Excessive parry

[Faeron8]

Greetings everyone!

I'm playing through the Darkening in Mirkwood and, as a LM, I created Famous Weapons and Armour to my players, and one of them got the gandalf + double 6 to get it! I was pretty happy that it finally happened, but I think I unbalanced some mecanics, especially the Parry.
Here's the context: he's a Woodmen with 6 parry plus +4 from great shield (which was the treasure discovered) and +3 if he fights in the forest (which happens often as the name of the adventure sugests). So far he's got 13 Parry, but the qualities of the shield give +1 (Reinforced) and +3 if he chooses to spend 1 point of Hope per combat (Rune-scored Shield). If you add the Hound of Mirkwood, that makes the closest enemy Weary, he can literally solokill a Hill-Troll, because he will only get hit when the enemy roll a Sauron rune.
I would like to keep the idea of boosting one especific attribute with the treasure, but this one have gone too far. I would appreciate any sugestions about how to handle with this situation? Change the object? Change its qualities ?

Thank you so much for the attetion!

[Robin Smallburrow]

I think you need to read over the rules for Famous Weapons & Armour in Rivendell again, especially the section on how to incorporate these into your campaign. I am thinking especially of the advice that qualities of a famous piece need to be discovered by the PC within the story - how come your PC knows all the shield's qualities straight away?? He/she should only have been able to make use of one quality at most initially - other 'powers' can be 'asleep' until you as LM (discussing with the player) as to how the PC 'discovers' its other powers.

It sounds like you have created a too powerful item for your campaign - so you need to discuss with the other players what to do next, with the player affected having the most say. And you need to be upfront and honest -

"OK, this shield makes your character too powerful, so we need to discuss what to do"

Robin S.

[Faeron8]

Thank you for the answer! What happened is that he "unlocked" 2 qualities straight away, by upgrading his Valour, because he was pretty excited. And only after a brief use in game I noticed it was a mistake.

I will try to change it, but do you think I keep one of the parry bonus or just cut off all of them?

[edit] thinking about the item itself, changing from a great shield to a shield, lowers the parry by 2. And maybe changing the Reinforced, but keeping the Rune-scored... It still is op....

[Corvo]

Hi Faeron,

just a minor point, but a Great shield is +3 to parry, not +4.
Btw, with an encumbrance of 5, I suspect your Woodman is pretty laden with it

[bluejay]

I'd have a tendency to leave it as is (once you fix the Great Shield parry bonus correctly). Sure it's powerful but it is an amazing piece of magical gear and should feel as such.

He may be able to solo a troll but I wouldn't automatically discount him as too powerful. Anything involving the Hound of Mirkwood with a solo adversary tends to be a little unbalanced anyway. I'll guarantee he would struggle against a hill troll and a couple of Giant Bats. The Bewilder ability will absolutely be his downfall! Fighting multiple opponents is always far more dangerous as the Eye has more chance of coming up.

[Dunkelbrink]

I would let him keep it, I'm with Bluejay on this one. Magical items must feel powerful and if he's the defensive type, let him feel invulnerable. For a while.

He'll reach a very high parry number, but an Eye on the Feat die can still hit him. Skewer him with many goblin arrows, Bewilder him och Seize him or let him burn Hope on his Runes. Let him fight outside the forest.

[Cawdorthane]

I agree with bluejay and Dunkelbrink. Do not take away the Shield. You ought not to punish the player for your own error, and we have all made that mistake so do not feel too bad.

Throwing in some extra opponents to balance things to ensure a fun and challenging combat is always fine, as long as you do not overdo it and so the Companion is not made to feel that he or she Is being punished that way either. An item like that should be generating lots of Eye attraction anyway and intelligent foes may well recognise it for what it is, so that in narrative terms and in use of appropriate special hate powered abilities, the companion's power is levelled out as such foes target him etc.

It is safer to never be an indian-giver as a LM or GM of any system but there is nothing wrong in making such a boon a mixed blessing. And as long as everyone is enjoying the game, you are not going too far wrong.

cheers
Mark

[zedturtle]

One other thing to consider is that, RAW, you cannot raise your Valour by more than one step in a Fellowship phase. Also, I'd take a look at how much XP you're handing out (unless this player was just hoarding it from many years).

Finally, I do agree with the others... don't take Captain Mirkwood's shield from him, just give him challenges where the shield can't help or is of lesser use. And sometimes just let him be awesome.

[bluejay]

Haha, Zedturtle wins the thread for Captain Mirkwood!

[Indur Dawndeath]

I agree with all the others. In fact you didn't give him Superior Reinforced, so you are mindful. He could buy the Reinforced Great shield himself at any time, so the only extra Parry is gained at the cost of a point of Hope.
This will make him awesome, but not in every fight.
Remember that no ordinary player will have a chance to parry the Werewolf of Mirkwood if fighting in Darkness. Let your Captain Mirkwood have his moment of shine against such an opponent.
Most of my players are at 10-12 in Parry, so I tend to throw in a few extra opponents and give some fav weapon skills, when I need a challenge.

But really this is not a problem.

Cheers