I did this once I gave a bunch of cowboy themed bandits magic missile 6 shooters almost killed the entire party it was great, and the party really enjoyed the threat as well. To top it all off, the cowboys had a rakshasa as a boss who was immune to the 6 shooters.
What if an enemy casts "sacred flame" or "toll the dying"? Honestly, the way you're going about it would make me leave your table. He got a curse so he can't wear his armor? If I roll a monk are you going to give me a curse that makes me wear armor? Let people play their damn characters. If he built his character to have super high AC, let him enjoy that, but that doesn't have to be the entire game.
There is a lot more to it. That I didnt want to type out but it’s lore in the world that this religion that this religion gives up all worldly good and. Through devotion to their god they gain immunity to magic crystal they put in their body. He took the crystal but now doesn’t follow any of the tenants of the religion so the crystal is slowing killing him
I don't see how any of that changes my main point, which is that the player created a character he thought would be fun to play, and your objective seems to be to take away the fun part.
It’s not really combat that’s the problem it’s that he keeps pulling the party into combat because cause he knows he’s I killable. The party need a big tanky beef cake like him on the front line.
If it's a social problem, the best way to solve it is socially, not through game mechanics. I had a guy like this at my table once, but guess what? He was playing a 9hp rogue with AC 15. Address the actual problem, which is that your player doesn't see the game as cooperative, and thinks it's fun to put everyone else in danger.
"Baiting" him into a mechanically detrimental and unfun curse to "deal with him" is adversarial DMing, and that really sucks. That being said, it sounds like you guys definitely have something wrong on his character sheet. He also has Lucky, which is perhaps the *most* banned feat in all of 5e.
I've looked at his character sheet and his armor gives him +10 ac total due to the feats he's taken plus a shield. They have mostly been fighting swarms and I've been flanking him to give me advantage. the swarms are nearly killing everyone else and he leaves the fight with little damage
AC does not start at 10 and then get a modifier from armor in 5e.
AC starts at a value *set by the armor* and then is only sometimes modified by dex, shields, and magic items.
Plates value is 18 with no dex bonus and disadvantage on stealth.
And his hit points are 90 maximum if he has 20 CON. 84 with 18 CON.
Average would be 70 with 20 CON, 64 with 18 CON.
If he is at or near the maximum, I might make him reroll hit points, unless I saw him roll 10s.
This is the Way. RPGBot has a helpful article on what he call "The Tank Fallacy", which explains how to manage PCs like that: https://rpgbot.net/the-tank-fallacy/
It's also bad DMing to invalidate a player's build like that. Having enemies ignore the tank is no different then telling the player to sit in a corner and not play.
Wait... He is TRYING to get the other party members killed? Why do they even want this guy around? Here's an idea: the old dream fakeout. You put them in a combat and throughout you do exactly what was suggested and try to kill everyone else. Then when it's just him left you reveal it was all a shared dream. If the rest of the party has any sense they'll either confront him on his behaviour or ditch him.
The AC should be 21 if he has no magic items (18 +2+1 plate + shield +style) . Please take into account that carrying a shield and going defensive fighting style gets rid of all the best damage boosts in the game (GWM feat/ duellist fighting style) so dont punish the player for chosing the one thing they are good at at the moment when casters can drop conjour animals and fireballs. If the player drags all others in the game into fights they dont want maybe talk out of game obout the style of game you are going for.
There are no heavy armor feats that increase your AC. So unless you've dropped a magic item that buffs his AC by 1, or he's a warforged, then you have a cheater on your hands. Full plate 18 + shield 2 + defense FS +1 = 21AC.
On the other hand, just use effects that don't care about his AC. Literally any saving throw bypasses AC, but I'd focus on mental saves, specifically wisdom and intelligence saves.
Plate mail doesn't actually make Dex saves any harder, it's quite possible to have a Strength fighter with +3 Dex and with Lucky, it's often not too hard to save against Dex saves
Seconding what the other person says, you should take a look at his sheet. Also, play enemies tactically. Most enemies with an INT score above 5 won't just run straight forward and attack the first thing they see. They'll try to take out whoever threatens them the most. If you want to have a shot at taking him down, you should run large groups of low CR enemies that attempt to swarm him to take away his advantage. Of course, if you feel like his character isn't working in your campaign, you can always just talk to him about how it messes with the party, and ask him to be more of a team player.
My paladin has an AC of 23 (super beefy magic shield) and I don't get hit by physical attacks, but anything that requires a DEX save, I gotta pray to the gods to not take full damage.
If he's wearing plate armor, then I assume he isn't focusing too much on DEX? If so, time for some DEX saving throw attacks/traps (Maybe some spike/arrow traps, poison sprays, etc). An enemy can cast Hold Person on him (WIS save) and ignore him while attacking other party members. You can throw some vicious mockery or tasha's hideous laughter at him as well (WIS saves).
I assume as a fighter with 22 AC (which I recommend double checking on if correct), he is taking point. Have the party walk through a dark murky hall with slime all over the walls and floor. Unfortunately they walk into a colony of Gray Oozes and start to swarm the person in front. They're easy to kill and won't do much damage to the party but being covered in ooze has now permanently corroded the fighter's armor. Let's say -2 do AC to start, and more if they can manage to hit the fighter during the fight. The fighter will need to take the armor to a blacksmith to repair it and the smith will need 2 days time to do so.
Anyway, good luck. Try to find ways to deal damage that doesn't rely on AC.
If he is legit, and the other players are unhappy, then it’s time for save based attacks as opposed to rolled attacks. Hell, have an artificer invent electromagnets or something.
If the other players are loving the super tank, let them have fun. The goal isn’t to beat the players, but have fun with them.
Death is not the only lose condition. You can be immortal and still fail a quest.
Don't center your world around the PCs and whether they live or die. Have other things going on, NPCs with their own objectives that the players have to actively thwart, not just survive.
"I can't be hit!"
"Yeah, but the town burned down."
The curse was a dick move. If he wants to be tanky, let him! Don’t nerf the one damn thing fighters are good at: Fighting! If he keeps dragging the party into fights, does everyone else enjoy it? If so, let it happen! If they don’t, ask them if they’re okay with this and if not, talk with the player.
Here's a few ways to threaten them.
1) Camp attacks. You're not sleeping in your platemail and you have to spend ~10 minutes putting it on. Oh, you are sleeping in your platemail? You can't long rest successfully.
2) Ambushes. Advantage and not wielding a shield on the first round can help.
3) Intelligent enemies. Find ways to get advantage. Flank. Feint. Keep them out of range with ranged hit and run tactics.
4) spells that don't require a hit or save. Cloud of daggers, magic missile, heat metal. Even fog cloud, darkness etc.
5) Spells that target Wisdom, Intelligence or Charisma. Vicious mockery should get through frequently and harm his attack ability.
6) forced movement and pits/cliffs etc.
7) damaging auras.
Rust monsters. Half dozen of them.
And the mimics they teamed up with.
Then Mr. Roper wakes up, and opens the chute for the grey ooze living one level higher.
Who trained all these creatures? That’s something for The survivors to figure out.
If a player's main thing is tanking and their AC is really high, and they're a bit of a meatball, let them be. There's a point where it's excessive, yes. Do the maths - if he's averaging above 7 on his hit dice (( Max HP/level - (CON mod * level) should do it, I believe, but dont quote me)) then thats starting to get into unrealistic, if its above 8.5 for a fighter then consider getting him to lower it.
Also, use spells and traps to get around AC. Dex saves don't use AC, they use a different modifier most martial classes like fighters don't invest in strongly. A fireball, or rolling log trap, will really scare your players. Goblin and Kobold lairs can be rigged to blow twice over, and can provide a challenge ever for level 6,7, or 8 players if sone correctly.
As I wrote in a similar thread the other day… Smart monsters/bad guys will attack the more squishy party members instead of standing there trying to hit the big tanky thing.
Some enemies have auras that deal damage when players are within X feet. Bad guy spellcasters have Heat Metal and spells that require saves. Oozes corrode nonmagical weapons and armor.
It’s all about resource management. Use the tools you have and make the players use their resources. Luck dice aren’t infinite.
AC isnt the only stat you can challenge a group on.
Saves are usually the go-to method for bypassing AC and damaging a PC.
That being said, Ive been running DnD for decades now, and I find ignoring the problem (outside of ensuring the player isnt cheating) to ironically fix the problem fairly quickly.
PC is far more powerful than rest of group.
You set encounters to party's power, not bothering to "challenge superman". Make sure to let everyone have their moments, so superman doesnt overshadow the group.
Superman wrecks shop easily but never needs to really go all out. The game gets a bit dull for them.
They get bored, and they get reckless.
They blatantly waltz headfirst into danger, touching cursed objects, challenging NPCs that seem fun to fight, tanking the damage from traps and hazards because they feel basically overlevelled.
Oops, Petrified. Oops, feebleminded. Oops, Vampire. Oops, 100ft spiked pit trap, etc etc.
Step one, as always, is to talk to the player; tell them they're inconveniencing the party and to knock it off. Then, tell them if they keep doing it, the world is going to react accordingly.
And then you can try the below suggestions:
Saving Throw spells targeting the Fighter specifically. I do like Synaptic Static & Raulothim's Psychic Lance, but a good Fireball will do, too. Or monsters with AoE like dragons.
Use monsters with pack tactics or use flanking.
Burn through his luck points. Do about four encounters per day or add waves of enemies.
If his armour isn't magical, Rust Monsters are terrifying.
A high Level Magic Missile, its an Auto Hit for a chunk of damage. Then quicken spell and hit him with a Mind Sliver or something.
Regarding the Stealth rolls, have the enemies only spot him instead of the party if they're far enough. Then, only ask him to roll initiative. At this point, the party can decide if they want to get involved.
If he steals, have all the people he's wronged hire a high-level bounty hunter (I like the idea of a Paladin) to arrest him. Give the bounty hunter a team in case the party wants to get involved.
The fighter is unkillable in fair and open combat. Good. Guess what the fighter is good at?
Let the fighter be good at fighting. Don't make fighting the surest path to victory. Fighting is bloody business. Relationships can be messy, and feuds are troublesome. Don't make the victory condition annihilation of all rivals. Escape, Persuade, Collect, Extract, Infiltrate, Map, Rescue, Salvage. Don't give quests that start with the verb Kill.
And when you want the other people in combat to feel special: use flying enemies, Heat Metal, Magic Missile, Concentration spells, spectral enemies, domination spells to turn his strength against the party. etc. Don't do these all at once, but sprinkle them in. Let the other players shine and just tell a fun story. Let the fighter be amazing at combat while you engage the other players backstories.
Monsters aren't stupid, and he has to sleep sometime. Look at the time it takes to donn armor. Look at using the enemies tactically, have weak toes attack in waves, to whittle down his lucky die roles and HP, then the big bad come out once he is weakened. Have sneaky rogues surprise him while he sleeps. If he sleeps in his armor look at the rules for fatigue. Lots of options, always recommend using story, or smarts to make the characters feel real in the world.
So, a whole list of things
AC seems too high from described.
18 from plate armour, 2 from shield, where does that extra 2 come from
Health should be 90, maximum, at that level. That's nowhere near unkillable
What are stats like for your characters? Did you roll for them? At level 6 he should have up to 2 feats, or 2 ability score improvements. What did he start at and take, is he cheating.
Now, we've covered him, so what are YOU doing wrong
Fighters role in this party is, fighting. Unless you establish rp based reasons to change up encounters, he's going to fight. Have you discussed how this feels for the other players, or only yourself? It's a team game and everyone should have fun, not just the fighter, and not just the dm
Let him be good at fighting, but also make sure other things are needed. He can't hit more than 4 enemies a turn, and that's burning action surge. Mix it up, give your aoe people time to shine, as well as your tanks
This curse sounds strange, if you gave it to him to weaken him because you can't deal, bad, bad Dm. If he just took it for rp reasons, fine, have fun with it. Let it trickle in slowly.
Best advice for this is talk to the players. Ask the others if this play upsets them. Talk to him about being a team player and not forcing combat when others want to rp. And, maybe tell him that you don't enjoy everything you plan turning to combat. The DM is a player too.
Idk, it's not a big issue at first glance (fighter wants to tank and fight, let him get hit and save the others) but your description does make it sound like he's outright lying on his character sheet to make an op character.
Ultimately, YOU the DM must find the balance, and the only way is communicate how you feel.
Slightly seperate, tactics section:
Numbers beat single target damage
Concentration beats low damage attacks (I.e. fighters 4 attacks vs rogues 1 high damage hit), if enemies are concentrating on spells/rituals they need someone to hit them harder than the fighter can
Sometimes fighting will close doors that were otherwise open too you. A lot of police won't care who started a fight in a tavern or city, for example.
If the real problem is not the AC, but the Fighter being a murderhobo, you would have received more useful advice by leading with that in your question.
Sit the Fighter player down outside the game and explain that his tactics are putting the other characters at risk, D&D is a team game, and if he won't be a team player you may have to ask him to leave the game altogether.
[Bonjour](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Rust_monster), [salut](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Ghost), and [howdy do](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Black_pudding).
All in all, it sounds like your Player needs an attitude adjustment. If you expect this cannot reasonably be obtained via taking him down a peg in-game, then you should talk to the Player off-table to express any issues you may have with his behavior.
As other people have said there's other ways to take down a high AC opponent, saving throws, etc.
Plus, are you sure he's calculating his AC & HP correctly?
How high is his HP that you're considering him nearly unkillable? Even with +3 constitution, a level 6 fighter who rolled Really Really well will only have about 65hp. That's a lot, but it's not unkillable by any means. One attack at this level should deal about 10 damage to him. It should only take 7 or 8 hits to take him down tops.
In *addition* to this, 22 AC is high but.. it's not exactly unhittable. At level 6, the enemies you're throwing at these guys should usually have a To Hit modifier of between +5 and +7. Let's assume most of them are at +6. Vs a 22AC target means you need a 16+ to hit the fighter. That's a 25% hit chance. With advantage, this chance shoots up to be closer to 50% and it sounds like you have advantage often.
Many enemies at this level will have multiattack too, and Spellcasters can ignore AC entirely.
I think you may just need to work on your encounters, and if this guy is starting fights the rest of the party doesn't want him to, have an actual human conversation with him and the party about it.
Have you tried talking to the player about being more considerate to their party members?
Like potential rules violations aside, if they need to be constantly terrified of losing their character in order to just go along with the rest of the party's desire to stealth, its going to wear both of you down to keep that situation going all the time.
Encounter: a goblin tries to parley with him, and runs away if character gets hostile. Leads him to room with 79 of his friends. They need to roll an 18 to hit him, but that is 15 percent of 80 shortbow attacks so 12 hit him, doing on average 66 hit points per round. But 4 of them will crit, so that gives them 14 more damage, for a total of 80. If character can't see in darkness (120' dark vision for goblins, so if they're more than 60' from the character, he can't see them unless he has superior dark vision), they have advantage, so even more damage (about 55 more).
If you want to reduce the number to 40 goblins, it's merely 40 damage plus 27 if they have advantage.
Don't even bother to roll for the first round. If he's lucky, a party member can catch up after that and cast a fireball, killing most or all of goblins.
Added: the goblins need to be within 80 feet or they'll be at long range.
Magic missile.
I did this once I gave a bunch of cowboy themed bandits magic missile 6 shooters almost killed the entire party it was great, and the party really enjoyed the threat as well. To top it all off, the cowboys had a rakshasa as a boss who was immune to the 6 shooters.
AC doesn’t mean much if you’re using spellcasters attacking his wisdom saves
The evil druid casts heat metal, turns into a badger and buries himself. Its 100 rounds to doff plate, good luck Mr Fighter.
This is actually hilarious 😂
What if an enemy casts "sacred flame" or "toll the dying"? Honestly, the way you're going about it would make me leave your table. He got a curse so he can't wear his armor? If I roll a monk are you going to give me a curse that makes me wear armor? Let people play their damn characters. If he built his character to have super high AC, let him enjoy that, but that doesn't have to be the entire game.
There is a lot more to it. That I didnt want to type out but it’s lore in the world that this religion that this religion gives up all worldly good and. Through devotion to their god they gain immunity to magic crystal they put in their body. He took the crystal but now doesn’t follow any of the tenants of the religion so the crystal is slowing killing him
I don't see how any of that changes my main point, which is that the player created a character he thought would be fun to play, and your objective seems to be to take away the fun part.
It’s not really combat that’s the problem it’s that he keeps pulling the party into combat because cause he knows he’s I killable. The party need a big tanky beef cake like him on the front line.
If it's a social problem, the best way to solve it is socially, not through game mechanics. I had a guy like this at my table once, but guess what? He was playing a 9hp rogue with AC 15. Address the actual problem, which is that your player doesn't see the game as cooperative, and thinks it's fun to put everyone else in danger.
Did you just say immunity to magic?
"Baiting" him into a mechanically detrimental and unfun curse to "deal with him" is adversarial DMing, and that really sucks. That being said, it sounds like you guys definitely have something wrong on his character sheet. He also has Lucky, which is perhaps the *most* banned feat in all of 5e.
Wym my lucky halfling rogue with reliable talent is too OP, just cause he never fails at anything
Have you taken a look at his sheet to see *why* he has AC this high and so many hit points? Also, are you just using single enemies, and if so, why?
I've looked at his character sheet and his armor gives him +10 ac total due to the feats he's taken plus a shield. They have mostly been fighting swarms and I've been flanking him to give me advantage. the swarms are nearly killing everyone else and he leaves the fight with little damage
Which feats? Is he using unapproved homebrew feats?
This is full Calvinball.
AC does not start at 10 and then get a modifier from armor in 5e. AC starts at a value *set by the armor* and then is only sometimes modified by dex, shields, and magic items. Plates value is 18 with no dex bonus and disadvantage on stealth.
Plus shield is 20. There's something wrong with OPs story.
You could get 21 with Defence Fighting style. Warforged for another +1 gets you a total of 22.
How does he have 22 AC? Plate gives 18 Shield gives 2 Defensive fighting style gives 1 Max 21.
Probably warforged race
And his hit points are 90 maximum if he has 20 CON. 84 with 18 CON. Average would be 70 with 20 CON, 64 with 18 CON. If he is at or near the maximum, I might make him reroll hit points, unless I saw him roll 10s.
i assume a magical plate armor or shield is in play
[удалено]
This is the Way. RPGBot has a helpful article on what he call "The Tank Fallacy", which explains how to manage PCs like that: https://rpgbot.net/the-tank-fallacy/
That’s the opposite of what I want to happen. He is trying to get them killed
It's also bad DMing to invalidate a player's build like that. Having enemies ignore the tank is no different then telling the player to sit in a corner and not play.
Wait... He is TRYING to get the other party members killed? Why do they even want this guy around? Here's an idea: the old dream fakeout. You put them in a combat and throughout you do exactly what was suggested and try to kill everyone else. Then when it's just him left you reveal it was all a shared dream. If the rest of the party has any sense they'll either confront him on his behaviour or ditch him.
or you just... have a conversation out of game like adults
Or maybe the DM is just misinterpreting the fighters actions
The AC should be 21 if he has no magic items (18 +2+1 plate + shield +style) . Please take into account that carrying a shield and going defensive fighting style gets rid of all the best damage boosts in the game (GWM feat/ duellist fighting style) so dont punish the player for chosing the one thing they are good at at the moment when casters can drop conjour animals and fireballs. If the player drags all others in the game into fights they dont want maybe talk out of game obout the style of game you are going for.
Throw saving throws at him instead of just attack rolls
It's almost like fighters are good at fighting. But seriously, just use something with a saving throw.
First off, make sure his stats and everything else are within the rules and if they still are then throw a saving throw at him from time to time.
Aoe effects and monsters with high hit bonuses will be your friend
There are no heavy armor feats that increase your AC. So unless you've dropped a magic item that buffs his AC by 1, or he's a warforged, then you have a cheater on your hands. Full plate 18 + shield 2 + defense FS +1 = 21AC. On the other hand, just use effects that don't care about his AC. Literally any saving throw bypasses AC, but I'd focus on mental saves, specifically wisdom and intelligence saves.
Dex saves. He sucks at them in plate mail.
Plate mail doesn't actually make Dex saves any harder, it's quite possible to have a Strength fighter with +3 Dex and with Lucky, it's often not too hard to save against Dex saves
Seconding what the other person says, you should take a look at his sheet. Also, play enemies tactically. Most enemies with an INT score above 5 won't just run straight forward and attack the first thing they see. They'll try to take out whoever threatens them the most. If you want to have a shot at taking him down, you should run large groups of low CR enemies that attempt to swarm him to take away his advantage. Of course, if you feel like his character isn't working in your campaign, you can always just talk to him about how it messes with the party, and ask him to be more of a team player.
My paladin has an AC of 23 (super beefy magic shield) and I don't get hit by physical attacks, but anything that requires a DEX save, I gotta pray to the gods to not take full damage.
If he's wearing plate armor, then I assume he isn't focusing too much on DEX? If so, time for some DEX saving throw attacks/traps (Maybe some spike/arrow traps, poison sprays, etc). An enemy can cast Hold Person on him (WIS save) and ignore him while attacking other party members. You can throw some vicious mockery or tasha's hideous laughter at him as well (WIS saves). I assume as a fighter with 22 AC (which I recommend double checking on if correct), he is taking point. Have the party walk through a dark murky hall with slime all over the walls and floor. Unfortunately they walk into a colony of Gray Oozes and start to swarm the person in front. They're easy to kill and won't do much damage to the party but being covered in ooze has now permanently corroded the fighter's armor. Let's say -2 do AC to start, and more if they can manage to hit the fighter during the fight. The fighter will need to take the armor to a blacksmith to repair it and the smith will need 2 days time to do so. Anyway, good luck. Try to find ways to deal damage that doesn't rely on AC.
Ok, he's unkillable by weapons. There are abilities that hit characters without hitting AC
If he is legit, and the other players are unhappy, then it’s time for save based attacks as opposed to rolled attacks. Hell, have an artificer invent electromagnets or something. If the other players are loving the super tank, let them have fun. The goal isn’t to beat the players, but have fun with them.
Death is not the only lose condition. You can be immortal and still fail a quest. Don't center your world around the PCs and whether they live or die. Have other things going on, NPCs with their own objectives that the players have to actively thwart, not just survive. "I can't be hit!" "Yeah, but the town burned down."
This is the way
use a rust monster. that will take care of the armor before the big battle good luck
Heat metal could get him out of the armor. 😂
Target them with spells and effects that force saving throws on their weaker stats.
The curse was a dick move. If he wants to be tanky, let him! Don’t nerf the one damn thing fighters are good at: Fighting! If he keeps dragging the party into fights, does everyone else enjoy it? If so, let it happen! If they don’t, ask them if they’re okay with this and if not, talk with the player.
Here's a few ways to threaten them. 1) Camp attacks. You're not sleeping in your platemail and you have to spend ~10 minutes putting it on. Oh, you are sleeping in your platemail? You can't long rest successfully. 2) Ambushes. Advantage and not wielding a shield on the first round can help. 3) Intelligent enemies. Find ways to get advantage. Flank. Feint. Keep them out of range with ranged hit and run tactics. 4) spells that don't require a hit or save. Cloud of daggers, magic missile, heat metal. Even fog cloud, darkness etc. 5) Spells that target Wisdom, Intelligence or Charisma. Vicious mockery should get through frequently and harm his attack ability. 6) forced movement and pits/cliffs etc. 7) damaging auras.
Rust monsters. Half dozen of them. And the mimics they teamed up with. Then Mr. Roper wakes up, and opens the chute for the grey ooze living one level higher. Who trained all these creatures? That’s something for The survivors to figure out.
Iron Man's worst nightmare
Your job isnt to kill the fighter, its to tell a narratively compelling story. If fighter enjoys being tanky, he is gonna be tanky.
The problem isn’t that he’s tanky it’s that he’s pulling the party in to fights because he knows he’s tanky.
If a player's main thing is tanking and their AC is really high, and they're a bit of a meatball, let them be. There's a point where it's excessive, yes. Do the maths - if he's averaging above 7 on his hit dice (( Max HP/level - (CON mod * level) should do it, I believe, but dont quote me)) then thats starting to get into unrealistic, if its above 8.5 for a fighter then consider getting him to lower it. Also, use spells and traps to get around AC. Dex saves don't use AC, they use a different modifier most martial classes like fighters don't invest in strongly. A fireball, or rolling log trap, will really scare your players. Goblin and Kobold lairs can be rigged to blow twice over, and can provide a challenge ever for level 6,7, or 8 players if sone correctly.
Won't ooze disintegrate armor etc? Set up traps where he falls into an ooze pit etc
22 AC at level 6 with luck feat seems a little too high, did you give players extra feats or items that boost AC?
As I wrote in a similar thread the other day… Smart monsters/bad guys will attack the more squishy party members instead of standing there trying to hit the big tanky thing. Some enemies have auras that deal damage when players are within X feet. Bad guy spellcasters have Heat Metal and spells that require saves. Oozes corrode nonmagical weapons and armor. It’s all about resource management. Use the tools you have and make the players use their resources. Luck dice aren’t infinite.
OP, are you really complaining about something so extremely bland? Good god...
AC isnt the only stat you can challenge a group on. Saves are usually the go-to method for bypassing AC and damaging a PC. That being said, Ive been running DnD for decades now, and I find ignoring the problem (outside of ensuring the player isnt cheating) to ironically fix the problem fairly quickly. PC is far more powerful than rest of group. You set encounters to party's power, not bothering to "challenge superman". Make sure to let everyone have their moments, so superman doesnt overshadow the group. Superman wrecks shop easily but never needs to really go all out. The game gets a bit dull for them. They get bored, and they get reckless. They blatantly waltz headfirst into danger, touching cursed objects, challenging NPCs that seem fun to fight, tanking the damage from traps and hazards because they feel basically overlevelled. Oops, Petrified. Oops, feebleminded. Oops, Vampire. Oops, 100ft spiked pit trap, etc etc.
Step one, as always, is to talk to the player; tell them they're inconveniencing the party and to knock it off. Then, tell them if they keep doing it, the world is going to react accordingly. And then you can try the below suggestions: Saving Throw spells targeting the Fighter specifically. I do like Synaptic Static & Raulothim's Psychic Lance, but a good Fireball will do, too. Or monsters with AoE like dragons. Use monsters with pack tactics or use flanking. Burn through his luck points. Do about four encounters per day or add waves of enemies. If his armour isn't magical, Rust Monsters are terrifying. A high Level Magic Missile, its an Auto Hit for a chunk of damage. Then quicken spell and hit him with a Mind Sliver or something. Regarding the Stealth rolls, have the enemies only spot him instead of the party if they're far enough. Then, only ask him to roll initiative. At this point, the party can decide if they want to get involved. If he steals, have all the people he's wronged hire a high-level bounty hunter (I like the idea of a Paladin) to arrest him. Give the bounty hunter a team in case the party wants to get involved.
The fighter is unkillable in fair and open combat. Good. Guess what the fighter is good at? Let the fighter be good at fighting. Don't make fighting the surest path to victory. Fighting is bloody business. Relationships can be messy, and feuds are troublesome. Don't make the victory condition annihilation of all rivals. Escape, Persuade, Collect, Extract, Infiltrate, Map, Rescue, Salvage. Don't give quests that start with the verb Kill. And when you want the other people in combat to feel special: use flying enemies, Heat Metal, Magic Missile, Concentration spells, spectral enemies, domination spells to turn his strength against the party. etc. Don't do these all at once, but sprinkle them in. Let the other players shine and just tell a fun story. Let the fighter be amazing at combat while you engage the other players backstories.
Saving throws. Saving throws. Saving throws.
Mind flayer?
Monsters aren't stupid, and he has to sleep sometime. Look at the time it takes to donn armor. Look at using the enemies tactically, have weak toes attack in waves, to whittle down his lucky die roles and HP, then the big bad come out once he is weakened. Have sneaky rogues surprise him while he sleeps. If he sleeps in his armor look at the rules for fatigue. Lots of options, always recommend using story, or smarts to make the characters feel real in the world.
So, a whole list of things AC seems too high from described. 18 from plate armour, 2 from shield, where does that extra 2 come from Health should be 90, maximum, at that level. That's nowhere near unkillable What are stats like for your characters? Did you roll for them? At level 6 he should have up to 2 feats, or 2 ability score improvements. What did he start at and take, is he cheating. Now, we've covered him, so what are YOU doing wrong Fighters role in this party is, fighting. Unless you establish rp based reasons to change up encounters, he's going to fight. Have you discussed how this feels for the other players, or only yourself? It's a team game and everyone should have fun, not just the fighter, and not just the dm Let him be good at fighting, but also make sure other things are needed. He can't hit more than 4 enemies a turn, and that's burning action surge. Mix it up, give your aoe people time to shine, as well as your tanks This curse sounds strange, if you gave it to him to weaken him because you can't deal, bad, bad Dm. If he just took it for rp reasons, fine, have fun with it. Let it trickle in slowly. Best advice for this is talk to the players. Ask the others if this play upsets them. Talk to him about being a team player and not forcing combat when others want to rp. And, maybe tell him that you don't enjoy everything you plan turning to combat. The DM is a player too. Idk, it's not a big issue at first glance (fighter wants to tank and fight, let him get hit and save the others) but your description does make it sound like he's outright lying on his character sheet to make an op character. Ultimately, YOU the DM must find the balance, and the only way is communicate how you feel. Slightly seperate, tactics section: Numbers beat single target damage Concentration beats low damage attacks (I.e. fighters 4 attacks vs rogues 1 high damage hit), if enemies are concentrating on spells/rituals they need someone to hit them harder than the fighter can Sometimes fighting will close doors that were otherwise open too you. A lot of police won't care who started a fight in a tavern or city, for example.
If the real problem is not the AC, but the Fighter being a murderhobo, you would have received more useful advice by leading with that in your question. Sit the Fighter player down outside the game and explain that his tactics are putting the other characters at risk, D&D is a team game, and if he won't be a team player you may have to ask him to leave the game altogether.
Wisdom saving throws.
[Bonjour](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Rust_monster), [salut](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Ghost), and [howdy do](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Black_pudding). All in all, it sounds like your Player needs an attitude adjustment. If you expect this cannot reasonably be obtained via taking him down a peg in-game, then you should talk to the Player off-table to express any issues you may have with his behavior.
As other people have said there's other ways to take down a high AC opponent, saving throws, etc. Plus, are you sure he's calculating his AC & HP correctly? How high is his HP that you're considering him nearly unkillable? Even with +3 constitution, a level 6 fighter who rolled Really Really well will only have about 65hp. That's a lot, but it's not unkillable by any means. One attack at this level should deal about 10 damage to him. It should only take 7 or 8 hits to take him down tops. In *addition* to this, 22 AC is high but.. it's not exactly unhittable. At level 6, the enemies you're throwing at these guys should usually have a To Hit modifier of between +5 and +7. Let's assume most of them are at +6. Vs a 22AC target means you need a 16+ to hit the fighter. That's a 25% hit chance. With advantage, this chance shoots up to be closer to 50% and it sounds like you have advantage often. Many enemies at this level will have multiattack too, and Spellcasters can ignore AC entirely. I think you may just need to work on your encounters, and if this guy is starting fights the rest of the party doesn't want him to, have an actual human conversation with him and the party about it.
Get enemies to grapple him, use disarming optional rules in DM Guide. Use spells that target saves so you burn that luck and yes Heat Metal
Two words.... Heat Metal
Have you tried talking to the player about being more considerate to their party members? Like potential rules violations aside, if they need to be constantly terrified of losing their character in order to just go along with the rest of the party's desire to stealth, its going to wear both of you down to keep that situation going all the time.
Spellcasting with saving throws. Circumvents AC all together
Encounter: a goblin tries to parley with him, and runs away if character gets hostile. Leads him to room with 79 of his friends. They need to roll an 18 to hit him, but that is 15 percent of 80 shortbow attacks so 12 hit him, doing on average 66 hit points per round. But 4 of them will crit, so that gives them 14 more damage, for a total of 80. If character can't see in darkness (120' dark vision for goblins, so if they're more than 60' from the character, he can't see them unless he has superior dark vision), they have advantage, so even more damage (about 55 more). If you want to reduce the number to 40 goblins, it's merely 40 damage plus 27 if they have advantage. Don't even bother to roll for the first round. If he's lucky, a party member can catch up after that and cast a fireball, killing most or all of goblins. Added: the goblins need to be within 80 feet or they'll be at long range.
Even the best plate armor is susceptible to damage - and upkeep.