in combat. A bit of extra defense (even Studded +1), fun stuff out of combat (which isn't a LOT of options) or just SOMETHING. One of the last loot drops included a Headband of Intellect and that would actually be very nice for several skills my guy has. I'd just have to give up a Ring of Protection to use it, one of the very few items I've actually managed to grab that helps ac and saves (the defense I've trying to boost).
One of the problems is, I've never played a character this high level before....so at level 15, I'm looking at my guy going...."I don't have any Rare magic items". I'm still playing with Uncommons. From an MMO(WoW) perspective, I'm playing in blues. The other party members have rares and epics and I don't. How is the random loot table screwing me over like this? My opinion, it isn't a random loot table & I've had the DM tell me that's true.
Excellent at one or 2 things and then "round out" your character, sure. If you're just average/decent at everything, then you'll rarely have your time to shine in the limelight. We have a player who has joked many times he's just going to make a character with the exact same stat in everything (I think he was going to point buy a 13 in everything and go Human for a +2 in all stats) and call him Joe. Then multiclass through the entire class list and skill list.
There are those people who just enjoy the combat: strategy, tactics, luck of the die in a do or die situation. They're often min-maxed powergamers with 2 topped off stats (say Str and Con or Int and Dex). Often one dimensional, they'd be happy if everyone could just stop role-playing, sum everything up as quick as possible and get to the next fight.
I'd rather have a character good in combat, a nice list of skills and features to fall back on out of combat and maybe something to do during downtime aside from "spend my money gambling, drinking and whoring". Was driving with my DM and he said that my character made many of the out of combat things so trifling, that he just skipped over it or couldn't use the campaign features: players can't get lost, can't go hungry, can't be slowed by difficult terrain. I was all, "Well...you could at least MENTION my guy helped the party 'skip' that stuff!"
Granted, its a large group of players. 8 at the table, not including the DM, isn't uncommon. What's the saying, can't please all the people all of the time.
But...........
The character you opened this and the other thread about seems to be the one-dimensional PC you are talking about - you don't get +7 to hit higher than everyone else without sacrificing a LOT of other areas. Your DPS was so high that your DM saw it as casting a shadow over the other characters in the fight. He may well have skipped a couple of combat encounters knowing that your PC would kill the mobs before they got to their initiative! (Yeah, I am exaggerating - a lot!) I'm guessing it was the other player's eyes that were glazing over once the combat started.
But....
Your other (Gods, I hope it's not the same one) character was such an awesome (ranger?) that the group had such a small chance of getting lost, going hungry, slowing down for deserts, mountains, volcanoes, fire swamps, that the DM might as well make all terrain be grasslands filled with herds of wandering wildebeest (Torquay is not like this, I've been there!) A journey without some excitement or chance of danger is less fun than a daily commute - no wonder the DM skipped over it!
"I'd rather have a character good in combat, a nice list of skills and features to fall back on out of combat and maybe something to do during downtime ." Maybe if you'd gone this route in the first place, your DM wouldn't feel the need to balance out your awesomeness....
As long as you are still the top DPS, then the other PCs getting a little help to narrow the gap shouldn't upset you - they are on your side after all. Mathematically speaking though - you should have the best weapon in the group to maximise the group's total damage output.
I would suggest though, that if you are playing this mathematically, then you are no longer playing the game as intended but I know a World of Warcraft guild that would love to have you for high level raiding!
All that said, I still understand your frustration at lack of magic items - whatever the DM's reasons, that sucks for you.
You need to sit down and discuss your character with the DM. Sounds like he is having a lot of trouble managing to keep enemies relevant to your optimized build, while at the same time making it so those enemies do not steamroll across the other party members.
Been there quite often, especially in live games. One player is super amazing, while everyone else is pretty average. It can really skew encounter design.
Just tell your DM you are not having fun. Given his attitude, I am sure he is not having fun either.
Its the same character. The other players get epic magic items to compete with my build. Other Rogue gets a Flame Whip of Haste. Monk gets a Bursting Sword that adds +2d6 lightning damge. Sorcerer gets Wand of the War mage +2 and an Artifact level Staff of Bones, Paladin gets Shard of Light (look it up) & a (Huma level) Dragonlance, I get...Bracers of Archery.
Get it?
Should I be happy all my party is doing well...yes. We're defeating monsters and achieving goals. However, my character growth is limited by what skills and feats I can squeeze out of my build. The more I max my build, the less chance I have of getting nice magic items. Catch 22. Lets put it this way, the worse a player plays....the more magic items they get. If a player plays well, they don't get magic items.
Lets put it another way. There's a huge boss encounter, you do the most damage and are a deciding factor for the encounter. Tanks do their job, grabbing loose mobs and doing their job, healers do an awesome job of keeping everyone up. So everyone did their job, yes? Job won, everyone gets a reward.
What I am seeing is that since I did so much damage, I get less of a reward. Tanks get items, healers get items and I just killed the DM's mobs so hard and fast...I get nothing. Why would I need anything, I'm already downing his mobs so fast his head spins. Tanks suck up his damage, Healer(s) mitigate his damage. The DPS are the ones dropping his mobs.
I'm level 15, no magic items other than Uncommon. One of those is the Boots of Flying I got when I created my character, the other is Bracers of Archery (which is nice for me).
Just tell your DM you are not having fun. Given his attitude, I am sure he is not having fun either.
Stand back a second, it isn't that I'm not having fun, just...want to see some loot/gear equal to my level. I'm level 15, the best magic item I have is an Uncommon. I'm fully capable of having fun in a game without magical gear...if the other party members also have a similar level of magic items.
I just want to see some fairness.
Let me try this another way. If a player makes a character that isn't optimized for damage and is doing something else and I have a character optimized for damage, then we have 2 player types. If I do tons of damage and the other player doesn't, the DM is going "That doesn't seem right, you're power gaming for max dps and the other player isn't, so I'll give him a magic item so his dps is the same as yours."
By optimizing my character for DPS, I've given up other things obviously; like defense. So seeing the other player get magic items to make up for the lack of their DPS build, I'm all...can I get magic items to make up for my lack of defense? The answer is no. Other players have a Flaming Whip of Haste, Bursting Short Sword, Staff of Bones, Morningstar of Disruption, Shard of Light, Dragonlance...and I'm just like...can I get Studded Leather +1?
At level 15, its isn't too unreasonable to ask your guy get Studded Leather +1....at what point should I expect getting magical armor? Do I have to wait until level 20 to get armor +1? Instead, what happens is that my DPS build gets made into a super fragile glass cannon, because every mob under the sun can hit me so easily without magic armor/defenses. While everyone under the sun gets huge damage bonuses, I have to rely on my build, skills and feats to even TRY to keep doing my role.
Let me try this another way. If a player makes a character that isn't optimized for damage and is doing something else and I have a character optimized for damage, then we have 2 player types. If I do tons of damage and the other player doesn't, the DM is going "That doesn't seem right, you're power gaming for max dps and the other player isn't, so I'll give him a magic item so his dps is the same as yours."
By optimizing my character for DPS, I've given up other things obviously; like defense. So seeing the other player get magic items to make up for the lack of their DPS build, I'm all...can I get magic items to make up for my lack of defense? The answer is no. Other players have a Flaming Whip of Haste, Bursting Short Sword, Staff of Bones, Morningstar of Disruption, Shard of Light, Dragonlance...and I'm just like...can I get Studded Leather +1?
Ah, but have you REALLY sacrificed defense? I mean, honestly? Defense is pretty static in the game for the most part, especially if you have heavy armor. It doesn't matter if we're talking about a polearm fighter with heavy armor, or a bow weilding ranger - AC is pretty close between the two of them, irregardless of build.
Survivability in 5e comes in a few areas. HP, save scores, and AC. AC is a function of (sometimes) Dex+armor, HP is a function of class and Con, and save scores are just, well, there. There's a few other ways to mess around with survivability, but for the most part, unless you start taking things like wizard levels, you're going to have a decent HP score no matter how you min-max. Armor is also independent of any build - unless you've neglected your Dex entirely, you likely have a decent score there. And, unless you have feats for better saves, everyone's got the two save proficiencies.
There's not a lot here you're giving up in terms of defense as far as I can tell. I mean, from the sounds of it, you have an average defense, same as the other PCs. That's hardly a glass cannon if you're the same as everyone else.
Your PC created an imbalance within the playgroup. The GM is attempting to balance things out to make things even. Your PC seemed to have some notable ability in exploration abilities as well as being really good at combat. Maybe some social stuff too, I don't know. But by asking for more things to make your PC even better in combat? You'd just completely undo all the work the GM just put in to balance things out. Of course he/she is going to turn that down. It defeats the whole purpose of giving out those magic items in the first place!
Now, if in the future you do start to suffer issues with dealing with enemies, then you'll likely start seeing some help come your way. Until then, however, its unlikely.
If my character has a 19 AC and the the tank has a 26 ac, obviously he's going to be hit a lot less. So the mobs have to be able to hit a huge ac, which I don't have. If the mobs have a low AC, I'll totally destroy them. So the most challenging mobs should have a high AC and a a high to to-hit. If the dozen mobs we're face with have a high AC and a high to-hit, plus the ability to get Advantage on all their attacks...breaks the encounter.
So I totally feel for the DM, but that's not the point. If the tanks/dps get rare/legendary items to up their dps and I don't any items to compensate, eventually I'll fall way out of the power curve. If ALL I do is dps and don't have any defense/healing...
Simply said. I have 2 Uncommon magic items to the rest of my party members having multiple rare/legendary items.
Mephista, no...the Paladin in our group has an insane defense AND Disadvantage to attacks against him (because the DM let him have a Cloak of Displacement).. He has heavy armor, feats, shield and such = he's a tank. The Barbarian has tons of effective hit points, he's also a (sponge) tank. Their build is focused on defense and tanking. Mine is not. Point refuted.
Survivability for my character often is "I move away". Also Uncanny Dodge and other Rogue skills that mitigate damage.
Armor is not independent of builds, obviously a high Dex character isn't going to wear medium armor. So Studded Leather give a very good AC. Oddly enough, magical Studded Leather gives a better AC.
I didn't create an imbalance, I'm DPS. DPS does damage. Trying to balance the DPS I do with the rest of the party's damage output has lead the DM to say "You don't get any other magic items until I can figure out this imbalance". DUH! Why can't I have any magic items....say flavor/fluff/defense/other things. Flat out saying I can't have any magic items because I excel at combat makes me...discouraged.
Understand?
My only recourse at this point is to keep making my character more and more powerful via grabbing the best feats and combat tactics I can. Or I can just slack off and hope the DM gives me items to compensate.
TL:DR, I do well...don't get magic items. I do crappy, get tons of magic items.
In that it can't bring the dead back to life like most "healing class" characters eventually can, you are right. In that the feat doesn't provide enough healing for the game to work just fine with no other changes, evidence says otherwise.
I don't disagree, but clerics have a huge advantage in deadly fights because of their action economy. When a party member that's not adjacent drops, someone with the Healer feat has to use up movement, an action, and if they want to avoid opportunity attacks a second action to Disengage. A cleric or bard just needs a bonus action. If multiple party members drop unconscious, a 5th level cleric can bring them all back with 1 bonus action (Mass Healing Word).
One of the problems is, I've never played a character this high level before....so at level 15, I'm looking at my guy going...."I don't have any Rare magic items". I'm still playing with Uncommons. From an MMO(WoW) perspective, I'm playing in blues. The other party members have rares and epics and I don't. How is the random loot table screwing me over like this? My opinion, it isn't a random loot table & I've had the DM tell me that's true.
Here's the thing. The game is balanced around the assumption that no one has magic items. They're 100% optional, and any magic items the DM chooses to give you are always a bonus; they cause you to punch above your weight.
That said, I still think giving you the short end of the stick here is silly unless the other players have complained. The best part of D&D is that it's a storytelling game. Focusing on combat as if it were the most important aspect of the game or as if the players were somehow competing with each other largely misses the point. Even if you largely outclass the other party members in combat, there should still be enough exploration and social interaction to give the other players a chance to shine. There's also tons of just-for-fun magic items in Xanathar's Guide to Everything the DM could give you.
Seems more like you are asking to see some equality. While equality is often fair, it isn't necessarily always fairness to have equality. In the case of your party of characters, it actually seems like equality in magic items would feel unfair to the rest of the group despite that it feels like it would be fair to you.
Example for illustrative purposes: It's equality if you distribute three boxes of equal size for a dwarf, a halfling, and a human to use to see over a 5' fence. It's not fairness though, as fairness would be to give the human no box, the dwarf one box, and the halfling two boxes because then all three are able to stand on their respective boxes and see over the fence.
...at what point should I expect getting magical armor?
In 5th edition? Literally never. In fact, having any expectation as to what quantity or quality of magical items you are going to get or when you'll get them is more likely to have no effect on your game play experience other than causing you to have disappointments.
There are a lot of things about the info the OP provided that just doesn’t make sense. Also, the problems seem to be compounded by the fact that the DM is the candyman and he’s just handing out magic items causing himself all these headaches.
First off, someone needs to slap the DM across the head for his poor choices. If he has a min-max powergamer optimizing a pew pew DPS PC which involves Sharpshooter and the Archery style which already breaks bounded accuracy, why the heck is he handing out Bracers of Archery to further break bounded accuracy. On top of that, he gives the pew pew character Boots of Flying at an early level? Seriously, the DM sounds a little green.
Secondly, how is the disparity between attack bonus so great between level 15 characters? Even with the OP’s maxed out attack stat, bracers and prof bonus at +13, the fellow party members should be at minimum +9 after having boosted their attack stats at least once in all 15 levels. If they all just have +1 magic weapons granting +10 attack bonuses, they’re basically just Archery style short of your attack bonus. The other PCs having just +7 or +8 attack bonuses at level 15 is just off.
Your DM is also pretty green in not understanding that everyone has a role and a way to shine. Damage isn’t the only way to participate or shine. If the DPS is quickly eliminating enemies, the other party members jobs are to ensure the DPS is protected and able to do his/her job. If this is happening, there shouldn’t be any problems. DM shouldn’t be trying to balance out your damage. Your DM should just be making sure everyone is having fun with equal time sharing the spotlight.
In regards to the OP, you’re a dex-based ranged glass cannon. That’s what you built. You even have class features that help you keep away from enemies and you have Boots of Flying for godsakes with a Ring of Protection to top it off. You’re not doing too bad on defense. You’ve built insane DPS and the drawback is a little squishiness that you have to work around and you already have all the tools to manage that. Your DM borked the game when he handed out too many poorly-chosen items and is having problems managing it. You said you’re still having fun, so I don’t see what the problem is.
Not sure why the DM is imposing the magic item ban on you unless other players complained or maybe he’s just inexperienced and assumes everyone should contribute equally to damage. At the end of the day, you’re not playing to compete with other players. As long as you’re having fun, contributing to the shared narrative and able to play your character, everything sounds fine. Whenever I start in a game and make a character, I always assume I won’t ever get magic items. They’re not considered in my character concept/build and if I go get some, it’s just extra topping for me. I also could care less if everyone else was getting magic items and I wasn’t. As long as I can still contribute in combat, grow/develop/roleplay my character how I want to and affect the shared narrative, I’ll be as happy as can be.
I had a long answer that I was going to put down, but I can't make it sound the way I want. The short version is, if your character is outshining your party mates to the point that your DM feels the need to restrain your power level, you're likely annoying the crap out of your party. Personally as a player, I like loot enough that I will self-regulate my character's combat abilities so I /do/ get the loot.
If you're breaking encounters, you should not be surprised. If I were the DM, I'd handle it differently, I'd give you the items you want, then I'd used ranged attackers and focus the living crap out of you. When you complain about it, I'd shrug my shoulders and say, well you're too much of a threat, they feel the need to eliminate you quickly if possible. if you're over-specialized as I imagine you likely are, the DM has to attack your weaknesses rather than playing to your strengths as it sounds like. If he's letting you stand back and bow his monsters down, of course you will dominate combats. If he debuffs your hitpoints to zero in many combats by building encounters to do so, your DPS will no longer be an issue in those combats.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
The short version is, if your character is outshining your party mates to the point that your DM feels the need to restrain your power level, you're likely annoying the crap out of your party.
Considering the tank has 26 AC and a Cloak of Displacement, the DM is the one that's enabling the party's crazy power levels. The fact that they're singling the ranger out but not the tank baffles me.
Because the tank isn't doing any damage, his build is pure defense. He put together a "dex-based" Paladin with a high Charisma; in heavy armor & using a finesse weapon (a Sunblade). I believe his Str is a 12 and his Dex is a 14. Isn't supposed to be able to use heavy armor with that strength, but his armor is Mithril. Granted, if he does hit...he can dump spell slots into Smite damage and vs. Undead his Sunblade does very well.
... Isn't supposed to be able to use heavy armor with that strength...
That's not what the strength numbers on the armor chart mean. It's just whether or not you move slower while wearing the armor or not, not being able to wear it at all, that is determined by strength.
So your paladin player makes some questionable decisions about his character build, and somehow the universe rewards him with exactly the right loadout to cover the weaknesses...if the other players are being similarly treated (and I do mean treated) this way, then either you need to change your design philosophy or your deodorant.
Have you thought about about a dyslexic, strength based mage? ("Hello Glasses of True Seeing and Headband of Intellect!")
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Roleplaying since Runequest.
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Ugh, I tried several different ways to make a Bladelock. Every build just didn't look the way I wanted and made me unhappy. Made one up for an alt in The Tomb of Horrors, but never saw play. Hexblade does what I wanted. Will probably be the next character I roll up.
Bards do a very good job of being a Jack-of-all-Trades. They get a Feature that's named just that! In my current party, we have an Arcane Trickster with Reliable Talent and she is working towards JoaT. For some reason, she thinks they'll stack....still, a good synergy. Our party has also suggested that if we have a TPW, we all just come back as Bards to "get the band back together again".
Nobody in my group has ever experienced an interest in a Tempest domain Cleric. I tried to get our current Cleric to switch to a Forge domain...he likes War too much.
Sometimes a group of players has a guy that wants to dominate every aspect of the game, always wants to be participating...to the point other players don't get their share of the limelight. In a large group, this can mean 7 people sitting around doing nothing while said player monopolizes play time.
You can't please everyone all the time, but if you try to please one player all the time....
I have made prior posts that I'd be happy with magic items that didn't up my damage in combat. A bit of extra defense (even Studded +1), fun stuff out of combat (which isn't a LOT of options) or just SOMETHING. One of the last loot drops included a Headband of Intellect and that would actually be very nice for several skills my guy has. I'd just have to give up a Ring of Protection to use it, one of the very few items I've actually managed to grab that helps ac and saves (the defense I've trying to boost).
One of the problems is, I've never played a character this high level before....so at level 15, I'm looking at my guy going...."I don't have any Rare magic items". I'm still playing with Uncommons. From an MMO(WoW) perspective, I'm playing in blues. The other party members have rares and epics and I don't. How is the random loot table screwing me over like this? My opinion, it isn't a random loot table & I've had the DM tell me that's true.
I'm guessing it was the other player's eyes that were glazing over once the combat started.
Maybe if you'd gone this route in the first place, your DM wouldn't feel the need to balance out your awesomeness....
Mathematically speaking though - you should have the best weapon in the group to maximise the group's total damage output.
Roleplaying since Runequest.
You need to sit down and discuss your character with the DM. Sounds like he is having a lot of trouble managing to keep enemies relevant to your optimized build, while at the same time making it so those enemies do not steamroll across the other party members.
Been there quite often, especially in live games. One player is super amazing, while everyone else is pretty average. It can really skew encounter design.
Just tell your DM you are not having fun. Given his attitude, I am sure he is not having fun either.
Its the same character. The other players get epic magic items to compete with my build. Other Rogue gets a Flame Whip of Haste. Monk gets a Bursting Sword that adds +2d6 lightning damge. Sorcerer gets Wand of the War mage +2 and an Artifact level Staff of Bones, Paladin gets Shard of Light (look it up) & a (Huma level) Dragonlance, I get...Bracers of Archery.
Get it?
Should I be happy all my party is doing well...yes. We're defeating monsters and achieving goals. However, my character growth is limited by what skills and feats I can squeeze out of my build. The more I max my build, the less chance I have of getting nice magic items. Catch 22. Lets put it this way, the worse a player plays....the more magic items they get. If a player plays well, they don't get magic items.
Lets put it another way. There's a huge boss encounter, you do the most damage and are a deciding factor for the encounter. Tanks do their job, grabbing loose mobs and doing their job, healers do an awesome job of keeping everyone up. So everyone did their job, yes? Job won, everyone gets a reward.
What I am seeing is that since I did so much damage, I get less of a reward. Tanks get items, healers get items and I just killed the DM's mobs so hard and fast...I get nothing. Why would I need anything, I'm already downing his mobs so fast his head spins. Tanks suck up his damage, Healer(s) mitigate his damage. The DPS are the ones dropping his mobs.
I'm level 15, no magic items other than Uncommon. One of those is the Boots of Flying I got when I created my character, the other is Bracers of Archery (which is nice for me).
At level 15, its isn't too unreasonable to ask your guy get Studded Leather +1....at what point should I expect getting magical armor? Do I have to wait until level 20 to get armor +1? Instead, what happens is that my DPS build gets made into a super fragile glass cannon, because every mob under the sun can hit me so easily without magic armor/defenses. While everyone under the sun gets huge damage bonuses, I have to rely on my build, skills and feats to even TRY to keep doing my role.
If my character has a 19 AC and the the tank has a 26 ac, obviously he's going to be hit a lot less. So the mobs have to be able to hit a huge ac, which I don't have. If the mobs have a low AC, I'll totally destroy them. So the most challenging mobs should have a high AC and a a high to to-hit. If the dozen mobs we're face with have a high AC and a high to-hit, plus the ability to get Advantage on all their attacks...breaks the encounter.
So I totally feel for the DM, but that's not the point. If the tanks/dps get rare/legendary items to up their dps and I don't any items to compensate, eventually I'll fall way out of the power curve. If ALL I do is dps and don't have any defense/healing...
Simply said. I have 2 Uncommon magic items to the rest of my party members having multiple rare/legendary items.
Mephista, no...the Paladin in our group has an insane defense AND Disadvantage to attacks against him (because the DM let him have a Cloak of Displacement).. He has heavy armor, feats, shield and such = he's a tank. The Barbarian has tons of effective hit points, he's also a (sponge) tank. Their build is focused on defense and tanking. Mine is not. Point refuted.
Survivability for my character often is "I move away". Also Uncanny Dodge and other Rogue skills that mitigate damage.
Armor is not independent of builds, obviously a high Dex character isn't going to wear medium armor. So Studded Leather give a very good AC. Oddly enough, magical Studded Leather gives a better AC.
I didn't create an imbalance, I'm DPS. DPS does damage. Trying to balance the DPS I do with the rest of the party's damage output has lead the DM to say "You don't get any other magic items until I can figure out this imbalance". DUH! Why can't I have any magic items....say flavor/fluff/defense/other things. Flat out saying I can't have any magic items because I excel at combat makes me...discouraged.
Understand?
My only recourse at this point is to keep making my character more and more powerful via grabbing the best feats and combat tactics I can. Or I can just slack off and hope the DM gives me items to compensate.
TL:DR, I do well...don't get magic items. I do crappy, get tons of magic items.
The Forum Infestation (TM)
In 5th edition, there is no such thing.
Seems more like you are asking to see some equality. While equality is often fair, it isn't necessarily always fairness to have equality. In the case of your party of characters, it actually seems like equality in magic items would feel unfair to the rest of the group despite that it feels like it would be fair to you.Example for illustrative purposes: It's equality if you distribute three boxes of equal size for a dwarf, a halfling, and a human to use to see over a 5' fence. It's not fairness though, as fairness would be to give the human no box, the dwarf one box, and the halfling two boxes because then all three are able to stand on their respective boxes and see over the fence.
In 5th edition? Literally never. In fact, having any expectation as to what quantity or quality of magical items you are going to get or when you'll get them is more likely to have no effect on your game play experience other than causing you to have disappointments.There are a lot of things about the info the OP provided that just doesn’t make sense. Also, the problems seem to be compounded by the fact that the DM is the candyman and he’s just handing out magic items causing himself all these headaches.
First off, someone needs to slap the DM across the head for his poor choices. If he has a min-max powergamer optimizing a pew pew DPS PC which involves Sharpshooter and the Archery style which already breaks bounded accuracy, why the heck is he handing out Bracers of Archery to further break bounded accuracy. On top of that, he gives the pew pew character Boots of Flying at an early level? Seriously, the DM sounds a little green.
Secondly, how is the disparity between attack bonus so great between level 15 characters? Even with the OP’s maxed out attack stat, bracers and prof bonus at +13, the fellow party members should be at minimum +9 after having boosted their attack stats at least once in all 15 levels. If they all just have +1 magic weapons granting +10 attack bonuses, they’re basically just Archery style short of your attack bonus. The other PCs having just +7 or +8 attack bonuses at level 15 is just off.
Your DM is also pretty green in not understanding that everyone has a role and a way to shine. Damage isn’t the only way to participate or shine. If the DPS is quickly eliminating enemies, the other party members jobs are to ensure the DPS is protected and able to do his/her job. If this is happening, there shouldn’t be any problems. DM shouldn’t be trying to balance out your damage. Your DM should just be making sure everyone is having fun with equal time sharing the spotlight.
In regards to the OP, you’re a dex-based ranged glass cannon. That’s what you built. You even have class features that help you keep away from enemies and you have Boots of Flying for godsakes with a Ring of Protection to top it off. You’re not doing too bad on defense. You’ve built insane DPS and the drawback is a little squishiness that you have to work around and you already have all the tools to manage that. Your DM borked the game when he handed out too many poorly-chosen items and is having problems managing it. You said you’re still having fun, so I don’t see what the problem is.
Not sure why the DM is imposing the magic item ban on you unless other players complained or maybe he’s just inexperienced and assumes everyone should contribute equally to damage. At the end of the day, you’re not playing to compete with other players. As long as you’re having fun, contributing to the shared narrative and able to play your character, everything sounds fine. Whenever I start in a game and make a character, I always assume I won’t ever get magic items. They’re not considered in my character concept/build and if I go get some, it’s just extra topping for me. I also could care less if everyone else was getting magic items and I wasn’t. As long as I can still contribute in combat, grow/develop/roleplay my character how I want to and affect the shared narrative, I’ll be as happy as can be.
I had a long answer that I was going to put down, but I can't make it sound the way I want. The short version is, if your character is outshining your party mates to the point that your DM feels the need to restrain your power level, you're likely annoying the crap out of your party. Personally as a player, I like loot enough that I will self-regulate my character's combat abilities so I /do/ get the loot.
If you're breaking encounters, you should not be surprised. If I were the DM, I'd handle it differently, I'd give you the items you want, then I'd used ranged attackers and focus the living crap out of you. When you complain about it, I'd shrug my shoulders and say, well you're too much of a threat, they feel the need to eliminate you quickly if possible. if you're over-specialized as I imagine you likely are, the DM has to attack your weaknesses rather than playing to your strengths as it sounds like. If he's letting you stand back and bow his monsters down, of course you will dominate combats. If he debuffs your hitpoints to zero in many combats by building encounters to do so, your DPS will no longer be an issue in those combats.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
Considering the tank has 26 AC and a Cloak of Displacement, the DM is the one that's enabling the party's crazy power levels. The fact that they're singling the ranger out but not the tank baffles me.
The Forum Infestation (TM)
Because the tank isn't doing any damage, his build is pure defense. He put together a "dex-based" Paladin with a high Charisma; in heavy armor & using a finesse weapon (a Sunblade). I believe his Str is a 12 and his Dex is a 14. Isn't supposed to be able to use heavy armor with that strength, but his armor is Mithril. Granted, if he does hit...he can dump spell slots into Smite damage and vs. Undead his Sunblade does very well.
That's not what the strength numbers on the armor chart mean. It's just whether or not you move slower while wearing the armor or not, not being able to wear it at all, that is determined by strength.
*isn't supposed to be able to wear that armor without a penalty.
So your paladin player makes some questionable decisions about his character build, and somehow the universe rewards him with exactly the right loadout to cover the weaknesses...if the other players are being similarly treated (and I do mean treated) this way, then either you need to change your design philosophy or your deodorant.
Have you thought about about a dyslexic, strength based mage? ("Hello Glasses of True Seeing and Headband of Intellect!")
Roleplaying since Runequest.