The rogue isn't too overpowered, point buy and no ability boosting magic items so Ability scores are fine. Studded leather is standard for level 5 rogues, they might have a +1 sword OR a +1 bow rather than both which means they do a bit more damges if they get into melee / before they can get into melee but that isn't massive, the boots are a bit of a boost, mainly for out of combat situations but shouldn't break anything and the arrows are cheap so not having to micromanage thenm is fine
A level 5 fighter might have splint but mithral is a big boost helping the party get surprise (or avoid being surprised). A +2 sword as others have said shouldn't appear until around level 11, compared to a +1 it might hit 65% of the time instead of 60% for a +1 and do an extra 1 damage when it does so you might get an extra 15% damage output and the boost to con helps not just with hit points bot also for con save .
The biggest problemt however is the wizard. A wizard should have 4 first level, 3 second level and 2 3rd level spells per day with arcane recovery giving 3 levels more (say another 3rd level spell). This wizard cast cast 3 third level fireball on top of that, doesn't need to use a 1st level spell on mage armor, will never be caught without mage armor up if they are attacked in the middle of the night (I wouldn't expet most wizards t use all there 1st level slots to keep mage armor permanently up), cast anothert 3 level spell as 3rd level magic missile (assuming the ring has a chance of ceasing to function if you use all 4 charges) and cast identifty twice per day. With the headband of intellect they have also been able to boost their dex and/or con where normally they would be needing to put the ASI in intellect, At a guess you have probably doubled the spellcasting power of this wizard.
You say you have an in game way of reducing the ring of fireball to 2 per day, could you easily reduce this to 1, this still makes it on a par with arcane recovery (given that fireball is the go to damage spell)
I get the impression that they are not having many combats a day. The game says they expect 6-8 combats per day with a couple of short rests but most campaigns rarely work like this. You could send them to a large dungeon with wandering monsters where long rests are impossible and short rests have a chance of being interrupted. (Have an NPC tell them as much) .With all their extra resources compared to a normal group you could give them 12 or more encounters in the dungeon crawl with a chance for a couple of short rests. That way they can not use a fireball in every battle, the fighter has to decide whether to use action surge and so on. That would get you through quitea few sessions and you could even have a "mad mage" type campaign where the ehole thing is dungeon delving like that. If not your players might like the challenge of having to manage resources
With a party of three giving the party a few more magic items can be a good idea (though not to the extent you have). a level 5 character has the same chance of survival a wyvern stinger if they are in a 3 person party or a 5 person party but obviously the 3 person party deal less damage per round and takes a higher proportion of the damage. The solutions to that when running small parties are either, use lower CR monsters, lower the monster HP, add NPCs into theparty or or up the damage output of the party (normally with magic items).
I do love the idea of the characters sacrificing their items to save the world / town if your players are mature enough to accept the situation needs to change.
Before taking away their magic items, try throwing ranged enemies spread apart so Fireball can't get them all in one go. Have one or two high HP mobs for the Rogue and Fighter to punch on and a few ranged enemies for the Wizard to focus on. You can even put them behind partial cover to raise their AC.
Everyone in this thread is pointing out that they have real good magic gear, which is certainly something to take into consideration. I would also like to say that Dndbeyonds encounter builder overestimates.
Im pretty stingy with giving my players magic items, but I still find myself having to ramp up the encounters because my party is really good at combat. Take into account their synergy with eachother, the players tactics individually, and honestly dont be afraid to ramp it up a bit. It took me a while to figure out a good level of monsters to throw at them, but it's consistantly past the "deadly" range.
You might try working this into your plot as well. Definitely talk to them out-of-character first. Then, if they are willing to cooperate, give them a reason to sacrifice the items in game. Maybe a powerful ritual is needed to save the world or at least the immediate region and the items will go to fuel that. Also, don't be afraid to shower the character with praise for their noble actions. Let them earn a reputation as heroes, hear awed whispers as they pass through town, even be granted an audience with the local ruler and given medals in front of an adoring crowd. The main thing is to let your players feel as if they are a part of both the discussion and the way events play out in game. You will have far less anger and resentment than if you just drain or steal what are likely some of their most treasured possessions.
Ooh, sacrificing the items to save the world sounds good. Though, they already have the awed whispers as they pass through town, and most of them are nobles anyways (the fighter's cousin is a king, and the rogues mom is Alustriel Silverhand), so they talk/stay/hang out with rulers (most of them aren't even local ones either, I'm talking the some of the greatest kingdoms in the Forgotten Realms) more often than they stay at taverns.
The rogue isn't too overpowered, point buy and no ability boosting magic items so Ability scores are fine. Studded leather is standard for level 5 rogues, they might have a +1 sword OR a +1 bow rather than both which means they do a bit more damges if they get into melee / before they can get into melee but that isn't massive, the boots are a bit of a boost, mainly for out of combat situations but shouldn't break anything and the arrows are cheap so not having to micromanage thenm is fine
A level 5 fighter might have splint but mithral is a big boost helping the party get surprise (or avoid being surprised). A +2 sword as others have said shouldn't appear until around level 11, compared to a +1 it might hit 65% of the time instead of 60% for a +1 and do an extra 1 damage when it does so you might get an extra 15% damage output and the boost to con helps not just with hit points bot also for con save .
The biggest problemt however is the wizard. A wizard should have 4 first level, 3 second level and 2 3rd level spells per day with arcane recovery giving 3 levels more (say another 3rd level spell). This wizard cast cast 3 third level fireball on top of that, doesn't need to use a 1st level spell on mage armor, will never be caught without mage armor up if they are attacked in the middle of the night (I wouldn't expet most wizards t use all there 1st level slots to keep mage armor permanently up), cast anothert 3 level spell as 3rd level magic missile (assuming the ring has a chance of ceasing to function if you use all 4 charges) and cast identifty twice per day. With the headband of intellect they have also been able to boost their dex and/or con where normally they would be needing to put the ASI in intellect, At a guess you have probably doubled the spellcasting power of this wizard.
You say you have an in game way of reducing the ring of fireball to 2 per day, could you easily reduce this to 1, this still makes it on a par with arcane recovery (given that fireball is the go to damage spell)
I get the impression that they are not having many combats a day. The game says they expect 6-8 combats per day with a couple of short rests but most campaigns rarely work like this. You could send them to a large dungeon with wandering monsters where long rests are impossible and short rests have a chance of being interrupted. (Have an NPC tell them as much) .With all their extra resources compared to a normal group you could give them 12 or more encounters in the dungeon crawl with a chance for a couple of short rests. That way they can not use a fireball in every battle, the fighter has to decide whether to use action surge and so on. That would get you through quitea few sessions and you could even have a "mad mage" type campaign where the ehole thing is dungeon delving like that. If not your players might like the challenge of having to manage resources
With a party of three giving the party a few more magic items can be a good idea (though not to the extent you have). a level 5 character has the same chance of survival a wyvern stinger if they are in a 3 person party or a 5 person party but obviously the 3 person party deal less damage per round and takes a higher proportion of the damage. The solutions to that when running small parties are either, use lower CR monsters, lower the monster HP, add NPCs into theparty or or up the damage output of the party (normally with magic items).
I do love the idea of the characters sacrificing their items to save the world / town if your players are mature enough to accept the situation needs to change.
You're right, I really went overboard on the wizard's magic items. I gave her the rings of magic missile and fireball because she had to "waste" several of her slots on healing spells, which I gave her cause the group doesn't have a cleric, and the items were too make up for it. I now realize I probably should have just given them loads of potions of healing instead.
I'd highly recommend using the Xanathar's chart for magic items as your guide, for the group. In the early levels, giving potions, scrolls, and other consumable magics allows the players to get treasure, but limits the power creep. By 5th level, each player in your group should have one Uncommon permanent item, with no more than one Rare magic item in total. If they each have two Uncommon items, its not unreasonable. But as you are now seeing, the gifting of magic items creates an effect to where the characters are too strong for their level, and those items are more important than their actual abilities.
No campaign suffered because the players "had too little magic". Many a campaign has been completely derailed because the players had too much.
Explain to the players you have made a big mistake, and are stripping them of much of what they have. If they are mature individuals they will accept that, and move on.
I'd highly recommend using the Xanathar's chart for magic items as your guide, for the group. In the early levels, giving potions, scrolls, and other consumable magics allows the players to get treasure, but limits the power creep. By 5th level, each player in your group should have one Uncommon permanent item, with no more than one Rare magic item in total. If they each have two Uncommon items, its not unreasonable. But as you are now seeing, the gifting of magic items creates an effect to where the characters are too strong for their level, and those items are more important than their actual abilities.
I was using Xanathars, but I misread the table and thought that was how many items each characters should have, not what the group should have as a whole..... BTW, so the fighter would be fine with his Rare +2 greatsword, then?
EDIT: So how's this sound: Wizard: +1 wand, Netherese Ring (detailed in OP).
Fighter: +2 gretasword, and either Bracers of Fortitude or Mithral splint
For the fighter, +1 Greatsword at 5th level is a *very* nice. The mithral splint is fine as well; its an uncommon item. That would bring him back into line.
The rogue; one of those items would be fine. You know what would be a fair compromise; Keep the +1 shortsword and swap a dozen +1 arrows for that bow. Now the rogue has the same effect, but as a consumable resource that needs to be managed.
The Wizard as some pointed out requires the biggest fix. Wand of Magic Missiles; no problem. A +1 wand of the War Mage... Its maybe a little early but its uncommon, so I'd let that go as well. But that should be it. A scroll with Fireball spell would be okay, since its a one shot item.
I mean, even thinking more about this I can't help but note that none of their magic items are consumable, and they have no utility magic items. How does this group do in RP or puzzle challenges? They seem to be so focused on combat that they are getting a pass on skill challenges, or other parts of the game. Resource management is a thing; give the Wizard that fireball scroll and see how hesitant they are to use it (or if they use it right away, present a later encounter where it would have been a game changer to teach resource management).
For the fighter, +1 Greatsword at 5th level is a *very* nice. The mithral splint is fine as well; its an uncommon item. That would bring him back into line.
The rogue; one of those items would be fine. You know what would be a fair compromise; Keep the +1 shortsword and swap a dozen +1 arrows for that bow. Now the rogue has the same effect, but as a consumable resource that needs to be managed.
The Wizard as some pointed out requires the biggest fix. Wand of Magic Missiles; no problem. A +1 wand of the War Mage... Its maybe a little early but its uncommon, so I'd let that go as well. But that should be it. A scroll with Fireball spell would be okay, since its a one shot item.
I mean, even thinking more about this I can't help but note that none of their magic items are consumable, and they have no utility magic items. How does this group do in RP or puzzle challenges? They seem to be so focused on combat that they are getting a pass on skill challenges, or other parts of the game. Resource management is a thing; give the Wizard that fireball scroll and see how hesitant they are to use it (or if they use it right away, present a later encounter where it would have been a game changer to teach resource management).
For the wizard, I think I'm going to go with +1 wand and Netherese ring instead of wand of magic missiles, because she already has a lot of offensive spells, and the ring only casts mage armor and identify, so it gives her a boost to defense. I don't think she needs any more offensive spells than she already has (she has a lot). Yeah, both a +1 greatsword and a CON increasing magic item are a bit much for the fighter.
For skill challenges, they do good, the fighter has Athletics and Survival to break and track things, the rogue has Expertise in Stealth and Perception and thieves' tools, so sneaking as well as finding and disarming traps are good, and the wizard has Arcana and History, so they cover pretty much all necessary skills for exploring. They are a little weak on the social interaction side of things, but I rarely require skill checks in social interaction, I normally just go by the players roleplaying.
The Wizard having a free 4x magic missile and 3x fireball is nuts. You have to realize even a level 20 wizard only has 4x 1st and 3x 3rd level slots, and you just gave them that many for free. This basically frees them up to just go nuts and never run out of spells. Your Wizard also has bless and cure wounds which are not on the wizard spell list which make them a whole lot more powerful
They are overpowered, but honestly. It doesn't really matter. They kill the big guys too fast? Oh well. The primary factor to consider is are they having fun? At the end of the day, they are the "stars" of the story you're telling with them. You're allowed to just throw higher CR enemies at them or even to fudge the stats on the fly if its good for the story and the experience.
Also, you don't have to throw perfectly matched fights against them. Through in a bandit attack with like 20 low level bandits at them. It'll be a quick easy fight but it'll sap some of their resources a bit..or whatever type of mob would fit for your story.
My PCs are usually overpowered because they tend to enjoy it more. I tend to lean more towards player empowerment. Most of my npc's/monsters tend to have more malleable stats and I kinda change them around based on whats going on to make for a good story. I've let a character kill a higher CR bandit leader with one attack, even though his HP was much higher than the damage, simply because it made for a cool moment. I've also had peon minions fight through a fireball to get in one last strike before dying, even though he took 20 more damage than he had HP.
Most of the enemies I use end up being a name/description, a list of actions, maybe a few quick notes and then I keep track of the damage done to them to gauge their damage state and when they die.
My advice is always, stop worrying about the PCs being to powerful, and focus on what kind of things can you put in place to let them do cool stuff with that power.
Just my .02
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They are overpowered, but honestly. It doesn't really matter. They kill the big guys too fast? Oh well. The primary factor to consider is are they having fun? At the end of the day, they are the "stars" of the story you're telling with them. You're allowed to just throw higher CR enemies at them or even to fudge the stats on the fly if its good for the story and the experience.
Also, you don't have to throw perfectly matched fights against them. Through in a bandit attack with like 20 low level bandits at them. It'll be a quick easy fight but it'll sap some of their resources a bit..or whatever type of mob would fit for your story.
My PCs are usually overpowered because they tend to enjoy it more. I tend to lean more towards player empowerment. Most of my npc's/monsters tend to have more malleable stats and I kinda change them around based on whats going on to make for a good story. I've let a character kill a higher CR bandit leader with one attack, even though his HP was much higher than the damage, simply because it made for a cool moment. I've also had peon minions fight through a fireball to get in one last strike before dying, even though he took 20 more damage than he had HP.
Most of the enemies I use end up being a name/description, a list of actions, maybe a few quick notes and then I keep track of the damage done to them to gauge their damage state and when they die.
My advice is always, stop worrying about the PCs being to powerful, and focus on what kind of things can you put in place to let them do cool stuff with that power.
Just my .02
I hear you, but it sounded like the OP felt the party cutting through the monsters like butter was reducing the enjoyment since the combats weren't threatening the group much. He's having to scale his CR to the point where they will run out of threats.
Ultimately the OP has to ensure the players have fun, and you are right; they may want to play OP characters. Then it comes down what obstacles are worthwhile challenges for them. I could see that becoming tedious work to keep up as a DM.
The OP sounded to me like a newer GM that is worried about making encounters by the rules and its not working because their players are too powerful for the things that the rules say should challenge them. If they're worried about the players having fun, they should just ask them if they are or not.
My response was more about not worrying about CR or Monster rules so much. You don't have to stick to the stat-block all the time you can fudge and shift the rules as DM if it makes the game more fun for everyone.
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I'm having to double most monsters hit points for them to provide a challenge, so I calculated their average damage per round (using the Targets in Area of Effect table in the DM's Guide to assume average damage for spells).
If they have all their spell slots and abilities, in the 1st round: 183 DAMAGE!!! IF THE FIGHTER ROLLS A CRIT (and with 4 attacks, it happens fairly often): 190!!! If the wizard rolls good (she usually does), 200!!!!!. Minus 26 damage in the round after that (fighter's out of Action Surge). 3rd round onwards, they are dealing same damage as a normal fight.
In a normal fight (assuming the fighter has no action surge): 95- 85 dmg. +26 dmg If the fighter has Action Surge. This is assuming the wizard is using 1st-2nd level spells (her favs are shatter and burning hands). If she has a fireball, +72 dmg.
Defensive-wise, they're fine, it's just the offense that worries me. Is this because they are playing very offense-focused characters, or because I have given them too many or too powerful magic items? So I'll list their ability scores, their AC and hit points, attacks, magic items, etc, and hope someone can give an estimate.
Magic items: +2 greatsword, Bracers of Fortitude (increases CON to 19), Mithral splint armor. Used standard array for character creation.
2nd: Enna Moonblossom, high elf wizard evoker 5.
STR 10, DEX 17, CON 16, INT 19, WIS 13, CHA 10. (Used a alternate method of rolling for abilities: roll 4d6, drop lowest. Any rolls lower than 8 can be treated as an 8, and any rolls higher than 15 must be treated as a 15).
AC 16 (mage armor), hit points 37 (used average per level).
Magic items: Headband of Intellect, Ring of Magic Missiles (same as wand but doesn't roll charges, just has 4/day), Ring of Fireball (same as wand but doesn't roll charges, just has 3/day. May change this to 2/day, I've got a in-game way of doing so), Netherese Ring (casts mage armor 3/day, identify 2/day, no components required).
3rd: Shimmer Silverhand, high elf rogue thief 5 (Alustriel's her mom)
STR 10, DEX 18, CON 14, INT 14, WIS 12, CHA 10 (used point buy for character creation).
AC 16 (studded leather), hit points 37 (she rolled instead of using average per level).
Magic items: +1 shortbow, +1 shortsword, Boots of Striding and Springing, Quiver of Unending arrows (does what is says on the can).
Hopefully, someone can give me an answer.
I personally start handing out +1 weapons at 5th level and +2's at 8th or 9th, but it usually won't have much effect either way, They seem to be just going nova first combat so try to wear them down with multiple moderately hard encounters per day, and how much damage are they taking?, just curious, because making monsters go bananas first round of combat could really level the playing field.
Even giving them a small blessing or access to an additional feat can make the loss of that much power feel less bad, and no one feat is gonna make up for the amount of power they would be sacrificing
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As I see it hte biggest problem is the wizard:
The rogue isn't too overpowered, point buy and no ability boosting magic items so Ability scores are fine. Studded leather is standard for level 5 rogues, they might have a +1 sword OR a +1 bow rather than both which means they do a bit more damges if they get into melee / before they can get into melee but that isn't massive, the boots are a bit of a boost, mainly for out of combat situations but shouldn't break anything and the arrows are cheap so not having to micromanage thenm is fine
A level 5 fighter might have splint but mithral is a big boost helping the party get surprise (or avoid being surprised). A +2 sword as others have said shouldn't appear until around level 11, compared to a +1 it might hit 65% of the time instead of 60% for a +1 and do an extra 1 damage when it does so you might get an extra 15% damage output and the boost to con helps not just with hit points bot also for con save .
The biggest problemt however is the wizard. A wizard should have 4 first level, 3 second level and 2 3rd level spells per day with arcane recovery giving 3 levels more (say another 3rd level spell). This wizard cast cast 3 third level fireball on top of that, doesn't need to use a 1st level spell on mage armor, will never be caught without mage armor up if they are attacked in the middle of the night (I wouldn't expet most wizards t use all there 1st level slots to keep mage armor permanently up), cast anothert 3 level spell as 3rd level magic missile (assuming the ring has a chance of ceasing to function if you use all 4 charges) and cast identifty twice per day. With the headband of intellect they have also been able to boost their dex and/or con where normally they would be needing to put the ASI in intellect, At a guess you have probably doubled the spellcasting power of this wizard.
You say you have an in game way of reducing the ring of fireball to 2 per day, could you easily reduce this to 1, this still makes it on a par with arcane recovery (given that fireball is the go to damage spell)
I get the impression that they are not having many combats a day. The game says they expect 6-8 combats per day with a couple of short rests but most campaigns rarely work like this. You could send them to a large dungeon with wandering monsters where long rests are impossible and short rests have a chance of being interrupted. (Have an NPC tell them as much) .With all their extra resources compared to a normal group you could give them 12 or more encounters in the dungeon crawl with a chance for a couple of short rests. That way they can not use a fireball in every battle, the fighter has to decide whether to use action surge and so on. That would get you through quitea few sessions and you could even have a "mad mage" type campaign where the ehole thing is dungeon delving like that. If not your players might like the challenge of having to manage resources
With a party of three giving the party a few more magic items can be a good idea (though not to the extent you have). a level 5 character has the same chance of survival a wyvern stinger if they are in a 3 person party or a 5 person party but obviously the 3 person party deal less damage per round and takes a higher proportion of the damage. The solutions to that when running small parties are either, use lower CR monsters, lower the monster HP, add NPCs into theparty or or up the damage output of the party (normally with magic items).
I do love the idea of the characters sacrificing their items to save the world / town if your players are mature enough to accept the situation needs to change.
Before taking away their magic items, try throwing ranged enemies spread apart so Fireball can't get them all in one go. Have one or two high HP mobs for the Rogue and Fighter to punch on and a few ranged enemies for the Wizard to focus on. You can even put them behind partial cover to raise their AC.
Everyone in this thread is pointing out that they have real good magic gear, which is certainly something to take into consideration. I would also like to say that Dndbeyonds encounter builder overestimates.
Im pretty stingy with giving my players magic items, but I still find myself having to ramp up the encounters because my party is really good at combat. Take into account their synergy with eachother, the players tactics individually, and honestly dont be afraid to ramp it up a bit. It took me a while to figure out a good level of monsters to throw at them, but it's consistantly past the "deadly" range.
Ooh, sacrificing the items to save the world sounds good. Though, they already have the awed whispers as they pass through town, and most of them are nobles anyways (the fighter's cousin is a king, and the rogues mom is Alustriel Silverhand), so they talk/stay/hang out with rulers (most of them aren't even local ones either, I'm talking the some of the greatest kingdoms in the Forgotten Realms) more often than they stay at taverns.
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You're right, I really went overboard on the wizard's magic items. I gave her the rings of magic missile and fireball because she had to "waste" several of her slots on healing spells, which I gave her cause the group doesn't have a cleric, and the items were too make up for it. I now realize I probably should have just given them loads of potions of healing instead.
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Also, I made a this thread: 3 5th level PCs with the following magic items: Is it OP or good? so if anyone has suggestion as to how many magic items would be good for my PCs, please let me know on it!
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I'd highly recommend using the Xanathar's chart for magic items as your guide, for the group. In the early levels, giving potions, scrolls, and other consumable magics allows the players to get treasure, but limits the power creep. By 5th level, each player in your group should have one Uncommon permanent item, with no more than one Rare magic item in total. If they each have two Uncommon items, its not unreasonable. But as you are now seeing, the gifting of magic items creates an effect to where the characters are too strong for their level, and those items are more important than their actual abilities.
No campaign suffered because the players "had too little magic". Many a campaign has been completely derailed because the players had too much.
Explain to the players you have made a big mistake, and are stripping them of much of what they have. If they are mature individuals they will accept that, and move on.
I was using Xanathars, but I misread the table and thought that was how many items each characters should have, not what the group should have as a whole..... BTW, so the fighter would be fine with his Rare +2 greatsword, then?
EDIT: So how's this sound: Wizard: +1 wand, Netherese Ring (detailed in OP).
Fighter: +2 gretasword, and either Bracers of Fortitude or Mithral splint
Rogue: +1 shortbow, +1 shortsword.
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For the fighter, +1 Greatsword at 5th level is a *very* nice. The mithral splint is fine as well; its an uncommon item. That would bring him back into line.
The rogue; one of those items would be fine. You know what would be a fair compromise; Keep the +1 shortsword and swap a dozen +1 arrows for that bow. Now the rogue has the same effect, but as a consumable resource that needs to be managed.
The Wizard as some pointed out requires the biggest fix. Wand of Magic Missiles; no problem. A +1 wand of the War Mage... Its maybe a little early but its uncommon, so I'd let that go as well. But that should be it. A scroll with Fireball spell would be okay, since its a one shot item.
I mean, even thinking more about this I can't help but note that none of their magic items are consumable, and they have no utility magic items. How does this group do in RP or puzzle challenges? They seem to be so focused on combat that they are getting a pass on skill challenges, or other parts of the game. Resource management is a thing; give the Wizard that fireball scroll and see how hesitant they are to use it (or if they use it right away, present a later encounter where it would have been a game changer to teach resource management).
For the wizard, I think I'm going to go with +1 wand and Netherese ring instead of wand of magic missiles, because she already has a lot of offensive spells, and the ring only casts mage armor and identify, so it gives her a boost to defense. I don't think she needs any more offensive spells than she already has (she has a lot). Yeah, both a +1 greatsword and a CON increasing magic item are a bit much for the fighter.
For skill challenges, they do good, the fighter has Athletics and Survival to break and track things, the rogue has Expertise in Stealth and Perception and thieves' tools, so sneaking as well as finding and disarming traps are good, and the wizard has Arcana and History, so they cover pretty much all necessary skills for exploring. They are a little weak on the social interaction side of things, but I rarely require skill checks in social interaction, I normally just go by the players roleplaying.
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The wizard and fighter are over geared.
The fighter having a +2 is a lot for the level
The Wizard having a free 4x magic missile and 3x fireball is nuts.
You have to realize even a level 20 wizard only has 4x 1st and 3x 3rd level slots, and you just gave them that many for free. This basically frees them up to just go nuts and never run out of spells.
Your Wizard also has bless and cure wounds which are not on the wizard spell list which make them a whole lot more powerful
They are overpowered, but honestly. It doesn't really matter. They kill the big guys too fast? Oh well. The primary factor to consider is are they having fun? At the end of the day, they are the "stars" of the story you're telling with them. You're allowed to just throw higher CR enemies at them or even to fudge the stats on the fly if its good for the story and the experience.
Also, you don't have to throw perfectly matched fights against them. Through in a bandit attack with like 20 low level bandits at them. It'll be a quick easy fight but it'll sap some of their resources a bit..or whatever type of mob would fit for your story.
My PCs are usually overpowered because they tend to enjoy it more. I tend to lean more towards player empowerment. Most of my npc's/monsters tend to have more malleable stats and I kinda change them around based on whats going on to make for a good story. I've let a character kill a higher CR bandit leader with one attack, even though his HP was much higher than the damage, simply because it made for a cool moment. I've also had peon minions fight through a fireball to get in one last strike before dying, even though he took 20 more damage than he had HP.
Most of the enemies I use end up being a name/description, a list of actions, maybe a few quick notes and then I keep track of the damage done to them to gauge their damage state and when they die.
My advice is always, stop worrying about the PCs being to powerful, and focus on what kind of things can you put in place to let them do cool stuff with that power.
Just my .02
Musician. Artist. Gamer.
@RequiemMachine on Socials
I hear you, but it sounded like the OP felt the party cutting through the monsters like butter was reducing the enjoyment since the combats weren't threatening the group much. He's having to scale his CR to the point where they will run out of threats.
Ultimately the OP has to ensure the players have fun, and you are right; they may want to play OP characters. Then it comes down what obstacles are worthwhile challenges for them. I could see that becoming tedious work to keep up as a DM.
The OP sounded to me like a newer GM that is worried about making encounters by the rules and its not working because their players are too powerful for the things that the rules say should challenge them. If they're worried about the players having fun, they should just ask them if they are or not.
My response was more about not worrying about CR or Monster rules so much. You don't have to stick to the stat-block all the time you can fudge and shift the rules as DM if it makes the game more fun for everyone.
Musician. Artist. Gamer.
@RequiemMachine on Socials
I personally start handing out +1 weapons at 5th level and +2's at 8th or 9th, but it usually won't have much effect either way, They seem to be just going nova first combat so try to wear them down with multiple moderately hard encounters per day, and how much damage are they taking?, just curious, because making monsters go bananas first round of combat could really level the playing field.
Mystic v3 should be official, nuff said.
Even giving them a small blessing or access to an additional feat can make the loss of that much power feel less bad, and no one feat is gonna make up for the amount of power they would be sacrificing