Characters with Too Much Loot

[Velox]

I agree that it's usually not a good idea to "nerf" a player, and I don't really want to take the armor away. I really just want to make it so that the rest of the group doesn't feel like they got the shaft.

So my solution will incorporate alot of the softer ideas about making the armor "not worthwhile", including having the organization which sent the Khadoran spy in the first place come looking for the armor (and therefore looking for trouble).

More importantly, I'm just going to give everyone else in the group cool gear with cool stories behind it. Once again, plot development and cool stuff saves the day!

Thanks for the help! I'll be sure to come back here when I have other problems, and also to try and throw in my 2 cents when someone else is awash in stormy waters.

[Velox]

The best (and often undervalued) GM trick for fixing a game is to announce, in game, that you're going to do it. Foreshadowing makes the players start to think about it, gets them used to the idea, and then - when it happens - they don't feel like they've been randomly spited by the GM.

In the example of a powerful magic item, I could easily see an infamous thief walking into a tavern where all the players are hanging out, putting his boot on a chair, and proclaiming, "Before the week's out, I'm going to steal that armor of yours. I guarantee it."

It doesn't need to be the theme of the adventure, but you could have a lot of fun watching the player squirm. I could easily see the player deciding that they're just going to sleep in the armor all the time, but it's a breastplate, and therefore going to give them terrible penalties after a couple naps in it. Eventually the thief will strike, steal the armor, and be off.

If you wanted some sort of competition, you could even have the thief leave behind some gold afterwards, with a note scribbled, "It took me more than a week, and by my honor, I now have to pay for it. 'Course, doesn't mean I'm not going to take it!"  

Because it's armor, I will admit that it's more difficult than other items to balance.  Armor is more difficult to sunder, and has greater resists to just about everything.

On the note of sundering, this is a splendid idea. My one recommendation is that you don't sunder the most powerful item first - sunder the armor second, after you sunder something else. Again, foreshadowing. If the player with the powerful item sees somebody else's item go up in pieces, they'll mentally start preparing and you won't be seen as specifically attacking them.

And this is great advice; while I do love to surpirse my players and to help with their suspension of disbeleif, it does soften any blow if you give them time to think about what's going to happen and make reasonable conclusions, as opposed to springing it on them like a surprise tax audit.

[SDragon]

So my solution will incorporate alot of the softer ideas about making the armor "not worthwhile", including having the organization which sent the Khadoran spy in the first place come looking for the armor (and therefore looking for trouble).

This gave me  a really cool idea: why not make the armor "bugged" somehow? Information on the party could be leaked to some antagonist organization, which could create some interesting stories, and once the character is powerful enough to have actually earned the armor, they'll be powerful enough to take care of the bug situation somehow.

[Seraph]

Here's a thought:  Sort of along the lines of Sunder, but not necessarily as extreme; what if there was some piece of the armor that could be removed (either through sunder or a command word the PCs don't know--But an ally or rival spy of the original owner does) that makes the armor less effective?

Lets use James Bond as an analogy: Say the armor is a James Bond gadget.  You've managed to kill Bond and take the armor (you must be a god) but now Q has come back to make sure this armor doesn't make you too great a threat.  He deactivates part of the armor, or takes something.  Now, it may be possible to get it back, but you'll have to break into MI6 to do it.

This accomplishes 2 things: the character isn't so overpowered for the time being, and 2, when they get their item back to ship-shape, they'll have found a bunch of other spy gadgets for the rest of the party to use, so that things won't be so uneven when they DO get their super-special armor fixed.

[Xeviat]

I had this problem with my first D&D game. I threw out a couple of +1 items with enchantments in the beginning, mainly because the group was going through a battlefield and there were a couple of items left behind. I thought it would be cool to have them. They started causing problems, but I let them keep them for a few sessions. Then, when the time was right, I introduced a new villain and had the party captured. By the time they got out, most of their loot had been sold. The stuff I let them keep, which had been too powerful for them in the beginning, was now up to par since they had gained a couple of levels.

You have to be careful with stuff like this, though. I used it to create a villain that the party really hated, and he was going to be recurring (if the game hadn't imploded when people moved and such). I think a safer bet is to just not drop loot for some time, until the party levels up to where the equipment is appropriate.