People don't optimize

[GMforPowergamers]

A common statement made y peoe who make optimized characters is "why don't you take the best X, people always would try there best" but that isn't true



Real life is interesting, people do dumb things all the time, but in games people seldom think like "real people"

Then again, you could ask the same question in real life. Why does anyone take a job as a [insert menial job here]? Why aren't we all Navy SEALs and brain surgeons and hollywood stars?
It's a complicated question.

I wonder how many perfect designed characters are played by collage grads with great jobs athletic healthy bodies and a gift for perssiasion..

 

[Ahnehnois]

There's a lot that goes into this. Some important points:

*The "best" way is typically not the easiest (similarly, a D&D adventurer has to do a lot of hard work and take a lot of risks).

*Not everyone has the minimum level of talent needed to accomplish what they might want to (presumably many characters in the D&D world do not have any above average ability scores).

*Not everyone has the external support needed to accomplish what they might want to do.

*Free will.

Real life is interesting, people do dumb things all the time, but in games people seldom think like "real people"

Well, this is a forum for "roleplaying" games; most players are trying to approach the game like "real people" on some level, though it varies greatly as to how they go about it and how hard they try.

I wonder how many perfect designed characters are played by collage grads with great jobs athletic healthy bodies and a gift for perssiasion..

Let's see, I've got a good degree and a gift for persuasion, and I guess have a healthy body by some definitions...

 

[Alzrius]

One thing that often gets left out of discussions of what's "broken" or "unbalanced" is that sometimes people actually won't try to make broken characters...some might even actively avoid doing that, since they know it lessens everyone else's fun.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Let's see, I've got a good degree and a gift for persuasion, and I guess have a healthy body by some definitions...

Wow good on you mate... I know alot of people that have atleast one of those, some that have 2, but very few that have all three

 

[Umbran]

Real life is interesting, people do dumb things all the time, but in games people seldom think like "real people"

More importantly - real optimization requires perfect or near-perfect information. To a real person, or a character, the optimum choice is not necessarily obvious. The player is a third-person omniscient (or nearly so) narrator, while a real person or character has only a first-person viewpoint.

Your character hasn't read the rulebook, and doesn't have game-information like how many hit points a dragon has. That you, a player, reading the books can see X is best, does not imply that the optimum choice is obvious to the characters.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

One thing that often gets left out of discussions of what's "broken" or "unbalanced" is that sometimes people actually won't try to make broken characters...some might even actively avoid doing that, since they know it lessens everyone else's fun.

Agreed 100%.

(Couldn't XP you.)

More importantly - real optimization requires perfect or near-perfect information. To a real person, or a character, the optimum choice is not necessarily obvious.

Yup. I've got multiple graduate degrees, and I may just now have found my niche in life. Had I known in 1990 what I know now about job markets & networking, I'd be muuuuuuch better off.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Wow good on you mate... I know alot of people that have atleast one of those, some that have 2, but very few that have all three

I don't have a job though.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I don't have a job though.

Och... Sorry to hear that, I am doing slight better with a long term temp job in my chosen field, but I can totaly relate

 

[Morrus]

What part of D&D is supposed to emulate real people? Certainly not any D&D I've ever played! Real people don't plunder dungeons, slay dragons and steal loot. Real people don't travel to the Abyss to battle Orcus and steal his wand.

D&D is fun escapism, not real life. At least, for me it is.

 

[Umbran]

What part of D&D is supposed to emulate real people?

The part that's about the story of a person? I mean, I'd like to do at least a hand-waving attempt at making a character who is believable as a person. If you were writing my character as a novel, I'd want people to think him believable, and that means having some real-person foibles, imperfections, motivations and decisions that aren't about mechanical perfection.

YMMV, of course.