i will start by saying I am bad at finding that healthy level of challenge to throw at my players. I either find the encounters I make are too difficult or so easy that the pcs don't really need to use many resources and breeze threw it.
My pcs are two barbarian wizards, both a one level dip for the ac and so they could use sheilds with an arcane focus, to give them wicked AC. And the rest of the levels are wizard. One is going abjuration focus and is more less tanking, he has the stats for it and has a 21 ac before he counters with the spell shield. The other is an evocation specialist so he nuke and not hit his friends. They have an npc that used the point by system that is a healing cleric. I built him fairly well I think and he can do his job well enough. The last pc is a halfing bard that is going the combat bard tree.
The reason I have issues is because one of the players threw his skill at building characters and RP is dominating the feild, a challenge to him wipes the rest of the party and it makes is hard to get a game where i feel that everyone is being allowed to shine and not one guy doing everything cause he has the best build. How do other DMs deal with a wide power gap in there parties without just killing the pc in question. I don't want to punish him for getting good rolls on his stats and being smarter, but I also don't want the other pcs feeling like a third wheel. Any advice would be welcome.
1.) More, weaker monsters.
2.) Monsters with goals apart from "fight to the death."
3.) Combat is an approach to a problem. What is the problem? If combat is the answer, what is the question? Make sure you have dramatic questions for every "encounter" you run, combat or otherwise.
4.) be more concerned with fun than easy. If it was easy and they loved it, it was fine.
5.) Monsters and the XP budget alone are about 1/3 of encounter design. Dramatic question/purpose is another 3rd. The last is circumstancial, incl terrain, distance, & position.
6.) Players have a plan A. Push them into their plan B, by making Plan A sub-optimal, impossible, or hard to achieve.
Often I include multiple victory strategies in my combat encounters. There is always the brute force method, but I also tend to include details in the environment that clever roleplaying players can use against my monsters. For example, a pillar that looks like it might collapse and crush the baddies, if it suffers enough damage. Or some explosive barrels that the guards sometimes pass on their patrols.
I also include vantage points with enemy snipers, so that an element of stealth can sometimes come into play to make an encounter less difficult.
This is 3 parts so it's long but amazing advice
http://angrydm.com/2014/09/the-angry-guide-to-akicking-combats-part-1-picking-your-enemies/
Remember that most optimization build will have some weakness as well, but the player consider those weakness to be negligeable or beleive the other party member will help him in those situation.
your barbarian/wizard, how is their strenght? can they open the bared door? what is there dex? can they walk a rope over the chasm? do they have max Intellect, how do they handle monster with good saves against there favorite spell (Evocator love DEx save spell, so send some rogue type monster and look at him doing just half damage)
Wizard got limited spell per day, so yes he can cast shield to boost his AC to 26, but each round he need to use a spell slot for it, and spending a spell slot for shield prevent him from using it on other things.
try other thing then combat, can your wizard survive a political encounter? can he convince a intelligent CR 25 monster to let them pass?
is your barbarian wizard have good Wisdom save? if not charm them and ask the other party member to save them? at higher level dominate them and make them attack the party.
Thank you all for the advice! My group plays once a week so I will happily pass on my experiences here. The tank has good stats he got Damin lucky on his rolls. A political encounter is enjoyable but if it went south vs a high CR monster like you said there if the party makes a mistake that would be a total wipe. i have never done that because it would be considered unfair to a party that more prefers combat over talking. Altho they are about to try and face off vs about 80 bullywugs as they choise to attack the castle in the mere of dead men head on.
As mentioned above, it's all about fun. If the players are having fun with the game then everythign is good.
I tend to have a bag of tricks at hand that I can pull from in case I want to make things interesting. It's usually a group of monster stats that I can us as anything I want. For example, I might give the Bullywugs a monster that they are in the middle of training, it might have a black dragon wyrmling's statisitics, but I can make it look like anything I want and it acts nothing like a black dragon.
Sometimes just throwing in a surprise can make players second guess their original Plan A, as someone pointed out above.
Are the other players actually feeling like third wheels?
And is it warranted - does the guy kill all the enemies all by himself? Or do they kill maybe two each on average and he three on average?
And does he seem to overshadow you, in the combat encounters you make?
DMxingyi wrote:
Drowning doesn't care about AC. To avoid looking like "DM kills PC in cold blood", put him on the gangplank of a pirate ship in the middle of Lake Michigan, and his friends tied up on the deck nearby. Now it's a session of Beat the Clock instead.
Besides the advice above, I'd bet the group will have problems with monsters who Resist (Magic). Whereas a Fighter can mow 'em down like wheat before a scythe.
Try to run them out of spell slots; by the time the sun rises over the Battle of Helm's Deep everybody is about to drop exhausted.
OTOH, let them defend a town from a swarm of advancing minions (orcs / skeletons / stampede of triceratopses). Everybody will FEEL like heroes.
Put the group in a confined space (casting draws AoO) facing guys in battle armor (high AC) and martial melee weapons (ouch!).
Check the rules for the Poisoned condition (afb, don't know effects for sure). Make this poison gas and let them hold their breath as they run down the long corridor...
Have a BBEG manipulate them: attacking the Police is always a bad idea, and the Chief may be manipulated to order the PCs to go clear out an old ruined building, so THEY doesn't have to.
Many archers engage the PCs in an artillery duel. If in a skirmish line, the PCs' big AoE spells still only take down 1 - 2 enemies per spell.
Intelligent counter-tactics should only be employed by smart opponents who have seen the PCs do their shtick to somebody else.
Hire an assassin to jump them in their sleep. (Does your abjurer know Alarm? He'll get a warning AND his "force field". And feel vindicated.)
P.S. Let us know how blasting their way into a fortified position goes. I'm thinking about lifting the castle for a Lost Mines / Neverwinter campaign and want to know how tough a target the building is.
Take a good look at his stats, find his weakest saves and exploit them in your adventure and monster design 
Also, make sure you aren't being bullied. This sort of player can also be a rules lawyer. DON'T ALLOW THAT.
You are the GM. Unless its an AL game, your desicsion trumps any rule in any book.
My rule is that any player can point out to me a rule in a book and I will make a decision then and there. That decision
is final until after the game is over. Thne, I am willing to discuss it and think about it. I *might* make a retroactive change, but
I might not and it is still my call.
Ok thanks! The frontal assault might be a major drain. After reading further ahead in the HoTDQ I see that kicking the door down basically tells all the BBEGs inside to run all the way to sky keep and take off. So it might not go as well for the pcs just because it was to agressive and they saw it coming and prepared. I also put in a pair of half dragon brothers sent after the pcs by venom fangs family. ( they killed him in mines of phandelver)
And on the ruling being final. I have done stuff like that before as a DM and have had players just walk away. The only boon I have is that I live in a small town and am literally the only in my area that has upgraded to 5.
DMxingyi wrote:
Ya dedicated players that want to really get into a game are hard to come by. I hate running games with people that go out of there way to derail the game and ruin stuff for others.