We are mostly new to D&D and this is my first time DMing.
The party has a rogue, a wizard, a monk, a barbarian, and a warlock, all at 2nd level.
I am running the Hoard of the Dragon Queen campaign and they have not made much progress after a few sessions. What are ways I can keep everyone engaged?
The warlock has made a character that is more powerful than the rest of the party and several of the other members have told me that they feel like they are not doing much in combat. The warlock tends to look through the rules and try to make his character do as much as possible. What are some ways I can deal with that? I have tried to talk to him and he seems not worried about any problems with that. What can I do to make him adapt to make this fun for the others? He is mostly using eldritch blast to evaporate everything and has mentioned magic stone. The eldritch invocations do not seem to be balanced. He has ended up with 20 charisma and seems to completely break the power scale. What can I do without ruining it for him or the others?
I hope this made sense and is a good question, I am new to D&D and these forums.
Your job, as the DM, is to make sure the players (all the players) are having a good time. I see that you're trying to do that by talking to your party's warlock about maybe pulling his punches. But if he doesn't care about whether or not the other players are having fun, then he's becoming a problem. There's a few ways you can handle this:
1. Consider a more assertive conversation. Tell him that he needs to recreate his character without such broken stats, so that the others can enjoy the game too. Remind him that this is a cooperative game where everyone needs a chance to shine.
2. Remember that no player can win an arms race against the DM. Bring forth opponents that can resist CHA based magic, or are wearing gear that negates his favorite spells. Homebrew some, if you have to. Antimagic gear and and antimagic fields may hinder your wizard, but there are other ways. He likes Eldritch Blast? Load the room up with ghosts, specters, wraiths, and elementals. When the party finds loot (make sure this happens a lot), make sure the treasure buffs rogues, wizards, monks, and barbarians. And keep loading them up with treasure until they are balanced with the warlock. Once everyone is doing their fair share of damage, even out the treasure rewards again.
3. Split the party. Rocks fall, and the main party falls through a shoot, out of range for the warlock to teleport, and run a separate side quest to get them all back together. Then you can balance the encounters to suit each group.
4. If he complains about these attempts to fix the game, assert that if a compromise can't be met, he may have to take a break from the game. Because... again.. your job is to make sure the whole party is having fun. And if one player is actively choosing to take the fun out of the campaign, then you're left with only one solution. I don't recommend this solution. Kicking someone from a game can really kill the buzz. Especially if you're playing with friends. But I've had to do it before. Severing the limb to save the body is a desperate choice when no compromises can be found.
Your job, as the DM, is to make sure the players (all the players) are having a good time. I see that you're trying to do that by talking to your party's warlock about maybe pulling his punches. But if he doesn't care about whether or not the other players are having fun, then he's becoming a problem. There's a few ways you can handle this:
1. Consider a more assertive conversation. Tell him that he needs to recreate his character without such broken stats, so that the others can enjoy the game too. Remind him that this is a cooperative game where everyone needs a chance to shine.
2. Remember that no player can win an arms race against the DM. Bring forth opponents that can resist CHA based magic, or are wearing gear that negates his favorite spells. Homebrew some, if you have to. Antimagic gear and and antimagic fields may hinder your wizard, but there are other ways. He likes Eldritch Blast? Load the room up with ghosts, specters, wraiths, and elementals. When the party finds loot (make sure this happens a lot), make sure the treasure buffs rogues, wizards, monks, and barbarians. And keep loading them up with treasure until they are balanced with the warlock. Once everyone is doing their fair share of damage, even out the treasure rewards again.
3. Split the party. Rocks fall, and the main party falls through a shoot, out of range for the warlock to teleport, and run a separate side quest to get them all back together. Then you can balance the encounters to suit each group.
4. If he complains about these attempts to fix the game, assert that if a compromise can't be met, he may have to take a break from the game. Because... again.. your job is to make sure the whole party is having fun. And if one player is actively choosing to take the fun out of the campaign, then you're left with only one solution. I don't recommend this solution. Kicking someone from a game can really kill the buzz. Especially if you're playing with friends. But I've had to do it before. Severing the limb to save the body is a desperate choice when no compromises can be found.
Wow. I would not want you as a DM. If all they do is "...look through the rules and try to make his character do as much as possible.", then a: ask them to change their character using point buy or standard array. They'll probably enjoy optimizing that. b: give the other players more directly powerful loot. You should give the warlock player more utility based magic items. c: encourage the others to try to do similar things. d: encourage the player to use supporting tactics and spells. Definitely don't be hostile to them because they're more interested in the finer aspects of the game than the other players.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Nothing goes over my head. My reflexes are to fast: I would catch it."
"I cannot comment on an ongoing investigation."
"Well of course I know that. What else is there? A kitten?"
"You'd like to think that, Wouldn't you?"
"What do you mean? An African or European swallow?"
We are mostly new to D&D and this is my first time DMing.
The party has a rogue, a wizard, a monk, a barbarian, and a warlock, all at 2nd level.
I am running the Hoard of the Dragon Queen campaign and they have not made much progress after a few sessions. What are ways I can keep everyone engaged?
The warlock has made a character that is more powerful than the rest of the party and several of the other members have told me that they feel like they are not doing much in combat. The warlock tends to look through the rules and try to make his character do as much as possible. What are some ways I can deal with that? I have tried to talk to him and he seems not worried about any problems with that. What can I do to make him adapt to make this fun for the others? He is mostly using eldritch blast to evaporate everything and has mentioned magic stone. The eldritch invocations do not seem to be balanced. He has ended up with 20 charisma and seems to completely break the power scale. What can I do without ruining it for him or the others?
I hope this made sense and is a good question, I am new to D&D and these forums.
Welcome to the forums.
Making Progress - I literally have a weekly group who can spend the entire four hours and make absolutely no meaningful progress. They'll just chat in character and discuss the situation in game. Seriously! Fact is that it's okay. As long as the players are having fun, try not to worry too much about 'progress'. GMs are worldbuilders, level designers, not storytellers. The group tells the story, and do so for enjoyment. As long as people are enjoying themselves don't panic. Now, if some of the players aren't happy or aren't enjoying the lack of progress, then I'd suggest this is where GMs do need to railroad slightly. And this can be done real easily. You just say something like - 'as you talk, Governer Greenhall approaches your group. They're keen to find someone to undertake a specific quest and it seems you are the group chosen.' You then explain the quest, offer the party a market trader en route to the quest start point to stock up on basics (the trader refuses to haggle though and you make that clear from the start). Then once restocked they are at the start location of the quest. Sometimes players and parties need this push in the right direction. You'll eventually get a feel for it, but until you do, there's nothing wrong with checking in on the players and seeing if they are happy about the pacing of the game.
Keeping everyone engaged - Think of yourself like a spotlight operator. Your job is to cast the spotlight on each player evenly. If someone hasn't participated or spoken for a while, you can say something as simple as 'while these characters are chatting up the barman, what is your character doing?' and give the player and their character the option of simply leaving the others at the bar if it comes to it. My rule of thumb is that in each situation, no one player should be taking the spotlight for longer than three minutes at a time unless the party have agreed to it. For example, your party are heading to a temple where the Ranger worships their deity. Because of this the party nominate the Ranger to take the lead on conversations with the clergy within the temple.
The Warlock's Power - Did the warlock roll stats in front of the whole group? Did they create the character without consulting you? Did you lay down rules on how characters should be created? A lot of questions I know but in general, before the game begins it's always helpful to specify what options are allowable or disallowed in character creation. As a rule of thumb rolling stats can be fun, but in this character's case we're saying that they rolled the massively unlikely 3-sixes on one roll. That sets off big warning bells if they didn't roll that in your presence. What I have done before now is sit all the players down and explain that the party is a little unbalanced and it's a little unfair to some players. So, you're now going to have all the party edit their characters to use the standard array. That way every character has limitations and strengths that are more equal and more fair. Most reasonable players understand this and will tend to agree. Any that don't - personally, I'd remove them from the table - I've seen too many players try to cheat their fellow players by clinging to dice rolls that weren't legitimate to do anything different.
Looking through the rules - Frankly this can be a double edged sword for players. Remind the players that the rules don't govern the game - the DM does! This has been highlighted in the 5.5e Dungeon Masters' Guide, but was also in the 5e DMG
The D&D rules help you and the other players have a good time, but the rules aren’t in charge. You’re the DM, and you are in charge of the game. That said, your goal isn’t to slaughter the adventurers but to create a campaign world that revolves around their actions and decisions, and to keep your players coming back for more!
Dungeon Master's Guide. Pg.4
You as DM can disallow any features in the game that you like. This isn't a popular stance in the GM community. Many of us prefer to allow player agency, however, a good start can be by saying that you won't be allowing any optional rules. That immediately shuts down a lot of loopholes. I mean, before now I've been heard to say that 'the rules say this, but that seems stupid in this situation, so we'll be ruling it this way'. It's almost always in the players' favour as a group, even if it minorly impacts a single player character. The other way is to essentially rigidly enforce the rules. Do they have the right components to cast that spell? Is the character trying to be stealthy? Oh, well then are they sure they want to cast that spell with a verbal component and give away their location? Min-Maxers tend to hate that stuff. Never-the-less this kind of thing can be a nuclear option and I'd likely remove a player from the table long before doing this stuff.
Ruining the fun for others - In my games this is the biggest sin and is what is likely to get a player removed from the table. There is a thing I call 'main character syndrome' it is where a player thinks of their character as the main character. This just isn't ever the case in my games. And if a player starts exhibiting signs that they think of their character as the main character I have a talk with them first, then if they still continue I remove them from the table. At this point I'm too old and too fed up with the world for tolerating players who ruin the fun for others. At session zero I set down that my expectation is mutual respect and consideration for fellow players. At signs that a player doesn't respect, or isn't considering their fellow players they'll get a warning. If behaviour persists they'll be removed from the game group. No ifs, buts, or coconuts. Either the player fits in with the others, or they leave. Trying to negotiate with some player styles just isn't worth the time or effort.
All of that said... - this might just be able play styles. I have little tolerance for min-maxers. They're a player style that I just detest. There are DMs out there who seem to love the min-maxers. And you know what? That's awesome. But one thing I always say is that some playstyles just aren't compatible. Min-Maxers will never work out at my tables. Neither will main characters. There are hack 'n' slash style DMs who would LOVE that type of player though. And there should never be shame or hurt feelings in recognising that a player isn't compatible with other players. They'll be able to find fun elsewhere.
I have think they mentioned that they would have the 20 even with point buy because (correct me if I’m wrong) 18 from point buy +2 from Dragonborn is 20. I will try to talk to them about changing their character from rolled so at least they would have some caveat from doing that. I can probably give the others loot once we finish this part of the story, but that’s not as immediate.
The max from point buy is 15; +2 from a 2014-rules race (or 2024-rules background) gives you 17. If you did a free feat or something they might've gotten to 18, but not 20.
All that said, others with more experience can correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm not sure a Charisma bonus higher by 2 at most than they'd have without rolling is so broken that it'd upstage the entire rest of the party, though? Like, it's big at Level 2, but it doesn't seem "take over every encounter" big. Exactly what invocations are they using? Even with Agonizing Blast, Eldritch Blast is basically identical to a heavy crossbow.
If the Warlock's build is all fair, I might look at beefing up your enemies? That's not so much a "balance between players" idea as a "limiting the psychological effect of seeing the Warlock oneshot things" idea, but it might help.
You could also read up a little on the other players' classes and give them some optimizing tips? They may not want to and that's fine, but it could help too.
Basically, if your Warlock is engaging fairly with the rules, it's not really anyone's fault and I'd save responses that might come across as a punishment for later resorts.
I have think they mentioned that they would have the 20 even with point buy because (correct me if I’m wrong) 18 from point buy +2 from Dragonborn is 20. I will try to talk to them about changing their character from rolled so at least they would have some caveat from doing that. I can probably give the others loot once we finish this part of the story, but that’s not as immediate.
You need to remove them from your table. That is a flat lie to your face, you can't buy anything higher than a 15 +2 = 17 highest possible stat before level 4. This means they are deliberately exploiting your inexperience and will likely try to cheat in other ways as well. You can't trust them, and trust is an important aspect of the game. It is exhausting to police your players to stop them from cheating while also trying to run the game as a DM. They will continue to exploit your inexperience to break the game and ruin it for everyone else. You need to remove them from the game.
I have think they mentioned that they would have the 20 even with point buy because (correct me if I’m wrong) 18 from point buy +2 from Dragonborn is 20. I will try to talk to them about changing their character from rolled so at least they would have some caveat from doing that. I can probably give the others loot once we finish this part of the story, but that’s not as immediate.
Yeah they've lied. Point buy max is 15. You only get +1 from Dragonborn. They are trying to cheat. Boot them from the table would be my advice. If they're cheating at this stage it won't get better with time.
Also, what I was intending to say is that you apply the rules evenly. If you only ask this one player to alter their stats, it defeats the point if everyone else is using point buy.
To explain: I've had my players previous roll stats. The whole party ended up so unbalanced that it was clear some players were lagging seriously behind by level 4. At that point I sat everyone down and said 'hey, would you mind if we switch our base stats over to standard array. This will weaken one player's character, but will mean that the whole party is on an even playing field.' My players all agreed that it had felt weird that one player had three low stats (below 12), but another bad five base stats that were in excess of 14. So they all agreed to switch. It was an early stage mistake on my part as a GM, but my players were awesome and wanted the fairness between them all.
Stress the concept of Shared Fun with everyone at your table, and in a side conversation with the player in question. The goal is for everyone to have fun together and that means every individual present should be thinking about ways to up the fun for the others. It's a simple concept and makes for an excellent table.
I have taught players that they can even stop the game on account of a shared fun violation to call out what's not fun and we have a group discussion on how to make it fun for everyone. It's not about blame, it's about finding the path to fun.
I have think they mentioned that they would have the 20 even with point buy because (correct me if I’m wrong) 18 from point buy +2 from Dragonborn is 20. I will try to talk to them about changing their character from rolled so at least they would have some caveat from doing that. I can probably give the others loot once we finish this part of the story, but that’s not as immediate.
Yeah they've lied. Point buy max is 15. You only get +1 from Dragonborn. They are trying to cheat. Boot them from the table would be my advice. If they're cheating at this stage it won't get better with time.
I'm pretty sure you can choose 18 if you are using an optional rule in the old DMG. Regardless, it is possible to make a mistake or misread something.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Nothing goes over my head. My reflexes are to fast: I would catch it."
"I cannot comment on an ongoing investigation."
"Well of course I know that. What else is there? A kitten?"
"You'd like to think that, Wouldn't you?"
"What do you mean? An African or European swallow?"
I'm pretty sure you can choose 18 if you are using an optional rule in the old DMG. Regardless, it is possible to make a mistake or misread something.
I don't see any ability score generation variants in the old DMG. You can start with an 18 if you use a custom lineage from Tasha's, choose a feat that gives an ability score bonus, and put both your +2 and the feat bonus in the same ability score, but the only way to have a 20 at level 2 is by rolling ability scores, getting an 18, and getting a +2 from race (2014) or background (2024), or by rolling a 17 and getting +3 from Tasha's as above, and there's no plausible way of reading the point buy rules to allow an 18. Note that a dragonborn in 2014 had a bonus of +1 to charisma, not +2, so you'd need to use Tasha's to swap your bonuses.
Rolling an 18 is not per se rare enough to be suspect (when rolling on 4 keep 3, about 10% of characters will start with an 18), but the combination with everything else puts it well over my threshold for suspension of disbelief.
I'm pretty sure you can choose 18 if you are using an optional rule in the old DMG. Regardless, it is possible to make a mistake or misread something.
There is no optional rule in the 2014 DMG that would alter this. Now, Tasha's does have an option of customising origins it is true but that would mean that instead of a +1 to Charisma you're putting your +1 elsewhere. I think most DMs would have the good sense to say that at best you can switch around the +2 STR and +1 CHA to become +1 STR and +2 CHA. It's fairly clear that the intention here isn't to allow stacking of these stats.
Even then, that's not the point. Optional rules are, and always have been 'with the permission of the DM' in D&D 5e.
The combination of ability scores, race, class, and background defines your character’s capabilities in the game, and the personal details you create set your character apart from every other character. Even within your class and race, you have options to fine-tune what your character can do. But this chapter is for players who — with the DM’s permission — want to go a step further.
Player's Handbook 2014, pg. 163
Players that assume they can utilise any published rules are making assumptions. I mean, sure I know most tables just sort of accepted that feats were part and parcel of the game...but that doesn't mean there aren't GMs out there who didn't allow them. It is that which the underlying flaw in the reasoning of your response. Optional rules are at GM's discretion much like which source books are available are too.
I have for example seen players decide 'oh hey, I bought this one book. I'm not going to share it, but I'm going to use character options from it.' My (I think common sense ruling) is that unless a player is willing to share a book with me and the rest of the party then it is automatically disallowed. This isn't MTG where the person with the most money can win. I do this with Pathfinder as well. If I don't have the books available for players to borrow and read, and a player doesn't wish to share or lend their copy - the source is disallowed as standard.
Options are great for players, great for GMs and great for parties but they must be agreed upon in advance and with the knowledge of the GM.
I'm pretty sure you can choose 18 if you are using an optional rule in the old DMG. Regardless, it is possible to make a mistake or misread something.
There is no optional rule in the 2014 DMG that would alter this. Now, Tasha's does have an option of customising origins it is true but that would mean that instead of a +1 to Charisma you're putting your +1 elsewhere. I think most DMs would have the good sense to say that at best you can switch around the +2 STR and +1 CHA to become +1 STR and +2 CHA. It's fairly clear that the intention here isn't to allow stacking of these stats.
Even then, that's not the point. Optional rules are, and always have been 'with the permission of the DM' in D&D 5e.
The combination of ability scores, race, class, and background defines your character’s capabilities in the game, and the personal details you create set your character apart from every other character. Even within your class and race, you have options to fine-tune what your character can do. But this chapter is for players who — with the DM’s permission — want to go a step further.
Player's Handbook 2014, pg. 163
Players that assume they can utilise any published rules are making assumptions. I mean, sure I know most tables just sort of accepted that feats were part and parcel of the game...but that doesn't mean there aren't GMs out there who didn't allow them. It is that which the underlying flaw in the reasoning of your response. Optional rules are at GM's discretion much like which source books are available are too.
I have for example seen players decide 'oh hey, I bought this one book. I'm not going to share it, but I'm going to use character options from it.' My (I think common sense ruling) is that unless a player is willing to share a book with me and the rest of the party then it is automatically disallowed. This isn't MTG where the person with the most money can win. I do this with Pathfinder as well. If I don't have the books available for players to borrow and read, and a player doesn't wish to share or lend their copy - the source is disallowed as standard.
Options are great for players, great for GMs and great for parties but they must be agreed upon in advance and with the knowledge of the GM.
But even so, it is likely the player just made a mistake. It seems to me like people here are projecting malice on this player who hasn't really done anything.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Nothing goes over my head. My reflexes are to fast: I would catch it."
"I cannot comment on an ongoing investigation."
"Well of course I know that. What else is there? A kitten?"
"You'd like to think that, Wouldn't you?"
"What do you mean? An African or European swallow?"
But even so, it is likely the player just made a mistake.
No, it really isn't likely that the player just made a mistake; people who busily read all the rules to figure out how to optimize their character can be reasonably expected to be rules-savvy enough to not make obvious errors, such as thinking it's possible to have a starting 20 with point buy.
But even so, it is likely the player just made a mistake.
No, it really isn't likely that the player just made a mistake; people who busily read all the rules to figure out how to optimize their character can be reasonably expected to be rules-savvy enough to not make obvious errors, such as thinking it's possible to have a starting 20 with point buy.
Considering I literally just made that mistake, I think you're wrong.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Nothing goes over my head. My reflexes are to fast: I would catch it."
"I cannot comment on an ongoing investigation."
"Well of course I know that. What else is there? A kitten?"
"You'd like to think that, Wouldn't you?"
"What do you mean? An African or European swallow?"
After looking the character over and recalculating, the cha was 19, not 20. It is 16 from a rolled value, +2 from background increase, and +1 from Dragonborn. I am talking to them and they seem inclined to accept reining it in and making their character similar to the others. Yes, I think part of it is oneshotting low hp enemies being perceived as a lot.
After looking the character over and recalculating, the cha was 19, not 20. It is 16 from a rolled value, +2 from background increase, and +1 from Dragonborn.
Which is also wrong. If you're using 2024 backgrounds, your species does not give an ASI at all, so it would be 18.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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We are mostly new to D&D and this is my first time DMing.
The party has a rogue, a wizard, a monk, a barbarian, and a warlock, all at 2nd level.
I am running the Hoard of the Dragon Queen campaign and they have not made much progress after a few sessions. What are ways I can keep everyone engaged?
The warlock has made a character that is more powerful than the rest of the party and several of the other members have told me that they feel like they are not doing much in combat. The warlock tends to look through the rules and try to make his character do as much as possible. What are some ways I can deal with that? I have tried to talk to him and he seems not worried about any problems with that. What can I do to make him adapt to make this fun for the others? He is mostly using eldritch blast to evaporate everything and has mentioned magic stone. The eldritch invocations do not seem to be balanced. He has ended up with 20 charisma and seems to completely break the power scale. What can I do without ruining it for him or the others?
I hope this made sense and is a good question, I am new to D&D and these forums.
The problem isn't warlock or character optimization. The problem is 20 charisma at level 2. This is why you don't roll stats.
Your job, as the DM, is to make sure the players (all the players) are having a good time. I see that you're trying to do that by talking to your party's warlock about maybe pulling his punches. But if he doesn't care about whether or not the other players are having fun, then he's becoming a problem. There's a few ways you can handle this:
1. Consider a more assertive conversation. Tell him that he needs to recreate his character without such broken stats, so that the others can enjoy the game too. Remind him that this is a cooperative game where everyone needs a chance to shine.
2. Remember that no player can win an arms race against the DM. Bring forth opponents that can resist CHA based magic, or are wearing gear that negates his favorite spells. Homebrew some, if you have to. Antimagic gear and and antimagic fields may hinder your wizard, but there are other ways. He likes Eldritch Blast? Load the room up with ghosts, specters, wraiths, and elementals. When the party finds loot (make sure this happens a lot), make sure the treasure buffs rogues, wizards, monks, and barbarians. And keep loading them up with treasure until they are balanced with the warlock. Once everyone is doing their fair share of damage, even out the treasure rewards again.
3. Split the party. Rocks fall, and the main party falls through a shoot, out of range for the warlock to teleport, and run a separate side quest to get them all back together. Then you can balance the encounters to suit each group.
4. If he complains about these attempts to fix the game, assert that if a compromise can't be met, he may have to take a break from the game. Because... again.. your job is to make sure the whole party is having fun. And if one player is actively choosing to take the fun out of the campaign, then you're left with only one solution. I don't recommend this solution. Kicking someone from a game can really kill the buzz. Especially if you're playing with friends. But I've had to do it before. Severing the limb to save the body is a desperate choice when no compromises can be found.
My DM Registry
My Campaigns:
Ibahalii Vriwhulth, the Reaper of Glory v2: IC Thread (PbP); Secrets of the Island (On Discord); Lost Mine of Phendelver (tabletop)
My Characters:
Krik-tul, Thri-kreen monk; Mme Cragmaw, Goblin Artificer; River Kuthraeann, Wood Elf Paladin
Wow. I would not want you as a DM. If all they do is "...look through the rules and try to make his character do as much as possible.", then a: ask them to change their character using point buy or standard array. They'll probably enjoy optimizing that. b: give the other players more directly powerful loot. You should give the warlock player more utility based magic items. c: encourage the others to try to do similar things. d: encourage the player to use supporting tactics and spells. Definitely don't be hostile to them because they're more interested in the finer aspects of the game than the other players.
Homebrew: dominance, The Necrotic
Extended signature
Welcome to the forums.
Making Progress - I literally have a weekly group who can spend the entire four hours and make absolutely no meaningful progress. They'll just chat in character and discuss the situation in game. Seriously! Fact is that it's okay. As long as the players are having fun, try not to worry too much about 'progress'. GMs are worldbuilders, level designers, not storytellers. The group tells the story, and do so for enjoyment. As long as people are enjoying themselves don't panic. Now, if some of the players aren't happy or aren't enjoying the lack of progress, then I'd suggest this is where GMs do need to railroad slightly. And this can be done real easily. You just say something like - 'as you talk, Governer Greenhall approaches your group. They're keen to find someone to undertake a specific quest and it seems you are the group chosen.' You then explain the quest, offer the party a market trader en route to the quest start point to stock up on basics (the trader refuses to haggle though and you make that clear from the start). Then once restocked they are at the start location of the quest. Sometimes players and parties need this push in the right direction. You'll eventually get a feel for it, but until you do, there's nothing wrong with checking in on the players and seeing if they are happy about the pacing of the game.
Keeping everyone engaged - Think of yourself like a spotlight operator. Your job is to cast the spotlight on each player evenly. If someone hasn't participated or spoken for a while, you can say something as simple as 'while these characters are chatting up the barman, what is your character doing?' and give the player and their character the option of simply leaving the others at the bar if it comes to it. My rule of thumb is that in each situation, no one player should be taking the spotlight for longer than three minutes at a time unless the party have agreed to it. For example, your party are heading to a temple where the Ranger worships their deity. Because of this the party nominate the Ranger to take the lead on conversations with the clergy within the temple.
The Warlock's Power - Did the warlock roll stats in front of the whole group? Did they create the character without consulting you? Did you lay down rules on how characters should be created? A lot of questions I know but in general, before the game begins it's always helpful to specify what options are allowable or disallowed in character creation. As a rule of thumb rolling stats can be fun, but in this character's case we're saying that they rolled the massively unlikely 3-sixes on one roll. That sets off big warning bells if they didn't roll that in your presence. What I have done before now is sit all the players down and explain that the party is a little unbalanced and it's a little unfair to some players. So, you're now going to have all the party edit their characters to use the standard array. That way every character has limitations and strengths that are more equal and more fair. Most reasonable players understand this and will tend to agree. Any that don't - personally, I'd remove them from the table - I've seen too many players try to cheat their fellow players by clinging to dice rolls that weren't legitimate to do anything different.
Looking through the rules - Frankly this can be a double edged sword for players. Remind the players that the rules don't govern the game - the DM does! This has been highlighted in the 5.5e Dungeon Masters' Guide, but was also in the 5e DMG
You as DM can disallow any features in the game that you like. This isn't a popular stance in the GM community. Many of us prefer to allow player agency, however, a good start can be by saying that you won't be allowing any optional rules. That immediately shuts down a lot of loopholes. I mean, before now I've been heard to say that 'the rules say this, but that seems stupid in this situation, so we'll be ruling it this way'. It's almost always in the players' favour as a group, even if it minorly impacts a single player character. The other way is to essentially rigidly enforce the rules. Do they have the right components to cast that spell? Is the character trying to be stealthy? Oh, well then are they sure they want to cast that spell with a verbal component and give away their location? Min-Maxers tend to hate that stuff. Never-the-less this kind of thing can be a nuclear option and I'd likely remove a player from the table long before doing this stuff.
Ruining the fun for others - In my games this is the biggest sin and is what is likely to get a player removed from the table. There is a thing I call 'main character syndrome' it is where a player thinks of their character as the main character. This just isn't ever the case in my games. And if a player starts exhibiting signs that they think of their character as the main character I have a talk with them first, then if they still continue I remove them from the table. At this point I'm too old and too fed up with the world for tolerating players who ruin the fun for others. At session zero I set down that my expectation is mutual respect and consideration for fellow players. At signs that a player doesn't respect, or isn't considering their fellow players they'll get a warning. If behaviour persists they'll be removed from the game group. No ifs, buts, or coconuts. Either the player fits in with the others, or they leave. Trying to negotiate with some player styles just isn't worth the time or effort.
All of that said... - this might just be able play styles. I have little tolerance for min-maxers. They're a player style that I just detest. There are DMs out there who seem to love the min-maxers. And you know what? That's awesome. But one thing I always say is that some playstyles just aren't compatible. Min-Maxers will never work out at my tables. Neither will main characters. There are hack 'n' slash style DMs who would LOVE that type of player though. And there should never be shame or hurt feelings in recognising that a player isn't compatible with other players. They'll be able to find fun elsewhere.
DM session planning template - My version of maps for 'Lost Mine of Phandelver' - Send your party to The Circus - Other DM Resources - Maps, Tokens, Quests - 'Better' Player Character Injury Tables?
Actor, Writer, Director & Teacher by day - GM/DM in my off hours.
I have think they mentioned that they would have the 20 even with point buy because (correct me if I’m wrong) 18 from point buy +2 from Dragonborn is 20. I will try to talk to them about changing their character from rolled so at least they would have some caveat from doing that. I can probably give the others loot once we finish this part of the story, but that’s not as immediate.
The max from point buy is 15; +2 from a 2014-rules race (or 2024-rules background) gives you 17. If you did a free feat or something they might've gotten to 18, but not 20.
All that said, others with more experience can correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm not sure a Charisma bonus higher by 2 at most than they'd have without rolling is so broken that it'd upstage the entire rest of the party, though? Like, it's big at Level 2, but it doesn't seem "take over every encounter" big. Exactly what invocations are they using? Even with Agonizing Blast, Eldritch Blast is basically identical to a heavy crossbow.
If the Warlock's build is all fair, I might look at beefing up your enemies? That's not so much a "balance between players" idea as a "limiting the psychological effect of seeing the Warlock oneshot things" idea, but it might help.
You could also read up a little on the other players' classes and give them some optimizing tips? They may not want to and that's fine, but it could help too.
Basically, if your Warlock is engaging fairly with the rules, it's not really anyone's fault and I'd save responses that might come across as a punishment for later resorts.
Medium humanoid (human), lawful neutral
You need to remove them from your table. That is a flat lie to your face, you can't buy anything higher than a 15 +2 = 17 highest possible stat before level 4. This means they are deliberately exploiting your inexperience and will likely try to cheat in other ways as well. You can't trust them, and trust is an important aspect of the game. It is exhausting to police your players to stop them from cheating while also trying to run the game as a DM. They will continue to exploit your inexperience to break the game and ruin it for everyone else. You need to remove them from the game.
Yeah they've lied. Point buy max is 15. You only get +1 from Dragonborn. They are trying to cheat. Boot them from the table would be my advice. If they're cheating at this stage it won't get better with time.
Also, what I was intending to say is that you apply the rules evenly. If you only ask this one player to alter their stats, it defeats the point if everyone else is using point buy.
To explain: I've had my players previous roll stats. The whole party ended up so unbalanced that it was clear some players were lagging seriously behind by level 4. At that point I sat everyone down and said 'hey, would you mind if we switch our base stats over to standard array. This will weaken one player's character, but will mean that the whole party is on an even playing field.' My players all agreed that it had felt weird that one player had three low stats (below 12), but another bad five base stats that were in excess of 14. So they all agreed to switch. It was an early stage mistake on my part as a GM, but my players were awesome and wanted the fairness between them all.
DM session planning template - My version of maps for 'Lost Mine of Phandelver' - Send your party to The Circus - Other DM Resources - Maps, Tokens, Quests - 'Better' Player Character Injury Tables?
Actor, Writer, Director & Teacher by day - GM/DM in my off hours.
Stress the concept of Shared Fun with everyone at your table, and in a side conversation with the player in question. The goal is for everyone to have fun together and that means every individual present should be thinking about ways to up the fun for the others. It's a simple concept and makes for an excellent table.
I have taught players that they can even stop the game on account of a shared fun violation to call out what's not fun and we have a group discussion on how to make it fun for everyone. It's not about blame, it's about finding the path to fun.
I'm pretty sure you can choose 18 if you are using an optional rule in the old DMG. Regardless, it is possible to make a mistake or misread something.
Homebrew: dominance, The Necrotic
Extended signature
I don't see any ability score generation variants in the old DMG. You can start with an 18 if you use a custom lineage from Tasha's, choose a feat that gives an ability score bonus, and put both your +2 and the feat bonus in the same ability score, but the only way to have a 20 at level 2 is by rolling ability scores, getting an 18, and getting a +2 from race (2014) or background (2024), or by rolling a 17 and getting +3 from Tasha's as above, and there's no plausible way of reading the point buy rules to allow an 18. Note that a dragonborn in 2014 had a bonus of +1 to charisma, not +2, so you'd need to use Tasha's to swap your bonuses.
Rolling an 18 is not per se rare enough to be suspect (when rolling on 4 keep 3, about 10% of characters will start with an 18), but the combination with everything else puts it well over my threshold for suspension of disbelief.
There is no optional rule in the 2014 DMG that would alter this. Now, Tasha's does have an option of customising origins it is true but that would mean that instead of a +1 to Charisma you're putting your +1 elsewhere. I think most DMs would have the good sense to say that at best you can switch around the +2 STR and +1 CHA to become +1 STR and +2 CHA. It's fairly clear that the intention here isn't to allow stacking of these stats.
Even then, that's not the point. Optional rules are, and always have been 'with the permission of the DM' in D&D 5e.
Players that assume they can utilise any published rules are making assumptions. I mean, sure I know most tables just sort of accepted that feats were part and parcel of the game...but that doesn't mean there aren't GMs out there who didn't allow them. It is that which the underlying flaw in the reasoning of your response. Optional rules are at GM's discretion much like which source books are available are too.
I have for example seen players decide 'oh hey, I bought this one book. I'm not going to share it, but I'm going to use character options from it.' My (I think common sense ruling) is that unless a player is willing to share a book with me and the rest of the party then it is automatically disallowed. This isn't MTG where the person with the most money can win. I do this with Pathfinder as well. If I don't have the books available for players to borrow and read, and a player doesn't wish to share or lend their copy - the source is disallowed as standard.
Options are great for players, great for GMs and great for parties but they must be agreed upon in advance and with the knowledge of the GM.
DM session planning template - My version of maps for 'Lost Mine of Phandelver' - Send your party to The Circus - Other DM Resources - Maps, Tokens, Quests - 'Better' Player Character Injury Tables?
Actor, Writer, Director & Teacher by day - GM/DM in my off hours.
But even so, it is likely the player just made a mistake. It seems to me like people here are projecting malice on this player who hasn't really done anything.
Homebrew: dominance, The Necrotic
Extended signature
No, it really isn't likely that the player just made a mistake; people who busily read all the rules to figure out how to optimize their character can be reasonably expected to be rules-savvy enough to not make obvious errors, such as thinking it's possible to have a starting 20 with point buy.
Considering I literally just made that mistake, I think you're wrong.
Homebrew: dominance, The Necrotic
Extended signature
Are you in fact the kind of person who goes hunting through source books to find the ways to optimize your character?
Yes, do you want an example?
Homebrew: dominance, The Necrotic
Extended signature
After looking the character over and recalculating, the cha was 19, not 20. It is 16 from a rolled value, +2 from background increase, and +1 from Dragonborn. I am talking to them and they seem inclined to accept reining it in and making their character similar to the others. Yes, I think part of it is oneshotting low hp enemies being perceived as a lot.
Which is also wrong. If you're using 2024 backgrounds, your species does not give an ASI at all, so it would be 18.