[3.5, but potentially any]"Patching" Classes mid-campaign

[Hawk7915]

I'm (finally!) starting my play-by-post Red Hand of Doom campaign and I had a question. The party composition is...

Human Warblade (first time player)
Halfling Wizard
Gnome Druid
Elf Rogue
Human Monk/Swordsage (aiming to take Drunken Master at next level)

Houserules: Spellpoint variant, Pathfinder skill system, "monk gloves" take up hand slot and are enchanted like weapons for the same cost as a weapon.

My concern is that, even with a contract with the spellcasters to take it easy, the other players (especially the Drunken Master and the Rogue) will feel pretty weak and worthless. My current plan is to wait and see how the first few encounter go, and if the power level is wildly disparate around the time they fight Koth issue a "patch": buff the classes that need it, maybe nerf the casters (but I hope not). My questions:

1) Has anyone ever done this? Compelling arguments for or against? Is there another alternative? Would "buffing" everyone before the first encounter be better?

2) How do these "buffs" sound:

Spoiler

Show

Rogue: Now a pathfinder rogue: hit die change to d8, gains "Rogue Talents"

Monk/Swordsage: Monk hitdie changed to d10. Monk levels grant full BAB. "Adaptive Style" is a bonus feat at 3rd level Swordsage. Flurry of Blows is now a standard action that is usable in light armor. Monk and Swordsage levels stack for Unarmed Strike damage purposes. Drunken Master grants d10 HD and full BAB.

Warblade: No change

Wizard: No change; no spells on notice since spell list is pretty harmless right now.

Druid: No change; "Wildshape" is on notice.

3) Related question: Anyone know of any good homebrewed Drunken Master buffs, preferably a "Martial Drunken Master" that continues initiator progression?

Thank you as always for your guidance and advice, Playgrounders!

[Teln]

I think there are a couple of Drunken Master rewrites floating around in the Homebrew forum somewhere, maybe one of them will be more to your liking.


EDIT:Here they all are.

[Duke of URL]

I think you'd have more success, in general, boosting the weak classes than in nerfing the strong ones. In the latter case, the players involved may feel like they're being punished for building good characters.

[Hawk7915]

@Teln: Thanks so much! That first one in particular seems great for my purposes, although I think my player will be super sad to not see the "For Medicinal Purposes" still in there. I might replace Improved Grapple for it.

@ Duke of URL: That's the plan. The easiest nerf I'd do is to specific spells, but the wizard's spell list is mostly harmless (Fireball, Phantom Steed, and Lightning Bolt are his 3rd levels known and Charm Person spam is the only thing I'm really worried about) and the druid's list is strong without being overpowering (he's got Call Lightning, Creeping Cold, and Barkskin as his "big guns" prepared, and is optimized for summoning with Augment and Imbue). So I see no need. I'd much prefer to boost the Monk and Rogue up to everyone else's levels.

Any other advice?

[Kuma Kode]

(he's got Call Lightning, Creeping Cold, and Barkskin as his "big guns" prepared, and is optimized for summoning with Augment and Imbue)

Summoning is actually stronger for druids at lower levels than for arcane casters, so it's something to watch. Later on, though, the Summon Monster line outstrips Summon Nature's Ally due to supernatural and spell-like abilities of the outsiders.

On topic, your group sounds like it should be able to handle itself. Your patches look decent and the spellcasters seem to be playing "dumb" by primarily being blasty, which is much less hassle and helps to hide the power discrepancy. It may not be optimal, but blasty is the 'I play well with others' way of building a spellcaster.

[Pechvarry]

I'd suggest making the druid use the shapeshift variant (PHB2), though they may cry about losing an animal companion. That's something I'd do from the outset, though.

[Hawk7915]

I'd suggest making the druid use the shapeshift variant (PHB2), though they may cry about losing an animal companion. That's something I'd do from the outset, though.

Since play has already started and the druid is pretty attached to his Dire Bat, that'll be a no go. I've been pondering going over to Pathfinder's polymorph rules though; would that be better?

I'm glad the changes look good. Do you think I should just do it, and do it now, or hold off until I know for sure it's a problem?

[AslanCross]

I once did this in my old campaign, adopting the Pathfinder classes to patch the 3.5 material. It went fine; I dunno about nerfing though.

[Callista]

Well, I like playing wizards and will often drop a level's worth of XP into item-crafting for the rest of the party. Being a level behind is usually enough to balance it, especially since the party has new magic items to bring them up to speed. I guess maybe if it got to the mid-teens, a second level might be necessary, but I really don't have a lot of experience with characters past 15th level. 'Course, there's also the option of a prestige class where you give up a caster level--something you can do as a caster because you're already somewhat ahead of the game (if you're playing an optimized caster). If you dump the "never give up caster levels" rule, your new options will include some little-used but pretty cool PrCs that people usually don't take because of the caster levels issue--but if you're good enough at optimizing your caster, then you can do that and not worry about lagging behind.

Magic items are another way. Explain, OOC, that you're going to be letting the non-magic-users get access to magic items that'll bring their flexibility up some. The rogue's already got UMD (or should have it), so make sure he's got plenty of fuel for it. Other than that, there's lots of options in the magic-item list. Talk to the casters about taking up item-crafting so that some of their casting can effectively be done by the non-casters.

Above all, encourage teamwork. There's very little that ruins a game more easily than one player trying to outdo another, and very few problems that can't be solved by a group whose primary goal is to work as a team (at least OOC... PvP in an evil campaign can be fun too.)