I know this sounds like a humble-brag, but this is a serious question.
I'm playing an LG Protector Aasimar Paladin (Oath of Redemption), and after an extremely difficult encounter that the party barely survived, my DM awarded the party with several powerful magic items. The problem is that my character's item (a sun blade) is actually much more powerful than any of us anticipated, because of how well it is optimized for the type of enemies prevalent in our campaign and setting, (i.e. undead, fiends, devils, and Underdark monsters--basically anything vulnerable to radiant damage). That, coupled with my paladin's race/class features and skill set, means that my PC is doing way more damage than he probably should at this average party level, leaving the rest of the party with relatively little to do beyond sniping with spells/ranged attacks and buffing him--which is understandably quite tedious.
(Side Note: It also doesn't help that outside of combat, he's the party Face because of his Charisma score. DM and I have been trying to draw the other players out into RP, but most of the time they tend to say "Let the Face sort it out"--which is a whole other issue on its own).
The encounters themselves are actually well-balanced for the other members of the party--it's just my character that's the issue. My DM and I don't want to just go the route of making my PC "lose" his sword--in terms of lore and flavor, it's actually almost perfect for the character concept, which is precisely why we both chose it. But we need a way to "debuff" him in a convincing manner that will allow/force the other members of the party to engage more and get creative in combat, but which also won't:
hobble the rest of the party,
punish the party for using optimized tactics,
overly complicate encounter balancing for the DM,
involve some kind of obvious or implausible "retcon," or
completely nerf my PC with something cliche (e.g. having him take a "vow of nonviolence")
Basically, how can I help my DM create engaging and challenging combat, without just saying "Pally's gonna sit this one out because something something reasons."
Have the magic item be destroyed or edited in an awesome way. Like, you fight the boss and have to use use the sun blade to interrupt some horrible ritual. The sun blade absorbs the corruption of the ritual, saving the world/dungeon/town/whatever, but in the process using up it's radiant properties (i.e. nerfing the power down to whatever is appropriate. )
I had a similar issue with one of my groups with a fighter that was the first to get a decent magic item. I just started creating a range of enemies in each encounter. Instead of 4 CR4 enemies, they got a CR6 and 2 CR3 enemies. (Not sure if those work out to the same encounter rating, but hopefully you get my point.) Without even having to prompt him, the fighter immediately engaged the "mini-boss" each and every time. He knew he hit harder, and took it on himself to go after the biggest threat. The other players focused on the others, then turned their attention to the big one if it was still up. Depending on dice rolls, sometimes they had to save the fighter, or the fighter finished early and saved them. Since you and your DM are on the same page, it should be easy to sync up with that type of encounter. Don't make the "non BG" enemies too weak, and it should still make for a good encounter. Plus, everyone shares XP, so who kills who shouldn't be an issue.
Oh no! Turns out it was cursed! It permanently inflicts some increasingly bad thing the more you use it until you destroy it in some epic way. Not using it inflicts some other unfortunate thing.
Or you could give everyone else in the party equally awesome items and up the difficulty of the encounters.
Or...Dm could find ways to help boost everyone up (like Lehrer said.
The answer is not always to hinder the most powerful. In my campaign I see the group as heroes and heroes are powerful. Give them more power and make them fight even bigger challenges. Just an idea.
Have a big bad figure place a curse on your OP sword (or maybe just sinking the entire region in an atmosphere that dampens radiant magic), temporarily weakening its power. As your character levels up, their (Paladin) spirit overpowers the curse and lifts it, and the rate of this overpowering is at the DMs discretion. Therefore, the temporary debuff will wear off at a time when the sword should not longer be OP for its wielder's character level. For extra RP'ing flavour, the temporary debuff can be temporary deactivated at times of extreme danger as it would reflect the Paladin's willpower breaching its normal limits in such an extreme situation.
I get the feeling that permanent damage or loss of an iconic weapon absolutely sucks, so a temporary debuff on that weapon that eventually dissipates as you level up should do the trick.
If you don't want to go for the obvious already mentioned: "oops, it was cursed":
Find a way to "downgrade" the powers. That sounds like a much better idea than trying to upgrade all the others which can easily just lead to other balance issues.
Some ideas:
Take away some powers, you can even say they "are there", but will only be unlocked when you reach a certain level. This can again be explained ingame by you have to prove yourself for your God.
Demand that it costs two or three attunement "slots" (only work if you then will loose some other useful item and then have to choose.
You could have your character get drunk and accidentally go against his god for x amount of time, then a god call in which the god takes the sword until you are more immersed in him/her (you gain another level in the paladin class) that way you don’t debuff your sword but you also aren’t an end all be all in fights
I know this sounds like a humble-brag, but this is a serious question.
I'm playing an LG Protector Aasimar Paladin (Oath of Redemption), and after an extremely difficult encounter that the party barely survived, my DM awarded the party with several powerful magic items. The problem is that my character's item (a sun blade) is actually much more powerful than any of us anticipated, because of how well it is optimized for the type of enemies prevalent in our campaign and setting, (i.e. undead, fiends, devils, and Underdark monsters--basically anything vulnerable to radiant damage). That, coupled with my paladin's race/class features and skill set, means that my PC is doing way more damage than he probably should at this average party level, leaving the rest of the party with relatively little to do beyond sniping with spells/ranged attacks and buffing him--which is understandably quite tedious.
(Side Note: It also doesn't help that outside of combat, he's the party Face because of his Charisma score. DM and I have been trying to draw the other players out into RP, but most of the time they tend to say "Let the Face sort it out"--which is a whole other issue on its own).
The encounters themselves are actually well-balanced for the other members of the party--it's just my character that's the issue. My DM and I don't want to just go the route of making my PC "lose" his sword--in terms of lore and flavor, it's actually almost perfect for the character concept, which is precisely why we both chose it. But we need a way to "debuff" him in a convincing manner that will allow/force the other members of the party to engage more and get creative in combat, but which also won't:
Basically, how can I help my DM create engaging and challenging combat, without just saying "Pally's gonna sit this one out because something something reasons."
One way to do this is to have your player be a tank and take all the hits of some extra powerful creature.
You could make it a +1 instead of +2.
Remove the extra 1d8 damage to undead.
When the DM smiles, it is already to late.
I was hoping for something that wasn't a "retcon" of the item's stats, but now that I think of it there might actually be a way to make it work.
If we say that it's a Sentient Magic Item like Dawnguard, DM and I can spin it that the sword has decided to test him to see if he is "worthy."
So, even though he's attuned to it, he can't enjoy the full benefits of the weapon until he meets some unknown condition.
Thanks for the idea!
Also, if anyone else has any thoughts, please keep them coming! We can't be the only party dealing with a problem like this.
Give a major undead opponent a magic item that gives it resistance to radiant damage. Or maybe a bunch of potions that do that.
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Have the magic item be destroyed or edited in an awesome way. Like, you fight the boss and have to use use the sun blade to interrupt some horrible ritual. The sun blade absorbs the corruption of the ritual, saving the world/dungeon/town/whatever, but in the process using up it's radiant properties (i.e. nerfing the power down to whatever is appropriate. )
I had a similar issue with one of my groups with a fighter that was the first to get a decent magic item. I just started creating a range of enemies in each encounter. Instead of 4 CR4 enemies, they got a CR6 and 2 CR3 enemies. (Not sure if those work out to the same encounter rating, but hopefully you get my point.) Without even having to prompt him, the fighter immediately engaged the "mini-boss" each and every time. He knew he hit harder, and took it on himself to go after the biggest threat. The other players focused on the others, then turned their attention to the big one if it was still up. Depending on dice rolls, sometimes they had to save the fighter, or the fighter finished early and saved them. Since you and your DM are on the same page, it should be easy to sync up with that type of encounter. Don't make the "non BG" enemies too weak, and it should still make for a good encounter. Plus, everyone shares XP, so who kills who shouldn't be an issue.
Oh no! Turns out it was cursed! It permanently inflicts some increasingly bad thing the more you use it until you destroy it in some epic way. Not using it inflicts some other unfortunate thing.
Or you could give everyone else in the party equally awesome items and up the difficulty of the encounters.
Or...Dm could find ways to help boost everyone up (like Lehrer said.
The answer is not always to hinder the most powerful. In my campaign I see the group as heroes and heroes are powerful. Give them more power and make them fight even bigger challenges. Just an idea.
The sword reveals itself to be Intelligent (as it was in Curse of Strahd). It imposes a price on its wielder and considers abandoning your fighter.
Have a big bad figure place a curse on your OP sword (or maybe just sinking the entire region in an atmosphere that dampens radiant magic), temporarily weakening its power. As your character levels up, their (Paladin) spirit overpowers the curse and lifts it, and the rate of this overpowering is at the DMs discretion. Therefore, the temporary debuff will wear off at a time when the sword should not longer be OP for its wielder's character level. For extra RP'ing flavour, the temporary debuff can be temporary deactivated at times of extreme danger as it would reflect the Paladin's willpower breaching its normal limits in such an extreme situation.
I get the feeling that permanent damage or loss of an iconic weapon absolutely sucks, so a temporary debuff on that weapon that eventually dissipates as you level up should do the trick.
If your characte5 doesn't need the sword, give the sword to your order. Let a slightly less capable paladin benefit from its power.
If you don't want to go for the obvious already mentioned: "oops, it was cursed":
Find a way to "downgrade" the powers. That sounds like a much better idea than trying to upgrade all the others which can easily just lead to other balance issues.
Some ideas:
Ludo ergo sum!
The bad guys should get some non-radiant based allies.
Throw in a tank NPC and a necromancer that has developed a Protection from Radiant spell.
You could have your character get drunk and accidentally go against his god for x amount of time, then a god call in which the god takes the sword until you are more immersed in him/her (you gain another level in the paladin class) that way you don’t debuff your sword but you also aren’t an end all be all in fights
I would always have games in the old days where some characters are naturally stronger.
Quite simply give the other characters magic items perfect for their characters and make sure the Paladin can't steal it.
Do you have a DDB link for your Paladin you could share?