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<blockquote data-quote="NeverLucky" data-source="post: 6858020" data-attributes="member: 6809614"><p>D&D is a cooperative game, and organized play even more so. Someone who doesn't help the party complete their objectives as a general rule is being selfish and acting disruptive to the game. "That's what my character would do" is not a valid excuse for disrupting the game, and not assisting in combat <em>at all</em> absolutely qualifies as disruptive. Realistically, a party of adventurers in dangerous situations would not lug around someone who is a complete waste of space in said dangerous situations. However, in organized play, they don't have the option of kicking someone out of the team, and they're required to split all rewards evenly between everyone. As a result, players have a social obligation to build characters who would in fact be someone the party is interested in keeping around.</p><p></p><p>This is a player problem, not a character problem. Talk to the player, and make it absolutely clear that he's being disruptive and causing problems to the group. You can help him work some roleplaying reasons for the character to change if need be. For example, I had one player play a cowardly rogue who never helped in combat, but he eventually found a bear costume that brought out his inner courage and got him in the fights. Alternatively, help him build his character in a way that he can still assist while staying as far from danger as possible. Bard was already suggested, but life cleric, mastermind rogue, and archer characters can all help without attacking or at least without going into close combat. Finally, as a stopgap measure, you as DM can stop taking the character into account when adjusting encounter strength. For example, a party of five at average APL which includes him would instead be treated as a party of four and thus a weak party instead of an average one. This doesn't fix the reward distribution problem, but at least it mitigates the potential TPK problem.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="NeverLucky, post: 6858020, member: 6809614"] D&D is a cooperative game, and organized play even more so. Someone who doesn't help the party complete their objectives as a general rule is being selfish and acting disruptive to the game. "That's what my character would do" is not a valid excuse for disrupting the game, and not assisting in combat [i]at all[/i] absolutely qualifies as disruptive. Realistically, a party of adventurers in dangerous situations would not lug around someone who is a complete waste of space in said dangerous situations. However, in organized play, they don't have the option of kicking someone out of the team, and they're required to split all rewards evenly between everyone. As a result, players have a social obligation to build characters who would in fact be someone the party is interested in keeping around. This is a player problem, not a character problem. Talk to the player, and make it absolutely clear that he's being disruptive and causing problems to the group. You can help him work some roleplaying reasons for the character to change if need be. For example, I had one player play a cowardly rogue who never helped in combat, but he eventually found a bear costume that brought out his inner courage and got him in the fights. Alternatively, help him build his character in a way that he can still assist while staying as far from danger as possible. Bard was already suggested, but life cleric, mastermind rogue, and archer characters can all help without attacking or at least without going into close combat. Finally, as a stopgap measure, you as DM can stop taking the character into account when adjusting encounter strength. For example, a party of five at average APL which includes him would instead be treated as a party of four and thus a weak party instead of an average one. This doesn't fix the reward distribution problem, but at least it mitigates the potential TPK problem. [/QUOTE]
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