players making useless characthers

adndgamer · Feb 27, 2002

Why thank you, Quickbeam

adndgamer · Feb 27, 2002

Oh, and yes, I can see how it might be fun every now and then, but c'mon! Complaining about the fact that your character sucks when it's your own fault? Jeezus!

Broken Fang · Feb 27, 2002

Come on...our whole party made up some of the lamest characters we could think of because of the DM. He went out of his way to kill you and then would say, "Just remake another x level character in his place, with none of the stuff I gave you the first time."

Shard O'Glase · Feb 27, 2002

actually it sounds like two things one a player who isn't great with the rules yet, and two a dm who wants to screw with ther player. If I was dming and a player made an undead hunter you can bet your last gp that the planet would have some undead, especially if I'm letting another player be a necromancer. Un no there aren't any undead except the ones your buddy over there makes.

And who let an undead hnter and necromancer be on the same team anyway, unless that necromancer was the rare I use my powers to fight undead necromancer one of you would have to change his character. The same with the wizard if a player is making an invoker I'm not going to go out of my way to make the fights set up so he can't use his spells effectively, in fact I'll put fights in where the character can shine. The fighter/rogue let me guess he has skills in chr based area but the dm has decided that character interaction with npcs wont exist in this game cause all your doing is crawlin some dungeons.

And then instead of giving the guy constructive criticism you powergame past him and then come and complain here, goody for you.

ninjajester · Feb 27, 2002

next time you start a new game, get everyone to accept pre-rolled characters, and give him a standard human fighter w/standard feats, attributes, and weapons. maybe if he sees how effective specialists can be, even in his hands, he'll learn.

on the other hand, if he's just creating difficult characters so he can "play in character" or roleplay better, smack him around a bit.

Tewligan · Feb 27, 2002

Shard O'Glase said:
And then instead of giving the guy constructive criticism you powergame past him and then come and complain here, goody for you.

Shard, you're a bit of a meanie.* However, I agree. Just because this guy's characters aren't keeping up with the ass-kickers in the party doesn't mean they wouldn't pull their own weight in certain circumstances. The fighter/thief must have put his skill points somewhere - where are they? The paladin has several stats that would, ideally, be high - but hey, if you don't get enough good rolls when you're making up the character, something's gonna be subpar. Did the player know there weren't any undead in the world when he made his undead hunter? That's like me deciding to get a job as a dodo herder - no one would hire me for that job, and I can't imagine why a DM would let someone make a character revolving around something that doesn't exist in his game.
Out of curiosity, how long has this guy been playing?

* - There should probably be a little smiley face here to show that I'm calling you a meanie in a good-natured way. However, I despise smilies, so you'll have to settle for a footnote.

Black Omega · Feb 27, 2002

I've seen this before in some Champions games. We had a player for a while who was always creating such broad characters that they did a little of everything, but nothing all that well. If the palyer is unhappy about not being effective in combat, you really just need to explain why. A good start would also be making sure he understands just how useless an Undead Hunter in a world without undead would be. If he insists, then it's his own fault.

Falcon · Feb 27, 2002

Intentionally made useless characters die quick in the campaing I DM, and they are ushered out rather quickly in the two campaigns I play in. What's the point? Why should I play with or DM with someone who panders to their own trivial narcisstic interests, regardless of the current world or group context?

eXodus · Feb 27, 2002

raises hand...

i am guilty.

i have played these characters. in the very last ad&d game i played before 3e i played a thief who had a severe phobia of blood. in his backstory i had his family slain before his eyes. very horrifically at that. so rather then questing for vengeance he took to thieving, looting, extortion, and other crimes. he never had the taste for fighting. he would just run around in the combats trying not to get hit and avoiding stepping in any spilled blood. the dm would demand wisdom checks and con checks all the time to not vomit or cry. a fun character though. he advanced all the way to 6th level with only killing two people.

The Allamistako · Feb 27, 2002

It DOES sound a bit like DM-mindshot. On the other hand, one of the players in my D&D game has just made a "Dragonball Z" Monk, and an other one has a Wild elf barbarian who collects ears as trophys

Elven ears.

-Alla