Dealing with Game-Breaking Characters

While the customized wizard rules allow players a great deal of flexibility in creating their characters, they also allow a clever player to put together a “super-wizard” by carefully selecting limitations that he thinks will rarely hinder the character. Don’t despair; this is a zero-sum character creation system, and for every strength a character must also incorporate a corresponding weakness. Here are a few guidelines for handling high-powered characters:

DM’s Prerogative: The DM always has the final say on anything in his campaign. If a player insists on building characters that unbalance the game, the DM is within his rights to simply not approve the character or disallow customized character creation in his game.

Point Limits: The DM can limit the number of additional powers purchased by a wizard by setting a limit of 60 or 70 points of optional abilities. After the first 40 points, each additional ability must still be paid for by taking limitations. This prevents a player from building a wizard with every ability on the list and balancing it with every limitation. Optionally, the DM can require that a wizard spend at least 30 points acquiring schools to cast spells from, or set other spending limits in specific areas.

Limitations with a Vengeance: A player might think he’s getting away with something when he takes a couple of belief or environmental condition limitations, but a good DM can always find a way to bring these role-playing disadvantages into play. By looking for situations where the super-character’s built-in weaknesses cripple him, the DM can graphically illustrate how out of balance the character actually is.

The Bad Guys are Supermen, Too: Naturally, if one character is a walking arsenal of powers and abilities, it stands to reason that some NPCs might have similar skills. No matter how tough a particular PC is, there’s always someone in the game world who’s a little tougher than him, and meeting that NPC is a super-character’s worst nightmare. While this tactic isn’t particularly elegant, it’s quite effective in letting the player know just how it feels to be in the place of the poor NPCs his character s been terrorizing.

Table of Contents