MasterTrancer
Explorer
As I play, I notice that players don't take enough notes. So, yeah, I have to repeat some things. And it's usually the same players every time who can't remember.
This! Definitely this!
As I play, I notice that players don't take enough notes. So, yeah, I have to repeat some things. And it's usually the same players every time who can't remember.
Can my table focus on making things fun instead of optimizing?
In one of my current 5e games I am playing I choose to be the group healer, I know I could break the combat encounters with some builds so I choose to keep everyone alive and continue with the story. So I am playing a human nature cleric, with the healer feat, I could have picked life cleric, but I wanted to use shillelagh to have a magic club that did a d8 at the start, since this DM doesn't like giving out magic items, I also picked nature because dragons and therefore a variety of elemental attacks were the theme of the campaign and I figured the Dampen Elements ability would be very useful. I picked everything about my character to build an effective version of what I wanted to accomplish in the game, it's how I enjoy the game away from the table.
What's being described here is a pawn. It's a mechanical construct only. But it could have been 'Geoff the Woodsy who snuffs out the agents of death with his great stubby shillelagh'. If you asked this character, why do you carry that weapon, his reply would necessarily be 'because my DM is stingy with magic items', as above.
So here's at least one avenue of compromise in optimization - try and imagine the best and most well-rounded 'healer' and design towards that. Ignore the DM, the feats list, whether or not there are dragons, etc, and go for the theme.
Gaming the DM is part of power gaming/optimization, I would say honestly one of the most important parts. If you know the DM plays favorites to particular races or classes because he likes them, if he is stingy with magic items or if he loves handing out belts of giant strength, if the campaign will focus on undead, dragons, or exploring the wilds, all of this helps you optimize your character better.
If you know the campaign is going to have a theme, optimize to that theme.
I think you can roleplay and roll play but I may need to make a motivational poster that says, "Be interesting and entertaining" on the wall.
What is the in-game explanation for your metagaming?
Because that's what we're really talking about here, now that I think about it. "Optimization" is a pretty way of saying 'metagaming during character design'. Is it not?
But my characters try to be the best at what they do, they are heroes. I don't try and save the world or kingdom with scrubs.
How
Does
Your
Character
Know?
For example, how does your character know that he'll need to provide his own magic weapon? And going back a step, how does he know that he will even require one?
Leave it rhetorical if you'd like, because I'm guessing there's no graceful answer here.