I agree, I am a point buy fan. I dislike the way standard array forces me into having an odd stat in most cases.
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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.
Buff up encounters for games he is in. If he is with a whole party, maybe edit the story so that a few npcs will come along and help the less powerful party members. Or maybe I'm just rambling.
I have this one player who's an Elven Monk who rolled 3 6 sixes in creation and thus has a +5 in dex from level 1 this makes him really overpowered in combat
Not really, no, it doesn't.
Compare that to if you'd gone with Standard Array. Instead of an 18, plus 2 for 20(+5), he'd have a 15, plus 2 for 17(+3). That's only a two-point difference. Yes, because it's dexterity, and because he's a monk, that's +2 AC, +2 to hit, and +2 damage. But that's still not a huge difference, IMO.
Also .... Monks are MAD (Multi-Attribute Dependent). What are his OTHER attributes? Especially Wisdom and Constitution?
If one player is pretty much revolving all the combat encounters single-handedly and the other players do not feel as if they are able to contribute, my first suggestion would be to cut back on the amount of time you plan to devote to combat encounters.
If you try to make the combat encounters harder, you will likely just simply kill your other players. I have been in a group where someone had a munchkin character that could more or less single-handedly resolve all the combat encounters while I felt that if I even bothered to roll my one attack roll per round, I would just miss or do so little damage as to not affect the ountcome-- especially when the DM began ramping up the power of the enemies to compensate. It was back in 3.0 edition, so the power level of characters could be far more disparate then than it can now, but it still applies.
If you put puzzle-solving into the adventure, it really does not matter what the character's attributes are.
If you put in more social encounters, while Charisma can help "brute force" through situations, the players will still need to figure out who to approach and how to deal with them.
If you put in a challenge like "your party needs to figure out how to get out of this maze-like dungeon" and you don't just hand them a map but make them map it out themselves-- that is something that will force the players to be engaged.
If you introduce traps, probably starting with one that is mostly just an annoyance just to clue your players in on the fact that there are going to be traps from this point forth and they'd best search for them before charging down any hallway or bursting open any door. And, although it is not in the rules, you could say that if the whole party focuses on searching for traps then they won't be paying close enough to the shadows to notice enemies coming at them and so anyone searching for traps will be surprised by any combat. Thus, it is best to designate one person in charge of looking out for the traps, and they won't want it to be their best combatant.
Anyway-- there are so many things in D&D to do besides strictly combat, so if one player is going to be the champion of combat all the time then just increase the amount of the other stuff you have players doing so that they can all contribute to the party successfully completing the mission.
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I agree, I am a point buy fan. I dislike the way standard array forces me into having an odd stat in most cases.
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
Exactly. Point Buy is essentially just Standard Array, but better.
I kinda lump point buy and standard together, because you can actually buy the standard array with point buy
“I will take responsibility for what I have done. [...] If must fall, I will rise each time a better man.” ― Brandon Sanderson, Oathbringer.
Buff up encounters for games he is in. If he is with a whole party, maybe edit the story so that a few npcs will come along and help the less powerful party members. Or maybe I'm just rambling.
SAUCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not really, no, it doesn't.
Compare that to if you'd gone with Standard Array. Instead of an 18, plus 2 for 20(+5), he'd have a 15, plus 2 for 17(+3). That's only a two-point difference. Yes, because it's dexterity, and because he's a monk, that's +2 AC, +2 to hit, and +2 damage. But that's still not a huge difference, IMO.
Also .... Monks are MAD (Multi-Attribute Dependent). What are his OTHER attributes? Especially Wisdom and Constitution?
If one player is pretty much revolving all the combat encounters single-handedly and the other players do not feel as if they are able to contribute, my first suggestion would be to cut back on the amount of time you plan to devote to combat encounters.
If you try to make the combat encounters harder, you will likely just simply kill your other players. I have been in a group where someone had a munchkin character that could more or less single-handedly resolve all the combat encounters while I felt that if I even bothered to roll my one attack roll per round, I would just miss or do so little damage as to not affect the ountcome-- especially when the DM began ramping up the power of the enemies to compensate. It was back in 3.0 edition, so the power level of characters could be far more disparate then than it can now, but it still applies.
If you put puzzle-solving into the adventure, it really does not matter what the character's attributes are.
If you put in more social encounters, while Charisma can help "brute force" through situations, the players will still need to figure out who to approach and how to deal with them.
If you put in a challenge like "your party needs to figure out how to get out of this maze-like dungeon" and you don't just hand them a map but make them map it out themselves-- that is something that will force the players to be engaged.
If you introduce traps, probably starting with one that is mostly just an annoyance just to clue your players in on the fact that there are going to be traps from this point forth and they'd best search for them before charging down any hallway or bursting open any door. And, although it is not in the rules, you could say that if the whole party focuses on searching for traps then they won't be paying close enough to the shadows to notice enemies coming at them and so anyone searching for traps will be surprised by any combat. Thus, it is best to designate one person in charge of looking out for the traps, and they won't want it to be their best combatant.
Anyway-- there are so many things in D&D to do besides strictly combat, so if one player is going to be the champion of combat all the time then just increase the amount of the other stuff you have players doing so that they can all contribute to the party successfully completing the mission.